City is under increasing pressure to change test methods that scientists said may underestimate the amount of lead found in water after a Guardian investigationThe Philadelphia water department, accused by some experts of having water testing “worse than Flint”, is facing a class action lawsuit and a lead-testing campaign mounted by citizens concerned about water quality.

Four men face charges over images on social media showing them going off trail in fragile area of park, after earlier wake-boarding incident at Bonneville Salt FlatsAuthorities in Yellowstone national park are urging a group of Canadian men accused of tramping off trail and dabbing in a delicate hot spring to turn themselves in, after images were posted on social media of their reported antics there and across a string of American “national treasures”.Federal warrants have been issued in Wyoming for the arrest of the four friends, who market themselves under variations of their Vancouver-based clothing and entertainment brand High on Life. Continue reading...

Settlement compensates investors who claimed BP publicly underplayed amount of oil flowing from Macondo well into Gulf of MexicoBP has agreed to pay $175m (£120m) to settle claims that it deceived shareholders by underplaying the severity of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.The settlement, to be paid this year or next, ends a legal battle that began when a Houston judge ruled investors who bought shares shortly after the explosion at its Deepwater Horizon rig could sue BP. Continue reading...

Droughts, floods, forest fires and melting poles – climate change is impacting Earth like never before. From the Australia to Greenland, Ashley Cooper’s work spans 13 years and over 30 countries. This selection, taken from his new book, shows a changing landscape, scarred by pollution and natural disasters – but there is hope too, with the steady rise of renewable energy Continue reading...

Two government agencies at odds with colleagues on bleaching taskforce over extent of reef damage, even though figures are broadly similar

The capital of the Philippines has some of the worst traffic in the world, costing the metro area an estimated £45m a day. While some pin their hopes on new road projects, others think e-jeepneys could be part of the solutionDuring rush hour in Manila, it would be quicker to walk the 6.5km from Renee Karunungan’s family home to her office. Today we use public transport, and it takes almost two hours. We use a jeepney (a cross between a jeep and a van), a bus, then two more jeepneys and a motorised tricycle. The city’s 2.2 million vehicles frequently grind to a standstill, and it is not unusual for commuters to be stuck for for three to four hours. When torrential rains flood the city, it can be much worse.

London mayor Sadiq Khan has pledged to follow Nottingham and Bristol in setting up a council energy company – and it could shake up the whole marketSadiq Khan’s pledge to establish a municipal energy company, Energy for Londoners, is one of his most striking mayoral election commitments. London will not be the first authority to set up such a not-for-profit company – Nottingham and Bristol got there first – but it will be the largest, and potentially the most ambitious.

Pennines’ becks and limestone scars form backdrop for Mallerstang Yomp challengeThe wind brings tears to the eyes as I make my cautious way to the brink of Hell Gill, the limestone chasm that once marked the boundary between Yorkshire and old Westmorland. Below, the infant river Eden, at this point called Hell Gill Beck, races north en route for Carlisle and the Solway Firth.It was here, according to legend, that the 18th-century highwayman Dick Turpin eluded his pursuers by spurring his horse, Black Bess, into a flying leap across the 5ft gap. Continue reading...

An electric, zero-emission version of the three-wheeled tuk-tuk is being billed as a short-distance rival to Uber and taxis in Europe, Africa and AsiaAnyone who has been in Bangkok, Delhi or Cairo will be familiar with the lawnmower whirr of the mighty tuk-tuk. Nimble enough to weave through traffic jams and narrow streets, the three-wheeled auto rickshaw is one of the most convenient ways of getting around congested cities in the developing world. For residents, they tend to be cheaper than taxis. For tourists, they offer the novelty of an open-air view.

Huge revenues generated by the Camisea project in Peru’s Amazon, but locals suffer from health epidemics and lack of clean waterEvery year a group of experts called the South Peru Panel issues a report on the country’s largest ever energy development which extracts natural gas and natural gas liquids from the Amazon and pipes them all the way across the Andes to Peru’s Pacific coast. The conclusions of its latest report? “Very positive macroeconomic benefits” and “without precedent in Peru’s modern economic history”, but pathetic, if not disastrous, for the indigenous people living near where the gas is extracted.The South Peru Panel was established in 2009 as a condition of a $458.6m (£318m) loan by the Export-Import Bank of the United States to the Peru Liquified Natural Gas Project (Peru LNG), run by US company Hunt Oil, to build a 408 km pipeline, a gas liquefaction plant on the coast, and a marine terminal. The total cost is reported to have been almost $4bn - making it at the time the largest foreign direct investment in Peru’s history, according to the Panel, and the first and to date only LNG export project in Latin America.

