Report reveals improvement but also details danger posed by tourist-generated pollution, oil extraction and climate changeJust below the surface of the turquoise sea, coral flutters majestically amid schools of puffed up porcupinefish and fluorescent blue and yellow angelfish.The gangly staghorn and fanning elkhorn corals are thriving in swimming distance of Laughing Bird Caye, a tiny Caribbean sandy islet in southern Belize, thanks to a restoration project that is yielding striking results. Continue reading...

The Sill, Once Brewed, Northumberland Planting at the National Landscape Discovery Centre aims to recreate the area’s rare whin grasslandsStanding on the roof of the Sill with the wind in my hair, I have a new view of familiar countryside. For years I’ve driven along Hadrian’s Wall, enjoying the way the land forms a series of waves like a frozen sea.Now, from the highest point of this building, I watch a buzzard circling above the Roman quarry at Barcombe Hill, see walkers labouring up the craggy steps at Steel Rigg, glimpse far-off bales in a recently cut hay field and cows tail flicking in the summer heat. Continue reading...

South Australian premier signals possible collaboration on alternative to clean energy target, and urges Turnbull to face down rightwing pressurePodcast: ‘They’re insatiable’ – Jay Weatherill on his clash with the CoalitionThe South Australian premier, Jay Weatherill, has renewed his warning that Labor-led state governments could go it alone on energy policy if the Turnbull government can’t resolve its internal battle over the clean energy target.If we are going to do it ourselves we might as well design the best system Continue reading...

Common moss changes shape in areas of high nitrogen pollution and drought and has potential to be big bioindicator, say scientistsDelicate mosses found on rocks and trees in cities around the world can be used to measure the impact of atmospheric change and could prove a low-cost way to monitor urban pollution, according to Japanese scientists.Moss, a “bioindicator”, responds to pollution or drought-stress by changing shape, density or by disappearing, allowing scientists to calculate atmospheric alterations, said Yoshitaka Oishi, associate professor at Fukui Prefectural University. Continue reading...

Environment Agency figures show severe incidents are weekly occurrence as farms struggle with cost of pollution prevention despite subsidiesSerious pollution incidents in the UK from livestock farms are now a weekly occurrence, leading to damage to wildlife, fish, farm livestock and air and water pollution.The Environment Agency in England and its devolved counterparts in Wales and Scotland recorded 536 of the most severe incidents between 2010 and 2016, the worst instances among more than 5,300 cases of agricultural pollution in the period across Britain. In England and Wales the figures relate to pig, poultry and dairy farms whereas in Scotland they refer to all livestock farms. Continue reading...

The Whittemores were hoping for an ‘idylllic lifestyle’ farming in Sussex. Instead, noxious byproducts from a biogas farm poisoned their landLynda and Richard Whittemore bought Quennells farm in the quiet Sussex countryside six years ago. They were hoping for what Lynda calls “an idyllic lifestyle”, tending their flock of 400 pedigree sheep and 45 cattle on 180 acres of farmland.“We have an undulating field at the back of the stream, winding to the other corner,” Lynda says. “Usually it has lovely clear water, with a gentle slope down to the water supply. It’s picturesque – the [livestock] don’t need troughs, they can walk down to drink the water.” Continue reading...

Saint-Gervais mayor warns that people who try to climb France’s highest mountain without proper kit face fines after series of deaths and accidentsFrench authorities are calling for police to enforce fines against climbers who attempt to scale Mont Blanc without proper clothing and equipment.The move follows a series of deaths and accidents on western Europe’s highest mountain. Earlier this month, a Hungarian woman and her nine-year-old twins were helicoptered off the peak by mountain rescuers. Continue reading...

Duchy of Cornwall was told in April that storm damage had left Crantock beach where Oneil Din died more dangerousPrince Charles’s private estate was repeatedly warned about the danger posed by a Cornish beach it owns before an incident in which a man died after being swept out to sea.Councillors told the Duchy of Cornwall as the summer season approached that someone could die at Crantock beach because storm damage had made the water more dangerous. Continue reading...

