Flammable foam hits the streets of Bangalore-India

Absolutely unbelivable!

An invasion of toxic waste has floated on to the streets of Bangalore and while it looks like fresh snow there is nothing pleasant about this fluffy white cloud.

Toxic foam from the Indian city's giant Bellandur Lake was made after pollution in the lake was disrupted by rain showers.

Bellandur is highly polluted by a consistent flow of raw sewage and chemical waste which builds up and lays underneath the surface of its water.

The foam comes from the vast and highly polluted Bellandur Lake.

It is caused by ammonia, phosphate and low dissolved oxygen in the water

The white mixture has also been known to catch fire due to the grease in it

Bangalore residents have started up a Facebook page to save the lake

From MailOnline ( Daily Mail)

Wild mammals 'have returned' to Chernobyl

Removing humans from what is now the exclusion zone around the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor has allowed wildlife to return, researchers say.

The team carried out a long-term survey of mammals including wild boars

They say a long-term census of mammals in the area has shown that wildlife numbers are likely to be "much higher than they were before the accident".

Professor Jim Smith of the University of Portsmouth led the study, published in the journal Current Biology.

He stressed that this "does not mean that radiation is good for wildlife".

"It's just that the effects of human habitation, including hunting, farming, and forestry, are a lot worse," Prof Smith said.

With the help of with colleagues from the Polesky State Radioecological Reserve in Belarus, the researchers examined data from aerial surveys that counted large mammals including roe deer, elk, wild boar and wolves.

Tracks in the snow allowed the researchers to estimate roe deer populations in the exclusion zone

They also carried out tracking studies in the winter - using footprints in snow to calculate the numbers of different mammal species. And measuring the levels of radioactive contamination in those tracks.

"The numbers of animals we see in Chernobyl is similar to the populations in uncontaminated nature reserves," Prof Smith said.

The number of wolves was particularly striking - up to seven times higher than in nearby nature reserves of a comparable size. Prof Smith attributed this to the lack of hunting in the exclusion zone.

A 30km exclusion zone now surrounds the infamous Chernobyl nuclear power plant. And Prof Smith says the picture from this study reveals what happens in terms of wildlife conservation "when you take humans out of the picture".

Researchers think wolves in the exclusion zone have thrived thanks to a lack of hunting

But, he said, the study did not look at the health effects of radiation on individual animals.

That is something that Prof Tim Mousseau from the University of South Carolina, has spent many years trying to unpick in his studies of wildlife - particularly bird populations - in the exclusion zone.

Prof Mousseau said the study was a "very positive move forward in conducting research concerning the potential health and environmental impacts of nuclear accidents".

"Much more research on this is desperately needed," he added.

But Prof Mousseau is also troubled by "the characterisation that Chernobyl and the surrounding area is teeming with wildlife".

"This study only applies to large mammals under hunting pressure, rather than the vast majority of animals - most birds, small mammals, and insects - that are not directly influenced by human habitation," 

From BBC News- Science/ Environment

Acidic oceans helped fuel extinction

Acidic oceans helped fuel the biggest mass extinction in the history of life on Earth, a study says.

The researchers studied rocks from the United Arab Emirates, which retain a record of acidic changes in the water

The exact causes behind the Permian-Triassic mass extinction have been much debated.

Two separate pulses of CO2 into the atmosphere - a "one-two punch" - may have helped fuel the die-off, new research suggests.

Changes to ocean acidity would have been one of the consequences, according to the study in Science journal.

Computer models suggested that this CO2 may have been released by massive bouts of volcanism from the Siberian Traps, now represented as a large region of volcanic rock in northern Eurasia.

The Permian-Triassic mass extinction, which took place 252 million years ago, wiped out more than 90% of marine species and more than two-thirds of the animals living on land.

The event is thought to have played out over a 60,000-year period and acidification of the oceans lasted for about 10,000 years.

The team led by Dr Matthew Clarkson from the University of Edinburgh analysed rocks unearthed in the United Arab Emirates - which were on the ocean floor at the time.

The rocks preserve a detailed record of changing oceanic conditions at the time. They then developed a climate model to work out what drove the extinction.

The researchers think the rapid rate of release of carbon was a crucial factor in driving the ocean acidification.

