Blue & Green Daily: Monday 3 February headlines

Blue & Green Daily finds and summarises the top sustainability stories around the web every morning. We start with our own picks from Blue & Green Tomorrow.

Sustainable tourism for the future we want

Academics respond to UKIP MEP’s call for global warming evidence

Can shale gas solve Europe’s energy and climate challenges?

World Wetlands Day: ‘sustain healthy wetlands’, say scientists

Prince Charles attacks ‘headless chicken’ climate change deniers

——————————————————————————————————————————————

February 3 headlines

Arctic city hopes to cash in as melting ice opens new sea route to China

The city of Nadym, in the extreme north of Siberia, is one of the Earth’s least hospitable places with temperatures plunging below-30C and the nearby Kara Sea semi-permanently frozen. However, climate change is altering this and is likely to open up a new shipping route between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, allowing Russia’s vast oil and gas resources to be exported much faster. Guardian.

Sellafield nuclear plant given the all-clear after ‘elected level of radioactivity’ detected

The Sellafield nuclear plant has been given the all-clear after ‘elevated levels of radioactivity’ were detected on Friday morning. A perimeter alarm was triggered at the north of the site however it was discovered that the higher than normal levels were die to “naturally occurring background radon”.Telegraph.

UK shale gas viability check will take five years, says Cuadrilla boss

It will take five years and the drilling of 20 to 40 fracking wells to judge whether the UK has a viable shale gas industry, the chairman of Cuadrilla has said. Lord Browne, who is also a former chief of BP, said the work must me done, because exploiting shale gas was “a national imperative”. Guardian.

Carbon capture backed to slash UK home energy bills

Household energy bills would be slashed by £82 a year if the government boosted carbon capturing equipment on power station instead of relying so much on offshore wind farms to tackle climate change, research suggests. Financial Times.

Bank of England to quiz RBS over capital position

Ross McEwan, chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, is to be called to crunch meeting with the Bank of England over the state-backed bank’s capital position. Sources report that the bank’s profit warning, which saw the bank book £3.1bn of conduct provisions and £4bn of write-downs, last week has made the conversation more pressing. Telegraph.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Interesting picks

Approving Keystone XL could be the biggest mistake of Obama’s presidency – Guardian

Sustainable investments are the way of the future – Huffington Post

East coast turbines: An ‘excellent investment’? – BBC

Ben van Beurden will need more than PR skills to navigate Shell’s choppy seas – Guardian

Kill off ‘free’ banking to stop mis-selling? It won’t work – Telegraph