Environment news

• Townsville’s ‘road to Paris’ moment: the slow greening of an Adani stronghold

  16-04-2021 22:00 via theguardian.com
  
  After years of a ‘coal-first’ mentality, the Queensland town is starting to see a future for itself as a green-energy powerhouse“Adani was about the here and now for the community,” says Townsville’s mayor, Jenny Hill, reflecting on a decade spent championing the thermal coal project as a way to reduce the city’s high unemployment rate.“There were no jobs. There was no interest in manufacturing. It was important to give the community hope for the future.
  
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• The race for rare earth minerals: can Australia fuel the electric vehicle revolution?

  16-04-2021 22:00 via theguardian.com
  
  China dominates supply of the elusive metals, which are vital to modern technology, but finding new sources is becoming a global priorityThere are an estimated 1.4bn cars on the world’s roads today. Around 78m new cars are sold every year. To head off the worst effects of climate change, every single one will need to go electric eventually.Whether it rolls off a production line in Fremont, California, or comes together in a vast megafactory in Qinghai, China, a colossal amount of human eff
  
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• Net-Zero Business podcast: Inside the UK's low-carbon heat transition

  16-04-2021 16:35
  
  In response to the accelerated pace at which corporates are examining and setting net-zero targets to help alleviate the climate crisis, edie's monthly Net-Zero Business podcast was created. Up next, we talk low-carbon heat with Centrica Business Solutions and the Heat Pump Federation.
  
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• Facebook says it has reached net zero emissions

  16-04-2021 16:35 via theguardian.com
  
  Emissions cut by 94% in three years, and company is aiming for net zero across its supply chain by 2030Facebook has reached net zero emissions, the company has announced, paving the way for it to achieve its wider target of net zero emissions across its entire supply chain by 2030.The social network said it had reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 94% over the past three years, and its operations were now supported by 100% renewable energy. Continue reading...
  
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• M&S faces backlash over plan to release 30m honeybees

  16-04-2021 16:15 via theguardian.com
  
  High street chain’s farm project could put pressure on wild pollinators, warn conservationistsAn attempt by Marks & Spencer to “do good for the environment” by releasing 30 million honeybees into the British countryside has backfired, with conservationists warning the initiative could damage ecosystems and deprive wild pollinators of valuable food sources.The UK retailer has placed up to 1,000 beehives on 25 farms to produce single-estate honey for customers as part of its
  
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• Amazon installs more than 800 EV chargers at UK sites

  16-04-2021 15:02
  
  Amazon has confirmed that more than 800 electric vehicle (EV) charging points have been installed across its UK sites with "hundreds more" scheduled, as part of an ongoing partnership with Suffolk-based EO Charging.
  
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• Conservation legend Roy Dennis: ‘We’re facing an ecological crisis, but it’s exciting too’

  16-04-2021 13:38 via theguardian.com
  
  Eighty-year-old Dennis has devoted his life to returning eagles, osprey, red kites and red squirrels to Britain. But, he says, there is still plenty to do. And he is thrilled by the can-do attitude he gets from young people todayAs he strolls beside Loch Garten in his fleece, binoculars around his neck, Roy Dennis looks every inch the spry, bird-loving grandad that he is. With his soft Hampshire burr and genial demeanour, it seems like he wouldn’t say boo to a goose. First impressions are
  
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• Cop26 preparations to intensify after compromise on virtual talks

  16-04-2021 13:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Governments to hold three-week virtual meeting next month before climate summit in November Preparations for vital UN climate talks to take place this year in Glasgow are set to intensify next month, after nations compromised over how to conduct virtual negotiations ahead of the summit.The climate talks, called Cop26, are set for November after being postponed for a year owing to the coronavirus pandemic. The summit is viewed as one of the last chances to put the world on track to fulfil the 201
  
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• Traffic wars: who will win the battle for city streets? – podcast

  16-04-2021 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Radical new plans to reduce traffic and limit our dependence on cars have sparked bitter conflict. As legal challenges escalate, will Britain’s great traffic experiment be shut down before we have time to see the benefits? By Niamh McIntyre Continue reading...
  
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• Apple launches $200m forestry restoration fund

  16-04-2021 12:55
  
  Technology giant Apple has partnered with Conservation International and Goldman Sachs to create an investment fund focused on carbon-sequestering forestry restoration programmes that will remove at least one million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.
  
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• UK's solar sector 'rebounding from pandemic and subsidy closures'

  16-04-2021 12:21
  
  175MW of solar generation capacity was installed across the UK between January and March, according to new figures, compared to just 60MW in the same quarter of 2020.
  
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• JP Morgan Chase pledges $2.5trn to climate and sustainability this decade

  16-04-2021 12:21
  
  US-based finance giant JP Morgan Chase has unveiled plans to provide more than $2.5trn of finance to sustainable development projects by the end of 2030.
  
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• Spain’s Endesa power firm sued over electrocution of birds

  16-04-2021 12:14 via theguardian.com
  
  Landmark case says thousands of birds including endangered eagles die needlessly each yearIn Leonard Cohen’s famous song, a bird on a wire is a symbol of freedom, but for thousands of birds it is the equivalent of being sent to the electric chair.Now, in a landmark case, a Spanish electricity company is being prosecuted over the deaths of hundreds of birds electrocuted on pylons and overhead cables and for failing to comply with regulations designed to protect wildlife. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘This is it. If we don’t amp up, we’re goners’: the last chance to confront the climate crisis?

