Yacht club members can finally take to the ephemeral lake in South Australian outback after tracking water from western Queensland• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noonAfter weeks of tracking the slow progress of flood waters through outback Queensland, members of the improbable Lake Eyre Yacht Club have been able to return to the water.Water reached Lake Eyre, or Kati Thanda, in South Australia on 15 May, two months after falling in the upper Diamantina catchment in western Queensland, some 1,000km away. Continue reading...

With insect numbers falling because of pesticides, natural controls are being sought for a pest threatening valuable oilseed rape cropsOne of the pests that troubles British farmers is the pollen beetle, Meligethes aeneus, which is particularly fond of yellow flowers and is a menace to oil seed rape. On some plants it is a beneficial pollinator, but on oilseed rape it destroys the plant’s ability to produce the all-important seed.Related: Our wildlife can be saved – but only with political will | Letters Continue reading...

Potentially deadly plumes of volcanic gas and particles are polluting the Big Island in the wake of recent eruptions

The Associated Press, CNN and the environmental-focused news organization E&E were barred by the EPA from Scott Pruitt’s eventJournalists from national news organizations were barred from a summit in Washington on harmful water contaminants on Tuesday, convened by the embattled environmental protection agency (EPA) chief, Scott Pruitt. One reporter was manhandled out of the building.Pruitt is already engulfed in a scandal over his use of taxpayer money and closeness to lobbyists, actions he has been obliged to defend in a string of congressional hearings in recent weeks, amid calls for him to quit or be fired. He is being investigated for possible federal ethics violations including spending for round-the-clock security guards, first-class plane tickets and a $43,000 soundproof telephone booth. Continue reading...

Proposal would repeal Obama-era rules that ban shooting of bear cubs and other controversial hunting practices in AlaskaThe Trump administration is attempting to repeal a rule that bans the shooting of bear cubs, use of dogs and bait to hunt bears, and killing caribou from motorboats in Alaska’s federal wildlife refuges.The proposal would scrap a 2015 regulation by the National Park Service that restricts controversial hunting and trapping practices on about 20m acres of federal land in Alaska. Continue reading...

On international day for biological diversity, the IUCN celebrates successful conservation action with images and stories of 12 species and the efforts underway to improve their status Continue reading...

The wildlife presenter has revealed he is storing roadkill in his freezer to feed foxes, as recent reports suggest their numbers are in sharp declineThe next time you’re at Chris Packham’s house, rifling through his kitchen looking for a snack, for God’s sake, don’t look in the freezer. That’s where Packham keeps his “enormous quantity” of roadkill.What exactly is Packham doing with an enormous quantity of roadkill in his freezer? It’s a fair question. Should a nationally renowned wildlife presenter be running over wildlife in the first place? Continue reading...

Oil firm grilled over carbon emissions, but defeats motion calling for tougher targetsShell investors have rebelled over the company’s executive pay, as the Anglo-Dutch oil company came under pressure to take stronger action on climate change.While chief executive Ben van Beurden’s €8.9m (£7.79m) pay package for 2017 was approved, more than a quarter of shareholders voted against the firm’s remuneration report at its annual general meeting on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Foreign secretary says Nord Stream 2 could leave Europe reliant on ‘malign’ RussiaThe UK foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, has joined the US in condemning “divisive” German plans to press ahead with the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, arguing it could leave European energy consumers heavily dependent on “a malign Russian state”.

Charity says at least 65 people have died in Pakistani city as temperatures exceed 40CAn intense heatwave across south Asia has killed dozens of people with sustained temperatures in excess of 40C (104F) coinciding with power cuts and Ramadan, when many Muslims avoid eating or drinking water.At least 65 people have died in Karachi in recent days according to the charitable organisation that runs the central morgue in the Pakistani port city, as volunteers handed out water to labourers and others working outside in temperatures as high as 44C. Continue reading...

As the fifth annual Great British Bee Count gets under way, wildlife and gardening experts are calling on the public to grow weeds to help Britain’s bees. The count, which will provide the first national health check for wild bees and other pollinators, runs until 30 June Continue reading...

Exclusive: UK capital has the most expensive public transport, third-worst air quality and is one of most dangerous to walk and cycle, study of 13 cities revealsLondon is trailing behind other major European capitals in its effort to create a clean, affordable and safe transport system, according to a new report.The study of 13 cities found London has the joint third worst air quality after Moscow and Paris, as well as the most expensive public transport and the highest number of cycling accidents. Continue reading...

Development of major new markets in China and reforms in Europe have provided a crucial boost as countries look at tools to cut carbon and meet their Paris climate targetsGlobal carbon markets have been revived from the brink of collapse as, after years in the doldrums, recent developments have provided a much-needed boost, according to a new report from the World Bank.China has made strong progress on its new carbon markets, which when complete will be the biggest in the world, while the EU initiated reforms of its carbon trading system which have already had an effect on prices. Continue reading...

