Wendy Bowman, an 83-year-old farmer, has been given the Goldman environmental prize, awarded across six global regions for grassroots work. For three decades Bowman has fought the march of open-cut coalmines across the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, and helped organise her community to protect agricultural land and water• Honour for activist farmer, 83, surrounded by mines on three sides Continue reading...

Campaign group Plantlife unveils list of top 10 endangered species and calls for better management of road verges that have become habitats of Britain’s floraSome of the UK’s rarest plants are at risk of extinction unless action is taken to look after the road verges that have become their final refuge, a charity has warned.Species such as fen ragwort and wood calamint are now only found on road verges, with fen ragwort hanging on in just one native spot near a burger van on the A142 in Cambridgeshire, conservation charity Plantlife said. Continue reading...

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 27 April 1917Reports of the arrival of the swallow are coming in thick and fast from all parts of the district; it is impossible to mention them in detail. A few straggled in earlier, but from the 16th onwards they have been arriving or passing in considerable numbers, and now the long-delayed sand martins are with them. On the 22nd a house martin was seen at Stretford. On the 21st, the cuckoo was calling in Hertforshire; we may expect it here any day. Willow wrens, too reported, but so far only odd bird; chiffchaffs, also very late, are now well distributed. Ring ousels and wheatears are on the moors, where twite, curlew, and golden plover are preparing for domestic duties.Those who imagine that the course of Continental migration is disturbed or deflected should note a report from an officer at the front in France. On the 16th and 17th he saw scores of swallows and sand martins crossing the devastated land, and on the later date noted a house martin, a few tree pipits, two black redstarts, and three scoter ducks. A flock of linnets “insisted on sitting on a derelict bit of telegraph wire where shells fell continually. They were there day after day.” Even the resident birds are little troubled, for my friend adds: “Odd wrens and dunnocks are still in the flattened villages, and a few blackbirds and mistle thrushes.” Another friend comments upon the coltsfoot peeping out everywhere through the shell-torn ground. Nature’s healing touch! Continue reading...

In woods across the UK, an imported American stands higher and broader than the trees that surround itA wooded ridge overlooking the Ouzel Valley in Bedfordshire has a remarkable set of trees sticking head and shoulders above the rest.Credited with being able to grow into the world’s largest living thing, they can reach a height of 100 metres, nearly three times as high as a mature oak. Continue reading...

My father, Jon Vogler, who has died aged 77, used his skills as an engineer to set up the UK’s first large-scale recycling system. In 1974, when recycling at home was virtually unknown in Britain, Jon designed a household scheme in West Yorkshire for Oxfam called Wastesaver.His innovative “dumpy” device, made of metal tubing, held four different coloured bags into which households sorted their waste. With the co-operation of Kirklees council, the sorted material was collected from 20,000 homes and taken to a disused mill in Huddersfield for recycling. The project revealed for the first time the public’s appetite for such schemes. When the collection of waste became unviable due to fluctuations in commodity prices, Wastesaver changed tack to deal with clothes and textiles. Continue reading...

Laeticia Brouwer, 17, was killed by a shark in Esperance on Easter Monday but Mark McGowan waited to comment as he did not want to politicise the issueThe premier of Western Australia remains in favour of personal devices to deter sharks instead of culling, nets and drumlines following the death of a 17-year-old girl.Laeticia Brouwer was surfing with her father during a family holiday in Esperance on Easter Monday when she was mauled on the leg.

Reforms are under way but not enough has been done to end poverty wages in the garment industryTomorrow is the anniversary of the 2013 Rana Plaza catastrophe, in which 1,134 garment workers in Bangladesh were killed when their factory collapsed. The workers died in the overcrowded and poorly constructed building while working to meet our demands for fast fashion.Across the world conscious consumers will join fashionrevolution.org – a vibrant global civil movement focused on cleaning up the $3trn fashion industry, based primarily in low-wage economies. Continue reading...

Efforts to avert a disaster caused by drought are at risk from renewed offensiveA new US-backed military offensive against Islamist militants in Somalia could undermine the massive international effort to help millions of people threatened by the worst drought there in more than 40 years, aid officials in the unstable east African state fear.More than £50m has been raised by individual donors in the UK and the British government has contributed another £110m to help avert hundreds of thousands of deaths in Somalia. More than six million people there are in need of immediate assistance, with half of them facing famine. Continue reading...