Campaign group Mighty Earth says aerial drones, satellite imaging and field research show farmers carried out forest-burning for fast food giant’s soy suppliersThe hamburger chain Burger King has been buying animal feed produced in soy plantations carved out by the burning of tropical forests in Brazil and Bolivia, according to a new report.Jaguars, giant anteaters and sloths have all been affected by the disappearance of around 700,000 hectares (1,729,738 acres) of forest land between 2011 and 2015. Continue reading...

Airedale, West Yorkshire Under one board are two young lizards, one buff, one a dramatic charcoal-grey; under another a dark-green frogIt’s all gone a bit quiet down by the river. The breeding season has petered out, and by and large the birds have retired from public life: to moult, to regrow, to regroup. It’s a drab, warm morning. One of the kingfishers hunches over the streaming shallows. A young bullfinch mopes in the low branches of an ash. Damp late-summer greenery – ferns, goosegrass, rosebay willowherb – chokes the pathways.

Goldfinches are common in our gardens nowadays. But there is something special about watching them in a wild settingThe tinkling sound is familiar now; as familiar as the chirp of sparrows used to be when I was growing up. In those days, the goldfinch was a special sight: one would occasionally visit our suburban garden, delighting us with its colourful plumage. I can still remember seeing for the first time the bird’s crimson face-patch and – when it flew – a sudden flash of gold in the wings.How things have changed – and in the goldfinch’s case, for the better. Today I see, or more often hear, goldfinches almost everywhere I go. They fly over our Somerset garden, distracting me as I sit and write; and are constant companions whenever I take the dog for a walk down the lane behind our home. Continue reading...

Reversal of ban shows ‘corporate agenda is king and people and environment are left behind’, say campaignersThe Trump administration’s decision to reverse a ban on the sale of plastic water bottles in some of America’s most famous national parks, including the Grand Canyon, shows “the corporate agenda is king and people and the environment are left behind”, campaigners have said.

Created by Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, the Cascade-Siskiyou monument protects Oregon’s extraordinary biodiversity, from butterflies to trout. But a Trump review threatens to open the landscape to the timber industryDave Willis, a grizzled woodsman and backcountry outfitter, has spent decades laboring to protect the mountains of south-western Oregon, one of the most beautiful, biodiverse regions in the country.Through grassroots activism, Willis and his conservationist allies have won the support of two US presidents. In 2000, Bill Clinton created the roughly 52,000-acre Cascade-Siskiyou national monument, proclaiming it an “ecological wonderland”. Located just outside of Ashland, it was the first such monument established solely for its extraordinary species diversity. It’s a place that harbors rare lilies and endemic trout, Pacific fishers and goshawks, black bears and a stunning array of butterflies. Continue reading...

The mining giant will give a critical results presentation this week, with activist investors lobbying impatiently for divestmentsIt has been a turbulent few years for BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining and petroleum company.First came the Samarco tragedy in Brazil, when the collapse of a dam at its iron ore mine unleashed a flood and killed 19 people. The company is still facing the prospect of criminal charges and a potential $47bn settlement over the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history. Continue reading...

Don’t get spooked by the pro-fossil fuel lobby: when we abandon petrol and diesel, our whole world is going to changeWhen it comes to cars, I had a bit of luck this summer. No, I wasn’t loaned the new Tesla Model 3. My street underwent a pavement improvement scheme. All the parking bays were suspended and minicabs no longer idled their engines during the night. I found myself living in an accidental Low Emissions Zone. It was wonderful.The best I can say about the anti-EV campaign is that it lacks imagination Continue reading...

