Ladle Hill, Hampshire This neat circle of blue is the only unfrozen water for a kilometre in each directionRefreshed by the labour of the climb, my legs nonetheless argue for respite on the crest of the hill. And, just as it does on the map, the dewpond appears a little way below me as a neat circle of blue reflecting a flawless sky on a day of hard frost.The pond is at the very top of the downs. On one side is flint-spewing earth, which in summer is covered in a yellow cowl of rapeseed. And on the other is grazing pasture capping the concentric earthen rings of the iron age fort that stands sentinel on the hill’s northern ridge. The lightest of winds twitches the smears of wool caught on wire barbs. Up here ‘There is no life higher than the grasstops / Or the hearts of sheep…’, as Sylvia Plath wrote of the West Yorkshire moors in Wuthering Heights, her poem of exquisite introspection. Continue reading...

The artist says her undeniably sad portraits of bleached coral on the Great Barrier Reef are about resilience: ‘It’s not a fragile delicate flower … it’s so important to be optimistic and do what we can to protect it’Laura Jones is pained by the delicate balance she wants to strike. Her paintings of coral bleaching are going to be engulfing, immersive and undeniably sad. But she wants them to express hope and resilience, too.It’s something she keeps coming back to before, during and after I visit her studio, where she is preparing a major exhibition. Continue reading...

Four people taken to hospital since Wednesday after suspected stings from venomous box jellyfish off Fraser coastSwimmers are being urged to take extra care in waters off Queensland amid warnings the deadly irukandji jellyfish is moving further south.Four people have been taken to hospital since Wednesday after suffering suspected irukandji stings off Queensland’s Fraser coast. Continue reading...

Oceanographers are busy mapping the powerful underwater eddies that have proved a major hazard to submarinersRows of tall buildings channel the breeze, turning streets into wind tunnels and creating whirlwinds. A similar effect underwater may be deadly.Tidal currents can produce giant whirlpools. Some, like the famous Maelstrom off the Norwegian coast, have been known as shipping hazards for centuries. Their destructive power feeds mythology; Maelstrom is the home of the mythical Kraken, which drags ships down, while regular whirlpools in the straits of Messina are blamed on the fearsome Charybdis. Continue reading...

How closely have you been following enviro and green business headlines this year? Take our quiz to test your knowledge of the biggest sustainability storiesIn February, a consortium of businesses and environmental groups, including Kimberly Clark and Canada’s Globe and Mail, won a 16-year fight to restrict logging in which rainforest?Great Bear, British ColumbiaTongass National Forest, AlaskaHoh Rainforest, WashingtonMount Hood, OregonAccording to a report from the US Department of Agriculture, nearly 30% of which type of pollinator died last winter in the US because of pesticide use and habitat loss?Bumble beesButterfliesHoney beesBeetlesWhich company debuted a meat-free burger in New York and California restaurants this year that bleeds like beef but is made entirely from plants?Modern MeadowMemphis MeatsBeyond MeatImpossible FoodsWhich type of renewable energy project has been a target of Trump’s hate tweets because of its proximity to one of his golf courses?SolarHydropowerOffshore windNuclearThis summer, Tesla finalized a $2.6bn deal to buy a power company that produces solar "shingles" – photovoltaic material that can be fashioned into the shape of a roof. What is the name of that company?First SolarSolarCitySun PowerTrump SolarIn September, which US state became the first to introduce overtime for its farm workers?CaliforniaIowaTexasIllinoisWhich fast food chain received an "A" from the National Resources Defence Council for its efforts phase out antibiotics in its meat products?McDonald’sChick-Fil-ABurger KingChipotleA tech giant issued $1.5bn in green bonds this year to fund renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation efforts. Who was it?FacebookAppleGoogleMicrosoftAccording to a study by four environmental groups, how much in annual subsidies does the Canadian government offer to its oil and gas companies?Nothing$5m$3.3bn$1.3bnIn November, nearly 400 companies and nonprofits signed a letter to Donald Trump to express support for the Paris climate agreement. Which of these companies didn't sign?MonsantoTiffany & CoStaplesCisco2 and above.Oops! Better read more Guardian Sustainable Business in 2017 if you want to impress your friends.1 and above.Oops! Better read more Guardian Sustainable Business in 2017 if you want to impress your friends.3 and above.Not bad! Still, could be better..4 and above.Not bad! Still, could be better..5 and above.Good job! We can tell you're the smart one at dinner parties.8 and above.Good job! We can tell you're the smart one at dinner parties.7 and above.Good job! We can tell you're the smart one at dinner parties.6 and above.Good job! We can tell you're the smart one at dinner parties.10 and above.Aced it!9 and above.Aced it!0 and above.Oops! Better read more Guardian Sustainable Business in 2017 if you want to impress your friends. Continue reading...

