Hiring of Birmingham demolition firm Coleman defended by RWE npower as rescue efforts and inquiry continueThe company demolishing the defunct Didcot power station in Oxfordshire, where at least one person died on Tuesday, had not previously worked on a power station.The Birmingham-based Coleman Group was awarded the contract to dismantle the Didcot A coal and gas-fired station by RWE npower. The power station collapsed Tuesday afternoon while its workers were preparing the structure for demolition. Continue reading...

As 1,000-year-old trees turn to ash and dried-out peat bogs burn, the devastation of these precious plains is a harbinger of a warmer, far less wonderful worldIt is a three-hour, thigh-torturing climb to reach Tasmania’s high central plateau. Ancient myrtle rainforests flank the slopes. In years gone by, springs and streams gushed from the soaked highlands above, feeding the ferns and tall, old trees. The track passes Norm’s spring, from which local legend holds it is good luck to drink. But in these parts the luck has run dry.Related: Tasmania bushfires leave world heritage area devastated – in pictures Continue reading...

All-party alliance says National Grid needs to act now to fill supply gap, and wants ministers to look at level of carbon taxesA group representing 60 local authorities has warned that recent closures of large power stations have left Britain heading for power cuts next winter, despite assurances to the contrary from the government.The Industrial Communities Alliance (ICA), an all-party association of councils from across Britain, said National Grid needed to act immediately to fill the supply gap by sending out new contracts for at least 2,500 megawatts (MW) of additional generating capacity – enough to power 2.5m homes. Continue reading...

Heavy autumn rains have transformed the California park from salt flats and sand dunes to a colorful floral landscape not seen to this extent since 2005Parts of Death Valley, the driest place in North America, have exploded in a riot of color with a rare “superbloom” of millions of wildflowers.The flowers have blanketed the desert valley to an extent not seen since 2005. The bloom started in the southern part of the Californian wilderness and is now moving north, displaying colorful species including the golden evening primrose (Camissonia brevipes), notchleaf phacelia (Phacelia crenulata) and fields of desert gold (Geraea canescens). Continue reading...

New sentencing policy would end legal loopholes that leave wildlife crimes in many central and eastern European countries punishable by non-custodial sentencesOrganised wildlife criminals will face prison sentences of at least four years in a crackdown on poachers, smugglers and illegal trophy hunters that the European commission is due to launch on Friday.An action plan seen by the Guardian would force all EU countries to consider major wildlife trafficking a grave offence under the UN’s convention against transnational organised crime. Continue reading...

For Lagosians, electricity shortages can mean cooking by torchlight, or companies spending a shocking 70% of the budget on diesel ... and some neighbourhoods have spent half a decade with no power at allWhen the electric transformer in his neighbourhood was vandalised five years ago, Akinnuoye Olagunju, then 21, didn’t think they would never have power again.Officials from the energy utility demanded that his father, as well as each of the 2,000 or so people in Oreta, pay a communal bribe to repair the damage: 2,000 naira ($10) each, a lot of money in this sleepy and impoverished fishing village. Continue reading...

Director of country’s biggest whaling company says his fleet will not be hunting this season because of problems exporting the meat to JapanConservationists are hopeful that an end to commercial whaling in Iceland has moved one step closer following media reports that no fin whales will be hunted there this summer.Kristjan Loftsson, the director of Iceland’s largest whaling company, told daily newspaper Morgunbladid on Wednesday that Hvalur HF would not be sending out vessels to slaughter the endangered whales this season because of difficulties exporting the meat to the Japanese market. Continue reading...

The mysteries of this cosmic wonder are explored and explained in the new book Aurora, by adventurous physicist Melanie Windridge. Here, she shares what she has seen Continue reading...

Before receiving suspended sentences on Thursday, the Heathrow 13 climate change activists explain why they they occupied the airport. They say direct action was their only option for fighting climate change. Will the fear of further punishment deter them from more law-breaking actions?

In September 2015, artist Mariele Neudecker and photographer Klaus Thymann embarked on a joint project to detail the glaciers of Narsarsuaq, south-west Greenland. The collaboration is part of a mission by UK charity Project Pressure to record the world’s vanishing and receding glaciers using art as inspiration Continue reading...

Activists found guilty of aggravated trespass and entering restricted area of an aerodrome given suspended sentencesSix women and seven men have avoided jail for trespassing at Heathrow, following a protest against the possible expansion of the airport.The activists, dubbed the Heathrow 13, were given sentences of six weeks suspended for 12 months, which means that if they break the law within a year, they are likely to serve the sentence. Continue reading...

