The Guardian

Year of the monkey has sparked a trend for pygmy marmosets, the world’s smallest monkey, as pets. But conservationists warn the animals rarely survive in captivity, reports Mongabay

The “year of the monkey” dawned recently in China – and with it, a trendy new exotic pet. Pygmy marmosets are all the rage among China’s wealthy elite, who are forgoing legality and snapping up baby monkeys at around $4,500 (£3,200) each. The internet has exploded with photos of the so-called “thumb monkeys,” while conservationists and primate scientists are lamenting the situation.

Weighing in at just over 100 grams (equivalent to about 20 US nickels), pygmy marmosets (Cebuella pygmaea) are the world’s smallest monkeys. They’re native to the rainforests of South America’s western Amazon Basin, where they live in small groups of around a dozen individuals. They aren’t considered threatened because of their large range and relative prevalence, but they are in decline, according to the IUCN, primarily due to the pet trade.

Director of country’s biggest whaling company says his fleet will not be hunting this season because of problems exporting the meat to Japan

Conservationists are hopeful that an end to commercial whaling in Iceland has moved one step closer following media reports that no fin whales will be hunted there this summer.

Kristjan Loftsson, the director of Iceland’s largest whaling company, told daily newspaper Morgunbladid on Wednesday that Hvalur HF would not be sending out vessels to slaughter the endangered whales this season because of difficulties exporting the meat to the Japanese market.

Head of state-owned power distributor says solar households in the south-east previously cut grid consumption but ‘don’t worry so much about their bill now’

Solar-powered homes in south-east Queensland, which boasts the world’s highest concentration of rooftop panels, have begun consuming on average more electricity from the grid than those without solar, the network operator has found.

Terry Effeney, the chief executive of state-owned power distributor Energex, said the trend – which belied the “green agenda” presumed to drive those customers – was among the challenges facing a region that nevertheless stood the best chance globally of making solar the cornerstone of its electricity network.

Environment department ministers are at odds over whether a Brexit would be good for farmers, who receive roughly £2.5-3bn a year in EU subsidies

A battle for the Tory heartlands of the UK countryside has broken out within the government’s ministerial ranks, as David Cameron’s farming minister has defied his boss to urge farmers to vote to leave the EU.

George Eustice, the farming minister, told the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) annual conference on Wednesday that they would be better off out of the EU. “We would do far better as a country if we ended the supremacy of Europe and shaped new fresh-thinking policies that really deliver for our agriculture,” he said.

“The truth of the matter is that if we left the EU there would be an £18bn a year dividend, so could we find the money to spend £2bn a year on farming and the environment? Of course we could. Would we? Without a shadow of a doubt.”

His appeal for exit was a very public breaking of ranks with the secretary of state for environment, farming and rural affairs, Liz Truss. She addressed the conference on Tuesday with a plea to farmers to stay within the EU, calling an exit “a leap into the dark” at a time when farmers are already hard-pressed.

She told the conference: “By voting to remain we can work within a reformed EU to reduce bureaucracy and secure further reform while still enjoying the significant benefits of the single market, which gives us access to 500m consumers. At a time of severe price volatility and global market uncertainty, it would be wrong to take a leap into the dark. The years of complication and risk caused by negotiating withdrawal would be a distraction.”

At stake, for farmers, is the roughly £2.5 to £3bn a year - varying according to the euro exchange rate - that farmers receive from Brussels. This is paid on the basis of the area of land they farm, and efforts they make to improve the environment, for instance by maintaining habitats for wildlife. Farmers also benefit from access to the EU market, which accounts for more than half of all British food and farming exports, amounting to more than £11bn a year.

Despite Eustice’s assurances, it is unclear that a Conservative government after a Brexit would divert similar levels of taxpayer funding to farmers, and neither the prime minister, David Cameron, nor Truss has made such promises.

Such a measure would be deeply controversial, particularly as current subsidies tend to favour the biggest and richest landowners. To put the money in context, the NHS budget boost in the last review was £3.8bn.

Many farmers argue that the benefit from the EU’s subsidy rarely reaches them, in any case: supermarkets factor in the expected income in their calculations of what to pay their suppliers.

