Environment

Investors like Gates are betting that our planet can't sustain the current rate of growth in animal-based foods for too much longer. Products like Beyond Eggs, a plant-based substitute, are designed to fill the void.

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Environmental groups warn of climate risks as gas supplier pays $3,000 an acre for unproven site near Blackpool

The government's campaign to kickstart a shale gas revolution in Britain received a major boost on Thursday when Centrica joined in by promising to spend up to £160m on a key licence near Blackpool.

The UK's biggest domestic energy supplier and parent of British Gas has paid what some in the City believed a "surprisingly high" price for its 25% stake in the Bowland basin held by smaller pioneers Cuadrilla Resources and AJ Lucas.

It means Sam Laidlaw, the Centrica boss, and Lord Browne, a Cuadrilla director, two of the UK's most prominent businessmen and both with close links to ministers, are now spearheading a fracking industry that still faces significant hurdles in proving the extent of genuine reserves and reassuring the public over safety.

Michael Fallon, the energy minister working with the Treasury on a new tax regime for fracking, said Centrica's expertise in the energy sector as an operator and developer was a big step forward for shale in Britain. "Their investment is a vote of confidence in the significant efforts this government has made to create the right environment to accelerate the development of shale in a responsible way," he said.

Centrica, which as recently as January played down hopes that Britain could replicate the dramatic reduction in gas prices seen over the past two years in America through shale, said it made sense to get involved now.

"With North Sea gas reserves declining and the UK becoming more dependent on imported gas, it is important that we look for opportunities to develop domestic gas resources, to provide affordable sources of gas to our customers, and to deliver broader economic benefits to the UK," said Mark Hanafin, managing director of Centrica's international exploration and production business.

But equity analysts expressed surprise that Centrica had been willing to pay what amounted to $3,000 an acre at Bowland, compared with $5,000 for proven shale areas in the US. "The involvement of Centrica is enough to raise the profile of the UK shale gas sector. But it is a surprisingly high price considering no shale gas is flowing yet in this country and only a few wells drilled. Either they know something we don't, or they are taking a major punt," said one top energy analyst who asked not to be named.

Meanwhile, environmentalists warned that Centrica was taking "a really big risk" by throwing itself into a controversial fossil fuel sector that they believe will only make climate change worse.

Jenny Banks, climate and energy specialist at WWF-UK, said: "Centrica has already singled itself out as a target for Greenpeace and others for not taking climate change seriously in the investments it makes. But this also has economic risks around getting gas out of the ground and environmental risks around accidents."

The Bowland licence is operated by Cuadrilla, with three exploration wells drilled to date. Centrica said data obtained from the drilling process had confirmed the presence of natural gas.

The gas company added that initial work suggested there could be 200tn cubic feet of gas in place relating to the Bowland shale licence, although it warned: "Further drilling will be required to establish whether the discovery is commercial."

A report, Britain's Shale Gas Potential, published last month by the Institute of Directors, estimated that locally produced shale could reduce the proportion of gas the UK has to import in 2030 from 76% to 37%. UK-wide investment could reach £3.7bn a year, supporting 74,000 jobs across the industry and its supply chain, the report said.

The discovery in the US of huge amounts of shale as a result of using new techniques such as horizontal drilling and "fracking" the rock using chemicals has led to a huge new shale industry that sent prices of natural gas plummeting from above $10 per million British thermal units to below $3 and turned the country from a gas importer to a potential exporter.

Shale is also helping to revitalise a previously troubled manufacturing sector in the US by allowing cheap energy to drastically reduce the cost per unit of US factories, supporters claim.

But Centrica insisted in January that shale gas was not "the game-changer we've seen in North America" and played down speculation that it might start drilling. Some have speculated that the change of heart is associated with Centrica fearing it could "miss the boat" if shale took off in this country but others question whether the company is deliberately currying favour with government.

Last week IGas, a competitor of Cuadrilla, which had previously said it was sitting on 9tn cubic feet of shale gas reserves, said new estimates suggested the volume of "gas initially in place" could range from 15.1tn cubic feet to 172.3tn cubic feet. IGas is also talking to larger outside investors about selling a stake. The names of Shell, BG and Statoil have all been trailed by analysts as potential new shale entrants.

• Centrica
• Shale gas and fracking
• Blackpool
• Gas
• Energy
• Commodities
• Fossil fuels
• Gas
• Utilities

Terry MacalisterAngela Monaghan
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Climate scientists and meteorologists are meeting next week to debate the causes of UK's disappointing weather in recent years

Washout summers. Flash floods. Freezing winters. Snow in May. Droughts. There is a growing sense that something is happening to our weather. But is it simply down to natural variability, or is climate change to blame?

To try to answer the question the Met Office is hosting an unprecedented meeting of climate scientists and meteorologists next week to debate the possible causes of the UK's "disappointing" weather over recent years, the Guardian has learned.

Tuesday's meeting at the forecaster's HQ in Exeter is being convened in response to this year's cool spring, which, according to official records, was the coldest in 50 years.

The one-day gathering will be led by Stephen Belcher, head of the Met Office Hadley Centre and professor of meteorology at the University of Reading, and will include up to 20 experts from the UK's leading climate research institutions.

The "roundtable workshop" will attempt to outline the "dynamical drivers of the cold spring of 2013", but attendees are expected also to debate the "disappointing summers of the last seven years".

Official records show that above-average temperatures in summer last occurred in 2006, a season that had above-average sunshine hours, and below-average rainfall. The only summer since then to give us average conditions nationally was in 2010.

