Energy company dismisses ‘unfounded rumours’ that some of its engineers called for at least two-year delay to £18bn projectEDF has insisted that its plans to complete the £18bn Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset by 2025 remain on track, despite reports that some of its engineers had called for a two-year delay and a redesign.It came as an EDF board member representing senior staff said in a letter to employees that he would vote against the controversial project. Christian Taxil, who represents the managers’ union CFE-CGC, is the first board member to go public with doubts about the project. Continue reading...
Committee asks how Venancio Salas Junior – captain of a large coal freighter –continued to work in Australian waters after three crew died in suspicious circumstancesA captain who was exposed selling guns to his crew and was in charge of a ship where three people died on board was allowed to continue to work in Australian waters, a Senate committee has heard.
Investment in 1,500 new coal plants around the world could be wasted if action on climate change and pollution prevent them from being usedAlmost $1tn of investment in new coal-fired power stations could be wasted if growing concerns about climate change and air pollution leave the plants unused, according to a new report.About 1,500 new coal plants are in construction or planning stages around the world but electricity generation from the fossil fuel has fallen in recent years, the detailed report from the Sierra Club, Greenpeace and CoalSwarm found. In China, existing plants are now used just 50% of the time, coal use is falling and new permits and construction have been halted in half of the nation’s provinces, affecting about 250 plants. Continue reading...
St Dominic, Tamar Valley: Marie Lorraine Martin’s paintings depict the seasons at Cotehele mill in the early 19th centuryFrom the door of the dim church tower, with its window portraying Saint Dominica and her brother Saint Indract, we emerge into the glare of spring sunshine to follow the coffin of our mother who has died, aged 101 years. Overhead, the rooks caw and perch in pairs near refurbished nests; bright celandine and pale primrose gleam around the old slate headstones, and ramsons colonise shade beneath the beech. Towards her burial plot we pass graves of ancestors who were farmers, millers, brewers and market gardeners in this rural parish. Continue reading...
Data shows bleaching of corals on the Great Barrier Reef coincides with record warm ocean temperatures in the regionWhere only a few weeks ago there were swathes of vivid purples, blues and pretty much any other colour you fancy, now there is just grey and white.
Market exploitation of working class people and of the environment adds up to the endangerment of both and, ultimately, us allThe Great Australian Bight is a pristine marine environment. It’s a haven for humpback and sperm whales, blue whales and beak whales. It’s Australia’s most significant seal lion nursery and said to be the world’s most important southern right whale nursery. It sustains huge fishing and tourism industries – and BP is planning to drill it for oil.Yes, that BP - BP of the “Deepwater Horizon†oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico back in 2010, in which a well exploded and sank, killing 11 people and creating the biggest oil spill disaster in US history. BP of that leak, 1.6km below the ocean surface, that took three months to fix. BP of the 100,000 barrels of oil leaked into the ocean per day, every day, for 87 consecutive days. BP now paying out $US18.7bn in claims to 400 separate local government entities damaged by a disaster that decimated the fishing and tourism industries of the five US gulf states. Continue reading...
Spokeswoman says that ‘problem animal’, nicknamed Spook, faces being killed after second successful escape from the Karoo National ParkA lion that earned the nickname Spook – “ghost†in Afrikaans – after it escaped from a national park in South Africa and eluded searchers for more than three weeks has broken out of the park again.A spokeswoman at Karoo National Park said on Tuesday that a helicopter was searching for the male lion, which was fitted with a satellite tracking collar after last year’s escape and should be easier to trace this time. Continue reading...
Four of seven men accused sentenced to decades in prison for 2013 murder of Jairo Mora, who worked to protect sea turtles with four female volunteersA Costa Rican court has sentenced four men to decades in prison for the 2013 murder of an environmentalist and the rape of four western female volunteers who were with him.The judgment capped a nine-week retrial of seven men accused of killing Jairo Mora, a 26-year-old Costa Rican working to protect sea turtle nests on the country’s Caribbean coast. Continue reading...
