Trillions of tonnes of water have been pumped up from deep underground reservoirs in every part of the world, says report

Humanity's unquenchable thirst for fresh water is driving up sea levels even faster than melting glaciers, according to new research. The massive impact of the global population's growing need for water on rising sea levels is revealed in a comprehensive assessment of all the ways in which people use water.

Trillions of tonnes of water have been pumped up from deep underground reservoirs in every part of the world and then channelled into fields and pipes to keep communities fed and watered. The water then flows into the oceans, but far more quickly than the ancient aquifers are replenished by rains. The global tide would be rising even more quickly but for the fact that man-made reservoirs have, until now, held back the flow by storing huge amounts of water on land.

"The water being taken from deep wells is geologically old ? there is no replenishment and so it is a one way transfer into the ocean," said sea level expert Prof Robert Nicholls, at the University of Southampton. "In the long run, I would still be more concerned about the impact of climate change, but this work shows that even if we stabilise the climate, we might still get sea level rise due to how we use water." He said the sea level would rise 10 metres or more if all the world's groundwater was pumped out, though he said removing every drop was unlikely because some aquifers contain salt water. The sea level is predicted to rise by 30-100cm by 2100, putting many coasts at risk, by increasing the number of storm surges that swamp cities.

The new research was led by Yadu Pokhrel, at the University of Tokyo, and published in Nature Geoscience. "Our study is based on a state-of-the-art model which we have extensively validated in our previous works," he said. "It suggests groundwater is a major contributor to the observed sea level rise." The team's results also neatly fill a gap scientists had identified between the rise in sea level observed by tide gauges and the contribution calculated to come from melting ice.

The drawing of water from deep wells has caused the sea to rise by an average of a millimetre every year since 1961, the researchers concluded. The storing of freshwater in reservoirs has offset about 40% of that, but the scientists warn that this effect is diminishing.

"Reservoir water storage has levelled off in recent years," they write. "By contrast, the contribution of groundwater depletion has been increasing and may continue to do so in the future, which will heighten the concerns regarding the potential sea level rise in the 21st century." Nicholls, who was not part of the research team, said there are a wide range of projections of future sea level. "But this work makes one worry about the uncertainty at the high end more," he said.

The researchers compared the contribution of groundwater withdrawal and reservoir storage to the more familiar causes of rising sea level: ice melted by global warming and the expansion of the ocean as it warms. The pumping out of groundwater is five times bigger in scale than the melting of the planet's two great ice caps, in Greenland and Antarctica, and twice as great as both the melting of all other glaciers and ice or the thermal expansion of seawater.

The scale of groundwater use is as vast as it is unsustainable: over the past half century 18 trillion tonnes of water has been removed from underground aquifers without being replaced. In some parts of the world, the stores of water have now been exhausted. Saudi Arabia, for example, was self-sufficient in wheat, grown in the desert using water from deep, fossil aquifers. Now, many of the aquifers have run dry and most wheat is imported, with all growing expected to end in 2016. In northern India, the level of the water table is dropping by 4cm every year.

Pokhrel's team also investigated the effect of rising temperatures on other ways in which water is stored on land. They found that the drying of soils and loss of snow added almost a tenth of a millimetre per year to sea level rise.

Prof Jonathan Bamber, of the University of Bristol, said the washing of vast volumes of groundwater into the sea was a large factor, but did not appear to have accelerated over the past 50 years, despite the world population more than doubling in that time. In contrast, the melting of ice sheets and glaciers as global temperatures rise has accelerated over the past 20 years, he said: "So it is pretty clear to me that this will be the dominant contributor in the future."

The new work reveals the surprisingly large effect of deep water wells on the oceans, said Martin Vermeer, at Aalto University in Finland, but would not radically alter overall estimates of sea level rise by 2100. "It's an incremental change, nothing revolutionary, assuming the result of this paper holds up. Science is never built upon a single result."

Greenpeace and other groups say the rights of the islanders, who cannot return to the archipelago, have been violated

Leading conservation groups have condemned the government's "huge violation" of the rights of thousands of exiled Chagossian islanders who cannot return to their Indian ocean coral islands because they have been surrounded by the world's largest marine nature reserve.

Proposals by the foreign secretary David Miliband Britain in 2008 for the creation of a giant 1m ha marine protection zone closed to all fishing around the almost pristine tropical archipelago were backed enthusiastically by nine of the world's major green groups, including Kew Gardens, the RSPB, Greenpeace, the Pew Environment group, the Zoological Society of London and the Marine Conservation Society. Together they asked supporters to back the Foreign Office proposal for the reserve and raised over 275,000 signatures. The park was finally established in 2010.

But diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks in 2011 suggested that Britain and the US lured the environment groups with the offer of the reserve and then used its ban on fishing to ensure that no Chagossian would ever be able to live within hundreds of miles of Diego Garcia. This, the largest island in the Chagos archipelago, was cleared by Britain of 1,500 native people in 1964 when it leased the island to the US for a massive military base.

Even if the Chagossians won the legal right to return, they might be unable to live on the islands if they were not allowed to fish.

The apparent hoodwinking of the conservationists seemed to be confirmed by the US diplomatic cable dated May 2009. A British Foreign Office official told the US government that the decision to set up the reserve would "effectively put paid to resettlement claims of the archipelago's former residents".

In further revelations this month, British archives disclosed how the Foreign Office noted in 1966: "The object of the exercise is to get some rocks which will remain ours [?] there will be no indigenous population except seagulls".

