Claxton, Norfolk Such was the persecution of buzzards by pheasant-killing folk that until 1994 I’d never seen one in NorfolkMy guess is that on most days in the last 5,000 years, buzzards have been commonplace over our village. Yet such was the relatively recent persecution of them by pheasant-killing folk that until 1994 I’d never seen one at all in Norfolk. And it was only this century that I found them breeding locally. Now I spot them routinely from the office, and 10 during a walk on the marsh is nothing exceptional. However I prefer to look upon the common buzzard as a rightful returnee rather than a recently arrived stranger.Related: Buzzard trapping plan abandoned as government U-turns again Continue reading...

One in four deaths avoidable as enviornmental factors contribute to over 100 diseases, with air pollution responsible for 25% of strokes and 19% of cancersNearly one in four deaths are linked to unhealthy environments and are avoidable, a new World Health Organisation study – the first major assessment of environmental risk since 2006 – has shown.It suggests environmental risks now contribute to more than 100 of the world’s most dangerous diseases, injuries, and kills 12.6 million people a year – nearly one in four or 23% of all deaths. Continue reading...

Latest ABS figures show job decline in renewable energy industry, with consumer groups blaming government for the loss of 5,100 full-time jobsMore than a quarter of the jobs in the renewable energy industry have disappeared since 2011, with a continued decline in the latest figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.The clean energy industry, consumer groups and conservationists all blamed federal government actions, like reviewing the renewable energy target and maintaining the policy of axing the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, despite the bills axing them being blocked by the Senate.

The panel on the ABC’s science-themed Q&A episode discusses the consequences of climate science cuts at the CSIRO. Emma Johnston, a marine biologist from the University of New South Wales, says Nasa’s announcement that February was the most anomalously warm month on record showed measurement and modelling needed to be increased, not cut back. She says the science has been settled on whether climate change is occurring, ‘But what is a really active question is how climate change is going to play out’ Continue reading...

March can be a fickle month: it proverbially “comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb”. March winds often feature strongly, as do late winter cold spells, and these are often accompanied by heavy falls of snow.But just once in a while the gods smile on our little island and bring a spell of settled, fine and very warm weather, so that pavement cafes are thronged with T-shirted sunseekers, in scenes more reminiscent of summer. Continue reading...

Energy minister Andrea Leadsom responds to call from Ed Miliband, saying Paris climate pledge will be legally bindingThe UK will enshrine in law a long-term goal of reducing its carbon emissions to zero, as called for in last year’s historic Paris climate deal.

Academics and general staff commend university for withstanding public criticism over initial divestment and call for further share salesHundreds of academics and other staff at the Australian National University have called on the university to divest completely from fossil fuels, in an open letter addressed to the ANU council.Related: ANU fossil fuel divestment decision ‘stupid’, Tony Abbott says Continue reading...

A new deal between drug companies formed at Davos aims to step up the fight against antibiotic resistance. But is it too little too late?In January, a coalition of 85 biotechnology, pharmaceutical and diagnostics companies, including Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, came together at the World Economic Forum in Davos to form a landmark agreement to help combat antibiotic resistance. The companies have called on governments to help fund research and aid in developing a “sustainable and predictable” market for new drugs.It’s a promising step, but there’s still a long way to go. Even when new antibiotics are discovered, developing them for use in the marketplace remains a big challenge. According to a May 2015 review on antimicrobial resistance, it’s often more profitable for pharmaceutical companies to pay to develop drugs intended for long term use, like medication to treat diabetes or heart disease, rather than antibiotics, typically used for a few days. Continue reading...

Researchers say methane rising to the surface of the ocean could explain the sudden loss of ships in the western North Atlantic. And anywhere else, for that matterName: The Bermuda TriangleAge: 52 years. Continue reading...

It is preposterous to build in areas that are bound to flood. So why are real estate companies still doing it?Sea-level rise may be the most predictable outcome of climate change. Expanding warmer waters and melting land ice both contribute to flooding – and scientists agree that we are locked into sea-level rise for centuries to come. The question is not if we will retreat from the coast, but when. Still, the rush to develop the coast occurs at a maddening pace.We now know that 13.1 million people are at risk of flooding along the US coast by the end of this century. A new study published in Nature Climate Change further suggests that massive migration will occur unless protective measures are taken. Since sea-level rise will speed up after the end of the century due to increased glacier and ice sheet melting, the flooding we face in this century is just the tip of the iceberg. Continue reading...

