The Guardian
Victorian town ordered to pay $90,000 after losing bottled water battle with farmer
Stanley residents fail to stop farmer mining groundwater that is sold on as bottled springwater
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Residents from a tiny Victorian town have been ordered to pay $90,000 in legal costs after they launched a failed bid to prevent a farmer from extracting and selling groundwater as bottled springwater to a subsidiary of the Japanese beverage giant Asahi.
The supreme court of Victoria made the costs ruling last week, four months after a residents association in the town of Stanley, which has a population of 400, was denied leave to appeal previous decisions allowing the water extraction.
Continue reading...Country diary: I call to the boulderers 'Can you spot me?'
Armathwaite, Eden Valley: Their fingertips white with climbing chalk, they are surmounting overhangs and traversing blank-looking walls
John Buchan’s hero Richard Hannay crosses my mind as I reach an impasse while walking along the banks of the Eden to Armathwaite crags. A flight of steps descends into Sandy Bay, created from fine-grained sand churned up from the riverbed each flood. Only, while Buchan’s 39 steps descend to sands between white chalk cliffs in Kent, Armathwaite’s stairs are sandwiched between red sandstone precipices. Also, Hannay’s adversaries were international spies; mine are old age and a dodgy hip.
Continue reading...Millions of trees at risk in secretive Network Rail felling programme
Exclusive: Plan to stop leaves and branches falling on lines has already led to thousands of trees being chopped down
Millions of trees are at risk in a secretive nationwide felling operation launched by Network Rail to end the nuisance of leaves and branches falling on the line.
Thousands of poplars, sycamores, limes, ash trees and horse chestnuts have already been chopped down across the country from Yorkshire to Dorset, and the scale of the potential destruction outlined in a Network Rail blueprint involves 10m trees growing within 60 metres of track.
Continue reading...Blackcap, redstart, yellowhammer: what’s in a bird’s name?
It’s easy to assume, with bird names, that we know what they mean, and often that assumption is quite correct. Woodpeckers peck wood, bee-eaters feed on bees, and whitethroats are indeed white around the neck.
Other names seem almost wilfully obscure: what on Earth does the name puffin mean? Or hobby? Why are turtle doves named after reptiles? And don’t get me started on some of the more bizarre bird names found around the world – from oleaginous hemispingus to zitting cisticola, leaflove to hardhead, and bananaquit to bearded mountaineer.
Continue reading...Budget earmarks $500m to mitigate Great Barrier Reef climate change
The money will help try to save the crown-of-thorns starfish and reduce pollution, Malcolm Turnbull to announce
The Turnbull government will allocate $500m to mitigate the impacts of climate change on the Great Barrier Reef.
The funding, to be unveiled on Sunday and confirmed in the May budget, follows a recent study finding that 30% of the reef’s corals died in a catastrophic nine-month marine heatwave in 2016.
Continue reading...Australia gets UN to delete criticism of Murray-Darling basin plan from report
Exclusive: Co-author of study expresses shock at ‘complete ineptitude’ of government’s intervention
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The federal government has successfully put pressure on the United Nations to delete all criticism of Australia’s $13bn effort to restore the ailing Murray-Darling river system from a published study, according to the author of an expert report.
The so-called “Australia chapter” has been removed from the UN report “Does Improved Irrigation Technology Save Water?” published online by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
Continue reading...Health warning as toxic hairy caterpillars take over woodlands
An infestation of caterpillars that can trigger asthma attacks, vomiting and skin rashes has appeared in south-east England.
Oak processionary moths, in their larval stage now, have been spotted in areas that include Croydon, Twickenham, Epping Forest, Watford, Ealing and several London suburbs. Other infestations have been spotted in Bracknell Forest, Slough and Guildford.
Continue reading...Country diary: the mind's associations with moors run dark and deep
Beldoo Moss, Cumbrian Pennines: Brontë, bog-body, Baskerville, Brady – it’s as if we are impelled to fill all that bare, bleak, vacant space
Think of this place and most people see the road: the high crossing road that climbs one side of England’s back and descends the other. A second thought might be of the Roman road that once ran this way, itself over the course of an already ancient bronze age pass.
Continue reading...Butterflywatch: the orange tip is the true herald of spring
A couple of weeks later than usual, the first species to emerge from the chrysalis, is on the wing
Most of us have a favourite first that signifies the true beginning of spring. For me, it’s the first orange tip. While butterflies that hibernate as adults have been flying for a while, the orange tip is usually the first species to emerge from a chrysalis.
Last spring I complained that I didn’t see my first in Norfolk until 2 April. This year it was 19 April. Other spring butterflies, from the holly blue to the increasingly scarce dingy skipper, are at least a week later than average.
Continue reading...Neonics ban, stolen succulents and a stuffed anteater – green news roundup
The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
Bluebell woods, two giant tortoises and a golden jackal are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...The hills are alive with the signs of plastic: even Swiss mountains are polluted
Major study finds microplastics in soil across Switzerland and scientists warn urgent research is needed into impacts on food safety as other countries may be worse affected
Microplastic pollution contaminates soil across Switzerland, even in remote mountains, new research reveals. The scientists said the problem could be worse in other nations with poorer waste management and that research was urgently needed to see if microplastics get into food.
