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UK’s last resident killer whales 'doomed to extinction'

The Guardian - Fri, 2016-01-15 00:00

Western European waters are a global hotspot for lingering toxic PCB pollution, research reveals, damaging the reproduction of orcas and dolphins

The UK’s last pod of killer whales is doomed to extinction, with new research revealing western European waters as a global hotspot for the lingering legacy of toxic PCB pollution.

The persistent chemicals, used in electrical equipment but banned in the 1980s, are still leaking into the oceans and were also found in extremely high levels in European dolphins, whose populations are in decline.

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Meet the conservationists who believe that burning is good for wildlife | George Monbiot

The Guardian - Thu, 2016-01-14 19:20

Our national park authorities are vandals and fabulists, inflicting mass destruction on wildlife and habitats, then calling it conservation

At one end of the country, conservation groups are doing all they can to stop the burning of moors. Challenging the grouse shooting estates, for example, the RSPB argues that “there is an urgent need to restore these landscapes by … bringing an end to burning.”

At the other end of the country, conservation groups are doing all they can to ensure that moors are burnt.

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Nevada solar industry collapses after state lets power company raise fees

The Guardian - Thu, 2016-01-14 06:09

State public utility commission gave only power company permission to charge higher rates and fees to users, shattering industry’s business model

There are 36 solar panels sitting in a row behind Richard Stewart’s home in north Las Vegas. The panels cost about $40,000 – most of his savings, he said. He made the investment with his wife, who has since died, hoping to save money heating and cooling their high desert home. The retiree worried then, as retirees on fixed incomes often do, about rising energy costs.

Now he regrets the investment entirely. “I’ll be lucky to get my money back in 20 years,” said Stewart, 69.

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Deadly eastern brown snake found under fridge in Adelaide house – video

The Guardian - Wed, 2016-01-13 11:55

An unpleasant house guest has been discovered at an Adelaide home – a highly venomous eastern brown snake. After seeing the snake’s head appear from under her refrigerator, a justifiably shaken Moana resident contacted Snake Catchers Adelaide. An extra surprise came later – the snake went on to lay more than a dozen eggs.

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Heavily pregnant deadly snake found under fridge by Australian woman

The Guardian - Wed, 2016-01-13 11:02

Highly venomous eastern brown snake discovered peering out from under refrigerator in suburban Adelaide is captured, then goes on to lay 15 eggs

An Adelaide woman got the fright of her life when she went to get a drink from the fridge and discovered a brown snake peering out from underneath.

The venomous eastern brown snake had a surprise in store for the homeowners – it was heavily pregnant and later laid 15 eggs.

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Great white shark's predatory behavior captured by underwater drone video

The Guardian - Wed, 2016-01-13 06:42

A team of marine biologists discovered that great white sharks ambush prey from ocean’s dark depths, as they attacked drones recording their movements

Great white sharks appear to use darkness and depth to ambush prey, marine biologists have learned, thanks to unprecedented footage by an undersea drone that was attacked nine times by four sharks.

In the 13 hours of footage, the sharks cruise low above the sand, swim up to the robotic vehicle and inspect it from all sides, bump it curiously, and burst out of the blue to seize the drone in their jaws. In research published on Monday in the Journal of Fish Biology, the scientists described the first great white predatory behavior filmed from under the surface.

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Could artificial trees be part of the climate change solution?

The Guardian - Tue, 2016-01-12 20:36
Real trees are forced to work harder as more carbon is released into the atmosphere. Technology could share the load

In the fight against climate change, trees are an ally. They suck in carbon dioxide, reducing the harmful greenhouse gases. But there’s a problem: we’re asking them to work overtime.

Trees can’t absorb enough of the carbon dioxide humanity is throwing at them unless we turn every inch of available land into a dense forest, according to Christophe Jospe, chief strategist at Arizona State’s Center for Negative Carbon Emissions.

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Giant icebergs are slowing climate change, research reveals

The Guardian - Tue, 2016-01-12 02:00

Known more as a symbol of global warming, the nutrient-rich plumes that trail melting giant icebergs are in fact sinking carbon deep into the ocean

Giant melting icebergs may be a symbol of climate change but new research has revealed that the plumes of nutrient-rich waters they leave in their wake lead to millions of tonnes of carbon being trapped each year.

Researchers examined 175 satellite photos of giant icebergs in the Southern Ocean which surrounds Antarctica and discovered green plumes stretching up to 1,000km behind them. The greener colour of the plumes is due to blooms of phytoplankton, which thrive on the iron and other nutrients shed by the icebergs.

