Environment

A wolf-sized otter weighing close to eight stones once roamed the Earth's ancient swamps, a new study revealed. The ancient species was almost as twice as large of present day otters and had features similar to an otter and a badger. It also had powerful jaws to crunch large shellfish and freshwater mollusks which would have been their main food. The otter named Siamogale melilutra lived some six million years ago and belongs to an ancient lineage of extinct otters,...

By Philip Lymbery, CEO of Compassion in World Farming Bird flu is back. All farmers and keepers of poultry have been ordered by Defra to keep their birds indoors, separate and ‘safe’ from contact with wild birds. Just this week, a flock of 8,000 turkeys in Lincolnshire was diagnosed with the virus. Some have died and the rest are due to be culled. If bringing the birds indoors to ‘protect’ them from wild birds is the solution to preventing the...

International wildlife charity, Born Free Foundation, is calling on the UK Government to deliver on its Manifesto commitment to a “total ban on ivory sales” after an e-petition calling for the UK domestic ivory market to be shut down passed the 100,000 threshold needed to trigger a debate in Parliament. The e-petition urges the Government to “shut down the domestic ivory market in the UK” because “30,000 African elephants are slaughtered a year for their tusks yet the Government has...

This is the spectacular moment tonnes of molten lava spew from a collapsed volcano into the sea - just yards from a boat full of tourists. Onlookers braved the choppy seas and deadly eruptions taking place at the Kamokuna lava delta in Hawaii since it collapsed on December 31. They were stunned when a red hot stream of 1000c lava suddenly crashed through the side of the black rock - causing an incredible hose pipe effect. Breath-taking footage shows the...

This week Gatwick Airport - which can ship over three million passengers in any given month - pledged to become carbon neutral by the spring as the airport prepared to join the the RE100 alliance at Davos for the World Economic Forum. It will join over eighty of the world's most influential companies committed to 100 per cent renewable power, an initiative that will scale up to all companies if successful. The transition toward a low carbon economy is top on the agenda at...

Despite the idiots who complained about the 5p plastic bag charge (viewing it as another tax rather than an incentive to actually use/waste less), single use plastic bag use by shoppers in England has plummeted since the introduction of the charge eighteen months ago. It is estimated that plastic bag consumption has dropped by around 85%. Even though plastic bag use has fallen, they are still used and thrown away in huge numbers and with reckless abandon (around 500m of them every year...

Independent living provider Welbeing has stepped in to help people home from hospital as the NHS struggles to keep up with winter demand. Welbeing provides well-known red pendants for elderly and vulnerable people which are monitored round-the-clock and automatically raise an alarm if help is required, for example in the event of a fall. The organisation is working with the British Red Cross which is helping to transport patients from hospital back to their homes in Shropshire, freeing up much-needed...

A father captured these stunning images of multicolored pillars beaming up into to the sky after waking up at 1.30am and thinking aliens were invading. Timothy Joseph Elzinga, 33, got out of bed when two-year-old son Gibson started crying - and he noticed the incredible light show outside. He thought someone from Star Wars was ''trying to beam people up'' - and quickly ran outside to investigate the yellow, green, red and blue lights. The amateur photographer captured the incredible light...

If you’re anything like me and can’t seem to remember to actually water the plants in your house, you might be looking for an alternative to brighten your home with greenery. A home isn’t a home without some plants. With the ability to instantly provide visitors to your home with a something interesting to look at, succulent plants are a great way to liven up any room in the house. This, combined with the fact that they’re incredibly easy plants...