Populations of gannets, puffins and other marine birds are in freefall, but a crucial scientific study to pinpoint the causes is being blocked, say expertsBempton Cliffs bird reserve was in fine fettle last week. The last of its population of puffins had departed for the winter a few weeks earlier, while its thousands of young gannets were still being cared for by their parents on the chalk cliffs of the East Yorkshire nature site. For good measure, kittiwakes, cormorants and fulmars were also bathing in the sunshine.Related: We must stop seabird numbers falling off a cliff. After all, we’re to blame | Adam Nicolson Continue reading...

Pressure is mounting against multi-faceted smugglers but the legal case, though strong, is enormously complexLate on 6 June 2014 Kenyan police, acting on a tip-off, raided a used car lot in Mombasa’s industrial area. Inside Fuji Motors East Africa Ltd, in one of the lock-ups, they found two tonnes of ivory.Days earlier a white Mitsubishi truck, its paperwork claiming “household equipment” but in fact carrying more than 300 elephant tusks secreted beneath a tarpaulin, had pulled into the yard on Mombasa Island’s dirty northern fringe, far from the tourist hotels and beaches for which the city is famous. Continue reading...

New Forest, Hampshire Marsh flowers provide nectar for a long list of species, from marmalade hoverflies to silver-washed fritillariesThe New Forest rides, named long before many were gravelled to allow cyclists and others ease of access, cut through the inclosures and plantations, serving as motorways for the many small creatures that abound in these woodlands.Much of the colour here in earlier months has gone. The golden yellow rays of marsh ragwort, Jacobaea aquatica, a plant quickly distinguished from its prolific commoner relative J vulgaris by its broader florets and leaves with a spade-like end, stand out more radiantly because there is so little competition. Continue reading...

Federal government calls for more areas to be placed in reserve to protect the huge crayfish, the world’s largest invertebrateThe federal government has called for more areas of north-west Tasmania to be placed in reserve as part of a conservation plan designed to protect the endangered giant freshwater crayfish.The crayfish, Astacopsis gouldi, can weigh up to 6kg and live for 60 years. Commonly called the giant freshwater lobster, it is the largest invertebrate in the world and endemic to the cool rivers of northern Tasmania, although habitat restriction and poaching have forced it to retract to areas west of Launceston. Continue reading...

A police insider has told the Guardian that the killers of Wayne Lotter may have been following him

Clouds cool the planet by reflecting solar energy back to space and also trap heat and radiate it back to Earth. In a Yale Environment 360 interview, physicist Kate Marvel discusses the double-edged effect clouds have on rising temperaturesClouds perform an important function in cooling the planet as they reflect solar energy back into space. Yet clouds also intensify warming by trapping the planet’s heat and radiating it back to Earth. As fossil fuel emissions continue to warm the planet, how will this dual role played by clouds change, and will clouds ultimately exacerbate or moderate global warming?Kate Marvel, a physicist at Columbia University and a researcher at Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, is investigating the mysteries of clouds and climate change. And while she and her colleagues would like to offer definitive answers on this subject, the fact is that few now exist. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, she discusses what is known about the behaviour of clouds in a warming world (they are migrating more toward the poles), why strict controls need to be imposed on geoengineering experiments with clouds, and why she is confident that science and human ingenuity will ultimately overcome the challenge of climate change. Continue reading...

Brown bears fishing, a rare white moose, and a puma found in a São Paulo office block are among our images from the natural world this week Continue reading...

Lib Dem leader Vince Cable questions UK’s commitment to environmental projects after GIB sale to Australian bank MacquarieThe government is facing renewed criticism after pushing through the “disastrous” sale of the Green Investment Bank (GIB) to the Australian bank Macquarie, as fresh concerns are raised over its commitment to environmental projects.A consortium led by Macquarie agreed to buy the GIB, which was established in 2012 by the coalition government to fund green infrastructure projects such as windfarms and a waste and bioenergy power plant. The consortium also includes Macquarie’s in-house infrastructure fund and the Universities Superannuation Scheme, a pension fund for British higher education institutions. Continue reading...

As Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash face high court cases over citizenship, the constitution says parliamentarians cannot be ministers if not validly electedLabor has opened a new front in the Turnbull government’s citizenship crisis, raising the prospect that ministers may be unable to validly execute their ministerial duties under the constitution while there is a question about whether they have been validly elected.

Minninglow, Derbyshire The Y Not festival site is still a mess, but a walk along the High Peak Trail underlines the resilience of natureAt the top of Gratton Dale, turning into Mouldridge Lane, the familiar white-walled pasture had been transformed. Diggers and tractors swarmed across the fields, beeping frantically. Grass had been churned up everywhere, and serried ranks of portable loos leaned like wearied soldiers. I was baffled. Was this some sort of war re-enactment?Then I saw the word TONY spelled out in giant letters in the middle of the busiest field, only the Y was drooping and the N was the wrong way round. Continue reading...

From elephant shrew to Tibetan antelope and the two towers of Antarctica, here are the best wildlife and nature photographs from this year’s competition Continue reading...

Alison McKenzie, whose husband Glen Turner was killed by a farmer, is ‘horrified’ broadscale tree clearing could return in NSWThe widow of a New South Wales environment officer murdered over his role in overseeing tree-clearing laws has asked the state government to reconsider deregulation that would see “the value of his life diminished”.Alison McKenzie said her family was “horrified” that changes would allow a return to broadscale clearing that her husband Glen Turner “gave his life trying to prevent”. Continue reading...

State mines minister rejects two applications at reserves west of Cape Tribulation which campaigners say should set a precedentThe “archaic” practice of mining rivers in north Queensland is making a mockery of Australia’s key policy to protect the Great Barrier Reef, wasting multimillion-dollar efforts to cut runoff pollution, its opponents say.“Instream” mining in Queensland, the only state still allowing the excavation of rivers for gold, tin and silver, is unleashing torrents of fine sediment in one of the reef’s largest catchments. Continue reading...

Elusive and endangered white-letter hairstreak discovered in a field in the Scottish borders could become the 34th species to live and breed in the countryScotland has a new species of butterfly: the elusive and endangered white-letter hairstreak has been discovered in a field in Berwickshire, 100 metres from the English border. Continue reading...

Qualified graduates are struggling to find paid jobs and many give up to pursue a different career. The result is a net loss for conservation work, reports MongabayNika Levikov swore she would never work as a waitress again. But, today — with a master’s degree in conservation science from Imperial College London — she’s taking orders, delivering drinks, and cleaning tables to support herself. Continue reading...

Supermarkets selling out-of-date produce and apps that identify food at risk of being binned are part of an ambitious plan to slash the nation’s food waste“They might not taste quite the same,” says Naeeh Ahmed, 37, holding up for inspection a pack of Old El Paso soft tacos. The tower of boxes in front of him are three weeks past their best before date but Ahmed, operations manager at the Best Før supermarket in Oslo, says they’ll stay on display for a good few weeks yet. The same goes for the chocolate biscuits precariously piled up in the display – four weeks past their best before date – and the packs of Tassimo coffee pods that should have been sold in April. But all the prices reflect the product’s age: half-price for the tacos, two-thirds off the biscuits and, at 30 kroner (£3.66) for 32 pods, the coffee is also less than half its regular price.It would be hard to find cheaper food in Oslo than that sold at Best Før. They flog the stuff that no one else has been able to get rid off. Products whose season has passed, or which have been overproduced, have been arriving at this small store since October last year when the mainstream Lentusgruppen supermarket chain heeded the call of the Norwegian government and decided to take food waste seriously. They established an offshoot in Oslo, the first of its kind in the city, selling the stuff other stores and suppliers throw away. It’s all up front – the shop looks like any other, but a large sign informs customers of the slightly different nature of the food down their aisles and in the chillers, which includes chicken fillets frozen a couple of days before going off. Continue reading...

