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Lake Cowal in New South Wales is home once again to thousands of waterbirds; meet a young winemaker with a real connection to the earth; and UK farmer Jim Chapman spreads the farm-safe message.

Squirrel cull | Housebuilding | PPE and LSE | More leftovers | La La Land

The easiest way to protect the red squirrel (Report, 24 February) is for us to eat the grey ones. The latter are too plentiful and should be easy to trap. Many of us have no problem eating rabbits, so the greys could be a cheap addition to our diet. The bird population would also benefit from a cull of these pests. So, Delia, could we please have a recipe for écureuil à la bourguignonne?
Donald Blow
Kirkcaldy, Fife

• John Harris (What’s the point in building a million new homes if they’re not fit to live in?, 22 February) writes honestly of the difficulties facing new home owners when the rush to build leads to corners being cut. We are also aware of houses being sold leasehold, some with onerous clauses which double ground rent every few years. Caveat emptor.
Brenda Banks
Teignmouth, Devon

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The simple up-and-down motion of hand pumps could help scientists secure a key water source for 200 million people in Africa.

A jaguar killing an anteater, a green tree python and the winner of the underwater photographer of the year are among this week’s images from the natural world

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Climatologists say Labrador Sea could cool within a decade before end of this century, leading to unprecedented disruption, reports Climate News Network

For thousands of years, parts of northwest Europe have enjoyed a climate about 5C warmer than many other regions on the same latitude. But new scientific analysis suggests that that could change much sooner and much faster than thought possible.

Climatologists who have looked again at the possibility of major climate change in and around the Atlantic Ocean, a persistent puzzle to researchers, now say there is an almost 50% chance that a key area of the North Atlantic could cool suddenly and rapidly, within the space of a decade, before the end of this century.

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Shortly before the close of voting the Brimmon oak, for which a bypass was relocated, is close behind a Polish oak and a Czech lime tree

It is old, squat, and bent a bypass. Now an ancient oak saved from being destroyed by a new road has become the first British tree with a cracking chance of winning the European Tree of the Year competition.

The Brimmon oak led the contest in the early stages, polling more than 10,000 votes. Three days before the end of the voting period, the Welsh tree was in third place, just behind the hot favourite, an oak tree from Poland, and a lime tree in the Czech Republic.

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The government is to enshrine into law the idea that there should be no political interference in research funding.

The Oceans Melting Greenland project is taking important measurements to determine how fast sea levels will rise

If you meet a group of climate scientists, and ask them how much sea levels will rise by say the year 2100, you will get a wide range of answers. But, those with most expertise in sea level rise will tell you perhaps 1 meter (a little over three feet). Then, they will immediately say, “but there is a lot of uncertainty on this estimate.” It doesn’t mean they aren’t certain there will be sea level rise – that is guaranteed as we add more heat in the oceans. Here, uncertainty means it could be a lot more or a little less.

Why are scientists not certain about how much the sea level will rise? Because there are processes that are occurring that have the potential for causing huge sea level rise, but we’re uncertain about how fast they will occur. Specifically, two very large sheets of ice sit atop Greenland and Antarctica. If those sheets melt, sea levels will rise hundreds of feet.

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Wildlife Trusts’ biggest-ever recruitment drive will see volunteers monitor populations, educate children – and bludgeon grey squirrels to death

An army of 5,000 volunteers is being sought to save the red squirrel from extinction by monitoring populations, educating children – and bludgeoning grey squirrels to death.

The Wildlife Trusts’ biggest-ever recruitment drive is focused on areas of northern England, north Wales and Northern Ireland where invasive grey squirrels first introduced by the Victorians are driving the retreating red squirrel population to extinction.

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NSW central coast schoolboy, aged 10, was given 12 vials of antivenom after he was bitten by a male spider hiding in a shoe

A 10-year-old NSW central coast boy is lucky to be alive after a deadly funnel web spider bite necessitated what is believed to be the largest dose of antivenom administered in Australian history.

Matthew Mitchell was rushed to Gosford hospital after he was bitten on the finger by the male funnel web, which was hiding inside a shoe, on Monday.

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New report to UN world heritage committee criticises Australia’s lack of planning in dealing with effects of climate change

The Great Barrier Reef faces an “elevated and imminent risk” of more widespread coral bleaching this year, the reef authority has warned the Queensland government.

An alert from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority says more of the reef is showing built-up heat stress than this time last year, just before its worst-ever bleaching event killed off a quarter of all coral.

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AEMO's use of private weather forecasters, and not Bureau of Meteorology, likely contributed to SA's recent weather-related blackouts.

Global battery storage companies prepare to fight proposed Australian standards that could effectively ban battery storage from homes and garages, and put major dent into Australia's claims of being first mass-market for the technology.

Adelaide-based ZEN Energy renews calls for electricity market rule changes as it reveals plans to develop a between 50-150MWh battery storage project in SA.

An important new report issued overnight in London has demolished the assumption that forest biomass should be considered a carbon-neutral source of energy.

Coal’s long term prospects do not look good in the US, or for that matter anywhere else

How can a Trump Presidency be positive? Surely this is a major setback for action on climate change, inequality, human rights and global security?

With high gas prices partly to blame for the electricity blackouts that hit SA this month, and gas-fired generators caught short in NSW two days later, there are calls for Australia’s onshore gas to flow much more freely.

Melted ice from the Antarctic, a vial of tears, a plastic bottle of water from a firetruck and three different types of wee are all exhibits in the Museum of Water - an exploration of our relationship with the world's most indispensable liquid.

ERM and Alinta top list of retailers failing to meet RET obligations in 2016. Their combined shortfall could have supported nine 100MW solar farms in NSW.