But global warming will.

Baby spiders were abandoned in pots and RSPCA says witness saw parents scuttling awayTwo tarantulas may be on the loose in a village after three of their babies were found abandoned in a car park.The RSPCA said it had rescued the baby Brazilian bird-eating spiders after they were found discarded in pots in Derbyshire. Continue reading...

The government has shaken up the UK research system. But fossil fuels, not low-carbon technologies, still seem to be in the driving seat.A new report by Richard Jones and James Wilsdon invites us to question the biomedical bubble - the slow but steady concentration of research and development (R&D) resources in the hands of biomedical science.A provocative case, it’s already generated some discussion. Here, I want to pick up a point that might be easily missed amongst fights over the role of biomedicine: the all-too-small amount of resource being put towards decarbonising energy.

Amount of rubbish burned by local authorities triples while household recycling rates stallEngland is on the brink of burning more of its rubbish in incinerators than it recycles for the first time, according to a new analysis.The amount of waste managed by local authorities and sent to incinerators, or energy-from-waste plants, tripled between 2010-11 and 2016-17. By contrast, household recycling rates have stalled since 2013. Continue reading...

19 July 1918 Clean-edged oblongs and circles cut from leaves are used to build the cells of their nestsOn two or three occasions I have referred to the wonderfully neat work of the leaf-cutter bee, and I have just received some Marechal Niel rose leaves from Rock Ferry from which clean-edged oblongs and circles have been nibbled out. The leaf-cutter bees are not unlike our honey bees to look at, but their habits are very different. The pieces cut from the leaves are used to build the cells of their nests, and very wonderful cells they are. The cells lie end to end, and are packed into a tunnel or burrow, in some species in the ground, in others in woodwork or timber, or in a hole in a wall. The long fragments are folded one upon the other to form a thimble-shaped tube with a convex base; the round bits form the door, which is concave. The end of one cell fits into the door of the next. Each cell is half filled with pollen as food for the future grubs, an egg is laid upon this, and then the door is sealed up; the grub hatches and lives upon the food until it pupates and emerges as a perfect bee.Related: The leafcutter bee: Country diary 100 years ago Continue reading...

Aigas, Highlands: The weasel may be tiny, but this fierce predator can dispatch and drag off a full-grown rabbit 25 times its size – and has a stare that even humans can find unnervingIf I asked you to name Britain’s most savage wildlife killer, you might say fox or peregrine or goshawk, or perhaps even the golden eagle or the Scottish wildcat if you knew about such exciting rarities. But I think you would be wrong. Savage and killers they all are, no question, but in my book none comes close to the smallest UK mustelid, the weasel, Mustela nivalis, so tiny that its skull can pass through a wedding ring.A few days ago I watched one hunting. It vanished into a rockery and emerged a few seconds later with a vole dangling from its jaws. Voles, rats and mice, as well as small birds, are a weasel’s staple, but a male will take much larger prey such as a full-grown rabbit, up to 25 times its own weight, kill it, and, incredibly, drag it away into cover. No other British predator does that. Continue reading...

With more funding and product stewardship, the recycling crisis could turn into an opportunityThere’s nothing like a crisis to spur on the search for a solution.Since January, when China stopped accepting our contaminated recycling, Australia has been struggling with a waste crisis. While some local councils have tried to adapt their processes, some have been stockpiling recycling while others are sending it straight to landfill. And there’s still no long-term solution in place. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Australia Institute modelling reveals the best way to protect coal jobs in other regions is to stop Galilee developmentsDeveloping new coalmines in the Galilee Basin would cost 12,500 jobs in existing coalmining regions and replace only two in three workers, modelling by the Australia Institute shows.Job creation has long been an aggressive rallying call for supporters of Adani’s Carmichael megamine and other proposals in the untapped Galilee Basin, which combined would produce 150m tonnes of thermal coal each year. Continue reading...

Residents of Innaarsuit fear the 100-metre high berg will break up and cause a tsunamiA 100-metre (330ft) high iceberg has drifted close to a tiny settlement on Greenland’s west coast, prompting fears of a tsunami if it breaks up.Authorities have told residents of the Innaarsuit island settlement living near the shore to move to higher ground. Continue reading...

