Compensation offered to encourage local communities to allow test boreholes is described as ‘completely inadequate’MPs from both major parties have attacked the government’s latest incentive to entice communities into volunteering to host Britain’s first deep underground store for nuclear waste as “completely inadequate”.Ministers have offered up to £1m per community for areas that constructively engage in offering to take part in the scheme, and a further sum of up to £2.5m where deep borehole investigations take place. Continue reading...

Former ministers condemn new body’s lack of power for legal action against governmentA former Tory cabinet minister is backing efforts to force through tough green laws after Brexit, amid anger over plans that would weaken environmental protections once Britain leaves the European Union.Four former environment and climate change secretaries from three parties told the Observer they had concerns about “toothless” plans announced by the government last week, which suggested the new post-Brexit green watchdog would lack the power to take the government to court. Continue reading...

Gabon’s wild and beautiful rainforest is on the frontline against ivory poachers, part of international criminal networks that also fund terroristsDeep in the steamy rainforest of Gabon, a poaching gang’s night-time fire is smouldering and two long elephant tusks lie among the tangled roots. The axe that hacked them off lies nearby.Just after dawn, the insect buzz and bird chatter is suddenly pierced by a whistle blast and camouflaged park guards burst out from their forest cover, swiftly pinning the poachers to the ground. Continue reading...

In this book extract, Geoff Cousins describes how the farmer, the activist, the tourism operator and ‘an old bald man with hope in his heart’ travelled to India to protest against Adani

Gore says pipeline expansion in Canada ‘would be a step backward in our efforts to solve the climate crisis’Al Gore has thrown his support behind opponents of a contentious Canadian pipeline project and condemned the planned expansion as federal officials in Canada scramble to ensure it goes ahead.“The Kinder Morgan pipeline carrying dirty tar sands oil would be a step backward in our efforts to solve the climate crisis,” Gore tweeted on Thursday. Continue reading...

A bloom of bioluminescent phytoplankton has dazzled San Diego residents as the abundance of the algae along the coats lights up the water.The bloom was cause by a red tide, resulting in a higher level than normal of the plankton in the water. When the small organisms are disturbed, they let off light, making them more visible.

An unusual algal bloom, known as a red tide, has drawn many to the beach in the hopes of witnessing the stunning spectacleA dense bloom of bioluminescent algae off the coast of southern California has lit up the Pacific Ocean with an eerie and fantastical neon blue glow, sending photographers and spectators to the beach at night in hopes of witnessing the natural phenomenon.The algal bloom, also known as a red tide, was observed this week lighting up the waves along a 15-mile stretch of coastline. Continue reading...

In 62 separate meetings, 13 teams of athletes and advocates made their ask of politicians: protect public lands by supporting fundingAlex Honnold was stuck in traffic.The world’s most renowned rock climber was due on Capitol Hill for a US Senate reception with other top climbers from around the country, who had descended en masse on Washington to lobby for greater protections for public lands. Continue reading...

We now use 14,000 of the handy cloths every second - but they are increasingly clogging rivers and putting wildlife at risk. So how can we wean ourselves off them?

This week’s edition of the Upside looks at how the world can conserve water despite climate change, and how seeds planted in a Yorkshire valley have grown a global movementOne of the obvious consequences of climate change is that our reservoirs of fresh water are running out. As global temperatures continue to rise, people around the globe will have to figure out how to manage with less water.This week we looked at how one city united to tackle its water crisis, and found other tales of people coming together and turning around bleak situations. Continue reading...

A nesting stork, a rescued bobcat, and flamingos at sunset are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Bromley Council has taken steps to protect a group of mature trackside trees that are likely to be targeted in the rail operator’s plans to fell all ‘leaf-fall’ speciesA local authority has imposed preservation orders on trees growing on Network Rail land to stop them being felled by the operator.Bromley Council said on Friday it had issued two tree preservation orders (TPO) on a group of mature oaks, sycamores and ash trees which grow alongside the railway – many of which are likely to be targeted if the rail operator carries out its “enhanced clearance” plan to reduce delays, as revealed in the Guardian this week. Continue reading...

Nuclear regulator prosecutes waste firm after injury leaves employee open to exposure

In my job, I have been stung countless times. But nothing comes close to the pain bullet ants inflictI carried out my first experiment with a stinging insect when I was seven, picking a honey bee off a dandelion and placing it on the arm of my teacher. My hypothesis was that it might sting her, and it turned out to be correct, much to her dismay.Where I grew up, in the Appalachian area of the north-east US, we had lots of honey bees and wasps of various sorts. As a kid, I was stung by virtually all of them. I realised that they registered the same sort of pain – the intensity may vary from one to the next, but they were fairly similar. But an accidental run-in with a colony of harvester ants led to a life-changing revelation: they didn’t feel at all as I expected they would. They really hurt. Continue reading...

