Feed aggregator

Scientists have identified a new species of dolphin that lived 25 million years ago.

This week we’re staging protests on the ‘crime scene’ of the world’s affected reefs to send a signal that we’re not going to let fossil fuel firms get away with murder

Coral reefs are probably Earth’s most life-packed ecosystem; those who’ve had the privilege of diving in the tropics know the reef as an orderly riot of colour and flow, size and shape.

Which is why a white, dead reef is so shocking – as shocking in its way as a human corpse lying on the street, which still takes the form of the living breathing person it used to be, but now suddenly is stopped forever, the force that made it real suddenly and grotesquely absent.

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Survey finds that 69% of visitors to the world’s largest coral reef system are motivated by the fear that it might disappear, reports Climate Home

In a reversal of the normal travel bucket list, tourists are rushing to see the Great Barrier Reef before it dies.

Half of the reef’s coral has disappeared in the past three decades due to a combination of warming ocean temperatures, coastal development, invasive starfish and agricultural runoff.

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Guardian environment reporter Oliver Milman joins a group of scientists on an underwater expedition off the Bermuda coast to help chart its hidden depths and gauge the general health of the area’s reef and coral. Travelling in a two-man submersible, Milman and submarine pilot Kelvin Magee go on a journey 500ft below the surface

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The deep ocean makes up 95% of Earth, yet only 0.0001% has been explored – the Guardian joined a mission off Bermuda looking deeper than ever before

Video: a dive into Bermuda’s hidden depths

The largest migration on Earth is very rarely seen by human eyes, yet it happens every day. Billions of marine creatures ascend from as far as 2km below the surface of the water to the upper reaches of the ocean at night, only to then float back down once the sun rises.

This huge movement of organisms – ranging from tiny cockatoo squids to microscopic crustaceans, shifting for food or favourable temperatures – was little known to science until relatively recently.

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New fossil fuel advocacy group launched to celebrate an industry that’s driving dangerous climate change

Bright and glistening with all the glory of youth and promise, her eyes glance upwards. A jet crosses a cloudless sky.

A field of wheat sways in the breeze. She opens her arms in a wide embrace, open to the horizon.

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Invitation for public comment closes 24 August 2016.

In its vision for the future of post-Brexit agriculture the Campaign to Protect Rural England says too much money is given to large-scale farms.

Flora and Fauna International has been hired by a British mining firm to assess the environmental value of a national park in the Arctic circle

Environmentalists and indigenous reindeer herders are calling on the Queen, Sir David Attenborough and Stephen Fry to disassociate themselves from a charity contracted to help a mining operation in a national park in Finland.

Fauna and Flora International (FFI), whose patron is the Queen, has been hired by the British-listed mining company Anglo American to assess the environmental value of Viiankiaapa, a stunning 65 sq km (25 sq mile) habitat for 21 endangered bird species in the Arctic circle.

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Queensland’s relaxed land-clearing laws have allowed 84,000ha of habitat to be destroyed and must be rolled back, say WWF and Australian Koala Foundation

A relaxation in Queensland’s tree clearing laws led to the destruction of 84,000 hectares of critical koala habitat in the two years after the national icon was listed as vulnerable, according to new mapping by conservationists.

That koala habitat made up about 14% of all land cleared between mid-2013 and mid-2015 was an alarming revelation, WWF and the Australian Koala Foundation said.

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Research by the National Trust for Scotland shows rare mountain plants in the Highlands and islands are retreating higher or disappearing entirely

There is clear evidence that some of Britain’s rarest mountain plants are disappearing due to a steadily warming climate, botanists working in the Scottish Highlands have found.

The tiny but fragile Arctic plants, such as Iceland purslaine, snow pearlwort and Highland saxifrage, are found only in a handful of locations in the Highlands and islands, clustered in north-facing gullies, coires and crevices, frequently protected by the last pockets of late-lying winter snow.

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Ecologists and botanists have been working with highly skilled mountaineers in a series of intensive studies to map and track mountain plants and help ecologists understand the impact and speed of climate change

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Drakewalls, Tamar Valley The spoil tips and the dressing floors where ore was processed have been covered in earth, and seeded with grass and flowers

Up the hill from Gunnislake, Drakewalls mine was the first stop for the Man Engine on the huge mechanical puppet’s celebratory journey through the world heritage mining landscapes of Cornwall this summer. Now the site is quiet again, bereft of the admiring crowds. Consolidated ruins of engine houses and chimneys remain from the 19th century, when this mine was the largest tin producer in east Cornwall, employing 398 people at its peak. Wolframite, a tungsten mineral, was separated from the tin ore and, by 1890, arsenic and copper were also being produced and loaded in sidings that connected to the new mineral railway. Contemporary reports described underground caverns that could be “traversed only by boat”. Earlier opencast excavations were filled in, but there remains a walled-in linear chasm or “gunnis”, choked with ferns and bushes. Come 1895, production was almost finished: “Coals stopped, mine stopped, water risen in the shaft.”

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China considers compulsory quotas for carmakers, requiring them to produce more electric vehicles or purchase carbon credits from their peers.

Coalition takes new tack on stripping funds from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, and seeks to wedge Labor on the issue.

South Australia was supposed to show the limitations of renewables but instead has highlighted the abuse of power and price gouging by fossil fuel incumbents. Energy ministers can either seize the moment and push for change, or protect the narrow business interests of a few powerful players.

It has been announced that the 4th ERF auction will be held in November this year. Here is a summary of the announcements made by the Regulator and re-state our price and supply expectations for auction four.

ACT, ARENA launch 3-year trial of eight leading battery storage technologies to see which works best for consumers.

Australia’s National Energy Market is hamstrung by an out-dated, ‘dumb’ grid, and must be updated to face the realities of low carbon, low marginal cost energy generation.

A fleet of solar-powered drones promise internet connectivity to the developing world — but do they come with a catch?