The death of Prince, the Ecuador earthquake, the continuing refugee crisis in Europe - the best photography in news, culture and sport from around the world this week Continue reading...

On 30 April Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta will set fire to 105 to tonnes of ivory in Nairobi National Park. This article explains why it’s the right thing to doBy burning almost its entire ivory stockpile, Kenya is sending out the message that it will never benefit from illegal ivory captured from poachers or seized in transit. However, as the day of the burn approaches, commentators and experts have been lining up to condemn it. Some of the objections put forward are based on wrong assumptions; some deserve serious consideration.Here I summarise four of the most frequent arguments being made against the burn and explain why, in my view, they are wrong. Continue reading...

Electricity has long led the green energy market, but now both utilities are coming under the eco umbrellaMany of us have signed up with energy companies that offer 100% renewable electricity, so why not switch to a gas tariff that also promises to be carbon neutral? Energy firm Good Energy is hoping to tempt green households to do exactly that. This week the Chippenham-based firm started offering a domestic gas tariff that will allow customers to claim their gas usage produces no overall net carbon.Launched to coincide with the Paris climate change agreement signing yesterday, Good Energy’s “green gas” tariff will include 6% biomethane, produced in the UK from organic matter including manure and even sewage. The move makes it the latest supplier to offer green gas – produced from the 300 or so anaerobic digesters dotted around the UK, a small number of which directly feed the biogas they produce into the national grid. Continue reading...

The population of long-tailed field mice can explode quickly, but they are an important source of food for barn owlsAll over my lawn, I have holes that are 1-2 inches across but appear to lead into tunnels. What is making these holes? They are not big enough for rats or rabbits.

Loch Flemington, Highlands The mute swan is asleep on her nest, while the swallows are wheeling and criss-crossing each other in flightAs I sat on the extreme western end of the loch, two scenes unfolded before me, one tranquil and the other hectic. In the former a female mute swan, the pen, was asleep on her huge nest, which was partially obscured by the remnants of last year’s reed bed. She would probably have been on her full clutch of eggs – five or six of them – and they are huge at 15mm x 74mm with very thick shells.The male, the cob, was “in attendance” – her guardian – but asleep out on the open water. Then he was suddenly alert as something appeared out of a nearby sedge bed. A moorhen made its run across the water and took off with legs trailing. The swan went back to sleep. Continue reading...

Australia’s lack of action on pollution reduction targets has made the country a laughing stock on the international stage, according to senator Larissa WatersAustralia’s lack of follow-through on climate change will leave the Great Barrier Reef “completely cooked” despite it signing the Paris climate deal, the Greens say.The federal environmental minister, Greg Hunt, has joined leaders from 170 other countries in New York to sign the Paris Agreement to limit global warming by at least 2C. Continue reading...

Greenpeace brands project an ‘utter mess’ after French company admits it won’t make investment decision before summer

More than 170 countries sign the Paris Agreement at the UN on Friday as the landmark deal takes a key step toward entering into force years ahead of schedule. The signing ceremony is expected to set a record for international diplomacy; never have so many countries signed an agreement on the first available day.States that don’t sign Friday have a year to do so

Obama administration puffs its chest out over apparent victories in removing animals from endangered species list at accelerated paceThe world may be hurtling to the worst extinction crisis since the dinosaurs were wiped out, but the US is claiming success in its own efforts to prevent species following the path of titanosaurs, dodos and passenger pigeons.A total of 34 species have been removed from federal Endangered Species Act protections since 1978 due to them recovering, rather than becoming extinct. This pace has accelerated under Barack Obama’s presidency – 16 of the 34 recovered species have been delisted during the current administration. Continue reading...

Representatives of more than 170 countries endorse Paris agreement to cut carbon emissions, with France’s president saying: ‘There is no turning back’More than 170 governments declared an end to the fossil fuel era on Friday, using the signing ceremony for the landmark Paris agreement as an occasion to renew their vows to fight climate change.The outpouring of support – the largest ever single-day turn-out for a signing ceremony – underscored strong international commitment to deliver on the promises made in Paris last December to avoid a climate catastrophe, the leaders said.

