Greenpeace accuses government of ignoring scientists over fate of Białowieża woodland, home to 20,000 animal species and Europe’s tallest treesPoland has approved large-scale logging in Europe’s last primeval woodland in a bid to combat a beetle infestation despite protests from scientists, ecologists and the European Union.The action in the Białowieża forest is intended to fight the spread of the spruce bark beetle. Continue reading...

Victory for animal rights after Japanese court awards Australian activist 110,000 yen after museum refused her entry to check on captive bottlenoseAnimal rights activists have claimed a significant victory in its battle to end Japan’s dolphin slaughter after a court ruled that an aquarium in Taiji – where hundreds of dolphins are killed every year – acted illegally when it refused entry to an Australian campaigner.

It’s that time of year again, when pink cherry tree flowers cascade down from the sky. Share your best photos via GuardianWitnessSpringtime has arrived! Cherry trees are budding across the United States – and we’re ready to be showered in a burst of pink at every hint of breeze.If you live somewhere lucky enough to have flowering cherry trees, get your cameras ready and venture out to find your own favorite cherry tree in full bloom. Continue reading...

A wild giant panda is spotted by infrared camera installed in Mabian Dafengding Nature Reserve in southwest China’s Sichuan Province on Friday. The wild giant panda looks healthy in the camera and was likely looking for food and water in the area, according to staff members with the nature reserve Continue reading...

Poultry industry to oversee chicken-farming standards as ministers move to create industry-led deregulation

Energy secretary claimed EU protects Britain against Vladimir Putin using Russian gas supplies as foreign policy toolRussia has waded into Britain’s EU referendum debate to accuse the energy secretary, Amber Rudd, of making misleading comments when she claimed that the EU provided protection against being bullied by Vladimir Putin over Russian gas exports.Rudd had warned in a speech on Thursday that the breakup of the EU single market for energy would give Russia more influence over the continent, arguing that a united European bloc had “the power to force Putin’s hand”.

Hundreds of protesters may not have been able to stop the Gulf of Mexico lease sale but storming a meeting of executives made their message loud and clearOn 23 March, around 300 protesters in New Orleans aimed to shut down a reading of oil company bids for 44m acres (180,000 km², the size of the entire state of Missouri) in the Gulf of Mexico.At grassy Duncan Plaza near New Orleans city hall, groups from all over the southern US gathered for a protest called New Lease on Life. “I have really bad sinuses and I hate smoke,” said 18-year-old Howard Johnson. The young activist from Biloxi had boarded a bus and rode for hours to be in New Orleans by sunrise to join dozens of other members of green coalitions, local churches and members of the Houma Indian Nation. Continue reading...

Military presence increased at Tihange and Doel plants as officials continue previous investigation of a secret video shot by man linked to Paris attacksBelgian authorities have stepped up security at nuclear sites but safety officials said there was no concrete element to suggest a specific threat against the country’s reactors or plants.

A rare Sumatran rhino, Arctic foxes at play and a ‘flying rainbow’ painted bunting bird are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Numbers are part of the toolbox that help us understand difficult challenges, but they can also be misleadingWhen anyone wishes to support – or defeat – a given position, the sturdiest method is to generate data to predict its consequences. Advocates generate reams of numbers to substantiate their preferred outcome.I would be an idiot to argue against numbers as part of the toolbox to help us understand difficult challenges. But numbers can be misleading, especially if you don’t know how they were derived. Bear in mind these are numbers that purport to predict the future. Continue reading...

Austalian politicians decry Japan’s ‘sickening’ actions, which are at odds with UN legal decisionJapan has confirmed that more than 300 whales, including 200 pregnant females, were slaughtered in the country’s latest whaling mission in the Southern Ocean.The kill was confirmed by Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research as its ships returned from their “scientific” expedition in the Antarctic region on Thursday. Continue reading...

James Cook University professor Terry Hughes says he flew over 600km of reef and more than 60% was bleachedAn aerial survey is revealing the worst bleaching ever seen on northern parts of the Great Barrier Reef, as the scientist leading the survey live-tweets the devastation and pleads for the world to take action on climate change.Last week Terry Hughes, a professor at James Cook University and convener of the National Coral Bleaching Taskforce, told Guardian Australia he planned to hire a charter plane and map the bleaching to see how bad it was. Continue reading...

Campaigners claim death of Sikhosiphi Rhadebe is an escalation of violence against opponents of a mine owned by Perth’s Mineral Commodities LimitedAn Australian-owned mining company has denied any link to the murder of an activist leading a campaign against its plans to mine titanium in South Africa.Sikhosiphi “Bazooka” Rhadebe was gunned down at his home in Xolobeni on South Africa’s Wild Coast on Tuesday, in what fellow activists claimed was an escalation of violence and intimidation against local opponents of a mine owned by Perth-based Mineral Commodities Limited (MRC). Continue reading...

