The Guardian
Boris Johnson accused of burying study linking pollution and deprived schools
Unpublished report found four-fifths of the 433 London primary schools in areas breaching EU limits for NO2 were deprived
An air quality report that was not published by Boris Johnson while he was mayor of London demonstrates that 433 schools in the capital are located in areas that exceed EU limits for nitrogen dioxide pollution – and that four-fifths of those are in deprived areas.
The report, Analysing Air Pollution Exposure in London, said that in 2010, 433 of the city’s 1,777 primary schools were in areas where pollution breached the EU limits for NO2. Of those, 83% were considered deprived schools, with more than 40% of pupils on free school meals.
Continue reading...Spectacular bearded vulture spotted for first time in UK
Ornithologists hope for glimpse of species reported to have been seen in Wales and west country
A spectacular bearded vulture, believed to be the first recorded in the UK, has been spotted soaring over the Severn estuary and moorland in Devon.
If it is confirmed that the vulture, also known as the lammergeier or ossifrage, is a wild bird, it will be the first of its species to be found in Britain and the sightings have already caused ornithologists to rush to the west country hoping for a glimpse.
Continue reading...World's largest floating windfarm to be built off Scottish coast
Statoil granted seabed lease to develop floating windfarm 15 miles off the coast of Peterhead that is expected to be operational by the end of 2017
The world’s largest floating windfarm is set to be built off the coast of Scotland after its developers were granted a seabed lease on Monday.
Statoil, the Norwegian energy company, expects to have five 6MW turbines bobbing in the North Sea and generating electricity by the end of 2017. The company has already operated a single turbine off Norway.
Continue reading...Not a drop to waste: how expanding Australian cities can tackle water shortages
Smart leak detection and reusing stormwater to reduce urban heat are discussed at this year’s OzWater as cities prepare for climate change
For the international water industry delegates descending upon Melbourne last week, in the leadup to OzWater 16, it must have seemed they had arrived in the wrong place.
The torrential rain and flash floods inundating the city appeared at odds with Australia’s billing as the driest inhabited continent in the world, and certainly made for an unlikely setting to host a conference focusing on sustainability in a future of increasingly scarce water supplies.
The brutal economics of Zambia's illegal wildlife trade - in pictures
Frustrated by simplistic portrayals of poaching, photographer Benjamin Rutherford has documented the complex and violent trade in his new project, Nyama
Continue reading...Florida woman taken to hospital with shark attached to her arm
- 23-year-old bitten by 2ft nurse shark which refuses to let go
- Ocean Rescue captain: ‘I have never seen anything like it’
News reports on Sunday said a 23-year-old woman was bitten by a small nurse shark in Boca Raton.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that the woman was taken to the hospital by ambulance with the 2ft shark still attached to her arm.
Continue reading...Return of the lamprey – ancient, ugly and swimming up British rivers
The sea lamprey, Petromyzon marinus, is most likely to be seen in British rivers at this time of year as the adults swim upstream to spawn.
They are remarkable creatures but good looks are not one of their attributes. They resemble an eel and have a permanently open mouth with a great number of teeth. They also have some nasty parasitic habits.
Continue reading...California town swarmed by angry bees safe again, says expert
- Two dogs were killed and several people stung in Concord
- ‘They were all over my hair – I had to shake it out,’ says resident
A bee expert says a northern California neighborhood overtaken by a swarm of aggressive bees, which are suspected of killing two dogs and stinging several people, is considerably safer after the insects made it back to their cluster.
“These bees are a little off the wall. We’ve been having Africanized bees moving into California for quite a few years up from South America,” Norm Lott, of the Mount Diablo Beekeepers Association, told local KGO News.
Continue reading...Scientists use people power to find disease-resistant ash trees
A £1.2m project to recruit thousands of walkers and other members of the public to help save Britain’s ash trees is to be launched on Monday.
The aim of the AshTag project is to use “citizen science” to pinpoint trees that are resistant to ash dieback disease. Cuttings from these resilient trees could then be used to create a new, healthy generation of ash trees that could replace those ravaged by chalara dieback, which reached the UK in 2012 and is devastating many woods. In Denmark, the disease has killed 90% of the ash trees. Scientists hope to minimise the damage by building up details of resistant trees.
Continue reading...Down to the last three: can science save northern white rhino from extinction?
Under the watchful eyes of a group of heavily armed guards, three rhinos graze on the grassland of the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Most of the world knows that the rhinoceros is threatened, but the status of these animals is in another league. They are the planet’s last three northern white rhinos. None is capable of breeding. The northern white, which once roamed Africa in its thousands, is in effect extinct. The three – named Sudan, Najin and Fatu – are the last of their kind.
