Environment

• Saturday, February 9th 2013 - 08:49 UTC

  Scandal extends to Europe: horsemeat in frozen lasagne and spaghetti Bolognese

  

  British Environment secretary is to meet representatives from the Food Standards Agency and meat retailers and suppliers to discuss the horsemeat scandal. Owen Paterson said investigations into how beef products had been contaminated with horsemeat were ongoing but “the evidence so far suggests... it is either criminal activity or gross negligence”.

• Thursday, February 7th 2013 - 21:53 UTC

  Aubrey McClendon and the Destruction of the Natural Gas Market

  

  Aubrey McClendon is gone – or at least he's on his way out from Chesapeake energy (CHK). But the destruction of the natural gas market, where he was the ringleader in the shale gas land grab and cratering well price, is his real legacy, and not likely to be recovered from anytime soon. While Aubrey will now go into a very wealthy retirement, he leaves behind a decimated market and a long road to making natural gas a true transition fuel to energy independence and a renewable future.

• Thursday, January 31st 2013 - 07:32 UTC

  Research confirms Canadian plane crash in Antarctica kills all three aboard

  

  A frustrating four-day search-and-rescue operation for a small plane that crashed in a remote part of Antarctica has come to an end with the location of the wreckage site and the confirmation that all three crew members perished in the crash.

• Thursday, January 31st 2013 - 07:25 UTC

  Dutch court has Shell ‘off the hook’ in four of five pollution claims in Nigeria

  

  Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s biggest oil company, isn’t liable in four out of five claims bought by Nigerian farmers for pollution, a Dutch court ruled. However the company’s local venture must pay compensation in one case.

• Monday, January 28th 2013 - 19:56 UTC

  US team extracts samples from sub-glacial Antarctica lake 800 metres in deep ice

  

  In a first-of-its-kind feat of science and engineering, a US National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded research team has successfully drilled through 800 meters of Antarctic ice to reach a sub-glacial lake and retrieve water and sediment samples that have been isolated from direct contact with the atmosphere for many thousands of years.

• Friday, January 25th 2013 - 04:43 UTC

  Monsanto reaches agreement on patent royalties with Brazilian soybean farmers

  

  Monsanto the world’s biggest seed company agreed to waive two years of royalties on its Roundup Ready soybean seeds for Brazilian farmers who agree to forgo claims in a patent dispute.

• Thursday, January 24th 2013 - 08:00 UTC

  Adelie penguins filmed in underwater hunting skills with miniature video cameras

  

  Miniature cameras attached to a penguin's head have given Japanese scientists a bird's eye view of the creature's incredible underwater hunting skills. Using video cameras weighing just 33 grams and equipped with accelerometers, depth gauges and thermometers, researchers were able to see exactly what the Adelie penguin sees when it goes out to catch krill and other prey in its native Antarctica.

• Thursday, January 24th 2013 - 05:26 UTC

  Explorers visit newly discovered 9.000-strong colony of Emperor penguins in Antarctica

  

  Three members of Belgium’s Princess Elisabeth Antarctica team became the first humans to have visited and photographed a newly-discovered 9.000-strong colony of emperor penguins on Antarctica’s Princess Ragnhild Coast.

• Wednesday, January 23rd 2013 - 09:02 UTC

  South Georgia implements additional measures to safeguard Marine Protected Area

  

  The United Kingdom Minister for the Overseas Territories Mark Simmonds welcomed the announcement of a set of additional measures to safeguard the sustainable-use Marine Protected Area (MPA) around the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands.

• Wednesday, January 23rd 2013 - 08:24 UTC

  Piñera prepared to grant constitutional recognition to Chile’s indigenous groups

  

  Chilean President Sebastian Piñera pledged to work with “maximum urgency” on a bill that would grant constitutional recognition to the country's indigenous groups. Piñera also announced the creation of an indigenous peoples' council that fully represents “their history, traditions, culture” and via which “they could raise their strong and clear voice about their future.”