Ban on diesel cars and extending ultra-low emission zone mooted after DfT study raises concerns over nitrogen oxide levelsMayoral candidates in London, the city with the worst air quality in Britain, have seized on the Department for Transport’s study of vehicle emissions to call for tighter controls on traffic pollution – including a ban on diesel cars.An ultra-low emission zone in central London from 2020 will levy charges on all but the cleanest vehicles. But the DfT vehicle tests show that some diesels with a Euro 6 engine – classed as “ultra-low emission” and free to drive under outgoing mayor Boris Johnson’s plan – were emitting 12 times the permitted level of nitrogen oxide. Continue reading...

Pressure increases to honour promise to allow access to what is believed to be decades of research into ‘green’ technologiesThe University of Warwick has joined calls for BP to honour a promise made by its chairman to open up a company archive containing valuable research on renewable energy.The pressure comes a week after the oil company faced a shareholder revolt over executive pay and days before it expected to report a first-quarter loss of $140m (£97m), compared with a $2.6bn profit in the same period of 2015. Continue reading...

Licensing process for São Luiz do Tapajós dam stalled after Funai report demarcated Sawré Muybu land around river, where Munduruku people livePlans to build a huge hydroelectric dam in the Amazon have been put on hold after Brazil’s environmental agency, Ibama, suspended the licensing process over concerns about its impact on the indigenous community in the region.

Carmaker’s executives agree to pay cuts as VW doubles its provision for the diesel emissions scandalVolkswagen has slumped to its first annual loss in more than 20 years after setting aside €16.2bn (£12.6bn) to cover the cost of its diesel emissions scandal.

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...

Ministers say the new tests put the car industry on the ‘right path’ but critics warn they have been weakened and their impact is uncertainMinisters have assured Britons suffering illegally high levels of air pollution that the EU’s new diesel car testing regime will put the motor industry on the “right path”.But do not breathe your sigh of relief too deeply. The new ‘real world’ tests, which will commence next year, have been weakened, delayed and their final impact remains uncertain, experts say. Continue reading...

It’d be nice to think that making ethical choices inspired others to do the sameI’m on thin ice telling Guardian readers that being an ethical consumer makes you irritating, but you can’t argue with science. In a recent study, US researchers offered people various information before buying jeans, but said they could only know two of the following: price, style, colour, and whether child labour was involved. Those who chose not to learn about child labour were asked to assess the kind of person who would. Did they judge them to be more sexy, stylish or charismatic? No: they found them unattractive, boring and odd. Life – unlike the labour practices behind your ethical wardrobe – isn’t fair.Still, it’s clear what’s happening here, and it ought to offer ethical types some solace. It’s called social comparison theory. The non-ethical shoppers knew they should care about child labour but didn’t want to think about it, so felt threatened by those who did. And no, it’s not that ethical shoppers are just insufferably smug and therefore annoying. Another part of the study confirmed the theory: when people were given the chance to make a donation to charity at no cost to themselves, they didn’t feel the need to put others down. “They’d had a chance to shore up their ethical identity,” researcher Rebecca Reczek told Harvard Business Review. “[So they] didn’t experience the same sense of threat.” Continue reading...

French government support for EDF to continue UK nuclear project might break EU competition rules, says GreenpeaceGreenpeace has written to George Osborne warning him not to allow the Hinkley Point C nuclear project to proceed until the European commission approves further planned support from the French state.The letter, which is signed jointly with the energy supplier Ecotricity, follows legal advice that plans for state help from France’sgovernment to enable EDF to continue with the reactor scheme could break European competition rules. Continue reading...

Cheetah cubs learning to hunt, cherry blossom and a prairie rattlesnake are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

City links: An ambitious urban photography project in Toronto, beavers make a comeback in the Swedish capital, and the Parisians who are suing City Hall over dirty streets, all feature in a roundup of this week’s best city storiesThis week’s best city stories takes us from barbershops in Philadelphia where a programme is bridging the gap between black men and the polling booths, to the grimy streets of Paris, where residents are fed up of being treated like the underdogs and are suing the state. Share your thoughts about these city stories – and any others you’ve seen – in the comments below. Continue reading...

