Environment news

• Up to half of world's water supply stolen annually, study finds

  26-08-2020 19:30 via theguardian.com
  
  As water scarcity increases from factors including climate change, so do drivers of water theft, an ongoing problem in Australia Between 30% and 50% of the world’s water supply is stolen each year, mainly by agricultural interests and farmers, yet the crime itself is not well understood, a new international study led by the University of Adelaide says.The lead author, Dr Adam Loch, from the university’s Centre for Global Food and Resources, said there was a lack of data around water
  
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• The Green Recovery: how Australia can ditch coal (without ditching jobs) – video

  26-08-2020 19:30 via theguardian.com
  Australia loves coal. About 60% of our electricity still comes from polluting, coal-fired power plants, while only 20% comes from renewables. Successive governments have told us that decommissioning coal-fired power would hurt the economy and cause a wave of unemployment. But that's not actually true. In fact, there are enormous opportunities to create jobs and wealth in renewable industries in Australia, including in exporting to countries without the sun and space we enjoy here Continue readin
  
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• 'Maybe it did just want to eat me': Australian surfer whose partner fought off great white shark tells why she wants to save them

  26-08-2020 19:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: Chantelle Doyle tells how a 2.5m shark lacerated her leg, how her partner fought it off with his fists and why we need to help the fish that bit herChantelle Doyle lies diagonally across her hospital bed with her heavily bandaged right leg propped up on a chair at a 30-degree angle.She is trying to help her nerves heal. It might not work. Great white sharks can bite hard. Continue reading...
  
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• Davos delayed: World Economic Forum postpones 2021 event over Covid-19 concerns

  26-08-2020 19:24
  
  The World Economic Forum (WEF) has postponed the 2021 iteration of its namesake conference in Davos, Switzerland, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
  
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• Mauritius: Anger and questions as 17 dead dolphins wash ashore

  26-08-2020 18:50 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The discovery of 17 of the mammals raises questions and causes sadness and anger among locals.
  
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• Bread price may rise after dire UK wheat harvest

  26-08-2020 18:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The price of bread is set to rise after what could be the worst UK wheat harvest in 40 years.
  
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• Antarctica: 60% of ice shelves at risk of fracture, research suggests

  26-08-2020 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Collapse of shelves would accelerate loss of Antarctic ice sheet and increase sea-level riseApproximately 60% of Antarctica’s ice shelves could be vulnerable to fracture, accelerating the loss of the Antarctic ice sheet and increasing sea-level rise, according to a paper.Antarctica’s ice shelves, floating extensions of the ice sheet, help slow the flow of ice into the ocean. But if these shelves fracture and then collapse, the flow of melting glaciers into the oceans accelerates. Con
  
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• Why do birds sing? Because they’re all on drugs

  26-08-2020 15:39 via theguardian.com
  
  The dawn chorus is created by birds chasing their next hit of opioid, according to a US biologist. Which explains why it’s so much like free-form jazzName: Jazz.Age: Much older than you think. Continue reading...
  
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• Norway plans to drill for oil in untouched Arctic areas

  26-08-2020 14:42 via theguardian.com
  
  Critics say plan for fields off Svalbard threatens ecosystem and relations with RussiaNorway is planning to expand oil drilling in previously untouched areas of the Arctic, a move campaigners say threatens the fragile ecosystem and could spark a military standoff with Russia.A public consultation on the opening up of nine new Norwegian oilfields closed on Wednesday. The areas in question are much further north in the Arctic than the concessions the US president, Donald Trump, announced for Alask
  
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• Spanish fishing boats land only a tenth of normal catch of octopus

  26-08-2020 14:21 via theguardian.com
  
  Meteorological and environmental reasons cited as reasons for record low catches
  Spanish fishing boats are landing only a tenth of their normal summer catch of octopus – an unheard-of drop.To date, since 1 July they have caught 38 tonnes of octopus, compared with a normal average of 378 tonnes over the same period. Income has slumped by 84%. Catches vary from year to year but such a huge drop is unprecedented. Continue reading...
  
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• Oxford unveils plans for UK's first local air pollution targets

  26-08-2020 13:01
  
  Oxford City Council has set out plans to introduce more ambitious air quality targets than the UK's current, legally binding goals, in what it claims is a national first.
  
