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These pictures have been made during a 7-day Training programme in arctic ice. During the excursion participants learned about polar climate-related issues and, at the same time, they saw the amazing  beauty of the polar Arctic region.
The aim of this project was to raise awareness of the dramatic climate change impacts in the Arctic on an environmental, geo-political and socio-cultural level. Twenty young people from across Europe and Canada who are active in climate change projects participated on the training event.
The project was organized by the British Council and facilitated by the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme).

For more online informations visit the British Council’s Zero Carbon Centre, the Youth in Action programme and the event’s blog.

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For scientists looking to discover new species, Madagascar is the treasure trove: according to a new World Wildlife Fund study, scientists have found more than 600 new types of plant and animal life in the last decade alone! Why is Madagascar such a breeding ground for diverse creatures? The island is pretty isolated, and it’s stayed that way for centuries. Plus, the landscape is varied: there’s mountains, rainforest, and everything in between.

Researchers have discovered everything from the 10 cm-long Berthe’s mouse lemur to the “Glam Rock” chameleon in the picture above. National Geographic has some great shots of the new species, from tiny and furry to scaly and thorny.

But the report is also a reminder that some of these very special – and unique – creatures are under threat due to climate change and the practice of clearing forests in Madagascar for wood and other natural resources.

The WWF says the only way to protect all those species is for the locals themselves to get involved.

Biodiversity is important to protect, especially in the world’s rainforests, oceans and mountain ranges where we often find rare species. But biodiversity is important in “ordinary” places, too – like continental Europe. The region boasts a lot of its own unique species, like the Iberian lynx in Spain (pictured above) and the Bavarian pine vole in the Alps. But those animals might not be around much longer.

A new report from the European Union shows that hundreds of species in Europe are now facing extinction. In fact, that assessment includes about up to a quarter of the species native to the continent. All types of animals and plants could vanish, including birds, reptiles, mammals and butterflies.

The problem stems from a variety of factors, including pollution and climate change. The EU has set forth some targets to protect Europe’s biodiversity, like restoring ecosystems. But there is no funding to back those proposals, so some critics don’t believe anything will change.

The GLOBAL IDEAS project has been running for nearly one and a half years now. And if there’s one thing our climate reporters have learned in this time it’s that climate change is super-complex and that important but small details are easy to miss. So, as a first step in the way to get the whole picture more accurately we have started to put on better goggles – and equipped our cameras with sharper vision.

Starting today we’ll put online video footage from our reporters in High Definition quality. We hope to be following this up very soon with our first GLOBAL IDEAS documentary that you can watch online in HD.

For starters here’s some HD footage of the amazing biodiversity our reporters came across on their recent trip to Costa Rica:

And here another one from Madagascar:

Scotland has put together a marine atlas to chart its biodiversity and help marine planners make development decisions along the country's coast. The Scottish government has made the entire atlas and a variety of information available online, but they also put up this video as a guide.

The atlas helps us understand the state of Scotland's seas. That's important for scientists who want to study marine biodiversity in the region. And the atlas is a kind of manual to help developers understand where they need to be careful of precious sea life–from coral reefs to animals. And last but not least, it helps environmentalists understand the challenges Scotland faces in preserving its biodiversity, too.

Should more countries invest time and research into a marine atlas? How would it benefit the marine life where you life?