The Guardian
Venomous sea snake washes up on California beach in El Niño-linked event
A 20-inch snake was discovered near San Diego on Tuesday, the third reported instance since October of the deadly animal washing up on California beaches
California beachgoers have been urged to steer clear of a species of highly venomous sea snake following a third, and unprecedented, instance of an aquatic serpent washing up on to the state’s beaches.
A 20-inch yellow-bellied sea snake was discovered on a beach near San Diego on Tuesday, where it was placed into a bucket before dying. The sighting was the third reported instance since October of the species, which prefers the tropical waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans, washing up on California’s beaches.
Continue reading...England’s waters to remain illegally polluted beyond 2021
England set to break extended deadline to meet EU water pollution targets and already risks legal action for failing to meet original 2015 deadline, reports ENDS
Most rivers, lakes and coastal and ground waters in England will still not meet legally binding EU water pollution targets by 2021 – six years after the initial deadline.
According to the Environment Agency’s (EA) draft river basin management plans (RBMPs), analysed by ENDS, compliance with Water Framework Directive (WFD) standards will have risen to just 25% in 2021, up from 17% in 2015 (see table 1).
UK’s last resident killer whales 'doomed to extinction'
Western European waters are a global hotspot for lingering toxic PCB pollution, research reveals, damaging the reproduction of orcas and dolphins
The UK’s last pod of killer whales is doomed to extinction, with new research revealing western European waters as a global hotspot for the lingering legacy of toxic PCB pollution.
The persistent chemicals, used in electrical equipment but banned in the 1980s, are still leaking into the oceans and were also found in extremely high levels in European dolphins, whose populations are in decline.
Continue reading...Meet the conservationists who believe that burning is good for wildlife | George Monbiot
Our national park authorities are vandals and fabulists, inflicting mass destruction on wildlife and habitats, then calling it conservation
At one end of the country, conservation groups are doing all they can to stop the burning of moors. Challenging the grouse shooting estates, for example, the RSPB argues that “there is an urgent need to restore these landscapes by … bringing an end to burning.”
At the other end of the country, conservation groups are doing all they can to ensure that moors are burnt.
Continue reading...Nevada solar industry collapses after state lets power company raise fees
State public utility commission gave only power company permission to charge higher rates and fees to users, shattering industry’s business model
There are 36 solar panels sitting in a row behind Richard Stewart’s home in north Las Vegas. The panels cost about $40,000 – most of his savings, he said. He made the investment with his wife, who has since died, hoping to save money heating and cooling their high desert home. The retiree worried then, as retirees on fixed incomes often do, about rising energy costs.
Now he regrets the investment entirely. “I’ll be lucky to get my money back in 20 years,” said Stewart, 69.
Continue reading...Deadly eastern brown snake found under fridge in Adelaide house – video
An unpleasant house guest has been discovered at an Adelaide home – a highly venomous eastern brown snake. After seeing the snake’s head appear from under her refrigerator, a justifiably shaken Moana resident contacted Snake Catchers Adelaide. An extra surprise came later – the snake went on to lay more than a dozen eggs.
Continue reading...Heavily pregnant deadly snake found under fridge by Australian woman
Highly venomous eastern brown snake discovered peering out from under refrigerator in suburban Adelaide is captured, then goes on to lay 15 eggs
An Adelaide woman got the fright of her life when she went to get a drink from the fridge and discovered a brown snake peering out from underneath.
The venomous eastern brown snake had a surprise in store for the homeowners – it was heavily pregnant and later laid 15 eggs.
Continue reading...Great white shark's predatory behavior captured by underwater drone video
A team of marine biologists discovered that great white sharks ambush prey from ocean’s dark depths, as they attacked drones recording their movements
Great white sharks appear to use darkness and depth to ambush prey, marine biologists have learned, thanks to unprecedented footage by an undersea drone that was attacked nine times by four sharks.
In the 13 hours of footage, the sharks cruise low above the sand, swim up to the robotic vehicle and inspect it from all sides, bump it curiously, and burst out of the blue to seize the drone in their jaws. In research published on Monday in the Journal of Fish Biology, the scientists described the first great white predatory behavior filmed from under the surface.
Continue reading...Could artificial trees be part of the climate change solution?
In the fight against climate change, trees are an ally. They suck in carbon dioxide, reducing the harmful greenhouse gases. But there’s a problem: we’re asking them to work overtime.
Trees can’t absorb enough of the carbon dioxide humanity is throwing at them unless we turn every inch of available land into a dense forest, according to Christophe Jospe, chief strategist at Arizona State’s Center for Negative Carbon Emissions.
Continue reading...Giant icebergs are slowing climate change, research reveals
Known more as a symbol of global warming, the nutrient-rich plumes that trail melting giant icebergs are in fact sinking carbon deep into the ocean
Giant melting icebergs may be a symbol of climate change but new research has revealed that the plumes of nutrient-rich waters they leave in their wake lead to millions of tonnes of carbon being trapped each year.
Researchers examined 175 satellite photos of giant icebergs in the Southern Ocean which surrounds Antarctica and discovered green plumes stretching up to 1,000km behind them. The greener colour of the plumes is due to blooms of phytoplankton, which thrive on the iron and other nutrients shed by the icebergs.
Continue reading...Numbers dwindle at Mexico's mountain of butterflies
Decline of Monarch population wintering in Mexico now marks a statistical long-term trend, experts say
This story was published in January, 2014
The number of Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) wintering in Mexico plunged this year to its lowest level since studies began in 1993, leading experts to announce Wednesday that the insects’ annual migration from the United States and Canada is in danger of disappearing.
