Environment news

• Boris Johnson's newt-counting claim questioned

  03-07-2020 17:05 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The PM is accused of inventing an allegation that wildlife rules are holding back house-building.
  
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• Net-Zero Business podcast: Exploring smart grids with E.ON and Nottingham City Council

  03-07-2020 15:48
  
  In response to the accelerated pace at which corporates are examining and setting net-zero targets to help alleviate the climate crisis, edie has launched a new spin-off of the Sustainable Business Covered podcast. Up next, smart grid discussions with E.ON and Nottingham City Council.
  
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• UK waste firm Biffa loses appeal after exporting dirty waste to China

  03-07-2020 15:43
  
  Company convicted of trying to export used nappies and other contaminated materials illegallyOne of the UK’s biggest waste firms has lost a case in the court of appeal to overturn a criminal conviction for exporting dirty waste to China.The Environment Agency, which brought a successful criminal prosecution a year ago against Biffa Waste Services Ltd, which was convicted of trying to send used nappies and other contaminated materials illegally to China, welcomed Friday’s ruling and s
  
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• CCC: UK's net-zero transition could be easier than first thought

  03-07-2020 15:24
  
  The Committee on Climate Change's (CCC) chair, co-chair and chief analyst believe that the UK's transition to net-zero could be accelerated, rather than hampered, by the Covid-19 crisis.
  
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• UK government takes £400m stake in satellite firm OneWeb

  03-07-2020 14:55 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The UK helps rescue company from bankruptcy as part of a plan to replace the EU's Galileo sat-nav system.
  
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• Judge fines Greenpeace £80,000 over North Sea oil rig occupation

  03-07-2020 12:51
  
  Scottish court rules that environmental group defied court order banning the protest
  Greenpeace has been fined £80,000 after a Scottish court found it guilty of the “wilful defiance” of a court order banning it from occupying a North Sea oil rig.Lady Wolffe, sitting in the court of session in Edinburgh, said Greenpeace UK had deliberately broken an interdict, or injunction, against occupying a platform owned by the US contractor Transocean in June 2019. Continue reading...
  
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• Heatwaves have become longer in most of the world since 1950s – study

  03-07-2020 12:26
  
  Frequency of heatwaves and cumulative intensity has risen through the decades, research finds
  Heatwaves have increased in both length and frequency in nearly every part of the world since the 1950s, according to what is described as the first study to look at the issue at a regional level.The study found the escalation in heatwaves varied around the planet, with the Amazon, north-eastern Brazil, west Asia (including parts of the subcontinent and central Asia) and the Mediterranean all experienci
  
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• E-scooters go on trial in Middlesbrough to aid UK’s green recovery

  03-07-2020 12:00
  
  Tees Valley mayor hails rental scheme as ‘clean energy, socially distant mode of transport’Residents of Middlesbrough in north-east England will be the first in the UK to legally ride electric scooters on the open road when the law changes on Saturday, as the government struggles to prevent a recovery from coronavirus based on cars.Though e-scooters have been whizzing illegally around many UK cities for the past few years, the pandemic has prompted the government to speed up plans to
  
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• Report: Electronic waste up 21% in 5 years, with $57bn dumped annually

  03-07-2020 11:39
  
  A record 53.6 million metric tonnes of electronic waste (e-waste) was generated globally in 2019, with the waste stream having increased by more than one-fifth since 2014.
  
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• Trump abuses our national parks, and he's doing it again at Mount Rushmore | Jonathan B Jarvis and Gary Machlis

  03-07-2020 11:05
  
  Past presidents used the parks to inspire and unite. Trump sees them as backdrops for self-serving, divisive campaign rallies
  In the United States, parks have always been used as spaces for public protest, places for commemorating acts of resistance and the struggle for a more perfect union, and stages for presidents to call for national unity or celebrate civic purpose.As his Mount Rushmore event scheduled for Friday makes clear, Donald Trump misunderstands and misuses all these precedents. Co
  
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• Dry tropical forests may be more at risk than wet rainforests, study says

  03-07-2020 11:00
  
  Areas with a drier climate have seen greater loss of biodiversity from global warming Dry tropical forests are more vulnerable to the impacts of global heating than had been thought, according to new research, with wildlife and plants at severe risk of harm from human impacts.Some tropical forests are very wet, but others thrive in a drier climate and scientists had thought these drier forests would be better adapted to drought, and therefore more able to cope with the effects of the climate cri
  
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• #SustyTalk: PepsiCo's Chris Daly on climate action in the time of Covid-19

  03-07-2020 10:49
  
  edie's #SustyTalk interview series continues with PepsiCo Europe's vice president for supply chain, Chris Daly, who provides insight as to how the food & beverage sector is managing the twin challenges of Covid-19 and climate action.
  
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• City crumbles as the sands shift on Senegal's coast – in pictures

  03-07-2020 09:30
  
  Nicky Woo has won the Marilyn Stafford award 2020 with her project As the Water Comes, documenting rising sea levels in Saint-Louis
  How the ‘Venice of Africa’ is losing its battle against the rising ocean Continue reading...
  
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• Can New England's cod fishing industry survive?

  03-07-2020 09:00
  
  Scientists and fishers agree that cod fishery is at a crisis point – but they disagree on what’s causing itIt’s said cod were once so plentiful in New England they would throw themselves into a boat. It’s said you could walk across their backs to shore.Gloucester, Massachusetts, grew up around cod. The waterfront teemed with boats and fishermen, heaps of fish thrashing in wire baskets. Boats were inherited from fathers and shipyards boasted of operating since 1684. As lat
  
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• Britain beyond lockdown: can social and climate justice come together?

  03-07-2020 09:00
  
  Communities in Bristol are devising their own solutions to problems linked with the city’s role in slavery
  During lockdown, the wild grass in Bristol’s Greenbank cemetery has grown higher than many of the tombstones, transforming the land above the dead into a gothic meadow. Nominally closed to the public before 4pm each day, the grounds are a popular location for joggers, strollers and dog walkers, who enter through a gap in the fence. For Zakiya Mckenzie, a local writer, this is th
  
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• 'Human swan' to take flight on new mission to follow migrating ospreys

  03-07-2020 08:15
  
  Conservationist Sacha Dench will also log marine mammals she sees from her paramotor on the 7,000km journey across Europe and AfricaSacha Dench is not one to sit still. Known to many as “the human swan” for her record-breaking journey tracking migrating swans in a motorised paraglider, the conservationist and adventurer is planning her next aerial mission: to follow ospreys migrating 7,000km across Europe and Africa.“It’s really hard to get people to care about migratory
  
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• UK risks missing net zero target in Covid-19 recovery, Labour warns

  03-07-2020 08:00
  
  Chancellor urged to prioritise plans to realign spending with cuts to carbon emissions Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe chancellor of the exchequer must lay out urgent plans to realign government spending with the target to cut carbon emissions to net zero, or risk missing the target and fuelling high carbon emissions for years to come, Labour has urged.The warning comes as the Treasury prepares key policy announcements on the UK’s recovery from the cor
  
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