The carbon was released at a similar rate to modern emissions. Dr Clarkson commented: "Scientists have long suspected that an ocean acidification event occurred during the greatest mass extinction of all time, but direct evidence has been lacking until now.

"This is a worrying finding, considering that we can already see an increase in ocean acidity today that is the result of human carbon emissions."

From BBC News

New online tool tracks tree loss in 'near real time'

A new global monitoring system has been launched that promises "near real time" information on deforestation around the world.

Highlighted in red, the new tool can show the scale of tree cover loss between 2000 and 2012

Global Forest Watch (GFW) is backed by Google and over 40 business and campaigning groups.

It uses information from hundreds of millions of satellite images as well as data from people on the ground.

Businesses have welcomed the new database as it could help them prove that their products are sustainable.

Despite greater awareness around of the world of the impacts of deforestation, the scale of forest loss since 2000 has been significant - Data from Google and the University of Maryland says the world lost 230 million hectares of trees between 2000 and 2012.

Global Forest Watch (GFW) is backed by Google and over 40 business and campaigning groups.

It uses information from hundreds of millions of satellite images as well as data from people on the ground.

Businesses have welcomed the new database as it could help them prove that their products are sustainable.

Despite greater awareness around of the world of the impacts of deforestation, the scale of forest loss since 2000 has been significant - Data from Google and the University of Maryland says the world lost 230 million hectares of trees between 2000 and 2012.

An image from Brazil shows the deforestation, highlighted in pink, taking place next to the lands of the Surui tribe

Global forest loss

• The Earth lost 2.3m sq km of tree cover in 2000-12, because of logging, fire, disease or storms
• But the planet also gained 800,000 sq km of new forest, meaning a net loss of 1.5m sq km
• Brazil showed the best improvement of any country, cutting annual forest loss in half between 2003-04 and 2010-11

• Forest change mapped by Google Earth

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE

What is dredging?

Britain has been hit by the most severe flooding in 90 years and water levels are still rising.

It's the Environment Agency's job to manage flood risks and reduce the impact of flooding but some say the organisation has not done enough.

Farmers in Somerset claim a lack of river dredging has made the impact of the flooding in their area worse.

But the issue of whether rivers should be dredged is not straight forward.

The Environment Agency says that dredging can improve drainage, but cannot prevent rivers from flooding, due to the huge amount of water involved during major floods.

What is dredging?

The basic aim of dredging is to remove silt (a material made of fine sand), clay and small particles of rock from the river's bed.

Silt builds up on the river bed over time

During heavy rain the river floods

The process to remove it usually involves an excavator, or vacuum pump, stationed on a barge or on the riverbank.

Dredging clears the bottom and sides of the river to enable the waterways to flow freely.

Blockages can also be caused by trees, shrubs and weeds. River banks as well as river beds need to be maintained.

Problems with dredging

Dredging is expensive and the Environment Agency say that it is harmful to the environment.

They believe that it and can weaken riverbanks as well as the foundations of bridges and weirs.

The agency also say that dredging can lead to the loss of grounds for fish to breed and can cause loss of some species and destroy the habitat of river bank wildlife such as otters and water voles.

From CBBC newsround

Click for less

Charity blames climate change for Typhoon Haiyan

Charity workers have called on world leaders to do more to tackle climate change, because they say events like Typhoon Haiyan could be caused by it.

The UK Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), which is made up of 14 UK charities, say Typhoon Haiyan is an example of the sort of weather that could happen more often if the world doesn't take action.

But not all scientists agree that extreme weather events are caused by man-made climate change.

UN meeting

The United Nations, a joint committee of governments from across the world, are currently holding climate talks in Warsaw in Poland. The group is discussing ways to get countries to lower their carbon footprint.

Recent reports from the UN suggest human activities are causing a rise in gases that cause global warming. Some climate experts say this results in a change in weather and environment.

So the DEC has called on the UN to use this meeting to discuss events like Typhoon Haiyan and take action to tackle it.

But not everyone agrees that extreme weather like Typhoon Haiyan happen because of a rise in gases caused by human activities.

From CBBC Newsround

Typhoon wreaks havoc on agriculture with over a million farmers affected

By Matt McGrathEnvironment correspondent, BBC News

Over one million farmers in the Philippines have been impacted by Typhoon Haiyan according to the UN.

