Our wildlife series Young Country Diary is looking for articles written by children, about their spring encounters with nature
Once again, the Young Country Diary series is open for submissions! Every three months, as the UK enters a new season, we ask you to send us an article written by a child aged 8-14.
The article needs to be about a recent encounter they’ve had with nature – whether it’s a field of early spring flowers, a nest-building bird or a pond full of frogspawn.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
02/28/2025 - 11:12
02/28/2025 - 09:00
The nuclear plan handily leapfrogs the next 10 years – when a Dutton government might actually hold office – a critical time for emissions reduction
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I don’t often agree with Matt Canavan on matters to do with global heating. But when the senator labelled the Coalition’s nuclear plan a “political fix” last year, I think he was speaking the truth.
For 15 gruelling years the Coalition has been trying to distract a voting public, ever more aware of the climate crisis, from its inability to get a credible climate and energy policy past the climate sceptics and do-nothing-much-to-reduce-emissions exponents in its own ranks (including the Queensland senator).
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02/28/2025 - 09:00
The World Nature Photography awards have announced their winners for 2025. From white-cheeked terns to a blue-tailed damselfly peeking through a daisy, the photographs are a stark reminder of the beauty and chaos of the natural world. The top award went to Maruša Puhek’s image of two deers running through a Slovenian vineyard
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02/28/2025 - 08:29
Chris Jones is behind change in law to release beavers in England after witnessing the incredible benefits on his land
• Beaver releases into wild to be allowed in England for first time in centuries
Chris Jones, a beef farmer, is very proud of his beavers. “They are just extraordinary,” he says.
Since releasing a couple into an enclosure on his Cornwall farm in 2017, he says they have saved it from drought, prevented flooding in the nearby village, boosted the local economy and even improved oyster beds in Falmouth Bay.
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02/28/2025 - 05:00
Floods, whale strandings and coral bleaching all more likely, say researchers, as 10% of ocean hits record high temperatures in 2023-24
The world’s oceans experienced three-and-a-half times as many marine heatwave days last year and in 2023 compared with any other year on record, a study has found.
The sustained spike in ocean temperatures cost lives and caused billions of dollars in storm damage, increased whale and dolphin stranding risks, harmed commercial fishing and sparked a global coral bleaching, according to the paper published on Friday in Nature Climate Change.
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02/28/2025 - 04:00
Small patches of scrambled egg lichen moved from Cornwall to Breckland region, where it was last seen in 1994
A rare lichen has been reintroduced to its historical habitat of East Anglia – with the help of some bookbinding glue.
Scrambled egg lichen, so named for its bright yellow, crumbly appearance, was once common in the Breckland region of Norfolk and Suffolk but was last seen there in 1994.
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02/28/2025 - 03:00
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
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02/28/2025 - 03:00
Chris Bowen accuses Coalition of creating ‘sovereign risk’ by opposing offshore projects as Nationals celebrate ‘major win’
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An offshore windfarm developer has asked the Albanese government to pause its application to progress its project off the Illawarra until after the coming federal election, after the Coalition campaigned against it.
BlueFloat Energy was the only applicant asking for a seven-year feasibility licence to further develop its project in the deep waters of the Illawarra offshore wind zone.
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02/28/2025 - 02:00
Exclusive: Government to grant nature groups a licence for release of rodent species after earlier setbacks
The release of beavers into English waterways is to be allowed for the first time in centuries, the Guardian can reveal.
The environment secretary, Steve Reed, is to announce that nature groups will be able to get a licence for the release. The first releases could happen this autumn.
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02/28/2025 - 00:00
For decades, the Swiss city has been transforming its skyline, and now boasts some of the greenest rooftops in Europe
Susanne Hablützel breaks up her work day by staring out the window at a rooftop garden. The view is not spectacular: a pile of dead wood sits atop an untidy plot that houses chicory, toadflax, thistle and moss.
But Hablützel, a biologist in charge of nature projects in Basel, is enthralled by the plants and creatures the roof has brought in. “Tree fungi have settled in the trunks, and they are great to see – I love mushrooms. You can also see birds now – that wasn’t the case before.”
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