Environment news

• Threat of wildfires expected to increase as global temperatures rise

  12-08-2016 23:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) has warned that wildfires could become more frequent and more destructive as global temperatures rise and drought conditions plague many regions of the world.“Last year was the hottest year on record and was above average for the number of reported major droughts and heatwaves. This year we are seeing a similar pattern with new temperature records being set on a monthly basis,” UNISDR chief Robert Glasser said yesterday i
  
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• The fictional, extraordinary life of the Greenland shark – 392 years and counting

  12-08-2016 21:43 via theguardian.com
  
  The enormous predator is one of the oldest and largest creatures on planet Earth. Writer Thomas Batten imagines a shark’s taleResearchers in Arctic waters have used new techniques to set the age of a female Greenland shark at a staggering 392 years. The enormous predator – one of the world’s largest at about five meters in length – actually isn’t the oldest creature in the sea, as that honor belongs to a 507-year-old Icelandic clam, but the shark has definitely live
  
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• Oil up 2 percent on short covering, hope for producer action

  12-08-2016 21:20
  By Devika Krishna Kumar NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil rose about 2 percent on Friday, clinching its biggest weekly gains since April, after a short covering rally was triggered by comments from Saudi Arabia's oil minister in the previous session about possible action to help stabilize the market. "Despite the recent bounce in prices, we continue to believe that the oil market remains in oversold territory," RBC Capital Markets analysts said in a research note.
  
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• July Electric Car Sales in China Rose by 188 Percent Over Last Year

  12-08-2016 20:59 via feedproxy.google.com
  Chinese consumers bought 34,000 new electric cars in July, a 188 percent jump over the same period last year, according to CleanTechnica, an energy and technology news organization. The monthly total puts China on track to sell 400,000 electrical vehicles in 2016, accounting for 1.5 percent of the total auto sales market — larger than annual EV sales in Europe, or the U.S., Canada, and Mexico combined. 
  
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• Let's roll: Material for polymer solar cells may lend itself to large-area processing

  12-08-2016 20:48 via feedproxy.google.com
  For all the promise they have shown in the lab, polymer solar cells still need to "get on a roll" like the ones employed in printing newspapers so that large sheets of acceptably efficient photovoltaic devices can be manufactured continuously and economically. Polymer solar cells offer advantages over their traditional silicon-based counterparts in numerous ways, including lower cost, potentially smaller carbon footprint and a greater variety of uses.
  
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• Veganism’s place in the climate change debate | Letters

  12-08-2016 19:39 via theguardian.com
  
  It is very commendable that George Monbiot has converted to veganism (Opinion, 10 August), but perhaps he is deluding himself into thinking that this will alter our output of CO2 into the atmosphere. We can practise all the accepted methods of reducing carbon emissions, but nothing is more effective than choosing to have no more than two children. As we hurtle towards the point of no return with regards to global warming, choosing not to eat meat is quite low down the scale of things we need to
  
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• Oil extends rally on possible producer action

  12-08-2016 19:32
  By Devika Krishna Kumar NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices were up about 1 percent on Friday, on track for their biggest weekly gains since May, after a short covering rally was triggered by comments from Saudi Arabia's oil minister in the previous session about possible action to help stabilise the market. Brent crude is up about 5 percent on the week, on track for its biggest weekly gain since May while U.S. crude is 5.5 percent higher, on track for its biggest week since April. Crude soared near
  
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• Rare island fox taken off endangered list after record-breaking recovery

  12-08-2016 19:09 via theguardian.com
  
  US delisted three subspecies of the fox endemic to California islands just 12 years after they were granted endangered status due to 90% population lossA species of island fox unique to California has been removed from endangered species protection after a rapid recovery that the federal government says is the fastest of any mammal that has been placed on the in-danger list.The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has delisted three subspecies of island fox – endemic to the San Miguel, Santa
  
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• Pigeon fancier receives lifetime ban for cheating in race

  12-08-2016 19:08 via theguardian.com
  
  Eamon Kelly, 52, from Didcot, disqualified for cheating in Tarbes Grand National race after sending decoy birdsA pigeon-racing champion has received a lifetime ban from the sport after allegations that he cheated to win one of the most prestigious competitions in the sport’s calendar.Eamon Kelly, 52, from Didcot, was accused of cheating by registering 14 birds for the Tarbes Grand National race but keeping them at home and sending decoys instead. Continue reading...
  
