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Citizen environmentalists create online platform that flags spills in real time and highlights repeatedly polluted spots
The easy thing for the people who live on the banks of the River Dart in Devon might have been to grumble and groan about the sewage spills that blight their beloved waterway.
Instead, citizen environmentalists in the area have created a unique online platform that flags up spills in real time, highlights spots that are repeatedly polluted, and sets out where improvement work is planned – and where it isn’t.
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Climate crisis blamed as virus that originated in Africa spreads to livestock as far north as Aberdeenshire
British farmers are experiencing the worst bluetongue season on record, with the number of cases surpassing the past three years combined.
The viral disease, which affects sheep and cattle among other animals, can cause fevers, ulcers, a swollen head and lameness. The tongue may go blue and even protrude from the mouth. In the most severe cases, the animal can die.
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EU Copernicus report shows surface air temperatures from June to August were 2.5C above decadal average
The scorching heat that persistently baked western Europe this summer was the worst on record, a report has found, with more than half the continent seared by “very strong” heat stress that felt hotter than 38C.
Surface air temperatures in western Europe from June to August were 2.5C above the recent decadal average, according to an update from the EU’s Copernicus climate monitoring service on Friday, while milder but still deadly heat across the rest of the continent made the summer Europe’s third hottest on record.
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This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world
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Micro aircraft used to help guide birds to Spanish stopover as part of efforts to create sustaining migratory population
Fifteen new birds have joined a growing flock of bald ibises in northern Spain, guided there by human migration guides in micro aircraft who helped them along the route.
The birds are part of the growing European flock of the northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita), the charismatic and frankly extraordinary bird that had been extinct on the continent for 300 years.
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Tebay, Cumbria: I’ve had a stroke of luck with applying for government funding, but some bad vet results are overshadowing things once more
Last week was an important one as the government’s sustainable farming incentive opened for this year. Thankfully, I was working on my laptop when the email came through, so I submitted an application for us to become an organic farm. Others were not so lucky – the funding ran out after a few hours, and WhatsApp became a catalogue of despair among farmers who missed out and now don’t know how their farm businesses will survive. It’s clear that the government needs to provide more money to support sustainable farming.
Meanwhile, it’s been a difficult period since June as we’ve been “shut down” with TB. We’ve been waiting to test again so we can hopefully sell our bullocks, bull and breeding heifers. The wait has been extended because of my son’s wedding, and we had to find a new vet after our previous vet stopped taking farm animals as it was uneconomical for them. I’ve been unable to sleep. Another shutdown would again impact us financially.
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‘Day-to-day’ symptom of harmful emissions, which in turn can disrupt sleep, can be overlooked, say researchers
New research has found that increased air pollution is associated with more night-time coughing, leading to disturbed sleep.
Most air pollution research looks at symptoms that are severe enough for people to seek medical help, but day-to-day symptoms can be overlooked. Prof Cecilia Mascolo, who led the study from the University of Cambridge, said: “I come from an area in Italy with very high pollution and I am very aware of its not-talked-about effects.”
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A statewide initiative pairs climate-focused coursework with community service – and is spreading to other states
As a student at a high school not far from Denver’s main airport, Anthony Muñoz wondered whether the jet fuel from airplanes flying above his campus was harming living things.
An avid gardener, Muñoz partnered with a local university to create a garden on the campus of his charter school, Vista Academy, filling it with native plants that could detect ground-level ozone pollution. He also worked with climate scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a federal office in nearby Boulder, who directed Muñoz on what data to collect, what the condition of leaves reveals about air quality and why milkweed matters for monarch butterfly migration.
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The co-founder of the Right to Roam campaign and author of The Book of Trespass discusses the Oxfordshire riverside community he calls home and how Hardwick Hall has been taken back by the people
On the banks of the Thames in South Oxfordshire, the Hardwick estate has been owned by the Rose family for generations. When Sir Charles Rose, a banker, sportsman, yachtsman and aviator, sped through the lanes in his Rolls-Royce in the early days of motoring, he inspired Kenneth Grahame to create Mr Toad in The Wind in the Willows. Grahame’s character became a symbol of decadent aristocracy whose foolishness leads to the temporary loss of a fine house to weasel-socialists.
Now Toad Hall has been taken over for good and Nick Hayes, artist, writer and co-founder of the Right to Roam campaign, has had a riverside view of this striking turn of events. When Hayes, who lives on a beautiful wide-beamed barge on the Thames, became the Hardwick estate’s artist-in-residence, he discovered that Rose’s heirs are, in effect, disinheriting themselves. The estate is gradually being turned into a charity which will be run by the tenants and the alternative community that has grown up in its shelter.
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Exclusive: Images show deep cuts and damage to tails and fins, as experts warn the migrating species often aren’t able to avoid a collision
Gruesome images of adult and juvenile humpback whales along Australia’s east coast with slash and gouge injuries from boat and propeller strikes highlight what experts say is a growing problem, as the population booms 60 years after the ban on whaling.
Missing tail parts, deep red lacerations and shocking injuries to the spine of a whale calf can be clearly seen on the images, gathered by WWF Australia and shared with the Guardian.
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