Available carbon budget is half as big as thought if global warming is to be kept within 2C limit agreed internationally as being the point of no return, researchers say. Climate News Network reportsClimate scientists have bad news for governments, energy companies, motorists, passengers and citizens everywhere in the world: to contain global warming to the limits agreed by 195 nations in Paris last December, they will have to cut fossil fuel combustion at an even faster rate than anybody had predicted.Joeri Rogelj, research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria, and European and Canadian colleagues propose in Nature Climate Change that all previous estimates of the quantities of carbon dioxide that can be released into the atmosphere before the thermometer rises to potentially catastrophic levels are too generous. Continue reading...

Analysis predicts that the total cost of ownership of electric cars will dip below those with internal combustion engines in 2022Electric cars will be cheaper to own than conventional cars by 2022, according to a new report.The plummeting cost of batteries is key in leading to the tipping point, which would kickstart a mass market for electric vehicles, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) analysts predict. Continue reading...

Fossil fuel industry must show it is a ‘force for good’ in face of campaign to blacklist polluting assets, Ali Al-Naimi tells oilmen. Climate Home reportsBig Oil must thwart the movement to leave fossil fuels in the ground, the world’s most powerful oilman said on Tuesday.Addressing executives in Texas, Saudi oil minister Ali Al-Naimi said the industry had to shed its “Dark Side” image and show it was a “force for good”. Continue reading...

Volunteers will tackle the country’s worst litter sites in March in what is being billed as the largest ever clean-up of the British environment ahead of the Queen’s 90th birthday in JuneThe canal bank beside Northbrook Street near Birmingham city centre looks and smells like a tip. The grass is strewn with plastic cups, fag packets, cans, tins, wraps, cloth, papers, peel, binliners, bags, butts and bottles. Builders have come in vans and flytipped waste, kids have graffitied the brickwork.

Research shows £260m worth of raw and cooked beef items go to waste annually - equivalent to 300m beef burgersUK householders throw away 34,000 tonnes of beef every year - the equivalent of 300m beef burgers, according to new research.

Sandy, Bedfordshire Locals come down to throw out whole loaves of cheap sliced bread for the resident ducks and swansAt daybreak an uptown gull had made it into the market place, where it was fishing in last night’s chip wrapper. Here was a bird showing bold timidity: it had the determination to make it down into a soon to be crowded forum, but acted as if it were touching a hotplate.Its undercarriage came down, feet splayed out in a ready-to-land position, but its trailing legs would dab at the ground then recoil, wings all the while holding it aloft in a panicky flutter. Nevertheless, this black-headed gull was still able to take advantage of its inelegant half-hover. Its beak made lunging jabs to snatch morsels of food. Truly a takeaway. Continue reading...

Experiment found the heavier king penguins from Antarctica were not as good at waddling, but the extra weight helped them survive fasting while breedingFat king penguins are unsteady on their feet while waddling compared to their slimmer counterparts, but carrying a bit of extra weight comes with an important advantage when it comes to reproduction, biomechanics researchers say.A research team led by Astrid Willener from the University of London’s department of life sciences travelled to the subantarctic region of Antarctica to research the king penguin, which can grow up to 1m tall and up to 16kg, making it the second largest species of penguin behind the emperor. Continue reading...

Meat-eating plants have got a savage reputation to live up to, but some of them grow largely unnoticed in boglands across Britain. One of our most magnificent carnivorous plants is the great sundew, Drosera anglica. Its glistening red tentacles spray out like sticky fingers on a hand and small creatures passing by get caught on the drops of glue. After which the tentacles and leaf slowly curl around the prey in a deadly embrace before digesting the victim.The sundew grows in boggy land where the soil is poor and the plant gets a big boost in nutrition with a diet of bugs. And yet this sundew is much more than just a botanical oddball. It used to be widespread across the lowland bogs of England but over the years it’s faced an onslaught of peat digging, land drainage and fertilisers running off farms, all of which have left this astonishing plant endangered in England. Continue reading...

Former UN leaders and charity chiefs publish letter warning attempts to combat poverty and climate change would be damaged by leaving the EUSome of the most prestigious figures in UK overseas aid, including former United Nations leaders, aid charity chiefs and development advisers to the government, have warned that withdrawal from the European Union would diminish Britain’s role in the world and set back British efforts to tackle global poverty and climate change.The letter, unlike earlier campaign letters published this week from businessmen and military chiefs, has not been coordinated by Downing Street and is aimed more at a liberal audience dubious that Britain’s internationalist role would be diminished if it left the EU. Continue reading...

