Feed aggregator

Houston, Texas, is facing rising floodwaters after intense rainfall from Hurricane Harvey. More than 60cm (2ft) of rain has fallen on the city in 24 hours and the already ‘catastrophic’ flooding is expected to worsen as the bad weather lingers for several days. People in some communities have been advised to climb to their roofs to escape the rising waters

• Hurricane Harvey death toll rises as Houston faces ‘historic’ flooding

Continue reading...

The highest mountain in the British Isles is currently without snow – and researchers believe permanent white mountain tops could soon be a thing of the past

Ain’t no mountain dry enough? Ben Nevis may well have grown by a metre last year but now it is also nude from basecamp up for the first time in 11 years.

You would expect snow under foot atop the summit’s stone cairn at the lofty height of 1,345m, not a blunt, barren crown. So what on earth happened to the formerly covered peak?

Continue reading...

An ambitious tree-planting campaign aims to counteract the CO2 released by Donald Trump’s climate policies

A campaign to plant enough trees to offset Donald Trump’s climate policies is under way. Organisers hope to plant 10bn trees by 24 December 2017, with the last one being a Christmas tree planted in front of the White House.

The organisers of Trump Forest are asking people to donate trees to make up for the 650m tonnes of CO2 that will be released into the atmosphere by 2025 if the president’s plans to backtrack on US climate commitments go ahead.

Continue reading...

The eyeless subterranean salamanders that live in the watery depths of Postojna Cave are under threat – but there’s hope in sight

Postojna Cave in Slovenia is one of Europe’s longest cave networks and one of the world’s most spectacular subterranean tourist sites. Hundreds of thousands of visitors come here every year to gaze at its wonders: its huge stalactites and stalagmites, its curtains of coloured rock and bridges that have been carved out of the local limestone by the river Pivka over millions of years.

Given such glories, it is not surprising that few tourists take note of the two concrete huts draped with black polythene that have been erected in a shadowy alcove in one obscure part of the 24km-long labyrinth. But the huts contain wonders of their own. In racks of trays of water, scientists have placed specimens of one of the world’s strangest creatures: the blind aquatic salamander Proteus anguinus – or olm, as it is known locally. It constitutes a project that could have profound implications for the future of these remarkable creatures.

Continue reading...

The zero-waste revolution has been postponed, except on Instagram. But there are some constructive steps to be taken

I’ve been hearing about a “zero waste” world for half my life. What would it look like? It would be rubbish-free for starters, no more single-use plastic being shovelled into landfill. Shelves would be full of intelligent products designed to have a second useful life. Materials that couldn’t be reused would gently turn into compost, nourishing the earth as they broke down.

The high priestess of waste-free living is Californian Bea Johnson, whose home produces remarkably little waste

Continue reading...

Norway wants urban gardeners to cultivate wildflowers and keep hives to reverse a decline in biodiversity

On a sloping meadow near the centre of Oslo, red-tailed bumblebees gather pollen from hairy violets, spiders spin webs between maiden’s tears while hoverflies buzz between yellow daisies and white yarrow.

Such a bucolic scene might normally be associated more with a rural past than an urban future, but it is part of a thoroughly modern attempt to reverse the decline of bee populations and put biodiversity at the heart of city planning in Norway’s capital.

Continue reading...

Put aside your urban comforts, feel the soil beneath your feet, and push out into the wild.

Native Americans and environmental advocates get help from outdoor retailers as they battle proposal to change monuments’ boundaries

Environmental activists, Native American groups and a coalition of outdoor retailers have vowed to redouble their efforts to protect public lands, after the US interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, recommended on Thursday that Donald Trump change the boundaries of a “handful” of national monuments.

Related: US public lands: Trump official recommends shrinking national monuments

Continue reading...

Ryall, Dorset The wax cells are studded with pollen gems in carnelian, citrine, garnet – an almanac of the seasons

The bees think it’s autumn. Since mid-July they have been reducing their numbers and sealing up the hives with propolis. Dark brown, sticky when fresh, brittle as cinder toffee when dry, propolis is a glue bees make from tree sap. It’s antimicrobial and despite its bitter taste some beekeepers chew it as a remedy for a sore throat.

Bees use propolis to fill small gaps in the hive and to mummify any invaders that are too big for them to carry outside. Occasionally, you find a dead mouse inside a hive its body shrouded in propolis, pieces of varnished bone showing through as if fossilised. The ancient Egyptians revered bees and it is thought they might have learned the principle of mummification from them.

Continue reading...

An Institute of Public Affairs-sponsored journal article has been seized on by conservative media outlets. But there are a few problems

People who work for climate science denial thinktanks tend not to spend all that much time worrying about getting stuff into scientific journals.

Perhaps because it’s easier, people who are paid to tell the public and policy makers that human-caused climate change is overblown bunk would rather pump out newspaper columns, do softball interviews or push out their own self-published reports. There’s a lot less scrutiny in that kind of public relations.

Continue reading...

A recently released Harvard University study claims ExxonMobil have misled the public over climate change.

Citizen scientists looks for new species; find out what it's like to be a rodeo clown; we make fruit and vegetable bouquets; and go tractor trekking in the footsteps of Burke and Wills.

Each year the keepers at the zoo record the animals’ vital statistics to monitor their health and general wellbeing

Continue reading...

Police call for cull shooters to be given same hi-tech system they use – but activists buy counter-devices to disrupt shooting

Hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ pounds have been spent on equipping badger cull marksmen with radios that link them directly to police, the Guardian has learned.

Police have advised the government to invest in the same communications system they use to make it easier for officers to get to conflicts with cull saboteurs in remote areas where the mobile phone signal is poor.

Continue reading...

The sight, off the coast of Florida's Anna Maria Island, was filmed on Thursday afternoon.

A new citizen science survey aims to shed light on that fixture of summertime in the outdoors: the wasp.

A huge rockfall in Val Bondasca raises questions about how climate change is affecting the Alps.

Proposals to expand the A3 at a junction with the M25 could mean the loss of 500 trees at the Royal Horticultural Society Garden Wisley.

A shag in the Farne Islands, coral reefs in recovery in Belize, and a fox near Chernobyl are among this week’s images from the natural world

Continue reading...

What do you do if smog has made your fields unfit for grazing? Put sculptures of sheep on them instead. Lu Guang’s shot of phoney livestock in China is just one of many intriguing images from the International Festival of Photojournalism in Perpignan, France

Continue reading...