Environment news

• Brazil's Amazon: Deforestation 'surges to 12-year high'

  30-11-2020 23:33 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Destruction of the rainforest increased by 9.5% compared to the previous 12 months, new data shows.
  
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• The UK's farmers face upheaval, but a reform to subsidies is needed | Simon Jenkins

  30-11-2020 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  British agriculture will be transformed utterly by bold new proposalsThis is a good week to start a revolution. With Brexit now on the brink of deal or no deal, Britain could yet retreat behind a wall of tariffs and protectionism. But if a free-trade deal is done and borders stay open, the way is clear for British agriculture to be transformed utterly. Today a seven-year transition plan has been announced by the environment secretary, George Eustice. It switches the money, currently £2.4bn
  
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• Tree-planting drones and textile recycling: The best green innovations of November 2020

  30-11-2020 16:44
  
  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 November 2020.
  
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• One of biology's biggest mysteries 'largely solved' by AI

  30-11-2020 16:35 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The advance is expected to accelerate research into a host of human diseases, including Covid-19.
  
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• Air pollution where girl died in London 'should have been treated as emergency'

  30-11-2020 15:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Inquest into Ella Kissi-Debrah’s asthma death hears Lewisham council was slow to tackle issueIllegal levels of air pollution in the area where a nine-year-old girl lived and died should have been treated as a public health emergency, an inquest heard.Instead the London borough of Lewisham moved at a “glacial pace” to take steps to address toxic air from traffic where Ella Kissi-Debrah lived and went to primary school, the inquest in south London was told on Monday. Continue rea
  
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• #SustyTalk: Polestar's Fredrika Klarén on EVs and lifetime emissions

  30-11-2020 13:30
  
  edie's #SustyTalk interview series continues with the electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Polestar's head of sustainability Fredrika Klarén discussing the net-zero transport transition.
  
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• North Sea energy sector requires 'urgent investment' to reach net-zero

  30-11-2020 12:58
  
  Investment into net-zero technologies such as floating offshore wind and clean hydrogen could capture up to £125bn in annual benefits from the North Sea energy sector, but a new report has warned that jobs in the area could fall by at least 20% without incentivising policies.
  
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• UK's largest battery storage project receives planning consent in Essex

  30-11-2020 10:12
  
  The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has granted planning consent for one of the world's largest battery storage projects to be delivered on the banks of the Thames in Essex.
  
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• Scottish homes to be first in world to use 100% green hydrogen

  30-11-2020 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Some 300 homes in Fife to be fitted with free boilers, heaters and cooking appliancesHundreds of homes in Scotland will soon become the first in the world to use 100% green hydrogen to heat their properties and cook their meals as part of a new trial which could help households across the country replace fossil fuel gas.Some 300 homes in Fife will be fitted with free hydrogen boilers, heaters and cooking appliances to be used for more than four years in the largest test of whether zero carbon hy
  
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• European states ordered to respond to youth activists' climate lawsuit

  30-11-2020 09:54 via theguardian.com
  
  European court of human rights case could result in countries being bound to take greater action
  The European court of human rights has ordered 33 European governments to respond to a landmark climate lawsuit lodged by six youth campaigners, the Guardian has learned.The plaintiffs’ British barrister says it could be the most important case ever tried by the Strasbourg-based judges. Continue reading...
  
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• 'Fraught with risk': Government's sustainable farming plan sparks concern amongst green groups

  30-11-2020 09:35
  
  The UK Government has unveiled plans to deliver the most significant change to land management and farming practices in 50 years as a replacement to the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, a move that has sparked widespread concern amongst green groups due to a lack of detail.
  
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• Nemonte Nenquimo: The indigenous leader named 'environmental hero'

  30-11-2020 09:34 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Nemonte Nenquimo is one of the six environmental leaders to be awarded this year's Goldman Prize.
  
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• The Goldman environmental prize winners 2020 – in pictures

  30-11-2020 09:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The Goldman environmental prize honours the achievements of grassroots activists in six continents, recognising their efforts to protect natural habitats and push for political change, often at great personal risk
  Plastic in paradise: Goldman prize winner’s fight to protect Bahamas Continue reading...
  
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• Plastic in paradise: Goldman prize winner's fight to protect Bahamas

  30-11-2020 09:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Kristal Ambrose had to beat prejudices about class and race to change mindsets on the islandsThe Goldman environmental prize winners 2020 – in picturesWhen the latest Goldman prize winner, Kristal Ambrose, began campaigning against plastic waste in the Bahamas, one of the first obstacles she had to overcome was prejudice about class and race.“You have been around white people too long. We always use plastic bags,” she recalls being told by neighbours in Eleuthera, one of the 30
  
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• Tree of the week: ‘This black pine represents how nature forces change on to living things’

  30-11-2020 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  This tree in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, cultivated according to the traditional practice of niwaki, inspired Rod Hardingham so much he has tried to grow a similar one in his B&B in KentRod Hardingham’s favourite tree, a black pine in Tatsuno, embodies not only his love of gardens and nature, but also a decades-long affinity with Japan and Japanese culture. “My wife, Etsuko, is Japanese,” says Hardingham, 69. “She was working for an American company in Tokyo, but he
  
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• Landmark inquest to rule if air pollution killed London pupil

  30-11-2020 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  New hearing into 2013 death of Ella Kissi-Debrah follows mother’s seven-year fight An inquest is to consider evidence that illegal levels of air pollution caused the death of a nine-year-old girl, in a landmark legal case.A coroner will be asked to rule that toxic levels of nitrogen dioxide, from the South Circular road in south London, led to the acute asthma attack that killed the primary school pupil, Ella Kissi-Debrah. Her mother, Rosamund, a former teacher, has fought for years for an
  
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• Could Cornwall see a Lithium-ion battery revolution?

  30-11-2020 07:13 via bbc.co.uk
  
  British Lithium is prospecting in the county to find economically viable seams of the element.
  
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• Country diary: these remarkable beeches can be seen from miles away

  30-11-2020 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Scots Gap, Northumberland: Planted around 1760 on top of a stone-clad bank known as a kest, their soaring grey trunks are mottled with pale grey circles of lichenAn old railway line leaves Scots Gap past a field studded with glistening waxcaps, crimson, apricot and yellow fungi colouring the rushy pasture. Soon, two trackbeds diverge, the Wannie line going west as we head north along the route of the Rothbury line. A circular walk takes in both green lanes where trains once carried stone, lime,
  
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• Brexit: Ministers unveil next steps in England's farming policy

  30-11-2020 02:43 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The government says the post-Brexit plans for farm payments are the most significant for 50 years.
  
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• Why 2020 has been good for England's beavers

  30-11-2020 01:34 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Homes for these "ultimate environmental engineers" have been set up in enclosures across England.
  
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• Environment to benefit from ‘biggest farming shake-up in 50 years’

  30-11-2020 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  £1.6bn subsidies for owning land in England to end, with funds going to improve natureWildlife, nature and the climate will benefit from the biggest shake-up in farming policy in England for 50 years, according to government plans.The £1.6bn subsidy farmers receive every year for simply owning land will be phased out by 2028, with the funds used instead to pay them to restore wild habitats, create new woodlands, boost soils and cut pesticide use. Continue reading...
  
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