Environment

Donald Trump's proposed US-Mexico border wall could devastate surroundings wildlife, according to experts. Conservation biologists at The University of Texas at Austin found that a border wall could harm endangered plants and animals - and destroy the region's growing ecotourism industry. The scientists examined what would happen if more of Texas' roughly 1,200 miles of border with Mexico were to be walled off. Many miles of new barriers are set to be built on federal lands, most of which are...

  Fishermen are kicking off because naughty dolphins keep wrecking their nets - and stealing their catch. New research has discovered fishing nets suffer six times more damage when dolphins are around. And the problem is only going to get worse for fishing fleets, as overfishing is forcing dolphins and boat captains closer together than ever before. University of Exeter researchers studied the impact of bottlenose dolphins on fisheries off northern Cyprus. They said Mediterranean overfishing had created a "vicious...

Britain's biggest butterfly faces being wiped out by climate change, say scientists. The Swallowtail is only found in the fens and marshes of the Norfolk Broads - making it the rarest in the UK. Global warming is placing it at risk of extinction - along with the picturesque county's bees, bugs, birds, trees and mammals, a groundbreaking study warns. David North, head of People and Wildlife at Norfolk Wildlife Trust, said: "The likely impacts of climate change on our wildlife...

Bill Oddie is to deliver 70,000 signatures calling for a Foie Gras free Britain to parliament today. The celebrity joins Chris Packham, Ricky Gervais and Evanna Lynch in calling for an import ban post-Brexit. Animal Equality, the animal protection organisation behind the campaign, has documented the extreme suffering of ducks and geese on dozens of foie gras farms in France and Spain. The group launched the petition in June 2017 after a poll found overwhelming support for a UK import ban...

Parts of the Amazon previously thought to have been almost uninhabited were really home to thriving populations of up to a million people, new research shows. Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that there were hundreds of villages in the rainforest away from major rivers, and they were home to different communities speaking varied languages who had an impact on the environment around them. Huge parts of the Amazon are still unexplored by archaeologists, particularly areas away from major rivers. People had...

A couple claim they have been 'bullied' out of the Hobbit-style mud hut they built to combat an allergy to modern life. Nature-loving Kate Burrows, 46, and her partner Alan, 48, have left the unique home they fashioned out of the earth, tree trunks and straw after a council took enforcement action against them. Kate says she was forced out of her previous rented house by permanent flu -like symptoms as she was allergic to the mains water, electricity, wi-fi...

Legalising cocaine and heroin would boost the economy by reducing the number of murders, according to new research. The finding presented at the Royal Economic Society's annual conference in Brighton suggests increasing access to education may prove more effective than trying to tackle criminals by force. Legalisation could reduce violence by vastly decreasing the profit margins the gangs stand to gain. It would also curtail the resources they use to defend and expand their operations. But this carries such political...

London's congestion charge has increased deadly diesel pollution by a fifth putting inhabitants at a higher risk of severe lung and respiratory problems, scientists warned. The charge, introduced by Ken Livingstone in 2003 for peak time traffic, reduced some forms of pollution such as carbon monoxide, particulate matter and nitrous oxide. But it has had the unintended consequence of increasing more damaging forms of pollution - nitrogen dioxide (No2) emissions because of the increase in diesel buses and taxis, In...

Humans are sleepwalking into a mass extinction of species not seen since the demise of the dinosaurs, British scientists warned. Man-made global change is threatening the diversity of different creatures that have taken millennia to evolve to live in niche habitats. Creatures that have moved into delicate ecosystems such as coral reefs often live in symbiosis with others and are the slowest to recover their diversity if damaged. But global warming and rising sea levels threatened to wipe out many...