Researchers at Sydney’s Macquarie University discover sharks can recognise jazz music, but struggle to differentiate between styles of music. Continue reading...

From pop-up bike lanes to painted potholes, here are the imaginative ways frustrated cyclists are taking action to create a safer environmentAcross the world, transport planning and infrastructure tends to favour the car, and facilities for cyclists and pedestrians are an afterthought. In response, frustrated urban cyclists have thrown caution to the wind and written their own will into the fabric of the city, overturning the dominance of the car and creating a safer environment for cycling in imaginative ways.Cycling has the power to turn individuals into a community and communities have the power to improve our cities. These examples show how activism can be a real solution to urban problems. Continue reading...

The initial forecasts of an above-average season for hurricanes, beginning on 1 June, follow a punishing spate of storms last yearThe US may have to brace itself for another harrowing spate of hurricanes this year, with forecasts of an active 2018 season coming amid new research that shows powerful Atlantic storms are intensifying far more rapidly than they did 30 years ago.Related: 'We've been forgotten': Hurricane Harvey and the long path to recovery Continue reading...

Allendale, Northumberland: Barn owls can starve in snowy winters; it may be that the injury saved her life

Prosecution seen as key test of Queensland’s ability to hold mining companies to account

Vatican meeting between the climate-change skeptics in 2017 looked at setting up two-sided ‘debate’ about global warmingCardinal George Pell discussed a plan to set up a two-sided “debate” about human-caused climate change with the US Environmental Protection Agency chief, Scott Pruitt , at the Vatican in 2017, it has been revealed.According to documents collated by The New York Times, Pruitt joined Pell and others for a $240-a-head dinner in June 2017, an engagement that was left off official schedules of Pruitt’s Vatican visit. Continue reading...

Water sweeps away cars and more than 13,000 properties lose power as storm also prompts cold snap in south-eastWild weather caused flash flooding in Hobart on Friday morning, with cars swept away and emergency crews responding to hundreds of calls for help.Police said the city centre was hit hard, forcing the closure of many roads and, with more heavy rain expected on Friday, motorists were urged to stay off roads.

Scientists tested nine different masks bought from Beijing, with variable resultsWe are all familiar with images of Beijing citizens wearing masks, but do they work? Scientists from Edinburgh’s Institute for Occupational Medicine tested nine different masks bought from Beijing shops. Generally, the filter in each mask worked well, the best stopped over 99% of the particle pollution and the worst stopped 70% to 80%. Next, volunteers wore the masks in a test chamber filled with diesel exhaust. Pollution inside the mask was measured as they walked, nodded and talked. One mask stopped 90% of the particle pollution while others offered almost no protection. The tightness of fit was crucial. Facial hair prevents a good seal and the fit also depends on the shape of the user’s face. If it fits well then breathing through a mask is not easy. Wearing a mask could therefore pose problems for people who already have breathing or heart difficulties. So, face masks are not the answer to our problems. Walking alongside quiet instead of busy roads can help, and generally you will experience less pollution if you walk or cycle rather than sit in a car, but the best route to clean air is not masks. We need reduce the pollution in our cities. Continue reading...

Independent body will be backed by law requiring ministers to ‘have regard to’ core principles but green experts say targets should be included in legislationThe government’s plans for a new environmental watchdog to maintain standards and hold ministers to account in post-Brexit Britain has come under near universal attack from green campaigners.The statutory body was announced as part of ministers’ plans to protect landscapes and nature after the UK leaves the European Union.

Photojournalist Carolina Arantes documented Brazil’s thriving cattle industry and witnessed how farmers work with genetics companies to improve the performance and profitability of their herdsJabriel is an awesome, imposing creature. His humped figure, size and weight represent everything that is prized and revered in a bull. He is quite literally the top of the pyramid in Brazil’s vast, complicated and money-driven cattle industry.

Tanzanian government accused of putting indigenous people at risk in order to grant foreign tourists access to Serengeti wildlifeThe Tanzanian government is putting foreign safari companies ahead of Maasai herding communities as environmental tensions grow on the fringes of the Serengeti national park, according to a new investigation.Hundreds of homes have been burned and tens of thousands of people driven from ancestral land in Loliondo in the Ngorongoro district in recent years to benefit high-end tourists and a Middle Eastern royal family, says the report by the California-based thinktank the Oakland Institute. Continue reading...

