In birding, as indeed in life, it’s what you don’t expect that can be confusing. And on a sunny late summer’s day, as I was hunting for grassland butterflies on my Somerset coastal patch, I certainly didn’t think an owl would fly past.My first reaction was surprise, followed by complete bewilderment. It was obviously too dark for a barn owl, so my first thought was a tawny. Superficially the rounded wings and mid-brown plumage did suggest this, our commonest species. Continue reading...

An auroch’s horn in the visitor centre at St David’s in Pembrokeshire tells a story of our distant past when these now extinct giant cattle roamed the coastal plains.The stumps of trees were revealed in 2014 when a storm scoured away the beach and shifted inland the shingle bank that protects the main road at Newgale. Beneath the sand were the tree stumps, the horn, and footprints of the hunters, carbon dated to 2,500 BC. Continue reading...

Martin Winterkorn orders external investigation after US regulators found cars gave inaccurate data on toxic emissionsVolkswagen has ordered an external investigation after US regulators found that the carmaker designed software for close to half a million diesel cars that gave false emissions data, its CEO said, adding he was “deeply sorry” for the violation of US rules.“I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public,” Martin Winterkorn said in a statement published on Sunday by the carmaker on Sunday. “Volkswagen has ordered an external investigation of this matter.” Continue reading...

Police believe up to 10 wombats – including nursing mothers – were deliberately run down late on Friday night or early on SaturdayUp to 10 wombats have been killed in an apparently deliberate attack in southern New South Wales.Related: Two of Australia’s three wombat species under threat from killer ​disease Continue reading...

Given the murky supply chains involved, is it possible to get a mobile phone that is conflict free?The slick exterior of your smartphone gives few clues to the chaotic supply chains that make up its innards. Some 30 to 40 minerals make it tick, including tantalum, derived from the ore coltan, typically from Congolese mines. As the 2010 documentary Blood in the Mobile lays plain, our phones are inextricably linked to war in the DRC.Our fate as bad consumers seemed sealed in 1997, when mining corporation America Mineral Fields signed an agreement with the Liberation of Congo Defence League to supply funds – which were ultimately used to buy weapons – in return for future mining rights. The rest, as they say, is history. Continue reading...

The senator, who calls the leadership spill treachery, says ‘who knows what would happen’ if the party becomes more like Labor under its new leaderLiberal senator Cory Bernardi has raised the threat of a split in the Liberal party over the new leadership, invoking the damaging battle that saw Malcolm Turnbull lose his leadership in opposition over climate change policy.Bernardi, who has described this week’s leadership spill which deposed Tony Abbott as “treachery”, was asked by conservative commentator Andrew Bolt if there was a possibility of a split.

Lack of ventilation caused by better insulation could create spike in indoor pollutants, research warnsThe number of Britons with asthma could almost double by 2050 because the air inside homes is becoming more polluted as they become more energy-efficient, a new report warns.The trend towards airtight houses could also worsen allergies as well as breathing problems, and even exacerbate lung cancer and heart problems, according to a leading expert in indoor air quality. Continue reading...

With summer officially ending on Wednesday, and reports last week of El Niño bringing wet winters to Britain, Tobias Jones celebrates the many ways in which rural life retains its magic – even as the days start to close in and the holiday visitors flee back to their citiesAutumn can be a grim time of year: a soggy, darkening season in which the languid pleasures of summer, and the celebrations and beauty of winter, seem very far away. It’s the time of year when we realise how far we’ve fallen short of the optimism and resolutions from the start of the year.And yet, for those of us who live in the midst of nature, it is the most mellow and moving of all the seasons. The light is more nuanced, softer somehow. The uniform green of our community woodland has become a collage of russet and copper. The fringes of the magnificent beech tree in our central clearing go a little more yellow each day. The Virginia creepers blush red. Continue reading...

The pope arrives in Washington this week on a landmark visit that, given his radical agenda, comes at a crucial moment for CatholicismThe one thing you could depend on when Pope John Paul II made one of his high-profile overseas trips was that he would hammer home in the most uncompromising terms Catholicism’s opposition to abortion. For the Polish pontiff, who died in 2005 and has now been declared a saint, abortion was murder, a stance which he presented as the keystone of all orthodoxy for Catholics.This week his successor but one, the Argentinian Pope Francis, will be following in John Paul’s footsteps with his own first visit to the United States after spending the weekend in Cuba. Together, the two legs of the trip promise to be among the defining moments of what has already been an extraordinary two-and-a-half-year papacy. Continue reading...