On Earth Day 2016, cast your mind back to 2006, when fresh-faced new Tory leader David Cameron hugged a husky and promised Britain a greener future to combat climate change. So how did it all pan out? Is Cameron’s government the greenest government ever?

As Paris climate change agreement is signed in New York, developing country negotiators highlight gulf between ambition and fundingDeveloping countries must raise more than $4tn (£2,456bn), or roughly the entire annual budget of the US, to implement their climate change pledges by 2030, according to new research.But much more money will have to be be found by the world’s poorest countries to hold global temperatures enough to avoid catastrophic climate change, say British and Australian researchers who have analysed the financial implications of the pledges made to the UN last December and the money so far offered by rich countries. Continue reading...

Former head of world climate change body faces raft of accusations in case that will be closely watched in India and abroadCourtroom 506, in the south-east wing of Delhi’s purpose-built Saket district court, does not often sit centre stage in criminal cases of international interest.Its last appearance in the spotlight was three years ago, as journalists from around the world arrived in India’s capital for the trial of suspects in the gang-rape of Jyoti Singh. Continue reading...

These bloggers treasure taking a sleek, modern approach to reducing waste in their efforts to save the planet – but they face their fair share of criticism, tooKathryn Kellogg, a 25-year-old print shop employee, spends four hours a day on her lifestyle blog Going Zero Waste. She posts on Instagram, engages with Facebook followers, and writes about homemade eyeliner and lip balm, worm composting, and shopping bulk bins – anything to avoid unnecessary waste. Her trash for the past year – anything that hasn’t been composted or recycled – fits in an 8oz jar.Kellogg is earnest, enthusiastic, and admittedly still figuring out what it means to be zero waste. The aspiring actor has also weathered her fair share of criticism. “I’m not even that big yet and I get so much hate mail,” says Kellogg, who draws 10,000 unique page views a month and has 800 subscribers. Continue reading...

Kathryn Kellogg aims to reduce the amount of waste she produces to almost nothing. She buys secondhand, uses cloth bags and glass jars for shopping, composts leftovers, and views recycling as a last resort. It takes great determination, but being vegetarian and lactose-intolerant helps Continue reading...

About 170 countries are expected to sign today in a move the UN hopes will ensure early ratification of the dealAbout 170 countries gathered at the United Nations for a ceremonial signing of the landmark Paris agreement on Friday, in a powerful display of global efforts to fight climate change.A dozen countries – mainly the small island states at risk of being drowned by rising seas – said they would take the additional step on Friday of ratifying or granting legal approval to the agreement. Continue reading...

We asked candidates for their views on investment, infrastructure and safety to assess how far they would transform Scotland for active travelAs well as the much publicised London mayoral election, in just under two weeks the Scots also go to the polls, to select their next government. As transport policy is largely devolved, the vote could make a big difference to anyone who cycles or walks.Campaign group We Walk, We Cycle, We Vote – which is supported by over two dozen organisations and primarily funded by Cycling UK – aim get all parties to sign up to three key policy pledges: Continue reading...

Industrial park told to cease production after 20 students fell ill in Hai’an, on the heels of poisoning scare involving 500 pupils in another part of same provinceAuthorities have ordered the closure of a chemical industrial complex in eastern China after children at a local primary school came down with mysterious nosebleeds and skin complaints that their parents blamed on pollution.The case comes just days after hundreds of students in the same region were revealed to have fallen ill, some severely, after attending a school built on a toxic waste dump. Continue reading...

Invitation from the company that wants to transport coal through the Great Barrier Reef to ‘do our bit’ for the environment does not go down too well onlineWorld Earth Day – it’s a day about protecting the environment. So Australians got a bit hot under their collars when Adani Group tried to get in on the action.Adani, remember, is trying its darnedest to build one of the world’s biggest coalmines in Queensland and transport the coal to India via the Great Barrier Reef. Continue reading...

Tory London mayoral candidate supports pulling City Hall’s fund out of oil, coal and gas companies if electedZac Goldsmith has backed the fossil fuel divestment movement and said he would pursue efforts to pull London City Hall’s pension fund out of investments in oil, coal and gas if he was elected mayor.

