The Guardian
New style of UK electricity pylon launches
National Grid begins construction on T-pylons, designed to have less impact on the landscape, in Nottinghamshire
They’ve marched tirelessly across the country for the last century, a 90,000-strong army of steel sentinels carrying electricity across hill and vale, gracefully suspended from their spindly frames. But now, the classic British pylon is facing extinction, thanks to a newcomer on the block: the whiter-than-white T-pylon, unveiled this week by the National Grid.
Designed by the Danish architecture and engineering firm Bystrup, the new pylon looks a bit like a ski lift mast adorned with two dangly diamond earrings, which hold three cables either side of the central pole.
Continue reading...Permafrost 'carbon bomb' may be more of a slow burn, say scientists
Carbon dioxide from thawing Arctic permafrost is likely to be released gradually, rather than in a catastrophic eruption as previously predicted - but impact of emissions will still be great, new research suggests
The ‘carbon bomb’ stored in the thawing Arctic permafrost may be released in a slow leak as global warming takes hold, rather than an eruption, according to new research.
Scientists at the US Geological Survey (USGS) found previous predictions of a catastrophic release of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere as permafrost thaws may have been overstated.
Continue reading...Daily Express weather warning: beware a shower of extreme inaccuracy
Easter 80F heatwave? Or 10 inches of snow? Why are we offered such absurd predictions from the Daily Express? It’s time for a real weather report ...
There is bullshit, utter bullshit and Daily Express headlines. Reading the paper on Wednesday 1 April, I hadn’t the faintest idea which stories were supposed to be serious and which were April fools.
As the website expressbingo.org.uk points out, the paper has only about 12 front pages:
Continue reading...New energy storage plant could 'revolutionise' renewable sector
Flywheel plant being built in Ireland with potentially unlimited storage capability could solve the problem of clean energy supply shortfalls when there is insufficient sun or wind
Foundations for an energy storage plant in Ireland that could “revolutionise” the integration of renewable power into electricity supplies will be laid within weeks.
The plant will use a motor-generated flywheel to harness kinetic energy from the grid at times of over-supply. This will then be released from submerged turbines at times of supply shortfalls.
Continue reading...Captain deliberately sank illegal fishing vessel, claim Sea Shepherd rescuers
Conservationist group’s four-month pursuit of Thunder ended off west Africa, with the captain cheering and applauding as the boat went down, say rescue crew
After one of the longest aquatic pursuits in history, a vessel wanted for illegal fishing lies wrecked nearly 4km beneath the water off west Africa.
The vessel, Thunder, had been stalked by the Bob Barker, operated by the conservationist group Sea Shepherd, since 17 December. The two ships played a game of cat and mouse for 110 days, across 10,260 nautical miles through the Southern, Indian and Atlantic oceans, before the pursuit came to an end in the waters off São Tomé on Monday evening.
Continue reading...Fukushima disaster radiation detected off Canada's coast
Trace amounts of Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 detected in samples collected off the coast of Ucluelet, a small town on Vancouver Island in British Columbia
Radiation from Japan’s 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster has for the first time been detected along a North American shoreline, though at levels too low to pose a significant threat to human or marine life, scientists said.
Trace amounts of Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 were detected in samples collected on 19 February off the coast of Ucluelet, a small town on Vancouver Island in Canada’s British Columbia, said Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist Ken Buesseler.
Continue reading...UK's most endangered butterfly back from the brink
The critically endangered high brown fritillary had its best summer in a decade in 2014, with numbers rising 180% in a year thanks to conservation efforts
The most endangered butterfly in Britain enjoyed its best summer for a decade last year after highly focused conservation efforts on its 30 remaining sites.
Continue reading...First ozone hole found over Arctic: from the archive, 31 March 1995
Meteorologists and atmospheric chemists have watched in alarm as a similarly explosive mixture to the Antarctic vortex has been assembled in the Arctic
For the first time, scientists have detected a ‘hole’ in the ozone layer over the Arctic and northern Europe.
Ozone, a form of oxygen, acts as a high-altitude atmospheric screen against cancer-causing ultraviolet light. But at some altitudes this spring, levels have been 50 per cent below any previously observed.
James Rebanks, Twitter’s favourite shepherd: ‘Sheep farming is another form of culture, just like Picasso or punk’
“Be careful,” says James Rebanks. “She’s only just had puppies, and she’s very protective of them. She might give you a nip.” The mother to whom a wide berth must be given is his sheepdog Floss, tucked in the corner of the living room in Rebanks’ farmhouse feeding her 10 pups. The dad, Tan, his other sheepdog, is studiously avoiding his huge new family. An absentee father after just four days. Call canine social services.
It’s 8.30am on an intermittently bright early spring day in the Lake District – “a bonny day”, Rebanks’ father-in-law, Ian, calls it later, when a sudden hailstorm subsides. Rebanks’ wife, Helen, is getting his two young daughters ready for school; three-year-old son Isaac is playing with his model sheep; Rebanks himself is preparing for his morning’s work: feeding his 450 sheep, most of which are pregnant with lambs. He’s taking me along for the ride. He is riding a quad bike; I’m in a small trailer filled with hay being pulled along behind. It is not a glamorous assignment.
