System will include 3.4m solar panels and 1.1m batteries, with operations set to begin by end of 2017A huge $1bn solar farm and battery project will be built and ready to operate in South Australia’s Riverland region by the end of the year.Related: Elon Musk, meet Port Augusta: four renewable energy projects ready to go Continue reading...

Free reusables, 25p charge on disposables and green slogans in cafes could cut some of 2.5bn cups thrown away each year, finds studyIncentives such as a tax on disposable coffee cups or free reuseable replacements could help cut the number thrown away in the UK every year by between 50m and 300m, according to new research.An estimated 2.5bn throwaway coffee cups are used in the UK every year by consumers buying coffee from chains and cafes, creating approximately 25,000 tonnes of waste.

Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire Spring hasn’t ignited its neighbours but this red-barked giant is vibrant in the sunlightA banner of red falls amid ranks of anaemic grey: if sentient, this tree would have to be either mortified or cocksure, cutting such a bold dash in demure company. I shamble through ankle-snagging greenery and brownery as if through stubborn snow. My steps are crisp and disturb a sweet smell.I get to the tree. It’s magnificent: 40 metres at least. It seems all trunk, until odd, brief branches pop from its bark, lichen-greened serpents from a mythical head. Higher, and finally, the serpent branches thicken and burst with evergreen. Continue reading...

Video provided by Coalition Against Duck Shooting shows muddy pits full of dead birds they allege were shot and dumped by hunters who exceeded their bag limit on the opening weekend of Victoria’s duck hunting season Continue reading...

Women-owned suppliers make up just 2% of the retailer’s global purchases – but Walmart will join Coca-Cola, Pepsi and others in committing to buy more

British gardens also saw a ‘waxwing winter’ in this winter’s Big Garden Birdwatch, conservationists sayThe number of robins visiting gardens hit a 20-year high in this winter’s Big Garden Birdwatch, conservationists said.Average numbers of the robin seen in gardens were up to their highest levels since 1986, making it the seventh most commonly seen bird in the citizen science survey in January. Continue reading...

In the latest in our series on Australian green energy projects, we find out how the ACT is transitioning to 100% renewable energy, aided by the country’s largest community-owned solar farm• How the ‘nonna effect’ got Darebin’s pensioners signing up to solar

Helped by the country’s largest community-owned solar farm, Australia’s capital is making plans to provide all its energy from renewables. Wind turbines now being built around Canberra and the 1.2MW community-owned solar farm will ensure the ACT meets its 2020 goal. About 600 locals have a share in the scheme• Renewables roadshow: how Canberra took lead in renewable energy race

Mars Inc, Staples, The Gap and others speak out against Trump’s sweeping executive order that begins to dismantle Obama’s Clean Power PlanIn 2015, when Barack Obama signed the nation’s clean power plan, more than 300 companies came out in support, calling the guidelines “critical for moving our country toward a clean energy economy”. Now, as Donald Trump moves to strip those laws away, Mars Inc, Staples and The Gap are just a few of those US corporations who are challenging the new president’s reversal on climate policy.Related: Trump's order signals end of US dominance in climate change battle Continue reading...

Australian Conservation Foundation says Coalition and Labor failing workers and risking the country’s energy securityA major environment group has blasted Australia’s political parties for squabbling while energy security suffers after a Senate inquiry into the retirement of coal-fired power stations split three ways.The Senate’s environment and communications references committee has been inquiring into mechanisms for an orderly transition away from coal-fired power to lower emissions energy sources for several months. Continue reading...

Country Diarist who adopted the wilds of Scotland as his home and inspirationRay Collier, who has died aged 79, was devoted to the wildlife and landscape of Scotland, and used his years of experience, depth of knowledge and lively writing to kindle a similar love in others. A longstanding member of the Guardian’s band of Country Diarists, he also wrote for a sheaf of Highland newspapers, took eagerly to blogging when the world went online and was the author of two respected books.Born in Gloucestershire, he adopted the magnificent wilds of Scotland as his home and inspiration when his work for the Nature Conservancy took him north in the 1960s. When he retired in 2002, he was the chief warden for Scottish Natural Heritage, and so absorbed in his patch that he let his passport lapse and never renewed it. The scenery and wildlife on his doorstep were more than ample, especially as the doorstep extended from his porch in Strathnairn, near Inverness, to the Western Isles, Cape Wrath and the English border. Continue reading...

