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More than half of jobs in UK solar industry lost in wake of subsidy cuts
Change in government’s energy policy blamed for job losses just as solar power eclipses coal in electricity generation
The solar power industry says it has seen the loss of more than half its 35,000 jobs due to recent changes in government energy policy, just at a time when solar power has eclipsed coal as a major generator of Britain’s electricity.
Experts believe ministers had cut subsidies too far and too fast, praising the “seismic”, record-breaking growth of solar in recent years.
Continue reading...The last frontier: the climbers conquering Mount Everest without oxygen
Among elite mountain climbers, summiting Everest sans oxygen has become the latest challenge in an already grueling journey
Another climbing season has finished on Mount Everest, with the inevitable tales of tragedy and triumph.
Since 2000, an average of seven people a year have died on Everest. The past two years were especially grim: 19 people were killed by an earthquake-triggered avalanche in 2015, and 16 died in 2014.
Continue reading...Solar Impulse flies over night-time New York
British flower power: how home-grown blooms can compete with cheap imports
The UK spends more than £2bn on cut flowers per year, but around 90% are imported. Now a new breed of growers are determined to grab more of that market, by persuading the public that local and seasonal are the ways to go
Georgie Newbery sometimes has to dodge a hunting barn owl when she rises at 5am to harvest flowers on her seven-acre plot near Wincanton in Somerset. Picking sweet rocket, foxgloves and cornflowers as dawn light streaks over the fields may sound idyllic, but grabbing a cup of tea on a late-May afternoon after despatching her exclusively British-grown posies and bouquets, Newbery laughs at the thought. “If you imagine it’s all standing around in a flower garden with a Roberts radio and a robin singing, you couldn’t be more wrong,” she says, possibly a little tartly.
Related: Is crowdfunding the future of horticulture?
Continue reading...Tackling pollution: Beijing's electric bikes and buses - in pictures
Vehicles are the source of a third of the air pollution in the Chinese capital, which restricts their use during episodes of heavy smog. Electric cars, buses, scooters and bicycles offer an alternative, cleaner form of transport
The humble daisy brings a smile to my face
South Uist The plant’s uses are many, but the sight of a sunlit field full of daisies is perhaps what we should value most
Daisies are one of our best known and most widely distributed wildflowers, and maybe this is why we sometimes pass them by with barely a second glance. This morning, though, they have stopped me in my tracks and brought a smile to my face.
They line the edge of the path, spangle the open grassland, and have so thoroughly covered one fenced pasture that almost all signs of grass have vanished beneath a blanket of white. In the warm sunshine each and every one turns a bright and open face skywards, a response that gave them their name “day’s eye”.
Continue reading...The changing world of power generation and consumption
Nobel prize winners warn leaving EU poses 'risk' to science
Flying for your life: China's new great wall
Ellen DeGeneres bewildered at backlash to her Great Barrier Reef request
Comedian says she put out an announcement because of the need to protect oceans and the reef, and cannot understand what the fuss is all about
The US talkshow queen Ellen DeGeneres is bewildered her call to protect the Great Barrier Reef has sparked a backlash in Australia.
DeGeneres made headlines earlier in the week with the release of a video public service announcement as part of the Remember the Reef campaign.
Continue reading...Extraterrestrial honour for UK astronaut Tim Peake
Country Breakfast Features Sat 11
Light pollution 'affects 80% of global population'
Light pollution atlas shows areas of Earth that cannot see the stars – video
A team of scientists at the National Centers for Environmental Information in Boulder, Colorado have produced a digital atlas of the Earth that shows the levels of light pollution. The atlas makes use of low-light imaging now available from the NOAA/NASA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite, calibrated by thousands of ground observations. Light pollution is so severe in some parts of the world that a third of human beings cannot see the Milky Way
Continue reading...Microbeads, Great Barrier Reef and CO2 turned to stone – green news roundup
The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox
Continue reading...Brexit would worsen UK's air pollution crisis, say experts
A poll of environmental professionals showed most think the UK benefits from EU air pollution rules
The UK’s air pollution crisis would get worse if the country votes to leave the European Union, according to a new poll of environment professionals.
The UK already has levels of air pollution above legal EU limits in many cities, resulting in 40,000 early deaths a year, while ministers are currently lobbying in Brussels against lower air pollution limits.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
Tibetan antelopes, tussling Indian rat snakes and Europe’s last primeval forest are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...Paris floods made almost twice as likely by climate change, say scientists
Manmade global warming greatly increased the risk of extreme rain affecting the French capital, analysis shows
The Paris floods, that saw extreme rainfall swell the river Seine to its highest level in decades, were made almost twice as likely because of the manmade emissions driving global warming, scientists have found.
A three-day period of heavy rain at the end of May saw tens of thousands of people evacuated across France, and the capital’s normally busy river closed to traffic because the water levels were so high under bridges. As artworks in the Louvre were moved to safety and Paris’s cobbled walkways were submerged, the French president, François Hollande, blamed the floods on climate change.
Continue reading...Yorkshire fracking approval may be unlawful, campaigners say
Decision to allow shale gas tests in village of Kirby Misperton could be challenged in court, Friends of the Earth says
Anti-fracking campaigners have claimed that a decision to allow energy companies to drill for shale gas in Yorkshire could be challenged in court.
The fracking firm Third Energy was given permission last month to carry out test drilling at a site in Kirby Misperton in Rydale, North Yorkshire, even after locals opposed the application.
Continue reading...Suncatcher: the road to a solar powered global transport network – video
The world is covered in more than 40m miles of road networks. What if this network could act like solar panels, and what if we could power our vehicles with the energy generated by this? In 2009, these questions formed the beginning of a vision for the future for Sten De Wit at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research in Delft, whose ideas are being put into practice with SolaRoad
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