Buglife today announce the results of the National
Oil Beetle Survey. The alarming results indicate oil beetle population
decline across many parts of the UK, especially in the East of the
country.
Exposed: the barbaric gangs who torture and kill badgers
The cruel thugs, believed to be from Belfast, were
secretly photographed as they attacked an active badger sett at an
undisclosed location in Northern Ireland.
The dead badger on the roadside last week started me
thinking about these enigmatic mammals which still seem to hold their
own, despite the pressures of the modern countryside.
Clash of the crayfish: why the Americans are winning
Aggressive American signal crayfish are threatening
Yorkshire's native white-clawed crayfish populations because they
have better resistance to parasites and are less fussy about what
they eat.
Pollinators play a key role within most terrestrial
communities in maintaining plant populations, as well as pollinating
many agricultural crops for seed and fruit production.
Plants can "remember" drought and change
responses to the stress to survive, a finding that could lead to more
drought-resistant crops, U.S. researchers say.
IWDG confirm two records of a pair of killer whales
within an eight day interval, close to Barry's Head, Newfoundland
Bay, c4 miles east of Kinsale, Co. Cork on both 5th and 13th March
2012.
A decision to allow four large wind turbines close
to a "unique" Elizabethan garden undermines protection
of heritage sites, the National Trust has warned.
U.K. renewable energy push may prevent electricity
crisis
The U.K. is heading for power blackouts within five
years unless Prime Minister David Cameron devises a better strategy
to build new nuclear plants, the former government’s chief
scientific adviser said.
Specialist seed company, Kings Game Cover and Conservation
Crops and wildlife research charity, the Game & Wildlife Conservation
Trust, will be working in partnership over the next three years
to develop a range of improved wildlife crops that will maximise
their benefit for farmland wildlife.
The Australian Koala Foundation has accused the state
government of "appalling science" to bolster koala numbers
in its latest koala population survey so it would not lose koala planning
control to the federal government.
Sir Alan Mark and Rod Morris say the Denniston Plateau
is too precious a treasure trove to disturb with opencast mining and
must be protected for its unique heritage values.
Unusual pine beetle breeding could explain tree epidemic
A new study has found that some populations of mountain
pine beetles are producing two generations of tree-killing offspring
each year, a phenomenon that may help explain the scale of damage
being done to vast tracts of lodgepole and ponderosa pines across
western North America.
A bat-killing disease that has wiped out nearly 7 million
bats across the eastern United States is spreading southward, wildlife
officials said this week after detecting white-nose syndrome in Alabama.
With the launch of the Oil Sands Leadership Initiative
(OSLI) this month, there is a new commitment by the companies developing
Canada’s oil sands to address the environmental impacts of their
operations.
Two twice ‘extinct’ trees rediscovered
in coastal Tanzania
Scientists have confirmed the rediscovery of two tree
species that were feared to have become extinct twice, according to
a report published in the Journal of East African Natural History.
IAEA ‘concerned’ about world’s ageing
nuclear plants
Eighty percent of the world's nuclear power plants
are more than 20 years old, raising safety concerns, a draft UN report
says a year after Japan’s Fukushima disaster.
The “Kopacki Rit”, Croatia, Danube’s
most valuable and best preserved floodplain system along the Croatian
– Serbian border is threatened with destruction.
Met Office: Arctic sea-ice loss linked to colder, drier UK winters
The reduction in Arctic sea ice caused by climate
change is playing a role in the UK's recent colder and drier winter
weather, according to the Met Office.
Australia's climate is warming at an alarming rate
and is set to become drier despite recent record floods, scientists
said in a report that warns of increased drought and fiercer storms.
Three of the nation's leading climate scientists
have linked the past two years of record wet weather to climate
change in their strongest findings yet on the impact of global warming
on the nation's climate.
An early spring drives butterfly population declines
Early snow melt in the Colorado Rocky Mountains initiates
two chains of events resulting in population decline in the mormon
fritillary butterfly, Speyeria mormonia.
Global greenhouse gas emissions could rise 50 percent
by 2050 without more ambitious climate policies, as fossil fuels
continue to dominate the energy mix, the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Thursday.
UN aviation body mulls responsibilities in carbon
dispute
The United Nations body that oversees civil aviation
has asked a working group to keep examining options to address emissions
from aviation, but there is already conflict on the roles to be
played by developed and developing countries, according to one official
who attended a top-level meeting on Wednesday.
Coal-reliant Poland increasingly out of step with
Europe on climate
Frustrations with Poland are growing in the European
Union after the coal-powered nation for a second time blocked the
EU’s long-term plans for cutting carbon emissions.
Scientists use Thoreau's journal notes to track climate
change
Fittingly for a man seen as the first environmentalist,
Henry David Thoreau, who described his isolated life in 1840s Massachusetts
in the classic of American literature Walden, is now helping scientists
pin down the impacts of climate change.
Atmospheric CO2 levels hit 800,000-year high: CSIRO
Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are now higher
than at any time in the last 800,000 years, while the last decade
in Australia was the warmest on record, CSIRO scientists say.
