A new study looks at the complex relationship between global warming and increased precipitation

Green groups’ report says move to cleaner energy in China and India is discouraging the building of coal-fired unitsThe amount of new coal power being built around the world fell by nearly two-thirds last year, prompting campaigners to claim the polluting fossil fuel was in freefall.The dramatic decline in new coal-fired units was overwhelmingly due to policy shifts in China and India and subsequent declining investment prospects, according to a report by Greenpeace, the US-based Sierra Club and research network CoalSwarm. Continue reading...

Anne says she would farm GM food and GM livestock a ‘bonus’, while Charles says GM crops will cause ‘biggest disaster environmentally of all time’Princess Anne has strongly backed genetically modified crops, saying she would grow them on her own land and that GM livestock would be a “bonus”.Her stance puts her sharply at odds with her brother Prince Charles, who has long opposed GM food and has said it will cause the “biggest disaster environmentally of all time”. Continue reading...

The Long Mynd, Shropshire The sound of Light Spout waterfall seems, at first, to be all roar and splashTo stand in the stream under the Light Spout is to be drenched in sound and mesmerised by light. Through a narrow cleft, water gathered from bogs on the plateau of the Long Mynd plunges 20ft over the rock face into a shallow pool before roiling down the stream of Carding Mill valley.The sky is grey, there is bite left in the season and a fine drizzle lowers between hills. Shale ledges break the flow of water; it spins into a million bubbles filled with light so that, on a day like this, it looks like the ghostly Lady in White, a shimmering apparition. Continue reading...

National Parks and Wildlife Service says amphibian chytrid fungus could affect endangered frog speciesThe discovery of a cane toad that may have “hitchhiked” to Mount Kosciuszko has prompted concerns about the spread of dangerous diseases to native frog species.The dead cane toad was found by the side of the road at Charlotte Pass earlier this month, near a popular viewing platform that looks out to Australia’s highest mountain and the surrounding alpine high country. Continue reading...

In our new series on Australian renewable projects, we visit a suburb where an investment scheme makes solar energy accessible to those who need it mostIn Darebin in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, solar installations have spread rapidly through the area’s low-income households.“We call it the ‘nonna effect’,” says Trent McCarthy, a Greens councillor in Darebin. “The nonna in the street has her solar on her roof. She’s very proud, she tells all of her friends. It’s social marketing 101.” Continue reading...

In the second of our series highlighting innovative renewable energy projects across Australia we show how many older residents of a Melbourne suburb have embraced solar energy, backed by a council scheme where they can pay for panels in instalments. One of the early adopters was a 102-year-old man. ‘He understood that the benefits lasted way beyond his lifespan,’ reports Kate Nicolazzo of Positive Charge. The residents say they are making big savings on their energy bills and doing their bit for the environment too Continue reading...

Unicef report says climate change and conflict are intensifying risks to children of living without enough water, and that the poorest will suffer mostOne in four of the world’s children will be living in areas with extremely limited water resources by 2040 as a result of climate change, the UN has warned.Within two decades, 600 million children will be in regions enduring extreme water stress, with a great deal of competition for the available supply. The poorest and most disadvantaged will suffer most, according to research published by the children’s agency, Unicef, to mark World Water Day on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Rangers trap and kill four-metre crocodile near where Warren Hughes disappeared on SaturdayRangers have killed a four-metre crocodile blamed for a fatal attack on a spearfisherman in Queensland’s far north.The crocodile was trapped and killed about 10pm on Tuesday, at the mouth of the Russell river close to where Warren Hughes, 35, disappeared on Saturday. Continue reading...

The financial giant is the first of a group of 17 banks to divest from the loan that financed the pipeline as the embattled project is set to begin transporting oilThe financial giant ING has sold its stake in the $2.5bn loan financing the Dakota Access pipeline, the latest victory for the anti-pipeline divestment campaign that comes as the project is set to begin transporting oil.The Dutch banking and financial services company is the first of a group of 17 banks to divest from the loan that financed the project. ING’s share in the loan was $120m. Continue reading...

