Every day millions of internet users ask Google some of life’s most difficult questions, big and small. Our writers answer some of the most common queriesRecycling is not about rubbish: it’s valuable commodities you’re chucking in your wheelie bin, according to sustainability expert Marcus Gover, not rubbish.Related: Recycling rates in England have stalled Continue reading...

Precious but endangered lizards are a lucrative new cargo for German smugglers, ahead of an international attempt to outlaw their tradeWildlife traffickers are exploiting a legal grey area to trade in highly lucrative protected lizard species at the world’s biggest reptile fair, a Guardian investigation has discovered.

For one morning every week, people on bikes and on foot rule 35 miles of central city streets, but it is not just about car-free Sundays – the world’s fourth biggest city is also building a network of protected bike lanesStand on Mexico City’s grand Paseo de la Reforma boulevard on a Sunday morning and you’ll hear gears whirring, bells ringing and the chatter of voices as 50,000 people cycle, scoot and skate along 35 miles of closed roads. Stop and listen on any other day of the week and all you’ll hear is the roar of 10 lanes of traffic.This sprawling megacity of 21 million is home to 5.5m cars, and that number is growing despite some of the worst traffic jams in the world. Residents spend an average of three hours a day commuting, and car speeds during rush hour have fallen to around 7.5mph (12km/h). Although air quality has improved markedly since the city was named the most polluted in the world in the 1980s, walking or cycling along one of its many multi-lane highways sometimes feels as if you are sucking directly on a car exhaust. Continue reading...

The OECD wants to phase out export credit agencies providing money for coal projects. Australia, almost alone, might stand in its wayAustralia finds itself in a funny position headed for the Paris climate talks. It’s one of the few nations on the planet desperately trying to stop the hands on the clock and keep the world as we know it chugging smokily along for a few more years.Here’s the backdrop: 303 years after Thomas Newcomen invented the first useful steam engine (which burned coal to pump water out of ... coal mines), the black rock on which we built our prosperity is clearly on the decline. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Labor’s immigration spokesman, Richard Marles, returns from Pacific islands tour and says Australia should plan early to accept ‘people on the move’Australia should be at the forefront of efforts to resettle climate change migrants forced from their homes across the Pacific, Labor says.The opposition immigration spokesman, Richard Marles, visited Papua New Guinea, the Marshall Islands and Kiribati last week, observing the impacts of climate change on the low-lying islands.

Australia’s humanitarian intake is from distant countries; as climate change leads some islanders to migrate, that will change. So must our approachIt is almost impossible to convey the extraordinary landscape of an inhabited coral atoll without seeing it firsthand. From the sky, the thin strips of low-lying land surrounding turquoise blue lagoons make sense as a refuge for the explorer who has been months at sea. But as a place to live, build a home and create a culture it feels the most unlikely site for human society.At most points water can be seen on both sides of these strips of land. As sandbars between islets have been converted into roads the impression is created that in many places the width of the country is the width of the street. Continue reading...

Six bodies have been found with 22 still missing in one of the country’s worst mining disasters as hundreds are displaced in Minas GeraisAs despair turns to anger over a deadly dam burst at a Brazilian mine, lawmakers pushed on Tuesday for tougher regulations in a new mining code, as iron ore giant Vale SA came under pressure to help mourning families and contain the environmental impact.In five days of rescue efforts in towns ravaged by the massive mudflow, six bodies have been found and 22 people are still missing, making it one of the worst mining disasters in Brazil’s history. Rescuers abandoned a search for seven-year-old Tiago Damasceno in the muddy aftermath of the dam collapse on Tuesday, as hope for survivors diminishes five days after the disaster. Continue reading...

Countries are realising the cost of their dependence on oil and coal, says International Energy AgencyBetween the tropics and probably as far as the 33rd parallel, the sun could soon be a major source of energy for households and businesses alike.Countries such as Mexico and Indonesia, long dependent on cheap home-produced oil and coal, are realising that a solar panel on every roof can reduce poverty by lowering energy costs as well as minimising the destabilising weather effects from higher CO2 emissions. Continue reading...

Andrew Stoddart and his family must leave farm they have tended for 22 years by end of the month, with minimal compensationLand reform campaigners have gathered outside the Scottish parliament to protest against the threatened eviction of a tenant farmer, in a case that has galvanised activists and focused public attention on a legislative mire that affects farming families across the country.To comply with a Scottish land court ruling last year, Andrew Stoddart and his family must quit Coulston Mains farm, East Lothian, by the end of the month. Despite tending the land for 22 years and investing more than £500,000 in improvements, Stoddart will be evicted with minimal compensation along with his wife, three children and two staff, one of whom has a family of four. Continue reading...