But some conservation groups who strongly opposed people living on Chagos islands in 2009 now say that they would not object to the islanders returning. "We have no opposition to the return of the Chagossians. We would support this as much as the reserve itself. If there were a return we would support it. I do not think anyone in the coalition ... would oppose a return. I don't think the environment network [of the nine groups] would oppose that in any way," said Marine Conservation Society biodiversity chief, Peter Richardson.

Greenpeace strengthened calls for the human rights of the Chagossians to be respected. "The Chagossian people have suffered, and continue to suffer, a huge violation of their human rights. It is completely within the powers of the UK government to decide to right the historic wrong and agree for the right of the return to the Chagossian people and commit to the development of a joint management plan for the marine reserve than includes the zoning of some areas to enable sustainable subsistence fishing," said Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International, at the Oxford Amnesty Lectures this month.

The TV presenter and conservationist Ben Fogle, one of a few people to have illegally visited the Chagossian islands in the past few years, said he hoped to appeal directly to the US secretary of state, Hilary Clinton. "We fight tooth and nail to save animals from extinction. Do we not owe it to our own people? We have already let the dodo die out, we can't and mustn't let this happen to a people and their culture."

In an article for the Guardian, he says: "I am ashamed to be British. It is a story of deceit and tragedy that has been described by some as the darkest day in British overseas policy. It has shaken my very principles on conservation and democracy. It is a story of deceit that has left thousands of British refugees living in misery for the past 40 years, exiled from their island home by a conniving and unrepentant government."

The European court of human rights is expected to rule by July on whether the islanders have a right to return and a separate judicial review will rule on whether the British government conducted a proper consultation for the reserve, having not shown it to many Chagossians in Mauritius and elsewhere. An international tribunal will also rule, possibly in 2013, on whether Britain had the sovereign right to declare the marine reserve.

"We have always recognised the terrible suffering of the Chagossians as a result of the UK government . I am not saying that they should not have the right to return. When the situation changes, the marine reserve should be reassessed," said Jonathan Hall, overseas territory officer of the RSPB.

Other conservation groups told the Guardian they were "neutral" on the question of whether the Chagossians should return. In a statement, the Linnean society said: "The Chagossians' return and conservation are not necessarily exclusive. [But] it's a very pristine area. I can see people would say 'they were used' [but] looked at from a biodiversity perspective, we don't know much about this amazing place. It may have been convenient for government, but [I do not think] we were being used. We have a golden opportunity to preserve and observe," said Elizabeth Rollinson, secretary of the Linnean Society.

"We support conservation initiatives aiming to protect the rich and important biodiversity found in the Chagos archipelago, including Kew's work in plant conservation in the region and the creation of the Chagos Marine Reserve." said Prof Stephen Hopper, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

"Whatever the outcome of the court case we will support the Chagossians. If they are given the right to return [by the courts] we will do our best to provide them with technical expertise. We would be very happy to work with them," said Heather Koldewey, head of global programmes at the Zoological Society of London.

But she added: "People have an impact. It entirely depends on the scale of the people [their return] and what they do. Chagos represents what our oceans should look like. It's important scientifically. It is an extraordinary place."

All-party group accuses government of failing to grasp opportunity to invest in green economy in haste to cut 'red tape'

Environmental protections must not be slashed in an "irresponsible" and "desperate dash for growth", an all-party group of MPs has warned. Green investment should play a key role in the UK's economic recovery, the group reports, but accuses prime minister David Cameron of a lack of leadership and George Osborne's Treasury as regarding environmental measures as hampering economic development despite the green economy growing at 4% a year.

The debate over the value of investing in clean power, energy efficiency, recycling and reducing environmental damage has reached the top of government in recent weeks, with foreign secretary William Hague, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and environment secretary Caroline Spelman all stating its high importance in a world challenged by climate change, growing population and greater competition for resources.

Monday's report, from the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC), said the government had broken its promise to deliver a roadmap to a green economy, with the current approach merely listing existing policies, relying on voluntary action and having no deadlines. This was "unlikely" to deliver the billions of pounds of green investment needed, the report added.

"The prime minister should show leadership and put the green economy at the heart of the government's plans to revive the economy," said Joan Walley, chair of the EAC. "The Treasury seems to see environmental regulations as nothing more than costly red tape, but what we are talking about here are vital laws to give us clean air, safe food, and a thriving countryside. It would be irresponsible to get rid of sensible regulations in a desperate dash for growth."

The Guardian revealed in January the ambition of the cabinet office minister, Oliver Letwin, to cut 10,000 pages of regulatory guidance to 50 pages. Spelman said the cutting or changing of three-quarters of all green regulations would "be good for the environment and good for business", while saving business £1bn over five years.

The MPs stated: "There appears to be little priority in government attached to moving to a green economy." They said March's budget, the first since the publication of the government's green economy plan, "lacked any indication that the Treasury has embedded the green economy into its economic plans, but rather plans for new roads and increased oil and gas extraction."

"Rising global demand for commodities and fossil fuels means that prices will continue to rise, so it is incredibly short-sighted of the Treasury not to give businesses clear incentives to use resources in a smarter way," said Walley.

