The Guardian
Children spend only half the time playing outside as their parents did
National Trust survey also found that nine out of 10 parents would prefer offspring to spend childhood connecting with nature
Children today spend half the time their parents did playing outside, a survey suggests.
While more than four-fifths (83%) of parents questioned thought it was important their children learned to use technology, nine out of 10 would prefer them to spend their childhood outdoors, developing a connection with nature.
Continue reading...Les Stocker obituary
Les Stocker, who has died aged 73, was an important friend to Britain’s wildlife, and to hedgehogs in particular. He began the process of giving wildlife care a solid foundation in this country, and founded the first wildlife hospital, Tiggywinkles, in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire.
Before Les began his work in the 1970s, the most common reaction of the veterinary profession to a wildlife casualty was to put an injured animal to sleep, but now there is a range of innovative approaches to the most obscure problems – from repairing birds’ beaks with glue to stitching on a toad’s tongue following a collision with a lawnmower. Les had to re-teach the toad how to use its tongue to catch insects.
Continue reading...EPA ruling on aircraft emissions paves way for new regulations
US agency’s declaration that jet engine exhaust endangers public health represents key milestone, reports Climate Central
The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday declared that jet engine exhaust endangers public health by contributing to climate change, a key milestone as it works to develop regulations that will cut carbon emissions from commercial aircraft.
Large commercial jets account for 11% of all emissions from the global transportation sector. Aircraft emissions are expected to grow by 50% by 2050 as demand for air travel increases.
Continue reading...Mangroves and incomes flourish as Sri Lanka's women promote conservation – in pictures
A new project in Sri Lanka offers training and loans to women to start sustainable businesses as an alternative to cutting mangroves, and commits them to help replant degraded areas of the mangrove forests
Continue reading...How to catch a poacher: Breaking Bad and fake eggs
Conservationists and law enforcement have struggled to catch the Walter Whites behind wildlife trafficking. But could some plastic eggs and GPS trackers change the game?
Sometimes life really does imitate art. In the fourth season of the hit TV show, Breaking Bad, police put GPS devices on barrels of methylamine to try and track the show’s protagonists to their meth lab. Inspired by the episode, Kim Williams-Guillen, a conservationist with Paso Pacifico, decided to take the concept one step further: what if you could catch wildlife poachers by slipping GPS devices into convincingly faked wildlife parts? In this case: Hollywood-inspired, high-tech sea turtle eggs; fake eggs so convincingly crafted that poachers would have a hard time distinguishing them from the real thing.
“Every year millions of sea turtle eggs are taken by poachers for sale on the black market. Paso Pacifico’s solution has the potential to reveal the trade routes and destination markets for trafficked sea turtle eggs,” the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said.
Solar-powered plane completes historic round-the-world trip – video
Solar Impulse 2 completes the first round-the-world flight powered by a renewable energy, landing in Abu Dhabi early on Tuesday. Piloted by Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, the solar-powered plane began its circumnavigation in March 2015 and has made 16 stops across the world without using any fuel
Continue reading...Lovely, dark and deep: Ellie Davies' forest photography – in pictures
The British photographer draws on a childhood playing in the New Forest for her images, and reminds us of a lost, near-mythical England
Continue reading...History in a remote graveyard
Thockrington, Northumberland Once, the church stood above a village; now there is just the church and a farm. A returning sailor brought cholera in 1847 and the village was wiped out, its houses burnt
From a distance the tiny buttressed church appears as a rocky outcrop, a crag jutting up from the hard dolerite of the Whin Sill. Behind its skyline silhouette, over the shoulder of the hill, the three-pointed stars of wind turbines swivel in the wind. I’m high up here, the view reaching far into the North Pennines. Grasses sway and buckle as I cross the field to open the wooden gate. My hair is whipped across my face as I lower the age-smoothed latch.
The church of St Aidan’s at Thockrington is one of the oldest in Northumberland. Once, it stood above a village; now there is just the church and a farm. A returning sailor brought cholera in 1847 and the village was wiped out, its houses burnt. A drystone wall zigzags around the knoll of the churchyard, an angled enclosure with sparse memorials, randomly placed. I came here thirty years ago to record the flora. Today the grass has been cut, the hay taken off and piled up against the inside of the boundary walls. Fresh leaves are emerging in the turf: red clover, cow parsley, sorrel, vetch and plantain.
Continue reading...Solar plane makes history after completing round-the-world trip
Solar Impulse 2, which landed in Abu Dhabi, is first plane powered by the renewable energy source to tour the globe
Solar Impulse 2 has completed the first round-the-world flight by a solar-powered aeroplane, after touching down in Abu Dhabi early on Tuesday.
The final leg of the feat, aimed at showcasing the potential of renewable energy, was a bumpy one, with turbulence driven by hot desert air leaving the solo pilot, Bertrand Piccard, fighting with the controls.
Continue reading...People-powered: renewable energy project changes Indigenous lives in Barkly
Switching from diesel to solar power has reduced power costs and given two remote Northern Territory communities a new lease on life
Deep in the outback, about a 90-minute drive from Tennant Creek, two tiny Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory are coming back to life.
