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Dogs don't follow the rules on larger animals living longer. A 70kg Great Dane is lucky to reach seven years, but a 4kg Chihuahua can live for 10 years or more. Susan Hazel, Senior Lecturer, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A proposal that all imported vegetable seeds be treated with fungicide has drawn outrage from Australia's organic producers, who fear losing their certification. Karen Barry, Senior Lecturer, Plant Pathology, University of Tasmania Alistair Gracie, Associate Professor in Horticultural Science, University of Tasmania Jason Scott, Senior Lecturer, University of Tasmania Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Expected charges against Norman Farming likely to throw spotlight on poor federal and state administration of Murray-Darling funds

Fraud charges are expected to be laid against one of Queensland’s biggest cotton irrigators, John Norman, within a matter of weeks.

If the trial of the owner-operator of Norman Farming, and former “cotton farmer of the year goes ahead, it is likely to draw attention to the links between the irrigator’s family and that of the federal minister for agriculture and water resources, David Littleproud.

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The ‘custodian’ of the Alladale estate wants to turn it into a fenced-off wildlife reserve

The echoes of Scotland’s predator prince faded into silence three centuries ago. The wolf was once lord of these Sutherland slopes and the forest floors beneath and now a voice in the wilderness is calling him home.

Paul Lister acquired the Alladale estate, 50 miles north of Inverness, in 2003 and immediately set about creating a wilderness reserve according to his perception of what these wild and beautiful places ought to look like. He can’t imagine them without the packs of wolves that once roamed free here.

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Geologists aim to tap reservoir in tunnels under Glasgow

Scientists are finalising plans to exploit the vast reservoir of warm water that fills a labyrinth of disused mines and porous rock layers underneath Glasgow. They believe this subterranean store of naturally heated water could be used to warm homes in the city. If the system proves successful, such water could then be exploited in other cities and towns across Britain, they say.

The £9m project will initially involve drilling narrow boreholes filled with instruments to survey temperature, seismic activity, water flow, acidity and other variables to establish the state of the water in the rocks below the city. The aim will be to establish whether this warm water can be extracted for long periods to heat Glaswegian homes.

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A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Former PM unsuccessfully tried to reintroduce black-veined white in 1940s, but conditions may now allow species to prosper

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Garsdale, Cumbria: In the water, the wings are both oars and hydrofoils, angled to harness the flow and surf the body down

A few days ago I was asked if I was a birder and apparently I pulled an indecisive face. Now I’m proving the point. The air quivers with curlew music, but I am walking head down. In my defence, drizzle is gusting up the valley, and I’m looking for water vole feeding signs, hoping for evidence to match some promising burrows a little way downstream. There are plenty of clumps of rush, the stems trimmed at 45 degree angles, but droppings are elusive – washed away or disintegrated by the rain, I suppose.

If I hadn’t been focusing down, I might not have seen the dipper, dead in the rushes. Worse, I might have trodden on it.

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Mexico plans on keeping its domestic carbon tax and applying it to smaller emitters when it launches its national cap-and-trade scheme, a senior official said this week.

The tiniest of Australia's penguins were once victorious over development at Phillip Island in Victoria.

It’s a modular design using just 50 square metres of space featuring a high-tech furnace where metals are collected.

Dismantling Ontario’s cap-and-trade scheme and exiting the North American WCI programme would be “pretty hard” for a new provincial government to do without incurring high costs or denting business and investor confidence, according to Ontario’s former environment minister.

Adopting the Canadian government’s 'backstop' carbon tax could lower emissions in the country’s Yukon territory by 5.4% over the next five years, according to report released by the territorial government on Thursday.

The Alberta Climate Change Office (CCO) has confirmed that it will scrap six offset protocols, while also flagging another for withdrawal, according to a memo released on Friday.

A new mission aboard the International Space Station is taking storm chasing to new heights.

California carbon prices fell slightly this week on light volumes following the Easter holiday break and as a large portion of the market attended a major conference in San Francisco.

EU countries bumped up their allocations of free 2018 carbon allowances slightly over the past fortnight, data released late Friday showed.

The supersonic test flight of its SpaceShipTwo rocket ship was the first since a crash in 2014.

Howard Hardman suggests dumping the big six to stop the drilling; Austen Lynch says Lancashire’s fracking wells won’t provide much of an energy dividend; Neil Anderson on France’s tidal power station success

The news from Lancashire (Fracking firm Cuadrilla finishes drilling UK’s first horizontal well, 4 April) came as a disappointment, particularly in the wake of the Observer business leader that suggested fracking companies were running into difficulties in the UK (Fracking industry blows hot and cold amid fuel shortages and false starts, 11 March).

Perhaps the easiest method of thwarting them would be for millions of energy customers to switch their accounts away from the big six and other suppliers of shale gas, and towards the smaller, often local energy companies who only supply gas from renewable sources and unfracked gas.

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The Indonesian port city of Balikpapan, on the island of Borneo, has declared a state of emergency after an oil spill spread along the coast, killing several people when it ignited. The leak, caused by a burst undersea pipe belonging to the state oil company Pertamina, has spread at least 16 miles (26km) and coated large swaths of the coast in thick black sludge

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