Rombalds Moor, West Yorkshire: We can’t blame the heatwave for this desiccated landscape – we’ve spent decades deliberately drying out our peatland habitatsThe moors are a tinderbox. Parched and crisped by weeks of dry summer heat, the heather is a burnt brown-to-burgundy, the moorland grass yellowed. The bracken looks all right – still a deep pea-green (it takes a lot to bother bracken) – but finger-wide cracks have opened in the colourless peat of the footpath. It’s early morning; the day hasn’t yet been fully cranked up, and the broken sky is a messy palette of blues and greys. A loose flock of a dozen meadow pipits forages for caterpillars. Continue reading...

Major hurdles to Carmichael mine remain despite comments by Karan Adani that the company has ‘completed financing’Adani says its Carmichael coalmine remains contingent on a loan to build a rail line to the Galilee Basin – comments that analysts believe will ramp up pressure on the Australian government to further subsidise the project.Karan Adani, the son of company boss Gautam Adani, and the head of the conglomerate’s ports business, told India’s Economic Times the company had “completed financing on the mine” and that it had received all necessary approvals. Continue reading...

Satellite imagery shows hundreds of glaciers shrinking as average annual temperature rises 3.6C in 70 yearsHundreds of glaciers in Canada’s high Arctic are shrinking and many are at risk of disappearing completely, an unprecedented inventory of glaciers in the country’s northernmost island has revealed.Using satellite imagery, researchers catalogued more than 1,700 glaciers in northern Ellesmere Island and traced how they had changed between 1999 and 2015. Continue reading...

Phosphate fertilisers are causing dangerous levels of pollution in waterways that harm aquatic plants and animalsMuch of the environment is awash with fertilisers, boosting thuggish weeds such as stinging nettles that swamp other wild plants. Nitrate is a big villain in this onslaught, but far less notice is taken of phosphate.

Promotion deemed commercial exploitation of children as well as environmentally damaging

Former head of Clean Energy Finance Corporation says governments should not support Neg in current stateOliver Yates, the former head of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, says state and territory governments should not sign on to the Turnbull government’s national energy guarantee until such time as it contains meaningful emissions reductions.Yates, a respected industry player now active in the renewables sector, and a board member of the Smart Energy Council – a solar group critical of the Neg – told Guardian Australia the Turnbull government’s policy “doesn’t do anything other than create a stable emissions profile for existing coal-fired power stations.” Continue reading...

The tide towards annihilation can be turned if the political will is there, writes CND general secretary Kate HudsonAs your article on nuclear weapons states (All you wanted to know about nuclear war but were too afraid to ask, 16 July), the use of a nuclear weapons is now more likely than at any time since the cold war. Billions are being spent on modernising superpower nuclear arsenals. The old “deterrence” myth – that they will never be used – is still being deployed, but at the same time Trump is unveiling plans for new “usable” nuclear weapons, and outlining more scenarios in which to use them.With Trump’s tearing up of the Iran nuclear deal, the dangers of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East are increasing. The possibility of denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula hangs on a thread – a return to threat and counter-threat is an ever-present danger, with potentially catastrophic consequences. But this tide towards annihilation can be turned if the political will is there. Maybe we can’t expect that from the trigger-happy US president, but we should demand it from our own government. Continue reading...

United Utilities, imposing ban on 7m households, is second worst for leaking pipesThe water company ordering a hosepipe ban on 7m households in the north-west of England has the second-worst record for leaking pipes of any supplier, industry data shows.The temporary use ban being imposed by United Utilities from 5 August has led to calls for water firms to do more to tackle leakage on their networks. Continue reading...

As hunters hold immense clout in the Trump administration and most of the council’s members are advocates of the sport, critics worry the board will protect their hobby, not the animalsDonald Trump has called big-game trophy hunting a “horror show”, despite his own sons’ participation in elephant and leopard hunts, and in 2017 he formed an advisory board to steer US policy on the issue. Continue reading...

