Scientists are alarmed by a rise in mass mortality events – when species die in their thousands. Is it all down to climate change?There was almost something biblical about the scene of devastation that lay before Richard Kock as he stood in the wilderness of the Kazakhstan steppe. Dotted across the grassy plain, as far as the eye could see, were the corpses of thousands upon thousands of saiga antelopes. All appeared to have fallen where they were feeding.Some were mothers that had travelled to this remote wilderness for the annual calving season, while others were their offspring, just a few days old. Each had died in just a few hours from blood poisoning. In the 30C heat of a May day, the air around each of the rotting hulks was thick with flies. Continue reading...

South-east Asian idylls – from Philippine islands to the Thai bay made famous in The Beach – plan to turn tourists away so that devastated coral reefs have some time to recover. Will it be enough?Our Thai tour guide, Spicey, takes a drag on her cigarette and gestures sadly towards the beach. “The problem with people is that they are too greedy. They see a beautiful place and they want it. They take, take, take from nature. And then they destroy it.”The golden sands of Maya Bay where Spicey stands are some of the most famous in the world. This once-idyllic cove, on the tiny Thai island of Koh Phi Phi Leh, was the paradise location of The Beach, Danny Boyle’s 2000 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It was then pushed by tourism officials in advertising campaigns to entice more wealthy visitors to Thailand. Continue reading...

Conservationists sound alarm over unprecedented slaughter of rare and endangered species by hunters at three lagoonsA million wild birds a year are now being killed illegally at a single wildlife site in Iran. That is the stark warning from conservationists who say highly endangered migratory species face being wiped out in the near future there unless urgent action is taken.In a letter last week to the journal Science, the conservationists pinpoint the Fereydunkenar wetlands in Iran as the site of this widespread wildlife slaughter. Continue reading...

In the Cumbrian beauty spot that has fended off high-level zip slides, local people and visitors are mostly glad that it won’t now be ‘a glorified theme park’On a crowded island like Britain, encountering absolute silence is rare. But one place where true tranquility can be guaranteed for the foreseeable future is in Cumbria’s north lakes, on the shores of Thirlmere.Plans to stretch eight of the longest zip wire rides in the country across its icy waters, highlighted in the Observer, were abandoned last week to the unbridled delight of many locals. Zip wire advocates had argued the landscape should be opened up for everyone and not “preserved in aspic”. The Lakes, said opponents, should offer a place of escape and peace. The small-C conservatives won the day. Continue reading...

Anna Shurapey recovering in hospital after being bitten by a suspected juvenile great white off Little Congwong beachBotany Bay beaches that were closed after a woman was bitten by what experts suspect was a juvenile great white shark have reopened after the attack.Randwick City Council on Sunday morning reopened Little Congwong, Congwong, Frenchmans and Yarra beaches at La Perouse following the shark attack on Friday evening. Continue reading...

The Asian amphibians arrived just 10 years ago. Now in their millions, they threaten the island’s unique wildlifeRustling branches and a canopy cacophony – part howl, part screech, part snigger – proclaim the presence of black-and-white ruffed lemurs as visitors enter Ivoloina zoological park in eastern Madagascar.The raucous primate is one of several critically endangered species in this biological refuge, which breeds and protects rare wildlife from the growing pressures on this island’s unique ecology. Continue reading...

It’s polluting our oceans and killing our wildlife, but how easy is it to get by without it? Four writers find outNo man is an island. However, if I were an island, I’d probably be the best one ever. When the Guardian asked me to record all the single-use plastic I got through in a week, I scoffed. Piece of cake, I thought. Continue reading...

Aberystwyth, Ceredigion: From the depths of dormant bramble thickets, tangled and moribund, robins called and chased defiantly as they reinforced their territoriesIn the last stages of its journey to the sea, the river Ystwyth curves in gentle meanders across a broad valley pasture grazed by a modest scattering of sheep. This close to the coast, the wind from the sea is a powerful force, carving the small riverside trees into forms that leave no doubt as to its direction and persistence. Continue reading...