Green energy such as wind power made up 40% of electricity generated in Britain, compared with 25% on 25 December 2015Christmas Day was the greenest on record for energy generation, according to the power group Drax.The company said more than 40% of the electricity generated on the day came from renewable sources, the highest ever. It compared with 25% on Christmas Day in 2015, and 12% in 2012. Continue reading...

National Grid has agreed to use underground cables within national park, but plans to put pylons 10 metres outside itThe last known descendant of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth is to join campaigners marching to “save the Lake District from pylons” on New Year’s Day.Ninety pylons the height of Nelson’s column are planned across an estuary in the area of outstanding natural beauty where Wordsworth wandered lonely as a cloud. Continue reading...

New recommendations will help companies to predict the impact of climate change on their finances – and give us more firepower to demand disclosureIt is vitally important for investors to understand the risks that climate change may pose to the businesses they have invested in – and the opportunities in transitioning to a low-carbon economy. It’s not an easy task. Climate change may be one of the world’s best-modeled processes in physics, but in finance, the information is scarce. The projections are opaque. There is no consensus on which data matters or how to interpret it.Related: Why is corporate America picking wind power over solar? Continue reading...

Calf, which is yet to be sexed or named, is one of most endangered subspecies of giraffe, with fewer than 1,600 in wildA rare and endangered Rothschild’s giraffe has been born at Chester zoo.Keepers said the 1.82-metre (6ft) calf, which is yet to be sexed or named, arrived to first-time mother Tula and father Meru at about 7am on Boxing Day and was up on its feet just minutes later.

Odd- and even-numbered vehicles will swap use of roads in Spanish capital until smog easesMadrid has ordered half of most private cars off the roads on Thursday to tackle worsening air pollution, a first in Spain.The restrictions will operate between 6.30am and 9pm. The city council said in a statement: “vehicles with even-number registration plates will be allowed to drive around on even-number days and cars with odd-number registration plates on odd-number days”. Continue reading...

Operator has suggested that shippers had a right to terminate their contracts with the project if the pipeline was not operating by a 1 January deadlineIndigenous activists are focussing on the Dakota Access pipeline’s finances before Donald Trump takes office in an effort to further strain the oil corporation and cause continuing delays that they hope could be disastrous for the project.After the Obama administration denied the company a key permit to finish construction, Native American activists warned that the win was only temporary and that Trump, an investor in the pipeline corporation, would seek to quickly advance the project next year. Continue reading...

Winning images from national and international wildlife photography competitions of the year Continue reading...

We’ve asked readers to share their photos of wildlife they have discovered every month this year. Here is a selection of the best of themReaders have been sharing a wonderful array of wildlife photographs every month throughout the year. And with 2016 drawing to a close, we thought it would be nice to document the very best of them from all four seasons. Here’s to more fantastic, up close and personal wildlife photography next year. Continue reading...

