Environment news

• Pollutionwatch: will carmakers follow VW and revamp vehicles?

  30-07-2020 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Legal limits for nitrogen dioxide were set for 2010 but most UK towns and cities are still failingFive years ago, Volkswagen admitted to using software that ensured its cars were on their best behaviour when tested but could produce more pollution at other times. Court cases followed and public confidence in diesel collapsed.Across Europe VW vehicles were recalled. Simple modifications were made: new software for 1.6 and 2.0 litre engines and new air intakes on 1.6 litre models. But did it make
  
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• Extra 23 million people could face coastal flooding within 30 years, even with emission cuts, study says

  30-07-2020 19:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Human-caused sea level rise, storm surges and high tides will put trillions of dollars of assets at risk around the world by the end of the century The combined impacts of human-caused sea level rise, storm surges and high tides could expose an extra 23 million people to coastal flooding within the next 30 years, even with relatively ambitious cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, a new global study has found.In a worst-case scenario where emissions continue to rise and no efforts are made to adapt
  
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• #SustyTalk: PMI's Huub Savelkouls on ESG in the new normal

  30-07-2020 17:31
  
  edie's #SustyTalk interview series continues with Philip Morris International's (PMI) chief sustainability officer Huub Savelkouls, who discusses net-zero, integrated reporting and ESG.
  
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• 'Everything is burning': Argentina's delta fires rage out of control

  30-07-2020 16:41 via theguardian.com
  
  Cattle ranching and drought have turned the Paraná River grasslands to tinder, threatening disaster for the area’s wildlife
  A raging fire described as “completely out of control” is threatening one of South America’s major wetland ecosystems. The fire has been burning for months now, and is visible from the balconies of luxury apartments along the shoreline of the Paraná River in Argentina’s central city of RosarioLocals have been sharing photos and vi
  
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• European commission orders France to outlaw 'barbaric' glue traps for birds

  30-07-2020 16:06 via theguardian.com
  
  The French government risks paying huge fines if it bows to pressure from hunting lobbyists over controversial methodFrance is to outlaw trapping birds using sticks covered in glue after the European commission threatened legal action and fines.The move was welcomed by campaigners who have described the practice as “barbaric” and who urged the French government not to bow to pressure from the powerful hunting lobby. Continue reading...
  
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• Life and death: what readers in Australia are seeing post-bushfires

  30-07-2020 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  After last summer’s deadly bushfires, Guardian readers have found tentative signs of renewal in the charred landscapeRead more stories from our After the Bushfires seriesFrom the eerie absence of birdsong to green shoots sprouting from burnt-out trees, Guardian readers in Australia have shared their stories and pictures of nature in the aftermath of the country’s devastating bushfires. Continue reading...
  
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• Landsec unveils plans for UK's first net-zero office in London

  30-07-2020 15:56
  
  Property developer Landsec has revealed that it is progressing plans for what it hopes will be the UK's first net-zero commercial building - an office block in Southwark, south London.
  
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• Use of plastic bags in England drops by 59% in a year

  30-07-2020 14:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Sales of single-use carrier bags drop by 95% in main supermarkets since introduction of 5p charge in 2015Shoppers’ use of plastic carrier bags in England has continued to fall – by 59% in the last year alone – since the introduction of the 5p charge, according to recent figures.Overall, sales of single-use plastic carrier bags have dropped by more than 95% in England’s main supermarkets since the charge was introduced in October 2015, government data reveals. Continue rea
  
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• Nasa Mars rover: Perseverance robot launches to detect life on Red Planet

  30-07-2020 14:54 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Perseverance robot launches from Florida on a seven-month flight to the Red Planet.
  
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• UK broke renewable energy generation record in 2019, latest BEIS figures show

  30-07-2020 13:37
  
  The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has published its latest annual energy statistics, revealing that a record 37.1% of the electricity generated in the UK in 2019 was renewable.
  
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• The four types of climate denier, and why you should ignore them all | Damian Carrington

  30-07-2020 13:10 via theguardian.com
  
  The shill, the grifter, the egomaniac and the ideological fool: each distorts the urgent global debate in their own wayA new book, described as “deeply and fatally flawed” by an expert reviewer, recently reached the top of Amazon’s bestseller list for environmental science and made it into a weekly top 10 list for all nonfiction titles.How did this happen? Because, as Brendan Behan put it, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”. In an article promoting his b
  
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• UK targets 65% municipal waste recycling rates under EU's circular economy package

  30-07-2020 12:59
  
  The UK Government has today (30 July) agreed to transpose aspects of the European Union's Circular Economy Package into UK law, agreeing on targets to recycle 65% of household waste by 2035 and to allow a maximum of 10% municipal waste going to landfill in the same timeframe.
  