The NFU has been carefully neutral on the issue, but did include in its information pack for the 1,400 farmers attending its conference a comparison of the £153 a year paid by the UK per person into the EU with more than £106 per citizen a year from Norway “with no influence” because Norway is not a member. Norway is frequently cited as an alternative model by those favouring an exit.

For the Tory party, farmers and rural communities have always been a bedrock of support. Few rural constituencies outside Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and a few in the south-west of England vote anything but Conservative. But some farmers feel that they have been taken for granted, while buffeted by the forces of international trade. Farmgate prices for produce such as milk, wheat and pigs have plummeted by more than a third in the last year.

Farming votes in the referendum are up for grabs as never before. When the Guardian questioned farmers at the conference on whether they would prefer to remain in or leave, there was a clear split, with a substantial number opting to leave.

Data on British buying habits in 2015 reveals a move away from products such as sausages and bacon in favour of fish and poultry

Consumers of organic food are avoiding processed and red meats in favour of fish and poultry, according to data on UK buying habits for 2015.

The move away from products such as sausages and bacon may be because high-end consumers are heeding growing warnings about their impact on health. That was reinforced by an assessment by the World Health Organisation in October that placed cured and processed meats in the same category as asbestos, alcohol, arsenic and tobacco as major causes of cancer.

Report finds air pollution inside and outside the home is costing £20bn a year as well as causing tens of thousands of deaths

Air pollution both inside and outside the home causes at least 40,000 deaths a year in the UK, according to new report, which estimates the cost of the damage at £20bn.

The major health impact of outdoor air pollution is relatively well known but the report, from the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, also highlights the less understood impact of indoor pollution, as well as the growing evidence of harm to children’s health and intelligence.

For just a few days each year, the water of Horsetail fall in Yosemite national park appears like lava, drawing crowds of onlookers and photographers

Hundreds of photographers have swarmed to Yosemite national park to catch a rare glimpse of a “firefall” – a phenomenon that makes it appear as if water has turned into lava, flowing from a volcano.

For about 10 days each February, sunlight illuminates Horsetail Fall in a way that looks like lava is tumbling down the rock face. The light show can prove elusive – local photographers said this is the first February in four years in which conditions have been ideal to capture the firefall.

Fundraising campaign to help northern New South Wales family pay for Kathryn Sullivan’s funeral raises more than $3,000 in 24 hours

Australians have donated more than $3,000 to help pay funeral costs for a six-year-old girl who died after she was bitten by a brown snake.

Kathryn Sullivan was bitten by the snake on a Walgett property in northern New South Wales last week. She was airlifted to the Sydney Children’s hospital but her condition deteriorated and she was transferred back to Walgett hospital where she died on Saturday.

Beachgoers in Argentina picked up and passed around an endangered Franciscana dolphin, which can be seen being plucked out of the water before being petted by beachgoers. Other images showed people taking selfies with the dolphin

Harvard study shows 30% rise across the country since 2002 with peaks coinciding with shale oil and gas boom, reports Climate Central

There was a huge global spike in one of the most potent greenhouse gases driving climate change over the last decade, and the U.S. may be the biggest culprit, according a new Harvard University study.

The United States alone could be responsible for between 30-60% of the global growth in human-caused atmospheric methane emissions since 2002 because of a 30% spike in methane emissions across the country, the study says.

Former deputy editor of National Geographic Brazil says a “humanitarian catastrophe” is taking place in Brazil’s Amazon

One of the perpetrators of arguably Brazil’s most internationally high-profile murders in recent years is currently walking around free. In 2013, amid much media coverage, Lindonjonson Silva Rocha was sentenced to 42 years prison for killing two nut collectors-turned-environmental activists in southern Pará, but then in November last year he escaped.

