Environment news

• Butterflywatch: is UK experiencing a clouded yellow autumn?

  30-10-2020 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The dynamic migratory butterfly looks to be sticking around beyond the summerI was strolling across a field near the Dorset coast on a cool, blustery day recently when I caught sight of a speck of gold in the wind.Flying with its characteristic indomitable vigour was a clouded yellow, one of our regular migratory butterflies. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• 'No predators, plenty to eat': New Zealand struggles with plague of peacocks

  30-10-2020 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Farmers complain feral birds eat pasture their livestock depend on, and their numbers are increasing thanks to hunting of stoats and possumsA bird renowned around the world for its beauty has showed its ugly side by causing havoc on farms in New Zealand; eating crops, evading control efforts and driving landowners to distraction.The jade and green peafowl, commonly known as the peacock, has become naturalised in New Zealand after what New Zealand Birds Online calls “benign neglect of birds
  
  Read more

• Net zero: what if Australia misses the moment on climate action?

  30-10-2020 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Three of Australia’s biggest trading partners have recently committed to go ‘carbon-neutral’. Experts say it’s the greatest shift in climate politics since the Paris agreementFor a national leader who had just been told up to $80bn in fossil fuel export industries were on the chopping block, Scott Morrison seemed remarkably sanguine.“I am not concerned about our future exports,” the prime minister said at a press conference on Wednesday. “I’m very
  
  Read more

• 'A tourniquet for things to come': victims and frontline workers say bushfire findings don't go far enough

  30-10-2020 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Australia’s black summer killed 33 people, destroyed thousands of homes and devastated native wildlife. Those affected by the fires respond to the royal commission report in their own words Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• 'A tourniquet for things to come': victims and frontline workers say busg findings don't go far enough

  30-10-2020 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Australia’s black summer killed 33 people, destroyed thousands of homes and devastated native wildlife. Those affected by the fires respond to the royal commission report in their own words Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• A Joe Biden victory could push Scott Morrison – and the world – on climate change

  30-10-2020 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  International action on emissions reduction will get a huge shot in the arm if the US election goes to the Democratic leaderI’m a deeply superstitious person, so I can barely bring myself to utter the words “if Joe Biden wins the American presidency next week”, but for the purposes of where we are going this weekend, I need to utter those words, because that’s our starting point for unpacking a few things.If Biden wins, obviously that’s the end of Trumpism, which wo
  
  Read more

• US and UK citizens are world’s biggest sources of plastic waste – study

  30-10-2020 19:00 via theguardian.com
  
  US population may also be third-largest producer of marine plastic pollutionThe US and UK produce more plastic waste per person than any other major countries, according to new research.The analysis also shows the US produces the most plastic waste in total and that its citizens may rank as high as third in the world in contributing to plastic pollution in the oceans. Previous work had suggested Asian countries dominated marine plastic pollution and placed the US in 20th place, but this did not
  
  Read more

• AI-enabled 'smart' EV batteries and 3D solar panels: The best green innovations of October 2020

  30-10-2020 17:07
  
  Every month, numerous eye-catching and potentially transformational innovations are being developed to help businesses and nations turn their green ambitions into actions. Here, we round up six of the best from October 2020.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Humans pushing North Atlantic right whale to extinction faster than believed

  30-10-2020 16:44 via theguardian.com
  
  New modelling says just 356 remain – down from 409 last yearThe 70 breeding females could disappear in 10-20 yearsHumans are killing the endangered North Atlantic right whale far faster than previously thought, and experts say the window to act is quickly closing.According to new modelling from the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, only 356 of the whales remain in the world — a significant decline from the 409 logged last year. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Chameleon last seen a century ago rediscovered in Madagascar

  30-10-2020 16:18 via theguardian.com
  
  Scientists find several living specimens of Voeltzkow’s chameleon during expedition
  Scientists say they have found an elusive chameleon species that was last spotted in Madagascar 100 years ago.Researchers from Madagascar and Germany said on Friday that they had discovered several living specimens of Voeltzkow’s chameleon during an expedition to the north-west of the African island nation. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• New sensor offers a window into the secret lives of Britain's rarest bats

