Environment news

• Climate change: Warming world will be 'devastating' for frozen peatlands

  10-08-2020 21:10 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Huge stocks of greenhouse gases tied up in peatlands could be released as the world warms.
  
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• Gene manipulation using algae could grow more crops with less water

  10-08-2020 18:59 via theguardian.com
  
  Enhanced photosynthesis holds promise of higher yields in a drought-afflicted future
  Tobacco plants have been modified with a protein found in algae to improve their photosynthesis and increase growth, while using less water, in a new advance that could point the way to higher-yielding crops in a drought-afflicted future.The technique focuses on photosynthesis, the complex process by which plants are able to use sunlight and carbon dioxide to produce nutrients that fuel their growth. Enhancing
  
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• Emergency in Mauritius after oil spill – in pictures

  10-08-2020 18:58 via theguardian.com
  
  A tanker leaking tonnes of oil off the coast of Mauritius is breaking up, threatening even greater ecological disaster Continue reading...
  
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• Climate change: Satellites record history of Antarctic melting

  10-08-2020 17:37 via bbc.co.uk
  
  European spacecraft track in fine detail the thinning that's occurred at the continent's edge.
  
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• #SustyTalk: Capgemini's James Robey on corporate climate action and COP26

  10-08-2020 17:08
  
  edie's #SustyTalk interview series continues with Capgemini's global head of corporate responsibility James Robey providing exclusive insight into the firm's new net-zero targets.
  
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• Mauritius calls for urgent help to prevent oil spill disaster

  10-08-2020 16:03 via theguardian.com
  
  Stranded bulk carrier is breaking up, threatening even greater ecological devastationPeople living in Mauritius have described the devastation caused by an oil spill from a stranded tanker and called for urgent international help to stop the ecological and economic damage overwhelming the island nation.More than 1,000 tonnes of fuel has already seeped from the bulk carrier MV Wakashio into the sea off south-east Mauritius, polluting the coral reefs, white-sand beaches and pristine lagoons that a
  
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• Green recovery: Geothermal lithium recovery plant in Cornwall secures Government funding

  10-08-2020 14:43
  
  The UK Government has awarded a share of its Getting Building Funds - designed to support infrastructure in the wake of lockdown - to a project developing a geothermal recovery plant that will extract lithium for use in the electric vehicle (EV) sector.
  
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• Green recovery: Geothermal lithium recovery plant in Cornwall secures £4m Government funding

  10-08-2020 13:57
  
  The UK Government has awarded a £4m share of its Getting Building Funds - designed to support infrastructure in the wake of lockdown - to a project developing a geothermal recovery plant that will extract lithium for use in the electric vehicle (EV) sector.
  
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• Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Toast Ale confirmed for edie's Earth Overshoot Day webinar

  10-08-2020 13:45
  
  Expert speakers from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Toast Ale have been announced for edie’s next webinar next Friday (21 August), which will explore the circular economy to mark Earth Overshoot Day 2020.
  
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• 'It climbed on my son's finger': readers' photos from the Big Butterfly Count

  10-08-2020 13:09 via theguardian.com
  
  We asked you to show us the butterflies you have spotted near you. Here’s what some of you saidThe Big Butterfly Count this year took place between 17 July and 9 August. People in Britain were asked to spend 15 minutes in a park, garden, field or wood, counting the butterflies they see.From peacocks to jersey tigers, here are some of the photos readers sent in of the butterflies and moths they spotted during the count. Continue reading...
  
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• Gridserve buys UK's first subsidy-free solar farm to power EV forecourts

  10-08-2020 12:40
  
  Gridserve has purchased the UK's first subsidy-free solar farm from developer Anesco as it works to bring more than 100 "electric forecourts" online across the nation.
  