One man who knew both victims, “Zé Cláudio” Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria do Espírito Santo, is Felipe Milanez, a political ecologist at the Federal University of Recôncavo of Bahia, activist, film-maker, former deputy editor of National Geographic Brazil, and the editor of the recently-published book, Memórias Sertanistas: Cem Anos de Indigenismo no Brasil. Here I interview Milanez, via email, about Zé Cláudio and the Brazilian Amazon:

US climate envoy says threats by Republican presidential candidates to withdraw from the global agreement would be ‘diplomatic black eye’

President Obama’s special envoy for climate change has warned Republican presidential hopefuls including Donald Trump and Ted Cruz that any attempt to scrap the Paris climate agreement would lead to a “diplomatic black eye” for the US.

Speaking to journalists in Brussels, Todd Stern also said that a recent supreme court decision to block Barack Obama’s clean power plan would not affect US climate pledges, or plans to formally sign up to the Paris agreement later this year.

Developers have abandoned their original goal of building the world’s first zero-carbon city in the UAE desert. With completion originally scheduled for this year, just how much of the once-revolutionary vision has actually been realised?

Years from now passing travellers may marvel at the grandeur and the folly of the futuristic landscape on the edges of Abu Dhabi: the barely occupied office blocks, the deserted streets, the vast tracts of undeveloped land and – most of all – the abandoned dream of a zero-carbon city.

Masdar City, when it was first conceived a decade ago, was intended to revolutionise thinking about cities and the built environment.

Parliament unanimously agree to ratify UN climate treaty ahead of signing ceremony in April in New York, reports BusinessGreen

Fiji has become the first country in the world to formally approve the UN climate deal agreed by 195 nations in Paris in December.

The island nation’s parliament unanimously agreed to ratify the Paris agreement on Friday, according to local news reports.

On Wednesday, the consultation closes on an outrageous proposal to allow destructive fishing activities in a special area of conservation in Wales. This is the last chance to make our voices heard

Governments take the advice they want to hear. As they seek to avoid trouble and find the path of least resistance, they often look for advice that meshes with the demands of industrial lobbyists.

This problem has afflicted the life of the sea for many years. Governments consult the scientists who tell them that high catches of fish are sustainable, and ignore more cautious assessments. This allows them to get the fishing lobby off their backs, while claiming to have based their decisions on science. Bad advice from scientists and selective hearing by government were among the factors that led to the collapse of the Grand Banks cod fishery off Newfoundland.

A date for disaster: the end-Permian mass extinction event.

Seth Burgess has, literally, travelled to the ends of the Earth to find a date. Along the way he has endured attacks of giant flesh-eating bee-flies, paddled a raft 60 miles in driving Siberian rain, braved volcanoes in Alaska, and inhaled polluted air in China for weeks on end, all the while hauling pounds of rocks. And all in the name of Science.

The date he seeks plays extremely hard to get.

This month’s data set graphic by Pete Guest looks at the deaths attributable to air pollution as well as WHO guidelines

Girl was bitten at property near Walgett on 5 February, taken to local hospital then airlifted to Sydney Children’s hospital before her condition deteriorated

A six-year-old girl has died after being bitten by a brown snake on a property in outback New South Wales.

The girl was bitten at a property near Walgett, in the state’s north, on the afternoon of 5 February and was transferred to the local hospital to receive anti-venom.

Xylella fastidiosa has wreaked havoc in the US and Europe and could dwarf the impact of ash dieback in the UK

It has caused severe damage to plants and trees in the US and southern Europe and now there are fears it is heading this way. With experts warning that it could make the devastating ash dieback disease seem like “a walk in the park”, the UK is on red alert for signs that Xylella fastidiosa has entered the country.

First confirmed in Europe three years ago when it ran rampant across olive plantations in southern Italy, a subspecies of Xylella has since been detected in southern France, where it has destroyed vines and lavender plants, and in Corsica. Xylella fastidiosa has also been found in both South and North America where it is commonly referred to as “phony peach disease” and where it has caused severe damage to citrus and coffee plantations. In New Jersey it has attacked more than a third of the state’s urban trees.

Booming market grew 27% in 2015 edging past European Union for first time, says industry group. Climate Home reports

China installed half of all new wind capacity worldwide last year, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).

The country added an “astonishing” 30.5 gigawatts (GW) to boost installations to 145.1GW, the Brussels-based industry group said on Wednesday.