Environment news

• Flirting redstart displays his charms: Country diary 100 years ago

  10-04-2016 23:30
  
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 15 April 1916Surrey
  Not far from the wood in a sheltered hollow, there is an old stone barn, once part of an abbey, with the decaying walls stretching beyond the building that has been repaired. The wallflower is coming into bloom about them, and the ditch sides are covered with primroses which have renewed themselves with double strength since they were shrivelled by the frosts. The wood is a favourite place with the cuckoo, and it is not well
  
  Read more

• The rites and wrongs of spring

  10-04-2016 22:30
  
  Last month, scientists from 12 European countries gathered in a Paris suburb to watch a spring phenomenon. They were not disappointed. Once again, western Europe was enveloped in particle pollution. The Parisian pollution warning service was activated on 11 March. On the next two days, the UK air pollution index reached its top value across London and north-east England; the worst spring episode here since the index was launched in 2012. This spread to cover all of England and parts of south Wal
  
  Read more

• World's wild tiger count rising for first time in a century

  10-04-2016 21:11
  
  NEW DELHI (AP) — The world's count of wild tigers roaming forests from Russia to Vietnam has gone up for the first time in more than a century, with some 3,890 counted by conservation groups and national governments in the latest global census, wildlife conservation groups said Monday.
  
  Read more

• BP to face flak over green targets and pay at AGM

  10-04-2016 17:13
  
  ShareAction says that BP has fallen well short of the environmental commitments it made at last year’s meetingCampaigners claim BP has failed to do enough on environmental pledges made at last year’s annual general meeting (AGM) and will hold bosses to account at the oil company’s shareholder gathering on Thursday.At last year’s AGM, BP worked with groups under the “Aiming for A” banner on a resolution committing it to greater openness about its impact on clim
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• The greenhouse that acts like a beetle and other inventions inspired by nature

  10-04-2016 17:00
  
  For a new generation of innovators, biomimicry – the imitation of nature’s ecosystems – may help solve some of humanity’s toughest resource problemsWhen Brent Constantz, CEO of carbon capture company Blue Planet, was looking for a way to process carbon dioxide emissions, he found inspiration in nature. “Coral reefs and rainforests, the largest natural structures on the planet, are made of carbon,” he says. Reefs, in fact, not only sequester carbon, but also re
  
  Read more

• Amazing Videos Show SpaceX's Epic Ocean Rocket Landing

  10-04-2016 16:57
  
  Two new videos let you relive SpaceX's incredible rocket landing at sea, giving two different perspectives of the historic event — including a stunning rocket's-eye view. On Friday (April 8), SpaceX brought the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket down for a soft landing on a robotic "drone ship" in the Atlantic Ocean during the successful launch of the company's Dragon cargo capsule toward the International Space Station. SpaceX soon released two videos, which were captured by cameras aboar
  
  Read more

• U.S., allies report 24 strikes in Iraq, one in Syria - coalition

  10-04-2016 16:51
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies conducted 24 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and one in Syria on Saturday, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement. The strike near Raqqa in Syria destroyed two Islamic State oil pump jacks, the Combined Joint Task Force said. In Iraq, the air strikes focussed on Islamic State fighting positions near nine cities, including Mosul, where eight strikes hit three Islamic State tactical units and five communication facilit
  
  Read more

• The human face of fracking in North Dakota – in pictures

  10-04-2016 15:19
  
  In 2006, Eli Reichman began photographing a ranching community in the fracking fields of western North Dakota. For the last decade, he has documented the cultural and social breakdown of an agricultural community being pressured to compromise in order to stay on land originally homesteaded by their ancestors in the early 1900s. To learn more about his work and upcoming documentary, Hinterlands, check out Reichman’s Kickstarter page
  Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• 57 tube stations at high risk of flooding, says London Underground report

  10-04-2016 15:14
  
  Busy stations including Waterloo, King’s Cross and London Bridge among the most threatened, unpublished review statesEighty-five sites on the London Underground are at high and rising risk of flooding, according to a report that says it is “only a matter of time” before serious flooding strikes.Most threatened are some of the capital’s busiest stations, including Waterloo, King’s Cross and London Bridge, and the report warns of potential dangers to passengers. &ldqu
  
  Read more

• Staff evacuated from shuttered Libyan oil fields due to militant threat

  10-04-2016 14:09
  Staff have been evacuated from three oil fields in eastern Libya because of fears of attacks by Islamic State militants, but production has not been affected because the fields are shut, oil and security officials said on Sunday. Islamic State militants have launched frequent attacks on Libyan oil fields and terminals in recent months, damaging facilities but not taking control of them. Unlike in Syria and Iraq, Islamist militants have never controlled oil fields in Libya, but officials worry th
  
  Read more

• How Philadelphia schools' vast effort to rid water of lead went under the radar

  10-04-2016 14:00
  
  As long as six years after the school district learned of possible contamination, the EPA required testing across 300 schools in what was one of the largest such efforts in the country – but ‘people have no idea’, says a watchdogAfter the Philadelphia school district failed to tell the public about lead contamination in school water for as long as six years, officials in the city undertook one of the largest remediation programs in the nation to try to get the lead out. But wit
  
  Read more

• The eco guide to outdoor raves | Lucy Siegle

  10-04-2016 07:00
  
  Outdoor raves have a rich green heritage. But the new ravers must take steps to limit environmental damageIn eco news as in fashion, it has all gone a bit early 90s. Illegal outdoor raves are returning. Remember them? Recent police crackdowns include Operation Enigma in Hampshire, which sounds like a rave itself. Oddly, it is wildlife crime police who are charged with shutting down these events.In truth, it’s hard to stop a multi-sound-system outdoor rave in the dark once it gets going, so
  
  Read more

• Great Barrier Reef: new chapter opens in the fight to save natural wonder from mining

  10-04-2016 04:42
  
  Landmark case may force minister to consider coal’s impact on reef and block new fossil fuel projects Here on Heron Island, you could be forgiven for thinking everything is calm on the Great Barrier Reef. There are kilometres of gorgeous coral and a bustling ecosystem around it – huge schools of colourful fish, turtles, rays and sharks.It is the reef you grew up seeing on documentaries. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• The British countryside has never had it so bad

  10-04-2016 01:05
  
  Two weeks ago, Clive Aslet wrote about how the countryside had never had it so good. Tobias Jones argues that the reality is very differentTwo weeks ago these pages featured one of the most bizarre encomiums to the countryside I’ve ever read. Written by Clive Aslet, editor at large of Country Life magazine, the argument went that the British countryside is a far better place than it was when Aslet started travelling around it, first class, in the 1970s. It read like a parody: things are im
  
  Read more

• Last hope for great apes is vaccination against the rapid onslaught of disease

  10-04-2016 01:05
  
  Scientists warn that wild ape populations, already devastated by poachers and habitat loss, now face a new threat from Ebola and other virusesVaccine campaigns to protect wild chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans could be the only hope of preventing the planet’s remaining great apes from suffering catastrophic population crashes, scientists have warned.They say that recent surveys of several populations of great apes have revealed devastating drops in numbers and that protective steps mus
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!