While the visual impact is not as dramatic as the coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, the rise in ocean temperature has been far higherOcean temperatures off the coast of Tasmania have risen to 4.5C above average – twice the temperature rise that led to the mass coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef – in a marine heatwave that has lasted more than 130 days.The above-average temperatures were first recorded in December and have continued into April, affecting the oyster, salmon and abalone industries, as well as stressing already declining kelp forests. Continue reading...

Nine of the mammals let loose in Northern Territory after being trained to avoid cane toads and feral catsToad-trained and cat-savvy northern quolls have been released into Kakadu national park, in a bid to save the threatened native Australian species from extinction.Nine of the small carnivorous mammals were let loose in the Mary river region on Thursday night after undergoing training to avoid the deadly and plentiful cane toads which wreak havoc across the north of Australia. Continue reading...

Leaked proposal on glyphosate seen by the Guardian has few substantive changes from the one that was blocked last monthThe European commission is planning to relicense a controversial weedkiller that the World Health Organisation believes probably causes cancer in people, despite opposition from several countries and the European parliament.In 2015 the International Agency for Research on Cancer – WHO’s cancer agency – said that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide made by agriculture company Monsanto and used widely with GM crops around the world, was classified as probably carcinogenic to humans. Continue reading...

Why aren’t Australians more freaked out about what is happening to the Great Barrier Reef? Why aren’t they treating this as a national disastermergecy? Call in the army! No wait, the navy!

Soldiers on guard at Pemex petrochemical plant in Gulf port of Coatzacoalcos, with relatives waiting for news of missing workersA leak has been blamed by Mexican authorities for the petrochemical plant blast that killed at least 24 people in the Gulf port of Coatzacoalcos.The Mexican oil giant Pemex confirmed the deaths on Thursday and said 19 more remained in hospital, 13 with serious injuries, as it grappled with the latest in a series of fatal accidents to batter the company.

Adventurers’ Land, Cambridgeshire Everything is straight, the ploughs, dykes, roads, below a horizon flat as a planed edgeOn the map two words lie in a flat-calm place. They cutlass-hook a drifting eye with an unlikely promise: Adventurers’ Land. Adventure means something different in fenland.The 17 century investors who suggested draining this wetland for agriculture were called adventurers. It could have been worse: those who did the draining were called undertakers. Scallywag names nearby suggest maybe the darker word should have won. Rogue’s Alley, Hook Drove, Bleak House. Continue reading...

22 April 1926: The capital’s first home for babies whose mothers were unable to care for them fears air quality has worsened because of the railways

Marine protections, which help coral reefs recover from bleaching, halted in Western AustraliaThe global coral bleaching event devastating the Great Barrier Reef has spread to reefs in Western Australia, where the federal government halted the implementation of marine parks, which would help the reefs recover.Related: Mourning Loomis Reef - the heart of the Great Barrier Reef's coral bleaching disaster Continue reading...

Up to $500m spent by donors on protecting rainforest in the Congo basin has failed to prevent destructive developments, says the Rainforest FoundationUp to $500m (£346m) spent by the US, EU and other donors to protect the world’s second largest swath of rainforest has failed – for the trees, the animals and the people who live among them – a major study has found.Analysis of five equatorial African countries in the Congo basin has found that destructive developments including illegal logging, oil and gas exploration, and palm oil plantations are taking place in 34 large protected areas, and that conservation has displaced villages and led to conflict and human rights abuses. Continue reading...

SunEdison makes bankruptcy filing as the renewable energy company’s years of debt-fuelled acquisitions prove unsustainableSunEdison, once the fastest-growing US renewable energy company, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as years of debt-fuelled acquisitions proved unsustainable.

All 93 vehicles tested in Germany and UK exceeded EU-set limits on air quality and pollution in real-world situationThe air pollution scandal that hit front pages around the world last year with VW’s admission it had been cheating emissions tests has got much bigger.A UK government-sponsored trial launched in the wake of the VW revelations has found that every single one of the diesel-fuelled vehicles tested had higher emissions of nitrogen oxide pollutants than permitted under EU laws. For some models emissions were 12 times the legal limit. Continue reading...