  16-04-2021 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  When it comes to addressing the climate emergency, there have been hopeful moments before that ultimately led to nothing. Now, hope rises againThe Earth’s climate has always been a work in progress. In the 4.5bn years the planet has been spinning around the sun, ice ages have come and gone, interrupted by epochs of intense heat. The highest mountain range in Texas was once an underwater reef. Camels wandered in evergreen forests in the Arctic. Then a few million years later, 400 feet of ic
  
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• Patagonia launches campaign urging Brits to support community renewable energy

  16-04-2021 11:22
  
  After successful campaigns on renewable, community-owned energy projects in the US and EU, Patagonia has begun supporting UK residents to follow suit.
  
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• Gas grid operators outline plans for expanded EU 'hydrogen highway'

  16-04-2021 11:22
  
  Gas network operators from 11 countries have joined the European hydrogen backbone initiative, presenting an updated vision for a pure hydrogen network of nearly 40,000km by 2040.
  
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• How Canada is trying to protect its last three spotted owls

  16-04-2021 11:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Canada announced a more full-throated response to the potential extinction of the owl within its borders and boost the speciesThere are only three known northern spotted owls left in the wild in Canada, including just one breeding pair. Their chicks have on occasion been taken for a captive breeding program, to try and boost the species’ prospects. Continue reading...
  
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• Experience: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

  16-04-2021 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  I have two pieces of fish, an onion, an egg, baked beans and biscuits. Being a farmer means every day is the sameI have lived in the Teifi valley, in west Wales, all my life: 72 years. I’m a farmer and look after 71 sheep. My boyhood was spent helping my family on the farm. I have never wanted to run away from it, even as a young lad. This valley is cut in the shape of my heart. I once visited a farm in England, about 30 years ago; that was the only time I left Wales.Many of the friends I
  
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• Can recycled glass help restore Louisiana’s eroding coastline?

  16-04-2021 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A new initiative to turn glass bottles from New Orleans’ many drinking spots into tiny particles of sand has raised hopes of a green transformationDave Clements, owner of Snake and Jake’s Christmas Club Lounge, a beloved dive bar in New Orleans, has watched Louisiana’s coast shrink year after year. Related: Living near a US toxic waste site could shave a year off your life, study findsContinue reading...
  
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• 'Whitest ever' paint reflects 98% of sunlight

  16-04-2021 10:37 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Researchers hope their "ultra-white" paint can save energy by reflecting sunlight from buildings.
  
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• Beijing skies turn yellow as sand and dust engulf Chinese capital – video

  16-04-2021 09:37 via theguardian.com
  
  The skies over Beijing turned yellow and air pollution soared to severe levels as a giant cloud of sand and dust particles rolled into the city, propelled by strong winds from the north of China. It is the third powerful sandstorm to hit the Chinese capital in five weeks. ‘I don't feel good’ said Gary Zi, a Beijing resident. ‘We have had several dust storms this year. The air quality is much worse than in previous years.' The particles are said to have origi
  
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• ‘Forests are not renewable’: the felling of Sweden’s ancient trees

  16-04-2021 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Nearly 70% of Sweden is forested but many environmentalists and indigenous Sami reindeer herders argue that the Swedish model of clearing old-growth forests and planting monoculture plantations is bad for biodiversity. Photographer Marcus Westberg has captured the forestry industry’s impact on the landscape in the north of the country Continue reading...
  
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• Before Covid, giving up flying was taking off. We need to get that momentum back

  16-04-2021 07:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Interest in low-carbon living, including pledges not to fly, was high before the pandemic. After lockdown, we must not allow climate action to fall off the radarIt’s hard to remember what life was like before the pandemic hit. A year and a half ago, 2019 was drawing to a close with something like a promise. It had been the year of Greta Thunberg, Extinction Rebellion and the school climate strikes, and the momentum was with climate activism. And 2020 promised to be the year of change.Helpe
  
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• ‘A poor man’s rainforest’: why we need to stop treating soil like dirt

  16-04-2021 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The mysterious world under our feet is under threat. Protecting it is as vital as tackling the climate crisis, scientists warnHidden under our feet is a miniature landscape made up of tunnels, caves and decaying matter. Soil is where a quarter of the species on our planet are believed to live and in this dark, quiet, damp world, death feeds life. Rotting leaves, fruits, plants and organisms are folded into the soil and burped out as something new.Good soil structure provides many nooks and crann
  
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• Country diary: let’s hear it for the unappreciated earthworm

  16-04-2021 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Stamford, Lincolnshire: Waste managers and ecosystem engineers par excellence, they masterfully work, fertilise and irrigate our soilI’m digging, and it’s a bad day for it. Moving soil from one place to another in a fog of breath, and after the dip in temperature, it’s hard. As the shovel goes into the soil in one place and the edge breaks into sections, I spy something. Something completely unusual. And entirely expected.I peer at it, a glistening vein in the soil, like some k
  
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