Bees have become a billion-dollar business. But who would try to steal them?The bees crawled up the thief’s arms while he dragged their hive over a patch of grass and through a slit in the wire fence he had clipped minutes earlier. In the pitch dark, his face, which was not covered with a protective veil, hovered inches from the low hum of some 30,000 bees.The thief squatted low and heaved the 30kg hive, about the size of a large office printer, up and on to the bed of his white GMC truck. He had been planning his crime for days. He knew bees – how to work them, how to move them, and most importantly, how to turn them into cash. Continue reading...

Claxton, Norfolk The song is as lowly and modest as the bush from which it emerges. It inhabits our spring subliminallyI can tell the weather by the St Mark’s flies, because, as they sail over the brambles, their fore-legs dangle together and are held so that they face directly into the oncoming breeze and fractionally ahead of the body. Rather like a boat’s keel, those legs keep the fly true in relation to the airstream, and they now point southwest.Those warm winds brought the summer migrants streaming home. As I walk down the beck the whitethroats sing at intervals. They are lithe creatures, adept at threading mouse-like through spiked vegetation. Two tiny extravagances of plumage are the ginger patches mainly in two wing feathers and a white powder puff at the throat, which swells up when they sing. Continue reading...

Scientist says lack of attention to climate change is ‘staggering’ given it is Australia’s last chance ‘to close down coal-fired power stations and save the reef’Tim Flannery says preserving the Great Barrier Reef from coral bleaching linked to climate change should be a central issue in the federal election campaign.Flannery, a scientist and member of the Climate Council, said the lack of attention paid to climate change so far in the eight-week campaign was “staggering”. Continue reading...

The leader who promised to end three-word slogans now says ‘jobs and growth’ every second breath. But will diluting the personality that made him popular win him the power to build a lasting legacy?Malcolm Turnbull is selling his “jobs and growth” election message with the zeal of a man whose life’s ambition depends on it.

Some 40 Bruny Island households are to be transformed into ‘mini-power stations’ as they trial Reposit Power’s software and solar storageThere are more than 1.5m households in Australia with rooftop solar. And in a few months time, 40 Tasmanian homeswill be acting as mini power stations – not just producing energy for their own consumption and to export back into the grid, but actively trading and profiting from the power they generate.Much has been written about rooftop solar and the impending boom in battery storage but the key ingredient to turning homes into mini-power stations is the software that links the hardware of these technologies. Now the Canberra-based startup Reposit Power is helping to change the way households and energy companies think about solar and storage. Continue reading...

Australian offshore oil and gas regulator keeps reasons for rejection secret, but says company will be given an opportunity to revise applicationBP’s application to drill for oil deep in the pristine Great Australian Bight has been rejected for a second time by the offshore oil and gas regulator, Nopsema.The regulator said on its website on Monday evening the company would be given an opportunity to revise its plans and resubmit. The decision implies the regulator found BP’s plans did not meet its regulatory requirements, although the reasons were kept secret. Continue reading...

Greens leader tells the Lowy Institute Australia should develop an independent foreign policy that made poverty and climate change prioritiesThe Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, has accused the Turnbull government of failing to understand that global warming is a bigger threat to Australia’s national security than terrorism.

Today we are looking at some of the environmental issues facing the nation and how lucky we are to have Greg Hunt as our environment minister

Scientists agree that aircraft pollution affects surface temperatures, but some people believe they have a darker sideA sky crisscrossed with contrails from high-flying aircraft is a familiar sight in Britain and North America. Depending on the weather conditions these can merge into a blanket of high cloud that at times can be dense enough to blot out the sun.Understanding exactly what this does to the climate is still work in progress, but it’s generally agreed that in these areas where the aircraft are constantly pouring out pollution the contrails make the nights warmer by acting as a blanket and the days cooler by reflecting sunlight back into space. Some studies suggest that over 30 years, these contrails will raise average surface temperature by as much as 1C, a serious magnification of global warming. Continue reading...

