Sluggy McSlugface no more: sea slug named for fly-in, fly-out mining workers
Multicoloured slug, a species of nudibranch, was discovered in 2000 off the Western Australian coast and will be officially named Moridilla fifo A multicoloured sea slug discovered off the coast of Western Australia has been named for the state’s fly-in, fly-out mining workforce after a judging panel ruled that Sluggy McSlugface breached the International Code […]
The power of water to drive a mill and break a bridge
Burneside, Cumbria I walked a narrow bank, the mill race on one side and a steep drop to the swirling Sprint on the other. And I thought of last December’s flood Sprint Mill sits in a small wooded gorge below a cascade of sinuous waterfalls on the river Sprint. There has been a cloth manufacturing […]
Fine days for harvesting: Country diary 50 years ago
Originally published in the Guardian on 26 August 1966 HAMPSHIRE: The wondrous fine days of last week have come just right for the harvesters. Although tractors with trolleys are not so picturesque as horses with wains, there remains a flavour of the sacred earth at harvest-time. The more especially in large fields with men and […]
A collared pratincole pays a rare visit to Somerset
An exotic visitor, that should should have been sunning itself by the Mediterranean, attracts crowds of birdwatchers to the Ham Wall reserve My birding friend Rob may have got married only the day before, but nothing stops him from looking regularly at his pager to check out the latest sightings of rare birds. Fortunately, he […]
Listen to the sand eels on climate change | Letters
Michael Grange (Letters, 19 August) recommends “not asking the frogs first” before building tidal barrages on the Severn. But we are already being spoken to by the sand eels, mosquitoes, birds, butterflies and even the humble Highland saxifrage (Climate change threatens UK’s mountain plant life, 18 August) if only we would listen. They are on […]
Radon from fracking will not be a threat | Letter from Prof Averil MacDonald
In his letter (11 August) Dr David Lowry raised the issue of radon and shale gas quoting studies in Pennsylvania and sought to reinforce his own views by quoting from a study undertaken by Public Health England in 2014. Let me quote the same study, which states, “caution is required when extrapolating experiences in other […]
National parks must be for people, plants, pumas – not Big Oil
Huge swathe of new “protected natural area” in Peru’s Amazon is included within an oil and gas concession run by Canadian company The creation of the 1.3 million hectare Sierra del Divisor National Park in the western Amazon in November 2015 generated considerable elation and Peruvian and international media coverage. Logging, gold-mining, coca cultivation and […]
Oil rig stranded off Isle of Lewis to be refloated at high tide
Salvage experts plan operation two weeks after 17,000-tonne Transocean Winner ran aground near Carloway, Scotland Salvage experts have said they will try to refloat at high tide a 17,000-tonne oil rig that has been stranded on the coast of the Isle of Lewis for two weeks. The semi-submersible rig Transocean Winner ran aground close to […]
Calls to halt McArthur River mine operations over safety and remediation concerns
Report demands mining stop until it can be determined how and at what cost the operation can be made safe The huge McArthur river mine must stop operations until a public commission of inquiry is set up and has examined whether it can be made safe and at what cost, according to an independent report […]
If US national parks are to continue to thrive they must reflect the diversity of our population
As the National Park Service turns 100, a new campaign aims to make the country’s natural spaces more appealing to all Americans, regardless of race, over the next century. It’s vital they succeed In the sweltering heat of a summer day, I walked along the visitor trails of Yosemite national park. I had just made […]