  30-10-2020 14:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Device makes it inexpensive to monitor sites previously too hazardous or difficult for volunteers to enter after darkThe secret lives of the UK’s rarest bats could be revealed thanks to a new sensor that can record ultrasonic calls in dense woodland areas that have previously been difficult to reach.For decades, acoustic monitoring has been done by bat detectors carried by experts reluctant to stray into woodland thickets during night-time walks. Now a new £60 sensor that can be left
  
  Read more

• Plant inspectors and rising prices: UK garden industry set for Brexit shock

  30-10-2020 14:31 via theguardian.com
  
  Nurseries say doubling up of regulations will mean a rise in costs and EU suppliers going elsewhereThe UK’s love of horticulture has grown during the coronavirus pandemic, but avid gardeners are being warned of a Brexit shock, with rising prices, potential plant shortages and even the need for plant inspectors at nurseries.Every year 55,000 trucks loaded with plants arrive in the UK from the Netherlands alone. Each individual pot or hessian root wrap bears an EU “plant passport&rdquo
  
  Read more

• 'Here we reconnect with humanity': Urban open spaces to lift the spirits

  30-10-2020 13:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Guardian readers look back to simpler times in lockdown when they escaped to local hidden gemsAs many UK cities become subject to strict lockdown measures, because of rising cases of coronavirus, Guardian readers tell us about their favourite urban open spaces that have helped lift spirits during the pandemic. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• #SustyTalk: MasterCard's Kristina Kloberdanz on collaborating and communicating for sustainability

  30-10-2020 11:13
  
  edie's #SustyTalk interview series continues with Mastercard’s chief sustainability officer Kristina Kloberdanz discussing the company's collaborative work on issues like plastics pollution, deforestation and financial empowerment.
  
  Read more

• L'Oreal unveils 'world's first' plastic bottles made from captured carbon

  30-10-2020 10:54
  
  L'Oreal has created a prototype shampoo bottle from 'recycled' captured carbon, mitigating the need for virgin fossil-based plastics.
  
  Read more

• TCFD gains 500 global supporters amid Covid-19, but full alignment remains rare

  30-10-2020 10:21
  
  The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) has revealed that more than 500 organisations have pledged support for its recommendations since February, but that reporting remains inconsistent.
  
  Read more

• ‘Un-managing the land’: sheep make way for trees in Cumbria's uplands

  30-10-2020 08:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Sheep grazing has dominated the Howgill Fells for over a century, but with shifting agricultural subsidies and urgent calls to address biodiversity loss, change is comingFor William Wordsworth the Howgill Fells was a romantic landscape, for rewilders they could be home to wolves, and for farmer John Pratt, these hills are home. “I was hoping this day would never come. I shan’t say it will break my heart, but it will,” says Pratt, who is selling his sheep and retiring after 55 y
  
  Read more

• Scrap gas pipeline in eastern Med due to climate cost, says report

  30-10-2020 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Gas discovery at centre of Turkey-Greece dispute will ‘make world even less safe’The giant gas reserves at the heart of a bitter political standoff between Greece and Turkey could lead to the same carbon emissions as the whole of France and Spain combined every year, according to a report that has called for the proposed gas pipeline project to be scrapped.The gas discovery has inflamed regional tensions in the eastern Mediterranean as Greece and Turkey vie for control of new fossil
  
  Read more

• ‘Long johns with a bum hatch’: Guardian readers' secrets for staying warm outside this winter

  30-10-2020 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Who better to ask how to handle the cold than people who work in the elements? Here, Guardian readers give their best advice – from the ideal breakfast to the perfect snoodI was once working at a beer festival in -12C and high wind for 18 hours. It was so cold that beer brought outside would “steam” like a cup of tea. We kept warm by wearing about 10 layers (Scottish woolly jumpers and Norwegian merino thermals). Under-layers are much more important than jackets, but they must
  
  Read more

• Cheaper to prevent pandemics than 'cure' them

  30-10-2020 01:44 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Preventing pandemics could be more than 100 times cheaper than tackling their deadly effects.
  
  Read more

• Sustainability Leaders Awards: Entry deadline extended to 6 November

  30-10-2020 01:02
  
  The deadline for entering the UK's largest and most prestigious sustainable business awards scheme - edie's Sustainability Leaders Awards 2021 - has been extended by one week to Friday 6 November.
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!