In a leaked letter to the prime minister, Hague emphasised the economic opportunities offered by green innovation, now being seized by China and Germany. "The low carbon economy is at the leading edge of a structural shift now taking place globally ? and is outperforming the economy as a whole." The letter, sent earlier this year, urged Cameron to give a speech on the issue, but the Guardian revealed in April that a speech by the prime minister planned to be a "major policy intervention" had been downgraded to seven minutes of introductory remarks.

"The call is now coming from across the Conservative party, from inside government and from business to stop the Treasury blocking green growth and get on with policies that our economic competitors have been doing for years," said Luke Wreford, economic policy officer at WWF-UK. "Far from putting British companies out of business, environmental policies may well be the saving of them."

Caz Nicklin test drives the Bobbin Birdie, the Caféracer Doppio Lady and the Hob 3

As a woman hell-bent on promoting cycling as a desirable lifestyle choice, I am always keen to hear about exciting new ladies' bikes. Five years ago, the choice for a female commuter like me was limited to uninspiring hybrids or expensive traditional bikes. This year, however, there are a gaggle of young, hip, independent bikes giving the bigger brands a run for their money. I set out to test-ride three of these bikes to see if function measured up to form.

Bobbin Bicycles: Bobbin Birdie

How does it look?
Call me superficial, but I'm a sucker for a nice-looking bike and this Dutch-style model with sky blue sweeping frame instantly lifted my mood. The brown saddle and handlebar grips, along with the gum-wall tires, give it a classic feel, but the brightly-coloured paintwork (it also comes in bright yellow and bright red) add a modern twist. And with Florence Welch as a customer, you can be assured this brand has the cool factor.

How does it feel?
The riding position is the traditional "sit up and beg". It may take a little getting used to if you've not tried it before but I personally find it the most stable, safe and comfortable position for day-to-day cycling. You exert much less energy and therefore get less sweaty, clothes don't ride up your back and the higher position makes you more visible to traffic.

Stairs test:
All bikes get hoiked up to my office, three floors up. The Birdie was surprisingly light for the type of bike it is, weighing in at 14kg. I made it to the top without stopping but was a little puffed out.

Where do I put my stuff?
A good solid back-rack accommodated my pannier very well and there was ample space at the front to attach a basket.

Value for money and verdict:
A great price at £380. Good quality gears (three speed Sturmey Archer hub). The pedals are a little cheap and there were slight chips in paintwork but if you want a comfy commuter with character and you're not to bothered about speed, I would highly recommend the Bobbin Birdie.

Crème Cycles: Caféracer Doppio Lady

How does it look?
This is a beautiful bicycle. The quality of the parts and attention to detail are exquisite: The steel "mixte" frame (a ladies' frame that has the same geometry as a road bike but with a lower step-through) cream Schwalbe tires, hammered alloy mudguards and Brooks saddle and handlebar grips give it a real wow factor. It comes in a sublime array of muted colours from champagne to turquoise.

How does it feel?
The semi-upright position and the seven-speed Shimano gear hub give you the option to go at a leisurely pace or pick up some serious speed. So, as the name suggests, you really can race from cafe to cafe.

Stairs test:
Heavy. I was puffed out getting it up to my office. This may not be the most practical option if you need to lug it up to a flat.

Where do I put my stuff?
This bike is modelled on hand-built Porteur bikes (a type of cargo bike) from the 1950s and 60s, so has a rack on the front that can take 10kg. However, you'd need to have some bungee straps to keep your belongings stable.

Value for money and verdict:
At £830 this is not a recession-friendly bicycle and may be way out of many people's budgets. It is beautifully made and the parts are excellent quality, but it's a little flashy for my tastes.

Charge Bikes: The Hob 3

How does it look?
Another Mixte frame but a more tomboyish bike than the Crème. A little lacking in character for me but a streamlined elegance, nonetheless and the glitter green paintwork is a nice touch.

How does it feel?
For a Pashley-riding pootler like me, the forward-leaning riding position was a shock to the system. The handlebar stem is at a fixed height so you need to be sure it's the right fit for you before you buy. At first I felt unsafe and out of my comfort zone but, after 20 minutes racing around, I enjoyed the speed it allowed me and was reluctant to hand it back.

Stairs test:
It was light as a feather, so I was practically jogging up the stairs.

Where do I put my stuff?
There is no basket or rack but it has mounting brackets for a rear rack.

Value for money and verdict:
Price-wise it sits somewhere between the Bobbin and the Crème at £580. This is a great bike for the zippy commuter who covers of lot of miles and travels light. Everything about the bike makes you want to go fast, so it's not a good option for the nervous cyclist or beginner.

? Caz Nicklin is founder of Cyclechic.co.uk

Free-market thinktank's conference opens in Chicago with president admitting defections are hurting group's finances

The first Heartland Institute conference on climate change in 2008 had all the trappings of a major scientific conclave ? minus large numbers of real scientists. Hundreds of climate change contrarians, with a few academics among them, descended into the banquet rooms of a lavish Times Square hotel for what was purported to be a reasoned debate about climate change.

But as the latest Heartland climate conference opens in a Chicago hotel on Monday, the thinktank's claims to reasoned debate lie in shreds and its financial future remains uncertain.

Heartland's claims to "stay above the fray" of the climate wars was exploded by a billboard campaign earlier this month comparing climate change believers to the Unabomer Ted Kaczynski, and a document sting last February that revealed a plan to spread doubt among kindergarteners on the existence of climate change.

Along with the damage to its reputation, Heartland's financial future is also threatened by an exodus of corporate donors as well as key members of staff.

