The Guardian
From the steppe to central Spain, Europe echoes to the howl of the wolf
A twig snaps, a crow calls, but nothing moves in the dense pine forests of Spain's Guadarrama mountains. Vultures and eagles soar over the snowcapped peaks and wild boars roam the valleys below, as they have for centuries. But for the farmers who work this land, a threatening and worrying comeback is taking place in this timeless landscape, home to Spain's newest national park.
After an absence of 70 years, the wolf is back in the Guadarrama hills and breeding just 40 miles from Madrid.
Continue reading...Five basic Antarctic facts for climate change sceptics
Commentators say plight of MV Akademik Shokalskiy shows global warming is exaggerated – the truth is not that simple
To most people the prolonged stranding of the MV Akademik Shokalskiy in thick pack ice off the coast of Antarctica is an unfortunate incident that provided passengers with rather static scenery for their Christmas and New Year celebrations.
But to some climate change contrarians, repeated attempts to free the vessel from the ice are proof that the theory of climate change is flawed or, at best, exaggerated. After all, a warming planet has no ice at all, right?
Continue reading...Country diary: Seaham, Durham: With every tide the sea erases a little more of the decades of industrial abuse
When Dawdon pit closed and the sea dumping of colliery waste ended, Blast beach resembled the surface of an alien planet – so much so that it was chosen as the location for the opening sequences of the 1992 movie Alien 3. Since then a massive clean-up campaign has transformed the shore into a pleasant place for a Christmas-morning walk, graced today with dazzling sunshine. At the bottom of the cliffs there are still traces of industrial archaeology: some topsy-turvy geology with boulders brought to the surface from strata below the magnesian limestone cliffs; colourful mineral incrustations; a faint whiff of sulphur. But with every tide the sea erases a little more of the decades of industrial abuse, and also delivers small, sought-after gifts.
Continue reading...Fracking hell: what it's really like to live next to a shale gas well
Veronica Kronvall can, even now, remember how excited she felt about buying her house in 2007. It was the first home she had ever owned and, to celebrate, her aunt fitted out the kitchen in Kronvall's favourite colour, purple: everything from microwave to mixing bowls. A cousin took pictures of her lying on the floor of the room that would become her bedroom. She planted roses and told herself she would learn how to garden.
Continue reading...Tolkien gesture – scientist maps climate of Lord of the Rings
Climate sceptics regularly work themselves into a lather dismissing mainstream climate science as fantasy – but for once they have a point.
A researcher at Bristol University has trained his powerful supercomputer not at predicting the earth's future climate, but on the fictional world of Middle Earth – the backdrop for JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
Continue reading...Over 1,000 cyclists stage die-in protest outside Transport for London HQ
On Friday night I had a quick word with my boss (also a regular cyclist) and then slipped away a little early from Kings Place to pedal down Farringdon Road, over Blackfriars Bridge and on to the Transport for London building. As I arrived at 4.50pm there was already a fair-sized huddle of fellow cyclists gathering in the cold around a portable sound system and banner on the pavement.
The quickly swelling crowd was the result of less than two weeks' hectic and quite spontaneous activism by a relatively small group of people, coordinated via Facebook. I had been one of those activists.
Continue reading...Polar bear numbers in Hudson Bay of Canada on verge of collapse
Polar bear populations are a sensitive topic for the Canadian government, which has faced international criticism for its policies on climate change and for allowing limited hunting of bears, mainly by indigenous communities.
The Canadian environment minister provoked outrage last October when she discounted abundant scientific studies of polar bear decline across the Arctic, saying her brother, a hunter, was having no trouble finding bears. Leona Aglukkaq, an Inuk, spoke of a "debate" about the existence of climate change.
Continue reading...For Canada's remote towns, living with polar bears is growing more risky
It was just a few days after a polar bear had mauled two people in the centre of town that the patrol officer pulled up by the school and scanned his binoculars along the rocky shoreline of Hudson Bay looking for any signs of a telltale white lump.
Continue reading...Forest giraffe on the brink of extinction, red list warns
The blue-tongued forest giraffe, the national symbol of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is on the brink of extinction, according to the latest update to the red list of threatened species. The stripy-legged creature, which appears on Congolese banknotes and is actually a species of okapi, has become another victim of the DRC's long-running war. But surveys reveal that conservation efforts have had a positive effect on ocean-roaming leatherback turtles and albatrosses, while a Californian fox has returned from the edge.
"This red list update shows some fantastic conservation successes, from which we must learn," said Jane Smart, a director at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which compiles the list.
Continue reading...Canada approves production of GM salmon eggs on commercial scale
• FDA expected to follow with decision on sale of GM salmon
Canada has given the go-ahead to commercial production of genetically modified salmon eggs, bringing the world's first GM food animal closer to supermarkets and dinner tables.