The UK is a global leader in international development. Our work fighting poverty, disease, climate change and conflict embodies British values, and is also in our national interest. We are writing not about the domestic political implications of Britain’s membership of the EU, but about the international implications. In our view, EU membership is a practical way to extend our reach and multiply our influence. Every pound of aid the UK spends through EU institutions is matched by £6 from other member states. This larger pool delivers better lives for the poorest people. It also helps tackle problems in areas where the UK has no large presence, for example in the Sahel and parts of west Africa. EU aid complements activities that other aid agencies cannot undertake, like police and security missions in fragile hotspots. Cooperation within the EU will be essential to tackling the humanitarian emergency in Syria, the migration crisis, and the wider issues of peace, security and development in the Middle East and north Africa.Beyond aid, partnership within the EU helped the UK achieve an ambitious outcome at the climate talks in Paris; and provides a platform for further work on trade, financial flows, corruption and human rights. In all these areas, the EU demonstrates the value of collective action on a global scale. Of course, there are things we want to change in the way the EU works. But British engagement raises standards and improves performance. In September last year, the UK and 192 other members of the UN signed up to the new sustainable development goals. These set the whole world, rich countries and poor, on a new path towards peace, prosperity, justice and sustainability. The values underlying the global goals are shared by the UK and embedded in EU treaties. Withdrawing from the EU would diminish the UK’s role in the world and set back our efforts to end global poverty. Continue reading...

Glyphosate was deemed ‘probably carcinogenic’ by WHO but draft law has been drawn up to grant new 15-year leaseThe European commission plans to give a new 15-year lease to a controversial weedkiller that was deemed “probably carcinogenic to humans” by the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).A draft implementing law seen by the Guardian says the commission has decided it is appropriate to renew the licence for glyphosate after a lengthy review, which sparked a scientific storm. Continue reading...

We agree with your editorial (24 February) that more should to be done to tackle air pollution in London, and new technology can be part of the solution.More than four in 10 Uber trips in the capital are now in cleaner and greener hybrid vehicles, which produce less than half the pollution of a standard TX4 black cab. And our new car-sharing option UberPool makes it easy for people going in the same direction at the same time to share their journey. Continue reading...

First scientific study on a natural coral reef shows the effect of acidification caused by global warming, rather than common factors in reef declineCoral reefs are having their growth stunted by ocean acidification caused by global warming, new research has confirmed.For the first time, scientists conducted an experiment on a natural coral reef which involved altering sea water chemistry to mimic the effect of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Continue reading...

Environment department ministers are at odds over whether a Brexit would be good for farmers, who receive roughly £2.5-3bn a year in EU subsidiesA battle for the Tory heartlands of the UK countryside has broken out within the government’s ministerial ranks, as David Cameron’s farming minister has defied his boss to urge farmers to vote to leave the EU.

Phil H Knight’s contribution will help create a new program called Knight-Hennessy Scholars, aimed at making an impact on poverty and climate changeWhat’s a better way to celebrate your 78th birthday than giving away $400m to solve climate change?Stanford University has announced that Nike co-founder and chairman Philip H Knight – one day before his 78th birthday – was contributing $400m to the school to create a new program called Knight-Hennessy Scholars. Graduate students chosen for the program will address the “increasingly complex challenges facing the world” such as poverty and climate change. Continue reading...

Readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific conceptsWhy do we never see “mongrel” birds? Why does a blackbird never mate with a thrush or, especially, a hedge sparrow with a dunnock? I asked the Natural History Museum and they said that different species don’t fancy each other – but that doesn’t apply to dogs, and, given that there must be millions of bird matings each day, why has there never been a “mistake”?

The Plane Stupid activists who staged a peaceful protest on a Heathrow runway in 2015 could become the UK’s first climate change protesters to be jailed. They range from residents of the Heathrow villages to young climate activists Continue reading...

George Eustice tells NFU conference that leaving the EU would mean £2bn for farming and the environment, while Liz Truss backs campaign to stayLeaving the European Union would pay an £18bn a year “Brexit dividend” which would allow the UK to spend £2bn on farming and the environment, farming minister, George Eustice, has said.Eustice sought to reassure farmers at the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) annual conference that “without a shadow of doubt” they would continue to receive the subsidies for farming and environmental measures from an independent UK as they are currently paid through the EU’s agriculture policy. Continue reading...