In a fiery blogpost on the Heartland website, the organisation's president Joseph Bast admitted Heartland's defectors were "abandoning us in this moment of need".

Over the last few weeks, Heartland has lost at least $825,000 in expected funds for 2012, or more than 35% of the funds its planned to raise from corporate donors, according to the campaign group Forecast the Facts, which is pushing companies to boycott the organisation.

The organisation has been forced to make up those funds by taking its first publicly acknowledged donations from the coal industry. The main Illinois coal lobby is a last-minute sponsor of this week's conference, undermining Heartland's claims to operate independently of fossil fuel interests.

Its entire Washington DC office, barring one staffer, decamped, taking Heartland's biggest project, involving the insurance industry, with them.

Board directors quit, conference speakers cancelled at short-notice, and associates of long standing demanded Heartland remove their names from its website. The list of conference sponsors shrank by nearly half from 2010, and many of those listed sponsors are just websites operating on the rightwing fringe.

"It's haemorrhaging," said Kert Davies, research director of Greenpeace, who has spent years tracking climate contrarian outfits. "Heartland's true colours finally came through, and now people are jumping ship in quick order."

It does not look like Heartland is about to adopt a corrective course of action.

In his post, Bast defended the ads, writing: "Our billboard was factual: the Unabomber was motivated by concern over man-made global warming to do the terrible crimes he committed." He went on to describe climate scientist Michael Mann and activist Bill McKibben as "madmen".

The public unravelling of Heartland began last February when the scientist Peter Gleick lied to obtain highly sensitive materials, including a list of donors.

The publicity around the donors' list made it difficult for companies with public commitment to sustainability, such as the General Motors Foundation, to continue funding Heartland. The GM Foundation soon announced it was ending its support of $15,000 a year.

But what had been a gradual collapse gathered pace when Heartland advertised its climate conference with a billboard on a Chicago expressway comparing believers in climate science to the Unabomber.

The slow trickle of departing corporate donors turned into a gusher.

Even Heartland insiders, such as Eli Lehrer, who headed the organisation's Washington group, found the billboard too extreme. Lehrer, who headed the biggest project within Heartland, on insurance, immediately announced his departure along with six other staff.

"The ad was ill advised," he said. "I'm a free-market conservative with a long rightwing resumé and most, if not all, of my team fits the same description and of us found it very problematic. Staying with Heartland was simply not workable in the wake of this billboard."

Heartland took down the billboard within 24 hours, but by then the ad had gone viral.

Lehrer, who maintains the split was amicable, said the billboard had undermined Heartland's claims to be a serious conservative thinktank.

"It didn't reflect the seriousness which I want to bring to public policy," Lehrer said in the telephone interview. "As somebody who deals mostly with insurance I believe all risk have to be taken seriously and there certainly are some important climate and global warming related risks that must be taken account of in the insurance market. Trivialising them is not consistent with free-market thought. Suggesting they are only thought about by people who are crazy is not good for the free market."

Other Heartland allies came to a similar conclusion. In a letter to Heartland announcing he was backing out from the conference, Ross McKitrick, a Canadian economist wrote: "You can not simultaneously say that you want to promote a debate while equating the other side to terrorists and mass murderers."

A number of other experts meanwhile began cutting their ties with Heartland, according to a tally kept by a Canadian blogger BigCityLiberal.

Meanwhile, there was growing anger that Bast failed to consult with colleagues before ordering up the Kaczynski attack ads.

Four board members told the Guardian they had not been consulted in advance about the ad. "I did not have prior approval of the billboard and was in favor of discontinuing the billboard when I was made aware of it," Jeff Judson, a Texas lobbyist and board member wrote in an email.

Could the turmoil and discontent at Heartland eventually prove its undoing? Campaigners would certainly hope so. "We are watching the consequences of organisation that acts quite randomly and that is actually an extremist organisation in the end," said Davies. "They are not built to be at the hump of the climate denial movement."

But while more mainstream corporate entities are deserting Heartland, others are stepping into the breach, including the coal lobby and conservative groups such as the Heritage Foundation.

Both the Illinois Coal Association and Heritage stepped in to fund this week's conference, after other corporate donors began backing out in protest at the offensive Kaczynski ad.

Meanwhile, a Greenpeace analysis of the other smaller conference sponsors suggests they have collectively received $5m in funds from Exxon and other oil companies.

The Coal Association and Heritage were not listed on the original conference sponsor list, but appeared to come in about a week or so after the appearance of the offending Kaczynski ad.

Phil Gonet, the chief lobbyist for the 20 coal companies in the association, said he had no qualms about stepping in to fund the Heartland conference.

"We support the work they are doing and so we thought we would finally make a contribution to the organisation," he said, calling criticism of the ad "moot", "pointless" and "absurd".

Gonet went on: "I made a contribution mainly in support of a conference that is designed to make balanced information available to the public on the issue of global warming ? In general, the message of the Heartland Institute is something the Illinois Coal Association supports."

This antelope-like reclusive species lives in remote regions of the Annamite mountains on the border of Vietnam and Laos - but under 100 may now be left

Lifting commuter-snarl misery for some villages would damage others, say Cheshire protesters. Lovely, gentle countryside and farm jobs are also said to be at risk.

You have to pinch yourself sometimes to remember that George Osborne is a northern MP; not that we should judge people on their appearance.

