Environment news

• Weatherwatch: solar farms with added food

  21-08-2020 22:30
  
  New panels harvest blue and green light for electricity, letting red light through to crops below
  With solar farms in the sunny south of England now being economically viable without subsidy there is disquiet in the shires about them changing the character of the countryside. On less good quality land most solar farms now include grazing for sheep and wildflower areas as part of their proposals to counter the criticism that the black panels are creating an industrial landscape.Now British scient
  
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• The Guardian view on the US Democrats: Biden seized his moment | Editorial

  21-08-2020 19:30
  
  This year’s virtual convention gave the party’s presidential nominee an opportunity which he took with skill and stubborn decencyThere have never been two campaign gatherings like this week’s US Democratic convention and next week’s Republican one. Stripped to their essentials by the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 conventions cannot match the energy of normal years. Yet the big speech by the presidential candidate at the convention remains a defining campaign moment, and
  
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• British apiarists knew it all along: honey is the bee's knees

  21-08-2020 15:40
  
  As a study trumpets the food’s medicinal properties, there’s a buzz about beekeeping in the UKWhen honey made headlines this week as a better treatment for coughs and colds than antibiotics, beekeepers sat smugly by. “I’ve been saying this for ages,” says Carly Hooper, who has 12 hives near her home in Fleet, Hampshire, and a honey-based business.The study, published in the British Medical Journal, found that honey was a more effective treatment for coughs, blocked
  
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• Ocean Rebellion climate action group launches with protest against cruise ship

  21-08-2020 12:47
  
  Climate activists linked to Extinction Rebellion projected protest messages onto hull of the World vessel in Falmouth, Cornwall
  A “sea-faring sister” of climate resistance group Extinction Rebellion (XR) launched this week with a protest against a 196-metre (644ft) luxury cruise liner docked in Falmouth, Cornwall, aimed at highlighting the environmental impact of cruise shipping.In its first action, Ocean Rebellion used guerilla advertising tactics to project films, slogans and messa
  
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• The climate crisis is hitting football – but the global game has time to take action | David Goldblatt

  21-08-2020 12:43
  
  The sport offers hope to millions. Now it can lead the way in taking radical steps to create a carbon-neutral worldLike everything else in 2020, the football season in Europe has been unusual. The Champions League final this Sunday, its traditional climax, is three months late. All eight quarter-finalists have been quarantined in Lisbon. What normally are two-legged home-and-away ties have been reduced to one match played in an eerie, empty and neutral stadium. Even games of the calibre of Bayer
  
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• The climate crisis has already arrived. Just look to California’s abnormal wildfires | Alastair Gee, Dani Anguiano

  21-08-2020 12:30
  
  In the last decade, amid drought and searing heat, California has entered the ‘era of megafires’ and has become the ‘examplar for climate change extreme events today’There’s an idea that when the climate crisis begins, we will know it. Movies present it as a moment when the world’s weather suddenly turns apocalyptic: winds howl, sea levels surge, capital cities are decimated. Climate messaging can bolster this notion, implying that we have a certain number of
  
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• Samsung faces youth climate protests over involvement in new Vietnam coal plant

  21-08-2020 12:10
  
  Climate protestors have gathered outside Samsung's flagship UK store on Oxford Street this morning (21 August), calling on the firm to halt plans to help build a new coal-fired power plant in Vietnam.
  
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• Human consumption of the Earth's resources declined in 2020

  21-08-2020 11:00
  
  Covid-19 led to 9.3% reduction in humanity’s ecological footprint compared with same period last year The rate at which humanity is consuming the Earth’s resources declined sharply this year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to researchers.Consequently, Earth Overshoot Day, the point at which human consumption exceeds the amount nature can regenerate in a year, has moved back by over three weeks from 29 July in 2019 to 22 August this year. Continue reading...
  
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• Nestlé launches vegan tuna alternative after record plant-based 'meat' sales

  21-08-2020 10:41
  
  Nestle has launched its first plant-based seafood alternative, a tuna substitute called Vuna, after its sales of plant-based meat alternatives surpassed £166bn last year.
  
