Chief scientist once again endorses proposed mechanism as fastest, most flexible way to transform marketThe chief scientist says changes the Turnbull government is contemplating to the national electricity market would take five years to take effect, whereas his proposal for a clean energy target would achieve transformation more quickly, with “enormous flexibility” for the market.

Our readers on their most cherished cycling routes, from remote Scottish islands to Japanese mountain ranges

Dolebury Warren, Somerset In an iron age hill fort once ruled by rabbits, waxcaps speckle the ground with luminous colourThis shapely hill has steep sides, the sheep-walked turf trodden into neat pleats along the contours. On the ridge, upstanding stony ribs encircle a heart of deeper soil – the iron age hill fort, the Dolebury. In medieval times, when rabbits were tender creatures, a protective warren was built up here, completing the modern name for the place. Nowadays the rabbits look after themselves and the place is often deserted, especially on a ditchwater-dull day like this.We had come to hunt waxcaps, glistening mushrooms in parrot shades of red, orange, yellow and green. In this peaceful soil their mycelium spreads undisturbed beneath thyme and tormentil (Potentilla erecta). We have been here before, quartering their favourite corners, luckless, only to look back and see them hiding behind a tussock, shining as brightly as lights on a Christmas tree. Continue reading...

Ashort film shot by Heath Patterson captures photographer Vaughan Brookfield and TomLynch'sjourney to a New Zealand glacier equipped with hundredsof kilograms of gear and a light projector. Their plan was to project images on to the rapidly receding Tasman Glacier. Brookfield says: 'We want to remind people of the effects humans are having on the environment'

State energy minister Don Harwin says mine that supplies Lithgow’s Mount Piper power station is ‘vital for energy security and affordability’The New South Wales government will introduce legislation to approve an underground coalmine that was blocked by the courts because it was polluting Sydney’s drinking water.On Monday the state’s energy minister, Don Harwin, announced the government would overturn a decision by the NSW court of appeal to block the extension of the Springvale colliery. Continue reading...

With pressure to boost recycling and cut costs, landfill waste in England is collected less frequently – with six councils collecting it once in three weeksMore than three quarters of English councils now pick up household rubbish which cannot be recycled or composted just once a fortnight, a survey reveals.With councils under pressure to boost recycling and cut costs, some have gone further, with six local authorities picking up residual household waste only once every three weeks. Continue reading...

It is no surprise the mayor of London wants to ban wood burning: even new stoves are much more polluting than the exhaust of a heavy goods vehicleBrowse through the home style magazines in your newsagent’s or watch Channel 4’s Grand Designs and you will see beautifully decorated living rooms complete with a roaring fire. Wood burning has become very fashionable and, let’s face it, a log fire is cosy.Natural gas central heating largely banished solid fuel and brought huge improvements in our urban air. For two decades the UK’s official energy statistics said that home wood burning was too small to be quantified, but under the radar it has been making a return. A 2016 government survey found that 7.5% of UK homes burned wood making up 30% of UK particle emissions. In London, one home in 12 burns wood, but this accounts for more than a quarter of the particle pollution produced in the capital. It is no surprise that the mayor of London, Sadiq Kahn, has called for powers to address this problem. Continue reading...

Birds reproduce only on three remote islands in Bass Straight and are listed as ‘vulnerable’ with just 1,500 breeding pairs remainingThe Tasmanian shy albatross has embraced the idea of settling down in an artificial, specially constructed nest, according to scientists who are trying to boost the population of the endangered seabird.

The black market’s insatiable demand for ivory has turned poachers’ attention away from well-protected elephants to more vulnerable hippos

A competition, now in its 43rd year, dedicated to showcasing the beautiful and bizarre as seen under a light microscope attracted over 2,000 entries from 88 countries. Here’s a selection of the winning and commended images from the 2017 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition Continue reading...

It’s time the responsibility for recycling was laid firmly at the door of the packaging manufacturersLitter brings out an urge in me to ban everything. Under my regime, straws would be outlawed. Plastic drinks bottles – only 57% of which find their way into recycling – would be verboten. But top of the list of banned items would be wacky recycling surveys.The latest, from Business Waste, highlights the craziest eco blunders found in the nation’s recycling bins. The list includes a car door, 1,000 Greenpeace badges (oh, the irony!) and a full Christmas dinner including plates, tablecloth, crackers and pudding. Continue reading...

