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The Larsen C ice shelf collapse hammers home the reality of climate change | John Abraham

The Guardian - Mon, 2017-06-12 20:00

Collapsing ice shelves will further accelerate global sea level rise

Very soon, a large portion of an ice shelf in Antarctica will break off and collapse into the ocean. The name of the ice shelf is Larsen C; it is a major extension from of the West Antarctic ice sheet, and its health has implications for other ice in the region, and sea levels globally.

How do we know a portion is going to collapse? Well, scientists have been watching a major rift (crack) that has grown in the past few years, carving out a section of floating ice nearly the size of Delaware. The speed of the crack has increased dramatically in the past few months, and it is nearly cracked through.

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The greening of Singapore

ABC Environment - Mon, 2017-06-12 19:45
The transformation of Singapore into a garden city.
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The oldest living thing on Earth

BBC - Mon, 2017-06-12 19:34
Mayflies live for a day, humans live a century - if we’re lucky - but what is the oldest living organism on the planet?
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3D printed bionic hands trial begins in Bristol

BBC - Mon, 2017-06-12 18:38
The hands could become available on the NHS bringing life-changing improvements for patients.
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Federal Politics with Malcolm Farr

ABC Environment - Mon, 2017-06-12 18:06
Federal MPs are making the journey back to Canberra for what promises to be an intense week of Parliament.
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Air pollution more harmful to children in cars than outside, warns top scientist

The Guardian - Mon, 2017-06-12 14:52

Exclusive: Walking or cycling to school is better for children’s health as cars are ‘boxes collecting toxic gases’ says David King

Children are at risk of dangerous levels of air pollution in cars because exposure to toxic air is often far higher inside than outside vehicles, a former government chief scientific adviser has warned.

Prof Sir David King, writing for the Guardian, says walking or cycling to school would be much better for children’s health. The warning comes as the UK government faces a third legal defeat for failing to tackle the country’s illegal levels of air pollution. Air pollution is known to damage children’s developing lungs but recent research also indicates it harms children’s ability to learn at school and may damage their DNA.

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Daylight robbery in the grasslands

The Guardian - Mon, 2017-06-12 14:30

Epping Forest Yellow rattle steals nutrients from grasses, releasing butterfly-friendly plants from the oppression of shade

The poet John Clare crossed here 180 years ago seeking the “furze and clouds” of Buckhurst Hill, but I’m happy to linger on Whitehall Plain amid its dazzling drifts of buttercups. Natural grasslands are now rare in southern England – 98% of them were destroyed in the 50 years after 1945 – and too often seen as easily replicated green space. Not here in Epping Forest, though. Beneath its surface gloss of buttercups, this old pasture, which straddles London’s boundary with Essex, is complex and dynamic.

Related: Yellow rattle: the meadow-maker's helper

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Trees transform a farm landscape and Alyssa's a champion dog trialler

ABC Environment - Mon, 2017-06-12 11:30
A tree planting project transforms a Bega Valley landscape; a young couple grinds out a living off just eight hectares; we turn unwanted fruit and veg into edible powder; and meet four-year-old dog trialler Alyssa Brown.
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What do consumers get out of the Finkel blueprint?

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2017-06-12 11:07
The short answer is, not a lot. Finkel promises savings of $92 a year by 2030, but most customer bills are going to jump $300 a year next month. Nothing much will change until utilities can match the cost of new technologies, rather than hiding behind regulatory barriers.
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Rehydrating the bodies

BBC - Mon, 2017-06-12 10:56
Dr Alejandro Hernández Cárdenas has developed a new technique to help identify corpses.
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All Tesla Supercharger stations to be solar powered, says Musk

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2017-06-12 10:15
Elon Musk says all Tesla EV supercharging stations are being switched to solar and battery storage – "almost all" will disconnect from grid.
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Frydenberg’s coal call to right wing: Trust me, this won’t hurt at all (honk!)

