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If consumers knew how farmed chickens were raised, they might never eat their meat again
The year 2012 marked a leap forward for animal welfare in the European Union. Farmers were no longer allowed to keep egg-laying hens in barren battery cages smaller than an A4 sheet of paper. Instead, the minimum requirement now is that hens are kept in a cage the size of an A4 sheet of paper, with an extra postcard-sized bit of shared space that allows them to scratch and nest. These are known as enriched cages.
Animal welfare campaigners would like to see them abolished too, saying they barely make a difference to the birds’ ability to express their natural behaviour and live free from stress. Around half of the eggs we eat are still produced in caged systems.
Continue reading...River on fire in Greens MP's video is natural, not fracking, says CSIRO
Jeremy Buckingham says scientists ‘making excuses’ for CSG industry after footage shows him touching off sheet of flame on the Condamine river
The CSIRO has defended its independence after a Greens MP, whose footage of burning methane on a Queensland river went viral, accused the government-funded research body of “making excuses” for the coal seam gas industry.
Jeremy Buckingham, a member of the New South Wales parliament’s upper house, posted the video, which showed him lighting the surface of the Condamine river with a barbecue lighter and sending flames licking around the boat, on his Facebook page on Friday. By Sunday it had been shared 13,000 times and had 2.2m views.
Continue reading...SENG seminar - Transition to Low Carbon Economy, May 2016
US moves to sell gene-edited mushrooms fuel doubts over British ban on GM imports
American regulators have allowed the cultivation and sale of two crops modified with the gene-editing technique known as Crispr. The crops – a white button mushroom and a form of corn – are the first Crispr plants to be permitted for commercial use in the US.
The move is a boost for new technology in the creation of foodstuffs, but is expected to worsen the considerable confusion in Britain over the use of gene-editing in agriculture and the importing of crops created using such technology.
Continue reading...Why it makes sense to burn ivory stockpiles
On 30 April Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta will set fire to 105 tonnes of ivory in Nairobi National Park. Here are four reasons why it’s the right thing to do
By burning almost its entire ivory stockpile, Kenya is sending out the message that it will never benefit from illegal ivory captured from poachers or seized in transit. However, as the day of the burn approaches, commentators and experts have been lining up to condemn it. Some of the objections put forward are based on wrong assumptions; some deserve serious consideration.
Here I summarise four of the most frequent arguments being made against the burn and explain why, in my view, they are wrong.
Continue reading...Tracking to 2020 - April 2016 update
Huge coral reef discovered at Amazon river mouth
Scientists astonished to find 600-mile long reef under the muddy water in a site already marked for oil exploration
A huge 3,600 sq mile (9,300 sq km) coral reef system has been found below the muddy waters off the mouth of the river Amazon, astonishing scientists, governments and oil companies who have started to explore on top of it.
The existence of the 600-mile long reef, which ranges from about 30-120m deep and stretches from French Guiana to Brazil’s Maranhão state, was not suspected because many of the world’s great rivers produce major gaps in reef systems where no corals grow.
Continue reading...Zero-waste bloggers: the millennials who can fit a year's worth of trash in a jar
These bloggers treasure taking a sleek, modern approach to reducing waste in their efforts to save the planet – but they face their fair share of criticism, too
In pictures: how to produce nearly zero waste
Kathryn Kellogg, a 25-year-old print shop employee, spends four hours a day on her lifestyle blog Going Zero Waste. She posts on Instagram, engages with Facebook followers, and writes about homemade eyeliner and lip balm, worm composting, and shopping bulk bins – anything to avoid unnecessary waste. Her trash for the past year – anything that hasn’t been composted or recycled – fits in an 8oz jar.
Kellogg is earnest, enthusiastic, and admittedly still figuring out what it means to be zero waste. The aspiring actor has also weathered her fair share of criticism. “I’m not even that big yet and I get so much hate mail,” says Kellogg, who draws 10,000 unique page views a month and has 800 subscribers.
Continue reading...Commonwealth Southern Bluefin Tuna Fishery - Application 2016
Zac Goldsmith backs fossil fuel divestment movement
Tory London mayoral candidate supports pulling City Hall’s fund out of oil, coal and gas companies if elected
Zac Goldsmith has backed the fossil fuel divestment movement and said he would pursue efforts to pull London City Hall’s pension fund out of investments in oil, coal and gas if he was elected mayor.