Queensland land court rules it does not have power to award costs to either side in challenges to mining permitsAn Indigenous elder who successfully took on the mining entrepreneur “Diamond†Joe Gutnick in the Queensland land court has wound up with a $70,000 legal debt he cannot repay.In a case that could have a chilling effect on future challenges to mines by traditional owners and others, the Kalkadoon elder James Taylor was denied legal costs despite winning a three-year battle for changes to Gutnick’s phosphate project near Mount Isa.
Two vessels carrying 28 crew members towed to Cairns after being intercepted near Lockhart River in Cape YorkTwo Vietnamese fishing boats have been towed to Cairns after they were caught with sea cucumbers in the Great Barrier Reef marine park.The boats, carrying 28 crew members, were intercepted with a large amount of diving gear and what was thought to be illegally caught bêche-de-mer, or sea cucumbers, near Lockhart River in Cape York at the weekend. Continue reading...
The actor worked with local groups to at Mount Leuser National Park, where the ecosystem that helps regulate Earth’s climate faces developmental threatsFresh off a best actor win at the 2016 Oscars during which he made a speech that touched on the consequences of climate change, Leonardo DiCaprio paid a visit to Mount Leuser national park in Sumatra, Indonesia, to lend support to local groups working to preserve the area’s ecosystem.DiCaprio posted a photo from his journey on Instagram, writing that the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation is “supporting local partners to establish a mega-fauna sanctuary†in the Leuser ecosystem, a landscape endangered by palm oil plantations, mining, logging and other development threats.
New rules would ban ‘non-subsistence’ killing of bears, wolves and coyotes – some of the ‘most iconic yet persecuted species’– in the state’s 16 wildlife refugesA group of scientists has backed a federal plan to restrict the trapping and gunning down of bears and wolves in Alaska’s wildlife refuges, in the face of bitter opposition from the state government.
From food to clothes, extreme weather events are affecting key industries. As we kick off a new series on extreme weather - tell us what we should cover
A large silverback gorilla tries to attack a zoo visitor through the glass of his enclosure on Saturday. The footage, filmed at Henry Doorly zoo in Omaha, Nebraska, shows Kijito the silverback charging and jumping into the glass when the visitor has his back turned to the enclosure Continue reading...
From tyre chairs to newspaper art, people in Khartoum are finding innovative ways to attempt to tackle the country’s rubbish problemWamda Yousef sits in front of the baskets and plates she’s made out of newspaper.“In the beginning, I thought it was difficult to learn, but gradually I learned to do all these artistic shapes only by [using] newspapers that were left by my aunt – she loves reading newspapers,†Yousef says. Continue reading...
Cochineal insect bred specifically to target the destructive cactus infesting grazing lands in parts of western QueenslandTiny sap-sucking bugs are being unleashed to fight a destructive cactus infesting parts of western Queensland.The cochineal insect was bred in Queensland specifically to target coral cactus, which is wreaking havoc on graziers’ properties. The bug feeds only on the cactus by sucking its sap. Continue reading...
Claxton, Norfolk The cony, as it was originally called, was probably introduced by the PlantagenetsA large grey fur ball bustles suddenly by the path and then stares up with soft black eyes. It shows more curiosity than fear, suggesting this is the first time in its short life that it has met my kind. Certainly it is my first baby rabbit of the spring.You might think that the widespread emergence of these adorable creatures at this season lies behind the tradition of the Easter bunny but, in fact, the two are completely unrelated. The association between the passion of Christ and the festive lagomorph actually originates with the hare. Continue reading...
Flights from Britain to the US could take longer in future because of climate change. The jet stream is expected to become more powerful as the climate warms, and that means flights to America battling against fiercer headwinds.Flights from New York to London, on the other hand, will probably speed up as they ride on the faster jet stream, although this won’t balance the slower flights and a round trip will still be longer. That means more fuel used by the aircraft, more air pollution and possibly higher fares, according to researchers at the University of Reading in a study published in the journal “Environmental Research Lettersâ€. Continue reading...