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• Scientists create 3D-printed buildings from soil

  21-08-2020 10:20
  
  Eco-friendly technology could potentially replace concrete and revolutionise sectorScientists have developed a method to 3D-print greener buildings using local soil that they say has the potential to revolutionise the construction industry.The technology is designed to be a sustainable alternative to concrete, which accounts for approximately 7% of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the International Energy Agency. Continue reading...
  
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• Moody's: Global green bond issuance reached record high amid Covid-19 crisis

  21-08-2020 10:17
  
  The global issuance of sustainable and green bonds totalled a record $99.9bn (£75.5bn) in the second quarter of 2020, with investors increasingly focusing on ESG risks and seeking to play their part in the green recovery movement.
  
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• Aquariums report wave of webcam visits amid Covid shutdown

  21-08-2020 10:00
  
  Facilities experience jump in online traffic as people take to internet to view marine life
  Aquariums closed to visitors because of the coronavirus pandemic have reported big increases in traffic to their exhibit webcams as people turn to the underwater world for stress relief.Since Monterey Bay aquarium in California closed to the public in March, visits to its website have tripled compared to the previous year. Nearly 80% of traffic goes to its 10 live webcams, with the sea otter, jellyfish an
  
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• Diluting English river standards a backward step, campaigners warn

  21-08-2020 08:00
  
  Investment needed to achieve target of 75% rivers rated good, Environment Agency told Wildlife and countryside campaigners are urging the head of the Environment Agency not to weaken key rules which are driving the clean-up of rivers in England.Leading figures in the environmental sector have written to Sir James Bevan, chief executive of the EA, after a speech in which he suggested weakening the EU water framework directive now that the UK had left the union. To do so, the signatories to the le
  
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• Thailand’s turtle hatchlings finally have the beach to themselves

  21-08-2020 07:00
  
  While resorts are deserted, 838 baby turtles have scuttled across a quiet Koh Samui and into the sea since February, making it a record yearWhen Kosum Kao-Uthai’s family noticed mysterious imprints in the sand outside the hotel resort they own in Koh Samui, she knew exactly which animal had paid a visit. She remembered spotting the same marks, left by a nesting sea turtle, when, as a teenager, she helped her father farm coconuts on the island.Kosum hadn’t seen another for five decade
  
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• Country diary: England’s deepest lake offers a trance-inducing swim

  21-08-2020 06:30
  
  Wasdale, Lake District: My girlfriend slips in first, sending perfect circles rippling out across the clear pane of the waterThe surface of Wastwater is so immaculately still that the thought of disturbing it with a swim seems like blasphemy. Earlier in the morning, social media reliably informed me that Wasdale was “overcrowded”. In the balmy grip of an August heatwave, Twitter gave the impression that the whole valley had been turned into a chaos of clogged roads, dirty campers and
  
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• Country diary: Britain’s deepest lake offers a trance-inducing swim

  21-08-2020 06:30
  
  Wasdale, Lake District: My girlfriend slips in first, sending perfect circles rippling out across the clear pane of the waterThe surface of Wastwater is so immaculately still that the thought of disturbing it with a swim seems like blasphemy. Earlier in the morning, social media reliably informed me that Wasdale was “overcrowded”. In the balmy grip of an August heatwave, Twitter gave the impression that the whole valley had been turned into a chaos of clogged roads, dirty campers and
  
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• Sinking billions of taxpayer dollars into gas would make Australia an international pariah | Bob Carr

  21-08-2020 04:39
  
  The Morrison government’s post-Covid recovery commission has called for an astonishing level of support for a declining carbon fuelOn 25 March the prime minister launched his commission into our post-Covid economy. Neville Power, board member of a gas company Strike Energy was appointed chairman. (Power has since stepped back from participating in Strike board meetings after concerns were raised over a conflict of interest.) Its special advisor is Andrew Liveris, who sits on the board of S
  
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• Transition Agreements: Companies urged to future-proof job security as part of net-zero disruption

  21-08-2020 02:06
  
  Companies should make Transition Agreements with existing unions to ensure that job security, training and potential redeployment are covered as part of the UK's net-zero transition.
  
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• Recycled aluminium could help Jaguar Land Rover reduce emissions by a quarter

  21-08-2020 02:02
  
  Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has revealed that its ongoing project to recover and reuse aluminium from drinks cans and end-of-life vehicles into new car products could reduce its carbon emissions by up to 26%.
  
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