Combination of coastal population growth and rising sea levels could drive a shift comparable to the 20th century’s Great MigrationUS coastal areas occupied by more than 13 million people will be at risk of being completely swamped by the sea under a worst-case climate change scenario, new research predicts, potentially leading to a population upheaval comparable to the Great Migration of the 20th century.Population growth in coastal areas over the course of this century, particularly in vulnerable areas of Florida, is likely to collide with the reality of rising seas caused by melting glaciers and thermal expansion as the planet warms. Continue reading...

Architect Bjarke Ingels has managed to make Copenhagen’s waste-to-energy plant good to look at. Why is Britain incapable of making form beautify function?I was mooching through the centre of Copenhagen last week when my architect friend spotted two chimneys sticking from a sensuous steel building going up just across the water. This is Denmark’s new waste-to-energy plant, which in Britain would be called an incinerator.The Danes are annoyingly incapable of designing anything horrible, and this vast factory, which will burn a quarter of all Denmark’s rubbish when it opens next year, is wrapped in a ski slope for the citizens of the capital. The chimneys will periodically emit huge rings of steam (not smoke) to elegantly demonstrate how much carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere by the plant – at one ring per tonne. Continue reading...

About half of the estimated 500 or so animals have been drawn to Massachusetts bay’s plankton-rich waters over past few springs, experts sayCape Cod is seeing a lot more of some singularly welcome tourists: endangered right whales enticed by the fine dining possibilities of its plankton-rich bay.Experts tracking the creatures, which are some of the rarest on the planet, say nearly half the estimated global population of 500 or so animals has been spotted in Cape Cod Bay over the past few springs. Continue reading...

Though there is 5,000 miles between California and Cornwall, south-west England’s warm, damp climate is expected to suit the redwoods perfectlyForty coast redwood trees were planted on Monday at the Eden Project in the south-west of England, the first time a “forest” of these big friendly giants from north America has been introduced to Europe.By the year 2050 they will soar 25m into the Cornish sky. If all goes to plan they will become a new landmark, thrilling and amazing people for many centuries to come. Continue reading...

Like in Ridley Scott’s The Martian, Nasa is running tests to see if potatoes could survive the climatic extremes of the red planetGrowing potatoes on Mars may sound like a fantasy straight out of sci-fi drama The Martian – in which a marooned astronaut survives on the red planet by tending spuds. But it’s also the focus of an experiment by the US space agency, Nasa, which is teaming up with the Peru-based International Potato Centre (CIP) to see if potatoes could be grown in such harsh conditions.“The Martian is completely possible,” says astrobiologist Julio Valdivia-Silva, the principal scientist working on the experiment in Peru. Continue reading...

A San Francisco brewery is using Nasa technology to make beer with water from sinks and showers, while other brewers are finding new ways to go greenIn autumn of 2014 – three years into California’s devastating drought– architect Russ Drinker became fixated on brewing beer from recycled greywater (that is, water that’s been treated after use in sinks, showers and washing clothes).

Caroline Lucas says Brexit would threaten UK’s environmental protection and rights at workThe Green party has launched its EU referendum campaign, promising to be “loud and proud” about backing Britain’s membership.Caroline Lucas, the party’s only MP and board member of the Britain Stronger in Europe group, said mobilising hundreds of thousands of Green supporters would be crucial to the remain campaign. Continue reading...

Renewable transport goal has encouraged biofuels including those from palm oil and soybean, which are found to be worse than diesel oil for emissionsEuropean Union renewable energy targets may have increased greenhouse gas emissions because the dirtiest biofuels produce three times the emissions of diesel oil, according to the most complete EU analysis yet carried out.Biodiesel made from palm oil emits more than three times as much and soybean oil around twice as much, when the crops’ effects on land use are considered, the research by the Ecofys consultancy for the European commission found. Continue reading...

