Claxton, Norfolk: It was as if the field had uprooted and their calls were the landscape itself in full clamourOn any walk to the marsh I’m always struck how, with a single click of the closing door, the entire audible routine of the house interior – the ticking clock, the even hum of the central heating and fridge, the slow breathing of all that other civilised stuff – is washed away instantly by the sound tide of the outdoors.What we perhaps require as animals is release from that atmospheric certainty. Being outdoors permits an immersion in the unending and endlessly unpredictable music of nature, which the musician and naturalist Bernie Krause, in his book The Great Animal Orchestra, calls the “biophony”. Perhaps it is this that restores the default settings of our species. We have been attuned to the Earth’s wild song for 100,000 generations; why should we cease to want or need it after just 10 spent mainly indoors? Continue reading...

The planned investment is significantly higher than the previously announced target of $4.5bn by 2020Ford Motor Co will significantly increase its planned investments in electric vehicles to $11bn by 2022 and have 40 hybrid and fully electric vehicles in its model line-up, the company’s chairman, Bill Ford, said on Sunday at the Detroit auto show.The investment figure is sharply higher than a previously announced target of $4.5bn by 2020, Ford executives said, and includes the costs of developing dedicated electric vehicle architectures. Continue reading...

Wild flocks bred from aviary escapees pose threat to local species and ‘don’t just eat, they destroy’, mayor saysRegional councils in Western Australia are using fireworks, lethal gas, nets, and mass shooting to reduce the number of corellas, which are reportedly damaging buildings and destroying infrastructure.The culprits are primarily eastern long-billed corellas, Cacatua tenuirostris, which were introduced to WA as a popular aviary bird. Continue reading...

Action to combat unlicensed waste carriers to be taken after Environment Agency uncovers 850 illegal dumping sites in a yearHouseholds whose rubbish ends up being dumped illegally by unauthorised disposal companies could face fines under plans being considered by the government.Councils could be given the power to directly fine people caught using unlicensed waste carriers following a consultation by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Continue reading...

19 January 1918 Ducks waddled across to a narrow outlet, dabbled with their beaks, flopped in, and breasted away from the current, catching an odd flake as it fellSURREY

Decision hailed as huge step forward that will safeguard both the marine environment and the country’s lucrative dive tourism industrySome good news for the new year: in what has been called a huge step forward in protecting oceans and marine life, the Belize government has announced bold legislation to end oil activity in all of its waters.The move is designed to protect the fragile Belize Barrier Reef world heritage site, the second-largest in the world after Australia’s and home to 1,400 species, including endangered hawksbill turtles, manatees, rays and six threatened species of shark. Continue reading...

After wildfire and floods, nature has again taken its toll in California, from the rustic Verdugo mountains to Montecito’s celebrity homesJeanette Abney owns a big, fancy house and Elizabeth Terry rents a room in a boarding house. But this week they both ended up sleeping on cots in the same American Red Cross evacuation centre, sipping the same instant coffee, nibbling the same pastries and huddling under the same blankets. A rain-sodden poster at the entrance declared “disaster services”.Both women were in need. A storm had drenched the Verdugo mountains, a rugged, rustic outpost of Los Angeles, and unleashed a massive mudslide, forcing them to flee to an improvised evacuation centre in the San Fernando valley. Continue reading...

Vast 1.8m sq km fishing-free zone would protect species, such as penguins, leopard seals and whales, and help mitigate the effects of climate changeA global campaign is being launched to turn a huge tract of the seas around the Antarctic into the world’s biggest sanctuary, protecting wildlife and helping the fight against climate change.The huge 1.8m sq km reserve – five times the size of Germany – would ban all fishing in a vast area of the Weddell Sea and around the Antarctic Peninsula, safeguarding species including penguins, killer whales, leopard seals and blue whales.

