Environment news

• Cumbria coal mine: What is the controversy about?

  11-02-2021 19:28 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Cumbrian councillors are reviewing their support for a controversial coal mine near Whitehaven.
  
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• UK government's own climate laws may halt roadbuilding plans

  11-02-2021 19:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Analysis: campaigners argue that, as with Heathrow, climate obligations should make £27bn scheme unviable£27bn roads plan in doubt after Shapps overrode official adviceThe first sign that the government was in serious trouble over the long-mooted expansion of Heathrow airport came in a little-noticed letter from the Department for Transport in May 2019. In it, a government official acknowledged for the first time that the UK’s obligations under the Paris agreement, and its carb
  
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• Weather: 'Fantastic' ice formations line Welsh roadsides

  11-02-2021 18:42 via bbc.co.uk
  
  They are thought to be formed by cars driving though puddles and spraying trees in icy conditions.
  
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• Europa Clipper: Nasa's ocean world mission gets launch date

  11-02-2021 18:09 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A mission to study a moon that could be home to extra-terrestrial life has been given a launch date.
  
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• Rare Nasa photos reveal Amazon 'gold rivers'

  11-02-2021 18:05 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The satellite images reveal miles of unregistered gold mining in Peru's Amazon rainforest, Nasa says.
  
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• Meaty meals and play stop cats killing wildlife, study finds

  11-02-2021 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Millions of pet cats are estimated to kill billions of animals a year but grain-free food can change cat behaviourFeeding pet cats meaty food and playing with them to simulate hunting stops them killing wildlife, according to a study.Eating grain-free food led to the cats depositing a third fewer mouse and bird corpses on doorsteps, while just five to 10 minutes of play with a toy mouse cut the killing by a quarter. Continue reading...
  
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• Kwasi Kwarteng: Recent policy decisions send mixed messages on UK climate action

  11-02-2021 16:17
  
  BEIS Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has admitted that the UK needs a stronger and more joined-up policy framework to deliver its net-zero target and claimed that decisions such as not blocking a new coal mine in Cumbria "send mixed messages".
  
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• Kwasi Kwarteng admits that UK's recent policy decisions 'send mixed messages' on climate action ahead of COP26

  11-02-2021 16:17
  
  BEIS Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has admitted that the UK needs a stronger and more joined-up policy framework to deliver its net-zero target and claimed that decisions such as not blocking a new coal mine in Cumbria "send mixed messages".
  
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• HP unveils sustainability 'changemaker' and 'catalyst' schemes

  11-02-2021 15:06
  
  Tech giant HP has launched a new scheme offering industry partners the resources and traning they need to accelerate sustainability progress, in the same week that Octopus Energy unveiled what it claims is the world's first energy technology research organisation.
  
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• HP unveils sustainability 'changemaker' and 'catalyst' schemes as Octopus energy launches net-zero research hub

  11-02-2021 15:01
  
  Tech giant HP has launched a new scheme offering industry partners the resources and traning they need to accelerate Sustainability progress, in the same week that Octopus Energy unveiled what it claims is the world's first energy technology research organisation.
  
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• HS2: Next phase of controversial rail network gets green light

  11-02-2021 14:36 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Legislation needed to clear the next stage of the controversial project has passed through Parliament.
  
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• 'Be more ambitious': MPs press Government to beef up air quality policies before lockdown lifts

  11-02-2021 14:12
  
  The UK Government should adopt the World Health Organisation's (WHO) guidelines on air pollution and step up funding and communications to help businesses and communities deliver on stricter goals to reduce particulates.
  
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• Major renewable hydrogen demo project comes online at Welsh cement plant

  11-02-2021 13:23
  
  Building materials giant Hanson UK has installed a renewable hydrogen generation unit at one of its facilities near Swansea, Wales, to test the potential of replacing natural gas with lower-carbon alternatives.
  
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• Shell reaches peak oil and emissions as it plots net-zero pathway

  11-02-2021 12:39
  
  Shell has published an updated business strategy in light of the Covid-19 pandemic and its pledge to reach net-zero emissions, which confirms that 2019 will be its peak in terms of oil production.
  
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• Shell confirms that its oil production and emissions have peaked as it plots net-zero pathway

  11-02-2021 12:39
  
  Shell has published an updated business strategy in light of the Covid-19 pandemic and its pledge to reach net-zero emissions, which confirms that 2019 will be its peak in terms of oil production.
  
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• California's rainfall is at historic lows. That spells trouble for wildfires and farms

  11-02-2021 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Precipitation fills reservoirs, limits fire danger and feeds important crops. But the state has seen only 30% to 70% of what it would expectThere’s a race on in California, and each day matters: the precipitation during winter that fuels the snowpack in the Sierra Nevadas and fills groundwater supplies has been slow to start, and faltering at best.Northern California remains stuck in one of the worst two-year rainfall deficits seen since the 1849 Gold Rush, increasing the risk of water res
  
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• Coca-Cola to trial 2,000 paper-based drinks bottles in Europe

  11-02-2021 10:50
  
  The Coca-Cola Company - one of the biggest plastic producers in the food and beverage space - has confirmed plans to trial 2,000 paper-based bottles this year, to test the material's viability as an alternative to single-use plastics.
  
