The Guardian

Underground aquifers are usually replenished from October through to March, but hydrographs reveal progress was slow until January

In the UK, about one third of the water that comes out of our taps is sourced from groundwater. The south of the country is particularly dependent on this underground store of water, with Cambridge Water and Cholderton Water relying entirely on the water found in the chalk and sandstone rock formations of the south-east.

After a dry winter, groundwater levels are lower than normal for the time of year, and scientists from the British Geological Survey are keeping a close eye on the situation.

‘We hope that these estimates and their significant magnitude raise public awareness and increase the level of appreciation for spiders,’ study authors say

The world’s spiders eat 400-800m tonnes of insects every year – as much meat and fish as humans consume over the same period, a study said Tuesday.

In the first analysis of its kind, researchers used data from 65 previous studies to estimate that a total of 25m metric tonnes of spiders exist on Earth.

Last century, the cliff-dwelling bird of prey almost became extinct in Britain. Now it has reinvented itself as a city creature. What is behind this spectacular recovery?

By the four chimneys of Battersea power station, between tower cranes and builders’ cabins, is an unobtrusive metal mast. At the top, a watchful figure looks down upon the 3,000 workers bustling around this vast £9bn construction site.

“Female,” says David Morrison, with a deft glance through his binoculars. “She’s protecting her nest site. There was an intruding female about half an hour ago.”

Jeremy Hance writes a letter to his young daughter as a part of the Letters to the Revolution initiative.

First published on January 2nd, 2017 at Letters to the Revolution.

Outside the Kazakh capital, Astana, the river snowscape is populated by strange figures. Detroit-based photographer Aleksey Kondratyev investigated and discovered they were ice fishermen, who brave -40C temperatures waiting patiently for their catch

The bill ‘spells doom’ for species including Tasmanian devil, wedge-tailed eagle and swift parrot, says Bob Brown

A proposal to allow logging access to more parts of Tasmania’s wilderness has sparked calls for federal government intervention.

Related: Speaking for the trees: hope, despair, and regrowth in Tasmania's charred wilderness |

The South Australian government has announced it will intervene in the national energy market in a $550m plan that seeks to tame the state’s turbulent power supply and prices. The premier, Jay Weatherill, says his government will build a gas-fired power station and Australia’s largest battery storage unit

Century-old rotating columns fixed to ship’s deck interact with wind to provide forward thrust and could make 10% fuel saving

An ocean-going tanker is to be fitted with a type of “spinning sail” invented almost a century ago in a step that could lead to more environmentally friendly tankers worldwide.

The unusual sails are rotating columns fixed to the deck of the ship, whose interaction with the wind provides forward thrust. The trial is backed by Maersk, one of the world’s biggest shipping companies and Shell’s shipping arm.

Wepham Down, West Sussex The hen harrier raises its wings as air brakes, using the wind to lift, stall and loop backwards

A skylark rises up in loud, breathless song, claiming its breeding territory. The bird hovers with vibrating wings, unmoved by the strong gusts of wind. It climbs into the air in steps, each new phrase propelling it further up into the sky, until I can no longer see it. Another skylark answers in the distance.

Fieldfares hop across the grass – they’ll be moving on, returning to northern Scandinavia to breed, within days. Black and white lapwing patrol a bare patch of soil. They feed in quick down-up motions, as if bowing to each other. This large flock will also soon disperse, many returning to the continent, but some will stay here to nest.

Our government spends 10 times more on disaster recovery than on prevention, but now it needs to think ahead

Talk to any investor these days about climate and energy policy, and the level of frustration is evident.

Current policy paralysis has stalled investment in additional renewable energy generation that is needed to replace ageing infrastructure, with cost implications for all Australians.

Pipeline from Tennant Creek to Mount Isa could bring coal seam gas from the Territory into the eastern states market amid power crisis

An $800m gas pipeline from the Northern Territory to Queensland is one step closer after the federal government granted environmental approval for construction.

The approval, which carries conditions to protect the native death adder snake, had not been expected by the NT government for several weeks, and follows Malcolm Turnbull’s statement that his government will consider “all measures” to ensure energy security.

Sharp intake of breath on reading Chitra Ramaswamy’s statement that Pembrokeshire is the only coastal national park (Last Night’s TV, G2, 8 March). True, it is the only fully coastal one, but here in North Yorkshire we have the best national treasure of all in a park with heather moors, beautiful villages nestling in valleys, heritage and craftspeople aplenty as well as a delightful varied coastline.
Felicity Brown
Nether Poppleton, North Yorkshire

• Why is Richard Curtis’s film so popular (Love Act-two-ally, G2, 13 March)? It features a prime minister who stands up to an American president. Could only happen in fiction.
John Loader
Leyburn, North Yorkshire

Packaging – much of it single-use food wrapping – has created a rubbish problem that now pollutes every corner of the world. Manufacturers got us into this mess, but it’s up to us to dig ourselves out – and here’s how

In 2003, I was told by a restaurant owner on a Thai island that local fishermen used to wrap their lunch in banana leaves, which they would then casually toss overboard when done. That was OK, because the leaves decayed and the fish ate the scraps. But in the past decade, he said, while plastic wrap had rapidly replaced banana leaves, old habits had died hard – and that was why the beach was fringed with a crust of plastic. Beyond the merely unsightly, this plastic congregates in continent-scale garbage gyres in our oceans, being eaten by plankton, then fish; then quite possibly it’ll reach your plate ...

