Environment

Environment secretary tells National Farmers Union conference the policy to halt spread of bovine TB will be rolled out despite criticism of pilot culls

A Conservative-led government will continue the cull of badgers regardless of complaints from protesters, the environment secretary has pledged.

Speaking at the annual National Farmers Union (NFU) conference in Birmingham, Liz Truss set up a pre-election badger battle with Labour, which has promised to end what it calls the “ineffective and inhumane” programme intended to halt the spread of TB in cattle.

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Reports that India’s tiger population has risen by a third in four years are based on an unreliable count method says a new Oxford study

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Withdrawal from the Pierre River project is the latest in a series of blows to industry reliant on high cost production struggling with oil prices at six-year lows

Shell has shelved plans for a major new tar sands mine in Canada, the largest project yet to fall victim to low oil prices.

The company has withdrawn its application for the 200,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Pierre River project and will instead concentrate on boosting the profitability of its existing 255,000-bpd oil sands operations.

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MEPs vote to strengthen emissions trading scheme by taking 1.6bn surplus credits off the market to boost carbon prices, but critics call for steps to be taken earlier

Reforms to strengthen the EU’s flagship policy for cutting carbon, the emissions trading scheme (ETS), will start at the end of 2018 following a vote by MEPs on Tuesday.

The carbon market is supposed to drive Europe’s transition to cleaner sources of energy, but a cocktail of recession, free allocations to polluters and over-achievement on green energy targets have created a flood of 2bn allowances. That has led to a carbon price of around €7 (£5) per tonne, too low to encourage power companies to switch from polluting fuels such as as coal.

Related: What is the emissions trading scheme and does it work?

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Up to 19 manatees are rescued after they got trapped in a drain leading from a marine inlet in Settle Beach in Florida. Wildlife experts use heavy lifting equipment to pull the creatures from the drains one by one. Some of the animals have scrapes and bruises. It is believed they might have swum there in search of warmer water during a cold snap. All of the manatees were released into the nearby Indian River Lagoon Continue reading...

Shoppers spent an extra £1.4m a week on organic products despite an overall drop in food prices and spending, according to Soil Association report

Sales of organic food and drink products have bounced back, rising by 4% last year at a time of tumbling food prices and spending.

Shoppers spent an extra £1.4m a week on organic products and the organic market exceeded £1.86bn - bringing sales levels back to the levels of 2009 - according to a report by the Soil Association, the organic industry trade body.

Now, even the discounters are beginning to stock organic ranges

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High profile head of the UN’s climate science panel steps down and denies charges of sexually harassing a 29-year-old female researcher

The chair of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, resigned on Tuesday, following allegations of sexual harassment from a female employee at his research institute in Delhi.

Related: What is the IPCC?

Related: Climate change report 'should jolt people into action' says IPCC chief

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Engineers are creating giant pyramids of ice in the drought-hit Indian Himalayas to see if the melt water they release can help solve water shortages during the region’s dry season

Villagers of the high desert of Ladakh in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state used to harvest bountiful crops of barley, wheat, fruits, and vegetables in summer.

But for years the streams have run dry in spring, just when farmers needed water to sow seeds. They had water when it wasn’t needed during the rest of the year, such as in winter, when Ladakhis let water gush from taps to prevent pipes from freezing and bursting.

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Hun Sen attempts to stop opposition to dam in Areng Valley, a day after Cambodia deported Spanish activist Alex Gonzalez-Davidson

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Two species of fern that diverged 60 million years ago are as evolutionarily distant as, say, elephants and manatees. Nonetheless, the two species recently produced a hybrid, say astounded botanists.

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Two species of fern that diverged 60 million years ago are as evolutionarily distant as, say, elephants and manatees. Nonetheless, the two species recently produced a hybrid, say astounded botanists.

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Two species of fern that diverged 60 million years ago are as evolutionarily distant as, say, elephants and manatees. Nonetheless, the two species recently produced a hybrid, say astounded botanists.

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A levee project would cordon off lucrative farmland along the Mississippi River in southeastern Missouri. But towns in Illinois say that puts them at risk of flooding while protecting rich farmers.

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A levee project would cordon off lucrative farmland along the Mississippi River in southeastern Missouri. But towns in Illinois say that puts them at risk of flooding while protecting rich farmers.

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A levee project would cordon off lucrative farmland along the Mississippi River in southeastern Missouri. But towns in Illinois say that puts them at risk of flooding while protecting rich farmers.

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Once a booming timber area, Grays Harbor County is the site of three proposed oil terminals. The local fishing industry sees the uptick in oil movement as a big risk, with limited economic benefits.

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Once a booming timber area, Grays Harbor County is the site of three proposed oil terminals. The local fishing industry sees the uptick in oil movement as a big risk, with limited economic benefits.

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Once a booming timber area, Grays Harbor County is the site of three proposed oil terminals. The local fishing industry sees the uptick in oil movement as a big risk, with limited economic benefits.

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Rising population will hit UK’s self sufficiency if government continues to ignore British food production, say NFU

More than half of the UK’s food will come from overseas within a generation, as a rising population and stalling farm productivity combine to erode what remains of the UK’s self-sufficiency, according to farming leaders.

The UK’s failure to produce more food will leave households more vulnerable to volatile prices and potential shortages, the National Farmers’ Union will say at its annual conference on Tuesday. The farming body will call on politicians to encourage new investment in farming, and develop a national plan for a higher degree of food self-sufficiency.

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Hexham, Northumberland: The river Tyne is surpisingly low

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