Environment news

• Weatherwatch: the character and causes of cumulonimbus clouds

  12-08-2020 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Known for their anvil-shaped tops, these threatening-looking clouds often produce heavy rain, thunder and lightningClouds are essentially a collection of tiny droplets of water or ice crystals in the atmosphere. They are formed when rising air cools to its dew point, at which the air becomes saturated. Further cooling allows water vapour to condense into cloud droplets.Cumulonimbus clouds are one of the most recognisable cloud types, characterised by their threatening anvil-shaped tops and the t
  
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• Mauritius oil spill: Almost all fuel oil pumped out of MV Wakashio

  12-08-2020 20:10 via bbc.co.uk
  
  There has been a race against time to remove the fuel oil, amid fears that the ship will break up.
  
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• Flora owner to roll out carbon labelling to 100 million packs

  12-08-2020 18:08
  
  Major food firm Upfield, which owns Flora and Proactiv, has revealed plans to introduce on-pack carbon labelling to 100 million packs by the end of 2021.
  
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• Boris Johnson poised to stop UK funding overseas fossil fuel projects

  12-08-2020 16:13 via theguardian.com
  
  New policy will rule out future loans and guarantees made through UK Export FinanceBoris Johnson is poised to sign off new rules barring the UK government’s chief foreign lender from offering financial support to foreign fossil fuel projects.The new policy, which could come as soon as this week, will rule out future loans and financial guarantees for polluting projects overseas through the UK’s export credit agency, UK Export Finance, just weeks after it agreed to a £1bn financ
  
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• edie launches new business guide on the green recovery

  12-08-2020 13:10
  
  edie has launched a new Explains guide outlining the business impacts, opportunities and drivers of the broader green recovery narrative, as nations attempt to "build back better" from the coronavirus pandemic.
  
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• O2: 5G will play 'huge role' in decarbonising energy, transport and manufacturing

  12-08-2020 12:46
  
  Telecoms giant O2 has published a new analysis of the role which ultrafast 5G could play in decarbonising the UK's economy, predicting that it could mitigate 269 megatonnes of CO2e emissions through to 2035.
  
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• John Elkington: Businesses should 'think like insurgents' to spur green recovery efforts

  12-08-2020 12:31
  
  EXCLUSIVE: Many businesses will need to "regenerate" approaches to environmental, societal and economic business models in the wake of the financial damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Volans' chairman and chief pollinator John Elkington, who has called on companies to "think like an insurgent".
  
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• McCain to invest £25m to support sustainable farming

  12-08-2020 12:02
  
  The UK's largest manufacturer of frozen potato products, McCain, has today (12 August) launched a new £25m investment to support British potato farmers during the coronavirus pandemic by encouraging sustainable growing practices.
  
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• Facebook backs major renewables projects in Ireland and the US as it closes in on 100% target

  12-08-2020 12:02
  
  Facebook has made a string of new wind and solar purchases across the US and in County Tipperary, Ireland, as it strives to meet 100% of its electricity consumption with renewables by the end of 2020.
  
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• Living in the dark: Native reservations struggle with power shortages in pandemic

  12-08-2020 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The pandemic has exacerbated severe energy and economic inequalities on Native lands in America – so people are turning to renewable energyWithin hours of posting a video to Facebook and Twitter in which she offered to donate iPads to K-12 Native students, Amanda Cheromiah was inundated with increasingly desperate requests. Related: Bid to save Alaskan wild salmon receives surprise boost from Trump JrContinue reading...
  
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• Visa prices $500m green bond to assist with low-carbon transition

  12-08-2020 11:17
  
  Visa has launched its inaugural green bond, priced at $500m. It will be used to help the company achieve its decarbonisation aims and its alignment with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
  
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• HSBC sounds alarm over investment in meat giant due to deforestation inaction

  12-08-2020 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Bank argues JBS has ‘no action plan’ to tackle link between indirect suppliers and Amazon destruction following Guardian investigationAnalysts at global banking giant HSBC have sounded the alarm over the potential risks of investing in JBS, the world’s biggest meat company, after a string of investigations raising concerns about Amazon deforestation issues in its beef supply chain.The meat giant “has no vision, action plan, timeline, technology or solution” for moni
  
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• European banks urged to stop funding oil trade in Amazon

  12-08-2020 09:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Indigenous people in headwaters region say financing harms communities and ecosystemsIndigenous people living at the headwaters of the Amazon have called on European banks to stop financing oil development in the region, as it poses a threat to them and damages a fragile ecosystem, after a new report found $10bn in previously undisclosed funding for oil in the region.The headwaters of the Amazon in Ecuador and Peru are home to more than 500,000 indigenous people, including some who choose to liv
  
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• The government is looking the other way while Britain's rivers die before our eyes | George Monbiot

  12-08-2020 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Across the UK, once thriving waterways are being wiped out by farming and water companiesYou can judge the state of a nation by the state of its rivers. Pollution is the physical expression of corruption. So what should we conclude about a country whose rivers are systematically exploited, dumped on and bled dry?I’m writing from the Welsh borders, where I’m supposed to be on holiday. It’s among the most beautiful regions of Britain, but the rivers here are dying before my eyes.
  
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• A taste of honey: how bees mend fences between farmers and elephants

  12-08-2020 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A pioneering method from Africa that protects farms from forest herds is now paying off in India, with more profit and less conflictWatchtowers in trees, tripwire alarms, radio collars, chilli smoke and beehive fences: scientists and conservationists across Asia and Africa are coming up with safe and humane ways to keep elephants at bay and reduce conflict with humans.In early June, the agonising death of a pregnant wild elephant that ate an explosives-filled pineapple in India led to a global o
  
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• Europe's earliest bone tools found in Britain

  12-08-2020 07:31 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Archaeologists say they've discovered the earliest known bone tools in Europe.
  
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• Country diary: one feather does not describe a whole bird

  12-08-2020 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Sandy, Bedfordshire: Quills that beat the air are battered beyond repair – the autumn moult is in full dropAugust is the feather month, when the sky is brought down to earth. Birds have worn out the summer: quills that beat the air are battered beyond repair; frayed coats cannot cover the winter to come. And so the autumn moult is in full drop. Related: Country diary: moulting birds leave treasure for collectorsContinue reading...
  
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• Tiger sightings increase in Thai forest

  12-08-2020 01:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  This year 79 tigers were captured on hidden cameras in Thailand’s Thungyai-Huai Kha Khaeng forest.
  
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• How Ebola prepared one doctor for Covid-19

  12-08-2020 01:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  How Ebola prepared one doctor in the Democratic Republic of Congo to treat coronavirus.
  
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• New dinosaur related to T. rex discovered on Isle of Wight

  12-08-2020 01:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Four bones found at Shanklin belonged to a new species of theropod dinosaur, a study finds.
  
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