Pacific abandons one million hectare concession including indigenous peoples’ territories along Brazil borderA Canadian-headquartered company, Pacific Exploration and Production, has pulled out of a huge oil and gas concession overlapping a new national park in the Peruvian Amazon. The concession, Lot 135, includes approximately 40% of the Sierra del Divisor national park established in 2015.The concession has provoked opposition in Peru and just across the border in Brazil for many years, including regular statements since 2009 from indigenous Matsés people in both countries and a lawsuit recently filed by regional indigenous federation ORPIO. Both Lot 135 and the park overlap territory used by the Matsés and a proposed reserve for indigenous people living in “isolation.”

Hundreds of thousands of climate researchers, oceanographers, bird watchers and other supporters of science rallied in marches around the world on Saturday, in an attempt to bolster scientists’ increasingly precarious status with politicians.

More than 97% of US chicken farmers work with a big producer, but many say they’re being treated unfairly – and rules to help protect them are now in limboBack in 2001, Alton Terry, his wife and two young children were living in San Jose, California, but they dreamed of a quieter, more rural life. Terry’s grandparents had been farmers, and that inspired him to move his family to Shelbyville, Tennessee, to start a chicken farm.Like the majority of chicken farmers in the US, Terry entered into an exclusive contract with a big producer, Tyson Foods. “The first couple of years we didn’t have any problems,” said Terry, “but then Tyson started asking us to put in extra equipment that we had to pay for.” Continue reading...

Exclusive: analysis commissioned by Labour reveals 59% of Britons live in areas where diesel pollution threatens healthNearly 40 million people in the UK are living in areas where illegal levels of air pollution from diesel vehicles risk damaging their health, according to analysis commissioned by the Labour party.The extent of the air pollution crisis nationally is exposed in the data which shows 59% of the population are living in towns and cities where nitrogen dioxide (NO) pollution breaches the lawful level of 40 microgrammes per cubic metre of air. Continue reading...

Climate change is a global pro-life issueReaders of this column know that I tend to focus on breaking science in the climate and energy areas. Sometimes, I stray into politics and other times, I venture further afield. Today, on Earth Day, I was reflecting on best ways to move real action forward and it is clear to me, and almost everyone in this industry, that building bridges between like-minded groups is key.

An ingenious idea to build artificial glaciers at lower altitudes using pipes, gravity and night temperatures could transform an arid landscape into an oasisThe idea crystallised in his mind one morning as Sonam Wangchuk was crossing a bridge in the Indian Himalayas.The engineer from Ladakh, in the Jammu region of north India, was already a famous problem solver: a Bollywood film loosely based on his life had grossed a billion rupees in its first four days. Continue reading...

With a climate-change sceptic in the White House, marchers worldwide are today spreading a message of hope that protest and science can save the world‘An exuberant rite of spring” is how the New York Times described 22 April, 1970. In Manhattan, and across America, “huge, light-hearted throngs ambled down autoless streets.” Earth Day had been born, an outburst of protest – and revelry – that involved everyone from save-the-whales activists to opponents of new freeways. Denis Hayes, now 72, was the man tasked with organising it. “What we did was pull together an event that told all of those people, ‘You know you’ve really got something in common and this should be one big movement where we’re supportive of one another’.”It sparked, he tells me, the most profound change in American society since the New Deal. “We now have different kinds of buildings, different kinds of automobiles, different planes, different lighting, different land use. People are choosing to have diets for environmental reasons, choosing to have one child for environmental reasons.” And all that, he says, “didn’t come from political leadership at the top, it came from a bunch of demands down at the grassroots”. Continue reading...

The TV presenter accused of assaulting hunters killing migratory birds in Malta says it’s time for committed environmental activismWe decided to go to Malta because we were fed up with the inactivity from NGOs about the endless trapping and killing of migratory birds there.We first went four years ago, then started to go annually to liaise with the Committee Against Bird Slaughter. It is an incredible organisation that attracts volunteers from all over Europe. When we first went, we put a video report online every evening showing what was happening – a daily diary detailing the killing of birds – and we got an enormous amount of press for this. Continue reading...

Tens of thousands rally across the world in a rebuke of Donald Trump’s dismissal of climate scienceHundreds of global protest marches in the name of science kicked off in Australia and New Zealand on Saturday, ahead of large crowds expected across the US.Tens of thousands of scientists are this weekend rallying around the world in a rebuke of Donald Trump’s dismissal of climate science and attempts to cut large areas of scientific research. Continue reading...