He holds the Tatton seat in Cheshire made famous by its former incumbents, the disgraced Neil Hamilton and his nemesis in a white suit, the former BBC TV reporter Martin Bell.

This is a somewhat particular part of the north, especially in terms of surviving cliches about flat caps or perpetual grime. You will not find the latter in Tatton and the former will only take that tweedy form favoured in rural circles, just as strangely-patterned sweaters are beloved in golf clubs.

But look! The idyll is being disturbed. It hasn't reach Bell-like levels yet, but Osborne is facing growing pressure to come out about controversial plans to redirect the local A556 main road. This cuts a corner by linking the M6 and M56 between Altrincham and Knutsford and was named the UK's most congested commuter route in 2006 by the Department of Transport.

It beat the M26 in Kent, the A404 in Buckinghamshire and even the M25 London ring road, and things have not improved since then. But the Highways Agency's subsequent proposals to by-pass ultra-comfy villages such as Mere have aroused the fury of new targets for the traffic; places such as Hoo Green, High Legh and Millington say that the misery would simply pass to them.

Hence a new option, and calls on Osborne to support it, which will reach a crescendo next week at a meeting in Knutsford. Suzi Cowan of the A556 Lobby Group, which has commissioned transport consultants and called the meeting to publish their findings, says:

None of The Highways Agency options would satisfy the concerns of the affected parishes or indeed the motorist. They would also destroy farmers' land, putting livelihoods and areas of natural beauty at risk.

They would also ruin many rural pursuits for walkers, cyclists and horse riders as the network of lanes which are home to these pleasures. Lanes on which it is difficult for even one car to pass a bicycle will have to host up to 3000 more cars a day.

The new route is also extremely expensive ? costing the taxpayer between £137 million and £212 million. We have come up with a simpler plan that will be much more cost effective, does not destroy farmers' livelihoods or the rural living of 6 parishes, and is better for the motorist, as it will allow traffic to travel freely between the M6 and M56 without leaving the motorway therefore improving congestion and hastening their journey.

The suggestion, improving motorway junction arrangements, is the most vigorous of responses submitted to a 12-week consultation which the Highways Agency began in January. Once a decision is made, work is expected to start in March 2015.

Cowan says:

Objections had to be in by the 16th April and ours, plus our alternative plan, were submitted on time. No one knows how seriously opponents' grievances or initiatives will be taken, so we've called this meeting to share and show the proposal. If it wins support, we hope that our combined voices will get much-needed attention from George Osborne and the National Infrastructure Directorate, which oversees plans for highways.

Find out more on Wednesday 30 May, 7.30pm at the Cottons Hotel on the A50 Manchester Road, Knutsford, WA16 0SU. There's more about the lobby group and the controversy here.

On the 20th anniversary of the saola's discovery, conservationists say the population of the reclusive species has dropped dramatically

Poaching in Vietnam and Laos may be driving the "Asian unicorn" to extinction, warns the WWF on the twentieth anniversary of its discovery.

The saola is an antelope-like reclusive species that lives in remote regions of the Annamite mountains on the border of Vietnam and Laos, dubbed the Asian Unicorn because it is so rarely seen. It came to worldwide attention in 1992 as the first large mammal to be discovered in over 50 years when surveyors from the Vietnamese Ministry of Forestry and the WWF found skulls of the unknown species in mountain villages. DNA tests have indicated it is a bovine related to cattle, though it resembles a wild goat or antelope with two parallel horns found on both males and females.

Now the WWF and conservation groups say populations of the saola is dropping. Estimates of the current saola population range from 10 to several hundred. A 2009 meeting of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) concluded that the species population has dropped precipitously, and the saola remains on its list of critically endangered species.

While the WWF does not know the exact population number of the saola, WWF Asian species expert Barney Long said there are indications the population is likely dropping. Interviews with communities have indicated sightings of the saola have dropped over the past 20 years. Poaching in the Annamite mountains has also reached epidemic levels, and though the saola is not sought after by hunters, the horned beast is nevertheless caught in their snares.

"Poachers go in and set 1,000 snares at a time. It's high-intensity poaching which requires an appropriate response form anti-poaching teams. That's extremely difficult to fund and logistically organise," said WWF Asian species expert Barney Long.

In one park in central Vietnam, where the WWF has begun to work with community forest guards, 200 illegal hunting camps have been closed and 12,500 snares removed since February 2011.

Poaching in the mountains has been the by-product of economic development in Vietnam, said Long. The growth of the country's middle class has driven demand for rare, wild-caught cuisine among the country's middle class.

"An increasing number of people going to restaurants and buying splashy meals. If you're trying to impress your business partners especially around festival seasons, then you take them out for expensive dinners. A great way to kind of show off and be a status symbol is to eat status meat."

The Annamite mountains are home to 42 ethnic groups, according to Long, each with their own culture, language, and hunting practices. Since 1992, the animal has mainly been sighted by scientists with camera traps. One was captured by villagers in Bolikhamxay province, Laos in 2010, but it died in captivity before researchers could reach the village. No scientist has spotted the saola in person.

The habitat of the saola makes the species very difficult to track but also to protect. The animal resides in very specific and remote pockets of a mountain range Long described as an already "very remote, very steep, very wet, very difficult terrain."

Development co-operation needs to shift focus from poverty eradication to a broader, more inclusive framework

The term "sustainable development" emerged in the 1970s and 80s as awareness grew of the natural limits within which human development takes place. Despite near-universal recognition that it is a powerful unifying concept, bringing together social, economic and environmental factors, it has spent the 20 years since the first Rio Earth summit languishing in environment ministries.