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• Eigg beach runner stumbles on dinosaur bone

  26-08-2020 12:22 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The chance find was made on an isle where scientists have been hunting for the fossils for 200 years.
  
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• Unless we change course, the US agricultural system could collapse | Tom Philpott

  26-08-2020 12:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Our food supply comes from an environmentally unsustainable system that is going to unravel
  Picture an ideal dinner plate. If you’re like most Americans, it features a hearty portion of meat, from animals fattened on midwestern corn and soybeans, and a helping of vegetables, largely trucked in from California. The unique landscapes we rely on to deliver this bounty – the twin jewels of the US food system – are locked in a state of slow-motion ecological unravelling. California&
  
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• Amazon finances 115MW wind farm to power Irish data centres

  26-08-2020 11:49
  
  Amazon has committed to source 100% of the power generated by a new 115MW onshore wind farm in County Galway, Ireland, as it strives to reach 100% renewable electricity by 2030.
  
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• 'We're at a crossroads': who do the fish of Hawaii belong to?

  26-08-2020 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Commercial fishers see the water as ‘an open ocean’ – but depleting resources creates food insecurity for low-income and Native Hawaiians who depend on itThis spring, longline commercial fishers petitioned the Trump administration to open up the Pacific marine monuments – some of the most biologically diverse marine conservation areas in the world, including Papahānaumokuākea. A World Heritage site, Hawaii’s Papahānaumokuākea constitutes 583,000
  
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• Ellen MacArthur Foundation launches Plastics Pact in US, supported by 60 major signatories

  26-08-2020 10:52
  
  Mars, Unilever and Kimberly-Clark are among the 60+ organisations to have committed to the new US version of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's Plastics Pact, which aims to create a fully circular economy for plastics.
  
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• Black turbine blade 'can cut bird deaths'

  26-08-2020 10:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Painting one blade of a wind turbine black could cut wind farms' fatal bird strikes by up to 70%.
  
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• Penarth 'dinosaur footprints' investigated by museum

  26-08-2020 09:46 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The prospect of a "really, really exciting" find will be checked by the Natural History Museum, experts say.
  
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• Hong Kong's terracotta tile army marches to the rescue for coral

  26-08-2020 08:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Scientists are using 3D-printed hexagons to create artificial reefs after a super-typhoon brought devastation
  In 2018, a super-typhoon destroyed 80% of the corals in Hoi Ha Wan bay off the Sai Kung peninsula in Hong Kong. In the city’s strongest storm since records began, winds reached 155mph (250km/h) and battered the reefs, leaving behind mostly scattered debris and broken coral skeletons. A few coral species survived, but these will likely take decades to regrow to their former state.Sa
  
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• Population panic lets rich people off the hook for the climate crisis they are causing | George Monbiot

  26-08-2020 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Rising consumption by the affluent has a far greater environmental impact than the birth rate in poorer nationsWhen a major study was published last month, showing that the global population is likely to peak then crash much sooner than most scientists had assumed, I naively imagined that people in rich nations would at last stop blaming all the world’s environmental problems on population growth. I was wrong. If anything, it appears to have got worse.Next week the BirthStrike movement &nd
  
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• Country diary: the sharp side of inflammatory season

  26-08-2020 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Easton on the Hill, Northamptonshire: On a family walk, I learn at first hand the the nasty and fiercely efficient work of the female horseflySomething clamps the skin on my right arm and I look to see: a flattened arrow, ashy coloured and the size of a fingernail, is on my forearm. Reflexively I shove it off. It leaves a swelling globe of blood behind, and I peer at it. “Horsefly,” my wife says.It’s a hot day. A walk outside the bewitching village of Easton on the Hill on a ro
  
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• Lockdown may have lasting effects on friendships

  26-08-2020 02:21 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Some marginal friendships will by lost, says psychologist, while other deeper ones may need work.
  
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• UK emissions still down 14% despite lockdown easing, Carbon Trust analysis finds

  26-08-2020 02:01
  
  The UK's greenhouse gas emissions footprint is down 14% year-on-year per capita basis, new analysis of consumer spending data by the Carbon Trust has concluded.
  
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