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Vancouver aquarium won't keep whales or dolphins captive after public outcry
Canada aquarium has announced it will end the practice of keeping cetaceans in captivity, after pressure from the public
For years the Vancouver aquarium fended off pressure from animal right activists, local government and residents, arguing instead that whales and dolphins were central to its mission. But this week the tourist attraction gave in to public pressure, and announced that it would end the practice of keeping cetaceans in captivity.
“It had become a local hot topic, to the point where it was just hijacking everything else,” said John Nightingale, the aquarium’s president.
Continue reading...Why do supermarkets sell organic products wrapped in non-cyclable plastic?
My environmentally conscious wife Clare is the keenest recycler possible. She even collects and recycles the silver milk bottle tops that I tend to chuck out. But when it comes to organic food she’s furious. Why? Because she finds it is the worst culprit for wrapping almost everything in plastic and polywrap that cannot be recycled. How, she asks, did we reach the situation where the most environmentally produced food is also the worst for packaging and recycling?
Like many others, the Brignall household despairs at the revelations over the past year that 86% of collected plastic is not actually recycled, and the Blue Planet claim that 8m tonnes of the stuff ends up in oceans.
Continue reading...Thai police arrest notorious wildlife trafficking suspect
Exclusive: Boonchai Bach allegedly ran tusk and horn smuggling route from Africa
Police in Thailand have arrested one of the world’s most notorious wildlife traffickers, allegedly involved in the smuggling thousands of tonnes of elephant tusks and rhino horns from Africa to Asia, the Guardian has learned.
Boonchai Bach, who goes by multiple aliases including Bach Mai Limh, was arrested at his operational base in the north-eastern province of Nakhon Phanom, next to the Mekong River on Thursday.
Continue reading...Country diary: the marshes are teeming with waders
Keyhaven, Hampshire: The brent geese feeding on the grassland are restless, but not because of the people walking along the skyline above them
The mudflats are still, but first impressions are deceptive. On a grey, raw day, we stop on the bridge across the Avon Water as it enters the Keyhaven Marshes. The tide is out, gulls mill in the air, but below us the glutinous foreground seems devoid of life. As our eyes settle to what we are seeing, we realise how misleading those first impressions are. The mudflats are teeming with waders. We’ve left the binoculars in the car and so don’t attempt identification until one long-legged, straight-billed bird wades out to feed, head-down into the stream. In this murky light, it’s impossible to see markings but surely this is a black-tailed godwit.
We press on along the Solent Way, a track lined with lichen-festooned bushes. Near the village, the lichens are mostly orange with shades of pastel green where different varieties fight for possession of the branches. Some of these pale species are so dense that from afar they look like sprigs of meadowsweet thrusting up through the hedgerow.
Continue reading...Living with drought in Australia
Great Barrier Reef coral bleaching has started early, biologist says
Photographs show only localised bleaching but there is concern it has come so early in the season
Warm water has already begun bleaching coral on the Great Barrier Reef, weeks ahead of the period with highest forecast risk. Satellite data suggest widespread bleaching is possible by March.
Selina Ward, a coral reef biologist from the University of Queensland, has photographed the bleaching, which she said appeared to be very localised so far, but was concerning because of how early in the season it was.
Continue reading...Country Breakfast summer features
War on Waste revisited: The un-material girl
Best of A Big Country 20 January 2018
Trump is 'obsessed' and 'terrified' of sharks - but his fears are overstated
Among others, one is more likely to die from a bicycle accident, lightning strike, mauling by alligator or bear, than by a shark attack
The president of the United States does not like sharks.
Related: Stormy Daniels on Trump: pajamas, unprotected sex and … scary sharks
Continue reading...Plastic waste, pulse fishing and environmental defenders – green news roundup
The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox
Continue reading...The man risking his life to save pink dolphins
The week in wildlife – in pictures
Icelandic horses, an endangered hawksbill sea turtle and snow leopards are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...Hundreds of MPs call on supermarkets to scrap plastic packaging
Cross-party group of 200 MPs have written to the major supermarkets, as pressure grows over the huge amounts of plastic waste they generate
Two hundred cross-party MPs are calling on heads of the major supermarkets to eliminate plastic packaging from their products by 2023.
The MPs, who are from seven political parties, have written to Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Asda, Waitrose, Aldi, Lidl, Budgens and Marks & Spencer urging them to scrap plastic packaging.
Continue reading...Nasa removes US astronaut from ISS mission
Government to carry out major environmental assessment of UK seas
Defra prioritises post-Brexit fisheries plan and protection of UK’s coldwater reefs, promising data will be made publicly available online
An assessment of the seas around the UK will carried out by the government and made available online, the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has promised, with a view to cleaning up and improving the inshore environment.
Thérèse Coffey, a Defra minister, said that by the end of this year “a major assessment of how our seas have moved towards good environmental status” would be completed. This assessment, which would be accompanied by an online tool that the general public could use to examine progress on the marine environment and the pressures it is under, is expected to inform future marine policy.
Continue reading...Regent's Park cycle route plans at risk of being cut back
Last-minute opposition by Westminster city council to park gate closures could leave the new superhighway ‘dead’, says former London cycling commissioner
Plans to close the outer circle of Regent’s Park to rat-running motor traffic are being “significantly watered down” to shutting just two gates – down from four – and to shorter periods, in only the morning and evening peak, it has been revealed.
Although still in discussion, plans for the road, which will form part of cycle superhighway 11 (CS11), have reportedly been under pressure from Westminster city council since they gained 60% approval in a public consultation in August 2016. Those close to discussions say weakened changes are now being blocked by the body that runs the park’s roads on the grounds they could be more dangerous than the status quo.
Continue reading...'A rabbit always has to run': Spanish rangers fear for lives after double murder
The killing of two rangers in Catalonia, a year ago this week, marked a chilling turning point for colleagues facing up to increasing violence towards Europe’s wildlife defenders
On a hill above the olive trees and dun scrublands of western Catalonia, two rusty iron silhouettes maintain a still and silent vigil. One peers out over the land through a pair of binoculars; the other kneels and holds a bird forever on the cusp of release.
At their feet is a simple plaque: “In memory and recognition of Xavier Ribes Villas and David Iglesias Díez, wildlife rangers whose lives were taken in the line of duty on 21 January 2017.”
Continue reading...Kenya forest death: activists blame EU for ignoring human rights warnings
EU criticised for its ‘poor response’ after an indigenous herder is killed during a forced eviction for a water conservation project it funds
The European Union has been accused of a fatally slow response to human rights warnings after the killing of an indigenous man at one of the projects it funds in Kenya.
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