The Guardian
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.
Continue reading...How scared or hopeful should we be in a warming world? | Clive Hamilton
Should we be optimistic that the Paris agreement can save us from serious climate change or is it too little too late? Clive Hamilton looks at both sides of the debate
For anyone who takes notice of the climate change debate, a mass of often-contradictory information comes flooding into our lives. Some of it prompts great alarm. The Great Barrier Reef is suffering severe bleaching. Wild fires are consuming Alberta. Last year was the warmest on record, and 15 of the 16 hottest years on record have occurred since 2001.
Yet there are also some positive signs that the world is at last getting serious about the threat. Global investment in renewable energy last year exceeded investment in fossil energy for the first time. Coal use in the United States is falling rapidly. China has stopped approving new coalmines. And the Paris Agreement of December 2015 was hailed as a breakthrough, a turning point in the battle.
Continue reading...UK water companies receive record sewage leak fines
Firms face tougher penalties aimed at reducing the number of pollution offences
Water companies have been hit by a series of record fines for major sewage leaks and other pollution incidents.
Yorkshire Water was fined £1.1m for illegally discharging sewage that polluted the river Ouse near York, while Thames Water was fined £1m for repeated sewage leaks into the Grand Union canal.
Continue reading...The arsonists of Fort McMurray have a name | Martin Lukacs
Fossil fuel corporations are causing the climate change fuelling mega-fires – and they should be footing the bill for the devastation
As the fire that ravaged Fort McMurray finally moves past the city, and the province tallies the heartbreaking damage, a search will begin to discover the source of the destruction.
Investigators will comb the nearby forests for clues, tracing the fire’s path to what they call its “point of origin.” They’ll interview witnesses, collect satellite imagery, and rule out natural causes—much like the work of detectives.
Continue reading...Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation divests entire holding in BP
World’s largest health charity sells its $187m stake in the oil giant in a move welcomed by fossil fuel divestment campaigners
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has sold off its entire holding in oil giant BP, in a move welcomed by fossil fuel divestment campaigners.
Bill Gates has called the selling off of coal, oil and gas stocks a “false solution” to climate change, but the known investments of his foundation in major fossil fuel companies has fallen by 85% since 2014.
Continue reading...WHO: air pollution causes 7m premature deaths a year – video
Outdoor air pollution has grown 8% globally in the past five years, with billions of people around the world now exposed to dangerous air, according to new data from more than 3,000 cities compiled by the World Health Organisation. Director Maira Neira says India and China need to make ‘massive efforts because the situation at the moment is really bad for the population’
Fish net bikinis and mushroom death suits – eco fashion in pictures
From selling clothes with a 30 year guarantee to touring Europe in a repair shop - these brands are advancing the circular economy within fashion