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• Stunning images of Perseid meteor shower

  12-08-2016 19:04 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Photographs and footage capture the annual Perseid meteor shower, which is more active than usual this year.
  
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• Oil extends rally on possible producer action, weaker dollar

  12-08-2016 18:50
  By Devika Krishna Kumar NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose about 2 percent on Friday, on track for their biggest weekly gains since late April, amid a short covering rally triggered by comments from Saudi Arabia's oil minister in the previous session about possible action to help stabilise the market. "Despite the recent bounce in prices, we continue to believe that the oil market remains in oversold territory," RBC Capital Markets analysts said in a research note.
  
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• Global warming's next surprise: Saltier beaches

  12-08-2016 17:41 via feedproxy.google.com
  Batches of sand from a beach on the Delaware Bay are yielding insights into the powerful impact of temperature rise and evaporation along the shore that are in turn challenging long-held assumptions about what causes beach salinity to fluctuate in coastal zones that support a rich network of sea creatures and plants.The findings have implications for the migration and survival of invertebrates such as mussels and crabs as global warming drives temperatures higher.A first major study of the effec
  
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• VW eyes SMA Solar storage systems in cooperation talks

  12-08-2016 17:30
  Volkswagen is in early talks with German solar power equipment maker SMA Solar about working together, the companies said, as the automaker pushes ambitious electric car plans to overcome its diesel emissions scandal. SMA Solar, which makes inverters designed for home storage systems, declined to comment on the specifics of the talks. "It's way too soon, there is nothing yet that we can say," a SMA Solar spokeswoman said on Friday.
  
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• Where Lead Lurks And Why Even Small Amounts Matter

  12-08-2016 17:29 via feedproxy.google.com
  Lead problems with the water in Flint, Mich., have prompted people across the country to ask whether they or their families have been exposed to the toxic metal in their drinking water, too.When it comes to assessing the risk, it's important to look in the right places.Even when municipal water systems' lead levels are considered perfectly fine by federal standards, the metal can leach into tap water from lead plumbing.
  
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• Oil climbs in volatile trading, propped up by weaker dollar

  12-08-2016 17:17
  By Devika Krishna Kumar NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose about 1 percent in choppy trading on Friday, a day after its biggest gains in a month, as a weaker denominating currency, the U.S. dollar, helped support crude. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 50 cents to $43.99 after touching its highest level since July 25 at $44.17 per barrel. Both price benchmarks rose more than 4 percent on Thursday after Saudi Arabia's energy minister Khalid al-Falih said that oil producers would di
  
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• A 400-year-old shark, fracking 'bribes' and Hinkley C – green news roundup

  12-08-2016 16:52 via theguardian.com
  
  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...
  
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• Greenland Sharks May Live 400 Years

  12-08-2016 16:14
  
  Greenland sharks are slow. Researchers suspected that Greenland sharks' exceptionally slow growth meant that they lived a long time, but they had no idea just how long that might be. A new study provides the first estimates for Greenland shark longevity, and shows that these slowpokes of the sea stick around a very long time — at least 272 years, and perhaps as long as 390 years on average, making them longer-lived than any other vertebrate in the world.
  
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• Mystery as fish land in Banff garden

  12-08-2016 16:12 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Two-inch long fish have appeared in a garden in Banff.
  
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• Greenland shark revealed to have longest life expectancy of all vertebrates

  12-08-2016 16:10 via feedproxy.google.com
  An international team of scientists led by the University of Copenhagen and including the University of Oxford has found that the Greenland shark has a life expectancy of at least 272 years. This discovery shows it is the longest living vertebrate known to science, exceeding even bowhead whales, turtles and tortoises. The findings are published in latest issue of the journal, Science. 
  
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• Monkey selfie: Animal charity Peta challenges ruling

  12-08-2016 15:57 via bbc.co.uk
  
  An animal charity appeals against a court decision which ruled a monkey could not own the copyright to a selfie photograph it took.
  