ReachTel poll commissioned by Australia Institute shows people believe extending finance to coalmine would damage the country’s reputationPolling released on Sunday shows Australians are mostly opposed to Adani’s Carmichael coalmine, and even more strongly opposed to it getting any government assistance. Continue reading...

Of the millions of eggs laid by the endangered olive ridley sea turtles on one Costa Rican beach, few survive both predators and poachers. But how could allowing local villagers to harvest the eggs be a solution?Dawn on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast and the dark figure of a man at the water’s edge gradually becomes distinct under a pinkening sky. I switch off my torch. Jairo Quiros Rosales and I are the only people to be seen on this broad black beach, the volcanic sands of which stretch north for several miles. Jairo is beckoning, so I hurry down to him, scanning the beach and murky shoreline. As the light grows, I make out the funereal vultures flecking the distance, and assorted mutts appear from the gloom to sniff the night from the sands.And then I see them: about 100 metres further up the beach, like strange, regularly humped stones, hundreds of olive ridley sea turtles are making their way from the ocean on to the beach to lay their eggs. This is the arribada. It means “the arrival” in Spanish, and I have been waiting more than a month to see it. Continue reading...

About half of the power generated in the UK comes from low-carbon sources – here’s a breakdown of the four main sources of electricityAs one of the UK’s renewable energy chiefs has pointed out, electric cars won’t tackle climate change if they run off fossil fuels. Matthew Wright, managing director of Dong Energy UK, said that although plug-in cars could cut local air pollution, it would be a “pyrrhic victory” if they increased greenhouse gases from coal and gas power stations.“The fit between renewable energy and electric is a natural [one],” he argued. E.ON, one of the big-six energy suppliers, agrees: its dedicated new electric car tariff is supplied with 100% renewable power. Continue reading...

Campaigners say humans must address the huge hidden costs of industrial farming, such as wasted food and caloriesOur habit of feeding human foods, such as grain and soya, to farm animals will cost us $1.32tn (£1tn) a year by 2050 globally, according to environmental campaigners.The hidden costs of the industrial farming system are vast, and urgently need to be brought into clear focus, Peter Stevenson of Compassion in World Farming told the Extinction and Livestock conference in London. “There’s a worrying disconnect between the retail price of food and the true cost of production. As a result, food produced at great environmental cost can appear to be cheaper than more sustainably produced alternatives.”

Pentrefelin, Gwynedd Swirling sands made for a journey as perilous as the doctrinal disputes of the dark agesThe minor road climbs steeply to debouch on a rushy pasture between Mynydd Ednyfed and Bryn Braich y Saint. The views from up here are of startling breadth and loveliness. To the south the land falls away to where Afonnydd Glaslyn and Dwyryd spill into Tremadog Bay.Over on the southern shore, yews surround the clas (Celtic Christian monastic settlement) of Llanfihangel-y-Traethau. Continue reading...

Paula Kahumbu: The Global March for Elephants, Rhinos and Lions brings people in cities across the world together to demand action to save threatened wildlife from extinction

Thousands of people gather at 40 locations across the country on Saturday as part of the Stop Adani AllianceNew polling shows the majority of Australians oppose Adani’s proposed Carmichael coalmine going ahead, and an even bigger number are against Queensland allowing the company to receive a $1bn federal loan.

Readers respond to George Monbiot’s call for an end to raising animals for foodGeorge Monbiot’s fear of the few remaining British farmers (Goodbye – and good riddance – to livestock farming, 4 October) reached new levels when he wrote that the “rich mosaic of rainforest and other habitats that once covered our hills has been erased” and blamed us for the tectonic drift that moved Britain from the equator towards the Arctic, perhaps 300m years ago. In the rest of his article he mixed unrelated science from all over the globe with the peculiar claims of noted eccentrics, and suggested that we should plough unsuitable land to grow soya, which will not grow in this climate, to produce artificial meat in urban factories.He didn’t mention inconvenient features of the British ruminant livestock industry, such as the fact that most feed that animals get other than grass is made up of byproducts of the human food industry such as brewers’ grains, sugar beet and fruit-juice pulp, most of which would have to go to landfill if cows and sheep did not recycle it. Without the income from this form of recycling, the price of food in the shop would increase. We do need to moderate excessive meat consumption, and we do need to act on climate change, but this article sows confusion that will delay necessary change.

