About 10,000 villagers have fled their homes after surge in seismic activity around mountain stokes fears of eruptionIndonesian authorities have raised the alert level for Mount Agung volcano in Bali to its highest degree after a surge in seismic activity around the mountain sparked fears of an eruption.Approximately 10,000 villagers had left their homes around the volcano, officials said. It was the third time in little more than a week that the alert level had been raised. Continue reading...

A rare rhinoceros under constant protection, an albino orangutan, and protected pandas are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Damning assessment by one of the UK’s chief scientific advisers says global regulations have ignored the impacts of ‘dosing whole landscapes’ and must changeThe assumption by regulators around the world that it is safe to use pesticides at industrial scales across landscapes is false, according to a chief scientific adviser to the UK government.

Authorities in Australian coastal town will exhume the body of the 20-tonne humpback over fears it is attracting sharksAuthorities in the Australian coastal town of Port Macquarie will dig up the carcass of a 12-metre, 20-tonne humpback whale from a local beach and dump it in landfill because of fears the animal is attracting sharks.On Friday, officials at the Port Macquarie Hastings Council announced that the body of the whale, which was buried as an “option of last resort” after it washed up on Nobbys Beach in the beach town in New South Wales on Sunday, would be removed following an outcry from local residents. Continue reading...

Sceptics prefer to reject regulations to combat global warming and remain indifferent to the havoc it will wreak on future generationsFrom my vantage point outside the glass doors, the sea of grey hair and balding pates had the appearance of a golf society event or an active retirement group. Instead, it was the inaugural meeting of Ireland’s first climate denial group, the self-styled Irish Climate Science Forum (ICSF) in Dublin in May. All media were barred from attending.Its guest speaker was the retired physicist and noted US climate contrarian, Richard Lindzen. His jeremiad against the “narrative of hysteria” on climate change was lapped up by an audience largely composed of male engineers and meteorologists – mostly retired. This demographic profile of attendees at climate denier meetings has been replicated in London, Washington and elsewhere. Continue reading...

When Amsterdam removed signals from a busy junction, it made journeys faster and interactions more pleasant. Now the approach is being copied across the cityOn a foggy Monday morning in May 2016, 14 Amsterdam officials, engineers and civil servants gathered nervously at Alexanderplein – a busy intersection near the city centre with three tramlines – where many people were walking, driving, and, as in any Dutch city, riding bicycles. With a flip of a switch, the traffic controls were shut off for all transport modes, in all directions.This live pilot project came about as a result of the rapid growth in cycling in some Amsterdam neighbourhoods. Nearly 70% of all city centre trips are by bicycle, and more space is needed on the bike networks. Traffic designers are deviating from standard design manuals to accommodate this need. Among the tactics being used are the removal of protective barriers, altering light phases, reducing vehicular speed limits and designating entire corridors as “bicycle streets”. Designers have created their own toolbox of solutions for other Dutch cities to use.

Killing of the 5.2-metre male reptile, one of the biggest ever seen in the state, could spark a dangerous battle for dominance between remaining crocodilesA massive saltwater crocodile – said to be one of the biggest ever seen in Queensland – has been found shot dead and experts fear its demise could lead to other crocodiles becoming more aggressive as young males fight for supremacy.Police and state environmental officers are investigating after the 5.2-metre male reptile was found with a bullet in its head in the Fitzroy river in Rockhampton on Thursday. Continue reading...

Magilligan Point, County Derry The botany of the spit was once so rich that it was known as the ‘medicine garden of Europe’The view from the top of the basalt outcrop of Windy Hill is sublime. Below, the flat expanse of Magilligan Point, County Derry, narrows into the distance as it almost reaches across the mouth of Lough Foyle to the heather-topped green hills and little white cottages of Donegal, six miles away.Most of the sandy spit has been converted into grazed farmland, the field boundaries following the lines of ancient sand ridges deposited as the point has grown since the last ice age. A half-mile wide strip along the western edge, facing the Atlantic, is still wild sand dunes, tall and rough. A stiff breeze blows up and over the rocky ridge and to the east dark grey storm clouds roll. Continue reading...

