Cougar killed after husky and owner injured in central Alberta forest during unusual attack on pet dogA Canadian man punched a cougar in the face to stop it attacking his dog, police have said.The incident occurred in a wooded area near a fast food chain in Whitecourt, central Alberta, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said on Wednesday. Continue reading...
A University of Edinburgh study finds birds are arriving at breeding grounds too soon, causing some to miss out on foodMigrating birds are responding to the effects of climate change by arriving at their breeding grounds earlier as global temperatures rise, research has found.
Unions say industrial unrest cannot be ruled out by nuclear workers in Copeland amid row over changes to pension scheme“Serious industrial unrest†at Europe’s biggest nuclear site could threaten the Conservatives’ chances of winning a forthcoming byelection, unions have warned.The byelection in the marginal Cumbrian seat of Copeland has been described as “Theresa May’s to loseâ€. Continue reading...
Investigation comes after video was posted on YouTube showing men running over bear with off-road vehiclesA criminal investigation has been opened into a group of men who filmed themselves killing a bear in Siberia by running over it with off-road vehicles.A video posted on YouTube on Monday and apparently filmed on a mobile phone showed a brown bear being crushed to death in the snow by two heavy duty trucks, of the kind used by oil and mining workers. The video has since been removed.
Former prime minister says the ‘poor quality of representatives’ is a worldwide phenomenon partly caused by media focus on politicians’ private livesBob Hawke has blamed “the increasing intrusiveness of the media into private lives of politicians†for what he sees as a decline in quality of MPs and leaders in Australia and abroad.In a wide-ranging address at the Woodford Folk festival in Queensland, where the 87-year-old has spoken for eight years in a row, the former prime minister said “poor quality of representatives … is not a purely Australian phenomenon – it’s a worldwide phenomenonâ€. Continue reading...
Brambles and birds did well, but bees dipped and butterflies were hindered, according to a review of the year’s wildlife and weather by the National TrustFarmers made hay but rampant grass growth in 2016 made life hard for butterflies and even puffin chicks, according to a review of the year’s wildlife and weather by the National Trust.The nation’s ever more variable weather brought both booms and busts, with brambles and birds doing well, and slugs flourishing. But bumblebees dipped and owls found field voles hard to find. Continue reading...
Wenlock Edge, Shropshire On a closer look, the trees are not still holding leaves at all but are full of bracts and seedsFrom a distance, the common lime trees are a rich orangey colour. This looks wrong. The autumn leaves of these trees are buttery and the last of them blew down a month ago. The limes have a curious russet foliage, just like the coating of rust on the fallen leaves in a spring issuing from ironstone under the Short Woods a few miles north of here. The rusty limes look oddly out of time, as if frozen in an arrested autumn when all about them winter trees stand darkly naked.On a closer look, the limes are not still holding leaves at all but are full of bracts and seeds. The bracts are small, oblong, modified leaves, pale and almost transparent when they open in spring, like solar panels on a satellite above the dangling cyme of two to seven flowers. Continue reading...
Cropland losses will have consequences especially for Asia and Africa, which will experience growing food insecurity as cities expandOur future crops will face threats not only from climate change, but also from the massive expansion of cities, a new study warns. By 2030, it’s estimated that urban areas will triple in size, expanding into cropland and undermining the productivity of agricultural systems that are already stressed by rising populations and climate change.Roughly 60% of the world’s cropland lies on the outskirts of cities—and that’s particularly worrying, the report authors say, because this peripheral habitat is, on average, also twice as productive as land elsewhere on the globe. Continue reading...
Russian investigators are examining footage to determine whether it constitutes an animal cruelty criminal offenceRussian investigators are looking into a disturbing video of a bear being crushed to death by a group of men riding in off-road vehicles over Siberian tundra.In the video, apparently shot by one of the assailants, two trucks normally used by Russian oil and mining workers in off-road conditions repeatedly drive over a brown bear sitting in the snow. Continue reading...
Urgent action is needed to stop the world’s fastest land animal becoming extinct, experts have warnedUrgent action is needed to stop the cheetah – the world’s fastest land animal – becoming extinct, experts have warned.Scientists estimate that only 7,100 of the fleet-footed cats remain in the wild, occupying 9% of the territory they once lived in. Asiatic populations have been hit the hardest, with fewer than 50 surviving in Iran, according to an investigation led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Continue reading...
