Second unseasonal cold snap could also harm insect and amphibian populationsThe arrival of bitterly cold weather – only a few days before the vernal equinox, the official start of spring in Britain – could have serious consequences for wildlife, experts have warned.The snow and biting winds, which led to the cancellation of flights and disrupted road travel, will reduce the insect population, creating food shortages for birds and other creatures. Continue reading...

Departing South Australian premier led resistance to Coalition’s policyThe Turnbull government is one step closer to being able to implement its proposed national energy guarantee, courtesy of Jay Weatherill’s departure as the South Australian premier after Saturday’s state election.

Companies face world where falling cost of solar and wind power pushes down pricesSeven years after an earthquake off Japan’s eastern coast led to three meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, the aftershocks are still being felt across the world. The latest came last Saturday when E.ON and RWE announced a huge shakeup of the German energy industry, following meetings that ran into the early hours.Under a complex asset and shares swap, E.ON will be reshaped to focus on supplying energy to customers and managing energy grids. The company will leave renewables. RWE will focus on power generation and energy trading, complementing its existing coal and gas power stations with a new portfolio of windfarms that will make it Europe’s third-biggest renewable energy producer. Continue reading...

Comins Coch, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion The thaw has set in, and starlings are busy amid the last of the melting snow

Industrial sites have spent millions on carbon credits under Direct Action’s ‘safeguard mechanism’Sixteen Australian industrial sites have breached government-imposed greenhouse gas emissions limits and had to buy millions of dollars in carbon credits.The breaches came despite big emitters being granted generous carbon limits, in many cases above their highest previous pollution levels. Continue reading...

Holly Smith and Jenny Jones on why the government needs to urgently tackle air pollution. Brian Lowry discusses the threat posed by plastic bottlesThe government needs to step up and provide clear messaging and leadership on charging clean air zones (Car industry should pay for UK’s toxic air, inquiry says, 15 March). About 40,000 premature deaths a year are attributable to air pollution; inaction simply cannot continue. The government’s own evidence identifies charging clean air zones as the most effective way to reduce levels of nitrogen dioxide in the shortest time possible. Despite this, they continue to be presented as a last resort, with little support given to the local authorities that are left to decide whether to implement them. The government should mandate charging clean air zones in areas where legal limits of air pollution are being broken.Reducing all vehicular traffic in towns and cities is the best way to protect people’s health from the harmful effects of air pollution. Electric vehicles still release fine particulate matter, caused by the wear and tear of tyres and brake pads, which gets into our respiratory system and contributes to early death. Investing revenue from clean air zones in safe walking routes, cycling infrastructure and public transport is the best way to make the UK’s air breathable for us all.

• An estimated 20-30,000 elephants are killed by poachers each year• UK was world’s largest legal ivory exporter between 2010 and 2015A government minister has promised that the UK will lead a fight to shut down the ivory trade in the EU, describing the issue as “a personal priority” for the foreign secretary Boris Johnson.Speaking at a conservation summit in Botswana, the Africa minister, Harriet Baldwin, said: “The UK will lead by example. We will be shutting down our ivory trade. We will be working with the EU to do the same. That is something we can do irrespective of whether we are in the European Union or not.” Continue reading...

Friends of the Earth criticises ‘unambitious’ blueprint for first Scottish low emissions zoneCampaigners have criticised plans for Scotland’s first low emissions zone to combat illegal levels of air pollution in Glasgow city centre.Last October, World Health Organisation testing found that Glasgow was one of the most polluted areas in the UK, with poorer air quality than London, Manchester and Cardiff. Public Health England estimates the equivalent of 300 lives are lost in the city every year due to air pollution. Continue reading...

Gentoo penguins, an albatross chick and spring crocuses are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Despite promises of revitalisation from Japan’s government, seven years on from the nuclear disaster the area is still strugglingThis month, seven years after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi reactor meltdowns and explosions that blanketed hundreds of square kilometres of northeastern Japan with radioactive debris, government officials and politicians spoke in hopeful terms about Fukushima’s prosperous future. Nevertheless, perhaps the single most important element of Fukushima’s future remains unspoken: the exclusion zone seems destined to host a repository for Japan’s most hazardous nuclear waste.No Japanese government official will admit this, at least not publicly. A secure repository for nuclear waste has remained a long-elusive goal on the archipelago. But, given that Japan possesses approximately 17,000 tonnes of spent fuel from nuclear power operations, such a development is vital. Most spent fuel rods are still stored precariously above ground, in pools, in a highly earthquake-prone nation. Continue reading...

