Around The Web

Scientists revive 100 million-year-old microbes from the sea

BBC - Wed, 2020-07-29 05:51
The organisms had been in a dormant state in the seabed in the South Pacific since the age of dinosaurs.
Categories: Around The Web

Spain’s Endesa reports 84% drop in H1 coal-fired output as phaseout plans advance

Carbon Pulse - Wed, 2020-07-29 04:11
Spanish utility Endesa reported a major drop in H1 coal-fired power generation in its financial results on Tuesday, amid earlier-than-expected shutdowns of nearly half of the country's coal power fleet.
Categories: Around The Web

The Guardian view on the green recovery: Britain is being left behind | Editorial

The Guardian - Wed, 2020-07-29 04:04

The government talks a good game when it comes to radical policymaking. But its failure to invest in a zero-carbon future tells a different story

Senior figures in this government like to view themselves as insurgents against a hidebound Whitehall establishment. This is partly because Boris Johnson won the last election after pledging to “get Brexit done”, breaking the post-referendum stalemate in parliament. But it is also settled wisdom in Downing Street, and in the Treasury, that a more general shake-up is required of Britain’s body politic if it is to become more lithe and nimble, and get ahead of the game.

More evidence of this desire to disrupt came on Tuesday in the form of a speech by Stephen Barclay, the chief secretary to the Treasury. Addressing a centre-right thinktank, Mr Barclay heralded a new era of state spending in which the ethos of Silicon Valley would inform departmental decision-making. In the spirit of west coast venture capitalists, government ministers and their civil servants would back schemes that took risks and which would therefore sometimes fail. The interminable delays and inveterate caution that have blighted government projects and investment would become a thing of the past. Inculcating this new Whitehall worldview is seen as fundamental to speedily delivering the “infrastructure revolution” promised by Mr Johnson at the end of last month.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Petri dishes: is lab-grown meat a mass-market, environmentally sound food fix?

The Guardian - Wed, 2020-07-29 03:30

For some lab-grown meat is ‘scary science’, for others a genuine lever for change. Rachel Khoo, believes it may be both

Grant Howie likes to describe himself as a “traditional kind of middle-aged meat eater,” which is to say he eats mostly beef or lamb sourced from farms in his region. But he’s also not shy of a plant-based burger made from hemp, soy and pea isolates, hydrated with coconut oils and flavour powders. His vegan daughter cajoled him into making plant-based products at his New Zealand-based company Fishers Meat.

But ask this longtime food executive to eat lab-grown meat and Grant will dig in his heels. There is a limit to his progressiveness. “It just sounds too scary science,” he says.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Brussels mulls aviation and maritime fuel taxes to spur ‘green’ recovery

Carbon Pulse - Wed, 2020-07-29 03:20
The European Commission is considering whether to end the bloc's exemption to taxing aviation and shipping fuels as part of an overhaul to EU Energy Taxation Directive (ETD).
Categories: Around The Web

Virgin Galactic set for last key rocket test flights

BBC - Wed, 2020-07-29 03:05
Sir Richard Branson's tourist spaceplane company updates on progress, unveiling a cabin design.
Categories: Around The Web

Iter: World's largest nuclear fusion project begins assembly

BBC - Wed, 2020-07-29 02:16
The world's biggest nuclear fusion project has entered its five-year assembly phase.
Categories: Around The Web

Former RGGI executive tapped to lead work on Oregon climate policies

Carbon Pulse - Wed, 2020-07-29 01:26
A former RGGI executive director has been hired by Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) as the Pacific Northwest state develops a cap-and-reduce programme and more stringent clean fuel standard under a gubernatorial order.
Categories: Around The Web

US coal production plunges to lowest level in more than 50 years

RenewEconomy - Tue, 2020-07-28 23:34

US president Donald Trump promised he would save the country's coal industry, but it's not working out that way, with coal production plunging to its lowest levels in more than 50 years.

The post US coal production plunges to lowest level in more than 50 years appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Categories: Around The Web

EU Midday Market Briefing

Carbon Pulse - Tue, 2020-07-28 23:27
EUAs held above €25 early on Tuesday, halting the previous session's 5% drop as wider markets steadied amid hopes of more government stimulus measures.
Categories: Around The Web

Tahlequah: Killer whale who carried dead calf for days is pregnant

BBC - Tue, 2020-07-28 20:52
Tahlequah captured the world's attention when spotted carrying her dead calf for 17 days.
Categories: Around The Web

Environmental racism is killing Americans of color. Climate change will make it worse | Mustafa Santiago Ali

The Guardian - Tue, 2020-07-28 19:15

We’ve turned a blind eye to a public health time bomb in already vulnerable communities

I Can’t Breathe” is echoing across the planet. Filled with anguish and pain, these haunting words are spotlighting the systemic racism that has infected unjust policing practices, putting black and brown communities in its crosshairs. As police take lives with chokeholds and asphyxiate others with knees on their necks, we are reminded that racism is literally killing our people and planet.