In a few months, however, a group of scientists from the US, Germany, Italy and Japan will attempt the seemingly impossible: to rescue the northern white rhino – smaller and hairier than its southern cousin – from the jaws of extinction. In October, they plan to remove the last eggs from the two female northern whites and by using advanced reproductive techniques, including stem cell technology and IVF, create embryos that could be carried to term by surrogate rhino mothers. The northern white could then be restored to its former glory. The procedure would be a world first.
Continue reading...In the timeless Yorkshire moors of my childhood, the frackers are poised to start drilling
Kirby Misperton, like many other villages in North Yorkshire, has enjoyed its obscurity for centuries. At this time of year, it has all the characteristic features of rural Ryedale: the medieval church that stands among the last of the cherry tree blossom, the poignant war memorial cross that stands at the tiny roundabout, the cottages with their neat front gardens blazing with scarlet and yellow tulips. This is the kind of community I grew up in, only a few miles away.
But this village of a few hundred residents unexpectedly finds itself in the national spotlight – the subject of a decision that could be a critical juncture in how a new and deeply controversial energy technology is shoehorned into the intricate and richly layered English countryside.
Continue reading...World's smallest porpoise 'at edge of extinction' as illegal gillnets take toll
Now only 60 of Mexico’s vaquita marina left despite the navy enforcing a ban on the fishing net, latest study shows
Environmentalists warned on Friday that Mexico’s vaquita marina, the world’s smallest porpoise, was close to extinction as the government reported that only 60 were now left.
Related: Mexico to employ drones in tracking endangered porpoise species
Continue reading...Three men face charges for killing tiny, endangered fish in drunken rampage
Devils Hole pupfish, of which there are fewer than 115 in existence, found dead after men were seen entering fenced-off area of national park
Three men have been arrested over a drunken rampage that resulted in the death of a member of one of the rarest fish species in the world.
The three suspects have been charged by police after allegedly breaking into a fenced-off protected area of Death Valley National Park in Nevada on 30 April. The men stomped around in the water of Devils Hole, strewing vomit, beer cans and boxer shorts over the area, and tearing up the habitat of the Devils Hole pupfish, one of the rarest fish in the world. One of the fish was later found dead.
Continue reading...UK energy from coal hits zero for first time in over 100 years
Coal-generation hit historic low several times last week in what experts say are the only occasions since the first coal-fired generator opened in London in 1882
The amount of electricity generated from coal in the UK has fallen to zero several times in the past week, grid data shows.
In what green energy supporters have described as a “historic turning point” for the UK’s power system, coal-fired electricity first fell to zero late on Monday night and for the early hours of Tuesday morning, according to data from BM Reports.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
An endangered seal, catfish and a rhino calf are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...Mongolian nomads' spring migration – in pictures
Timothy Allen is the first outsider to walk with a Kazakh family on their spring migration. The Kazakhs of western Mongolia are known for hunting with eagles and each year between February and April about 200 families make the 90-mile trip across the Altai mountains
Continue reading...Sadiq Khan to more than double size of London's clean air zone
New mayor of London calls air pollution ‘our biggest environmental challenge’ and plans to bring the increased ultra low emission zone into force early
The new mayor of London Sadiq Khan has made his first major policy announcement, unveiling plans to substantially increase the size of London’s clean air charging zone to tackle the capital’s illegal air pollution levels.
The Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) - which could also now come into force earlier than planned - will require drivers of the 2.5m oldest and dirtiest vehicles to pay a charge. Owners of cars that fail to meet the standards will pay a £12.50 charge, separate to the congestion charge.
Continue reading...From tulips to tigers: student nature photography - in pictures
Postgraduate students from the University of Nottingham’s MSc in Biological Photography and Imaging are staging 7 Magpies, an exhibition of their most striking images, from 13 May
Continue reading...The false widow spider and the woodlouse
Havant, Hampshire As I watched, a woodlouse blundered into a translucent tripline and the web vibrated
My gardening gloves had lain abandoned in the shed for several months as the cold, wet spring had thwarted any plans to plant out early crops. When I went to put them on they pulled away from the rough-planked shed wall with a sound like ripping Velcro. As I peeled off a candyfloss puff of cobweb, a rotund spider the size of my fingernail scuttled across the back of my hand and dropped to the floor.
A neighbour sauntered over after hearing me yelp. “Kill it,” he advised as we watched the arachnid squeeze into a crack in the wood behind its three-dimensional web. “That’s one of those venomous foreign spiders. They’re dangerous, I’ve seen the news …”
Continue reading...'Tantalisingly close': is solar thermal energy ready to replace coal-fired power?
Australian projects are viable already – now the industry needs investors willing to take a risk on large-scale renewable energy
Companies working on large-scale solar thermal projects in Australia say they are tantalisingly close to achieving the dream of building plants big enough to replace coal-fired energy in Australia.
Experts speaking at the Australian Solar Energy Exhibition and Conference in Melbourne last week said the technology had been proven in other countries, and projects in Australia were viable, but the challenge was getting major investors to gamble on something new.
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