Environment news

• Iceland volcano: Lava-spewing Fagradalsfjall 'subsiding'

  20-03-2021 21:37 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The eruption was the first in the area for about 800 years and followed thousands of earthquakes.
  
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• ‘Creating something bigger’: how one couple used their family legacy to save a rare Tasmanian reserve

  20-03-2021 20:00
  
  Bruce and Ann McGregor used a bequest of $1.6m from Bruce’s late father to buy Prosser River Reserve, protecting a diverse natural refugeOn a still morning on a hill at the back of Prosser River Reserve you can watch the mist settle on undisturbed native forest in the valley below while taking in a backdrop of mountains and the Tasman Sea.You can listen as the gums overhead broadcast 20 varieties of birdsong – and, if you’re skilled or lucky, maybe catch sight of a rare bird in
  
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• ‘Our biggest challenge? Lack of imagination’: the scientists turning the desert green

  20-03-2021 13:00
  
  In China, scientists have turned vast swathes of arid land into a lush oasis. Now a team of maverick engineers want to do the same to the SinaiFlying into Egypt in early February to make the most important presentation of his life, Ties van der Hoeven prepared by listening to the podcast 13 Minutes To The Moon – the story of how Nasa accomplished the lunar landings. The mission he was discussing with the Egyptian government was more earthbound in nature, but every bit as ambitious. It coul
  
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• 'Climate facts are back': EPA brings science back to website after Trump purge

  20-03-2021 13:00
  
  Move reverses former president’s order to drop all references to the climate emergency on government websitesCanceled four years ago by a president who considered global warming a hoax, climate crisis information has returned to the website of the US government’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of Joe Biden’s promise to “bring science back”. Continue reading...
  
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• Bill Nelson: Former astronaut and senator nominated as Nasa chief

  20-03-2021 12:41 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Bill Nelson, 78, is a former astronaut and senator with a long history of working on space issues.
  
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• Could you spot the fish fake? Test your seafood fraud detective skills in our quiz

  20-03-2021 11:40
  
  A Guardian analysis this week exposed the vast scale of fish mislabelling. Can you name these repeat offenders?This is often sold as red snapper. What is it really?TroutMahi mahiTilapiaSwordfishYou order delicious grouper but what is this common substitute?CatfishGiant tiger prawnCodSea bass"White tuna" is frequently on the menu, yet does not actually exist. What is this fish that's used as a stand-in?GuppyMonkfishSpiny dogfishButterfishThis fish is often slipped on to plates as the prized bluef
  
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• Pollution takes centre stage for Louisiana congressional hopefuls

  20-03-2021 11:00
  
  Candidates to succeed Cedric Richmond in a solidly Democratic seat in Saturday’s special election have been obliged to address the toxic effects of the chemical industry in Cancer AlleyIn Ascension parish at a jambalaya cookout, bathed in the afternoon sun, a politician made promises rarely heard in this heavily polluted region of south Louisiana, known colloquially as Cancer Alley.Karen Carter Peterson, a state senator and one of three frontrunners to become the next congressional represe
  
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• There's a simple way to make our cities greener – without a wrecking ball | Phineas Harper

  20-03-2021 10:00
  
  Architecture’s top prize has been awarded to a design duo who could show Britain how to bring its emissions under controlThis week the highest honour in the architecture world was awarded to a pair of Parisian designers better known for revitalising existing buildings than creating new ones. The Pritzker prize, which includes a $100,000 jackpot, went to Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, whose most impressive projects – the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, upgrading three social housing
  
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• ‘A half-assed apocalypse’: writing a book on the end of the world didn’t prepare me for Covid

  20-03-2021 10:00
  
  Where are the bunkers? Why aren’t people eating each other? And who warned us about the boredom? If you wanted to know about the end of the world, you would think I’d be the guy to talk to. I wrote a whole book on the topic, after all: a book about the anxiety of apocalypse, and the various ways people imagine and prepare for it. I spent the better part of three years thinking, and writing, about all of this: about billionaire bunkers in New Zealand, apocalyptic survival communities
  
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• Leaf blowers and beating branches: the fight to stop India’s forests fires

  20-03-2021 08:15
  
  Thousands of blazes in Similipal national park threaten indigenous peoples and wildlife such as tigers, elephants and orchidsAs the flames move fast, snaking quickly upwards in the treacherous terrain of Similipal national park and turning everything on the ground to smoky ash, the women are in hot pursuit. Throwing their dupattas over their shoulders, sweat dripping from their foreheads, they vigorously whack the flames with leafy branches to extinguish them. Nearby, a forest department officia
  
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• Leaf blowers and beating branches: the fight to stop India’s forest fires

  20-03-2021 08:15
  
  Thousands of blazes in Similipal national park threaten indigenous peoples and wildlife such as tigers, elephants and orchidsAs the flames move fast, snaking quickly upwards in the treacherous terrain of Similipal national park and turning everything on the ground to smoky ash, the women are in hot pursuit. Throwing their dupattas over their shoulders, sweat dripping from their foreheads, they vigorously whack the flames with leafy branches to extinguish them. Nearby, a forest department officia
  
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• Summers could last for half the year by 2100

  20-03-2021 07:00
  
  Heatwaves and wildfires will be more likely and winter will be squeezed to just 31 daysOur summers are already about 20% longer than they used to be, and if the climate crisis continues unabated then northern hemisphere summers could cover nearly half of the year by 2100, making them more than twice as long as they were in the 1950s. And unlike their counterparts of the 1950s, future summers will be more extreme, with heatwaves and wildfires more likely.Researchers used historical climate data t
  
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• Country diary: thatched roofs’ purple secret is revealed

  20-03-2021 06:30
  
  Paignton harbour, Devon: Thatch is a welcoming home for many fungi, as it provides the damp conditions they thrive inI had seen it so often I almost didn’t pause to look. I was re-ridging a thatched house on Paignton seafront. Below me and to my right was the old stone-built harbour; to my left, an arc of red sand beach backed by the Torbay arcades and beach huts as bright as boiled sweets. It seemed an unlikely place to find a rare woodland species.But as I pulled off the thin lengths of
  
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• Skylab: The myth of the mutiny in space

  20-03-2021 01:24 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Did a crew sent to the US Skylab space station go on strike? The last surviving member says it's a myth that won't die.
  
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