Analysis for the Guardian shows most companies charging customers the same after switching them to ‘cheaper’ tariffsThe UK’s big six energy companies have been accused of dirty tricks after analysis for the Guardian revealed that they are routinely charging customers almost exactly the same amount after switching them off controversial default tariffs.In the face of Theresa May’s plans to impose a price cap on standard variable tariffs (SVTs), which more than half of energy customers are on despite their steep prices, companies such as British Gas, E.ON and SSE have pledged to phase out such tariffs and shift billpayers onto better value fixed deals. Continue reading...

Minister in Twitter spat with Brussels after suggesting UK ban could be prevented by EUMichael Gove has become embroiled in a Twitter row with the EU over his suggestion that Brussels could block the UK government from banning plastic straws.The environment secretary and Frans Timmermans, a European commission vice-president, goaded each other on the social media platform over their rival claims to be the most advanced in clamping down on plastic waste. Continue reading...

White-tailed sea eagles, a rose-ringed parakeet and an Aldabra giant tortoise are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Subpoena could see the campaign group forced to release huge amounts of internal communications including the email addresses of four million people who have signed online petitionsA US court will today hear a request from Monsanto for access to a huge batch of internal communications by Avaaz, in a move that the campaign group says could have grave repercussions for online activism and data privacy.

Ashton, Northamptonshire: Woodland management changes did for this butterfly as the woods were drained, rides narrowed and glades shaded. But now it is to be reintroducedThis May the small brown and gold wings of the chequered skipper will once again beat in the woods of England. Susannah O’Riordan from Butterfly Conservation is here in the butterfly’s spiritual home, the Chequered Skipper pub in Ashton, to reveal the plot to an enthusiastic audience of 80 or so.Related: 20 great UK walks with pubs, chosen by nature writers Continue reading...

Forest peoples affected by plantations urge EU to enact ban despite diplomatic oppositionIf Britain and other European nations are to fulfil forest protection goals, they must ban the use of palm oil for biofuel and tighten oversight of supply chains, a delegation of forest peoples told parliamentarians this week.The call for urgent, concrete action comes amid an increasingly heated diplomatic row over the issue between the EU and the governments of major palm-producing nations such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Costa Rica. Continue reading...

Expert finds pattern of battery charging up overnight to hit grid at peak timesThe big Tesla battery in South Australia is consistently working to serve the peak energy demand each day, taking the “straw off the camel’s back,” according to the Australia Institute’s latest national energy emissions audit.The report also finds emissions from the National Electricity Market [NEM] continued to drop in January, falling to their lowest levels since 2004, driven by the federal large-scale renewable energy target. Continue reading...

Data gathered from more than 70,000 vessels shows commercial fishing now covers a greater surface area than agricultureMore than half the world’s oceans are being fished by industrial vessels, new research reveals.

Court ruling raises possibility of traffic returning to popular pedestrianised right bankWhen pedestrians reclaimed a stretch of once traffic-clogged dual carriageway on Paris’s right bank a year-and-a-half ago, it was a symbol of the leftwing mayor’s anti-pollution fight to push cars out of the French capital.But a court ruling has raised the spectre of traffic potentially being forced back on to the newly popular, car-free promenade by the river Seine – the latest battle in the city’s ongoing “car-wars” between the left and right. Continue reading...

An innovative exchange of sovereign debt for marine conservation, backed by the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, could pave the way to saving large swaths of the world’s oceansThe tropical island nation of Seychelles is to create two huge new marine parks in return for a large amount of its national debt being written off, in the first scheme of its kind in the world.The novel financial engineering, effectively swapping debt for dolphins and other marine life, aims to throw a lifeline to corals, tuna and turtles being caught in a storm of overfishing and climate change. If it works, it will also secure the economic future of the nation, which depends entirely on tourism and fishing. With other ocean states lining up to follow, the approach could transform large swaths of the planet’s troubled seas. Continue reading...