The meeting will also discuss the washout summer of 2012 and the freezing winter of 2010-11.

The Met Office said it had never held a formal meeting in this way to discuss possible causes behind the UK's unusual weather of recent years.

Scientists are normally reluctant to attribute anomalous weather to climate change because climate is typically defined as a regional average pattern of weather witnessed over a period of 30 or more years.

However, the attendees will discuss a range of possible causes, including melting Arctic sea ice, changes to ocean currents in the north Atlantic, and alterations to the jet stream.

They will examine the current state of the science regarding these possible drivers and identify what further research is needed, and a discussion about whether climate models need to be revised to take into account any recent changes to weather patterns, not just in the UK but across the rest of Europe. This week, the National Farmers Union said that 30% less wheat than normal was being grown in the UK this year due to the recent weather. In addition to this year's cold spring, 2012 was the second wettest year in England since 1910, according to the Met Office.

Peter Stott, who leads the Met Office's climate monitoring and attribution team, said there were "tentative indications in recently published papers that melting Arctic sea ice is affecting the position and behaviour of the jet stream". But the recent unpredictability could be caused by "natural variability or something more long term". It was still too soon to be sure.

One attendee at the meeting, Doug Parker, professor of meteorology at the University of Leeds, said: "We are universally finding that the links between the weather and climate communities are increasing and overlapping. Most climate issues reduce down to questions about what weather events are like, and the representation of short-term weather events is a key challenge in climate modelling. People are increasingly conscious that there is a change [to our weather]. There have been informal discussions in our communities about this for a while now. The key question is whether this is down to natural variability alone, or whether climate change is now projecting on to, and adding to, natural variability. I am going to the meeting with my eyes and ears open."

A Met Office spokesman said: "We have seen a run of unusual seasons in the UK and northern Europe, such as the cold winter of 2010, last year's wet weather and the cold spring this year. This may be nothing more than a run of natural variability, but there may be other factors impacting our weather there is emerging research which suggests there is a link between declining Arctic sea ice and European climate – but exactly how this process might work and how important it may be among a host of other factors remains unclear."

• Met Office
• Weather
• Meteorology
• Climate change
• Drought
• Flooding
• Natural disasters and extreme weather
• Spring
• Summer
• Winter

Leo Hickman
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Arrival of Centrica sends message that UK shale has a future but there are significant obstacles to overcome first

Is this the moment that UK shale starts to be taken seriously? Of course, viewed from Downing Street, the industry is already very serious. Tax breaks are being prepared and the chancellor has hailed shale as "part of the future". It's just that the UK scene is populated by small companies making eye-catching projections about potential reserves before hard-headed assessments can be made of the likely rates of profitable recovery.

The arrival of Centrica, which is buying a 25% stake in the Bowland Shale exploration licence, improves the picture. The presence of a big player sends a message that UK shale may indeed develop into a big story. Or, at least, that's the theory.

It would be useful to know, though, how much optimism and enthusiasm Centrica really has. The company has stood outside the well-developed US business and chief executive Sam Laidlaw said in January that UK shale would not be "the game-changer we've seen in North America". He offered two reasons why. First, a lot of UK shale sits underneath large towns and cities. Second, unlike in the US, landowners don't have the same incentives to encourage fracking since the shale belongs to the Crown.

So what's Centrica up to? Covering its backside would be one interpretation. The UK's biggest gas company would look silly if it stood on the sidelines as shale became a success. And it wouldn't score any brownie points with the government by pondering for too long – saying "no" to new nuclear is one thing; taking a back seat on shale might look unco-operative.

A more positive spin is that Centrica is sensibly buying an option on shale for pin money. It is paying £40m to Cuadrilla, the UK firm chaired by Lord Browne, and AJ Lucas, an Australian outfit. It will also contribute £60m for exploration and appraisal. In the context of a group-wide annual capital expenditure budget of £1.5bn, that's next to nothing.

We shall see. The shale industry's future will become clearer only once it moves beyond the current phase of extracting interesting seismic data and starts putting a price on production. That's when the economics will be clarified, and when the tricky question of dealing with local objections to fracking will have to be confronted.

Centrica's investment takes the story on, but the broad picture remains unaltered: shale should be explored, but you wouldn't want to base your energy policy on it just yet.

• Shale gas and fracking
• Utilities
• Fossil fuels
• Centrica
• Energy
• Gas

Nils Pratley
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Birds flock. Insects swarm. Fish swim in schools. These are all examples of collective behavior, a concept that has fascinated scientists for decades. For a recent piece in Wired Magazine, science writer Ed Yong explains what this research could tell us about predicting the future.

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Countryside Alliance says charity's actions look 'extraordinarily hypocritical' in light of its recent comments on other culls

The RSPB has admitted killing hundreds of birds on its reserves, prompting an accusation of "extraordinary hypocrisy" from the Countryside Alliance.

The RSPB recently criticised the licenced destruction of buzzard eggs and nests to protect a pheasant shoot and said a cull of lesser black-backed gulls should be halted. But on Thursday the charity revealed it too had destroyed lesser black backed gulls and other birds that were harming native species.

Tim Bonner, the Countryside Alliance director of campaigns, said: "The RSPB's use of the licence system seems to be perfectly legitimate and justified but looks extraordinarily hypocritical in light of its recent comments about other licence applications. If the licence system is correct when used by the RSPB, then it must also be correct when used by other applicants."

The RSPB said the use of licences to destroy birds to protect struggling native species was different to killing birds to protect game shoots populated by non-native species.

