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How better tests and legal deterrence could clean up the sticky mess left behind by fake honey row
Car-free day in Paris and Brussels – in pictures
The people of the French and Belgian cities enjoy a rare traffic-free day. Guardian Cities wants to hear your experiences of urban walking – good and bad.
Continue reading...Electric cars: who to bless and who to blame on the road ahead | Letters
Your editorial (13 September) accuses motor manufacturers of inaction on electric cars. This is based neither on evidence nor on understanding of the decades it takes to develop such technologies.
Industry is committed to a zero-emission future and is investing heavily in electrified and other technologies. But while it can deliver the technology, it can’t determine the pace of uptake. Increasing consumer confidence, addressing infrastructure accessibility and overcoming range anxiety are vital. As with any new technology, this is expensive, so long-term government support will be essential.
Continue reading...Labour is divided over its proposed fracking ban – Cuadrilla chief
Accusation comes only weeks before the UK’s first fracking in seven years
The shale gas explorer Cuadrilla has accused the Labour party of being divided on its proposed fracking ban and of unnecessarily politicising the search for shale gas.
Francis Egan, the chief executive of Cuadrilla, which is only weeks away from beginning the UK’s first fracking in seven years, said the prospect of a Labour government coming to power was a risk that he would be “silly to ignore”.
Continue reading...Air pollution particles found in mothers' placentas
New research shows direct evidence that toxic air – already strongly linked to harm in unborn babies – travels through mothers’ bodies
Scientists have found the first evidence that particles of air pollution travel through pregnant women’s lungs and lodge in their placentas.
Toxic air is already strongly linked to harm in foetuses but how the damage is done is unknown. The new study, involving mothers living in London, UK, revealed sooty particles in the placentas of each of their babies and researchers say it is quite possible the particles entered the foetuses too.
Continue reading...About Seascape: the state of our oceans – a Guardian series
This project focuses on the health of the seas, the impact of fishing and pollution on our vast oceans and their connections to climate change, and global efforts to drive forward conservation
This series draws attention to the dramatic changes taking place in our oceans, and the innovations under way to tackle them. It is supported, in part, through a grant to theguardian.org by the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, which is dedicated to improving the lives of children, enabling the creative pursuit of science, advancing reproductive health, and conserving and restoring the earth’s natural systems.
All of the journalism is editorially independent, commissioned and produced by our Guardian journalists. You can read more about content funding on the Guardian here.
Continue reading...NovaSAR: UK radar satellite to track illegal shipping activity
Adani is on the back foot. But even a downsized Carmichael mine spells global calamity | John Quiggin
The catastrophic prospect of 300m tonnes of carbon a year appears to have been averted, but even 25m poses a danger to the climate
The recent announcement by Adani that it will halve the costs of its rail line to the proposed Carmichael coalmine by building a shorter, narrow-gauge line raises an obvious question: if such a massive cost-saving is feasible, why didn’t Adani go that way in the first place?
The short answer is this is the latest in a string of changes that have massively downsized both the Carmichael project and the bigger plans to develop the Galilee Basin. The longer answer is that, despite optimistic talk about a long-term future for coal, the writing is on the wall. The only way to make money out of coal is to do so quickly, before the present gradual decline turns into a collapse.
Continue reading...Drought-stricken farmers challenge Coalition's climate change stance in TV ad
‘We need to stick to the Paris agreement, we need to stop burning coal and we need to commit to more renewable energy,’ Longreach farmer says
“This drought has really hit our family hard,” says Longreach farmer Jody Brown. “Climate change is making the droughts more severe.”
Those two sentences are the opening lines to a new advertisement challenging the federal government’s stance on climate change and the drought in Australia’s eastern states.
Continue reading...Nasa laser launches into space
Off Tanzania, in one of the world’s richest seas, why is the catch getting smaller?
In Dar-es-Salaam, local fishermen are being squeezed out by illegal boats with explosives which take much of the catch, killing coral reef and putting an eco-system at risk
Fishing boat XTK191, known as Home Boy, returned to Kivukoni fish market in downtown Dar es Salaam at dawn one day last week. The 15 young men on board the old dhow dropped anchor and heaved their catch over the side for others to run it across the beach to where hundreds of traders milled.
Within an hour of landing in eastern Africa’s largest fish market, Home Boy’s fish, crabs, prawn, lobsters, tuna, squid and shark pups were being sold in impromptu auctions, along with the catches of several dozen other boats.
Continue reading...'World's oldest brewery' found in Israel
Writers’ wilderness haven split over Brecon Beacons phone mast plan
Its monks left more than a century ago but the whitewashed stone walls of the monastery in Capel-y-ffin stand proud. Outside, a large, well-preserved statue of the Virgin Mary welcomes visitors to the venerable Victorian building, which has now been converted into self-catering apartments in great demand when the crowds flock to nearby Hay-on-Wye for its celebrated literary festival.
Since the monks’ departure, little has changed in this picturesque Welsh hamlet of a few houses, a chapel and a scattering of farms. Nestling in the foothills of the Black Mountains, it is a place of moss and bracken, stone walls and brooks, and has the lingering solemnity of an untended churchyard.
Continue reading...Europe's meat and dairy production must halve by 2050, expert warns
Policymakers, farmers and consumers face ‘deeply uncomfortable choices’, says author of report advising urgent reduction of unsustainable livestock sector
Europe’s animal farming sector has exceeded safe bounds for greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient flows and biodiversity loss, and urgently needs to be scaled back, according to a major report.
Pressure on livestock farmers is set to intensify this century as global population and income growth raises demand for meat-based products beyond the planet’s capacity to supply it.
Continue reading...Former IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri to stand trial on sexual harassment charges
Delhi court decides there is enough evidence to charge Pachauri with harassing a female colleague
The former chairman of a United Nations climate change panel has been ordered stand trial on charges of sexual abuse and harassment of a female colleague.
A Delhi court on Friday said there was prime facie evidence to charge Rajendra Pachauri, 78, with sexual harassment and two offences of intending to outrage the modesty of a woman.
Continue reading...Will this Aussie hatchback EV trigger a Kodak moment for cars?
Remember how film cameras gave way to digital cameras over a couple of years? The promise of cheap EVs like a $20,000 Aussie hatchback, could see the same thing happen with EVs.
The post Will this Aussie hatchback EV trigger a Kodak moment for cars? appeared first on RenewEconomy.
CP Daily: Friday September 14, 2018
Dining with Killer Whales
'Gel-like' see-through fish discovered 7.5km down on Pacific ocean floor
Scientists have been surprised to find three new kinds of snailfish thriving deep in the Atacama trench
Scientists have discovered three new species of “hardcore” fish living in one of the deepest parts of the ocean, the see-through, scale-free creatures perfectly adapted to conditions that would instantly kill most life on Earth.
An international team of researchers used state-of-the-art underwater cameras to find the new fish at the bottom of the Atacama trench in the eastern Pacific ocean at a depth of 7,500 metres (24,600 feet) – and were surprised at their abundance in such an inhospitable environment.
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