Environment news

• Lambs make the most of their first hour on open land: Country diary 100 years ago

  19-03-2017 23:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 24 March 1917SURREY
  Sheep, some fifty of them, big black-faced ewes, with about the same number of late lambs just dropped, came this morning out of a great pen at the end of the rickyard which had been put up behind the shelter of two still standing stacks of corn. As they filed through the hurdle gap each began bleating, and all were soon in the wide ditch opposite, nosing about in warm corners for any sweet young shoots of early spring. The l
  
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• Snow bunting takes a winter break in Somerset

  19-03-2017 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The commonest garden bird in Iceland, and no stranger to the Scottish Highlands, this visitor is taking the bunting equivalent to a holiday in the MedSome birds are simply more compelling than others. Think bullfinches and barn owls, peregrines and storm petrels, gannets and golden eagles. The snow bunting is certainly high in the charisma stakes. I first saw them in 1973, swirling around a shingle beach in Norfolk, caught in a biting wind like flurries of snow. Since then I’ve watched the
  
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• Churchyards are our forgotten nature reserves

  19-03-2017 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Often ignored, the ancient sites in the hearts of towns and villages have become refuges for a tremendous range of plantsThere are thousands of wild plant sanctuaries across Britain, many in the hearts of villages, towns and cities, but they’re often ignored and forgotten. Cemeteries, churchyards and burial grounds have almost become nature reserves.Some of the most ancient sites have been around for over 1,000 years, and many grounds haven’t been assaulted with chemicals or intensiv
  
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• Have a bird’s eye view of a Nottingham nest | Letters

  19-03-2017 19:33 via theguardian.com
  
  If Guardian readers wish to get up close to peregrine falcons (Flying high, 15 March) they need go no farther than their computers where, by typing in “Nottingham peregrines cam” or something similar, they will be able to sit back and watch the comings and goings of the birds to their nest-box high on Nottingham Trent University in the very centre of the city. I did that, entranced, a couple of years ago as I watched the four chicks grow up and fly away.The cameras are put
  
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• Self-driving cars will change cities | Letters

  19-03-2017 19:32 via theguardian.com
  
  Once daredevils, cyclists and pedestrians work out just how safe they are with this new technology (Google’s self-driving car avoids hitting a woman chasing a bird, theguardian.com, 17 March), it is easy to imagine how there might be a battle for rights of way. Busy crossings during rush hour could become an unbroken stream of pedestrians as self-driving cars wait helplessly. It is only a small leap from here to imagine the physical measures that may need to be implemented to keep vehicles
  
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• SpaceX Dragon capsule returns to Earth

  19-03-2017 18:45 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The SpaceX Dragon capsule returns to Earth after its mission to the International Space Station.
  
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• Green energy in a coal state: the struggle to bring solar jobs to West Virginia

  19-03-2017 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Local entrepreneurs want to replace disappearing coal jobs with employment in solar – but that’s a tough move in a state that lacks the solar-friendly regulations of places like CaliforniaIf solar energy were Dan Conant’s only passion, the West Virginia native could have stayed in Vermont, working for a fast-growing startup in a state friendly to renewables.
  Instead, Conant returned home to Shepherdstown, where he started an installation company, Solar Holler, in 2014. Now, wit
  
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• Why I think there's still hope for the climate in 2017

  19-03-2017 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Despite Trump halting reduction of the US’s vast CO2 emissions, climate change is being taken seriously around the world from China to SwedenOptimism has always been in short supply in conversations about global warming. Only for the briefest window – after the Paris climate agreement was reached in December 2015 – did the words “climate” and “hope” look reasonable next to each other in headlines. Then came 2016.And yet, in spite of these past 12 months,
  
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• The eco guide to mainstream organics

  19-03-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  We need to learn from the Danish supermarkets, where organic produce is front and centre, not nicheSay you were to swap your weekly shop with a Dane, you’d notice something strange. In Danish supermarkets like SuperBrugsen, myriad organic products are proudly displayed at the front. Try tracking down anything more exciting than an organic carrot in a UK supermarket.With this in mind our Organic Trade Board wants us to be more Danish and go mainstream organic. There’s some way to go.
  
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• Hi-tech tribe

  19-03-2017 01:35 via bbc.co.uk
  
  How a remote community in Guyana is using cutting-edge software and equipment against deforestation.
  
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• As drought sweeps Kenya, herders invade farms and old wounds are reopened

  19-03-2017 01:04 via theguardian.com
  
  Threatened by famine, pastoralists have turned to violenceSitting on the edge of Kenya’s highest mountain, its spectacular dun-coloured vistas stretching out into the endless distance, Laikipia is one of the most beautiful corners of east Africa.The region received a rush of publicity in 2010 when Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton at a log cabin there. Tens of thousands of tourists now flock to parks and reserves in an area that promises rare sights including the world’s last
  
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