Paula Kahumbu: Enlightened conservation efforts are needed to save the world’s rhinos, combined with a total ban on trade in rhino hornToday, September 22, is World Rhino Day. Rhinos were once widespread across Asia and Africa and even in Europe, where they are depicted on cave paintings. Today their situation is precarious.The world population of the northern white rhino now consists of 5 individuals. Sudan, the last surviving male, is now beyond breeding age. He and two female companions are living out their lonely final years under the care of Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Continue reading...

Nuclear plant construction facing further delays as unions declare plans to ballot civil engineers in row over bonusesThe UK’s first new nuclear power plant for 20 years could be delayed again, after trade unions for construction staff working on the £20bn Hinkley Point C project announced a ballot for strike action in a dispute over pay.More than 95% of members balloted by GMB and Unite rejected a pay increase offered by the French energy company EDF and its contractor Bylor after months of discussions. Continue reading...

Of the about 400 pedestrians killed a year in the UK an average of just two are hit by a bike. Enforcing speeding limits on the other hand could help prevent 250 deathsSo there is to be an “urgent” review into whether the law should be changed to target dangerous cycling. This follows a campaign by Matt Briggs, whose wife, Kim, was killed when she was struck by a bike ridden by the now-jailed Charlie Alliston.The first thing to stress is that I understand completely why Matt Briggs feels the way he does. I’ve talked to him, and appreciate why charging Alliston under an 1861 law was unwieldy and caused long delays. Briggs is a thoughtful, intelligent man and I wish him well. Continue reading...

Eldorado Gold says progress has been made with government over issue of permits as miners demonstrate in AthensGreece’s biggest foreign investor has withdrawn its threat to pull out of the country in an apparent breakthrough over work permits as miners railing against the prospect of unemployment took en masse to the streets of Athens.George Burns, chief executive of the Canadian mining company Eldorado Gold, said enough accommodation had been reached over the issue of outstanding licences to allow “constructive talks” with the government over its future in the country. Continue reading...

Will Gardiner, the group’s chief financial officer, will take over in January as company focuses on gas, biomass and battery powerThe long-serving chief executive of the UK’s biggest power station is stepping down, as the North Yorkshire-based business continues its pursuit of a future beyond coal.Drax Group’s Dorothy Thompson will be succeeded by Will Gardiner, currently the chief financial officer, who will take over in January at a time when the company is eyeing a mix of gas, biomass and battery power to replace coal.

Fight to protect natural resources has become too dangerous in the face of violence from state forces, private security groups and state-sponsored vigilantes, say groups from 29 countries across Africa, Latin America and AsiaLand rights defenders from 29 countries have written to the UN asking it to act against violent corporate and state-sponsored groups which they say are threatening their lives and trashing the environment.Thirty nine grassroots groups from Africa, Latin America and Asia, many of whose leaders have been killed or forced to flee for protesting the theft of land, big dams mines and forest destruction, say their fight to protect natural resources is becoming too dangerous. Continue reading...

Combined solar and pumped hydro generator set to provide quarter of shortfall from Liddell power station’s closure• How an abandoned goldmine will be converted into pumped hydro storageA pumped hydro project that reuses an old goldmine in north Queensland is close to securing federal funding.The combined solar and pumped hydro generator is set to provide a quarter of the power needed to cover the shortfall from the closure of the Liddell coal-fired power station in New South Wales and can do it before 2021. Continue reading...

A day after Tony Abbott’s call for coal to be prioritised, the prime minister says the debate has seen too much ideology and ‘not enough competence’Malcolm Turnbull has rejected efforts to “dumb down” the energy debate into renewables versus coal, and says the government’s new investment framework will encourage “all of the above”.A day after a significant incursion by Tony Abbott into the energy debate – with the former prime minister arguing the government should not support renewables and should instead prioritise coal-fired energy for grid security – Turnbull said the energy debate had seen too much ideology and “not enough competence”. Continue reading...