A calf that two men picked up in their SUV because they thought it was ‘freezing’ was put to sleep after it was rejected by its herd upon returningA newborn bison calf that was picked up and put into the back of car because someone thought it was cold has had to be euthanized, prompting the National Parks Service to criticize a spate of “inappropriate, dangerous and illegal behavior” by visitors to Yellowstone.

Organisation urges better city planning and defensive measures to defend against rapid rise in climate change-linked disastersThe global community is badly prepared for a rapid increase in climate change-related natural disasters that by 2050 will put 1.3 billion people at risk, according to the World Bank.Urging better planning of cities before it was too late, a report published on Monday from a Bank-run body that focuses on disaster mitigation, said assets worth $158tn – double the total annual output of the global economy – would be in jeopardy by 2050 without preventative action.

Coalition of environmental groups call for oil, coal and gas to be kept in the ground during mass protests around the world over the past two weeksThousands of people have taken part in what organizers have called the largest ever global civil disobedience against fossil fuels, with dozens of activists arrested during protests that shut down coalmines, rail infrastructure and a port.

Chemical used in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller ‘unlikely to pose carcinogenic risk from exposure through diet’Glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller brand, has been given a clean bill of health by the UN’s joint meeting on pesticides residues (JMPR), two days before a crunch EU vote on whether to relicense it.The co-analysis by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Health Organisation found that the chemical was “unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from exposure through the diet”. Continue reading...

Bangladesh is not the story of a secular country that has turned to radicalism: it is the story of a country that has, against all odds, survived, even flourishedI am a novelist. I look around at the world and I make up stories about people, families, lovers and friends. More often than not, the stories take place in Bangladesh, where I was born. When I close my eyes and think of home, it’s the peaty smell of the monsoon, the harsh light of the equatorial sun, the clashing sounds of the capital city, Dhaka, that come to mind.But, more often than not, people do not ask me about the peaty smell of the monsoon. The questions are about other things, the bigger things, such as religion, politics, the unaccounted bodies of the dead, the history that makes the present. I do not resent these questions – I understand why people ask them; after all, the headlines tell a particular story, and sometimes, we look for an interlocutor – someone to bridge the gap between here and there. Continue reading...

Peace museums | Church spires | Orgreave police forces | Old Trafford bomb scare | Letter-writers’ namesYou ask whether President Obama would dare to visit the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima (Hiroshima survivors ask Obama to reaffirm his commitment to world without nuclear weapons, 14 May). Peace museums are dangerous; they can change minds. Perhaps British political leaders should visit this country’s unique Peace Museum in Bradford? If they dare.

Parents at the gates of one London school are not surprised that NO2 levels in the area are well above recommended levelsCopenhagen primary school in north London does not immediately stand out as a pollution hotspot. The school gates open on to a quiet cul-de-sac, while along one side runs the Regent’s canal, where birds swoop in the afternoon sunshine. The large Victorian building is topped by an “edible roof garden”, designed to allow the children to grow fruit and vegetable in a restful environment.Related: Boris Johnson accused of burying study linking pollution and deprived schools Continue reading...

Unpublished report found four-fifths of the 433 London primary schools in areas breaching EU limits for NO2 were deprivedAn air quality report that was not published by Boris Johnson while he was mayor of London demonstrates that 433 schools in the capital are located in areas that exceed EU limits for nitrogen dioxide pollution – and that four-fifths of those are in deprived areas.

If confirmed as wild it will be first time species, also known as the lammergeier or ossifrage, has been found in UKA spectacular bearded vulture, believed to be the first recorded in the UK, has been spotted soaring over the Severn estuary and moorland in Devon. Continue reading...

