Peers, academics and architects urge unified approach to planning to improve quality of lifeRural campaigners and green activists have called for a new “department of land use” to prevent “piecemeal erosion of the countryside” caused by a lack of joined-up thinking in government.A group of former ministers, academics, architects and engineers assembled by the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) has called for a unified approach to dealing with issues such as Heathrow, the housing crisis, farming, high-speed rail links, power stations and flooding. Continue reading...

Painscastle, Powys Over the past few years, to my delight, a pair of swans had made this sky-reflecting pool their homeWe all have our touchstone places. One of mine is the Monk’s Pond on the Begwns – a little group of bracken hills north of the river Wye as it heads eastwards out of Wales. For more than half a century I’ve made regular pilgrimages to this pool, the southern Welsh uplands wrapped round it like a protective barrier. The view takes in the Black Mountains to the south, the Brecon Beacons in the west, and those smooth, heathery highlands of Radnorshire to the north.

Scientists find that commercial hunting caused “basin-wide collapse” among aquatic speciesScientists have conducted what they call the first systematic, historical account of the impacts on wildlife in the Amazon basin of the 20th century international trade in furs and skins. The conclusion: “basin-wide population collapse” for aquatic species, but much greater resilience shown by terrestrial species.

Proposal would remove environmental justice office, tasked with bridging gap in pollution in black, Hispanic and low-income areas and wealthier white onesPlanned cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency are set to fall heaviest upon communities of color across the US that already suffer disproportionately from toxic pollution, green groups have warned.

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...

The new government plans to relocate residents to larger atolls – leaving small islands ripe for development. It says these super resorts, not solar power, will create the money needed to adapt to climate changeWhen Mohamed Nasheed, the young, first democratically elected president of the Maldives, said in 2008 that he was seeking to buy a new homeland to save his people from being inundated by rising sea levels, it made the country of 1,200 coral islands the moral leader in the UN climate talks and helped persuade rich countries to act.

Poison arrow frogs, a Steller sea lion and a chameleon are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Industry action on ‘Best before’ labels in the US is welcome, but food waste will only fall when consumers use their senses

Guardian Cook is looking to source tips on keeping food packaging waste to a minimum. Share yours via GuardianWitness

No power loss after blaze cuts three units from network but planned maintenance work may cause blackouts on weekendA fire at a power station in Adelaide knocked out part of South Australia’s electricity generation capacity on Friday as the state faced the prospect of weekend blackouts because of planned maintenance work.Three units at the Torrens Island power station were cut from the network at 3.35pm on Friday because of the blaze. The nearby Pelican Point power station also tripped at the same time but the incident did not result in blackouts. Continue reading...

Laxton, Northamptonshire The red kite thrives, and surely there’s no other prodigal English species that brings such pleasureKites soar and circle above the small limestone village mentioned in the Domesday book but rebuilt a little over 200 years ago to a design by Humphry Repton. There is a substantial red kite roost near the village, and 40 of them bring the sky to life with their twists and turns, tails contorting and long wings clawing the air.Related: Red kites exported after success of reintroduction programme in Britain Continue reading...

A decision the government had months to prepare for wrong-foots Malcolm Turnbull as he was finally lifting his party’s post-election gloomMalcolm Turnbull lost more than his voice this week, he washed up on the losing side of a critical political battle.

As the Finkel review submission deadline arrives it’s time to accept the inevitable and fix the shambles that is our energy policyEvery few years the fossil fuel industry pressures politicians to force “clean coal”, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and more recently coal seam gas (CSG) on an increasingly sceptical community to justify its continued expansion.

Economist says national electricity market has been crippled by design flaws and a failure to take climate change into accountAustralia’s electricity woes could be solved through a unified and publicly owned national power grid, a discussion paper has said.

Ten finalists capture the theme of ‘through young eyes’ in this young photographers’ competition that aims to engage youth around the world in wildlife conservation. The winner will be announced at noon EST in New York Continue reading...

Research shows how black carbon affects bacteria in humans’ nose, throat and lungs, possibly affecting their ability to beat the immune systemBlack carbon found in air pollution can increase the resistance of bacteria that cause respiratory disease, research has found.