Related: Is this the best of times, the worst of times, or both?

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

World’s largest nuclear fusion project begins assembly in France

The Guardian - Tue, 2020-07-28 19:00

Project aims to show clean fusion power can be generated at commercial scale

The world’s largest nuclear fusion project began its five-year assembly phase on Tuesday in southern France, with the first ultra-hot plasma expected to be generated in late 2025.

The €20bn (£18.2bn) Iter project will replicate the reactions that power the sun and is intended to demonstrate fusion power can be generated on a commercial scale. Nuclear fusion promises clean, unlimited power but, despite 60 years of research, it has yet to overcome the technical challenges of harnessing such extreme amounts of energy.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

World’s largest solar power plant moves forward with world’s lowest price

RenewEconomy - Tue, 2020-07-28 18:41

Emirates utility awards contract to build 2GW Al Dhafra solar project at a record-low tariff for solar power of $0.0135/kWh.

The post World’s largest solar power plant moves forward with world’s lowest price appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Categories: Around The Web

Investors drop Brazil meat giant JBS

The Guardian - Tue, 2020-07-28 16:30

Top investment house delists world biggest meat producer over lack of commitment to sustainability issues

The investment arm of northern Europe’s largest financial services group has dropped JBS, the world’s biggest meat processer, from its portfolio. The Brazilian company is now excluded from assets sold by Nordea Asset Management, which controls a €230bn (£210bn) fund, according to Eric Pedersen, its head of responsible investments.

The decision was taken about a month ago, over the meat giant’s links to farms involved in Amazon deforestation, its response to the Covid-19 outbreak, past corruption scandals, and frustrations over engagement with the company on such issues. “The exclusion of JBS is quite dramatic for us because it is from all of our funds, not just the ones labelled ESG,” Pedersen said.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Tasmania shark attack likely involved 3.5m great white, marine scientists say

The Guardian - Tue, 2020-07-28 16:29

CSIRO scientists determined the type of shark involved after examining the life jacket worn by 10-year-old boy when he was grabbed from a fishing boat

The shark that grabbed a 10-year-old boy from a fishing boat off north-west Tasmania was likely a great white measuring about 3.5 metres, scientists have said.

Lucas Arnott is recovering after the attack about 5km off the coast of Stanley on 17 July.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Caught in the act: camera traps snare rarest species - in pictures

The Guardian - Tue, 2020-07-28 16:00

Snow leopards, tapirs, oriental storks and many others feature in WWF’s new collection. Its camera traps are wildlife friendly, as they cause little environmental disturbance, while producing permanent, verifiable records of some of the world’s rarest animals.

The technology can also give scientists vital insights into population numbers and trends at a time when poaching has reportedly increased

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Taylor’s stalled UNGI and Snowy 2.0 included on watchdog’s audit hit list

RenewEconomy - Tue, 2020-07-28 15:24

angus taylor ungi scott morrison snowy hydro - optimisedThe Auditor General has included the stalled UNGI program, and the Snowy 2.0 expansion, on its priority list for audits in 2020-21.

The post Taylor’s stalled UNGI and Snowy 2.0 included on watchdog’s audit hit list appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Categories: Around The Web

We are entering an era of pandemics – it will only end when we protect the rainforest | Peter Daszak

The Guardian - Tue, 2020-07-28 15:00

Reducing deforestation and the exploitation of wildlife are the first steps in breaking the chain of disease emergence

In late 2013, in the village of Meliandou in rural Guinea, a group of children playing near a hollow tree disturbed a small colony of bats hiding inside. Scientists think that Emile Ouamouno, who later became the first tragic “index” case in the west African Ebola outbreak, was likely exposed to bat faeces while playing near the tree.

Every pandemic starts like this. An innocuous human activity, such as eating wildlife, can spark an outbreak that leads to a pandemic. In the 1920s, when HIV is thought to have emerged in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, scientists believe transmission to humans could have been caused by a bushmeat hunter cutting themselves while butchering a chimpanzee. In 2019, we can speculate that a person from south-west China entered a bat cave near their village to hunt wildlife for sale at the local wet market. Perhaps they later developed a nagging cough that represents the beginning of what we now know as Covid-19. Now, a growing human population, ever-encroaching development and a globalised network of travel and trade have accelerated the pace of pandemic emergence. We’re entering a new pandemic era.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Additional funding for Clean Energy Future Fund

RenewEconomy - Tue, 2020-07-28 14:56

clean energy fundMcGowan Government allocates additional $10 million to Clean Energy Future Fund.

The post Additional funding for Clean Energy Future Fund appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Categories: Around The Web

Pages

Subscribe to Sustainable Engineering Society aggregator - Around The Web