But it now appears possible, even probable, that sustainable development will emerge as the main framework for development practice in the coming decades, replacing or rebalancing the poverty eradication focus of recent years. Instead of millennium development goals, we might have SDGs, or sustainable development goals.

What might such a transition to sustainable development mean for development co-operation? That was the subject of a recent paper I wrote for the UN's Development Co-operation Forum. Your thoughts would be welcome.

The most important change would be the involvement of rich countries as well as poor. Sustainable development tackles affluence and excess, not just poverty, and it is the high-income countries that most need to alter their resource use (with a gradually increasing burden of responsibility on middle-income countries, especially the largest ones). Financial transfers will therefore reduce in importance relative to other areas of action (such as trade and regulation). Aid agencies might develop new roles as whole-of-government enforcers of development policy coherence.

But finance will still play an important role. If extreme poverty declines significantly over the next 20 years, as economic growth continues in the south, the rationale for development co-operation under a poverty eradication paradigm might diminish. Yet the inclusion of other objectives under a sustainable development framework, such as greening growth and conservation of resources and ecosystems, could mean more funding to countries where the environmental impacts of growth are greatest. This would challenge the consensus that aid to middle-income countries should be reduced.

Physical science considerations such as geography and resource allocation will become more dominant in allocation calculations than they have been under the poverty eradication framework, which has relied predominantly on social scientific (economic and political) analysis.

Not all development finance needs to be transferred across borders. Technological advance, perhaps more than anything else, has led to rapid reductions in poverty. Investing more in public research could lead to technological solutions to poverty and sustainability problems becoming more rapidly and openly available.

The public justification for development co-operation will need to evolve. To engage the broad coalition of support required to maintain high levels of development co-operation, rich countries will have to appeal to mutual benefit, not just charity ? an approach more in tune with shifting attitudes in poor countries tired of being seen only as recipients of largesse. Global sustainability could join global security as the basis of a frank appeal to national self-interest.

National governments may finally find a way to introduce international taxation. The beauty of taxing global public bads (like air travel, overfishing, oil exploration, currency speculation), and the reason it is so appropriate for a sustainable development framework, is that either a) the bad is diminished or b) the money raised can be spent on global public goods.

Some people say a focus on sustainable development will mean longer term horizons and objectives, but I disagree. Both sustainable development and poverty eradication are both long-term and urgent endeavours, requiring not only the gradual and substantial redirection of country policies, but rapid response to pressing problems. But it is true that politicians, who generally have short-term (four to six-year) mandates are better at making short-term decisions. Long-term global objectives will require decision making at a multilateral level, but the challenge is making such decisions legitimate and effective. One clue comes from the language of climate finance which emphasises entitlement rather than voluntarism. This sense of the historical responsibility of developed countries could be expanded to cover not just greenhouse gas emissions but also depletion of natural ecosystems and resources, transforming the balance of power between source and recipient of development finance.

Ideally, sustainable development could provide an overarching framework within which all sub-goals (eg poverty eradication, social equality, ecosystem maintenance, climate compatibility) are framed. Sustainable development is not a subset of development; it is development (in a modern world of resource limits). Environmental issues are not one factor among many (as in MDG7), but the meta-context within which poverty and other goals are sought.

And while we are at it, it may be time to redefine Official Development Assistance. The objectives of development co-operation (including climate finance) could be folded into a single definition such as: "the promotion of sustainable development, with particular concern for poverty eradication, equitable resource management, human rights, and global stability", rebranding it as sustainable development co-operation, or SDC.

A final point. There is a serious danger that poor countries may come under pressure to compromise on poverty reduction objectives for the sake of the planet ? "green aid conditionalities" could emerge. It should be made explicit that the poorest countries should follow whatever path best brings them out of poverty, including engaging in dirty growth if that means eradicating poverty faster.

It may sound like one of those silly names used to mock birders, but the long-billed dowitcher is a real bird as is its cousin, the short-billed dowitcher. The name derives from a word originally used by the Mohawk peoples of the north-eastern US and eastern Canada and, like so many bird names, probably comes from the bird's call.

The bird itself looks like a cross between a godwit and a snipe: shaped rather like a rugby ball, with a long bill and oddly short legs. Long-billed dowitchers breed in the Arctic tundra of North America and Siberia, and winter in California and Central America. But sometimes, on their long migratory travels, they wander off course and end up on this side of the Atlantic.

This explains why for over a month this spring not one, but two long-billed dowitchers delighted visitors to my local patch, Meare Heath on the Somerset Levels. Along with 40 or so black-tailed godwits they were frantically feeding on a muddy pool, and occasionally taking to the air on long, pointed wings.

This particular pair of dowitchers first arrived in Britain last autumn, when they were seen at nearby Chew Valley Lake in the company of several other rare waders. Sometime during the winter they disappeared, probably heading south to mainland Europe to escape the cold weather. Then, towards the end of March, they reappeared here on the levels.

Since then they have gradually moulted from their greyish-brown winter garb into a splendid orangey breeding plumage. Sadly they are unlikely to breed here, as normally they nest far to the north.