Owen Paterson denies he sought to replace east European workers with older Britons on less than minimum wageA Conservative cabinet minister suggested getting pensioners to pick fruit and vegetables below the minimum wage instead of hiring Bulgarians and Romanians at the legal rate, a former Lib Dem coalition colleague has claimed.David Laws, who lost his seat at last year’s general election, revealed the episode in a new book about his days in government, saying the plan was hatched by Owen Paterson, the then environment secretary. The account is disputed by Paterson but Laws alleges that his former Tory colleague came up with the idea after proposing to end a scheme bringing over migrants from Bulgaria and Romania to work in the fields of British farmers. Continue reading...

Two recent programmes on BBC Radio 4 highlight a worrying anti-democratic bias in discussions of science and technology.

Britain is powerless: its reputation would be in tatters if it cancelled this folly. So now it must look in hope to EDFVincent de Rivaz, chief executive of EDF Energy, once boasted that British customers would be cooking their Christmas turkeys in 2017 with electricity from the proposed new Hinkley Point nuclear power station his firm is contracted to build. That was a time of optimism, and a grandiose claim in keeping with the £18bn grandiosity of the project itself; equivalent in cost to Heathrow Terminal 5 and the Olympics combined.De Rivaz was wrong about that deadline and optimism is now in short supply. Business situations are often described as zero-sum, or win-win. Hinkley Point, already the site of a power station in Somerset, is a rare case where the project could be damaging to both customers and investors. It would saddle British taxpayers with highly expensive power, and risk bankrupting a major French company, whose finances are already shaky. The government should cancel the deal. Continue reading...

Dust plumes, plankton blooms and convective clouds were among the images captured by European Space Agency and Nasa satellites last monthAnalysis of data collected by several Landsat satellites suggests that northern Argentina’s Chaco forests face one of the fastest tropical deforestation rates in the world. Continue reading...

Analysis by Green Alliance finds subsidies for fossil fuel generation more costly than simplified system favouring renewablesBuilding more renewable energy capacity with public money would cost less than the current subsidy regime in the UK, a new analysis has found, despite government claims that subsidies are too expensive.Ministers have justified the slashing of some incentives to install solar panels, and ending support for onshore wind, on the basis that subsidising the construction of green energy was adding too much to energy bills. The government does not subsidise renewable generation directly but allows for incentives to some technologies through additions to consumer bills. Continue reading...

Thirlmere, Lake District Since the storm destroyed the A591, there has been no direct road between north and southI board the 28-seater shuttle bus to Grasmere armed with trekking pole. Kids in the priority seats give the thumbs-up as I say: “Stay put. I’m not really disabled.” Though still recovering from a three-year-old hip revision procedure I can’t officially be so classified as I can still walk unaided. We climb Chestnut Hill above Keswick, every seat taken, everyone agog (folk feel like explorers).Since early December, when storm Desmond destroyed the A591 with landslides and floods, there has been no direct road between north and south. Now Stagecoach is once more running its 555 service to Grasmere, linking with double-deckers to Lancaster, with a new temporary route in place along this key Lakeland artery. Continue reading...

Warnings of climate emergency after surface temperatures 1.35C warmer than average temperature for the monthGlobal temperatures in February smashed previous monthly records by an unprecedented amount, according to Nasa data, sparking warnings of a climate emergency.

Chemical giant Dow is testing new software that crunches data to help assign monetary value to the natural world and calculate the environmental impact of its workEveryone agrees that nature has value. It clothes, feeds and shelters us – and provides a spectacular playground. Yet we have never put a value on everything nature offers.Now, environmental and sustainable business consultants want to change that by forcing corporate leaders to take stock of the economic impact of how they manage natural resources. By accounting for this so-called natural capital, the advocates hope to see more businesses adopting practices that are both good for the environment and long term profitability, especially as climate change will further deplete natural resources, causing their values to climb and increase the cost of running business. In a 1997 paper in Nature that first introduced the natural capital concept, the 13 researchers involved pegged the Earth’s worth at $33tn. A 2014 revision raised that figure to $134tn. Continue reading...