A 30-metre layer of salt discovered beneath Dead Sea reveals drought worse than any in human history – and it could happen againFar below the Dead Sea, between Israel, Jordan and Palestinian territories, researchers have found evidence of a drought that has no precedent in human experience.From depths of 300 metres below the landlocked basin, drillers brought to the surface a core that contained 30 metres of thick, crystalline salt: evidence that 120,000 years ago, and again about 10,000 years ago, rainfall had been only about one fifth of modern levels. Continue reading...

Department of Agriculture survey of planting intentions hints at record acreage for soybeans as agricultural community worries over low crop pricesIs “king corn” finally dead? For decades, corn has been the US’s most profitable crop, but after three straight years of low prices its dominance is being challenged and, this week, could officially end.

Critically endangered Indochinese tigers are captured on sensor-triggered cameras throughout 2016, set up in Thailand’s Eastern Forest Complex by the Forest Department and wildlife NGOs Freeland and Panthera. Conservationists say it gives hope for the survival of an animal whose total population is estimated at 221, spread across Myanmar and Thailand

Recreational climbers and Sherpas asked to help remove hundreds of kilograms of litter after series of deadly quakes on world’s highest peakThe government of Nepal and Everest expedition organisers have launched a clean-up operation at 21,000ft to remove rubbish left on the world’s highest peak after a series of deadly avalanches.

Lower cull targets are easier to achieve but risk increasing instances of TB in cattle rather than reducing them, warns expertThe government’s killing targets for the controversial badger cull in England are “deliberately being biased down”, according to a leading animal population expert.The badger cull, now rolled out to seven counties in England, is part of efforts to reduce the scourge of tuberculosis in cattle but has been heavily criticised by scientists. Continue reading...

Models suggest solar geoengineering could reduce climate change and our independently assessed studies are vital to understanding its full potentialEven if the world were to cut emissions to zero tomorrow, global temperatures and sea levels would rise for decades. If our roll of the climate dice is unlucky, they could rise for centuries. It is in this context that some climate researchers have begun to reluctantly take seriously ideas first proposed in the 1960s: the possibility of using solar geoengineering to help restore the world’s climate, alongside aggressive actions to reduce greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions to zero and below.

EU membership has given Britain vital environmental laws. Any changes to legislation must be done with full public scrutiny to protect us from exploitationWhen Theresa May fires the Brexit starting gun by triggering article 50, she will start a process that could dramatically reshape almost every aspect of British life – from our economy, laws, and place in the world to our natural environment. The difficult choices our politicians make in just a few years could change the face of Britain for generations to come.Even before the tough bargaining with the EU and other countries start in earnest, another, more domestic negotiation process will get underway – the constitutional power struggle between parliament and government over who will have the final say on the momentous Brexit decisions. A lot will ride on the outcome of this tug of war, and that includes the fate of many vital environmental safeguards we take for granted.

Collapse of Toshiba unit, which has technology in about half world’s reactors, will deal blow to UK’s nuclear strategyWestinghouse Electric, the US nuclear power plant giant, has filed for bankruptcy protection, threatening a further blow to the UK’s atomic energy programme.

Critically endangered Indochinese tigers are captured on sensor-triggered cameras throughout 2016, set up in Thailand’s Eastern Forest Complex by the Forest Department and wildlife NGOs Freeland and Panthera. Conservationists say it gives hope for the survival of an animal whose total population is estimated at 221, spread across Myanmar and Thailand

Category-four storm has damaged thousands of north Queensland properties and communities face days without power• Police search for owners of cars found in floodwaters – as it happenedCyclone Debbie has damaged thousands of north Queensland properties, leaving some residents homeless in communities that face days without power after being cut off by floodwaters.The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said the scale of Tuesday’s disaster was “significant” and it would take months for the communities worst hit by the category-four cyclone to recover. Continue reading...

