Trees could be protected from the devastating ash dieback disease with the help of a natural soil treatment, researchers have claimedA newly developed “enriched biochar”, which combines a purified form of charcoal with fungi, seaweed and worm casts could help ash trees resist the Chalara disease, according to research by tree and shrub care company Bartlett Tree Experts.

Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer – and yet the power in Lagos still goes off every day. We hit the streets with the Battabox video team to ask Lagosians how electricity shortages affect them, whether Nigerians should expect better … and their best tricks for coping

A new study has suggested that organic milk might contain higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids. But that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily better for youAfter publishing a study showing organic milk has higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids than ordinarily farmed products, Professor Chris Seal braced himself for the backlash. There is nothing like a study highlighting the benefits, or lack thereof, of organic food, to cause a spat. And Seal’s study in the British Journal of Nutrition last week (alongside another by him on meat that also shows higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids) certainly has its detractors.The fact that the study was funded by the Sheepdrove Trust, a British charity that supports organic farming, hasn’t helped. Seal says the money paid for analysis only, and that the charity didn’t have any input into the research. The study, a meta-analysis of 196 papers on milk (the other looked at 36 studies on meat), found that organic-grass-fed cows produced milk with 50% more omega-3 fatty acids than that from ordinary dairy cows. These fatty acids are linked to reductions in heart disease. But, while 50% sounds like a lot, full-fat milk is only 4% fat (semi skimmed is 2%) so this translates to an tiny amount more fatty acid in organic milk. Seal argues that if you added in organic cheese and butter, this would increase. But others point out you could get more nutritional benefit buying fruit and vegetables than hoovering up organic dairy produce. Continue reading...

Haslington Trail, Cheshire An excitable flock gather in a leafless tree, flitting between the branches, chasing one another, tumbling and somersaulting. “They look like flying teaspoons,” I sayIt is early morning. Birds are singing. The air is chilly but the sun is bright. I pause to watch a wren darting between the stones of a wall. Then continue walking along Primrose Avenue, a hotchpotch of bungalows and houses, with parents taking children to school. I turn to stroll through a conservation area, a stretch of woodland, the Haslington Trail. Beyond the hawthorn hedge and brambles, there are misty-green fields dotted with mole hills and sheep. Dandelions bold as brass and celandines, glossy heart-shaped leaves, shiny bright-yellow flowers, embroider the well trodden path. There are buttercups, daisies too, small and bright as stars.There is a smell of damp earth and green shoots. Raindrops glitter in the grass like glass beads. Last night there had been another deluge. This morning the sky flares salmon-pink and honeycomb-gold with a patch of midnight blue over the white poplar tree. The poplar has pale bark, though the trunk, low down, is patterned with black diamond shapes. Continue reading...

From March, China’s capital will bring in new sliding scale for air quality, after issuing its first ever ‘red alert’ for the city in DecemberBeijing is to raise the thresholds for issuing its highest air pollution warnings, the state news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday, two months after acrid smog triggered the city’s first ever “red alert”.Related: Beijing's 'airpocalypse': city shuts down amid three-day smog red alert Continue reading...

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 25 February 1916I am inclined to repeat a question asked by a Keswick correspondent: “Is there anything funny about the owls just now?” We can hardly imagine that they object to lighting orders, but certainly they appear to have taken a fancy for daylight hunting. The Keswick correspondent reports two different barn owls out in the morning and afternoon several times during the last two mouths, and also that a Sussex friend tells him that tawny owls “are out hunting all over the place by three in the afternoon.” On the same date that he wrote me, another correspondent reported that he saw a barn owl a few days ago in search of food near Nantwich a little before noon. Short-eared owls frequently hunt in the daytime, but barn and tawny owls are habitually crepuscular, and, at most seasons of the year, only fly in the daytime when accidentally disturbed. When, however, barn owls have hungry families demanding constant attention they will sometimes strive to provide for them in broad daylight: only under these circumstances have I seen barn owls seeking prey by day. Although owls are early breeders we can hardly imagine that so many birds and in such widely separated places have already got young, and the conclusion is that there is something funny about them. The war, so far as one can guess, has not made the capture of mice or slumbering sparrows more difficult. Continue reading...