Blanchland, North Pennines Seemingly in a trance, the reptile lay outstretched on the road with predator bites near its headWhen I was a child there was a sheet of rusting corrugated iron lying on the sunny bank of my grandmother’s allotment. If I lifted it quickly I could often find a slowworm resting underneath. It would lie there, startled by the sunlight for a moment, then glide away, like a flowing column of mercury, into the hedge.I have been an inveterate lifter of rusty corrugated iron sheets ever since, but although they are well recognised hiding places for these elegant reptiles I’ve rarely been lucky. Continue reading...

Rob Vertessy says attacks such as the claim the bureau was ‘fabricating temperature records’ are dangerous and wrongMisleading attacks on Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology by climate deniers in the Australian are “debilitating” to the agency and limiting its ability to predict risks and protect the community, the former head of the bureau has told the Guardian.Rob Vertessy, who retired as director of the BoM in April 2016, said climate deniers’ attempts to confuse the public about the science of climate change were dangerous, in an interview for the Guardian’s Planet Oz blog. Continue reading...

Officer alleged drains diverting water bought by the commonwealth to a dam on a cotton farm, an allegation denied by the land ownerA complaint from an environmental officer about water being diverted from environmental flows to sensitive wetlands in the Gwydir catchment in western New South Wales to a dam on a large cotton farm is still in limbo nine months later, despite a detailed brief and photographs being provided by one arm of the NSW government to another.Documents obtained by Guardian Australia show that an officer from the environment department’s north-western region contacted counterparts in WaterNSW in January to complain that they thought that newly graded drains were diverting water bought by the commonwealth and earmarked for environmental flows to sensitive wetlands around Mallowa Creek, west of Moree. Continue reading...

PM ranks US plan to withdraw from Paris treaty alongside North Korean nuclear tests as threat to global securityTheresa May has issued a veiled warning to Donald Trump, arguing that his plan to withdraw from the Paris climate change treaty ranks alongside North Korea’s nuclear missile tests as a threat to global prosperity and security.In a speech to the United Nations general assembly, the prime minister, whose authority at home has been severely tested since June’s general election result, sought to project her vision of a “rules-based” international order. Continue reading...

Michael Dourson, president’s nominee for EPA position, founded consultancy in which he was paid to criticize studies questioning safety of clients’ productsDonald Trump’s nominee to oversee chemical safety at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) faces questions over his history as a close ally to the chemical industry and suitability to be its chief regulator.Michael Dourson, the nominee, founded a consultation group in 1995, the Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment, a private evaluation nonprofit organization that tests chemicals and produces reports on which chemicals are hazardous in what quantities. Continue reading...

We should be worried about the flood-proofing of our nuclear power plants, says Sue Roaf, while David Bridgewater argues for nuclear fusion, rather than fission. Plus letters from Dr Kevin Purdy, Dr John Doherty and John StarbuckIn Agneta Rising’s defence of nuclear generation (Letters, 19 September), she claims that nuclear plants have to occasionally stop for repair and maintenance. But jellyfish also get into seawater inlets, as at Torness in 2011, causing week-long shutdowns. Seaweed can block inlets shutting reactors, and operator incompetence shuts reactors and compromises radioactive cores. Torness was even narrowly missed by a crashing RAF Tornado jet. Most worrying are not such transient manageable events but risks of systematic flooding of nuclear sites.Nine UK plants are assessed by Defra as currently vulnerable to coastal flooding (Report, 7 March 2012), including all eight proposed new UK nuclear sites and numerous radioactive waste stores, operating reactors and defunct nuclear facilities. EDF claims on its website that “to protect the Hinkley Point C station from such events, the platform level of the site is set at 14 metres above sea level, behind a sea wall with a crest level of 13.5 metres”. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 produced a maximum storm surge of 8.5 metres. It is predicted that sea levels may rise by a metre by 2100. The UK government cannot actually have believed in climate change or surely they would not put future generations at such risk? I bet they believe in it now. The question is: do they care? Is it really too late to stop a retrograde, potentially catastrophic and already unaffordable UK nuclear future?

