The Guardian
'The time has never been more urgent': at the world's largest Earth science event
With Trump set to have a ‘chilling effect’ on environmental policy, 20,000 Earth and space scientists met in California to face up to a new responsibility
They argued about moon-plasma interactions, joked about polar bears, and waxed nostalgic for sturdy sea ice.
But few of the 20,000 Earth and climate scientists meeting in San Francisco this week had much to say about the president-elect, Donald Trump – though his incoming administration loomed over much of the conference.
Continue reading...Moss spores seize the day under bare trees
Wolsingham, Weardale With brighter light, mosses can reproduce – with structures of exquisite functional beauty
Today was the worst kind of winter day; short, sunless and cold. It took a real effort of will to leave home and walk muddy footpaths under drizzly skies, but I was glad that I did.
Everywhere there were signs of vigorous, bright green, new growth in the woodlands beside the river bank.
Continue reading...Oceanographers offer clues to Malaysian airlines crash | John Abraham
Deploying drifters and using computer models, oceanographers identified the most likely crash area for flight MH370
No doubt nearly everyone is familiar with the story. In early 2014, Malaysian flight MH370 left Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, on a flight to China. The flight disappeared from communication and was never found; despite great search efforts.
It isn’t that there is no evidence of the crash. In July of last year, a portion of a wing was found near Madagascar and Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. Since then, other debris has been found in the Western Indian Ocean.
Continue reading...EU easing of fishing quotas raises scientists fears dwindling stocks
Ministers accused of ignoring scientists’ recommendations as UK fleets allowed to catch more cod, haddock and sole
British fishing fleets will be allowed to catch greater quantities of cod, haddock and sole next year, after Europe’s ministers approved a new fishing quota that will cheer fish and chip shops but has alarmed scientists concerned over dwindling stocks.
The European Union’s fisheries council reached an agreement in the early hours of Wednesday morning, in what may be one of the last such quota divisions in which the UK takes part if supporters of a hard Brexit have their way.
Continue reading...ASA bans ad to remove pollution filters from diesel cars
Diesel filters cost £1,000 to replace so many garages exploit legal loophole by removing filter letting cars pump out toxic particles
The rogue practice of removing vital pollution filters from the exhausts of diesel vehicles has suffered a blow with the Advertising Standards Agency for the first time banning an advert for the service.
However the number of filterless cars on UK roads, pumping out high levels of toxic particles, remains unknown and air pollution campaigners say the government must investigate and then crack down on the shady practice.
Continue reading...Winter woods seen through the eyes of a buzzard
Wenlock Edge, Shropshire I like these muddy colours in the landscape, but the buzzard sees them far more intensely
A buzzard perches on the high branch of a leafless tree. With its back to me, it looks out on the same scene, but do we see the same thing? I see through the trees to fields chemically enhanced with the vivid greens of new crops. The old landscape under this December sky is a brown study: a mood induced by hedges, ash keys, muddy paths, the woods bare and misty-headed with reddish and purple-brown buds. The subtlety of these colours has a deepening beauty as winter thickens across the land.
This buzzard is a harlequin of browns, greys and whites, and it has been suggested that because of this plumage, colour is relatively unimportant to these predators. I’m always impressed when I see buzzards soaring and they catch the light in the silvery feathers under their wings and their markings glow like bronze and polished wood. But this display is for the benefit of other buzzards, not for me.
Queensland's largest solar farm plugs into the grid a month early
The 20 megawatt plant in Barcaldine is one of first in the country to be funded by Australian Renewable Energy Agency
Queensland’s largest operating solar farm has plugged into the national electricity grid and is set to generate enough power for almost 10,000 households by the end of 2016.
The Barcaldine remote community solar farm, in the state’s central west outback, connected to the national electricity market on Wednesday, more than a month ahead of schedule.
Continue reading...GM delivers first Chevrolet Bolts, sparking electric car price race
General Motors says first units handed over to customers in Fremont, California, where rival Tesla is scheduled to start producing budget Model 3 in 2017
General Motors has delivered its first Chevrolet Bolt electric cars to three customers in Fremont, California, home to rival electric automaker Tesla’s assembly plant.
This allows the Detroit automaker to claim first place in the race to deliver an electric car that can run for more than 200 miles on a charge and has a starting price below $40,000. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has promised its entry in this new segment, the Model 3, will go into production in July.
Continue reading...Trampoline gives hens a measure of freedom | Brief letters
The “Orwellian” schmoozing of young people in schools along the proposed HS2 route (Report, 12 December) pales into insignificance alongside the efforts of the nuclear industry to ingratiate itself with the community around the Magnox nuclear power station at Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex. Some 20 or more years ago Girl Guides staged an enrolment ceremony while standing on the pile cap of the then active nuclear reactor.
Val Mainwood
Wivenhoe, Essex
• The inhabitants of Mata Hari’s home city would not be pleased to read that they live in “Friesland, Holland” (Mother, dancer, wife, spy, G2, 6 December). Friesland, one of the 12 provinces of the Netherlands, has its own language, literature and proud history. North and South Holland are merely two other provinces of the same country. My Frisian husband, having lived in London for over 40 years, recently acquired a second passport. He became a British citizen – not an English one. It’s pretty much the same difference.
Liz Barnes
London
Briton swims Antarctic in campaign for three marine sanctuaries
Endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh employs ‘Speedo diplomacy’ to stop overfishing in Antarctic
A British man will plunge into sub-zero waters in the Antarctic on Tuesday to campaign for the creation of three huge marine parks to stop overfishing.
