Environment news

• 'Not enough' climate ambition shown by leaders

  12-12-2020 21:15 via bbc.co.uk
  
  UK minister Alok Sharma says world leaders are failing to show the necessary level of ambition.
  
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• The end of coal? Why investors aren't buying the myth of the industry's 'renaissance'

  12-12-2020 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  At the world’s biggest coal export port in Newcastle, no China-bound ships are waiting or scheduled to load before ChristmasThree years ago, pictures of bulk carriers queued off the coast of Mackay in central Queensland were framed as evidence of a “renaissance” in the coal industry.There were more than 70 coal ships in the offshore gridlock in December 2017. This year there are just 12 waiting – equalling a record low mark set at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. C
  
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• UN chief António Guterres urges countries to declare climate emergencies – video

  12-12-2020 17:31 via theguardian.com
  
  Every country should declare a state of climate emergency until the world has reached net zero carbon emissions, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, told a virtual summit of world leaders on Saturday.‘Can anybody still deny that we are facing a dramatic emergency?’ Guterres asked, adding countries had a responsibility to young people to reduce and eliminate high-carbon activities after borrowing trillions to cushion the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemicUN sec
  
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• 'Let's do it together': Boris Johnson says climate protection will create jobs – video

  12-12-2020 16:21 via theguardian.com
  
  Boris Johnson has said the UK is committed to reducing carbon emissions by 68% on 1990 levels, and encouraged countries around the world to work together on the climate emergency during the UN's climate ambition summit, which is being held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic. The prime minister said his motivation was to save the environment and create new jobs UK to stop funding overseas fossil fuel projects Continue reading...
  
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• Scientists cheered by bowhead whale recovery despite Arctic warming

  12-12-2020 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Biologists hail ‘one of the great conservation successes’ but species’ fate uncertain as warming rapidly transforms ArcticIn some rare good news from the top of the world, bowhead whale populations have rebounded and are nearing pre-commercial whaling numbers in US waters. Related: US plans to protect thousands of miles of coral reefs in Pacific and CaribbeanContinue reading...
  
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• Talk is cheap when it comes to climate action. Now the government must deliver | Matthew Pennycook

  12-12-2020 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Despite Boris Johnson’s pledges, the UK is way off course on its path to zero emissions. It’s Labour’s job to force the issue• Matthew Pennycook is shadow minister for climate changeThe coronavirus pandemic and the jobs crisis it has precipitated are rightly consuming our immediate attention. Meanwhile, the climate and environment emergency has not gone away. These intersecting crises demand urgent and coordinated action.When it comes to averting catastrophic global heatin
  
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• In a nutshell: how the macadamia became a 'vulnerable' species

  12-12-2020 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Australia’s nut trees have been added to the IUCN’s red list of threatened species as numbers in the wild dwindleWhen Ian McConachie was growing up in postwar Queensland, his aunt had macadamia nut trees in her back yard. She told him that one day the trees would be famous. More than 70 years later she has been proved right – the Australian nut is a delicacy prized in kitchens around the world.But this week the macadamia came to the world’s attention for another reason: M
  
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• Country diary: ice that's hair today, but gone in an instant

  12-12-2020 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Forest of Ae, Dumfries and Galloway: Hair ice fits its name perfectly, it is coiffed and has a parting, but as morning sunlight creeps across the river it vanishesMist is rising from the Water of Ae, turning gold as the dawn light slips across the valley through the forest of birch and pine. Fieldfares clatter down the path at our presence and a goldcrest calls sibilantly through the still air. Under the mist, a dipper stands up to its shins in the flow of clear water, bobbing with the ripples r
  
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• Climate change: UK to end aid for fossil fuel projects abroad

  12-12-2020 01:51 via bbc.co.uk
  
  As the UK hosts a key climate summit, the government announces an end to funding for overseas oil and gas.
  
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• Space tourism: Virgin space plane set for first crewed flight

  12-12-2020 01:50 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic embarks on the first crewed flight of its rocket-powered tourist plane.
  
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• Aztec skull tower: Archaeologists unearth new sections in Mexico City

  12-12-2020 01:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A further 119 skulls of men, women and children are found near a famous Aztec temple in Mexico City.
  
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