Chair Tony Juniper celebrates successes but says ‘collective endeavour’ needed to halt country’s decline in nature
England needs a massive “collective endeavour” to halt the country’s nature decline, its top conservation official says, after multimillion-pound investments in nature helped dormice, voles, willow tits and other species thrive.
Targeted conservation projects led by Natural England as part of its £13m species recovery programme’s capital grants scheme, have supported the recovery of 150 species, according to findings published on Wednesday.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
08/13/2025 - 00:00
Unprecedented temperatures causing difficulties in south-west France, Croatia, Italy and Spain with wildfire destruction across Europe up 87%
How dangerous are wildfires and how can we stop them from getting worse?
Extreme heat is breaking temperature records across Europe, early measurements suggest, and driving bigger and stronger wildfires.
In south-west France, records were broken on Monday in Angoulême, Bergerac, Bordeaux, Saint-Émilion and Saint-Girons. Météo France said the “often remarkable, even unprecedented, maximum temperatures” in the region were 12C above the norm for the last few decades.
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08/12/2025 - 23:00
Charity gives children a well-earned break from caring responsibilities, hoping that a day’s snorkelling amid the island’s wildlife will help them connect with nature
“A seal just swam right by me,” squeals Odin Rawlinson, 14, as he awkwardly clambers back on to the dive boat in his flippers. He had hoped to see a megalodon or a kraken (a mythical sea creature) on his first ever snorkelling trip. But to his surprise, he finds the marine life that actually frequents the waters off Lundy in the Bristol Channel just as enchanting.
Odin Rawlinson on the trip to Lundy – the 14-year-old looks after his mother who has kidney failure and has to have regular dialysis sessions in hospital.
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08/12/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 13 August 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00137-2
Controlled electrochemical nutrient delivery to enhance marine primary productivity
08/12/2025 - 21:18
Australia’s biggest bank delivers bumper payout to shareholders as CBA vows to end lending to coal companies with no net zero plans
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The Commonwealth bank has posted a record cash profit, sparking renewed calls for Australia’s biggest bank to repay more than 2 million low-income customers $270m in fees – something it has refused to do.
CBA recorded $10.25bn in annual cash profits for the year to June – a 4% lift on the previous year – and gave a bumper $2.60 payout per share to shareholders.
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08/12/2025 - 16:00
Scientist says new species described from 25-million-year-old fossil found in Victoria ‘was a gnarly whale I wouldn’t want to get in the water with’
“Small and deceptively cute, but definitely not harmless” is how scientists have described a new species of ancient whale, from a 25-million-year-old fossil found on Victoria’s surf coast.
This early species, called Janjucetus dullardi, was an extremely unusual animal, said Dr Erich Fitzgerald, senior curator of vertebrate palaeontology at Museums Victoria Research Institute.
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08/12/2025 - 10:00
Greens senator David Shoebridge says communities will have ‘no way to protect the land’ from waste that will be radioactive for millennia
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Critics of Australia’s Aukus submarine deal say the government has given itself the power to nominate any place in Australia as a potential nuclear waste dump, without proper consultation with communities and Indigenous landowners.
Australia has agreed to take sole responsibility for the management, security and storage of all nuclear waste from its fleet of proposed nuclear-powered submarines, including the spent fuel from the submarines’ reactors – high-level nuclear waste that will be radioactive for millennia once the submarines are decommissioned from the early 2050s.
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08/12/2025 - 07:30
Ministers say online vendors of electrical goods such as microwaves will also have to contribute to recycling fees
Vape sellers will have to pay for the disposal of the devices under plans announced by the government.
Ministers said they would “end the UK’s throwaway culture” as they revealed measures to fund the recycling of electrical waste.
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08/12/2025 - 06:28
Government analysis finds 10 times more locations used for recreation than previously identified
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Thousands more waterways are being used for swimming and boating in England than previously recorded, new data reveals.
A wide-ranging government analysis of the ways that England’s waterways are used for recreation has found 3,347 “water recreation locations” in rivers, lakes and seas around the country. These are places where people take part in activities including swimming, rowing and paddleboarding. The Environment Agency had previously identified 342.
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08/12/2025 - 05:00
Maple, a springer spaniel, is part of a project at a Michigan university focused on risk factors affecting the bees’ health
One dog in Michigan hasn’t been content with merely belonging to the species famously known as man’s best friend. She has strived to be bees’ best friend, too.
Maple, a springer spaniel aged nine, is earning news headlines by helping Michigan State University (MSU) researchers identify bacteria that is harmful for bee colonies.
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