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• Oil edges higher, helped by weaker dollar

  12-08-2016 15:45
  By Julia Payne LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices edged higher on Friday as a weaker denominating currency, the U.S. dollar, kept levels near the previous day's highs. Both price benchmarks rose more than 4 percent on Thursday after Saudi Arabia's energy minister Khalid al-Falih said that oil producers would discuss potential action to stabilise oil prices during a meeting next month in Algeria. Now today there is a reassessment but the comments are probably not enough to trigger a sustained rally,"
  
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• Greenland shark is longest-living vertebrate animal – video report

  12-08-2016 15:13 via theguardian.com
  
  Scientists say the Greenland shark has the longest lifespan of any vertebrate on the planet. Julius Nielsen, who has been studying the sharks, says record goes to a female thought to be between 272 and 512 years old and is five metres in length400-year-old Greenland shark is oldest vertebrate animal
  Continue reading...
  
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• The Premier League 2016/17 sustainability quiz

  12-08-2016 15:11
  
  Which football club recycles 100% of its waste? Who is the midfield dynamo that hopes to unlock the potential of biofuels? Find out who the most sustainable teams and players are in edie's latest flip-card quiz to kick-off the 2016/17 Premier League season.
  
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• Why the Guardian is spending a year reporting on the plight of elephants

  12-08-2016 15:03 via theguardian.com
  
  Elephant herds face an uncertain future – over the next year we’ll be taking a closer look at what can be done to help
  Welcome to the elephant conservation hub. Over the next year, with the support of Vulcan, Guardian journalists will be taking a closer look at the situation of elephant herds around the world.Elephant conservation has been a particular focus for Vulcan, a private company set up by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen to look for solutions to problems like endangered speci
  
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• Grouse shooting's rich, influential backers join forces to fire on critics

  12-08-2016 14:49 via theguardian.com
  
  Supporters are trying to improve sport’s reputation through a campaign group with no members that is funded anonymously With the Glorious Twelfth, the 2016 grouse season is under way – and the first birds will be served up in many a country house on Friday night. But after raising a glass to the late Duke of Westminster, who owned a vast acreage of grouse moorland, the shooters may also toast a colourful and remarkably influential group of people trying to improve the tarnished reput
  
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• We are in ecological overshoot. Industrial strategy can provide a way out | Andrew Simms

  12-08-2016 13:59 via theguardian.com
  
  Humanity’s demands on the planet are unsustainable. A policy of investment in renewable energy, green jobs and zero-emission housing is needed
  On 8 August 2016, the world slipped into “ecological overshoot” – having consumed more resources and produced more waste than nature can replace and absorb in the year. We hit this landmark earlier and earlier every year, and a big part of that – 60% – involves the carbon emissions driving global warming. Indeed, any id
  
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• NZ scientists track penguins' marathon winter travels

  12-08-2016 13:58 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists find some rockhopper and Snares crested penguins travel 15,000km in six months.
  
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• Oil edges lower after move on exporters' move speculation

  12-08-2016 13:56
  By Julia Payne LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell slightly on Friday, remaining near the previous day's highs, on the prospect of talks by exporters about ways to prop up a market grappling with a supply overhang. Brent crude futures were down 19 cents a barrel higher at $45.84 per barrel by 1000 GMT, from a three-week high of $46.66 earlier in the day. Both price benchmarks rose more than 4 percent on Thursday after Saudi Arabia's energy minister Khalid al-Falih said that oil producers would di
  
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• 'Spectacular fireballs' accompany annual meteor show

  12-08-2016 13:53 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Observers say the annual astronomical event was marked with "spectacular fireballs" in the early hours of Friday.
  
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• Club owned by Shell blocks small Thames hydropower scheme

  12-08-2016 13:51 via theguardian.com
  
  Club succeeds with an appeal to stop planning permission for the west London project that would power 600 homes A proposed small hydropower project in west London has received a further setback, as court judges allowed an appeal by a club owned by Shell against the granting of planning permission to the site.The project, at Teddington lock and weirs, would deliver enough electricity to power about 600 homes. It is proposed by a local cooperative group, run by volunteers, who have raised a potent
  
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• Hundreds of tiny Montserrat tarantulas hatch in zoo

  12-08-2016 13:46 via bbc.co.uk
  
  About 200 baby Montserrat tarantulas have hatched at Chester Zoo - the first time the rare Caribbean spider has been bred in captivity.
  
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• Chester Zoo breeds Montserrat tarantulas in world first

  12-08-2016 13:45 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Keepers at Chester Zoo have become the first in the world to successfully breed Montserrat tarantulas in captivity.
  
