Environment news

• Koala conservation and electric buses for COP26: The sustainability success stories of the week

  07-03-2021 23:25
  
  As part of our Mission Possible campaign, edie brings you this weekly round-up of five of the best sustainability success stories of the week from across the globe.
  
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• One of world's rarest toads bred in captivity for first time in Manchester

  07-03-2021 19:30
  
  Programme may help to ensure the survival of the critically endangered variable harlequin toadOne of the world’s rarest toads has been bred in captivity for the first time, thanks to the scientists at Manchester Museum.The critically endangered variable harlequin toad, Atelopus varius, lives deep in the central American rainforests of Panama and Costa Rica, breeding only in turbulent streams filled with stones and boulders on which they lay their eggs. Continue reading...
  
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• The Guardian view on moth-watching pleasure: the pest and the beauty | Editorial

  07-03-2021 19:25
  
  These insects have declined by a third over 50 years. While their appetites can be a nuisance, ultimately we must protect these gloriously beautiful, elusive creatures“Night opens; night traversed by wandering moths; night hiding lovers roaming to adventure.” So runs a rapturous passage in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, a novel she had originally considered titling The Moths. The insects are a recurring theme in the book – moths dashing themselves against windows, moths dart
  
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• Whitehaven coal mine firm seeks judicial review of council U-turn

  07-03-2021 13:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  West Cumbria Mining says Cumbria County Council's latest decision "cannot be justified".
  
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• Toronto lockdown brings humans and raccoons together – neither's happy

  07-03-2021 12:00
  
  Raccoon attacks on residents are up 62% as some people act ‘foolish’ but others are enjoying seeing their furry neighboursDisrupted sleeping schedules, noisy neighbours and a world that looks unrecognizable: the coronavirus pandemic has been tough for Toronto’s raccoons.And with a lockdown keeping human residents at home in Canada’s largest city, dangerous interactions with Toronto’s infamous urban critters are also increasing. Continue reading...
  
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• Bloom time: my day picking daffodils against the clock

  07-03-2021 10:45
  
  Joining the workforce in Cornwall’s flower fields, I struggled to keep up in the rush to bring in a fragile crop post-BrexitIt’s the kind of day when the cloud is so thick that a heavy greyness hangs in the air. But not in the fields of Fentongollan Farm in Cornwall, where swathes of yellow roll down the hillside, brightening the dull sky with spring cheer. Fentongollan is one of the world’s leading daffodil farms, growing globally renowned varieties that are a dazzling sight i
  
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• Swooping, soaring, murmurating: why the skies are full of starlings

  07-03-2021 09:00
  
  Temperatures as low as -40C in Russia may be behind a rise in large flocks in the UK as they escape the coldDriving through Ripon, North Yorkshire, last week, Hayley Blaymires was surprised to see thousands of birds swoop in spectacular formations across the sky.She had heard people talking about starling murmurations, which this year have been happening unusually close to the centre of Ripon, but this was the first time she was seeing them for herself. Continue reading...
  
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• Revealed: why hundreds of thousands of tonnes of recycling are going up in smoke

  07-03-2021 08:15
  
  Investigation questions eco-friendly claims of incineration industryWhen it comes to planet-friendly habits, recycling is by far the UK’s most popular, with 87% of householders claiming they do so regularly, according to the Waste and Resources Action Programme. But an investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches into where our rubbish goes, and the role played by energy-from-waste incineration plants, has found that millions of tonnes of our carefully sorted empties are simply being burn
  
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• The threat of inflation is not so imminent as No 11 would have us believe

  07-03-2021 08:00
  
  While higher interest rates would add to the cost of financing the debt burden, central banks are unlikely to raise them soonThere was a warning after last week’s budget that Rishi Sunak’s recovery plans could be blown off course by a rise in inflation of such strength that it would force central banks to raise interest rates. A modest increase of just 1% in the interest paid on government debt would add between £20bn and £25bn to the cost of financing the UK’s debt
  
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