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Bird of prey 10 times more likely to die on English grouse moors than other habitats
Hen harriers are 10 times more likely to die or disappear from or near to English grouse moors than any other habitat, according to a long-term study which reveals the scale of the illegal persecution of the endangered raptor.
An analysis of hen harriersover a decade found 72% of 58 satellite-tagged birds were confirmed or considered “very likely” to have been illegally killed. Just 17% of juvenile hen harriers survived beyond their first year around grouse moors in northern England and southern Scotland, compared with 36% across the Scottish mainland, where persecution has also been recorded, and between 37% and 54% on Orkney, where there are no grouse moors.
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Images show marine biologist removing 88lb worth of plastic bags from stomach of whale that died in Philippines of ‘gastric shock’
- Warning: this article includes graphic images some readers may find disturbing
Graphic autopsy images have revealed the terrible toll that plastic waste took on a young whale found dead in the Philippines.
The juvenile Cuvier’s beaked whale died of “gastric shock” after swallowing 88lb (40kg) of plastic bags, according to marine biologists at the D’Bone Collector Museum, a natural history institution in Davao City in the Philippines.
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Activist Greta Thunberg, 16, says action proved ‘no one is too small to make a difference’
More than 1.4 million young people around the world took part in school strikes for climate action, according to environmental campaigners.
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish student whose solo protest last August prompted the global movement, said: “We proved that it does matter what you do and that no one is too small to make a difference.”
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California town bars access to site as stunning flowers draw at least 50,000 visitors
Related:Super bloom: can this tiny California town avoid another 'flowergeddon'?
This weekend thousands of tourists frolicked through fields of poppies in southern California, posting photos tagged #superbloom. But for the town of Lake Elsinore, the influx of visitors quickly became a #poppynightmare.
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Scientists say AP study consistent with peer-reviewed literature and shows clear sign of human-caused climate change
Over the past 20 years, Americans have been twice as likely to sweat through record-breaking heat rather than shiver through record-setting cold, a new Associated Press data analysis shows.
The AP looked at 424 weather stations throughout the US lower 48 states that had consistent temperature records since 1920 and counted how many times daily hot temperature records were tied or broken and how many daily cold records were set. In a stable climate, the numbers should be roughly equal.
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Exclusive: Environment Agency chief calls for use to be cut by a third
England is set to run short of water within 25 years, the chief executive of the Environment Agency has warned.
The country is facing the ‘‘jaws of death”, Sir James Bevan said, at the point where water demand from the country’s rising population surpasses the falling supply resulting from climate change.
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Labour peer Robert Winston has asked about regulating cyclists. An imagined transport minister responds
On Monday, the scientist and Labour peer Robert Winston is to formally ask a question in the House of Lords about what assessments ministers have made “for requiring adults riding bicycles in city centres to have a licence and third-party insurance”.
Below is the entirely imagined response I would like the government to make to him.
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Schoolchildren around the world are joining a global strike against climate change this week. But they’re not the only everyday people inspired to take action. We talk to 10 UK activists on the frontline of our most serious environmental issues
Extinction Rebellionis an environmental direct action group
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Scientists say a drastic cut in meat consumption is needed, but this requires political will
It has been known for a while that the amount of animal products being eaten is bad for both the welfare of animals and the environment. People cannot consume 12.9bn eggs in the UK each year without breaking a few.
But the extent of the damage, and the amount by which people need to cut back, is now becoming clearer. On Wednesday, the Lancet medical journal published a study that calls for dramatic changes to food production and the human diet, in order to avoid “catastrophic damage to the planet”.
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The continent’s largest land mammal plays crucial role in spiritual lives of the tribes
On 5,000 hectares of unploughed prairie in north-eastern Montana, hundreds of wild bison roam once again. But this herd is not in a national park or a protected sanctuary – they are on tribal lands. Belonging to the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes of Fort Peck Reservation, the 340 bison is the largest conservation herd in the ongoing bison restoration efforts by North America’s Indigenous people.
The bison – or as Native Americans call them, buffalo – are not just “sustenance,” according to Leroy Little Bear, a professor at the University of Lethbridge and a leader in the bison restoration efforts with the Blood Tribe. The continent’s largest land mammal plays a major role in the spiritual and cultural lives of numerous Native American tribes, an “integrated relationship,” he said.
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