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Michael Gove, the environment secretary, has said the UK will ban insect-harming pesticides, so we want to see your photos of bees
It’s been a terrible time to be an bee. But there may be cause for optimism, with the announcement that the UK will back a total ban on insect-harming pesticides in fields across Europe.
Related: UK will back total ban on bee-harming pesticides, Michael Gove reveals
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Killer and cure: Venom at London's Natural History Museum – in pictures
From snakes to spiders, wasps to scorpions, the Natural History Museum’s new Venom exhibition promises to unnerve and entice, as it explores one of nature’s deadliest forces and its power to both kill and cure
Continue reading...Michael Bloomberg’s ‘war on coal’ goes global with $50m fund
Exclusive: Billionaire’s campaign has seen half of US coal plants close in six years. Now he is targeting Europe and beyond to fight climate change and air pollution
The battle to end coal-burning, backed by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, is expanding out of the US and around the world in its bid to reduce the global warming threat posed by the most polluting fossil fuel.
Bloomberg, a UN special envoy on climate change and former mayor of New York city, has funded a $164m campaign in the US since 2010, during which time more than half the nation’s coal-fired power plants have been closed.
Continue reading...UK will back total ban on bee-harming pesticides, Michael Gove reveals
Exclusive: The latest research leads the environment secretary to overturn the government’s previous opposition, making a total EU ban much more likely
A total ban on insect-harming pesticides in fields across Europe will be backed by the UK, environment secretary Michael Gove has revealed.
The decision reverses the government’s previous position and is justified by recent new evidence showing neonicotinoids have contaminated the whole landscape and cause damage to colonies of bees. It also follows the revelation that 75% of all flying insects have disappeared in Germany and probably much further afield, a discovery Gove said had shocked him.
Continue reading...The evidence points in one direction – we must ban neonicotinoids | Michael Gove
With more and more evidence emerging that these pesticides harm bees and other insects, it would be irresponsible not to restrict their use
Two principles guide this government’s approach to the natural world. We want not just to protect but to enhance the environment. And we want our decisions to be informed at all times by rigorous scientific evidence.
Which is why when the science shows that our environment is in increasing danger we have to act. Like many others, I was deeply concerned by a recently published German study into the health of some insect populations. The Guardian covered the report in depth, not least because the statistics were so stark. Data gathered over 25 years appeared to indicate a 75% fall in the numbers of flying insects within those sites.
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Great Barrier Reef ad campaign is LNP 'greenwashing' – Labor
LNP leader Tim Nicholls says the advertising plan is to ‘overcome misleading green activist scare campaigns’
A Liberal National party plan to spend $4m on a Great Barrier Reef marketing campaign if it takes power in Queensland has drawn fire as an attempt at “greenwashing” in a void of climate policy.
The LNP leader, Tim Nicholls, said the advertising was to “overcome the misleading green activist scare campaigns which have talked down our greatest natural wonder”.
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Bittern numbers in UK at record high, says RSPB
Booming of male bitterns reveals presence of at least 164 of the heron-like waders living in British wetlands, says charity
Populations of the bittern, a wetland bird that was facing extinction in the UK in the late 1990s, are at a record high, conservationists report.
Resident numbers of “Britain’s loudest bird” increased in 2017, and experts – using the foghorn-like booming call of the males to survey the species – have counted at least 164 birds at 71 sites.
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