After a month of blockading roads in protest at reforms, farmers will sit down with the government this week in Athens for a make-or-break meetingSome lean on shepherds’ staffs, others stand against tractors and trucks as the last rays of a brilliant winter sun cast shadows across the Saronic Gulf.In the biting wind, Christos Fouzas strikes a defiant pose. Behind him lie the fertile plains of Corinth, before him the toll gates outside the ancient town that farmers have blockaded in protest over government reforms. For the past month, this ragtag army led by the 49-year-old grape grower have been kings of the road, stopping all traffic – bar the odd school and tourist bus – from accessing the highway to Athens. Continue reading...

Major environmental victory after loophole permitting operations in rare ecosystems is declared “unconstitutional”Colombia’s Constitutional Court has ruled against a controversial legal loophole permitting oil, gas and mining operations in the country’s paramos - high altitude eco-systems. Colombia’s paramos are the most extensive on earth and supply more than 70% of the country’s population with water, according to the Bogota-based Alexander von Humboldt Institute.The loophole is in a June 2015 law implementing Colombia’s “National Development Plan 2014-2018.” The law prohibits “agricultural activities” and the “exploration for or exploitation of non-renewable natural resources”, as well as the “construction of oil and gas refineries”, in paramos, but then states that mining operations which have contracts and environmental licenses dating to before 9 February 2010, or oil and gas operations with contracts and licenses dating to before 16 June 2011, are exempted. Continue reading...

Supermarket gives 1p to charity, while Tesco hands over 3p a bagSainsbury’s is giving at least a third less to charity than any of its major rivals from 5p carrier bag charges intended to reduce plastic waste and raise cash for good causes.

A beautifully written study of Britain’s birds of prey takes too little account of the controversy they arouseIn the opening chapter of Raptor, the author describes a Neolithic chambered tomb found on South Ronaldsay, Orkney. Among the remains of 340 people were the bones of 35 birds, two thirds of which belonged to white-tailed eagles. Archaeologists have concluded that the human corpses had been exposed so that they could be stripped of their flesh. The most likely agents of that cleansing, before the spirit could be set free and the bones interred, were the eagles found in the tomb alongside them.The Isbister cairn on Orkney is 5,000 years old. At Catalhoyuk in Turkey there are images of vultures – the oldest recognisable bird paintings on a prepared surface – that are about 8,500 years old. At Shanidar, Iraq, the white-tailed eagle remains are 3,000 years older still. Humans have probably involved raptors in their rituals or funerary rites ever since they acquired language. Ethnic Tibetans still practise rituals with birds today: so-called “sky burials” in which the dead are consumed by vultures. Continue reading...

Unconvinced by the government’s plans, hard-hit homeowners are taking costly steps to protect their property

The rich history of eco-feminism goes back to the 1970s and is still going strongWanted: a new generation of feminist super heroes to stave off ecological catastrophe. Setsu Shigematsu, a California-based academic, has created the “Guardian Princesses” – seven female Disney-style cartoon characters, which she hopes will inspire enthusiasm for non-violent collective eco-action in the younger generation.There is a rich history of eco-feminism, starting from the coining of the term by French feminist Françoise d’Eaubonne in 1974 in her essay Feminism or Death. This launched a wave of women linking feminist viewpoints with earth-saving, which built on Rachel Carson’s work in Silent Spring. And in Rape of the Wild (1989), the authors take issue with “Man’s” violence against animals and earth. Continue reading...

Construction in zones created by connecting parks, rivers, lakes, highways and low building blocks, will be strictly controlled and obstacles to air flow removedAuthorities in Beijing are reportedly developing a network of ventilation “corridors” to help tackle the city’s notorious air pollution.Related: Beijing issues first pollution red alert as smog engulfs capital Continue reading...

Long winters in -30C temperatures they can handle, but now Norway’s indigenous people are fighting to protect ancient reindeer grazing land from developmentWhen Europe’s indigenous Arctic people want to find their reindeer in a snowstorm and temperatures of -30C, they turn to their £10,000 snowmobiles and an app that is also used by British sheep farmers. In seconds, the satellite tracking device linked to their phone tells them if the animals are on a frozen lake, up a mountain or, in the worst case, have fallen prey to wolves or lynx.So far, so simple, thanks to new technology. But when the Sami people of northern Norway want to complain about traditional grazing land being taken by the government, or the mining industry dumping waste in their pristine fjords, communication, they say, is not so easy. Continue reading...