Tech billionaire predicts innovation will deliver the clean energy the world desperately needs, but only if young people, businesses, and governments step up to the plate, reports Business GreenBill Gates has predicted researchers will “discover a clean energy breakthrough that will save our planet and power our world” within the next 15 years.In their annual open letter, Bill and Melinda Gates provide an update on their plans to stimulate innovation in technologies for tackling climate change, energy poverty, and gender inequality. Continue reading...

The UN wants an official with ‘high professional standing and an intimate knowledge of the issues’ to replace Christiana Figueres when she leaves in July. Climate Home looks at the potential candidatesThere’s a well-paid vacancy at the United Nations going at the moment.

As she prepares for sentencing, one of the third runway protesters says breaking the law will have been worthwhileWho owns sensible trousers that aren’t navy blue or black? In an effort to better distinguish between the guards and the guarded, the prison dress code has ruled out most of my wardrobe. I’m left staring at a sizeable collection of brightly coloured leggings and weighing them against advice from sites like “first time in prison dot com” to “keep your head down”.After a short trial, the so-called Heathrow 13, of which I am one, were found guilty of aggravated trespass and being “unlawfully airside” at the airport for protesting against re-emerging plans to build a third runway at Heathrow. Our sentencing is on Wednesday, and we’ve been told to “expect custodials”. Continue reading...

We live in a profoundly work-centred world; if automation is to benefit us we need to ask big critical questions about the purpose and value of our jobs

Wenlock Edge In recent years these diving fish-hunters have become ubiquitous in freshwater lakes and riversThe cormorants of Moscow Island wait as if in ambush. Perched in the gaunt branches of alders on this tiny manmade island in the Mere at Ellesmere, they are reptilian gargoyles gathered with Hitchcockian intent, eyeing visitors with murderous disdain. They are, however, even less dangerous than the geese constantly pushing their luck with lakeside strollers for food.Time was when a colony of cormorants this far inland would be a rare sight, but in recent years these diving fish-hunters have become ubiquitous in freshwater lakes and rivers. The island was formed of road soil dumped on the ice during the freezing winter of 1812, when Napoleon was retreating from Moscow, but for all that they appear ancient and uncannily revenant, these cormorants are relative newcomers. Continue reading...

Australia’s world heritage-listed reef is threatened by warmer waters that have killed off coral in Fiji but the full impact depends on the weatherThe third global coral bleaching event to be recorded is snaking its way around a warming globe, devastating reefs and now threatening the world-heritage listed Great Barrier Reef.This week it was announced the bleaching event, which began in 2014, is already the longest in history and could extend well into 2017. “We may be looking at a two- to two-and-a-half-year-long event. Some areas have already seen bleaching two years in a row,” says Mark Eakin, coordinator of the Coral Reef Watch program at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Continue reading...

Obesity and alcohol command more attention, but floating poisons such as diesel fumes take just as heavy a toll. London under Boris Johnson illustrates how to fail this public health challengeEvery so often a statistic emerges to send shockwaves through the most innumerate skulls. One such figure, highlighted by the Royal College of Physicians in a report on Tuesday, is the annual toll of 40,000 premature deaths attributable to outdoor air pollution. It implies that the finger can be pointed at unclean air for about 8% of all of the half million or so deaths recorded in the UK every year, a far higher proportion than is usually blamed on alcohol or obesity, two public health problems that grab more attention. Factoring indoor pollution into the mix – familiar fiends such as secondhand tobacco smoke, and overlooked enemies like spray deodorants – only strengthens the link between the air we breathe and our last gasp.To acknowledge the importance of pollution should not amount to a counsel of despair. Britain led the world in dispelling the coal-caused smogs of the 1950s with the clean air acts, and a generation later called time on leaded petrol. Such progressive past steps have contributed to far longer average lives. With determination, the great culprits of our own time, nitrogen dioxide and diesel particulates, which between them contribute to wheezing, heart disease and cancer, might be tackled the same way. In many other European metropolises, and not least in German-speaking centres, which this week dominate the top flight in a global league table of good cities to live, all sorts of serious action is under way, ranging from pedestrianisation to outright bans on the dirtiest diesel cars. Continue reading...

Emergency services say five others have been taken to hospital after a building collapsed at Didcot power station in Oxfordshire