Martin Harper, the RSPB conservation director, said lethal control was a last resort and only used when all other methods had been tried unsuccessfully. "In most cases, this is to recover the numbers of threatened wild birds," he said.

The RSPB said that in 2011-12, it had destroyed 76 large gull nests – mostly of lesser black-backed gulls – and shot three adult lesser black-backed gulls to protect breeding terns from predation. It also prevented 73 greylag goose eggs and 25 Canada goose eggs from hatching – by oiling them – to prevent collisions with aircraft. Almost 200 eggs of barnacle geese were destroyed elsewhere to protect other birds. All the geese were introduced species, Harper said. Almost 300 carrion crows were also killed to protect breeding wading birds, such as black-tailed godwit or lapwing.

Harper said the RSPB was making the information public in the "interests of openness". He said: "We're not obliged to submit records on the number of birds killed, which we think is wrong, but we keep the records anyway."

The Countryside Alliance said the release was in response to freedom of information requests it had made about the licences to Natural England. Bonner said: "They used highly emotive language to decry these activities, but now we find out that they have been carrying out exactly the same sort of actions."

In May, it was revealed that Natural England had licensed the destruction of the eggs and nests of buzzards to protect a pheasant shoot. At the time, Harper said: "Most people would prefer to see buzzards soaring in the sky. They are big, majestic creatures in the wild and we don't have many of them in the UK."

In the same month, the RSPB called for a halt to the killing of tens of thousands of lesser black-backed gulls on one of England's largest shooting estates. It said while the original purpose had been to protect water quality, it now appeared to be being carried out to protect a grouse shoot.

• RSPB
• Birds
• Wildlife
• Conservation
• Animals

Damian Carrington
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Major windfarm project helping South Australian town known for notorious 'bodies in the barrels' killings to put past behind it

Snowtown is surrounded by picturesque farmland and salt lakes but the beauty is at odds with its gory reputation as the home of the infamous "bodies in the barrels" discovery – a badge the town is hoping to lose with the completion of the country's second-largest windfarm.

The stunning landscape, just two hours' drive from Adelaide, is already dotted with the turbines of the Snowtown Wind Farm, which will be the largest of its kind in South Australia.

Trust Power, the owner of the enormous energy project, expects to complete the second stage of construction of 90 turbines by late 2014 and says it will power more than 40% of the state by 2020.

Residents have been hoping the wind farm will give them a new kind of notoriety ever since it was proposed a few years after police discovered the bodies of eight murder victims stored in barrels of acid and hidden inside the rented Snowtown bank building in May 1999.

The convoluted and gruesome story of what turned out to be one of Australia's worst mass murders horrified the country, and a highly regarded and publicised 2011 movie based on the killings contributed to international renown.

Between 1992 and 1999 12 people were brutally killed by a group of Adelaide men led by John Bunting. The victims were all known to at least one of the killers – often a relative, friend or neighbour. The joint trial of Bunting and Robert Wagner revealed evidence of horrific actions including dismemberment, prolonged torture and cannibalism. The two men were sentenced to life without parole.

The case has shackled the small town of 500 with a grim and undeserved celebrity. The murders didn't actually involve anyone from Snowtown.

"People themselves don't think about it," says resident Ros Large. "It's when tourists come in and say 'where's the bank', and you just go 'what, again?'. "I know they're curious to know where the bank is and that sort of thing, but gosh, that happened 15 years ago."

Residents are well and truly over talking about the murders – but it brings them attention, and with it business. The local gift shop sells small barrel figurines and fridge magnets ("Snowtown - You'll have a barrel of fun"). There was also once talk of changing the name to Rosetown but it was quickly mooted.

The town doesn't do a great job of helping people forget, however. Visitors do a double take when they reach the turn-off at the highway.

Below the sign pointing right to Snowtown is another – the brown and white kind that signals a tourist attraction – reading "the Big Blade". Snowtown and a "Big Blade" monument? Surely it wouldn't be so crass? But it's not what you expect; the "blade" is a rotor blade from one of the enormous wind turbines, mounted on poles in the centre of town in tribute to the project that people hope will reassign their infamy.

The windfarm is a boon for the town and Snowtown is also unique in its overwhelmingly positive reaction to the energy project.

"We've got no complaints," resident Alan Large told Guardian Australia when we visited.

"The Snowtown people are quite happy about the fact that the wind farms are here."

Large said the windfarm in nearby Clare is "getting flack about the noise and chickens laying eggs with no yolks and things like that". But he and his wife Ros don't understand that. The sentiment echoes among the area's population.

All the turbines are on private land, and Trust Power constructed several fire trails which came in handy for local firefighters when recent lightning strikes sparked a couple of bushfires.

The energy retailer also contributes $15,000 a year to the community through the Lend a Hand Foundation which Large runs as president of the Snowtown Lions Club. The foundation funds small projects in Snowtown and the wider community with the money and has "no trouble spending it every year". Recent purchases include a lawn mower for the bowling club, a skate park for local kids and emergency response pendants for some of the elderly population.

The contribution – which also received a $10,000 bump from turbine manufacturer Siemens this year – will increase to $45,000 from next year.

The Larges have lived in Snowtown for around 50 years, which they said makes them "nearly locals. You have your ups and downs with it, but all together it's really a good town," said Mrs Large.

Dennis and Andreen Tothill, who own 1000 acres in the area, say the town got a bad name it didn't deserve from the murders, but there's nothing you can do to change it.

As soon as the windfarm project was given the go ahead, the Tothills signed up, eager for the financial security it offered farmers and the environmental benefits of renewable energy.