Around 9.3 million women use tampons in the UK, but we don’t often speak about how we dispose of them

Statoil granted seabed lease to develop floating windfarm 15 miles off the coast of Peterhead that is expected to be operational by the end of 2017The world’s largest floating windfarm is set to be built off the coast of Scotland after its developers were granted a seabed lease on Monday.Statoil, the Norwegian energy company, expects to have five 6MW turbines bobbing in the North Sea and generating electricity by the end of 2017. The company has already operated a single turbine off Norway. Continue reading...

Images of the devastated Canadian city show just how destructive fire can be to urban populations. But the risk is greatest in informal settlements, where high population density and low-grade construction can be a deadly combinationWith patches of lawn on fire in the front yards of his neighbourhood’s suburban homes and flames rising up the trees at the back, Jared Sabovitch frantically got into his car and began driving away from his home in Fort McMurray, Alberta, the Canadian city recently overtaken by wildfires.“Hasty exit,” he said as he drove, the phone in his hand recording a video he would later post to Instagram. “That might have been the last time I ever saw my house, right there.” Continue reading...

These beautiful images were captured by participants of last year’s event, when thousands recorded more than 100,000 bees to help raise awareness of the threat to Britain’s 250 species of bee. Those taking part in this week’s count can send their photos using a free app Continue reading...

Smart leak detection and reusing stormwater to reduce urban heat are discussed at this year’s OzWater as cities prepare for climate changeFor the international water industry delegates descending upon Melbourne last week, in the leadup to OzWater 16, it must have seemed they had arrived in the wrong place.The torrential rain and flash floods inundating the city appeared at odds with Australia’s billing as the driest inhabited continent in the world, and certainly made for an unlikely setting to host a conference focusing on sustainability in a future of increasingly scarce water supplies.

Frustrated by simplistic portrayals of poaching, photographer Benjamin Rutherford has documented the complex and violent trade in his new project, Nyama Continue reading...

Heavy traffic sees A472 at Crumlin record highest nitrogen dioxide outside London – and residents fear for children’s healthThe rush hour is not a good time to be out and about on the A472 as lorry after lorry climbs out of the south Wales valley town of Crumlin and heads up and over towards Pontypool.“It’s pretty terrible,” said Deanna Harwick, a mother of two young children, who lives in a terrace lining one side of the heaving road. “We can’t have the windows open because of the fumes so in the summer the house feels pretty airless. I don’t let the children play outside, not just because of the risk of a road accident but because of the damage the air may cause to their health. I’ve been here 10 years and I’m keen to move.” Continue reading...

Payments to greenhouse gas emitters more likely to go to reduction schemes that would have taken place without government funding, says economistThe government’s $2.55bn emissions reduction fund, which pays greenhouse gas emitters to pollute less, will inevitably pay for reductions that would have happened anyway, for the same reason that secondhand car markets are full of lemons, an economic analysis has concluded.The centrepiece of the government’s Direct Action climate policy is a reverse-auction, in which polluters bid for funding to pollute less. Continue reading...

Borrowdale, Lake District Ever the good shepherd, he recognises the snow-white faces of many of his Herdwicks like he does peopleJostling each other, bleating the while, 400 pregnant Herdwick ewes make their way along the bottle-neck road from Stonethwaite in Borrowdale. Their destination? Nook Farm, hidden behind the huddle of slate-roofed cottages in Rosthwaite, the next village towards Keswick. Here they will give birth to the year’s lambs, soon to be seen skipping in the dale’s threadbare fields, which have not yet started to grow the fresh grass they will need to thrive. But in the meantime, the ewes are blocking the road as we meet head-on, forcing me to park up against the wall to let them by.Several walkers wearing Coast-to-Coast beanie hats are already waiting. Their route will take them 192 miles from Robin Hood’s Bay to St Bees, east to west across three national parks, rather than from the Irish Sea to the east coast, which is the direction recommended by Alfred Wainwright, who originally devised the unofficial long-distance footpath in the 1970s. Continue reading...

