-
Pollack from the Channel and dover sole from the Irish Sea among those to avoid, Good Fish Guide says
Only about one in eight UK fisheries have been awarded “green” status for sustainability in the latest edition of the Good Fish Guide.
Of the 337 wild fisheries around the British Isles included on the list, which is compiled by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) and updated twice a year, only 13% were regarded as good sustainable choices. The MCS categorises a fishery as a species of fish or shellfish from a specific area caught in a specific way.
Continue reading...
-
Dr Gianluca Grimalda told by Kiel Institute for World Economy he must be at his desk on Monday after finishing fieldwork
A climate researcher has been threatened with the sack by his employer after refusing to fly back to Germany at short notice after finishing fieldwork on Bougainvillein the Solomon Islands archipelago.
On Friday, Dr Gianluca Grimalda, an environmental campaigner who refuses to fly on principle, was told by his employer, Germany’s Kiel Institute for World Economy, that if he was not at his desk on Monday he would no longer have a job to return to.
Continue reading...
-
It is fortunate the shy species found a home in Britain as the animals are vanishing in their native China
A long, thin, pearly white tusk found while walking in Bedfordshire was identified (with the help of a warden from the local country park) as having fallen from the jaw of a Chinese water deer (Hydropotes inermis).
The deer is a shy Asian species that is firmly established in the east of England. Like the slightly smaller muntjac, it escaped almost a century ago from the Duke of Bedford’s collection at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire.
Continue reading...
-
Inkpen, West Berkshire: The cows turn their rumps to the weather, ghost rivers rise … meanwhile, I do my checks on house and hut
A full day of heavy rain on summer‑hard ground falls, runs and accumulates in a familiar, even reassuring, way – up to a point. I know where I need to take its measure. I know the flashpoints and weaknesses in our defences, where the water might seep into the house, my hut, the horses’ barn; they peer out stoically, blinking through long, dripping, witch-knotted forelocks.
My son turns his 22-year-old car round on the field edge, its rump to the weather like the cows next door, so the water is less likely to seep through its perished rubber seals. I know how the water will build, overspill and run down the pavementless lanes – a deepening graphite crosshatching either side of the camber, or opaque as spilt milk off the chalk tracks. I know at what point the leap from the garden steps to the lane becomes unjumpable, and my work shoes are swapped for wellies. I know which benignly brimming potholes have hidden depths. The lanes flood in all the usual places, so I know to slow by Coldharbour Farm corner and, if the water’s reached the oak tree, to turn around.
Continue reading...
-
Public to vote in contest organized by Katmai national park to see which bear looks to have put on most pre-hibernation weight
Fat Bear Week, the annual competition to see which Alaskan bears can pack on the most pounds before hibernation season, begins this week, with a combination of fan favorites and newcomers vying for the title of the state’s most rotund bear.
The contest, which has become increasingly popular in recent years, will see 12 bears in the Katmai national park in Alaska face off against each other, in an online vote.
Continue reading...
-
Paper reveals scientists’ concerns that single-species carbon plantations threaten native flora and fauna, while delivering negligible benefits
Monoculture tree-planting schemes are threatening tropical biodiversity while only offering modest climate benefit, ecologists have said, warning that ecosystems like the Amazon and Congo basin are being reduced to their carbon value.
Amid a boom in the planting of single-species plantations to capture carbon, scientists have urged governments to prioritise the conservation and restoration of native forests over commercial monocultures, and cautioned that planting swathes of non-native trees in tropical regions threatens important flora and fauna for a negligible climate impact.
Continue reading...
-
Rightwing thinktank Civitas mistakenly cost onshore wind power 10,000 times higher than reality and claimed bill would be £4.5tn
A report that hugely overestimated the cost to the UK of reaching net zero emissions has been retracted by the rightwing thinktank that published it.
The Civitas pamphlet published on Thursday claimed to offer a “realistic” estimate of the cost – £4.5tn – and said “the government needs to be honest with the British people”. However, factual errors were quickly pointed out after publication.
Continue reading...
-
Ideas include making a memorial bench using the timber, seeing what the stump does and planting a forest
There is a big hole at Sycamore Gap on the route of Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland after a 300-year-old tree was chopped down. Many are mourning the loss of the world-famous tree but amid the gloom, ideas are flooding in about what to do next. A stone circle, a sculpture of the tree, or a metal replica where it fell have all been floated, and one man even went to a local garden centre and planted a young sapling himself, although this was removed by the National Trust. Here are some of the options.
Continue reading...
-
Rapid attribution study finds storm 10-20% wetter after city experienced a month’s worth of rain in just a few hours on Friday
The unmistakable influence of the climate crisis helped cause New York City to be inundated by a month’s worth of rain within just a few hours on Friday, scientists have warned, amid concerns over how well the city is prepared for severe climate shocks.
A new rapid attribution study, released by scientists in Europe, has found that the type of storm seen on Friday is now 10-20% wetter than it would have been in the previous century, because of climate change.
Continue reading...
-
Bleaklow, Derbyshire: The ancient Barrow Stones reveal so much on close inspection, if you unleash your inner whim
It is one of the laws of Homo vehiculus, the wheel-dependent subspecies of our kind, that if you find a roadless patch in Britain you can have the place to yourself. Almost. We were happy to share the whole day on Bleaklow – a name that speaks volumes by itself – with five others. And two of them were at some other, undetermined gritstone edge, on a far horizon.
Our hearts, however, were for the Barrow Stones, the monolith group below Bleaklow Hill and surely the most beautiful in an area not short of such monuments. They’re about an hour’s slow grind across the moors that were traditionally shooting terrain. Despite the map indicating shooters’ butts and a cabin, we heard the distant sounds of a single red grouse during the entire visit, suggesting that both the bird and its followers could fade away in a near future.
Continue reading...