Court grants injunction to Friends of the Leadbeater’s Possum to protect mountain ash forest until 25 FebruaryVicForests has been banned from logging in areas of sensitive greater glider habitat in the central highlands until next year, pending the outcome of a legal challenge.The federal court on Thursday granted an injunction to conservation group Friends of the Leadbeater’s Possum to protect the mountain ash forest until 25 February, when a three-week trial on the validity of the central highlands regional forests agreement (RFA) is due to commence. Continue reading...

A trip following bats along the river Cam has become one of the hottest tickets in town – and raised money for their protectionIt’s an impossibly idyllic early summer evening on the Backs of Cambridge. A blackbird flutes as a man pressure-washes a table outside a hotel. Mating flies drift on the breeze, alongside a whiff of marijuana. A student lies flat on the riverbank, feet in the water.

New video analysis reveals the furry thieves are looting up to half the seed put out in feeders, leaving gardeners and birds short-changedDaylight robbery worth millions of pounds is taking place in gardens across the country with grey squirrels raiding bird feeders on a huge scale, new research has revealed.

Sandy, Bedfordshire: I lean forward and the skater darts away in a series of fitful starts. A water measurer beneath my gaze stays put at the pond’s edgeA pond skater’s feet feel prey landing on the drumskin-tight surface of the water. Just how can this skater skate on thin “ice” while a fly the size of its eye falls through? Though the fly tries to drag its legs free, surface tension binds it to a sheet of elastic glue.I lean forward and the skater darts away in a series of fitful starts. A water measurer beneath my gaze stays put at the pond’s edge. An aquatic stick insect, Hydrometra stagnorum could easily be mistaken for a strand of dark human hair. My eyes are just a handspan away, so I can observe the detail of alternating light and dark strips along its abdomen, which remind me of a ruler. However, it gets its name from the way it walks over the surface with a measured tread. Continue reading...

Researchers hope that insights into reproductive behaviour will help save endangered species• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon A whiskery love bite on a hairy bum. It may sound like a perturbing form of foreplay but scientists believe it could help save critically endangered wombat populations in Australia’s north.Scientists have spent two wombat breeding seasons seeking to better understand the sex lives of vulnerable southern hairy-nosed wombats, using 24-hour infrared cameras and urine samples. Continue reading...

State commission approves plan, saying consumer energy savings would outweigh higher building costsCalifornia is set to require solar panels on new homes and low-rise apartment buildings starting in 2020, the first such mandate in the country and the state’s latest step to curb greenhouse gas emissions.“Adoption of these standards represents a quantum leap in statewide building standards,” said Robert Raymer, technical director for the California Building Industry Association. “You can bet every other of the 49 states will be watching closely to see what happens.” Continue reading...

Exclusive: five-year ‘enhanced clearance’ programme targets trees along 20,000 miles of track to avoid delays, according to an internal documentNetwork Rail is to target all “leaf fall” trees for removal alongside its tracks in a new £800m five-year programme of “enhanced clearance”, according to an internal document seen by the Guardian.The policy document for 2019-24 emerged as the environment secretary, Michael Gove, summoned the chief executive of Network Rail for talks over their approach to environmental management following revelations about tree felling across the country by the Guardian. Continue reading...

Young boy becomes latest in series of casualties at Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, which lies on migration route long used by elephantsBangaldesh has pledged to step up its response to a series of deadly elephant attacks at a refugee camp housing hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees after a 12-year-old boy was trampled to death.Shamsu Uddin died instantly when an elephant attacked him after he had fallen asleep while guarding paddy fields with friends in Uttar Shilkhali village in the coastal town of Cox’s Bazar.

Warming oceans melting Antarctic ice shelves could accelerate sea level rise

Millions of seabirds saved after remote island is officially declared rodent-free for the first time since humans arrived there more than 200 years ago

Plan to change timeline for energy use reduction puts Paris targets at risk, say MEPSA secret UK push to weaken key EU climate laws before Brexit risks scotching the bloc’s Paris commitments, MEPs say.The EU has committed to a 20% cut in its energy use by 2020 to be achieved by two directives, covering energy efficiency and buildings. Continue reading...

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: These delicate flowers are the colour of the far blue yonder, blue remembered hills, into the blue, the beyond, a spiritual eternity“Is love so prone to change and rot/ We are fain to rear forget-me-not/ By measure in a garden plot?” asked Christina Rossetti (A Bed of Forget-Me-Nots, 1856). The flowers of forget-me-not, Myosotis, may have been reared by measure in a garden plot here, before it was abandoned a hundred years ago and a wood of change, rot and indeed love took over.Water, creeping, pale, tufted, Jersey, wood, alpine, field, changing and early … forget-me-nots are species of Myosotis belonging to the borage family, famous for their blue flowers; the delicate pale blue of forget-me-not is unique. Some flowers on this plant growing along the path are a brilliant white, too. Continue reading...

