The first great bustards born in the wild in the UK since 1832 hatched last week. The reintroduction of this and many other species is invigorating the countryside, but eradicating foreign invaders - animals and plants - is equally important
The mountaineers who come to conquer Everest mistake their achievement – in the quest to overcome nature’s ultimate natural obstacle, humans have already won
How much rainforest does it take for one celebrity to snort another one under the table? Nick Kettles investigates the devastating environmental impact of cocaine use.
Experts have identified something called ‘shifting baseline syndrome’. No, not a symptom of excessive alcohol intake, but rather the theory that people’s perception of the environment is based on what they can see with their own eyes today, not what things were like in the past.
With global warming putting pressure on animals and biodiversity in the tropics, is it time we had a new poster child for climate change, asks William Laurance
‘The planet is currently enslaved to humans abusing its inherent rights – the right not to be enslaved or polluted,’ says environmentalist and barrister Polly Higgins.
There have been plenty of attempts to try and value standing rainforest – you can tot up its total carbon content, you can value the ecosystem services it provides, you can look at its land value…
Conservationists’ zeal to rid countries of so-called ‘invasive species’ could have serious unforeseen effects on ecosystems, new research has suggested.
There are few things more awe-inspiring in nature than the massing in vast numbers of a single species of animal. To explain why the phenomenon is so thrilling requires an understanding of why and how it happens in the first place
Forest carbon finance, through avoided deforestation, is at best a sticking plaster solution that fails to get to the roots of the problem, argues Harriet Williams
The pesticide industry knows all too well that nature quickly develops immunity to its chemical armoury. But a new study by scientists at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia (IGC) and the Faculty of Science of the University of Lisbon, in Portugal has shown that a species of worm can develop resistance to a common pesticide in just 20 generations, or 80 days.
A former Washington scientific adviser has called for a worldwide ban on neonicotinoid pesticides that have been implicated in the decline of the honeybee population.
Will the temptation of vast amounts of clean, tidal energy lead us to ignore the chance of serious environmental damage? Mark Anslow and Peter Clark report
