Environment news

• Microplastic in Atlantic Ocean 'could weigh 21 million tonnes'

  18-08-2020 20:49 via bbc.co.uk
  
  There are 12-21 million tonnes of tiny plastic fragments floating in the ocean, scientists say.
  
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• Racism burns Australia like pox and plague. We're not all in this together | Kim Scott

  18-08-2020 19:30
  
  Aboriginal heritage and the natural environment need to be at the centre of national reconstructionThis is part of a series of essays by Australian writers responding to the challenges of 2020Fire, flood and plague. Toilet rolls and mental health. Injections of bleach and sunlight.For a studied introvert with a writer’s routines, the duty of social isolation is reassuring. In such a tumultuous year I realise I’m extremely lucky to be a homeowner, securely employed and gifted with &nd
  
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• UK Government starts search for corporate COP26 sponsors

  18-08-2020 15:11
  
  The UK's COP26 presidency has outlined its sponsorship criteria for the conference, stating that it is only looking to work with businesses with "ambitious" net-zero targets.
  
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• Mauritius oil spill: MV Wakashio captain arrested

  18-08-2020 13:55 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Crew members say there was a birthday party on the ship the day it ran aground, according to police.
  
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• How the twin disasters of climate change and Covid-19 could transform our cities | Irena Bauman

  18-08-2020 13:51
  
  The existential emergencies we face require a wholesale reimagining of how we live, work and play in urban spacesIt’s often been said that we’re living through an unprecedented moment. But in city centres, the coronavirus crisis has merely accelerated trends that have been unfolding for some time. In Leeds, where I live, many major banks and building societies, cinemas, shops and department stores declined or disappeared as society shifted online. The pandemic has caused the job mark
  
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• Tiny elephant shrew species, missing for 50 years, rediscovered

  18-08-2020 13:11
  
  The speedy Somali sengi had been lost to science until an expedition to DjiboutiA mouse-sized elephant shrew that had been lost to science for 50 years has been discovered alive and well in the Horn of Africa.The Somali sengi mates for life, can race around at 30km/h and sucks up ants with its trunk-like nose. But it had not been documented by researchers since 1968. Continue reading...
  
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• Swans' reputation for aggression examined

  18-08-2020 13:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Researchers say their findings allow for a "better-informed judgment" of the birds.
  
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• Elephant shrew rediscovered in Africa after 50 years

  18-08-2020 12:52 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The last scientific record of the "lost species" of elephant shrew was in the 1970s.
  
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• John Lewis kick-starts furniture leasing trials as Ganni unveils rental-only collection

  18-08-2020 12:46
  
  Department store John Lewis has launched a new furniture rental service, in the same week that luxury fashion brand Ganni debuted a new denim collection that is available to rent but not to purchase.
  
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• Animals farmed: China's pig demands, Brexit lamb cull fears and KFC praised

  18-08-2020 12:08
  
  Welcome to our monthly roundup of the biggest issues in farming and food production, with must-read reports from around the webChina has made its largest-ever daily purchase of US corn, despite escalating tensions over trade between the two countries. Analysts say US farm products, including corn, are a key ingredient for animal feed as China’s pig population recovers from the deadly African swine fever.Pig production in Mexico is on the rise as the country increases exports to China, Japa
  
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• #SustyTalk: P&G's James McCall on nature-based climate solutions

  18-08-2020 12:06
  
  edie's #SustyTalk interview series continues with Procter & Gamble's (P&G) senior director of global climate and supply chain sustainability James McCall, who provides exclusive insight into the firm's new emissions targets.
  
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• BEIS eyes CfD model to help scale-up UK's green hydrogen economy

  18-08-2020 11:13
  
  Large-scale hydrogen projects with renewables could soon be included in the UK's Contracts for Difference (CfD) auctions, after a new government report identified the mechanism as a favoured option for scaling up 'green' hydrogen technologies.
  
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• Retail giants prepare to launch TerraCycle's 'zero-waste' refill service in stores

  18-08-2020 10:42
  
  Following successful online launches, retailers including Tesco in the UK and Carrefour in France are planning to bring TerraCycle's refillable model, backed by businesses like Danone and Unilever, to stores.
  
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• Fountainstown Beach: Bioluminescent plankton light up Cork beach

  18-08-2020 09:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Bioluminescent plankton light up the waves at Fountainstown Beach, just south of Cork City.
  
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• 'Walls of death': surge in illegal drift nets threatens endangered species

  18-08-2020 08:30
  
  Fishing fleets are defying international ban, with deadly nets ensnaring dolphins, whales and other protected marine life Last month Carmelo Isgrò received a phone call from the Italian coastguard. A 24ft sperm whale had been found thrashing about in the waters north of Sicily, desperately trying to escape a vast illegal drift net. “They asked me to help cut it loose because I have a lot of experience with these kinds of nets,” says Isgrò, a marine biologist and directo
  
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• How developers are using mobile games to help save the planet

  18-08-2020 07:41 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Developers behind huge mobile games are encouraging players to think about the environment.
  
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• Country diary: an awesome predator appears over the Peak District

  18-08-2020 06:30
  
  Crowden, Derbyshire: There it floated, a bearded vulture, massive, glamorous, so expressive of European wildernessA vulture in the middle of England? A wild, free-flying nine-foot-winged bird of the Alps and Pyrenees; a bone-eating, tortoise-dropping inhabitant of wolf-haunted montane crags; here over the Derbyshire moors, with their grouse and their sadly piping pipits – the very idea seems somehow momentous. Related: Birdwatchers flock to Peak District after rare sighting of bearded vult
  
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• We live in a time of climate breakdown with no moral leadership – but we can take action | David Pocock

  18-08-2020 02:53
  
  While we’re stuck inside our homes, we can effect change by putting our money where our mouth is and ending the fossil fuel eraSix years ago I found myself trying to find shade from the mid-morning sun while having a chat with a farmer, Rick Laird. We were chained together, six metres above the ground, on the deck of an enormous super digger in a clearing in what would become Whitehaven Coal’s Maules Creek mine.I had gone up to Maules Creek to show solidarity with the community prote
  
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