Hunting for the underground fungus delicacy with dogs ensures ripe truffles and minimum environmental impact – and it’s a great way to bond with a canineJason Swindle has already learned the best and hardest lesson that his dog can teach. “It’s about trust. River does the craziest things when we’re out here – she charges up cliffs or hillsides – and I have really just had to learn to trust her.”This trust is perhaps even sweeter than the prize she helps him find beneath the forest floor: truffles. Continue reading...

A Parks Victoria report warns than herbides and other chemicals from a wash-down station near a popular swimming spot created a toxic cocktailA toxic cocktail of chemicals and herbicides has been washed into Melbourne’s Yarra River, killing trees and creating a public health risk, according to a Parks Victoria report.An internal incident and hazard summary report on Parks Victoria operations between January and October 2015 has revealed toxic chemicals were flowing into the Yarra from a wash-down facility in the Warrandyte state park, located next to popular swimming spot Pound Bend. Continue reading...

Residents hoping for some respite over weekend are alerted to ‘residual impacts’ after heavy rain leads to record river levels and severe floodingResidents in parts of north-east Scotland have been advised to prepare for “residual impacts” from the recent floods after heavy rain caused record river levels and severe flooding.Dozens of homes were evacuated in Inverurie, Port Elphinstone and Ellon in Aberdeenshire as the swollen river Don sent flood waters racing down the streets on Thursday night and Friday morning. Continue reading...

The environmental activist, portrayed by Julia Roberts in the 2000 film, lives just 20 miles from the leaky gas storage well: ‘I call it the BP oil spill on land’Erin Brockovich sat in an empty hall, awaiting hundreds of people who would soon stream in from a cold California night seeking answers and reassurance, and gave a sigh of familiarity.“I’ve been doing this for 20-plus years and I’ve learned that it won’t get better – it’ll get worse, and they’ll need to know that Superman is not coming to rescue them.” Continue reading...

Scientists warn that plans to build dams across Tonlé Sap, south-east Asia’s greatest lake, could be an ecological timebomb threatening the food security of millionsIn a few months’ time, monsoon rains will more than quadruple the size of Cambodia’s Tonlé Sap, south-east Asia’s greatest lake and one of the wonders of the aquatic world. The huge flood will reverse the seaward flow of the river that feeds into the lake, submerge forests, make a perfect wetland for spawning fish and will replenish soils for a rich rice harvest.Tonlé Sap is the most intensely-fished inland body of water in the world and as the annual flood subsides, many millions of fish will flow from it and back into the massive Mekong river where they will become the staple food of thousands of villages. Continue reading...

B Corp, a certification for business that undertakes environmental and other sustainability efforts, is starting to attract larger, public companies. But some roadblocks still remainThe B Corporation movement, which certifies companies that benefit society as well as their owners, is gaining momentum. Last month, Laureate Education, a global education company with $4.5bn in annual revenues, became the largest certified B Corp, joining Ben & Jerry’s, Patagonia, Seventh Generation and Warby Parker, among many others.

We must check the facts before jumping to conclusions about the efficacy of so-called natural flood defence schemes. They are an attractive idea but powerless in the face of extreme weatherThe town of Pickering is a notorious flood spot in the north-east of England, on the edge of the North York moors. So when the town escaped flooding this Christmas while York – just 40 miles away – was underwater, it seemed an open and shut case. Surely, it was the recently opened “working with nature” flood defence scheme above Pickering that saved the town? For the many advocates of the benefits of working with nature it seemed a great vindication.

The Environment Agency is unable to regulate discharge from the outfalls until the information is made available, reports EndsreportDetails of nearly 2,000 sewage outfalls are being withheld by water companies, according to anglers’ legal organisation Fish Legal.A freedom of information (FOI) request by Fish Legal revealed that the frequency and contents of 1,968 sewage outfalls remain unknown to the Environment Agency (EA). As a result the discharges cannot be properly regulated. Continue reading...

By doing everything the farming lobby asks, the UK environment secretary is using public money to make the flooding of the built environment even more likelyThose of you with memories longer than a week will be aware that Britain experienced a degree of hydrological inconvenience in December. You know: 16,000 homes inundated, £5bn of damage, that kind of thing. I vaguely recall that it made the news once or twice.You may also remember that, for the first time in Britain, there was a wide-ranging discussion on the causes of the floods. Connections that have been familiar to geographers, hydrologists and fluvial geomorphologists for two centuries finally broke through the media dam and into public debate. We began, at last, to discuss the second component of freshwater flooding.

Jerry Brown calls on officials to ensure gas company plugs leak as campaigners say storage facility is releasing equivalent of 7m cars’ emissions dailyCalifornia governor Jerry Brown declared an emergency on Wednesday in a Los Angeles neighborhood where a blown-out natural gas well has been spewing record amounts of global warming pollution.Ten weeks after the 23 October breach was detected, Brown ordered state agencies to make sure Southern California Gas Company, which owns the stricken natural gas storage facility, plugs the leak.

The preliminary assessment will help form the scientific basis for US government policy as it considers whether to control the use of the pesticidesThe US government has acknowledged for the first time that one of the world’s most widely used pesticides can be harmful to honeybees.The results of field trials, released Wednesday by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), show imidacloprid, a common neonicotinoid, can cause hive populations to fall among the world’s most important pollinators. Continue reading...

Corbyn wanted answers over the deluge up north, but the PM had only feeble barbs to offer. Somehow they hit homeDavid Cameron buttoned up his mac and clumped his way into the chamber. Striding authoritatively is always tricky when you’re wearing wellies. Even when they are green Hunters. He had promised to learn whatever lessons needed to be learned from the floods and was determined to show that he had taken every precaution possible. “It’s been very, very wet,” he observed shrewdly at prime minister’s questions. Nothing gets past Dave. “Much wetter than normal. Now can we talk about something else?”Floods are so last week for the prime minister, but not for Jeremy Corbyn, who quite reasonably wanted to know why so many flood defence schemes had been cut when the government had promised that money would be no object. “That’s just not true,” Dave said. “We’ve spent lots and lots of money. Why is the leader of the opposition being so negative? Rather than focusing on all the people who had their homes flooded, why couldn’t he talk about the success story of all those who might have been flooded but weren’t?” Continue reading...

Southern England faces ‘tension’ over water supplies if the next few months are dry, leading hydrologists say, as not enough rain has fallen to recharge underground reservesDespite December’s record rainfall, which led to thousands of people being flooded and the highest river levels ever seen in England, water restrictions due to drought could still be imposed in some parts of the country by the summer, say Britain’s leading hydrologists.