On a chilly, damp afternoon towards the end of the wettest April on record, I took Bill Oddie to see the dowitchers, after which we continued to the aptly named Noah's Hide. Here, as the rain finally paused, a phalanx of house martins arrived, hawking low over the water to grab any insects foolhardy enough to be on the wing. A few swifts briefly joined them, for me always the true sign that summer is just around the corner. There was also a single hobby, eyeing up these tasty flying morsels, but not bothering to attack.

It wasn't until May Day, when the skies finally cleared after a week of relentless rain, that the first swift flew over my garden. Far below, orange-tip and speckled wood butterflies also emerged, encouraged by the unfamiliar rays of sunshine.

So far it has been a tough spring for wildlife ? cool and wet weather may be good news for gardeners after one of the longest droughts on record, but it is bad news for breeding birds.

But the weather won't bother the dowitchers. By now they will be far to the north, beyond the range of human eyes, and settling down to breed on the Arctic tundra. Whether they will return here again next autumn, or the following spring, it is too early to tell. If they do, though, they will get an enthusiastic welcome.

When the swallows fly high, the weather will be dry. This weather folklore rolls easily off the tongue and there is even some truth to it.

In this case the swallows are not flying high to admire the view; instead they are chasing their next meal. On fine summers' days warm air rises upwards. Insects are also swept up in these bubbles of warmth, sometimes carried hundreds of metres aloft. And, since swallows eat insects, they have to fly higher on fine days to find their food.

Conversely during unsettled and cold weather insects will seek the shelter of trees and buildings, so swallows have to swoop low to find them.

So far this year the swallows haven't had to do much high-level flying. Thanks to a meandering jet stream (the high level band of westerly winds that brings much of the UK's weather) April and May have been pretty soggy affairs.

At the end of March the jet stream meandered north around the UK, anchoring a high pressure system over us and bringing fine sunny days. But since April the jet stream has been turning south at the UK, allowing the low pressure systems, cloud and rain to come our way. Worse still, the winding nature of the jet stream means there is no strong west to east airflow to blow the weather systems through.

Let's just hope the jet stream changes its tune soon, bringing us the kind of weather that will make the swallows fly high.

An interesting but destructive little beetle has been found in the house

Can any economic entomologist come to my rescue? For two or three weeks I have been occasionally finding an interesting but destructive little beetle in two rooms in my house. Its name is Attagenus pellio, and it is said to feed upon furs, skins, and natural history specimens. Its larva is a quaint hairy thing, with a shaving-brush tuft of hair at the end of its tail, which aids it in its spasmodic and irregular movements. According to the late Dr Bailey, who some years ago was my valued referee for all questions relating to beetles, it is not common in Lancashire and Cheshire, but Fowler, after referring to its scientific tastes, says - "usually in houses." Efficient spring-cleaning has revealed no damage done to furs or specimens, but I have just traced the location of the colony ? the underside of the woodwork which covers the cistern. What I want to know is what it eats here? Does the larva live on dust, and how can I prevent it spreading to other parts of the house and doing serious damage?

Honister Pass, Lake District: How those who chose to ride up Honister after negotiating the twisting Borrowdale road gasped as they stood on their pedals, Lycra-clad muscles cramping

Lakeland's mountain passes have long been seen as a short cut for those short of time (in more ways than one). The car drive up Honister Pass is a case in point, giving fell walkers all the advantages of a chair lift to 1,190ft and a shorter walk from the top of the pass to the summits still above. Two Sundays ago more than 1,500 cyclists also aimed for this same objective during the annual 112-mile Fred Whitton sportive event. Their quest? To ride over Kirkstone, Honister, Newlands, Whinlatter, Hardknott and Wrynose passes along the way. How those who chose to ride up Honister after negotiating the twisting Borrowdale road gasped and groaned as they stood on their pedals, Lycra-clad muscles cramping.

Ecstasy followed agony as they then flitted down the far side of the pass into Buttermere, but still with rigours looming ahead ? like meeting the wind on the exposed tracts of Cold Fell between Ennerdale Bridge and Calderbridge. At least one cyclist succumbed to hypothermia here and was wrapped in a tinfoil blanket by paramedics. Gusts also affected walkers the higher they climbed. Most clambered up the old tramway above Honister quarries to the Drum House near the skyline which then serves as a launch pad for Great Gable or Haystacks or Pillar beyond. Although Alfred Wainwright claimed of the tramway, "All the family will enjoy it, irrespective of age", blustery weather made things harder. As the toiling walkers slogged ever higher up this "short cut" on the fellside so that the cheers of the roadside spectators encouraging riders on Honister gradually faded into the distance below, some began to experience the same burning leg muscles that the cyclists had met when riding up the pass. Though the walkers were not under the same acute strain as their kindred spirits forcing down on their pedals, it must have felt similar and groans and gasps gave vent to their feelings too.

RAF Kinloss in Moray, already at centre of radiation investigation, could also be contaminated with sulphur mustard

A potentially unstable chemical weapon could be buried beneath an airbase that will shortly become home to more than 900 army personnel.

RAF Kinloss in Moray is already the focus of an investigation into radioactive contamination, and a report has emerged suggesting the site could also be contaminated with mustard gas.

Officially known as sulphur mustard, the colourless, oily liquid can cause severe burns and cancer when released.

A land-quality assessment uncovered by BBC Scotland identified potential sulphur mustard contamination in 2004 before construction work began on a pipeline for a water treatment project.

The report states: "Sulphur mustard is not a persistent chemical and under most conditions will readily break down. Under damp conditions (such as within soil) the action of hydrolysis can form an unreactive protective barrier around globules of active sulphur mustard. These globules can exist within the soil matrix and any disturbance to such a soil may puncture the globule and release the active sulphur mustard."