Hull of research vessel officially known as RRS David Attenborough launches into the River MerseyThe vessel popularly known as Boaty McBoatface will make its debut on Saturday in Liverpool, where the hull will be launched into the River Mersey before shipbuilders get to work finishing the ship in wet basin.RRS Sir David Attenborough – the boat was officially named after the naturalist after the internet poll’s top suggestion was rejected – will be used by the British Antarctic Survey for polar research from next year, when it is expected to be completed. Continue reading...

Data from Nasa satellites has been matched with weather station information to reveal a chilly new low

The Inconvenience Store in Melbourne is providing fresh produce to people doing it toughA man places his shopping bag on the counter filled with canned goods, fruit, vegetables and a loaf of bread. He passes it to a woman, who weighs the bag, while her colleague makes a note on a clipboard. Then they wish him luck.“Come back soon,” 19-year-old Vincent Hui tells him. No money changes hands. Asked why he had come to the shop, the man tells Guardian Australia: “Some days are just tough.” Continue reading...

The workspace company gave environmental reasons for banning meat from all budgets, including their upcoming festivalWeWork, the real estate company that rents out and manages office space, has announced that they will no longer hold any staff events that include meat, and that staff will not be able to expense any meals that include poultry, pork or red meat.In an email to staff, WeWork co-founder Miguel McKelvey also said that WeWork’s upcoming Summer Camp event, a music and food festival which is only open to WeWork members, will not serve any meat options. Tickets to the event cost as much as $409 (£309) – a high price based, in part, on the free food available once on site.

From Europe to Africa, extreme and widespread heat raises climate concerns in hottest La Niña year to date on recordRecord high temperatures have been set across much of the world this week as an unusually prolonged and broad heatwave intensifies concerns about climate change.The past month has seen power shortages in California as record heat forced a surge of demand for air conditioners. Algeria has experienced the hottest temperature ever reliably registered in Africa. Britain, meanwhile, has experienced its third longest heatwave, melting the roof of a science building in Glasgow and exposing ancient hill forts in Wales. Continue reading...

Thousands of schools closing roads and setting up park and stride schemesSchools across the country are moving to ban the school run amid growing concern about the devastating impact of air pollution on young people’s health.

Relocation of endangered animals carries risks but loss of half of them is highly unusualEight out of 14 critically endangered black rhinos have died after being moved to a reserve in southern Kenya, wildlife officials have revealed, in what one conservationist described as “a complete disaster”.Preliminary investigations pointed to salt poisoning as the rhinos tried to adapt to saltier water in their new home, the Kenyan Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife said in a statement. It suspended the moving of other rhinos and said the surviving ones were being closely monitored. Continue reading...

Pacific walruses, Tapanuli orangutan twins and a moon bear are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Wholesale prices soar by more than 30% and farmers have to renegotiate with supermarketsLettuce is being flown in from the US, and imported from Spain and Poland as soaring temperatures increase demand but hit crops in the UK.The cargo carrier IAG Cargo said it had flown 30,000 heads of lettuce from Los Angeles to the UK in the past week alone. Continue reading...

Traditional farming shows its benefits as stone barns and hedgerows provide cattle with relief from the heatSunscreen and waiter service for cows, and a renewed appreciation for traditional countryside structures such as stone barns and hedgerows, are some of the modern and ancient ways in which farmers are trying to cope with the heatwave.Record temperatures and a lack of rainfall have drawn comparisons with 1976, the UK’s biggest drought in living memory. Forecasters say the hot weather is set to continue, probably for weeks. Continue reading...

Three African American hikers describe fears and stereotypes they have faced – and why they love hitting the trails Continue reading...

Revival of last eight coal plants when ‘beast from the east’ hit Britain proved to be briefBritain has been powered for more than a thousand hours without coal this year, in a new milestone underscoring how the polluting fuel’s decline is accelerating.The UK’s last eight coal power plants staged a brief revival when the “beast from the east” pushed up gas prices earlier this year, causing coal plants to fire up. Continue reading...

Strong winds, more frequent storms and arrival of termites to put towers and spires at riskThe UK’s historic churches are at serious risk from the impact of climate change, including higher levels of rainfall and invasive pests such as termites, according to the National Churches Trust. Roofs, towers and spires are threatened by strong winds and more frequent storms.The trust saw a 26% year-on-year increase in applications for grants for urgent repairs, maintenance and development projects in 2017, its annual review says. Continue reading...

