Green phone boxes to charge mobile phones in London

Old phone boxes in London are being brought back to life with a new use - as solar-powered charging stations for mobile phones.

The first of six boxes was unveiled on Tottenham Court Road in the capital this week.

The service is free to use although users will be shown adverts as they wait for their phone to charge.

BBC technology reporter Dougal Shaw checked one out with Harold Craston, one of the team of newly-graduated students from London School of Economics who developed the new 'solarbox'.

From CBBC nEwsround

Suffolk Wildlife Trust, plans biggest 'bug hotel'

Work has begun on what is hoped will be the world's biggest bee and 'bug hotel'.

Jason Alexander is building 'Bug City' at Suffolk Wildlife Trust's Foxburrow Farm reserve in England

Bug expert Jason Alexander is working with Suffolk Wildlife Trust to build 'Bug City', a habitat designed for insects.

He is asking children to help build parts of the structure, which will be kept at the trust's Foxburrow Farm site, near Woodbridge

Cubs in Framlingham helped Jason Alexander build the first level

"It will be a safe place for insects and other animals to sleep, breed and hibernate," Jason said.

The bug hotel is being created using logs, bamboo canes, pine cones and "anything else which you may find in your garden".

The aim is to use recyclable materials where possible

Individual sections created by the volunteers will be joined together to create the hotel, which Jason hopes will be about 3ft (1m) high and more than 45ft (14m) long.

Biggest bee house

Guinness World Records says the largest bee house, made from bamboo, is in London and measures 42ft (13m).

Suffolk Wildlife Trust said a recently published study found about 46% of European bumblebee species were in decline, with 24% at risk of extinction.

Kerry Stranix, from the trust, said: "This project will raise awareness of the vital role played by invertebrates in our ecosystem, from pollinators to sources of food for many other species."

Work on Bug City is due to continue until February

From CBBC Newsround.

EU review of environmental laws raises concern

MEPs will get the chance this week to grill the nominees for Europe's top environment jobs about their green credentials.

Space for wildlife is being squeezed as European farmers battle to remain competitive

The environment commissioner-designate is Karmenu Vella - a businessman from Malta, whose government faces criticism for its failure to stop illegal hunting of wild birds.

The energy and climate commissioner-designate is Miguel Arias Canete from Spain, a former oil firm president.

Both appointments are part of a reshuffle of environment and energy portfolios that has angered environmentalists but delighted business groups.

Both groups believe the changes herald a shift of priorities, from the environment to jobs and growth.

MEP demand

The reshuffle was made by Commission President-elect Jean-Claude Juncker.

He has scrapped the commissioners for environment and energy, who argued the case for environmental protection.

The environment job is now combined with fisheries. Mr Vella will be questioned in the European Parliament on Monday.

Croatia - the EU's newest member state - has embraced intensive farming

Mr Juncker has asked him to review laws protecting birds and their natural habitat - and told him to report to the Commission's new vice-president responsible for economic growth, Jyrki Katainen. This all alarms Greens.

Catherine Bearder, a British Liberal Democrat MEP, is also worried. She wants a reassurance from Mr Vella that he "will not diminish or water down these vital pieces of legislation that have done so much to protect Europe's biodiversity".

In a parallel move, the climate commissioner's job - previously filled by the outspoken Connie Hedegaard - has been rolled in with the energy portfolio as Europe seeks to secure its energy supplies.

Commissioner-designate Canete will be questioned by MEPs on Wednesday - and already some MEPs are demanding that he sever all links with companies in which he has an interest.

They also want Mr Juncker to put sustainability on the same level as economic growth and competitiveness.

Parliament President Martin Schulz has written to Mr Juncker urging him to include sustainable development among the economic priorities assigned to Jyrki Katainen, the Euractiv news website reports.

'Deeply regressive'

The change of EU portfolios alarms Jeremy Wates, head of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), an alliance of green activists: "Possibly even more disturbing than the shrinking of the environmental component in the new structure are the instructions given by Juncker to his proposed team.