A definitive study released last week found that the amount of wildlife in our oceans has fallen by half in 45 years. Academic and marine expert Callum Roberts says there is still time to reverse this decline by closing areas to fishingSardines were once extraordinarily abundant in the south-west of England, leading one 19th-century guidebook to say: “Pursued by predaceous hordes of dogfish, hake and cod, and greedy flocks of seabirds, they advance towards the land in such amazing numbers as actually to impede the passage of vessels and to discolour the sea as far as the eye can reach … Of a sudden they will vanish from view and then again approach the coast in such compact order and overwhelming force that numbers will be pushed ashore by the moving hosts in the rear. In 1836 a shoal extended in a compact body from Fowey to the Land’s End, a distance of at least 100 miles if we take into consideration the windings of the shore.” (Handbook for Travellers in Devon and Cornwall, John Murray and Thomas Clifton Paris, 1851).Today people travel thousands of miles to dive and film such scenes, not realising they were once commonplace on our own coasts. Last week the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Zoological Society of London issued their most comprehensive look at the state of life in the sea. The report makes uncomfortable reading. Taking in more than 1,000 species worldwide and 5,000 populations of fish, turtles, marine mammals and a host of others, it draws the bleak conclusion that there is only half the amount of wildlife in the sea today as in 1970. Continue reading...

We asked you for your birdwatching photographs from around the world. Here is a selection of our favourites

A seven metre tall tower designed by Daan Roosegaarde filters dirty air, releasing bubbles of smog free air. Does it detract from tackling causes of air pollution?The Dutch city of Rotterdam has opened the world’s first smog-free tower.

‘Man-eating leopards’ have been reported around Abbottabad – Osama bin Laden’s last redoubt – as wildlife officials struggle to reassure publicOsama bin Laden hid out here for months, if not years. But in the hills surrounding Abbottabad in north-western Pakistan, residents say they face a far scarier menace than terrorists.With descriptive stories that bring to mind mythological tales of man against beast, Abbottabad residents claim to be locked in a terrifying battle against Pakistan’s endangered population of leopards. The big cats – referred to as common leopards to distinguish them from their smaller cousins, snow leopards – lurk in the Himalayan foothills. Continue reading...

Frogham, New Forest This spider was both beautiful and docile, but not to be taken for grantedAs spiders go, this one certainly has wow factor. It’s mid-afternoon at the annual Frogham Fair. The lilt of Irish folk music drifts across as crowds line the arena to watch dogs and their handlers show off their skills – and children and grown-ups are recruited to become volunteer equipment as part of the entertainment. But our focus is on a creature many of those entranced by the show would turn away from in horror.We were introduced to it on the hand of 11-year-old Elian Day, a young naturalist who has been more interested in what is in the hedges of the adjacent field than in the veteran cars proudly displayed in it. Continue reading...

The seasoned marathon swimmer hopes to raise awareness on water pollution through his 24,000-mile journey in March 2016: ‘It’s not such a big deal’Martin Strel has a goal: swim more than 24,000 miles around the world to raise awareness of aquatic pollution.

A senior executive of plantation company Bumi Mekar Hijau is one of those held for suspected environmental crimes, as part of a wider drive to combat the pollution haze crisis, reports The Straits TimesIndonesian police arrested seven corporate executives on Wednesday in connection with illegal forest fires across Sumatra and Kalimantan, as part of a wide-ranging effort to stop the haze crisis.Suspects included a senior executive from Bumi Mekar Hijau, a unit of Singapore-based Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), which is also Indonesia’s largest pulp and paper producer. Continue reading...

Environment ministers agree bloc’s joint position after overcoming objections from PolandEurope will not settle for anything less than a robust, ambitious and binding agreement on climate change at UN talks in Paris later this year, the EU’s climate chief has said.“Today’s a very good day. The EU is equipped with a very solid position for Paris,” said Miguel Cañete after environment ministers agreed the bloc’s joint position on the climate summit, overcoming objections from coal-reliant Poland. Continue reading...

As conservation efforts fail, scientists and economists are coming up with increasingly loony and dangerous schemes to save the rhinoLast month it was confirmed that the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is extinct in Malaysia. The future looks bleak for this species. The few dozen remaining individuals are confined to remote forests in Sumatra (Indonesia), in refuges that are under siege on an island devastated by rampant deforestation.

