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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?
The week in wildlife – in pictures
A great grey owl, a robin in the snow and a festive reindeer are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...China waste clampdown could create UK cardboard recycling chaos, say industry experts
New Chinese restrictions on imported waste could see millions of tonnes of cardboard being sent back, as the UK struggles to prepare for rapid rule changes
Imminent restrictions by the Chinese on importing cardboard from the rest of the world are likely to cause chaos in the UK in the coming weeks, according to a leading recycling expert.
From 1 January, China will impose much stricter quality restrictions on imported cardboard as well as banning the importation of all plastic waste and mixed paper rubbish from all over the world. The move is part of president Xi Jinping’s drive to create a “beautiful China” with a clean environment.
Continue reading...I wrote about farmers' suicides – and the reaction has been overwhelming
After the Guardian and EHRP published a piece about the record number of farmers who are killing themselves, there were hundreds of responses
On 6 December, The Guardian and EHRP published our piece Why are America’s farmers killing themselves in record numbers? We hoped for a reaction, but the feedback we received was beyond any expectations we might have had.
Today when I spoke with farm psychologist Dr Mike Rosmann, who featured heavily in the piece, he was wading through a slew of new messages and responding to an email from a farmer in Europe. Since the story was published, Rosmann says “the faucet has turned on”. He has received hundreds of comments and requests, online and by phone, many of which he says are from farmers reaching out for support.
Continue reading...Sumatran rhino 'hanging on by a thread'
2017 Season Highlight Reel
Its been another fantastic year for the ASBN! Have a quick whirlwind of the 2017 ASBN Experience!
Cast: AdelaideSBN
Country diary: Silence, a mine with a vein of secrets and rowdy tales
Great Hucklow, Derbyshire At the derelict mine all is not quiet as the sound of birds cuts through the muffling snow and the ruins speak of a riotous noisy past
The broad track down to Silence Mine was muffled with snow, the more slender boughs of its modest avenue bowed under inches of it, sporadic puffs of wind pushing drifts into the air. Perched halfway up Hucklow Edge, among the ruined mine structures, I could look across the broad, walled pastures above Foolow, dazzling in the bright sunshine, the sky a milky blue, a creamy knot of sheep standing to attention in a distant field.
Sunlight pierced a thick stand of hawthorn just behind me, the haws blood-red against the brilliant white. Just below, the choked pit shaft, as so often in Derbyshire, had been plugged with an ash, the snow around it dotted with rabbit prints.
Continue reading...To fight the catastrophic fires of the future, we need to look beyond prescribed burning
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