A call for continued efforts to protect our water and our Earth

A wood stove emits more harmful air particulates than a diesel truck. Does their newfound popularity in cities threaten to wipe out progress in reducing air pollution?

Sandy, Bedfordshire: These grit peckers are masters of last-minute escapology. But not alwaysTwice every day, soon after dawn and a little before dusk, wood pigeons come down on country roads to feed. Not for them the tyre-stamped carcasses that are peeled off the asphalt by crow beaks. Pigeons are grit peckers, heads down like chickens in a yard. They gobble up tiny stones to act as so many grinding pestles in the mortar of their digestive tract.While crows have adapted to life in the fast lane with cunning and calculating judgment, wood pigeons are masters of last-minute escapology. But not always. Last autumn, I noticed one standing in the middle of a straight, wood-edged road, head lowered, picking away at the ground. I drove on, slowed and waited for it to fly. It flew all right: just a few metres in front of the car it gave a tiny hop that brought it just above the bumper. I heard a soft thud and then, through an explosion of down, a grey bundle smacked against the windscreen, after which I looked in the rear-view mirror to see the poor bird’s body cartwheeling off towards the verge. Weeks later, I was still picking out pale feathers that had wedged firmly on impact in the radiator grill. Continue reading...

Labor frontbencher says party must ‘get the policy mechanisms right’ over Carmichael coalmineAnthony Albanese says Labor should not single out existing projects, like the Adani coalmine, that have already gone through approval processes “and then retrospectively change existing laws, which would have ramifications across the board”.The Labor frontbencher has effectively ruled out Labor overhauling the Environmental Protection Biodiversity and Conversation Act as part of a strategy to boost legal options of killing the controversial Queensland coal project. Continue reading...

Federal court to announce next week whether Stuttgart and Düsseldorf can use vehicle bans to try to improve air qualityOne of Germany’s top courts will rule next week on whether heavily polluting vehicles can be banned from the urban centres of Stuttgart and Düsseldorf, a landmark ruling which could cause traffic chaos and dramatically hit the value of diesel cars on the country’s roads.Related: First fall in car sales since 2011 blamed on fears over diesel ban Continue reading...

Traditional scale used goes only to five but strength and intensity of storms is increasing, says scientistsThe increasing strength, intensity and duration of tropical cyclones has climate scientists asking whether a new classification needs to be created: a category-six storm.The Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale currently runs in severity from one to five, with five describing near-total destruction. Continue reading...

Multinational says deadline was predicated on a subsidised Australian government loanAdani’s plan to build Australia’s largest coalmine has suffered another setback. The company has abandoned its March deadline for securing financing for the first stage of the Carmichael mine.In October, Jeyakumar Janakaraj, the chief executive of Adani Australia, told Reuters it aimed to settle financing for the project by March 2018. Continue reading...

Clear skies above Beijing again – but some fear the problem is just being pushed elsewhereThe photographs on display at Wu Di’s Beijing studio imagine China and Beijing at their dystopian worst.Naked, expectant mothers stare out from the walls, their bellies exposed but their faces hidden behind green gas masks. Continue reading...

Potential for floating windfarms is huge, as many countries have windy sites close to shoreFloating windfarms are likely to be the next large-scale development in renewable energy. The first Hywind Scotland, developed by the Norwegian state oil giant, Statoil, has proved a greater success than its designers hoped. The five giant six-megawatt turbines, 25 miles east of Peterhead, produced more power than expected in the first three months and withstood hurricane-force winds and giant waves.The potential for this technology is hard to overstate. Few countries have shallow continental shelves like the UK to build offshore windfarms on the sea bed, but many have windy sites close to shore where floating windfarms could be anchored to provide power for coastal cities. Continue reading...

Police chiefs seek new powers to help combat ‘very significant’ issue of pets worrying livestock

The Australian white ibis, AKA the 'bin chicken', might not have won the title of Australia's favourite bird, but its next race might help scientists understand how dinosaurs walked and ran Continue reading...