"It's always been a daydream, always," says Mrs Tothill. "The windfarm is a constant income whether it's raining or whether it's a drought."

Mr Tothill added: "I'd rather have these than a nuclear power station sitting here."

The seven turbines on the Tothill property are along a high ridgeline that's only useful for grazing, and the animals aren't bothered, often seeking shelter in the shade of the machines.

"Our ridge tops don't interfere with tourism or anything else," Mrs Tothill said. "And we're all just grateful as hell."

• Wind power
• Australia
• Renewable energy
• Energy

Helen Davidson
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Police preparing for peaceful protests carried out wargames with activists and the cullers to simulate confrontations

Officers policing the imminent badger culls in England will allow protesters to "bend the rules" to ensure peaceful protests can take place, while working to enable the marksmen to carry out their task. Police have also carried out wargames with both animal rights activists and the cullers to simulate heated night-time confrontations between vuvuzela-blowing protesters and armed shooters.

Inspector Mark Ravenscroft of Gloucestershire police said policing the cull presents a major challenge: "It's a big concern. There are so many unknowns: where, when, who is coming?" The police have not been informed when or exactly where the culling will take place by the private companies licenced by the government to shoot the badgers.

Ravenscroft, who as bronze commander will control the policing during the cull, dubbed Operation Themis, said the emphasis was on enabling peaceful protest. "We will allow people to bend the law to protest peacefully." For example, he said, obstructing the highway is a criminal offence but officers might allow a short protest as a compromise with a group determined to block the road all day.

Ravenscroft said the police wanted to avoid surprises during the cull, both for protesters and police. "If you take us by surprise you get a kneejerk reaction and you don't have to look far back in history to see that kneejerk reaction are not looked upon kindly afterwards," he said, giving the example of G20 protests in London in 2009 when crowds of protesters were kettled.

"We are treading a line between the parties," said Ravenscroft. "Public safety is paramount to everybody involved. We could request that the culling company stop activity on the ground on a particular night to safeguard public safety."

Two pilot cull zones, in Gloucestershire and Somerset, have been licenced to kill about 5,000 badgers, with the cull due to be extended to many more areas if the pilots are successful. Ministers argue that a cull is necessary as part of measures to curb the rise of tuberculosis in cattle, which resulted in over 37,000 cattle being slaughtered in 2012 at a cost of £100m to taxpayers. But many prominent scientists have warned the cull is a costly distraction from improving controls on cattle movements and work on vaccination for both badgers and cattle.

The wargames involving anti-cull activists and the police used a map to track the minute-by-minute movements of marksmen, torch-waving protesters staking out setts, the police and volunteers conducting injured badger patrols.

The exercise revealed potential difficulties which the police are now working to resolve, such as who would decide whether an injured badger should be shot to end its suffering or taken to a vet for treatment. "If the wounded badger is sparko [unconscious] and blood is pouring out of it, that is one thing, if it is conscious and fighting like hell, that is another," said Lee Hopgood, an RSPCA chief inspector who took part in the exercise. He warned activists that anyone delaying the putting down of an injured badger may be committing an offence.

Another issue raised was how any illegal shooting of badgers will be distinguished from the licensed cull. "Our assumption will be that any shooting is illegal until we know otherwise and we'll look to take action," said Jay Tiernan, from the Stop the Cull group. Tiernan, who acknowledges past convictions for aggravated trespass and criminal damage but condemns intimidation or violence, said he was surprised to have been invited to take part: "Our reaction was that it was completely surreal." Other groups, including Gloucestershire Against Badger Shooting, declined to take part.

Separate wargaming exercises are taking place involving the cullers and, separately again, the government, the licensing body Natural England and other wildlife officials.

Ravenscroft said his force was trying to anticipate the concerns of residents in the cull zone: "Police are also being sent out to do local reassurance: some of these picturesque villages have not seen a bobby since the 1950s." He said he thought it would be possible to complete the culls: "If you look at the size and geography of the area, I don't think you will get occasions when the two groups meet very often."

Tiernan said: "I think the exercise was probably a way of the bronze commander saying to the people above him that three times the number of officers are needed to properly police this."

Recent analysis showed that rising police costs now meant the cull policy was more expensive than vaccinating badgers.

• Badgers
• Wildlife
• Animals
• Animal welfare
• Activism
• Protest
• Police

Damian Carrington
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Tensions rise between neighbours over £4.7bn Great Renaissance Dam project

Ethiopia's parliament has unanimously ratified a treaty that strips Egypt of its right to the lion's share of the Nile river waters, raising the political temperature in a dispute between Cairo and Addis Ababa over the construction of a dam.

The parliament's move follows days of irate exchanges between two of Africa's most populous nations over Ethiopia's new hydroelectric plant, which Egypt fears will reduce a water supply vital for its 84 million people.

Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi said on Monday he did not want "war" but would keep "all options open", prompting Ethiopia to say it was ready to defend its $4.7bn Great Renaissance Dam near the border with Sudan.

Six Nile-basin countries including Ethiopia have signed a deal effectively stripping Cairo of its veto, which is based in colonial-era treaties, over dam projects on the Nile, the source of nearly all Egypt's water.

Ethiopia's late leader Meles Zenawi had delayed parliamentary ratification until Egypt elected a new government.

"Most of the upstream countries have approved it through their parliaments. We delayed it as a gesture of goodwill to the people of Egypt until a formal elected government was in place," Ethiopian government spokesman Bereket Simon told Reuters.

