Electronics firm builds floating solar farm on a reservoir due to a scarcity of land for utility-scale solar in JapanThe Japanese electronics multinational Kyocera has begun work on what it says will be the world’s biggest floating solar farm.The power plant is being built on a reservoir in Japan’s Chiba prefecture and is anticipated to supply enough electricity for nearly 5,000 households when it is completed in early 2018. Continue reading...

Members of the National Council of Resistance of Iran demonstrate in Paris on Wednesday before the arrival of the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani. Rouhani’s visit to France is the first by an Iranian president in more than 20 years. He seeks to rebuild Iran’s economic ties following the lifting of international sanctions over its nuclear programme

Rapid transition from fossil fuels to wind and solar is needed to ensure the success of the Paris climate agreement, says secretary general, Ban Ki-moonThe United Nations urged global business leaders on Wednesday to double investment in wind and solar energy to $600bn (£400bn) a year by 2020.One month after the Paris climate agreement, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, told business leaders they needed to act decisively to hasten the transition away from the fossil fuel economy – or they would put the historic accord in jeopardy. Continue reading...

The Great Python Challenge enlists members of the public to catch Burmese pythons, a giant invasive species that has made its home in the Sunshine StateAs the north-eastern part of the United States dealt with blizzard weather, a stork cut through a clear blue Everglades sky. Leo Sanchez and Tim Meyer walked near a canal lined by mangroves, fending off a swarm of gnats. By Floridian standards, this January morning was still pretty chilly, which meant it held potential for the two hunters to catch a sunning Burmese python.The two men were participating in this year’s Great Python Challenge and were hoping to break the record for longest ever caught in Florida (to date, that’s 18ft 8in). Sanchez stopped, then jutted into the brush holding a 40in snake hook (think golf club meets dental pick), but usually grabs pythons with his bare hands. Continue reading...

Agency says it averted disaster of the sort seen in Flint by revoking license of head of water treatment in Sebring but calls for fixing of ‘broken’ federal rulesNational water regulations are “broken” and need urgent repair to avoid a public health crisis, Ohio’s top environmental regulator has warned, amid growing criticism of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s failure to eradicate misleading tests for lead in drinking water.

Group including past heads of RSPB and National Trust believe EU membership has positive effect on Britain’s natural habitatLeaving the EU would be damaging for the UK’s environment and quality of life, a group of academics and former high-ranking government officials has said.

Giraffe Manor is a small hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, where guests share the grounds with a herd of resident endangered Rothschild giraffes. The wild animals often visit guests in the morning and evening, poking their long necks through the windows in the hope of a treat, before retreating to their forest sanctuary Continue reading...

Sperm whales believed to be part of same pod as others found in Hunstanton in Norfolk and Wainfleet in LincolnshireThree sperm whales that were stranded on the Lincolnshire coast are to be removed from the beach in Skegness in the next 24 hours.The dead whales were found on the beach at the weekend and are believed to be part of the same pod as others found in Hunstanton, Norfolk, and Wainfleet in Lincolnshire. Continue reading...

Not so long ago, the idea of promoting cycling was a source of hilarity for Tel Aviv’s politicians. Now it is part of the city’s culture – but there are still many problems to tackle, from chaotic streets to the summer ‘sweat factor’When four Israeli cyclists suggested to the Tel Aviv city council in 1994 that it might be a clever idea to promote the bicycle as a new mode of transport, they were met with laughter.“They were told that cycling was something for third world nations,” says Yotam Avizohar, director of the Israel Bicycle Association. “The council official said: ‘Tel Aviv is a modern city. We only promote sophisticated transport solutions. Very soon we will have a light rail system.’” Continue reading...

Every year, the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch asks members of the British public to spend an hour during the last weekend of January counting birds in parks and gardens to get a national snapshot of numbers. Ahead of this weekend’s event - which has grown to become the world’s largest garden wildlife survey - can you identify these common garden bird species? Continue reading...

‘Devastating’ long-term prognosis for ancient Gondwana ecosystem as bushfires turn trees more than 1,000 years old to tinderA global tragedy is unfolding in Tasmania. World heritage forests are burning; 1,000-year-old trees and the hoary peat beneath are reduced to char.Fires have already taken stands of king billy and pencil pine – the last remaining fragments of an ecosystem that once spread across the supercontinent of Gondwana. Pockets of Australia’s only winter deciduous tree, the beloved nothofagus – whose direct kin shade the sides of the South American Andes – are now just a wind change away from eternity. Continue reading...

