Environment news

• Bolivia investigates death of 35 condors

  08-02-2021 17:53 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The birds were found dead in southern Bolivia and there are fears they may have died from poisoning.
  
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• UN chief urges leaders to start Cop26 climate negotiations online

  08-02-2021 16:57 via theguardian.com
  
  António Guterres says Covid pandemic must not halt preparatory work for key summit in Glasgow Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageGovernments must step up their efforts ahead of vital climate talks this year by agreeing to negotiate formally online for the first time, the UN secretary general has said.António Guterres told a meeting of governments and officials on Monday that formal negotiations for the Cop26 summit must be begun virtually owing to the
  
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• How Sweden is taking back parking spaces to improve urban living

  08-02-2021 15:48 via theguardian.com
  
  An experiment with the ‘one-minute city’ gives priority to pedestrians and cyclistsIt was a couple of parking spaces a few days ago. But now the area outside Malin Henriksson Talcoth’s gourmet sausage shop in Gothenburg has a bench, a picnic table and racks for cycles and e-scooters. It also has people talking, eating and enjoying themselves, despite subzero temperatures.The workmen had arrived the previous week and built the wooden unit with benches facing, importantly, toward
  
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• Fast fashion: Polyester production has doubled since 2000, with huge climate implications

  08-02-2021 13:05
  
  The production of fossil-based synthetic textiles has doubled globally within 20 years, as fast fashion production and consumption has increased. According to a new report, this will have sizeable implications for climate change.
  
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• Amazon teams up with Shell and Eneco for major offshore wind project

  08-02-2021 12:18
  
  Amazon has announced plans to co-invest, alongside a wind energy venture including Shell and Eneco, in an offshore wind project in the Netherlands.
  
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• 'Spooning poo': how five Eiffel Towers' worth of sea cucumber poo helps sustain a Queensland reef

  08-02-2021 12:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Researchers use drones to map 30,000 sq metres of Heron Island at high resolution so sea cucumbers can be counted“In the wee hours of the morning … we weren’t too excited to be spooning poo,” reef ecologist Dr Vincent Raulot says.But that’s exactly what he and a team of researchers did to calculate out how much poop was excreted by an estimated 3 million sea cucumbers on the 20 sq km Heron Island coral reef in Queensland. Continue reading...
  
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• 'Spooning poo': how five Eiffel Towers' worth of sea cucumber poo help sustain a Queensland reef

  08-02-2021 12:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Researchers use drones to map 30,000 sq metres of Heron Island at high resolution so sea cucumbers can be counted“In the wee hours of the morning … we weren’t too excited to be spooning poo,” reef ecologist Dr Vincent Raulot says.But that’s exactly what he and a team of researchers did to calculate out how much poop was excreted by an estimated 3 million sea cucumbers on the 20 sq km Heron Island coral reef in Queensland. Continue reading...
  
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• Green Homes Grant: Government admits that meeting 600,000 homes target could take a decade

  08-02-2021 11:17
  
  When the Government launched its Green Homes Grant last year, it aimed to improve energy efficiency for 600,000 homes. But a BEIS minister has admitted that just 20,000 vouchers have been issued to date.
  
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• MPs criticise government home insulation programme

  08-02-2021 11:13 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Green Homes Grant system is overwhelmed by calls, the Environmental Audit Committee says.
  
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• Green pensions: Scottish Widows charts pathway to net-zero financed emissions

  08-02-2021 10:31
  
  Pensions and insurance giant Scottish Widows, which manages funds totalling £170bn, has committed to halving financed emissions by 2030 on the pathway to net-zero.
  
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• A 'uniquely American whale': new species discovered off southern US coast

  08-02-2021 09:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Rice’s whales already considered endangered by the US with a population estimated at fewer than 100Genetic analysis and a close examination of the skulls from a group of baleen whales in the north-eastern Gulf of Mexico have revealed that they are a new species.“I was surprised that there could be an unrecognized species of whale out there, especially in our backyard,” says Lynsey Wilcox, a geneticist with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who helped uncove
  
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• 'Spooning poo': how five Eiffel Towers' worth of sea cucumber poo could save a Queensland reef

  08-02-2021 08:52 via theguardian.com
  
  Researchers use drones to map 30,000 sq metres of Heron Island at high resolution so sea cucumbers can be counted“In the wee hours of the morning … we weren’t too excited to be spooning poo,” reef ecologist Dr Vincent Raulot says.But that’s exactly what he and his team did to calculate out how much poop was excreted by an estimated 3 million sea cucumbers on the 20 sq km Heron Island coral reef in Queensland. Continue reading...
  
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• Balloon test flight plan under fire over solar geoengineering fears

  08-02-2021 07:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Swedish environmental groups warn test flight could be first step towards the adoption of a potentially “dangerous, unpredictable, and unmanageable” technologyA proposed scientific balloon flight in northern Sweden has attracted opposition from environmental groups over fears it could lead to the use of solar geoengineering to cool the Earth and combat the climate crisis by mimicking the effect of a large volcanic eruption.In June, a team of Harvard scientists is planning to launch a
  
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• Europe is planning a fancy new climate club and Australia WILL NOT BE INVITED! | First Dog on the Moon

  08-02-2021 07:16 via theguardian.com
  
  Sorry no weirdly denialist LOSERS allowedSign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are publishedGet all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints Continue reading...
  
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• Powering up: UK hills could be used as energy 'batteries'

  08-02-2021 07:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Engineers explore using gentle slopes rather than steep dams or mountains to store electricityHundreds of hills across the UK could be transformed into renewable energy “batteries” through a pioneering hydropower system embedded underground.A team of engineers have developed a system that adapts one of the oldest forms of energy storage, hydropower, to store and release electricity from gentle slopes rather than requiring steep dam walls and mountains. Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: green shoots amid the retreating snow

  08-02-2021 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Langley, Northumberland: The track with its parallel walls seems to pull me along as it swoops towards the land belowI’ve often driven past this gated lane, or paused to photograph the cotton grass that covers the heather moorland with snow in June. Now, though, the snow is real, caught in the dyke-backs and the sunless hollows. Today I’ve stopped here for the first time on the search for new local places to walk.A wide lane, bounded by stone walls on either side, it descends in undu
  
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• Australia's electric vehicle policy steers us to a future based on fossil fuels. It needs to be dumped | Simon Holmes à Court

  08-02-2021 02:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Australia is way behind on vehicle electrification, but there are solutions to help us catch upAngus Taylor, the minister for emissions reduction, isn’t a stranger to dodgy numbers – just ask Clover Moore – and his latest work, the Future Fuels Strategy, demonstrates his disdain for actually lowering emissions.The strategy paper misleadingly claims that hybrid vehicles are cleaner than electric vehicles by looking at just the years 2021-25. EVs bought now will enjoy cleaner pow
  
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• The myth and reality of the super soldier

  08-02-2021 01:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  China has been accused of trying to create enhanced soldiers - but is this even possible?
  
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