Institutions with endowments worth £115m are withdrawing their investments from fossil fuels ahead of crunch UN climate talks in ParisTen UK universities with endowments worth £115m are in the process of moving their money out of fossil fuels ahead of crunch UN climate change talks in Paris later this month.The University of Surrey, the University of Arts in London and Oxford Brookes University have divested their respective £42m, £3.9m and £1.6m endowments from all fossil fuel companies. Continue reading...

Petropower offers conditional emissions cuts of up to 130Mt CO2e by 2030, becoming last G20 member to submit plan before Paris summit, reports Climate HomeSaudi Arabia made its contribution to a climate rescue pact on Tuesday, calling it a “significant deviation” for the emissions of the oil-reliant economy.The world’s largest crude oil producer pledged to achieve “mitigation co-benefits” of up to 130 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year by 2030, in an opaque submission with numerous caveats. Continue reading...

Despite youth unemployment at 53%, Greece’s young entrepreneurs face state obstacles and hostilityMyrto Papadogeorgou and her business partner Nikos Konstantinou chose not to join the exodus of 200,000 people from Greece over the past five years. Instead they’ve stayed, hoping to help drag their country out of crisis. For them, and many other young Greeks, starting a social enterprise has become a way to capitalise on their frustrations in the face of 52% youth unemployment.But Papadogeorgou and Konstantinou have hit a dead end. After four years unsuccessfully applying for funding from organisations at home and abroad for City of Errors, an interactive platform they’ve developed that encourages users to fix their city’s problems, the defeated pair have stopped trying. Now they talk about leaving Greece. Continue reading...

Energy secretary says heat and transport must make a contribution to meeting the EU target of sourcing 15% of renewable energy by 2020Amber Rudd has admitted the UK does not have the right policies in place to meet its EU target of sourcing 15% of energy from renewable sources by 2020, and challenged transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin to help make up the shortfall.The energy secretary told MPs on Tuesday that meeting the target would be challenging, and admitted that the UK could end up having to buy renewable energy from its European neighbours if it fell short. Continue reading...

With a little soap, some baking soda and a bit of vinegar, you’re on your way to a sparkling interior – without the harmful chemicals and packed cleaning closetIn our obsessive consumer culture, one of the most radical choices you can make is choosing to create, rather than consume. This sounds like a lofty goal, and you may think I’m referring to great works of political art or slyly subversive literature, but I’m actually talking making the products you use in your day-to-day life. Such as … your kitchen spray.

Twenty years since the ‘judicial killing’ of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni nine activists, the government refuses to recognise the price paid by Niger Delta residentsThe Nigerian government is struggling to confront its past abuses, and nowhere is this clearer than in the case of the Ogoni nine, the environmental activists from the Niger Delta hanged in 1995 by the Sani Abacha regime on trumped-up charges.I was five years old when playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa, a leading figure in the Ogoni people’s movement, was executed alongside eight others, and I lived through the legacy of his fight to protect the oil-rich land by Shell and other corporations. Continue reading...

Deer in a London park are failing to mate because of intrusive snappers. With wildlife already under threat, photographers need to focus on acting ethicallyEvery year the Natural History Museum puts on an exhibition of the most wonderful wildlife photographs. Every year I enter a fantasy universe in which I retreat to a hide with thousands of pounds’ worth of camera equipment to wait for the perfect fraction of a second that will win me such accolades. But then reality returns and I go back to photographing my son’s choir. But budding wildlife photographers have had their moment in the spotlight this week because of the impact they are having on the red and fallow deer in Richmond Park.Right now the deer are coming to the end of the rut – the breeding season – which sees males display and fight in a most photogenic manner. And one has to wonder whether a swarm of 60 photographers surrounding a male as he tries to mate just might be an inhibitor to successful reproduction. It would certainly affect my capacity to perform. Continue reading...

Up to 52,000 hectares of land devastated in 2014, according to new estimates of cost to the Nigerian state and oil companiesPipeline vandalism in the Niger delta costs the state and oil companies $14bn (£9.3bn) a year and devastated up to 52,000 hectares of land in 2014, according to new estimates by a leading Nigerian research and development group.