Anent the admirable Stephen Moss’s remark (Birdwatch, 20 March) that his snow bunting on the Somerset coast was “probably the furthest south they ever get”, I have been spotting snow buntings all across the Alps for more than 40 years. In winter they are common, often seen in flocks around picnic spots, in all the high ski resorts.My last sighting was in January. While photographing Alpine choughs on the summit of the Marmolada, the Queen of the Dolomites at just under 11,000ft, joining the choughs was a pair of snow buntings. Back at our hotel, a small flock of fieldfares, also breeders in Arctic latitudes, were feeding on berries. I suspect that both species were drifting northwards from even further south.

$1bn of oil is stolen in Mexico each year, while EU loses massive revenues, says the Atlantic Council thinktankOil theft is fuelling terrorist groups and drug cartels around the world, according to a new analysis.Mexican drug gangs can earn $90,000 (£72,000) in seven minutes from tapping a pipeline of refined oil, while insurgents in Nigeria financially benefit from a share of the third of the country’s refined oil exports that is lost to theft, said the Atlantic Council. Continue reading...

The Stop Adani Alliance says north Queensland coalmine would ‘fuel catastrophic climate change’The former Greens leader Bob Brown will launch a new alliance of 13 environmental groups opposed to Adani’s Carmichael coalmine on Wednesday in Canberra.The Stop Adani Alliance will lobby against the coalmine in northern Queensland, citing new polling that shows three-quarters of Australians oppose subsidies for the mine when told the government plans to loan its owners $1bn. Continue reading...

Trees and green spaces are unrecognised healers offering benefits from increases in mental wellbeing to allergy reductions, says reportPeople living close to trees and green spaces are less likely to be obese, inactive, or dependent on anti-depressants, according to a new report.Middle-aged Scottish men with homes in deprived but verdant areas were found to have a death rate 16% lower than their more urban counterparts. Pregnant women also received a health boost from a greener environment, recording lower blood pressures and giving birth to larger babies, research in Bradford found. Continue reading...

Indian court cites the Whanganui in New Zealand as example for according status to two rivers considered sacredThe Ganges river, considered sacred by more than 1 billion Indians, has become the first non-human entity in India to be granted the same legal rights as people.A court in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand ordered on Monday that the Ganges and its main tributary, the Yamuna, be accorded the status of living human entities. Continue reading...

Vibrant vegetation in a Venezuelan lake, Saharan dust in snowy Sierra Nevada, cloud vortices in South Korea, a vast solar farm in China, and a lone ship in the Atlantic are among our satellite images this monthEvery so often, a vibrant green colour infuses the waters of Lake Maracaibo. Floating vegetation – likely duckweed – was swirling in the Venezuelan lake when Nasa’s Aqua satellite flew over in February 2017. Most of the time, Maracaibo’s waters are stratified into layers, with nutrient-rich, cooler, saltier water at the bottom, and a warmer, fresher layer near the surface. But after heavy rains, the layers can mix and make the lake an ideal habitat for plant growth. A narrow strait roughly 6km (4 miles) wide and 40 km (25 miles) long connects the lake to the Gulf of Venezuela and the Caribbean Sea. The influx of saltwater through the strait makes Maracaibo an estuarine lake. This mixing causes the water currents responsible for the concentric swirl pattern, according to Lawrence Kiage, a professor of geoscience at Georgia State University. Continue reading...

Claxton, Norfolk Lapwing song was the omnipresent soundtrack of all my childhood springs. Now it has gone from behind our family homePart of the charm of lapwings is that they look silly, a friend says, and I can surmise what she means. It’s the ridiculous crest, the unnecessary breadth of wing, which gives them so much more aerial lift and loop than they require, and then there’s the zaniness of their spring display. Nor should we leave out the high-pitched notes that pass for song and which remind me of a dog’s squeaky play bone wheezing in and out of tune as the animal chews.Yet lapwings are too ingrained in a lifetime of memory for me to think them only silly. They are the first sounds I awakened to as a naturalist in Derbyshire, whose nests we came upon in the grass like a revelation, and whose blotched-brown Easter eggs seemed a kind of miracle. Continue reading...

SSE trials ‘demand-side response’ where vehicles start charging a few hours after being plugged in, when demand is lowerElectric cars are putting increasing pressure on the UK’s power grids, making it vital they are recharged at the right time of day, a minister has said.John Hayes, transport minister, said it was important that such battery-powered cars were topped up in smart ways to avoid unduly stressing the energy system. Continue reading...

