Bittern is booming after harsh winter, experts say
One of the UK's rarest birds has enjoyed its most successful
year on record despite being hit by the harsh winter last year, conservationists
have said.
Rare treat for twitchers as great white egret spotted
in Somerset
Their smaller cousins are regular visitors to our shores
– but bird watchers in the West have captured a rare glimpse
of this great white egret at a Somerset nature reserve.
Scotland’s first butterfly reserve is reporting
a significant increase in butterfly numbers this summer – and
it could all be down to the interventions of Highland cattle.
‘Green wall’ technology could double the
plant diversity of the river Thames through London
Only half the number of plant species that could blossom
along the walls of the River Thames finds a suitable place to grow,
yet this could potentially double with the introduction of 'green
wall' technology, according to a presentation at the Royal Geographical
Society (with IBG)'s international conference.
Seven shark eggs have been rescued by divers from a
giant ocean display at Deep Sea World in North Queensferry. The divers
spotted the eggs, or Mermaids' purses, attached to kelp in the aquarium's
4.5 million litre Underwater Safari display while they were on cleaning
duty.
Cwm Idwal, set deep into the north-eastern face of
the Glydr mountain range in Snowdonia National Park, is a much studied
example of a glacial cwm or corrie.
Communities in Argyll are working together to
ensure they get maximum benefit from three proposed offshore
windfarm sites which could bring up to £9billion of investment
to the county.
Huge amounts of toxic waste that posed a “significant
environmental threat” are set to be removed from a treatment
facility shut down over safety fears.
A massive 21 per cent of freshwater species of animals
and plants in continental Africa are threatened with extinction, putting
the livelihoods of millions of people at risk, a comprehensive new
study for IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species has discovered.
Tibetan nomads struggle as grasslands disappear from
the roof of the world
Like generations of Tibetan nomads before him, Phuntsok
Dorje makes a living raising yaks and other livestock on the vast
alpine grasslands that provide a thatch on the roof of the world.
India's elephants finally given same protection as
tigers
The humble hardworking elephant is not an animal that
usually likes to complain. But over the years, while higher-profile,
more urgently threatened species have been the subject of widescale
conservation efforts, elephant numbers have been allowed to dwindle.
Are wolves saving Yellowstone's aspen trees from elk?
Previous research has claimed that the reintroduction
of wolves to Yellowstone National Park in 1995 is helping restore
quaking aspen in risky areas where wolves prowl.
The United States Geological Survey in its report
— published in collaboration with 39 international scientists
— says that glaciers throughout the Asia region —
Russia, China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Afghanistan,
Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan — are retreating.
Portugal's forests losing ability to capture
carbon
Environmentalists are alarmed: fires have destroyed
close to 100,000 hectares of forest in Portugal this summer,
releasing one million tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Worst of all, the forests are losing their ability to absorb
carbon.
IPS
Must try harder
If this week’s report into the workings
of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by a
council of national academies of science were the sort of report
children take home from school, its main themes would be expressed
as “could do better” and “needs to show workings”.
About 45 nations met on Thursday to seek ways
to raise billions of dollars in aid to help the poor combat
climate change as the United Nations warned them of a long haul
to slow global warming.
Energy secretary Chris Huhne warned not to cut
subsidies for green electricity
A coalition of green, countryside and housing
groups has warned energy secretary Chris Huhne not to cut subsidies
for green electricity and heating as part of the government's
spending review.