Exclusive: NGOs urge audit following Wayne Swan’s warning Naif risks ‘misallocating billions of dollars’ in loan for Adani’s mine rail linkThe controversial Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, which is mulling a $900m loan for a rail link for Adani’s Carmichael coalmine, may be investigated by the auditor general.The potential inquiry by the auditor general, who has wide-ranging access and information-gathering powers, follows interventions from a former federal treasurer and environment groups.

The Ride of the Falling Rain on the Hebridean island of Islay has no entry fee, route card or medals, but its laidback, friendly vibe keeps riders coming back despite the weatherThe Ride of the Falling Rain is an annual cycling event on the Hebridean island of Islay that proudly describes itself as “anti-sportive”.Held on the first Sunday in August, there is no entry fee, no feed stations, no timing chips and no medal or certificate at the end. Yet in its 14-year history, it has attracted a hard core of regulars who travel from all over the UK. Continue reading...

Prof John Underhill argues that geology is fundamental but has been forgotten in assessments of UK’s shale gas capabilityFracking for oil and gas in the UK may produce much less fuel – and profits – than has been mooted, according to research based on seismic imaging of the country’s underlying geology.Most of the areas in which deposits of onshore “unconventional” gas and oil are likely to be found were affected by tectonic activity along the Atlantic plate about 55m years ago. Continue reading...

Microgrids, promising energy self-reliance for communities, are growing in popularity as they become more affordableResidents of a social housing complex in Brooklyn, New York, can’t stop another tempest like Superstorm Sandy from crashing through their city, but they can feel secure that it won’t cause a power cut.In June, the 625-unit Marcus Garvey Village cut the ribbon on its very own microgrid, a localised network of electricity production and control. Rooftop solar panels produce clean power when the sun is up; a fuel cell takes in natural gas and churns out a steady current all day; when it’s more valuable to save the electricity for later, the largest lithium-ion battery system on New York City’s grid does just that. Continue reading...

Daddry Shield, Weardale The architecture of the flower choreographs the insects’ movements, making pollination likelyThe footpath to St John’s Chapel, through hay meadows long since cut, follows the south bank of the Wear. Today the water was shallow and clear. But after heavy rain in the upper dale the river becomes a torrent and it has eroded small terraces so stony and steep they are never cut at hay time. These places are refuges for a late-summer flora of Campanula rotundifolia, harebells as blue as the sky overhead.It’s a place to sit among the flowers on an afternoon when summer seems to be slipping past too quickly. Continue reading...

Sheffield’s protesters need to be aware of the danger of trees falling over, writes Paul FaupelThe sudden collapse of a 200-year-old oak in Madeira, killing 13 and injuring many others (Report, 16 August), is a salutary warning to the tree protesters of Sheffield (Report, 16 August). Local authorities and other custodians of parklands and highways have a duty to ensure that trees do not endanger the public when they deteriorate through age or disease. Inspecting trees is a specialist task best carried out by trained professionals. Doubtless Sheffield city council has been doing just that. If a tree collapsed on the protesters or damaged their properties they would be protesting against the council, and more likely suing them, for failing to safeguard them. The hapless council is damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t take action.

Three wildlife rangers at DRC’s Virunga national park were killed this week in an ambush by Mai Mai rebels, bringing this year’s fatalities to eight

Exclusive: Nearly 12m barbecues in the UK likely to over-cater with food ranging from salads to burger rolls ending up in binsIt’s symbolised by dismal burgers and carbonised sausages served on paper plates with a splatter of ketchup. Yet with the great British summer well under way, Britons are this month set to throw away a staggering £428m worth of barbecue food, research reveals.In August the nation will brave the changeable weather to enjoy nearly 12m barbecues, with people on average either hosting or attending at least two of the seasonal gatherings. The new research from supermarket chain Sainsbury’s shows that hosts typically over-cater to impress friends and family, with more than half (49.2%) putting on a larger than necessary spread.

