Environment news

• Specieswatch: theme park offers no joy ride for jumping spider

  27-10-2020 23:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Planned development in Kent risks destroying the only two British habitats of 1cm arachnid
  A creature able to leap more than 10 times its own length and land on prey with unerring accuracy to render it helpless by injecting poison sounds like a monster from science fiction. But this is the hunting method of the distinguished jumping spider Attulus distinguendus that lives on two sites alongside the River Thames, near London. It was only discovered in 2003 and is now threatened by plans to build
  
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• The ABC must be relevant to all – but that doesn't mean telling people what they want to hear | Jonathan Holmes

  27-10-2020 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Being told they pay too much attention to concerns of ‘inner-city leftwing elites’ by their own boss was bound to shock ABC journalists
  If there’s one phrase likely to raise the hackles of ABC journalists, it is “inner-city leftwing elites”. They hear it all the time from their most dogged denigrators. According to the Chris Kennys and Andrew Bolts in the Murdoch press, and the Eric Abetzes and Barnaby Joyces in the Coalition ranks, ABC journos are themselves member
  
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• The ABC must be relevant to all - but that doesn't mean telling people what they want to hear | Jonathan Holmes

  27-10-2020 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Being told they pay too much attention to concerns of ‘inner-city left wing elites’ by their own boss was bound to shock ABC journalists
  If there’s one phrase likely to raise the hackles of ABC journalists, it is “inner-city left-wing elites”. They hear it all the time from their most dogged denigrators. According to the Chris Kennys and Andrew Bolts in the Murdoch press, to the Eric Abetzes and Barnaby Joyces in the coalition ranks, ABC journos are themselves membe
  
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• Why are flowerpots traditionally round? Square ones are better

  27-10-2020 17:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsWhy are flowerpots traditionally round? it make more sense to have square ones – they make it easier to sort out spacing once planted, there’s less wasted space between pots, and they are easier to store.Paul Cooper Continue reading...
  
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• Fears over 'weakening' of UK green watchdog

  27-10-2020 17:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Campaigners fear that a body designed to protect the environment is being undermined.
  
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• 'Sleeping giant' Arctic methane deposits starting to release, scientists find

  27-10-2020 16:40 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: expedition discovers new source of greenhouse gas off East Siberian coast has been triggeredScientists have found evidence that frozen methane deposits in the Arctic Ocean – known as the “sleeping giants of the carbon cycle” – have started to be released over a large area of the continental slope off the East Siberian coast, the Guardian can reveal.High levels of the potent greenhouse gas have been detected down to a depth of 350 metres in the Laptev Sea near R
  
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• Deep-diving whale dies after swimming up river

  27-10-2020 16:04 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Rescuers made a "sterling effort" to save the 21ft-long animal found in a tributary of the River Clyde near Glasgow Airport.
  
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• Dead clever: why vampire bats are the ultimate social-distancing experts

  27-10-2020 15:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Sick bats self-isolate, while lobsters, monkeys and fish avoid other ill animals. If only humans could detect infection so easilyName: Vampire bats.Age: Diverged from fruit bats 26m years ago. Continue reading...
  
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• Patio heater, fire pit or a bigger jumper? How to stay warm while socialising outside this winter

  27-10-2020 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  If you live in an area where you aren’t allowed to mix with other people indoors (or just don’t want to), here is an ethical, expert guide to keeping toastyIndoor socialising is off. Even if it is not specifically proscribed where you live, a once innocuous cup of tea with friends now carries an unappetising tang of risk. The answer is to socialise outside – but how do you do that in a cold climate? No wonder that sales of patio heaters in the UK are rising: Homebase has nearly
  
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• Patio heater, fire pit or a bigger jumper? How to stay warm while relaxing outside this winter

  27-10-2020 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The coronavirus crisis has left many of us desperate to make the most of our gardens and yards. Here is an ethical, expert guide to keeping toastySales of patio heaters in the UK are rising: Homebase has nearly sold out and sales on eBay have soared. Mensa Heating UK recently sold 750 infrared heaters in one day. But what about the environmental impact of patio heaters? In Germany, the federal government is offering subsidies to hospitality businesses wishing to buy them, even though they had be
  
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• Investors ask most-emitting companies to prove their climate lobbying is Paris-Agreement-aligned

  27-10-2020 13:35
  
  Dozens of the world's highest emitting corporates have been asked to explain how their lobbying activities impact climate change by an influential group of investors.
  