Katharine Murphy and Gabrielle Chan look at the week in politics and how Labour has dominated the conversation about penalty rates. They are joined by Labor’s Pat Conroy and the Nationals’ Andrew Broad, both members of a new inquiry into modernising Australia’s power grid. We take a close look at energy policy and how members of opposing parties can find common ground in one of the most bitterly partisan of all areas of political debate• Nationals MP calls for ‘real discussion’ on reserving gas for Australian use Continue reading...

Andrew Broad tells Guardian Australia podcast federal politicians should consider keeping back 15% for manufacturing• Can we have a bipartisan energy policy? – Australian politics live podcastThe chairman of federal parliament’s environment and energy committee has called for a serious discussion about whether a proportion of natural gas supply in Australia needs to be reserved for domestic use rather than sold overseas.The Nationals MP Andrew Broad told Guardian Australia’s Politics Live podcast there needed to be consideration about whether 15% of gas supply should be reserved for Australian manufacturing rather than exported. Continue reading...

Green party councillor was among those arrested during bitter dispute over city council’s plans to remove roadside treesCharges have been dropped against a Green party councillor and eight others who were arrested during protests against tree-felling in Sheffield.

CEO Francis Egan complains about protesters ‘harassing’ contractors supplying Preston New Road site in LancashireThe chief executive of Cuadrilla, a leading fracking company, has complained at what he calls intimidation and harassment by “irresponsible” activists protesting at a shale gas site the firm is constructing in Lancashire.Related: Cuadrilla starts work on Lancashire fracking site Continue reading...

Impossible Foods is on the cusp of big things. But as the company lines up its first burger chain, it still needs to show it can convert the meat-loving massesI sat down to have my first Impossible Burger, the plant-based meat substitute that has received a lot of press and nice reviews from high profile chefs and their customers. My burger, topped with caramelized onion, dill pickles, lettuce and a special sauce, was cooked medium rare. It looked like a conventional burger, complete with the pinkish ‘meat’ in the middle. It was hard to tell the difference when I bit into the burger and washed it down with a milkshake.I was at Bareburger near New York University yesterday to hear executives from Impossible Foods announcing their first restaurant chain. It’s a big deal for the Silicon Valley company, which only launched its first product, the Impossible Burger, last year and focused its initial publicity blitz around teaming up with trendy restaurants in New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Continue reading...

Global governance expert decries ‘snub’ of Patricia Espinosa as Trump administration considers whether to pull out of Paris climate dealThe UN’s climate chief has been unable to secure a meeting with the US state department as Donald Trump’s administration mulls whether to withdraw the US from the international climate effort.

Experts are puzzled how the shark, normally found near equator, could have reached UKA crocodile shark, a marine creature normally found in deep tropical waters, has been discovered washed up on a beach in Devon.A family found the shark at Hope Cove beach on the south coast and, thinking it was still alive, braved its sharp teeth to try to return it to the water before realising it was dead. Continue reading...

Activist points to ‘hypocrisy’ in BNP Paribas’s involvement in south Texas export terminal, given bank’s claimed commitment to the environmentEnvironmental groups have called on a French bank not to help finance a fracked-gas export terminal planned for south Texas. Continue reading...

Endangered pygmy elephants and orangutans threatened by scheme for Kinabatangan Wildlife SanctuaryDavid Attenborough and Steve Backshall have joined conservationists and charities asking officials in Borneo to reconsider a bridge that threatens one of the last sanctuaries of the rare pygmy elephant.There are now just 1,500 of the world’s smallest pachyderm, according to WWF, and about 300 of them make their home in the 26,000-hectare Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, in the state of Sabah in Malaysian Borneo. But construction teams have begun preparatory work for a bridge that will cross the Kinabatangan river which weaves through the region. The area is also home to critically endangered orangutans, proboscis monkeys, clouded leopards, gibbons, sun bears, pangolins and thousands of other jungle species, and hosts a thriving eco-tourism industry where travellers can view wildlife from boats on the river or while hiking into the forests. Continue reading...

Campaigners say cuts to waste collection services have increased the problem of illegal dumpingFly-tipping is on the rise again, with the number of incidents up for the third year in a row, official figures show.Councils across England reported 936,090 cases of fly-tipping in 2015/2016, up 4% on the previous year, the data from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) reveals. Continue reading...

