Southern Water says it wants to protect rare chalk streams, but campaigners say it could pollute the Solent
A proposed £1.2bn scheme to recycle effluent from the sewage system and turn it in to drinking water has been criticised as a threat to the environment and a potential costly “white elephant”.
Southern Water wants to treat effluent – wastewater from the sewage system – at a plant at Havant in Hampshire and pipe it into a nearby spring-fed reservoir to boost water supplies during droughts. The scheme would ensure less water is extracted from two rare chalk streams: the Rivers Test and Itchen.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/13/2024 - 04:00
07/12/2024 - 19:00
The Campbell’s keeled glass-snail was officially extinct until March 2020, when a local citizen scientist found it on the remote Norfolk Island. 40 of the thumbnail-sized snails were taken to a dedicated and quarantined captive breeding facility in Taronga zoo. 40 baby snails were born in the last fortnight, after initially struggling to reproduce in captivity
Lion brothers make record-breaking 1.5km swim in hope of finding mates - video
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07/12/2024 - 15:32
Residents suffer sleepless nights without air-conditioning as energy company blames fallen trees for outages
Nearly 800,000 Houston residents remain without electricity five days after the category-1 Hurricane Beryl downed power lines across the city. The outages come as the city is under heat advisory, with heat index values over 100F (37.8C).
Residents have described insufferable heat, sleepless nights, and fear for the wellbeing of elderly parents, young children and disabled relatives amid scorching temperatures.
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07/12/2024 - 11:41
Lakes, with their rich biodiversity and important ecological services, face a concerning trend: rapidly increasing temperatures. A recent study by limnologists and climate modelers reveals that if current anthropogenic warming continues until the end of this century, lakes worldwide will likely experience pervasive and unprecedented surface and subsurface warming, far outside the range of what they have encountered before.
07/12/2024 - 10:00
Donations grew dramatically after Australia’s black summer but animal carers say they didn’t receive enough
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Australia’s largest wildlife rescue organisation faces a landmark vote on Sunday, as members unhappy with the distribution of donations after the black summer bushfires attempt to change its constitution.
The income of the Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (Wires), based in NSW, ballooned from $3m to more than $100m thanks to the success of its fundraising campaign after the catastrophic fires of 2019-20, which burned millions of hectares of land and reportedly killed or displaced 3 billion animals.
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07/12/2024 - 09:14
Four animals released in Wallington estate in Northumberland last year have transformed the landscape
The first beavers in Northumberland for more than 400 years have been stupendously busy. There are new dam systems, as well as canals and burrows, new wildlife-rich wetlands and, thrillingly, a baby beaver.
Whether it is male or female remains to be seen. “Beavers don’t have external genitalia,” said Heather Devey, an expert. “They are really hard to sex. It’s really only through their anal glands that you can tell.”
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07/12/2024 - 07:49
Low yields combined with low prices for some crops also led to a 13% drop in farm output compared with 2022
Income from farming in England plummeted by 19% last year after floods meant harvesting many crops was impossible.
Farmers have called for more support from the government as the climate breaks down, meaning agricultural businesses are no longer able to count on mild UK weather and increasingly face drought and floods.
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07/12/2024 - 02:00
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
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07/12/2024 - 01:00
Hundreds of Europeans touring the American west and adventurers from around the US are being drawn to Death Valley national park, even though the desolate region known as one of Earth’s hottest places is being punished by a dangerous heatwave, which was blamed for a motorcyclist’s recent death
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07/12/2024 - 00:00
With up to 80% of butterflies in decline, people are being asked to spend 15 minutes to record number and type witnessed
Scientists are calling on the public to help track how British butterflies are moving north as the climate heats up.
Examining 50 years of data, researchers from the wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation, which runs the annual Big Butterfly Count, have identified a clear northerly shift among many species, including the familiar garden favourites the comma, peacock and holly blue.
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