The Typhoon destroyed many coconut plantations such as this one near Guiuan

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says that hundreds of thousands of hectares of rice have been destroyed.

Coconut plantations which are a big earner of foreign currency were said to be "completely flattened".

Fishing communities have also be severely affected with the storm destroying boats and gear.

The FAO says they have arrived at the figure of farmers affected by looking at the pathway the storm took as it passed across the country and from an analysis of data provided by the government.

"That area is the major rice producing area for the Philippines," FAO's Jeff Tschirley told BBC News.

"They've just finished their harvest and because it is not modernised production, they are still drying it but we suspect there is a lot of rice that is vulnerable to having been impacted by the storms."

Self sufficient

The farmers are also facing into the next planting season with much of their infrastructure such as irrigation equipment affected by the typhoon.

The Philippines has been importing less rice over the past five years, but the storm will have dramatically changed that.

"It will set them back on their goal of self sufficiency but more key is that those livelihoods will be pushed way back until they get restored irrigation infrastructure. That has been severely damaged in most cases," said Mr Tschirley.

As well as rice and sugar cane, the FAO is most concerned about coconut plantations.

Coconuts account for nearly half the Philippines agricultural exports and the country is the world's biggest producer of coconut oil. A smaller typhoon last year destroyed 500,000 tonnes.

"The sugar cane fields can be recovered relatively well even if the harvest is lost," said Jeff Tschirley.

"But numerous coconut plantations have been completely flattened, and with coconuts you are looking at multiple years to recover the productivity."

The FAO is is calling for $24m for immediate interventions in fisheries and agriculture as part of the UN appeal.

From BBC Sci/ Environment

Worldwide ban on harmful PIB being dumped at sea

A chemical that killed thousands of seabirds off the coast of southern England earlier this year, can no longer be dumped at sea.

At last, some good news!

The substance called polyisobutene or PIB is an oil additive and until now ships were allowed to release it into the water as long as they were 12 nautical miles from land.

The International Maritime Organisation has now announced a worldwide ban on dumping PIB at sea. From now on ships will only be allowed to get rid of PIB when they are in port.

Campaign against PIB

Wildlife charities and campaign groups have been fighting for a ban since January and April 2013 when thousands of birds, including guillemots, auks and razorbills, washed up covered in the glue-like substance.

One group of school children even made a protest rapabout the incident.

Organisations like the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) and the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) have welcomed the new law.

Adam Grogan, RSPCA senior wildlife scientist, said: "Our staff worked around the clock washing and treating these poor birds in January and April and it was heartbreaking seeing the pitiful state they were in.

"Hopefully this will help stop incidents like these happening again, and save wildlife from suffering and dying like this in the future."

From CBBC newsround

Chernobyl's legacy recorded in trees

Exposure to radiation from the 1986 Chernobyl accident had a lasting negative legacy on the area's trees, a study has suggested.

Researchers said the worst effects were recorded in the "first few years" but surviving trees were left vulnerable to environmental stress, such as drought.

They added that young trees appeared to be particularly affected.

Writing in the journal Trees, the team said it was the first study to look at the impact at a landscape scale.

"Our field results were consistent with previous findings that were based on much smaller sample sizes," explained co-author Tim Mousseau from the University of South Carolina, US.

"They are also consistent with the many reports of genetic impacts to these trees," he told BBC News.

                                  

                      The change in wood colour in these Scots pine logs indicates the year of the accident

"Many of the trees show highly abnormal growth forms reflecting the effects of mutations and cell death resulting from radiation exposure."

Prof Mousseau, who has been carrying out field studies since 1999 within the 30km (19-mile) exclusion zone around the site of the 1986 explosion, said it was the first time that a study of this scale - involving more than 100 Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris) at 12 sites - had been conducted."There was one similar study conducted before but it only looked at a total of nine trees and was mainly interested in wood structure, not growth," he said.

"Another study was performed in the 1950s but it was for a different tree in the US and it used a single external gamma source suspended above the ground to show growth effects for a very limited number of trees.
"For this study, the team took core samples from Scots pine trees for a number of reasons, such as the species is found across Europe and well dispersed within the Chernobyl region.
"They are also a favourite for silviculture and have enormous economic value," Prof Mousseau added.

