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Country diary 1917: holly saves us from the monotony of a leafless winter
18 December 1917 Their greens may be dark or even dingy, but when the rains sweep over or the snow melts upon them they shine as if polished
The sombre firs standing black against the leaden sky and the snow-sprinkled ground, the ivy clinging to the ancient bole, the big-leaved laurels and rhododendrons, and the hardy wayside hollies save the country from the monotony of leafless winter. Their greens may be dark or even dingy compared with those of spring, but they are really greens; when the rains sweep over, as they did yesterday, or the snow melts upon them they shine as if polished. The red berries are all the redder for the wet, and even the withered grass is invigorated by the showers which make us shiver.
Related: Holly: the festive berry
Continue reading...Newcastle: world's biggest coal export port announces shift away from coal
The new chair of Newcastle Ports in Australia says there’s an urgent need to diversify the regional economy and the port’s business
Newcastle, the world’s largest coal export port, must “urgently” diversify its traffic, the port’s incoming chairman has said, warning that the “long-term outlook for coal is a threat to the port”.
The move has been received as a significant sign of the transition away from fossil fuels.
Continue reading...Plantwatch: Wildflowers lose out twice from nitrogen pollution
Unclean air and run-off from agricultural fertilisers alter habitats while competitors threaten to overwhelm sensitive species
Nitrogen pollution in the air is devastating for many sensitive wild plants, which is why so much of the countryside is becoming a vast carpet of nettles, hogweed, hemlock and other rampant vegetation that feasts on nitrogen. In many places, these are running out of control.
Much has been written about the damage to human health from nitrogen oxides given off by traffic, but the damage to sensitive plants has gone largely unnoticed. Excessive nitrogen also comes from ammonia from fertilisers and manures, with much of the countryside awash with nitrates running off farmland.
Continue reading...By slashing environment spending, the government is slashing opportunities
Trump EPA rule change exploits taxpayers for mine cleanup, critics say
Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt has scrapped an Obama-era rule requiring mining operations to prove they can clean up future pollution
When the Zortman Landusky gold and silver mine, located upstream from Montana’s enormous Fort Belknap reservation, went bankrupt in 1998, the cost of the cleanup fell on the US taxpayer. The costs keep growing.
“Toxic pollution from the Zortman Landusky mine has contaminated nearly a dozen streams in the Little Rocky mountains and harmed the Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes that live downstream,” Bonnie Gestring, a staffer with Earthworks, a member of the Western Mining Action Network, said.
Continue reading...Waitrose urged to stop selling Shetland scallops over dredging concerns
Waitrose and MSC defend eco credentials of Shetland king scallops as conservation group calls for sales to be suspended
Waitrose has been urged to suspend sales of one of its premium products, an eco-certified king scallop from Shetland, which can sell heavily at Christmas.
The marine conservation campaign Open Seas challenged Waitrose after it raised concerns that the scallop fishery causes unjustifiable ecological damage because the shellfish are dredged from the seabed.
Continue reading...Venue of last resort: the climate lawsuits threatening the future of big oil
In an era of environmental deregulation, groups like the American Petroleum Institute are focusing resources on the courts – and ‘time is on industry’s side’
In early October, 22 state and federal judges hailing from Honolulu to Albany got a crash course in scientific literacy and economics. The three-day symposium was billed as a way to help the judges better scrutinize evidence used to defend government regulations.
But the all-expenses-paid event hosted by George Mason University’s Law & Economics Center in Arlington, Virginia, served another purpose: it was the first of several seminars designed to promote “skepticism” of scientific evidence among likely candidates for the 140-plus federal judgeships Donald Trump will fill over the next four years.
Continue reading...The eco guide to not buying stuff
What do you give to the person who has everything? How about nothing?
At the risk of undermining the work of a certain Mr S Claus, here’s a sobering thought: while the US contains just 3.1% of the world’s children, its citizens buy in excess of 40% of the world’s toys.
Kids are effectively regarded as consumers in training and we know where that leads. According to US studies the average American home contains more than 300,000 items.
Continue reading...S.A. Govt fast-tracks switch to renewables with Zen contract
Africa’s new elite force: women gunning for poachers and fighting for a better life
Abused and disadvantaged mothers and daughters are being honed into a squad of sharpshooters to save wildlife in the Zambezi valley
The black metal of the AR-15 rifle has worn silvery and shiny in parts after years of use. More manageable than an AK-47 in close-quarter combat, the weapon is precise enough to bring down an enemy target at 500 metres. Used for decades by anti-poaching units throughout Africa, today this gun is not carried by a typical swaggering male field ranger; this one is cradled securely and proficiently by Vimbai Kumire. “This job is not meant just for men,” she says, “but for everyone who is fit and strong.”
Kumire is a 32-year-old single mother whose husband ran off with a younger woman while she was pregnant with her second child. She is practising setting up an ambush in the early morning in Zimbabwe’s lower Zambezi Valley, nestling deep into the green undergrowth like a dappled shadow.
Continue reading...All female anti-poaching combat unit - in pictures
Zimbabwe’s Anti-Poaching Success: In between nursing, women hold the front line.
Continue reading...Asiatic cheetahs on the brink of extinction with only 50 left alive
With UN funds being cut this month, conservationists call for last-ditch effort to save animal which clings on only in Iran
Conservationists have warned that the Asiatic cheetah is on the threshold of extinction following a UN decision to pull funding from conservation efforts to protect it.
Fewer than 50 of the critically endangered carnivores are thought to be left in the wild – all of them in Iran – and scientists fear that without urgent intervention there is little chance of saving one of the planet’s most distinctive and graceful hunters.
Continue reading...Rocket rumbles give volcanic insights
Heinz Wolff, Great Egg Race presenter and scientist, dies
Country diary: walking in a woodland wonderland
South Oakley Inclosure, New Forest Others come here for exercise, we head off the track into a silence broken only by the scolding of blackbirds
There’s a stillness in the air, though we share this Inclosure’s gravelled track near Burley with others. A runner passes us on his way out. We’ve not gone far before we have to stand aside to allow two riders to pass on ambling ponies.
A cyclist speeds by, head down, and later we greet a family group enjoying a walk. Like so many of the people who come into the New Forest, their purpose is primarily exercise.
Continue reading...California fires: Sentinel satellite tracks wildfire smoke plume
A Big Country
Lost species of bee-mimicking moth rediscovered after 130 years
The rare oriental blue clearwing, that disguises itself as a bee, was spotted in the Malaysian rainforest
A moth that disguises itself as a bee and was previously only identified by a single damaged specimen collected in 1887 has been rediscovered in the Malaysian rainforest by a lepidopterist from Poland.
The oriental blue clearwing (Heterosphecia tawonoides) was seen “mud-puddling” – collecting salts and minerals from damp areas with its tongue-like proboscis – on the banks of a river in Malaysia’s lowland rainforest, one of the most wildlife-rich – and threatened – regions on Earth.
Continue reading...Fossil fuel divestment, pesticides and some very funny animals – green news roundup
The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox
Continue reading...What's hiding in my dust?
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