Environment news

• Plantwatch: Australia's giant stinging trees – 35m tall with a poison that can last for months

  20-10-2020 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Scientists are hoping that research into Dendrocnide excelsa could lead to new painkillersIt sounds like something out of The Day of the Triffids: a stinging nettle the size of a large tree, with a sting so vicious it inflicts excruciating pain that can last for days, weeks or even months. But this is no science fiction, these are the stinging trees of Australia.Dendrocnide excelsa can grow up to 35 metres tall in tropical rainforests in Queensland, one of a gang of six Dendrocnide tree or shrub
  
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• Towards net-zero: The 8 green policies UK businesses are still waiting for

  20-10-2020 18:45
  
  The UK Government vowed last week to publish a "comprehensive" net-zero strategy ahead of COP26 in November 2021. But several glaring policy gaps remain. Here, edie rounds up the major policy announcements the green economy is waiting for.
  
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• Net-zero strategy: Which green policies is the UK still waiting for?

  20-10-2020 18:10
  
  The UK Government vowed last week to publish a "comprehensive" net-zero strategy ahead of COP26 in November 2021. But several glaring policy gaps remain. Here, edie rounds up the big policy announcements the green economy is waiting for.
  
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• Britvic to switch to 100% recycled plastic bottles by 2022

  20-10-2020 13:42
  
  The owner of Tango, Fruit Shoot and J2O has pledged to only sell plastic bottles made using 100% recycled content in the UK by the end of 2022.
  
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• Investors worth $8.5trn call for mandatory climate risk reporting for big businesses

  20-10-2020 12:50
  
  Climate risk reporting should be made mandatory for the UK's biggest publicly listed businesses, an influential group of investors has told Ministers and regulators.
  
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• Bottle-fed babies most at risk as study shows high lead exposure in US water

  20-10-2020 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Researchers say Black infants may be more at risk while about 80% of homes had detectable levels of lead in tap waterThis story is co-published with Consumer ReportsNot long after Peter and Erica Finin moved from Michigan to Pittsburgh, they had the tap water in their new home tested for lead. It was 2017, and “the whole [lead] situation in Flint was very much in the news”, Peter says. They’d been thinking about starting a family, and wanted to be safe. Related: 'It was everywh
  
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• UK 'among best nations globally' for SDG alignment

  20-10-2020 11:03
  
  Although global progress towards the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) remains insufficient to meet the 2030 deadline, the UK is among the nations leading the way on alignment and, as such, is a prime market for impact investment.
  
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• Extreme E invites scientist bids for ship research

  20-10-2020 10:16 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Extreme E are inviting applications from scientists to conduct ocean based research aboard their 'floating paddock', the St Helena.
  
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• 10 million snowblowers? Last-ditch ideas to save the Arctic ice

  20-10-2020 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Some of the solutions sound fantastical – but their proponents argue that there are precious few other optionsTime is running out for the Arctic. The region continues to warm at two or three times the global rate and scientists now predict that we could see Arctic summer ice disappear as early as 2042.As the realization sets in that existing emission reductions and renewable energy programs in place won’t be enough to save the Arctic, alternative geoengineering projects have gained t
  
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• Anger as Environment Agency executive takes job at Southern Water

  20-10-2020 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Critics say move an example of ‘cosy relationship’ between industry and regulatorOne of the most senior executives at the Environment Agency is leaving to join a water company that is under criminal investigation by the watchdog.The departure of Dr Toby Willison, the director of operations for the EA, to take up a role at Southern Water has angered campaigners seeking to reduce pollution in rivers and coastal waters. Willison has previously been the acting chief executive of the envi
  
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• Whales, wolverines, black bears: the species imperiled by Trump's war on the environment

  20-10-2020 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Despite a grim outlook for American biodiversity, Trump has lifted protections for at-risk animals as part of his aggressive rollback of environmental rules75 ways Trump made America dirtier and the planet warmerThe prognosis for biodiversity on Earth is grim. According to a sobering report released by the United Nations last year, 1 million land and marine species across the globe are threatened with extinction – more than at any other period in human history.According to a recent study,
  
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• The animal species imperiled by Trump's war on the environment

  20-10-2020 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Despite a grim outlook for American biodiversity, Trump has lifted protections for at-risk animals as part of his aggressive rollback of environmental rules75 ways Trump made America dirtier and the planet warmerThe prognosis for biodiversity on Earth is grim. According to a sobering report released by the United Nations last year, 1 million land and marine species across the globe are threatened with extinction – more than at any other period in human history.According to a recent study,
  
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• Bears, whales and wolverines: the species imperiled by Trump's war on the environment

  20-10-2020 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Despite a grim outlook for American biodiversity, Trump has lifted protections for at-risk animals as part of his aggressive rollback of environmental rules75 ways Trump made America dirtier and the planet warmerThe prognosis for biodiversity on Earth is grim. According to a sobering report released by the United Nations last year, 1 million land and marine species across the globe are threatened with extinction – more than at any other period in human history.According to a recent study,
  
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• Country diary: an immense space studded with razor shells

  20-10-2020 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Holkham, Norfolk: It occurs to me that every shell is an exact analogue of its wider environmentThe storms in September have dredged from the sea bottom and then flung millions of razor shells across the immense space of this beach. As I kneeled to examine a cluster, half-buried in sand by continued westerlies, I noticed that every shell was an exact analogue of its wider environment. Because each blade bore wavering bands of variant colour crosswise through its length.The same pattern was manif
  
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• Unilever's former chief sustainability officer to chair plant-based plastic venture

  20-10-2020 02:05
  
  Unilever's former chief sustainability officer Jeff Seabright has been appointed as chair of a Cambridge-based scale-up that creates plant-protein-based alternatives to single-use plastic.
  
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• Asda opens 'sustainability store' with refill stations and plastic-free groceries

  20-10-2020 02:01
  
  Asda has installed refill stations, reverse vending machines and a vintage clothing aisle to one of its busiest stores, to gauge consumer attitudes and logistical considerations to more sustainable offerings.
  
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• Nasa's Osiris-Rex probe aims for daring 'high five' with asteroid Bennu

  20-10-2020 01:23 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Osiris-Rex will make the briefest of contacts with Asteroid Bennu to try to pick up rock samples.
  
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• Eating jellyfish: Why scientists are talking up a 'perfect food'

  20-10-2020 01:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Amid fresh concern about overfishing, scientists say eating more jellyfish may give us benefits.
  
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