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2017-06-12 09:58
Frydenberg and Turnbull are trying to convince far right that coal will be OK under Clean Energy Target. But the reality is that wind and solar are cheaper, so any serious push to climate targets will spell doom for coal generation.
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Trading tool

BBC - Mon, 2017-06-12 09:26
The earliest known script was a tool developed to help run the economy.
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Finkel report falls short of Paris commitment: Di Natale

ABC Environment - Mon, 2017-06-12 07:37
Di Natale says the Finkel report gets Australia no where near the temperature target commitment made in Paris and provides a long term lifeline to coal and gas.
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Across Dartmoor on horseback: Country diary 50 years ago

The Guardian - Mon, 2017-06-12 07:30

Originally published in the Guardian on 17 June 1967

DARTMOOR: The best way to see the country of the high moorland is, I am now convinced, from horseback. A docile eight-year-old mare carried me for three hours over Holne Moor and along the thickly wooded valley of the Dart and provided a morning of great delight. Early in the ride, descending from the moor to the river valley, we started a buzzard from the heather. The bird rose into the air and crossed the valley in gracious soaring and gliding. The silhouette of the buzzard is particularly appropriate to its function as a bird of prey – a menacing dark brown shape with broad wings upturned at the tips. Its loud mewing call which echoed in the confined valley was an eerie warning to small creatures on the ground.

Related: Dilemma on the moor: The truth about pony slaughter on Dartmoor

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With particles, size really matters

The Guardian - Mon, 2017-06-12 06:30

Engineers call them nano-particles, and close to congested roads and busy airports, we inhale them in astonishing numbers

In 1996, the Scottish scientist Anthony Seaton put forward a new theory about the health problems from modern air pollution. Throughout our evolution, we have always lived with dusts, but Seaton suggested that the problems from modern air pollution were due to the sheer number of tiny pollution particles that we are now exposed to.

Related: Time for the oil industry to snuff out its flares

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The eco guide to prison labour

The Guardian - Sun, 2017-06-11 15:00

The world’s biggest companies, from Starbucks to Victoria’s Secret, use prisoners to work on their products. Is it helpful work experience or sheer exploitation?

We are all, at heart, ethical consumers. I’ve never met anyone actively looking for a dose of slave labour with their teabags, window frames or underwear.

71% of companies surveyed in 2015 believed their supply chains might contain some form of slavery

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Salmon farmers ‘put wild fish at risk’ in fight to kill off sea lice

The Guardian - Sun, 2017-06-11 07:11
Use of wrasse to combat parasite threatens natural stocks, say experts

Salmon farmers have been accused of playing dirty by using fish caught in the wild to clean lice from Scottish fish farms. Marine conservation experts say that shipping tonnes of English-caught wrasse a year – to tackle lice infestations in salmon pens north of the border – is endangering natural stocks. English anglers have also warned wrasse is becoming harder and harder to find in local waters.

However, salmon farmers have rejected the charge. They say the use of wrasse as a “cleaner” fish is part of a long-term plan to replace chemicals – which are currently administered to pens to control lice infestations – with sustainable, biological controls.

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A goat's dream job?

BBC - Sat, 2017-06-10 16:36
Mangers of Prospect Park in New York are happy with their new employee.
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All the colours of the machair

The Guardian - Sat, 2017-06-10 14:30

South Uist The dominant hue will change gradually, as first one then another wildflower species comes to the fore on land left to lie fallow

The continuation of traditional crofting methods ensures that the island’s machair is still celebrated for the spectacular profusion of wildflowers that occurs in the summer. Yellows, whites, purples and blues are all present, though the dominant hue will change gradually, as first one then another species comes to the fore on the land left to lie fallow. But where, after their period of rest, different areas are put back under cultivation, there are other changes in colour.

This spring the grassland down at the end of the track that reaches the sea came under the plough, its green replaced by an expanse of pale open ground. Stretches of machair ready for planting are nothing like prepared fields seen elsewhere in Britain.

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