Difficult to coordinate, yes. But it could ameliorate Australia’s waste and recycling woesIn June, a wide-ranging Senate inquiry into the state of Australia’s recycling system recommended a national container deposit scheme (CDS) be rolled out across the country.Of all 18 inquiry recommendations, a national scheme is one that is at least part way there, all states except Tasmania and Victoria with an existing scheme or one soon to be implemented. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Television ads in Victoria and Queensland aim to get state governments to veto Turnbull’s set piece policyThe Queensland and Victorian governments will be hit with a new television advertising campaign in an effort to persuade them to torpedo the national energy guarantee at a critical meeting in early August.The activist group GetUp has combined with Greenpeace to bankroll what it describes as hard-hitting television advertisements targeting the two Labor-held states ahead of a meeting of energy ministers in August that will make or break the Turnbull government’s signature energy policy. Continue reading...

Far more likely the Romans merely exploited any dead whales found floating or cast ashore, suggests Pete Eiseman-RenyardThe researchers first quoted in your article (Romans had whale industry, research suggests, 11 July) have made a very bold extrapolation from very small evidence. I would agree with Dr Erica Rowan, cited towards the end of the piece, that one might expect documentary evidence if the Romans actually had a whaling industry. Far more likely they merely exploited any drift whales (dead whales found floating or cast ashore).Right whales (so called because they were the right whale to catch, being slow-swimming, floated once killed, and had a thick layer of blubber and a mouth full of baleen) certainly were exploited in the post-Roman period, and the Biscayan community had been rendered extinct by the Basque whalers by medieval times. Continue reading...

Bill passed by parliament means more than €300m shares in coal, oil, peat and gas will be sold ‘as soon as practicable’The Republic of Ireland will become the world’s first country to sell off its investments in fossil fuel companies, after a bill was passed with all-party support in the lower house of parliament.The state’s €8bn national investment fund will be required to sell all investments in coal, oil, gas and peat “as soon as is practicable”, which is expected to mean within five years. Norway’s huge $1tn sovereign wealth fund has only partially divested from fossil fuels, targeting some coal companies, and is still considering its oil and gas holdings. Continue reading...

A bottle deposit hub on the outskirts of Oslo has had a stream of high-level international visitors. Can its success be replicated worldwide?Tens of thousands of brightly coloured plastic drinks bottles tumble from the back of a truck on to a conveyor belt before disappearing slowly inside a warehouse on the outskirts of Oslo.As a workman picks up a few Coke bottles that have escaped, Kjell Olav Maldum looks on. “It is a system that works,” he says as another truck rumbles past. “It could be used in the UK, I think lots of countries could learn from it.” Continue reading...

We’ll need to mitigate and adapt to global warming to avoid massive costs from sea level rise

Exclusive: UK attempted to weaken new EU regulations of a lucrative whitening chemical, Ti02, found in cosmetics and sunscreensMichael Gove has been accused of “green Brexit hypocrisy” for trying to weaken regulation of a suspected carcinogen found in sun creams, paints and toothpastes, in a proposal seen by the Guardian.The European commission had proposed mandatory labelling and a cosmetics ban for titanium dioxide (TiO2) – a whitening chemical – after the European Chemicals Agency (Echa) declared it a “suspected carcinogen” last year. Continue reading...

Flotilla of barges with energy generators would be sent to Northern Ireland if UK crashes out of the EUA flotilla of barges would be sent to the coast of Northern Ireland with energy generators after Brexit to keep the region’s lights on in the event of no deal, according to reports on Wednesday.The scheme, which has been described as “potty” by business leaders in Northern Ireland, is said to be part of contingency planning by Whitehall mandarins in case the UK crashes out of the EU, smashing Ireland’s all-island electricity supply in its wake. Continue reading...

Gladys Berejiklian’s government accused of allowing companies to conduct ‘production by stealth’Licences needed for coal seam gas exploration in New South Wales have been effectively extended indefinitely past their expiry date, due to a legal loophole.Gas exploration – both conventional and coal seam gas – in the state requires a petroleum exploration tenement. Analysis of the NSW government’s tenements database shows 14 titles listed under “current titles” that are past their expiry date.