Only China dumps more plastic in the ocean than Indonesia. But by 2025, the world’s largest archipelago aims to reduce marine waste by 70%

Report’s authors say Sydney unprepared for knock-on effects of a significant increase in average summer temperaturesNew South Wales, which has just experienced its hottest summer on record, is 50 times more likely to experience another similarly hot summer and 10 times more likely to experience extremely hot days under climate change, according to a group of Australian climate scientists.The mean temperature in Sydney was 2.8C above average in December, January, and February, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, and the three-day heatwave from 9 February to 11 was the hottest on record from Sydney to Brisbane, breaking records set in 1939. Continue reading...

Deputy prime minister says businessman has ‘enough on his plate’ without building new plant in the Galilee basinThe deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, says he’s not interested in giving the businessman and former politician Clive Palmer government assistance to build a new coal-fired power plant in the Galilee basin.

Campaigners say examples involving FedEx and CitySprint illustrate road safety concerns around vehicle maintenance, driver hours and training

Flies, worms, slugs, woodlice, centipedes, moulds – the compost bin throbs with lifeSeveral times each week I take vegetable peelings from the kitchen to the three compost recycling bins at the bottom of the garden. Even in winter, they are hotbeds of biodiversity.Today, as I lift the lid of the newest bin, I am greeted by a blizzard of minute moth-flies (Clogmia albipunctata) that have bred in the film of water covering decaying garden weeds and autumn leaves. Continue reading...

ANU’s centre for water economics says ‘no discernible impact in reduced water use on a per-hectare basis’More than $5bn used for reforms to safeguard the Murray-Darling river system from drought has been largely in vain, new research has found.About $3bn of taxpayers’ funds used for improving farm irrigation had been a boon to private individuals but led to no cut in water use from the start of the last drought crisis, according to the Australian National University study. Continue reading...

The Australia Institute says the $5bn northern Australia fund lags behind other agencies in process and disclosureThe progressive thinktank the Australia Institute has raised concerns about the operation of the Turnbull government’s $5bn northern Australia infrastructure fund, saying the organisation lacks resources and is not being transparent about its internal procedures.With officials from the $5bn fund due to front Senate estimates hearings in Canberra on Thursday, the thinktank has released a report arguing the NAIF is behind other comparable government organisations in terms of process and disclosure, and in operational funding. Continue reading...

Storebrand, a sustainable investment manager in Norway, hopes pulling shares from three groups will ‘make some sort of impact’ amid Defund DAPL movementNorway’s largest private investor is divesting from three companies tied to the Dakota Access pipeline, a small victory for the Standing Rock movement one week after the eviction of the main protest encampment.

If you are campaigning against high levels of toxic air or planning to relocate because of it, we’d like to hear from you

The much-loved creature of the suburban garden is in rapid decline – with new builds, roads and badgers to blame. Can we prevent their extinction?Hit by a car. Savaged by a dog. Slashed by a strimmer. Burnt in a bonfire. Tangled in garden netting. Poisoned by slug pellets. Caught in a postman’s discarded rubber bands. Head stuck in a tin can. Tricked out of hibernation by increasingly unpredictable winter weather. Modern life, governed by humans, designs a multitude of ingenious ways for a hedgehog to die. It is no wonder that this treasured animal, a suburban garden fixture, which consistently tops favourite-species polls and is the source of many people’s first close encounter with a wild creature, is vanishing from Britain.This disappearance is rapid, and recent. A survey of more than 2,600 people by BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine in February found that 51% of gardeners didn’t see a hedgehog at all last year, up from 48% in 2015. Barely one in 10 saw a hedgehog regularly. Scientific studies are unequivocal. Britain’s hedgehog population was calculated to be 1.55 million in 1995. Since the turn of the century it has declined by a third in urban areas and up to 75% in the countryside. A survey based on roadkill calculates that hedgehogs are declining by 3% each year. This exceeds the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list criteria, which identifies species at greatest conservation risk. Why are we obliterating hedgehogs? Will they become extinct? Or can we save them? Continue reading...

Campaigners in drought-hit Tamil Nadu say it is unsustainable to use 400 litres of water to make a 1 litre fizzy drinkMore than a million traders in India are boycotting fizzy drinks including Coca-Cola and Pepsi after claims from from two Indian trade associations that foreign firms are exploiting the country’s water resources.Traders in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, which has a population bigger than the UK, will replace big brands with locally produced soft drinks. Continue reading...

