Flowering wilderness
A Bangor university study has claimed that Antarctica has become greener as the climate in the Western Peninsula has warmed. While most of Antarctica is under permanent snow and ice, one per cent of the continent’s surface area is warm enough in the summer for the snow to melt and expose two species of flowering plant, Antarctic hairgrass and Antarctic pearlwort. However, lichens are found closer to the interior of the continent. The world’s most southerly plant is a lichen found at 86 degrees south, about 260 miles from the South Pole. The most northerly is an arctic willow found at 83 degrees north, around 450 miles from the North Pole.
Once bitten…
Natural England proposes repopulating parts of the country with adders. The last death from a snake bite in Britain was in 1975. But other countries are more deadly. Here are the low and high estimates for annual deaths per million people:
Benin 72 to 100
Bangladesh 10 to 50
Afghanistan 7 to 50
Angola 1 to 55
Source: World Health Organisation
Mules’ burden
The Sentencing Council proposed that fewer drug-mules be jailed.
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