Smart Energy Council says state should reject Neg or make support for guarantee conditionalThe Smart Energy Council is urging the Queensland government to make any support for the Turnbull government’s national energy guarantee conditional, or it will risk dealing itself out of leading the effort on emissions reduction.With the fate of the Neg to be determined at a definitive meeting of state and federal energy ministers in early August, the Queensland government has called in stakeholders for a meeting on Thursday to help determine its position on the policy. Continue reading...

The record-breaking high temperatures across much of North America appear to be shaping people’s thinking, a survey findsThe warm temperatures that have scorched much of the US appear to be influencing Americans’ acceptance of climate science, with a new poll finding a record level of public confidence that the world is warming due to human activity.Related: Planet at its hottest in 115,000 years thanks to climate change, experts say Continue reading...

Leading expert on heather and moorland landscapes who was a dedicated environmentalistTravel north through the uplands of Britain in August and you enter the world heartland of the purple, heather-quilted landscape known as moorland. Its principal plant, ling heather, known scientifically as Calluna vulgaris, and the fire and grazing management that governs its growth and distinctive appeal, was the subject of Charles Gimingham’s pioneering research and quiet advocacy.Based at the University of Aberdeen from 1946, first as research assistant, then lecturer, and promoted on to be professor of botany from 1969 until 1988, Charles, who has died aged 95, became the foremost expert on heather and moorland landscapes, and a considerable force for scholarly environmentalism. Continue reading...

Alastair Chisholm urges the UK government to strengthen its national adaptation policy; Robert McCartney writes that China produces twice the CO as the USYour editorial warning that extreme events are likely to become a new and dangerous normal (The heatwave in Britain is part of a large and dangerous pattern, 10 July) highlights that what the UK can most effectively do in response is to plan to adapt. While decarbonisation across our economy and society is vital and the UK must improve its commitments on a range of fronts, we are also a highly populated island exposed to diverse and complex weather and climate risks from storms and floods to heatwaves and drought.Tuesday’s report by the National Infrastructure Commission makes the economic case for early, planned adaptation clear: it is way cheaper than responding to emergencies. This summer the government publishes its latest national adaptation programme. The first programme was spread too thinly and progress against it was hard to quantify. The latest version must establish an ambitious, targeted and measurable plan of action which ensures society is resilient to the worst the weather can throw at us in coming decades.

As US officials decide against banning product, producer Uralasbest puts Trump ‘seal of approval’ on palletsDonald Trump’s environmental policies may have caused controversy in the US but the president’s stance has managed to get him a literal stamp of approval from a Russian mining company.Uralasbest, one of the world’s largest producers and sellers of asbestos, has taken to adorning pallets of its product with a seal of Trump’s face, along with the words “Approved by Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States”. Continue reading...

Environmentalists have written to ministers, asking them to reform the planning system so that all future coal mines are automatically refusedEnvironmentalists have urged the government to kill off new coal mines in the UK, by reforming the planning system to block their development.Friends of the Earth, along with the RSPB, WWF and a group of academics, said ministers should build on their international climate change leadership against coal by taking stronger action at home. Continue reading...

Portland, Dorset: The gentle greens and yellows of our last visit are now bleached and tarnished, tall grasses faded to blond, wood spurge dried to rustA stone archway, framing sea and sky. The threshold to another world, a world unsuspected by visitors hurrying over the windswept plateau to the Bill, Portland’s beak-like southern tip.Under the eye of Rufus Castle, we wander down between spindly ivy-sashed trees and warm, lichened walls bright with valerian, to the cove where shuttered beach huts curve round a bank of big, pale stones. The sense of otherness increases. Earlier this year, we were met by the sight of three pebble minarets silhouetted against the waves. If we hadn’t taken photos, we’d have thought we had dreamed them. Continue reading...

Number of extinct species on EPBC fauna list will rise by almost 20% if species added to listTen species could soon be added to Australia’s list of extinct fauna, including a Queensland frog that was last seen in 1990.The federal government’s scientific advisory body is assessing whether to add nine mammals and the mountain mistfrog to its list of native animal species considered extinct under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Continue reading...

