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An international team of scientists has issued a warning that biodiversity is dropping below safe levels for the support and wellbeing of human societies.

Free-market red tape slashers are pitched against ministers backing a clean, green economy as the UK’s best long term bet. But who will win out?

The cast has changed following Theresa May’s reshuffle, but the play remains the same. It’s a struggle pitching free-market red tape slashers against those backing a clean, green economy as the UK’s best long term bet. The big question is whether this performance will have a different ending.

The performance directed by David Cameron was full of good lines - “the greenest government ever” – but the reviews, even by him, were poor: “cut the green crap”.

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Toxic fumes may be the primary cause of skin ageing in polluted cities such as London, New York and Beijing, scientists say

Air pollution is prematurely ageing the faces of city dwellers by accelerating wrinkles and age spots, according to emerging scientific research.

The effects of toxic fumes on skin are being seen in both western cities, such as London and New York, as well as in more visibly polluted Asian cities and in some cases may be the primary cause of ageing. The pollution is also being linked to worsening skin conditions such as eczema and hives.

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New study shows humans are influence the growth patterns of plants, but it’s not as simple as ‘greener is better’

The Earth’s climate is changing – in fact, it always changes. But in the current context of human influence, scientists try to decipher how much of the change is natural compared to human-induced.

One clear way humans influence the Earth is through the biosystem. For instance, farming changes the biosystem. By removing natural growth and planting annual crops that are harvested, we change the system in a way that could in turn affect other parts of the Earth system. In addition, the use of nitrogen based fertilizers can increase growth rate and lead to a greening of areas that are subject to fertilization.

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Oar-some Tales: connecting climate chaos

Outdoor learning can have a positive impact on children's development but it needs to be formally adopted by national curricula, a report suggests.

Ex-ministers and environmental groups condemn decision to axe ministry as downgrading action to tackle climate change

The abolition of the Department for Energy and Climate Change has been condemned by former ministers as a major setback to British efforts to combat global warming.
Decc was closed in a series of sweeping changes to the government unveiled by the new prime minister, Theresa May, on Thursday. Its functions, which include representing the UK at international climate talks, responsibility for meeting carbon targets and levying subsidies for green energy, have been transferred to a beefed-up business department led by Greg Clark.

But Ed Davey, who served as Liberal Democrat secretary of state at Decc between 2012 and 2015, criticised the decision.
“This is a major setback for the UK’s climate change efforts. Greg Clark may be nice and he may even be green, but by downgrading the Whitehall status of climate change, Theresa May has hit low carbon investor confidence yet again,” he told the Guardian.
His view was echoed by Ed Miliband, the department’s first secretary of state when it was created in 2008 by Labour, who tweeted that the move was: “Plain stupid. Climate not even mentioned in new dept title. Matters because depts shape priorities, shape outcomes.”
Many environmental groups strongly criticised the decision as downgrading action on climate only months after more than 170 countries signed the Paris climate deal in New York. The UK is under pressure to ratify the agreement, both as part of the EU and domestically.
“This is shocking news. Less than a day into the job and it appears that the new prime minister has already downgraded action to tackle climate change, one of the biggest threats we face,” said Craig Bennett, the CEO of Friends of the Earth.
ClientEarth, a group of environment lawyers who won a court battle against the government last year on air pollution, said the closure sent the wrong signals to the world.
“At a time when the challenge of climate change becomes ever more pressing, the government has scrapped the department devoted to tackling it. This is a statement of disregard for one of the most challenging economic, social and environmental issues humans have ever faced,” said its chief executive, James Thornton.
“It sends a terrible signal at the worst possible time, undermining efforts to secure a clean, safe energy future.”
Angus MacNeil, the SNP MP and chair of the energy and climate change committee, said he was astonished by the abolition of Decc, as it came after government policy changes had already created uncertainty for investors.
Catherine Bearder, a Liberal Democrat MEP, said: “Scrapping Decc sends a terrible signal to the world. [It is] yet another concession to Tory Brexiteers and a blow to moderate, outward-looking Britain.”
The Green party said the axing of Decc was deeply worrying and long-time energy policy observers said it was a sign that energy and climate were slipping down the agenda, and that merging them with other departments before had failed to produce clear policy.
The New Economics Foundation thinktank said: “This reshuffle risks dropping climate change from the policy agenda altogether.” John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace, said: “Although, some might say ‘what’s in a name’, there is a very real worry that the progress made on tackling climate change could be relegated to the bottom of the intray.”

