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New York grid operator floats scenarios for CO2 charge alongside RGGI
Scientists accidentally create mutant enzyme that eats plastic bottles
The breakthrough, spurred by the discovery of plastic-eating bugs at a Japanese dump, could help solve the global plastic pollution crisis
Scientists have created a mutant enzyme that breaks down plastic drinks bottles – by accident. The breakthrough could help solve the global plastic pollution crisis by enabling for the first time the full recycling of bottles.
The new research was spurred by the discovery in 2016 of the first bacterium that had naturally evolved to eat plastic, at a waste dump in Japan. Scientists have now revealed the detailed structure of the crucial enzyme produced by the bug.
Continue reading...US National Zoo captures birth of baby gorilla 'Moke'
Who’s defending Canada’s national interest? First Nations facing down a pipeline | Martin Lukacs
Justin Trudeau is bailing out a Texas oil billionaire. He should be bailing out Canada’s workers and the climate.
Last Saturday, Indigenous leaders stood arm-in-arm in front of the gates of Kinder Morgan’s pipeline worksite in Burnaby, British Columbia.
For weeks before, hundreds of non-native people – environmentalists, federal parliamentarians Elizabeth May and Kennedy Stewart, even an engineer formerly employed by the Texas oil corporation – had marched to the same place. In each case, police approached, read aloud their violation of a no-go zone, and arrested and shackled them.
Scott Pruitt's $43,000 'privacy booth' violated spending laws, watchdog finds
Purchase of a soundproof booth for EPA chief violates federal law that prohibits spending more than $5,000 on office improvements
An internal government watchdog says the Environmental Protection Agency violated federal spending laws when purchasing a $43,000 soundproof privacy booth for administrator Scott Pruitt to make private phone calls in his office.
The Government Accountability Office issued its findings on Monday in a letter to Senate Democrats who had requested a review of Pruitt’s spending.
Continue reading...EU Market: EUAs hit new 7-yr high above €14 as rally seen continuing
The plastic tsunami: pollution across Australia's coastlines – in pictures
With Australia’s beaches and oceans covered in rubbish, Tangaroa Blue volunteers spend days trying to clean things up. While these images are not beautiful or professionally taken, they are the harsh reality of the world’s plastic pollution problem.
• ‘Plastic is literally everywhere’: the epidemic attacking Australia’s oceans
Continue reading...Nasa's Tess planet-hunter: What stars sound like
Dutch island wants its rabbits to breed like …
Biodiversity concerns prompt emergency plan to use ferrets to round up the few rabbits left
It is not a pastime for which rabbits usually require much encouragement. But a mystery depletion in numbers on the Dutch island of Schiermonnikoog has led to an emergency effort to coax the local population into breeding … well, like rabbits.
Ferrets are being deployed to chase the reluctant remaining animals out of their warrens and into the hands of conservationists, who are bringing them together, safe from the stress of predators, in the hope that romance will blossom.
Continue reading...Nasa planet-hunter set for launch
The courts are deciding who's to blame for climate change | Dana Nuccitelli
Oil companies? The government? The public? All of the above share the blame.
There are numerous ongoing legal challenges in an effort to determine who’s responsible for climate change. Exxon is under investigation by state attorneys general, cities are suing oil companies over sea level rise costs, and Our Children’s Trust is suing the federal government for failing to protect their generation from climate change. At the heart of these legal challenges lies the question – who bears culpability for climate change and liability for its costs and consequences?
Continue reading...Country Drive: Military drones on farms, SA wants Murray Darling water and winegrowers concerned over climate change
Australia govt won’t budge on key NEG elements
Western Australian shark attack victim taken to hospital by helicopter – video
A man has been bitten by a shark off the coast of Western Australia, prompting authorities to close down the nearby Margaret River Pro international surfing event. The man, in his 30s, was flown to Royal Perth hospital with leg injuries, but was conscious according to a St John Ambulance spokesperson
Continue reading...Hen harrier 'brood management' plan faces crowdfunded legal challenge
Campaign against plan to remove chicks from their nests and rear them in captivity raises £25,000 in four days
A controversial plan to remove the chicks of endangered birds from their nests and rear them in captivity could be challenged in the high court after a crowdfunded campaign raised £25,000 in four days.
Wildlife campaigner and author Mark Avery is leading an application for a judicial review of the hen harrier “brood management” plan, in which chicks will be raised in captivity and released into the wild.
Continue reading...Country diary 1918: joyous narcissi family at Kew Gardens
18 April 1918 Flowers range from the poet’s narcissus to the deepest yellow of the daffodil or the orange-rimmed gold of the small-crowned narcissi
Kew Gardens, April 17
One longs for sunshine to show a visitor the full loveliness of the Gardens at this time, and we have had very little sunshine for a fortnight and more. It is the heyday of the narcissi. We have had some of this joyous family for the past six weeks, but now is the time when they fill the woodland, and when, wherever you turn, the limits of the lawns are outlined with gold. The “woodland walk” is largely composed of beech trees whose quaker-grey stems, often fretted with black, are as yet unrelieved by any green.
Related: Old-fashioned narcissi are part of the fabric of the woodland
Continue reading...The ingenious cyclewear Victorian women invented to navigate social mores
Patents by female inventors from the 1890s reveal the creative ways women made their body mobile through clothing
Much has been written about the bicycle’s role as a vehicle of women’s liberation. But far less is known about another critical technology women used to forge new mobile and public lives – cyclewear. I have been studying what Victorian women wore when they started cycling. Researching how early cyclists made their bodies mobile through clothing reveals much about the social and physical barriers they were navigating and brings to light fascinating tales of ingenious inventions.
Cycling was incredibly popular for middle- and upper-class women and men in the late 19th century, and women had to deal with distinct social and sartorial challenges. Cycling exaggerated the irrationality of women’s conventional fashions more than any other physical activity. Heavy, layered petticoats and long skirts caught in spokes and around pedals. Newspapers regularly published gruesome accounts of women dying or becoming disfigured in cycling crashes due to their clothing.
Country diary: wheatears on both sides of their migratory journey
Aigas, Invernessshire and Uganda: Wintering wheatears were abundant in Uganda, looking exactly the same as they do when they arrive in the Highlands
Continue reading...
Energy efficiency: More popular than puppies… and coal
Musk says Tesla Model 3 back on track, production set to grow “four-fold”
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