The Guardian
Microplastic pollution revealed ‘absolutely everywhere’ by new research
Contamination found across UK lakes and rivers, in US groundwater, along the Yantze river and Spanish coast, and harbouring dangerous bacteria in Singapore
Microplastic pollution spans the world, according to new studies showing contamination in the UK’s lake and rivers, in groundwater in the US and along the Yangtze river in China and the coast of Spain.
Related: Rivers of waste: Pakistan's recyclers go out on patrol – in pictures
Continue reading...Bird swallowed by giant 'glory hole' reportedly lives to fly another day
Witness says cormorant survived the plunge into a 200-foot-deep vortex in a California reservoir
What happens when a small bird is swallowed by a gaping glory hole?
The fate of the unassuming-looking waterfowl was the subject of anguished debate Wednesday as video surfaced of the animal disappearing into a 200ft-deep vortex in a dammed reservoir in northern California.
Continue reading...The ultimate lovely legs competition: the world's nine most beautiful spiders
This burrow-dwelling, blue-legged tarantula is turning heads – and there are plenty of other charismatic eight-legged friends out there
In case you missed the news in the latest journal of the British Tarantula Society, a rather lovely new spider with iridescent, electric-blue legs has been discovered. The burrow-dwelling spider [Birupes simoroxigorum] has reportedly been “feted by experts as one of the most beautiful spiders ever documented”, prompting the question: what are the other most beautiful spiders ever documented?
We asked Matthew Robertson, senior keeper of invertebrates at ZSL London Zoo, who gave the caveat: “The beauty isn’t the side that we tend to come at it from here, although it’s always an advantage if an animal is highly charismatic.”
Continue reading...'Whole thing is unraveling': climate change reshaping Australia's forests
Droughts, heat waves, bushfires and rising temperatures are driving ecosystems towards collapse
Australia’s forests are being reshaped by climate change as droughts, heat waves, rising temperatures and bushfires drive ecosystems towards collapse, ecologists have told Guardian Australia. Trees are dying, canopies are getting thinner and the rate that plants produce seeds is falling. Ecologists have long predicted that climate change would have major consequences for Australia’s forests.Now they believe those impacts are unfolding.
“The whole thing is unravelling,” says Prof David Bowman, who studies the impacts of climate change and fire on trees at the University of Tasmania. “Most people have no idea that it’s even happening. The system is trying to tell you that if you don’t pay attention then the whole thing will implode. We have to get a grip on climate change.”
Continue reading...High court rules government's fracking guidelines 'unlawful'
Court finds scientific evidence against fracking not taken into account by government
The UK’s high court has found the government’s new planning guidance on fracking to be unlawful.
The environmental campaign group Talk Fracking took legal action, arguing that the updated guidance failed to take account of scientific and technical developments on the environmental impact of fracking.
Continue reading...Endangered species face 'disaster' under Trump administration
Trump’s push to expand oil and gas drilling is eroding protections for some of America’s most at-risk wildlife
When America was choosing its national animal, Benjamin Franklin was determined the bald eagle shouldn’t prevail. The eagle, Franklin said, was a “bird of bad moral character” with a better option being the turkey, which Franklin considered pleasingly courageous if a little “vain and silly”.
Franklin’s view didn’t prevail, of course, but turkeys very nearly outlasted bald eagles in the US. Shot, poisoned and made homeless by rampant habitat destruction, there were just a few hundred nesting bald eagles left in the 1960s before a determined conservation effort ensured the national symbol wasn’t snuffed out.
Continue reading...Michael Gove labelled 'consultations minister' after launching 76
Labour chides environment secretary over lack of primary legislation or follow-up actions
The environment secretary, Michael Gove, has been labelled the “minister for consultations” after it emerged his department had launched 76 since he took office but had only passed one piece of primary legislation.
The findings show Gove has launched consultations at a rate of nearly four a month since he took office, covering topics from a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles to animal welfare.
Continue reading...'We want to live with them': wolves airdropped into US to tackle moose problem
With the wolf population dwindling in a Michigan park, four were trapped in Ontario and transported by helicopter
At a remote national park, four Canadians were recently airdropped into a dizzying new life in America.
They are expert moose hunters, accustomed to cold climates, and covered in fur.
Continue reading...Korean company planning Bylong Valley mine dismisses climate threat
After Rocky Hill ruling, firm claims open-cut project in NSW will make ‘negligible contribution’ to global emissions
The company behind a proposed coalmine in the Bylong Valley in New South Wales has claimed the project will make a “negligible contribution” to global climate change, in a fresh submission responding to the historic Rocky Hill judgment.
Kepco, the South Korean company that plans to develop an open-cut mine in the valley, has written to the state’s independent planning commission in light of the NSW land and environment court’s ruling in February that the Rocky Hill mine in Gloucester should not go ahead, in part because it was not compatible with efforts to combat climate change.
Continue reading...Adders now active all year with warmer UK weather
Shorter hibernation period may accelerate demise of Britain’s only venomous snake
The adder, Britain’s only venomous snake, has for the first time been confirmed as being active in every month of the year.
Adders normally hibernate underground from October to March, a strategy designed to enable them to survive a cold winter, but with warmer weather have now been seen throughout the year.
