Environment news

• Hammer time! Baby fish brain lights up listening to U Can't Touch This – video

  03-03-2021 23:41 via theguardian.com
  
  Australian DJ and neuroscientist Rebecca Poulsen – AKA BeXta – is studying what happens to a zebrafish larvae brains when they hear certain sounds. Then she played one MC Hammer’s 1990 hit … ‘You can see when the vocal goes ‘ohhh-oh’, specific neurons light up and you can see it pulses to the beat,’ she says. ‘To me it looks like neurons responding to different parts of the music’ Continue reading...
  
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• Bank of England given green remit to aid net zero carbon goal

  03-03-2021 21:04 via theguardian.com
  
  The cross-party Environmental Audit Committee welcomed the decision but urged Treasury to go further
  Analysis: Sunak digs in for battle against financial cost of CovidBudget 2021: key points at a glanceBudget 2021 live: Sunak to freeze income tax thresholdsThe Chancellor has changed the remit of the Bank of England’s interest rate setting monetary policy committee to include a duty to support the government’s net zero carbon ambition alongside its longstanding responsibility to keep
  
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• Budget 2021: No 'green revolution' from Sunak

  03-03-2021 18:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Green measures such as a change to the Bank of England's remit do not go far enough, critics say.
  
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• Environmental groups not convinced by Sunak's 'green growth' budget

  03-03-2021 17:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Chancellor gave few details about net-zero plans and didn’t even mention his flagship policyAnalysis: Sunak digs in for battle against financial cost of CovidBudget 2021: key points at a glanceBudget 2021 live: Sunak to freeze income tax thresholdsThe chancellor of the exchequer, Rishi Sunak, promised a “real commitment to green growth” in his budget, though environmentalists expressed concern about a lack of detail over how that might be achieved.Sunak devoted a scant two minu
  
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• Bank of England gets new green mandate to aid net zero carbon goal

  03-03-2021 17:54 via theguardian.com
  
  The cross-party Environmental Audit Committee welcomed the decision but urged Treasury to go furtherAnalysis: Sunak digs in for battle against financial cost of CovidBudget 2021: key points at a glanceBudget 2021 live: Sunak to freeze income tax thresholdsThe Bank of England has a duty to join the government’s net zero carbon ambition under a new monetary policy which places climate action at its core.Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Wednesday updated the remit of the Bank’s monetary policy
  
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• Australian scientist gets baby fish to bust a move to MC Hammer classic

  03-03-2021 17:30 via theguardian.com
  
  DJ and neuroscientist Rebecca Poulsen – aka BeXta – has studied what happens to a zebrafish’s brain when it hears U Can’t Touch ThisWhat happens inside the brain of a baby zebrafish when you play MC Hammer’s timeless 1990 hip-hop track, U Can’t Touch This, and why is this even a question?“I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the video over and over again to see if there are neurons that respond to the bass or the vocal. In my opinion, there’s
  
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• FedEx commits to carbon-neutral global operations by 2040

  03-03-2021 17:25
  
  FedEx has pledged to transition to carbon-neutral operations globally by 2040, earmarking new finance for electric vehicles, more sustainable aircraft and carbon sequestration.
  
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• Global lockdown every two years needed to meet Paris CO2 goals – study

  03-03-2021 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Equivalent falls in emissions over a decade required to keep to safe limits of global heating, experts sayCarbon dioxide emissions must fall by the equivalent of a global lockdown roughly every two years for the next decade for the world to keep within safe limits of global heating, research has shown.Lockdowns around the world led to an unprecedented fall in emissions of about 7% in 2020, or about 2.6bn tonnes of CO2, but reductions of between 1bn and 2bn tonnes are needed every year of the nex
  
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• Equivalent of Covid emissions drop needed every two years - study

  03-03-2021 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Equivalent falls in emissions over a decade required to keep to safe limits of global heating, experts sayCarbon dioxide emissions must fall by the equivalent of a global lockdown roughly every two years for the next decade for the world to keep within safe limits of global heating, research has shown.Lockdowns around the world led to an unprecedented fall in emissions of about 7% in 2020, or about 2.6bn tonnes of CO2, but reductions of between 1bn and 2bn tonnes are needed every year of the nex
  
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• Green growth or greenwashing? Business leaders react to Rishi Sunak's 2021 Budget

  03-03-2021 15:41
  
  After Chancellor Rishi Sunak opened his red Budget box to provide more detail on green bonds and net-zero innovation finance, there has been a mixed reaction from green economy leaders - as edie summarises in this article.
  
