Environment news

• Yes, plastic is an eco nightmare. But it’s also tired, old technology | Lucy Siegle

  21-07-2018 19:00
  Surely it’s not beyond the wit of science to give us a hi-tech green alternativeEverybody is moved by the plastic pandemic, but whenever I bring up the possibility of using something else a chorus of manufacturers and retailers tells me I must not demonise this “miracle material”. After all, it has been included in heart valves, the cockpits of Second World War allied bomber aircraft, bulletproof vests and enabled space travel. It is heroic by implication.To which I can only re
  
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• Huge iceberg threatens small Greenland village with tsunami - video

  21-07-2018 17:00
  Pieces of ice calving off a large iceberg threaten to cause tsunami waves that could swamp a small village on the west coast of Greenland. In a video posted on social media on Thursday, a large chunk of ice falls into the sea, causing a swell that pushes toward Innaarsuit. A danger zone close to the coastline has been evacuated. Four people died last summer after similar waves swamped a settlement in north-western Greenland Continue reading...
  
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• Gardening tips: feed your roses or plant a perennial pollinator

  21-07-2018 12:00
  This week, you could also join the Big Butterfly Count Plant this Turning a sunny border into a nectar bar for pollinators? If your soil is thin and not very fertile, don’t fight it – plant the perennial blue globe thistle (Echinops bannaticus) instead. It flowers through summer, each electric-blue flower a magnet for bees and butterflies. Height and spread: 1.5m x 75cm.Count this At a time when insect numbers are declining, taking part in the Big Butterfly Count helps gauge how
  
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• Nine activists defending the Earth from violent assault

  21-07-2018 10:00
  On a planet of billions, nine represent the strong minority battling murder in the global corruption of land rightsIndividually, they are stories of courage and tragedy. Together, they tell a tale of a natural world under ever more violent assault.The portraits in this series are of nine people who are risking their lives to defend the land and environment in some of the planet’s most remote or conflict-riven regions. Continue reading...
  
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• Smart meters to save UK households only £11 a year, report finds

  21-07-2018 09:49
  Report by MPs and peers says predicted benefits of £11bn scheme to install 53m devices are ‘likely to be slashed even further’Government predictions of the savings smart meters will generate for consumers are inflated, out of date and based on several “questionable assumptions”, a group of MPs and peers has said.They also said the rollout of smart meters risks going over budget, is past its deadline and must be reviewed immediately. Continue reading...
  
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• 'You will never run from death': shot by poachers in Uganda

  21-07-2018 07:15
  Ranger Samuel Loware’s life is under constant threat in his efforts to conserve wildlife from heavily armed guerillasThe bullet that pierced the shoulder of Ugandan ranger Samuel Loware had already taken one life and could easily have added his. The shell was fired by a Sudanese poacher trying to flee back over the border with contraband meat from the Kidepo Valley national park.
  Loware had been tracking the fugitive - one of a band of heavily armed raiders - from the early morning with th
  
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• 'We have become guardians': Turkey's accidental forest protectors

  21-07-2018 07:15
  Birhan Erkutlu and Tuğba Günal wanted to ‘get away from it all’ but are now leading a campaign to protect rivers and trees from hydropower plantsBirhan Erkutlu and Tuğba Günal moved into the forests of Antalya to get away from it all. They wanted a natural, peaceful life free of capitalism, consumer culture, social media, the internet, even electricity. Fate had other plans.
  Fourteen years on, the two artists are now figureheads of a campaign to protect rivers and
  
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• 'We had no plans for violence': Indian campaign against toxic smelter turned deadly

  21-07-2018 07:15
  Fatima Babu’s decades-long campaign against a toxic copper smelter in Tamil Nadu says the cost of victory was too highFor 24 years, Fatima Babu struggled to galvanise the citizens of Tuticorin in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu against the toxic threat posed by the Sterlite Copper smelter. Often working thanklessly and sometimes alone, she filed lawsuits, organised workshops and gave interviews to raise awareness.The English professor-turned-activist hoped that people would eventua
  
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• 'I thank god I am alive': standing firm against mineral extraction in South Africa