"We have a principled stance on the construction of dams. We are determined to see our projects brought to completion."

Another government spokesman, Shimeles Kemal, said Ethiopia's 547-seat legislature had voted to "incorporate the treaty into domestic law".

Egyptian foreign minister Mohamed Kamel Amr is expected to travel to Addis Ababa on Sunday for talks about the dam, though Ethiopia's foreign ministry has said there can be no question of suspending construction.

• Ethiopia
• Africa
• Egypt
• Middle East and North Africa
• Water
• Rivers

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In a new Sky1 series Sir David Attenborough will for the first time take viewers on a 3D journey through the world of bugs, insects and other creepy-crawlies. Here we take a closeup look at these Micro Monsters

Environmental campaigners managed to climb on to the roof of parliament with T-shirts saying 'oil out of politics'

Three environmental activists demonstrating during a visit to parliament by the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, have been arrested, say police.

Environmental campaigners against tar sands, a form of fuel that produces more emissions than conventional oil, have posted a video showing them on the roof of parliament, with a statement saying they wanted to disrupt the premier's address to MPs and peers.

The Love Canada Hate Tar Sands site said: "We have entered parliament to interrupt Harper's speech. We have managed to climb onto the roof with T-shirts saying 'oil out of politics', 'stop Harper' and 'stop the tar sands'. Two campaigners spilled molasses on the floor outside of Parliament."

Shortly before Harper's speech the doors slammed shut on the robing room, where the Queen puts on the imperial state crown and her ceremonial robes for the state opening of parliament, and shouting was heard.

The activists said in a statement: "Cameron's government opens its arms to Harper and his cronies … Harper should be shamed internationally but he is instead invited to address both houses of parliament. Harper has taken Canada down a dangerous climate path, destroyed whole ecosystems and overriding centuries-old treaty rights."

In a separate protest, the UK Tar Sands Network held a demonstration outside parliament as Harper arrived, with around 50 people campaigning against extraction of oil from the tar sands in the boreal forests of Canada.

The group wants the UK government to support EU measures to label tar sands as more polluting than conventional oil and to discourage its future import.

• Activism
• Protest
• Oil sands
• Energy
• Fossil fuels
• Oil
• Canada
• Americas
• House of Commons

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A historic tree-lined path on Jesus Green in Cambridge has become shrouded in spectacular cobweb-like nests created by an infestation of bird cherry ermine moth caterpillars

Ming – the first panda to set paw on British soil – led a picaresque and, for some people, profitable life

As the nation eagerly waits Edinburgh Zoo's announcement of the outcome of the artificial insemination of its female panda Tian Tian, it seems like an apt moment to look back on the life of Ming.

Not Flash Gordon's arch-nemesis Ming the Merciless, but Ming the first baby panda to set foot on British soil. She might not have had the flamboyant collar, forked beard or exaggerated eyebrows of the evil emperor, but she still managed to cause a massive sensation.

Ming's story begins in the wild, bamboo-clad mountains of China's central Sichuan Province, where she was born in 1937. Within a year, hunters had captured her and delivered her into the acquisitive hands of one Floyd Tangier-Smith (let's call him Tangier), a Japanese-born American who had given up banking for a life of adventure.

Tangier's desire to export pandas from Chengdu would have been adventure enough in peacetime. With the second Sino-Japanese War in full, murderous swing, it is remarkable that he succeeded at all.

Floating down the Yangtze to Shanghai was unthinkable, so Tangier arranged a gruelling road trip for the pandas: "We had to put all our cages and equipment on lorries and do a journey of 35 days to Hong Kong on roads that were often nearly impassable through bandit-infested country," he wrote.

En route, one of the trucks rolled down an embankment and a couple of the pandas escaped from their cages. "Happily they were quite willing to be caught again, and the incident led to the loss of nothing more than a day."

By the time Tangier had secured a passage from Hong Kong to London on board a cargo vessel, one of the six pandas was dead. Of those that remained there was a senior animal he nicknamed Grandma, three other adults he called Happy, Dopey and Grumpy in a nod to the 1937 blockbuster Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and the baby that would become known as Ming.

The pandas spent the voyage to Britain chained to their open cages on deck, steaming into the London docks in a raging blizzard on Christmas Eve 1938. The stress of it all seems to have been too much for Grandma, who died of pneumonia a couple of weeks later.

Tangier flogged another of the pandas to a German dealer, who took him on a whirlwind tour of the major zoos in Nazi Germany. Tragicomically, this was the animal known as Happy.

And then there were three. Tangier sold Grumpy, Dopey and the cub to the Zoological Society of London, which plucked three of China's imperial dynasties out of the bag to rechristen them Tang, Sung and Ming. So popular was the baby panda that she found her image reproduced on posters on the London Underground, in cartoons, in a series of "panda postcards", in the form of soft toys, less-than flattering hats, a travesty of a bathing suit and in dozens of television broadcasts.

Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen, was among the thousands who turned out to see Ming. Also present was Chiang Yee, a Chinese poet, author, artist and emigree, who remarked on the extraordinary numbers of people drawn to his youthful and fluffy compatriot. "There were always rows and rows of them, especially children, round her house, waiting to shake hands with her and to cuddle her," he wrote in The Story of Ming, a beautifully illustrated children's book that dramatised the panda's journey to London.

"She heard that the zoo was making a big sum of money out of her popularity." Plus ça change. At the outbreak of war in September 1939, Ming was evacuated from London to Whipsnade Zoo but returned repeatedly to the capital throughout hostilities, a much-welcomed boost to morale.