MPs say unprecedented investigation will study harm caused by toxic air and scrutinise government efforts to tackle itMPs from four influential committees are coming together to launch a joint inquiry into the scale and impact of the UK’s air pollution crisis.In an unusual development, the environmental audit committee, environment, food and rural affairs committee, health committee and transport committee will hold four sessions to consider mounting scientific evidence on the health and environmental effects of toxic air. Continue reading...

Poll shows voters’ preference for renewable energy in immigration minister’s seat and 16.8% primary vote for One NationMost voters in Peter Dutton’s electorate oppose taxpayer subsidies for the Adani coalmine and more would prefer the government to fund renewable energy rather than coal-fired power plants, a poll has found.The ReachTel poll of Dickson, commissioned by the Australia Institute, found that, even among Liberal National party voters, more opposed spending taxpayer funds on new coal-powered plants than supported it. Continue reading...

With the Republican Climate Resolution, Climate Solutions Caucus, and Climate Leadership Council, Republicans are trying to end their party’s climate denial

Move likely to embarrass British government as UN agency says lack of talks with Europe means it should refrain from further workA United Nations committee has asked the UK to suspend work on the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset because of the government’s failure to consult with European countries over the project.The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said last year that the UK had failed to meet its obligations to discuss the possible impact of an incident at Hinkley on neighbouring countries. Continue reading...

Fifty years ago, the supertanker Torrey Canyon ran aground between Land’s End and the Isles of Scilly, spilling more than 100,000 tonnes of crude oil into the Channel. The Observer photographer Jane Bown was sent to cover the cleanup operation across Cornwall’s beaches. These images are a small selection of the 270 photographs she took there, now housed in the GNM Archive.

Party to draft laws allowing a controlled cull of protected reptiles, including Indigenous-run safari hunts, after two suspected attacks in state’s far northTwo suspected crocodile attacks in the same north Queensland area within a day have prompted a bid by Katter’s Australian party to legalise hunting of the protected predators.Wildlife officers and police believe Warren Hughes, 35, may have been killed by a 4m-plus crocodile that later “charged” a police boat searching for the Cairns man’s body on Sunday night. Continue reading...

Sea levels are rising. For many cities on the the eastern shores of the United States, the problem is existential. We take a look at how Miami and Atlantic City are tackling climate change, and the challenges they face under a skeptical Trump administration that plans to cut funding for environmental programs Continue reading...

Sea level rise is making floods more common and as the New Jersey resort braces for the next Sandy, the well-heeled Florida city is throwing money at the problemThe Irish Pub near Atlantic City’s famed boardwalk doesn’t have any locks on the doors as it is open 24 hours a day. So when Hurricane Sandy crunched into what was once known as the Las Vegas of the east coast in 2012, some improvisation was needed.

New scheme aims to tackle one the UK’s trickiest disposal issues by turning thousands of tonnes of hygiene products into burnable balesOne of the UK’s trickiest waste problems is being tackled by turning the undesirable into the combustible – tampons and incontinence pads are being converted into dry, burnable bales. The new initiative, from a major waste company, compresses the waste into fuel for power stations.

Hope Cove, Devon I need to go into the attic to check the timbers – an awkward job, but a chance to get out of the windAn experienced thatcher told me early on in my apprenticeship: “You’ll learn to hate the wind more than anything.” And after five years of working on Devon roofs I’m inclined to agree with him: rain is our more obvious enemy, but rain doesn’t blow the wheat out of your hand or bowl you sideways off your ladder.On really windy days like this one, you can’t go on the roof. In spite of the warm spring sunshine, a howling south-westerly is whipping up white horses on the Atlantic and training the coastal trees into even more diagonal contortions. Continue reading...

Body believed to be that of 35-year-old Cairns man who disappeared on Saturday in far north QueenslandRescue crews searching for a Cairns man who went missing while spearfishing alone in far north Queensland have a found a body.Initial investigations suggest the man may have been taken by a crocodile, police said. Continue reading...