A selection of images captured by photographers over the past 12 months, including a Donald Trump lookalike pheasant, kissing parakeets, and a lost sloth Continue reading...
As demand for sustainable energy increases, Australia’s independent renewable energy agency has to choose to fund some projects over others – to varying degrees of successAs any punter will know, backing winners isn’t easy. There’s a little bit of science, a little bit of art and a whole lot of luck.
David Pitt, 77, went into cardiac arrest after highly venomous reptile bit him on the foot in his home in far north QueenslandAn elderly man bitten by a taipan at his home in Queensland has died after spending nearly a week in hospital.David Pitt, 77, went into cardiac arrest after the highly venomous snake bit him on the foot at his home in Yorkeys Knob, Cairns, on 20 December. Continue reading...
by Joshua Robertson in Brisbane and Helen Davidson in on (#26MTA)
Calls for culls always surge after attacks by ‘salties’ but it’s their habitat not humans that will decide their numbersFor the people of Australia’s tropical north, a wary coexistence with crocodiles is a fact of life.Protected for more than four decades after being hunted to near extinction, the ancient reptile – on the credible numbers that are available – has staged a remarkable recovery. Continue reading...
Campaigners say the 107 hours when the country was powered by wind, sun and water show they can replace fossil fuelsIf you can keep your gaze off the hilltops, imagine away the pylons and forget the occasional tractor of an uncertain vintage coughing along the narrow roads, little appears to have changed in the valleys of north-eastern Portugal for decades, perhaps even centuries.The gnarled alvarinho vines have been relieved of their fruit to make vinho verde, an old woman in black herds her sheep through a hamlet and hungry eagles hover over the fields, scanning the land for lunch. Continue reading...
by Melissa Davey and Australian Associated Press on (#26J9Z)
Swimmers urged to stick to patrolled beaches after dozens of sharks were spotted on Christmas DayVictoria’s Fairhaven beach on the Great Ocean Road was closed for four hours on Monday after a shark sighting, adding to dozens of sightings on Christmas Day.Surf lifesavers called swimmers out of the water about 11am on Boxing Day.
A year after severe floods in wake of Storm Desmond, John Krebs says ministers still have no coherent long-term plan to deal with itMajor flooding in the UK is now likely to happen every year but ministers still have no coherent long-term plan to deal with it, the government’s leading adviser on the impacts of climate change has warned.Boxing Day in 2015 saw severe floods sweep Lancashire and Yorkshire, just weeks after Storm Desmond swamped Cumbria and parts of Scotland and Wales. The flooding, which caused billions of pounds of damage, led to the government publishing a review in September which anticipates 20-30% more extreme rainfall than before. Continue reading...
The 200kg mammal had to be tranquillised after climbing on to a car in suburban LauncestonA giant fur seal that spent Boxing Day wandering suburban Tasmania’s streets will be released back into the wild.Police, and parks and sildlife officers spent much of Monday morning trying to capture the seal, which took a stroll along the streets in Newstead, Launceston – at one point managing to climb on to a car. Continue reading...
River Welland, Lincolnshire This path alone is a find. It’s like walking through a ribcageFollowing the river, I got here. Not waterborne as I might have liked; it’s not a day for the canoe. Instead I looked at the map, for new places where the river touches the land. How many find country by looking near roads? But roads go where we wanted them to: the river goes where it has always gone.
Conservationists say about 80 creatures in zoos and private collections hold key to re-establishment of the endangered speciesFewer than 100 Scottish wildcats are now believed to exist in the wild, say leading experts, with no evidence of any decent sized populations anywhere in the country.While it had been hoped up to 300 may still survive, recent extensive monitoring suggests a lower figure, with individuals or small groups clinging on in isolated and fragmented pockets.
From air pollution to Trump and wildlife extinction, we look at the major environmental issues for the year aheadAfter five years of false starts and delays, 2017 will see exploratory fracking for shale gas begin in earnest in England. The first wells will likely be drilled in Lancashire and Yorkshire by the summer, and Cuadrilla, Third Energy and other companies will hope to confirm commercially viable quantities of the gas by the end of the year. With only 17% of people in Britain in favour of fracking, local and national protests are certain.Brexit negotiations will affect farming subsidies and possibly all European nature protection laws, including those for birds and habitats, air and water pollution, GM foods and animal welfare. If ministers attempt to roll back or trade off decades of environmental regulation, as some have threatened, they are likely to meet the most intense opposition. Continue reading...
