Environment news

• Wreckage shows how Titan's hull came apart

  25-09-2024 23:21 via bbc.com
  
  Experts told the US Coast Guard on Wednesday there were safety problems with Titan's hull.
  
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• Earth to briefly gain second 'moon', scientists say

  25-09-2024 17:47 via bbc.com
  
  Earth is about to get a second moon for a couple of months, but it won't be visible for most people.
  
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• Stuck on repeat: why Peter Dutton’s ‘greatest hits’ on nuclear power are worse than a broken record | Temperature Check

  25-09-2024 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  So far there are no costings and no details on what type of reactors there would be, their size or who would build themGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastUsually you need a few genuine releases under your belt before you start putting out “greatest hits” albums, but when it comes to spruiking nuclear this hasn’t stopped Peter Dutton.This week, the opposition leader gave a speech that some hoped – perhaps naively – would add some more detail t
  
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• Climate scientists call on Labour to pause £1bn plans for carbon capture

  25-09-2024 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Letter says technologies to produce blue hydrogen and capture CO2 are unproven and could hinder net zero effortsLeading climate scientists are urging the government to pause plans for a billion pound investment in “green technologies” they say are unproven and would make it harder for the UK to reach its net zero targets.Labour has promised to invest £1bn in carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) to produce blue hydrogen and to capture carbon dioxide from new gas-fired power
  
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• 93F and no electricity: why some US utilities can cut power despite heatwaves

  25-09-2024 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  In 27 states, utilities can disconnect power for non-payment on the hottest days, which can have deadly consequences Michael Crowley runs his air conditioner nonstop on hot summer days to keep his cat, Arya, comfortable. But when the Richmond, Virginia, chef got home after work on 7 August 2022, it “felt like 100 degrees”. His power was out. He phoned his leasing office and was told his electricity bill was unpaid.Crowley protested, saying his utilities had long been covered by his r
  
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• Mexico’s datacentre industry is booming – but are more drought and blackouts the price communities must pay?

  25-09-2024 11:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Many fear the arrival of tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google in the state of Querétaro will place too much of a strain on scarce water and electricity resourcesIn a nondescript building in an industrial park in central Mexico, cavernous rooms hold stack after stack of servers studded with blue lights, humming with computations and cooled by thousands of little fans and large vents blasting great columns of air across the room.“Datacentres are the lungs of digital life,&
  
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• Labor’s coalmine expansion approvals undermine its credibility on the global stage | Adam Morton

  25-09-2024 09:47 via theguardian.com
  How does a massive coal push lasting decades line up with what it has pledged? Leaders of low-lying Pacific nations might appreciate some answersGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe most obvious point to make about Tanya Plibersek’s approval of three coalmine expansions on Tuesday is the most important. The potential climate impact is substantial, and far beyond anything else we have seen approved so far by the Albanese government.Labor has been criticised for its
  
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• Labor’s coalmine expansion approvals undermine its credibility on the climate crisis | Adam Morton

  25-09-2024 09:47 via theguardian.com
  How does a massive coal push lasting decades line up with what it has pledged? Leaders of low-lying Pacific nations might appreciate some answersGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe most obvious point to make about Tanya Plibersek’s approval of three coalmine expansions on Tuesday is the most important. The potential climate impact is substantial, and far beyond anything else we have seen approved so far by the Albanese government.Labor has been criticised for its
  
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• Activists board coal train as Albanese government approves three coalmine expansions – video

  25-09-2024 09:39 via theguardian.com
  
  Nine climate protesters have stopped a coal train headed to the Port of Newcastle in opposition to the federal government’s approval of three new mining projects. Rising Tide, the group behind the move, said in a statement that the three projects – Whitehaven Coal’s Narrabri thermal coal project to 2066, Mach Energy’s Mount Pleasant thermal coal project to 2058 and Yancoal’s Ashton coal project to 2064 – would create 1.4bn tonnes of emissions• Tanya Plibe
  
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• We disrupted the Labour conference because war and climate breakdown were not what Britons voted for | Jack McGinn

  25-09-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Until the government changes its stance on the environment and the war in Gaza and Lebanon, there is nothing to celebrateOn Monday morning, we walked into the main hall of Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool, before the keynote speech of the chancellor, Rachel Reeves. What we did next, you might have seen.Shortly after Reeves began her address, two of us stood to speak out on Labour’s complicity in suspected Israeli war crimes, and the party’s ties to climate-wrecking corpo
  
