The Guardian
Badger bovine TB vaccinations resume but cull numbers still set to rise
Charities have obtained supplies of the vaccine following a shortage last year but the government’s vaccination programme won’t resume until 2018
Wildlife charities have resumed vaccinating badgers against bovine TB after a global shortage of the vaccine caused it to be suspended last year.
But more badgers than ever before are set to be culled this summer as Wales follows England in introducing a targeted cull in a bid to reduce bovine TB.
Continue reading...The dark side of wildlife tourism: thousands of Asian elephants held in cruel conditions
Elephants are being exploited to entertain tourists in south-east Asia, and kept in harsh conditions, says a new report from an animal rights NGO
Thousands of elephants being used for entertainment across Asia are kept in cruel, abusive conditions fuelled by the growing tourism industry, World Animal Protection has found.
Three out of four elephants surveyed in south-east Asia’s popular tourist destinations are living in harsh conditions where they are being used for rides, with mostly steel or wooden saddles, and tied in chains less than three metres long.
Continue reading...A storm, then strong scents, steam and snails
Egglestone, Teesdale For some, rain came as a blessed relief after days of drought and the downpour coaxed snails out to graze
The storm faded away to a distant rumble of thunder over the hills, taking with it the sticky heat of the past few days and leaving us shivering, in wet clothes, under a sheltering oak.
As we emerged, so did the insects. I watched a shield bug ease itself around the edge of a leaf back into the light, picking a path between wobbling water droplets. Spiders abseiled between grass stems, repairing webs. Within a few minutes bumblebees were at work again, shaking rain from water-laden bramble flowers.
Continue reading...Theresa May to discuss Paris accord with Donald Trump at G20
PM will use summit meeting with US president to say climate change agreement doesn’t need renegotiation
Theresa May will raise the issue of climate change with Donald Trump this weekend when the pair meet for the first time since she lost her majority in the general election. They will talk at the G20 summit in Hamburg, which runs on Friday and Saturday.
The two leaders will hold a formal bilateral meeting, at which the prime minister plans to tell the US president she does not believe the Paris climate change agreement needs to be renegotiated.
Continue reading...China presents Germany with two giant pandas – video report
Chinese president Xi Jinping officially presents two giant pandas to Berlin’s zoo on Wednesday. German chancellor Angela Merkel said the bamboo-munching newcomers would be special ambassadors for the two countries. The pandas, Meng Meng and Jiao Qing, landed in Berlin on June 24 and have been settling in at the zoo since then, out of public view.
Continue reading...Tasty solution to the signal crayfish problem | Brief letters
The word “earn” has become meaningless in today’s society, the word “get” being far more appropriate. In the same spirit, please could I urge you to refrain from repeating the misleading use of “worth” when referring to individuals and their personal wealth (Front page, 4 July). Mike Ashley is apparently “worth” £2.2bn – not to me he’s not.
Deirdre Burrell
Mortimer, Berkshire
• Carey Davies’s Country Diary (3 July) about the American signal crayfish in our rivers was interesting, but omitted to include one way of reducing their population: eating them. Fortunately George Monbiot has already provided information on how to do this (Monbiot cooks up revenge on invasive signal crayfish, 30 September 2009). Just make sure it’s not our (now very rare) native species.
Copland Smith
Manchester
Loan to Adani by infrastructure fund could be unlawful, says former clean energy head
Oliver Yates says any taxpayer money facilitating the proposed Carmichael coalmine carry reputational risks for the government
Any loan the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (Naif) gives to Adani’s Carmichael coalmine project would likely be unlawful, according to the former head of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), which operated under an almost identical mandate.
Naif, which was set up to give $5bn of concessional loans to support the development of northern Australia, operates under an investment mandate that includes a clause saying it “must not act in a way that is likely to cause damage to the commonwealth government’s reputation, or that of a relevant state or territory government”.
Continue reading...Hopes of mild climate change dashed by new research
Planet could heat up far more than hoped as new work shows temperature rises measured over recent decades don’t fully reflect global warming already in the pipeline
Hopes that the world’s huge carbon emissions might not drive temperatures up to dangerous levels have been dashed by new research.
The work shows that temperature rises measured over recent decades do not fully reflect the global warming already in the pipeline and that the ultimate heating of the planet could be even worse than feared.
Plan bee: parliament to produce honey to sell in shop and give to dignitaries
Parliamentary triangle is ideal for bees because Canberra’s centre is relatively free from pollution and has a good range of plants
It is a fact that Canberra has its fair share of honey-tongued politicians but parliament is about to produce its very own product.
Three beehives have been installed in the grounds around Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra to produce honey for sale in the shop and to give as gifts for visiting dignitaries.
Continue reading...Latest legal challenge to Tory air pollution plans fails
High court instructs ministers to publish full proposals by the end of July
The government has won the latest court challenge over the UK’s air pollution crisis.
Environmental lawyers ClientEarth had argued that ministers’ draft proposals to improve air quality – which contributes to tens of thousands of deaths each year – were unlawful.
Continue reading...Why the Republican Party's climate policy obstruction is indefensible | Dana Nuccitelli
It’s unscientific, fails basic risk management, is bad for the economy, and immoral
Two weeks ago, Senator Al Franken (D-MN) had an exchange with Trump’s Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry about climate change.