Destruction may be less than Hurricane Irma’s but storm surge and flooding a real danger warns UK commanderBritish territories in the Caribbean are bracing for another big hurricane only a fortnight after the last devastating storm, with category 4 Maria threatening the British Virgin Islands.The US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said the storm had already unleashed sustained winds of 175mph, and the British Virgin Islands were expected to face winds of 155 mph. Continue reading...

Ten incidents involving wolf bites have been reported over summer in Judean desertIsraeli authorities are warning families with young children to take extra care after a series of wolf attacks on campers in the Judean desert.Ten incidents involving wolf bites were reported over the summer around the historic site of Masada and the popular spring at Ein Gedi. A number of the incidents involved young children, leading to fears that an Arabian wolf or wolves may be exhibiting predatory behaviour. Continue reading...

North Carolina’s hog industry has been the subject of litigation, investigation, legislation and regulation. But are its health and environmental risks finally getting too much?Rene Miller pokes a lavender-frocked leg out of her front door and grimaces. It’s a bright April afternoon, and the 66-year-old Miller, with a stoic expression and a dark crop of curls, braces herself for the walk ahead.

• This summer’s minimum is the eighth lowest on record

Our new paper illustrates the rapid, consistent warming of Earth’s oceans

A dramatic rise in owning exotic pets in China is fuelling global demand for threatened species. The growing trade in alligators, snakes, monkeys, crocodiles and spiders is directly linked to species loss in some of the world’s most threatened ecosystems Continue reading...

Findings leave researchers hopeful that understanding hearing preservation in birds could lead to new treatment possibilities for deaf humansIf ageing humans had ears like those of barn owls they would never need hearing aids, scientists have shown.The birds, whose sensitivity to sound helps them locate prey, suffer no hearing loss as they get older. Like other birds – but unlike mammals, including humans – they are able to regenerate cells in their inner ears. Continue reading...

Cotehele Quay, Tamar Valley Songs and shanties celebrate Cornwall’s fishers and farmers and raise funds to restore the barge ShamrockTide floods between mud banks and wind-blown purple reed flowers as the audience carry chairs into Shamrock’s shed. Earlier, high water washed debris across the quay and into the gig club’s yard, and the possibility of more rain precludes the outdoor venue of tonight’s concert by the Polperro Fishermen’s Choir.Inside the lofty slate-roofed building, beneath block and tackle sorted as stay, main and mizzen, we are entertained with songs and shanties; money raised will go towards repairs and maintenance of Shamrock, a renovated Tamar sailing barge. Continue reading...

Former PM reissues demand for new coal power stations: ‘If we can have Snowy 2.0, let’s have Hazelwood 2.0’Tony Abbott is reportedly threatening to cross the floor to vote against a clean energy target, warning Malcolm Turnbull it would be “unconscionable” for the government to do anything to further encourage investment in renewable energy.Abbott told Sky News on Tuesday evening the government had to address market failure by providing base-load power and building coal-fired power stations. Continue reading...

There’s plenty the public can do to help conservation, writes Austin Brady of the Woodland TrustIt’s not just in North America where ash trees face extinction (Report, 15 September). It’s now five years since ash dieback was first confirmed in the UK. The disease has now been recorded at more than 1,300 locations and is expected to kill many thousands of trees. The spread of emerald ash borer is already a growing concern in Europe. But positive steps are being taken. Planting more trees now, using a greater diversity of tree species, will help bolster the landscape against future losses. The Woodland Trust aims to plant 64 million trees over the next decade. The public can also help scientists detect the arrival of new pests. Observatree is a project by conservation bodies that has trained more than 200 volunteers UK-wide to do just that.

