Environment news

• The Guardian view on record-breaking weather: the heat is on | Editorial

  14-08-2020 19:30 via theguardian.com
  
  What better time than the UK’s hottest-ever week for ministers to commit to bold climate action? The hottest week in the UK since records began offers further proof that our weather is changing. Climate change and global heating are not predictions, but facts of life that we must deal with now. Ten of the UK’s warmest-ever years have been since 2002, while the temperature of 36.4C recorded at Heathrow airport last week made it the hottest August day since 2003.Links between climate a
  
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• Tory MPs call for Boris Johnson to go further and faster on climate in Covid-19 recovery plans

  14-08-2020 15:02
  
  A group of 100 moderate Conservative MPs have called on Boris Johnson to beef up green legislation and investment through the UK's Covid-19 recovery strategy, and are particularly keen for the national petrol and diesel car ban to be moved forward to 2030.
  
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• UK potato farmers fear another washout for this year's crop

  14-08-2020 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Growers hope to avoid a third bad year but have already been hit by lockdown and a heatwave The humble spud, staple of the British dinner table, has weathered storm, flood and lockdown, but farmers are on tenterhooks ahead of the crucial growing season for the key crop as the UK heatwave is followed by thunderstorms and deluges.Farmers are desperate to avoid a repeat of last year, when good growing weather over the summer was followed by heavy rains in some areas from late September that left th
  
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• Furry engineers: sea otters in California's estuaries surprise scientists

  14-08-2020 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  It is not just at sea that North America’s smallest marine mammals with a huge appetite are benefitting the ecosystemPhotographs by Isabelle GrocWhen Brent Hughes started studying the seagrass beds of Elkhorn Slough, an estuary in Monterey Bay on California’s central coast, he was surprised by what he found. In this highly polluted estuary, excessive nutrients from agricultural runoff spur the growth of algae on seagrass leaves, which kills the plants. Yet in 2010, Hughes noticed tha
  
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• 'The worst of human nature': UK staycationers' trail of destruction

  14-08-2020 12:31 via theguardian.com
  
  Countryside and coastal custodians lament ‘different demographic’ of visitors leaving litter and endangering wildlife
  Fires caused by portable barbecues, wild flowers being dug up, the disturbance of shorebirds, and an avalanche of rubbish. These are just some of the threats to Britain’s wild places as record numbers enjoy coastal and countryside “staycations”.Beleaguered rangers complain that a new generation of holidaymakers are treating the countryside like a fes
  
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• Energy recovery facility to heat homes in Cardiff via district heating network

  14-08-2020 12:05
  
  A district-heating network connected to an energy recovery facility in Cardiff had secured £15m in Government funding to start its first phase of works, with the project potentially saving more than 5,000 tonnes of carbon annually.
  
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• National Grid kick-starts UK's first trials of grid-injected biomethane from cow manure

  14-08-2020 11:25
  
  Biogas produced from straw and cow manure has been directly injected into the gas grid in Cambridgeshire, in what the National Grid is calling a UK first.
  
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• BNEF: Covid-19 causing drop in US corporate clean energy purchases

  14-08-2020 11:07
  
  The amount of generation backed by US-based corporates signing power purchase agreements (PPAs) was almost one-third lower in the first half of 2020 than in the first half of 2019, new analysis from Bloomberg NEF has revealed.
  
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• Treasury defends lack of 'green strings' tied to corporate Covid-19 relief packages

  14-08-2020 10:33
  
  The Government has defended its decision to issue billion-pound bailouts for carbon-intensive companies and sectors, with the Treasury hitting back at accusations that the Paris Agreement and the climate crisis had been cast aside, but a court case still looms.
  
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• Magnum to roll out recycled plastic ice cream tubs globally

  14-08-2020 10:01
  
  Ice cream brand Magnum is set to introduce plastic tubs consisting of recycled plastic across all its markets, a move that will see an estimated 160,000kg of certified recycled material used by the end of 2020 across Europe.
  
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• The underwater future of the Maldives – in pictures

  14-08-2020 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  By 2100 the island nation could be submerged. As a representation of the looming future Giulia Piermartiri and Edoardo Delille projected tourists’ photos onto residents’ homes in a series for Festivals Images Vevey Continue reading...
  
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• Amazon fires: Brazil sees worst start to fire season in 10 years – video

  14-08-2020 09:11 via theguardian.com
  
  Brazil's Amazon rainforest has had its worst start to a fire season in a decade, with 10,136 blazes spotted in the first 10 days of August. The increase follows a similar rise in year-on-year figures from July 2019 to July 2020. The 'extraordinarily concerning' fires in 2019 caused an international crisis, and these new figures suggest this season could be much worse Brazil experiences worst start to Amazon fire season for 10 years Continue reading...
  
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• China's billion dollar pig plan met with loathing by Argentinians

  14-08-2020 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Chinese investment in Argentina’s hog industry would boost exports, but environmentalists fear risk of pandemicA government-sponsored plan to turbocharge Argentina’s hog industry with Chinese capital is generating unprecedented resistance among its supposed beneficiaries – the Argentinian general public.Nearly 400,000 people have signed petitions opposing the move. “We never had such a huge response before,” said environmental lawyer Enrique Viale, one of the group
  
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• Science is saving the forty-spotted pardalote - nature’s ridiculous tiny idiot | First Dog on the Moon

  14-08-2020 07:59 via theguardian.com
  
  Blood-sucking maggots are bent on the deaths of these innocent creaturesSign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are publishedGet all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: dodder is such a pretty parasite

  14-08-2020 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Morwenstow, North Cornwall: Clumps of what look like pink spaghetti are strewn amid the gorseThe topography of the South West Coast Path has more ups and downs than a stockmarket graph, as anyone who has walked sections of this 630-mile trail knows all too well.The track rises to grassland plateaus, perched on towering cliffs raked by sea breezes, then plunges down steep-sided valleys where streams spill into sheltered coves, before rising again on a rollercoaster route around the western penins
  
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• Here is why we are taking the Australian government to the UN over its inaction on climate change | Yessie Mosby

  14-08-2020 03:09 via theguardian.com
  
  I want my kids to enjoy the freedom of being on traditional land, as we have been doing for thousands of years. Our island home is at riskI’d like to tell you about my home, Masig Island. Masig is a coral cay in the Torres Strait Islands, about halfway between the tip of Cape York and the mainland of Papua New Guinea. I wake and sleep to the sound of the ocean breathing its waves on to the beach.My genealogy, my ancestors, my family tree lies here. This island is my library, my school and
  
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• Mauritius oil spill: Are major incidents less frequent?

  14-08-2020 01:28 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Oil slicks can lead to major environmental disasters but industry experts say regulations are now much better.
  
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• Robots go their own way deep in the ocean

  14-08-2020 01:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Firms are building robots that can survey the seabed and underwater structures without human help.
  
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