Retailers and restaurants urged to sign up to new cross-European guidelines amid growing concerns over cruelty in intensive meat productionNew welfare standards for farmed chickens have been demanded by a large coalition of European animal protection groups, including the RSPCA, in a bid to address growing concerns about inhumane conditions in the intensive and large-scale production of meat.Supermarkets and restaurants are being urged to sign up to the new blueprint, which represents the first time a single set of requirements has been agreed on across the continent. Continue reading...

Theresa May’s new green strategy lacks regulatory bite, says Ray Georgeson, and, according to Maureen Evershed, is short on humility. Stephen Sibbald reckons an important problem has been ignored, while Peter Hames and Ros Cayton suggest ways to stamp out non-biodegradable coffee cupsIan Paul (Letters, 12 January), referring to plastics recycling, asks: “Surely we should urge government and private industry to build and develop plants to deal with the problem now, before we are knee-deep in bottles?” He is right, but we had started on this more than a decade ago, with world-leading recycling technology investment in plastic bottle recycling at Closed Loop in Dagenham, part funded by the government’s Wrap (Waste and Resources Action Programme) organisation, which produced the material to include recycled content in plastic milk bottles.This was a world first, establishing the use of recycled material in food-grade packaging. It foundered when the voluntary agreement between the dairies, brands, retailers and bottle-makers to use recycled content collapsed when the oil price fell and virgin material became much cheaper. Government failed to intervene to save the plant and the investment, for the sake of a price differential representing 0.1p on the cost of a two-litre milk bottle. All those responsible blamed each other, and the nation lost significant recycling capacity. Continue reading...

Dozen of planes near central London station to be felled in preparation for high-speed rail link developmentA protesting priest has been voluntarily unchained from one of 200 trees around Euston that HS2 is felling in preparation for the high-speed rail line.

Rockhopper penguins, bleeding heart baboons and a flying fox are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

North Sea curbs to last at least 21 months despite Michael Gove’s suggestion Britain would take back control of its watersThe EU’s insistence that quotas under the common fisheries policy for the seas around the UK will remain in force during a Brexit transition period has been backed up by the Norwegian government, dealing a fresh blow for Downing Street.Pers Sandberg, the Norwegian fisheries minister, said he expected talks between the EU, UK and Norway over fishing rights to be complex and likely to conclude at the end of a transition period. Continue reading...

Brazil is one of three Latin American countries with nuclear power. It also suffers from violent crime. Now a heavily armed gang has brought the two togetherFears over the security of Brazil’s two nuclear power plants have been raised after a heavily armed gang raided a secure workers’ condominium just a kilometre away and blew up two cash machines.About 10 men held security guards hostage at around 3am on Monday, robbed guests at a party in a private club then escaped in a waiting speedboat from the Praia Brava condominium for workers at the Angra 1 and 2 nuclear reactors, run by state company Eletronuclear. Continue reading...

Farlington Marshes, Hampshire: Thousands of waders and other birds exploded into flight, blossoming across the sky like fireworks

Australian beekeepers have challenged a UK ruling giving their trans-Tasman rivals sole rights to use the coveted termA trans-Tasman fight has erupted over which country has the right to claim lucrative manuka honey as its own.Manuka honey is produced from bees feeding on the pollen of the Leptospermum scoparium plant; known as “manuka” in New Zealand, and “tea tree” in Australia. Continue reading...

One bull shark caught during November and December period along with marine turtles and raysNew South Wales shark nets caught just one targeted shark but continued to kill protected species this summer, a result environmentalists have described as “unfathomable”.

Despite administration of antivenom, 24-year-old died within an hour of being bitten on the finger in NSW backyardA man is dead after he was bitten by a brown snake while trying to help his dog in the north-west of New South Wales.