Foulney Island, Morecambe Bay This shingle spit provides winter quarters for thousands of eider ducksThe rising tide fetched with it slews of blue sky. As I walked the causeway jumble of rocks, the sea slopped gently below. I was about to be cut off for three glorious hours on Foulney Island.

National Grid hails milestone as other sources like gas, nuclear, wind and solar allow UK to keep lights on with all coal-fired powerplants offlineFriday was Britain’s first ever working day without coal power since the Industrial Revolution, according to the National Grid.The control room tweeted the milestone on Friday. It is the first continuous 24-hour coal-free period for Britain since use of the fossil fuel began. West Burton 1 power station, the only coal-fired plant that had been up and running, went offline on Thursday. Continue reading...

Ministers submit court application to delay tackling illegal levels of toxic fumes, deemed by MPs to be a public health emergencyThe government has made a last-minute application to the high court to delay the publication of its plan to tackle the air pollution crisis.Ministers were under a court direction to produce tougher draft measures to tackle illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution, which is largely caused by diesel traffic, by 4pm on Monday. The government’s original plans had been dismissed by judges as so poor as to be unlawful. Continue reading...

China’s popular dockless cycle share schemes allow riders to drop their bike wherever they want. Ofo is the first to launch in the UK - but what will our rider make of it?Ofo, one of a host of Chinese start-ups hoping to do for bikes what Uber did for taxis, has chosen Cambridge for its first foray into Europe, a trial of which launched without fanfare this week.Chinese cities have seen hundreds of thousands of these ‘dockless’ bikes hit its streets, that now have tens of millions of regular users. Continue reading...

Adam Vaughan visits the nuclear site in Somerset, where EDF is pushing ahead despite challenges from unions and BrexitSurrounded by a sea of broken rock and mounds of earth on the Somerset coast stands a small, unassuming sign that states simply “R2”.It is here that the second of two nuclear reactors will switch on in the middle of the next decade if all goes according to EDF Energy’s plan for Hinkley Point C, proving that Britain can still build new nuclear power stations and, more importantly, providing 7% of the country’s electricity.

Sharks at night, a feeding vampire bat and California’s wildflower super bloom are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

High court judge has agreed to limit RSPB, ClientEarth and FoE’s costs liabilities to £10,000 in their action against the Ministry of Justice’s changes to costs capThree environmental charities have been given permission to challenge court regulations which they say make it too financially risky to bring cases over air pollution standards or the expansion of Heathrow airport.A high court judge has agreed to limit costs liabilities of the RSPB, ClientEarth and Friends of the Earth to £10,000 in their action against the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) which introduced the new rules earlier this year. Continue reading...

Conservationist denounced Sukau project as a threat to pygmy elephants and orangutansOfficials in Borneo have cancelled plans to build a bridge across the Kinabatangan river, after warnings from Sir David Attenborough and other conservationists that it would gravely endanger pygmy elephants, orangutans and many other jungle species. The news comes just weeks after the Guardian revealed Attenborough’s opposition to the project.

The government has secured green ‘commitments’ after the £2.3bn sale. In reality it has secured only ‘good intentions’The charge that Macquarie is a ruthless asset-stripper that, given half a chance, would dismember the Green Investment Bank clearly stung. As the government unveiled the inevitable sale, for £2.3bn, to a consortium led by the Australian finance house, all sides were anxious to emphasise the buyer’s long-term enthusiasm for its new purchase.GIB will survive as a discrete entity in Edinburgh. Macquarie will throw a few of its own assets – a couple of windfarms and a waste and biomass plant – into the mix for it to manage. It will report on progress in honouring GIB’s green investment principles. It will aim to invest £1bn a year in green energy projects, more than the £700m-ish that GIB was achieving via taxpayer funding. “We look forward to seeing these commitments from Macquarie delivered, in full, in the months and years ahead,” said Lord Smith of Kelvin, GIB’s chair. Continue reading...

Call for federal government to follow Queensland and ban PFOS and PFOA after spill from Qantas airport hangar in BrisbaneThe federal government is weighing up how to eliminate toxic chemicals from firefighting foam linked to high-profile contamination scares, including a spill from a Qantas airport hangar into Brisbane waterways last week.It comes after a call by the Queensland government for the commonwealth to follow its own ban on the chemicals PFOS and PFOA, which doesn’t apply to Qantas because it operates on federal land. Continue reading...

