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SENG Networking Event on Tuesday - Intersection of Engineering, Sustainability, and Politics
Signal detected from 'cosmic dawn'
Pesticides put bees at risk, European watchdog confirms
How warm arctic weather caused the 'Beast from the East'
Grey squirrels are unfairly maligned | Letters
Your article (The faddy eater: Could I stomach southern-fried squirrel?, 22 February) should be admired for its honesty in showing appropriate discomfort with the idea of eating a creature that should have been living, breathing, playing, instead of suffering an early violent death. However, it also propagates a couple of myths regarding the highly intelligent and successful grey squirrel. The thing is, red squirrels, for whose troubles the greys are blamed, became virtually extinct in this country before greys were even introduced. That happened because of habitat loss. The reds were then also reintroduced from continental Europe, so the “nativeness” narrative is flawed. The tree damage is hugely exaggerated as well – the Forestry Commission puts the damage at 5%. More is lost due to poor growing practices. Furthermore, that figure relates to commercial forestry: in natural woodland grey squirrels are uniformly good for the ecosystem.
Natalia Doran
Urban Squirrels, London
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Continue reading...Adani asked Coalition to help secure funding from China, FOI shows
Exclusive: Despite official denials, emails reveal discussions about the Indian company’s requests before ministers wrote to a Chinese agency vouching for the $16bn project
Adani asked the Australian government to help secure funding for its controversial Carmichael coalmine, documents obtained under Freedom of information reveal. Two government ministers subsequently wrote to a Chinese government agency vouching for the proposed coalmine.
Continue reading...Peru moves to create huge new indigenous reserves in Amazon
Major step taken by government Multi-Sector Commission following 15 year process
Two “naked” people spotted hunting armadillo. One “naked” family on a river-bank. About five other “naked” people - plus houses, settlements and crops - seen from small planes. Fresh footprints on a path, on a tree trunk, and along a Canadian oil company’s seismic lines. Noises in the night. Whistling and birdsong imitation. A loosed arrow. Fishing utensils, abandoned fires, and food stolen from inhabitants in the surrounding areas. . .
This is just some of the vital evidence currently being used to promote the establishment of two new reserves for indigenous peoples living in “isolation” that together could extend for more than 2.5 million hectares across one of the remotest parts of Peru’s Amazon, along the border with Brazil. If created, they could become the biggest indigenous reserves in the country.
Q&A: What does all this snow mean for climate change?
Why are scientists worried about freezing temperatures in winter, is the beast from the east a freak event – and what is the polar vortex?
Q: Snow in winter. That feels reassuringly normal. Does this mean the climate has fixed itself?
A: Unfortunately not. In fact, many scientists are concerned this is a prelude to more extreme and less predictable weather.
Continue reading...England sees funding fall for energy-efficient homes
Latin America poised to agree world's first legal pact for nature defenders
After lengthy negotiations and record deaths of defenders on the continent, sources say a deal is very likely to be reached
Latin American countries are poised to agree the world’s first legally binding convention to protect environmental defenders at a conference in Costa Rica.
Land activists and indigenous people were killed in record numbers on the continent last year, with more than two nature protectors murdered every week.
Continue reading...Rome to ban diesel cars from city centre by 2024
Mayor announces ‘strong measures’ to tackle pollution in Italy’s traffic-clogged capital
Rome, one of Europe’s most traffic-clogged cities and home to thousands of ancient outdoor monuments threatened by pollution, plans to ban diesel cars from the centre by 2024, its mayor has said.
Virginia Raggi announced the decision on her Facebook page on Tuesday, saying: “If we want to intervene seriously, we have to have the courage to adopt strong measures”.
Continue reading...Total ban on bee-harming pesticides likely after major new EU analysis
Analysis from EU’s scientific risk assessors finds neonicotinoids pose a serious danger to all bees, making total field ban highly likely
The world’s most widely used insecticides pose a serious danger to both honeybees and wild bees, according to a major new assessment from the European Union’s scientific risk assessors.
The conclusion, based on analysis of more than 1,500 studies, makes it highly likely that the neonicotinoid pesticides will be banned from all fields across the EU when nations vote on the issue next month.
Continue reading...Is the UK winning the graphene race?