Better infrastructure for transporting people by bike is great. But cycle freight could free up roads and transform cities and towns tooThe plastic bike basket I bought online was billed as “large”, but even so I was amazed when it arrived. This was a behemoth – a cavernous, black box into which you could as easily fit a decent-sized dog as a bag of shopping.Fitted to my new commuter bike, the initial effect was comical. But such worries were soon forgotten given how astonishingly useful it proved. Continue reading...

While observing sperm whales off the Sri Lankan coast, Philip Hoare came face to face with eight hunting orcas who had no fear of the 100-strong sperm whale pod Continue reading...

OceanWatch had expressed hope cyclone could have alleviated pressure the reef is under and prevented further bleachingThe cooling effect of Cyclone Debbie will not be enough to prevent further mass bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, a leading marine scientist has said.The category-four tropical storm made landfall on the north Queensland coast on Tuesday, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Airlie Beach, Proserpine and Bowen were among the worst hit, though Hamilton, Hayman and Daydream islands were also affected. Continue reading...

St Dominic, Tamar Valley The hardier bulbs have naturalised and merged with bluebells, ferns, dog’s mercury and moschatel, shaded by scrub and treesLucifer, Sunrise, Croesus and Bernardino, narcissi with orange cups and creamy-white petals, should be at their best but hail and wind have battered these successors to the yellow-trumpeted daffodils. Bath’s Flame, on a taller stem with spreading lemon-yellow petals and scarlet-rimmed centre, is also spoilt, part-eaten by snails and little slugs.Here, on this historic market garden, about 20 old-fashioned varieties have been identified, still growing in their original patches and rows in woodland and, occasionally, cut grass; a tithe map from the 1840s shows the land as orchard, so the oldest sorts, Princeps and Van Sion, could date from then. Continue reading...

Hope for critically endangered cats as only 221 Indochinese tigers, which once ranged across much of Asia, are thought to remain in Thailand and MyanmarConservationists say they have evidence the critically endangered Indochinese tiger is breeding in a Thai jungle, giving hope for the survival of an animal whose total population may be only a little over 200.Thailand’s conservation authorities, along with two private organisations, have announced photographs of new tiger cubs in eastern Thailand, supporting a scientific survey that confirmed the existence of the world’s second breeding population. Continue reading...

Craig Kelly, who chairs backbench committee on environment and energy, says he thinks Paris agreement is ‘cactus’Australia will need to review its participation in the Paris agreement on climate change if Donald Trump follows through with his threat to withdraw from the treaty, according to the chair of the Turnbull government’s backbench committee on environment and energy.

Europe poised to take baton from US as leader in global efforts to fight climate change, with America’s commitment to Paris accords at riskThe European Union has led criticism of Donald Trump’s effort to unravel Barack Obama’s measures to combat climate change, suggesting that Europe will now take the lead in global efforts.

Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to undo a slew of Obama-era climate change regulations that his administration says is hobbling oil drillers and coalminers, a move environmental groups have vowed to take to court. The decree’s main target is Barack Obama’s clean power plan that required states to slash carbon emissions from power plants – a critical element in helping the United States meet its commitments to a global climate change accord reached by nearly 200 countries in Paris in 2015

Environmentalists decry ‘embarrassing’ order to review Obama’s clean power plan and other regulations, as White House claims victory for coal industryDonald Trump launched an all-out assault on Barack Obama’s climate change legacy on Tuesday with a sweeping executive order that undermines America’s commitment to the Paris agreement.Watched by coalminers at a ceremony at the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, the president signed an order to trigger a review of the clean power plan, Obama’s flagship policy to curb carbon emissions, and rescind a moratorium on the sale of coalmining leases on federal lands. Continue reading...

Australian Medical Association says health impacts of unemployment and blackouts need to be considered when closing brown-coal power plantsThe head of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Michael Gannon, has said the health benefits of closing down brown-coal power plants need to be considered against the health impacts of unemployment and blackouts.The Hazelwood power station will permanently close on Friday, affecting 500 staff and 300 contractors who will lose their jobs. Hazelwood, in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, is Australia’s dirtiest power station and one of the most polluting power stations in the world. Continue reading...