Spring is sprung 26 days earlier than a decade ago, causing problems for the natural cycle of plants and wildlife, Climate News Network reportsSpring is arriving ever earlier in the northern hemisphere. One sedge species in Greenland is springing to growth 26 days earlier than it did a decade ago. And in the US, spring arrived 22 days early this year in Washington DC.The evidence comes from those silent witnesses, the natural things that respond to climate signals. The relatively new science of phenology – the calendar record of first bud, first flower, first nesting behaviour and first migrant arrivals – has over the last three decades repeatedly confirmed meteorological fears of global warming as a consequence of the combustion of fossil fuels. Continue reading...

Broad coalition writes to chancellor, urging him to tackle air pollution with compensation scheme for motoristsTaxi drivers and business leaders have added their voices to the growing campaign calling on ministers to introduce a diesel scrappage scheme to tackle dangerous levels of air pollution.A broad alliance of business organisations and environmental charities has written to the chancellor, Philip Hammond, urging him to introduce a system in next week’s budget to compensate motorists switching from diesel to more environmentally friendly vehicles. Continue reading...

Staying below dangerous climate thresholds requires a carbon pollution price much higher than the federal estimate

With solar energy becoming cheaper – and federal and state authorities offering tax credits and other incentives – now is a good time to switch

Every day, the sun kickstarts mini power plants in about 942,000 homes around America. We are of course talking about solar energy – and in 2017, it’s never been cheaper to invest in it for your home. The Guardian looks at key tips for installing solar panels and why now is the time to switch

This year’s theme is Grow-Conserve and entries will be on show in Somerset House, London, from 9 to 28 March. Winners will be announced on 8 March Continue reading...

SDCL claims government has not sought value for money for taxpayer in choice of Australian bank MacquarieA last-ditch attempt has been made to derail the government’s controversial sale of the Green Investment Bank to the Australian investment bank Macquarie.

Greenpeace claims Samsung has 4.3m smartphones to dispose of after its Galaxy Note 7 recall. What’s the responsible way to recycle them?At the smartphone world’s annual shindig in Barcelona, there are some things the tech giants have been trying to get people talking about – the relaunch of the Nokia 3310, BlackBerry’s new fingerprint scanner, Samsung’s virtual reality headset.But there’s another, less glamorous story that they haven’t been so keen to promote. And that concerns the fate of their gadgets when consumers have finished with them. Continue reading...

Wenlock Edge Daisy – daes eage, day’s-eye – a wonderfully simple poetry that has become a complicated symbolic chain-link of love, innocence and deathHazel catkins are limp, in a still brightness they hang fire, waiting. After the thrashing they got from Storm Doris it’s a wonder they survived, let alone have any pollen left, but from woods and hedges, unimpeded by leaves, the magic dust cloud drifts for wider fertilisation. The pollen record found in peat bogs shows an expansion of hazel during the Mesolithic, 11,000 – 6,000 years ago and the speculation is that travelling people transported hazel nuts, so that now, catkins dangle from here to the Caucasus and Algeria.Related: Country diary: Wenlock Edge: The lesser celandine, the voice of spring Continue reading...

Analysis shows steady warming in the Pacific Ocean and that Australia could be in for a warmer and drier yearAustralia could be heading into another El Niño year according to new analysis by the Bureau of Meteorology, which found the chance Australia would be affected by the phenomenon in 2017 had increased to 50%.Six of the eight models used by Australian climatologists to predict El Niño and La Niña events indicate the El Niño threshold could be reached by July, while seven indicate a steady warming in the Pacific Ocean over the next six months. Continue reading...

‘Citizen science’ project launched as FoE survey indicates population outside London overestimates air qualityPeople across the UK are underestimating the impact of the air pollution crisis in their local areas, according to a new survey.Almost two thirds of respondents said they were concerned about the issue of air pollution, but only one in 10 said they thought the air they breathe is bad. Continue reading...

Plants from semi-tropical climes are overtaking native British species and choking habitat as they flourish in warmer conditionsA half-degree increase in the average temperature in September and October in East Anglia this century has made an already troublesome plant invader even more of a nuisance. While the change in climate has been hardly noticeable to humans, it has made an enormous difference to the floating pennywort, Hydrocotyle ranunculoide, which already threatens to choke slow-moving rivers and the Broads.The extension of warmer weather into autumn has give this semi-tropical South American plant the opportunity to produce viable seeds for the first time enabling it to spread even faster. Continue reading...