Sung died in late 1939. Tang lasted until the spring of 1940. Ming lived on through most of the war, but as the bombs began to fall, so too did Ming's hair. This was particularly evident around her eyes, where the exposed skin had become dry and scaly. In 1943, she started walking backwards. Then, after months of slow decline, she had a sudden fit on Boxing Day 1944, banging herself against the walls and railings of her den and cutting the skin of her muzzle and face.

Ming did not recover. The cause of death, according to a cursory postmortem, could not be determined. The Times ran an obituary: "She could die happy in the knowledge that she gladdened the universal heart and, even in the stress of war, her death should not go unnoticed."

It certainly didn't for London taxidermist Edward Gerrard, who got hold of her pelt, stuffed it and took it on a lucrative tour round the country. "Ming, dead, is priceless," ran the caption to a photograph of her stuffed corpse that appeared in Illustrated magazine.

The whereabouts of her skin remains a mystery, if indeed it survives at all. Her skull, however, passed into the collection of the Royal College of Surgeons. As of next month, Ming's skull will be on display in London at the Hunterian Museum in Lincoln's Inn Field.

• Zoology
• Endangered species
• Wildlife
• Conservation
• Animals
• China
• Museums

Henry Nicholls
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Entrance of big name into British shale sector could be catalyst for fracking industry

The British Gas owner, Centrica, will invest up to £160m in shale gas exploration and development in the north-west after agreeing a deal with Britain's leading fracking company.

Centrica has bought a 25% stake in the Bowland exploration licence in Lancashire from Cuadrilla Resources and AJ Lucas for £40m. It will pay a further £60m in exploration and appraisal costs.

An additional £60m will be payable if Centrica subsequently decides to move into a development phase.

The entrance of such a big name into the British shale sector could be a catalyst for an industry that has until now been made up of relatively small companies. It follows speculation about a possible deal last week, and comes just months after the company played down prospects for shale gas.

"With North Sea gas reserves declining and the UK becoming more dependent on imported gas supplies, it is important that we look for opportunities to develop domestic gas resources, to provide affordable sources of gas to our customers, and to deliver broader economic benefits to the UK," said Mark Hanafin, managing director of Centrica's international upstream business on Thursday.

"The government's clear commitment to developing the UK's shale gas industry is creating the right environment for companies to invest and to deliver those benefits."

The Bowland licence is operated by Cuadrilla, with three exploration wells drilled to date. Centrica said data obtained from the drilling process had confirmed the presence of natural gas.

It added initial work suggested there could be 200 trillion cubic feet of gas in place relating to the Bowland shale licence, although it cautioned "further drilling will be required to establish whether the discovery is commercial".

A report from the Institute of Directors in May estimated that natural gas from shale could reduce the amount of gas the UK has to import in 2030 from 76% to 37%.

UK-wide investment could reach £3.7bn a year, supporting 74,000 jobs across the industry and its supply chain, the report said.

Centrica insisted in January that shale gas was not "the game-changer we've seen in North America" and played down speculation that it might start drilling.

• Centrica
• Shale gas and fracking
• Utilities
• Energy
• Fossil fuels
• Gas

Angela Monaghan
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Britain's bumblebees may have suffered a huge decline, but the reintroduction of an extinct species brings hope of a recovery, writes Kate Bradbury

Last week I held a short-haired bumblebee queen in my hand, stretched out my arm and watched as she clambered on to a red clover flower to take her first sip of wild, English nectar.

This week I've been glued to the Springwatch Bumblebee Cam – a webcam showing the daily workings of a thriving buff-tailed (Bombus terrestris) colony. The one experience in the context of the other has left me with a strange sense of history and new beginnings; of lessons learned and hope.

My short-haired bumblebee (I called her Sally) was one of 49 released on Dungeness in Kent last Monday as part of a high-profile reintroduction project. The species (Bombus subterraneus) used to be fairly common in the south of the UK, feeding on wildflowers such as white deadnettle and red clover. A hundred years ago FWL Sladen captured short-haired bumblebee queens in the wild and took them home to nest in his house. He studied them intently and described in his book, The Humble Bee, how they built their colony, fed their young and how the males of this species were "particularly fragrant".

Sladen kept many bumblebee nests in his home. Each year he set out in his horse and trap and dug up colonies of different species – many of which are now extremely rare – and transported them home. He'd keep them in homemade, bespoke nest boxes in his garden and indoors, where he would make meticulous notes on how they lived.

Since Sladen's day there have been unprecedented changes to our landscape. Agricultural intensification has virtually eradicated wildflowers from our countryside, and wildflowers have also been dismissed in our gardens in favour of more ornamental cultivars. Lack of food for the short-haired bumble meant it was foraging – and living – in increasingly small spaces. Colonies became inbred and the species inevitably died out. It hadn't been seen in the UK since 1988 and was finally declared extinct in 2000.

By contrast, the stars of Bumblebee Cam are one of our most common species. Widespread and robust, Bombus terrestris has adapted to feed from a variety of flowers (unlike the short-haired bumble, which has more specific needs). Like Sladen 100 years ago, I've been watching the inner workings of the nest – only with today's technology (and fewer nests to go and pluck out of the ground) I've had to contend myself with watching via the internet, rather than rearing a colony in my kitchen.

