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The week in wildlife - in pictures
A rare golden monkey, Hawaiian green sea turtles and Malaysia’s last female Sumatran rhinoceros all feature in this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...The article that changed my view … of how civil disobedience helps the planet
Suganshi Ropia says a piece she read after the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement helped her realise we shouldn’t wait to make our voices heard
Suganshi Ropia, 21, is a law student from Pune, India
I try to keep in touch with news related to climate change, and am particularly interested in environmental law. My compulsion to do something positive about climate change was one of the reasons I decided to study law. When I read the opinion piece Civil disobedience is the only way left to fight climate change, by Kara Moses, in spring 2016, it crystallised my feelings about the responsibility we have as a community of humans to do more.
Alarming link between fungicides and bee declines revealed
Fungicides are found to be the strongest factor linked to steep bumblebee declines, surprising scientists and adding to the threats to vital pollinators
Common fungicides are the strongest factor linked to steep declines in bumblebees across the US, according to the first landscape-scale analysis.
The surprising result has alarmed bee experts because fungicides are targeted at molds and mildews – not insects – but now appear to be a cause of major harm. How fungicides kill bees is now being studied, but is likely to be by making them more susceptible to the deadly nosema parasite or by exacerbating the toxicity of other pesticides.
Continue reading...World first for dog's broken leg
'It's a perverse system': how Colombia's farmers are reforesting their logged land
In the wake of Colombia’s peace deal, the rush to clear Amazon jungle for cattle ranches and coca caused deforestation to soar. A new scheme hopes to enable farmers to make a sustainable living from the forest
In a cool forest patch along a rutted dirt road outside the Amazon jungle town of El Retorno in Guaviare, southern Colombia, Luis Vergara lifts his machete to clear a path through the brush. He walks through a 90-hectare plot of land he has replanted with valuable abarco trees – Colombian mahogany – in an attempt to replace what he logged from it.
Gardens under threat from 'game changing' plant disease
Nice to meet you: amazing new animal species discovered in 2017 – in pictures
From the Pink Floyd shrimp that makes a noise so loud it can kill small fish, to giant stick insects and new types of orangutans and gibbons, here is a round up of new animal species discovered this year
Continue reading...Australian adventurer Andrew Lock returns to Arctic Circle – video
As the rest of the country relaxes into that comfortable space between Christmas and the new year, Andrew Lock is returning to the Arctic Circle with his expedition partner, Neil Ward, in an attempt to become the first to cross the Brooks Range in the depths of winter.
The planned 10-week, 1,600km expedition will be the second attempt for the pair. Almost 12 months ago a record-breaking cold snap, a foot infection and inadequate gear forced Lock and Ward to abandon their attempt just 10 days into the journey.
Before leaving, Lock sat down with Guardian Australia to discuss what went wrong, and why he is going back
Continue reading...Is this the future? Dutch plan vast windfarm island in North Sea
Advanced plans by Dutch power grid aims to build power hub possibly at Dogger Bank whose scale would dwarf current offshore sites
Britain’s homes could be lit and powered by windfarms surrounding an artificial island deep out in the North Sea, under advanced plans by a Dutch energy network.
The radical proposal envisages an island being built to act as a hub for vast offshore windfarms that would eclipse today’s facilities in scale. Dogger Bank, 125km (78 miles) off the East Yorkshire coast, has been identified as a potentially windy and shallow site.
Continue reading...Country diary: a little map of bird movements
Stamford, Lincolnshire Hieroglyphics left by fleeting feet provide a record of their ways, written on the ground
Cold comes, and life hunkers. A hedgehog asleep in a nest of leaves behind the shed. Inside it, there are big spiders and signs of shredding, mice probably. So much life that stays unnoticed most of the year, then moves indoors undetected. But the birds are always noticed. Though in winter, less.
Morning, and the inside is filled with a quiet, odd brightness. Outside is a four-inch mantle of snow. Softening, just. No signs of life. Then I see something inscribed in the white. What Richard Clapham called “the hieroglyphics left by the feet of nature’s wild things” (Bird Tracks in the Snow, 1920).
Continue reading...2017: the year in extreme weather
Failed satellite programmed with 'wrong co-ordinates'
Hurricanes and heatwaves: stark signs of climate change 'new normal'
This year is set to be the third warmest on record in the US, as scientists say the fingerprints of climate change can be seen in numerous extreme weather events
Scientists say 2017 is set to be the third warmest year on record in the US as they look back on a year littered with stark signals of climate change.
The year-to-date average temperature across the contiguous US has been 2.6F above the 20th century average, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), placing it only behind 2012 and 2016 in terms of record warmth.
Continue reading...Through the seasons: readers' best weather photographs in 2017
As the year draws to a close, we celebrate the finest weather photos our readers’ have snapped this year – from January dawns to December snowfalls
Continue reading...Ice will return but extinctions can't be reversed. We must act now
We have to develop digital forecasts of species’ responses to climate change, design robust strategies to protect as many as possible, and help nature to adapt
Each day increasingly dangerous hurricanes, wildfires, and floods betray the influence of climate change. We are appalled at the accruing losses of life and property. The arguments to address climate change at the recent UN climate conference in Bonn focused most often on these more concrete risks. However, the worst effects of climate change will come not from severe weather but from the irreversible loss of species and ecosystems.
Moulded over millions of years by natural selection, the diversity of species on Earth does more than just inspire awe. They are technical marvels and solutions to problems we do not yet know exist.
Country diary: a stone dog marked by time and tides
Wrest Park, Bedfordshire The statue was pitted and scarred with marine fossils, drooling threads of spider web anchored to its teeth
Even before the stonemason struck soft rock with hard metal for the first time, he must have known that he was destined for imperfection. Three hundred years later, the evidence was plain to see on an animal sitting on the terrace of the big house, haughty, imperious and mildly deformed.
The mason had chiselled a block of sediment from an ancient sea into a guard dog of the land. The sculpture was well executed – the claws on the beast’s forepaws overlapped the plinth, making a pleasing break to the block’s rectangularity. A loop of its tail coiled daringly beyond the straight edge.
Continue reading...Renewables generated triple the power of coal in 2017, UK figures show
As the worst-polluting coal plants near the end of their life, the focus must turn to tackling gas dependency, says analysis firm
British wind farms generated more electricity than coal plants on more than 75% of days this year, an analysis of energy figures has shown.
Solar also outperformed coal more than half the time, the data provided by website MyGridGB revealed.
Continue reading...UK enjoyed 'greenest year for electricity ever' in 2017
Blue tarantula
'Haywire' seasons lead to freak year for nature, says National Trust
Warmer weather has been good for some of the UK’s flora and fauna, while others have suffered or almost disappeared completely
“Haywire” seasons caused by global warming are having a worrying effect on flora and fauna, a leading conservation charity has warned.
In its annual wildlife and weather review, the National Trust said mixed-up seasons and warming seas in 2017 had led to a “freak” year for nature.
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