Continue reading...David Cameron at centre of 'get rid of all the green crap' storm
David Cameron was at the centre of a storm on Thursday over whether he ordered aides to "get rid of all the green crap" from energy bills in a drive to bring down costs.
The language, attributed to Cameron in the Sun newspaper by a senior Tory source, sparked a furious reaction from campaigners accusing the prime minister of abandoning his promise to run the greenest government ever.
Continue reading...Just 90 companies caused two-thirds of man-made global warming emissions
• Interactive - which fossil fuel companies are most responsible?
The climate crisis of the 21st century has been caused largely by just 90 companies, which between them produced nearly two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions generated since the dawning of the industrial age, new research suggests.
The companies range from investor-owned firms – household names such as Chevron, Exxon and BP – to state-owned and government-run firms.
Continue reading...Global deforestation: 10 hot spots on Google Earth – in pictures
Gigha watts: Scottish island tests batteries for wind farms
The Scottish island of Gigha is to be the focus of a £2.5m experiment aimed at solving a major technological problem: how to store energy generated by wind, tide and wave power plants. The project, which will involve building giant batteries containing 75,000 litres of sulphuric acid mixed with vanadium pentoxide, is intended to allow power generated by the island's wind turbines to be stored for later use.
At present, while Gigha's turbines are running, their power is used to run households on the island and excess is transmitted by cable to the mainland electricity grid. When winds are low, and Gigha's turbines do not turn, the grid feeds power to the island. But the cable link has an upper power limit. As a result, much of the island's excess power cannot be transmitted to the mainland and is wasted. The battery project, backed by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, is intended to get round this problem.
Continue reading...Polar bears fight for survival as sea ice melts – video
Borneo bay cat photographed in heavily logged region
One of the world's most elusive wild cats has been captured on camera in a heavily logged area of Borneo rainforest together with four other endangered species, suggesting that some wildlife can survive in highly disturbed forests.
The Bornean bay cat (Pardofelis badia) has been recorded on camera traps on just a handful of occasions to date and was only photographed in the wild for the first time in southern Sarawak in 2003. The cat, extremely secretive and similar in size to a large domestic cat with a long tail and either a reddish or grey coat, had been classified as extinct until new images taken in Malaysian Borneo in 2009 and 2010 gave fresh hope for its survival.
Continue reading...Fears for Scottish salmon farming after China production targets missed
• Concern that new strict eco standards may be compromised
The Scottish salmon farming industry is struggling to meet a controversial target to rapidly increase production to help feed China's growing appetite for fresh and smoked salmon.
The Guardian has established that Scottish salmon producers have fallen way behind their goal of increasing production by 60,000 tonnes, or 50%, by 2020 to help meet surging demand for the fish from China's middle classes. Scottish ministers now admit that hitting the target is a "challenge".
Continue reading...Country diary: Fishbourne Reedbeds, West Sussex: The water vole's grand designs
At the head of the Fishbourne Channel there is a hinterland of reedbeds and briny watercourses. There is no sea wall here, just a gradual merging of elements as land meets sea. Few plants can survive the daily exposure to salt water that occurs when the tide is in, so the reedbeds are dominated by dense stands of common reed that form an impenetrable two-metre high grey-green wall on either side of the boardwalk.
In the spring, the reedbeds reverberated with a cacophony of bird song and the begging calls of hungry chicks. Now they are eerily quiet, just the whisper of the breeze blowing through the reeds and the distant screech of gulls. Many of the breeding birds have migrated but reed buntings are resident all year round and I eventually catch a glimpse of a male's jet-black head, with its white moustache and collar, as it clings to a tasselled flower spike.
Continue reading...Killer whales experience menopause – just like humans
Just like humans, killer whales experience menopause – and the rare evolutionary trait improves their offspring's chances of survival, according to experts.
Killer whales are one of only three species able to continue living long after they have stopped reproducing. This allows mothers to spend the rest of their life looking after their offspring.
Continue reading...Climate change: a survivors' guide
Britain is expected to get more extremes of heat and rainfall, so prepare for more severe floods, longer droughts and more powerful storms. No one knows quite what the effect over time will be of a slowing Gulf stream, or the melting of arctic sea ice, but climate scientists confidently expect temperatures to rise up to 4C by 2100. That could mean big shifts in rainfall patterns and a more unpredictable climate. So clear your drains, fix your roof and move to Wales – or at least to somewhere with good water supply. The worst that could happen? Your grandchildren will inherit inexorably rising temperatures that render much of the Earth uninhabitable. Their problem? Yes, but yours, too.
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