Plagues wipe out grass shoots around Charters Towers, just weeks after farmers celebrated much-needed rainPlagues of locusts are causing nightmares for north-west Queensland graziers just weeks after their dreams of much-needed rain were realised.Related: Argentina battles locust plague after farmlands hit by dozens of outbreaks Continue reading...

Farmers say they first noticed infestations in middle of 2015 and government is only now taking actionArgentina’s agricultural inspection agency has said it is keeping up efforts to control a locust infestation threatening crops in at least three states.Related: Doomsday Clock stuck near midnight due to climate change and nuclear war Continue reading...

California residents found notes on their door saying erosion had rendered homes uninhabitable and they were allowed inside only to remove belongingsA row of clifftop houses in Pacifica, California, have had to be condemned because parts of the bluff have begun to crumble dramatically into the ocean as powerful El Niño storms have drenched the coastline with heavy rains.Drone footage captured on Saturday shows residents of Esplanade Avenue in Pacifica, just south of San Francisco, watching from a terrace as sections of cliff break off practically below where they stand. Continue reading...

Councillors in Glasgow have voted to approve a bitterly-contested scheme to build 90 flats on a community woodland, but given volunteers who want to preserve it a sliver of hope too

Village of Glenridding under water for fourth time this winter, while Environment Agency issues flood alerts across the UKThe Cumbrian village of Glenridding has been flooded for the fourth time this winter, as severe weather warnings and flood alerts were issued on Tuesday for large parts of the UK.The Lake District village was flooded three times in December, and on Tuesday businesses were hit once again and schools sent children home. Continue reading...

Bird that flew from Israeli nature reserve into Lebanon caught by locals suspicious of its transmitterA vulture from an Israeli nature reserve has been captured in Lebanon on suspicion of espionage after flying across the border, Israel’s nature reserve authority has said.Members of the Israeli public phoned the Israel Nature and Parks Authority to alert it to Facebook reports and pictures of a vulture with an Israeli identification ring and location transmitter captured by residents of the south Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, a spokeswoman, Tali Tenenbaum, said. Continue reading...

That handwringing George Osborne could take a lesson from Henry VII’s chancellor, Henry Morton, when it comes to dealing with over-mighty subjects of the 21st century (MPs to investigate tax policy as Google deal faces new criticism, 26 January). Send them a tax bill. If they refuse to pay, see them in court. If they pay, send them a bigger bill next year, and so on until they start to grumble. Should flush out the tax dodgers.

“Engineers warn of looming UK energy gap” (26 January). That is, unless we build masses more power stations. Really? In the past 10 years, overall energy use has already fallen by 18%. Just in the past year, even while GDP grew by 2.8%, energy sales fell by 6.6%. Over the past 50 years, while we have practically tripled our wealth, overall energy usage has fallen, from 196.8 to 187.9 million tonnes of oil equivalent. All this has occurred without any sustained drive to reduce consumption levels. Just think what we could achieve were to take a leaf out of the German or Nordic books, and really push energy efficiency programmes. Power gap? What power gap?

Scotland and northern England are braced for further heavy rainfall - if you live in affected areas, share your photos and stories with us

Climate Home: Power from the sun could supply 20% of energy worldwide by 2027 on current technology trends, say UK researchersSolar power costs are tumbling so fast the technology is likely to fast outstrip mainstream energy forecasts.That is the conclusion of Oxford University researchers, based on a new forecasting model published in Research Policy. Continue reading...

Huge waves up to about 5 metres (16 feet) high slam Chile’s coastal resort town of Viña del Mar over the weekend, as high surf caused by El Niño storms batter the country’s Pacific coast. Television footage aired by Chile’s TVN network shows powerful waves toppling and dragging a civil defence SUV, with passersby rushing to help the passengers get out Continue reading...

Government publicly destroys biggest ever illegal ivory haul in bid to show poachers it will not tolerate the violent tradeThe Sri Lankan government on Tuesday publicly destroyed its biggest ever illegal ivory haul in what customs officials said was an attempt to show poachers that the island will not tolerate the violent trade.

