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EU Market: Strong auction helps EUAs recover from 1-month low
Warming oceans likely to raise sea levels 30cm by end of century – study
Seawater temperature is rising faster than predicted, which is likely to worsen extreme weather events around the world
The world’s oceans are warming at a faster rate than previously estimated, new research has found, raising fresh concerns over the rapid progress of climate change.
Warming oceans take up more space, a process known as thermal expansion, which the study says is likely to raise sea levels by about 30cm by the end of the century, on top of the rise in sea levels from melting ice and glaciers. Warmer oceans are also a major factor in increasing the severity of storms, hurricanes and extreme rainfall.
Continue reading...Trade in ivory from extinct mammoths could be banned
Proposal is intended to protect African elephants from being poached for their tusks
The long-extinct woolly mammoth could gain protected status in an unprecedented attempt to save the African elephant from the global ivory trade.
If approved, the protection of the mammoth under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) could prove vital in saving its modern relatives. The proposal by Israel would close a loophole that enables the trafficking of illegal elephant ivory under the guise of legal mammoth ivory, which is almost identical in appearance.
Continue reading...South Africa sniffer dog intercepts 116kg of rhino horn
A meat tax need not hit the poor | Letters
The academic evidence is quite clear on a number of fronts that meat production and consumption worldwide need to change (MPs should ‘seriously consider’ meat tax, says Lucas, 4 January). Health gains from reducing red and processed meat consumption are well documented. Study after study has shown unnecessary risks and costs associated with raised meat consumption. Meat adds to the burden of non-communicable disease. Its production is a key driver of antimicrobial resistance. Somehow the scale of meat consumption must be reversed.
We do not underestimate the political complexity. Swathes of the UK are rough land where sheep and cattle are raised. UK farmers operate on tight margins and receive too low a proportion of the money made from food. The much-reviled common agricultural policy actually keeps many afloat. But the hard facts are clear: the UK, like all rich countries, needs a transition to more sustainable diets from sustainable food systems. Low meat and dairy consumption, and more plant-based diets, are the future. This implies significant land use changes that could be beneficial: lower greenhouse gas emissions and water and biodiversity stress.
Continue reading...Signals from space: Five theories on what they are
Quantum: Handover for fully flexible satellite
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EU under fire after lifting threat to ban Thai seafood imports over illegal fishing
Reversal of disciplinary process condemned as campaigners claim Thailand has failed to address labour abuses
The EU has been accused of sending out the wrong message after removing Thailand from a list of countries failing to tackle illegal fishing.
Campaigners claim that the European commission’s decision this week to lift Thailand’s “yellow card”, in place since April 2015, gives consumers an “illusion that violations of fishers’ rights are not still occurring”.
Continue reading...Head of Carbon Trading Sales – Oxford, UK
Research Assistant or Research Associate, Economics and Spatial Analysis, Earth Innovation Institute – San Francisco
Algae - a new sustainable resource
'Take heed of science': minister urged to drop new coal-mining plans
Druridge Bay project makes mockery of UK’s goal to phase out coal by 2025, say critics
A wild stretch of Northumberland beach has become the ultimate testing ground of the government’s much-vaunted commitment to phase out coal by 2025, according to campaigners.
On Friday, James Brokenshire, the minister for communities and local government, will start examining whether to allow a local coal mining company, Banks Group, to extract three million tonnes of coal from 250 hectares of land behind the sand dunes of Druridge Bay, in a project that will extend beyond the government’s own deadline for the end of coal.
Continue reading...Dog food made from insects to go on sale in UK for first time
Globally pets consume 20% of meat and fish, a figure insect pet food could help to reduce
The UK’s first dog food made from insects goes on sale this week, which its manufacturers say could help reduce the environmental damage caused by the massive volumes of meat routinely fed to dogs and cats.
Globally, pets consume about 20% of the world’s meat and fish, a number set to rise with the trend for consumers to feed them human-grade meat. Pet food is also estimated to be responsible for a quarter of the environmental impacts of meat production in terms of use of land, water, fossil fuels, phosphates and pesticides.
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