Stanage, Derbyshire Listening to moorland might illustrate its health just as well as looking at it doesThe eastern horizon was a pale streak capped with pink, but it was still dark at Hollin Bank car park and I could barely make out Bill Gordon’s face as he waited. Bill is a volunteer for the Eastern Moors Partnership, monitoring ring ouzels, the mountain blackbird. To record their calls, he was carrying an impressive-looking microphone on a pole with a “dead-cat” windshield, rather cosy on a frosty April morning.We had barely walked a few yards when, without a word, he pushed his headphones over my ears. It was a moment of complete transformation. From peering at the tenebrous moors, I was plunged suddenly into a soundscape at its zenith, its high noon, a matrix of rich, vital noise. To my right, I could hear a pair of snipe chipping away and, from all around, with a measure of distance between each, the looping voices of curlew. Just ahead of me, on steep scrubby ground, the wren that had sounded so thin and distant became gigantic, all lungs.

Chris Packham has released the video that shows his encounter with a Maltese hunter and police on the island of Gozo, after being cleared of charges of assault by a Maltese judge on Thursday. The video shows Packham filming with his crew before being accosted by the hunter and police, leading to the incident. The judge threw out the case and criticised the police for the charge. Packham has said he will not press charges

Greenpeace says £2.3bn sale to controversial Australian bank Maquarie risks climate targets, while Lib Dems say bank was sold too fast and too cheapThe UK government’s decision to sell the Green Investment Bank to Australian bank Macquarie for £2.3bn has been attacked by critics including the Liberal Democrats and Greenpeace as “politically dubious” and a “disaster”.A consortium led by Macquarie, which also includes the bank’s European Infrastructure Fund 5 and the Universities Superannuation Scheme, a UK pension scheme for university professors, agreed to buy the GIB, which was established in 2012 by the coalition government to fund green infrastructure projects. Continue reading...

The latest study on the health benefits of cycling suggests it can cut the risk of cancer and heart disease. It’s also the most fun you can have on your daily commuteIt may not be a surprise to see another study suggesting that cycling to work can drastically reduce your chances of getting cancer and heart disease – those who ride bikes for transport already know how good it makes them feel. However, it’s perhaps yet another motivation for those who don’t, to dust off their bikes – and remember some other reasons cycling to work is so great.In a five-year study of 263,450 UK commuters, published in the BMJ, researchers at Glasgow University found regular cycling cut the risk of death from any cause by 41%, and the incidence of cancer and heart disease by 45% and 46% respectively. Continue reading...

Think of Texas and it’s most likely you imagine rocky, red desert. But each spring the hill country of central Texas is awash with a riot of colour, as millions of wildflowers bloom Continue reading...

Surf Life Saving Western Australia rejects accusations from News Corp that mitigation plan is too timidLifesavers in Western Australia say they have seen no evidence that shark culling would be effective in reducing attacks and have hit out at claims their mitigation plan is “timid”.The Senate inquiry into shark deterrence and mitigation began its hearing in Perth on Thursday. Continue reading...

Bank expected to retain offices in London and Edinburgh, as bid from Australia’s Macquarie accepted despite oppositionThe government has agreed a £2.3bn sale of the Green Investment Bank to the Australian bank Macquarie, according to sources close to the process.The privatisation of the bank was expected in January but signoff was delayed in the face of stiff political opposition and wrangling over the final price. Continue reading...

New project aims to restore what was once Europe’s largest oyster fishery, off the south coast of EnglandMillions of native oysters are to be put into the Solent, once the site of Europe’s largest oyster fishery.The five-year project aims first to restore a thriving oyster population to the waters between the south coast and Isle of Wight. Oyster beds provide habitat for many other species and the shellfish filter vast volumes of water – 200 litres per oyster – helping to clean up pollution. Once re-established, significant oyster fishing could resume. Continue reading...

Seaham, Durham Impressions of movement, colour, sound and the scents of spring left an abiding sense of wellbeing

Industry says it is losing money after firefighting foam leaked from airline’s hanger into Brisbane riverQueensland prawn farmers are seeking compensation from Qantas after toxic firefighting foam leaked from its hangar into the Brisbane river.The embattled industry, already struggling with white spot disease, was dealt another blow this week when it was advised not to catch produce from the contaminated zone. Continue reading...