The enchanting video of Tian Tian is a global hit. In our 24/7 world, animals provide us with escapism and give us something to believe inA video of Tian Tian the giant panda rolling around in the snow has gone viral. Arms over his head, rubbing his face, revelling in the overnight fall, he looks nothing so much like a man in a bear suit. So of course a man dresses up as a panda and mimics the real creature. Humans just can’t help it, can they?Tian Tian is the child we all once were, rejoicing in the imaginary, benevolent snows of yesteryear. Those front-facing eyes – like primates, and even owls – dig into something deep in our psyche. Little wonder the video has been viewed around the world – an antidote to the scenes of nature-induced chaos we’ve been experiencing over here on the east coast of the US, in snowbound Cape Cod, from where I’m writing. It is a wonderful contrast to another animal clip from the weekend: the tragic scenes of dead and dying sperm whales on the British east coast. The one, with its intimations of majestic marine mammals brought low, possibly by human causes; the other, with its idyll of a world beyond ourselves. They both are emblematic of a nature that we instinctively anthropomorphise, and which we cannot help but see through our own physical selves. Continue reading...

Wilmar claims it has made ‘significant progress’ but campaigners and experts say more is needed to prevent forest clearance or human rights abusesThe world’s largest palm oil processor and trader used the Davos gathering of business leaders as an opportunity to talk up progress on its efforts to tackle deforestation in the palm oil sector.Singapore-headquartered Wilmar says it has made “significant progress” on a commitment it made two years ago to eliminate deforestation, exploitation and peatland development from its supply chain. This includes publishing a list of crude palm oil mill sources that supply its refineries, enabling greater transparency along the company’s supply chain. Continue reading...

The Black Flag frontman, alternative icon, public speaker and champion of the natural world takes humanity to task over its treatment of Mother NatureIt is often exceedingly difficult for me to hang in there with our species. We really are quite awful when you come to think of it. I like you but not us. There are a lot of living things on the planet – for now. Perhaps the most ill-suited for existence would be our species.Related: Henry Rollins on Trump: 'He would be a disastrous president' Continue reading...

Phasing-out of coal and nuclear reactors without alternatives will combine to create a supply crunch in a decade’s time, report predictsThe UK is facing an unprecedented “energy gap” in a decade’s time, according to engineers, with demand for electricity likely to outstrip supply by more than 40%, which could lead to black outs .New policies to stop unabated coal-fired power generation by 2025, and the phasing out of ageing nuclear reactors without plans in place to build a new fleet of gas-fired electricity plants, will combine to create a supply crunch, according to a new study. Continue reading...

Allendale, Northumberland There are whippy stems of wild raspberry. As the tree stump decays they will gain in strengthFrom a little way off, there is nothing remarkable about this rotting tree stump. Gently melded into the bank, it’s a bulging lump with a toupee of moss. But look closer and there is so much life here. Feather mosses overhang in a protective cornice, shielding the interior from rain. Wood sorrel is spreading by slender rhizomes through the spongy green topping, leaves folded back like little tents from the frost. They have the lemon sharpness of oxalic acid, making them popular with those who forage for woodland salad.The mossy covering supports other plants too. There are whippy stems of wild raspberry. They are thin and wiry now, but as the tree stump decays they will gain in strength. There are lacy seedlings of herb robert, which give off a mousy smell as I brush against them. Continue reading...

Thermal expansion of the oceans as they warm is likely to be twice as large as previously thought, according to German researchersThe amount of sea level rise that comes from the oceans warming and expanding has been underestimated, and could be about twice as much as previously calculated, German researchers have said.

Ohio is sending pallets of bottled water and testing kits to Sebring, a village about 60 miles southeast of Cleveland, after the EPA issued an emergency orderOhio is sending pallets of bottled water and testing kits to several communities after environmental officials said the operator of a small water system failed to notify the public for months that unsafe levels of lead had been found in some homes.The state Environmental Protection Agency issued an emergency order Monday forbidding James Bates from working at the Sebring village water treatment plant and informing him that the agency intends to revoke his operating license for endangering the public and for submitting “misleading, inaccurate or false reports”. Continue reading...