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• Can hipsters stomach the unpalatable truth about avocado toast? | Joanna Blythman

  12-08-2016 13:10 via theguardian.com
  
  Avocados are bountiful in our food culture and all over Instagram. But communities in Mexico are suffering because of our fetishisationAre avocados now toast, at least for the thoughtful eater? There was only ever one way for avocado adulation to go, and that was down. Just have a look at Instagram: avocado “roses”, avocado brownies, guacamole 100 ways, and avocado smoothie (again?) Even though the hipster diet deifies the avo as a staple, boredom with their ubiquity would surely hav
  
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• Chris Packham and Ian Botham clash over grouse-shooting ban – audio

  12-08-2016 13:07 via theguardian.com
  
  Wildlife presenter Chris Packham is called an extremist by former England cricketer Sir Ian Botham as they clash over a grouse-shooting ban on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Botham accuses Packham of using his position at the BBC to promote his viewsChris Packham using BBC role to push grouse-shooting ban, Ian Botham saysContinue reading...
  
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• Philippines seeks formal talks with China amid South China Sea tension - Ramos

  12-08-2016 13:02
  By Venus Wu HONG KONG (Reuters) - The Philippines wants formal negotiations with China to explore pathways to peace and cooperation, the Southeast Asian nation's special envoy, Fidel Ramos, said on Friday, after a meeting with former Chinese deputy foreign minister Fu Ying. Ramos was speaking near the end of a trip to Hong Kong undertaken in a bid to rekindle ties with China, which have been soured by a maritime dispute in the South China Sea. An arbitration court in the Hague ruled on July 12 t
  
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• Brighton sets 'sustainability benchmark' for eco-tourism with i360 opening

  12-08-2016 12:27
  
  The world's first vertical cable car, the British Airways i360, has opened on Brighton's seafront, with the developers "aiming to set a new global benchmark in sustainability".
  
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• Chris Packham using BBC role to push grouse-shooting ban, Ian Botham says

  12-08-2016 12:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Wildlife presenter accused of extremism in clash with former England cricketer as grouse-shooting season beginsThe former England cricketer Sir Ian Botham has accused wildlife presenter Chris Packham of being an extremist and using his position at the BBC to promote his views on restricting grouse shooting.The pair clashed in a joint interview on Radio 4’s Today programme on the opening day of the grouse-shooting season, – or the “inglorious twelfth” as Packham called it.
  
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• Oil flatlines after talk of possible exporter moves to prop up price

  12-08-2016 12:14
  By Julia Payne LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices were largely unchanged on Friday, remaining near the previous day's highs, on the prospect of talks by exporters about ways to prop up a market grappling with a supply overhang. Brent crude futures were trading 1 cent a barrel higher at $46.05 per barrel by 1000 GMT, from a three-week high of $46.66 earlier in the day. Both price benchmarks rose more than 4 percent on Thursday after Saudi Arabia's energy minister Khalid al-Falih said that oil producer
  
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• Bulgaria to revive Belene nuclear power project with private help

  12-08-2016 12:03
  Bulgaria wants private investors to help it restart the Belene nuclear power project after a court ruled Sofia must pay hefty compensation to Russia over equipment ordered for it, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said on Friday. The Balkan country had cancelled the 2,000 megawatt project on the Danube River in 2012 due to financial constraints and after pressure from Brussels and Washington, who said it would only increase Bulgaria's dependence on Russian energy imports. An international arbitration
  
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• Government must 'tap global reservoir of free capital' to invest in green infrastructure

  12-08-2016 11:37
  
  The UK Government should boost economic growth by "tapping a global reservoir of free capital" to invest in sustainable infrastructure for energy, transport and cities, according to two new reports published today (12 August) by research institutions at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
  
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• The ivory trade isn’t just a disaster for elephants. It threatens our future too | Ian Redmond

  12-08-2016 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Elephants prop up the forest and savannah ecosystems we need to store carbon. To stabilise the climate, we must stop their slaughter by ivory poachersToday is World Elephant Day, when people with a passion for pachyderms come together to celebrate the wonder of elephants and raise funds to protect them. It seems paradoxical that the largest land animal, which has come to symbolise strength and sagacity, should be so vulnerable – but across Africa and Asia numbers are dwindling as human act
  
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• Tasmania rules out halving 'insurance population' of disease-free devils

  12-08-2016 10:42 via theguardian.com
  
  About 600 Tasmanian devils untouched by facial tumour disease will stay in sanctuaries as insurance against animals in the wild becoming extinct A controversial proposal to halve the insurance population of disease-free Tasmanian devils has been scrapped.But the state government said it would continue to support the staged release of some of the animals as part of a vaccine-testing program. Continue reading...
  
