Environment news

• How La Niña will bring changes to the world's weather patterns

  21-10-2020 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Developing ocean-atmospheric phenomenon will influence our weather in the coming monthsThere is a phenomenon developing in the Pacific Ocean that will be the cause of many weather events over the coming months. Its name: La Niña.La Niña is an ocean-atmospheric coupled phenomenon occurring every few years where sea surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean are below normal. Stronger than normal trade winds across the central Pacific advect warmer sea surface tempera
  
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• Secrets of the 'uncrushable' beetle revealed

  21-10-2020 20:55 via bbc.co.uk
  
  How a tiny insect with super-tough body armour can survive being stamped on or run over by a car.
  
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• Electric cars 'as cheap to manufacture' as regular models by 2024

  21-10-2020 20:04 via theguardian.com
  
  Analysis by UBS suggests shift away from fossil fuel vehicles may be imminent Electric cars will cost the same to make as conventional cars, with internal combustion engines, by 2024 and an acceleration in the shift away from fossil fuel vehicles may be imminent, according to new research.The extra cost of manufacturing battery electric cars versus their fossil fuel equivalents will diminish to just $1,900 (£1,470) per car by 2022, and disappear completely by 2024, according to research by
  
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• BP's greener vision has failed to excite shareholders

  21-10-2020 19:56 via theguardian.com
  
  The oil firm’s tumbling share price shows investors need more than a loose assertion of confidenceHere’s a sight that hasn’t been seen since 1994: shares in BP priced at less than 200p. The stock, 480p at the start of this year before the Covid recession hammered the oil price, closed on Wednesday at 199.96p.Even as recently as August, a sub-£2 moment seemed unlikely. That was when the new-ish chief executive, Bernard Looney, pitched to investors his plan to make BP a net
  
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• Climate change: 'Cooling paint' could cut emissions from buildings

  21-10-2020 17:11 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Researchers have developed a white paint that reflects sunlight and helps cool buildings.
  
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• Priceless Planet: Banks and airlines join coalition planting 100 million trees

  21-10-2020 17:00
  
  Businesses including Barclays Bank US, HSBC and Frontier Airlines have joined the Priceless Planet Coalition - an initiative set up by MasterCard to reforest more than 100 million trees.
  
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• Scientists reveal how diabolical ironclad beetle can bear huge weights

  21-10-2020 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Interlocking exoskeleton could provide inspiration for new methods of joining materials
  It can survive being run over by a car, pecked by predators and crushed underfoot. Now researchers have revealed the secrets behind the near-indestructibility of the diabolical ironclad beetle.Found in wooded areas of the US west coast, the beetle is about 2cm in length. Like some other species of flightless beetle, its wing covers, known as elytra, are not only hardened, but fused together. The upshot is a g
  
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• Sir David Attenborough polar research ship set to begin sea trials

  21-10-2020 16:58 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Four years in the making, Britain's new £200m polar ship has left the builder's yard for testing.
  
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• Greta Thunberg accuses MEPs of 'surrender on climate and environment'

  21-10-2020 16:19 via theguardian.com
  
  European parliament votes to continue payments to farmers with no green conditions attachedGreta Thunberg, the Swedish school strike pioneer and environmental activist, has accused MEPs of surrendering on the climate and environment by voting in favour of a watered-down reform of the EU’s common agricultural policy.The European parliament voted late on Wednesday in favour of proposals put forward by the main political groups that will continue 60% of the current direct payments to farmers
  
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• Anglo American sued over alleged mass lead poisoning of children in Zambia

  21-10-2020 15:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Lawsuit claims mining firm failed to prevent pollution in Kabwe, affecting multiple generationsA class action lawsuit has been filed against the mining company Anglo American over its alleged failure to prevent widespread toxic lead pollution in the Zambian town of Kabwe. The town hosted one of the world’s biggest lead mines for many decades and scientists have reported “alarming” levels of lead in people’s blood.“The public environmental health disaster left behind
  
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• Satellites picture methane across the globe

  21-10-2020 14:30 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The GHGSat company releases a tool to show how methane varies in the atmosphere across the world.
  
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• Sustainability Leaders Awards entries are closing NEXT WEEK

  21-10-2020 13:43
  
  edie readers have until next Friday (30 October) to enter the UK's largest and most prestigious sustainable business awards scheme, which gives organisations and individuals the opportunity to be recognised and celebrated for leading on sustainability, energy and climate action.
  
