Environment news

• Country diary 1917: bungled wasps' nest theft leads to discovery

  15-10-2017 23:30 via theguardian.com
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 19 October 1917Someone had taken a wasps’ nest. Perhaps as he carried it home some of the inmates objected, or he discovered that most of the cells were empty; at any rate it had been dropped, and lay broken by the path. Over the grubless cakes a few weary workers, chilled by the night exposure, crawled feebly, and three young queens refused to leave the ruins of what had once been their home. They seemed puzzled by the tragedy which had o
  
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• Birdwatch: On the trail of the elusive buff-breasted sandpiper

  15-10-2017 22:30 via theguardian.com
  It never occurred to me, peering through rain-soaked binoculars, that I would have to wait 43 years to see another oneIt was late September 1974. Manchester United led the old Second Division, Kung Fu Fighting was top of the pop charts, and the BBC had just launched its Ceefax service. Meanwhile, I was birdwatching on the Isles of Scilly, thanks to my mother’s far-sighted decision to take me out of school for a fortnight, slap-bang in the middle of the migration season. We saw some good bi
  
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• Australia's household power prices rose 63% in past decade, says watchdog

  15-10-2017 19:00 via theguardian.com
  The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says lack of competition is behind ‘severe electricity affordability problem’Residential electricity prices have increased by 63% on top of inflation over the past decade, according to Australia’s competition watchdog, mainly due to higher network costs, which comprise 48% of a household bill.An interim snapshot, to be released by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on Monday ahead of the expected unveiling of th
  
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• California wildfires: moment family's dog is found alive in ruins of home – video

  15-10-2017 18:06 via theguardian.com
  Jack Weaver and his brother-in-law Patrick Widen walked around police barricades, through a creek and up treacherous hilly roads to film the devastation caused by the wildfires in Santa Rosa, California. Weaver’s mother, Katherine, was convinced the family’s dog, Izzy, had died in the fire that destroyed their neighbourhood. When the men reached the end of the narrow road, they saw their house was completely ruined. But then Izzy came bounding out of the rubble for a joyous reunion.
  
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• Wild is the wind: the resource that could power the world

  15-10-2017 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Wind isn’t just mysterious, destructive and exhilarating – capturing just 2% of it would solve the planet’s energy needs at a stroke. And as the windiest country in Europe, Britain is at the forefront of this green revolutionThe wind rips along the Humber estuary in Hull. It’s the kind that presses your coat to your back and pushes you on to your toes. “A bit too windy,” shouts Andy Sykes, before his words are swept away. He is the head of operational excellen
  
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• David Attenborough urges action on plastics after filming Blue Planet II

  15-10-2017 10:22 via theguardian.com
  Naturalist says experience filming second Blue Planet series demonstrated threat plastic causes to oceansSir David Attenborough has urged the world to cut down on the use of plastics by “tomorrow” to curb increasing dangers to the ocean.The TV naturalist told how his experience filming the second Blue Planet series demonstrated to him the threat that plastic causes to the underwater environment. Continue reading...
  
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• 'This is the future': solar-powered family car hailed by experts

  15-10-2017 08:39 via theguardian.com
  As the annual solar race across Australia wraps up, a Dutch entry averaged 69kmh from Darwin to Adelaide and resupplied the gridA futuristic family car that not only uses the sun as power but supplies energy back to the grid has been hailed as “the future” as the annual World Solar Challenge wrapped up in Australia.Related: How green is Britain’s record on renewable energy supply?Continue reading...
  
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• Corbyn has a Washington ally on taxing the rich. But no, it’s not Trump

  15-10-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The IMF has finally departed from 40 years of orthodoxy on taxation and economic growth, but it’s unlikely to persuade anyone in the US governmentThe International Monetary Fund has been on quite a journey from the days when it was seen as the provisional wing of the Washington consensus. These days the IMF is less likely to harp on about the joys of liberalised capital flows than it is to warn of the dangers of ever-greater inequality.The fund’s latest foray into the realms of progr
  
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• The eco guide to radical materials

  15-10-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Cotton has a disastrous foorprint, leather is destroying the Amazon, polyester threatens the ozone layer. Luckily there are some new fabrics on the wayThe current exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art asks: “Is Fashion Modern?” Looking at the industry’s main materials you would have to answer “no”. The global wardrobe of cotton and polyester (invented around 80 years ago) spells ecological disaster.How do you take the cow (with its thunderous footprint
  
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• Canvey Wick: the Essex ‘rainforest’ that is home to Britain’s rarest insects

  15-10-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Nearly 2,000 invertebrate species – from predatory wasps to explosive beetles – flourish in this unique nature reserve in the ruins of an oil refinery on the ThamesAround a roundabout in the Thames estuary, beyond a Morrisons supermarket and just off an old concrete road, stand great hummocks of bramble, scrubby hawthorn and silver birch. An old car seat is dumped in tangled grass amid the ruins of an abandoned oil refinery.These desolate flatlands, behind where the old Thames does f
  
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• Adani’s Carmichael coalmine won’t go ahead, Greens leader says

  15-10-2017 02:07 via theguardian.com
  Richard Di Natale ‘confident’ if project can’t be stopped in parliament or for financial reasons, Australians will stand in front of bulldozers Adani’s Carmichael coalmine won’t go ahead, the Greens leader Richard Di Natale said, predicting “many, many thousands” of Australians would come together to protest any moves to stop the project.Di Natale said he believed Australians largely stood against the Carmichael coalmine, choosing the Great Barrier Reef
  
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• From dead woods to triumph of nature, 30 years after the Great Storm

  15-10-2017 01:05 via theguardian.com
  The devastating winds of 1987 felled 15 million trees but also prompted a radical change to the way we work with the countryside to let it heal itselfIt is remembered as a generation-defining moment, the night when ships ran aground, London endured its first blackout since the Blitz, 18 people died and 15 million trees were toppled. But the devastation wrought by the Great Storm of 1987 also left in its wake a startling woodland recovery, prompting a radical reshaping of the way we work with nat
  
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• As badger culls begin, could one pioneering vet’s bovine TB test end the slaughter?

  15-10-2017 01:04 via theguardian.com
  Research at a secret location in Devon may help eradicate bovine tuberculosis without a single badger being killed, says leading vetA pretty stone farmhouse sits in a bucolic green valley, surrounded by airy cowsheds. It looks like a timeless west country scene but is actually a pioneering farm, where cutting-edge science is helping to solve the hugely controversial, multimillion-pound problem of bovine tuberculosis (bTB).As an expanded badger cull gets under way this autumn, in which 33,500 ani
  
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• Dignity in chains: stark macaque portrait shines light on animals’ plight in Indonesia

  15-10-2017 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Nominations for Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards include images of endangered species on island of SulawesiNona is a Sulawesi crested black macaque. Photographed here by Stefano Unterthiner, she is seen chained to a chair outside the house where she is kept as a pet. The scene is made particularly poignant because Unterthiner has included in his image the shadow of Nona, her chain and a tree, thus underlining the freedom that the little animal has lost. At the same time, the owner of Non
  
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