Lewis Pugh is credited with playing an important role in the agreement earlier this year to create the world’s largest marine protected area (MPA) and make fishing off limits in much of the Ross Sea, a bay in the Southern Ocean.
Continue reading...Leaked BP report reveals serious near-miss accidents
Costly failures show ‘urgent attention’ needed to improve how oil giant manages crucial engineering data at plants
An internal report into how the oil giant BP monitors its refinery and chemical sites has revealed at least two near-miss accidents that could have caused deaths.
The report, leaked to Greenpeace, concludes that “urgent attention” is required to improve how BP manages crucial engineering data across the world and that the company lags behind its competitors including Shell, Chevron, Petronas and ConocoPhillips.
Continue reading...China to set date to close ivory factories
Preparation is under way in China to bring in a ban on their domestic ivory trade, following a promise made with the US earlier this year
China is set to announce when it will close its legal ivory carving factories, 18 months after pledging to act.
Last year, the world’s largest market for both legal and illegal ivory said it would shut down commercial sales within the country. But did not set a timeline.
Continue reading...Keep it in the ground: five trillion reasons to be happy
The value of investment funds committed to selling off fossil fuel assets has jumped to $5.2tn, doubling in just over a year
Five years ago, the idea that investments in fossil fuel companies were morally or financially problematic was all but unheard of. But an argument started to take shape on US university campuses — that with more coal, oil and gas in existing reserves than can ever be burned while keeping climate change under control, it is ethical and economic madness to spend billions looking for more.
Fast forward to today and the argument has rocketed into mainstream financial thinking. It was revealed on Monday that investors worth more than $5tn have now committed to dump their fossil fuel stocks, and more than 80% of that is professional funds run for profit. Furthermore, this risk of a “carbon bubble” is now being taken seriously at the highest level, including by the Bank of England, World Bank and the G20’s financial stability board.
Continue reading...Pesticides stop bees buzzing and releasing pollen, says study
Researchers find neonicotinoid insecticides harm ability of bees to vibrate flowers and shake out pollen to fertilise crops
The world’s most widely used insecticides harm the ability of bees to vibrate flowers and shake out the pollen to fertilise crops, according to preliminary results from a new study.
Some flowers, such as those of crops like tomatoes and potatoes, must be shaken to release pollen and bumblebees are particularly good at creating the buzz needed to do this. But the research shows that bumblebees exposed to realistic levels of a neonicotinoid pesticide fail to learn how to create the greatest buzz and collect less pollen as a result.
Continue reading...At sundown, the Sussex skies come alive
Waltham Brooks, West Sussex I count at least four separate birds’ voices. They seem more eerie in the cold and dark
It feels less cold, but the grass is still hard, smooth and slippery underfoot. The channels and small pools of water are almost completely frozen over, their surfaces patterned like frosted glass where the water has thawed and frozen again. A grey mist is starting to rise from the ground. In the distance, the red sun is sinking behind the South Downs and the sky glows with ember streaks of orange and red.
From the reeds along the river’s edge, water rails are calling. Familiar but always unnerving, their grunts and cries – often compared to the squeals of piglets – are known as “sharming”. I count at least four separate birds’ voices. They seem more eerie in the cold and dark. As I walk along the river bank, a moorhen and three water rail fly, one by one, across the river to the other side and into cover. The squealing sounds become a cacophony.
Continue reading...Canadian firefighters smash ice to rescue moose from frozen lake – video
Firefighters rescue a freezing 500lb (225kg) female moose in Canada, using axes to make a path through the ice on Saturday to help it reach the shore. Rescuers spent 90 minutes on the Shediac river in New Brunswick helping the animal which, after an initial fright, calmly watched them work. The animal mounted the bank and ran off.
Continue reading...'Flushable' wet wipes: consumer watchdog launches legal action
ACCC says customers have been misled to believe products could be safely flushed down the toilet
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has launched legal action against the manufacturers of “flushable” wet wipes over allegations that they falsely claimed the products would break down in the sewerage system.
The ACCC filed separate actions against Kimberly-Clark Australia and Pental Products in the federal court on Monday on the grounds that the label “flushable” had misled customers to believe that thewipes could be safely flushed down the toilet, just like toilet paper.
Continue reading...Fossil fuel divestment is worth $7tn globally yet Australia still clings to coal | Blair Palese
While the Australian government lags behind on climate change action, consumers, local councils and energy companies lead the way to clean energy
The Turnbull government has been an utter disappointment on so many things but nowhere as much as on the biggest issue of our time: climate change.
Unable to shrug off the legacy of the climate-denying Abbott government, it has been bullied out of any climate change ambition by science-denying fringe elements on the right.
Continue reading...Fossil fuel divestment funds double to $5tn in a year
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon welcomes new total revealing concern over coal, oil and gas investments has entered financial mainstream
The value of investment funds committed to selling off fossil fuel assets has jumped to $5.2tn, doubling in just over a year.
The new total, published on Monday, was welcomed by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who said: “It’s clear the transition to a clean energy future is inevitable, beneficial and well underway, and that investors have a key role to play.”
Continue reading...Rapid rise in methane emissions in 10 years surprises scientists
Methane warms planet 20 times as much as similar CO2 volumes but lack of monitoring means scientists can’t be sure of sources
Emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane have surged in the past decade, threatening to thwart global attempts to combat climate change.
Scientists have been surprised by the surge, which began just over 10 years ago in 2007 and then was boosted even further in 2014 and 2015. Concentrations of methane in the atmosphere over those two years alone rose by more than 20 parts per billion, bringing the total to 1,830ppb.
Continue reading...