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Numbers dwindle at Mexico's mountain of butterflies

The Guardian - Sat, 2016-01-09 20:12

Decline of Monarch population wintering in Mexico now marks a statistical long-term trend, experts say

This story was published in January, 2014

The number of Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) wintering in Mexico plunged this year to its lowest level since studies began in 1993, leading experts to announce Wednesday that the insects’ annual migration from the United States and Canada is in danger of disappearing.

A study released by the World Wildlife Fund, Mexico’s Environment Department and the Natural Protected Areas Commission blames the displacement of the milkweed the species feeds on by genetically modified crops and urban sprawl in the United States, as well as the dramatic reduction of the butterflies’ habitat in Mexico due to illegal logging of the trees they depend on for shelter.

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London takes just one week to breach annual air pollution limits

The Guardian - Fri, 2016-01-08 20:58

Parts of the capital have already breached EU hourly limits for nitrogen dioxide pollution which causes thousands of premature deaths each year

London has already breached annual pollution limits just one week into 2016, and only weeks after the government published its plans to clean up the UK’s air.

At 7am on Friday, Putney High Street in West London breached annual limits for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a toxic gas produced by diesel vehicles that has been linked to respiratory and heart problems.

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Montreal traffic camera captures stunning images of snowy owl in flight

The Guardian - Fri, 2016-01-08 15:50

Owl, which was likely looking for a place to perch, has become viral internet star after Quebec transport minister Robert Poeti shared the photographs online

A traffic camera above a Montreal freeway has taken stunning images of a snowy owl in flight.

The bird was captured mid-air by the CCTV camera at the intersection of Autoroute 40 and the Boulevard des Sources, in the West Island of Montreal, on the morning of 3 January.

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Human impact has pushed Earth into the Anthropocene, scientists say

The Guardian - Fri, 2016-01-08 05:00

New study provides one of the strongest cases yet that the planet has entered a new geological epoch

There is now compelling evidence to show that humanity’s impact on the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and wildlife has pushed the world into a new geological epoch, according to a group of scientists.

The question of whether humans’ combined environmental impact has tipped the planet into an “Anthropocene” – ending the current Holocene which began around 12,000 years ago – will be put to the geological body that formally approves such time divisions later this year.

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Organic and small-scale: An alternative vision for the future of farming

The Guardian - Fri, 2016-01-08 02:04

The Oxford Real Farming Conference has rapidly outgrown its decades-old establishment counterpart and is calling for radical reforms to the industrialised intensive model they respresent

Two visions of the future of farming played out in Oxford this week.

The five-year-old Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC) at the town hall, sponsored by organic farming company Sheepdrove and dominated by small-scale farmers, food campaigners, and the agro-ecology movement, has now outgrown the establishment conference, the decades-old Oxford Farming Conference.

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Primates in pictures: US photographer's portraits of endangered species

The Guardian - Thu, 2016-01-07 23:12

A selection of photographer Joel Sartore’s images of monkeys, taken from his ambitious, decade-long Photo Ark project.

• Read our feature on Sartore’s project here

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Bitterns boom in border wetlands

Department of the Environment - Tue, 2016-01-05 10:57
Bitterns are booming in wetlands along the Murray River.
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Faster flows trigger fish breeding frenzy

Department of the Environment - Tue, 2016-01-05 10:55
Frisky fish have taken advantage of a river pulse to spawn in the waters of the Murray River.
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Barmah water delivery benefits fish, plants and birds

Department of the Environment - Tue, 2016-01-05 10:52
Moira grass (Pseudoraphis spinescens) plains in the Barmah Forest are benefiting from environmental water delivered between July and October.
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Rare grassland at home in southern wetlands

Department of the Environment - Tue, 2016-01-05 10:49
With its spiky rush-like leaf, Moira grass thrives in warm to hot conditions, lying dormant in the soil before bursting into life when water arrives.
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95% consensus of expert economists: cut carbon pollution | Dana Nuccitelli

The Guardian - Mon, 2016-01-04 21:00

A survey of economists with climate expertise finds a consensus that climate change is expensive and carbon pollution cuts are needed

The Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University (NYU) School of Law recently published a report summarizing a survey of economists with climate expertise. The report was a follow-up and expansion of a similar survey conducted in 2009 by the same institute. The key finding: there’s a strong consensus among climate economics experts that we should put a price on carbon pollution to curb the expensive costs of climate change.

The survey participants included economists who have published papers related to climate change “in a highly ranked, peer-reviewed economics or environmental economics journal since 1994.” Overall, 365 participants completed the survey, which established the consensus of expert climate economists on a number of important questions.

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Threatened Species Commissioner’s latest progress report now available

Department of the Environment - Mon, 2016-01-04 13:20
Read the Commissioner's update on work underway to help save our threatened animals and plants
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