Zinke met Dan and Farris Wilks last September regarding the 5,000-acre proposal, which was twice rejected under the Obama administrationThe US interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, has promised to look into a Montana land exchange proposal from Texas oil and gas billionaires Dan and Farris Wilks that was twice rejected under the Obama administration, the Guardian can reveal.The Wilkses and their lobbyist met Zinke, a Montana native, last September. Continue reading...

From cute cars to smiley emergency vehicles, kids’ culture is awash with rosy images of driving, so a new Mr Men book about cycling is a welcome read. What are your favourite cycling-friendly children’s books?“Give me the child until he is seven and I will show you the man,” is a maxim usually attributed to the Jesuits, but it’s not only religious institutions that use early years training to hook people for life. There’s a mainstream indoctrination that is considered perfectly normal: the promotion of motoring to children.Car companies don’t have to pay for this brainwashing; we do it automatically. We sit toddlers on our laps and let them pretend-steer our cars while stationary. We buy babies’ bibs festooned with anthropomorphic trucks and nee-nah emergency vehicles. Pixar’s Cars movie is so popular because the fetishisation of driving is deeply embedded in our society. Motor vehicles are spoon-fed to children as benign, cuddly, and desirable. Passing your driving test remains the preeminent rite of passage into adulthood. Continue reading...

Many people think items such as plastic bags and coffee cups can be recycled when they can’t. Here are the do’s and don’tsBritish consumers are increasingly willing to recycle their household waste but are failing to grasp the basics, according to the latest research by the British Science Association. Failure to get it right means that a lot of recyclable waste is going to landfill, the BSA says.The issue is further complicated by inconsistency among councils, which make their own rules and funding decisions on recycling collections. Continue reading...

Others include plastic soap dispenser tops and wrapping paper, study shows

Farlington Marshes, Hampshire Gazing into the reedbeds, scanning for bearded tits, felt a lot like looking at a magic eye puzzle

While the government insists that renewables have made our grid unreliable, lights have stayed on and prices are droppingOn the first day of autumn tens of thousands of Victorians received a welcome surprise from their power company — their electricity bills were going down. Prices were cut 5% because the retailer increased their investment in renewable energy.

With the arrival of energy optimisation technologies, governments and industry must find a way to deliver efficient energy to everyoneA Choice survey revealed last year that electricity bills have become the biggest worry for Australian households. According to the report, more than 80% of Australians are concerned with rising costs, with South Australians and West Australians most concerned about the price of their energy.The report followed the March 2017 announcement of an ACCC inquiry into retail electricity pricing, as directed by treasurer Scott Morrison. The report is due out in June 2018. Continue reading...

Only one target shark caught in NSW nets in two months, while 55 other marine creatures killed or trappedShark nets on the New South Wales north coast have caught just a single target shark in the past two months, while continuing to trap or kill dolphins, turtles, and protected marine life.A single bull shark was caught in the nets around Ballina in January and February, while 55 other animals were either killed or trapped. Continue reading...

Particle pollution increases as the wind slows down and chilly weather prompts the lighting of more wood firesThe last days of the “beast from the east” cold spell caused air pollution problems across large parts of the UK, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Within the UK particle pollution reached between five and 10 on the UK government’s 10-point scale over parts of south Wales and areas of England south of a Merseyside to Tyneside line, except the far south-west.Pollution from industry, traffic and home wood and coal burning can stay in the air for a week or up to 10 days. This means that pollution emitted in one part of Europe can cause problems hundreds of miles away. If the wind slows down then particle pollution can build up over a whole region. Continue reading...

