Environment

Residents in Ohio who want to collect rain water in their backyards will have to pay a mandatory tax imposed by the local government.  Any resident installing a rain barrel in their yard will have to pay a $31 fee for the privilege. Wearechange.org reports: Last week, the Sun Post reported that it would cost just $1 to install a rain barrel. That was based on a reading of a rain-barrel ordinance that City Council approved May 7. The ordinance established regulations for rain barrels.

Dozens of  parked cars were buried in a giant 182-metre-long sinkhole in old Florence, Italy. The sinkhole opened up after a water pipe burst underground early on Wednesday. Brisbane Times reports: The footpath collapsed on the Lungarno Torrigiani, a road alongside the Arno River that is not far from the famous Ponte Vecchio, part of the city’s historic centre, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Dario Nardella, mayor of Florence, wrote on Twitter that no injuries had been reported and that firefighters had been sent to the scene.

An Australian town is in a “state of emergency” because it has been overtaken by a swarm of 100,000 bats. The bats arrived in the aptly named Batemans Bay, located to the south of Sydney bringing with them with an odour and screeching noise that is driving the town’s 11,000 residents ‘bat shit’ crazy. The grey-headed flying foxes are overrunning the town and the problem is so bad that  they are on almost every surface and in every tree.

North Yorkshire County Council have approved a bid by Third Energy to start fracking operations, despite fierce protests from members of the public.  The local government voted seven to four in favour of allowing the first fracking operation in England since a 2012 country-wide ban was lifted. BBC News reports: Hundreds of protesters attended a meeting in Northallerton to voice anger at the project, which had been recommended for approval. The council’s planning committee voted seven to four in favour.

The US could soon become the first country to approve the commercial use of a bacterium to fight the spread of mosquito borne virus such as Zika. The strategy involves infecting mosquitoes with the bacterium and releasing the males into the environment.