Cities worldwide are harnessing the power of gravity to generate electricity from public drinking water pipes

Overpriced, overcomplicated and overdue, the Hinkley project needs to be killed off and the money invested into other low-carbon technologies• Read more: Nuclear supporting environmentalists in call to scrap Hinkley C plansAs committed environmentalists, our conversion to the cause of nuclear power was painful and disorienting. All of us carried a cost in changing our position, antagonising friends and alienating colleagues. But we believe that shutting down – or failing to replace – our primary source of low carbon energy during a climate emergency is a refined form of madness.Because atomic energy provides a steady baseload of electricity, it has great potential to balance the output from renewables, aiding the total decarbonisation of the power supply. The dangers associated with nuclear power have been wildly exaggerated, all too often with the help of junk science. Climate breakdown presents a far greater hazard to human life. The same goes for the air pollution caused by burning coal. Continue reading...

City links: Greening Silicon Valley, Guatemala City’s mystery zone and spray paint cycle safety in Berlin feature in this week’s best city storiesThis week’s best city stories from around the web explore Silicon Valley’s newest sustainability project, an app which automatically sprays potholes you cycle over, the “missing” Guatemala City neighbourhood and Indianapolis’ growing pains with a new electric car share scheme.We’d love to hear your responses to these stories, and any others you’ve read recently, both on Guardian Cities and elsewhere. Just share your thoughts in the comments below. Continue reading...

Three leading experts urge government to end nuclear project saying delays will create panicked scramble back to fossil fuelsThree leading environmentalists who broke ranks to give their support to a new generation of nuclear plants have now urged the government to scrap plans for Hinkley Point C.The call comes as George Osborne and Amber Rudd, the secretary of state for energy and climate change, head off to China, where they will discuss Beijing’s proposed investment in the new nuclear plant in Somerset. Continue reading...

A rare spectacled bear, fighting lions and endangered gibbons are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Despite government rhetoric that coal must go, experts say without policy changes this most carbon intensive fossil fuel is set to stay beyond 2030The government is wrong to assume its existing policies will be enough to phase out coal power in the UK, analysts have told the Guardian.Minister for energy and climate change Andrea Leadsom said this week that her department expected unabated (meaning without carbon capture) coal would make up just 1% of the country’s electricity generation by 2025. Continue reading...

As hurricanes become more frequent, keeping track each storm’s name is becoming a challenge. Test your knowledge of the ones you should already know

International energy watchdog’s new head, Fatih Birol, warns of costs and technological challenges but stops short of recommending an outright banDrilling for oil in the Arctic is not yet commercially viable and may not be for a long time to come, the chief of the world’s energy watchdog has warned, casting doubt on the controversial practice even as it is being enthusiastically adopted by governments and businesses.Shell is undertaking exploratory Arctic drilling off the Alaskan coast after the Obama administration granted it a green light in August. Environmental groups have urged a ban, saying it risks one of Earth’s last pristine landscapes and is contributing to climate change, which this week was blamed for Arctic sea ice shrinking to its fourth lowest ever level. Continue reading...

It was just another Thursday night for Donald Trump, from the victory lap at the start to the media storm at the endAs Donald Trump entered the Rochester Community Center in Rochester, New Hampshire for a rally in front of 3,000 people, he was greeted by a full high school marching band playing the Europe song The Final Countdown. He left in the midst of media furor over whether he condoned anti-Muslim bigotry. In between, he took a shot at the Pope and attacked a fellow Republican candidate, all on national television. In short, it was just another Thursday night for Donald Trump.

The demand for leopard skin coats, especially in the United States and Western Europe is endangering the animalNairobi, September 17

Berneray, Outer Hebrides It’s impossible to form one overall impression of the day, only a succession of fleeting imagesThe wind is warm but wild, speeding the low-lying piles of fluffy white cloud across the sky while leaving those higher above relatively unmoving. Patches of blue appear in the newly formed cloud gaps only to disappear almost immediately, causing the landscape one minute to be bathed in sunshine, the next clothed in shadow.It’s impossible to form one overall impression of the day, only a succession of fleeting images the intensity of whose colours constantly alters in response to the changing light. And any attempt to record them except in the human memory proves futile. Continue reading...

Many Australians hoped the new PM would drag the Coalition back to the sensible centre on climate change – but he has swallowed Abbott’s Direct Action hook, line and sinkerOver recent days and bit by bit, Australians have been coming to understand the price that Malcolm Turnbull was willing to pay to achieve his long-held personal ambition of becoming prime minister. Australians are beginning to understand the extent to which he was willing to discard so many long-held beliefs to satisfy that ambition.

