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Problem with BBC’s rural coverage? Not enough Chris Packhams

The Guardian - Thu, 2015-09-10 23:05

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.”

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Edible water bottle to cause a splash at EU sustainability awards

The Guardian - Thu, 2015-09-10 21:30

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.

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Sea Monkey Alert … just add water

Department of the Environment - Thu, 2015-09-10 15:39
Environmental water is being pumped into Lyrup Forest (near Berri) this week, using a Central Irrigation Trust backwashing pipe.
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The Amazon tribe protecting the forest with bows, arrows, GPS and camera traps

The Guardian - Thu, 2015-09-10 13:00

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.

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Referral guideline for management actions in grey-headed and spectacled flying-fox camps

Department of the Environment - Thu, 2015-09-10 10:51
The minister has approved publication of the Referral guideline for management actions in Grey-headed and Spectacled flying-fox camps.
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UK experiences three earthquakes a year due to human activity, study says

The Guardian - Wed, 2015-09-09 15:00

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.

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Pumping water into Martin Bend wetland

Department of the Environment - Tue, 2015-09-08 16:57
Pumping of environmental water into Martin Bend started this week as part of the Natural Resources South Australian Murray-Darling Basin wetland and floodplain program with water and funding support from the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder.
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'Blue bastard': newly recognised fish is blue when adult and 'a bastard to catch'

The Guardian - Tue, 2015-09-08 14:38

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.

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Human activity 'driving half of world's crocodile species to extinction'

The Guardian - Tue, 2015-09-08 14:00

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.

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Should you install thermodynamic panels on your home?

The Guardian - Mon, 2015-09-07 21:27

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.

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Tycraft Pty Ltd Giant Clams

Department of the Environment - Mon, 2015-09-07 13:27
Agency application on ecological sustainability - call for public comments open from 9 September 2015 until 12 October 2015
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Victorian Scallop Dive (Port Phillip Bay) Fishery

Department of the Environment - Mon, 2015-09-07 10:57
Agency application on ecological sustainability - call for public comments open from 8 September 2015 until 8 October 2015
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French spy who sank Greenpeace ship apologises for lethal bombing

The Guardian - Mon, 2015-09-07 02:27

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.

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Pigeon fanciers take on RSPB over killer hawks

The Guardian - Sun, 2015-09-06 09:04
Traditional sport is under threat say owners as they back raptor cull

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.

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Last chance for conference registration, plus more local events.

Newsletters S.A. - Fri, 2015-09-04 17:50
Last chance for conference registration, plus more local events.
Categories: Newsletters S.A.

Older than the dinosaurs: Lamprey fish return to UK rivers after 200 years

The Guardian - Fri, 2015-09-04 16:01

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.

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The shrinking glaciers of Austria

The Guardian - Tue, 2015-09-01 22:01

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.

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Threatened ecological community listed under the EPBC Act

Department of the Environment - Tue, 2015-09-01 12:02
The Minister has approved the inclusion of the Southern Highlands Shale Forest and Woodland of the Sydney Basin Bioregion in the critically endangered category, effective 28 August 2015.
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Leadbeater’s possum Action Plan

Department of the Environment - Mon, 2015-08-31 16:50
The Leadbeater’s possum Action Plan outlines measures we are currently taking as well as a plan to protect and recover the Leadbeater’s possum into the future.
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India: No country for wild tigers? | Janaki Lenin

The Guardian - Mon, 2015-08-31 13:39

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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