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Problem with BBC’s rural coverage? Not enough Chris Packhams
The British countryside is becoming a playground for millionaires. We need more broadcasters that dare to take on wildlife killers like the Countryside Alliance
Chris Packham should wear the Countryside Alliance’s attempt to have him silenced with pride. It’s another indication that, in the eerie wasteland of the BBC’s rural coverage, his is one of the very few voices prepared to tell us what is really going on.
The Countryside Alliance, which represents people who kill wild animals, demands that unless he stops speaking out against the persecution of wildlife, “the BBC’s only answer can be to remove the BBC from Chris Packham’s biography by refusing to employ him any more.”
Continue reading...Edible water bottle to cause a splash at EU sustainability awards
Biodegradeable water packaging made from seaweed and new way of dyeing clothes have won joint award for new sustainable products
An edible alternative to plastic water bottles made from seaweed has topped the UK round of an EU competition for new, more sustainable products.
The new spherical form of packaging, called Ooho and described by its makers as “water you can eat”, is biodegradeable, hygenic and costs 1p per unit to make. It is made chiefly from calcium chloride and a seaweed derivative called sodium alginate.
Continue reading...Sea Monkey Alert … just add water
The Amazon tribe protecting the forest with bows, arrows, GPS and camera traps
With authorities ineffective, the 2,200-strong Ka’apor, in the Brazilian state of Maranhão, are taking on the illegal loggers with technology and direct action
With bows, arrows, GPS trackers and camera traps, an indigenous community in northern Brazil is fighting to achieve what the government has long failed to do: halt illegal logging in their corner of the Amazon.
The Ka’apor – a tribe of about 2,200 people in Maranhão state – have organised a militia of “forest guardians” who follow a strategy of nature conservation through aggressive confrontation.
Referral guideline for management actions in grey-headed and spectacled flying-fox camps
UK experiences three earthquakes a year due to human activity, study says
New work is first in the world to set a national baseline and will detect any rise in earthquakes following an expansion of shale gas exploration in the future
At least three earthquakes strike the UK every year as the result of human activity, according to a new study.
Most of the tremors in recent decades resulted from coal mining, but fracking exploration caused two small earthquakes in 2011. The new work is the first in the world to set a national baseline and will allow the detection of any rise in earthquakes that follows an expansion of UK shale gas exploration in the future.
Continue reading...Pumping water into Martin Bend wetland
'Blue bastard': newly recognised fish is blue when adult and 'a bastard to catch'
Queensland scientist Jeff Johnson, who identified species from photos, formally christens combative reef fish Plectorhinchus caeruleonothus
The “blue bastard”, an elusive and uniquely combative reef fish from northern Australia, long known only in fishing folklore, has been recognised officially by science.
Queensland Museum scientist Jeff Johnson, who identified the species from photos taken last year by a Weipa fisherman, has formally christened it Plectorhinchus caeruleonothus – a direct Latin translation of the colloquial name anglers bestowed on a fish famously difficult to land.
Continue reading...Human activity 'driving half of world's crocodile species to extinction'
Crocodile researcher warns the reptiles face a ‘bleak future’, but Australia’s saltwater and freshwater species have a brighter outlook due to hunting ban
As many as half of the world’s 27 species of crocodilian face being wiped out due to human activity, although the most feared variety, the saltwater crocodile, faces a brighter future, according to a new book by a veteran crocodile researcher.
Land use changes, pollution, culling and feral animal invasions mean that many crocodile species face a “bleak future”, warned Professor Gordon Grigg of the University of Queensland.
Continue reading...Should you install thermodynamic panels on your home?
They are touted as a free source of clean, unlimited energy to heat your water but the first independent test suggests they are not as efficient as thought
Thermodynamic panels have been touted as “a free source of natural, clean and inexhaustible energy providing 100% of your hot water needs, 365 days of the year”. For around £5,000 to buy and install, they sound too good to be true – and the first independent tests suggest they are.
Thermodynamic panels are similar to air-source heat pumps and work like refrigerators in reverse.
Continue reading...Tycraft Pty Ltd Giant Clams
Victorian Scallop Dive (Port Phillip Bay) Fishery
French spy who sank Greenpeace ship apologises for lethal bombing
Jean-Luc Kister was one of a team which planted mines on the Rainbow Warrior in 1985, killing photographer Fernando Pereira
A French secret service diver who took part in the operation to sink Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior 30 years ago has spoken publicly for the first time to apologise for his actions.
Jean-Luc Kister, who attached a mine to the ship’s hull, says the guilt of the bombing, which killed a photographer, still weighs heavily on his mind.
Continue reading...Pigeon fanciers take on RSPB over killer hawks
Feathers are flying in the bird world. Potential changes to the law, following a campaign by pigeon fanciers to reduce attacks on their pets by raptors, have met with opposition from the RSPB.
The Raptor Alliance, a body representing many of the UK’s 42,000 pigeon owners, is writing to MPs warning that an “iconic traditional British sport” is under threat as a result of an increasing number of attacks on their birds.
Continue reading...Last chance for conference registration, plus more local events.
Older than the dinosaurs: Lamprey fish return to UK rivers after 200 years
Ancient eel-like fish is reclaiming its former river strongholds as water quailty improves
An ancient fish blamed for the death of a king and served as a traditional royal dish is returning to parts of Britain where it has been absent for 200 years.
Lampreys, a Medieval delicacy and eaten in a scene of Games of Thrones, evolved almost 200m years before the dinosaurs but industrial pollution drove them out of many of Britain’s rivers.
Continue reading...The shrinking glaciers of Austria
The thawing of Dachstein Massif show how climate change is precipitating the melting of glaciers, reports Der Standard
The view is breathtaking. Sheer cliff faces extend beneath the gondola as it glides from the Styrian town of Ramsau to the southern part of the Dachstein Massif, home to three glaciers.
Upon arrival, visitors to the mountain are greeted by a green model dinosaur. The figure is meant to amuse children, but it has taken on a symbolic role too: glaciers belong to a dying breed. All three of the Dachstein’s glaciers – the Gosau, the Hallstätter and the Schladminger – have shrunk this year.
Threatened ecological community listed under the EPBC Act
Leadbeater’s possum Action Plan
India: No country for wild tigers? | Janaki Lenin
Authorities seek to widen a road that would cut wildlife corridors and put the future sustainability of three tiger reserves at risk
If the tigers of Panna are under threat of being displaced by a dam, the tigers of nearby Kanha, Pench, and Navegaon Nagzira tiger reserves in the two central Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are in danger from a highway.
The National Highways Authority of India proposes to widen a 50-km (31-mile) stretch of road to a four-lane divided highway connecting Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, with Nagpur, Maharashtra. While allowing humans to hurtle between these two cities, the road slices two tiger corridors: Pench-Nagzira corridor in Maharashtra and the Pench-Kanha corridor in Madhya Pradesh. Although National Highway 7 (NH7) exists already, widening it will aggravate the problem it poses to wildlife. Central Indian forests hold about 33% of India’s tigers, 688 of them.
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