Shorten is selling out miners to get Green votes on Adani, says Turnbull
The prime minister’s attack focuses on Labor’s policy shift on Carmichael mine and renews attempts to paint Labor leader as ‘not fair dinkum’
Malcolm Turnbull has blasted Bill Shorten for going “snorkelling” on the Great Barrier Reef courtesy of the Australian Conservation Foundation, and for selling blue-collar jobs down the river “to get Green votes” in the Batman byelection.
The prime minister went on the political offensive against Shorten after the businessman and environmentalist Geoff Cousins revealed a series of conversations with the Labor leader over the past three months about stopping the controversial Adani coal project in Queensland.
Continue reading...PG tips announces switch to plastic-free fully biodegradable teabags
Pyramid teabags made from a plant-based material will go on sale next week, with company’s other teabags set to follow suit by end of 2018
The UK’s biggest tea brand is switching to fully biodegradable tea bags free from synthetic materials to cut down on plastic pollution caused by the nation’s favourite hot drink.
The first of the new eco-friendly pyramid teabags from PG tips – made from a plant-based material that is 100% renewable and biodegradable – will go on sale in UK supermarkets next week, it was announced on Wednesday.
Continue reading...First plastic-free aisle is an example for other supermarkets to follow | Letters
There is no logic in wrapping perishable food in indestructible plastic, say campaigners hailing today’s launch in Amsterdam
Today the world’s first plastic-free aisle was launched in Amsterdam by environmental campaign group A Plastic Planet and Dutch supermarket Ekoplaza. The aisle enables shoppers to choose from 700 everyday products that are free from plastic packaging. Before the end of the year, Ekoplaza plans to roll the plastic-free aisle out across each of its 74 stores.
Plastic packaging has no place in food and drink. There is no logical basis for wrapping something as perishable as food with something as indestructible as plastic. With recycled plastics today accounting for just 6% of total plastics demand in Europe, it’s clear that we cannot recycle our way out of the plastic problem. Food and drink plastic packaging does not belong in a circular economy given that it is difficult to reclaim, is easily contaminated, and all too often proves valueless.
Continue reading...World's first plastic-free aisle opens in Netherlands supermarket
Campaigners hail progress as Amsterdam store offers dedicated aisle of more than 700 products, with plans for a national roll-out
Shoppers in the Netherlands will get the chance to visit Europe’s first plastic-free supermarket aisle on Wednesday in what campaigners claim is an turning point in the war on plastic pollution.
The store in Amsterdam will open its doors at 11am when shoppers will be able to choose from more than 700 plastic-free products, all available in one aisle.
Continue reading...Satellite Eye on Earth: January 2018 - in pictures
Sahara snow and volcanic colours are among the images captured by Nasa and the ESA last month
Rare snowfall in north-west Algeria, on the edge of the Sahara desert. Despite the desert at times being one of the hottest places on Earth, the snow was reported to be up to 40cm thick in some places. Although temperatures plummet during the night, snowfall is very unusual in the Sahara because the air is so dry. It is only the third time in nearly 40 years that this part of the desert has seen snow.
Continue reading...Country diary: cock of the bird table
Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: The chaffinch’s chest is dawn-lit, his head grey, the heraldry of his flash-feathers signalling the breeding season to come
For a brief moment, a cock chaffinch owns the world: a handful of seeds on a metre-square of concrete at the cold end of February. Watch the fighter’s forward shuffle, pushing towards the ropes of his entitlement; the eye-contact with invisible opponents. In a scattering of wild bird food, harvested somewhere else, bagged for the supermarket and broadcast here to rekindle a bond between person and bird, he asserts his antique right to gleanings.
He selects a seed the way a waller lifts the perfect stone to fill a gap. The precision instrument of his beak applies just enough pressure along the ridges to split its seam, then he rolls it crosswise to crack and separate the case, which he drops. This empty husk is the chaff, and the chaffinch’s skill is in the threshing of each grain, the winnowing that separates the germ of life from the box it comes in. Chaffinch do not eat the chaff but create it, a litter cast for others; I suppose the bird’s name comes from its foraging the rubbish of harvest. The chaffinch swallows the seed, and the future of wheat, maize, millet or oat plants becomes the future chaffinch.
Continue reading...South Korean steel giant takes stake in Pilbara lithium miner
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