International Energy Agency says figures are a “clear sign” of a transition from coal to clean energyRenewable energy accounted for almost half of all new power plants in 2014, representing a “clear sign that an energy transition is underway”, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).Green energy is now the second-largest generator of electricity in the world, after coal, and is set to overtake the dirtiest fossil fuel in the early 2030s, said the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2015 report, published on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Chief executive says energy supplies will be tighter this winter, with grid drawing on extra sources of power to avoid blackoutsThe chief executive of National Grid said this winter’s energy capacity would be more stretched than last year but that he was confident of getting through without blackouts.

Norfolk may be short on sharks, but another predator – the pike – lurks beneath the water. Catch one if you can ...At first light, we are sitting in a boat, engine cut out, waiting in the calm chill. A ripple suddenly materialises – something turning, fast, in the water below.“We’ve got a run,” says my guide, Mark Watson, seizing one of four rods protruding from our boat. He quickly pulls it in. The bait has disappeared. The hooks and the titanium “trace” which attached them to the line – designed to haul in an 80lb fish – have been bitten clean off. “Shitbag,” exclaims Watson mildly. Continue reading...

Man, believed to be in his 20s, in hospital with severe leg injuries after being bitten on his left thigh at Lighthouse Beach in East BallinaA surfer has suffered serious leg injuries from a suspected shark attack off the NSW far north coast.The man, believed to be aged in his 20s, was bitten at Lighthouse Beach in East Ballina just before 6.20pm, police said. Continue reading...

Nigeria’s Ogoniland still looks as devastated by oil pollution as when the junta executed my father 20 years ago. But the carbon economy seems to be reaching a tipping point at lastTwenty years ago today my father and eight other Ogoni men were woken from their sleep and hanged in a prison yard in southern Nigeria. When the news filtered out, shock and outrage reverberated around the world, and everyone from the Queen to Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela condemned the executions.What I recall of the long days and sleepless nights afterwards was the slogan that caught on with my father’s devastated friends and supporters; we were united in a determination to ensure that “his death must not be in vain”. So has anything changed? Continue reading...

Cross-border monitoring and inspections regime to clamp down on environmental crime worth billions is stymied by fears of UK objections, EU officials sayThe EU has quietly dropped plans for stronger environmental inspections to tackle illegal trade in wildlife and toxic waste across Europe, the Guardian has learned.Senior levels of the European commission feared opposition from the UK to the proposed law on cost and red tape grounds, sources told the Guardian. Continue reading...

Fears for country’s national dish after cabbage harvests damaged by drought and subsequent floods. Daily NK reportsNorth Korean households are facing a winter without their traditional supply of kimchi after a year in which droughts and then floods have affected vegetable harvests.As the kimjang season begins, when the fermented cabbage dish is made to last families though the winter, market prices for radishes and cabbages are escalating. Even ingredients such as chillies, garlic, onions and salt used for seasoning are in short supply, say sources inside the country. Continue reading...

Billingshurst, West Sussex Tawny owls have a wide range of vocalisations, but this is clearly a male making its territorial callSoft black clouds chase each other across the face of the white moon. I climb over the stile and walk along one edge of a field that backs on to the wood.Bullfinches are calling softly from the dark hedgerows, but I don’t bother looking for them – there’s not enough light yet to see the elusive birds, even if they decide to show themselves. Continue reading...

A boat tour operator discovers the body of a crocodile which drowned while stuck in a gillnet in the Kimberley river in the Northern Territory. Brad Priest-Tasker, who operates the Kimberley Quest boat, narrates his discovery on camera and calls for more controls on where gillnets – which are long net panels, similar to a tennis court net, strung across the mouth of a river to catch fish – can be used Continue reading...

A Northern Territory tour boat operator says lack of supervision and reporting in remote Kimberley coastline increases risks of large marine species drowningA tourist boat operator has called for gillnet fishing to be banned in remote areas of the Kimberley region of Western Australia after a group of tourists found a saltwater crocodile which had drowned in a barramundi net in the Roe river, 475km north of Broome.A video of the discovery shows netting wrapped around the bloated body of the crocodile, which was bobbing in the water at the mouth of the river. Continue reading...

Partially blind animal apparently wandered to Houston-area shopping center from nearby creek before being forklifted into truck for transport to gator reserveAn alligator dubbed Godzilla who tips the scales at more than 800lb is being taken to a gator reserve to live out his days, after being found wandering outside a Houston-area shopping center.

CEO announces plan to phase out controversial shows at its San Diego park by 2017 after protests that began after release of documentary BlackfishSeaWorld will end theatrical orca shows at its theme park in San Diego next year as part of a comprehensive overhaul of the company in the wake of mounting protests over its treatment of animals.