Sandy, Bedfordshire The tiny bird comes on strong at the end of the year, an emblem of the seasonThe singers began rehearsing for the main event as long ago as September. At first light, the murmur of traffic would be punctuated with tentative trills or cadences that expired almost as they began. The gaps between plaintive coos of the wood pigeon were filled with sotto voce snatches of song, making up for a lack of volume with notes of high piercing intensity. There is nothing that sings quite like a robin.Robin song comes on strong at the end of the year, as if the bird were living up to its status as an emblem of the season. The simple scientific explanation is that male and female birds are re-establishing pair bonds and territorial rights. Continue reading...

Designation of Bears Ears in Utah and Gold Butte in Nevada mark last moves to protect environmentally sensitive areas in administration’s final weeksPresident Barack Obama designated two national monuments at sites in Utah and Nevada that have become key flashpoints over use of public land in the west, marking the administration’s latest move to protect environmentally sensitive areas in its final weeks.The Bears Ears national monument in Utah will cover 1.35m acres in the Four Corners region, the White House said. In a victory for Native American tribes and conservationists, the designation protects land that is considered sacred and is home to an estimated 100,000 archaeological sites, including ancient cliff dwellings. Continue reading...

Ollie says its apartments help reduce carbon emissions by housing twice as many people than a traditional building. But is more urban density the answer?Chris Bledsoe is of the contrarian opinion that most New York City apartments are too large. His company, Ollie, rents studios on East 27th Street in Manhattan that range from 260-360 square feet in size, well below the city’s housing code standard of at least 400 square feet. Take a tour, and each unit looks like a furnished dining room, bedroom or living room – but rarely like all three of those spaces at the same time.By providing multipurpose furnishings and high-end amenities like housekeeping and grocery shopping services, Bledsoe believes he has cracked the code on sustainable urban housing. Inside the apartments, the desk converts into a dinner table; the bed folds into a wall, leaving a couch in its place; clothing racks accordion out from the closets to make for tighter storage capacity. Continue reading...

Cougar killed after husky and owner injured in central Alberta forest during unusual attack on pet dogA Canadian man punched a cougar in the face to stop it attacking his dog, police have said.The incident occurred in a wooded area near a fast food chain in Whitecourt, central Alberta, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said on Wednesday. Continue reading...

A University of Edinburgh study finds birds are arriving at breeding grounds too soon, causing some to miss out on foodMigrating birds are responding to the effects of climate change by arriving at their breeding grounds earlier as global temperatures rise, research has found.

Unions say industrial unrest cannot be ruled out by nuclear workers in Copeland amid row over changes to pension scheme“Serious industrial unrest” at Europe’s biggest nuclear site could threaten the Conservatives’ chances of winning a forthcoming byelection, unions have warned.The byelection in the marginal Cumbrian seat of Copeland has been described as “Theresa May’s to lose”. Continue reading...

Investigation comes after video was posted on YouTube showing men running over bear with off-road vehiclesA criminal investigation has been opened into a group of men who filmed themselves killing a bear in Siberia by running over it with off-road vehicles.A video posted on YouTube on Monday and apparently filmed on a mobile phone showed a brown bear being crushed to death in the snow by two heavy duty trucks, of the kind used by oil and mining workers. The video has since been removed.

Former prime minister says the ‘poor quality of representatives’ is a worldwide phenomenon partly caused by media focus on politicians’ private livesBob Hawke has blamed “the increasing intrusiveness of the media into private lives of politicians” for what he sees as a decline in quality of MPs and leaders in Australia and abroad.In a wide-ranging address at the Woodford Folk festival in Queensland, where the 87-year-old has spoken for eight years in a row, the former prime minister said “poor quality of representatives … is not a purely Australian phenomenon – it’s a worldwide phenomenon”. Continue reading...

Brambles and birds did well, but bees dipped and butterflies were hindered, according to a review of the year’s wildlife and weather by the National TrustFarmers made hay but rampant grass growth in 2016 made life hard for butterflies and even puffin chicks, according to a review of the year’s wildlife and weather by the National Trust.The nation’s ever more variable weather brought both booms and busts, with brambles and birds doing well, and slugs flourishing. But bumblebees dipped and owls found field voles hard to find. Continue reading...

