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Plastic pollution and climate change
Glacier loss is accelerating because of global warming | John Abraham
As climate scientists predicted, glaciers are vanishing due to rapidly warming temperatures.
With global warming, we can make predictions and then take measurements to test those predictions. One prediction (a pretty obvious one) is that a warmer world will have less snow and ice. In particular, areas that have year-round ice and snow will start to melt.
Alpine glaciers are large bodies of ice that can be formed high in mountains, typically in bowls called cirques. The ice slowly flows downwards, pulled by gravity, and is renewed in their upper regions. A sort of balance can occur where the loss of ice by melting or flowing at the bottom is equal to the gain of snow and ice by precipitation.
Continue reading...Business groups urge leaders to keep Australia’s NEG alive
Aldi named as best British supermarket for sustainable fish
Some 79% of seafood range is sustainable, according to survey which shows supermarkets are selling more ‘blue label’ products than ever
The discount grocer Aldi has been named the best British high street supermarket for sustainable fish, according to a new league table.
Some 79% of the seafood range stocked by the fast-growing German discounter is certified sustainable, the annual survey from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) found. This year’s results also show that supermarkets are selling more sustainable seafood than ever before – a 60% rise over the last two years.
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The shipping sector is finally on board in the fight against climate change
Archer to develop carbon-based battery technology with UNSW
Whichever way you cut it, Turnbull’s climate policy is still a sham
Top scientist leaves Iran after crackdown on environmentalists
Kaveh Madani had been seen as symbol of Rouhani government’s attempt to reverse brain drain
A top Iranian environmental scientist wooed by Hassan Rouhani’s administration to return home from the UK has left Iran amid a crackdown on environmentalists and pressure from hardliners.
Kaveh Madani had been persuaded to leave his position at Imperial College London last year to serve as the deputy head of Iran’s environment department.
Costa Coffee to recycle equivalent of all its takeaway cups each year
UK’s largest coffee shop chain has pledged to recycle up to 500m cups a year by 2020 – a fifth of the total used in the country
The UK’s largest coffee chain is to become the first to commit to recycling the same volume of takeaway cups used by its customers every year in a bid to stop hundreds of millions needlessly ending up in landfill.
Costa Coffee has pledged to recycle up to 500m coffee cups a year by 2020 – the equivalent of its entire annual use of takeaway cups and one-fifth of the total 2.5bn takeaway coffee cups used in the UK each year.
Continue reading...Coalition renewables naysayers were wrong. So, so wrong
Please explain: CHOGM to focus on Turnbull’s weak emissions policy
Destroying the world's natural heritage: 'Komodo is reaching a tipping point'
The Indonesian national park boasts some of the world’s best dive sites and spectacular marine life, but illegal fishing and unsustainable tourism is threatening its Unesco status
It was the unusual thrashing on the water that caught their attention. As those onboard the dive boat in Indonesia’s Komodo national park drew closer, it became clear it was a green turtle entangled in rubbish and thick fishing net.
The divers managed to lift it out of the water, cut the blue bind from its shell and then set the turtle free, but dive operator Ed Statham says it is just one of the increasing and alarming signs the Unesco heritage site is fast being destroyed.
Continue reading...Great Australian Bight deserves world heritage protection – Greens
Party announces it will campaign for application to be made to Unesco in bid to stop drilling
The Greens have launched a campaign to give the Great Australian Bight world heritage protection – but such a move would need the government’s support.
The party announced on Wednesday it would campaign for an application to be made to the Unesco to place the bight on the world heritage list.
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Elon Musk’s ‘Westworld for cars’ has gone horribly wrong
National Energy Guarantee ready for detailed design and stronger ambition
Deep-sea mining possibly as damaging as land mining, lawyers say
Environmental and legal groups warn of potential huge effects on Indigenous people and the environment
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The “new global gold rush” over deep-sea mining holds the same potential pitfalls as previous resource scrambles, with environmental and social impacts ignored and the rights of Indigenous people marginalised, a paper in the Harvard Law Review has warned.
A framework for deep-sea mining – where polymetallic nodules or hydrothermal vents are mined by machine – was first articulated in the 1960s, on an idea that the seabed floor beyond national jurisdiction was a “common heritage of mankind”.
Continue reading...Scientists explain how plastic-eating enzyme can help fight pollution – video
Scientists in Britain and the US say they have engineered an enzyme that eats plastic, a breakthrough that could help in the fight against pollution. The enzyme is able to digest polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. The team from the University of Portsmouth and the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory hope to one day produce the enzyme on an industrial scale
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