Trump’s anti-science budget, anti-climate executive orders, and general disdain for scientific expertise come at a bad time

Toshiba’s US subsidiary, which has technology in about half world’s reactors, expected to file for bankruptcy protectionA financial crisis at a major nuclear energy business is threatening to deal a blow to the UK’s atomic energy programme.Toshiba’s US nuclear subsidiary Westinghouse Electric is believed to be on the brink of filing in the US for bankruptcy protection from creditors. A UK expert said the collapse would leave a considerable hole in Britain’s new nuclear ambitions as Toshiba is a key player behind plans for a new power station at Moorside in Cumbria. Continue reading...

Amount of electricity demanded by homes and businesses one afternoon was lower than it was during night for first time everLast weekend’s sunny weather was not only good for beers, barbecues and bees, but also drove solar power to break a new UK record.For the first time ever, the amount of electricity demanded by homes and businesses in the afternoon on Saturday was lower than it was in the night, because solar panels on rooftops and in fields cut demand so much. Continue reading...

Takahama reactors to restart within a month despite Greenpeace saying they have serious unresolved safety issuesJapan’s struggling nuclear power industry has won a victory against a landmark legal injunction that halted the running of two reactors.

Trump’s climate blitzkrieg is unlikely to herald the end of civilization, but it risks US geopolitical dominance and could help ‘make China great again’Is Donald Trump’s determination to send US climate change policy back into the dark ages an “existential threat to the entire planet”, as the architect of many of Barack Obama’s green measures warns? Or is global momentum towards a cleaner, safer future “unstoppable”, as the UN’s climate chief said recently?Related: Trump begins tearing up Obama's years of progress on tackling climate change Continue reading...

UK ranks fifth in table assessing EU actions to cut carbon emissions by 40%, with most countries gaining wiggle room via loopholesSweden, Germany and France are the only European countries pursuing environmental policies in line with promises made at the Paris climate conference, according to a new ranking study.

The death of activist Sikhosiphi Rhadebe in the Eastern Cape has not stopped local communities opposing plans for a titanium mine that threatens important lands and a way of life, reports Yale Environment 360Environmentalists at risk: read parts one and two in this seriesThey called him “Bazooka” after his favourite soccer star. But Sikhosiphi Rhadebe’s real love was the magnificent coastal lands of South Africa’s Eastern Cape, where he chaired a community organisation campaigning to prevent an Australian mining company from strip-mining their sand dunes for titanium, one of the world’s most commercially valuable metals.One evening last March, a Volkswagen Polo pulled up at his home and two men posing as police dragged Bazooka outside. When he resisted, they shot him eight times in front of his 17-year-old son, then sped away. “Bazooka” was dead. Nearly a year later, there have been no arrests, and no apparent progress in the investigation into his murder. I had come to find out why. Continue reading...

Fossil fuels to the fore as president signs orders to review clean power plan, lift ban on coal leases and discard expert thinking on true cost of carbon emissionsDonald Trump will launch a major assault on Barack Obama’s climate change legacy on Tuesday with a series of orders that undermine America’s commitment to the Paris agreement.Asked by the Guardian if Trump accepted the science of manmade climate change, a senior White House official replied: “Sure, yes, I guess, I think the president understands the disagreement over the policy response and you’ll see that in the order … We’re taking a different path.” Continue reading...

Petrochemicals are still king in Norway, but the country has a growing renewables sectorØyvind Christian Rohn spent more than two decades in the oil and gas industry. But the 50-year-old from Skedsmo, near Oslo in Norway, has just set out on a new fossil-free career path: developing offshore solar power technology.His alternative energy startup, Ocean Sun has developed technology that will mean solar farms can float on the ocean surface, with their power transmitted back to land. Since physical space is limited in population centres, especially in areas of high growth such as South East Asia, Rohn’s idea is to use the ocean’s surface around the world. Continue reading...

The B6305 Allendale road, Northumberland Colours and sights shift across the seasons, all seen from this one roadIt’s late morning and I’m driving from Allendale to Hexham along the straight road known as the Paise dyke. Cars bowl along here at speed, but to do that is to miss the far views and the birds. There’s always something to catch the eye. Ahead, on this warm March morning, starlings swarm like bees across the fields, a rushing wind as I drive under them, about 3,000 birds. The flock is so regularly spaced that I feel a vast net has been cast over me before they settle on a field pocked by mole hills and rich in worms.There’s a farm and a wood called the Paise but the road’s name is not on the Ordnance Survey map. In his book published in 1970, Goodwife Hot and Others: Northumberland’s Past as Shown in Its Place Names, the historian and farmer Geoffrey Watson thought the name referred to land where peas were grown. Though these are upland fields, he believed they would have been adequate for growing this staple diet. The dyke might refer to a stone wall or a causeway over the boggy moorland. Continue reading...