Why some species can adapt to changing conditions while others can't is a mystery to me. But it's not hard to grow the right plants for declining (and even previously extinct) wildlife. Our gardens are proving increasingly important for many bumblebee species – especially those in the vicinity of open landscapes, such as Dungeness. The Short-Haired Bumblebee Reintroduction project – spearheaded by Nikki Gammans – will see a number of queens brought to the UK from Sweden every year for around five years, in the hope that a healthy population will recolonise the UK. For the last few years Nikki and her team have worked with farmers, landowners and gardeners to improve the local habitat to ensure there's plenty of food for the bees once they're "home". Thanks to such efforts, five other rare bumblebees have been recorded in the area after an absence of several years. This small area of Kent is now a haven for wildlife, and is, according to Gammans, "the best place in Britain to be a bumblebee". It's amazing what we can achieve when we work together.

Right now, bumblebee nests in our gardens are becoming more obvious, as the number of workers increases and more bees are seen flying in and out of the nest with their back legs loaded with pollen. There's a colony of early bumblebees, Bombus pratorum, nesting down the side of my mum's pond. Friends have sent me photos and videos of bumbles nesting in their walls and compost heaps. Thousands of people are glued to the Springwatch Bumblebee Cam, watching the fascinating world inside these colonies.

Few of us are lucky enough to have bumblebees nesting in our gardens, but with a few tweaks we can improve the habitat to up our chances of attracting a prospecting queen next year. Many like to nest underground in old mouse nests. Some prefer long, tussocky grass, while others have adapted to use our compost bins and bird boxes. By planting spring-flowering plants such as hellebore and crocus, we can provide a food source as well as nesting options, which may add to the appeal of our garden habitat.

I doubt Sally the short-haired bumblebee will be turning up in any gardens this summer. She's a species of flower-rich grassland, of wildflowers we tend to call 'weeds'. But if you live in or near Dungeness, why not leave a patch to grow wild and be colonised by white deadnettle and red clover, and watch out for any unusual visitors? Yours could be the first garden this species has been in for a hundred years.

For more information on bumblebees, visit the Bumblebee Conservation Trust website.

• Gardens
• Wildlife
• Bees
• Insects

Kate Bradbury
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In 1901, Fancy Cycling, an extraordinary book by Isabel Marks, showed straight-faced paragons of Edwardian society pulling off some pretty daring (and peculiar) stunts

From backbench windfarm opposition to the dash for gas, Conservative rhetoric on climate has undergone a drastic shift

Recent fraught debates around the energy bill saw coalition MPs – including some climate-sceptic Conservatives – oppose a target for making electricity carbon-free by 2030. But this was only the latest reason to suspect that David Cameron's 2010 promise to lead the "greenest government ever" was simply post-electoral exuberance.

From widespread backbench opposition to the siting of windfarms, to a dash-for-gas strategy endorsed by the Treasury (but criticised by the government's own Committee on Climate Change), Conservative rhetoric on climate change and the environment has undergone a drastic shift.

While opposition to windfarms does not necessarily entail climate change denial, the signals from the government are worrying. It is well known that Conservative voters are more likely to be sceptical about climate change. And with no indication from political leaders on the right that climate change is a problem that their voters should care about, there is a risk that the cross-party consensus on climate change in the UK could begin to unravel.

If the centre-right does not develop an effective and coherent narrative on climate change, then everyone has a problem. The challenge for communicators of all political stripes is to identify the ideas that will fire the imagination of citizens with centre-right views more effectively than the seductive, do-nothing arguments of sceptic groups like the Global Warming Policy Foundation.

In a new report for the Climate Outreach & Information Network (Coin), launched on Thursday, we argue that there is no inherent reason why climate change and the values of centre-right should be incompatible. However, there is a vacuum where a compelling conservative narrative on climate change should be – something which the report, entitled A new conversation with the centre-right about climate change, takes the first steps towards addressing.

The report is a response to a meeting Coin convened with some of the UK's leading experts on conservative engagement with climate change. We asked them to identify the key barriers and opportunities for more effectively communicating about climate change with this audience. In the words of one meeting participant, climate change must "break out of its leftwing ghetto" in order for a meaningful new conversation with the centre-right to begin.

We then conducted a thorough review of the research evidence, summarising key principles for climate change communication and identifying four narratives for talking to the centre-right about climate change.

The first narrative we labelled "localism", drawing on recent work by the conservative philosopher Roger Scruton. A core part of the British centre-right philosophy is a love of our "green and pleasant land". Stewardship, trusteeship and a shared responsibility to protect it are all embedded deeply at the heart of conservatism. Climate change poses new dangers to the countryside – and so should be something that conservatives want to address.

The second narrative focuses on energy security, and the idea that decarbonising is a sensible, cautious – conservative – strategy for insuring ourselves against energy risks in the future. The third narrative draws on work by the journalist James Murray, whose vision of "new environmentalism" positions climate change as too important for hippies and lefties, and argues that the innovators, decision-makers and businesses should be leading on climate change.

The final narrative we call the "good life". Emerging research suggests that framing climate change as a health threat may be a good way of reaching people who see climate change as something that only environmentalists need to worry about. And for conservatives who care about the health and wellbeing of their local communities, this may be a better way to start a conversation about climate change.

The aim of the report is not to advocate for particular policies, or to accuse people with centre-right views of being irrational, misguided or somehow wrong in how they think about climate change. Too many analyses of climate change scepticism assume that throwing more facts at the debate will somehow convince sceptics to change their minds; that the problem is simply a lack of knowledge about climate science.

But we know from academic research that what determines perceptions of climate change is not only – not even mostly – people's knowledge about the science. It is their values and political views that more directly influence their attitudes about climate change and how to respond to it.