A powerful movement in Canada, animated by a compelling and positive vision for the climate and economy, can force the hand of whichever government comes to powerEvery political class considers themselves inclusive, diverse, open-minded. But present ideas that stray outside the boundaries of sanctioned debate, imposed by power and a patrolling press, and watch how quickly they stoop to bullying.Consider the response to the Leap Manifesto, a declaration released this week by an unprecedented coalition of Canadian authors, artists, national leaders and activists in the midst of a federal election. It lays out a vision – bolder than anything on offer from political parties – to transition the country off fossil fuels while simultaneously improving the lives of most Canadians. Climate change is presented not just as an existential crisis but an opportunity – indeed, imperative – to make the political and economic system more just and fair. Continue reading...

A contemplative picture of a shaggy-haired grizzly bear, silhouetted against a mountain-lined horizon has been chosen as the Adult Judges’ Choice in the ZSL animal photography prize 2015. Attracting more than 450 entries from around the world, the winners are selected by a panel of expert judges including ZSL honorary conservation fellow and television presenter Kate Humble, and renowned ornithologist Bill Oddie Continue reading...

For the second time in two years, a female yellow-bellied water snake in Missouri reproduced on her own, a rare occurence called parthenogenesisFor the second time in two years, a captive snake in south-east Missouri has given birth without any interaction with a member of the opposite sex.Officials at the Missouri department of conservation’s Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center say a female yellow-bellied water snake reproduced on her own in 2014 and again this summer. The snake has been living in captivity, without a male companion, for nearly eight years. An intern who cares for the snake found the freshly laid membranes in July. Continue reading...

The world has experienced record-breaking warmth every month so far this year, and Noaa scientists say global warming and El Niño are the causeThe world has experienced record-breaking warmth every month so far in 2015, making this year virtually guaranteed to be the hottest on record, according to a US science agency.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said that 2015 was 97% likely to be the hottest year so far, eclipsing 2014, the current warmest year. Continue reading...

Solar power at Yellowstone’s Lamar Buffalo Ranch field campus is stored in used hybrid batteries recovered from Toyota dealers. Here’s how it happened

Too many wines labelled organic taste no different from conventional wines, but some are well worth seeking outMight I be doing anything about organic wine for Organic September, a reader asked the other day. Hmmm, well, possibly, but to be honest, I’m not totally convinced. Too many wines labelled organic taste no different from conventional wines, which shouldn’t really come as a surprise, because the certification relates only to what goes on in the vineyard. It doesn’t stop winemakers using identikit commercial yeasts or adding significant amounts of sulphur, tartaric acid, enzymes, tannin or any of the other bags of tricks available to them. No wonder many producers don’t feel it’s an advantage to register as organic.Still, I do realise there’s a demand for organic wines (I don’t want to pour unnecessary chemicals down my throat, either), so where do you go to find them, especially when even specialists such as Vintage Roots don’t always have the interesting wines you might expect? I really want to like Wild Thing Sauvignon Blanc (£7.85; 12% abv), from La Mancha, for example, not least because a donation from the sale price goes to the Born Free Foundation to aid conservation, but it’s just a bit, well, dull. The subtle, soave-ish Lugana Catulliano 2014 (12% abv) at £11.50 is much more appealing; or, for those keen to avoid added sulphur, try Jean Claude Mas’s Cuvée Secrète (£9.75; 14% abv), a lush, full-bodied blend of merlot and cabernet franc from the Languedoc. Continue reading...

How can we keep the issue of global freshwater shortage on policymakers agendas? Our expert panel had these suggestionsThere is a need for a grassroots movement to strenghten the case for water in the climate debate. This grassroots movement for water exists, but could be stronger. In many countries local NGOs, water committees and youth associations have worked on raising awareness. In France, local water parliaments work together to tackle water and climate change issues. These initiatives could be further shown in other countries. Heloise Chicou, deputy director and climate program officer, French Water Partnership, Paris. Continue reading...

Bush, London

At least 10 House Republicans sign on to resolution in mini-rebellion seemingly designed to put pressure on presidential candidates and party leadersNearly a dozen Republican members of Congress will break ranks with leaders of their party on Thursday, and call for action against climate change.The mini-rebellion a week before the pope visits Congress appears timed to ratchet up the pressure on Republican presidential candidates and congressional leaders to soften a party line of casting doubt – or simply denying – the existence of climate change. Continue reading...