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire On a closer look, the trees are not still holding leaves at all but are full of bracts and seedsFrom a distance, the common lime trees are a rich orangey colour. This looks wrong. The autumn leaves of these trees are buttery and the last of them blew down a month ago. The limes have a curious russet foliage, just like the coating of rust on the fallen leaves in a spring issuing from ironstone under the Short Woods a few miles north of here. The rusty limes look oddly out of time, as if frozen in an arrested autumn when all about them winter trees stand darkly naked.On a closer look, the limes are not still holding leaves at all but are full of bracts and seeds. The bracts are small, oblong, modified leaves, pale and almost transparent when they open in spring, like solar panels on a satellite above the dangling cyme of two to seven flowers. Continue reading...

Cropland losses will have consequences especially for Asia and Africa, which will experience growing food insecurity as cities expandOur future crops will face threats not only from climate change, but also from the massive expansion of cities, a new study warns. By 2030, it’s estimated that urban areas will triple in size, expanding into cropland and undermining the productivity of agricultural systems that are already stressed by rising populations and climate change.Roughly 60% of the world’s cropland lies on the outskirts of cities—and that’s particularly worrying, the report authors say, because this peripheral habitat is, on average, also twice as productive as land elsewhere on the globe. Continue reading...

Russian investigators are examining footage to determine whether it constitutes an animal cruelty criminal offenceRussian investigators are looking into a disturbing video of a bear being crushed to death by a group of men riding in off-road vehicles over Siberian tundra.In the video, apparently shot by one of the assailants, two trucks normally used by Russian oil and mining workers in off-road conditions repeatedly drive over a brown bear sitting in the snow. Continue reading...

The President-elect’s nominees to key positions deny the existence, threats, and solutions to human-caused global warming

Urgent action is needed to stop the world’s fastest land animal becoming extinct, experts have warnedUrgent action is needed to stop the cheetah – the world’s fastest land animal – becoming extinct, experts have warned.Scientists estimate that only 7,100 of the fleet-footed cats remain in the wild, occupying 9% of the territory they once lived in. Asiatic populations have been hit the hardest, with fewer than 50 surviving in Iran, according to an investigation led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Continue reading...

A selection of images captured by photographers over the past 12 months, including a Donald Trump lookalike pheasant, kissing parakeets, and a lost sloth Continue reading...

As demand for sustainable energy increases, Australia’s independent renewable energy agency has to choose to fund some projects over others – to varying degrees of successAs any punter will know, backing winners isn’t easy. There’s a little bit of science, a little bit of art and a whole lot of luck.

David Pitt, 77, went into cardiac arrest after highly venomous reptile bit him on the foot in his home in far north QueenslandAn elderly man bitten by a taipan at his home in Queensland has died after spending nearly a week in hospital.David Pitt, 77, went into cardiac arrest after the highly venomous snake bit him on the foot at his home in Yorkeys Knob, Cairns, on 20 December. Continue reading...

Calls for culls always surge after attacks by ‘salties’ but it’s their habitat not humans that will decide their numbersFor the people of Australia’s tropical north, a wary coexistence with crocodiles is a fact of life.Protected for more than four decades after being hunted to near extinction, the ancient reptile – on the credible numbers that are available – has staged a remarkable recovery. Continue reading...

Campaigners say the 107 hours when the country was powered by wind, sun and water show they can replace fossil fuelsIf you can keep your gaze off the hilltops, imagine away the pylons and forget the occasional tractor of an uncertain vintage coughing along the narrow roads, little appears to have changed in the valleys of north-eastern Portugal for decades, perhaps even centuries.The gnarled alvarinho vines have been relieved of their fruit to make vinho verde, an old woman in black herds her sheep through a hamlet and hungry eagles hover over the fields, scanning the land for lunch. Continue reading...

