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UK military to build prototype 'laser weapon'
Dance of wings over the white crests
Roker beach, Sunderland Storms tore wracks from the seabed and raucous black-headed and herring gulls rode the waves
Storms had torn wracks and kelps from the seabed and driven them against Roker pier, forcing the heap higher up the beach with each successive tide. This afternoon it was seething with seabirds.
There were sanderlings, conspicuous in their pale grey and white plumage, and turnstones, whose feathers so closely matched the hues of the brown fronds that they would have been all but invisible if they had not been constantly on the move. Close by, on the seaward side, raucous black-headed and herring gulls gathered, riding the waves.
Continue reading...Family out on day trip saves whale caught in fishing net – video
A family enjoying a new year’s trip has freed a humpback whale it found entangled in fishing nets off the coast of Antofagasta, Chile. Juan Menares said two of his children dived in to free the distressed 10-metre animal on Monday. Menares said: ‘That feeling after doing something good ... fills me with joy, fills me with pride and to be able to do something that I really had never done before.’
Continue reading...Meet the latest organisation to join the Carbon Neutral Program
Meet the latest organisation to join the Carbon Neutral Program
Meet the latest organisation to join the Carbon Neutral Program
Climate change: Fresh doubt over global warming 'pause'
Port Augusta residents concerned about ash blanketing city
World's oldest known orca presumed dead in blow to endangered whales
Known as Granny and believed to be 105, the matriarch of a small population of struggling Puget Sound orcas was first identified by researchers in the 1970s
The world’s oldest known orca – a century-old matriarch of a small population of endangered Puget Sound orcas – has been missing for months and is presumed dead by researchers in what is being described as a tremendous blow to an already struggling population.
Known as Granny and believed to be 105 years old, the orca has not been seen by researchers since mid-October, according to the Centre for Whale Research in North America’s Pacific Northwest.
Continue reading...New study confirms NOAA finding of faster global warming | John Abraham
Thomas Karl and colleagues were harassed by Republicans for publishing inconvenient science. A new study proves them right.
A new study has shown that a 2015 NOAA paper finding that the Earth is warming more rapidly than previously thought was correct.
Mystery cosmic radio bursts pinpointed
Migrant farm workers may stay after Brexit but red tape goes
Renewables investment in UK will fall 95% over next three years – study
Analysis reveals extent of decline because of subsidy cuts and raises concerns about Britain meeting emissions targets
Investment in windfarms will fall off a “cliff edge” over the next three years and put the UK’s greenhouse gas reduction targets at risk, according to a new analysis.
More than £1bn of future investment in renewable energy projects disappeared over the course of 2016, the Green Alliance thinktank found when it looked at the government’s latest pipeline of planned major infrastructure projects.
Continue reading...Satellite Eye on Earth: December 2016 – in pictures
London at night, snow in the Sahara and Hawaii’s volcanoes are among the images captured by European Space Agency and Nasa satellites last month
A night-time view of western Europe captured by crew members aboard the International Space Station. London is visible in the centre of the image, photographed from more than 250 miles above.
Continue reading...Listening to nature
Feral cats now cover 99.8% of Australia
Feral population of up to 6.3 million, at a density of one cat for every 4 sq km ‘underlines how potent they are for wildlife’
Feral cats cover 99.8% of Australia at a density of one cat for every four square kilometres, according to new research.
The research was published in the journal of Biological Conservation and brings together data from almost 100 surveys completed by 40 environmental scientists from different institutions.
Continue reading...Friends of the Earth ticked off over claims in anti-fracking leaflet
Ad watchdog informally resolves Cuadrilla complaints over leaflet stating chemicals used in fracking can cause cancer and contaminate water
Friends of the Earth has agreed not to reproduce an anti-fracking leaflet after the advertising watchdog upheld complaints made by the energy firm Cuadrilla.
Cuadrilla, which in October was given government permission for plans to frack after appealing two rejections by Lancashire council, made a string of complaints about the leaflet which made claims that chemicals involved in fracking can cause cancer.
Brexit ‘zombie legislation’ could damage wildlife and farming, MPs warn
Cross-party committee of MPs also say farmers face a “triple jeopardy” of lost subsidies, export tariffs and increased competition
Brexit could harm the UK’s wildlife and farming, according to a cross-party committee of MPs, with key protections left as ineffective “zombie legislation” and farmers facing a “triple jeopardy” of lost subsidies, export tariffs and increased competition.
A new report from the environmental audit select committee warns that many of the rules governing food production and the environment in the UK come from EU law and that weakening of these rules would damage the countryside and reduce the viability of farms, food security and safety.
Continue reading...Toadstools in a Shrewsbury graveyard
Shrewsbury We walked to the grave of Mary Webb and found the fungi growing around her neighbours’ headstones
The toadstools opened from the graveyard like fleshy satellite dishes – ears of the necropolis listening to the living. We were in Shrewsbury cemetery to pay our respects at the turning year to those we knew there. The newer part had serried ranks of black or white marble headstones between drives, their funerary decorations modest symbols of grief and remembrance in a utilitarian order to keep the public face of death tidy.
The older part of the cemetery belonged to a much more Gothic sensibility: the graves mostly Victorian to the 1930s, their mossy stones listing on undulating ground and scattered randomly under trees, separated by meadow grasses.
Chicago zoo welcomes baby orangutan
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