Nature Hub

  By Georgina Rannard Climate and science reporter, BBC Edited by Amal Udawatta IMAGE SOURCE, ANDREW CROOK Image caption, Andrew runs a fish and chip shop and says many takeaways will face higher costs A ban on some single-use plastics will come into force in England from October, the government has announced. To tackle the growing plastic problem, takeaways, restaurants and cafes must stop using single-use plastic cutlery, plates and bowls. Green groups welcomed the move, but said it could go further to address packaging being sent to landfill. The British Takeaway Campaign told BBC News that businesses need more support to implement it. Fish and chips restaurants and other takeaways will become more expensive as small companies will be forced to pass on higher costs of packaging to consumers, suggests Andrew Crook, who runs a fish and chip shop in Lancashire and is deputy chair of the British Takeaway Campaign. England uses about 2.7 billion items of single-use cutlery, mostly plasti

  By Esme Stallard Climate and Science Reporter, BBC News, Edited by - Amal Udawatta, IMAGE SOURCE, CURRENT BIOLOGY/SORENSEN ET AL. Image caption, Delta, one of the dolphins, with a sound tag to measure his clicks and whistles during the experiment Dolphins struggle to hear each other and cooperate in a world of increasing noise pollution, a new study reveals. They are one of many marine mammals that rely on whistles and echolocation to work together for hunting and reproducing. But noise pollution from human activity like shipping and construction have  risen dramatically in recent years . If they are no longer able to cooperate it could have detrimental effects, the researchers said. "If groups of animals in the wild are less efficient at foraging cooperatively, then this will negatively impact individual health, which ultimately impacts population health," said co-author Stephanie King, associate professor at the University of Bristol. Sound is one of the most important se

  By Georgina Rannard Climate and science reporter- BBC, Edited by - Amal Udawatta, IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Climate change is making extreme weather including flooding more likely, scientists say One of the world's largest oil companies accurately forecast how climate change would cause global temperature to rise as long ago as the 1970s, researchers claim. ExxonMobil's private research predicted how burning fossil fuels would warm the planet but the company publicly denied the link, they suggest. The academics analysed data in the company's internal documents. ExxonMobil denied the allegations. "This issue has come up several times in recent years and, in each case, our answer is the same: those who talk about how "Exxon Knew" are wrong in their conclusions," the company told BBC News. Corporations including ExxonMobil have made billions from selling fossil fuels that release emissions that scientists, governments and the UN say cause