Environment news

• Climate change: Kerry urges top polluters to cut emissions now

  08-03-2021 18:31 via bbc.co.uk
  
  US climate envoy praises UK and urges action from China and India following talks with Boris Johnson.
  
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• Keep your head: the self-decapitating sea slugs that regrow their bodies – hearts and all

  08-03-2021 17:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The disembodied head of the sacoglossan sea slug feasts on algae while its old body decomposes, and a new one grows
  If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, then it’s unlikely that you are a sacoglossan sea slug (apologies to Rudyard Kipling).Scientists in Japan have discovered that this species of sea slug can decapitate itself and then regrow an entirely new body, complete with a beating heart and other vital organs. Continue reading...
  
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• Daddy longlegs: there is one piece of information every child will know | Helen Sullivan

  08-03-2021 17:30 via theguardian.com
  
  There is only one daddy longlegs – and it is looking at you right now from the corner you forgot to dust
  The daddy longlegs spider looks as though it was drawn very quickly on a sheet of paper by the hand of God (the hand of God is the MC Escher drawing of the hands drawing themselves) and then – perhaps after that sheet of paper was photocopied a few billion times, warming each spider up a bit – sprang off the page and into at least two corners in every home in Europe, Africa,
  
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• Land could be worth more left to nature than when farmed, study finds

  08-03-2021 17:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Nature-rich sites such as woods and wetlands more valuable because of the ‘ecosystem services’ they provideThe economic benefits of protecting nature-rich sites such as wetlands and woodlands outweigh the profit that could be made from using the land for resource extraction, according to the largest study yet to look at the value of protecting nature at specific locations.Scientists analysed 24 sites in six continents and found the asset returns of “ecosystem services” su
  
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• Global heating pushes tropical regions towards limits of human livability

  08-03-2021 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Rising heat and humidity threatening to plunge much of the world’s population into potentially lethal conditions, study findsThe climate crisis is pushing the planet’s tropical regions towards the limits of human livability, with rising heat and humidity threatening to plunge much of the world’s population into potentially lethal conditions, new research has found.Should governments fail to curb global heating to 1.5C above the pre-industrial era, areas in the tropical band tha
  
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• Instagram photos help Facebook AI 'teach itself'

  08-03-2021 16:42 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The photos were used to help a Facebook algorithm learn to recognise images without supervision.
  
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• #SustyTalk​: Spotlight on the World Cement Association's gender focus network

  08-03-2021 16:13
  
  To mark International Women's Day 2021, edie's latest #SustyTalk interview is with the WCA's communications and policy coordinator Manon Burbidge.
  
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• Morrisons to source exclusively from net-zero British farms by 2030

  08-03-2021 15:44
  
  Morrisons has revealed an ambition to become the first UK supermarket to use only farms certified as net-zero when sourcing products and ingredients from British suppliers.
  
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• Anthesis targets three gigatons of carbon mitigation and removal by 2030

  08-03-2021 13:52
  
  Impact investor and consulting firm Anthesis is aiming to support projects that collectively avoid, reduce and remove three billion tonnes (three gigatons) of carbon by the end of the decade.
  
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• Plans unveiled for green hydrogen hub in the Scottish Highlands

  08-03-2021 13:07
  
  The Port of Cromarty Firth and ScottishPower are among a consortium of businesses pushing for the development of green hydrogen hub in the Highlands, powered by offshore wind.
  
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• Microsoft and Chevron partner on bioenergy and carbon capture project

  08-03-2021 11:24
  
  Oil and gas major Chevron is collaborating with Schlumberger's New Energy arm and Microsoft to develop a major bioenergy plant with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) in California.
  
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• Avid Black hiker hopes to ‘break down stereotypes’ with 1,200-mile trek

  08-03-2021 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Emily Ford took thousands of online fans on a 10-week journey, helping shift narrative about who belongs in outdoor spaces Trekking across 1,200-miles of Wisconsin forests and prairies carrying a 65lb pack in temperatures as low as -37Fwas initially meant as a passion trip for Emily Ford, during her off season as a professional gardener.The 28-year-old ended up taking along thousands of online fans on her journey across the Ice Age national scenic trail, helping to further shift the narrative ab
  
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• Daimler prices €1bn green bond to help finance EV transition

  08-03-2021 10:54
  
  Mercedes-Benz's parent company Daimler has priced its second major green bond at €1.02bn, with funds set to be spent on delivering its climate and electric vehicle (EV) targets.
  
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• Shining through: Dutch artist paints farming in a new light to boost crops

  08-03-2021 08:30 via theguardian.com
  
  With the help of botanists, Daan Roosegaarde has created a ‘light recipe’ for a field of leeks to help the plants grow betterBy day, the field of leeks looks like any other. But, as the sun sets, blue and red light, mixed with invisible ultraviolet (UV) radiation, transforms the scene into a multicoloured landscape.This LED light show is not just for effect. For a couple of hours every evening the lights are shone across the 20,000sq metre field in Lelystad in the Netherlands in a bi
  
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• Somerset starlings stop man's car in 'impressive' display

  08-03-2021 07:41 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Ecologist Jamie Kingscott took a photograph of thousands of starlings as they surrounded his car.
  
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• Hopes, dreams and fears: the world of teenage girls through their diaries

  08-03-2021 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  To mark International Women’s Day, explore beyond the stereotypes with Masuma Ahuja’s book Girlhood, a collection of diary entries from girls around the worldMasuma Ahuja was tired of seeing the same stories told about teenage girls. They were either victimised or sexualised, even if an “exceptional girl” such as Greta Thunberg or Malala Yousafzai was occasionally held up as a role model for fighting back.“We have very little understanding of the day-to-day life of
  
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• Country diary: hare today, and tomorrow

  08-03-2021 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Allendale, Northumberland: Soon these ‘mad’ hares will be less wary as their mating instincts take over. Then the males will chase the females full pelt through these upland fieldsWe saw their tracks in the February snow, sensing energy in the mass of overlaying prints. Swirling, twisting and doubling back, they were evidence that brown hares, Lepus europaeus, had been having some wild party. Now, with the snow gone, I have to rely on sightings to know what they are up to, but brown
  
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• School for female shepherds aims to restore balance in Spain's countryside

  08-03-2021 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  As more women leave rural areas for cities, course forms part of drive to revive villagesThe rugged pathways crisscross Spain, sprawling across an estimated 1% of its territory. Etched into the land over centuries, the country’s livestock roads have long been the domain of solitary men leading their flocks to lush pastures.Now a new initiative is looking to change this with the launch of the country’s first shepherding school for women. The aim of the School for Shepherdesses of the
  
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• London Zoo: Second Easter in lockdown looms

  08-03-2021 01:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  London Zoo staff explain how they - and the animals - have coped in their most difficult year.
  
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• Could lab-grown meat help tackle climate change?

  08-03-2021 01:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Last year Singapore approved the sale of 'chicken' grown in a lab. What is it exactly - and could it be better for the planet?
  
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