Oxford University Museum: For 70 years, researchers have been watching ‘particularly hideous’ young swifts turn into long-winged angelsThis glorious structure is a place rich in history. As we walked through the galleries our guide paused to show us the great oak door behind which Bishop Wilberforce confronted “Darwin’s bulldog”, Thomas Huxley, in their famous debate on evolution. We, however, were intent on a more modest fraction of the building’s past. For it was here in 1947 that the ecologists Elizabeth and David Lack noticed how breeding swifts were vanishing into air vents in the roof’s slate-covered tower. Continue reading...

CSIRO says lack of consumer awareness is ‘number one issue’ affecting recyclingAustralians have to boost their recycling of lithium-ion batteries, a new CSIRO report has found.Consumers only recycle 2% of our lithium-ion batteries, and an estimated $813m to $3bn worth of valuable components is in landfill. The commonly-used rechargeable batteries are used in mobile phones, laptops, household appliances and, increasingly, electric vehicles. Continue reading...

Fossil fuels increased share of energy supply investment last year – the first time since 2014The world’s energy watchdog has sounded the alarm over a “worrying” pause in the shift to clean energy after global investment in renewables fell 7% to $318bn (£240bn) last year.The International Energy Agency said the decline is set to continue into 2018, threatening energy security, climate change and air pollution goals. Continue reading...

This week marks the annual stocktake of the crown’s swans on the River Thames, known as swan upping. The process of counting the swans on the river and identifying them as belonging to the Queen or one of the two City livery companies that also have rights to them – has been carried out since the 12th century, when the birds were so prized for their meat that all wild swans in England were appropriated as property of the crown. The pomp, finery and techniques of swan upping would be familiar to the villagers who looked on centuries ago Continue reading...

Model predicts population of UK’s tallest bird could double within 50 years after its return to the east of England following a 400-year absenceCommon cranes which recolonised eastern England less than 40 years ago after a 400-year absence are now here to stay, research has found.There could be as many as 275 breeding pairs of the UK’s tallest bird within 50 years, scientists at the University of Exeter, the RSPB and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) predict. Continue reading...

Researchers say the western barred bandicoot was actually five species and those ‘reintroduced’ would never have lived in SAAn endangered Australian bandicoot that was reintroduced to the Australian mainland is now believed to be one of five distinct species, and researchers say it may have been a mistake to introduce it to South Australia.Scientists working for the Western Australian Museum have published research that concludes that what has been known as the western barred bandicoot is in fact five distinct species – four of which had become extinct by the 1940s as a result of agriculture and introduced predators. The species were closely related but occurred in different parts of Australia. Continue reading...

United Utilities says 7 million customers will be affected by first ban since 2012Millions of households in the north-west of England will face the first hosepipe ban in the country since 2012 after the UK’s longest heatwave in more than 40 years.The water company United Utilities said 7 million customers would be affected by the ban, which is due to come into force on 5 August. Continue reading...

Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples calls for a new, rights-based approach to conservationThe United Nations Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, has released a report highly critical of the global conservation movement and calling for indigenous peoples and other local communities to have a greater say in protecting the world’s forests. Titled Cornered by Protected Areas and co-authored with the US-based NGO Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), the report is an explicit condemnation of “fortress conservation.”What exactly is meant by that? It is “the idea that to protect forests and biodiversity, ecosystems need to function in isolation, devoid of people,” the Rapporteur told the Guardian. “This model - favoured by governments for over a century - ignores the growing body of evidence that forests thrive when Indigenous Peoples remain on their customary lands and have legally recognised rights to manage and protect them.”

Government’s top climate adviser warns policymakers will be judged harshly by future generations if they don’t act nowThe government’s official climate change adviser says politicians and policymakers are failing to rise to the challenge of a rapidly warming planet and will be judged harshly by future generations unless they act now.Lord Deben, chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC), said “anyone who read the news” could see mounting evidence of alarming trends – from melting polar ice to record heatwaves and rising sea levels. He called on politicians to “make the connections” between these events and act with more urgency.

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...