Environment news

• The leafcutter bee: Country diary 100 years ago

  14-08-2016 23:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 15 August 1916 A dragon-fly of our largest species visited the “Manchester Guardian” office about a week ago, entering through an open window. I have seen a Manchester-captured dragon-fly before, but the occurrence of the insect is worth recording; it is a powerful aeronaut and carnivorous, but why it should attempt to hunt flies in the city when the supply is so much greater outside is hard to understand. A Wilmslow correspondent ha
  
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• 'The blob': how marine heatwaves are causing unprecedented climate chaos

  14-08-2016 22:20 via theguardian.com
  
  Wide-scale disruption from warming oceans is increasing, but they could change our understanding of the climateFirst seabirds started falling out of the sky, washing up on beaches from California to Canada.Then emaciated and dehydrated sea lion pups began showing up, stranded and on the brink of death. Continue reading...
  
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• Poor globally being failed on sanitation | Letters

  14-08-2016 20:17 via theguardian.com
  
  WaterAid shares the global concern for the world’s top athletes dealing with the sewage in Rio’s bays (Report, 4 August). But the heavily contaminated waters don’t only put at risk the health of Olympians, it’s clear they also adversely affect the millions of people facing this faecal nightmare, day-in and day-out. Despite Brazil being an upper-middle income country, nearly 2% of Brazilians, or 3.5 million people, have no access to clean water, and 17%, or 35 million peop
  
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• Henrik Stenson prods alligator – video

  14-08-2016 16:18 via theguardian.com
  
  Swedish Open champion golfer Henrik Stenson pokes an alligator with his golf club on Sunday while on the Men’s Individual event. The alligator, more specifically a caiman, chose not to respond to the Swede’s provocation. Caiman alligators are a common sight at the Olympic golf course along with a range of native wildlife Continue reading...
  
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• Can we feed 10 billion people on organic farming alone?

  14-08-2016 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Organic farming creates more profit and yields healthier produce. It’s time it played the role it deserves in feeding a rapidly growing world populationIn 1971, then US Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz uttered these unsympathetic words: “Before we go back to organic agriculture in this country, somebody must decide which 50 million Americans we are going to let starve or go hungry.” Since then, critics have continued to argue that organic agriculture is inefficient, requiring
  
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• Crown estate wades into Hinkley Point nuclear debate

  14-08-2016 15:38 via theguardian.com
  
  Body says, with government reviewing £18.5bn project, benefits of renewables such as offshore wind should be looked atThe crown estate has waded into the battle over Hinkley Point, pointing out that offshore windfarms are already being built at cheaper prices than the proposed atomic reactors for Somerset.While not arguing the £18.5bn nuclear project should be scrapped, the organisation – still legally owned by the Queen – said that the government’s current Hinkley
  
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• Hinkley C's future is in doubt. Let's turn our sights to offshore wind | Huub den Rooijen

  14-08-2016 15:36 via theguardian.com
  
  Falling costs and increased reliability mean this clean power now offers a mature part of the solution for the UK’s energy mixWith the government re-examining the case for new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point, it’s a good time to reflect on recent breakthroughs in another low carbon technology: offshore wind.
  Offshore wind is already meeting about 5% of the UK’s electricity demand, more than any other country globally, and is on course to meet 10% by 2020. The sector has under
  
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• World's largest vertical farm grows without soil, sunlight or water in Newark

  14-08-2016 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  AeroFarms has put $30m into a green revolution that seeks to produce more crops in less space, but whether it’s economically viable is an open questionAn ambitious, almost fantastical, manifestation of agricultural technology is expected to come to fruition this fall. From the remains of an abandoned steel mill in Newark, New Jersey, the creators of AeroFarms are building what they say will be the largest vertical farm, producing two million pounds of leafy greens a year. Whether it even q
  
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• Woman and dog rescued from sinking car in Louisiana flooding – video

  14-08-2016 13:21 via theguardian.com
  
  A woman and her dog are rescued from a car in Baton Rouge on Saturday, as floodwaters swallowed the vehicle. Shot by local television station WAFB, three men are seen trying to break open the car that is almost submerged in the water. One of the rescuers, David Phung, jumps in and pulls the woman and her dog outLouisiana flooding cuts off roads and thousands of homesContinue reading...
  
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• Bangladesh tries to move stranded elephant to safari park

  14-08-2016 12:22
  NEW DELHI (AP) — A fully grown Indian elephant that washed up in a swamp in Bangladesh after being caught up in raging floodwaters has become a jumbo problem for wildlife officials on both sides of the border.
  
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• Bangladesh tries to move wayward elephant to safari park

  14-08-2016 11:15
  NEW DELHI (AP) — Wildlife officials are trying to bring an elephant to a safari park outside Bangladesh's capital after it was carried from India to Bangladesh by raging floodwaters and became stuck in a swampy area.
  
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• The scientists who only come out at night…

  14-08-2016 10:30 via theguardian.com
  
  An after-hours ecologist, a dream psychologist and a zoologist who braves bat bites… meet the tireless researchers working under cover of darknessJon Bennie is an associate research fellow at the University of Exeter where he is working on a project to access the ecological effects of night-time light pollution on different plants and animals. Continue reading...
  
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• The heart of darkness that still beats within our 24-hour cities

  14-08-2016 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  With technology man has conquered the night. Yet walk the streets alone at 3am, and still the magic and mystery seep through…• Meet the late-night radio DJs: ‘It’s like a confession and I’m the priest’On some nights, in the insomniac intervals between rumbling goods trains, and beneath the sound of ambulance sirens, I can hear owls calling mournfully to one another from the trees that screen the railway tracks running past the back of the house in which I live
  
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• Security is not the only reason to cancel Hinkley. There are many others

  14-08-2016 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  China’s involvement in a UK nuclear project is potentially sensitive. But that need not be the pretext for withdrawal when the plant has so many problemsThe proposed new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset has turned into the first headache for Theresa May’s government. The issue is now about far more than Britain’s energy policy. It is about foreign policy too.May is yet to say anything publicly about the government’s decision to review the £18bn pro
  
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• The eco guide to algae

  14-08-2016 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Toxic bloom is terrible for acquatic life – the good news is, we may be able to harness the sludge as a carbon-neutral biofuelIdeally, in these days of busy news cycles, an eco problem needs to be visible from space to gain traction. Algae has obliged again this summer.At Florida’s largest freshwater lake, Okeechobee, the cyano-bacteria blue-green algae bloom, covering 33 miles, has been clearly captured in Nasa satellite imagery. Continue reading...
  
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• Conservation is not just a question of protecting rare birds | Clive Aslet

  14-08-2016 01:05 via theguardian.com
  
  There is still too much ignorance about pursuits such as grouse shooting and plans for rewildingFriday 12 August: the opening of the grouse-shooting season, known to shooters as the Glorious Twelfth. This year, it arrived with some ironically glorious weather: perfect for guns alive to the beauties of the purple-clad heather moorland.I write “ironically” because the cold and wet during the spring, when the grouse were breeding, means that there are precious few birds to be shot. Some
  
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