Proliferation of thick brown algae is affecting fishing, tourism and marine life on both sides of the Atlantic, say scientists

The pristine white beaches may not be as famous as those of the Caribbean, but their unspoilt beauty makes them a haven for locals and tourists alike.

But now the shimmering coastline of Sierra Leone is being destroyed by a mysterious brown seaweed which scientists link to a similar invasion affecting beaches thousands of miles away on the other side of the Atlantic.

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Source: Guardian Environment

Oceanic warming event could wreak havoc in western Pacific but provide respite from US fires

Back in March, following months of speculation, the US Climate Prediction Service declared the official start of El Niño. The first such event since 2009 and currently building across the Pacific, El Niño refers to a period of oceanic temperature changes coupled with atmospheric effects that can be a blessing or a curse for those on the receiving end.

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Source: Guardian Environment

Case of the moustached kingfisher pits those who think ‘collecting’ can save a species against those who believe we should never kill rare animals

For Christopher Filardi of the American Museum of Natural History, there is nothing like the thrill of finding a mysterious species. Such animals live at the intersection of myth and biology – tantalising researchers with the prospect that they may be real, but eluding trustworthy documentation and closer study. Indeed, last month, Filardi waxed poetic on the hunt for the invisible beasts that none the less walk among us.

“We search for them in earnest but they are seemingly beyond detection except by proxy and story,” he wrote. “They are ghosts, until they reveal themselves in a thrilling moment of clarity and then they are gone again. Maybe for another day, maybe a year, maybe a century.”

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Source: Guardian Environment

You can’t be entirely sure where your cash will go, but funds that have steered clear of controversial sectors such as gas and oil are prospering

They have been ridiculed by some and overlooked by others, but ethical investment funds – and the people who have put money into them – are having the last laugh.

The funds appear to have benefited from their low or non-existent exposure to sectors such as mining and oil, where share prices have collapsed in recent months.

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Source: Guardian Environment

New Forest The older pigs are intent on the job but the younger ones are behaving more like a bunch of playful children, bumping and chasing each other all over the place

Four-legged vacuum cleaners are out. It’s been an excellent fruiting year. Hollies are heavily berried. Hawthorn hedges have a magenta sheen where the ripened fruits are increasingly hidden in colouring foliage. The strippings of cobnuts lie under many hazel bushes. Wild apples have produced an abundant crop, their fallers a magnet for foraging cows. The woodland floor is already white-speckled with the star-shaped shucks of the prickly cases of sweet chestnuts, occupied now by only the two outer nuts in the case, poor apologies for a fruit, their juicy swollen companions already stored away to be winter-life sustaining for squirrel – and jay.

Three ponies block the lane but on this grey day they are not in summer mood, motionless apart from a constant flick of the tail, enjoying the slightest breeze that keeps the flies at bay. Head down, side by side, rumps towards me, they are oblivious that they are blocking my way as they gorge on the acorns the wind has scattered across the tarmac. As I wait to get past them, more acorns bounce off the roof of the car. I sense that once the ponies have cleared the road in front, they will turn to feast on those already dropping behind.

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Source: Guardian Environment

Horizontal Falls – described as one of the wonders of the natural world – would be included in marine parks, but critics say plan should ban commercial fishing

The Western Australian government has released a proposal for two new marine parks which will protect a pristine stretch of Australia’s north-west coast. However, environmental groups say the decision to allow prawn trawling and fishing within the marine parks could affect their conservation value.

The draft management plan, released on Friday, includes long-awaited protection for Horizontal Falls, a tidal lagoon encircled by cliffs and described by David Attenborough as “one of the greatest natural wonders of the world” for the rapids that form at the two narrow entries to the lagoon as the tide comes rushing in and out each day.

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Source: Guardian Environment

Members of Congress claim that oil company’s ‘sustained deception campaign’ could be prosecuted through truth in advertising and racketeering laws

Members of Congress have asked for a federal investigation into whether ExxonMobil broke the law by intentionally obscuring the truth about climate change.

The two members of Congress wrote to Loretta Lynch, the attorney general, on Wednesday, saying they were concerned by the results of two separate investigations by Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times, which found that ExxonMobil scientists confirmed fossil fuels were causing climate change decades ago, but publicly embarked on a campaign of denial.

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Source: Guardian Environment

Interior Department cancels two future offshore leases in Chukchi and Beaufort seas and will refuse requests from oil companies to renew existing leases

Barack Obama blocked off the prospects for future oil drilling in the Arctic on Friday, imposing new lease conditions that make it practically impossible for companies to hunt for oil in the world’s last great wilderness.

The Department of Interior said it was canceling two future auctions of Arctic offshore oil leases in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, and turned down requests from Shell and other oil companies for more time on their existing leases.

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Source: Guardian Environment

Former executive testifies Massey Energy was more concerned about having to pay fines than actually keeping mines safe under Don Blankenship

A former coal executive who was dealt a prison sentence for mine violations testified on Friday that his company sometimes took shortcuts to produce coal under his top boss, ex-Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship.

Taking the stand in Blankenship’s criminal trial, former Massey subsidiary president David Hughart said that under Blankenship and former COO Chris Adkins, the company was more concerned about having to pay fines than actually keeping mines safe. He said his mines would sometimes be short-handed and still producing coal.

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Source: Guardian Environment