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Fleas get a free ride - and there's not much in it for the dog. Kristian Niemi/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

To call someone a “parasite” is an insult. But the word has rather a different meaning in biology.

Etymologically speaking, the earliest known record of the word parasite in the English language was in 1539, when it was defined as “a hanger-on, a toady, a person who lives on others”. The word itself was derived from the Greek parasitos, meaning “a person who eats at the table of another”.

The social use appears to precede the scientific use, which was first recorded in 1646 as “an animal or plant that lives on others”.

Parasite might trigger distant memories of school lessons about fleas and tapeworms. But is this view accurate? As with most things in life, the answer is not as straightforward as it first appears.

It’s complicated

Parasites are a group of often unrelated organisms that share a way of life. Parasitism is only one example in the spectrum of ways organisms relate to each other.

Today, ecologists use “symbiosis” to refer to any relationship between two organisms. Anton de Bary, the pioneering mycologist (a fungi specialist), defined symbiosis when he wrote in his 1879 monograph Die Erscheinung der Symbiose that “any two organisms living in close association, commonly one living in or on the body of the other, are symbiotic, as contrasted with free living”.

Symbiosis can be subdivided into four broad categories, with clear examples in each, but the boundaries between them are sometimes blurred.

Parasitism

Parasitism is a relationship in which one partner (the parasite) benefits at the expense of the other (the host). Parasites hurt their hosts in many ways, ranging from general or specialised pathology and impairment of sexual characteristics, to the modification of host behaviour. Parasites increase their own fitness by exploiting hosts for food, habitat and/or dispersal.

Less obvious but familiar examples include the cuckoo, which is a brood parasite, laying its eggs in the nests of other bird species. This relieves the parasitic parent from the investment of rearing young or building nests, enabling them to spend more time foraging and producing more offspring.

The risk of losing an egg to raiders such as small mammals is reduced by distributing the eggs among different nests – literally not putting all their eggs in one basket.

Another interesting example, a parasite for life and not just at Christmas, is mistletoe. This plant grows on a wide range of host trees and commonly stunts their growth, but can kill them with heavy infestation.

Mistletoe is not completely dependent on its host and has its own leaves that do some photosynthesis. It uses the host mainly for water and mineral nutrients.

A lion eating a wildebeest or zebra is certainly benefiting from the other organism’s loss, but lions are predators, not parasites. Well-adapted parasites have typically evolved not to kill their hosts.

What about mosquitoes, which drink human blood? Parasites usually live in a very intimate relationship with their host, depending on it for more than nutritional requirements. The host is a source of food and at the same time provides a more-or-less permanent habitat. So, a mosquito is more properly a tiny predator.

But mosquitoes also transmit disease-causing micro-organisms such as the malaria protozoan or dengue virus. These are true parasites.

Mutualism

Mutualism is a relationship in which both partners benefit from the interaction.

The classic example of mutualism is lichen, a long-term association between a fungus and a green alga (or blue-green cyanobacterium). It is this that the German mycologist Heinrich Anton de Bary described as “the living together of unlike organisms”.

The fungus benefits from the relationship because algae or cyanobacteria produce food by photosynthesis. The algae or cyanobacteria benefit by being protected from the environment by the filaments of the fungus, which also gather moisture and nutrients from the environment and (usually) provide an anchor to it.

A further example may be observed in a tropical aquarium. Well known to fans of the Disney film Finding Nemo, the clownfish is protected by a sea anemone, which stings the fish’s predators; in turn, the clownfish removes ectoparasites from the anemone.

Commensalism

Commensalism is a similar concept, but only one partner benefits, while the other is unaffected. The cattle egret is a classic example of a commensal.

This bird forages in fields among cows and horses, feeding on insects stirred up when the animals graze. The egret benefits from this relationship because the livestock inadvertently help it find a meal, while they are seemingly unaffected by its presence.

Another, more recently appreciated example is the colonisation of the human gut by so-called “good bacteria”, also known as probiotics, which multiply in the mammalian gut and apparently aid digestion. Whether this relationship is in fact commensal or mutual may depend on the species of bacteria involved.