Snares – either metal or rope – are indiscriminately killing wildlife across Southeast Asia, from elephants to mouse deer. The problem has become so bad that scientists are referring to protected areas in the region as “empty forests.”

Market shift to renewables means scheme’s economic case stacks up, senators toldThe head of the government’s Snowy 2.0 project says the expanded scheme would be able to “out-compete” any new coal-fired power.Snowy Hydro’s managing director and chief executive, Paul Broad, told a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday the project would perform better than any new coal plants, including those being pushed for by government backbenchers , because of the increasing market shift toward renewables. Continue reading...

Consultation proposes reducing pollutants, including particulates from wood burners and ammonia from farms – but does little to tackle diesel emissionsA new clean air strategy published by the UK government has been criticised as “hugely disappointing” by the Labour party. Other groups said it did little to tackle the dirty diesel vehicles that are the main source of toxic air in urban areas.The new strategy, announced on Tuesday by environment secretary, Michael Gove, aims to crack down on a wide range of pollutants. These include particulates from wet wood and coal burning in homes, ammonia emissions from farms and dust from vehicle tyres and brakes. Continue reading...

Alpha North, which would be bigger than Adani’s Carmichael mine, to be examined under federal environment lawsA proposal by the millionaire former MP Clive Palmer to develop the biggest open-cut coalmine in the southern hemisphere in Queensland will be scrutinised by the federal environment department, including its impact on the Great Barrier Reef.The federal government announced late on Monday it intended to fully assess the Alpha North project under federal environmental laws and would require detailed assessments on the impact on the reef, world heritage properties, threatened species, migratory birds and several other matters.

Take our quiz and see if you know more about political faux pas than some politicians seem to know about scienceThis week the GOP reminded us once again just how much they champion science. First Mo Brooks, a congressman from Alabama, pondered whether rocks falling into the ocean could be causing rising sea levels at a hearing of the House science, space and technology committee. Then Bill Gates revealed that president Trump asked him if HIV and HPV were the same same thing.

Clothes moths | Salvator Mundi | The Four Counties Ring | Liam Rosenior | Roman AbramovichOh no: an article about how we can be kind to insects (G2, 21 May). Does this go for clothes moths too? They have just eaten through my only ever cashmere sweater. When he sees them, my husband says: “It’s no use killing them – I should torture them and ask where they are coming from.” The Indian tapestry, I suspect. What do they eat in the wild? Is our house “the wild” for them? Do I have to be kind to them?

Scores of retailer’s own-brand items will have no date label in drive to reduce food waste

Powers to censure recalcitrant households have sparked fears for workers’ safetyRefuse collectors in the Netherlands are being followed by close protection officers after getting the power to issue red and yellow cards to force householders to properly recycle.

Republicans paid by the fossil fuel industry deny these realities

Department says it approached the non-profit group just weeks before the budget and had still not signed an agreement

Biomass-burning unit to use pioneering technology that aims to cut emissionsDrax Group will lead a £400,000 trial to capture and store carbon at its north Yorkshire power station in an attempt to kickstart a technology that has repeatedly failed to get off the ground in the UK.The company was part of earlier efforts to build a £1bn prototype carbon capture coal plant, but pulled out in 2015 after it missed out on renewable energy subsidies. Now the firm will try again with a pioneering form of the technology, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), to cut emissions from one of its four biomass-burning units. Experts believe the project is a world first. Continue reading...

Government urged to take steps to reduce the impact of toxic air on vulnerable childrenClean-air campaigners have written to the government calling for a ban on parents driving their children to school in an attempt to cut down on toxic levels of air pollution.

Aigas, Highlands: Emerging from hibernation, these snakes seek out a warming rock to get energised for the hunt aheadWarmth is what it takes, that’s all. Every spring that first burst of sun in clear skies brings our adders back to life. In common with most other reptiles the world over, Vipera berus has to warm up. They are cold-blooded and have been hibernating underground for more than six months. Their metabolism will have all but closed down. They need to fire it up again.Related: Why we must make the adder count | John Baker Continue reading...

Peter Ridd fired after ignoring previous warnings from James Cook University

Conservationists say NSW decision will damage native flora and fauna, and result in horses starving

Economist says Australian MPs ‘abusing the term’ in applying it to any decision to pull approval for Carmichael mine•Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morningA decision by a future Australian government to stop Adani from developing its Carmichael coalmine would not increase Australia’s sovereign risk, a new report argues. Continue reading...

