Removal of nearly 500 barriers last year will help restore disturbed waterways to their natural state, says Dam Removal Europe
Europe removed a record number of dams and other barriers from its rivers in 2023, a report has found, helping to restore its disturbed waterways to their natural states.
Nearly 500 barriers were taken out of European rivers last year, according to figures compiled by Dam Removal Europe, an increase of 50% from the year before.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
04/15/2024 - 01:00
A new collection of wildlife photography aims to help understand why people have photographed animals at different points in history and what it means in the present. Huw Lewis-Jones explores the animal in photography through the work of more than 100 photographers in Why We Photograph Animals, supporting the images with thematic essays to provide historical context
Photography on display at the Cheltenham science festival 4-9 June 2024
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04/15/2024 - 00:30
Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen are allowed to keep the bird, which had become Instagram famous with their staffy, Peggy, but are forbidden from monetising it
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Molly the magpie has been returned to its Gold Coast carers – but they are no longer allowed to make money from its 837,000 Instagram followers.
The department of environment, science and innovation approved a special licence for Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen, who have cared for it since it fell from the nest in 2020.
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04/14/2024 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 15 April 2024; doi:10.1038/s44183-024-00062-w
Balancing protection and production in ocean conservation
04/14/2024 - 18:30
Protemnodon viator believed to have weighed up to 170kg – double the size of the largest species alive today
Supersized marsupials roamed the Australian continent for millennia. But until now the understanding of giant kangaroos – or Protemnodon – has been confined to isolated bones and difficult-to-distinguish species.
Scientists have now identified three new species of the extinct giant kangaroo – Protemnodon viator, Protemnodon mamkurra and Protemnodon dawsonae, which lived from 5m to 40,000 years ago.
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04/14/2024 - 09:00
Indigenous groups see hope in the environmentally friendly process of bioremediation. But will cities pay attention?
It almost looked like a garden. In Taylor Yard, a former railyard near downtown Los Angeles, volunteers knelt down to tend to scrubby plants growing in neat rows under the sweltering sun.
But beneath the concrete of the 60-acre site overlooking the Los Angeles River, the soils were soaked with an assortment of hazardous heavy metals and petrochemicals like lead, cadmium, diesel and benzene. As the volunteers worked to dig up entire plants for closer study – some with roots nearly 12ft deep – they wore protective gear and carefully avoided inhaling or touching the toxic soil. Even a brief exposure to the contaminants could cause serious health consequences.
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04/14/2024 - 08:00
Hairy-nosed otters and cats that catch fish are among the startling diversity of creatures making their home in threatened habitats
One of the most comprehensive biodiversity surveys ever carried out in a mangrove forest has revealed that an astonishing array of wildlife makes its home in these key, threatened habitats.
Hundreds of species – from bats to birds and fish to insects – were identified during the study of the Peam Krasop sanctuary and the adjacent Koh Kapik Ramsar reserve in Cambodia. Hairy-nosed otters, smooth-coated otters, large-spotted civets, long-tailed macaques and fishing cats, as well a wide range of bat species, were among the residents recorded by the survey, which was funded by the conservation group Fauna & Flora International. The variety of wildlife has staggered biologists.
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04/14/2024 - 05:00
Paris agreement negotiator Todd Stern attacks premiers who say that decarbonisation programmes are unrealistic and should be slowed down
Political leaders who present themselves as “grownups” while slowing the pace of climate action are pushing the world towards deeper catastrophe, a former US climate chief has warned.
“We are slowed down by those who think of themselves as grownups and believe decarbonisation at the speed the climate community calls for is unrealistic,” said Todd Stern, who served as a special envoy for climate change under Barack Obama, and helped negotiate the 2015 Paris agreement.
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04/14/2024 - 05:00
Amy Westervelt and Kyle Pope have covered climate disinformation for a combined 20-plus years – here’s their guide on how to decode it
Increasingly sophisticated and better-funded disinformation is making climate coverage trickier both for journalists to produce and for the public to fully understand and trust.
But telling the story, and understanding it, has never been more urgent with half of Earth’s population eligible to vote in elections that could decisively impact the world’s ability to act in time to stave off the worst of the climate crisis.
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04/14/2024 - 04:00
The tree all but vanished in the 1970s. Now, thanks to two amateur nature lovers, it may soon grace our landscapes again
Constable painted them. Shakespeare wrote of them. And Francis Drake sailed the world in a ship made from them. English elms were a mainstay of England’s landscape and culture – until they all but disappeared to Dutch elm disease in the 1970s.
Since that devastation, when 25m elms were felled, enthusiasts and academics have searched for varieties resistant to the fungus spread by Scolytus beetles that kills the trees.
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