The Guardian
Video: California sea lion grabs girl from dock and pulls her underwater
Girl left traumatised but unharmed after large sea lion grabs her dress and pulls her into the water near Vancouver, Canada
A young girl and her family were left traumatised after a large sea lion grabbed her and pulled her underwater.
The girl was sitting on a dock in Richmond, near Vancouver in Canada, watching the seemingly playful sea lion in the water before it grabbed her dress and pulled her into the water.
Continue reading...New coalmines will worsen poverty and escalate climate change, report finds
Oxfam attacks Australia’s ‘climate policy paralysis’ and urges it to promise no new coalmines and end public subsidies
New coalmines will leave more people in poverty, Oxfam has said in a new report, calling on Australia to commit to no new coalmines and to end public subsidies for coalmining.
The report comes as the Queensland and federal governments continue to push for the controversial Adani coalmine in the Galilee basin, signalling potential infrastructure support and “royalty holidays”.
Continue reading...Charging ahead: Welsh battery scheme may aid growth of green energy
One of the UK’s largest battery storage schemes, built next to a windfarm, will offer vital services to the National Grid
Nestling alongside rows of conifers and wind turbines in a Welsh valley, a pioneering project will materialise this summer that could prove a blueprint for unlocking Britain’s renewable energy potential.
The Upper Afan Valley near Swansea is already home to the biggest windfarm in England and Wales, but in July work will begin there on one of the UK’s largest battery storage schemes.
Continue reading...‘Spiteful and petty’: Maine governor bans signs to Obama-designated monument
As Trump administration reviews 27 national monuments, conservationists fear a federally mandated effort to strip public lands of environmental protections
A decision by the Republican governor of Maine, Paul LePage, to ban signs to Katahdin Woods and Waters, a national monument designated by Barack Obama, has been described as “sophomoric and petty” by a member of the family that donated the 87,563-acre tract to the nation.
Related: 'This is our land': New Mexico's tribal groups gear up to fight for their home
Continue reading...Charities may face criminal sanctions as 'gagging law' backdated before election
Electoral Commission says charities must declare all campaign spending since June last year, despite them not knowing a snap election would be called
UK charities face a permanent “chilling effect” on their campaigns after the Electoral Commission said they must declare any work that could be deemed political over the past 12 months to ensure they are not in breach of the Lobbying Act.
At least one charity has been warned that if it does not, it may face “civil or criminal sanctions”.
Continue reading...How do the four main parties compare on the environment?
Environment experts weigh up the manifesto pledges on issues such as air pollution, climate change, energy and waste
Continue reading...The eco guide to unusual materials
Fabrics such as cotton come at a dear cost to the environment. Look for progressive alternatives made from pineapples, eucalyptus, even mushrooms
Future generations will shake their heads at our loyalty to a handful of fibres with terrible environmental profiles, such as cotton (thirsty for pesticides and water) and plastic (oil based). They’ll want to know why we didn’t display more imagination.
Many innovations in the fashion industry have a distinctly mushroomy flavour
Continue reading...Experts reject Bjørn Lomborg's view on 2C warming target
Lomborg’s Copenhagen Consensus Centre says investment in keeping temperature rises below 2C would return less than $1 for every $1 spent
Experts have challenged a claim by Bjørn Lomborg’s Copenhagen Consensus Centre that holding global temperature rises to 2C is a poor investment.
In 2015 the education department abandoned plans for Lomborg to set up an Australian Consensus Centre, but gave the Copenhagen centre $640,000 to support its Smarter UN Post-2015 Development Goals project.
Continue reading...Urban beasts: how wild animals have moved into cities
In Aesop’s fable, the town mouse turns his nose up at his country cousin’s simple fare, preferring the haute cuisine to be scavenged in the city. It appears that the wild boar of Italy have taken note, and are venturing ever more boldly into Rome.
But they are not alone: all around the world, city life seems to be increasingly conducive to wildlife. Urban nature is no longer unglamorous feral pigeons or urban foxes. Wolves have taken up residence in parts of suburban Germany as densely populated as Cambridge or Newcastle. The highest density of peregrine falcons anywhere in the world is New York; the second highest is London, and these spectacular birds of prey now breed in almost every major British city. And all kinds of wild deer are rampaging through London, while also taking up residence everywhere from Nara in Japan to the Twin Cities of the US.
Continue reading...Sap is rising on the shimmering heath
Mockbeggar, New Forest Tiny, parched, sorrels streak the ground with red but there is feverish activity in the ditch
From Moyles Court, a fine 17th-century house that is now a private school, we set off up the slope with paddocks on either side. Leaving the Avon Valley Path, we cut the corner of Newlands Plantation, and climb steadily uphill along the woodland edge. Rhododendron ponticum infests part of the margin, with the blooms of young plants announcing their colonisation of the adjacent open ground.
Related: For a beetle at risk, what better place to be?