Some biologists argue that any close relationship between two organisms is unlikely to be completely neutral for either party, and that relationships identified as commensal are more likely mutualistic or even parasitic in a subtle way that has not been identified.

Competition

Competition is an interaction between organisms in which the fitness of one, or potentially both, is lowered by the presence of the other. In some cases, both partners may be harmed by the relationship.

The behaviour of male red deer during the rutting season is an example of competition within a species, while trees of different species compete for light in a rainforest.

So, the next time you are tempted to call someone a parasite, think again. Your relationship with them may in fact be an example of competition, commensalism or perhaps even mutualism: you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.

Andrew Taylor-Robinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

British astronaut Tim Peake says that he is concerned about the future of scientific research in Britain, following the vote to leave the European Union.

Spain’s gleaning movement has grown rapidly in response to austerity, harvesting imperfect fruit and veg - that would otherwise be wasted - for food banks. Now its own line of jams, soups and sauces is taking off too

Under a blazing Catalan sun, Abdelouahid wipes the sweat from his brow in a cabbage patch full with clouds of white butterflies. “It’s really not warm today,” he says. “It’s only hot if you stop working.”

Around him, unemployed workers and environmentalists squat in green bibs, black gloves and hats, plucking cabbages that would otherwise be threshed, to distribute at food banks around Barcelona.

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Public asked to take part in annual count to assess the impact of a sunless summer, cool spring and mild winter on butterfly numbers

A deadly combination of a sunless summer, cool spring and mild winter may make 2016 the worst year for butterflies since records began, experts warn.

Sir David Attenborough is urging the public to take part in the Big Butterfly Count so that scientists can discover just how disastrous the unsettled weather is proving for Britain’s 59 butterfly species.

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Emails show the journalist and businessman wrote to UK energy minister to tell him about a US company with ‘fascinating new technology’

An influential Conservative member of the House of Lords has been accused of lobbying the government for the benefit of the coal industry, despite previously saying he does not argue for the industry’s interests.

Viscount Matt Ridley, a journalist and businessman, benefits financially from coalmines on his estate and has used his column in the Times newspaper to downplay the seriousness of climate change.

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Bempton Cliffs, East Yorkshire Abundance is, however, an opportunity for egg-collecting ‘climmers’ or birds of prey

Abundance can seem a dry notion in ecology textbooks; the reality is mesmerising. The sky in front of me is thick with thousands of birds, guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes; the sea, 100 metres below my feet, is smothered in them, the air filled with their cries.

Where the sheer chalk cliffs angle back a little to form broader ledges, northern gannets have made their home and I feast on the sight of them, the sky-blue ring around the steel-blue eye, the bill and head defined in black, like art deco, against the dusky mustard-yellow of the crown and neck.

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Turning leftovers into renewable power makes ecological and financial sense, says farmer, but is it the best way to recycle Britain’s huge amount of wasted food?

If electricity could be star-rated for quality, the 150 kilowatt hours going daily into the grid from Lodge Farm in north Wales would probably score five. Generated from the slurry of 300 brown Swiss and Norwegian red cattle, and topped up by chicken litter that cannot go to animal feed and by waste from the local Kellogg’s food factory, it is as good as it gets, says farmer Richard Tomlinson.

Since 2011, the gas from the organic farm’s £750,000 anaerobic co-digester (AD) has generated more than 4.5m kWh of electricity and heat for the farmhouse, an on-site engineering works and for 80-100 homes.

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Auction for 130MW large-scale solar in Rajasthan sees winning bids at extreme lows of (AUD) 8c/kWh (INR 4.35/kWh, USD 0.065) this week.

Coalition and Murdoch media continue attack on wind and solar, ignoring the soaring cost of gas and the actions of the energy market cartel. Meanwhile, fossil fuel generators seek to reinforce their market dominant position.

A new map of Eneropa sums up very well why campaigners for community energy are skeptical of designs to create an EU-wide renewable energy system.

Sydney-based energy data company Wattwatchers has appointed a 10-year veteran of world's biggest smart meter company as new managing director.

Qld-based Nano-Nouvelle's lithium-ion battery boosting Nanode technology to be trialled by two US battery manufacturers in new deal.

SPECIES LOSS: An analysis of global data suggests that biodiversity loss across more than half the world's surface is substantial enough to question the ability of many ecosystems to support human societies