"Also, based on past work and our own observations, they appeared to be a good target for radioecology as they showed signs of being impacted by the fallout.

"In fact, one of the first ecological observations at Chernobyl was the death of the so-called red forest: a stand of these pines which very quickly died and turned red following the disaster."

Scots pines' tree rings were also easier to read than other species, such as birch, found in the study area, he explained.

Prof Mousseau and his team hope to follow up this study by carrying out similar work in the Fukushima region in Japan, where logging also had considerable economic importance and pine trees were widely dispersed.

"Based on our limited field observations in the most contaminated regions of Fukushima prefecture, there did not appear to be a major die off as seen in Chernobyl for Scots pines," he said.

"However, anecdotally, we have noticed significant die off of growing tips and branches in some areas that suggests that there could be impacts on growth.

The twisted stems of Scots pines have been attributed to mutations caused by radiation exposure

From BBC News- Sci/Environment

Fukushima radioactive water leak an 'emergency'

Japan's nuclear watchdog has said the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is facing a new "emergency" caused by a build-up of radioactive groundwater.

The crippled Fukushima plant has suffered water leaks and power cuts in recent months

A barrier built to contain the water has already been breached, the Nuclear Regulatory Authority warned.

This means the amount of contaminated water seeping into the Pacific Ocean could accelerate rapidly, it said.There has been spate of water leaks and power failures at the plant, devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.Its operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), has been criticised heavily for its lack of transparency over the leaks.

'Weak sense of crisis'

Tepco admitted for the first time last month that radioactive groundwater had breached an underground barrier and been leaking into the sea, but said it was taking steps to prevent it.However, the head of a Nuclear Regulatory Authority task force, Shinji Kinjo, told the Reuters news agency on Monday that the countermeasures were only a temporary solution.Tepco's "sense of crisis is weak," Mr Kinjo said. "This is why you can't just leave it up to Tepco alone"

"Right now, we have an emergency," he added.

If the underground barrier is breached, the watchdog warns, the water could start to seep through shallower areas of earth.Once it reaches the surface, it could start to flow "extremely fast", says Mr Kinjo. Contaminated water could rise to the ground's surface within three weeks, the Asahi newspaper predicted on Saturday.The contaminated water is thought to have come from the 400 tonnes of groundwater pumped into the plant every day to cool the reactors.

Tepco 'in trouble'

Tepco admitted on Friday that a cumulative 20 trillion to 40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium may have leaked into the sea since the disaster. It has been clear for months now that the operators of the Fukushima plant are in deep trouble, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes. The only course of action, he continues, is to pump water out. But this has to be stored, and more than 1,000 giant holding tanks surrounding the plant are nearly all full, he adds.

Tepco said on Monday it plans to start pumping out a further 100 tonnes of groundwater a day.

From BBC News- Sci/Environment

Fears for golden eagle eggs after fires

RSPB Scotland has said it is seriously worried about the effect of recent wildfires on the golden eagle, which nests in open moorland.

There have been more than 200 fires in parts of the Scottish Highlands in the past 10 days.

The charity has sent experts to the area to try and see how bad the damage has been.

There are also concerns for thousands of migrant birds that are due to nest in the area in the next few weeks.

Scotland is amazing for wildlife. The variety of species and habitats is outstanding – from golden eagles to otters, red squirrels to wintering geese and huge seabird colonies – all set among rugged mountains, moorland, ancient Caledonian pine forests and miles of coastline. The RSPB Scotland fights to protect them all.

What does the RSPB do?

The RSPB speaks out for birds and wildlife, tackling the problems that threaten our environment.

They are the largest wildlife conservation organisation in Europe with over one million members. Wildlife and the environment face many threats. Their work is focussed on the species and habitats that are in the greatest danger.

RSPB- Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
http://www.rspb.org.uk/scotland/

Thousands of prawns washed up on beach in Chile

Investigators are baffled after thousands of langoustines were washed ashore in Chile's central Concepcion province. There are so many crustaceans that it makes the entire beach appear red in colour. Marine experts have begun an investigation into sea conditions, hoping to rule out an environmental crime

Fishermen claim nearby power stations are heating the waters after hundreds of dead crabs also washed up in the same area at the weekend.