Conservationist who took on the ivory poachers to protect the African elephantWhen he was offered a leading role in the documentary The Ivory Game (2016) by its producer, Leonardo DiCaprio, the conservationist Wayne Lotter modestly gave the credit instead to his wildlife rangers, who led the way in tracking down one of Africa’s most notorious poachers, thought to be responsible for 10,000 elephants’ deaths. Lotter preferred to be in the background, while the spotlight fell on the cause for which he fought: saving the dwindling populations of Africa’s wild elephants, through practical, dogged, on-the-ground tracking of poachers and protection of their prey.Lotter has been shot dead in Dar es Salaam, aged 51. Although the identity of his killers is not known, the murder may have been connected to one of the criminal groups involved in wildlife killing and ivory trafficking in Tanzania. These groups have turned what used to be small-scale ivory poaching into a highly organised international criminal enterprise that exists mainly to service Chinese demand for ivory and other rare animal products. “The more you go after them, the more situations where there is confrontation between poachers and rangers will take place,” Lotter said last year. “There are going to be risks.” Continue reading...

Environmental health officers are urging consumers not to switch back to plastic following recent warnings that raw foods can spread harmful bacteria. So how can you keep your reusable bags hygienic?The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) is urging consumers to continue to shop for food with reusable “bags for life”, fearing that worries about the food poisoning risks could trigger a backlash and even a resurgence in the use of thin plastic bags. Continue reading...

Politicians may debate the merits of a cap on energy bills but making our leaky houses energy efficient is the solution that all political parties should unite behindAs the letters began to fall off the slogan behind Theresa May during her leader’s speech at the Conservative party conference, it was hard not to see symbolism. Not just of a premiership under threat, but also of a signature policy falling apart within hours of being announced.

Monarch refers to impact of Heathrow flight path on Frogmore House, on 70th anniversary of Gardeners’ Question TimeIn Queen Victoria’s day, the garden at Frogmore House in Windsor was a tranquil haven. It is less so for the present-day queen, it would seem.

The EU offered protection to everything from the harbour porpoise to hen harriers. Now, the future of UK conservation law is uncertain

EU laws that have protected hundreds of conservation sites and the species that live in them for decades could be watered down or lost with the EU withdrawal bill

EU opts for public awareness campaign on the impacts of plastics on the environment saying a tax would not be sustainableThe EU has ruled out penalties on single-use plastic products, in favour of raising public awareness of the damage consumer plastics are doing to the world’s oceans.Frans Timmermans, vice president of the European commission, said a tax would “not be sustainable”, but that changing the way plastic was produced and used could work. “The only sustainable method is to create recyclable plastic and take out microplastics. You can’t take out microplastics with a tax. You need to make sure things are reused, and not put in the ocean.” Continue reading...

A lost leopard, a wounded rhino and a sunbathing iguana are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Increasingly unfamiliar and unpredictable weather events mean that business as usual is not an option for these islands to surviveAs a Caribbean climate scientist, I am often asked to speak about how climate change affects small islands. In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, one of two category five storms to batter the eastern Caribbean in just a week, three words resonate in my mind.The first word is “unfamiliar”. Scientific analysis shows that the climate of the Caribbean region is already changing in ways that seem to signal the emergence of a new climate regime. Irma and Maria fit this pattern all too well. At no point in the historical records dating back to the late 1800s have two category five storms made landfall in the small Caribbean island chain of the eastern Antilles in a single year. Continue reading...

Indigenous leaders say operations in the remote Amazon violate rights and risk fatal epidemicsThere are more indigenous peoples living in “isolation” in Peru than any country in the world except Brazil. All live in the Amazon - the majority in poorly-protected reserves, or areas where reserves have been proposed but never established, or “protected natural areas” such as national parks.For years indigenous federations and other civil society organisations in Peru and abroad have worked for the territories of indigenous peoples in “isolation” to be made off-limits, citing Peruvian and international laws, emphasising their rights to self-determination, and stressing their vulnerability to contact because of their lack of immunological defences and the risk of epidemics and fatalities. The biggest dangers - in terms of outsiders entering their territories, exploiting resources and/or actively seeking contact - are oil and gas companies, loggers and logging roads, narco-traffickers, evangelical missionaries, Catholic priests, artisanal miners and highways.

