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Rosetta probe heads for comet crash
UK ‘consistently waters down’ reforms of EU farming subsidies
European commission says government chooses not to apply CAP payment ceiling to large landowners in England
The UK government could have stopped wealthy landowners including aristocrats and a Saudi racehorse owner receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds from the EU’s common agricultural policy, the European commission has said.
An investigation of the top 100 recipients of CAP subsidies in the UK last year by the environmental campaign group Greenpeace revealed that at least one in five were farm businesses owned or controlled by members of aristocratic families.
Continue reading...Strange reptile fossil puzzles scientists
EU Commission sues UK over harbour porpoise protection
Coal electricity generation falls to record UK low this spring
Closure of coal-fired power plants led to the fossil fuel dropping to just 6% of the power mix, official data shows
Coal generated a record low 6% of the UK’s electricity this spring, official figures show.
The share of coal in the power mix fell from 20% in the same period last year, following the closures of Ferrybridge C, West Yorkshire, and Longannet coal-fired power station in Scotland.
Continue reading...UK faces European court for failing to protect porpoises
UK has failed to provide enough safe habitats for the mammals, with just one small site formally proposed so far, says European commission
The UK will be hauled before the European court of justice for failing to provide safe habitats for harbour porpoises, the European commission said on Thursday.
Harbour porpoises resemble bottlenose dolphins, with small rounded heads, flat foreheads and a black-lipped mouth that curves upwards, as if smiling.
Continue reading...RSB photographer of the year shortlist and young photographer of the year winner – in pictures
Fighting elk bulls and a microscopic image of shark’s skin are among the shortlisted images for the Royal Society of Biology’s photographer of the year award, which this year takes the theme Biology: from Big to Small
The winner will be announced at the Royal Society of Biology awards ceremony on 13 October at Charles Darwin House, London
Continue reading...Young people urged for park-life views
Furniture that destroys forests: crack down on 'rampant' trade in rosewood
Cites summit moves to protect the world’s most trafficked wild product by placing all 300 species of the tree under trade restrictions
Governments have launched a crackdown on the rampant billion-dollar trade in rosewood timber that is plundering forests across the planet to feed a booming luxury furniture market in China.
The Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) summit on Thursday placed all 300 species of rosewood under trade restrictions, meaning criminals can no longer pass off illegally logged species as legitimate.
Continue reading...The Queen, aristocrats and Saudi prince among recipients of EU farm subsidies
At least one in five of the top 100 UK recipients of CAP subsidies were for farms owned or run by aristocratic families, say Greenpeace
Wealthy aristocrats and a Saudi landowning prince are continuing to reap hundreds of thousands of pounds from the European Union’s common agricultural policy (CAP).
At least one in five of the top 100 recipients of CAP subsidies in the UK last year were farm businesses owned or controlled by members of aristocratic families, an investigation by environmental campaign group Greenpeace found.
Continue reading...Mini-nuclear reactors could be operating in the UK by 2030 - report
Energy Technologies Institute argues small modular reactors capable of delivering clean power and heat could be in place by 2030 if the right policy framework is put in place, reports BusinessGreen
The first small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) could be operating in the UK by 2030 with the right government support, according to a new report from the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI).
The analysis, released today by the government and industry-backed energy research body, examined the steps needed to support the first SMR in the UK and concluded a credible schedule for implementation can be set out - as long as a policy framework is developed to reduce risks for SMR developers and increase investor confidence.
Continue reading...Zimbabwe accused of preparing to ship dozens of young elephants to China
Conservationists say dozens of young elephants being captured by Zimbabwe’s government may be bound for China, rather than nearby national park
Concerns have been raised that Zimbabwe is again preparing to send dozens of young elephants to wildlife parks in China.
The government’s national park authority, ZimParks, began capturing elephants from Hwange national park in August and keeping them in pens at Umtshibi wildlife capture and relocation unit.
Continue reading...Switch disposable coffee cups for reusables, urge campaign groups
International coalition of NGOs is calling for an end to the throwaway culture after the success of a plastic bag charge shows a similar charge on coffee cups could work too
The billions of disposable coffee cups thrown away each year globally should be replaced with reusable ones because they are a waste of resources and harm forests, an international coalition of NGOs has urged.
The call comes as a study by Cardiff University said that the plastic bag charge in England had been so successful that it showed a charge on coffee cups in the UK could work too.
Continue reading...Simon Birmingham on the Adelaide storm, renewables and education funding
Meet Didik: shot and orphaned baby orangutan highlights crisis
Abandoned with a bullet wound in a local shop, an orphaned orangutan named Didik is just one of thousands of victims of the ecological destruction of Borneo
When International Animal Rescue (IAR) staff found Didik, he was emaciated and near death. The 18-month-old orangutan, who had been dumped at a local store in Ketapang, Indonesia, had a bullet in his shoulder and had very likely seen his mother killed by the same people who put it there.
“Our team deals with so many cases like Didik’s in which the baby has ended up as someone’s pet but the true fate of the mother remains unknown,” said Lis Key, communications manager for the IAR, adding that “orangutan mothers are very protective of their babies and wouldn’t let go of them without a fight.”
Continue reading...Renault says new Zoe has longest range of any mainstream electric car
Latest model’s 250-mile range will help ‘psychological barriers’ in drivers who fear running out of power, carmaker claims
Renault has unveiled a new electric car that it claims will overcome psychological barriers among drivers who fear running out of power between charges.
Launched on Thursday ahead of the Paris motor show, the latest Zoe model will have the longest range of any mainstream electric vehicle, the French carmaker said.
Continue reading...Shoppers in England now far more likely to use their own bags
Study finds a rise in the number of people carrying their own bags since the introduction of a 5p charge on plastic bags nearly a year ago
Shoppers in England have become much more likely to take their own bags to the high street since the introduction of a plastic bag charge nearly a year ago, a study has found.
More than nine in 10 people now often or always carry their own bags, up from seven in 10 before the 5p charge came into effect, and the public became much more supportive after it started. The number of plastic bags taken from supermarkets and big retailers in England has fallen by 85%.
Lichens stake their claim, millimetre by millimetre
Kinloch, Skye Though the land is deserted now, the signature of human habitation is deeply imprinted upon it
High about the shoreline, looking across the Sound of Sleat, lie the remains of the township of Leitir Fura. Abandoned by their inhabitants in the early 19th century, the low stone blackhouses have been laid bare by the elements in the subsequent decades, their exoskeletons crumbling as – stone by stone – they return to the earth.
Though the land is deserted, the signature of human habitation is deeply imprinted upon it. Buildings that have entirely subsided linger as ghostly apparitions, their presence announced by changes in the pattern of vegetation: neat oblong forests of bracken, or tough reedy tussocks in tight, straight-edged formation.
Continue reading...First US presidential debate: Candidates spar over solar energy
Baker & McKenzie first law firm to join World Bank’s Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition
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