Vapour cloud formed after leak meant emergency services had to return to east of city, but health risk said to be minimalEmergency crews have attended a large-scale acid leak in Hull, which caused a vapour cloud to form over a dock in the east of the city.The fire service had initially warned nearby residents to close their doors and windows as a precautionary measure after a tank containing 580 tonnes of hydrochloric acid sprang a leak at the King George dock late on Monday. Continue reading...

My friend and colleague Duncan Huggett, who has died aged 52 of a brain tumour, kept his love of the natural world to the fore in his work with the RSPB, the Environment Agency and the Marine Conservation Society.At the Environment Agency he was the man people turned to when flood risk management ran into conflict with conservation, and his work there was fundamental in establishing a solid scientific base for future investments in natural flood management. Continue reading...

Schools in capital worst affected by air pollution are in most socially deprived areas with high levels of obesity, finds studyTens of thousands of the poorest children in London are facing a cocktail of health risks including air pollution, obesity and poverty that will leave them with lifelong health problems, according to a new report.The study found that schools in the capital worst affected by the UK’s air pollution crisis were also disproportionately poor, with high levels of obesity. Continue reading...

The human-waste bomb recently found clogging up a London sewer has an unlikely admirer – a Scottish renewable energy companyFor a 130-tonne mass of grease, bound as hard as concrete by thousands of tampons, wipes and used tissues, the Whitechapel fatberg is in surprisingly high demand.Last week, the Museum of London announced it wants to display a chunk of the human-waste bomb, recently unearthed in east London, as a way “to raise questions about how we live today”. Now, a Scottish biodiesel company is taking a piece to turn into fuel. Continue reading...

While Trump is quick to defend his Confederate forefathers, he has been equally swift to desecrate places held sacred by Native AmericansHistory and heritage are powerful words in American politics. In the United States, the Founding Fathers are second only to the apostles; the Constitution comes just after the Bible on the bookshelf and the Declaration of Independence is nearly as important an origin story as Genesis.Just days after bloody white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville last month, Donald Trump argued that a growing chorus of voices calling for the removal of Confederate statues would inevitably lead to the removal of monuments honoring the Founding Fathers – tantamount to heresy.

Mining giant will clarify how its position on climate and energy policy differs from the industry bodies to which it belongsThe giant Anglo-Australian miner BHP has agreed to reconsider its membership of the Minerals Council of Australia, as well as other industry groups, and to clarify how BHP’s position on climate and energy policy differs from those bodies.The move comes as BHP faces a shareholder resolution urging the company to terminate membership of bodies that demonstrate a pattern of advocacy on policy issues at odds with the company’s positions since 2012. Continue reading...

Coal-fired power station’s general manager says plant should not be extended beyond 2022 and new coal power stations do not make senseKeeping the Liddell coal-fired power station open beyond 2022, as Malcolm Turnbull has urged, could cost more than $900m, AGL says, with representatives of the energy company saying the station should be shut.In a tour for journalists, in which AGL spoke about the problems facing the ageing power station, the company revealed an independent study conducted in 2013 estimated it would cost $900m to extend its life until 2032. Continue reading...

Former prime minister says change would leave Bill Shorten and Labor ‘on the side of green extremists’Tony Abbott says the Coalition should dump the clean energy target to create political opportunity at the next election to sharpen a point of partisan difference with Labor.

Claxton, Norfolk Though I admire – and fear – spiders, I love bumblebees. To see this one so enmeshed required an effort of will not to interveneI saw them as I went to the bin. In the web of a female garden cross spider, a worker common carder bee hung upside down. The two were plainly engaged in combat and I crouched to observe the drama more closely.Yet there were more emotions at play in this encounter than mere curiosity. For although I admire spiders, I absolutely love bumblebees. To see this insect so enmeshed and at risk of being eaten required an effort of my will not to intervene. In his gloriously funny 1950 book The Spider, John Crompton admitted that he freed bees from webs without further ado. Continue reading...