Gregorio Ortega said: "I'm 69 years old and started fishing when I was nine but, as a fisherman, I never saw a disaster of this magnitude."

The dead sealife appeared in Coronel, some 330 miles south of the Chile capital, Santiago.

Environment prosecutor Ana Maria Aldana said: "We're going to be collecting as much evidence as possible to determine if this is an environmental crime.".

The Bocamina 1 and 2 power plants are owned by companies Endesa and Colbun respectively.

A spokesman for Endesa said the company was aware of the issue and would issue a statement later.

An official at Colbun declined to comment.

Chile imports 97% of its fossil fuels and depends largely on hydropower for electricity.
From Mirror News

Bee deaths: EU delays action on pesticides ban

EU nations have been unable to reach agreement on proposals to ban the use of three pesticides that have been linked to the decline of bees.

A decline in bee numbers has been linked by the EU to use of some pesticides

The European Commission had called for a two-year EU-wide moratorium, but a number of nations opposed the plans.

A recent report by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) concluded that the pesticides posed a "high acute risk" to pollinators, including honeybees.

The commission is expected to redraft its proposals ahead of another vote.

Member states were unable to reach a qualified majority in order for the proposals to be adopted.

The news of the stalemate has angered groups that had been campaigning in favour of the ban.

Unknown consequences

A spokeswoman for Defra, the UK's environment department, said 14 out of the 27 EU nations - including the UK and Germany - had not supported the commission's proposals as they currently stood.

n a YouGov poll commissioned by the campaign network, 71% of almost 2,000 people questioned in the UK supported the commission's proposals to impose the moratorium on the insecticides.

Avaaz said that it, along with other groups, would be taking legal advice as to whether the outcome of the vote could be challenged in the courts.

The chemicals in question - imidacloprid, thiamethoxam and clothianindin - belong to a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids.

The insecticides work by affecting the central nervous system of insects, causing paralysis and death.

From BBC News- Environment

Read More

China pulls nearly 6,000 dead pigs from Shanghai river

The number of dead pigs found floating in a river flowing into Shanghai has reached nearly 6000.

The number of dead pigs found floating in Shanghai's main river has risen to almost 6,000.

The city authorities, still investigating where they have come from, say a number of the carcasses have tested positive for a common pig virus.

The Shanghai municipal government said in an online announcement that 5,916 swine carcasses had been retrieved from Huangpu River by 3pm Tuesday, but added that municipal water remains safe.

The surge in the dumping of dead pigs - believed to be from pig farms in the upstream Jiaxing area in the neighbouring Zhejiang province - has followed police campaigns to curb the illicit trade of pork products harvested from diseased pigs.

Shanghai authorities said the city has taken proper measures to safely dispose of the pig carcasses and that the city's water plants are stepping up efforts to disinfect public water and testing for six common swine viruses.

The Shanghai government reported no major swine epidemic, widespread pig deaths or dumping of pigs within the city boundaries of Shanghai.

The state-run China News news agency said Monday that Zhejiang province had reported no swine epidemic but that a provincial agriculture official blamed cold weather for the deaths of the pigs.

The official, who was identified only by his family name Gu, told China News that the practice of dumping dead pigs into rivers lingers among some pig farmers in the city of Jiaxing.

From BBc News and News.com.au

Seabirds washed up covered in oil on Yorkshire coast

Oil washed up along on North Yorkshire beaches has affected up to 50 seabirds, say Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

The oil began to build up on Sunday afternoon along a 15-mile stretch of coastline.

A clean-up operation is being carried out and beach users have been advised to take care.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust say the largest reports of oiled birds have come from Scarborough - and warns that this kind of substance can be very dangerous for the animals.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust says guillemots and black-headed gulls have been hit by the spill.

Andy Skelton, Scarborough Borough Council's Head of Environmental Services said:

"We are currently in the process of clean up operations on a 15 mile stretch of our coastline between Scarborough and Speeton after deposits of oil were washed up onto beaches late yesterday afternoon and overnight.

"At this time, it is not known where the oil has come from but the strong easterly winds and heavy sea conditions are thought to have assisted the oil's journey to the shoreline.