Academics and environmental campaigners from the Beyond Extinction Economics (BEE) network say challenging questions about confronting the risk to global biodiversity were left unanswered by a recent Guardian briefing articleDamian Carrington are to be congratulated on a wide-ranging and informative article on the urgency and scale of the current global threat to biodiversity and the Guardian (What is biodiversity and why does it matter to us?, theguardian.com, 12 March). However, we of the Beyond Extinction Economics (BEE) network have reservations about the article’s diagnosis of its causes, and proposals for addressing the crisis.First, to say “we” or “human activity” is responsible for biodiversity loss sidesteps the more serious challenge of identifying the specific socio-cultural, and, more centrally, economic drivers of destruction. Second, to slip easily from population rises to industrial development, housing and farming as the causes of the destruction of wild areas evades critical questions about what sort of industry, producing what sort of consumer goods and what kind of farming and food distribution system – let alone questions as to who has the power to decide and who gets to consume and who doesn’t. Continue reading...

More than 71,000 hectares of protected countryside in the south-east face risk of drilling

New Mexico is a battleground in the fight over once public waterways, sparking fears it could set a national precedentAs Scott Carpenter and a few friends paddled down the Pecos river in New Mexico last May, taking advantage of spring run-off, the lead boater yelled out and made a swirling hand motion over his head in the universal signal to pull over to shore. The paddlers eddied out in time to avoid running straight through three strings of barbed wire obstructing the river.Swinging in the wind, the sign hanging from the fence read “PRIVATE PROPERTY: No Trespassing”. Continue reading...

Protests continue to grow over controversial PFI contract that has resulted in thousands of trees being cut downTwo Labour MPs in Sheffield have called on the city’s Labour-run council to pause tree felling in the city, as protests grow over a controversial road maintenance contract that has resulted in thousands of trees being cut down and replaced with saplings.Related: For the chop: the battle to save Sheffield’s trees Continue reading...

For the first time ever, scientists in Antarctica have attached a camera to a minke – one of the most poorly understood of all the whale species. The camera (attached with suction cups) slid down the side of the animal – but stayed attached – providing remarkable video of the way it feeds. Continue reading...

Good Fish Guide calls for consumers to move away from cod, haddock, salmon and prawns in favour of more sustainable choicesLess popular species such as dab, hake, herring and mackerel should be Britons’ fish supper of choice in order to support the UK fishing industry and help the seas, a conservation charity has recommended.The Marine Conservation Society wants consumers to wean themselves off the “big five” staples – cod, haddock, salmon, prawns and tuna – in favour of more sustainable, lesser-known, choices.

Unprecedented joint inquiry by four committees of MPs demands polluters pay for air pollution causing ‘national health emergency’The car industry must pay millions of pounds towards solving the UK’s toxic air crisis under the “polluter pays” principle, according to an unprecedented joint inquiry by four committees of MPs.The MPs call the poisonous air that causes 40,000 early deaths a year a “national health emergency” and are scathing about the government’s clean air plans. These judged illegal three times in the high court, with the latest plan condemned as “woefully inadequate” by city leaders and “inexcusable” by doctors. Continue reading...

Tate Modern and Costa Coffee among outlets offering free tap water in five areas of the capitalThe National Theatre and Tate Modern are to join an initiative offering people free tap water refills as part of the mayor of London’s plans to reduce purchases of single-use plastic bottles in the capital.

Crook, County Durham: starving birds lose their inhibitions if apples are available in gardensThe steep climb from the start of the Deerness Valley Way follows the route of an old rope-worked incline where, a century ago, a stationary engine on the hilltop hauled railway wagons up from Bankfoot coke works. Today it was hard work hauling ourselves up the hill, with every footstep sinking into thawing snow that was still knee-deep in places. Continue reading...

After death of milkwood tree, which predates European settlement, five other heritage listed trees left in Northern Territory capitalA heritage-listed Darwin tree that survived at least two devastating cyclones, the arrival of European settlers and a Japanese bombing has died, leaving just five listed trees in the Northern Territory city.The milkwood tree in downtown Darwin was given protection in 2006 as a rare example of the vegetation that covered the Darwin peninsula before European arrival in 1869. Continue reading...