With the ice cover down to 14.52m sq km, scientists now believe the Arctic is locked onto a course of continually shrinking sea iceA record expanse of Arctic sea never froze over this winter and remained open water as a season of freakishly high temperatures produced deep – and likely irreversible – changes on the far north.
Coast guard officials are training for catastrophe as melting sea ice opens up Northwest Passage allowing liner to cruise with 1,700 from Alaska to New YorkOn 13 April, coast guard officials from the US and Canada will train for a cruise ship catastrophe: a mass rescue from a luxury liner on its maiden voyage through the remote and deathly cold waters between the Northwest Passage and the Bering Strait.The prospect of just such a disaster occurring amid the uncharted waters and capricious weather of the Arctic is becoming all too real. Continue reading...
The greater mouse-eared bat in Sussex should have up to five females in a harem, but his species was declared extinct a quarter of a century ago. Who’d be him?He’s large, big-eared and must be the loneliest creature in the country. For 14 long years, a greater mouse-eared bat has spent each winter in hibernation in Sussex, the only known representative of a species officially declared extinct in Britain in 1990.What’s even sadder is that this small mammal is naturally polygamous, and should cavort with a harem of up to five females. But our greater mouse-eared bat’s best chance of company disappeared when the last known colony of females was thought to be destroyed after a cottage caught fire near Bognor Regis. Continue reading...
Footage posted on Facebook by Queensland couple Mike and Lee-Anne Phipps shows a koala hopping down the middle of a road. Cars had to stop on the Brisbane Valley Highway in Australia on Saturday when the marsupial, rarely spotted on the ground, went for a wander. A police officer helps escort the koala back to the surrounding trees
The editor at large of Country Life celebrates the rebirth of British rural culture over the last 40 years, and selects some of his favourite viewsLife gets better and better. However damp and dismal the weather may be this Easter, don’t let it colour your impression of the countryside. I know that for many people – particularly dairy farmers – life can seem a continual struggle, and the hedgehog is in decline. But let’s lift our eyes. There’s metaphorical sunshine too.That lovely, colourful bird, the goldfinch, is far more numerous than a century ago. Within living memory, the marsh harrier was nearly extinct, but the other day I saw several pairs displaying and hunting over Hickling Broad. These are not straws in the wind. If I consider the world reflected by Country Life when I joined the staff in 1977 until I left it a few months ago, the story is one of dizzying improvement. Continue reading...
Glued to your phone? Need a sense of perspective? One veteran tree-climber argues we should seek salvation in the branches – and reveals his five favourites in LondonTree climbing is a curious form of travel. Ascending, we cross the divide between two worlds, and the people passing beneath us become as separate as fish in an aquarium. Discovering a trunk with a clear path to the crown is enticing as finding a ladder to the moon; this is the essence of climbing, a method of passing between two spheres – the humdrum everyday and the elevated.Putting physical space between ourselves and our daily routines cannot be overvalued. After days spent holding carriage or escalator handrails, touching bark is bracing; like a shock of cold water. No other surface compares to living wood, and climbing brings a feeling of reversion, a step back from a wholly artificial environment. Tree tops are spaces that renew our appreciation for small pleasures, and being aloft magnifies the commonplace: reading a book, talking to a friend or enjoying a cup of airborne coffee. Sitting on a branch provides a kind of momentary amnesia, an immersion in the natural world that allows us to forget street-level worries. The canopy is a place of quiet revelation, and when we sit alone in the greenwood, a new solitude is experienced – not the isolation of an indifferent city but the solace of clear thought. People move through the street looking through a wide-angle lens, hyperaware of peripherals but ignoring the trees growing in their midst. Crossing a road or making a phone call, we are too preoccupied to look up. By climbing trees we can apply a microscope to our surroundings; suddenly the smallest textures of bark and branch captivate our attention. Continue reading...
