Environment news

• Covid-19 lockdowns have improved global air quality, data shows

  08-10-2020 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Huge drops in pollution recorded around world Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageAround the world, Covid lockdowns have led to improvements in air pollution. In northern India, the Himalayas were visible in the distance for the first time in a generation. And during the first nine weeks of the UK lockdown, nitrogen dioxide along London’s roads decreased by an average of 31% compared with the pre-lockdown period.Non-essential shops in the capital reopened on 1
  
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• BT's £55bn pension scheme commits to net-zero emissions by 2035

  08-10-2020 14:11
  
  The UK's largest corporate pensions investment fund, BT Pension Scheme, has signalled its intention to reach net-zero emissions by 2035 on behalf of its £55bn portfolio.
  
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• Vodafone saves £10m in energy costs over three-year period

  08-10-2020 13:12
  
  Vodafone has worked with facilities management firm Mitie to reduce its UK carbon footprint by 25,000 tonnes over a three-year period, with improvements to building-based energy use saving the technology firm around £10m.
  
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• Fragile Planet: documenting the impact of the climate crisis – in pictures

  08-10-2020 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Fragile Planet is a record of the dramatic changes that are shaping our planet. Containing more than 230 photographs, the book documents the effects of climate systems and forces of nature on our world alongside striking images that show their impactFragile Planet: The Impact of Climate Change is published by Collins Books Support Guardian journalism today, by making a single or recurring contribution, or subscribing Continue reading...
  
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• Mystery disease killing Italy's kiwifruit baffles scientists

  08-10-2020 12:51 via theguardian.com
  
  Government taskforce to study sickness devastating kiwi orchards across countryThe leaves wither and face down as if to escape the sun; the roots darken and rot. Then the leaves fall: within 10 days, all of them are gone, leaving the fruit under the sun. Within one or two years, the plant dries up and dies. There is no cure.In Italy, kiwi vines are dying en masse, and no one knows why. Last month, the Italian government announced a taskforce to study a mysterious sickness that is devastating kiw
  
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• Mystery disease killing Italy's kiwi fruit trees baffles scientists

  08-10-2020 12:51 via theguardian.com
  
  Government taskforce to study sickness devastating kiwi orchards across countryThe leaves wither and face down as if to escape the sun; the roots darken and rot. Then the leaves fall: within 10 days, all of them are gone, leaving the fruit under the sun. Within one or two years, the plant dries up and dies. There is no cure.In Italy, kiwi trees are dying en masse, and no one knows why. Last month, the Italian government announced a taskforce to study a mysterious sickness that is devastating kiw
  
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• Major businesses back North West's net-zero industrial cluster, say it can come online by 2030

  08-10-2020 12:25
  
  Businesses including Siemens and Tata Europe's chemicals arm have agreed to back plans for a net-zero industrial cluster in North West England, which developers say will be completed by 2030 and create 33,000 new jobs.
  
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• Earthshot Prize: Royals to spend £50m on climate and nature innovations by 2030

  08-10-2020 11:44
  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have officially launched what they describe as the "most prestigious global environment prize in history", which will allocate £50m to projects tackling the climate and nature crises over a ten-year period.
  
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• Issue green sovereign bond to finance UK's Covid-19 recovery, investors urge Government

  08-10-2020 11:44
  
  A group of 30 major investors with more than £10trn of assets under management collectively are calling for the UK Government to launch a green sovereign bond to ensure adequate funding is put behind its mission to deliver a "green" Covid-19 recovery.
  
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• Issue a green sovereign bond to finance UK's Covid-19 recovery, Investors with £10trn assets urge Government

  08-10-2020 10:58
  
  A group of 30 major investors with more than £10trn of assets under management collectively are calling for the UK Government to launch a green sovereign bond to ensure adequate funding is put behind its mission to deliver a "green" Covid-19 recovery.
  
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• How will the pandemic affect the sprint away from fossil fuels? | Daniel Yergin

  08-10-2020 10:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The challenges of re-engineering the global economy by 2050 were already immense, even before the advent of Covid-19In terms of energy, we are living in an “after-Paris” world. For, in the half-decade since the Paris climate agreement, its impact has only continued to grow. The idea of an energy transition to what is called “net zero carbon” by 2050, which is at the heart of the agreement, is becoming embedded in the strategies of investors and companies and in the polici
  
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• Goat Power: how herding is empowering women in rural Africa – in pictures

  08-10-2020 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Photographer Chris de Bode teamed up with Farm Africa to tell the story of how owning goats is transforming women’s lives in Ethiopia and Uganda
  Photographs: Chris de Bode/Panos PicturesOutdoor exhibition at More London Riverside, on London’s South Bank, until 6 November 2020 Continue reading...
  
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• 'Rare' Sir Isaac Newton work found on bookshelf sells for £22k

  08-10-2020 08:30 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy was found on a bookshelf during a lockdown clear out.
  