First climate change risk assessment since 2012 will have considerable implications for future green policyThe government will outline the specific risks it believes Britain faces due to the impact of climate change, in a landmark report to be delivered early in the new year.It will be the first response made by Theresa May’s administration to a major environmental concern and will have considerable implications for future green policy.
Chalton, Hampshire In the morning we find a carpet of shining black pellets brimming with skulls and rubbery tailsAt the highest and darkest point of the South Downs escarpment, an Anglo-Saxon hall stands beefy and lumbering under a black sky dusted with stars. Built with hand-hewn oak timbers and hazel spars, it is the latest addition to the educational farm on Butser Hill where I work as a creative developer, feeding goats and designing guide books.The farm is an outdoor archaeological laboratory, and recreates ancient buildings from the neolithic period onwards. Inside the hall a log fire releases sparks like doves at a wedding, burning through the daylight hours to amuse wandering visitors searching for a taste of history. Continue reading...
Wildlife advocates said the animals, which were being readied for shipment on Friday night, were unsuitable for live exportMore than 30 wild elephants were being readied on Friday evening for an airlift from Zimbabwe to captivity in China, according to wildlife advocates.The founder of Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, Johnny Rodrigues, said on Friday that their plane was still at Victoria Falls airport because officials could not find scales big enough to weigh the animals, which were confined inside heavy crates. Continue reading...
In 27 years as environment editor at the Guardian, I have seen both devastation and progress. Now I’m retiring – but I still have hope for the future of the planetIn September 1989, Guardian editor Peter Preston took me to one side. “Environment? Your idea. You do it,†he said. I was on the arts desk and had quite forgotten that, two years earlier, I had proposed that we cover this fast-emerging issue in more depth and with new pages.We had a great correspondent in Paul Brown, but no single journalist could keep up with events. This was the height of Thatcherism, the old Soviet Union was collapsing in ecological ruin, and there had been serious nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. That year, more than two million people in Britain had voted Green in the European parliament elections. Continue reading...
Tribe, who fired arrows at helicopter photographing them, also face threat from proposed change to land laws, says groupAn uncontacted Amazon tribe could be at risk as Brazil makes austerity-driven budget cuts and proposals for constitutional change affecting land rights move through parliament, campaigners have said.The tribe were photographed from a helicopter by Ricardo Stuckert this month near the border with Peru. Continue reading...
The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox Continue reading...
“Only vicar’s daughters become naturalists.†This was the response of Stan Micklethwaite when his young daughter Mari (my future wife) declared her life’s ambition. Stan spent most of his working life weighing wagons of coal at the pithead of Barrow colliery near Barnsley, yet his many active leisure pursuits included beekeeping and gardening, with Mari always at his side, eager to learn. Neither Stan nor Mari’s mother, Nellie, lived to hear of the fame that Mari, who has died aged 80, went on to achieve in her adult career as a wildlife writer, illustrator, broadcaster, conservationist and storyteller. No doubt they would have been surprised as well as very proud.Mari and I met in 1954, as chief bridesmaid and best man at a cousin’s wedding, and we married two years later. It was only after our four children were all at school in Warwickshire that Mari was able to enrol in classes at local colleges to learn more of botany, horticulture and ecology, writing copious notes with cross-reference to multiple sources as well as her own careful observations of the natural world around her. Continue reading...
Record temperatures threaten traditional ways of life in Greenland but as the sea ice retreats, new mining, fishing and tourism opportunities are helping communities to adaptAsked if he is fearful about the impact of climate change, Tønnes “Kaka†Berthelsen’s response is typical of many Greenlanders. “We are more concerned about the Maldives,†he said bluntly.Greenland has lived with extreme environmental changes for a decade or more. Sea ice is forming two months later and melting one month earlier. Rivers fed by retreating glaciers are at record levels. And temperature records were smashed twice this year, with stunned meteorologists rechecking their measurements after 24C was recorded in the capital, Nuuk, in June. Continue reading...