Kent police warn drivers in Tunbridge Wells to check brakes before travelling after six incidents since blamed on fox cubs chewing through cables

There are two butterfly summers underway in Britain right now. If you have the good fortune to be a silver-studded blue or a large skipper in the West Country you are leaping out of your chrysalis and dancing in the sunshine.If you were unlucky enough to be an egg laid in eastern England you are still stuck in the pupal stage, perhaps so chilled and damp you will never take to the skies. Continue reading...

Shoppers in East Anchorage sit quietly for hours on Thursday and watch a mother moose give birth and then bond with her newborn calf in the parking of a Lowe’s hardware store. The store set up a safe zone for the mother and calf until the two eventually left the area Continue reading...

We seem to have forgotten that the human spirit is not satisfied by material progress alone. It’s time for us to reconnect with natureBeauty. It’s a word we all use to describe our delight in the world around us: a landscape we love; a butterfly’s wings translucent in the sunshine; or a wondrous piece of architecture. We all love beauty; we have only to watch the numbers glued to TV’s Countryfile and Springwatch, and the way we head for the beach and the countryside as soon as the sun shines, to see that it’s something that meets a real human need.Related: BBC2's Springwatch to Top Gear: ‘You can keep your Dodge Viper’ Continue reading...

Corbyn’s smile | Neoliberalism lives | Female anti-fracking activists | Sitcoms | Back alleysThe highlight of Jeremy Corbyn’s latest speech now appears to be the imperceptible “smile” he allegedly let loose during the brief booing of a journalist. The Sun has even promoted the Telegraph’s “smile” to a “smirk”. Mail on Sunday columnist Dan Hodges thinks it was a “grin”. So that the parameters of appropriate personal expression may be known to one and all, perhaps this headline-worthy “smile”, like the insufficient depth of Corbyn’s bow at the Cenotaph, could be measured, frame by frame?

When residents of Uniontown protested at the dumping of 4m tons of toxic coal ash in the poor, 91% black town, Green Group Holdings sued them for slanderResidents in tiny Uniontown, Alabama, are locked in a legal battle against a company that has dumped millions of tons of coal ash there and then filed suit for defamation against those protesting against the act.The residents formed a group, Black Belt Citizens Fighting for Health and Justice, to fight the placement of a landfill filled with the coal ash in their town that they say threatens their health and constitutes a racial injustice. Uniontown is 91% black, and is among the poorest communities in the nation: half the residents live below the poverty line. Continue reading...

Barack Obama tightens restriction on sale of elephant ivory within the US to clamp down on illegal tradeBarack Obama imposed a near total ban on the commercial trade in elephant ivory on Thursday in an effort to choke off smuggling networks and end the slaughter of African wildlife.The US Fish and Wildlife Service rules ban the sale of elephant ivory across state lines, and deepen restrictions on international ivory sales. Continue reading...

The Guardian has exposed the unreliability of water tests across the country. This goes far beyond Flint, and it’s time for all of us to demand answersRelated: More than 30 US cities' water tests may underestimate lead | The daily briefingThe worst sense of security is a false one. It’s hard for people to wrap their heads around the idea that those in charge – federal, state and local agencies – might be cheating the system. But, all too often, that is exactly what happens. Continue reading...

Brexit campaigner questions need for rules intended to prevent sheep disease from entering food chain, and makes pledge on subsidiesBoris Johnson has complained about the burden of EU regulations that protect consumers from sheep disease similar to BSE entering the human food chain.The former mayor of London told farmers he questioned the need for rules that mean spinal tissue has to be removed from sheep with more than two big teeth, as he promised Brexit would bring about deregulation of the farming industry. Continue reading...

Multiple listings of banned species found and since Guardian investigation 19 ads were closed down – but controlling the trade is akin to a game of whack-a-moleA killer algae, a monstrous pondweed, a tree that has infested the Everglades and a dozen more of the US’s most environmentally destructive plants have been discovered for sale on eBay. Online traders told the Guardian that ignorance of the law led them to create listings that had spread hundreds of illegal specimens across the country.Ebay hosted multiple listings for 15 species from the federal noxious weeds list the nation’s highest level of plant biosecurity. Most offered import to the US from abroad. But six sellers were hawking plants from within the country. Continue reading...

The world needs to move away from industrial agriculture to avoid ecological, social and human health crises, say scientistsA new approach to farming is needed to safeguard human health and avoid rising air and water pollution, high greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss, a group of 20 leading agronomists, health, nutrition and social scientists has concluded.Rather than the giant feedlots used to rear animals or the uniform crop monocultures that now dominate farming worldwide, the solution is to diversify agriculture and re-orient it around ecological practices, says the report (pdf) by the International panel of experts on sustainable food systems (IPES-Food). Continue reading...

Georgia O’Keeffe camping with Ansel Adams, paintings of the Tetons and comparisons of Yellowstone from 1871 and now are some of the highlights at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming. A series of exhibitions celebrates a range of arts focused on the anniversary of the national parks, running now until 28 August Continue reading...

