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The slug has an impressive physiology, engages in acrobatic sex and is a handy scavenger of waste – TV naturalist Chris Packham is right to stick up for them

Slugs are much maligned. Having the temerity to wear their slime on the outside of their bodies, they are about as far removed from our notion of cute and cuddly as is possible without being tapeworms. But they are misunderstood and persecuted beyond necessity – with ecological knock-on effects for the slow-worms, thrushes, hedgehogs, badgers and other animals further up the food chain. True, some slugs will eat your plants, but naturalist Chris Packham recently made a plea for greater tolerance for the mollusc: with that in mind, here are five reasons to admire slugs:

1. Most slugs are scavengers, but that can be handy. They eat that catch-all substrate, “decaying organic matter”, which includes dead and rotting plants; leaf litter; fungoid wood; fallen fruit; animal droppings; carrion; deliquescent toadstools; and mouldering compost. If they sometimes nibble idly at a leaf, it is probably because the leaf is already damaged or diseased.

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Researchers unlock the chemistry of Roman concrete which has resisted the elements for thousands of years.

Researchers have described new fossils belonging to an extinct crocodile-like creature that had a set of serrated teeth like those of a T. rex.

最新调查显示，中国的象牙交易禁令的效果初步显现：越南象牙价格暴跌，而一些象牙贸易商也被迫退出。(翻译：子明/chinadialogue)

• China’s ivory ban sparks dramatic drop in prices across Asia

《卫报》拿到的一份最新研究显示，自从中国政府宣布计划取缔国内象牙交易之后，亚洲的象牙原料价格大幅走低。但是，偷猎现象目前并未因此减少。

过去三年，野生动植物正义委员会（WJC）的卧底调查员一直在走访河内的象牙贩子。2015年，他们了解到的象牙原料平均价格是每公斤1322美元，2016年10月降到了750美元，而到今年2月份价格再次下跌到660美元，比两年前降了一半。

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In my single-handed fight I have collected 180,000 items – 50 pieces of litter a day for 10 years. If only the world didn’t find this weird

Who’s that weirdo? Sadly, the answer is me. I can feel the question following me as I dive into the gutter or duck around the feet of my fellow Londoners to sweep up the bottles and cans and newspapers they have abandoned.

The question hasn’t changed in the the decade or so that I’ve been waging what seems a lone fight against the plastic tide threatening to engulf us. And I doubt it will change now, even as the Guardian reports that a million plastic bottles around the world are bought every minute – that’s a staggering 20,000 every second.

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Since January, the White House, Congress and EPA have engineered a dizzying reversal of regulations designed to protect the environment and public health

Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate deal may have followed months of anguished division amongst his closest advisers, but his administration has proceeded with quiet efficiency in its dismantling of other major environmental policies.

The White House, Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency have dovetailed to engineer a dizzying reversal of clean air and water regulations implemented by Barack Obama’s administration.

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Warming temperatures caused perilous ice up to eight metres thick to drift south from the Arctic to clog the coasts of Newfoundland, Labrador and Quebec. It trapped boats and ferries as late as June, with Canadian scientists blaming climate change. These dramatic photos capture the rare event.

All photographs by Louis Helbig unless otherwise credited

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Oil companies planning to drill near mouth of the river have calculated that the unique ecosystem has a 30% chance of being affected in the event of a spill

Oil companies planning to drill near a vast coral reef at the mouth of the Amazon river have calculated that the unique ecosystem has a 30% chance of being affected in the event of an oil spill.

Related: 'We are rewriting the textbooks': first dives to Amazon coral reef stun scientists

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The new head of UK research has said that he won't centrally direct scientific research.

Opposition parties increase pressure for deposit return initiative to boost recycling and keep litter off streets and beaches

The UK government is under growing pressure to introduce a money-back return scheme for plastic bottles, in order to tackle huge volumes of waste in a country where 400 bottles are sold every second.

Opposition parties have called on ministers to introduce a deposit return scheme that experts say would drastically reduce the number of plastic bottles littering streets and seas around the UK. Similar schemes have been successfully introduced in at least a dozen countries.

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Buxton, Derbyshire One summer we dammed the brook by the bridge where the dippers bred and swam with the tiddler trout

Hogshaw Brook, which runs below my late mother’s house, is part of the very first landscape in my story as a naturalist. Every night when I went to bed, I’d hear its ceaseless journey to join the river Wye. I remember one year how we dammed it by the bridge where the dippers bred, and its four-inch flow rose eventually up to the heaving chest of my nine-year-old self. We swam in it that summer, along with its tiddler brown trout and the caddis fly larvae that we loved to uncover beneath the cold stones.

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The ability of wind power to deliver significant price falls in South Australia has been eroded by new rules that require more expensive gas generators to operate at times of high wind output. The days of "negative pricing" may be over.

Don Harwin tells Committee for Economic Development of Australia the ‘self-indulgent climate culture war’ should end

The Liberal New South Wales energy minister has delivered a speech marking a sharp departure from his federal colleagues saying the coal-fired power industry should accept the clean energy target that will see the industry close in the coming decades as “the best deal that coal will get”.

He also ridiculed claims that expanding gas exploration in NSW was the key to fixing Australia’s gas crisis, saying such an idea was “curious”, and pointedly called for an end to the “self-indulgent climate culture war”.

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Netherlands-based solar developer reveals plans to build largest solar farm in NSW – and one of biggest in Australia – a 316MW project near Gunning.

Garth Heron, who is now the head of Wind Power Development at Neon Australia, shares his blunt assessment of what incumbents will do next in their war against renewables in Adelaide.

The South Korean solar developer will install a 2.67 MW floating solar farm on the Deoku Reservoir that will rotate to track the sun’s rays throughout the day, delivering a 22% increase in harvest, the company claims.

The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder today announced a renewed commitment to local engagement with a decision to appoint six permanent local engagement officers across the Basin.

After a lengthy industry consultation period, the GBCA has released new versions of the Green Star Interiors rating tools which promise to drive the uptake of low-carbon buildings, incentivise new industries and challenge the market leaders to innovate.

The market for renewable energy certificates steadied in June as traders absorbed the implications of the Finkel Review for the current RET.

BBC Springwatch host urges gardeners to manage molluscs without killing them or risk losing hedgehogs and song thrushes

The naturalist and broadcaster Chris Packham has advised the nation to encourage the ecosystem of their gardens by ceasing to kill slugs.

Extolling the virtues of tolerance, Packham said “draconian choices” like “I don’t want slugs and snails to eat my plants” puts the gardener at risk of losing other wildlife such as hedgehogs, slowworms and song thrushes.

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