Feed aggregator

A deer has been filmed bouncing along a beach in Poole Harbour.

An invasive hornet that kills honey bees is spotted in Britain for the first time, experts confirm.

Dr Peter Marra explains why pet cats should not be allowed to roam

Police investigating attack on small herd at Valdeserrillas reserve in Valencia after staff discover headless body of dominant male

Spanish police are investigating an attack on a herd of recently reintroduced European bison that left one animal decapitated, three missing and several more apparently poisoned.

Officers were called to the Valdeserrillas reserve in Valencia on Friday after the discovery of the headless body of Sauron, the dominant male of a small herd of bison that had been brought to eastern Spain over the past year.

Continue reading...

Invasive species has been spotted in the Tetbury area of Gloucestershire, with attempts under way to locate nests

The Asian hornet’s long-feared arrival on the UK mainland has been confirmed, government scientists have said, with ecologists warning of dire consequences for honeybees if the species is not swiftly eliminated.

The hornets eat honeybees and have become widespread in central and southern France, prompting warnings in recent years that they could arrive in the UK via pot plants from France.

Continue reading...

A parliamentary inquiry recommends video monitoring to tackle abuses in abattoirs, after secretly filmed videos shocked the French public.

Physicists have set a new bar for quantum teleportation - transferring information from one place to another without anything physically travelling between the locations.

Watching professionals compete in top-level acrobatic BMX and mountain bike sports could change your view of what it means to have fun on a bike

For the many of us who ride and talk about bikes, it’s almost always about getting from A to B, and often as fast and as efficiently possible. But can there be another way? Touring the world, a group of some of the world’s most skilled and physically strong riders dedicate their lives to doing exactly the opposite.

Their aim is to go nowhere on a bike but round in inventive, breathtaking circles. And they do so with such flair, entertainment and extreme daring, that, as a road cyclist never interested when young in smaller bikes or skateboards, their performance has managed to re-orientate how I think about riding a bike. Commuting, touring, riding a sportive or occasional race, I’ve always thought about riding two wheels as akin to running. But this is like dancing.

Continue reading...

Climate Home: With public assessment of each others’ subsidies, China and the US take a big step on transparency, but inch forward on reform

The world’s biggest polluters have released their fossil fuel subsidy peer reviews and the obstacles to reform are clear: the US will wait on Congress, while China will wait on China.

The documents, released on Monday by China’s G20 presidency, reveal the long road ahead. The G20 has commited to eliminate “inefficient” subsidies for coal, oil and gas in the medium term and the G7, of which the US is a member, has tightened the timeline to 2025.

Continue reading...

One Step Off The Grid The introduction of regulatory measures to reward local energy generators for their contributions to the grid could unlock savings of more than $1 billion in avoided network costs, a major Australian study has found. The study – which was led by the University of Technology Sydney’s Institute for Sustainable Futures, and funded […]

Archaeologists believe they have found a lost Anglo-Saxon royal palace about four miles (6km) from one of Britain's best known finds.

Film explores how the contrasting fate of forests in Haiti and the Dominican Republic has exacerbated conflict, xenophobia, poverty and even murder

In January 2012, park ranger Eligio Eloy Varga was hacked to death by a machete near the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This incident, still unsolved, kicks off the new documentary thriller, Death by A Thousand Cuts. Airing in the Raindance film festival in London on 1 October, the film explores how the fate of forests in two neighbouring countries has exacerbated social conflict, xenophobia, poverty, and even resulted in multiple murders.

“[Haiti and the Dominican Republic] share the island of Hispaniola, but have starkly different trajectories, in large part, related to how they have managed their natural resources,” said Jake Kheel, co-director of the documentary, which won the Jury’s best documentary prize at the Seattle film festival.

Continue reading...

Controversial Trade in Services Agreement (Tisa) could make it harder for governments to favour clean energy over fossil fuels as part of efforts to keep temperature rises to 1.5C

A far-reaching global trade deal being negotiated in secret could threaten the goals of the Paris climate deal by making it harder for governments to favour clean energy over fossil fuels, a leak of the latest negotiating text shows.

The controversial Trade in Services Agreement (Tisa) aims to liberalise trade between the EU and 22 countries across the global services sector, which employs tens of millions in Europe alone.

Continue reading...

Blackwater, Norfolk Garden cross spiders must be among September’s most beautiful stars

At present it’s almost impossible to walk the rides around my patch and not snap spiders’ silk. It is everywhere. I notice, as I drive over, that there are even webs on both wing mirrors but, with the sun at the right angle, you can see that there is barely a twig or leaf not bound with gossamer to its neighbours.

Apparently those threads are, gram for gram, five times stronger than steel. Yet what strikes me most is not the strength but the elasticity of spider’s web. A female garden cross spider had just snared a honeybee (an unusual prey at Blackwater, although wasps are commonplace) and while the victim whirred its wings or pulsed its abdomen to break free, the web yawed but held true.

Continue reading...

Our in-house IT Helpdesk expert helps us use or dispose of old tech items.

The cost of the vehicle, the cost of infrastructure and recharging, as well as the fate of petrol refineries may influence the uptake of EVs in Australia.

WEC report says stable renewables policies supported by clear carbon price signals remain crucial as world passes tipping point of "grand energy transition". Meanwhile, in Australia...

The people who approved and pushed for the approval of the £18 billion (and rising) project stand to benefit from its approval. Financially.

Exclusive: Offers follow actor’s plea to address climate change and coral bleaching at Our Ocean conference in US

Scientists and tour operators on the Great Barrier Reef have extended a “non-political” offer to show Leonardo DiCaprio the impacts of coral bleaching, after the Queensland government responded to the actor’s comments on bleaching by inviting him to visit the reef.

Dean Miller, a marine biologist and science director of the non-profit group Great Barrier Reef Legacy, said he wanted to say to DiCaprio: “We would like to take you to the Great Barrier Reef and show you firsthand what we see, no political or media spin, just the facts from the scientists themselves to show you what is really happening here.”

Continue reading...

Addressing the US State Department’s Our Oceans conference in Washington DC, DiCaprio says Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has suffered what is thought to be the largest bleaching event ever recorded, and urges stronger action to protect it and other reefs around the world. DiCaprio says seeing the effects on the reefs off the Bahamas took his breath away – there was ‘not a fish in sight, colourless, ghost-like coral’.

Continue reading...