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• Unilever enhances global water stewardship efforts

  30-07-2020 12:08
  
  Unilever has joined two coalitions aimed at implementing projects in water-stressed countries to improve access to safe and clean water by 2030.
  
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• Primark launches UK-wide fashion recycling scheme

  30-07-2020 12:08
  
  Primark has installed take-back boxes for clothing, textiles, footwear and bags in all 190 of its UK stores, in a bid to reduce the amount of these items sent to landfill.
  
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• Citi targets $250bn environmental financing by 2025, as Moody's unveils science-based targets

  30-07-2020 11:35
  
  Multinational banking giant Citi has pledged to funnel $250bn (£192.5bn) into low-carbon solutions by the end of 20205, in the same week that Moody's unveiled new Paris-Agreement-aligned climate targets.
  
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• Small crustacean can fragment microplastics in four days, study finds

  30-07-2020 11:09 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘Completely unexpected’ finding is significant as harmful effects of plastic might increase as particle size decreasesSmall crustaceans can fragment microplastics into pieces smaller than a cell within 96 hours, a study has shown.Until now, plastic fragmentation has been largely attributed to slow physical processes such as sunlight and wave action, which can take years and even decades. Continue reading...
  
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• How many Mars missions have been successful?

  30-07-2020 11:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Getting to the Red Planet is challenging, and so it working out how many have failed.
  
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• Killer of Rafiki, Uganda's rare silverback mountain gorilla, jailed

  30-07-2020 11:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Ugandan hunter said that he had killed the animal in self defence when he was attacked.
  
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• My idea of happiness? A strimmer and a bramble-choked path

  30-07-2020 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Someone needs to clean up Britain’s overgrown footpaths – and it might as well be meThe bane of walkers’ lives is overgrown, impassable paths. We are blessed with many public footpaths in this country, as well as Ordnance Survey and its brilliant maps. Its smartphone app is particularly brilliant; the little red pointer will always tell you where you are and which way you are, well, pointing. This is wonderful for getting you on to unfamiliar paths wending their way through all
  
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• KFC admits a third of its chickens suffer painful inflammation

  30-07-2020 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Fast food giant praised for owning up to extent of footpad dermatitis, which can prevent birds from walkingFast food giant KFC has laid bare the realities of chicken production after admitting to poor welfare conditions among its suppliers.More than a third of the birds on its supplier farms in the UK and Ireland suffer from a painful inflammation known as footpad dermatitis that in severe cases can prevent birds from walking normally.
  Footpad dermatitis is characterised by lesions on the feet,
  
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• Quarter of native UK mammals at imminent risk of extinction

  30-07-2020 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  First official endangered list includes wildcat, red squirrel, water vole and hedgehogA quarter of Britain’s native mammals are “at imminent risk of extinction”, according to the scientists who have compiled the nation’s first official Red List of endangered species.The 11 mammals include creatures of the mountains, woodlands and rivers, such as the wildcat, red squirrel, water vole, hazel dormouse and hedgehog. Continue reading...
  
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• Extinction: Quarter of UK mammals 'under threat'

  30-07-2020 03:25 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Review of UK mammals finds that a quarter of native species are at "imminent threat of extinction".
  
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• One in three children have dangerous levels of lead in their blood

  30-07-2020 02:01 via theguardian.com
  
  About 800 million children, mostly in developing countries, ‘will have had risky exposure’One in three children around the world have concentrations of lead in their blood at levels likely to cause significant long-term health damage, new research has found.About 800 million children and young people under the age of 19 are likely to have blood levels of lead at or above 5 micrograms per decilitre (5μg/dl), according to the report. Continue reading...
  
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• Fledgling 0601: the baby cockatoo that rose from the ashes of Australia's bushfires

  30-07-2020 02:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Kangaroo Island’s glossies were flourishing until the fires. Now the tale of one family’s survival has offered fresh hope Read more stories from our After the Bushfires seriesSomewhere on Australia’s Kangaroo Island, a fledgling glossy black-cockatoo with identity number 0601 is laying down a new chapter in a remarkable survival story.
  In early January this year, her panicked parents fled their nest in a gum tree at the edge of Carol and John Stanton’s garden to escape th
  
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• Nile dam row: Egypt fumes as Ethiopia celebrates

  30-07-2020 01:34 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Concerns grow as Nile River nations fail to reach a deal on how to share the vital waters.
  
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• Nasa Mars 2020: First aircraft to fly on another planet

  30-07-2020 01:11 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Ingenuity is a 1.8kg (4lb) helicopter that will ride to Mars inside Nasa's Perseverance rover.
  
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