A study released by the World Wildlife Fund, Mexico’s Environment Department and the Natural Protected Areas Commission blames the displacement of the milkweed the species feeds on by genetically modified crops and urban sprawl in the United States, as well as the dramatic reduction of the butterflies’ habitat in Mexico due to illegal logging of the trees they depend on for shelter.
Continue reading...London takes just one week to breach annual air pollution limits
Parts of the capital have already breached EU hourly limits for nitrogen dioxide pollution which causes thousands of premature deaths each year
London has already breached annual pollution limits just one week into 2016, and only weeks after the government published its plans to clean up the UK’s air.
At 7am on Friday, Putney High Street in West London breached annual limits for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a toxic gas produced by diesel vehicles that has been linked to respiratory and heart problems.
Continue reading...Montreal traffic camera captures stunning images of snowy owl in flight
Owl, which was likely looking for a place to perch, has become viral internet star after Quebec transport minister Robert Poeti shared the photographs online
A traffic camera above a Montreal freeway has taken stunning images of a snowy owl in flight.
The bird was captured mid-air by the CCTV camera at the intersection of Autoroute 40 and the Boulevard des Sources, in the West Island of Montreal, on the morning of 3 January.
Continue reading...Human impact has pushed Earth into the Anthropocene, scientists say
New study provides one of the strongest cases yet that the planet has entered a new geological epoch
There is now compelling evidence to show that humanity’s impact on the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and wildlife has pushed the world into a new geological epoch, according to a group of scientists.
The question of whether humans’ combined environmental impact has tipped the planet into an “Anthropocene” – ending the current Holocene which began around 12,000 years ago – will be put to the geological body that formally approves such time divisions later this year.
Continue reading...Organic and small-scale: An alternative vision for the future of farming
The Oxford Real Farming Conference has rapidly outgrown its decades-old establishment counterpart and is calling for radical reforms to the industrialised intensive model they respresent
Two visions of the future of farming played out in Oxford this week.
The five-year-old Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC) at the town hall, sponsored by organic farming company Sheepdrove and dominated by small-scale farmers, food campaigners, and the agro-ecology movement, has now outgrown the establishment conference, the decades-old Oxford Farming Conference.
Continue reading...Primates in pictures: US photographer's portraits of endangered species
A selection of photographer Joel Sartore’s images of monkeys, taken from his ambitious, decade-long Photo Ark project.
• Read our feature on Sartore’s project here
Continue reading...95% consensus of expert economists: cut carbon pollution | Dana Nuccitelli
A survey of economists with climate expertise finds a consensus that climate change is expensive and carbon pollution cuts are needed
The Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University (NYU) School of Law recently published a report summarizing a survey of economists with climate expertise. The report was a follow-up and expansion of a similar survey conducted in 2009 by the same institute. The key finding: there’s a strong consensus among climate economics experts that we should put a price on carbon pollution to curb the expensive costs of climate change.
The survey participants included economists who have published papers related to climate change “in a highly ranked, peer-reviewed economics or environmental economics journal since 1994.” Overall, 365 participants completed the survey, which established the consensus of expert climate economists on a number of important questions.
Continue reading...On the trail of the wolf, Europe’s much maligned and misunderstood predator
When Poland banned wolf hunting, numbers doubled. But now animal scientists fear that politicians could turn back the clock
Robert Mysłajek stops dead. Between two paw prints on a muddy mountain track, the scientist finds what he is looking for. “Scats!’’ he enthuses. Wolf sightings are so rare that a flash of faeces marks a good day, even for a seasoned tracker.
But it is getting easier. There are now an estimated 1,500 wolves in Poland. The number has doubled in 15 years. Wolves are – along with the brown bear, the lynx and the wolverine – Europe’s last large predator carnivores. Conservationists from Britain, Germany and the Netherlands are beating a path here to find out how the country has saved this protected species, slandered even in fairytales.
Continue reading...Northern Territory removes 290 saltwater crocodiles from waterways in a year
Residents are warned to take more care as 2015’s figure is announced – it’s a high one, based on recent years, although not a record
Wildlife rangers pulled almost 300 saltwater crocodiles from Northern Territory waterways in 2015, more than in either of the two previous years.
As part of its population management program, the Parks and Wildlife Commission NT (PWCNT) removed 290 crocodiles of various sizes from NT rivers, harbours and waterholes, the largest measuring 4.38m from the Daly River.
Continue reading...The Indian village learning to live in harmony with snow leopards
To stop snow leopards killing valuable livestock, villagers in Himachal Pradesh have changed the way they manage land to increase the endangered cat’s wild prey, while an insurance scheme offers compensation for lost stock
In the high altitude treeless expanses of Kibber, Himachal Pradesh, India, snow leopards use boulders and ridgelines to stalk blue sheep and Himalayan ibex. But they also feast on yak calves and horse foals, much to the chagrin of villagers. These animals fetch a pretty penny, and the compensation paid by the state was so measly that livestock owners didn’t even bother to file claims. Had nothing been done to resolve the problem, people’s hostility to snow leopards could have turned volatile.
After studying the situation, scientists at Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF), Karnataka, came up with a couple of ideas. Since livestock overran the pastures, wild ungulates were too few to sustain snow leopards. If people’s losses were to be reduced, the population of wild prey animals had to increase.
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