Around The Web

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Two contrasting carbon fee proposals between Washington DC lawmakers and environmental coalitions have highlighted the political differences between the groups while delaying the formal introduction of a bill, according to campaigners speaking at a panel on Thursday.

Ground-level ozone can damage wheat, mung and soya bean crops, and is harmful to breathe

We often think of ozone as a stratosphere pollutant, where it does a useful job blocking harmful ultraviolet radiation, but it is harmful to breathe and damages our crops, too. In a typical May, UK air pollution can reach between four and six on the government’s 10-point scale for a week or so. May 2018 was the hottest since records began in 1919. This brought air pollution problems to the whole of the UK except eastern Scotland. Air pollution reached level 4 or above on 30 days during the month and ozone was one of the main culprits.

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A fast-rising number of companies worldwide are using green certificates as part of a strategy to help demonstrate their climate credentials, elevating their efforts to levels sometimes more ambitious than those required by governments under the Paris Agreement.

Methane on the Red Planet waxes and wanes with the seasons - another clue in the search for life.

Reef no longer among top 10 reasons for Australians to visit Cairns, says survey

The lure of the Great Barrier Reef to Australian tourists has “fallen dramatically” since the onset of successive coral bleaching events in 2016, according to a new report that reveals fewer domestic visitors are heading to north Queensland to visit the natural wonder.

The report, by the Centre for Tourism and Regional Opportunities at Central Queensland University, says towns should now develop “new tourism experiences” to compensate for lost visitors and the likelihood of further damage to the climate-threatened reef.

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Agriculture minister says climate is changing and Australia must ‘use the best science available’

The agriculture minister, David Littleproud, says the climate is changing and the transition in the energy market – with renewables displacing traditional power generation sources – is “exciting, not only for the environment but for the hip pocket”.

In an interview with Guardian Australia, the Queensland National said the climate had been changing “since we first tilled the soil in Australia” and he does not care whether the change is due to human activity or not.

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A community of Mexican nuns have formed an unlikely partnership with British conservationists to save an endangered amphibian species. Achoques once thrived in Pátzcuaro, Mexico’s third largest lake, but they are now close to extinction due to introduced fish species and deforestation. The nuns, who use the lizard-like animal to create a special cough medicine, have been breeding them in their convent. The sisters are part of an official breeding network that includes Chester zoo in the UK and the Michoacana University of Mexico

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EU carbon prices again gravitated towards €16 following a second day of choppy trade, failing to scale new ground after another strong auction.

The oldest known "footprints" left by an animal have been uncovered in China.

Peter Melchett of the Soil Association and Roger Mainwood respond to Guy Smith of the NFU’s letter claiming that pesticide use in the UK has been significantly reduced

Guy Smith of the National Farmers’ Union says (Letters, 4 June) that there has been “no intensification of agriculture in the UK for 25 years”, and that government figures show pesticide use has been “significantly reduced”. No they don’t. Government figures show the number of active substances – the actual chemicals applied to three major UK crops (wheat, onions and potatoes) – have increased between six and 18 times (that is, between 600% and 1,800%) from the 1970s to 2014. And as recent Guardian investigations have found, there has been a significant growth in large-scale pig and poultry production, and recently you revealed the arrival, albeit just a few at the moment, of US-style beef lots in the UK (Report, 30 May). UK dairy herds have been getting ever larger over recent years, with the growth of dairy systems where the cows are kept indoors all their life, with feed brought to them, and no grazing on grass. These are all undesirable trends for English farmers, squeezed by rising costs and falling prices, and as we face government policy that rightly wants us to compete on the world market on the basis of high animal welfare, high environmental standards and high quality.
Peter Melchett
Policy director, Soil Association

• Guy Smith of the National Farmers’ Union tells only half the story when he says pesticide use in the UK has been significantly reduced. What he is referring to is the weight of pesticides, and on that point alone he is correct. In 1990 the weight of active substances applied was 34,500 tonnes compared to 17,1800 tones in 2015. But weight is not the significant factor. Toxicity is. Many of the pesticides on the market now are more toxic than they used to be and so farmers apply less weight of pesticides to do the same job.

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A Canadian firm says new technology has dramatically cut the cost of removing carbon from the air.

Czechia-based firm EPH gained ground on German utility RWE as the biggest emitter in the EU ETS last year as it continued to build its portfolio of thermal power assets, according to a report published Thursday.

The European Commission sets out how it wants to spend €100bn (£87bn) on science in the next EU budget.

South Korean carbon allowances lost another 2% on Thursday, as last week’s government auction and a large amount of swap deals have taken some of the edge off compliance demand, which had been estimated as high as 30 million.

The Climate Finance Specialist will join the Climate Policy Hub (CPH), based at the CIAT Asia regional office in Hanoi (Vietnam), and work under the supervision of the CPH leader. She/he will have overall responsibility to provide scientific expertise on channeling investments to support developing country priorities for the agriculture sector under the Paris Agreement, and on developing innovative CSA financing schemes including green bonds, carbon markets, REDD+ and payment for ecosystem services (PES).

Researchers find the daily migrations of brine shrimp is strong enough to mix ocean waters

When we think of global warming and climate change, most of us ignore the impacts that animals have on the environment. Climate affects animals, but is the reverse true? Can animals affect the climate?

I don’t know how to answer that question definitively, but I was fortunate enough to read a very recent paper from a top fluid dynamics research team from Stanford. The team, led by Dr. John Dabiri, is well known for their work on bio-inspired flow. Part of what they study is the influence of living organisms on fluid flow, especially flow of water in the oceans.

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New Zealand on Thursday launched a public consultation on how to achieve its ambition of net zero emissions by 2050, but revealed that the target might cover less than half of its total GHG output.

Tasmania’s bid to become battery of nation could require as many as four new interconnectors to be installed between the island state and mainland Australia.

From the birth of cyclotourisme to moon landings and the rise of 1990s mountain biking these mechanical marvels have played a small but crucial role

If your bike has gears, the chances are it also has derailleurs. These mechanical marvels which move the chain when you move up or down a gear may be a small part of the bicycle, but the myriad designs reveal a lot about the history of cycling. Over the nearly 40 years I’ve spent working in bike shops, I have collected about 1,400 rear derailleurs. Here are just 10 of the most influential, interesting or just plain weird.

Le Chemineau, France, 1912

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