Continue reading...Rockefeller family tried and failed to get ExxonMobil to accept climate change
Founding family of the US oil empire Exxon, begged the company to give up climate denial and reform their ways a decade ago – but attempts at engagement failed
Members of the Rockefeller family tried to get ExxonMobil to acknowledge the dangers of climate change a decade ago – but failed in their efforts to reform the oil giant.
In letters, lunch meetings, and shareholder resolutions, the descendants of John D Rockefeller, founder of the oil empire that eventually became Exxon, sought repeatedly to persuade the company to abandon climate denial and begin shifting their business towards clean energy.
Continue reading...Cat litter blamed for $240m radiation leak at New Mexico nuclear waste dump
Cat litter used to absorb liquids in a barrel of nuclear waste was the wrong type, sparking a chemical reaction and a subsequent radioactive leak
A radiation leak at an underground nuclear waste dump in New Mexico was caused by “chemically incompatible” contents, including cat litter, that reacted inside a barrel of waste causing it to rupture, scientists said on Thursday.
The US Energy Department report on last year’s radiation accident at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad showed that a drum of waste containing radioisotopes like plutonium was improperly packaged at the Los Alamos National Laboratory near Santa Fe before arriving for disposal.
Continue reading...UK's biggest plastic milk bottle recycler on brink of collapse
Chairman of Closed Loop Recycling admits company is nearing administration as it feels dual effects of oil price drop and supermarket price war
Britain’s biggest recycler of plastic milk bottles is facing possible collapse after being squeezed between a slump in global oil prices and a supermarket price war.
Closed Loop Recycling, based in Dagenham, could be forced to call in administrators within days because clients have cut back on buying recycled plastic.
Continue reading...RSPB’s Big Garden Bird Watch confirms many species still declining
Starlings and house sparrow numbers dwindling as survey reveals long-term downward trend despite overall boost to populations due to a warm winter and bumper harvests
The number of backyard researchers in the world’s biggest citizen science survey was up this year, but participants found populations of many bird species continued to decline.
More than 585,000 people took part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Bird Watch. The survey took place over a January weekend, as it has for the past 36 years.
Continue reading...Florida's unspeakable issue leaves climate change official tongue-tied
- Emergency chief says anything but phrase ‘banned’ by governor
- Fema to pull funding for states that refuse to address climate change
The latest victim of Florida governor Rick Scott’s unwritten ban on state officials using the words “climate change” is his own disaster preparedness lieutenant, who stumbled through verbal gymnastics to avoid using the scientific term in a newly surfaced video.
Continue reading...Syrian seedbank wins award for continuing work despite civil war
Syrian scientists who risked their lives preserving the region’s ancient farming heritage with nearly 150,000 seed samples are presented Gregor Mendel award in Berlin
The fields around Aleppo have sustained humanity for tens of thousands of years. Blood-torn now, they were among the first to produce wheat, barley and the crops that made this area part of the “fertile crescent” that Western civilisation sprang from.
There may be little sign of that left today, amid Syria’s bloody civil war, but the few remaining strands of the region’s farming heritage have been pulled together by a small group of scientists, whose achievement has just been recognised.
Continue reading...Amazon's trees removed nearly a third less carbon in last decade – study
Fall in amount of carbon absored by rainforest means even greater cuts to manmade emissions are needed to combat climate change, warn scientists
The amount of carbon the Amazon’s remaining trees removed from the atmosphere fell by almost a third last decade, leading scientists to warn that manmade carbon emissions would need to be cut more deeply to tackle climate change.
Trees in untouched areas of the forest have been dying off across the basin at an increasing rate, found the study, published in Nature on Wednesday. Meanwhile the tree growth produced by higher CO2 levels in recent decades levelled off.
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Continue reading...Pangolins: the world's most illegally traded mammal – in pictures
The endangered pangolin is being eaten out of existence before many people have even heard of it. Photographer Paul Hilton followed poachers in Indonesia to raise awareness of this gentle animal’s plight
Audio slideshow: See more of Paul Hilton’s work on the impact of deforestation on Indonesia’s wildlife
Continue reading...Don't feed the ducks bread, say conservationists
We feed six million loaves of bread a year to ducks in England and Wales causing damage to birds’ health and polluting waterways. Oats, corn and peas are safer for the birds
The seemingly innocent act of feeding ducks with bread is harming waterfowl and polluting waterways, conservationists warned on Monday as they urged people to use more benign alternatives.
A survey by the Canal and River Trust found nearly a quarter of English and Welsh people had together fed six million loaves of bread to ducks last year. Uneaten bread causes algal blooms, allows bacteria to breed and attracts rats and other vermin.
Continue reading...Why are organic farmers across Britain giving up?
Consumers still eat it up — but more and more farmers are deserting organic, complaining that it costs a fortune and rowing with the Soil Association. Susanna Rustin put on her wellies to find out why they’re down on the farm
Darren and Julia Quenault took their first delivery of non-organic cattle feed a few weeks ago. After nine years of organic dairy farming, they decided to convert back to conventional, and give up their organic status, at the end of last year.
The reason was simple. “Cattle feed costs were excruciatingly expensive and we just couldn’t absorb them,” says Julia. “We’re saving £1,800 a month. We couldn’t have continued, we would have had to put up prices significantly, and we didn’t feel we could burden consumers with an extra 12% on the price of milk.”
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