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Dartmoor beauty spot is battleground for Britain’s threatened woodlands

The Guardian - Mon, 2016-07-04 04:32
A couple who have cared for woodland on their Devon farm for five years face a costly legal battle with national park planners. Here they explain why the country’s heritage is at stake

It is an idyllic spot. Sylvan slopes dip down to a babbling river fringed by alder and willow that winds through organic pasture where hens peck, sheep graze and bees hum.

The ethos is sound – to restore the woods to their ancient glory, to create a small, sustainable business producing timber and firewood, and to teach vanishing forestry skills to anyone keen to learn. They also try to have fun here at the Hillyfield woodland farm, near the village of Harbourneford in Devon, holding a “Woodland Olympics” with axe-hurling, wood-chopping relay races and logging with a horse rather than modern machinery.

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The eco guide to electric vehicles

The Guardian - Sun, 2016-07-03 15:00

It’s the future: EVs are making a greener dream come true

“You lot [earth lovers] won’t be happy till there’s rose petals coming out the exhaust,” a car industry insider complained to me.

I’d settle for an electric vehicle. Not emission free (you have to factor in the source of the electricity), but a technology that can make a real dent in climate-change emissions. My next car needs to be an EV – and so does yours.

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'Grown' drones and hypersonic speeds

BBC - Sun, 2016-07-03 14:36
The BBC's defence correspondent Jonathan Beale finds out more about the development of new military technology, including whether a drone can be chemically "grown".
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The lion herding sheep in Russia's Dagestan

BBC - Sun, 2016-07-03 05:20
This lion's role on a farm in northern Russia will surprise you.
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Juno mission: British rocket engine ready for Jupiter task

BBC - Sun, 2016-07-03 02:41
When the US space agency’s latest probe to Jupiter tries to enter into orbit around the planet on Tuesday, it will be relying on a British rocket engine.
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Farmers forecast food price rises and job losses in life after the EU

The Guardian - Sun, 2016-07-03 01:00
At the Royal Norfolk Show, some producers were looking forward to a post-Brexit Britain, while others worried about workers for fruit fields and abbatoirs

As England’s largest agricultural jamboree, the Royal Norfolk Show normally functions as a shop window for the country’s farming prowess. But this year it also offered a glimpse of the problems facing a post-Brexit nation. In the showground, amid displays of fresh fruit, vegetables and prize-worthy bulls, the talk was of how farmers would find the workers to harvest their crops in a world cut off from Brussels and free movement of labour.

In the wake of the Leave vote, there was now a “serious question mark” over the fruit industry’s ability to staff harvest season, warned Laurence Olins, who chairs British Summer Fruits, the sector’s trade association.

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State of play

BBC - Sat, 2016-07-02 19:36
UK science is one of the biggest winners from Britain's membership of the EU. Now it stands to lose the most from Brexit.
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The 20 photographs of the week

The Guardian - Sat, 2016-07-02 18:07

Suicide bombs at Atatürk airport, the Somme centenary commemorations, England crashing out of Euro 2016, the recapture of the city of Falluja – the best photography in news, culture and sport from around the world this week

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A fitting last stronghold for the whinchat

The Guardian - Sat, 2016-07-02 14:30

Rosebush, Pembrokeshire Views from this bleak saddle take in the headlands that ruckle the northern coast of Pembrokeshire

Bwlch Gwynt – “wind-pass” - lies between the two westernmost summits of Mynydd Preseli’s moorland ridge. The name fits perfectly with this bleak saddle marred by extensive forestry clearcut. Views distract attention from the ruined immediate landscape. They spread wide, take in Ramsey, the craggy crest of Ynys Bery off its southern tip, isolated rocks of the Bishops and Clerks in the sea beyond, and all the magnificent headlands – Dinas, Strumble, Penmaen Dewi – that ruckle the northern coast of Pembrokeshire.