Conservationists hope remediating landowners’ sunken gullies could lead to a significant improvement in reef water quality• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon

Investors back resolution calling on oil giant to set tougher carbon targets in line with Paris climate dealRoyal Dutch Shell faces a shareholder challenge over climate change this week, as investors insist oil and gas firms should offer more transparency and action on carbon emissions.A growing number of pension funds have backed a resolution at Shell’s AGM on Tuesday that calls on the company to set tougher carbon targets that are in line with the goals of the Paris climate deal. Continue reading...

Will Gardiner, CEO of Drax Group, says interconnectors are threat to energy securityBritain’s increasingly reliance on electricity imported from Europe threatens energy security and will import carbon emissions, according to the new boss of the country’s biggest power station.Will Gardiner, chief executive of Drax Group, said that the growing proportion of power forecast to come from interconnectors – physical links to transfer electricity across borders – would also fail to deliver the aims of the government’s industrial strategy. Continue reading...

Insects are the backbone of a healthy global ecosystem – but their numbers are facing catastrophic decline due to climate change. So, what can you do to help?Already beset by degraded landscapes and a toxic environment, insects are going to suffer a catastrophic decline in numbers unless climate change is controlled, according to new research from the University of East Anglia. This is on top of the alarming collapse reported in Germany, where 75% of the flying insect biomass has vanished from protected areas in less than 30 years.Insects are the backbone of a healthy ecosystem and the consequences of their absence will be global. Is there anything we can do other than despair? Insects will need stepping stones to move around the country as the climate changes. Here are some ways you can help. Continue reading...

UK’s ‘reputation could suffer if environmental protections are weakened after leaving EU’The United Nations has warned the government that Britain’s reputation is at risk over plans that would significantly weaken protections for the environment after Brexit.In a stern intervention, Erik Solheim, executive director of the UN’s environment programme, called on the environment secretary Michael Gove to honour his promise to deliver a “green Brexit”, ensuring the environment would not suffer from Britain’s EU departure. Continue reading...

With wild rivers, mountains and Unesco sites aplenty, Albania is emerging as an exciting Mediterranean destination – but its wilderness could be devastated by huge dam-building projects‘Go, go, go!” The white-water rafting guide shouted orders from the back of the boat and our five-strong crew paddled hard to stay on course. We were tackling a stretch of the Vjosa, a 270km river that begins in Greece (where it is called the Aoös) and flows through Albania and into the Adriatic just north of the city of Vlora. I was on a recce trip for a new southern Albanian break with Much Better Adventures, which specialises in long weekends to wild places in Europe and North Africa. But this trip was not just a fun adventure – rather just part of a campaign to save the river, which is under threat from proposed dams. A documentary film, Blue Heart, out this month, will highlight the fight to protect Europe’s last wild rivers, with help from ecotourism.From May to October, the Vjosa’s canyons are navigable by raft – at thrilling speeds and with waves well over a metre high. We were there in early March, when these narrow stretches of water were too dangerous, so rafted a wider, gentler section: it offered less adrenaline, but gave a flavour of the full trip. Swirling downriver, we seemed to be journeying through an untouched land. Continue reading...

Easton Hornstocks, Northamptonshire: A thousand years ago, mastiffs were allowed here if their front claws had been removed. Now it’s a national nature reserve, all dogs are banned

When Douglas Coupland saw debris from the Japanese earthquake washing up in Canada, he became fascinated by the centrality of plastic in our lives – and began to pick it upIn 1999, I was in a Tokyo department store walking down a household cleaning products aisle and had what you might call an ecstatic moment when the pastel-tinted plastic bottles on both sides of the aisle temporarily froze my reptile cortex: pink, yellow, baby blue, turquoise — so many cute-looking bottles filled with so many toxic substances, all labeled with bold katakana lettering.I bought 125 bottles and took them back to my hotel room where I emptied them down the toilet. Yes, I can hear you judging me as an ecological criminal, but then let me ask you this: if I’d added some dead skin flakes or some shit to these chemicals, would that then have made it OK to deliver them into the Tokyo harbour? Continue reading...

Readers respond for and against George Monbiot, including Tony Juniper of WWFThe natural world is an incredible wonder that inspires us all, but despite our love of wildlife and wild places, there is no doubt that it is facing catastrophic decline, here and abroad. George Monbiot (The UK government wants to put a price on nature – but that will destroy it, 15 May) suggests that in efforts to save the natural world there are grave dangers in putting a “price on nature”.Yet one reason we are failing to do what is necessary is because nature is still seen as “nice to have”, rather than essential in sustaining our health, wealth and security. Many companies, economists and governments regard environmental destruction as a regrettable but inevitable consequence of economic growth – the “price of progress”. If we don’t change this mindset, then there will be little prospect for the revolution in ideas that is needed to avoid a mass extinction event and disastrous climatic changes. Continue reading...