Philip Hoare writes of fog coming from the east (The mist that muffles yet inspires our art, 3 November). As a child growing up in a village near the Thames in Essex, I remember that the arrival of fog promised sprat suppers, when these little silver fish were floured, then fried and served with lemon or vinegar and bread and butter. Old people would eat them whole, heads, bones and tails. “You need a fog for sprats,” my mother insisted, and it was true that the two usually coincided, although surely this was an old fishwives’ tale? After she died, I read that when fogs descend and rob the North Sea of light, shoals of sprats rise to feed near the surface, making them easier prey. If this is true then fog has even more to commend it.

The exotic species colonising the south coast are the experts when it comes to adapting and surviving. We should learn from themSomething stunning happened last week, which has never before occurred in Britain in November: a subtropical butterfly, the long-tailed blue, was seen flying on the south coast of England. Another unprecedented event took place one August evening: a volunteer at the Dungeness bird observatory was strolling home from the pub when he was transported to summer holidays on Mediterranean verandas – he heard the nocturnal whirring of tree crickets. Hundreds of these warmth-loving insects have now been found breeding in Britain for the first time.Related: Exotic butterfly to make spectacular late-summer emergence Continue reading...

Conservationists took flight when a furious farmer in only blue T-shirt and pants took exception to their efforts to remove poaching trapsBird enthusiasts attempting to remove illegal poaching traps in a French village have been met with fury by a local farmer, armed with a shovel and wearing nothing but a blue T-shirt and underwear.Members of the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) had taken several journalists on an operation to stop the poaching of finches, a protected species, in the village of Audon, south-west France. Continue reading...

Global warming milestone is one of three climate records set to be broken in 2015, says UK Met OfficeClimate change is set to pass the milestone of 1C of warming since pre-industrial times by the end of 2015, representing “uncharted territory” according to scientists at the UK’s Met Office.

20 years after the death of activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, Ogoniland communities still see little benefit from promised oil clean-up, and have no basic servicesCommunities in the oil-rich region of Ogoniland say they feel just as marginalised and in need of work and development as they were before the executions of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other chiefs in November 1995.

Nearly 90 cyclists were killed riding their bikes in England and Wales last year, but how are you most likely to come a cropper while cycling? And are you more likely to die falling off a ladder? Helen Pidd sifts through the figuresWould you have guessed that 70 people died in England and Wales in 2014 from falling off a ladder? That 15 fell off a cliff and yet just one man died falling out of a tree last year? Five women died from “pain and other conditions associated with female genital organs and menstrual cycle”; nine people passed away from a “foreign body entering into or through eye or natural orifice”. The list of ways to die, detailed in Office for National Statistics (ONS) annual mortality data published, goes on.But as a cyclist, I was most interested in looking at how cyclists died. The stats make sobering reading. Continue reading...

The environmental impact of palm oil is in the spotlight but the workers who endure exploitation in the name of our cakes and cosmetics are largely ignoredThe thick haze that has covered vast parts of south-east Asia in recent months has put the ecological impact of the palm oil industry back in the spotlight, but the ongoing issue of tough working conditions for plantation workers remains shrouded behind a veil of silence.When the Dutch introduced the first palm oil trees on the Indonesian island of Sumatra in the 19th century, they also brought migrants from India and China to cultivate the plantations. Continue reading...

Large parts of China are blanketed with some of the worst levels of dangerous acrid smog on Monday. Levels of the most dangerous airborne particulates PM2.5, which are linked to cancer and heart disease, reached almost 50 times the World Health Organisation maximums in Liaoning province, seen here• Airpocalypse now: China pollution reaching record levels Continue reading...

This week’s 100 Resilient Cities summit in the Mexican capital offers a chance for global experts to develop the tools they need to make their cities strongerDepending on how you count them, there are about 10,000 cities around the world, housing more than 50% of the world’s population. By all estimates, that number is only increasing and by 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in urban areas. Our cities face an ever-expanding range and severity of challenges – from increasing climate-related hazards to additional stresses on infrastructure, society and the economy.With so many risks – both known and unknown – how can cities become more resilient to the social, economic and physical challenges of the 21st century? And how can cities utilise these perceived challenges as means to better plan and create thriving cities, resilient to the potential shocks and stresses that will accompany such stark changes? Continue reading...

Ofgem says that business customers lost out on receiving better information about their energy consumptionE.ON has been told to pay £7m to the Carbon Trust for its “unacceptable” failure to supply enough advanced smart meters to business customers, regulator Ofgem has revealed.The energy giant will also face a sales ban and a further £7m redress if fails to meet its new interim targets. Continue reading...