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Will a 25p charge change Britain's throwaway coffee cup culture?
On a busy Guildford high street reaction to the proposed ‘latte levy’ is mixed. While many welcome the move to change peoples’ habits, for some, already feeling the squeeze of a weak pound, the 25p hit is too high
Turn any corner in the busy town centre of Guildford on a weekday morning, and someone is carrying a disposable cup bearing the logo of one of the major chains.
Each minute in the UK about 500 of these used coffee cups are thrown away. Every year consumers use and dispose of 2.5bn of them. The vast majority are not recycled.
Continue reading...Giant curtain erected in Peru in bid to reveal secrets of the cloud forest
Global warming is predicted to push clouds higher in the sky. One scientist hopes to understand the future of our forests by suspending a vast fog-catching mesh in the Peruvian jungle
What will happen if climate change pushes clouds higher into the sky, as models predict? One ecosystem that will be seriously affected will be cloud forests – tropical jungles persistently bathed in fog.
Until now, little research had been done on the likely impacts of rising clouds, but one scientist is planning to change that using an enormous curtain strung up in the middle of the forest.
Continue reading...Trial of laser beams to scare sea eagles from lambs
Braer: The huge oil spill that Shetland survived
Cardiff University scientists' drugs test breakthrough
MPs call for 25p charge on takeaway coffee cups ahead of possible ban
In UK 2.5bn disposable cups are thrown away each year, of which less than 0.25% are recycled, according to environmental audit committee report
MPs are calling for a 25p charge on takeaway coffee in a move that could see disposable cups banned in five years time.
In the UK 2.5bn takeaway coffee cups are used and thrown away each year – enough to stretch around the world five-and-a-half-times. The UK produces 30,000 tonnes of coffee cup waste each year, according to a report published by MPs on the environmental audit committee on Friday.
Continue reading...Commonwealth environmental water for sale in Gwydir
Commonwealth environmental water for sale in Gwydir
'Latte levy' of 25p urged by MPs in bid to cut cup waste
Trump administration plans to allow oil and gas drilling off nearly all US coast
- Ryan Zinke unveils plan to offer leases in Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic
- Environmental groups and some Republicans lead outcry
The Trump administration has unveiled a plan that would open almost all US offshore territory to oil and gas drilling, including previously protected areas of the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific oceans.
Related: Trump plan to shrink ocean monuments threatens vital ecosystems, experts warn
Continue reading...Fishermen in South Australia given new weapon to stop hungry seals eating their catch
Grand Designs £27,000 eco-home in Wales burns to the ground
Simon and Jasmine Dale spent six years building their home, which is now the subject of a crowdfunding appeal
An eco-home labelled the “cheapest house ever built in the western hemisphere” on the Channel 4 programme Grand Designs, has been destroyed by a fire.
The three-bedroomed house, which is based in the sustainable community of Lammas in rural Pembrokeshire, was featured on the TV programme in 2016 after its owners, Simon and Jasmine Dale, spent just £27,000 building it.
Continue reading...Coral reefs head for 'knock-out punch'
How playing games on your phone or tablet could cut your power bill
Coral bleaching events increasing, but 'we still have a time to act' says researcher
Oceans suffocating as huge dead zones quadruple since 1950, scientists warn
Areas starved of oxygen in open ocean and by coasts have soared in recent decades, risking dire consequences for marine life and humanity
Ocean dead zones with zero oxygen have quadrupled in size since 1950, scientists have warned, while the number of very low oxygen sites near coasts have multiplied tenfold. Most sea creatures cannot survive in these zones and current trends would lead to mass extinction in the long run, risking dire consequences for the hundreds of millions of people who depend on the sea.
Climate change caused by fossil fuel burning is the cause of the large-scale deoxygenation, as warmer waters hold less oxygen. The coastal dead zones result from fertiliser and sewage running off the land and into the seas.
Continue reading...Coral reef bleaching 'the new normal' and a fatal threat to ecosystems
Study of 100 tropical reef locations finds time between bleaching events has shrunk and is too short for full recovery
Repeated large-scale coral bleaching events are the new normal thanks to global warming, a team of international scientists has found.
In a study published in the journal Science, the researchers revealed a “dramatic shortening” of the time between bleaching events was “threatening the future existence of these iconic ecosystems and the livelihoods of many millions of people”.
Continue reading...Brazil raises hopes of a retreat from new mega-dam construction
Hydropower policy to be rethought in face of environmental concerns, indigenous sensitivities and public unease, says surprise government statement
After swathes of forest clearance, millions of tonnes of concrete and decades of hydro-expansion, Brazil has raised hopes that it may finally step back from the construction of new mega-dams.
In a surprise statement, a senior government official said hydropower policy needed to be rethought in the face of environmental concerns, indigenous sensitivities and public unease.
Focus on quality not weakened regulation post-Brexit, Gove tells farmers
Quality and provenance must be the future of the British food industry, rather than lowering regulation or welfare standards, says environment secretary
The future of the British food industry after Brexit must focus on quality and provenance rather than weakened regulation, environment secretary Michael Gove has said.
“The future for British food is in quality and provenance and traceability and competing at the top of the value chain,” Gove told a packed auditorium at the Oxford Real Farming Conference. “And if we sign trade deals or lower our regulation or welfare standards in a way that means we’re no longer at the top of the value chain, then we undermine the growing strength of the very best of British food production.”
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