Around The Web

How to make biodegradable 'plastic' from cactus juice

BBC - Tue, 2019-06-04 09:26
This Mexican researcher hopes her invention can help replace single-use plastics.
Categories: Around The Web

Inside Britain’s top secret research laboratory

BBC - Tue, 2019-06-04 09:02
The BBC was given access inside Porton Down, where some of the world's deadliest viruses are researched.
Categories: Around The Web

REDD criticism should not affect California’s Tropical Forest Standard, advocates say

Carbon Pulse - Tue, 2019-06-04 08:50
California’s Tropical Forest Standard (TFS) is unlikely to see an erosion in support due to a recent media report's critique of REDD-eligible credits, because the proposal would mitigate most of the flaws that could occur with individual offset projects, two environmental advocates said.
Categories: Around The Web

EPH gains more ground on RWE as EU’s top corporate emitter

Carbon Pulse - Tue, 2019-06-04 07:49
Czechia-based firm EPH gained ground for the second straight year on German utility RWE as the biggest emitter in the EU ETS last year, according to a report published Monday.
Categories: Around The Web

Morrison Government under fire for not releasing emissions figures

ABC Environment - Tue, 2019-06-04 07:36
"They've been spinning for years now that they think they can reach Paris commitments in a canter. Well, all of the data shows otherwise," says Greens environment spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young.
Categories: Around The Web

Costco among six companies to make up OCFP credit shortfall this summer

Carbon Pulse - Tue, 2019-06-04 07:28
Multinational retailer Costco and five other transportation fuel importers will enter the Oregon’s Clean Fuels Programs’ (OCFP) Credit Clearance Market (CCM) to complete their credit purchases for the 2018 compliance year, the state environmental agency announced late Friday.
Categories: Around The Web

EU spurns calls to use foreign carbon credits in its ETS, for now

Carbon Pulse - Tue, 2019-06-04 06:42
The EU won’t use more foreign carbon credits in its carbon market, at least for the time being, Brussels officials said on Monday in response to calls for the bloc to reignite international emissions trade.
Categories: Around The Web

Australian musicians band together to invest in solar farms

The Guardian - Tue, 2019-06-04 06:26

Exclusive: Midnight Oil, Cloud Control, Vance Joy and Regurgitator join FEAT., a new platform encouraging their industry to back sustainability

In the spring of 2017, immediately after the release of the Australian band Cloud Control’s third album, Zone, the band’s keyboard player, Heidi Lenffer, was contemplating what the their upcoming tour would cost. But this time she wasn’t just thinking about the money; she was thinking about emissions. Independent bands are used to running on a shoestring budget – a carbon-conscious Lenffer wanted Cloud Control to run a more environmentally efficient operation, too.

She began asking climate scientists in the field, and connected with Dr Chris Dey from Areté Sustainability. Dey crunched the numbers for Cloud Control’s two-week tour, playing 15 clubs and theatres from Byron Bay to Perth.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

North American youth climate lawsuits facing critical juncture this week

Carbon Pulse - Tue, 2019-06-04 06:16
Youth-led climate lawsuits in the US and Canada will face important turning points this week as federal and provincial judges consider arguments on whether the countries have violated constitutional rights by allowing for continued fossil fuel-led development.
Categories: Around The Web

Offset developer sees California auction results as positive for market

Carbon Pulse - Tue, 2019-06-04 06:14
California Carbon Offset (CCO) prices are bound to rise following the May WCI auction results as larger discounts to allowance prices and a shorter timeframe before the next compliance period should incentivise buyers in the coming months, an offset developer said.
Categories: Around The Web

A deadly fungus threatens to wipe out 100 frog species – here's how it can be stopped

The Conversation - Tue, 2019-06-04 06:10
The island of New Guinea is home to 6% of the world’s frogs, but if the deadly chytrid fungus invades it could wipe out 100 species. Deborah Bower, Lecturer in Ecosystem Rehabilitation, University of New England Simon Clulow, MQ Research Fellow, Macquarie University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
Categories: Around The Web

EU Market: EUAs tumble to 2-month low as bearish factors coalesce

Carbon Pulse - Tue, 2019-06-04 05:41
European carbon prices tumbled to a two-month low on Monday due to a myriad of bearish factors, experts said.
Categories: Around The Web

Slow poison: how Queensland government workers paid the price for fruit fly eradication

The Guardian - Tue, 2019-06-04 04:00

During the 1990s, workers were told not to worry about breathing in the poison, but years later they suffer debilitating illnesses

Robert Paul Sharman remembers how the smell of the gas would linger.