RAF Kinloss stopped functioning as an operational airbase last year after 72 years of service, as part of the government's strategic defence and security review.

About 930 personnel from 39 engineer regiment (air support) are due to move from Waterbeach, Cambridge, to Kinloss in July, where they will provide engineer support to the Royal Air Force and the army.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "Our investigations to date suggest there is no indication of significant risk to public health or the environment associated with the past storage or disposal of chemical weapon agents in the UK. Work undertaken indicates the sites are suitable for their current use, provided that any management systems, restrictions or procedures remain in place.

"We consider protection of human health and the environment to be very important, and if we identify threats to either we inform the regulatory authorities and public as soon as possible ensuring the necessary management measures are put in place."

Thomas Docherty MP, a member of the Commons defence select committee, said he had called on the government to make an urgent statement on the matter.

He told the BBC's Sunday Politics Scotland: "The MoD has had a culture over seven decades of not sharing information. There's an arrogance about the MoD that is not new, but it has to be tackled once and for all."

He added: "We need an urgent statement from the UK government that spells out exactly who knew what when, that says what is the actual independent scientific risk, when did they inform the Scottish regulators, when did they inform the local authorities, and when did they inform Scottish ministers? And that needs to be done as soon as practicable."

The Scottish environment secretary, Richard Lochhead, said: "I am deeply concerned by media reports that the MoD may have sold land contaminated with radioactive material to communities around RAF Kinloss. I understand that the MoD is conducting investigations into possible contamination at the site.

"The secretary of state for defence must ensure that this work is comprehensive, transparent and completed as soon as practically possible. Should the presence of radioactive contamination be confirmed I will press the MoD to work with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) and start remediation work as a matter of urgency."

He continued: "Understandably, these reports will cause anxiety in communities around RAF Kinloss. It is imperative the Ministry of Defence does all it can to reassure the public in Moray and across the rest of Scotland that any further relevant information will be disclosed in full."

The SNP's Westminster defence spokesman, Angus Robertson, MP for Moray, has called for a meeting with the defence secretary, Philip Hammond, to discuss reports of waste at the Kinloss base.

Robertson said: "Recent reports raise questions relating to potential dangers at the Kinloss base. Given reports of radioactive material at Dalgety Bay, it is important that we understand the situation at Kinloss. This is why I'm requesting a meeting with the defence secretary Philip Hammond. It is important that there is as much transparency as possible from the Ministry of Defence."

The Moray-based convenor of the Scottish Green party's Highlands and Islands branch, Fabio Villani, said: "The MoD should come clean and disclose its records about the disposal of potentially harmful materials at Kinloss, Balnageith and at other former airbases elsewhere in Scotland. This would pave the way for contaminated land to be managed to avoid risks to human and environmental health, and for uncontaminated land to be brought safely back into productive use."

My local supermarket has starting putting bacon into larger plastic sleeves. Is it time for a new crackdown on packaging?

Thanks for sending me photographic rather than physical evidence, as old bacon packets are not pleasant. This is how great anti-waste campaigns start. Our last investigation into packaging started with a reader's photographs of coconuts wrapped in plastic. Ian Bates of Less Packaging has seen such travesties as your bacon packet before. "It's a fairly typical approach to reduce cost and to try to increase perceived value," he says. "It looks to me as if the extra cost of shipping and handling the bulky pack has probably not been considered, nor the extra cost of displaying the packs in-store. We still find that very few companies actually measure the true cost of their packaging holistically."

What's odd is that the big retailers are falling over themselves to present green packaging initiatives. Sainsbury's, for example, recently celebrated a loo-roll victory: reducing the diameter of the inner cardboard tube apparently cuts 140,000kg of CO2 by cutting the number of delivery lorries. And Bates says that Tesco has done well on its pre-school toy range, where you no longer find a "single frustrating plastic or metal twisty tie. Hooray!"

Hooray indeed, but probably not enough to quell your anger, given that we still chuck away 10m tonnes of packaging waste a year. Nearly 67% is supposedly recovered, and companies pay levies through a complex system of Packaging Recovery Notes. Yet you end up spending £470 a year on single-use packaging that you don't want.

This is a good time to campaign. Most retailers are signed up to the Courtauld Commitment to reduce packaging. Phase three, announced in March, will see target rates for the recovery of plastics double by 2017. Already the packaging industry is kicking against this. Consumer ire is important if targets are to be met.

For inspiration look to the Women's Institute 2006 packaging campaign. It is no longer officially live but so many members are still actively reporting overpackaging that, when I called them, there was a suggestion it might be revived. Their tips for you include the provocative stance of "unwrapping products at the till and leaving the packaging for the store to dispose of" if necessary. The lineage of this checkout campaigning? Austrian hausfraus in the 1980s who clogged up checkouts by removing packaging and decanting groceries into their own reusable receptacles. I can tell you, things soon changed.

Green crush of the week

Industrial designer Ross Lovegrove calls himself a "translator of 21st technology" and believes that only natural growth patterns and organic forms can "create maximum beauty". His 6m tall solar tree, manufactured by Artemide, stores enough energy even on cloudy days to light up all night long. It comes to London as part of the Clerkenwell Design Week (clerkenwelldesignweek.com), but you can witness its beatific glow in St John's Square, London EC1 until September.