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• 'The Amazon is the vagina of the world': why women are key to saving Brazil's forests

  10-08-2020 12:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Indigenous leader Célia Xakriabá and Vagina Monologues author V discuss Brazil’s biodiversity crisis and why this is the century of the indigenous womanCélia Xakriabá is the voice of a new generation of female indigenous leaders who are leading the fight against the destruction of Brazil’s forests both in the Amazon and the lesser known Cerrado, a savannah that covers a fifth of the country. V, formerly Eve Ensler, is the award-winning author of the Vagina
  
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• 'The Amazon is the entry door of the world': why Brazil's biodiversity crisis affects us all

  10-08-2020 12:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Indigenous leader Célia Xakriabá and Vagina Monologues author V discuss the destruction of Brazil’s forests and why this is the century of the indigenous womanCélia Xakriabá is the voice of a new generation of female indigenous leaders who are leading the fight against the destruction of Brazil’s forests both in the Amazon and the lesser known Cerrado, a savannah that covers a fifth of the country. V, formerly Eve Ensler, is the award-winning author of the
  
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• A New Normal: travel and the environment after Covid-19 – video

  10-08-2020 12:29 via theguardian.com
  
  In this week's episode of A New Normal, Iman Amrani asks viewers what their thoughts are around travel and the environment post-Covid. With international travel increasingly more difficult to do during a pandemic, and persisting questions around the impact is has on the environment, she goes to speak to people who are taking a summer break closer to homeA new normal: work, life and balancing it all during coronavirus - videoWho do you trust on coronavirus? From Trudeau to Piers Morgan | A new no
  
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• Nissan kick-starts V2G EV charging trials

  10-08-2020 11:46
  
  Nissan has installed 20 electric vehicle (EV) chargers with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capabilities at its European Technical Centre in Cranfield, as it works to develop new €œsmart€ mobility packages for business customers.
  
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• 'I feel worthless': workers tell of gruelling life in Dutch meat plants

  10-08-2020 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The Netherlands is a food powerhouse but its dark underbelly has been exposed by Covid-19, say unionsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageTrapped in jobs that make them feel worthless, meat plant workers have spoken out about working life in an industry accused of using temporary agencies to avoid employment responsibilities.Speaking on condition of anonymity, Romanian and Polish workers described intimidation and gruelling conditions on the factory floor, inconsiste
  
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• Aerial footage shows fires burning in Brazil's Amazon – video

  10-08-2020 10:48 via theguardian.com
  
  The number of fires burning in Brazil's Amazon in July was up 28% on the same month last year, according to data from Brazil's space research agency INPE, and early numbers for August show a 7% increase this month. There is international concern over growing deforestation in the Amazon under Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro Continue reading...
  
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• Blue marlin remains a sportfishing dream – but for how much longer?

  10-08-2020 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The majestic fish inspired Ernest Hemingway but as numbers falter alternatives to landing the ocean giants are finding favourRead more in our Seascape seriesAs a child, I strolled the docks during the Big Rock tournament in Morehead City, North Carolina. Fishermen strung huge marlins up by their tails. Bills down, the marlins’ flashing silver bodies drained to a dull blue-gray. Awestruck, people posed for photos with the dead fish, as they do today.To reel one in, according to Dr Ellen Pee
  
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• How a road safety scheme led my neighbours to mistake me for a Brexiter | Zoe Williams

  10-08-2020 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  I was trying to make a point about the lack of democratic process in some council plans to make walking and cycling safer. But I ended up looking weirdly contrarian“Build back better” is not my favourite phrase (meaning always gets sacrificed for alliteration; alliteration sucks), but it is the only way to think anything constructive about this grim time, so I am prepared to let it go. What if Covid changed the way we lived so profoundly and made us totally reevaluate what we care ab
  
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• Country diary: wildlife has invaded this fortified house

  10-08-2020 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Sinderhope, Northumberland: The ruins of Rowantree Stob Bastle have been overcome with thistles, swarms of bees and nesting birdsThe Knockshield Burn gathers water from the moors of Allendale Common, where the heather is turning purple. A handful of stone-walled fields lie between the moors and the East Allen into which the burn feeds – hay fields where tractors are cutting, turning and baling, gathering up grasses, wildflowers and the emptying pods of yellow rattle.A narrow road crosses t
  
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• Detectorist 'shaking with happiness' after Bronze Age find

  10-08-2020 02:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A metal detectorist discovers a rare hoard of Bronze Age artefacts during an expedition near Peebles.
  
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• Coronavirus: Is the world winning the pandemic fight?

  10-08-2020 01:33 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Covid-19 has changed the world - are we winning or is the virus still taking hold, and when will it end?
  
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• Whale migration: ‘Super rare’ whale encounter on the Great Barrier Reef

  10-08-2020 01:02 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A dive instructor has recorded his ‘special moment’ with a humpback whale.
  
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