Around The Web

Nasa's probe is in a "healthy" state after its flypast of Ultima Thule, the most distant object ever explored.

Winning images from the year’s national and international wildlife photography competitions

Continue reading...

Human feces, overflowing garbage and damaging behavior reported as staff hampered over busy holiday period

Human feces, overflowing garbage, illegal off-roading and other damaging behavior in fragile areas were beginning to overwhelm some of the American west’s most popular national parks on Monday, as a partial government shutdown left the areas open to visitors but with little staff on duty.

Related: Trump 'ready and willing' to make a deal as shutdown chaos continues

Continue reading...

A year ago China imposed a ban on waste imports, so what's happened to the UK's plastic?

Contrary to dozens of aquariums' warning signs, flash photography does not affect seahorses. Maarten De Brauwer, PhD-candidate in Marine Ecology, Curtin University Benjamin John Saunders, Lecturer / Research fellow in Marine Ecology, Curtin University Tanika Cian Shalders, Marine Scientist, Curtin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development, Reporting Services Division (IISD RS), is looking for new writers for its team of freelance consultants (the “ENB Team”) who write and edit the Earth Negotiations Bulletin and IISD’s other conference reporting (ENB+) services.

I reject the suggestion that the capital’s action plan contains nothing new

Two weeks ago, the mayor of London and I spent a morning cycling with the leader of Enfield council looking at their excellent new protected cycleways and secure bike parking hub at Edmonton Green station. Together we unveiled Transport for London’s new cycling action plan, which aims to make London the world’s best big city for cycling and to double the number of cycle journeys in five years.

The launch follows the publication of this year’s TfL business plan, in which Sadiq Khan demonstrated his continuing commitment to cycling by not only protecting the record level of funding for cycling, but increasing it from an average of £169m to £214m a year. This commitment is despite central government’s complete withdrawal of the £700m annual operating grant, which has left TfL in a tough financial position, compounded by the delay and increased cost of Crossrail.

Continue reading...

Organisers had planned to release 130,000 balloons at a Manila nightclub to ring in the new year.

Dr Nancy Grace Roman, the first woman to hold a senior leadership position at Nasa, has died at 93.

Alarming sight greets family as thousands of the invasive pest are flushed out by rising waters in Kununurra

A huge storm in Australia’s north on Sunday flushed out a sight which either fascinated or horrified those who saw it – 10 cane toads riding the back of a 3.5m python.

Paul and Anne Mock were at home with their daughters in the remote West Australian town of Kununurra, when a large storm dumped almost 70mm of rain into their dam.

Continue reading...

Closing prices, ranges and volumes for China's regional pilot carbon markets this week.

Wildlife Trusts report comeback of rare seahorse breed and nudibranch slugs but plastic pollution still poses grave risk

A rare kind of seahorse and a rainbow-coloured sea slug with a titillating name are among the creatures making a comeback in UK waters, according to an annual conservation review.

The coast around Britain is now home to more than 100 species of nudibranchs – brightly hued, soft-bodied marine molluscs that appear nude because of their lack of external shells. The Wildlife Trusts credited a big conservation push around the coast for their proliferation.

Continue reading...

Pilot will redistribute surplus food, with aim of stopping waste going to landfill by 2030

The government has appointed a food waste champion to tackle the problem of 250m meals being thrown away in the UK each year.

Ben Elliot, a philanthropist and co-founder of the lifestyle group Quintessentially, will aim to help the government eliminate food waste going to landfill by 2030.

Continue reading...

British wine makers are enjoying temperatures that resemble the climate usually seen in north-eastern France and British Fizz is now winning praise and plaudits in the wine industry.

• Billionaire and retiring California governor demand action
• America’s year of extreme weather – in pictures

Michael Bloomberg slammed Donald Trump’s inaction on climate change on Sunday and said any candidate for president in 2020 – he himself might be one – must have a plan to deal with the problem.

Related: Trump unmoved on border wall demand as shutdown enters ninth day

Continue reading...

History will be made on Tuesday when the New Horizons probe sweeps past a far-off icy world.

Aryans are not the earliest or only source of Indian civilisation, suggests new research on genetic ancestry.

Exclusive: environmental group calls plan to protect black-throated finch an ‘elaborate hoax’

Adani has set aside a “conservation area” for the endangered black-throated finch at the same site earmarked for the massive Clive Palmer-backed Alpha North coalmine.

The environmental group Lock the Gate said the land-use conflict meant the Adani plan to protect the black-throated finch – which is one of two crucial management plans for the Carmichael mine yet to be approved by the Queensland government – amounted to an “elaborate hoax”.

Continue reading...

Carrier bags are easy to replace and milk can come in glass bottles. But what about deodorant, toothbrushes and clingfilm?

Bettina Maidment hasn’t emptied the kitchen bin since the beginning of November. The time before that was in August. “You can reduce your rubbish a lot,” she insists, pointing to her recycling and food compost bins. “I have two kids and they’re pretty anti-plastic – I am their mother after all – but it is do-able.”

Maidment, 38, is the founder of Plastic Free Hackney, a campaign to rid the east London borough of single-use plastic and has been serious about committing her family to plastic-free, zero-waste living for two years now. First to go was milk cartons. “That was an easy switch, we got a milkman.”

Continue reading...

• First sighting of season for critically endangered species
• No newborns were reported in previous calving season

Florida conservationists have reported a sighting of a right whale calf off the Atlantic coast.

Related: Facing extinction, the North Atlantic right whale cannot adapt. Can we? | Philip Hoare

Continue reading...