Michigan attorney general Bill Schuette said on Monday that ‘things went terribly, terribly wrong’, as Flint faces a water contamination crisis. He promised a thorough investigation into the crisis, as well as naming a special prosecutor and investigator to look into possible crimes by the city of Flint Continue reading...

Environmental leader and recently-elected mayor was one of the most outspoken defenders of the River Maranon.Large hydro-electric power may be cleaner than dirty fossil fuels, but it’s still dirty, as 170 organisations from around the world told governments and financial institutions in a statement released during the UN climate talks in Paris in December. It’s a “false solution to climate change”, they argued, saying it emits “significant amounts of greenhouse gases”, inhibits rivers acting as “global carbon sinks”, makes “water and energy systems more vulnerable to climate change”, and causes “severe and often irreversible damage to critical ecosystems” - to say nothing of the negative impacts on local communities and the 40-80 million people, at least, who have been forcibly displaced to date.A similar argument is made by the Yagén Defence Front (YDF) in Peru which is fighting the proposed construction of a 600 MW hydro-electric power project, Chadin 2, which would dam the River Maranon and flood 32.5 square kilometres, numerous villages, and extensive croplands and valleys high in biodiversity. “They told us [Chadin 2] will bring clean energy,” a 2013 YDF statement read, but “it will generate large quantities of methane that contributes enormously to global warming. . . [I]t will destroy almost all the varieties of fish in our river and it will force us out of our lands and displace us into places we don’t know. No project that destroys the natural world and causes social problems can be said to generate clean energy. It is a lie.” Continue reading...

Experts investigate possible causes of worst stranding on the English coast since records began in 1913, while people flock to sites to take photosA fifth dead whale has been found washed up on the Lincolnshire coast, several miles from four other members of the same pod, marking the worst sperm whale stranding off the English coast since records began in 1913.The fifth whale was discovered by a member of the public on Monday afternoon on a former weapons range in Lincolnshire where the second world war Dambusters squadron practised bombing runs.

The five sperm whales washed up on England’s east coast may have died after they took a wrong turn from the Atlantic into the shallow North SeaFive young male whales have now been found dead – in Hunstanton, Skegness and Wainfleet, all around the shallow waters of the Wash. Continue reading...

The shores of Lincolnshire and Norfolk, as well as Germany and Holland, have become the last resting place of 17 sperm whales recently. But are these deaths natural or the fault of humans?The five dead whales washed up on the beaches of Lincolnshire and Norfolk represent the biggest mass sperm-whale stranding in British waters for 20 years. Twelve sperm whales also washed up dead off Germany and Holland earlier this month and others could follow: at least one more of these colossal cetaceans has been spotted off the Norfolk coast.Are these deaths natural or the result of human interference in the last great wilderness – the ocean? Continue reading...

Michigan city’s instructions called on residents to ‘pre-flush’ pipes, a process criticized by federal authorities for reducing levels of toxins detectedThe city of Flint has belatedly rewritten water testing instructions that have been blamed for the gross underestimation of its lead pollution crisis, with the Michigan government to be sued this week over its continued support for the distorted tests revealed by the Guardian.

Plane Stupid’s trespass was a red flag to politicians: to claim you can have a booming aviation-based economy and cut emissions is a cowardly deceptionOn Monday morning last week, my eldest daughter went on trial at Willesden magistrates court. She is 28, and this was the first day of a court case that lasted all week. She, along with 12 others, was charged with aggravated trespass and unauthorised entry to the runway areas of Heathrow on 13 July last year. She and her colleagues are all members of the Plane Stupid pressure group, who are engaging in direct action against plans to expand aviation capacity by building a third runway. Today she and her co-defendants were convicted and told to expect immediate custodial sentences.I am proud of my daughter and I applaud her action. Continue reading...

Thirteen members of the Plane Stupid campaign group who blocked north runway at Heathrow in July 2015 told they are likely to face prisonThirteen protesters who chained themselves to railings at the UK’s largest airport have been told it is almost inevitable they will be jailed for their actions.Members of the Plane Stupid campaign group cut a hole in a fence and made their way on to the north runway at Heathrow in July last year. They were found guilty of aggravated trespass and entering a security-restricted area of an aerodrome. Continue reading...