The Guardian
Energy storage leap could slash electric car charging times
Development of new material for supercapacitors has potential to raise range to that of petrol cars
Researchers have claimed a breakthrough in energy storage technology that could enable electric cars to be driven as far as petrol and diesel vehicles, and recharge in minutes rather than hours.
Teams from Bristol University and Surrey University developed a next-generation material for supercapacitors, which store electric charge and can be replenished faster than normal batteries.
Continue reading...UK farmers won't lower standards post-Brexit, says new NFU head
Minette Batters, the National Farmers’ Union’s new president, says good quality, safe food is ‘a public right’ and staying part of a customs union is vital
British farmers will not accept lower welfare and hygiene standards under any post-Brexit trade deals, and will fight to remain as part of a customs union, the new president of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has pledged.
Minette Batters, the first woman to head the powerful farmers’ lobby since its foundation 110 years ago, set out a vision of farming as a unifying force across the UK, providing high-quality but low-cost food to consumers on a tight budget while safeguarding the environment and providing one in eight of the UK’s jobs.
Continue reading...NSW ombudsman investigating WaterNSW over misleading data
Exclusive: Watchdog’s new report will say agency’s prosecutions and compliance statistics were seriously overstated
The New South Wales ombudsman is investigating whether WaterNSW – the body responsible for compliance with the state’s water laws – has misled it when it provided data last year on the number of prosecutions and enforcement actions it had taken in the 15 months prior.
The ombudsman confirmed a second special report will be tabled in the first week of March, but declined to outline its contents. Special reports are a last resort when the ombudsman deems that a report to the minister is insufficient.
Continue reading...Antarctica's king penguins 'could disappear' by the end of the century
Climate change and overfishing could push the region’s king penguin populations to the brink of extinction, a new study shows
Rising temperatures and overfishing in the pristine waters around the Antarctic could see king penguin populations pushed to the brink of extinction by the end of the century, according to a new study.
The report, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, found that as global warming transforms the environment in the world’s last great wilderness 70% of king penguins could either disappear or be forced to find new breeding grounds.
Continue reading...Brussels to make public transport free on high air pollution days
The new rules will also see car speed limits cut and wood-burning stoves banned in a drive to improve air quality in the city
Brussels has moved to make the city’s public transport and bike share system free on the smoggiest days in a bid to drive down pollution levels and meet EU air quality directives.
After two consecutive days of high particulate matter (PM) levels – defined as surpassing an average of 51-70 micrograms per cubic metre of air – buses, trams and metros would have to open their doors completely free, under new city council rules.
Continue reading...Government 'dragging its feet' over plastic bottle scheme, say MPs
A deposit return scheme to tackle the billions of bottles not recycled every year is being kicked into the long grass, say MPs
The government is “dragging its feet” on introducing a deposit return scheme to cut the billions of plastic bottles not recycled every year, according to a committee of MPs.
The Environment Audit Committee (EAC) called for a deposit return scheme (DRS) in a report in December, in which a small deposit is paid when purchasing a bottle and then returned when the empty bottle is brought back. Environment secretary Michael Gove called a DRS a “great idea” in September.
Continue reading...Dozens of public lands advocates say Trump administration 'shut them out'
Groups comprised of ranchers, hunters and conservationists say interior secretary Ryan Zinke has stonewalled them
The Trump administration has angered ranchers, hunters, fishermen and conservationists across the US who complain they are being shut out of a federal advisory process designed to steer the management of cherished public lands.
Many of the dozens of public advisory boards have been stonewalled by the department of interior since the president put Ryan Zinke at the helm of the agency.
Continue reading...Most UK parents back air pollution exclusion zones around schools
Exclusive: 60% of parents want traffic to be diverted away from schools at peak times to protect children’s health, a new study shows
The majority of UK parents back the introduction of “pollution exclusion zones” outside schools amid growing concern that illegal levels of air pollution are doing long term damage to hundreds of thousands of young people.
A new study published on Monday by environmental law organisation ClientEarth reveals that 60% of parents want traffic diverted away from school gates at the beginning and end of the school day, with just 13% opposed.
Continue reading...Country diary 1918: Downs alive with the sound of music
2 March 1918 A lark struck upward, singing a stave or two at each successive plunge and in a few minutes overhead all was music in a thin haze
Surrey, February 28
Soon as dawn began to spread along the southern rim of the sky this morning, the lower down was alive with birds. Larks rose almost from underfoot, others started from the higher ridge, and all played, fleeting about in the air like children let into a fresh meadow in spring. At first there was little song. Then, as by inspiration, one struck upward, singing a stave or two at each successive plunge; another rose; others, distances away; in a few minutes overhead all was music in a thin haze. Southward long, grey clouds reddened and glowed from end to end, great shreds detached, chased northward, and melted to nothing in the lofty blue.
Related: Ascending larks keep the bird-snarer busy: Country diary 100 years ago
Continue reading...UK's small abattoirs struggle as profit margins are squeezed
Demand for locally sourced meat may be high but suppliers face uncertain regulatory and economic environment
Locally sourced meat, one of the cornerstones of modern sustainable eating, may soon be out of reach for consumers across the UK as large numbers of small suppliers are forced to close down.
Seeking out local meat, vegetables and other food products is increasingly embraced as part of a healthier diet that reduces environmental impact, allows clear traceability and improves farm welfare.