With more electricity often generated than needed the excess could be utilised to generate the green power sourceGreen energy would be boosted if excess electricity from wind and solar farms was used to produce hydrogen for use in heating and other parts of the energy system, according to engineers.Renewables were the UK’s second biggest source of electricity in the last three months of 2017, and now provide about a third of the country’s power at certain times of day. Continue reading...

World’s biggest project to kill off invasive species to protect native wildlife is hailed a success

If scandals oust Pruitt, Andrew Wheeler is an ex-coal industry lobbyist pledged to end the ‘pure hell’ of Obama regulationsIf the extraordinary barrage of ethical scandals buffeting Scott Pruitt finally dislodges him as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, a reassuringly familiar figure to Republicans will take over and probably continue much of Pruitt’s controversial work to scale back environmental protections.

After nearly becoming extinct in Britain, the cirl bunting has bounced back, thanks to joint efforts by RSPB and farmersFew British birds have enjoyed such mixed fortunes as the cirl bunting, Emberiza cirlus. Discovered by my ornithological hero George Montagu in 1800, near his Devon home, it extended its range across much of southern Britain, before going into sharp retreat in the 1970s.By 1989 there were just 120 pairs – all but two in south Devon. Then, thanks to the RSPB, and especially project officer Cath Jeffs, it bounced back. Jeffs persuaded local farmers to create the right habitat for the buntings, and today there are more than 1,000 breeding pairs. Continue reading...

Waltham Brooks, West Sussex: Newcomers are adding their voices to the morning chorus, alert to the emerging insects

Much of Kinder Morgan pipeline’s proposed route lies within Secwepemc territory, and locals describe their fightback as ‘a matter of life and death’In the heart of the Canadian province of British Columbia, dozens of activists have been gathering to saw lumber, raise walls and install windows. By the time their work is done, 10 tiny homes will have been built – all in the name of thwarting a pipeline. Continue reading...

NHS, schools, government and other services should use UK ingredients for food wherever possible, according to proposalsFood procured for Britain’s public sector after Brexit should be sourced from the UK wherever possible, the biggest farming organisation has said.Promised sweeping reforms of food and farming have been cast by ministers as a flagship policy that will unlock some of the biggest potential benefits from Brexit. But farmers fear they will lose the £3bn-a-year taxpayer subsidy they enjoy under EU rules and be hamstrung by subsidised competition from Europe. Continue reading...

Mike Harding on Richard Martin, who pushed the Cruel and Improper Treatment of Cattle Act through parliament in 1822, and Robin Russell-Jones on how our love of meat is helping to drive other mammals to extinction“Humanity Dick” (real name Richard Martin), who got the Cruel and Improper Treatment of Cattle Act that you mention in your briefing (What is the true cost of meat?, 7 May) passed in 1822, was the owner of Ballynahinch Castle in Connemara.In the middle of Ballynahinch Lough there is a small island; Humanity Dick used to have anybody he found mistreating animals rowed out there and marooned until they repented of their crimes. He was particularly hard on anybody who mistreated donkeys it seems. Continue reading...

Regulators told shortcuts may be taken as pressure grows on producers from price cutsThe proposed merger of Sainsbury’s and Asda puts too much power in the hands of large retailers and will have a damaging impact on the environment, regulators have been warned.Food campaigners, environmentalists and farmers’ leaders are claiming the proposed deal, and the accompanying promise to further drive down prices, will put more pressure on producers, many of which may be forced to cut corners on environmental safeguards and shelve green initiatives. Continue reading...

It’s global warming that will hurt the economy in red states, not a carbon tax.

Labor decides not to back Greens’ motion, instead coming to an agreement with Coalition to keep plan intact

Results show Carmichael mine in Queensland no longer a viable proposition, analysts say

Choice compares prices from electricity retailers and handles switch to most economic dealsThe consumer group Choice has launched a $99 service to compare prices from electricity retailers, monitor them for 12 months and automatically switch subscribers to the best deal.Canisaveonenergy.com.au, which was launched on Monday, allows consumers to upload a recent power bill PDF and find out how much they could save with a new service based on a price comparison from 33 providers. However, they won’t be told which retailer is offering the best deal unless they pay the annual fee. Continue reading...