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• Over half UK's 24m Halloween pumpkins destined for food waste

  08-10-2020 08:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Poll shows majority of people do not realise the flesh of a carved pumpkin is edibleMore than half of the 24m pumpkins carved for Halloween in Britain this year will not be eaten, according to new research.The findings suggest that one in seven people who celebrate Halloween do not regard the gourds as food while only 42% realise the fleshy innards of a carving pumpkin are edible. Continue reading...
  
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• UK 'will take 700 years' to reach low-carbon heating under current plans

  08-10-2020 08:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Energy experts say record rise in new gas boilers installed shows UK going in wrong direction
  Ministers must come forward with stringent new plans for low-carbon heating, as targets to insulate homes and generate more power from offshore wind are inadequate and sales of gas boilers showed a record rise last year, energy experts warned.At current rates, it will take 700 years for the UK to move to low-carbon heating, and at least 19,000 homes a week must be upgraded between now and 2050. There wa
  
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• 'Hijacked by anxiety': how climate dread is hindering climate action

  08-10-2020 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A growing school of psychologists believe the trauma of the climate crisis is a key barrier to change – and can be treated with therapy Support Guardian journalism today, by making a single or recurring contribution, or subscribingYou’re browsing in a supermarket and fretting mildly about the air miles of some green beans. Or you’re daydreaming of that island holiday you deserve once the pandemic has died down but worrying about whether you should be flying.How about the amount
  
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• Earthshot prize: Prince William launches £50m drive to repair planet

  08-10-2020 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Five £1m prizes will be awarded each year for next 10 years to support environmental solutionsThe Duke of Cambridge has announced that £50m will be awarded over 10 years through his ambitious Earthshot prize, billed as “the most prestigious global environment prize in history”, which aims to find solutions to repair the planet by 2030.Five £1m prizes will be awarded each year for the next 10 years, aiming to provide at least 50 solutions to some of the world’s
  
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• Attenborough: 'Curb excess capitalism' to save nature

  08-10-2020 07:05 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Sir David Attenborough tells a new BBC podcast that we will all be happier if we live more frugally.
  
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• Facebook accused of failing to tackle climate misinformation, despite crackdown on fake news

  08-10-2020 07:02
  
  Even though Facebook bans false advertising and has recently introduced new measures to tackle misinformation, 51 advertisements promoting climate denialism were posted by US-based users in the first half of 2020 and were viewed by millions of people.
  
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• Prince William and Sir David Attenborough join forces on 'Earthshot' prize

  08-10-2020 07:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Duke of Cambridge and Sir David launch the biggest environmental award ever.
  
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• Behind China’s ‘pork miracle’: how technology is transforming rural hog farming

  08-10-2020 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  As Chinese demand for pork grows and grows, traditional small-scale farms are being replaced by vast, AI-assisted operations that feel more like smartphone factories than bucolic countryside havensIn November 2018, I travelled to Guangzhou, a city of about 14 million people in southern China. Late autumn is the time for making lap yuk, a type of preserved pork that is a local speciality, and across town I would often spot slabs of meat hanging from high-rise apartment balconies, tied up with str
  
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• Country diary: lilies marooned from the glacial story

  08-10-2020 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Colemere, Shropshire: One of a sentence of meres written by dying ice at the end of its age 10,000 years agoMere glitter dazzles between air and water, disrupting shadows of the surrounding woods, distracting the eye, hovering over occult secrets underwater. The outer world is sedated by bright autumn sunshine while under the surface is a troubled subconscious that gives the place the “discouragement”, the “unbreathing quiet” that Mary Webb attributed to the fictitious Sa
  
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• Climate denial ads on Facebook seen by millions, report finds

  08-10-2020 06:01 via theguardian.com
  
  The ads included calling climate change a hoax and were paid for by conservative US groupsAdverts on Facebook denying the reality of the climate crisis or the need for action were viewed by at least 8 million people in the US in the first half of 2020, a thinktank has found.The 51 climate disinformation ads identified included ones stating that climate change is a hoax and that fossil fuels are not an existential threat. The ads were paid for by conservative groups whose sources of funding are o
  
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• Are the world's national parks failing nature? (part two) – podcast

  08-10-2020 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  In this second episode of our age of extinction takeover, Patrick Greenfield and Phoebe Weston explore the impact that conservation and national parks can have on Indigenous communities and the biodiversity surrounding themIf you haven’t already, go back and listen to Tuesday’s episode on the history of national parks and some of the challenges they face Continue reading...
  
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• Are wildfires the end of the Californian dream?

  08-10-2020 01:23 via bbc.co.uk
  
  As unprecedented wildfires rage across the Golden State, Californians have been bearing the brunt.
  
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• September breaks global and European records for hottest ever

  08-10-2020 00:47 via theguardian.com
  
  Air temperatures hit all-time highs for month and Arctic sea ice level was ‘particularly low’The world this year experienced its hottest September on record, scientists have reported.Surface air temperatures last month were 0.05C warmer than in September 2019, making it the hottest September on record globally, experts from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said. Continue reading...
  
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