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Green campaigners attack further delay ‘to most important piece of legislation for decades’
The government has delayed the long-awaited environment bill, which redraws rules after the UK’s departure from the EU, provoking fury from campaigners who said it would harm action on air pollution and water quality, as well as other key issues. The proposed legislation would be the biggest shake-up of green regulation in decades.
Ministers said the delay, which means the flagship bill is unlikely to pass before the autumn, was necessary because dealing with the Covid-19 crisis left too little parliamentary time for debate. Trying to continue with the original timetable would have risked the bill falling and having to return to square one of the parliamentary process.
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Last such event for 15 states including New York, Ohio, Illinois and Georgia occurred in 2004
Billions of cicadas that have spent 17 years underground are set to emerge across large areas of the eastern US, bringing swarming numbers and loud mating calls to major towns and cities.
The periodic cicadas – bugs with strikingly red eyes, black bodies and orange wings – burrow underground as nymphs and suck fluids from the roots of plants as they grow, eventually bursting into the open as adults in mass synchronized events.
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Exclusive: firms out of pocket and losing faith in scheme administered by US-based corporation
England’s much-hyped £2bn green homes grant is in chaos, renewable energy installers say, with some owed tens of thousands of pounds and struggling to stay in business.
Members of the public have been left waiting nearly four months, in some cases, to take advantage of the scheme to fit low carbon heating systems. Some installers say customers are pulling out after losing faith in the green grants.
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World’s biggest investor vows to support net zero carbon pledge amid pressure to divest from fossil fuels
BlackRock, the world’s biggest investment fund manager, has threatened to sell shares in the worst corporate pollutersin a bid to support the goal of net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
Larry Fink, BlackRock’s chief executive, said the investor would ask companies whose shares it holds to disclose their plans to achieve net zero emissions. The new approach is set out in Fink’s annual letter to CEOs around the world. BlackRock could then divest from polluting companies in its actively managed funds – which represent about a tenth of its assets – if they did not improve.
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Virginia-based ICF has been awarded more than 80 government contracts in the last five years
The American corporation running the UK green homes grant has been awarded multiple government contracts in the last five years.
ICF, based in Fairfax, Virginia, is a global consulting business that promotes itself as “not your typical consultants”.
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Large UK study found small pollution rise associated with more cases of age-related macular degeneration
Small increases in air pollution are linked to an increased risk of irreversible sight loss from age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a large UK study has found.
Previous work had already found a link between dirty air and glaucoma and a link to cataracts is suspected. The scientists said the eyes have a particularly high flow of blood, potentially making them very vulnerable to the damage caused by tiny particles that are breathed in and then flow around the body.
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Sandy, Bedfordshire:There are no edges, tree trunks are filmed in a milky wash and branches dissolve into the white
There is a vague hump shape, like a sleeping dinosaur under the trees and the camera is hunting for it. I catch the “tick-tick-tick” whirr of anguished electronics by my side as it struggles to find an edge on which to focus.
My eyes learn from the camera about how we really see at a distance in freezing fog. Normally dark tree trunks are not dark at all but are filmed with a milky wash, and the spread of branches dissolves into the white of the white. Outside our immediate bubble of clarity there are no edges, only gradations and blur.
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Rate of loss now in line with worst-case scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The melting of ice across the planet is accelerating at a record rate, with the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets speeding up the fastest, research has found.
The rate of loss is now in line with the worst-case scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading authority on the climate, according to a paper published on Monday in the journal The Cryosphere.
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Committee urges governor to ‘show leadership’ on climate change and forge new path to net zero goal
The Bank of England must do more to ensure a green recovery from the Covid-19 crisis, as current emergency finance measures have not carried conditions relating to greenhouse gas emissions, an influential committee of MPs has said.
The environmental audit committee has written to Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, urging him to force large companies receiving millions of pounds in taxpayer money to publish information on their exposure to climate-related risks. Such disclosures are not yet mandatory but have been recommended by the former Bank governor Mark Carney.
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- At least 14 new calves seen off south-eastern US this season
- Advocacy group warns of ongoing ‘unusual mortality event’
Wildlife officials in Florida have reported an “encouraging” number of sightings of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales off the south-eastern US, including at least 14 new calves, three born to first-time mothers.
Related:Left stranded: US military sonar linked to whale beachings in Pacific, say scientists
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