Economists say city’s status as financial and cultural giant means move to sever ties with fossil fuel will catalyze others in US and around the world to follow

Britain should follow China’s example on renewables, writes Feargal Dalton, and Ian Paul urges the UK to step up to the recycling challenge. Neil Sinclair wants a fossil fuel-free February, while Grace Hewson wants a plastic-free newspaperIn view of the appalling revelations that the UK has been shipping vast quantities of plastic to China for many years (Editorial, 8 January), would it not be a good idea to have the UK lead once more in something and have genuine recycling plants set up here in the country? I mean genuine plants to process plastic from the UK and the rest of Europe, not just depots for onward reselling as seems to have been the case.There are initiatives to use such waste plastic in innovative ways. For example there is a small startup company in Scotland, MacRebur, developing ways to reduce the amount of toxic bitumen in asphalt by substituting a proportion of waste plastic into the mix. Surely we should urge government and private industry to build and develop plants to deal with the problem now, before we are knee-deep in bottles?

In response to letters about plans for a new northern forest, a defence of the Woodland Trust’s policies from Dr James Paterson, and a prediction of more leaves on the line from Paul BirchallThe response in your letters section to the northern forest raised some useful points (Development for the north? Let them eat wood, 9 January). However, drawing parallels between the Woodland Trust’s native woodland policy and xenophobia demonstrates ignorance of the ecology and the conservation of semi-natural woodlands. Britain’s native woodlands are so diverse because of the association and dependency of species that have co-evolved over several thousand years.The accusation that we create “plantations of birch and rowan and field maple, producing scrub rather than woodland” couldn’t be further from the truth (and, by the way, scrub habitat has huge conservation value). We use local tree and shrub species to create diverse, functioning and resilient habitats for biodiversity and local communities. Continue reading...

The strategy ignores a critical issue: the more our economy grows, the more we’ll inevitably consumeIt’s as if it were written with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. In terms of rhetoric, Theresa May’s 25-year environment plan is in some ways the best government document I’ve ever read. In terms of policy, it ranges from the pallid to the pathetic.Those who wrote it are aware of the multiple crises we face. But, having laid out the depth and breadth of our predicaments, they propose to do almost nothing about them. I can almost hear the internal dialogue: “Yes, let’s change the world! Hang on a minute, what about our commitment to slashing regulations? What about maximising economic growth? What would the Conservatives’ major funders have to say about it? Oh all right, let’s wave our hands around instead.” Continue reading...

Residents say they have been pushed into taking direct action to save the 200 trees around train station in central LondonA priest is to chain herself to a tree outside Euston station in central London in a protest against the felling of more than 200 trees around the station to make way for the HS2 rail line.Dozens of giant London plane trees in Euston Square Gardens are among those earmarked to be cut down to provide temporary sites for construction vehicles and a taxi rank displaced by work at the station. Continue reading...

The PM has finally made the environment a priority. But past double-dealing damages confidence in the government’s eco plan proposalsThe government’s new 25-year plan conjures up an environmentalist’s dream, from huge new nature reserves to protecting our long-neglected but life-giving soils. The nation’s beleaguered wildlife, toxic urban air and polluted waters certainly need it.The question is whether turning the plan into reality will become a political nightmare when confronted with vested interests or lack of Treasury funds. Such ghouls have shattered far less ambitious goals in the past. Continue reading...

Fresh offer of ‘substantial investment’ from Welsh first minister raises hope for clean energy plan getting a green light from WestminsterPlans for a £1.3bn tidal power lagoon in Swansea could still be backed by ministers despite government indecision on whether to support it, according to the author of an independent review on the project.Charles Hendry, a Conservative politician and former energy minister, enthusiastically supported the scheme a year ago as a source of clean power and UK jobs. Continue reading...

Home and kitchenware shops report growth in sales of portable mugs as government hints at a tax on disposable cupsSales of reusable coffee cups are soaring in the UK, retailers are reporting, as the government hints at a tax on disposable cups.Argos, which is part of the Sainsbury’s Group, said it had sold 537% more portable cups in December 2017 than the same month the previous year. Meanwhile, kitchenware chain Lakeland reported an increase in sales of more than 100% month-on-month, homeware company Robert Dyas reported a 50% lift year-on-year. Continue reading...

