Environment news

• A sunken timebomb? Samoa fears long-lasting damage from wrecked New Zealand navy ship

  18-10-2024 21:00
  
  Samoa says 200,000 litres of diesel has leaked into the sea after HMNZS Manawanui hit a reef, with officials now racing to remove tons more fuel ahead of cyclone seasonFrom the sky you can see it. A long white blot in the perfect blue. The HMNZS Manawanui lies about 35 metres beneath the surface of Samoa’s southern coastal waters, now just the ghost of a navy ship.But what can’t be seen is the damage left in its wake – to the reef nearby and to the clear waters off the Pacific
  
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• What is biodiversity and how can we protect it?

  18-10-2024 17:56 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Colombia is hosting talks to assess global progress in protecting 30% of all land and water by 2030.
  
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• Queensland’s reliance on coal is back on the agenda and conservationists are firing up

  18-10-2024 16:00
  The Liberal National party’s reluctance to say how it would meet the state’s emissions reduction targets while backing coal-fired power has become an election issueGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Two years ago, former US vice-president and climate change campaigner Al Gore took to a pre-Elon Musk Twitter to congratulate Queensland for plotting a route to get the state off coal-fired power by the end of the next decade.If this was possible in a state with &
  
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• ‘This could wreck the area’: anger at new Guggenheim in Spanish nature reserve

  18-10-2024 15:00
  
  Environmental groups are among those appalled at plans to expand into Guernica and the Urdaibai reserve – but others welcome itA large and almost comically sinister fish named Guggenheim is on the loose in and around the ancient Basque town of Guernica, its jaws perilously close to snapping shut on a twitchy-looking tiddler called Urdaibai.Images of the predator and its prey have been proliferating on posters, bus stops and walls in the area since last summer as fears grow over what the su
  
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• ‘The museum’s already here’: campaign against new Guggenheim in Spain

  18-10-2024 15:00
  Local and international environmental groups want project planned for biosphere reserve abandoned – but some welcome itA large and almost comically sinister fish named Guggenheim is on the loose in and around the ancient Basque town of Guernica, its jaws perilously close to snapping shut on a twitchy-looking tiddler called Urdaibai.Images of the predator and its prey have been proliferating on posters, bus stops and walls in the area since last summer as fears grow over what the suggested
  
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• Pylons rule and rural beauty is up for sale. Why do those in power so hate the countryside? | Simon Jenkins

  18-10-2024 14:00
  
  Ed Miliband seems happy to see the landscape blighted. We value townscape – everywhere else has to fend for itselfDoes Labour believe in beauty? The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, celebrated his arrival in office this summer by permitting three of the largest solar panel arrays in Britain. One, a Suffolk array covering nearly 2,800 acres, was described by a county councillor as “the poorest infrastructure application that I have ever dealt with”.Now Miliband is demanding a proc
  
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• Labour to legalise harmful practice of carrying chickens by legs, say charities

  18-10-2024 14:00
  
  Government accused of ‘shocking’ choice to dilute protection standards in first animal welfare policyLabour is using its first animal welfare policy since entering government to dilute standards by legalising the harmful practice of carrying chickens by their legs, charities have said.European transport regulation 1/2005, which still applies in the UK, prohibits lifting chickens by their legs on farms and during loading and unloading, but the government is going to change the law to
  
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• ‘Mercury destroys lives’: but if goldmining is here to stay, is there a way to make it safer?

  18-10-2024 13:00
  Using the toxin for gold extraction is banned in the Philippines, but the practice remains widespread. Now one town is trialling a technique that could end its use and protect the world’s 15 million small-scale minersFor a small, rural town in the central Philippines, Paracale has a lot of pawn shops. That’s because the ground underneath it has a lot of gold. There is so much that a decade ago local officials had to tell people to stop digging under their houses to stop them collapsi
  
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• Houseplant of the week: cuddly cactus

  18-10-2024 12:00
  For one night only … This dramatic sun-lover produces flowers that last for just for a single eveningWhy will I love it?Invite a piece of the Brazilian landscape into your home with the Cereus jamacaru. In the wild, this plant has clusters of long, fierce spines along its stem; however, those found in plant shops will usually be the spineless variety – that is where their common name comes from. It’s still a cactus that makes a bold statement, thanks to its architectural
  
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• Week in wildlife in pictures: happy elephants, a tiny koala and baboons taking liberties

  18-10-2024 09:00
  The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• Pollutionwatch: Study reveals indoor pollution’s impact on people with COPD

  18-10-2024 07:00
  Researchers find pollution in inside spaces – mainly fossil gas – had greatest effect on those with the diseaseA study has revealed how air pollution inside and outside our homes is affecting people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).Breathing problems, wheezing and coughing up phlegm are part of everyday life for many people with COPD. They also suffer exacerbations when their symptoms get much worse. COPD is the second largest cause of emergency hospital admissions i
  
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• ‘Community action’: Oxfordshire’s Low Carbon Hub on its local renewable energy projects

  18-10-2024 07:00
  Community energy group hopes for local electricity trading as part of its ‘better system’ of supply and ownershipIn the shadow of the Didcot power station in Oxfordshire, a small group of people sat around a kitchen table and thought “let’s replace it” with green community energy.That was in 2011. Now, in 2024, that little group has become the Low Carbon Hub with 1,773 members and 55 renewable energy installations around Oxford, including two hydroelectric dams on t
  
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• Country diary: Everything about this moth larva says ‘don’t touch me’ | Phil Gates

  18-10-2024 06:30
  
  River Wear, Durham City: The bane of hop pickers, the pale tussock moth larva isn’t normally found precariously wandering along a bridge“Wait a minute, what was that?” We retraced our steps, astonished. A pale tussock moth larva, inching its way along the parapet of Prebends bridge, had chosen the most precarious route possible to wander in search of somewhere to pupate. Gusting wind, sending withered leaves tumbling across the bridge, threatened to blow it into the river,
  
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• UK should ‘repurpose’ Belfast shipyard to make green infrastructure

  18-10-2024 06:00
  
  Thinktank says government should set up arm’s-length company to buy Harland & Wolff site, which is in administrationThe UK government should set up an arm’s-length company to buy the Harland & Wolff naval shipyard in Belfast as part of a drive to repurpose arms manufacturing towards producing green infrastructure, according to a report.The study from the thinktank Common Wealth is launching what it describes as a “Lucas Plan for the 21st century” setting out how t
  
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• 'It's our moonshot': Why scientists are drilling into volcanos

  18-10-2024 01:03 via bbc.com
  
  In Iceland scientists plan to drill down to magma to understand it and use it for energy production.
  
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