-
Exclusive: Charity says footage shows fish being struck repeatedly and at least one child taking part in killing fish
Animal welfare campaigners allege that a “harrowing series of welfare abuses” have taken place at one of England’s oldest working trout farms in a tourist hotspot in the Cotswolds, including the participation of children in killing fish.
Animal Equality UK, a charity that works to end cruelty to farmed animals, has released video footage that it claims shows fish being repeatedly beaten with batons, mishandled and left to suffocate by untrained members of the public including a child at Bibury trout farm in Gloucestershire.
Continue reading...
-
The organic veg pioneer talks to the Guardian about being unemployable, his unconventional father and his recent autism diagnosis
“Cardoons are a perennial crop – they keep coming back every year,” says Guy Singh-Watson, as his dog, Artichoke, roots around for voles among the tall thistle-like plants. “They would be a dream crop – if only people liked eating them.”
Cardoons, which Singh-Watson learned to love while snowed in on a Sicilian mountain, are not your typical vegetable. But then the Riverford veg box founder is not your typical farmer, despite still living only a few miles from the farm where he was born.
Continue reading...
-
Amid environmental tragedy, a hidden world of curiosity and wonder still exists. And in this, says Natalie Kyriacou, we can find glimmers of hope
The last great auk, it is said, was strangled unceremoniously in its sleep in 1844. Plump and penguin-like, the great auk had survived for hundreds of thousands of years until humans discovered the utility of its soft down feathers, eggs and meat. Great auks mate for life, and it was on Eldey island in Iceland where the final pair on Earth met their fate at the hands of three fishermen who fell upon them.
“I took him by the neck and he flapped his wings. He made no cry. I strangled him,” said the man who killed the last of a species.
Continue reading...
-
Corridors of nectar-rich plants encourage pollination and brighten up city streets at the same time
Take a closer look at the colourful plants dotted along an initially unassuming Bristol alleyway and you’ll see them teeming with insects. Bumblebees, hoverflies and ladybirds throng around a mixture of catmint, yarrow, geraniums and anemones. “It’s buzzing with pollinators now,” Flora Beverley says.
Just over a year ago, the alley we are walking down was a dreary, litter-strewn dumping ground. Now, thanks to the pollinator pathways project, it is filled with nectar-rich plants and bee hotels. Colourful murals line the walls. A neighbour and her son passing by stop to tell Beverley they watered the plants yesterday. The local people who helped to transform the pathways continue to maintain them too.
Continue reading...
-
Data shows more than 1m hectares torched so far this year, with records also broken for CO2 and other air pollutants
Wildfires ravaging the EU have torched more than 1m hectares this year, marking 2025 as the worst year on record, a full month before the fire season ends.
Deadly infernos that have emptied out villages and forced farmers to become firefighters have engulfed four times as much land this year as the average for the same period over the past two decades, according to official data that was updated on Friday and may be revised further.
Continue reading...
-
Researchers ‘shocked’ to discover some species settling down for sleep 50 minutes later than rural counterparts
Urban birds stay up significantly later than their rural counterparts, according to research that highlights the impact of light pollution on wildlife.
The study, based on recordings submitted by bird enthusiasts to a popular species identification and mapping website, showed that light pollution caused birds to sing for an average of 50 minutes longer each day, with some species waking up an hour earlier and settling down for the evening an hour later.
Continue reading...
-
Manchester: The woodlice, worms, slugs and snails are all working hard to make the compost as good as possible
The fresh “forest floor” smell filled my nostrils as Mum twisted the lid off the compost bin. “Get a lungful,” she said, sticking her head over it and encouraging me to do so. It smelled fantastic – magical almost – raw nature broken down into dark, crumbly, nutrient rich compost; not pungent and wet like in winter.
We call it our black gold. We’ve been taking turns to stir it all year, rain or shine, mixing our compost “soup”. We add layers of kitchen waste – greens and browns – fruit skins, vegetable peelings and cardboard tubes. We chop them up so they break down more easily. We water our heap when it feels dry, with the rainwater that collects in our water butt and rolls down the drainpipe from Dad’s shed.
Continue reading...
-
State considers its options to control Karenia mikimotoi, which has left beaches littered with dead seaweed and sealife
New satellite imagery of South Australia’s devastating algal bloom shows it shifting and surging around the coast, where it has killed tens of thousands of marine animals.
On the video, a light green smudge explodes into an angry, purplish red mass, indicating a high concentration of chlorophyll. It expands and contracts as the weather changes from January to August.
Continue reading...
-
Illegal immigration and the climate crisis were hotly debated by the novelist and the former tram driver. But did they end up on the same track?
Sunyi, 38, Wakefield
Occupation Novelist
Continue reading...
-
The close call in Tracy Arm 50 miles south of Juneau on 10 August is the latest sign that as glaciers melt, risks may rise
The landslide that triggered a powerful tsunami in Alaska’s Inside Passage early on 10 August was a close call, say scientists, tour operators and agency officials, with the risk of such events apparently increasing as glaciers retreat because of climate change.
“It’s a historic event,” said scientist Dennis Staley from the US Geological Survey of the slide, which occurred in the Tracy Arm fjord 50 miles (80km) south of Juneau.
Continue reading...