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 14 March 1916Scattered raindrops, wind-drifted, struck cool upon my face, and the sun failed to pierce the monochrome clouds, yet it was good to be out of doors and a pleasant change after the snow and sleet. Amongst the old leaves, blackened by long submersion, many little bright green specks appeared; the sycamore seedlings had pushed their curled and folded leaves out of the capsules and through the ground. In a wide drainage ditch, stagnant now, a great cushion of broad marsh marigold leaves had spread since last I visited the wood, and in their centre were the round globes, still green, which with a little encouragement will burst into glorious golden king-cups. Compact little bosses of tiny green needles stud the larch twigs, and amongst the willows the first signs of meadow-sweet are appearing, though the little leaves so far have not reached so high as the down-beaten and withered marsh grasses. Already the lengthening bramble trailers, alive with leaf buds and armed with ever-ready hooks for the unwary foot, make passage through the undergrowth difficult, and the untidy rose patches have shed their last withered fragments and are full of promise of spring foliage. The whole wood, indeed the whole countryside in spite of snow and frosts, is steadily and rapidly awakening. Continue reading...

Last Tuesday was International Women’s Day – a time to remember and celebrate the achievements of women. In Earth sciences many women have made significant contributions to the field, right back as far as the 18th century, when the field was in its infancy. But to this day women are still under-represented. This month I’d like to remember a female geologist who changed our understanding of the planet we live on.In the 1940s women were not allowed to work aboard scientific research ships, but this didn’t prevent Marie Tharp, a freshly qualified draftswoman at Columbia University, from following her interest. Continue reading...

Libya | Education and memory | Maths and cake tins | Hinkley Point | Favourite toys | Double bass playersSo even the US president criticises Cameron over the disastrous war against Libya (Report, 12 March). How relieved he must be that the British media has barely an unkind word to say about the matter.

Environmental lawyers’ group says unlawful Environment Agency permits have dropped important requirementsScores of Britain’s coal-fired power stations, steel plants and iron works will no longer have to maintain a plan to show they will meet air pollution standards under the latest permits issued by the government.ClientEarth, a group of environment lawyers who last year successfully sued the government over air pollution, said the permits deleted a condition that required the plants’ operators to publish air quality management plans and to assess how much they might damage protected nature areas. Continue reading...

The Conservative candidate’s allegation that his main rival threatens the green belt in the capital is thin and contrived but forms part of a larger strategyConservative green policies usually speak first and foremost to peoples’ worries about their own back yards. Zac Goldsmith’s are no exception. The Tory candidate for London mayor has just published his Living Environment Manifesto, a document with many pledges to preserve all that is leafy against the concreting forces of the city’s blooming growth. Top of his list is protecting the green belt, a land use restriction that took its present shape in London some 60 years ago to prevent urban sprawl. Other candidates, including Goldsmith’s chief rival Labour’s Sadiq Khan, say they will to do the same. But coming from Goldsmith this promise carries its own heavy meaning and significance. It seeks to stir some of the deepest and most visceral fears of the Outer London Tory supporters on whom he is pinning his hopes of victory in May.Throughout his campaign so far Goldsmith has been eager to associate himself with his fellow Tory Boris Johnson, whose two mayoral election wins owed much to the backing of Outer Londoners. But he appears to think that Johnson’s lock on green belt security could have been tighter. In his manifesto, Goldsmith notes that the current London Plan, the master blueprint for the city’s spatial development, states that “the strongest protection” should be given to the 22% of land within Greater London’s boundary that is designated green belt but that in “very special circumstances” building on it might be allowed. “As mayor, I will issue new planning guidance, making it unambiguously clear that protected means protected,” Goldsmith writes. Continue reading...

Hunters association questions government data behind temporary ban on hunting secretive and nocturnal big catsFor the first time in decades, hunters with deep pockets will not be able to shoot all of the “big five” game animals in South Africa after the government banned leopard hunts for the 2016 season. Continue reading...

