Environment news

• Crown Estate grants leases for floating windfarm off Wales

  19-08-2020 21:02 via theguardian.com
  
  Erebus project in Celtic Sea adds to Queen’s multi-million windfall through expected auction of offshore leasesThe Queen’s property managers have given the green light to the first floating offshore windfarm to be built off the coast of Wales, as the UK’s wind industry prepares to power into the Celtic Sea.The Crown Estate granted two new leases for windfarms in Welsh waters on Wednesday, including the seabed rights for a demonstration project that involves installing floating
  
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• Earliest art in the British Isles discovered on Jersey

  19-08-2020 20:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Fragments of stone engraved with abstract designs are the earliest art in the British Isles.
  
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• The Guardian view on coronavirus and the climate crisis: seize this chance | Editorial

  19-08-2020 19:41 via theguardian.com
  
  Greta Thunberg has warned that we have wasted valuable time in the fight against global heating. We need Green New Deals
  In the early days of the pandemic, many people urged that societies could not and should not return to business as usual afterwards. Coronavirus not only confronted us with danger, but showed what was possible. By forcing massive overnight change, it demonstrated that dramatic action could be taken when a crisis was urgent enough; that many people could agree to make sacrifice
  
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• The Green Recovery: how Australia can close the recycling loop – video

  19-08-2020 19:30 via theguardian.com
  Remember when you would take your TV to get repaired if it was broken? Now, most people just buy a new one. When a new phone comes out, we ditch the old one. Each time we do this we're eating into a finite supply of resources and creating mountains of waste. A circular economy – also known as closing the loop – is when used items don't end up in landfill, but instead become the building blocks for new products. There's a whole industry waiting to be developed in Australia, if governm
  
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• Climate change: Dams played key role in limiting sea level rise

  19-08-2020 17:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Huge dam projects that came on stream in the 1970s substantially slowed the rate of sea level rise.
  
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• Horseflies at your picnic? Here’s how to keep them away for ever

  19-08-2020 16:07 via theguardian.com
  
  The blood-sucking pests are confused by patterned rugs, according to the latest research – which means they are unlikely to land on your delectable spreadName: Horseflies.Age: Quite old. Continue reading...
  
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• UK to set limits on harmful airborne particles

  19-08-2020 13:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A new UK target will be set to protect people from the effects of breathing in tiny particles.
  
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• Hands-free driving could be made legal on UK roads by spring

  19-08-2020 12:52 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Government is consulting industry on technology which can take control of a vehicle at up to 70mph.
  
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• Unilever trials geolocation tech to tackle deforestation in palm oil supply chains

  19-08-2020 12:08
  
  Unilever is piloting new geolocation technology in a bid to ensure it meets its zero-deforestation targets, which cover supply chains including palm oil, soy and paper and board.
  
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• Mauritius oil spill: Satellite images show removal operation

  19-08-2020 12:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Satellite images capture tug boats trying to remove the broken vessel, which spilled tonnes of oil.
  
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• BHP to exit thermal coal mining within two years

  19-08-2020 11:20
  
  The world's largest mining company BHP has unveiled plans to sell off its thermal coal mines by the end of 2022, after developing new climate targets last year.
  
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• Environment Bill update: UK to introduce legally binding nature, water, air and waste targets from 2022

  19-08-2020 10:44
  
  After enshrining its 2050 net-zero target in law last year, the UK Government is developing similar legally binding targets for biodiversity, air quality, water and waste.
  
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• Silvertown road tunnel plan in London fatally flawed, say opponents

  19-08-2020 10:41 via theguardian.com
  
  Campaigners ask authors of two reviews of TfL finances to look again at schemePlans to build a four-lane road tunnel under the Thames in London should be dropped as part of an overhaul of transport spending in the capital, campaigners say.Opponents of the proposed £1.2bn Silvertown tunnel scheme have written to the authors of two separate reviews of Transport for London finances, asking them to look again at the project. Continue reading...
  
