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The UK is among the most nature-depleted countries in the world, according to a major report from more than 50 conservation groups. More than one in 10 species is threatened with extinction - but some are making a comeback

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Japan's Sakurajima volcano, one of the country's most active, is due for a major eruption within the next 30 years, according to researchers examining new data.

South Australia has been a leader in climate and renewables. Will it sacrifice its clean and progressive image on the altar of expediency?

Wenlock Edge What determines that moment when they can stay no longer, when, come hell or high water, it’s time to go?

Like clothes pegs on a washing line the swallows are still, perching on the electricity cables. For once, since they arrived in spring, they have to stop, even in daylight. What they are pegging on the line between them is an invisible sheet, a map of their endless journey, north and south.

They pause. Seconds ago they were skimming at breakneck speed inches above the grass, the slightest error likely to be their last. Yet the excitement seems to embolden them, to give them heart.

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New community solar investment round to be launched in NSW, with aim of installing 1MW of solar on homes and businesses in the state's north-west slopes region.

A farm near Busselton WA has installed a 100kWh vanadium redox flow battery with solar to avoid paying for a new connection to the grid.

A coalition of 25 prominent members of US national security community warn that higher temperatures and rising seas will inundate bases and fuel conflict

A coalition of 25 military and national security experts, including former advisers to Ronald Reagan and George W Bush, has warned that climate change poses a “significant risk to US national security and international security” that requires more attention from the US federal government.

The prominent members of the US national security community warned that warming temperatures and rising seas will increasingly inundate military bases and fuel international conflict and mass migration, leading to “significant and direct risks to US military readiness, operations and strategy”.

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This year a controversial motion was debated regarding incorporating the language and mechanisms of “natural capital” into IUCN policy.

1500 Vdc Central Inverter released be Ingeteam achieves UL1741 compliance.

Alice Springs is the capital of Australia’s Red Centre, and the perfect base for exploring the vast, rich expanse at the heart of this country. The town sits at the foot of a long mountain range, along the edge of the - usually dry - Todd River. Keep an eye on it if there’s rain - as the tale goes, you’re a local once you’ve seen it flow three times. Self-driving is the best way to visit this region

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Australia’s northernmost capital city is closer to Singapore than Sydney, and a visit to Darwin is a heady mix of Southeast Asia and quintessential Australia. Steamy tropical weather, fascinating military and colonial history, and the friendly, multicultural community make this a holiday far from home

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Vattenfall's record breaking bid for two offshore wind farms, RWE splits in half and new milestones for solar.

Tony would be proud. To mark the anniversary of his coronation, Malcolm Turnbull has knee-capped the agency that eluded Abbott's toe-cutters. The story behind the deal to strip ARENA of $500m highlights the nasty nature of Australian climate and clean energy politics.

Insights into the data behind the football industry, both real and simulated, from the brains behind Football Manager.

National eNews - Transition strategies for energy, AGM, and Carbon neutral information sessions

More than 50 conservation groups say the "policy-driven" intensification of farming is a significant driver of nature loss in the UK.

The One Nation senator dismisses the conventional scientific view of climate change. Here are the holes in his most commonly deployed arguments

The election of Malcolm Roberts as a One Nation senator has put Australia’s media in a difficult spot.

In his first speech to Parliament on Tuesday, Roberts made many false claims about climate change. He said that climate change was a “scam” and implied that it was some sort of conspiracy between all the major international research agencies. “ ... there is no data proving human use of hydro-carbon fuels affects climate,” he said.

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Impetus for the new survey came from analysis that could not find clear link between reef health and human impacts

Scientists working on a Nasa-led project are scanning large swathes of the Great Barrier Reef as part of the biggest assessment of the world’s coral reefs ever undertaken.

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Cormann and Hunt says ARENA "savings" will be recaptured by cutting money to the Clean Energy Innovation Fund, before being forced to backtrack.

Sometimes plants are obvious, but often they slip under the radar Wildflower image from www.shutterstock.com

Turn away from your computer screen for a moment and try to remember what you saw in the image below.

