More than half of south Asia's groundwater too contaminated to use – study
Salinity and arsenic affect 60% of underground supply across vast Indo-Gangetic Basin, according to research published in Nature Geoscience Sixty per cent of the groundwater in a river basin supporting more than 750 million people in Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh is not drinkable or usable for irrigation, researchers have said. The biggest threat to […]
North Dakota oil pipeline protesters stand their ground: 'This is sacred land'
Pipeline’s planned route takes it close to Standing Rock Sioux reservation and Cannon Ball, which could endanger drinking water and threaten sacred sites The Cannonball river flows into the mighty Missouri about 50 miles due south of Bismarck, North Dakota. At its confluence, a protest encampment – really a series of camps, on both sides […]
‘We’re not going home’: inside the North Dakota oil pipeline protest – video
There is a battle under way near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, over plans for a multibillion-dollar oil pipeline. The North Dakota Access pipeline will run just outside the formal boundary of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, and tribal members fear it will pollute local drinking water and disturb sacred sites Faces of the North Dakota […]
New York governor sparks anger after killing threatened shark
Conservationists criticise Andrew Cuomo after he tweets photos of himself next to thresher shark caught during fishing trip The New York state governor, Andrew Cuomo, and his news anchor brother Chris have been criticised by conservationists and constituents after posing beside a threatened shark they killed on a fishing trip. The governor tweeted two photos […]
UK government could approve Hinkley Point but delay Essex project
Decision on the Bradwell reactor could be stalled to allow a discussion about security, potentially endangering deal with China The government is considering a proposal to detach development of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant from an agreement allowing China to build a reactor in Essex. The plan is one of the options under […]
The Anthropocene epoch: scientists declare dawn of human-influenced age
Experts say human impact on Earth so profound that Holocene must give way to epoch defined by nuclear tests, plastic pollution and domesticated chicken Humanity’s impact on the Earth is now so profound that a new geological epoch – the Anthropocene – needs to be declared, according to an official expert group who presented the […]
The Anthropocene epoch could inaugurate even more marvellous eras of evolution | Martin Rees
The darkest prognosis is that bio, cyber or environmental catastrophes could foreclose humanity’s potential. But there is an optimistic option On Christmas Eve 1968, the Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders took a photograph of the view outside the window as his spaceship orbited the moon. The now iconic Earthrise image shows our half-moon blue planet […]
World first for Shetlands in tidal power breakthrough
Nova Innovation deploys first fully operational array of tidal power turbines in the Bluemull Sound A power company in Shetland has claimed a breakthrough in the race to develop viable offshore tidal stations after successfully feeding electricity to local homes. Nova Innovation said it had deployed the world’s first fully operational array of tidal power […]
California has urged President Obama and Congress to tax carbon pollution | Dana Nuccitelli
The California state government passed AJR 43, urging the national government to pass a revenue-neutral carbon tax Last week, the California state senate passed Assembly Joint Resolution 43, urging the federal government to pass a revenue-neutral carbon tax: WHEREAS, A national carbon tax would make the United States a leader in mitigating climate change and […]
Small tortoiseshell butterfly numbers have plummeted across UK
Conservationists fear this year’s cool spring and slow start to summer have taken their toll on one of UK’s best-loved butterflies Conservationists are warning of the decline of one of the UK’s best-loved butterflies. Numbers of the small tortoiseshell – which is one of the most recognisable and widespread in the country – appear to […]