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Spring flowers in autumn, birdsong in winter: what a freak year for nature
When Stephen Moss was a boy, the seasons followed predictable patterns
When I was growing up, in the 1960s and 1970s, we had what my nan used to call “proper weather”. Snow in winter, showers in spring, sun (or at least, sunny intervals) in summer and gales in autumn. Britain’s weather may have been changeable by the day, but the seasons were seemingly set in stone, with a reassuringly predictable regularity.
That certainly suited the country’s fauna and flora. Wild animals and plants, and by extension their habitats, evolved to cope with short-term unpredictability and long-term stability. If change did occur, it happened slowly, over decades or centuries; rather than rapidly, in a single year.
Continue reading...British astronaut Helen Sharman recognised in New Year’s honours
'It's shocking, it's horrendous': Ellen MacArthur's fight against plastic
She broke the solo record for sailing round the world, but now she is dedicating her life to an even greater challenge – saving it from the destructive tide of plastic pollution
Trophies from her past glories as a competitive yachtswoman are placed discreetly around the 16th-century building on the Isle of Wight, the base of Dame Ellen MacArthur’soperations today.
On a blackboard in one of the meeting rooms, the targets of a different passion are spelled out. From uncovering the scale of plastic pollution in the oceans to targeting the textile waste of the fashion industry, MacArthur, who in 2005 broke the solo record for sailing round the world, is dedicating her life to saving it.
Continue reading...Country diary: a nesting box, a broken window and a brooding robin
Comins Coch, Ceredigion For years the robins ignored our open invitation to take up residence above the shed door
We inherited the old garden shed when we bought the house a quarter of a century ago. Over the door, someone had fixed an open-fronted nest box of the type thought suitable for a robin but, whether it was too exposed or the aspect was wrong, no birds took up the offer of accommodation.
Eventually, while repainting the shed, I took down the box and, for want of anywhere else to put it, left it on a high shelf just inside the door. That winter, the apple tree nearby lost a branch, breaking the shed window and adding another line to the list of jobs I would never get around to.
Continue reading...Pecking order: how John Gould dined out on the birds of Australia
From rosella pie to the ‘delicate’ flesh of baby emus, the 19th century ornithologist relished the taste of the creatures he so meticulously studied
Of all the changes to the study of ornithology in the past 200 years, the most striking, when reading John Gould’s seven-volume 1848 treatise The Birds of Australia, is the apparent lack of interest among modern scientists in what their subjects taste like.
Gould left no such questions unanswered. The prototype of his beautifully illustrated guide, digitised and made available online by the State Library of New South Wales, contains many tips for the keen sportsman on how best to shoot each of the featured birds and, where Gould had opportunity to sample them, what they tasted like.
Continue reading...The best science long reads of 2017 (part one)
Busy year for storms
Live long, little lizard
Space science work recognised in New Year Honours
War on Waste revisited: Recycling seafood shells
The week in wildlife - in pictures
A rare golden monkey, Hawaiian green sea turtles and Malaysia’s last female Sumatran rhinoceros all feature in this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...The article that changed my view … of how civil disobedience helps the planet
Suganshi Ropia says a piece she read after the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement helped her realise we shouldn’t wait to make our voices heard
Suganshi Ropia, 21, is a law student from Pune, India
I try to keep in touch with news related to climate change, and am particularly interested in environmental law. My compulsion to do something positive about climate change was one of the reasons I decided to study law. When I read the opinion piece Civil disobedience is the only way left to fight climate change, by Kara Moses, in spring 2016, it crystallised my feelings about the responsibility we have as a community of humans to do more.
Alarming link between fungicides and bee declines revealed
Fungicides are found to be the strongest factor linked to steep bumblebee declines, surprising scientists and adding to the threats to vital pollinators
Common fungicides are the strongest factor linked to steep declines in bumblebees across the US, according to the first landscape-scale analysis.
The surprising result has alarmed bee experts because fungicides are targeted at molds and mildews – not insects – but now appear to be a cause of major harm. How fungicides kill bees is now being studied, but is likely to be by making them more susceptible to the deadly nosema parasite or by exacerbating the toxicity of other pesticides.
Continue reading...World first for dog's broken leg
'It's a perverse system': how Colombia's farmers are reforesting their logged land
In the wake of Colombia’s peace deal, the rush to clear Amazon jungle for cattle ranches and coca caused deforestation to soar. A new scheme hopes to enable farmers to make a sustainable living from the forest
In a cool forest patch along a rutted dirt road outside the Amazon jungle town of El Retorno in Guaviare, southern Colombia, Luis Vergara lifts his machete to clear a path through the brush. He walks through a 90-hectare plot of land he has replanted with valuable abarco trees – Colombian mahogany – in an attempt to replace what he logged from it.
Gardens under threat from 'game changing' plant disease
Nice to meet you: amazing new animal species discovered in 2017 – in pictures
From the Pink Floyd shrimp that makes a noise so loud it can kill small fish, to giant stick insects and new types of orangutans and gibbons, here is a round up of new animal species discovered this year
Continue reading...Australian adventurer Andrew Lock returns to Arctic Circle – video
As the rest of the country relaxes into that comfortable space between Christmas and the new year, Andrew Lock is returning to the Arctic Circle with his expedition partner, Neil Ward, in an attempt to become the first to cross the Brooks Range in the depths of winter.
The planned 10-week, 1,600km expedition will be the second attempt for the pair. Almost 12 months ago a record-breaking cold snap, a foot infection and inadequate gear forced Lock and Ward to abandon their attempt just 10 days into the journey.
Before leaving, Lock sat down with Guardian Australia to discuss what went wrong, and why he is going back
Continue reading...Is this the future? Dutch plan vast windfarm island in North Sea
Advanced plans by Dutch power grid aims to build power hub possibly at Dogger Bank whose scale would dwarf current offshore sites
Britain’s homes could be lit and powered by windfarms surrounding an artificial island deep out in the North Sea, under advanced plans by a Dutch energy network.
The radical proposal envisages an island being built to act as a hub for vast offshore windfarms that would eclipse today’s facilities in scale. Dogger Bank, 125km (78 miles) off the East Yorkshire coast, has been identified as a potentially windy and shallow site.
Continue reading...Country diary: a little map of bird movements
Stamford, Lincolnshire Hieroglyphics left by fleeting feet provide a record of their ways, written on the ground
Cold comes, and life hunkers. A hedgehog asleep in a nest of leaves behind the shed. Inside it, there are big spiders and signs of shredding, mice probably. So much life that stays unnoticed most of the year, then moves indoors undetected. But the birds are always noticed. Though in winter, less.
Morning, and the inside is filled with a quiet, odd brightness. Outside is a four-inch mantle of snow. Softening, just. No signs of life. Then I see something inscribed in the white. What Richard Clapham called “the hieroglyphics left by the feet of nature’s wild things” (Bird Tracks in the Snow, 1920).
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