UK inquiry after Volkswagen scandal finds much higher nitrogen oxide levels than when vehicles are tested in laboratoryDiesel cars are producing many times more health-damaging pollutants than claimed by laboratory tests, with some emitting up to 12 times the EU maximum when tested on the road, according to a government investigation undertaken following the Volkswagen scandal.

For a change it was nice to read good news (Fewer people developing dementia, says study, 20 April). Carol Brayne says “physical health and brain health are clearly highly linked” but only suggests at the nature of the link. The idea seems to be that for some reason men working independently of each other to improve their lifestyles over a number of years were acting in sufficient numbers to have a significant impact on the data as a whole. This seems somewhat surprising. However, there may be a more passive factor at work that correlates with the period of the study, 1990-2013. During the first part of this period the use of leaded petrol in cars was steadily being reduced, leading to a ban in 1998. The detrimental effect of lead in the environment on the developing brains of young people was well documented. Perhaps its long-term effect on the brains of older people was simply overlooked.

WB Yeats’ Aristotle | Walter Scott’s cauliflowers | Global warming | Logo T-shirtsThe interesting word “footsolider” (Paul Mason, G2, 19 April) deserves the kind of exegesis that occurred over the lines “Soldier Aristotle played the taws/Upon the bottom of a king of kings” in the printed version of WB Yeats’ Among School Children. Much energy was spent by scholars explaining, some quite plausibly, why Aristotle was referred to as a soldier, until inspection of the manuscript showed that Yeats had written “Solider Aristotle”.

Star magnolias capture the hearts of gardeners each spring, but in the wild they need saving from extinction. Surely we can take pity on this most beautiful of shrubs?Any day now it will happen; my Magnolia stellata’s buds, grey and hairy, are going to burst open. I can’t wait, I love my star magnolia. While walking around nurseries and garden centres at this time of year I just can’t get away from the rows of it, covered in blooms, tempting me to make another impulse purchase, just as I did five years ago.I found my little plant in a “reduced to clear” section, looking extremely battered and bruised. I couldn’t leave it there. It took a while to recover from its ordeal, but I am pleased to say it seems to be flourishing now. For most of the year it is clothed in insignificant bright green foliage but just now, before that foliage has made an appearance, its performance cannot be beaten. Flowers, so delicate, like multitudes of ballet dancers, and a scent so utterly perfect, if you can catch a hint of it on a warm spring day. I couldn’t be without this plant; it’s ideal for a small garden the size of mine. It was an impulse purchase that I haven’t for one minute regretted. Continue reading...

The common agricultural policy takes from the poor and gives to the rich. Its effects can be felt in every British household, and seen in the deadly waters of the Mediterranean tooThe estate agent Carter Jonas established its reputation running the estates of the Marquess of Lincolnshire. “Some of the biggest property owners in the country are our loyal clients,” boasts its website. And, in a recent poll of these landowning clients, 67% of them said that Britain should stay in the EU.So why all this Euro-enthusiasm in the Tory heartlands and among the landed gentry? “Should the UK vote to leave the EU, the CAP subsidies will likely be reduced,” Tim Jones, head of Carter Jonas’s rural division, explained. Thank you, Tim, for putting it so clearly. We understand. Continue reading...

‘Fusarium wilt’ is the hot topic at the International Banana Congress, where some fear it may already be too late to save the Cavendish from the fungal diseaseBanana experts from around the world have gathered in Florida to find a way to halt a disease that is wiping out the fruit across the world, amid mounting fears that it may soon invade Latin America.

Prime minister tells Gloucester Citizen readers that local delicacies such as pork, cheese and cider are protected by EU legislationTraditional food from the UK’s regions, such as Gloucestershire’s famed cider, cheese and sausage, could be at risk if the country left the European Union, David Cameron has warned.Writing in the Gloucester Citizen, Cameron said farmers would lose the protected status awarded by the EU for food made in their area. This ensures, for example, that only pasties made in Cornwall can be called Cornish pasties and beef farmed in Wales can be branded Welsh Beef. Continue reading...

Proposed terminal to export coal to Asia creates tense showdown in port city as key players cite potential health risks, yet industry could provide needed jobsMargaret Gordon will not get out of the car. She is in the shadow of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay bridge on a triangle of land where a bustling maritime terminal is planned.