Herd ‘coming home’ under treaty between North American tribes that seeks to return bison from Canada to MontanaDescendants of a bison herd captured and sent to Canada more than a century ago will be relocated to a Montana Native American reservation next month, in what tribal leaders bill as a homecoming for a species emblematic of their traditions.The shipment of animals from Alberta’s Elk Island national park to the Blackfeet reservation follows a 2014 treaty among tribes in the US and Canada. That agreement aims to restore bison to areas of the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains where millions once roamed. Continue reading...
Brean, Bristol Channel As we walked the sand towards Burnham, we made out a strange, black shape in the bayEarlier in the year, our church meeting had to be moved from a farm out on the marsh to higher ground in the village because of flooding. But, generally speaking, we in southeast Somerset, unlike folk down on the watery levels or up on the bleaker Mendips, are fortunate not to be too often seriously threatened by the weather or reminded of the force of the elements.But Brean, on the shore of the Bristol Channel, is a different world – one of wide spaces open to the sky and swept by powerful tides. Continue reading...
The grisly find was made by a resident in the suburb of Lysterfield South, which borders the Churchill national park, south-west of Melbourne’s CBDThree kangaroos, including a foetal joey, have been killed, mutilated and dumped in suburban Melbourne.Related: Kangaroo flatulence research points to new climate change strategy for farmers Continue reading...
Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 30 March 1916Wheatears have come; they were nearer than I thought when I last wrote; one, in fact, was seen by a friend in a field at Ashton-on-Mersey on Sunday. On the same day, a correspondent tells me, there were five near Aberystwyth, a place where early wheatears, coasting round Cardigan Bay, are often met with. It is interesting that all the six birds were males, for the cock birds appear to come in advance, as if to spy out the land or test the weather. It is not early for this the first of our true summer birds, for the wheatear is not held back as a rule by weather, although it is generally ready to take shelter from rain or snow in any rabbit burrow or other convenient hole. The south coast shepherds used to take advantage of this habit, making false burrows, really traps, for the nervous birds, which at one time fetched a fair price in the London markets as “ortolans.â€A friend who is staying for a time in North Wales has been much interested in a woodpecker which visits the trees in front of her window. From her description of the bird and its antics it appears to be the smallest and rarest of our three species, the lesser spotted woodpecker. It is about this time that the woodpeckers begin that strange spring call which is caused by rattling rapidly on a bough with the bill. This sound, which carries for a great distance, is called “rattlingâ€; it may be a love call, but it is just as likely that it is a kind of war drumming, a challenge to rivals. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Washington, Pennsylvania on (#18F29)
Animals believed to have been alive when they were shipped from the Philippines to Pennsylvania in a box supposedly containing T-shirtsTwo dead venomous snakes were found in a package in a western Pennsylvania post office earlier this month, federal authorities said.The box shipped from the Philippines to the Beaver County post office was declared as containing T-shirts, the Beaver County Times reported. Continue reading...
People protest at Marineland in Antibes against conditions that killer whales are kept in following deaths in storm last yearEnvironmental campaigners have said they are taking legal action against a French marine park over the treatment of its orca whales and other animals after a number were killed during a storm.
Countryfile’s ratings success shows the public appetite for the pretty and the grittyLast month, BBC1’s Countryfile achieved its highest ratings ever. A whopping 8.7 million live viewers tuned in on 7 February, making it the most popular programme on British television that week (beating War & Peace, Six Nations rugby and Call the Midwife). Countryfile’s figures just keep rising, from an already-impressive average of 5.9 million viewers a week in 2014 and 6.2 million in 2015. So what is it about countryside telly that has the nation gripped?“I imagine that it must be because our lives are so fast, in work and business and the world of technology,†says Adam Henson, who has been a Countryfile presenter for 15 years. “We’re slaves to our phones. If we can turn those off and just watch something gentle and beautiful and lovely – and interesting and informative – in our living rooms on a Sunday night, it’s a bit of respite and reality.†Continue reading...
First came the floods. Now comes the axe. As many as 10 museums face closure around Lancaster. Our writer returns to his home town to find shops boarded up and locals angry at having their city cut from under their feet
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 “crookâ€, 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...