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• We may have just seen the world's highest recorded temperature ever. Has that sunk in?

  19-08-2020 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Death Valley’s forbidding landscape registered a preliminary high temperature of 129.9F on 16 August. Don’t look awayHow hot was it at the Furnace Creek visitor center at Death Valley national park on 16 August 2020? It was so hot that the huge electronic temperature display (which serves as a ubiquitous selfie backdrop) went on the fritz. Parts of the blocky digital display malfunctioned, resulting in numbers even higher than the actual mind-melting high on what turned out to be a l
  
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• Environment Agency chief supports plan to weaken river pollution rules

  19-08-2020 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Campaigners say Sir James Bevan is trying to ‘rig system’ and cover up decades of failureThe head of the Environment Agency has endorsed a proposal to weaken laws on cleanliness of polluted rivers, lakes and coastlines after Brexit.Campaigners say Sir James Bevan is trying to “rig the system” to cover up decades of failure by the agency. Continue reading...
  
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• English landowners have stolen our rights. It is time to reclaim them | George Monbiot

  19-08-2020 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Landed power, built on theft, slavery and colonial looting, crushes our freedoms. A new campaign seeks to decolonise the countrysideBoris Johnson’s attack on English planning laws is both very new and very old. It is new because it scraps the system for deciding how land should be used, replacing it with something closer to the US model. It is old because it represents yet another transfer of power from the rest of us to the lords of the land, a process that has been happening, with occasi
  
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• Is the way cattle are grazed the key to saving America's threatened prairies?

  19-08-2020 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  An unlikely alliance of ranchers and conservationists is working to find the best way to preserve biodiversity on grassland in OregonPhotographs by Leon WerdingerIn the north-east corner of Oregon there is a traffic jam of weathered pickups and horse trailers on the Zumwalt Road. Redwing blackbirds trill over the bellowing of hundreds of cattle clustered by corrals, the sign of a spring branding in progress. Half a dozen cowgirls and cowboys on horseback circle the herd, lassoing calves for bran
  
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• Greta Thunberg: After two years of school strikes, the world is still in a state of climate crisis denial

  19-08-2020 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  We can have as many meetings as we like, but the will to change is nowhere in sight. Society must start treating this as a crisis
  On Thursday 20 August, it will be exactly two years since the first school strike for the climate took place. Looking back, a lot has happened. Many millions have taken to the streets to join the decades-long fight for climate and environmental justice. And on 28 November 2019, the European parliament declared a “climate and environmental emergency”.But ov
  
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• Another two years lost to climate inaction, says Greta Thunberg

  19-08-2020 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Two years on from her first school strike, activist attacks ‘ignorance and unawareness’Greta Thunberg: the world is still in a state of climate crisis denial Two years on from Greta Thunberg’s first solo school strike for the climate, she says the world has wasted the time by failing to take the necessary action on the crisis.Thunberg’s strike inspired a global movement, and on Thursday she and other leading school strikers will meet Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germa
  
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• Sydney's Warragamba Dam water storage at full capacity – video

  19-08-2020 03:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Warragamba Dam sits on Sydney’s outer western fringe, and is the city’s main reservoir, supplying about 80% of its water. It hit 100% capacity on Monday 17 August 2020, having filled rapidly during heavy rain periods earlier in the year. A year ago it was less than half full. However, level-one water restrictions are still in force across greater Sydney.Warragamba Dam: is western Sydney about to flood and would raising the dam wall help? Continue reading...
  
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• Coronavirus smell loss 'different from cold and flu'

  19-08-2020 01:41 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Covid-19 is not like other typical viral respiratory diseases and has some unique features, say experts.
  
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• Death Valley: What life is like in the 'hottest place on Earth'

  19-08-2020 01:12 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Death Valley just saw one of the highest temperatures ever recorded on Earth - 130F (54.4C)
  
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