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• Iceland trials plastic-free bread and potato packaging as Subway debuts cardboard salad boxes

  21-10-2020 13:43
  
  Supermarket giant Iceland has begun trialling plastic-free packaging on products including potatoes and loaves of bread, in the same week that Subway confirmed plans to phase-out plastic salad bowls.
  
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• Plans for £3.5bn theme park on Kent marsh dismay conservationists

  21-10-2020 12:27 via theguardian.com
  
  London Resort planned for Swanscombe Peninsula despite site being home to rare species such as distinguished jumping spiderIt is the unlikeliest of planning battles: a fight between the distinguished jumping spider and a rollercoaster judged to be “nationally significant infrastructure”.Ambitious £3.5bn plans for the biggest theme park in Britain beside the Thames threaten what conservationists say is the best site in the country for rare invertebrates. Continue reading...
  
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• LSE to become carbon-neutral for this academic year

  21-10-2020 12:22
  
  The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) has committed to achieving carbon neutrality for the 2020-2021 academic year, in what it claims is a first in the UK's higher education space.
  
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• Bacardi to launch biodegradable spirits bottles by 2023

  21-10-2020 11:59
  
  Alcoholic beverage giant Bacardi has said it will be ready to launch a plastic-free, bio-based spirits bottle that degrades outside of industrial conditions by 2023.
  
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• Animals Farmed: Mink Covid cull, Dutch livestock protests and net zero farms

  21-10-2020 11:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Welcome to our monthly roundup of the biggest issues in farming and food production, with must-read reports from around the webEuropean farmers are on alert after recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza among wild and domestic birds in western Russia and Kazakhstan. When bird flu was detected in the same area of Russia in the summers of 2005 and 2016, epidemics followed in northern and eastern Europe. EU officials have warned poultry producers to step up surveillance against possib
  
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• edie launches new explains guide to setting science-based climate targets

  21-10-2020 10:46
  
  Organisations looking to align their emissions reductions targets with climate science can now access a free 'edie Explains' guide breaking down everything they need to know about science-based targets.
  
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• Cat and mouse on the high seas: on the trail of China's vast squid fleet

  21-10-2020 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Huge foreign fleets gather 400 miles off South America’s Pacific coast attracted by giant squid. Peru’s coastguard must defend its territorial waters amid rising tensionThe ocean is as black as chipped obsidian, yet whichever way you look dozens of bright lights illuminate the water and the night sky. Nearly 400 nautical miles from the South American mainland, the crew of a Peruvian coastguard ship count more than 30 Chinese squid boats lighting up the sea like a city at night.Some o
  
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• London the worst city in Europe for health costs from air pollution

  21-10-2020 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Study measured financial impact of car emissions on deaths, health and lost working days in 432 urban areas The health costs of air pollution from roads are higher in London than any other city in Europe, a study has found.Two other urban areas in the UK, Manchester and the West Midlands, have the 15th and 19th highest costs respectively among the 432 European cities analysed. Continue reading...
  
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• Climate science deniers to give road safety evidence to MPs

  21-10-2020 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Campaign group the Alliance of British Drivers wants higher speed limits and fewer cycle lanesMPs are to hear evidence on road safety from a campaign group that dismisses warnings about global heating and wants higher speed limits and fewer cycle lanes, prompting alarm from environmental and active travel organisations.The Commons transport committee will take oral evidence on Wednesday from the Alliance of British Drivers (ABD), which says it represents mainstream views but accepts its membersh
  
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• Why the death of a small, punk-like fish rocked the marine world

  21-10-2020 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The smooth handfish is the first extinct marine bony fish of modern times. Scientists are now wondering how many more have disappeared unnoticedIn 1802, when French naturalist François Péron slipped a small, chunky Australian fish into a jar of preservative, little did he suspect that his unassuming prize would be the only member of its species ever known to science. The smooth handfish (Sympterichthys unipennis) was declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of N
  
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• Long Covid: Who is more likely to get it?

  21-10-2020 06:30 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A study suggests old age increases the risk, as does asthma, excess weight, and being female.
  
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• Machines to 'do half of all work tasks by 2025'

  21-10-2020 01:21 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Millions more jobs will be lost to robots with Covid accelerating the trend, says the World Economic Forum.
  
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