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• 'Green growth' or 'greenwashing'? Business and charity leaders react to Rishi Sunak's 2021 Budget

  03-03-2021 15:41
  After Chancellor Rishi Sunak opened his red Budget box to provide more detail on green bonds and net-zero innovation finance, there has been a mixed reaction from green economy leaders - as edie summarises in this article.
  
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• Budget 2021: Sunak announces freeports to spur low-carbon investment

  03-03-2021 14:42
  
  BREAKING: Chancellor Rishi Sunak has delivered his budget, providing more certainty around the climate impact of the National Infrastructure Bank. But he has faced criticism for failing to mention the Green Homes Grant and for freezing fuel duty.
  
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• Budget 2021: Sunak confirms Net-Zero Innovation Fund, announces freeports to spur green investment

  03-03-2021 14:35
  
  BREAKING: Rishi Sunak has delivered his Budget for 2021, confiming details of a Net-Zero Innovation Fund and providing more certainty around the climate impact of the National Infrastructure Bank. But the Chancellor has come under fire for failing to mention the Green Homes Grant and for freezing fuel duty.
  
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• 'UK first' nuclear fusion plan for Nottinghamshire power station

  03-03-2021 13:21 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A Nottinghamshire power station is put forward as a possible site for a prototype reactor.
  
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• Global oil companies have committed to 'net zero' emissions. It's a sham | Tzeporah Berman and Nathan Taft

  03-03-2021 12:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The energy industry is like a smoker who goes from one pack a day to two – but claims they’re quitting because they switched to filtered cigarettesThe United Nations campaign Race to Zero recently published a paper identifying 20 pathways to reach net zero carbon emissions. In December, the British Oil & Gas Authority published a requirement that oil and gas development be “consistent with net zero” (despite approval of new offshore permits). BP, Shell and other multi
  
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• UK will no longer use bee-harming pesticide

  03-03-2021 11:35 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The pesticide was given temporary clearance to be used earlier this year because of a virus threat.
  
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• New Citi boss unveils net-zero financed emissions vision

  03-03-2021 10:48
  
  Finance giant Citigroup's new chief executive, Jane Fraser, has unveiled a new commitment to reach net-zero financed emissions by 2050.
  
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• The climate crisis can't be solved by carbon accounting tricks | Simon Lewis

  03-03-2021 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Disaster looms if big finance is allowed to game the carbon offsetting markets to achieve ‘net zero’ emissionsAn astonishing global shift is under way: 127 countries have now stated that by mid-century their overall emissions of carbon dioxide will be zero. That includes the EU, US, and UK by 2050 – and China by 2060. Companies are enthusiastically signing up to similar “net zero” goals. Finally the international community seems to have accepted the scientific fact
  
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• ‘It's radical’: the Ugandan city built on solar, shea butter and people power

  03-03-2021 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Ojok Okello is transforming his destroyed village into a green town where social enterprises responsibly harness the shea treeThe village of Okere Mom-Kok was in ruins by the end of more than a decade of war in northern Uganda.Now, just outside Ojok Okello’s living-room door, final-year pupils at the early childhood centre are noisily breaking for recess and a market is clattering into life, as is the local craft brewery, as what has become Okere City begins a new day. Continue reading...
  