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• 400-year-old Greenland shark is oldest vertebrate animal

  12-08-2016 10:18 via theguardian.com
  
  Shark, which would have reached sexual maturity at around 150 years, sets new record for longevity as biologists finally develop method to determine ageShe was born during the reign of James I, was a youngster when René Descartes set out his rules of thought and the great fire of London raged, saw out her adolescent years as George II ascended the throne, reached adulthood around the time that the American revolution kicked off, and lived through two world wars. Living to an estimated age
  
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• Oil edges up on talk of possible exporter moves to prop up market

  12-08-2016 08:57
  By Henning Gloystein SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices edged up on Friday, remaining near the previous day's highs, on the prospect of talks by exporters about ways to prop up a market grappling with a supply overhang. Brent crude futures were trading at $46.12 per barrel by 0645 GMT, receding from a three-week high of $46.66 earlier in the day, though still up 8 cents from their last close. Markets were pushed up as Saudi Arabia's energy minister Khalid al-Falih said late on Thursday that oil pr
  
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• Elephants on the path to extinction - the facts

  12-08-2016 08:14 via theguardian.com
  
  The world’s population of elephants is nearing a critical point. Karl Mathiesen explains why there has never been a more dangerous time to be an elephant
  The largest of all land beasts, elephants are thundering, trumpeting six-tonne monuments to the wonder of evolution. From the tip of that distinctive trunk with its 100,000 dextrous muscles; to their outsize ears that flap the heat away; to the complex matriarchal societies and the mourning of their dead; to the points of their ivory tusk
  
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• Large ivory seizures in Singapore make it a smuggling hub of 'primary concern'

  12-08-2016 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  In the last three years, significant amounts of illegal ivory have been picked up in the Singapore – conservationists worry that new smuggling routes are opening upLarge-scale seizures of ivory in Singapore over the last three years make the south-east Asian city-state one of the world’s premier ivory smuggling hubs for organised crime, say conservation watchdogs.Data from seizures, collected by the UN’s wildlife trade monitor Traffic and the Environmental Investigation Agency
  
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• Elephants are the end of a 60m-year lineage – last of the megaherbivores

  12-08-2016 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Four-tuskers, hoe-tuskers, shovel-tuskers are all wiped out – now only a fragment of this keystone species remainsIf, just 800 generations ago, we took a summer holiday to Crete, Cyprus or Malta, we would have found familiar-looking islands, filled with the flowers and birds we can enjoy today. But bursting through the scrub would’ve been one surprise: a pygmy elephant, one metre high, one of many different elephant species that once roamed every continent apart from Australia and An
  
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• Elephants are the end of a 60 million year lineage - the last of the megaherbivores

  12-08-2016 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Four-tuskers, hoe-tuskers, shovel-tuskers are all wiped out - now only a fragment of this keystone species remainsIf, just 800 generations ago, we took a summer holiday to Crete, Cyprus or Malta, we would have found familiar-looking islands, filled with the flowers and birds we can enjoy today. But bursting through the scrub would’ve been one surprise: a pygmy elephant, one metre high, one of many different elephant species that once roamed every continent apart from Australia and Antarcti
  
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• Purple emperor is the jewel of the wildland

  12-08-2016 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Knepp Castle Estate, West Sussex Emerging sallow scrub has provided these alluring butterflies with new territory, and the estate has become a breeding hotspotThrongs of butterflies were on the wing. Small tortoiseshells basked on the sun-baked path, a red admiral was puddling in a muddy tyre track and peacocks were growing intoxicated on tree sap. Meadow browns flitted low across the pasture, mingling with gatekeepers, ringlets and marbled whites among the thistles and knapweed. In the hedgerow
  
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• It'll do a power of good for Australia to shift to electric vehicles

  12-08-2016 06:11 via theguardian.com
  
  If government gets involved the process will be cost-effective – not to mention the benefits of cleaner air because of lower pollution
  When the federal energy and environment minister starts talking about electric vehicles, you know the tide has turned. Last month Josh Frydenberg said governments at all levels needed to look at how electric vehicles could play a “greater role” in modern cities. Just as happened with rooftop solar and is happening with batteries and battery home
  
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