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Carbon dioxide emissions from US energy sector fall 12% since 2005

The shift comes amid a decline in the use of coal and increase in the use of natural gas to generate electricity, energy officials say

Carbon dioxide emissions from the US’s energy sector fell in 2015 and now stand at 12% below 2005 levels, a drop mainly driven by the continuing collapse of the coal industry.

Americans’ energy consumption resulted in the release of 5.2bn tons of CO2 last year, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), down from 5.4bn tons in 2014. The 12% cut since 2005 has come during a period in which the US economy has, adjusting for inflation, grown by 15%.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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Brexit could turn Irish border into new Calais, says EU commissioner

Former Irish cabinet minister says there are growing fears in Dublin that country could be used as back door into UK

Politicians in the Irish Republic fear their border towns could become the “new Calais” if Britain votes to leave the EU, as irregular migrants use Ireland as a back door into the UK, according to an EU commissioner.

The commissioner for agriculture, Phil Hogan, said on Monday that there were growing fears in the republic that immigrants could use the border with Northern Ireland as a way into the UK if there was a Brexit result next month.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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Why we love the chough, and its soap opera life | Patrick Barkham

The chough had once vanished from England, but since 2002 there has been a growing colony of these fascinating birds in Cornwall

The dawn chorus is deafening in my neck of the woods at the moment. The blackbirds are like loquacious honey-voiced DJs and the thrush is gloriously strident, but I’ve never heard two birds converse quite like a pair of choughs. Perhaps this is because these charismatic coastal-dwelling crows, with curved blood-red beaks, pair for life – although I’ve seen plenty of long-married human couples with far less conversation.

Choughs vanished from England – eradicated by persecution and habitat loss – in the early 1970s but in 2001 a breeding pair unexpectedly flew in from Ireland and recolonised their old stronghold of Cornwall. This year, they are thriving, with a record 12 breeding pairs in the county, up from seven last summer.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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UK government accused of pursuing 'gimmicks' to tackle air pollution

Green lawyers criticise government after it emerged experts were commissioned to explore whether high-tech paint could reduce NO2 levels

Lawyers have accused the government of pursuing gimmicks to tackle illegal air pollution, after it emerged experts were asked to examine whether high-tech paint could fix the problem.

After losing a legal battle over pollution in the supreme court last year, the environment department last year announced plans for five clean air zones which will not affect nine in 10 vehicles.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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Solar has a bright future in the UK despite Tory efforts to cloud the picture

The tough, innovative and resilient UK solar industry can outlast this government’s energy policies

King Canute is alive and well in Britain.

While solar energy has become a global success story over the past few years, with tumbling costs and exploding deployment, Britain, which was keen on the technology, has slammed on the brakes, casting a shadow over a sector which employed more than 30,000 people but is now shedding jobs by the thousand.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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'People are tired of 70 years of killings and violence': Colombia's peace process

Two activists in Colombia talk about their hopes and fears over bringing an end to the world’s longest running civil war

Father Alberto Franco has spent much of his life speaking out for the most vulnerable people in Colombia – men and women who have been kicked off their land and attacked by armed groups serving powerful elites. He has been threatened and persecuted, so perhaps it is natural that he is “moderately pessimistic” about hopes for an end to the world’s longest civil war.

“For us, the end of the armed conflict is not peace. Peace is building a more just society, a more inclusive society, respectful of human rights and the environment,” says Franco, who is a leader with the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission. “While there are interests in the land, there will be social conflicts.”

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Source: Guardian Environment

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A grand but faulty vision for Iran's water problems

Massive water transfer schemes are no solution to Iran’s growing problems with drought

A grand vision of eliminating water scarcity looks attractive for tens of millions of people in the desert cities of central Iran worried about drought. Ambitious water transfer projects are being put in place to answer a call from President Hassan Rouhani.

Two high-profile projects would see desalinised water transferred to the central plateau from the Caspian Sea, and from the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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Satellite Eye on Earth: April 2016 – in pictures

Iran’s salt desert, New Suez Canal and British astronaut Tim Peak’s snap of UK under an aurora were among the images captured by European Space Agency and Nasa satellites last month

Dasht-e Kavir, the swirling landscape of Iran’s salt desert, is reminiscent of an abstract painting. With temperatures reaching 50C in the summer, this area sees little precipitation, but runoff from mountains creates seasonal lakes and marshes. Extreme heat causes the water to evaporate, leaving behind clays and sand soils with a high concentration of minerals. The “brushstroke” patterns are geological layers eroded primarily by wind. Along the left side of the image we can see part of an area known as the “devil’s dunes” because it was believed to be haunted by evil spirits. This belief likely originated from its hostile conditions, and the early travellers who did attempt to cross it probably never returned due to starvation or dehydration.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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Could Brexit be the best thing for Europe’s wildlife? | Jules Howard

The EU has a reputation for legislating to protect nature, whereas the UK drags its heels. Without us, perhaps animals and their habitats might get a better deal

Nothing oozes status like a man with an endangered alligator lizard draped over his shoulder that he has bought illegally through a German reptile trade show. These are people not content with a pet bearded dragon or a pet corn snake. They want more. They want something no one else has, even if having it contributes to the extinction of these unusual lizards in the wild.

Thank goodness, then, that the Guardian exposed this illegal market last year, and that the EU committed on Thursday to tightening the loopholes in the illegal trade of reptiles such as these beautiful endangered lizards. I’d like to say that Britain was a key part of this story, but our record on tackling wildlife crime isn’t brilliant. Although we talk the talk (remember this?) in three out of the past four years the government has attempted to close our National Wildlife Crime Unit, an important department for monitoring such things as illegal pet trade activity. Thankfully the EU forced us forward – on this issue at least.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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How a giant air freshener could save our polluted cities

Air pollution kills 28,000 people every year in the UK. But the solution might lie in a hi-tech tower that sucks up harmful particles

High in the skies over London, the UK’s first air pollution monitoring squad have been using the latest sensors to chart the levels of ozone and nitrogen dioxide in our atmosphere. The team is highly trained, each equipped with a hi-tech backpack, and proficient in social media. Which all sounds relatively standard, apart from the fact that it is entirely made up of pigeons.

Using one of the UK’s best-known feathered friends as a publicity stunt for air pollution awareness was the brainchild of Plume Labs, which has created an app for monitoring pollution on the go. It follows on the heels of similar apps released in the past two years, ranging from UCLA’s AirForU to BreezoMeter, the brainchild of Israeli engineer Ran Korber, who was looking to buy a house for his family far away from polluted environments.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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