Mayor has written to BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen urging them to contribute funding to help combat UK pollution as they have done in GermanyThe mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has written to three leading car manufacturers asking them to contribute to the fund set up to tackle the capital’s air pollution crisis.Khan has accused BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen of “double standards” after it emerged they had paid £223m to the German government’s Sustainable Mobility Fund for Cities earlier this year, but have given nothing to the UK. Continue reading...

World leaders must do more to defend custodians of natural world whose lives are at risk from big business, says UN rapporteur Victoria Tauli-CorpuzGlobal leaders must do more to protect indigenous people fighting to protect their land and way of life if the world is to limit climate change, according to the UN special rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz.Speaking ahead of key climate talks in Bonn next month she urged politicians to recognise that indigenous communities around the world were the most effective custodians of millions of hectares of forest “which act as the world’s lungs”. Continue reading...

The German city is working to shake off the coal dust of the industrial Ruhr, but will green tourism be profitable enough to regain its former economic strength?The shores of Baldeneysee, a ribbon of a lake that feeds into the Ruhr river near Essen, are busy. Schoolchildren cannonball into the water as sunbathers sit on beach chairs, nurse their beers and watch the paddleboarders pass by.

Current UK law allows trade in ‘antiques’ carved before 1947 but government bows to campaigners and will ban sale of ivory regardless of ageThe UK government has bowed to campaigners and will ban the sale of ivory regardless of age, according to a new consultation.The UK is the biggest exporter of legal ivory in the world and shutting down the trade will help prevent illegal ivory being laundered by criminals. More than 50 elephants are killed by poachers every day on average and the population of African elephants plunged by a third between 2007-14 alone, leading to warnings that the entire species could go extinct. Continue reading...

Accelerating rates of land clearing in Queensland are undermining Australia’s Direct Action greenhouse gas cutsAccelerating rates of tree clearing in Queensland are wiping out any cuts to greenhouse gas emissions the federal government has made through its $2.55bn Direct Action fund, according to the latest data released by the Queensland government.The results also point again to apparent holes in the federal government’s greenhouse gas accounting, as its official figures maintain that land clearing in Queensland is reducing, and that changes in land use across the whole country are cutting emissions rather than adding to them. Continue reading...

Dungeness, Kent This is an exposed environment, buffeted by maritime winds, the closest the UK gets to a desert. But lichen heath is taking holdThe vast shark’s tooth of shingle that is Dungeness protrudes into the strait of Dover. Though the sky is overcast, as I drive on to the promontory the light intensifies, reflecting from the sea on to the flint pebbles. It’s like walking into a room with glass walls.This is an ancient, undulating, beach dotted with old abandoned boats and sheds. Millennia ago the sea deposited 40 square kilometres of shingle here, sifting it into ridges of smaller pebbles and troughs of bulkier ones. Above the shoreline, Dungeness is a static shingle platform, a huge, flat cairn. Continue reading...

A wet July and August in Britain put a dampener on our midsummer butterfliesI am still seeing butterflies almost daily, sunning themselves when they can and feasting on late-flowering ivy. Most are red admirals, a large, dark and powerful presence sailing through autumnal skies or feeding on rotten fruit in orchards.It has been a vintage red admiral year, with numbers up by 75% on 2016 in Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count. But sadly it has not been a vintage butterfly summer. Continue reading...

Neonicotinoid insecticides are found in 75% of global honey samples and half contain a cocktail of chemicalsHoney from across the world is contaminated with potent pesticides known to harm bees, new research shows, clearly revealing the global exposure of vital pollinators for the first time.Almost 200 samples of honey were analysed for neonicotinoid insecticides and 75% contained the chemicals, with most contaminated with multiple types. Bees range over many kilometres to collect nectar and pollen, making the honey they produce an excellent indicator of the pesticide pollution across their local landscape. Continue reading...

26-year study reveals natural biological factors kick in once warming reaches certain point, leading to potentially unstoppable increase in temperaturesWarming soils are releasing more carbon into the atmosphere than previously thought, suggesting a potentially disastrous feedback mechanism whereby increases in global temperatures will trigger massive new carbon releases in a cycle that may be impossible to break.The increased production of carbon comes from the microbes within soils, according to a report in the peer-review journal Science, published on Friday. Continue reading...