This is a worldwide problem – we can’t point the finger at Thai fishermen. The west started this. The developing world justifiably yearns for its living standards and, with it, its unsustainable convenience culture.

Competition watchdog will urge companies to sell to the domestic market, as South Australia reveals its plan to head off further power cuts

The head of Australia’s competition watchdog will urge gas companies to support the domestic market to ensure struggling manufacturers don’t go to the wall, as the Turnbull government mulls options for boosting domestic gas supply to head off forecast shortages.

The chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Rod Sims, will outline his views on the east coast gas crisis in a speech in Sydney on Tuesday, as the South Australian government unveils a blueprint to shore up the state’s unreliable power network, perhaps including new investment in baseload power and storage.

Corporate capture of academic research by the fossil fuel industry is an elephant in the room and a threat to tackling climate change.

On February 16, the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center hosted a film screening of the “Rational Middle Energy Series.” The university promoted the event as “Finding Energy’s Rational Middle” and described the film’s motivation as “a need and desire for a balanced discussion about today’s energy issues.”

Who can argue with balance and rationality? And with Harvard’s stamp of approval, surely the information presented to students and the public would be credible and reliable. Right?

Industry wants more support from federal government now prime minister has ‘taken interest in the tweets of an American billionaire’

Malcolm Turnbull should encourage Australia’s battery energy storage industry now he has “taken interest in the tweets of an American billionaire”, Zen Energy chairman Ross Garnaut says.

Garnaut was referring to Elon Musk, the billionaire co-founder of electric car giant Tesla, who tweeted that Tesla could solve the power shortage issue causing price spikes and blackouts in South Australia within 100 days by installing 100-300 megawatt hours of battery storage.

Llanon, Ceredigion The paths retain their sense of age, hinting at centuries of daily journeys from homestead to field and back

Between the village of Llanon and the sea lies an area of flat land perhaps a kilometre wide, bordered to north and south by minor rivers. On the large scale maps of the area it is labelled Morfa Esgob – which translates roughly as Bishop’s Land. In contrast to the steep, thin-soiled hill pastures inland it is a favoured spot. Well-drained and quick to warm in spring, thanks to the great heat store of Cardigan Bay, the land is now mostly grazed, but both map and landscape hint at a more complex past.

The tithe map of the local parish, recently digitised and interpreted as part of the Cynefin project, captures a snapshot of the land as it was in the 1840s. It reveals Morfa Esgob as a collection of several hundred interlocking “slangs” – narrow strips of farmland – each of a size that could be managed by a single household.

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 17 March 1917

Surrey
Hoar frost turned to dew as the horses came out into the farm stable-yard this morning. They knew it was a strange hand that clattered the chain harness on the cobbles. Working for years in one place, they recognise even the footstep which goes to the manger, and intelligence reveals itself in their eyes when they turn and stoop their heads for the collar to slip on. There is then a little shrinking, half apprehension, half mental inquiry, as though in study of your character, and when you speak the glance is responsive to the tone. It is almost the same with each horse when the stubble is reached and his shoulders begin to strain. Drop the long rein on his back in an unaccustomed way and you note the twitching of his flank; it takes much gentle stroking with the palm about his head before you come slightly into favour as a friend. But once this is accomplished how much more readily work is done. Your horse, you perceive, is a skilled labourer on the land.

Milder nights – a few – have brought daffodils into bloom in sheltered hollows. They are small and pale, but when, not far away, the yellower beak of the blackbird is seen digging busily it is certain that new life has come. The tips of daisies are a rich pink in the early sun. The ditch by the side of the path which leads up to the wood appears greener than yesterday; a missel-thrush is perched on an ash bough holding a stalk of straw; the honey-suckle is in leaf; just within the wood the sharp, short call of a gold-crest is heard. It is a long wait, but hardly wasted time, before a glimpse, and one only, can be caught of the bright tuft seemingly dancing away.

For too long, no one suspected that any car manufacturer was cheating. Instead it was thought to be a weakness in the test

It is amazing that the Volkswagen and diesel emissions scandal was not discovered earlier. In 2003 nitrogen dioxide alongside London’s Marylebone Road increased by around 20%. As we approached the 2010 legal compliance date, concentrations from traffic went up, not down, and diesel cars were shown to be much more polluting than the official tests led us to believe.

However, according to the EU parliament’s recent inquiry, no one suspected that any car manufacture was cheating. Instead it was thought to be a weakness in the test.

Activists will challenge permission granted to Cuadrilla for test fracking sites near Blackpool as pressure mounts over the cost of policing the protests

The government will go to court this week to defend test drilling at a fracking site in Lancashire as it comes under pressure to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to cover the cost of policing anti-fracking protests.

The high court in Manchester will hear two cases on Wednesday that pit Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, against protesters who oppose the permission granted to fracking companies for test sites near Blackpool.