An oil terminal to be built in northern Russia where the river Yenisei meets the Arctic Ocean lacks the technology to deal with oil spills, say environmentalistsThe livelihood of the Nenets people who live along the northern stretches of the Yenisei, Russia’s longest river, depends on two pursuits: fishing and reindeer herding.But locals have said both of those activities are under threat from an oil terminal due to be built on the Tanalau cape, near where the river empties into the Arctic Ocean. Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have protested against the high risk of an oil spill in difficult Arctic conditions. More than 40 people have signed a letter of protest to the company building the terminal, the Independent Petroleum Company (IPC). Continue reading...
Ships are suspected of dumping waste upstream on China’s Yangtze river before it floats into a key city reservoirMedical waste, broken bottles and household trash are some of the items found in more than 100 tonnes of garbage salvaged near a drinking water reservoir in Shanghai.
National Grid expect Len Goodman’s show to create a ‘TV pickup’ as people across the country boil kettles, flush toilets and switch on lights after the showLen Goodman will follow in the footsteps of David Jason, Pauline Collins and an extraterrestrial as one of Christmas TV’s top challenges for the people tasked with keeping the lights on.
Fermyn Woods, Northamptonshire I watch them through thickets of interwoven hazel and birch as they make their getawayCrack! A stick snaps a little distance to my right. Too big a snap for a small animal. Probably deer-sized, I estimate. I wonder how close I can get to the originator before being detected in the wood’s growing afternoon gloom. I creep away from the muddy path, through snagging brambles and naked hazel. I have advanced 15 meters towards the target when I feel a stick give under my foot and an inevitable, and similar, “crack†resonates through the still hush. Instantly, three young roe deer start from cover 20 meters away; I watch them through, and between, thickets of interwoven hazel and birch as they make their unswerving getaway with a stiff, springing gallop.My tracking skills are good enough to know how rudimentary they are. As a young lad I would, entranced, read Jim Corbett’s accounts of years spent pursuing man-eating leopards and tigers in the forests of India. Marvelling at how his corporeal self was absorbed into the forest. The meaning of every rustle, crack, bird call and grunt so familiar and significant that they keyed directly into his nervous system, and into that of the cat that was sometimes his quarry, sometimes his hunter, often both. Continue reading...
New wind and solar farms, alongside wood burning and nuclear reactors, helped to push low carbon power to a new high in the third quarter of 2016Half of the UK’s electricity came from wind turbines, solar panels, wood burning and nuclear reactors between July and September, in a milestone first.Official figures published on Thursday show low carbon power, which has been supported by the government to meet climate change targets, accounted for 50% of electricity generation in the UK in the third quarter, up from 45.3% the year before. Continue reading...
The Corbyn critic has every reason to feel less then thrilled about being a Labour MP right now. But he has a duty to his constituents, and to democracy itselfTo be elected as a member of parliament is as near as we get in these humanistic days to a sacramental role – ordained not by God but by us, the people. Each MP may be just another twig of Kant’s “crooked timber of humanityâ€, out of which “no straight thing was ever madeâ€, but they each stand as the living representative of our right to choose who governs over us. For that reason, when they resign they undermine the sense of heavy obligation to their voters that they willingly undertook when they stood for election.Related: Can Labour win the Copeland byelection? Prepare for a bare-knuckle fight | Lewis Baston Continue reading...
by Frances Perraudin North of England reporter on (#266HZ)
Police and crime commissioner says former deputy PM’s criticism of tree-felling programme is nonsenseSouth Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner has accused Nick Clegg of using irresponsible, emotional and exaggerated language in his opposition to Sheffield city council’s controversial tree-felling programme.The long-running battle over Sheffield’s trees attracted national media attention last month when two women in their 70s were arrested for trying to prevent trees on their road from being chopped down, after they were woken at 5am to move their cars. Continue reading...
In Europe’s ‘bleak midwinter’ of 1430-1440, medieval society made dramatic changes in response to food shortages and famine caused by exceptional cold. What lessons can we learn from history?Sat in the centrally heated school Christmas concert, I sang, like countless others, In the Bleak Midwinter, not knowing the half of it. Christina Rossetti’s mournful, yearning poem, later set to music by Gustav Holst, was written in 1872, but speaks of a “bleak midwinter, long agoâ€, relocating the nativity to a chill northern landscape where, “Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone.†Continue reading...
by Francesca Panetta , Nicole Jackson and Anetta Jone on (#2666R)
After years of record temperatures, the Arctic is melting. The Northwest passage had an ice-free summer in 2016, allowing cruise ships into one of the world’s most remote places. Join our environmentally friendly Arctic tour, and witness the consequences of human behaviour Continue reading...
