Environment news

• Trash to treasure: the social enterprises transforming recycling

  20-11-2016 23:41
  
  Often led by women, companies such as Green Collect are turning urban waste into employment for disadvantaged peopleConvincing companies to buy back their own rubbish sounds like an unlikely business model – yet the Melbourne social enterprise Green Collect has found a way to make it work. Companies in the city’s office towers pay Green Collect to take away hard-to-recycle waste. Green Collect then employs socially disadvantaged people to refashion it into something useful and then s
  
  Read more

• 100 years ago: Rooks set about the acorns in an orderly way

  20-11-2016 23:30
  
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 25 November 1916At sundown last night the western sky turned a deep and almost brilliant red, changing and softening in colour in its upward spread until the verge from south to north was like an immense but yellowing rainbow. Then frost came lightly; there was the merest sound of a crinkle in walking over the grass away from the oak wood. This morning the air was softer. On the broad marl and flint track which leads to the farmland there were d
  
  Read more

• Wasps survive the cold to fight another day

  20-11-2016 22:30
  
  Painful encounter with a hardy woodland colony raises questions about the effects of climate changeFear of wasps has always seemed to me irrational, but since inadvertently standing on a wasps’ nest two weeks ago my opinion has been revised. Deep in a local wood and stopping to admire a fungus on a log pile, I was alerted by a deep buzzing to the fact that both trouser legs were filling up with wasps.Not content with stinging both legs, the workers also attacked my face and neck, as well a
  
  Read more

• Crowds gather to watch the pelican that flew in to Cornwall

  20-11-2016 22:30
  
  The only wild pelican to be seen in Britain in modern times has been attracting birders to Cornwall all summer. But pelicans were here 2000 years ago. Might they return?It flew in like a seaplane, scattering a flotilla of what looked like small boats as it landed on the waters of the estuary. I blinked, and an avian image displaced this aeronautical one: for it wasn’t an aircraft, but a bird.A Dalmatian pelican (Pelicanus crispus), to be precise: named not because it has a black spotted pl
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Former Great Barrier Reef marine park head calls for ban on new coalmines

  20-11-2016 20:18
  
  Graeme Kelleher’s call comes before Australian government’s deadline for reporting to Unesco’s world heritage committeeThe former head of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has called for a ban on all new coalmines in Australia, saying the move is needed to protect the Great Barrier Reef from climate change.“I love the reef and I have worked to preserve it since 1979; I will oppose anything that threatens to destroy it,” said Graeme Kelleher, who was the f
  
  Read more

• The latest weapon in the fight against illegal fishing? Artificial intelligence

  20-11-2016 16:00
  
  A $150,000 reward is up for grabs for any data scientist who can write code for facial recognition software that can pinpoint illegal catch on fishing boatsFacial recognition software is most commonly known as a tool to help police identify a suspected criminal by using machine learning algorithms to analyze his or her face against a database of thousands or millions of other faces. The larger the database, with a greater variety of facial features, the smarter and more successful the software b
  
  Read more

• Sadiq Khan demands VW compensate Londoners and TfL

  20-11-2016 14:48
  
  Mayor says Volkswagen car owners should receive financial redress and TfL be given £2.5m in lost congestion charge revenueThe mayor of London has written to Volkswagen imploring the car manufacturer to “fully compensate” the capital’s residents affected by the emissions scandal.
  Sadiq Khan called on VW to reimburse Transport for London (TFL) some £2.5m in lost congestion charge revenue from vehicles that were not known to be contributing to the capital’s pollu
  
  Read more

• China's Xi calls for 'smooth transition' in relationship with U.S.

  20-11-2016 07:42
  By Jeff Mason LIMA (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Saturday for a "smooth transition" in Beijing's relationship with Washington and praised outgoing President Barack Obama for strengthening ties between the two nations. During a meeting in Peru, Obama again urged all sides in the dispute over the South China Sea to reduce tensions and resolve their disputes peacefully. The meeting on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific forum is expected to be the last between the two leaders befo
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• The eco guide to wet wipes

  20-11-2016 07:00
  
  These flushable friends are highly convenient and proving to be more and more popular. But they play havoc with sewers and the environmentIs there anything more disgusting than a fatberg? These gargantuan mounds of debris block the intestines of civilisation (ie sewers). Fatberg season used to peak on Christmas Day, when people poured turkey fat down the drains in a mass festive clog. Now they’re an all-year hazard, thanks to the inexorable rise of the wet wipe.There are wet wipes for ever
  
  Read more

• Terri Irwin urges MPs to rule out crocodile cull after Katter suggests shooting safaris

  20-11-2016 01:52
  
  Debate on cull reignited when NSW woman Cindy Waldron was killed by a crocodile north of CairnsAustralia Zoo’s Terri Irwin has called on all Queensland MPs to rule out a crocodile cull, saying people need to better understand how to co-exist with the apex predators.The debate on a cull was reignited in May when a New South Wales woman, Cindy Waldron, 46, was taken by a croc at Thornton Beach, north of Cairns. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Drama and tension help Attenborough’s Planet Earth II show nature’s glory | Stephanie Merritt

  20-11-2016 01:04
  
  Recognising that we humans are creatures of story, the nature series has the narrative brio of Game of ThronesIn the first episode of Planet Earth II, from the basket of a hot-air balloon, David Attenborough promised us new and unparalleled footage of the greatest living treasures of the planet. As one of the greatest himself, at 90, it’s hard to imagine anyone else who could have pulled in the biggest audience for a natural history programme in 15 years – its 9.2 million viewers mak
  
  Read more

• China's Xi calls for 'smooth transition' in relationship with U.S

  20-11-2016 00:39
  By Jeff Mason LIMA (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday called for a "smooth transition" in Beijing's relationship with Washington and praised outgoing President Barack Obama for strengthening ties between the two nations. During a meeting in Peru, Obama repeated the U.S. urging that all sides in the dispute over the South China Sea reduce tensions and resolve their disputes peacefully. The meeting is expected to be the last between the two leaders before President-elect Donald T
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!