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• Pig in clover: how the world's smallest wild hog was saved from extinction

  03-03-2021 07:15 via theguardian.com
  
  The pygmy hog is still endangered but a reintroduction programme in Assam, India, has given it a greater chance of survivalThe greyish brown pygmy hog (Porcula salvania), with its sparse hair and a streamlined body that is about the size of a cat’s, is the smallest wild pig in the world, and also one of its rarest, appearing on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list as endangered.Named after the sal grasslands where they were first found, they once thrived in th
  
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• HS2 to 'rewild' 127 hectares around its 10-mile Chilterns tunnel

  03-03-2021 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Area to be seeded with 70 grass and flower species and planted with native trees to create wood pastureA “rewilding” of arable fields by HS2 will create 127 hectares (314 acres) of wood pasture, wetlands and flower-rich grassland using chalk taken from tunnelling under the Chilterns.The new wildlife haven will be founded upon all 3m tonnes of chalk that are to be excavated from the high-speed railway’s 10-mile Chilterns tunnel, with construction starting in May. Continue readin
  
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• Call of the rewild: releasing Britain's rivers to ease flooding

  03-03-2021 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Confining rivers creates valuable agricultural land but can lead to greater flood risk downstreamFor many of us across the UK it has felt like another wet winter; yet again homes have flooded and politicians are under pressure to improve flood protection. Engineering our rivers and building defences might bring reassurance, but recent research shows that doing nothing is often more effective at reducing flooding.George Heritage and Neil Entwistle from the University of Salford studied the River
  
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• Britain’s moths decline by a third in 50 years, study finds

  03-03-2021 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Drivers of decline likely to be habitat loss, intensive farming, climate change and light pollutionMoths in Britain have declined in abundance by a third over the past 50 years, according to a study.The declines of 39% in the abundance (relative representation in an ecosystem) of larger moth species over southern Britain and a 22% fall across northern Britain add to the picture of calamitous declines in flying insects in the industrialised world. Continue reading...
  
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• 'Bee-killing' pesticide now will not be used on UK sugar beet fields

  03-03-2021 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Government reversed a ban on a neonicotinoid earlier this year - but says chemical was not neededA pesticide which reduces bee populations and was to be used in England’s sugar beet fields this year will not be used after recent cold weather killed off virus-transmitting aphids.The government broke an explicit pledge earlier this year when it reversed a ban on a product containing the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam, sanctioning its emergency outdoors use this year because of the threat posed b
  
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• Country diary: male wood pigeon has one thing on his mind

  03-03-2021 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Crook, County Durham: With hopping, strutting and wide parabolic flights across the garden, this male is going to great lengths to win over a disdainful consortIf their plumage was gaudy, if they lived deep in tropical jungles, then the family life of wood pigeons would be the subject of a TV documentary. It was dawn in early February, and the cooing outside my window was a sign that breeding, not just feeding, occupied the mind of the resident male wood pigeon. Heavy snowfall soon cooled his ar
  
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• Australia confirms extinction of 13 more species, including first reptile since colonisation

  03-03-2021 06:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Christmas Island forest skink and 12 mammals on list, which also includes the desert bettong, broad-cheeked hopping mouse and Nullarbor barred bandicootThe Australian government has officially acknowledged the extinction of 13 endemic species, including 12 mammals and the first reptile known to have been lost since European colonisation.The addition of the dozen mammal species confirms Australia’s unenviable position as the world’s capital for mammal extinction, lifting the total num
  
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• Mars: Nasa's Perseverance rover sends stunning images

  03-03-2021 01:17 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Amazing images as Nasa's Perseverance rover lands on Mars and seeks signs of past microbial life.
  
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• DR Congo's Virunga National Park: The deadly job of protecting gorillas

  03-03-2021 01:14 via bbc.co.uk
  
  In the past year, more than 20 rangers have been killed defending Africa's oldest national park.
  
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• The 'LitterCam' that's watching you

  03-03-2021 01:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  AI software can now match footage of motorists throwing rubbish with their car's number plate and issue an automatic fine .
  
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• Are poison-packed drones the answer to eastern Australia's mouse plague?

  03-03-2021 00:26 via theguardian.com
  
  A ‘low-level’ but lasting plague is costing farmers money in lost grain across Queensland, NSW and VictoriaA Queensland farmer has been given approval to fly drones in New South Wales that drop poisoned bait to deal with a worsening mice plague.The end of the long-running drought has been good for farmers, but brought with it mice that feed on grain spilled and left behind during harvesting. Continue reading...
  
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