Continue reading...'Doomsday' seed vault, new plants and a plague of plastic – 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...Arctic stronghold of world’s seeds flooded after permafrost melts
No seeds were lost but the ability of the rock vault to provide failsafe protection against all disasters is now threatened by climate change
It was designed as an impregnable deep-freeze to protect the world’s most precious seeds from any global disaster and ensure humanity’s food supply forever. But the Global Seed Vault, buried in a mountain deep inside the Arctic circle, has been breached after global warming produced extraordinary temperatures over the winter, sending meltwater gushing into the entrance tunnel.
The vault is on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen and contains almost a million packets of seeds, each a variety of an important food crop. When it was opened in 2008, the deep permafrost through which the vault was sunk was expected to provide “failsafe” protection against “the challenge of natural or man-made disasters”.
Continue reading...Live Q&A: What impact is human development having on the world’s elephant populations?
The conflict between humans and elephants for space and resources is driving the rapid decline of elephant populations. Join us on Wednesday 24 May from 1-2.30pm BST to discuss how elephants and humans can live together
This week an elderly man was killed by a wild elephant in central India as he picked tendu leaves in the Surajpur forest. A few days earlier, a father and his son were injured after two elephants wandered into their house in Tamil Nadu. As human populations grow and communities live in closer proximity to elephants, one of the world’s most unique and beautiful animals can become the most dangerous.
But human development is also contributing to the severe decline in elephant populations. Across Asia and Africa, elephants’ natural habitats are being destroyed by rapid urbanisation and industrial and agricultural expansion.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
Tasmanian devils, a Saimaa ringed seal and a white wolf are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...Study: inspiring action on climate change is more complex than you might think | John Abraham
People have to grasp how climate change impacts them, and we need to value environmentally sound behavior
We know humans are causing climate change. That is a fact that has been known for well over 100 years. We also know that there will be significant social and economic costs from the effects. In fact, the effects are already appearing in the form of more extreme weather, rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and so on.
So why haven’t humans done much about the problem? Answering that question may be more challenging than the basic science of a changing climate. Fortunately, a new review just out in Science helps us with this question. Lead author, Dr. Elise Amel, a colleague of mine, completed the review with colleagues Drs. Christie Manning, Britain Scott, and Susan Koger. Rather than focusing solely on the problems with communicating the science of climate change, this work takes a wider view on the hurdles that get in the way of meaningful action.
Continue reading...Woodside says it was behind oil spill that regulator kept secret
The company reported a leak from a well off the coast of Western Australia to Nopsema last year, and says there was no lasting impact on the environment
Woodside Petroleum has confirmed it was behind an oil spill off the coast of Western Australia that was kept secret by the regulator for more than a year.
The company said on Friday that it reported a leak from a well in the Cossack field on the North West Shelf to the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (Nopsema) in April 2016.
Continue reading...Great white shark study could be used to drop protected status, Greens warn
Government may justify delisting the threatened species or order a cull despite its treaty obligations, senator says
A scientific study of great white shark numbers could be used by the government to justify delisting the species as threatened or ordering a cull despite international treaty obligations, the Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson has warned.
Whish-Wilson, who is chairing a committee inquiring into shark mitigation and deterrence, has accused the Liberals of politicising recent deaths in Western Australia, including that of 17-year old Laeticia Brouwer through their calls to end protection of great whites.
Continue reading...Immersive plunge for bored young dipper
Milldale, Derbyshire The adult whirred downstream. The juvenile, sat still for a bit, gaped, grew restless, then launched itself into the stream
The grassy east bank of the river Dove below the packhorse bridge at Milldale, in the Peak District, is popular with picnickers and we had to drift downstream to find a little space. Once prone, bagel in hand, I half dozed, half watched insects forming clouds over the river, catching sunlight like chaff.
But then I snapped awake as I realised I was being watched. A rich brown eye glistened as it fixed on mine from no more than three metres away – a juvenile dipper clamped to a broken branch jammed in the rocks, deep in shadow, breaking the flow of water.
Continue reading...Cylindrical space for a crab to call home | Brief letters
A repeal of the 2004 Hunting Act would accelerate the demise of our iconic brown hares, already listed in 2011 for potential extinction by 2050 (May pledges free vote on hunting, 10 May). One third of the hunts (with dogs) in England and Wales target these declining hares, not foxes. The act outlaws hare coursing, but a repeal would further encourage this intrusive and destructive activity, already so distressing to farmers and problematic to police forces countrywide.
John Rimington
Technical liaison officer, Hare Preservation Trust
Related: Washing your hair with mineral water or champagne – what lengths would you go to?
Continue reading...Sea level rise will double coastal flood risk worldwide
Small but unstoppable increases will double frequency of extreme water levels with dire consequences, say scientists
Small but inevitable rises in sea level will double the frequency of severe coastal flooding in most of the world with dire consequences for major cities that sit on coastlines, according to scientists.
The research takes in to account the large waves and storm surges that can tip gradually rising sea levels over the edge of coastal defences. Lower latitudes will be first affected, in a great swath through the tropics from Africa to South America and throughout south-east Asia, with Europe’s Atlantic coast and the west coast of the US not far behind.
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