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Environment Secretary Michael Gove launches a review of the country's protected landscapes.

Fresh look at system prompted by rising population and decline in certain habitats, says Michael Gove

A new wave of national parks could be created after the environment secretary, Michael Gove, announced plans for a review of protected areas.

The review, which will also consider areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs), will look at how they can boost wildlife, improve visit access and support the people who live and work there.

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Warning by expert panel says up to 400,000 wildfowl a year may suffer lead poisoning

Several rare bird species, including a breed of red-headed duck listed as “vulnerable”, are under threat from lead poisoning linked to shooting, a new report says.

Numbers of common pochard, a duck species at risk of global extinction, have fallen substantially over the past 30 years, a decline partly attributed to the fact that they eat some of the 5,000 tonnes of lead pellets discarded in the countryside by people shooting game, according to the Lead Ammunition Group (LAG).

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CWP and Partners Group to develop 1,300MW of wind, solar and storage in NSW, saying it will beat coal and will be the future of large scale generation in Australia.

Government promises action on collisions to avoid slaughter on busy shipping routes

In an office up a steep hill in a seaside suburb of Athens, a tiny blue light flickers from a computer terminal. Dr Alexandros Frantzis, Greece’s foremost oceanographer, points it out. The light, he says, tracks marine traffic “in real time”.

It is key to saving one of the world’s most endangered whale populations.

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Campaigners demand that post-Brexit Britain matches the EU’s plan to tackle waste

The EU is to ban plastic straws, stirrers, cutlery, cotton buds and balloon sticks in a bid to tackle the rising tide of plastic waste, a move that has prompted urgent calls for the environment secretary, Michael Gove, to guarantee that the UK will follow Brussels’ lead after Brexit.

The restrictions on “single-use” plastic will be launched on Monday by the European commission as part of its plan to ensure that 55% of all plastic is recycled by 2030. About 80-85% of all litter in the oceans is plastic, and half of that is made up of throw-away items such as plastic straws.

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The fourth man to walk on the Moon became an accomplished painter, finding inspiration in space.

CRISPR – the new technique to manipulate genes. It's big. And so are the ethical question it raises. CRISPR's co-inventor Jennifer Doudna, a geneticist and an environmental activist on the ethics of this revolutionary technology.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove launches a review of the country's protected landscapes.

Red-hot rivers of lava and clouds of ash can be deadly - but death by volcano is not inevitable.

Red-hot rivers of lava and clouds of ash can be deadly - but death by volcano is not inevitable.

The fourth man to walk on the Moon became an accomplished painter, drawing inspiration from space.

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.