Feed aggregator
The secret life of puddles: their value to nature is subtle, but hugely important
Welcome back! UK's national parks brace for staycation invasion
As the Covid crisis eases, the UK’s beauty spots are learning from last year’s litter and parking rows about welcoming record crowds
From a campaign about poo, to advance booking for parking spaces, to a Zoom session advising farmers how to establish a pop-up campsite on their land, national parks across the UK are gearing up for a surge in visitor numbers as lockdown restrictions ease.
The plans come in the wake of devastating scenes last year when hordes of visitors descended on beauty spots and relieved themselves in the countryside, left huge amounts of litter and parked in inappropriate and dangerous places.
Continue reading...Earth Hour: Cities around the world turn lights off
The real reason humans are the dominant species
Green Homes Grant scheme to insulate houses axed
UK government scraps green homes grant after six months
£1.5bn scheme at heart of Boris Johnson’s ‘build back better’ promise has struggled since launch
The government has scrapped its flagship green homes grant scheme, the centrepiece of Boris Johnson’s promise to “build back greener” from the Covid-19 pandemic, just over six months after its launch.
The abandonment of the £1.5bn programme, which offered households grants of up to £5,000 or £10,000 to put in insulation or low-carbon heating, leaves the UK without a plan for tackling one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
Continue reading...Leading the charge: how the hospitality sector is building Australia's EV network
Instead of waiting for the government to step up, hotels, Airbnb hosts and other operators are installing micro EV chargers
For David Ritchie, installing three electric car chargers for customers at his winery was a “no-brainer”. With a powerful solar array and storage battery about to come online, visitors to Delatite Wines will soon be able to drive their EVs to the idyllic spot in regional Victoria and enjoy their sampling tour safe in the knowledge that they will be charging their car on free, clean energy for the return journey.
Ritchie is one of a growing number of business people pioneering a wave of eco-tourism based around the availability of EV chargers. Instead of enduring what could be a long wait for the Coalition government to join the green energy revolution, hotels, motels, Airbnb hosts and other hospitality operators like Ritchie are stepping up and delivering a micro EV charging network for Australia.
Continue reading...Apophis asteroid will not hit Earth for 100 years, Nasa says
Protests at 'inhumane' export of live horses to Japan for food
Activists seek ban on flying horses to Japan with thousands sent every year from Canada and France
Tens of thousands of horses are being subjected to long-haul flights, confined in crates with no food or water, to meet demand for horsemeat in Japan.
Since 2013, about 40,000 live horses have been flown to Japan from airports in western Canada. Under Canadian regulations, the journey can stretch up to 28 hours, during which the animals are allowed to go without food, water or rest.
Continue reading...Giant sandcastle built to bring sand martins home to roost in Surrey
Conservationists build 400-tonne structure to tempt migrating birds back to nature reserve after 25 years
A giant “sandcastle” has been constructed to encourage sand martins to nest at a nature reserve for the first time in 25 years, Surrey Wildlife Trust has said.
The 400-tonne sand installation at Spynes Mere, near Merstham, Surrey, was built by professional sand sculptors who used a “giant bucket mould” made from wooden boards, as well as the help of diggers and dumper trucks.
Continue reading...