Kellogg and Mars are joining the ranks of businesses labeling genetically modified foods. Now, advocacy groups are waiting to see if the costly investment will pay offConsumers around the country will soon know just by looking at the packaging of popular brands such as Cocoa Puffs cereal or Yoplait yogurt whether or not they contain genetically modified ingredients. (The answer: they both do.) That’s because their maker, General Mills, plans to make that information visible on its products nationwide, even though the move is costly and could lower sales.General Mills announced its labeling decision last Friday, and other major food companies have since followed, including Kellogg, ConAgra and candy maker Mars. Campbell Soup publicized the same decision in January. The companies are all responding to a Vermont law requiring the labeling of genetically modified foods starting in July, and to pressure from consumers and advocacy groups to reveal more information about controversial ingredients. Continue reading...

Federal Aviation Administration aims to stop millions of birds dying each year by changing static red lights, which attract birds, to flashing lightsIn an attempt to save some of the millions of birds that die each year after being bewildered by airport illumination, changes will be made to the US lighting towers that warn approaching pilots.The Federal Aviation Administration said it will change the lighting on towers across the US after its research found that birds are attracted to steady red lights that highlight obstructions to pilots at night. The FAA said its changes will save thousands of birds each year. Continue reading...

Record year for renewables also sees financial investment by developing countries overtake that of the developed world in 2015, research shows

After record high winter temperatures reduced parts of the course to a bone-jarring, sled-wrecking obstacle course, is the great mushing race on its way out?A little before midnight on a moonlit night, the solitary beam of a dog musher’s head lamp danced across the dark snow and ice of the Bering Sea coast and landed on a barking, trotting, tail-wagging mass of canine excitement: a team of 11 Alaskan huskies straining towards the finish of the legendary Iditarod dog sled race.

Whether it’s bikes, baths or bus stop signs, we’d like to know what weird items you have found dumped on your local beaches and waterwaysRelated: Bikes, baths and bullets among items found in country's waterwaysPlastic bags and drink cans are always a depressing sight for canal walkers. But this waste also has a deeper environmental effect on the waterways. This winter the Canal & River Trust conducted a four month survey to record the discarded rubbish they uncovered, when clearing up local waterways across the country. According to the charity it costs around £1 million to clear up people’s rubbish each year. Tin baths, 16ft dead pythons and a pizza delivery bike still carrying a pizza are just some of the strange objects recovered. Continue reading...

Scotland’s last coal power station is set to close and by the end of the year just six UK stations will remain. But in a challenging market, can these keep firing until the government’s 2025 deadline for the end of UK coal?At 3pm on Thursday, the turbines of Scotland’s last coal power station at Longannet will spin for the last time. Coal, the lifeblood of the British economy for more than two centuries and now a terrible burden on the climate, is drawing its final breaths before an inevitable death. The question is: how long can it cling on?Longannet’s closure is the first in a year that will see a cascade of further shutdowns. Units at Rugeley, Eggborough, Ferrybridge and Fiddlers Ferry will all go cold over the coming summer months, removing 44% (around 8GW) of Britain’s coal-generating capacity in the turn of a season. This follows the closure of 8GW of ageing coal plants since 2012. Continue reading...

Expansion plans for a port near the continental US’s only barrier reef have been fiercely criticized by experts, but proponents say it will bring jobsA plan to expand a port near the continental US’s only barrier reef is “lunacy” and risks devastating the ailing coral ecosystem, Philippe Cousteau, grandson of famed ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, warned on Wednesday.

When Chocolate was rescued from poachers in Indonesia’s peat forests as a baby, he was underweight and afraid. Four years later he is ready to be returned to the wild. Despite his story of hope, Sumatra’s orangutans remain under threat Continue reading...

Figuring out where to start can be daunting for new riders, as well as for those who want to improve their skills. Here are a few ways to improve your cycling skills and confidence

Best actor Oscar-winner alludes to Trump and Cruz, criticising ‘candidates who don’t believe in modern science’ while promoting The Revenant in TokyoLeonardo DiCaprio used a Japanese press conference for the Oscar-winning western The Revenant to launch a thinly veiled attack on Donald Trump and other Republican candidates for the US presidency who deny climate change, reports AFP.Related: Leonardo DiCaprio says China can be climate change 'hero' Continue reading...

Objects recovered during survey of rubbish in English and Welsh canals and rivers also includes 16ft python and VW campervanA tandem bike, a tin bath and a 16ft dead python are just some of the items dumped in canals and rivers, a survey conducted this winter revealed.They are among the stranger objects recovered in a four-month survey of rubbish thrown in waterways, as part of a £45m restoration and repairs programme by the Canal and River Trust. Continue reading...

Four ships in the region also capture 333 minke whales, including pregnant femalesJapan has confirmed whales were killed on its most recent “scientific” expedition in the Antarctic region.