ABC’s Four Corners report alleging illegal dumping in Queensland needs scrutiny, Peter Whish-Wilson saysThe Australian Greens will push for a Senate inquiry into illegal waste dumping following damaging revelations on the ABC’s Four Corners program last week.Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson says federal parliament must scrutinise the issues raised in the program, which exposed a network of waste transporting and freighting companies allegedly sending waste by road and rail to Queensland to avoid paying New South Wales millions of dollars in tariffs. Continue reading...

Hundreds of people have been killed and millions displaced across the region as rescue missions set up shelters and strive to get food and water to victimsNearly 250 people have died in the last few days as a result of flooding and landslides that have devastated parts of northern India, Nepal and Bangladesh.Millions of people have been displaced across the region, and 245 people are recorded to have been killed by collapsed buildings or by drowning. Continue reading...

Behavioural evidence suggests marine organisms are not just ingesting microplastics by accident but actively seeking them out as food

Kennards House, Cornwall At the agricultural show white-coated exhibitors vie for prizes as the heavy horses are hitched and cocks crow in the poultry tentAfter noting the whereabouts of their parked cars relative to the windblown hedgerow trees, visitors converge on the entrance to Launceston’s one-day agricultural show.Cloud shrouds Kit Hill to the south but Caradon, Kilmar Tor and Hawk’s Tor on Bodmin Moor, as well as nearby wind turbines, are silhouetted against an increasing expanse of blue sky. Continue reading...

Consideration of loan described as ‘untenable’ after allegations hundreds of millions siphoned into tax havensThe government should immediately suspend any consideration of a federal loan to Adani or an any associated entity, environmental groups have said in response to the Guardian’s reporting on Wednesday about fraud allegations faced by Adani in India.The Adani Group allegedly fraudulently siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from India into tax havens – a practice enabled by Indian government tax breaks. Details of the allegations, and documents from India’s directorate of revenue intelligence, have been published by the Guardian today. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Allegations by Indian customs of huge sums being siphoned off to tax havens from projects are contained in legal documents but denied by company

National park which is home to thousands of indigenous people loses protected status to allow for construction of 190-mile road

Judge imposes orders barring councillor and others from taking unlawful direct action against tree-felling programmeCampaigners trying to halt a “politically controversial” tree-felling programme in Sheffield have vowed to continue their fight despite losing a high court battle with council bosses.A judge on Tuesday made orders barring residents from taking “unlawful direct action” to prevent the lawful felling of roadside trees. It is the latest development in a long-running row that last week prompted an intervention by the environment secretary, Michael Gove. Continue reading...

Dunwich Heath, Suffolk Brilliantly coloured jewel wasps use the living bodies of other insects to nourish their larvaeMuch of the basic storybook that supplies the raw materials for horror films and novels seems to me to be derived from entomology. And here, at this place of autumn purple and gold, scattered thinly all along the sandy paths that bisect the billowing tides of flowering heather, was a particular inspiration.It was a tiny 1cm-long creature that looked as brilliant an insect as I have seen in this country. The mid-thorax, hind legs and head were all glittering turquoise, while the abdomen and front thorax were shining burgundy. The unmistakable colours distinguish a small group that are known as jewel or ruby-tailed wasps (in German they are called Goldwespen, gold wasps), of which there are about 30 species in Britain. The commonest is one I see regularly even about our house, where they burrow into crevices among the loose masonry. Continue reading...

Santos wipes more than $1bn from its LNG plant in Queensland – just a week after Origin announced a similar devaluationAustralia’s natural gas export boom, which is causing soaring gas prices and pushing up carbon emissions, appears to be rapidly shedding value.Santos wiped more than $1bn off the value of its liquefied natural gas plant in Queensland on Tuesday, just a week after Origin announced a similar devaluation. Continue reading...