Doctor says respiratory and cardiovascular implications of coal should be top of Australia’s energy debate and warns Adani mine threatens health of millionsThe health implications of coal-fired power should be a main concern in Australia’s debate over energy generation, doctors have argued.Speaking on the ABC’s Q&A program, the chair of Doctors for the Environment New South Wales, Dr John Van Der Kallen, asked panellists why health was not a primary consideration in the discussion over the closure of coal-fired power stations such as the Liddell plant in the Hunter Valley “when we know that the pollution from these coal-fired power stations contributes to respiratory and cardiovascular illness, as well as premature death?” Continue reading...

The US interior secretary has identified a total of 10 national monuments to reshape or repurpose in order to allow for logging, mining and grazing

In leaked memo, Trump interior secretary recommends 10 protected areas be modified to allow for ‘traditional uses’ such as mining, logging and huntingThe Trump administration faces a fresh legal battle from environmental groups after the interior department recommended that 10 national monuments be resized or opened up to mining, logging and other industrial purposes.

‘Less of an opportunity to clear the mind,’ is the verdict from Bidyadanga, where winter highs of 33C were replaced by 36C as records tumbled across the countryIt’s always hot in Bidyadanga but a few degrees can make a big difference in the remote Aboriginal community, about 190km south of Broome in Western Australia.“It’s always hot – it’s the desert – but the difference between 33C and 36C can be quite oppressive,” said Shaun Burgess, a teacher in the community. Continue reading...

Agneta Rising of the World Nuclear Association and Dr Alexander Bannara reply to criticisms of the industryRe David Lowry’s criticisms of nuclear energy (Letters, 17 September), it is true that nuclear plants stop generating temporarily for maintenance and repair, but the same is true for most other forms of electricity generation. However, on average these outages represent a much smaller quantity of lost generation compared to the day-to-day intermittency of wind or solar. Nuclear plants spend a high proportion of the time generating at their maximum capacity.On emissions, some proponents of both nuclear and renewables do fall into the habit of referring to their technologies as “zero-carbon”, even though there are some greenhouse gas emissions produced with all forms of generation. But there is remarkable academic agreement that the emissions from nuclear, wind, solar and many other non-fossil generation sources are similarly low per unit of electricity generated and these emissions are tiny fractions of those associated with burning coal and gas. We desperately need to cut emissions in our electricity mix to as low as possible. Continue reading...

Adam Rutherford may have compromised BBC’s impartiality by criticising Labour MP Graham Stringer, a climate change sceptic, standards team saysThe BBC has reprimanded the presenter of Radio 4’s Inside Science after he called on his Twitter followers to write to their local MPs about the reappointment of Graham Stringer, a climate change sceptic, to a parliamentary committee.Adam Rutherford “potentially compromised the BBC’s impartiality” by publicly criticising the Labour MP’s return as a member of the Commons science and technology committee, the broadcaster’s editorial standards team said. Continue reading...

Green Finance Taskforce to assist UK’s shift to low-carbon economy and be led by investors and leading figures from CityA new group led by investors and leading figures from the City of London has been brought together by the government to draw up measures to encourage “green finance” in the UK.The Green Finance Taskforce will have six months to come up with proposals on how to increase investment in the low-carbon economy and will work with banks and other financial institutions. Chaired by Sir Roger Gifford, former lord mayor of London, the taskforce will look at measures to make the UK’s planned investments in infrastructure, for instance on energy and transport, more environmentally sustainable. Continue reading...

Narendra Modi hits out at ‘misinformation campaign’ as environmentalists warn that 40,000 families’ homes are at riskA mega-dam that became one of India’s greatest environmental controversies during the three decades it was under construction has been formally declared complete by the prime minister, Narendra Modi.Activists have warned that 40,000 families across hundreds of villages will lose their homes as a result of the construction of the final stage of the dam and are yet to be adequately compensated. Continue reading...