Around The Web

Street artist ATM painted a kingfisher on the wall of a hairdressers in Lowestoft, Suffolk.

Despite a successful breeding season, the endangered birds still face serious threats

A row has broken out between conservation groups over the wellbeing of one of Britain’s most critically endangered birds of prey: the hen harrier. The dispute reveals a basic divide between experts on how to save the birds from eradication in Britain.

Natural England announces on Sunday that 2019 has been a record year for breeding success in England. A total of 15 nests had 12 successful breeding pairs and produced 47 chicks – improving on the previous high point of 46 set in 2006, news that was hailed “as a positive result” by the organisation.

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Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has warned against flight shaming and eco taxes saying "we don't want to go back to the 1920s and not have air travel."

The amorphous climate action group has fired up activists and opponents alike as it tries to shut down Brisbane

The Extinction Rebellion protesters think you should be angry. They want politicians and opinion columnists to be angry. The more people they upset stopping traffic in the Brisbane city centre – the louder the car horns, the more vicious the insults – the more certain it is they’ll be back.

“It’s not an enjoyable experience, we don’t take pleasure in doing it,” says Emma Dorge, an activist arrested in Brisbane on Tuesday, during a day of mass civil disobedience that shut down Australia’s third-largest city.

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Minister says the debate is different this time around, but critics say it’s best left to experts rather than ‘energy illiterate MPs’

Political arguments about nuclear power in Australia are not new, but the energy minister, Angus Taylor, says this time is different.

Announcing a parliamentary inquiry into what would be necessary to develop a nuclear energy industry, Taylor suggested people should no longer be thinking of the large-scale plants that had dominated the global industry since the 1950s. The future of nuclear, if it had one, was small.

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The felling of ancient woodland to make way for a giant coal mine brings together two linked battles for the activist

Greta Thunberg started her long journey to climate summits in the Americas by joining a treetop protest in Germany’s Hambach forest, where environmentalists have been fighting for years to stop the ancient woodland being torn up for open-cast coal mining.

The battle to save the last remaining oak and hornbeam trees reflects the young activist’s entwined fights to protect the natural world from human exploitation and to halt carbon emissions.

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It was spotted in the harbour at Sønderborg, in the south of Denmark.

Environment Agency analysing Somerset stream but says there are no reports of dead wildlife

A mysterious substance that has turned a tributary of a river in the West Country bright blue is being investigated by the Environment Agency.

Tests are being carried out on the River Frome in Somerset this weekend after the water turned a luminous colour. The Environment Agency said it was treating it as a suspected “pollution incident” but there were no reports of dead wildlife.

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The annual Big Butterfly Count shows an abundance of the creatures thanks to recent warm weather in Britain. But long-term trends are not so promising …

Suddenly, painted ladies are everywhere. From roadside verges and patches of waste ground to the flowerbeds in my Somerset garden, I am seeing dozens of these attractive black, white and orange butterflies, as they flit from flower to flower, feeding hungrily on nectar.

They’re not the only butterflies currently on the wing. As the last meadow browns, pale and faded from the sun, straggle along the hedgerows, I’m seeing newly minted gatekeepers and common blues wherever I go. And, on a recent visit to my coastal patch, I came across two exquisite little butterflies, brown argus and small heath: the latter the 21st species of butterfly I have recorded there in less than five years.

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Even with major efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, 80% of the trees’ habitat will be whittled away by the end of the century

Joshua trees have dotted the Mojave desert for 2.5m years, but even if humans take urgent action to combat the climate crisis, their decimation is all but ensured by the end of this century, a study has found.

Only .02% of the tree’s current habitat in Joshua Tree national park would remain viable amid unmitigated climate change, according to research published in the journal Ecosphere. Even in a best-case scenario, with major efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, 80% of the trees’ habitat will be whittled away.

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Rescue workers battle the effects of Typhoon Lekima after it hits China and causes widespread disruption.

One village in the country has seen the tragic consequences of poor sanitation. Now it has come together to turn things around

The sisters were buried in their favourite clothes: Patricia in a white dress and Mirana in plimsolls, a skirt and a blouse. Patricia was three and loved her Barbie. Not the Barbies that most girls in the village play with – dolls made from bamboo sticks, with grass “hair” tied in elastic bands – but a real one, with a pink plastic face. Her father, Augustin Randrianasolo, now 62, had bought it a few years earlier from the market for 200 Malagasy ariary (then worth 50p), a lot of money in the early 80s.

Mirana died seven years after her sister, in the early 90s; she was two and a half. “Not yet old enough to really speak,” says her older sister, Odile, who is now 35. “She was the most beautiful of all of us,” she continues. “She had the nicest hair, the most beautiful face. She looked like my dad.”

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Populations of great freshwater species, from catfish to stingrays, have plunged by 97% since 1970

Populations of the great beasts that once dominated the world’s rivers and lakes have crashed in the last 50 years, according to the first comprehensive study.

Some freshwater megafauna have already been declared extinct, such as the Yangtze dolphin, and many more are now on the brink, from the Mekong giant catfish and stingray to India’s gharial crocodiles to the European sturgeon. Just three Chinese giant softshell turtles are known to survive and all are male. Across Europe, North Africa and Asia, populations have plunged by 97% since 1970.

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Conditions are now in place making hydrogen an attractive replacement for fossil fuels.

The oceans are becoming more acidic as they absorb carbon dioxide. In addition to reducing emissions, it is now thought we will need to develop technologies to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Stories are read aloud by their authors and listeners are transported to the author’s cherished place. We hear a story by Kathryne Read, On Planting a Forest.

Bees are dying due to extreme heat, longer and widespread bushfires, and pollution.

West Australian AEVA members initiate a "Plasmaball Run" challenge to get to Esperance as quick as they can by electric car, using whatever charging means they can.

The post Plasmaball Run: Three (non-Tesla) electric cars charge to Esperance from Perth appeared first on RenewEconomy.

If a river is clean enough to swim in, it's healthy in all sorts of ways.

Two young designers say their pot could have less environmental impact than the products it replaces.