Letter from federal officials to Michigan environmental authorities says city has not shown it has enough ‘qualified personnel’ to ensure healthy waterThe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said it has serious concerns over the “inadequate” response to the Flint toxic water crisis by both the city and Michigan officials, pointing to a lack of expert help on the ground and a failure to provide a proper water treatment plan.

Many US producers borrowed heavily and cheaply to cash in on the shale boom, but prices of around $30 a barrel are now causing severe difficultiesLow oil and gas prices are close to triggering a wave of bankruptcies and debt defaults among US producers, investors fear. The fall in the oil price to levels that are punishingly low for producers is putting up to $88bn of borrowings potentially at risk.About 30% of the oil and gas industry’s debt is now said to be at distressed levels – meaning companies are experiencing financial or operational problems severe enough to put them at risk of default or bankruptcy. Continue reading...

Governments are failing to address the links between air pollution and global warming. Doing so would save countless lives globallyIt is the greatest environmental hazard of the age. Nothing focuses our concern for the future more, divides rich and poor, exercises science, business, politicians, old and young. It is an existential threat, a generational battle. All political and financial resources must be concentrated on stopping climate change.But now that governments have signed up to the unambitious Paris climate agreement and pledged to try to limit greenhouse gas emissions, we must ask whether we have lost sight of everything else. Is the environment just about carbon and parts per million of gases in the atmosphere? What about the environment that we can smell, see and touch today? Continue reading...

New Forest, Hampshire Nearly 60 species are depicted on the garage doors, a 10-year record of New Forest wildlifeThe rutted track to Peter’s garage doesn’t look as though it leads anywhere special. But over the past 10 years this friend of mine has been using his garage doors to record the wildlife in his garden and in the forest through which he began to lead walking parties when he retired to the area.Although a skilled draughtsman he was not an experienced painter. On the advice of a nearby artist he experimented with acrylics, hoping that they would survive the rigours of the English weather. Today, the doors are covered with pictures that make them a unique account of both local wildlife and one man’s talent with paint and brush. Continue reading...

Bleaching events triggered by CO2 emissions will make oceans acidic and hostile for coral growth, new studies sayCoral will become deformed and increasingly fall victim to outbreaks of herpes-like viruses as humans continue to pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to two new studies.Combined, the two effects suggest coral reefs will have trouble recovering from bleaching events, like the the world is currently experiencing. Continue reading...

Stop the Cull finds number of herds with TB outbreak, in Dorset cull zone and at its edge, increased after badger killing beganThe government’s controversial badger cull has led to a rise in the number of cases of tuberculosis found in cattle in one of the programme’s key geographical areas, say animal rights activists.Rather than the number of cases of bovine TB falling among herds in and on the edge of the badger killing area in Dorset, they have been increasing, it was claimed. The campaign group Stop the Cull suggests this was due to “perturbation”, referring to the way culling may disrupt badger social groups, leading probably to more widespread roaming (including migration into cull areas), and consequently the disease spreading. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Testing regime in US’s third most populous city raises significant concerns about conflict of interest in producing data to confirm tap water’s safetyNew evidence suggests that the way US water is tested for lead is vulnerable to conflicts of interest that raise questions about data confirming tap water’s safety. The new evidence could cast further doubt on already controversial testing methods highlighted following the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan. A Guardian investigation has discovered that in the US’s third most populous city the testing regime for lead involves using its own employees’ homes. 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...

The sled dog race from Alaska to Canada is gruelling to say the least, but self-described ‘Quest addicts’ return year after year to test their limitsThe toughest sled dog race in the world didn’t disappoint in 2016. Blizzards, stranded mushers, charging bull moose – all featured on the 33rd annual Yukon Quest international sled dog race, an event that is more extreme wilderness challenge than competition.“We were looking for the toughest sled dog race in the world, and this year we found it,” said Rob Cooke, an ex-Royal Navy British-Canadian who finished on Thursday despite nearly pulling out halfway through. Continue reading...

