Environment
4.5 million UK children are living in poverty
A shocking new study has discovered that over 14 million people, 4.5 million of them children, and living in poverty. The investigation also discovered that 12% of the total UK population is in “persistent” poverty, having spent all or most of the last four years below the breadline. The statistics, by Social Metrics Commission, have been gathered from a new measure to calculate social disadvantage. The commission includes experts from academia, and from organisations such as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation,...
Tourists are putting beauty spots at risk of erosion for INSTAGRAM pics
The founder of environmental campaign group Blue Planet Society believes social media including Instagram and Facebook is fuelling the problem
Soot particles from London air pollution could endanger babies in the womb
For the first time scientists have found the harmful tiny particles of carbon, typically created from burning fossil fuel, in placentas
We don’t see anything funny about the shape of this Met Office weather warning
Wales, Devon and Cornwall look set to get most heavily shafted by the 80mph gales.
Watch – Baby turtles ‘almost four times as likely to die from eating plastic than adults’
Post mortems on almost 1,000 dead turtles found more than half of babies - and about a quarter of juveniles - had swallowed plastic, compared to just one in seven adults
Watch Historic Remainer – Devon & Cornwall were once part of France
They can sometimes seem like being in a different country and now geologists believe that Devon and Cornwall were once part of France. Their theory comes after studying the chemical profile of the west country counties' rocks which have more in common with France than the rest of the UK. For centuries scientists thought England, Wales and Scotland were created by the merger of two land masses, Avalonia and Laurentia more than 400 million years ago. Then the continents on...
Chemicals designed to replace infamous BPA in plastics may itself damage fertility
Replacements chemicals were also leaching out damaging the sperm and eggs of lab mice too
“Largest destruction of a protected species in living memory” 42,000 badgers to be culled
The badger cull in the UK is to be expanded to 10 new areas, and it is likely up to 42,000 will now be shot, an increase from 32,500 who were killed last year. The cull is supposed to stem the spread of TB in cattle. The total culling cost to date is estimated at about £40m. The cost to taxpayers was around £1,000 per badger. It is thought vaccination would be far less costly. The Badger Trust said the...
Clothing made of synthetic fibres releases up to 700,000 microplastic fibres into the sea when washed
Man-made fibres are entering food chain