Scientists confirm creatures discovered on Ball’s Pyramid in 2001 are the same species rats were believed to have killed off a century earlierScientists have confirmed that giant insects found on a rocky outcrop off Lord Howe Island are a genetic match for the island’s stick insects that were believed to have gone extinct almost 100 years earlier.The species were assumed to be one and the same. However significant morphological differences between the Lord Howe Island stick insects collected in the early 1900s and stored in museum collections, and the phasmids discovered in 2001 on Ball’s Pyramid (a remnant volcano about 23km off the main island), created a suspicion the latter could be a related species – rather than the original back from the dead. Continue reading...

WWF says alternatives to industrially farmed animal feed must be developed to stop biodiversity lossFarm animals could be fed on insects and algae, potentially preventing significant amounts of deforestation and water and energy waste, according to environmental campaigners.“We’re a bit squeamish about eating insects in the UK,” said WWF’s food policy manager Duncan Williamson at the Extinction and Livestock conference in London. “But we can feed them to our animals. We are going to need animal feed for the foreseeable future, but algae and insects are an alternative to the current system.”

People warned not to eat animals from the Heart Morass wetland, but fishing industry says ‘ranching’ practice may have already spread the threatPotentially carcinogenic firefighting chemicals discovered in a Victorian wetland may have been spread across the state because of a commercial fishing practice known as “ranching”.The Victorian Environment Protection Authority said testing by the Department of Defence had discovered “elevated” levels of per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances – commonly knows as PFAS – in animals from the Heart Morass wetlands near Sale in eastern Victoria. Continue reading...

Prince says catastrophic hurricanes are consequence of climate change and welcomes growing awareness of plastic pollutionThe world’s oceans are at last receiving the attention they deserve, as the scale of plastic pollution is finally becoming clear, the Prince of Wales has said, hailing this growing awareness as the first step to saving the marine environment.Prince Charles said it had taken years for the enormity of the problem to emerge, but promised to make it a key priority of his campaigning, alongside rainforests. Continue reading...

Response: an opinion piece by Laura Laker accused me of hypocrisy, but our review examining the law and cycling aims to make the roads safer for everyoneLaura Laker accuses me of “headline-grabbing hypocrisy” in relation to the safety of cyclists. That’s quite an extreme reaction to my announcement of a review whose specific purpose is to improve the safety of all road users, especially in relation to cyclists.As I made clear, the review will address two key issues. The first is legal: whether the law is defective in the case of bodily harm or death from a cyclist, and specifically whether, as the rule of law demands, there is an adequate remedy here. Our aim is to complete this work early in the new year. Continue reading...

Tokyo has targeted some 40 traditional gardens in need of immediate repair, with a team set to travel to Romania and the USTokyo plans to send green-fingered experts to every corner of the world on a mission to spruce up Japanese-style gardens that have fallen into disrepair.

WWF report finds 60% of global biodiversity loss is down to meat-based diets which put huge strain on Earth’s resources

Deputy premier brands Australia ‘deforestation hotspot’ after a 45% jump in her state’s reef catchment clearingQueensland underwent a dramatic surge in tree clearing – with the heaviest losses in Great Barrier Reef catchments – in the year leading up to the Palaszczuk government’s thwarted bid to restore protections.Figures released on Thursday showed a 33% rise in clearing to almost 400,000 hectares in 2015-16, meaning Queensland now has two-thirds the annual rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Continue reading...

Interior department had moved to delay to 2019 methane regulation governing oil and gas production on federal landRebuffing the Trump administration, a federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Interior Department to reinstate an Obama-era regulation aimed at restricting harmful methane emissions from oil and gas production on federal lands.The order by a judge in San Francisco came as the Interior Department moved to delay the rule until 2019, saying it was too burdensome to industry. The action followed an earlier effort by the department to postpone part of the rule set to take effect next year. Continue reading...

If we stop fighting change, Australia can be the land of endless energy powering generations of manufacturing industriesThe shift to decarbonise our economy is portrayed by opponents of such a shift as the death of Australia as an energy superpower.Nothing can be further from the truth. Continue reading...