The mayor’s move to protect London as a place for work is welcome, but tough decisions on housing need to be madeIn a city with demand for housing as high as London, it might seem odd for the mayor to intervene to stop office space and commercial properties being redeveloped as new homes.Yet that’s exactly what Boris Johnson did last week, by publishing new guidance aimed at preserving the capital’s “central activities zone”, which runs from Paddington to Aldgate, for retail, office, cultural and business use, and to ensure that these areas don’t get lost to new housing. Continue reading...

In his clean energy announcement Malcolm Turnbull continues to claim $1.3bn in energy grant savings that have not been passed by parliamentThe Turnbull government is continuing to claim $1.3bn in Abbott-era savings from renewable energy grants even though the cuts have not been and may not be legislated, and in the meantime the agency responsible for them is required to continue spending the money.

The biggest plant of its kind in Britain has been generating electricity for 46 years, with closure marking ‘end of an era’ for coal power in Scotland

Industrial wastelands sound like grim places but many of them are refuges for some fascinating plants. A recent survey in north-east England found far more variety of plants on brownfield sites than moorlands, which you might imagine would be wilder and more natural.But the industrial sites often have a thin, nutrient poor, soil which fast growing weeds can’t tolerate, and this allows more interesting species to thrive. Continue reading...

Taiwan has institutionalized the practice of feeding leftover food to livestock, an approach that many nations are using or considering to reduce their food waste. Now, two thirds of the country’s overall food waste helps feed its 5.5m pigsEvery night, classical music blares from garbage trucks in Taipei, summoning people from their homes. In their hands, they clutch bags or buckets of kitchen scraps, which they dump into a bin on the truck. From there, the food travels to farms, where it helps ensure a good supply of one of Taiwan’s food staples.Farmers have fed leftover food to livestock for centuries, but Taiwan is one of a handful of countries that have institutionalized the practice. About two thirds of the island nation’s overall food waste, which totaled 610,000 tons last year, goes to help feed the country’s 5.5m pigs – the top meat source for the country’s 23.5 million people. Continue reading...

Europe has taken its first shipment of shale at the Swiss operator’s Norwegian plant, raising concerns about the future of shale gas and fracking in the UKThe first US shale gas sailed into Europe bringing controversy in its wake.Ineos, the chemical group, said that its own gas carrier arrived in Norway on Wednesday with 27,500 cubic metres of American ethane on board. Shipments to Ineos’s UK refinery at Grangemouth are scheduled to start later this year. Continue reading...

While most zoos in the US and Europe have moved away from cramped cages the tension between displaying captive animals and a scientific purpose persistsIt hasn’t been a great month for zoos and aquariums. Seaworld finally bowed to pressure to end its captive orca breeding program, three US zoos were criticized for secretly flying 18 elephants out of Africa and zoo keepers in Calgary accidentally killed an otter with a pair of pants, adding to a list of mistakes that includes giving a knife to a gorilla.

Carroll argues that life, from genes to ecosystems, is regulated top-down by predators – a powerful idea that can help us devise cures for disease and regenerate natural habitatsAs diagnosed by Thomas Kuhn in his classic The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), science proceeds by way of a rare shaking of the pieces into a new coherent explanatory pattern followed by a descent into increasing complexity before the next moment of clarity emerges. Watson and Crick’s DNA structure of 1953 and the genetic code of 1968 were almost indecently clear and simple for a biology that often seems to consist only of exceptions to any rule you care to formulate. It is now 15 years since the human genome sequence was announced, to huge fanfare, but the simple hopes of that time for an immediate avalanche of universal medical benefits have not yet been realised. Anyone reading the latest papers on genomics in the magazines Science and Nature must be chastened by the byzantine complexity of gene interactions being teased out by the researchers.But help is at hand. Sean Carroll is both a distinguished scientist – one of the founders of evolutionary development biology (evo-devo, to give it its jazzier name) – and one of our great science writers. His Endless Forms Most Beautiful (2005) is one of the essential books of our time, explaining for a general audience how the shapes of organisms are produced by genes. Continue reading...

Investment in low-carbon energy in Europe last year plummeted by more than half to $58bn, the lowest level in a decade, analysis showsEurope’s once world-beating clean technology industry has fallen into a rapid decline, with investment in low-carbon energy last year plummeting to its lowest level in a decade.The plunge in European fortunes comes as renewable energy is burgeoning around the world, with China in particular investing heavily. Continue reading...

Under attack from both the fungal disease ash dieback and the emerald ash borer beetle, the tree’s future looks bleak. But some experts believe there is hope – and that measures can be taken to alleviate the devastationReports that the ash tree is “set for extinction in Europe” have sent a shiver down the spine of everyone who loves and values Britain’s trees. For older readers like me, the stories are an unwelcome reminder of 40 years ago, when another familiar tree – the English elm – was devastated by Dutch Elm Disease.The new research, published in the Journal of Ecology, paints a grim picture for the future of the ash in Britain and Europe. The trees are suffering a twin-pronged attack: from ash dieback, a fungal disease also known as Chalara, and the invasive emerald ash borer beetle. It has yet to reach the UK, but is moving westwards across Europe at a frightening rate. Continue reading...