How to stop cows burping is the new field work on climate change: They have become the fashionable target for environmentalists, but four-wheel-drive vehicles may be less damaging to the environment than the cows and sheep essential to the rural economy. The methane emissions from both ends of cattle and sheep are causing so much concern in government that it has ordered researchers to find ways to cut down on the emissions from livestock, which account for about a quarter of the methane – a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful at driving global warming than carbon dioxide – pumped into the atmosphere in Britain. Times Online

The starvation of the grey whale: When two anorexic creatures appeared from over the horizon in the waters of Laguna San Ignacio, off Mexico’s Baja California last January, William Megill was quick to identify them. “We have Kate Moss and we have Twiggy,” said Dr Megill, with a wry smile, of the female grey whales he saw struggling down the coast as he was speeding around in the University of Bath’s research vessel. “The ribs on one were quite visible, while the vertebrae on another poked out where there should have been inches of plump and healthy blubber,” Dr Megill recalled yesterday. They were, he speculated, possible further evidence of the unforeseen impact of climate change on one of the world’s most mysterious and admired creatures. Independent

Australia to build cross-continent climate corridor: Australia will create a wildlife corridor spanning the continent to allow animals and plants to flee the effects of global warming, scientists said on Monday. The 2,800-kilometre (1,740 mile) climate “spine”, approved by state and national governments, will link the country’s entire east coast, from the snow-capped Australian alps in the south to the tropical north — the distance from London to Romania. AlertNet