Moves to cut plastic, create a new environmental watchdog and boost wildlife habitats are among the new measures

Environmental groups welcome ambition but say 25-year promises must be backed by force of law, money and new watchdog

The home of Wall Street announced on Wednesday that it will be divesting its massive pension fund from fossil fuels. That hits fossil fuel giants where it hurts

PM declares war on scourge of plastic waste as she unveils much-heralded 25-year environmental planTheresa May has announced a war on plastic waste, with proposed policies including plastics-free aisles in supermarkets and a tax on takeaway containers.The prime minister set out her ambition to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste within 25 years in a speech on Thursday in which she promised the UK would lead internationally on environmental issues. But campaign groups said the aspirations would need to be backed up by legislation. Continue reading...

Crackdown on manufacture and sale of product will cut Scotland’s contribution to marine plastic pollution by half, says expertThe Scottish government plans to ban the manufacture and sale of plastic-stemmed cotton buds in a move that will cut the country’s marine plastic pollution by half, according to campaigners.Related: Plastic microbeads ban enters force in UK Continue reading...

From immigration to the environment and recreational cannabis, state leaders and activists are finding paths to circumvent the administration. Will it work?California prides itself on being first with progressive laws on climate change, labor rights and marijuana. In 2018, the Golden State’s “firsts” are defensive – bold proposals and legal maneuvers to protect citizens from Donald Trump.State leaders have pushed legislation and lawsuits to circumvent and undo Trump’s agenda on immigration, the environment, internet freedom and other liberal causes. One of the most consequential victories came Tuesday when a judge in San Francisco blocked the Trump administration’s plan to end a program that allows 800,000 undocumented people to study and work in the US. Continue reading...

Public advised to steer clear of wild boar after Clive Lilley, 53, was attacked in Gloucestershire while walking his dogWalkers in south-west England have been advised to steer clear of wild boar after a man reported that the tip of his finger was bitten off by a large hog.Clive Lilley, 53, said he was attacked by the animal as he took a morning stroll with his labrador down a woodland track in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. He said the boar burst out of undergrowth and ripped off the top of his right forefinger. Continue reading...

Modest pollution in many English rivers is enough to kill 80% of eggs, increasing concerns over insects which are vital to all ecosystemsModest levels of pollution found in many English rivers are having a devastating impact on mayflies, new research suggests, killing about 80% of all eggs.

Following the success of Elon Musk’s 100-megawatt battery in South Australia, another battery and renewable power plant are in the worksAustralia’s renewable energy sector responds to the success of South Australia’s Tesla lithium ion battery. South Australia will build the world’s largest solar thermal plant, and a Queensland wind farm may be the site of a new record-breaking battery.The Aurora solar plant in Port Augusta, SA, will begin construction this year, and is slated to provide 100% of the state’s electricity needs by 2020, the state’s acting energy minister, Chris Picton, announced on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Sandy, Bedfordshire The family of swans has separated, the juveniles driven off by parents ready to breed againOn a snow-flecked night over the holidays, I slipped down to the river and paused on the bridge. Floating a little upstream were two brilliant white coracles: sleeping swans, each with its beak folded away in the well between its wings. Anchorless and rudderless, did they lay their heads on feather beds under the weir, in the dreamy expectation that they would wake at dawn in the mill pool? Some overnight sleeper.Only two swans. The last time I was here, there had been more – a whole family. It is the harshest, most necessary part of a territorial bird’s life that there should come a time when they drive away the young they so diligently nurtured. These birds had given theirs a Christmas present of solitude and self-reliance, and themselves the space to breed again. Continue reading...

Conservationists want to stop the birds – dubbed the world’s smartest parrot – from wandering onto roads and begging humans for foodBird experts in New Zealand have designed a special gym for the country’s playful alpine parrot to keep them away from some of the nation’s most dangerous roads.For the last couple of years contractors working on the road to Milford Sound in the South Island have captured footage of keas moving their road cones and equipment into the middle of the road when the workers knocked off overnight. Continue reading...