Tailpipe emissions of black carbon from diesel engines may be up to 50% higher than previously thought, according to new researchDiesel engines may be doing nothing to slow global warming despite being the backbone of Europe’s policy to reduce car emissions, a new report claims.Tailpipe emissions of sooty ‘black carbon’ could be as much as 25-50% higher than the EU estimates for cars made before 2005, says the paper by Professor Erckard Helmers of Triers University.

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, announces she will step down in July after successful Paris climate agreement to cut emissionsThe UN’s climate chief said on Friday she will step down in July, at the end of a six-year term, and praised governments for reaching a 195-nation deal in Paris in December to shift the world economy from fossil fuels to cleaner energies.Christiana Figueres, a 59-year-old Costa Rican, said she would not accept any extension of her term as head of the Bonn-based UN Climate Change Secretariat after what she called the historic Paris Agreement. Continue reading...

White-handed gibbons, whistling ducks and wild pigs foraging in the backstreets of Hong Kong are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Nairobi residents warned not to confront two lionesses that strayed from national park into highly populated areasWildlife rangers are searching for two lions which escaped from Nairobi’s national park and wandered into highly populated areas of the Kenyan capital.Kenya Wildlife Service issued an appeal “for help to get two lionesses that strayed from the Nairobi national park”. Armed rangers and KWS vets carrying dart guns scoured bush and agricultural land near Kibera, one of Africa’s largest slums. “Lions are dangerous wild animals. Avoid provoking the lions by confronting them,” said a KWS spokesman, Paul Udoto. Continue reading...

Maker Daimler says allegations unfounded, as Hagens Berman files suit claiming Mercedes Clean Diesel vehicles emit illegal levels of pollutionAn owner of a Mercedes BlueTEC diesel car filed a class-action lawsuit in the United States, accusing the carmaker of knowingly programming its Clean Diesel vehicles to emit illegally high levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx), according to law firm Hagens Berman.Shares in Mercedes maker Daimler were down 3% at €62.82 (£48.75) at the bottom of Germany’s blue-chip index by 08.26am on Friday after news of the class-action lawsuit filed by Hagens Berman, which also has a lead role in class-action suits against Volkswagen. Continue reading...

South Uist: Everything white catches my eye – distant gulls, the flash of a wader’s belly – but there’s no sign of the gyrfalconThere have been several reports of a gyrfalcon on the island. A resident of the far north and the largest of the falcons, it’s a rare winter vagrant to the UK with only a few being recorded each year … and a bird I’d dearly like to see. It’s a couple of days now since there has been word of it, but this morning is the first opportunity I’ve had to go and look for it and there’s always a chance that it might reappear.So special and so valuable were these birds held to be in medieval times that flying one was the preserve of kings and they were sometimes given as gifts from one royal house to another. There are even recorded instances of gyrfalcons being demanded as part of the ransom for captured royalty. Most prized of all was the white gyrfalcon and it is one of these that has turned up locally. Continue reading...

Cricket legend Shane Warne had to put his head into a tank full of snakes during a challenge on I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here, and was in for a nasty surprise. A previous challenge involving rats apparently made him almost irresistible to the snakes. The vision cuts out just as the anaconda strikes, but fortunately for Warne, anaconda are not venomous. The snake bite comes days after the cricketer questioned Darwinism on Monday’s episode, offering his own explanation: ‘Basically I’m saying, aliens. We started from aliens’ Continue reading...

Groups including Wilderness Society, Humane Society and Total Environment Centre say NSW process is ‘skewed towards radicals in the National party’Conservation groups have stormed out of consultations with the NSW government over an overhaul of land-clearing laws they say have been a sham and will fast-track bushland destruction in the state.The move could reignite one the biggest environmental battles in New South Wales in recent years. Continue reading...

Plaintiffs cite city’s ‘negligence’ and say ‘elevated and unsafe’ levels of lead have contaminated water supply for years due to risky construction projectsChicago residents have filed a class-action lawsuit against the city over the safety of its drinking water, claiming that “elevated and unsafe” levels of lead have contaminated their water supply for years due to risky construction projects.The lawsuit, filed on Thursday at the circuit court of Cook County, Illinois, claims that the city of Chicago has known for years that lead has seeped into drinking water due to street work, water meter installations or plumbing repairs, but failed to warn residents about the risk of lead in their water. Continue reading...