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• We disrupted the Labour conference because war and climate breakdown was not what Britons voted for | Jack McGinn

  25-09-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Until the government changes its stance on the environment and the war in Gaza and Lebanon, there is nothing to celebrateOn Monday morning, we walked into the main hall of Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool, before the keynote speech of the chancellor, Rachel Reeves. What we did next, you might have seen.Shortly after Reeves began her address, two of us stood to speak out on Labour’s complicity in suspected Israeli war crimes, and the party’s ties to climate-wrecking corpo
  
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• Surge in minke whales could be down to fewer basking sharks, Hebrides study says

  25-09-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  When sighting rates for basking sharks are high they are low for minke whales, says monitoring programmeThe highest ever recorded numbers of minke whales and the lowest number of basking sharks were observed in the Hebrides in 2023, according to a report.The latest findings of the 20-year monitoring programme by the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust suggest a possible association between these two highly mobile and long-lived species. When sighting rates for basking sharks are high, they are low
  
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• Minke whale sightings surge but basking sharks decline, finds Hebrides study

  25-09-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  When sighting rates for basking sharks are high they are low for minke whales, says monitoring programmeThe highest ever recorded numbers of minke whales and the lowest number of basking sharks were observed in the Hebrides in 2023, according to a report.The latest findings of the 20-year monitoring programme by the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust suggest a possible association between these two highly mobile and long-lived species. When sighting rates for basking sharks are high, they are low
  
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• Labour appoints Rachel Kyte to climate envoy role axed by Sunak

  25-09-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Appointee was a climate chief at the World Bank and will lead UK’s return to high-level environmental diplomacyWho is Rachel Kyte, the UK’s new climate envoy?A former climate chief of the World Bank has been appointed to lead the UK’s efforts to forge a global coalition on climate action, the Guardian can reveal.Rachel Kyte, who previously served as special representative for the UN and a vice-president of the World Bank, will take up the role of climate envoy to lead the UK&rs
  
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• ‘I had found gold before, but not like this’: four of the most splendid treasures salvaged from shipwrecks

  25-09-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The underwater archaeologist Mensun Bound recounts some of the astonishing relics he has seen, as detailed in his new co-authored book, Wonders in the DeepTreasure and shipwrecks go hand in hand – but what are the most magnificent and historically significant items ever salvaged and what do they tell us about the world we live in? The underwater archaeologist Mensun Bound, who was the director of exploration on the team that discovered Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance, has written
  
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• Cracks and sinkholes appear across Iran amid groundwater crisis

  25-09-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Subsidence caused by groundwater depletion beginning to affect key infrastructure such as airports and roadsGroundwater depletion in Iran is reaching crisis point, according to a study published this year. Satellite images reveal vast cracks and sinkholes appearing, and large areas of land subsiding at a rate of more than 10cm a year, as a result of excessive groundwater extraction. It could take hundreds to thousands of years before this water is replenished, researchers say.Mahmud Haghighi and
  
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• Country diary: Inviting heaps of lime leaves provide an early taste of autumn | Country diary

  25-09-2024 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire: Lime trees drop sooner than most, and the piles of curled leaves are bolstered by thousands of pale and papery bractsEach day, I walk a little way down the empty, dirty backstreet of my terraced neighbourhood to get some air, past patched-up fences, peeling garages and wheelie bins, my unsteady legs helped by the slow turn of my rollator. My eyes are usually on the sky, on the starlings that gather on the TV aerials and the swirling turns of pigeons that circle the
  
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• Europe’s deadly floods are glimpse of future climate

  25-09-2024 05:06 via bbc.com
  
  A new study shows that the record-breaking rainfall was made more likely and intense by climate change.
  
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• Climate change supercharged Europe floods - scientists

  25-09-2024 05:06 via bbc.com
  
  A new study shows that the record-breaking rainfall was made more likely and intense by climate change.
  
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• ‘We’re getting rid of everything’: floods destroy homes and lives in Czech Republic

  25-09-2024 05:00 via theguardian.com
  Study shows extreme rainfall made twice as likely by planet-heating pollution as EU promises €10bn in aidGlobal heating ‘doubled’ chance of heavy rain in Europe in SeptemberJarmila Šišmová did not know what to expect when rain began to pound the small town of Litovel in the Czech Republic, and she was not prepared for the nightmare that would await her once it stopped.The authorities told Šišmová to leave her home, so she took her childr
  
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