  21-07-2018 07:15
  Nonhle Mbuthuma is battling for her community’s right to say no to the exploitation of their territory in a hangover of the apartheid eraAs a child, Nonhle Mbuthuma would wake up in her family’s thatched hut listening to the waves crashing on South Africa’s Wild Coast , then go and play on the sand dunes, head off to school or help her parents cultivate sweet potatoes and bananas on the family plot.
  Today, she can rarely stay in the same place for any length of time and is more
  
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• 'I tended to the bodies': attacked by the Philippine army

  21-07-2018 07:15
  Villagers massacred amid conflict between indigenous community and coffee plantationWhen the soldiers opened fire on Datal Bonglangon village, there was first confusion, then terror, then grief. But Marivic Danyan – one of the younger, quieter members of the community – decided to be strong. Reluctantly, heartbreakingly strong.The young T’boli woman had been preparing lunch when her remote, indigenous community on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao was peppered with gun
  
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• 'God wants you to act on what's in front of you': enforcing conservation law in the Coral Triangle

  21-07-2018 07:15
  Robert Chan risks his life to stop poachers and powerful developers destroying precious marine life in the Philippines Confiscated bottles of cyanide, fishing dynamite and more than 600 chainsaws decorate the office of Robert Chan , leader of arguably the world’s most effective direct-action eco-vigilante organisation.The Palawan NGO Network Incorporated risk their lives to protect reefs and coastal forests in the Coral Triangle, a global hotspot for marine biodiversity and violent environ
  
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• 'This is a last hold-out': Son of a murdered farmer in Colombia

  21-07-2018 07:14
  Ramón Bedoya says his father, a land activist, was shot by local paramilitaries in league with agribusiness and narcos who fill the void left by Farc rebelsThe bullet-proof 4x4 is speeding through the countryside of western Colombia with two armed bodyguards, reggaeton is blasting out from the speakers, banana trees flit past the reinforced windows and the protected passenger – a threatened, recently bereaved 18-year-old campesino (poor farmer) – is explaining from bitter perso
  
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• ​'A hitman could come and kill me': the fight for indigenous land rights in Mexico

  21-07-2018 07:14
  Nurse-turned activist Isela Gonzalez lives with bodyguards and constant threat in her fight against destructive economic interestsNot all land defenders fight in remote forests and coastlands. Some take the battle to the centres of power: to courtrooms, parliament buildings and corporate headquarters. The veneer of urban civility may be glossier here, but the struggle is no less dangerous. In some cases, it can be worse.Isela Gonzalez has been threatened more times than she can remember by unive
  
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• 'They should be put in prison': battling Brazil's huge alumina plant

  21-07-2018 07:12
  In Brazil, Maria do Soccoro Silva is leading Amazonian forest people against alleged land-grabbing, corruption and pollutionA warning voice on the telephone, a home intrusion, a punch in the face, a pistol barrel prodded against the ear. The intimidation of Maria do Socorro Silva has come in many forms since she began defending her Amazonian home against the world’s biggest alumina refinery and its local government backers. Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: birds cherrypick their share of fruit

  21-07-2018 06:30
  St Dominic, Tamar Valley: This year’s exceptional cherry harvest has seen our feathered friends gorge on maturing fruitAbundant fruit reflects the sun as we pick cherries in the cool of evening. The spreading trees in James and Mary’s orchard of traditional varieties provide oases of shade among dried-up grasses and help protect the shallow roots from drought; despite the hot weather, rustling leaves remain fresh and bright green. A few weeks ago, pigeons and jackdaws flocked here to
  
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• Baby bear burned in Colorado wildfire healing well

  21-07-2018 02:06
  Wildlife officials say cub is gaining weight after receiving severe burns to her pawsAn orphaned bear cub burned by a Colorado wildfire is healing and gaining weight.Wildlife officials have said the bear no longer has to wear bandages on her feet, which were severely burned in a fire north of Durango in June. Continue reading...
  
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• Lovell lights: turning a telescope into an art installation

  21-07-2018 01:18 via bbc.co.uk
  How the giant Lovell radio telescope at Jodrell Bank is transformed into a 3,200 tonne art installation.
  
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• Lovell lights

  21-07-2018 01:18 via bbc.co.uk
  How the giant Lovell radio telescope at Jodrell Bank is transformed into a 3,200 tonne art installation.
  
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