Feed aggregator

Governments, including the UK, are allowing energy industry representatives to help draw up Europe’s air quality limits resulting in proposed standards on coal plant emissions that are weaker than China’s, claim the campaign group

Continue reading...

With its roots in the tobacco industry, climate science denial talking points can be seen as manufactured doubt

Continue reading...

Mickleton, Teesdale: Scores of elf cups, vivid as a guardsman’s regimental tunic, have begun to open in the lee of a stone bridge

Continue reading...

Urinal at University of the West of England can generate electricity to power indoor lighting, which Oxfam says show potential for use in refugee camps

Continue reading...

Republicans needed two-thirds of the Senate to defeat the president’s veto, but were unable to win over five additional Democrats

Continue reading...

A prominent journalist with a sick child quit her job and produced an eye-opening look at the consequences of China's air pollution problem. Some 200 million have watched it since the weekend.

» E-Mail This

Trustees say cherished elfin estate of up to 200 front doors, in Wayford woods, Crewkerne, is gobbling up too many tree trunks - and the spritely speculation must be hobbled

Continue reading...

The final vote was 62-37, which falls short of the two-thirds needed to override the presidential veto.

» E-Mail This

National Audit Office criticises the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority for delaying cancellation of consortium’s cleanup contract

Continue reading...

UK and seven other EU countries call on commission for increased nuclear aid funding and support to help meet climate targets and energy security objectives

The UK and seven other countries last month called for a new package of nuclear aid funding and support, in a letter sent to the commission ahead of the EU’s energy union policy launch.

The letter, seen by the Guardian, calls for new EU financing mechanisms for nuclear as a low carbon technology, and research and innovation initiatives to deal with the costly and unresolved issues of nuclear waste and decommissioning.

Continue reading...

Duke of Cambridge’s final day in China saw him focus on the threat to Africa’s wildlife from the ivory trade with a visit to the country’s last elephant population at a Yunnan reserve

As The Duke of Cambridge’s convoy made its way through the stunning hills and valleys that typify Yunnan Province in China, the tropical heat was climbing and the contrasts with Shanghai were striking.

China’s relentless economic growth is self evident in Beijing and its big cities but it is reassuring that there are still parts of this vast country which remain relatively unspoilt.

Related: Prince William in China: illegal wildlife trade a 'vicious form of criminality'

Continue reading...

Treehunter Rob McBride has visited 11 of the 14 finalists in the European Tree of the Year contest – which one will take the crown? Continue reading...

Duke of Cambridge calls for China to be a world leader in the fight against illegal trade in endangered animals such as elephants, rhino and pangolins on the last day of his visit to the country

Continue reading...

Government scheme to keep the lights on during peak demand could also cause higher emissions because it favours paying fossil fuel plants to stay open over technology that cuts demand, MPs have said

A government scheme to keep the lights on could lead to unnecessarily high energy costs because it favours fossil fuel plants over smart technology which cuts demand, MPs have said.

The “capacity market”, which aims to ensure there is enough power generation in the system to meet peak demand, could also result in higher carbon emissions because it is skewed towards paying coal fired power plants over reducing electricity demand.

Continue reading...

Call to cull healthy koalas comes as the Victorian government reveals 700 sick and starving koalas were euthanised at Cape Otway in 2013 and 2014

Continue reading...

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: Rackham’s book The Ash Tree has a seething anger about our inability to look after things that matter Continue reading...

Increased fines would target businesses that dump rubbish on an industrial scale in Britain’s parks, hedgerows and roadsides

Fines for companies caught flytipping on an industrial scale should triple to £9m, the Liberal Democrats have said.

The increased penalities would target businesses that avoid paying landfill tax by dumping rubbish in hedgerows, parks and roadsides, and follows a 20% increase in such incidents in 2013-14.

Related: Man jailed for record tyre dumps

Continue reading...

63,77,46,0,B

Fewer shark fins are being imported into Hong Kong, the epicenter of shark-fin soup, a culinary delicacy. But while the trade in shark fins may be down, the trade in shark meat is still going strong.

» E-Mail This

When I realized that domesticity was most of life I let the tiny details become important. I remember for example when I realized that garlic powder was made from grinding hardened, browed, garlic bulbs instead of throwing them away. Simple, easy, and yet unrealized by me until I was almost 40.

I've had a head cold for three weeks. Folks in town call it the six week cold. I guess that means I have three weeks to go! I have blown my way through three full boxes of tissues. Somewhere around box 1.5 I realized that instead of carrying a garbage pail from room to room, or piling tissues up everywhere I go, I could instead stuff them into a tiny wicker basket with a lid. Simple and downright elegant. This little etiquette trick took me almost half a century to come up with. Sigh.. what next?