The clearest lake in the world: Blue Lake, on New Zealand’s South Island
The visibility of distilled water is about 80 metres. Blue Lake, on New Zealand’s South Island, clocks in at 76 metres. Here are the first-ever photos of this newly discovered natural wonder, taken by Klaus Thymann of Project Pressure and supported by New Zealand Department of Conservation and New Zealand Tourism.
Photograph: Klaus Thymann /Project Pressure
Nipped fingers and handfuls of guano will be the order of the day for wildlife rangers on the Farne Islands as they embark on an epic census on Friday to discover whether puffin numbers have plummeted after a year of extreme weather.
Astonishing news from Walvis Bay, Namibia, where scientists from the Namibian Dolphin project on Tuesday confirmed the sighting of a grey whale. Not only has this north Pacific species been extinct in the Atlantic since the 18th century, it has never been seen south of the equator.
Philip Hoare has the full story.
Photograph: Turner Forte/NGS/Corbis
The people of Newtok, on the west coast of Alaska and about 400 miles south of the Bering Strait that separates the state from Russia, are living a slow-motion disaster that will end, very possibly within the next five years, with the entire village being washed away.
The Ninglick River coils around Newtok on three sides before emptying into the Bering Sea. It has steadily been eating away at the land, carrying off 100ft or more some years, in a process moving at unusual speed because of climate change. Eventually all of the villagers will have to leave, becoming America’s first climate change refugees.
Photographs: Brian Adams
Deforestation, fires, flooding and melting ice are among the images captured by European Space Agency and Nasa satellites last month
Australia’s iconic marsupial is under threat. Formerly hunted almost to extinction for their woolly coats, koalas are now struggling to survive as habitat destruction caused by droughts and bushfires, land clearing for agriculture and logging, and mining and urban development conspire against this cuddly creature.
Photograph: John Giustina/Getty Images
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…up to 200,000 people angry with high costs and poor public services took to the streets. Protesters in Rio de Janeiro burned...
