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Scientists tested nine different masks bought from Beijing, with variable results

We are all familiar with images of Beijing citizens wearing masks, but do they work? Scientists from Edinburgh’s Institute for Occupational Medicine tested nine different masks bought from Beijing shops. Generally, the filter in each mask worked well, the best stopped over 99% of the particle pollution and the worst stopped 70% to 80%. Next, volunteers wore the masks in a test chamber filled with diesel exhaust. Pollution inside the mask was measured as they walked, nodded and talked. One mask stopped 90% of the particle pollution while others offered almost no protection. The tightness of fit was crucial. Facial hair prevents a good seal and the fit also depends on the shape of the user’s face. If it fits well then breathing through a mask is not easy. Wearing a mask could therefore pose problems for people who already have breathing or heart difficulties. So, face masks are not the answer to our problems. Walking alongside quiet instead of busy roads can help, and generally you will experience less pollution if you walk or cycle rather than sit in a car, but the best route to clean air is not masks. We need reduce the pollution in our cities.

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Development could transform how one of the world’s most common materials is made

Technology has been unveiled that could drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions from aluminium production, in a development that could transform the way one of the world’s most common materials is made.

Aluminium is used to make cars, construction materials, industrial machinery, electrical products, drinks cans, foil packaging and much more. But its production relies on processes that have changed little since the 1880s when the first smelting processes were pioneered.

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Scientists have isolated the gene responsible for temperature-controlled sex determination in turtles.

Governments have agreed to hold an extra week of negotiations on international emissions trade and other rules under the 2015 Paris Agreement, as two weeks of UN climate talks in Bonn ended Thursday yielding little progress.

Removing too much trackside vegetation harms the environment, wildlife charities say.

A bill to expand Connecticut’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) and revise the state’s energy plan passed a final floor vote in the House on Wednesday, but not before some legislators unsuccessfully tried to put forth an amendment amidst backlash from environmental groups.

Green group The Nature Conservancy and insurance company XL Catlin have teamed up to develop ‘Blue Carbon Resilience Credits’ for marketing the benefits of ecosystems that combine carbon sequestration and climate change resiliency.

Italian utility Enel reported a more advanced hedging position in Q1, continuing its accelerated rate from the previous quarter as EUA prices rose.

Climate talks in Bonn officially suspended as countries fail to resolve differences about the Paris agreement.

Water broke through the banks of the Patel dam in Solai, northern Kenya, on Wednesday night, killing at least 38 people and forcing hundreds from their homes. Up to 40 people were rescued from the mud and taken to hospital in rescue operations conducted by the Kenya Red Cross and Nakuru county disaster management teams. But many more are feared to be trapped under debris and mud, which have submerged homes over a radius of nearly 1.2 miles

• Dozens killed and many more feared trapped after Kenya's Patel dam bursts

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Researchers have developed a device that could make objects appear invisible to sonar detection.

Photojournalist Carolina Arantes documented Brazil’s thriving cattle industry and witnessed how farmers work with genetics companies to improve the performance and profitability of their herds

Jabriel is an awesome, imposing creature. His humped figure, size and weight represent everything that is prized and revered in a bull. He is quite literally the top of the pyramid in Brazil’s vast, complicated and money-driven cattle industry.

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EU carbon prices hit a fresh seven-year high on Thursday, posting a third day of strong gains in the past four amid a supply-starved week and as the wider European energy complex marched higher.

Independent body will be backed by law requiring ministers to ‘have regard to’ core principles

A new environmental watchdog to maintain standards and hold ministers to account is to be set up under plans for a green Brexit, the government has announced.

Measures from improving air and water quality and protecting endangered species are currently overseen by the European commission and underpinned by green principles across the EU, such as “the polluter pays”.

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Scientists find a deadly plague may have been spread to Europe and western Asia by the Huns.

Tanzanian government accused of putting indigenous people at risk in order to grant foreign tourists access to Serengeti wildlife

The Tanzanian government is putting foreign safari companies ahead of Maasai herding communities as environmental tensions grow on the fringes of the Serengeti national park, according to a new investigation.

Hundreds of homes have been burned and tens of thousands of people driven from ancestral land in Loliondo in the Ngorongoro district in recent years to benefit high-end tourists and a Middle Eastern royal family, says the report by the California-based thinktank the Oakland Institute.

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The delay of China’s national emissions trading programme has forced a number of carbon specialist firms to refocus their business, sparking a price war in the emissions verification industry.

China’s CDM Fund has approved a 65 million yuan ($10 mln) loan to a Shanghai-based natural gas project in a bid to ramp up supply of natural gas seen as crucial to help bring down coal consumption and cut CO2 emissions.

A trip following bats along the river Cam has become one of the hottest tickets in town – and raised money for their protection

It’s an impossibly idyllic early summer evening on the Backs of Cambridge. A blackbird flutes as a man pressure-washes a table outside a hotel. Mating flies drift on the breeze, alongside a whiff of marijuana. A student lies flat on the riverbank, feet in the water.

Punting on the river Cam has stopped for the night but one boat slips into the gathering dusk: the Bat Punt Safari.

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New video analysis reveals the furry thieves are looting up to half the seed put out in feeders, leaving gardeners and birds short-changed

Daylight robbery worth millions of pounds is taking place in gardens across the country with grey squirrels raiding bird feeders on a huge scale, new research has revealed.

The crimes were caught on video camera by scientists, who said grey squirrels are also known to raid birds’ nests for eggs and chicks. So people putting out food for birds are inadvertently supporting a species that harms them.

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