16 May 1936: In May the land is murmurous with the utterance of its own striving to richnessThat compulsory investment, so well known to the British, a long wet winter pays its ocular dividend in May; if the skies had not been so grey the fields would not be so green. The floods were fertilisers, and where there lingered for weeks the dismal ooze of the swollen river there is now an added foison of green and gold, of grass and buttercups, richness and lushness, and Nature’s ungovernable bounty.When Wordsworth’s Idiot Boy announced of grass that “you almost hear it growing” he was giving an accurate description of May in some soft corner of England. For fierceness of growth and thrusting plant we are accustomed to think of jungles far away; but the kind of native field which is squelchy in a dry winter or flooded in a wet one offers at this season an extraordinary example of lustihood in growth as well as of liveliness in colour. Continue reading...

Latest monthly figures add to string of recent temperature records and all but assure 2016 will be hottest year on recordApril 2016 was the hottest April on record globally – and the seventh month in a row to have broken global temperature records.The latest figures smashed the previous record for April by the largest margin ever recorded.

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 15 May 1916Garden warbler and blackcap were singing side by side in the wood, where the thick foliage now makes it difficult to see the songsters; these two, in these northern counties, where the nightingale is so rare, are undoubtedly our sweetest singers. In the dense vegetation which fringed the mere sedge warblers trilled, chattered, and purred, and the more sombre reed warblers crooned contentedly. In one of those deep hollows the result of salt-country subsidence pools, deep and forbidding, are bordered with sticky mud, but the sandpipers chased above the water whistling their love songs, and the redshanks rose from the ooze with deep plaintive calls. On the steep sloping banks, where rank weeds quickly hide the scars caused by constant landslips, the lively whinchat flitted, always perching on the topmost branchlet of dead weed or the highest clump of grass. Beyond, in the lanes, the whitethroat scolded, evidently resenting our presence in the neighbourhood of the spot selected for a home, and in the trees above the silent but ever-busy spotted flycatcher watched for the passing insects. But it was above the mere itself that the abundance of summer bird life was most noticeable, for sand martins, swallows, house martins, and swifts beat to and fro in scores; one could not even guess at their number. The birds have come, and come to stay. Continue reading...

‘I’m not a lifelong politician,’ says Bennett, as speculation begins over successor, with Caroline Lucas a likely strong contenderNatalie Bennett is to step down as leader of the Greens this summer, after saying she believed she had established her party as a national force while acknowledging that she was not a “spin-trained, lifelong politician”.She will remain leader until the end of August when her second two-year term expires, but said she was making the announcement now to allow possible successors plenty of time to come forward. Continue reading...

The sea lamprey, Petromyzon marinus, is most likely to be seen in British rivers at this time of year as the adults swim upstream to spawn.They are remarkable creatures but good looks are not one of their attributes. They resemble an eel and have a permanently open mouth with a great number of teeth. They also have some nasty parasitic habits. Continue reading...

President’s wide-ranging graduation address defends factual knowledge and attacks isolationism as he targets Trump’s border wall planBarack Obama delivered a stinging rebuke to a culture of isolationism and falsehood, and an adamant defense of facts and science, in his commencement address to the Rutgers University graduating class of 2016 on Sunday.In a wide-ranging address, Obama singled out the issue of income inequality and proposed closing tax loopholes on hedge fund managers, highlighted the importance of voting and accountability, and commented on the problems of money in politics and climate change. Continue reading...

The East Sussex seaside resort is one of the UK’s most sunkissed spots – but it’s up there with London in terms of pollutionName: Eastbourne.Appearance: Seasidey. Continue reading...

Owner’s annual report shows executives would benefit personally from any expansion despite past denialsHeathrow bosses will stand to gain from bonus payouts if the airport gets permission to build a £17.6bn third runway, it has emerged.Although the west London airport has previously denied the existence of any such financial incentives – not least when senior executives at rival Gatwick were found to have incentives to win a second runway – the annual report of Heathrow Airport Holdings states that during 2015 “a new bonus scheme was launched based on EBITDA, passenger service and airport expansion over the Q6 period” (pdf), which runs from 2014 to 2020. Continue reading...