Pumped hydro, big battery, solar thermal and solar PV and storage projects are already planned for South Australia’s power networkWhen it comes to South Australia’s radical plans for energy storage to support its power network, all roads lead to Port Augusta – or all transmission lines, that is.

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 24 March 1917SURREY

The commonest garden bird in Iceland, and no stranger to the Scottish Highlands, this visitor is taking the bunting equivalent to a holiday in the MedSome birds are simply more compelling than others. Think bullfinches and barn owls, peregrines and storm petrels, gannets and golden eagles. The snow bunting is certainly high in the charisma stakes. I first saw them in 1973, swirling around a shingle beach in Norfolk, caught in a biting wind like flurries of snow. Since then I’ve watched them on their breeding grounds in Iceland, where they are the commonest of the very few “garden birds” found in that northerly land.Once, I even saw one singing in the car park at Reykjavik airport. And I’ve often come across them in the Cairngorms, where they feed on the crumbs left by passing skiers. But we don’t often get snow buntings in Somerset. So when I heard that one was spending the winter on my local patch alongside the River Parrett, I headed down there as soon as I could. Continue reading...

Often ignored, the ancient sites in the hearts of towns and villages have become refuges for a tremendous range of plantsThere are thousands of wild plant sanctuaries across Britain, many in the hearts of villages, towns and cities, but they’re often ignored and forgotten. Cemeteries, churchyards and burial grounds have almost become nature reserves.Some of the most ancient sites have been around for over 1,000 years, and many grounds haven’t been assaulted with chemicals or intensive management – tighter spending has actually helped even more by cutting back on over-management. And so these sites have become refuges for a tremendous range of plants, including some of our most threatened grassland plants and old trees, mosses, lichens and flowers, as well as wildlife. Continue reading...

If Guardian readers wish to get up close to peregrine falcons (Flying high, 15 March) they need go no farther than their computers where, by typing in “Nottingham peregrines cam” or something similar, they will be able to sit back and watch the comings and goings of the birds to their nest-box high on Nottingham Trent University in the very centre of the city. I did that, entranced, a couple of years ago as I watched the four chicks grow up and fly away.The cameras are put in each year by Nottingham Wildlife Trust and are proving invaluable for spotting details of behaviour that can only be remarked upon when the subject is under scrutiny round the clock by someone, somewhere.

Once daredevils, cyclists and pedestrians work out just how safe they are with this new technology (Google’s self-driving car avoids hitting a woman chasing a bird, theguardian.com, 17 March), it is easy to imagine how there might be a battle for rights of way. Busy crossings during rush hour could become an unbroken stream of pedestrians as self-driving cars wait helplessly. It is only a small leap from here to imagine the physical measures that may need to be implemented to keep vehicles and pedestrians separate. Fenced in pavements? Raised roadways? This technology could have bigger impacts on our built environments than we are currently anticipating.

Local entrepreneurs want to replace disappearing coal jobs with employment in solar – but that’s a tough move in a state that lacks the solar-friendly regulations of places like CaliforniaIf solar energy were Dan Conant’s only passion, the West Virginia native could have stayed in Vermont, working for a fast-growing startup in a state friendly to renewables.

Despite Trump halting reduction of the US’s vast CO2 emissions, climate change is being taken seriously around the world from China to SwedenOptimism has always been in short supply in conversations about global warming. Only for the briefest window – after the Paris climate agreement was reached in December 2015 – did the words “climate” and “hope” look reasonable next to each other in headlines. Then came 2016.And yet, in spite of these past 12 months, I remain optimistic. Continue reading...

We need to learn from the Danish supermarkets, where organic produce is front and centre, not nicheSay you were to swap your weekly shop with a Dane, you’d notice something strange. In Danish supermarkets like SuperBrugsen, myriad organic products are proudly displayed at the front. Try tracking down anything more exciting than an organic carrot in a UK supermarket.With this in mind our Organic Trade Board wants us to be more Danish and go mainstream organic. There’s some way to go. In 2014, our organic spend here was just £30.60 each for the whole year. Cynics might say that this equates to one organic chicken. Continue reading...