Out on the US Great Plains a storm is brewing and that’s great news for extreme weather fans on a tour that’s all about witnessing the power of nature up closeNot too many people go on holiday hoping for bad weather. Here I’m surrounded by them. We’re at yet another gas station, somewhere in southern Oklahoma. The sun is shining obstinately; it’s another beautiful day, apart from a distant, unremarkable line of cumulus congestus, the type you’d see on many a summer’s day in the UK. It was our second day stormchasing and I couldn’t fathom why Roger, our tour leader and a well known figure on the chase circuit, was so fired up by these innocuous-looking piles of fluff. I was soon to learn why. While we do see them in Blighty, here on the US Great Plains, a tower of cumulus can spawn a monster. And we were about to see its teeth close up.In the stuffy old Reader’s Digest compendium my grandad gave to me, the most worn of the pages are the ones about the weather. In particular, one with a photo of the elephant’s trunk of a tornado snaking outlandishly across the Great Plains. From the first time I saw that old black-and-white photo I wanted to see a tornado. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Guardian investigation reveals testing regimes similar to that of Flint were in place in major cities including Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia

Residents who can are paying to have their home’s pipework replaced amid concern over water quality but for most the cost is way beyond their means

Instructions provided varied greatly, ranging from those that contained protocols the EPA advised against a decade ago to those that were periodically updated

France, Germany and Austria have been hit by flash floods - if you’ve been affected, we want to hear your stories

Authorities intercept man trying to leave a day after dozens of dead tiger cubs found in Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple freezerWildlife authorities in Thailand have found adult tiger skins and fangs during a raid on the “tiger temple” tourist attraction, and intercepted a monk who was trying to leave in a car that was carrying skins.Separately, officials said they would press charges against the Buddhist temple after 40 tiger cubs were found in a freezer on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Environmental lawyer who has read the company’s financial statements says Josh Frydenberg needs to revisit an assurance he gave workersJosh Frydenberg should revisit reassurances he gave workers at Peabody’s Australian coalmines after the company filed financial statements revealing a “dire financial position”, an environmental lawyer who has studied the documents says.

Our air, rivers, and corrupt local politics have all benefited from the cleansing power of EU membership. Brexit would threaten all that

Violent storms and downpours have lashed parts of northern Europe in recent days, leaving nine people dead, breaching the banks of the Seine in Paris and flooding rural roads and villages

As scientists warn the future of the Great Barrier Reef looks even bleaker than feared, we want to see the impacts of global warming on your part of the country

EU directives have helped to protect an array of animals – even though agricultural policy has sometimes had a negative effectFrom the sea to the land to the air, EU directives on habitats and birds have protected and enabled the recovery of wildlife, including dolphins, orchids and butterflies and the booming marsh-dwelling bird the bittern.But, with the intensification of farming having seriously harmed wildlife in past decades, the impact of the EU’s huge common agricultural policy (CAP), has often been in the opposite direction. Continue reading...

Drastic cuts to hit remediation work – the process of detoxifying soil, with plans to phase it out by 2017, MPs on environmental audit committee findThe government has drastically cut funds needed to encourage new building on “brownfield” sites, despite claiming that such sites would be key to solving the housing crisis.

Prime minister Stefan Löfven should keep his election promise of clean energy and not let state-owned Vattenfall sell its coal mines to EPHThe history of the fossil fuel industry can feel like it is told in complicated deals the public isn’t meant to understand. This is what is happening in Sweden. The government-owned energy company, Vattenfall, is demanding the sale of its coal mines and power plants based in Germany to a Czech company, EPH. The deal includes some of Germany’s largest coal mines – and three of the top 10 most polluting coal plants in Europe. They are going to a deeply unattractive buyer – EPH, a company hell-bent on burning as much coal as possible.In the next couple of weeks, Swedish prime minister, Stefan Löfven, is facing a stark choice. On one hand, he could approve the sale of the most climate-destroying assets in Europe, breaking his own election promises in the process. Or, he could promote a transition to keep coal in the ground – and support a liveable climate – in an unprecedented decision by a government to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Coal is the most polluting of all fossil fuels, and lignite or ‘brown coal’ is the most polluting type of coal and the greatest threat to EU climate goals. Continue reading...

Widdybank Fell, Teesdale Vivid bird’s-eye primroses survive and bloom in the bleak grandeur of the north PenninesA skylark rose from among the dry grasses and heather beside the footpath, spiralling higher and higher, showering us with song until it was lost from view in an almost cloudless sky.

Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in marine science program gives students insight into reality of the fieldJackie Makie never thought of becoming a marine biologist.If statistics are anything to go by, that’s not surprising. Indigenous students make up 3% of the total population but less than 1% of students at university. Continue reading...

The Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in marine science program has been reconnecting Indigenous children to the Great Barrier Reef and a world that is central to their traditional culture. It enrols about 40 children from schools along the reef coastline and introduces them to the world of marine science Continue reading...

The move comes two years after opposition Liberal National party banned mentions of climate change impacts from planning policyThe Queensland Labor government will bankroll projects by coastal councils to mitigate the effects of rising sea levels, less than two years after its Liberal National predecessor banned mentions of climate change impacts from planning policy.The Palaszczuk government has set up a modest $12m fund, launching it in Redcliffe, north of Brisbane, which it said was “one of the communities on the frontline in the battle against the worst predicted effects” of rising sea levels. Continue reading...

Drum lines were set in the wake of the attack on Ben Gerring and a 4.2m-long great white was caught shortly afterwardsWestern Australia’s fisheries department has trapped and killed a large great white shark in baited drum lines close to the site where a surfer suffered life-threatening injuries in an attack.The authorities took samples from the 4.2m-long shark to see whether it was responsible for the attack which left a 29-year-old fly-in fly-out worker, Ben Gerring, fighting for his life. Continue reading...

Sugarcane waste, drones, solar-powered alumina refining and strata-owned solar: which Arena R&D projects could make a big difference to Australia’s energy sector?Although there are numerous innovative projects seeking to improve the sustainability of Australia’s energy sector, one of the main barriers to making them happen is – as with most things – money.With the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) set to lose $1.3bn in unallocated funds, the agency has announced a raft of grants for green projects, including $17m for nine research and development projects that “have a pathway to being fully commercial” through industry partners. Continue reading...

Charities say Brexit would mean ‘years of uncertainty’, as David Cameron pledges to protect birds and habitats directivesTwo of the biggest conservation charities in Britain, the RSPB and WWF, have joined forces with David Cameron to urge their 1.7 million supporters to protect the UK’s environment by voting to stay in the EU.

UN hopes $1bn operation will boost employment and drive development among Ogoniland communities devastated by contamination from spillsA $1bn clean-up of one of the world’s most oil-polluted regions will be officially launched on Thursday by the Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari. But it will be at least 18 months before full remedial work starts in Ogoniland in the Niger delta, and possibly 25 years before all the swamps, creeks, fishing grounds and mangroves are restored after decades of spills by Shell, the national oil firm and other oil companies.According to agreements signed last year in Abuja, $200m (£139m) will be spent annually for five years to clear up the devastated 1,000 sq mile (about 2,600km) region in Rivers state near Port Harcourt. More money may be needed to restore the ecosystem fully. Continue reading...

Report from US Geological Survey says northern wildfires must now be seen as significant driver of climate change, not just a side-effectThe devastating rise in Alaska’s wildfires is making global warming even worse than scientists expected, US government researchers said on Wednesday.The sharp spike in Alaska’s wildfires, where more than 5 million acres burned last year, are destroying a main buffer against climate change: the carbon-rich boreal forests, tundra and permafrost that have served as an enormous carbon sink. Continue reading...

Vote does not create binding policy but is significant defeat for SNP so soon into new parliamentary termThe Scottish parliament has voted narrowly in favour of a ban on fracking, after Scottish National party MSPs abstained following a debate that gave a strong indication of the changed nature of the new Holyrood chamber.Scottish Labour had tabled an amendment in support of a full ban as part of an environment debate headed by the new cabinet secretary, Roseanna Cunningham. Continue reading...

Lobby Joe’s long voyage back to the ocean began when he was spotted by Christine Loughead, sitting alone in a tank in a northern Ontario supermarketBy the time Lobby Joe was released back into the waters on Canada’s east coast, the Atlantic lobster had travelled thousands of kilometres on a journey that had cost hundreds of dollars.

Last year saw record worldwide investment and implementation of clean energy such as wind, solar and hydropowerAn upsurge in new wind, solar and hydro plants and capacity saw renewable energy smash global records last year, according to a report on new supply.Some 147 Gigawatts of renewable electricity came online in 2015 - the largest annual increase ever and as much as Africa’s entire power generating capacity. Continue reading...

Pressure mounts on ministers to release full evidence behind the decision to end mandatory use of a harmful chemical sheep dip

In the hunt for a sustainable solution to a rapidly rising population, agriculture has begun to adopt a venture capital mindsetThe raw numbers make for daunting reading. One in 10 people out of the current global population of 7.4 billion already goes hungry. Crop yields that soared in the decades after the second world war are flatlining, and the UN predicts there will be 2.3 billion more mouths to feed by 2050.So how to keep people fed without trashing the planet? Some estimates put the contribution of the global food system to manmade greenhouse gas emissions as high as a third. Unsustainable farming methods are depleting soil nutrients significantly faster than they can be replenished. Rising demand for meat is driving deforestation as land is cleared to grow feed for livestock. Continue reading...