Swimmers urged to stick to patrolled beaches after dozens of sharks were spotted on Christmas DayVictoria’s Fairhaven beach on the Great Ocean Road was closed for four hours on Monday after a shark sighting, adding to dozens of sightings on Christmas Day.Surf lifesavers called swimmers out of the water about 11am on Boxing Day.

A year after severe floods in wake of Storm Desmond, John Krebs says ministers still have no coherent long-term plan to deal with itMajor flooding in the UK is now likely to happen every year but ministers still have no coherent long-term plan to deal with it, the government’s leading adviser on the impacts of climate change has warned.Boxing Day in 2015 saw severe floods sweep Lancashire and Yorkshire, just weeks after Storm Desmond swamped Cumbria and parts of Scotland and Wales. The flooding, which caused billions of pounds of damage, led to the government publishing a review in September which anticipates 20-30% more extreme rainfall than before. Continue reading...

The 200kg mammal had to be tranquillised after climbing on to a car in suburban LauncestonA giant fur seal that spent Boxing Day wandering suburban Tasmania’s streets will be released back into the wild.Police, and parks and sildlife officers spent much of Monday morning trying to capture the seal, which took a stroll along the streets in Newstead, Launceston – at one point managing to climb on to a car. Continue reading...

River Welland, Lincolnshire This path alone is a find. It’s like walking through a ribcageFollowing the river, I got here. Not waterborne as I might have liked; it’s not a day for the canoe. Instead I looked at the map, for new places where the river touches the land. How many find country by looking near roads? But roads go where we wanted them to: the river goes where it has always gone.

Conservationists say about 80 creatures in zoos and private collections hold key to re-establishment of the endangered speciesFewer than 100 Scottish wildcats are now believed to exist in the wild, say leading experts, with no evidence of any decent sized populations anywhere in the country.While it had been hoped up to 300 may still survive, recent extensive monitoring suggests a lower figure, with individuals or small groups clinging on in isolated and fragmented pockets.

From air pollution to Trump and wildlife extinction, we look at the major environmental issues for the year aheadAfter five years of false starts and delays, 2017 will see exploratory fracking for shale gas begin in earnest in England. The first wells will likely be drilled in Lancashire and Yorkshire by the summer, and Cuadrilla, Third Energy and other companies will hope to confirm commercially viable quantities of the gas by the end of the year. With only 17% of people in Britain in favour of fracking, local and national protests are certain.Brexit negotiations will affect farming subsidies and possibly all European nature protection laws, including those for birds and habitats, air and water pollution, GM foods and animal welfare. If ministers attempt to roll back or trade off decades of environmental regulation, as some have threatened, they are likely to meet the most intense opposition. Continue reading...

First climate change risk assessment since 2012 will have considerable implications for future green policyThe government will outline the specific risks it believes Britain faces due to the impact of climate change, in a landmark report to be delivered early in the new year.It will be the first response made by Theresa May’s administration to a major environmental concern and will have considerable implications for future green policy.

Chalton, Hampshire In the morning we find a carpet of shining black pellets brimming with skulls and rubbery tailsAt the highest and darkest point of the South Downs escarpment, an Anglo-Saxon hall stands beefy and lumbering under a black sky dusted with stars. Built with hand-hewn oak timbers and hazel spars, it is the latest addition to the educational farm on Butser Hill where I work as a creative developer, feeding goats and designing guide books.The farm is an outdoor archaeological laboratory, and recreates ancient buildings from the neolithic period onwards. Inside the hall a log fire releases sparks like doves at a wedding, burning through the daylight hours to amuse wandering visitors searching for a taste of history. Continue reading...

Wildlife advocates said the animals, which were being readied for shipment on Friday night, were unsuitable for live exportMore than 30 wild elephants were being readied on Friday evening for an airlift from Zimbabwe to captivity in China, according to wildlife advocates.The founder of Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, Johnny Rodrigues, said on Friday that their plane was still at Victoria Falls airport because officials could not find scales big enough to weigh the animals, which were confined inside heavy crates. Continue reading...