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• 'Historic step' as European Parliament approves green recovery fund

  11-02-2021 10:23
  
  Lawmakers in the European Parliament have voted to pass the EU's €672.5bn recovery and resilience facility, unlocking unprecedented funding aimed at helping Europe "build back better" after the COVID-19 crisis.
  
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• 'The sewage is in plain sight': the majority-Black town fighting a sanitation crisis

  11-02-2021 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Black residents in Centreville, Illinois, say officials ignored their pleas for help for years. Now they’re quarantined in toxic conditionsHave you faced sanitation issues? We want to hear from youSharon Smith has to plunge her toilet to get it to flush. On rainy days, wastewater spills into her yard from nearby drainage ditches. Twice in the last year her house has flooded, leaving behind the sickening smell of sewage, she said.Her carpets are ruined, the floorboards are buckling, the bat
  
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• 'If white people were still here, this wouldn’t happen': the majority-Black town flooded with sewage

  11-02-2021 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Black residents in Centreville, Illinois, say officials ignored their pleas for help for years. Now they’re quarantined in toxic conditionsHave you faced sanitation issues? We want to hear from youSharon Smith has to plunge her toilet to get it to flush. On rainy days, wastewater spills into her yard from nearby drainage ditches. Twice in the last year her house has flooded, leaving behind the sickening smell of sewage, she said.Her carpets are ruined, the floorboards are buckling, the bat
  
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• Activist Catherine Flowers: the poor living amid sewage is 'the final monument of the Confederacy'

  11-02-2021 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  In rural Alabama where Martin Luther King marched for civil rights, Flowers has waged a long fight for environmental justiceHave you faced sanitation issues? We want to hear from youCatherine Flowers stumbled upon the defining cause of her life by accident. She was working as an economic consultant for Lowndes county, the historic African American community through which the Selma to Montgomery marchers passed in 1965, lighting a flame under the civil rights movement. Continue reading...
  
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• 'Too white' green sector launches work scheme to be more diverse

  11-02-2021 08:01 via theguardian.com
  
  UK programme will offer 118 young people from ethnic minority backgrounds environment rolesA group of leading environmental organisations are taking part in an employment initiative to make the green movement more diverse.Friends of the Earth, Client Earth, the RSPB and others will take part in a programme that aims to open up the environmental sector to young people from ethnic minority backgrounds. Continue reading...
  
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• Britain's endangered willow tit needs vast area to thrive, research finds

  11-02-2021 08:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Under 3,000 pairs survive, which each require 7 ha to prosper, with ex-industrial sites ideal for breedingThe willow tit, one of Britain’s smallest and most endangered birds, requires a surprisingly large area of wild land to thrive, according to research.Less than 3,000 pairs of the bird survive, mainly on brownfield sites in former coal mining areas, making it the fastest declining resident species, with numbers plummeting by 94% since 1970. Continue reading...
  
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• Undercover footage at French pig farm shows 'abusive' conditions

  11-02-2021 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The unit, which supplies the Herta brand, had been cleared by French state vets and claimed to be addressing concernsFrench veterinary officials have been accused of publishing “falsely reassuring” inspection findings after undercover footage at a farm appeared to show pigs in conditions that continued to breach regulations following allegations of abuse in December.The farm is a supplier for the Herta brand of frankfurter, part-owned by Nestlé, which is sold by most major UK
  
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• Tough air pollution targets needed to cut health inequalities, say MPs

  11-02-2021 07:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Cross-party committee says deprived groups contribute least but suffer most from dirty airThe government must set tough new air pollution targets to reduce the stark health inequalities suffered by disadvantaged communities, a cross-party committee of MPs has said.Dirty air causes up to 64,000 early deaths a year in the UK, according to their report, and disproportionately harms those living in deprived areas and those from minority ethnic communities. The fact that these groups contribute the l
  
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• Salmon farming harming marine life and costing billions in damage

  11-02-2021 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Report says pollution, parasites and fish mortality rates cost an estimated $50bn globally from 2013 to 2019Salmon farming is wreaking ruin on marine ecosystems, through pollution, parasites and high fish mortality rates which are causing billions of pounds a year in damage, a new assessment of the global salmon farming industry has found.Taken together, these costs amounted to about $50bn globally from 2013 to 2019, according to a report published on Thursday. Continue reading...
  
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• Ozone layer 'rescued' from CFC damage

  11-02-2021 04:33 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A steady decline in the levels of ozone-harming CFCs in the atmosphere has resumed, scientists say.
  
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• Toxic air puts six million at risk of lung damage

  11-02-2021 02:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Six million people aged over 65 in England are at high risk of lung damage, a new report says.
  
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• Pablo Escobar: Why scientists want to kill Colombia's hippos

  11-02-2021 01:22 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Illegally brought to Colombia by drug baron Pablo Escobar, the animals have become a major headache.
  
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