Government bans the practice of plunging live lobsters into boiling water amid fears the animals can feel painThe Swiss government has ordered an end to the common culinary practice of throwing lobsters into boiling water while they are still alive, ruling that they must be knocked out before they are killed.

At least 17 people have been killed, with the death toll expected to rise, after heavy rains caused a violent mudslide exacerbated by recent wildfire damage

Mayor Bill de Blasio: ‘It’s up to the fossil fuel companies whose greed put us in this position to shoulder the cost of making New York safer and more resilient’New York City is seeking to lead the assault on both climate change and the Trump administration with a plan to divest $5bn from fossil fuels and sue the world’s most powerful oil companies over their contribution to dangerous global warming.Related: Hurricanes and heatwaves: stark signs of climate change 'new normal' Continue reading...

Ryan Zinke confirmed Florida would be exempt from massive offshore plan – which other states claim is simply a favor for Republican governor Rick ScottGovernors of coastal states have urged the Trump administration to scrap its plan to usher oil and gas drilling into almost all US waters, in an unusual bipartisan backlash against the surprise proposal itself – and the controversial twist that suddenly saw Florida, alone, excused from going along with it.Related: Trump administration won't allow oil drilling off Florida coast Continue reading...

State oil company starts second phase of drilling in one of the world’s most biodiverse hotspotsEcuador’s state oil company has begun drilling the first of 97 planned wells inside a new field of the Yasuní national park, one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.The opening of the Tambococha-2 well has triggered fierce criticism from conservationists, who say President Lenín Moreno is backtracking on a promise to protect the Amazon and pay greater heed to the opinion of indigenous groups.

Lobby group aims to curb ‘misinformation from urban activists’ to show ‘potential of Australian minerals sector’The Minerals Council of Australia will continue hawking the benefits of coal-fired technologies, despite resources giant BHP threatening to pull out of the organisation over previous campaigns.The lobby group says it is hoping to counteract “misinformation from urban activists”.

Expansion expected of highly successful policy of charging 5p for each bag could be extended beyond large retailersThe 5p charge for plastic bags is expected to be applied to small shops under government plans to be unveiled by Theresa May this week as she seeks to tackle Britain’s “throwaway culture”.In a major speech on the environment, the prime minister will promise to hold consultations on removing an exemption that allows retailers with fewer than 250 employees to continue to give out free bags. The levy on supermarkets and other large retailers resulted in a 90% decline in use, with nine billion fewer plastic bags being used. Continue reading...

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire As twitchy birds forage along the hedges, an almost path through the fallen trees leads to an ominous discoveryThis is a searching time. Blackbirds examine the ivy berries like jewel thieves. Thrushes poke through the mown grass of the Gaskell recreation ground with all the attention of the forensics team brought in to investigate the Spar robbery last month. The birds are twitchy, fossicking close to the hedge lines in case of attacks by sparrowhawks. Rooks are watchful and jackdaws group-speak up and down from the trees where blue tits, long-tailed tits and great tits work the branches as if picking tiny locks. A nuthatch chisels into a hazelnut to crack its secret.After the snow, after the gales, after Storm Whatshername emerged from a murmuration of thrashing wings to press her lips to the window and blow through the glass like a kazoo, the woods are in disarray. A few big trees have bought it, but mostly it’s the damsons around the old squat lines, blackthorn along lanes and hazel in derelict coppice that cracked and twisted in the winds. Continue reading...

IEEFA report says China will dominate international investment in renewable technology over the next several decadesChina is moving towards becoming a global leader in renewable technology as the US pulls away, a new report has said.China is the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and still invests in coal but in recent years it has become the largest investor in domestic renewable energy. The country is now on track to lead international investment in the sector, according to the report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). Continue reading...

