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Pests could cost the state in billions if the spread continues, Invasive Species Council warns

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One of the world’s worst invasive pests, red fire ants, have been detected outside a containment zone in Queensland’s Scenic Rim.

The ants, destroyers of crops and harbingers of doom for many common forms of outdoor recreation, are considered a potential $45b problem should they ever become widely established in Queensland.

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It's been said we know more about the back side of the moon than we do about parts of the Earth's oceans.

In the hills on the border of Virginia and West Virginia protesters – mainly women – are defying police and energy companies in non-violent environmental activism

Way out in the Appalachian hills, on the line between Virginia and West Virginia, after an hour-long backwoods hike up Peters Mountain, an orderly clutch of tents were surrounded by a plastic yellow ribbon that read, “police line do not cross”.

Past that, a woman sat on top of a 50ft pole.

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Mike’s Wood, River Kent, Cumbria: There are dozens of black gates along the valley, marking the route of the Thirlmere to Manchester aqueduct

Like little beacons among the hazel trees, stitchwort flowers lead me onwards towards the enclosure. There is always a moment, before passing through the black gate into this woodland “room”, of wondering about the motives for creating a separate space within the wood. The deeply mossed encircling wall strides over the crags and boulders of precipitous ground – a fine exemplar of the drystone-waller’s art. But why an enclosure here?

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When nature documentaries show elephants at a waterhole, Peter Langdon goes crook at the telly. He wants them to zoom in on the bird sitting in the tree in background. [This repeat program is carefully selected from the Off Track archive for your listening pleasure]

Leaked reports reveal that some of New Zealand's largest fishing companies have been under-reporting their catch of the commercially valuable hoki by hundreds of tonnes. Elisabeth Slooten, Professor, University of Otago Bruce Robertson, Associate Professor in Wildlife Management and Conservation Genomics, University of Otago Glenn Simmons, Research Fellow, University of Auckland Graeme Bremner, Associate professor Nigel Haworth, Professor of human resource development, University of Auckland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Newly released emails show senior officials from the Environmental Protection Agency worked closely with conservative thinktank the Heartland Institute

Newly released emails show senior Environmental Protection Agency officials working closely with a conservative group that dismisses climate change to rally like-minded people for public hearings on science and global warming, counter negative news coverage and tout Scott Pruitt’s stewardship of the agency.

John Konkus, EPA’s deputy associate administrator for public affairs, repeatedly reached out to senior staffers at the Heartland Institute, according to the emails.

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The UK entrepreneur puts himself through a gruelling training programme so he can rocket to space.

The UK entrepreneur puts himself through a gruelling training programme so he can rocket to space.

State wildlife experts are seeking DNA analysis to pinpoint the mysterious creature's species.

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Canada intends to conduct an interim review of its patchwork system of provincial and territorial carbon pricing policies in 2020, well ahead of its mandated deadline to complete the work, and will seek to identify areas where jurisdictions can align their varied programmes more closely, a senior official said on Thursday.

The intern will support CCAP’s international waste and climate change work. S/he will provide research, report-writing and conference-preparation support for CCAP’s on-the-ground projects focused on climate change mitigation.

State wildlife experts are seeking DNA analysis to pinpoint the mysterious creature's species.

Credit prices in California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) marched back to their record high this week, while future contracts began trading on exchange for the first time.

News and analysis company ICIS is losing another senior carbon analyst, the second to announce their departure from the firm this month.

Scientists uncover clues to how dinosaurs and early birds shed their skin from 125-million-year-old dandruff.

Scientists uncover clues to how dinosaurs and early birds shed their skin from 125-million-year-old dandruff.

Church in Wales | Is there a God? | Friendly bus passengers | Cooking for one | Herring gulls

It is not only the Church of England that is forbidden in law to conduct same-sex marriages (Letters, 25 May). The same legislation applies to the Church in Wales, disestablished in 1920.
Rev Dr Peter Phillips
Swansea

• The Church of England should have read the work of Fredric Brown before teaming up with Amazon (Want to know who God is? Now you can ask Alexa, 25 May). In his short story Answer, a scientist asks the first intergalactic supercomputer the first question: is there a God? “Yes,” it replies, “now there is a God.”
John Cranston
Norwich

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National Geographic magazine has published some startling images of the global plastic pollution scourge.