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• The joys of spring! 10 easy October tasks to make your garden gorgeous next year

  27-10-2020 12:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Whether you have a large plot or a modest window box, there is plenty to do – from going overboard with your bulbs to providing homes for pollinating wildlifeIf you were one of the estimated three million people who discovered gardening this year, don’t imagine that now is the time for hunkering down indoors with re-runs of Gardeners’ World and a pile of seed catalogues. There is much to be done outside, especially if you are determined that next spring and summer will bring an
  
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• What Victorian-era seaweed pressings reveal about our changing seas

  27-10-2020 11:04 via theguardian.com
  
  A ‘women’s pastime’ practised by Queen Victoria, ‘seaweeding’ spread from the UK to California – now the samples are providing a glimpse into historyOn his first day as the new science director for the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California in 2016, a giant blue storage locker caught Kyle Van Houtan’s eye. The locker was obscured by a dead ficus plant and looked as if no one had opened it for years. But the label on it intrigued him: Herbarium.He opened it
  
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• A beloved Jamaican beach is succumbing to climate change. It won’t be the last

  27-10-2020 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Climate change is eroding beaches all over the Caribbean – even though the region contributes a tiny fraction of the emissions heating the planetSunbathing mothers keep an anxious eye out for children enjoying horseback rides, as groups of young men engage in energetic games of beach football and cricket. Further along, a boombox blasts as the smell of fresh fish wafts across the shoreline.For years, this was the scene at the Hellshire Beach in Portmore, St Catherine, on a public holiday o
  
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• Energy giants launch Northern Endurance Partnership to explore carbon capture opportunities

  27-10-2020 10:44
  
  A group of businesses including BP, Shell and the National Grid have formed the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), which is aiming to develop carbon transportation and storage infrastructure in the North Sea to assist with plans to decarbonise the UK's industrial clusters.
  
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• Viral photo sparks concerns about Indonesia's 'Jurassic Park'

  27-10-2020 09:56 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The viral image has raised questions about the conservation impact on the animal native to Indonesia.
  
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• WBCSD launches net-zero criteria for new and existing business members

  27-10-2020 09:29
  
  The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has launched new criteria to ensure that its business members align to science-based and net-zero targets to reduce emissions by no later than 2050.
  
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• How does one of the world’s biggest pork firms go bust during a boom?

  27-10-2020 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A giant US player is quitting despite huge export hikes during the pandemic – the reasons why get to the heart of the industry
  How does one of the largest pork companies in the US go out of business at the height of a crazy global pork boom? And what does this tell us about pig farming today? The answer to that question starts where most of the world’s pigs end up, in China.China produces and consumes almost half the world’s pork. But when African swine fever was detected in th
  
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• The meaning of leaf: an autumnal tour of England's arboretums

  27-10-2020 07:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Planted by specimen collectors in the 18th and 19th centuries, arboretums are a ‘living library of trees’ that have become an invaluable public resource for recreation and educationAutumn’s blaze of glory, all flame-red leaves and burnt-gold foliage, offers an opportunity to marvel at the brilliance of the natural world before hunkering down for winter. Though, as nature goes into hibernation, forests, woods, parks and arboretums can often feel alive with walkers, joggers and f
  
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• The destruction of a sacred tree on Djab Wurrung country has broken our hearts | Sissy Eileen Austin

  27-10-2020 07:12 via theguardian.com
  
  The sounds of chainsaws will haunt us forever. It adds to the intergenerational trauma shadowing our peopleOn Monday our biggest nightmare became a cold hard reality. The sounds of chainsaws, excessive police force, the crying of children. We felt defeated as an element of our culturally significant landscape was torn away, taken, gone forever. We are the last generation to ever be in the powerful presence of our directions tree on Djab Wurrung country.Meriki Onus: “I’m really sadden
  
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• BP leads energy companies preparing two major UK carbon capture projects

  27-10-2020 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  17m tonnes of carbon dioxide to be stored beneath the North Sea every yearAfter decades spent extracting fossil fuels from the UK’s North Sea, a consortium of oil companies is preparing to pump Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions back beneath the seabed to help meet the government’s climate ambitions.BP has set out plans to lead an alliance of energy companies in siphoning off the carbon dioxide from factory flues under new plans in which almost half the UK’s industrial em
  
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• Country diary: egrets are enchanting at this great watery expanse

  27-10-2020 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Rutland Water, Rutland: Along the margin a loose flock stalks the shallows, their unblemished plumage shining in the gathering gloomAn unfamiliar sonorous rattle passes over the yellowing aspens, emitted by an elegantly expansive bird as immaculate as virgin snow, a great white egret. It drops down behind the autumnal trees to alight in the shallows of a freshwater lagoon that abuts the largest artificial lake in western Europe.Rutland Water was constructed in the valley of the River Gwash in th
  
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• Beached: Can rescuers save this dolphin in time?

  27-10-2020 01:33 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Hundreds of dolphins beach each year, but this US team has dramatically improved survival rates
  
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