"The Maritime and Coastguard Agency has been trying to determine the source of the pollution, including conducting a surveillance flight, and together with the Environment Agency, is arranging for samples of the substance to be tested.

It's not known for sure yet what caused the oil spill.

From CBBC and Hull Daily Mail

Canadian glaciers face 'big losses'

The glaciers of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago will undergo a dramatic retreat this century if warming projections hold true.

A new study suggests the region's ice fields could lose perhaps as much as a fifth of their volume.

Such a melt would add 3.5cm to the height of the world's oceans. Only the ice of Greenland and Antarctica is expected to contribute more.

The assessment is reported in theGeophysical Research Letters journal.

"This is a very important part of the world where there has already been a lot of change," said lead author Jan Lenaerts from Utrecht University, Netherlands.

"And it is all the more important that we talk about it because it has been somewhat overshadowed by all the news of Greenland and Antarctica," he told BBC News.

The Canadian Arctic Archipelago is a vast area, comprising some 36,000 islands.

Being so far north, much of region - some 146,000 square km - is covered by glaciers and ice caps (a type of ice field where glaciers flow off in many directions).

Current data indicates all this ice is already thinning at a rapid rate. Gravity measurements from space suggest the annual loss since 2003 has been running at about 70 billion tonnes, and it is accelerating.

With snowfall reasonably constant over the period, it appears that melt as a result of the 1-2-degree rise in air temperatures has tipped the ice out of balance.

Arctic amplification

Dr Lenaerts' team wanted to understand how this retreat might progress in the decades ahead if the warming continues.

They developed a climate computer model for the archipelago that was based on a mid-range temperature projection being used for a big upcoming UN global-climate report - the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

First of all, they ran the model backwards to check that it could accurately recreate conditions seen in the region since the 1960s.

They then ran it forwards to simulate the possible shrinking and growth of glaciers right up to 2100.

What they found was that the annual ice loss by this date would be running at about 145 billion tonnes, with the north of the archipelago, on and around the likes of Ellesmere Island, experiencing the greatest retreat.

Added to the general atmospheric warming in the region, the researchers also describe an amplification process whereby reduced snow cover on the surrounding tundra and less sea-ice in the Arctic Ocean push up temperatures still further.

This is a consequence of darker surfaces absorbing more heat from the Sun rather than reflecting it back out into space.

"What we find is that the processes that are currently ongoing will actually continue and be re-enforced, so the mass loss will increase in time," said Dr Lenaerts.

"Our model estimates that in 2100, we have lost about 20% of the volume of Canadian Arctic Archipelago glaciers, which is a really large amount. It is equivalent to 3.5cm of global sea-level rise."

The Utrecht study was funded by the European Union's Ice2Sea project, which aims to tie down some of the major uncertainties that surround the possible contribution to ocean rise from melting in Earth's cryosphere.

Ice2Sea's project leader is Prof David Vaughan from the British Antarctic Survey.

He said the Canadian Arctic Archipelago was an important region for study because it was not very well mapped, was already experiencing major change and because in some places the ice had "its toes in the water", which meant it was subject to both atmospheric and ocean impacts.

"We've got similar systems in Alaska, in Svalbard, in Patagonia and the Russian high Arctic, and we really need to understand them better," he told the BBC.

From BBC Environment

Australian tree-sitter ends 15-month protest after bushfire

An anti-logging campaigner in Australia who spent 15 months living up a tree has been forced down by a bushfire.

Miranda Gibson held her vigil on a platform attached to a 400-year-old eucalyptus tree 60m (190ft) above the ground.

The teacher, protesting against the logging of native Tasmanian forests, vowed to continue her campaign.

She decided to come down after police and her support crew warned her about the dangers posed by a nearby bushfire.

"It is disappointing to come down under these circumstances," Ms Gibson said. "However, I believe what I have achieved throughout being there for over a year has been absolutely remarkable."

She said that she would continue to highlight the plight of Tasmania's forests.

In addition to isolation and solitude, she would have had to fight the effects of the harsh Tasmanian winter, the BBC's Phil Mercer in Sydney reports.

Ms Gibson said her life was made bearable by solar-powered satellite technology, which she used to address environmental conferences from the tree.

From BBC Environment