Whether you're a weekend happy snapper, serious amateur type or fully-fledged professional photographer for the National Geographic, you could be in the running to win up to £5,000 for your wildlife portrait.

British Wildlife Photography Awards are for all those people who love taking pictures of British wildlife - insects, sea life, birds, mammals - natural or urban. The awards will highlight the diversity of the country's wildlife at a time when conservation and habitat protection are becoming ever so important.

The Natural History Museum has a similar competition that they showcased at the beginning of the year. Like the BWPA, there were categories for younger photographers - images from the likes of 7 and 10 year old kids that were quite inspiring.

Anyone can enter so if you fancy yourself as a promising wildlife photographer why not enter some of your best shots? You have until the 31st of July to enter.

The BWPA website has more information on categories and how to enter as well as some good shooting tips.

Selected photographs will feature in the launch at Hoopers Gallery in September as well as a nationwide touring exhibition.

The Big Green Gathering is an award winning festival. It features just about all you can image in the areas of sustainability, organic and eco-friendly living. It's THE festival for entertainment and education for sustainability. From music, farming, crafts, ethical campaigns, permaculture, markets, fairground fun, sustainable homes, organic food, a village green kids area, green enterprise and business fields this festival has all the resources to learn and enjoy green living.

Solar and wind powered the Big Green Gathering runs for five days from the July 29th - 2nd August 2009 in the Mendip Hills in Somerset. For those greenites who believe in green energy but have yet to see the inner complexities of how it actually makes things do things this festival is an ideal opportunity to see renewable energy in practice.

The Big Green Gathering is held on Fernhill Farm. It is a working organic farm and conservation site as well as a registered Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. There is onsite camping and facilities including an organic shop, showers, fires and recycling bins. You can order groceries online and pick them up on arrival at Sound Bites, a wholefood shop that specialises in local, organic and fair trade food.

For tickets and information about the event and the course run at the farm visit The Big Green Gathering website.

New research by one of the UK's leading reproductive biologists, Professor Richard Sharpe, has found that unborn baby boys are at more risk than ever of developing cancer and being infertile in their lifetime. Why? No surprise here - gender-affecting chemicals found in food, beauty products and cleaning products.

Chemicals found in pesticides, drugs, plastics and other household products have been linked to birth defects, testicular cancer and low sperm counts in men. As hormone disrupters they either prevent testosterone from doing its job or mimic oestrogen.

Because we don't yet have a definitive list of the chemicals (or combination of chemicals) it's best to avoid the all where possible. According to Professor Sharpe the most important time for women to take care is between the 8th and 12th week of pregnancy as this is the period where the foetus' testosterone production is most likely to be influenced by hormone-mimicking chemicals.

Given 1 in 6 men in this country have a low sperm count and the cases of testicular cancer has been doubling every 25 years in men in their 20s and 30s it seems imperative we take notice of these latest findings.

"Men who eat organically grown food may have nearly double the number of fertile sperm, say scientists researching the effects of pesticides." A quote plucked from the Soil Association from a 1994 news article (that's 15 years ago folks!)

Organic and natural seem to be the best answer yet again.

We sometimes have a vague idea about what something is and often we're pretty right. The problem is as our culture or society evolves so do the definitions of the terms we use. For example did you know there is now such a thing as a flexitarian... the evolution of a vegetarian perhaps?

A flexitarian is a mostly vegetarian diet with the occasional dabble in animal products. It's about eating less meat for health and ethical reasons. The Vegan Society says that as many as 45% of the population are now 'meat reducers'. Studies have proven that vegetarians weigh 15% less than meat eaters and suffer less from cancer, diabetes and cardio diseases. However if you want the health benefits of veggie diet (with the occasional oily omega fish thrown in) but don't want to banish any food group (summer bbq's can be a little hard to resist) then opting in and out of a vegetarian diet occasionally might be a good lifestyle choice. The Flexitarian Diet by Jackson Blatner gives further benefits as well as adaptable recipes depending on your carnivorous inklings.

If there's no way you could stomach meat and the thought of putting a lotion onto your skin that may have been tested on animals is too much veganism is likely a world you're familiar with. You're not alone - there are an increasing number of people becoming vegans every year. According to Defra 2% of the UK population are strictly vegan. And 2% of a 60 million population is quite a lot. A diet and lifestyle that excludes the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose you would think is quite restrictive and un-fun if want of a better word. But with so many more people adopting a ‘no animal' stance there's naturally going to be more product and menu options available. The amount of vegan skin care and make up products available is evidence of this. Check out the Vegan Society's website for ideas on how to veganize your life.

So Organic have a huge range of products suitable for Vegans and make them easy to identify with our Vegan icon. Green People and Lavera both offer an amazing range of Vegan products - everything from toothpaste to sunscreen - and if you've been searching for Vegan cosmetics Inikia Mineral Make Up is completely vegan and works like a dream. It's so easy these days to find animal friendly products that are actually really good, there's almost no excuse for doing it any other way.

From the land of wide-open hot, dry spaces comes the world's largest solar power station.

Australia is set to build a Aus$ 1.4 billion solar plant that is capable of producing 1000 megawatts which is about three times the amount of the current largest solar powered electricity station in California.

Australia's Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd has said the intention is to exploit the countries ‘biggest natural resource' and make Australia a leader in renewable clean energy.

Not only will this project boost economic activity, create jobs and opportunities for business it will put Australia in good stead when it joins the 80 other member states this year to sign the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) statute. The statute encourages' the rapid transition towards the widespread and sustainable use of renewable energy on a global scale'. Neither the UK or the US have signed the statute.

The image above is an artist's impression of what the mega solar energy station will look like. It's due for completion in 2013.