Farmer Joe Schneider has won global backing in his campaign to win protected status for SticheltonWith its familiar blue veins and natural rind, it looks like stilton and tastes like stilton – albeit tangier and creamier. Yet government regulations mean that Stichelton – made in the UK to the historic recipe using unpasteurised milk – cannot be certified or labelled under that name.For years Joe Schneider, the only British cheesemaker still producing a raw-milk stilton from his Stichelton Dairy in Nottinghamshire, has been fighting for a change to the rules. Continue reading...
by Robin McKie Observer science editor on (#18D1A)
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...
Nobel peace prize winner and former IPCC boss says climate change sceptics are behind allegations he harassed female colleagueIt was the crowning glory of a distinguished career when, in December 2007, the head of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the charismatic Rajendra Pachauri, collected the Nobel peace prize in Oslo.Elected by governments five years before to chair the small independent organisation charged with informing them on the state of global climate science, Pachauri had seen off the Bush administration, which loathed the IPCC for not taking its line on climate change. He had weathered vicious attacks by sceptics and steered the IPCC to worldwide acclaim. 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...
While the 21-year-old founder of the Ocean Cleanup Project has succeeded in raising over $2m for a device that would extract plastic from the ocean, critics say the high-cost initiative is misdirectedLast year, nonprofit foundation The Ocean Cleanup hit a milestone en route to its goal of deploying a large, floating structure to pull plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The organization issued a press release announcing it had completed a reconnaissance expedition that would pave the way for a June 2016 test of its prototype. With the help of $2.2m in crowdfunding, 21-year-old founder Boyan Slat announced his plans to deploy 100 kilometers of passive floating barriers in an effort to clean up 42% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch’s plastic pollution in 10 years.Despite considerable online enthusiasm for the project, oceanographers and biologists are voicing less-publicized concerns. They question whether the design will work as described and survive the natural forces of the open ocean, how it will affect sea life, and whether this is actually the best way to tackle the problem of ocean plastic – or merely a distraction from the bigger problem of pollution prevention. Many have also expressed concern about the lack of an environmental impact statement prior to such a large push for funding. Continue reading...
As Alaskans choose their Democratic nominee after a winter wiped out by high temperatures, among Republicans the climate question has been near invisibleAs Alaskans go to the polls in the Democratic caucuses on Saturday, one of the most pressing issues should be what is staring them in the face – or, rather, what isn’t: snow and ice.
Beautiful and brief, cherry blossom season is one of the highlights of the gardening year. Jane Perrone advises on where to see it, while experts share their tips on growing your ownAs we trudge up out of the darkness and chill of winter, the sudden eruption of a haze of pink and white petals, buzzing with bees, heralds spring like nothing else. Breathtaking in its beauty but bittersweet in its brevity, cherry blossom is an annual treat for the senses.Nowhere is cherry blossom more revered than in Japan, where sakura, as it is known there, is a symbol of the transience of life. Or, as garden designer Sophie Walker puts it more bluntly, death. Walker, who is writing a book about Japanese gardens, explains: “The whole point of blossom is that it is fragile, that it is susceptible to death. The Buddhist challenge is to come to terms with the inevitability of one’s own death.†Continue reading...
They can’t admit it’s the coldest March in years and there are more penguins around than at any time in human history. It’s all being hushed upHahahaha, here we go again. Listen, they’re all “shocked†– what planet do these people live on?! You know there was ice on the bird bath again last night? In March! And now we’re meant to panic because it’s boiling in Australia. It’s called weather, people. El Niño mean anything? Thought not. It was hot here in 1976, wasn’t it? Nobody went mental, said our kids would all fry if we didn’t give up lawnmowers, or whatever it is now – yoghurt, probably. You know they’re trying to blame cows, as well as anybody evil enough to boil a kettle?No, because there weren’t any renewables in 1976. Ask yourself, who’s making a profit, it’s all about power and money, wind farms and solar panels – and batshit crazy catastrophists lying about extinct polar bears. Complete myth. Fact: they’re all going in your lasagne. It’s just being covered up. So where are the polar bear bodies then? Just do the math. 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...
