The Ecologist Headline News Reader

New scientific research shows that culling badgers can increase local hedgehog numbers. As UK hedgehog populations continue to decline, Hugh Warwick asks - are badgers to blame? Or does the real problem lie elsewhere?

Following the shooting of Virunga's chief warden last week, WWF is calling on UK oil company Soco International PLC to pull out of the Park and respond to allegations made in a new documentary premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Japan is the world's biggest financier of coal development, setting developing countries on a dirty, coal fired energy track. As President Obama visits Japan, Nicole Ghio urges Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to re-apply its coal billions to build a clean, renewable…

A study of 245 large dams carried out at Oxford University shows that big hydropower is uneconomic. Actual costs are typically double pre-construction estimates - and have not improved over 70 years. ASEAN energy ministers take note!

Following the ruling by the International Court of Justice that Japan's whaling in the Antarctic is illegal, Elizabeth Claire Alberts examines the legal, financial and practical challenges of a continued whaling program - with some help from Sea Shepherd's…

In the four years since the Deepwater Horizon blowout there's been a lot of regulatory activity, writes Jacqueline Lang Weaver. Yet the regulatory framework today is weak, complex, under-funded, industry dominated - and it's uncertain that the Gulf of Mexico…

Following her acquittal on charges of obstructing the entrance to a fracking site in Balcombe, Sussex, Caroline Lucas explains why this is only the beginning of the fight against shale gas - and why we must also promote the clean energy alternatives.

The Land Workers Alliance gathered yesterday at DEFRA's London HQ to protest at the corrupt relationship between Government and corporate agriculture - and the deliberate marginalisation of small farmers, our most sustainable producers. Ed Hamer explains ...

The need for cooperation over Russia's exports of gas to the EU via Ukraine was an important reason for the tentative peace deal struck in Geneva yesterday. But as Jack D. Sharples writes, gas will also be a source of East-West tensions for a long time to…

The Green MP for Brighton, Caroline Lucas, and four other protestors have been found 'not guilty' by Brighton magistrates on charges of obstructing the highway and other public order offences at a 2013 anti-fracking protest. 'The fight goes on!'

The US Forest Service is developing a new armory of aggressive and often illegal tactics to push through loss-making timber sales, as it brands forest defenders as 'eco-terrorists'. Time to dig in for the trees - and the wolves.

With three of Jonathon Porritt's wishes for the UK's energy sector coming true in the space of as many weeks - the launch of the Renewable Heat Incentive, a Solar Strategy and a Community Energy Strategy - he finds cause for celebration.

After over a decade of fracking, oversight of the industry's radioactive waste is still lacking, reports Sharon Kelly. Over half of the 280 billion gallons a year of radioactive waste water from fracking ends up in rivers and streams.

Turbulence lies ahead for the UK's wind energy sector, writes Rebecca Cooke, as key Conservative MPs appear to be launching a hardline attack on onshore wind farms in the run up to the General Election.

A widely publicised study has suggested that eating organic food doesn't stop you getting cancer. Pat Thomas finds the study deeply unconvincing - and wonders why Cancer Research UK is so quick to trumpet its conclusions.

Federal Agencies have capitulated to an armed militia protecting a Nevada rancher running his cattle on 100s of 1,000s of acres of public land reserved for 'threatened' Desert tortoises - despite multiple court orders and over $1 million in unpaid fines.

Australia's poorer communities, with lower employment and education levels, and those with a high proportion of Indigenous people, are significantly more likely to suffer high levels of toxic air pollution. Children are at particular risk from rising levels of…

There are now more than 400,000 electric cars on the world's roads - twice as many as a year ago, and on current trends there will be a million by 2016. Leading the market are the USA, Japan and China - while Europe trails behind.

As the world inexorably warms, Roger Kemp shows how we can help to keep our buildings cool with roof gardens - or just with white paint. And if enough people do it, entire cities will become more cooler, more pleasant places to be when hot weather hits ...

UK-based oil and gas company Perenco is expanding its operations in the Peruvian Amazon - in a remote area known to be inhabited by highly vulnerable indigenous people living in 'voluntary isolation'. But as David Hill reports, Perenco denies their existence…

The latest IPCC report urges a dash for gas to allow us to reduce the burning of coal, including shale gas from fracking. But as Alex Kirby reports, their calculations appear to be based on an arithmetical flaw.

Wales has an enviable record of declining BTB in cattle - without having to kill a single badger. Jan Bayley explains how Wales's combination of frequent testing and exacting biosecurity has succeeded - and how England can learn from Wales's experience.

Th latest IPCC climate change report says that averting catastrophe is eminently affordable, reports Damian Carrington. A global roll-out of clean energy would shave only a tiny fraction off economic growth, and bring huge benefits in clean air and energy…

One evening in March, wind delivered over 10,000 MW of electricity to Texas's power grid, almost 30% of total demand, reports Ian Partridge, and another 18,500 MW of capacity is under construction. So just why is Texas going so big on wind?

The issues surrounding powerful new technologies from GMOs to nuclear power appear disparate, writes David King - but look harder and most are linked by common threads. Key among them are issues of profit, control and socialisation of cost ...