Environment news

• Green groups outraged as government presses on with £27.4bn roads plan

  24-08-2020 18:30
  
  The Treasury and Highways England are facing criticism after the latest string of details about the UK Government's £27.4bn road-building plan was published, with green groups arguing that the money would have been better spent on public transport and digital infrastructure.
  
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• Hong Kong reports 'first case' of virus reinfection

  24-08-2020 18:12 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Experts say no conclusions on immunity can be drawn from one patient - and larger studies are needed.
  
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• The US is in a water crisis far worse than most people imagine | Erin Brockovich

  24-08-2020 17:31
  
  Industrial runoff and lax standards have tainted water across the US. Senators and doctors are calling me, asking what to doWhen I was a little girl, my father would sing songs to me all the time about water. Sometimes, we would be playing down at the creeks and he would make up little tunes: “See that lovely water, trickling down the stream, don’t take it for granted, someday it might not be seen.”My dad worked for many years as an engineer for Texaco and later for the Departm
  
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• Climate change: Removing CO2 could spark big rise in food prices

  24-08-2020 17:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Technologies that remove CO2 from air could drive up food prices five-fold in parts of the world
  
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• Whale stranding increase may be due to military sonar exercises, say experts

  24-08-2020 15:33
  
  It is thought sonar may scare animals into surfacing too quickly, causing narcosisAn unusual series of strandings and sightings of 29 rare beaked whales has taken place around the shores of northern Europe. Experts have suggested the strandings may be linked to a military sonar exercise.The events, whose rarity indicates that they might be linked by a single cause, began two weeks ago with the sighting of two northern bottlenose whales in the North Sea. They are the same species of beaked whale
  
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• Consumer goods giants accused of sourcing palm oil from 'top deforester'

  24-08-2020 14:41
  
  Consumer goods giants including PepsiCo, Unilever and Nestle have been accused of indirectly sourcing palm oil from a mill supplied by a producer which destroyed almost 3,000 hectares of forest in Indonesia in the first half of 2020.
  
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• Bletchley Park: New crisis for code-breaking hub

  24-08-2020 14:23 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The chief executive of the Bletchley Park Trust says it is struggling to survive.
  
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• Major investment firm dumps Exxon, Chevron and Rio Tinto stock

  24-08-2020 13:44
  
  Storebrand says corporate lobbying to undermine climate solutions is ‘unacceptable’A Nordic hedge fund worth more than $90bn (£68.6bn) has dumped its stocks in some of the world’s biggest oil companies and miners responsible for lobbying against climate action.Storebrand, a Norwegian asset manager, divested from miner Rio Tinto as well as US oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron as part of a new climate policy targeting companies that use their political clout to block green
  
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• Israeli youths unearth 1,100-year-old gold coins from Abbasid era

  24-08-2020 13:11 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Volunteers at an archaeological dig find 425 coins, enough to buy a mansion when they were buried.
  
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• Work restarts at UK's first commercial refinery for recycled metals from e-waste

  24-08-2020 12:23
  
  Work to create the UK's first commercial-scale refinery extracting precious metals from waste electronics and electricals has restarted after Covid-19 related delays, meaning that the facility should become operational within 12 months.
  
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• Children raised in greener areas have higher IQ, study finds

  24-08-2020 11:39
  
  Research also found lower levels of difficult behaviour in rich and poor neighbourhoodsChildren growing up in greener urban areas have increased intelligence and lower levels of difficult behaviour, a study has found.The analysis of more than 600 children aged 10-15 showed a 3% increase in the greenness of their neighbourhood raised their IQ score by an average of 2.6 points. The effect was seen in both richer and poorer areas. Continue reading...
  
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• Brewdog achieves 'carbon negativity', offsetting more emissions than it generates

  24-08-2020 11:05
  
  Brewdog has announced that it is now offsetting more emissions than it generates across Scope 1 (direct), Scope 2 (power-related) and upstream Scope 3 (indirect) sources.
  
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• Hurricanes: A guide to the world's deadliest storms

  24-08-2020 09:30 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Animated guide explaining how hurricanes, typhoons or cyclones form, their effects and how they are measured.
  
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• Campaigners lose legal challenge over Lake District 4x4 vehicles

  24-08-2020 07:00
  
  Judge dismisses appeal against decision to allow drivers to use two off-road tracksDrivers of 4x4 vehicles can continue to use off-road tracks in the Lake District after a judge dismissed a legal challenge from campaigners who argued the vehicles polluted the national park and endangered cyclists and ramblers.A coalition of ramblers, cyclists and horse riders had appealed to the high court against a decision by the Lake District national park authority (LDNPA) to allow 4x4s and motorbikes to use
  
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• Country diary: a tad curious about this creature's metamorphosis

  24-08-2020 06:30
  
  Allendale, Northumberland: The jellied blobs that I brought home soon transformed before my eyes My daily walk in late March gave me the chance to observe many small changes in nature. During that tracing and retracing of the same ground, I’d cross a ditch where lumpy clusters of frogspawn lay wedged between stepping stones. With no rain, it became tide-bound, so I gathered the gloopy mass into a bucket and brought it home to my galvanised farm water trough. Related: Country diary: the fel
  
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• Rio Tinto bosses lose bonuses over Aboriginal cave destruction

  24-08-2020 06:15 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Executives at the mining giant Rio Tinto have had their payouts cut over the culturally important site.
  
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• Ten countries kept out Covid. But did they win?

  24-08-2020 01:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Covid-19 has infected almost every country in the world – apart from 10. So what do they do now?
  
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• Rolls-Royce's low-emission engines and a science-based targets surge: The Sustainability Success Stories of the Week

  24-08-2020 00:08
  
  As part of our Mission Possible campaign, edie brings you this weekly round-up of five of the best sustainability success stories of the week from across the globe.
  
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