High court says approach to tackling pollution in 45 local authority areas is ‘not sufficient’ and orders urgent changesFor the third time, the UK government has been slammed by the courts for failing to produce an adequate plan to tackle the growing problem of air pollution, in a landmark judgment that will force ministers back to the drawing board in their efforts to clean up dirty urban air.The high court ruled that the government’s current policy on air pollution was “unlawful”, and ordered changes. Air pollution has become a leading test case for environmental legal activism in the UK, as scientists have found as many as 40,000 people a year are dying from dirty air across the country. Continue reading...

These masters of disguise are some of the world’s oldest surviving mammals, but they are threatened by habitat loss, traffic and feral cats – and they need our helpThey may be one of the world’s oldest surviving mammals – around for at least 25m years – but scientists don’t know much about echidnas. Now researchers believe the remaining Australian population may be threatened and they need citizen scientists’ help to save them.

Minette Batters becomes first woman to hold top job since NFU was founded in 1908The National Farmers’ Union has elected Minette Batters as the first female president in the organisation’s 110-year history.Batters, a Wiltshire beef, sheep and arable farmer who has also diversified her business into weddings and catering, was previously the NFU’s deputy president. Continue reading...

Previously unseen government records detail ‘deeply worrying’ incidents in pork and poultry plants, raising fears of ‘dirty meat’ entering the UK under a post-Brexit trade dealShocking hygiene failings have been discovered in some of the US’s biggest meat plants, as a new analysis reveals that as many as 15% (one in seven) of the US population suffers from foodborne illnesses annually.A joint investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and the Guardian found that hygiene incidents are at numbers that experts described as “deeply worrying”. Continue reading...

Campaigners had opposed £1.8m activity hub in Thirlmere, saying it would ruin the landscapePlans to erect zip-wire rides across one Britain’s most picturesque national parks have been abandoned after protests from residents and environmental campaigners.Treetop Trek Ltd had applied for planning permission for a £1.8m activity hub with eight aerial lines up to 1,200 metres long criss-crossing an area in the Lake District. Continue reading...

Activists seize upon Labor’s contradictory messages on Queensland coalmine in battle for inner-city MelbourneThe Greens will use Labor’s failure to make an unequivocal statement on whether it will oppose the Adani coalmine to ramp up campaign efforts in the Melbourne electorate of Batman.

Luckett, Tamar Valley: Vegetation hides the extensive spoil heaps and the midday sun gilds catkins on sprawling hazelsOn the north side of Kit Hill, remnants of last night’s hail lie beside the steep road leading to the old mining settlement of Luckett. A solitary stack in a field above Deer Park Farm used to vent poisonous arsenic fumes from works in the valley below; down there, beside abandoned mine workings, dilapidated single-storey dwellings have been mooted as a mining museum. Continue reading...

South Australian premier also promises country’s first renewable energy storage target in a ‘rejection of the federal government’s approach’The South Australian premier, Jay Weatherill, has gone all in on the state’s transition to renewable energy, promising to lift the state-based renewable energy target from 50% to 75% by 2025 and to introduce the country’s first renewable energy storage target.A re-elected Labor government would set a target that 25% of the state’s peak demand be met by stored renewable energy, equating to about 750MW of storage. The target would be met with subsidy arrangements, the premier said. Continue reading...

Study highlights urgent need to adapt urban areas to cope with floods, droughts and heatwavesMajor British towns and cities, including Glasgow, Wrexham, Aberdeen and Chester, could be much more severely affected by climate change than previously thought, according to new research.The study, by Newcastle University, analysed changes in flooding, droughts and heatwaves for every European city using all climate models. Continue reading...

Seagrass shelters fish and acts against erosion and climate change, but is under threatMeadows of seagrass are one of our great but sorely neglected wild plant spectacles. This humble plant spreads out in lush green carpets that can stretch for miles around much of Britain’s coast. There they shelter young fish and shellfish, as well as protecting against erosion of the coast by storms and floods, by trapping sediment in their roots.