Expansion of solar and wind power will help exceed Paris targets by almost half and negate need for new coal-fired power stationsThe Indian government has forecast that it will exceed the renewable energy targets set in Paris last year by nearly half and three years ahead of schedule.A draft 10-year energy blueprint published this week predicts that 57% of India’s total electricity capacity will come from non-fossil fuel sources by 2027. The Paris climate accord target was 40% by 2030. Continue reading...
The largest city in the Russian Arctic expects global warming to change its trading fortunes with the revival of the northern sea routeIt’s noon in Murmansk, but the sky is dark. Chunky silhouettes can just be made out scurrying along Lenin Street, swaddled in furs. This is a polar night, and it will be more than a month before anyone here sees the sun again.When the Soviet Union collapsed, this city – by far the world’s largest settlement within the Arctic Circle – went into steep decline, its population tumbling from nearly half a million to barely 300,000. Continue reading...
The bank’s private sector arm is accused of subsidising loans that funded the Indian firm’s Queensland exploration bidAdani’s Carmichael mine has been “covertly funded†by the World Bank through a private arm that is supposed to back “sustainable developmentâ€, according to a US-based human rights organisation.Adani Enterprises acquired exploration rights for Australia’s largest proposed coalmine in 2010 with a US$250m loan from banks including India’s ICICI, which was in turn bankrolled by the World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, a report by Inclusive Development International says. Continue reading...
Aberystwyth, Wales The larch added welcome colour, but single species planting has brought an almost industrial look to the Welsh hillsMy first indication that the local landscape was about to change dramatically came after dark. In an area with only a scattering of houses and a solitary street lamp, the sudden appearance of an extra light is a significant event – and a flickering source moving through the trees certainly makes a rural observer stop and take note.In daylight the explanation became clear. Across the valley, on the shoulder of a hill forming a buttress at the westward limit of the Cambrian mountains, a stand of mature larches was being felled. Working outwards from the old track that loops sinuously across the hillside, heavy machinery was quickly and efficiently removing the trees, leaving the profile of the hill oddly rebalanced. Within a week or so the familiar dull orange of autumn foliage was gone, leaving a briefly scarred residue from which the woodland will regenerate or be replanted. Continue reading...
Official data quietly released before Christmas shows emissions rose 0.8% in the year to June and will miss 2030 goal based on current policiesAustralia’s emissions are rising and projected to keep doing so to 2030, meaning the country will fail to meet its 2030 emissions targets, according to government figures.The official quarterly figures, showing growth in year-on-year emisssions, confirms independent projections from Ndevr Environmental, released earlier this month by Guardian Australia, which predicted Australia’s emissions would be rising. Continue reading...
Queensland government examines three alleged cases of illegal fishing for the protected reptiles over past two monthsThe Queensland government is investigating “disturbing†reports of people in the state’s far north trying to catch crocodiles with baited fishing lines, including one who advertised their efforts on Facebook.The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection is examining three alleged cases of illegal fishing for the protected reptiles over the past two months in Douglas, Hinchinbrook and Whitsunday shires. Continue reading...
Matt Canavan attacks the broadcaster for being one-sided and says Australia’s biggest coalmine would improve the environmentThe federal resources minister has accused the ABC of reporting fake news and thrown his weight behind the energy giant Adani, amid Indian finance ministry investigations into the company.Matt Canavan attacked the ABC for what he described as one-sided coverage of Adani’s plans to build Australia’s biggest coalmine and accused the national broadcaster of having a massive blindspot when it came to the project. Continue reading...
Regulator says company failed to provide information on oil spill response plans, environmental monitoring and risks to marine reservesBP has finally officially withdrawn its application to drill for oil in the pristine Great Australian Bight, ending months of uncertainty after it announced it was not pursuing the project but then did not withdraw its application.The Wilderness Society, which has been fighting plans from BP, Chevron, Santos, Murphy Oil and others to create a massive new oil field in the remote waters, described the announcement as an “early Christmas present†for Australians. Continue reading...
Environment | The Guardian