Woodland, parkland, marsh and mountain all have their protectors. But who will stand up for our unloved, wildlife-rich in-between spaces?A whitethroat launches into the sky to deliver his scratchy song, before parachuting down to his hidden nest along the banks of a canal. A cluster of marsh orchids push their way through the surface of a disused tennis court in the shadow of Newcastle United’s football stadium. And the walls and gravestones of a rain-lashed Cornish churchyard are encrusted with layers of lichens.At first sight, these very different places do not seem to have all that much in common. Yet like roadside verges and railway lines, golf courses and military ranges, they were all originally designed for us, but have since become havens for wildlife. That’s because, unlike the intensively farmed wider countryside, they are not being regularly sprayed with pesticides and herbicides, but mostly left to their own devices. Continue reading...

A hatred of sprouts, a mug of blood with a Masai tribe and a physiological need for Indian meals – the naturalist shares his most memorable food experiencesMy earliest memory is repugnance towards over-cooked sprouts, an essential part of our family’s menu, boiled until blanched. The worst punishment possible was being told I had to stay at the table and finish eating them, instead of running back into the woods, where things were more interesting. I was scarred by sprouts.I had a problem with eggs as a child, no end of grief. I could cope with dipping soldiers in soft yolks, but the whites would make me gag. Later I collected birds’ eggs, but never saw them as food. To me they were beautifully made jewels, fascinating treasures. Each stone-curlew egg, for instance, has a dark brown squiggle pattern identifiable to its mother. I also collected chocolate Easter eggs – I’d not eat them, just save them, for years, arranged on shelves in my wardrobe.

The new field of planetary health examines the link between human health and the environment to prevent viral pandemics such as Zika and EbolaThe Zika virus, now detected in 42 countries, is only the latest in a series of diseases establishing a new normal for pandemics. Sars ravaged South China in 2003, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) shocked the Middle East in 2012, and Ebola devastated west Africa in 2014. We have seen avian influenza emerge in new geographies alongside mosquito-borne viruses, such as Chikungunya. Over the past 50 years, more than 300 infectious pathogens have either newly developed or reemerged in places where they had never been seen before.These trends raise questions: Why are infectious diseases occurring with such frequency? Why are pandemics the new normal? The increased rate of outbreak is typically framed as a failure of the health system. Indeed, that is a critical component. But the conditions that allow for outbreak in the first place are rooted in environmental change. Continue reading...

Minimal packaging, no synthetic preservatives – but are ‘naked’ cosmetics any good?In my continued effort to experiment with green living, I’m trying naked cosmetics. I’ve traded in over-engineered pump-action pots for slices of soap wrapped in paper, and chunks of “solid” shampoo in reusable tins.I’d have liked to have spread my experiment around various brands, but when it comes to solid beauty there’s only one serious player on the high street: Lush. What it lacks in sophistication the brand makes up for in non-conformism – 35% of the product range is deemed “naked”, devoid of both synthetic preservatives and packaging. Lush says that last year it displaced more than 15m plastic bottles through global sales of its shampoo bar. Continue reading...

Author and social activist says political action on climate change was lacking ‘and nowhere more so than Australia’The Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein has criticised Australia’s climate change policies after winning the Sydney Peace prize for her work exposing the structural causes of the planet’s climate crisis.Klein said political action on climate change was lacking “and nowhere more so than Australia”. She has previously described Tony Abbott as a climate change “villain”. Continue reading...

Environment minister Rory Stewart told Tory MEPs to support ‘get-out clause’The British government has been accused of trying to secretly undermine new EU air pollution targets in favour of big business, as leaked papers reveal that Tory MEPs were told to support a “get-out clause” in proposed laws.Legislation designed to force member states to strictly limit emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and ammonia by 2030 is being scrutinised in Brussels. Continue reading...