Empty rhetoric from corporates is not enough as climate change is accelerating far faster than expected

The land-clearing crisis has been hastened by individual decisions, but it’s supported by a network of power brokers, lawmakers and enforcement agenciesThe broadscale denuding of the unique Australian landscape is the result of thousands of landholders making a tapestry of individual decisions.Over the past few years, millions of hectares of land has been cleared of native vegetation, exacerbating climate change, the decline of threatened species and the health of the Great Barrier Reef. Continue reading...

We’re not yet optimizing biofuel production for both economic and environmental factors

Government should have got binding commitments a private owner would continue to investThe government’s £1.6bn sale last year of the Green Investment Bank (GIB) to the Australian financial outfit Macquariewas a shambles, it was argued here at the time, and now the public accounts committee agrees. The rough summary of its report runs as follows: in their eagerness to trim a few quid from the national debt ministers accepted a few airy pledges from Macquarie about future investment and called them commitments.The MPs’ verdict makes a nonsense of the government’s claim that a sale would deliver “the best of both worlds” – value for money and a new owner that would definitely use GIB to support UK energy policy and invest in low-carbon infrastructure. The price tag looks OK since the Treasury made a profit of £186m, but the boast about Macquarie’s good intentions has been exposed as an exercise in hopeful assumptions. The Aussie financiers may decide to play ball, but, if they don’t, there is little the government will be able to do. Continue reading...

Recycling industry in Victoria and NSW on verge of collapse, Senate inquiry toldAustralia’s kerbside recycling systems are at risk of collapse, a Senate inquiry has heard. China’s ban on importation of recyclable rubbish has left councils and state governments in Victoria and New South Wales scrambling to find space to stockpile growing mounds of waste.An estimated half of Australia’s recyclable waste was going to China before the ban, the hearing was told, although the precise share of waste exported was not known. Continue reading...

UK households throw away 24m slices of bread each day, says anti-food waste campaignAround 24m slices of bread are thrown away every day in the UK – more than a million an hour – because people do not get around to using it in time and worry it is stale.Now a new campaign from the anti-waste charity Love Food Hate Waste is urging consumers to freeze bread and toast it straight from the freezer, and to consider eating toast as a snack at any time of day. Continue reading...

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: this is mythologised woodland, a secular sacred place, a hunting ground and a sanctuarySunlight pools on thousands of wild garlic leaves on the bank of an abandoned railway cutting. Trees stand in companionable silence, the breath between them is slight. Days ago, slender ash trunks rattled like yacht masts in a marina, hawthorns hissed in the east wind, great oaks and steeple limes soughed in deep snowy murmurs. Much of the storm wreckage has been cleared from the path; it is now a gallery full of early birdsong and light falling in patches as if from high windows.Yesterday a blackbird repeated a one … two-three … four syllable phrase of song; today it is elaborated by bright description and excited story. Shakespeare wrote in As You Like It about the bird under the greenwood tree singing “come hither” with no enemy but “winter and rough weather”. Continue reading...

They might be disparaged as bin chickens now but in ancient Egypt they were reveredIn Australia they’re reviled as bin chickens. But in ancient Egypt, ibises were revered and offered as gifts to the gods.Two mummified ibises have given researchers at the University of Sydney a riveting insight into their ancient appeal. Continue reading...

Conservationists say proposal would make sediment problems on the reef – which funding is designed to prevent – much worse

Committee says government should have got stronger commitments on bank’s futureMPs have accused the government of a “deeply regrettable” failure to put in place strong guarantees that the UK’s green investment bank will continue to support renewable energy after its privatisation.The public accounts committee said it was unclear whether the bank would continue to support the government’s energy policy or climate change goals, because the bank’s new owner is not legally bound to stick to its green aims. Continue reading...

From the Amazon to Africa, WWF report predicts catastrophic losses of as much as 60% of plants and 50% of animals by the end of the centuryThe world’s greatest forests could lose more than half of their plant species by the end of the century unless nations ramp up efforts to tackle climate change, according to a new report on the impacts of global warming on biodiversity hotspots.Mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds are also likely to disappear on a catastrophic scale in the Amazon and other naturally rich ecosysterms in Africa, Asia, North America and Australia if temperatures rise by more than 1.5C, concludes the study by WWF, the University of East Anglia and the James Cook University. Continue reading...