Inquiry into effects of fracking launched after Blackpool tremors
Investigation is part of an £8m research project examining impacts on land, water and air of the extraction technique
Scientists will investigate how fracking can affect drinking water and its role in earthquake tremors of the kind caused by shale gas operations near Blackpool, as part of a taxpayer-funded £8m research project.
The programme, backed by the Natural Environment Research Council and Economic and Social Research Council, will examine hydraulic fracturing’s environmental impacts on land, water and air, as well as public attitudes to the controversial extraction technique.
Continue reading...Sadiq Khan pledged to help cyclists – so why is he such a stick in the wheel?
Subverting superhighways with sorry quietways; preserving motor vehicle capacity even if it brings conflict with cyclists – the mayor must do better
Do you remember that Blackadder scene where General Melchett proudly unveils a map representing the territory gained by his troops? Dimensions: 17 sq ft. Scale: actual size. London mayor Sadiq Khan’s cycling programme – formerly Britain’s bike flagship – is starting to feel a bit like that.
More than a year since he took office pledging to “make London a byword for cycling”, “accelerate” the existing programme and “triple” to 36 miles the length of segregated cycle superhighways, the mayor has by my count opened 80m (260 ft) of new segregated lane. Work is progressing, extremely slowly, on another half-mile or so. And that is about it.
Continue reading...Exotic paradox in the herbaceous borders
Powis Castle, Wales A dangerous beauty stolen by European adventurers and hinting of vast plains a world way
The anchor plant, Colletia paradoxa, with its geometric architecture, looks like trouble among the summer flowers in the herbaceous borders on the terrace gardens. And yet its very oddness makes it fit with an assembly of plants few, if any, of which would grow together in the wild. A paradox indeed.
Plants from the Americas, the far east and Europe grow cheek by jowl according to an aesthetic based on colour and form rather than geography. Although many do share similar ecological characteristics, some appear suited for other planets.
Continue reading...Climate Change Authority loses last climate scientist | Planet Oz
David Karoly says without an expert to replace him, the CCA will struggle to fulfil its legal mandate
Imagine, if you will, a government board to champion Australian arts without any artists on it, or an agency to advise on medical research without any medical researchers.
Or perhaps even, imagine a government authority set up to provide expertise on climate policy without any actual climate scientists.
Continue reading...Misunderstood molluscs: five reasons to love slugs
Slugs are much maligned. Having the temerity to wear their slime on the outside of their bodies, they are about as far removed from our notion of cute and cuddly as is possible without being tapeworms. But they are misunderstood and persecuted beyond necessity – with ecological knock-on effects for the slow-worms, thrushes, hedgehogs, badgers and other animals further up the food chain. True, some slugs will eat your plants, but naturalist Chris Packham recently made a plea for greater tolerance for the mollusc: with that in mind, here are five reasons to admire slugs:
1. Most slugs are scavengers, but that can be handy. They eat that catch-all substrate, “decaying organic matter”, which includes dead and rotting plants; leaf litter; fungoid wood; fallen fruit; animal droppings; carrion; deliquescent toadstools; and mouldering compost. If they sometimes nibble idly at a leaf, it is probably because the leaf is already damaged or diseased.
Continue reading...中国禁售令造成亚洲市场象牙价格暴跌
最新调查显示，中国的象牙交易禁令的效果初步显现：越南象牙价格暴跌，而一些象牙贸易商也被迫退出。(翻译：子明/chinadialogue)
《卫报》拿到的一份最新研究显示，自从中国政府宣布计划取缔国内象牙交易之后，亚洲的象牙原料价格大幅走低。但是，偷猎现象目前并未因此减少。
过去三年，野生动植物正义委员会（WJC）的卧底调查员一直在走访河内的象牙贩子。2015年，他们了解到的象牙原料平均价格是每公斤1322美元，2016年10月降到了750美元，而到今年2月份价格再次下跌到660美元，比两年前降了一半。
Continue reading...I pick up plastic waste to save it from landfill. It's lonely but worth it
In my single-handed fight I have collected 180,000 items – 50 pieces of litter a day for 10 years. If only the world didn’t find this weird
Who’s that weirdo? Sadly, the answer is me. I can feel the question following me as I dive into the gutter or duck around the feet of my fellow Londoners to sweep up the bottles and cans and newspapers they have abandoned.
The question hasn’t changed in the the decade or so that I’ve been waging what seems a lone fight against the plastic tide threatening to engulf us. And I doubt it will change now, even as the Guardian reports that a million plastic bottles around the world are bought every minute – that’s a staggering 20,000 every second.
Continue reading...Trump's alarming environmental rollback: what's been scrapped so far
Since January, the White House, Congress and EPA have engineered a dizzying reversal of regulations designed to protect the environment and public health
Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate deal may have followed months of anguished division amongst his closest advisers, but his administration has proceeded with quiet efficiency in its dismantling of other major environmental policies.
The White House, Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency have dovetailed to engineer a dizzying reversal of clean air and water regulations implemented by Barack Obama’s administration.
Continue reading...Extreme ice on Canada's east coast – in pictures
Warming temperatures caused perilous ice up to eight metres thick to drift south from the Arctic to clog the coasts of Newfoundland, Labrador and Quebec. It trapped boats and ferries as late as June, with Canadian scientists blaming climate change. These dramatic photos capture the rare event.
All photographs by Louis Helbig unless otherwise credited
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