‘Environmental vandalism’ proposal would put vulnerable species, including Leadbeater’s possum and Sooty owl, at risk of extinctionA proposal to release areas of protected Victorian old-growth forest for logging is “environmental vandalism crossed with bad economics” that would put a number of vulnerable species at risk of extinction, a leading Leadbeater’s possum expert has said.Professor David Lindenmayer, from the Australian National University, is recognised as the world expert in the critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum. Continue reading...

Eyewitness accounts of large, dog-like animals in state’s far north spur scientific hunt for thylacines, thought to have died out in 1936“Plausible” possible sightings of a Tasmanian tiger in north Queensland have prompted scientists to undertake a search for the species thought to have died out more than 80 years ago.The last thylacine is thought to have died in Hobart zoo in 1936, and it is widely believed to have become extinct on mainland Australia at least 2,000 years ago. Continue reading...

Gay Alcorn meets the people of the Latrobe Valley facing an uncertain future as the power station that has sustained their community closes after 52 years

The Victorian plant will close down this week after half a century of electricity generation. The brown coal-powered station supplies more than 5% of Australia’s total energy demand – but is the country’s dirtiest and least efficient power plant, producing 3% of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions. It will shut down entirely on 31 March after its owner, the power company Engie, decided it was uneconomical and unsafe to continue running the plant without major upgrades• Gay Alcorn: Gloom in the valley as Hazelwood fades to black Continue reading...

Australia is about to become the biggest exporter of liquified natural gas in the world, but domestically it is the only country where the price of gas is rising. Bruce Robertson from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis tells Guardian Australia’s Katharine Murphy and Gabrielle Chan the government is running out of time to fix this problem: the market has failed and more industries will leave Australia due to the high price of gas. The only solution, he says, is regulation to increase transparency and ensure domestic supply at a fair price• Guardian Essential poll finds most Australians support a gas reservation policySubscribe and review this podcast via iTunes, Acast, or Audioboom and join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter Continue reading...

City trees are under increased threat but research tools show that looking after them will lower temperatures, prevent flooding and reduce pollutionStanding proud at the intersection of Queen and Little Bourke streets in Melbourne’s central business district is one of the city’s beloved London plane trees. It’s in declining health and will probably need to be replaced in a decade or so. I know this not as an arborist, or even as a keen observer, but because the City of Melbourne has assiduously assessed, mapped and put online all of its more than 70,000 street and parkland trees.

Green groups say $130bn merger signals lack of choice for farmers who need more seed diversity to adapt to changing climateThe EU has approved a $130bn mega-merger between Dow and DuPont, heralding a new round of agribusiness takeovers that environmentalists fear will endanger the future of sustainable food production.Brussels is widely expected to clear another hookup between Syngenta and ChemChina in the next two weeks, with notification of a marriage between Monsanto and Bayer expected later in the year. Continue reading...

Despite its Sunshine State moniker, Florida is barely harnessing its bountiful rays for energy, with the number of households getting solar panels not projected to squeak past 100 a year until 2021. Meanwhile, there’s a solar boom occurring in north-east states such as New York and out west in California

Since Burmese pythons found their way into the wild in the 80s, they have decimated native wildlife. Now 150,000 could be lurking in the state’s waterwaysBill Booth struggles to recall the last time he saw a raccoon, a fox or a rabbit on one of his frequent hunting excursions deep into the swamps of the Florida Everglades. An outdoorsman all his life, he knows as well as anyone how the native wildlife once abundant across the vast wilderness has been all but wiped out by an invasion of a deadly species he is trying his hardest to remove: the Burmese python.By some estimates, up to 150,000 of the unwelcome intruders are swimming through the state’s 1.5m acres (600,000 hectares) of waterways, reproducing uncontrollably and consuming almost every living creature in their path, sometimes taking on even the previously undisputed king of the Everglades, the American alligator. Continue reading...