Environment news

• National Trust buys two wildflower sites to protect wildlife

  07-07-2018 08:30
  The £2.15m deal will protect 460 acres of nature-rich farmland in the Peak DistrictHundreds of acres of flower-rich farmland have been bought by the National Trust to throw a lifeline to declining wildlife.The £2.15 million deal to buy 186 hectares (460 acres) of land in the Peak District – an area equivalent to 260 football pitches – is the biggest farmland acquisition by the Trust since it bought Trevose Head in Cornwall in 2016. Continue reading...
  
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• 'In the days around Ella's death, there were big spikes in air pollution'

  07-07-2018 08:00
  Rosamund Kissi-Debrah believes poor air quality in London contributed to her daughter’s deathThe evening before she died, Ella Kissi-Debrah picked the outfit she wanted to wear to her primary school disco the following day: new jeans and a checked top. Her mother laid them out next to her school uniform, but a few hours later the nine-year-old suffered an acute asthma attack. She never made it to the party.“We ended up burying her in the clothes instead,” said her mother, Rosam
  
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• Country diary: wiggling wonder of the common woodlouse

  07-07-2018 06:30
  Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: We relish the new vocabulary that comes with these terrestrial isopods – and how to tell the difference between males and females
  It’s not every day a woodlouse expert comes to tea. My children made a mad dash to hunt under logs in the garden to supply Beth, a soil scientist who studied woodlice at university, with specimens so she could show us how to tell males from females.Continue reading...
  
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• Pope Francis warns against turning Earth into vast pile of 'rubble, deserts and refuse'

  07-07-2018 02:17
  Francis also denounces ‘sterile hypocrisy’ of those who turn a blind eye to the world’s poorPope Francis urged governments on Friday to make good on their commitments to curb global warming, warning that climate change, continued unsustainable development and rampant consumption threatens to turn the Earth into a vast pile of “rubble, deserts and refuse”.Francis made the appeal at a Vatican conference marking the third anniversary of his landmark environmental encyc
  
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• Adani says it could start works at Abbot Point without traditional owners' input

  07-07-2018 01:29
  Exclusive: new construction work at coal terminal scheduled to begin as Juru group of traditional owners seeks stop orderAdani says it will proceed with new construction work at its Abbot Point coal terminal with or without the involvement of Juru local traditional owners, amid an escalating dispute about the protection of sacred sites.On Thursday a group of traditional owners, Juru Enterprises Ltd, lodged an application for a stop order that could force Adani to cease work in the vicinity of Ab
  
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• Abbott is angry about energy but there are bigger fish to fry | Katharine Murphy

  07-07-2018 01:28
  The former PM is making noise but the real threat to sorting out energy policy is elsewhereTony Abbott seems mired in the first stages of grief: denial and anger.
  This week we were treated to a former prime minister making a political comeback pitch that went like this: I had no idea what I was doing when I took the decision to sign Australia up to the Paris climate agreement in 2015, I have a lot of feelings and I don’t mind sharing them, be the wind beneath my wings. Continue reading...
  
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• Is it a panther? Is it a puma? No, just a cat and a huge claws of frustration

  07-07-2018 00:26
  Rangers are sick of mistaken panther sightings, which detract from the fight against feral catsA large cat in Western Australia that was mistaken for a panther is the latest in a long line of mythical big cat sightings that wildlife rangers say are unhelpful. The large black feline – estimated to be 50% larger than a house cat – was spotted in the town of Coorow, 275km north of Perth, in late June, and reported to wildlife authorities as a potential panther or big cat.Continue readin
  
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