Since May, the Kunapa communities of Ngurrara and Kurnturlpara have been returning to the Barkly tableland, moving into the houses that had been abandoned years ago, setting up a School of the Air for their 15 children, and re-establishing their Indigenous culture. In fact, in a little over a month, the population has increased from just two people to about 40. And the reason? Solar power.
Continue reading...Disasters linked to climate can increase risk of armed conflict
Research found that 23% of violent clashes in ethnically divided places were connected to climate disasters
Climate-related disasters increase the risk of armed conflicts, according to research that shows a quarter of the violent struggles in ethnically divided countries were preceded by extreme weather.
The role of severe heatwaves, floods and storms in increasing the risk of wars has been controversial, particularly in relation to the long drought in Syria. But the new work reveals a strong link in places where the population is already fractured along ethnic lines.
Continue reading...Why concrete + rain = flash floods
Britain’s front gardens are being paved for parking while back gardens become patios. But in Canada and the US, the Depave movement is tearing up hard surfaces
In towns and cities, flash floods are a growing problem. The concrete jungle can’t soak up rainwater, so in heavy downpours it has nowhere to go except into drains, overloading them and setting off flash floods.
A movement in Canada and the US called Depave is tearing up concrete and asphalt in local neighbourhoods and replacing it with gardens to soak up rainwater and help prevent flooding. And although Depave is largely unknown in Britain, there’s a growing need for similar action here.
Continue reading...Australia's first hybrid wind-solar farm to be built near Canberra
Exclusive: farm gets the green light to be built by Chinese companies after $9.9m grant from renewable energy agency
Australia’s first large-scale hybrid wind and solar farm is set to be built near Canberra, with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) providing a $9.9m grant.
The money would go towards the $26m cost of building a 10MW solar photovoltaic plant alongside the existing Gullen Range windfarm.
Continue reading...Animal welfare groups push US to classify all leopards as endangered
Conservationists are calling on the US to raise the protection level for leopards, severely curbing hunters’ ability to import body parts as trophies
Conservationists have demanded a crackdown on the import to the US of leopards killed by American hunters, in an attempt to replicate the protections introduced in the wake of the furore caused by the death of famed lion Cecil.
Related: Cecil the lion's legacy: death brings new hope for his grandcubs
Continue reading...China's coal peak hailed as turning point in climate change battle
Study by economists say achievement by world’s biggest polluter may be a significant milestone, rather than a blip
The global battle against climate change has passed a historic turning point with China’s huge coal burning finally having peaked, according to senior economists.
They say the moment may well be a significant milestone in the course of the Anthropocene, the current era in which human activity dominates the world’s environment.
Continue reading...RSPB calls for shooting estates to be licensed
Group says move would allow shoots to be banned if birds of prey are illegally killed, amid withdrawal from hen harrier scheme
Grouse shooting estates should be licensed so that authorities have the power to ban them if birds of prey are illegally killed, the RSPB has urged, as it quit a government initiative to save the hen harrier in England.
The hen harrier action plan is a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs-led scheme in which landowners, shooting groups and conservation organisations agreed to work together to increase numbers of hen harriers in England.
Continue reading...Young people urge UK politicians to help safeguard nature
Two-thirds of 16- to 34-year-olds consider environmental and wildlife policies a top voting priority, according to survey
Almost nine out of 10 young people think it is important for politicians to take care of wildlife and the environment, according to a new poll.
Two-thirds of 16- to 34-year-olds agree the environment is a top voting priority for them, the CensusWide survey of 1,000 people of all ages revealed.
Continue reading...These are the best arguments from the 3% of climate scientist 'skeptics.' Really. | Dana Nuccitelli
Contrarian climate scientist Roy Spencer summed up the contrarian case for a fossil fuel and tobacco-funded think tank
When I give a presentation and mention the 97% expert consensus on human-caused global warming, I’m often asked, “what’s the deal with the other 3%?”. These are the publishing climate scientists who argue that something other than humans is responsible for the majority of global warming, although their explanations are often contradictory and don’t withstand scientific scrutiny.
A few months ago, the world’s largest private sector coal company went to court, made its best scientific case against the 97% expert consensus, and lost. One of coal’s expert witnesses was University of Alabama at Huntsville climate scientist Roy Spencer - a controversial figure who once compared those with whom he disagreed to Nazis, and has expressed his love for Fox News.
Continue reading...Solar subsidy cuts lead to loss of 12,000 jobs
UK loses third of solar posts as survey reveals almost four in 10 companies are considering leaving market entirely
More than 12,000 solar power jobs have been lost in the past year because of government subsidy cuts, according to the industry.
A third of solar jobs have been lost in the UK, found the report by PwC for the Solar Trade Association (STA), based on a survey of 238 companies, around 10% of the industry.
Burning coal for gas in UK seabeds would flame pollution, says report
Friends of the Earth condemns Coal Authority for granting licences for underground coal gasification at 19 UK sites
Plans to set fire to coal under the seabed at up to 19 sites around the UK would cause significant climate pollution, groundwater contamination and toxic waste, according to a report by environmentalists.
The UK government’s Coal Authority has granted licences for underground coal gasification (UCG) covering more than 1,500 sq km of seabed off north-east and north-west England, Wales and east central Scotland.
Continue reading...