Scientists have attached cameras to whales to unlock the mysteries of their lives in Antarctica, revealing where, when and how they feed, their social lives, and even how they must blow hard to clear sea ice and allow them to breathe. Vision: WWF Continue reading...

Green Alliance says simultaneous charging could potentially damage electronic equipment unless action is taken by 2020The UK’s energy networks are not ready for a surge in electric cars and solar panels that is coming within the next few years, according to a report.Clusters of the battery powered cars could result in 1% of the UK experiencing unplanned drops in voltage – potentially damaging electronic equipment – without action by 2020, the Green Alliance said. Continue reading...

Report by Adelphi thinktank warns terrorist groups will exploit natural disasters and water and food shortagesClimate change will fuel acts of terrorism and strengthen recruiting efforts by terrorist groups such as Islamic State and Boko Haram, a report commissioned by the German foreign office has found.Terrorist groups will exploit the natural disasters and water and food shortages expected to result from climate change and allow them to recruit more easily, operate more freely and control civilian populations, argues the report by Berlin thinktank Adelphi. Continue reading...

BBC Springwatch presenter, making a film about Malta’s spring hunt of migrating birds, accused of assault and trespassChris Packham, the naturalist and broadcaster, has been charged with assault and trespass in Malta after confronting hunters he believed had illegally trapped wild birds.The BBC Springwatch presenter and naturalist will appear before magistrates on Thursday morning on the island of Gozo after being charged with “attempting to use force” and “pushing against” a Maltese man. Continue reading...

A hipster brewery in a Sydney suburb has created beer with an environmental message

While the politicians dither around energy policy, Newtown is teaming up with a pair of hipster brewers to support a solar-powered brewery and beer with a conscience

150ft iceberg, which dwarfs nearby town of Ferryland, becomes tourist attraction as number of icebergs moving into North Atlantic shipping lanes spikesA towering iceberg is causing traffic jams in a remote town on Canada’s east coast, as tourists jostle for a glimpse of the mass of ice sitting in shallow water just off Newfoundland.The iceberg, which has dwarfed the nearby small town of Ferryland, is estimated to measure some 46 metres (150ft) at its highest point. “It’s the biggest one I ever seen around here,” mayor Adrian Kavanagh told the Canadian Press. “It’s a huge iceberg and it’s in so close that people can get a good photograph of it.” Continue reading...

Doug Derwin is investing up to $2m to persuade Tesla’s CEO to speak out against US climate change policies and resign from groups advising TrumpLuxury car owners may seem like an unlikely target for organizing a political resistance movement, but to Doug Derwin, it’s all about the make: Tesla.Derwin is investing up to $2m in an effort to persuade Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, to speak out against Donald Trump’s climate change policy and resign from his positions in groups advising Trump on business and manufacturing jobs. On Monday, Derwin launched the website ElonDumpTrump.com laying out his argument that Musk’s role in the administration is inconsistent with his role as a leader on climate change. Continue reading...

The first ever camera trap survey in the previously inaccessible Karen State hill forests has recorded a wealth of globally threatened mammals living in south-east Asia’s last great wilderness Continue reading...

Housing association invests in electricity-generating turbines that will fund affordable homes in rural ScotlandAmid the rolling hills and woodland pastures of south-east Scotland, a wind of change is blowing through communities where low wages and casual work sit uneasily alongside the popular image of timeless market towns and pretty coastal villages.High above rich arable land by the North Sea, three tall wind turbines, blades spinning wildly, have started generating electricity for the national grid with two social purposes: to sell energy and use the income to deliver hundreds of new homes in a scattered rural community while, at the same time, providing additional funds for similar schemes elsewhere in Scotland. Continue reading...

Walkhampton, Dartmoor A shepherd on his quad bike remarks on the contrast with last week’s rain, wind and mudFrom the western edge of Dartmoor, heat haze obscures views towards familiar territory in the Tamar Valley. Up here, by Lowery Cross, in sight of glittering ripples on Burrator Reservoir, ponies graze among dazzling yellow gorse; drab turfy banks are starred with a few violets, and the sound of chiffchaff echoes from coniferous plantations.Nearby, a bridge, rebuilt in 2015, is part of the footpath and cycleway on a section of the long-defunct Plymouth and Dartmoor railway; across the bridge and via the gently sloping trail, Princetown is seven miles away, twice the distance that a crow might fly.