Bosses from British Airways, Virgin and easyJet urge MPs to secure pledge on cost before voteThe true cost of Heathrow expansion is likely to be “grossly” higher than the £14.3bn the airport has cited, airlines have told MPs, adding that transparency and guarantees should be supplied ahead of a crucial vote.Willie Walsh, chief executive of IAG, British Airways’ parent company and the main operator at Heathrow, said parliament should not trust Heathrow and said he had “zero confidence” that a third runway would be delivered on time and budget.

But oil giant expects demand for crude to grow and not peak until late 2030sBans around the world on single use plastic items such as carrier bags will dent growth in oil demand over the next two decades, according to BP.However, the UK-headquartered oil and gas firm said it still expects the global hunger for crude to grow for years and not peak until the late 2030s. Continue reading...

Farming union president Meurig Raymond takes veiled swipe at Liam Fox’s ‘cheap food policy’ at NFU conferenceTrade with the EU after Brexit needs to be “frictionless” if the UK’s food and farming sectors are to survive the transition, the president of the National Farmers Union has said at the opening of the NFU’s conference.Meurig Raymond, who farms a large acreage of mixed arable and livestock in Wales, said: “We must have frictionless trade with the EU. Everything else, including the final shape of any domestic agricultural policy, is dependent on that.” Continue reading...

A cascade of courtroom standoffs are beginning to slow, and even reverse, the EPA rollbacks thanks to the administration’s ‘disregard for the law’In its first year in office, the Trump administration introduced a solitary new environmental rule aimed at protecting the public from pollution. It was aimed not at sooty power plants or emissions-intensive trucks, but dentists.

Joint venture claims cheaper green power could save UK households £300 a yearIkea is calling for households to join its latest joint venture – a collective energy switch that promises an exclusive 100% renewable electricity tariff.The furniture retailer has joined forces with the “Big Clean Switch” campaign to use a collective switch to secure cheaper green power for the households that sign up. Continue reading...

Few clubs cater for fans who choose to cycle to the ground, but simple changes could help reduce traffic jams and pollution on match daysI am a football fan and I am a cyclist. These identities do not need to be mutually exclusive – so why is it often such a challenge to go to the game by bike?I support Norwich City and I live in Liverpool, which is the first hurdle. Liverpool is 238 miles away from Norwich, and the direct train takes more than five hours. Because of this, I have pretty much given up on home games. Continue reading...

Research in UK shows invasive species bests native red squirrels in complex tasksThe ability to solve problems may explain why grey squirrels are thriving at the expense of native red ones in the UK, research suggests.Wild greys and reds were presented with an easy task (opening a transparent lid) and a difficult version (a more complex process of pushing and pulling levers) to get hazelnuts. Continue reading...

Shapwick, Somerset: Hundreds of thousands of starlings reduced by distance and number to something like smokeIn any other place a great white egret passing overhead would have commanded all our attention. The national breeding total for this species was just seven pairs in 2017. Here, however, at dusk it was an incidental detail, a stately white shape rowing quietly through the binoculars’ orbit, as we focused on something far more captivating. Continue reading...

Researchers believe introducing frogs to lower elevation areas would help them reach sexual maturity earlierResearchers are hoping to increase the population of one of Australia’s most endangered frogs by helping them reach sexual maturity earlier.

To challenge the Liberals, Jagmeet Singh will have to overthrow Canada’s neoliberal consensusAt the New Democratic Party’s convention this weekend in Ottawa, their new leader Jagmeet Singh declared “the time to be timid was over.” For a party whose shambling meekness in the last election let Justin Trudeau claim the mantle of progressive champion, such a shift could not come sooner.That an opportunity exists to capitalize on enormous hunger for change is apparent. Trudeau harnessed it for his route to power, only to betray it in office. The environmental Adonis transformed into an oil barons’ salesman. An electoral reform promise was broken with a shrug. Instead of a peace offensive, we’ve gotten a military spending spree; instead of novel social programs, novelty socks. Continue reading...