Continue reading...Country diary: a strange magic in the dell of the valley of the elves
Elveden, Suffolk: Dell is a folky term – a word in the minds of Milton and Tolkien, of outlawed church groups gathered for moonlit worship, of children seeking fairies
The word “dell” is pure, earthy English. From it we have acquired dale, a valley. But as grand as it has developed, the meaning of this Old English word remains as it was, a wooded hollow – somehow over time engendering an intimacy and aura benignly Arcadian in feel. Dells have a strange magic through literature, which is where the word lives now. No longer practical, more an alternative to evoke, rather than inform. A folky term – a word in the minds of Milton and Tolkien, of outlawed church groups gathered for moonlit worship, of children seeking fairies, or singing in rhyme. These days the farmer tends to be in his den rather than the dell – although the two words are, in this context, synonymous. As such they could have called this little village on the edge of Thetford Forest Elvedell, but they called it Elveden.
This roadside dell in Elveden has an old story for its old name, Elveden Dell: literally, the dell of the valley of the elves. A little girl who heard beguiling sounds, tinkling, in high boughs. Then, the same half-music luring horses off the road into here – now the magic dell, of course.
Continue reading...Water vole areas in England and Wales fall by 30% in a decade
Species remains UK’s fastest declining mammal despite large reintroduction programme
The number of areas where water voles are found across England and Wales has fallen by almost a third in 10 years, research has found.
The species, which provided the model for the much-loved character Ratty in The Wind of the Willows, has suffered catastrophic declines over several decades and is the UK’s fastest declining mammal.
Continue reading...The terrifying phenomenon that is pushing species towards extinction
There was almost something biblical about the scene of devastation that lay before Richard Kock as he stood in the wilderness of the Kazakhstan steppe. Dotted across the grassy plain, as far as the eye could see, were the corpses of thousands upon thousands of saiga antelopes. All appeared to have fallen where they were feeding.
Some were mothers that had travelled to this remote wilderness for the annual calving season, while others were their offspring, just a few days old. Each had died in just a few hours from blood poisoning. In the 30C heat of a May day, the air around each of the rotting hulks was thick with flies.
Continue reading...Can a tourist ban save DiCaprio’s coral paradise from destruction?
South-east Asian idylls – from Philippine islands to the Thai bay made famous in The Beach – plan to turn tourists away so that devastated coral reefs have some time to recover. Will it be enough?
Our Thai tour guide, Spicey, takes a drag on her cigarette and gestures sadly towards the beach. “The problem with people is that they are too greedy. They see a beautiful place and they want it. They take, take, take from nature. And then they destroy it.”
The golden sands of Maya Bay where Spicey stands are some of the most famous in the world. This once-idyllic cove, on the tiny Thai island of Koh Phi Phi Leh, was the paradise location of The Beach, Danny Boyle’s 2000 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It was then pushed by tourism officials in advertising campaigns to entice more wealthy visitors to Thailand.
Continue reading...One million birds killed illegally every year at a wildlife site in Iran
A million wild birds a year are now being killed illegally at a single wildlife site in Iran. That is the stark warning from conservationists who say highly endangered migratory species face being wiped out in the near future there unless urgent action is taken.
In a letter last week to the journal Science, the conservationists pinpoint the Fereydunkenar wetlands in Iran as the site of this widespread wildlife slaughter.
Continue reading...Sydney beaches reopen after first shark attack in Botany Bay in 25 years
Anna Shurapey recovering in hospital after being bitten by a suspected juvenile great white off Little Congwong beach
Swimmers at a Sydney beach where a woman was bitten by a shark shouldn’t have reservations about venturing back into the water when it reopens on Sunday, experts say.
Anna Shurapey, 55, survived the first shark attack in Botany Bay in at least 25 years after she was bitten on the leg about 7pm Friday, prompting the Randwick City Council to close nearby beaches for 24 hours.
Continue reading...Toxic toad invasion puts ecology of Madagascar at risk
Rustling branches and a canopy cacophony – part howl, part screech, part snigger – proclaim the presence of black-and-white ruffed lemurs as visitors enter Ivoloina zoological park in eastern Madagascar.
The raucous primate is one of several critically endangered species in this biological refuge, which breeds and protects rare wildlife from the growing pressures on this island’s unique ecology.
Continue reading...Nappies, takeaways and bubble wrap: could I remove plastic from my life?'
It’s polluting our oceans and killing our wildlife, but how easy is it to get by without it? Four writers find out
No man is an island. However, if I were an island, I’d probably be the best one ever. When the Guardian asked me to record all the single-use plastic I got through in a week, I scoffed. Piece of cake, I thought.
Continue reading...Country diary: a glimpse of spring down by the river Ystwyth
Aberystwyth, Ceredigion: From the depths of dormant bramble thickets, tangled and moribund, robins called and chased defiantly as they reinforced their territories
In the last stages of its journey to the sea, the river Ystwyth curves in gentle meanders across a broad valley pasture grazed by a modest scattering of sheep. This close to the coast, the wind from the sea is a powerful force, carving the small riverside trees into forms that leave no doubt as to its direction and persistence.
Continue reading...Tech billionaire, ordered to reopen public beach, appeals to supreme court
Investor Vinod Khosla has battled regulators for years over Martin’s Beach, which can only be reached by road on his property
A Silicon Valley billionaire who was ordered by California courts to restore public access to a popular surfing beach is seeking to take his case to the US supreme court.
The case could entirely upend public access to beaches in a state with more than 1,000 miles of shoreline.
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