So our report is an attempt to turn the debate about climate change scepticism upside down. Instead of asking how we can convince climate sceptics on the right that they are wrong, why not start a new conversation about why people with centre-right views should care about climate change, and what a centre-right solution to climate change would be?

• Adam Corner leads the Talking Climate programme for the Climate Outreach & Information Network. The report was funded by the BRASS research centre at Cardiff University.

• Climate change
• Climate change scepticism
• Climate change
• Conservatives
• Green politics
• Energy
• Renewable energy

Adam Corner
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Ruling provides temporary reprieve for nearly 1,500 animals that roam open spaces of Canberra

Oliver Milman

British Beekeepers Association attributes worst losses since survey began to washout summer leading to long winter, exacerbated by late spring

More than a third of all honeybee colonies in England died over the winter, according to figures from the British Beekeepers Association, the worst losses since its winter survival survey began.

On average, 33.8 colonies in every 100 perished over the long winter of 2012-13 compared with 16.2% the previous winter. In the south-west of England, more than half of all colonies were wiped out and in the northern part of the country 46.4% didn't survive.

In Scotland and Wales, honeybees fared no better. The Scottish beekeepers association, which has yet to complete its annual survey, predicts losses of up to 50%. And bee farmers in Wales have reported 38% losses.

The BBKA attributed the alarming high bee mortality to the poor weather during 2012 continuing into 2013 and exacerbated by the late arrival of spring.

"The wet summer prevented honey bees from foraging for food, resulting in poorly developed colonies going into winter. When they could get out there was a scarcity of pollen and nectar. Honeybee colonies which are in a poor nutritional state become more vulnerable to disease and other stress factors," said a BBKA spokeswoman.

Many beekeepers also reported incidence of "isolation starvation", when the cluster of bees in the hive becomes too cold to move close enough to eat their food stores in another part of the hive, and so starve.

But there are fears that the death toll for bees in England could be even higher, since the BBKA survey of 846 members closed at the end of March before the arrival of spring.

"April this year was very cold, and the start of May, so bees were confined to the hive for much longer and we still had bees dying from starvation in May. So losses could be much more serious," said Glyn Davies, a beekeeper from Devon and former president of the BBKA.

He said the south-west was particularly badly hit because of the relentless rain. "It was the wet, wet, wet, wet summer followed by an enormously long winter. I've never seen anything like it in the 35 years I've been keeping bees," said the 74-year-old beekeeper.

The winter bee losses come just weeks after EU member states voted for a suspension of three pesticides alleged to cause serious harm to bees.

Francis Ratnieks, professor of apiculture at University of Sussex, said pesticides weren't the cause of the high bee mortality: "It was the worst summer ever. I had my own bees starving to death in the summer. It is nothing to do with pesticides; bad weather is enough of an explanation. It's not healthy for bees to be trapped in their hives during the summer. Some queen bees couldn't get out to mate and confined bees are more likely to get nosema [a gut parasite] and viruses from the varroa mite."

When the BBKA survey began in 2007-08, winter bee mortality was 30.5%. Since then losses had been steadily falling.

The government's National Bee Unit says its initial 2012-13 findings of around 30% winter bee losses are the highest recorded loss since its bee inspectors began to formally gather their own figures five years ago.

Mike Brown, head of the NBU, commented, "These figures are not surprising given the harsh winter and long cold spring which followed on from an extremely poor summer last year. The National Bee Unit has continued to offer colony husbandry advice to beekeepers through these prolonged periods of inclement weather."

The Scottish government has announced £200,000 in funding to help bee farmers restock their colonies, but a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokeswoman said: "We do not provide government money for restocking bees. We are working with beekeepers to provide support and training to help them ensure the health of their bees."

• Bees
• Wildlife
• Insects

Alison Benjamin
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Haugh Woods, Herefordshire: A small orange butterfly powers past, and its flight behaviour is unfamiliar. I set off, loping after it

Viewed from Holme Lacy, across the Wye valley, the woods rising on hillocks along the eastern edge of the floodplain look uninspiring, dominated by dark regimented conifers. My heart sinks: how can these modern forestry constructs justify their site of special scientific interest status; surely they cannot be some of the best British wildlife woods?

Once inside Haugh Woods it is clear that there is more than meets the eye – there are quite large areas of native trees but, more pertinently, the wood is being sensitively managed. Wide rides with broad, flower-rich margins, bordered by large standard oaks abound.

Soon we encounter an expanse where the conifers have been harvested and, in the few years since, an enthusiastic scramble of sallow, birch and bramble has run riot. A small orange butterfly powers past, its flight behaviour is unfamiliar. I set off, loping after it, the brambles ripping at my trousers and catching the back of my hand. The insect is fast and it escapes. Fritillary, I think, but which one? I have the start of a one-that-got-away syndrome.

My concern dissolves as we locate more fritillaries feeding on the rich blue flowers of bugle. They are pearl-bordered fritillaries, with bright orange wings with arrays of black spots and black hairy bodies. Once a widespread inhabitant of British woods, it is now an increasingly rare animal, disappearing from over 60% of its haunts during my lifetime, and now largely restricted to north Scotland, the Welsh borders, Arnside in Cumbria and the south coast.

Further along small, floaty, white butterflies patrol up and down the rides, an even rarer and more declined butterfly, the wood white.

A recently expired mole lies on the path. Mole populations have done well this year but, as the new generation disperses, conflicts arise. Males often fight to the death and fleeing or injured moles are being observed on the surface in broad daylight.

• Rural affairs
• Butterflies
• Wildlife
• Insects

Matt Shardlow
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