Renewably generated hydrogen could supply energy storage at scales many times beyond which even the largest battery systems could attain, writes Mike Koefman; while John Ellis says it’s time for joined-up thinking on our future energy strategyThere is truth in Professor Underwood’s assertion (Letters, 16 May) that nothing can surpass the “round trip” efficiency of lithium-ion batteries from, for example, solar input to final user’s output. But in focusing on this undoubted advantage he omits the overriding issue of energy storage at very much larger scales. It is this concern which has driven the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (not in the “gas industry’s pocket”, by the way) to take a serious look at hydrogen, which used to be a substantial component of our former “town gas”, derived rather filthily from coal, but which can now can be derived very cleanly from solar and wind power, directed through the water-splitting magic of modern electrolytic machinery. Such renewably generated hydrogen could supply energy storage at scales many times beyond which even the largest battery systems could attain, and could do so both in the UK and in diverse economies throughout the world. Batteries will always be needed for specific uses, but in order to displace the carbon-laden fossil fuels which now imperil climate, ocean and the whole biosphere something rather different must be adopted – something storable at all scales, transmissible, fully functional as a fuel, and climate-neutral. Only hydrogen fills this particular bill.

The area is so far flung that the nearest humans are often those aboard the International Space Station. But even that hasn’t saved it from the scourge of microplasticsName: Point Nemo.Age: First discovered in 1992 by survey engineer Hrvoje Lukatela. Continue reading...

Sea otters, an African forest elephant and endangered Francois’ langurs are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Three undergraduates are embarking on the direct action as part of an ongoing campaign to stop the university investing in fossil fuelsThree students at the Cambridge University have gone on hunger strike as part of an increasingly bitter campaign to stop the university investing in fossil fuel companies.The move by the three undergraduates is part of an ongoing divestment campaign at the university that has been supported by hundreds of academics and scientists – including Sir David King, until recently the UK’s permanent special representative for climate change, Thomas Blundell, the former president of the UK Science Council and the author Robert Macfarlane. Continue reading...

Industry insiders and local environmentalists fear agricultural development has become untenable, threatening the valley’s futureThe rise of Napa began with an upset. Warren Winiarski would know – his wine, a cabernet sauvignon, was a firm underdog at a legendary 1976 blind tasting in Paris, which pitted the best of France against the little-known California region.

Major UK producer of plastic bottles for drinks and oils is aiming to hit new target within four monthsA major producer of plastic bottles in the UK is to increase its recycled content to more than 50% within four months.Princes, which produces 7% of plastic bottles used in the UK, says it has started the process to increase the amount of recycled plastic in all its bottles and will finish by September. Continue reading...

Langstone Harbour, Hampshire: As they break down rubbish on the strandline, the tiny crustaceans may however be contributing to the spread of secondary microplastics

Organisation co-founded by murdered activist sues Dutch bank over support for Agua Zarca dam on Gualcarque riverThe organisation co-founded by the murdered environmental activist Berta Cáceres is taking legal action against a Dutch bank over its involvement in the construction of a controversial dam project in Honduras.The Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras (Copinh), along with the Cáceres family, announced the suit against the Dutch development bank FMO, one of the backers of the Agua Zarca dam on the Gualcarque river, in the Netherlands on Thursday. Continue reading...

Mo Brooks rejects notion that global warming is causing sea levels to increase, and says: ‘What about the White Cliffs of Dover?’A member of Congress has suggested that the White Cliffs of Dover tumbling into the English Channel was causing rising sea levels.Related: Everglades under threat as Florida's mangroves face death by rising sea level Continue reading...

Russia captured the dolphins in 2014 and says the trained mammals refused interact with coaches or eatUkraine is home to some of the more adventurous military blue-sky thinking, mostly hangovers from the Soviet era. As well as a 160-metre high, 500-metre long radar that was supposed to be able to warn of nuclear attack, it also has a secret programme that trains sea mammals to carry out military tasks. Ukraine has a dolphin army at the Crimean military dolphin centre, trained and ready for deployment.Or at least it did, but after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, the dolphins were captured. Ukraine demanded their return, but Russian forces refused. Some believed the Russians were planning to retrain the dolphins as Russian soldiers, with a source telling Russian agency RIA Novosti that engineers were “developing new aquarium technologies for new programmes to more efficiently use dolphins underwater”. Continue reading...

New study’s author says failure to protect biodiversity in places identified for that purpose is ‘staggering’•Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morningA third of global protected areas such as national parks have been severely degraded by human activities in what researchers say is a stunning reality check of efforts by nations to stall biodiversity loss.A University of Queensland-led study, published on Friday in the prestigious academic journal Science, analysed human activity across 50,000 protected areas worldwide. Continue reading...