The Somerset Levels’ ancient landscapes can teach us how to cope with 21st-century floodsThe Mendips form an east-west hilly ridge, framing the Chew Valley to the north and the Somerset Levels to the south. They are mostly gently rolling hills, though cut into by deep gorges such as Burrington Combe and Cheddar Gorge. But towards the western end of the ridge, and rising to 191m, sits the only true peak in the Mendips. Some place names are exciting, poetic and laden with history. This conical hill, though, is named Crook Peak. And “crook”, apparently, comes from an old English word meaning… peak. But I grew up knowing it as Crooks’ Peak, and I can’t quite shake the image of bands of ne’er-do-well robbers and highwaymen hiding out on the craggy summit.But there’s nothing to be scared of up there, and it’s worth climbing the peak for the magnificent 360-degree view. Looking south, you can see right over the Levels, stretching to the foot of the Quantock hills. Sometimes the mist down on the Levels makes it look like a sea, with islands rising up out of it: Brent Knoll, Wedmore and Glastonbury Tor. Sometimes floodwaters create real islands out on the Levels. But 7,000 years ago, the Levels were properly submerged, forming an inlet connecting with the Severn estuary. A thousand years later, the sea and saltmarsh were being replaced by reedbeds and fresh water. As plants died and half-rotted down, peat would build up and trees would grow on drier patches. It sounds an inhospitable environment, and yet we know from evidence preserved in the peat that some ancient people felt very much at home in these marshes. Continue reading...

High on Mont Blanc, huge ice cores are being extracted to help researchers study the alarming rate of glacial meltIn a few weeks, researchers will begin work on a remarkable scientific project. They will drill deep into the Col du Dôme glacier on Mont Blanc and remove a 130 metre core of ice. Then they will fly it, in sections, by helicopter to a laboratory in Grenoble before shipping it to Antarctica. There the ice core will be placed in a specially constructed vault at the French-Italian Concordia research base, 1,000 miles from the south pole.The Col du Dôme ice will become the first of several dozen other cores, extracted from glaciers around the world, that will be added to the repository over the next few years. The idea of importing ice to the south pole may seem odd – the polar equivalent of taking coals to Newcastle – but the project has a very serious aim, researchers insist. Continue reading...

Visitors to Newquay zoo can now catch a glimpse of Visayan warty piglet born in FebruaryZookeepers are celebrating the birth of a critically endangered warty piglet.The Visayan warty piglet was born in February at Newquay zoo in Cornwall, where it is now on show. Continue reading...

Olafur Eliasson, Shepard Fairey and Tomás Saraceno are among a growing group of artists creating works that draw attention to the effects of climate changeThe image looks like a scene from a science fiction movie about an alien landscape on another planet: a 28-by-24-foot LED wall depicting an impressive, circular array of giant mirrors surrounding a tower lit at the top. But this is very much an earthly construct. It’s an artwork reflecting the emergence of renewable energy: a digital simulation of a solar power plant producing electricity in the Nevada desert.The artwork, called Solar Reserve (Tonopah, Nevada) 2014, was created by Irish artist John Gerrard and illustrates the changing views of the solar arrays from day to night. The actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who has used his fame to publicize the perils of global warming, bought and donated the work to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Continue reading...

Loch Ruthven, Highlands There was a splash as the Slavonian grebe landed close to the hide. What colours - the bird was so close I was in aweWalking along the eastern shore of Loch Ruthven I was full of anticipation approaching the wildlife hide. The loch, surrounded by snow-capped hills, was flat calm. A few faint croaks broke the silence. I stopped to listen and only then noticed a male toad at the side of the path, shuffling along as only toads do, heading for the loch and the distant call.Then another male, this one more fortunate as it was hitching a ride on a female, forelegs grasping her tightly; the pair would mate when they reached the water. I walked on into the birch and rowan woodland, soothed by the babbling waters of a burn and the rippling warble of a male dipper’s song. Dippers are very early breeding birds. I guessed that he would already have a female sitting on eggs further up the burn. Continue reading...

Time spent playing in parks, woods and fields has shrunk dramatically due to lack of green spaces, digital technology and parents’ fearsThree-quarters of UK children spend less time outside than prison inmates, according to a new survey revealing the extent to which time playing in parks, wood and fields has shrunk. A fifth of the children did not play outside at all on an average day, the poll found.Experts warn that active play is essential to the health and development of children, but that parents’ fears, lack of green spaces and the lure of digital technology is leading youngsters to lead enclosed lives. Continue reading...

The cost of damage to roads, bridges, drains and other infrastructure could rise further, local government analysis revealsThis winter’s floods caused almost £250m in damage to roads, bridges, public rights of way and drainage systems, a survey by town hall chiefs has revealed.The snapshot analysis by the Local Government Association (LGA) warns councils have been hit with a huge bill following storms Desmond and Eva and the flooding they brought. Continue reading...

Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire Nearly 5,000 years ago, this coastal fringe of the Wash was an immense freshwater wetlandHanging from the eastern corner of Lincolnshire, where the neck of the muddy expanse of the Wash meets the wind-turbine colonised North Sea, is the coastal sandscape of Gibraltar Point. A sloped sandy beach is backed by saltmarsh veined with scything channels, and dunes rise behind the marsh.These are not the vast yellow peaks bristled with marram grass that typify some dune systems. Instead the dunes have low ridges, with only the seaward edge of the first ridge being open and sandy. In the slacks between the next two ridges herb-rich pasture hosts shallow pools carpeted with mosses, stoneworts and the little green parasols of marsh pennywort. Continue reading...

Tokomak Energy aims to build mini-nuclear reactors and announces target of producing electricity by 2025 and feeding power into the grid by 2030Nuclear fusion needs a “Wright brothers” moment, to convince the world of its promise of unlimited clean and safe energy and so unlock significant private investment, according to a physicist whose says his company is closing in on that goal.

As contracted cleaners demand fairer pay, fashion chain removes document supporting living wage from website after Guardian inquiryFor the past six and a half years, Susana has cleaned Topshop’s flagship store for a living. For the past hour, the Ecuadorian single mother of three has been pouring out stories of low pay, bullying and excessive workloads in breathless Spanish. The words flow effortlessly until she starts to talk about the seven months she had to take off work for stress and anxiety. At that point her pace slows and her voice breaks as she tries to hold back tears.It happened in 2011, after she says her manager at Britannia Services Group – the company contracted to clean Topshop’s Oxford Street branch – kicked a bucket at her in the store. Speaking to the Guardian through a translator, she says: “That was the final straw. I was depressed and humiliated.” She was admitted to hospital for stress. Continue reading...

Former NASA climate director James Hansen and a team of scientists claim a mechanism in the climate could rapidly raise sea levels by metresJames Hansen’s name looms large over any history that will likely be written about climate change.Whether you look at the hard science, the perils of political interference or modern day activism, Dr Hansen is there as a central character. Continue reading...