The liquid tinkling of this tiny finch adds to the springtime chorus in Spain but can we expect to see the bird in Britain?Under a fiercely blue sky, the sun shines down on groves of oranges and almond blossom. I am in the mountain village of Sella, in Spain’s Alicante province, enjoying a sneak preview of spring – a month or more before it arrives in Britain.The migrant birds are not yet back, but half a dozen different butterflies are on the wing and birdsong fills the air. The scratchy sound of Sardinian warblers, the metallic song of the black redstart, and, from every little bush and tree, the liquid tinkling of serins. Continue reading...

Phllip Hammond accused of delaying action after he announces consultationEveryday single-use plastic items such as disposable coffee cups, takeaway boxes and polystyrene packaging could be hit with charges akin to the 5p levy on plastic bags, the government has warned.The Treasury said it was looking at changes to taxation and new levies to tackle plastic waste, but campaigners and politicians accused the government of delaying action. Continue reading...

New bill will be first step by ministers to protect and restore soil as fears grow over a future soil fertility crisisA new bill will be brought before parliament this year mandating, for the first time, measures and targets to preserve and improve the health of the UK’s soils, amid growing concern that we are sleepwalking into a crisis of soil fertility that could destroy our ability to feed ourselves.The UN has warned that the world’s soils face exhaustion and depletion, with an estimated 60 harvests left before they are too degraded to feed the planet, and a 2014 study in the UK found matters are not much better, estimating 100 harvests remaining. Continue reading...

Scientists found a strong link between high temperatures near the pole and unusually heavy snowfall and frigid weather farther south.The sort of severe winter weather that has rattled parts of the US and UK is becoming more common as the Arctic warms, with scientists finding a strong link between high temperatures near the pole and unusually heavy snowfall and frigid weather further south.A sharp increase in temperatures across the Arctic since the early 1990s has coincided with an uptick in abnormally cold snaps in winter, particularly in the eastern US, according to new research that analyzed temperature data from 1950 onwards. Continue reading...

Justine Greening and Vince Cable among those saying plan would jeopardise spending elsewhereThe true cost to the public of building a third runway at Heathrow has not been spelled out to taxpayers, according to a cross-party group of MPs, who warn that domestic flight connections and other transport spending will be jeopardised.Justine Greening, who quit Theresa May’s cabinet in January, is among the MPs calling on the government to clarify what backing expansion at the London hub airport would mean, saying: “The transport secretary has a duty to spell out the true costs for taxpayers – and to be realistic about the benefits.” Continue reading...

Taxpayers everywhere – including those living hundreds of miles away from the south-east – will all pay for the expansion, write local MPs, lords and council leadersWe are writing to you regarding Heathrow and the hidden costs that we believe need to be explored.Lots of promises have been made to lots of people in different parts of the country about the extra domestic routes they can expect if a third Heathrow runway is built. It’s all part of a divide-and-rule strategy which glosses over the health impacts of worsening noise and air pollution in south and west London while cheerily talking up the prospects of improved internal connections from an expanded hub airport. Continue reading...

New device is designed to prevent power output plummeting when the sun isn’t shining – but practical application is still some years offA solar panel that can generate electricity from falling raindrops has been invented, enabling power to flow even when skies cloud over or the sun has set.

Philip Hammond has delivered his first spring statement. Here are the key points, with political analysis

Greenpeace finds industrial fishing taking place in the feeding grounds of whales and penguins, with vessels involved in oil spills and accidents

Wiggonholt Common, West Sussex: The nuthatch hops around, searching the ground, before launching high into a tree above me, where it starts to singDawn passes barely perceptibly in the damp darkness of the wood. Rain is falling, dripping through the canopy, forming thin, cold cascades of droplets pattering on the mud below. I turn a corner and stop – a nuthatch is drinking from a pool on the track, raising its pointed bill to gulp down the water. With its black eye-stripe, blue-grey back and bright orange underparts, the bird is a flash of colour in the grey woodland.