Continue reading...A hidden scandal: America's school students exposed to water tainted by toxic lead
Elevated levels of lead have been found in schools across the US, alarming experts who say it is particularly harmful to children
Continue reading...'We cannot swim, we cannot eat': Solomon Islands struggle with nation's worst oil spill
Locals face polluted seas and dying fish after Hong Kong-flagged bulk carrier runs aground close to Unesco-protected atoll
On a normal weekend, the waters of Kangava Bay would be busy with children playing or collecting clam shells and villagers heading out to catch reef fish to eat. But last Sunday the bay was quiet.
Locals can no longer cool off in the neon blue waters of Rennell Island, a tiny dot in the vast South Pacific that lies at the southern tip of the Solomon Islands. They can no longer spot parrotfish swimming in the shallows, picnic on the sand or fetch fresh water from streams and springs near the sea.
Continue reading...Climate change puts additional pressure on vulnerable frogs
Already devastated by a fungus made worse by changing temperatures, Australia’s frogs are at risk because of water availability and lack of refuge
Australia’s frog species, already threatened by habitat destruction and disease, are being put under extra pressure by shifting rainfall and rising temperatures from climate change.
Some of Australia’s leading frog experts are worried that serious impacts could be unfolding out of sight, with one saying climate change could push certain species to extinction before they are documented by science.
Continue reading...'Nothing should be classified as waste': crisis is opportunity for Veena Sahajwalla
Products may be superficially old or damaged but their basic elements can always be reused, the materials engineer says
Veena Sahajwalla has a solution for the waste crisis. While for most people the ever-growing mountains of rubbish stockpiled around the world seems like an overwhelming problem, the materials scientist and engineer sees the crisis as an opportunity that could help us to rethink the way we make and dispose of everything in our lives.
Take textiles. Australians send around 88% of textiles to landfill, with around 6,000kg of clothing dumped every 10 minutes. Earlier this year, there was a nationwide clearing-out flurry, leading to charity shops being inundated with unwanted goods. Most were destined for landfill.
Continue reading...The last great tree: a majestic relic of Canada's vanishing boreal forest
Spared by the loggers’ chainsaws a Douglas fir perhaps 1,000 years old stands in splendid isolation on Vancouver Island
On a cool morning in the winter of 2011, Dennis Cronin parked his truck by the side of a dirt logging road, laced up his spike-soled caulk boots, put on his red cargo vest and orange hard hat, and stepped into the trees.
He had a job to do: walk a stand of old-growth forest and flag it for clearcutting.
Continue reading...Weatherwatch: why short memories may be bad for the climate
Unusual weather may not seem so if we forget how things used to be
The record-breaking warmth at the end of February was remarkable, but as cases of extreme temperatures become more common do they have any effect on people’s attitudes to the climate?
A fascinating study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal looked at more than 2bn tweets in the US about unusual cold or hot weather, and revealed that people get used to such extremes fairly quickly. As time goes by and unusual weather becomes more frequent, people seem to view the new highs and lows as simply the normal state of the climate, and memories of the weather years ago fade away.
Continue reading...Is it cruel to set up nets that prevent birds nesting?
A battle broke out at the weekend over a hedge in Lincolnshire. The hedge, near the town of Winterton, was covered in netting by Partner Construction, which has applied for planning permission to build 40 homes on the site. This is standard practice, the developer said, in order to prevent birds from nesting in a habitat that might be damaged if building work begins later in the year.
However, a group of local residents opposed to the development released a video showing birds trapped beneath the nets. Jeremy Vine and Chris Packham shared the footage, and their outrage, on Twitter. Packham said the nets showed “brutal ignorance” of how to look after the countryside, and said, if he were there, he would “rip those nets down”, in a tweet that has since disappeared. According to the Telegraph, some of the offending nets have now gone.
Continue reading...Australia's marine heatwaves provide a glimpse of the new ecological order
Receding kelp forests, jellyfish blooms and disruption to fisheries are just some of climate change’s impacts on the ocean
As bushfires raged across Tasmania, Victoria and New Zealand, and north Queensland faced a massive cleanup after unexpected flooding, a different extreme weather event was silently forming in the Tasman Sea over summer.
For the second year in a row, a stubborn high-pressure system over the Tasman Sea was warming the surface of the ocean to above-average temperatures, forming a marine heatwave, wreaking destruction and providing a glimpse of the new ecological order in the marine Anthropocene. Globally marine heatwaves are becoming more frequent and prolonged and affecting biodiversity, according to new research published in Nature Climate Change this week.
Continue reading...Heatwaves sweeping oceans ‘like wildfires’, scientists reveal
Extreme temperatures destroy kelp, seagrass and corals – with alarming impacts for humanity
The number of heatwaves affecting the planet’s oceans has increased sharply, scientists have revealed, killing swathes of sea-life like “wildfires that take out huge areas of forest”.
The damage caused in these hotspots is also harmful for humanity, which relies on the oceans for oxygen, food, storm protection and the removal of climate-warming carbon dioxide the atmosphere, they say.
Continue reading...Europe’s forests threatened by biodiversity collapse, warn campaigners
Logging in Poland’s Vistula lagoon described by experts as part of a ‘war on nature’ across the continent’s ancient forests
A logging operation at Poland’s spectacular 55-mile-long Vistula lagoon is casting a “dark omen” of deforestation and biodiversity collapse across Europe’s forests, campaigners say.
Tree felling around the Natura 2000 site is aimed at clearing a path to the Baltic Sea for use by Poland’s navy, to the alarm of Russia. But they are just one front in what some academics describe as a war on nature.
Continue reading...