Environment news

• Beach from Leonardo DiCaprio film to temporarily close due to tourist damage

  28-03-2018 22:26 via theguardian.com
  Maya Bay, on Koh Phi Phi Leh, will be shut down by Thai authorities for four months to help recover damaged coral reefs and sea lifeAuthorities in Thailand have ordered the temporary closing of the beach made famous by the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach to halt environmental damage caused by too many tourists. Maya Bay, on the island of Koh Phi Phi Leh in the Andaman Sea, will be closed to all visitors for four months annually starting this June to allow for the recovery of the island’s
  
  Read more

• Waitrose transforms grass into egg boxes

  28-03-2018 22:05
  Waitrose has given a range of egg products a green makeover with the rollout of new sustainable boxes made from ryegrass and paper.
  
  Read more

• Top marine scientists defend attack on Great Barrier Reef research

  28-03-2018 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Researchers from Australia’s leading marine science agency respond to criticism by two academics that doubts much of their workScientists at Australia’s leading marine science agency say an attack on the integrity of their research into threats to the Great Barrier Reef was flawed and based on “misinterpretation” and “selective use of data”.The Australian Institute of Marine Science (Aims) researchers were responding to accusations made in November 2017 in a j
  
  Read more

• Tasmanian regional forest agreement delivers $1.3bn losses in ‘giant fraud’ on taxpayers | John Lawrence

  28-03-2018 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Forestry Tasmania’s total cash losses were $454m over 20 years, with a write-down of $751m in value of forest estateThe first Tasmanian regional forest agreement, signed between the state and the commonwealth in 1997, was supposed to start an era in which forestry was both ecologically and economically sustainable.In fact the last 20 years have been a financial disaster for forest management in Tasmania. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Tasmanian forest agreement delivers $1.3bn losses in ‘giant fraud’ on taxpayers | John Lawrence

  28-03-2018 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Forestry Tasmania’s total cash losses were $454m over 20 years, with a write-down of $751m in value of forest estateThe first Tasmanian regional forest agreement, signed between the state and the commonwealth in 1997, was supposed to start an era in which forestry was both ecologically and economically sustainable.In fact the last 20 years have been a financial disaster for forest management in Tasmania. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Majority of Australians support phasing out coal power by 2030, survey finds

  28-03-2018 19:00 via theguardian.com
  50% of Coalition voters and 67% of Labor voters want to phase out coal, and majority also support striving to cut greenhouse gas emissions A majority of Australians would support phasing out coal power by 2030, including half the people in a sample identifying as Coalition voters, according to a survey by a progressive thinktank.The research funded by the Australia Institute says 60% of a sample of 1,417 Australians surveyed by online market research firm Research Now supported Australia joining
  
  Read more

• Ghostly galaxy may be missing dark matter

  28-03-2018 19:00 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists have imaged a "transparent" galaxy that may have no dark matter.
  
  Read more

• Our wildlife can be saved – but only with political will | Letters

  28-03-2018 18:54 via theguardian.com
  Readers respond to Michael McCarthy’s article about the devastation caused by modern farming to insects and birdsMichael McCarthy is quite wrong when he says most people are unaware of the destruction of Britain’s wildlife (We’ve lost half our wildlife. But the damage can be reversed, 26 March). Even if you never visit the countryside, if you have any kind of garden you will be painfully aware of it. Twenty years ago my bird feeder nearly always had numerous birds on
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Cumbrian coal must stay in the ground where it belongs | Letters

  28-03-2018 18:53 via theguardian.com
  The government’s rejection of coal-mining in Northumberland is good news, says Marianne Birkby. Now they must follow up by rejecting plans for a new Cumbrian mineWhat fantastic news that the government has rejected plans for an opencast coal mine in Northumberland (Javid rejects plan for opencast coalmine, 24 March).This should put the nail firmly in the coffin of the plan for the first deep coalmine in the UK in 30 years. This would be at the proposed Woodhouse Colliery, which is north of
  
  Read more

• The plastics crisis is more urgent than you know. Recycling bottles won’t fix it | John Vidal

  28-03-2018 18:25 via theguardian.com
  A deposit scheme for bottles won’t make a scrap of difference. This stuff is in our food, our clothes – and in usWest Wales, last weekend. The old foam mattress lying waterlogged on an otherwise clean beach might have been at sea for months before it was washed up on the tide. A large bit of it had broken off, and the rest was crumbling. It was a clear threat to wildlife, so we heaved what was left of it above the wave line and promised to come back to dispose of it properly when it
  
  Read more

• Bottle and can deposit return scheme could cost £1bn, say UK retailers

  28-03-2018 17:31 via theguardian.com
  Major supermarkets express support for government’s plan but key issues, including who would pay for it, remain unclear
  The UK retail industry has warned it could cost £1bn to implement the government’s plan to charge deposits on drinks cans and bottles.Britain’s biggest supermarkets signalled a willingness to work with the environment secretary, Michael Gove, on the scheme, which would result in consumers in England getting the deposit back if they returned the empty dri
  
  Read more

• The Beast of Clashindarroch – Scottish wildcat or Mr Whiskers?

  28-03-2018 16:54 via theguardian.com
  It may be one of the largest wildcats ever recorded, but it still looks much like a very large tabbyName: The Beast of Clashindarroch.Age: Unknown. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• 'Unanswered questions': Green community reacts to the UK's deposit return scheme plans

  28-03-2018 14:15
  With the newspaper headlines dominated by the Government's proposals for a national deposit return scheme this morning, edie has enlisted the insights of leading industry experts to gauge their thoughts on whether the move will boost the UK's resource efficiency prospects.
  