Outside the fumigation chambers it hung around, bonded to the tropical North Queensland air, amid the hottest November on record. When Sharman went home, and nursed his baby son to sleep, the odour of the gas was still there.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Queensland government workers exposed to 'gene-altering' chemical

The Guardian - Tue, 2019-06-04 04:00

Medical experts say exposure to toxic fumigant EDB in fruit fly eradication program ‘likely’ to have caused illnesses

Queensland government biosecurity workers were exposed to a carcinogenic and gene-altering chemical for an extended period, including for six months after its use was banned amid health and safety concerns.

A leading occupational medical expert says that workers’ exposure to the highly toxic fumigant ethylene dibromide (EDB) in the mid-1990s was “more likely than not” the cause of debilitating and serious illnesses suffered over two decades.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Climate crisis seriously damaging human health, report finds

The Guardian - Tue, 2019-06-04 02:57

National academies say effects include spread of diseases and worse mental health

A report by experts from 27 national science academies has set out the widespread damage global heating is already causing to people’s health and the increasingly serious impacts expected in future.

Scorching heatwaves and floods will claim more victims as extreme weather increases but there are serious indirect effects too, from spreading mosquito-borne diseases to worsening mental health.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Farmer Sutra! Are gay rams really a problem in the sheep industry?

The Guardian - Tue, 2019-06-04 02:26

One in 12 sheep shows same-sex preferences, according to a Channel 4 documentary. Unfortunately, there are commercial ramifications

A breeding ram has only one job. What if he can’t perform? “Unfortunately, he’ll have to go into the food chain,” said Dewi Jones, the chief executive of the sheep-breeding company Innovis, speaking on a Channel 4 documentary, My Gay Dog and Other Animals, which will be broadcast on Thursday. The show reports that one in 12 sheep is gay. “There is ram-on-ram behaviour going on over there,” Jones says, watching his rams. Putting three of the male-oriented rams into a pen with a ewe to see which are interested in her, one uninterested ram is classed as a “shy breeder”. “Commercially, it’s a big issue for us as a breeding company or as a ram breeder because we need our rams to cover lots of ewes.”

Many species – including sheep, penguins, monkeys and dolphins – have been shown to display same-sex preferences. Perhaps the most famous example came to light in 2014, when Benji, a Charolais bull in County Mayo, Ireland, was due to be slaughtered after showing no interest in the heifers he was bought to breed with. Campaigners raised money to send him to a sanctuary instead (although it emerged the following year that he may not be “gay” after all, “judging by what he was trying to do the other day with one of the cows,” said his new owner).

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Baby gene experiment 'foolish and dangerous'

BBC - Tue, 2019-06-04 01:00
Twin girls had their DNA altered to protect against HIV - but their mutation may increase the risk of an early death.
Categories: Around The Web

ANALYSIS: PG&E auction absences seen as bullish factor for WCI prices

Carbon Pulse - Mon, 2019-06-03 22:20
Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) decision to skip its second consecutive WCI auction is being viewed as a potential bullish signal for California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices as participants believe the embattled utility may be a heavier buyer in the future.
Categories: Around The Web

Climate change and health

ABC Environment - Mon, 2019-06-03 20:05
The link between climate change and health has many dimensions. Health professionals are being urged to take a political stand and call for climate change action. 
Categories: Around The Web

ASEAN would benefit from closer ties on MRV, carbon trading, study finds

Carbon Pulse - Mon, 2019-06-03 19:44
There is scope for ASEAN nations to cooperate closer on MRV and carbon pricing instruments, paving the way for what could eventually evolve into a region-wide emissions trading market, a study has found.
Categories: Around The Web

Pages

Subscribe to Sustainable Engineering Society aggregator - Around The Web