All images from www.shutterstock.com

The image has an equal number of plants and animals, but chances are that you remembered more animals than plants. This bias in memory is part of a phenomenon known as “plant blindness”. Research shows that people are also generally more interested in animals than plants, and find it harder to detect images of plants compared with images of animals.

Plant blindness is more than an interesting quirk of human perception. It impacts on our efforts to care for and understand plant species. Figures from the United States show that while most federal endangered species (57%) are plants, less than 4% of money spent on threatened species is used to protect plants. Botanical education has been declared under threat in the UK.

In a recent essay, Mung Balding and I argue that overcoming plant blindness requires more than plant education. Instead we need to help people connect with plants emotionally.

Why does it happen?

We aren’t sure why plant blindness occurs. One theory suggests that because plants generally grow close together, do not move and often blend together visually, they often go unnoticed when animals are present.

Another possibility is that we learn plant blindness. For example, biology textbooks give much less space to plants compared with animals, potentially leaving schoolchildren with the impression that plants don’t matter.

But we also know many societies have strong bonds with plants. Among some Aboriginal Australian, Native North American and Maori communities, plants are understood to be different from humans but also to share a common ancestry that brings kinship relationships of mutual responsibility.

Overall, research suggests that while plant blindness is common, it is not inevitable. Here are three strategies that we believe could make a difference.

Identify with plants

Plants can seem very different from humans. Research has shown that animal conservation support is biased towards species that are most like humans.

Unlike humans and many other animals, plants don’t have faces, don’t usually move locations and don’t seem to have feelings. One way to start valuing plants is to notice ways that we actually are alike.

Science can help us see how plants have similarities with humans. Plants are alive, have sex, communicate and take up food. Some young plants share the root system of their parent plant – a “protective” behaviour that many human parents will recognise.

Rituals are another way of identifying with plants. For example, for people living on the island of Nusa Penida near Bali, the coconut palm is an important plant. Early in a child’s life, the father will plant a tree for the child. The tree’s development and life span then parallels the child’s and in ceremonies it is clothed and presented with food.

Coconut palms are an important part of ritual on some Indonesian islands. Coconut palm image from www.shutterstock.com Empathy with plants

Actively imagining the experiences of plants and animals is another way people can connect with plants. In a psychological experiment, participants were shown images of either a dead bird on a beach, covered in oil, or a group of trees that had been cut down.

Half the participants were told to view the image objectively, while the rest were asked to imagine how the bird or tree felt. The researchers found that people who actively empathised with the bird or tree not only expressed greater concern but also donated more money to protecting the species.

Art, imagination and ritual can all help people to imaginatively empathise with plants. So too can tending plants, as one experiences the joys and sorrows of plant life and death.

Make plants human

A third – and more controversial – way to connect with plants is through anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism means attributing human characteristics to plants, like describing a drooping plant as sad, or a sunflower as turning its face toward the sun.

Facing the sun: these sunflowers look very happy. Sunflower image from www.shutterstock.com

Anthropomorphism of animals is common in entertainment and conservation campaigns but rarely used for plants. Some writers consider anthropomorphism to be unhelpful: it can misdirect thinking about plants, or sentimentalise plants in ways that belittle them. But experiments show that making or reading anthropomorphic pictures and stories can also help people to empathise with nature and want to act to protect nature.

Want to test this out for yourself? Try a thought experiment by watching this 1932 animation from Walt Disney. The dancing, courting and fighting trees are rather bewildering, but do you feel a twinge of anxiety when the trees are threatened by fire, or relief as the woodland recovers?

Feeling anxious?

Plant conservationists view plants as having value in their own right, so it might seem odd to suggest that we promote plant conservation by thinking about the ways plants are like humans. The strategies we suggest draw on theory that proposes that people are more likely to act in the interests of nature if we think about nature as being part of us. Appreciating our connections with plants may be the best way to begin respecting their amazing differences.

This article was written with Mung Balding, a graduate of the University of Melbourne’s Master of Environment program.

Kathryn Williams works in the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, University of Melbourne, which offers education in horticulture and ecosystem science and management.She receives funding through the Australian Research Council, the National Environmental Science Program, the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, however the research reported here was unfunded.