A national forest supervisor has said an Italian company’s commercial plan, opposed by tribal people, was not in the public interest – but the fight is not overPlans for a huge commercial development that would transform a tiny town near the edge of the Grand Canyon have been thrown out by federal officials in a surprise victory for conservation and indigenous interests – but campaigners warn that the world famous natural wonder remains in peril.Tusayan, in northern Arizona, has a few low-key hotels and a population of just 560. Continue reading...

Cows have long been farmed to fuel the fast food market. Now, by turning leather into a seasonal fashion, they are becoming part of fast fashion. Soon we will have to kill 430m every year. Lucy Siegle gets to grips with life without leather (well almost)After months of trotting around with a broken handbag, I finally found somewhere to mend it. It was a basement shop called Clever with Leather in Brighton. The proprietor examined the piece and announced that “cheap yarn” was the problem. He stitched it beautifully and it’s now back in service.Among his heavy-duty machinery for the punching, stitching and repairing of some of the toughest hides known to mankind I spotted a reddish leather embossed bag, such as a New World postman might have carried. It reminded me of the cavernous, buckled handbag my mum once had. This bag (along with her) was a constant reassuring presence at the school gates for the duration of primary school. From it she was always able to produce tissues, change for the bus and hair pins on the occasion of Wednesday night ballet class, like a 1970s Mary Poppins. Continue reading...

Plans to transform region from ‘industrial backwater’ into a ‘new Albion’ would see 45,000 new homes built in next 10 yearsThe Black Country long ago secured its place in the nation’s history as one of the catalysts of Britain’s industrial revolution. If it involved metal, the chances were that somewhere along the production line this sprawling, soot-stained stretch of the West Midlands, boasting an abundance of canals, coalmines, forges, factories and warehouses, played a part in its creation.But while industrialisation brought jobs, it carried a heavy price. For decades, life expectancy was noticeably shorter in the Black Country than in many other parts of the country and the region has found it hard to shake off a reputation for being an industrial backwater where few want to live. Some claim that its myriad smoking chimneys were the inspiration for Mordor, the foreboding, volcanic region in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Continue reading...

Homes in Leicestershire and Derbyshire were affected after the company ‘over-chlorinated’ a reservoir, but the majority now have usable waterMost homes affected by Severn Trent Water’s chlorine crisis will be able to use their water as normal later on Sunday, the company has said.However, 241 homes in the region will continue to be left without usable water. Continue reading...

Towns such as Keswick deserve proper protection from flooding rather than the shabby half-measures on offer at the momentWalk through Keswick, Cockermouth and many other provincial towns and you experience a dislocating feeling that they are out on parole. The apparent solidity of their homes and businesses is transient. The next storm howling in from the Atlantic will send the waters pouring through them again.Floods are no longer freak events but expected inundations. You count yourself lucky in Cumbria if winter passes and you stay dry; as you do in the Thames and Severn valleys, and along the east coast and Scottish Borders. Keswick, which I know best, was flooded in 2005 and again in 2009. In 2012, the Environment Agency built an embankment topped by an “innovative” wall made of glass panels beside the river Greta – a “superb demonstration of design and engineering working together”, its manufacturers boasted. The wall was meant to make flooding a once in 75 year event. It barely lasted three, before floods hit Keswick just before Christmas 2015. Continue reading...

A review of 10,000 lawsuits in the US shows top executives often don’t suffer damage to their reputation when their companies are embroiled in an environmental disaster – in fact, some go on to thriveVolkswagen announced on Wednesday that its top US boss, Michael Horn, would be leaving the company “effective immediately”, six months after the car giant’s global CEO resigned as the emissions cheating scandal became public. But a CEO losing his or her job following an environmental controversy is more the exception than the rule, according to a new study.

Company works to restore supply to thousands of people affected by high chlorine levels in reservoir

The deteriorating refugee crisis in Europe, Maria Sharapova’s positive drug test, International Women’s Day, Paris fashion week – the best photography in news, culture and sport from around the world this week Continue reading...

Jean-Bernard Levy says he believes French state will help secure financial position for £18bn nuclear power station in UK

It’s remotely controlled and costs around £180 – and my husband’s convinced it is worth itEvery week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday’s paper.This week’s question: Continue reading...