"The incoming environment commissioner is requested to review legislative proposals such as the air and circular economy packages in the light of the 'jobs and growth' agenda, and to question the effectiveness of the Birds and Habitats Directives. This is a longstanding demand of anti-environment business interests.

"Under a banner of reform, a deeply regressive deregulatory agenda has been put forward here that reads like a wish-list of private sector interest groups hostile to the environment."

The changes were welcomed by Markus Beyrer from BusinessEurope. He applauded a "courageous approach... which underlines the clear aim to focus on crucial priorities necessary to make Europe more competitive to deliver growth and jobs".

An industry source later told BBC News the move was obviously a downgrade for environmental concerns in the light of Europe's struggling economy.

Mr Juncker said in his mission statement: "Protecting the environment and maintaining our competitiveness have to go hand-in-hand - both are about a sustainable future."

From BBC News- Sci/Environment

World wildlife populations halved in 40 years - report

The global loss of species is even worse than previously thought, the London Zoological Society (ZSL) says in its new Living Planet Index.

In Nepal, habitat loss and hunting have reduced tigers from 100,000 a century ago to just 3,000

The report suggests populations have halved in 40 years, as new methodology gives more alarming results than in a report two years ago.

The report says populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish have declined by an average of 52%.

Populations of freshwater species have suffered an even worse fall of 76%.

Severe impact

Compiling a global average of species decline involves tricky statistics, often comparing disparate data sets.

The Living Planet Index tracks more than 10,000 vertebrate species populations from 1970 to 2010

The team at the zoological society say they've improved their methodology since their last report two years ago - but the results are even more alarming.

Then they estimated that wildlife was down "only" around 30%. Whatever the numbers, it seems clear that wildlife is continuing to be driven out by human activity.

The society's report, in conjunction with the pressure group WWF, says humans are cutting down trees more quickly than they can re-grow, harvesting more fish than the oceans can re-stock, pumping water from rivers and aquifers faster than rainfall can replenish them, and emitting more carbon than oceans and forests can absorb.

It catalogues areas of severe impact - in Ghana, the lion population in one reserve is down 90% in 40 years.

In West Africa, forest felling has restricted forest elephants to 6-7% of their historic range.

In Nepal, habitat loss and hunting have reduced tigers from 100,000 a century ago to just 3,000.

In the UK, the government promised to halt wildlife decline - but bird numbers continue to fall.

The index tracks more than 10,000 vertebrate species populations from 1970 to 2010. It reveals a continued decline in these populations. The global trend is not slowing down.

'New method'

The report shows that the biggest recorded threat to biodiversity comes from the combined impacts of habitat loss and degradation, driven by what WWF calls unsustainable human consumption.

The report notes that the impacts of climate change are becoming of increasing concern - although the effect of climate change on species until now is disputed.

WWF is keen to avoid despair. It points to conservation efforts to save species like:

• A Gorilla Conservation Programme in Rwanda, promoting gorilla tourism
• A scheme to incentivise small-scale farmers to move away from slash and burn agriculture in Acre, Brazil
• A project to cut the amount of water withdrawn from the wildlife-rich River Itchen in the UK.

Previously, the Living Planet Index was calculated using the average decline in all of the species populations measured. The new weighted methodology analyses the data to provide what ZSL says is a much more accurate calculation of the collective status of populations in all species and regions.

A ZSL spokesman explained to BBC News: "For example, if most measurements in a particular region are of bird populations, but the greatest actual number of vertebrates in the region are fish, then it is necessary to give a greater weighting to measurements of fish populations if we are to have an accurate picture of the rate of population decline for species in that region.

"Different weightings are applied between regions, and between marine, terrestrial and freshwater environments. We are simply being more sophisticated with the way we use the data."

"Applying the new method to the 2008 dataset we find that things were considerably worse than what we thought at the time. It is clear that we are seeing a significant long-term trend in declining species populations."

From BBC news