The Conservative mayoral candidate’s support for moving the £4.8bn London Pension Authority Fund (LPFA) out of fossil fuel investments is at odds with Boris Johnson, who last year rejected a motion calling for divestment.
Continue reading...European commission plans to relicense 'carcinogenic' weedkiller
Leaked proposal on glyphosate seen by the Guardian has few substantive changes from the one that was blocked last month
The European commission is planning to relicense a controversial weedkiller that the World Health Organisation believes probably causes cancer in people, despite opposition from several countries and the European parliament.
In 2015 the International Agency for Research on Cancer – WHO’s cancer agency – said that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide made by agriculture company Monsanto and used widely with GM crops around the world, was classified as probably carcinogenic to humans.
Continue reading...Baby giant dinosaurs hatched with adult-like proportions
What is behind the diesel cars emissions scandal?
All 93 vehicles tested in Germany and UK exceeded EU-set limits on air quality and pollution in real-world situation
The air pollution scandal that hit front pages around the world last year with VW’s admission it had been cheating emissions tests has got much bigger.
A UK government-sponsored trial launched in the wake of the VW revelations has found that every single one of the diesel-fuelled vehicles tested had higher emissions of nitrogen oxide pollutants than permitted under EU laws. For some models emissions were 12 times the legal limit.
Continue reading...Study reveals greater climate impacts of 2C temperature rise
Analysis of difference between 1.5C and 2C of warming finds extra 0.5C would mean longer heatwaves, greater droughts and threats to crops and coral reefs
A difference of half a degree centigrade may be barely noticeable day to day, but the difference between 1.5C and 2C of global warming is a shift into a new, more dangerous climate regime, according to the first comprehensive analysis of the issue.
The scientists found the additional 0.5C would lead to longer heatwaves, greater droughts and, in the tropics, reduced crop yield and all coral reefs being put in grave danger.
Continue reading...Vietnam investigates mass fish deaths
Authorities are looking into whether pollution is to blame for a spate of mysterious mass fish deaths along the country’s central coast
Vietnam said on Thursday it was investigating whether pollution is to blame for a spate of mysterious mass fish deaths along the country’s central coast after huge amounts of marine life washed ashore in recent days.
Tonnes of fish, including rare species which live far offshore and in the deep, have been discovered on beaches along the country’s central coastal provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Tri, Quang Binh and Hue.
Continue reading...New Zealand conservationists celebrate rare parrot breeding success
The kākāpō has had its most successful breeding season since conservation efforts rescued it from the brink of extinction in the 1970s
The world’s heaviest parrot, a critically endangered bird that only lives in a remote part of New Zealand, has had its most successful breeding season since conservation efforts began more than two decades ago.
Thirty-seven kākāpō chicks are currently surviving, providing a much-needed boost to the population of 123 adult kākāpō which live on predator-free islands.
Continue reading...Mourning Loomis Reef - the heart of the Great Barrier Reef's coral bleaching disaster
Corals on Loomis Reef are dying as one veteran scientist lets the “veil” of academia drop to reveal anger and frustration
Stretching for half a kilometre or so, Loomis Reef is the place where the alarm bells started going off.
Prof Justin Marshall has been diving this reef, about 270km north of Cairns, for 30 years. Right now he is, to say the least, angry.
Continue reading...Fossil teeth of 21-million-year-old monkey discovered in North America
Brain circuit that helps us adapt to change fades with age
More than 1,000 species have been moved due to human impact
Animals and plants are increasingly being ‘translocated’ from their native areas to survive effects of climate change, poaching and habitat loss, says top conservationist
More than 1,000 species have had to be relocated because of climate change, poaching and humans taking their habitat, according to a top conservationist.
Dr Axel Moehrenschlager said cases of “translocation”, such as India’s plan to relocate tigers to Cambodia or South Africa’s scheme to airlift rhinos to Australia, have increased exponentially in recent decades and will become more common due to human pressures driving species closer to extinction.
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