In an abrupt reversal after announcing plans to expand offshore oil drilling, administration bows to opposition from Republican Florida governorThe Trump administration said Tuesday that it would not allow oil drilling off the coast of Florida, abruptly reversing course under pressure from the state’s Republican governor, Rick Scott.Interior secretary Ryan Zinke said after a brief meeting with Scott that drilling would be “off the table” when it comes to waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean off Florida. Continue reading...

The UK now has more offshore wind power capacity than any other country – but we need a plan B for ultra-cold winters with soaring energy demandsLast year was one of the greenest for power in the UK. Nearly one-third of all electricity came from renewable sources, and wind and solar provided more power than coal on 315 days of the year. Rapid growth in both solar and wind (the UK now has more offshore wind power capacity than any other country in the world) has enabled the UK to achieve these impressive statistics, but will the rise in renewables also make UK power more vulnerable to the whims of British weather?Researchers working on the European Climatic Energy Mixes project have been investigating future risk by assessing how the UK would fare with a repeat of the unusually cold winter of 2009-10. From mid-December 2009 a southward-displaced jet stream allowed cold air to pour in from eastern Europe, bringing widespread snow and plunging temperatures. The mean UK temperature for the entire winter was just 1.5C, the lowest since 1978-79 when it was 1.2C . As a result power demand surged, with electricity consumption between 10 and 20% above average on a number of occasions. Continue reading...

The rewards are uncertain and time limited. Massive investment in a short-lived fuel may not make business senseJust a few short years ago, fracking – the underground extraction of gas from rock – was to revolutionise Britain’s energy production as it has transformed it in the US. Under David Cameron and George Osborne, it was to produce the fuel that would build a bridge from the high-carbon past to the no-carbon future. Just 18 months after the two leading politicians of their generation quit the scene, fracking’s prospects are uncertain. Now companies are preparing for a make-or-break year. On Tuesday Cuadrilla won permission from West Sussex county council to test for oil at its site in Balcombe, where five years ago hundreds of local protesters saw off the company’s efforts to explore its potential. Cuadrilla may read this as a positive message, and insists it is not interested in fracking. But well-organised objectors do not believe the company, and it may be wise not count its chickens just yet.Another of the big four frackers, Ineos, has also aroused antagonism after a freedom of information request revealed at the weekend that while it had denied in public that it wanted to prospect for gas beneath the scientifically sensitive parts of Sherwood Forest, it has in fact now acquired permission to do just that. It has also announced a legal challenge to Scotland’s fracking ban. Meanwhile, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is imminently expected to approve fracking by the oil and gas company Third Energy at a site in North Yorkshire. It would be the first well to be fracked in the UK since 2011. It would also be a leap of faith. After the activism of the Cameron-Osborne years, Theresa May has shown no interest. She abolished the climate change department, and sounds more concerned about cheaper energy than cleaner energy; last October’s Clean Growth strategy failed to mention fracking at all. Yet Britain is committed to huge cuts in carbon emissions by 2030 – a 57% reduction on 1990 levels. The role for shale gas needs explaining. There is a chance that what might have been a useful stopgap on the road to zero-carbon energy is running out of road to secure a return on the large investments already made. Continue reading...

Readers respond to the government’s pledge of £5.7m towards the creation of a northern forest stretching from Liverpool to Hull, and to a report on agroforestryThe government’s tossing a few million towards a grand £500m “northern forest” (Government pledges £5.7m for northern forest, 8 January) is an example of the puny tokenism operating today, where acts of vandalism against our precious environment, such as HS2, can be so casually “offset”. HS2 is a folly, the stubborn imposition of a luxury fairground ride built over never-to-be-seen-again landscapes.Improve what we have, protect the things that are good around us, cancel HS2. And for sure, plant some more trees (and not just pine and spruce, please – we don’t want more Forestry Commission-style bland industrial forestry). There are thousands of acres of aristocratic grouse-shooting estates all over the North Pennines and North Yorkshire, where trees are not allowed because they spoil all the fun of the chase. Wonderful places to plant some new trees, if the Tories really are suddenly into tree-planting.