Stonehenge’s bluestone menhirs were dragged from Preseli millennia ago in a dumbfounding, still-incomprehensible feat of megalithic engineering. But the oriental end of Preseli’s seven-mile whaleback whence they came (they’ve been identified as originating from the spiky outcrop of Carn Goedog) has a different character to its occidental heights. Here the ridge reaches its 536-metre highest point at Foel Cwmcerwyn, two miles distant from and 140 metres above the road that crosses through the bwlch.

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Mapping the world’s diversity, one cell at a time

ABC Environment - Sat, 2016-07-02 10:30
‘One thing we do know, is that if you removed all microbes from planet earth all other life would cease to exist.’
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Hotel Antarctica

ABC Environment - Sat, 2016-07-02 08:45
A trip to the interior of the Antarctica, a trip of pure escapism.
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Brexit, air pollution and a swimming centipede – green news roundup

The Guardian - Sat, 2016-07-02 02:19

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

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MEPs urge UK to honour new EU deal to halve deaths from air pollution

The Guardian - Sat, 2016-07-02 01:42

A post-Brexit Britain could choose whether to adopt new pollution limits to cut emissions of five key pollutants, including NOx and PM2.5

A post-Brexit UK government should respect a new EU deal designed to halve the number of premature deaths from air pollution, MEPs have said.

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The week in wildlife – in pictures

The Guardian - Fri, 2016-07-01 22:41

Fruit bats, Joshua trees and thousands of flamingos are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

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Children at nearly 90 London secondary schools exposed to dangerous air pollution

The Guardian - Fri, 2016-07-01 21:20

Westminster, Tower Hamlets and Southwark have highest number of secondaries in breach of legal limits of NO2, new research for the mayor reveals

Children at nearly 90 secondary schools in London breathe illegal and dangerous levels of air pollution, a report for the mayor reveals.

Former mayor Boris Johnson was accused in May of burying a report that showed hundreds of primary schools were in areas that breached EU pollution limits in 2010, prompting calls for greater action to clean up the capital’s air.

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Orangutans return home after Indonesia forest fires

BBC - Fri, 2016-07-01 20:28
Three orangutans rescued from forest fires in Indonesia are returned to the wild by International Animal Rescue workers.
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The War on Science with change how you see the world | John Abraham

The Guardian - Fri, 2016-07-01 20:00

Shawn Otto’s new book is a must-read

Every so often a book comes along that changes the way you view the world. The War on Science: Who’s Waging It, Why It Matters, What We Can Do About It by Shawn Otto is one of those rare books. If you care about attacks on climate science and the rise of authoritarianism, if you care about biased media coverage or shake-your-head political tomfoolery, this book is for you.

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Vietnam blames toxic waste water from steel plant for mass fish deaths

The Guardian - Fri, 2016-07-01 19:06

Taiwanese firm Formosa Plastics that owns the plant says it will pay $500m towards clean up and compensation

Vietnam’s government has said toxic discharges from a Taiwanese-owned steel plant were responsible for massive fish deaths that have decimated tourism and fishing in four provinces and highlighted the risks of rapid growth in foreign investment.

An estimated 70 tonnes of dead fish washed ashore along more than 200 km (125 miles) of Vietnam’s central coastline in early April, sparking rare protests across the country after the Taiwanese company denied any wrongdoing.

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China Environmental Press awards winners – in pictures

The Guardian - Fri, 2016-07-01 18:00

From exposing environmental crimes to a campaign to save a wildlife reserve, the awards, created by chinadialogue and the Guardian in 2010, recognise journalists making outstanding contributions to the field in China

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This election, what hope is there for the Great Barrier Reef?

The Guardian - Fri, 2016-07-01 16:38

Before you head to the polls, here’s one last quick attempt to clear some of the haze of half-truths and complete rubbish surrounding the parties’ reef policies

If the Great Barrier Reef is an election issue for you, then before you head to the polls this weekend, here are a few things worth noting about the major parties’ policies.

Firstly, by way of background, remember that almost a quarter of the reef was killed by warm waters this year, in the worst bleaching event on record. And those water temperatures are expected to be average temperatures within 20 years. To give the reef a fighting chance of surviving that, scientists estimate $10bn needs to be spent to reduce water pollution over the next 10 years.

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