  Read more

• Country diary: a landscape reshaped by molehills

  28-03-2018 12:54 via theguardian.com
  Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: The moles’ unlicensed mining and despoliation sends farmers, greenkeepers and gardeners madThe last snow lasted a few days but felt like weeks. It vanished in an instant: one spring-like afternoon it felt as if a conjurer had whipped away the tablecloth leaving everything standing. What had changed, and radically so, was the table. It was as if the ground under the snow had been through a strange transformation and some charm had been working invisibly, resurfacin
  
  Read more

• Government unveils vision for national deposit return scheme

  28-03-2018 12:44
  The Government will aim to crack down on plastic pollution with a deposit return scheme in England for single-use drinks containers.
  
  Read more

• Share your views on drink deposit schemes

  28-03-2018 12:29 via theguardian.com
  If you live in the UK we’d like to hear what you think about bottle and can deposit schemes near you
  The government has unveiled a deposit return scheme (DRS) covering glass, metal and plastic drinks containers in England. By returning bottles and cans consumers will receive a small cash sum, however retailers are responsible for recycling the items. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Tech trials to find Antarctica's 'missing' iron meteorites

  28-03-2018 11:48 via bbc.co.uk
  A Manchester-led team tests the detector system it will use in Antarctica to find hidden iron meteorites.
  
  Read more

• Iron test

  28-03-2018 11:48 via bbc.co.uk
  A Manchester-led team tests the detector system it will use in Antarctica to find hidden iron meteorites.
  
  Read more

• Meet the people volunteering to defend nature in their local communities

  28-03-2018 09:51 via theguardian.com
  As spring arrives and campaigners in Sheffield win a temporary pause in tree felling, here’s a gallery of Friends of the Earth volunteers defending nature in local communities Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Labor and Greens keep up the fight against Coalition's marine park plans

  28-03-2018 09:15 via theguardian.com
  Parties plan to introduce separate motions for individual affected regions Labor and the Greens have launched a fresh attempt to disallow controversial new marine park management plans proposed by the Turnbull government last week, bowling up individual motions to boost the chances of scuttling at least part of the proposal.
  A first attempt to disallow the management plans failed on Tuesday night when the government brought on a vote after a procedural skirmish – deploying an unusual chamb
  
  Read more

• Vanishing Glaciers by Project Pressure - in pictures

  28-03-2018 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Project Pressure is a charity that has been working with renowned artists in a pioneering project to document the world’s vanishing glaciers. This week it brought its touring photographic exhibition to the Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change, Hong Kong, where visitors can experience the different types of glaciers found on each continent and take a video journey to see how glaciers are retreatingContinue reading...
  
  Read more

• EU leaders should be telling us to eat less meat, say campaigners

  28-03-2018 08:30 via theguardian.com
  A green coalition demands a review of health and environmental impacts of intensive animal farming ahead of budget talks next month The EU is facing calls to overhaul its industrial farming sector by promoting more plant-based diets in the next common agricultural policy (CAP), as budget negotiations approach a crunch point.
  Policy moves could face strong opposition from top officials who reportedly see “no evidence whatsoever” of large-scale linkages between livestock farming and gr
  
  Read more

• Drinks bottles and can deposit return scheme proposed

  28-03-2018 07:33 via bbc.co.uk
  A money-back scheme for returning glass, plastic bottles and cans in England is to be introduced.
  
  Read more

• Charity calls for £15m fund to tackle UK hunger by preventing food waste

  28-03-2018 07:01 via theguardian.com
  Figures show that just 17,000 tonnes of the 270,000 tonnes of edible surplus food in the supply chain is redistributed annually to charitiesThe government is being urged to introduce a £15m fund to tackle hunger by preventing food which could be eaten from going straight into landfill, animal feed or anaerobic digestion.New figures from the UK’s largest food redistribution charity, FareShare, reveal that just 17,000 tonnes of the 270,000 tonnes of edible surplus food in the supply ch
  
  Read more

• Big win for small birds as feeders help finch and tit species to thrive

  28-03-2018 07:01 via theguardian.com
  The mild winter was followed by a good breeding season, boosting garden sightings of finches and tits Finches and tits have enjoyed a golden year, according to the results of this year’s RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch.These small bird species suffer particularly badly in cold weather but in the past year benefited from a mild start to the winter that followed a good breeding season. Blackbird sightings in gardens were down – the result of plentiful food elsewhere – but a dea
  
  Read more

• 'Extreme' fossil fuel investments have surged under Donald Trump, report reveals

  28-03-2018 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Sharp rise globally in the dirtiest fossil fuel investments reverses progress made after the Paris agreement, with tar sands holdings more than doubling in Trump’s first year in officeBank holdings in “extreme” fossil fuels skyrocketed globally to $115bn during Donald Trump’s first year as US president, with holdings in tar sands oil more than doubling, a new report has found.A sharp flight from fossil fuels investments after the Paris agreement was reversed last year wit
  
  Read more

• Australia's indigenous languages have one source, study says

  28-03-2018 04:01 via bbc.co.uk
  All indigenous languages can be traced to a mother tongue dubbed Proto-Australian, researchers say.
  
  Read more

• Amazon priest who championed land rights for Brazil's poor is arrested

  28-03-2018 00:40 via theguardian.com
  Father Amaro Lopes is follower of Dorothy Stang, killed in 2005Extortion, land invasion and sexual harassment charges consideredBrazilian police have arrested a priest in the Amazon who championed the rights of smallholders against powerful agricultural interests.
  Father Amaro Lopes is the best-known follower of the American-born nun, Dorothy Stang, who was murdered in 2005 in a killing orchestrated by landowners during a dispute that continues today.Continue reading...
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!