Threatened by famine, pastoralists have turned to violenceSitting on the edge of Kenya’s highest mountain, its spectacular dun-coloured vistas stretching out into the endless distance, Laikipia is one of the most beautiful corners of east Africa.The region received a rush of publicity in 2010 when Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton at a log cabin there. Tens of thousands of tourists now flock to parks and reserves in an area that promises rare sights including the world’s last three remaining northern white rhinoceroses. Continue reading...

How the Guardian reported the grounding of the Torrey Canyon supertanker and what was then the world’s worst oil spillOn 18 March 1967, the Torrey Canyon, one of the world’s biggest tankers, ran aground between Land’s End and the Isles of Scilly, leaking more than 100,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea. It was the UK’s worst oil spill to date, causing major environmental damage with more than 20,000 sea birds contaminated. The first Guardian report about the disaster appeared on 20 March.

George Orwell wrote a shocking account of a colonial policeman who kills an elephant and is filled with self-loathing. But was this fiction – or a confession? An Orwell expert introduces the original storyBritish imperialism being a largely commercial concern, when Burma became a part of the empire in 1886 the exploitation of its forests accelerated. Since motorised transport was useless in such hilly terrain, the timber companies used elephants. These docile, intelligent creatures were worth their weight in gold, hauling logs, stacking them near streams, launching them on their way and sometimes even clearing log jams that the foresters could not shift.In the 1920s a young would-be poet, an ex-Etonian named Eric Blair, arrived as a Burma Police recruit and was posted to several places, culminating in Moulmein. Here he was accused of killing a timber company elephant, the chief of police saying he was a disgrace to Eton. Blair resigned while back in England on leave, and published several books under his assumed name, George Orwell. Continue reading...

The UK’s biggest ever oil spill in 1967 taught invaluable lessons about the response to disasters, toughened up shipping safety and stirred green activism“I saw this huge ship sailing and I thought he’s in rather close, I hope he knows what he’s doing,” recalled Gladys Perkins of the day 50 years ago, when Britain experienced its worst ever environmental disaster.

New Forest To some, fallen timber makes for an untidy forest. There was a time when the woodsmen would have cleared much of it away. Not nowWe’re standing deep into the trees, looking through an oval porthole constructed from the boughs of a toppled oak. The sun is filtering through the still bare canopy to light up the story of this wood. As we look through the window, we are taken into its past, present and future.The brown of autumn’s leaf drop mingles with the emerald-green of mosses. To one side, dark-green stems of butchers’ broom promise flashes of ripened scarlet berries in months to come. The stiletto blades of bluebells are just breaking free of the blanket of fallen leaves that has protected their bulbs through the winter months. Already they suggest a scene transformed, as yesterday’s base-brown becomes a wash of blue. Tall, erect trunks stand like sentinels in a painted backdrop, and mid-stage lies a tangle of branches, looking as though some huge beast has shed its antlers. Continue reading...

Bird appears on campus in Queensland where it was spotted standing in front of a glass door admiring itselfA bird that was photographed staring at its own reflection has risen to fame in Australia after university students made it its own Facebook page.The bush stone-curlew appeared on campus at Queensland University of Technology in Kelvin Grove, Brisbane, on Tuesday, where it was spotted standing in front of a glass door, apparently admiring itself. Continue reading...

The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox Continue reading...

Devastating downpour, caused by high ocean temperatures, could not have been predicted, president said, months after state of emergency declared for wildfiresSixty-seven people have been killed and thousands more forced to evacuate by intense rains which damaged 115,000 homes and destroyed more than 100 bridges in Peru’s worst floods in recent memory.

International Energy Agency report puts halt in emissions from energy down to growth in renewable powerCarbon dioxide emissions from energy have not increased for three years in a row even as the global economy grew, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said.Global emissions from the energy sector were 32.1bn tonnes in 2016, the same as the previous two years, while the economy grew 3.1%, the organisation said. Continue reading...

Nesting bald eagles, Adélie penguins and a newly hatched Komodo dragon are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Court rules government should have used regulatory powers to force nuclear plant’s operator to take preventive measuresA court in Japan has ruled that negligence by the state contributed to the triple meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011 and awarded significant damages to evacuees.Although courts have awarded damages arising from the disaster in other cases, Friday’s ruling is the first time the government has been held liable. Continue reading...