In 27 years as environment editor at the Guardian, I have seen both devastation and progress. Now I’m retiring – but I still have hope for the future of the planetIn September 1989, Guardian editor Peter Preston took me to one side. “Environment? Your idea. You do it,” he said. I was on the arts desk and had quite forgotten that, two years earlier, I had proposed that we cover this fast-emerging issue in more depth and with new pages.We had a great correspondent in Paul Brown, but no single journalist could keep up with events. This was the height of Thatcherism, the old Soviet Union was collapsing in ecological ruin, and there had been serious nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. That year, more than two million people in Britain had voted Green in the European parliament elections. Continue reading...

Tribe, who fired arrows at helicopter photographing them, also face threat from proposed change to land laws, says groupAn uncontacted Amazon tribe could be at risk as Brazil makes austerity-driven budget cuts and proposals for constitutional change affecting land rights move through parliament, campaigners have said.The tribe were photographed from a helicopter by Ricardo Stuckert this month near the border with Peru. Continue reading...

Fruit bats, a nosy kangaroo and the last male northern white rhino are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world 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...

“Only vicar’s daughters become naturalists.” This was the response of Stan Micklethwaite when his young daughter Mari (my future wife) declared her life’s ambition. Stan spent most of his working life weighing wagons of coal at the pithead of Barrow colliery near Barnsley, yet his many active leisure pursuits included beekeeping and gardening, with Mari always at his side, eager to learn. Neither Stan nor Mari’s mother, Nellie, lived to hear of the fame that Mari, who has died aged 80, went on to achieve in her adult career as a wildlife writer, illustrator, broadcaster, conservationist and storyteller. No doubt they would have been surprised as well as very proud.Mari and I met in 1954, as chief bridesmaid and best man at a cousin’s wedding, and we married two years later. It was only after our four children were all at school in Warwickshire that Mari was able to enrol in classes at local colleges to learn more of botany, horticulture and ecology, writing copious notes with cross-reference to multiple sources as well as her own careful observations of the natural world around her. Continue reading...

Record temperatures threaten traditional ways of life in Greenland but as the sea ice retreats, new mining, fishing and tourism opportunities are helping communities to adaptAsked if he is fearful about the impact of climate change, Tønnes “Kaka” Berthelsen’s response is typical of many Greenlanders. “We are more concerned about the Maldives,” he said bluntly.Greenland has lived with extreme environmental changes for a decade or more. Sea ice is forming two months later and melting one month earlier. Rivers fed by retreating glaciers are at record levels. And temperature records were smashed twice this year, with stunned meteorologists rechecking their measurements after 24C was recorded in the capital, Nuuk, in June. Continue reading...

An oil terminal to be built in northern Russia where the river Yenisei meets the Arctic Ocean lacks the technology to deal with oil spills, say environmentalistsThe livelihood of the Nenets people who live along the northern stretches of the Yenisei, Russia’s longest river, depends on two pursuits: fishing and reindeer herding.But locals have said both of those activities are under threat from an oil terminal due to be built on the Tanalau cape, near where the river empties into the Arctic Ocean. Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have protested against the high risk of an oil spill in difficult Arctic conditions. More than 40 people have signed a letter of protest to the company building the terminal, the Independent Petroleum Company (IPC). Continue reading...

Ships are suspected of dumping waste upstream on China’s Yangtze river before it floats into a key city reservoirMedical waste, broken bottles and household trash are some of the items found in more than 100 tonnes of garbage salvaged near a drinking water reservoir in Shanghai.

National Grid expect Len Goodman’s show to create a ‘TV pickup’ as people across the country boil kettles, flush toilets and switch on lights after the showLen Goodman will follow in the footsteps of David Jason, Pauline Collins and an extraterrestrial as one of Christmas TV’s top challenges for the people tasked with keeping the lights on.