International project will use IVF and stem-cell technology in an attempt to resurrect the speciesUnder the watchful eyes of a group of heavily armed guards, three rhinos graze on the grassland of the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Most of the world knows that the rhinoceros is threatened, but the status of these animals is in another league. They are the planet’s last three northern white rhinos. None is capable of breeding. The northern white, which once roamed Africa in its thousands, is in effect extinct. The three – named Sudan, Najin and Fatu – are the last of their kind.In a few months, however, a group of scientists from the US, Germany, Italy and Japan will attempt the seemingly impossible: to rescue the northern white rhino – smaller and hairier than its southern cousin – from the jaws of extinction. In October, they plan to remove the last eggs from the two female northern whites and by using advanced reproductive techniques, including stem cell technology and IVF, create embryos that could be carried to term by surrogate rhino mothers. The northern white could then be restored to its former glory. The procedure would be a world first. Continue reading...

High costs keep the less affluent out of drama schools and careers, but surely acting is about transcending background, not being confined by it?As somebody from a working-class background, I have considerable sympathy for those who feel they are excluded by the private-school dominance that seems to permeate society even more thoroughly than in my youth (“The loneliness of the working-class actor”, New Review, last week). Unsurprisingly, students from working-class backgrounds are not applying to drama school when the cost is so high and the earnings from acting are so precarious. However, are they really excluded, by their background, from the parts that are available? Surely the clue is in the job title, or do we only expect actors to play themselves today? Perhaps some of them need to develop a broader portfolio.

15 years on, our love affair with food is deepening...so are our problemsIn the 15 years since the launch of Observer Food Monthly, the British food scene has changed beyond recognition. Artisan coffee shops are now a feature of many high streets; gastropubs, not just white-linen dining establishments, are awarded Michelin stars. Supermarket shelves are stacked with foods catering for most intolerances. Review sites such as Trip Advisor have democratised the experience of eating out, while the proliferation of online delivery services means we can order takeaway via the touch of an app. It feels as if we have more choice than ever.A lively debate about what’s on our plate, and how it got there, has also emerged. In the past decade, celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall have thrown their weight behind exposing the ugly truth about how some of our food is produced. Continue reading...

Villages in Ryedale, North Yorkshire, hope a landmark ruling this week will save them from the disruption of the shale revolutionKirby Misperton, like many other villages in North Yorkshire, has enjoyed its obscurity for centuries. At this time of year, it has all the characteristic features of rural Ryedale: the medieval church that stands among the last of the cherry tree blossom, the poignant war memorial cross that stands at the tiny roundabout, the cottages with their neat front gardens blazing with scarlet and yellow tulips. This is the kind of community I grew up in, only a few miles away.But this village of a few hundred residents unexpectedly finds itself in the national spotlight – the subject of a decision that could be a critical juncture in how a new and deeply controversial energy technology is shoehorned into the intricate and richly layered English countryside. Continue reading...

Record numbers of cruise ships, airport capacity pushed to the limit and on the roads. But the Balearics find welcome cash also brings headachesThe beaches are not yet packed on a windy weekend in the Balearic islands and few have ventured into the brusque waves. But even though the summer season is just under way, the bars, restaurants and roads of Mallorca are thronged with people and traffic.Related: Barcelona’s tourist hordes are target for radical new mayor Ada Colau Continue reading...

Two more women file claims against Rajendra Pachauri after 29-year-old colleague from Energy and Resources Institute speaks outA court in Delhi has ruled that Rajendra Pachauri, the former chairman of a Nobel prize-winning UN panel on climate change, will stand trial on charges of stalking and sexual harassment of a former employee.A 29-year-old former employee of The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri), based in the Indian capital, filed a police report against Pachauri last year. She said Pachauri, who led the organisation, had made inappropriate advances soon after she joined in 2013. Continue reading...