MPs debating the ivory bill must distinguish between the illegal market and the legitimate sale of significant works of art, says Martin Levy. Cecilia Grayson draws parallels between the ivory trade and the food industryFiona Harvey reports that, despite restrictions in place since 1989, illegal ivory is being sold across Europe (Report, 10 July). Nothing more clearly demonstrates the significance of the widely welcomed ivory bill currently passing though parliament.However, the impression given in the pages of Hansard suggests that many MPs cannot distinguish between culturally significant works of art created over the millennia, and the knick-knacks sold online (which they often cite)and other popular outlets. The elimination of the market for trinkets is unequivocally supported by campaigners for bona fide, pre-1947 works of art. It is hoped that when the bill becomes law, appropriate consideration will be given to the regulations required to ensure its fair operation. Continue reading...

Dwight and Steven Hammond convicted of arson, which led ranchers and militia groups to occupy federal wildlife refuge in protestDonald Trump on Tuesday issued full pardons to two Oregon ranchers whose imprisonment prompted a militia standoff with the federal government.Related: 'I still don’t believe it': Hammond family feels forgotten in Oregon standoff Continue reading...

Study shows poor air quality leads to health problems and ‘should serve as a warning’Air pollution leads to spikes in health problems and drives up hospital admissions and visits to the GP, according to a new study.The report proves an “absolutely clear” link between poor air quality and health problems and researchers said it should serve as a warning to politicians about the serious impacts of toxic air on public health. Continue reading...

Coffee giant first in UK to add charge in bid to cut overuse of 2.5bn disposable cups a yearStarbucks is the first UK coffee chain to introduce a national “latte levy” - a 5p charge on single-use paper coffee cups - in a bid to reduce the overuse and waste of 2.5bn disposable cups every year.Following the success of a three-month trial in London, the chain said it would roll out the charge to all of its 950 stores in the UK from 26 July. Continue reading...

Rescue workers search for survivors and 2 million people are subject to evacuation ordersThe number of people who have died in floods and landslides triggered by “historic” levels of torrential rain in Japan has climbed to at least 155, with dozens of others still missing.Almost 2 million people were still subject to evacuation orders on Monday, while tens of thousands of rescue workers battled mud, water and rubble to search for survivors stranded in their homes. Continue reading...

Commissioner says Murray-Darling authority seems to have approved plans it did not see as achievableThe commissioner heading South Australia’s royal commission into the Murray-Darling Basin plan, Bret Walker SC, has repeatedly questioned whether the Murray Darling Basin Authority relied on the best available science.Hearing evidence today from the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, a group that includes some of Australia’s most eminent environmental scientists, Walker quizzed the group on the twin themes of whether the MDBA was fulfilling its obligations under the Water Act and whether it was relying on the best available science. Continue reading...

Europe must increase efforts to investigate and control the ivory trade, say campaignersIllegal ivory has been found on sale in 10 European countries, contravening international efforts to cut down on the trade which campaigners say encourages the poaching of elephants. Continue reading...

Harting Down, West Sussex: Bees and black-veined marble white butterflies float from flower to flower, as skylarks trill above and a meadow pipit parachutes down into the grass Continue reading...

Zoos Victoria made the decision after Nestlé lost its sustainable certificationProducts from the food and drink giant Nestlé will no longer be stocked at the stores and food carts at Melbourne and Werribee zoos.

Government advisers say UK should back just one more new nuclear power station in the next few yearsGovernment advisers have told ministers to back only a single new nuclear power station after Hinkley Point C in the next few years, because renewable energy sources could prove a safer investment.The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) said the government should cool down plans for a nuclear new build programme that envisage as many as six plants being built. Continue reading...

Its own infrastructure adviser says more renewables is the low-cost optionHere’s a report that must not be lost in the noise of Brexit. The National Infrastructure Assessment is a once-a-parliament affair from a body that was created to save us from the deadly combination of politicians’ machismo and the electoral cycle.More prosaically, the National Infrastructure Commission’s job is to inject long-term strategic thinking into the critical business of building important stuff. Its first report contains a devastating conclusion: the government should drop its obsession with building more and more nuclear power stations. Continue reading...