In the first major study of microplastics in soil, the researchers analysed soil samples from 29 river flood plains in nature reserves across Switzerland. They found microplastics, fragments under 5mm in size, in 90% of the soils. The scientists believe the particles are carried across the country by the wind.
Continue reading...EU agrees total ban on bee-harming pesticides
The world’s most widely used insecticides will be banned from all fields within six months, to protect both wild and honeybees that are vital to crop pollination
The European Union will ban the world’s most widely used insecticides from all fields due to the serious danger they pose to bees.
The ban on neonicotinoids, approved by member nations on Friday, is expected to come into force by the end of 2018 and will mean they can only be used in closed greenhouses.
Continue reading...Dutch rewilding experiment sparks backlash as thousands of animals starve
A scheme to rewild marshland east of Amsterdam has been savaged by an official report and sparked public protest after deer, horses and cattle died over the winter
It is known as the Dutch Serengeti, a bold project to rewild a vast tract of land east of Amsterdam. But a unique nature reserve where red deer, horses and cattle roam free on low-lying marsh reclaimed from the sea has been savaged by an official report after thousands of animals starved.
In a blow to the rewilding vision of renowned ecologists, a special committee has criticised the authorities for allowing populations of large herbivores to rise unchecked at Oostvaardersplassen, causing trees to die and wild bird populations to decline.
Continue reading...All Australian packaging to be sustainable by 2025, COAG agrees
The agreement was triggered by the Chinese ban on imported plastic waste but critics say it is too little too late
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The Turnbull government and states have agreed that all Australian packaging should be reusable, compostable or recyclable by 2025 at the latest, but face accusations they are not moving quickly enough to fix a recycling industry crisis triggered by a Chinese ban on imported plastic waste.
The 2025 target was the only specific goal set at a meeting of federal and state environment ministers in Melbourne on Friday. But there was broad agreement that governments would ensure the use of more recycled materials in building roads and other construction projects, and that work would be done to improve recycling capacity within Australia.
Continue reading...Stolen succulents: California hipster plants at center of smuggling crisis
Demand in China and Korea has led to thousands of dudleya being stolen from California as officials lament ‘plant poaching’
In China, they are prized for their chubby limbs and cute shapes. In Korea, they are a treasured hobby for housewives. But on the coastal cliffs of California, the dudleya succulent plants are vanishing, snatched up by international smugglers and shipped to an Asian middle-class market hungry for California native flora.
California department of fish and wildlife wardens have made five busts this year, involving more than 3,500 stolen plants, evidence that the succulent, a symbol of American hipster style, has gone global to grievous effect.
Continue reading...Paris to decide fate of 'mega' gold mine in forests of French Guiana
Controversial plans for an open-pit gold mine have split the French overseas territory in South America. Opponents warn of pollution and biodiversity loss, while local officials point to its potential economic benefits. But ultimately the decision will be made thousands of miles across the Atlantic
Through the window of the small propeller plane leaving the capital Cayenne, the jungle’s canopy stretches out as far as the eye can see.
More than 90% covered by luxuriant rainforest, French Guiana has little in common with mainland France bar the name.
Continue reading...Country diary: on the trail of elusive wood anemones
Abbeydale, South Yorkshire: Years ago, I stumbled across a large patch of the bone-white flowers. Could I find it again?
When our children were young, we’d take them on voyages of exploration to an extensive patch near our home of what is sometimes called the unofficial countryside, and by unofficial I mean of course forbidden. Trespassing wasn’t mentioned, but children know when parents are being shifty. The subterfuge only added to their excitement, and having to ford a river to reach this lost Eden was very heaven. One April we stumbled across a large patch of wood anemones that hardly anyone would ever see, treasure that could never be moved. So when this past winter suddenly gave way to blazing sunshine, I wondered: could I find it again?
Despite the sun, the moors were still heavy with rain, so the water flowed deep and fast. I threw my boots to the far bank and teetered across, immediately rewarded with a thick spread of ramsons, still fresh with dew. This is a plant almost designed to please children. It stinks and you can make up stories about the bears that grub for the bulbs, wild garlic’s Latin name being Allium ursinum. I stepped carefully, bathing in pungent draughts of scent, toes pushing into the warm earth.
Continue reading...Fracking may have caused South Korean earthquake – study
Researchers analysed data from November quake and found main shock occurred near fracking site
One of South Korea’s largest earthquakes on record may have been caused by hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – according to a study published on Friday in the journal Science.
A magnitude-5.5 earthquake hit the south-eastern city of Pohang on 15 November, injuring at least 70 people, temporarily displacing hundreds, and causing millions of dollars of damage. In the aftermath, residents and researchers have questioned whether the quake could be connected to a geothermal plant – the country’s first – less than 2km (about 1 mile) away.
Continue reading...Recycling crisis: federal government to push states for solution
Josh Frydenberg will seek agreement at meeting of environment ministers for a national stocktake of recycling
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The Turnbull government will ask the states to work towards a national fix on recycling in the wake of an import ban imposed by China on recycled waste, which has triggered a crisis in Australia.
Environment ministers will meet on Friday to discuss practical responses to the Chinese ban, with the commonwealth seeking agreement from state counterparts for a national stocktake as the precursor to boosting domestic capacity to recycle.
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