Mark Lawson unpacks the semiotics of the president’s holiday picks, finding signals of sophistication, seriousness and a little self-aggrandisementBarack Obama has reached the stage of his administration when plans are being made for the construction in Chicago of the Presidential library that former American leaders get to set up in their memory. But, before that, he – or his aides – have also had to think about a smaller library: the shelf of books that the American people are told their leader plans to read on his summer vacation.

Attorneys general for 15 other states issued a statement supporting the EPA rules to cut emissions and saying they would oppose legal efforts to block themFifteen state attorneys general petitioned a federal court in Washington on Thursday to block new US rules to curb carbon emissions from power plants, in the first of several expected legal challenges to the Obama administration measure.

Communities in Senegal, Colombia, Jamaica, Palestine and Egypt are experimenting with more sustainable ways of living“In the 2000s, we felt our land was dying. We were not getting the yields we were expecting,” says Ousmane Pame, who grew up in Guédé Chantier, a village of 7,000 inhabitants in northern Senegal. Continue reading...

As the divisions deepen and the polls get worse, the government is again descending into a self-defeating cycle of instability and suspicionBehind the Abbott government’s very bad week – a careening series of disasters that looked like the political version of an AAMI ad – is a common thread that could wreck it permanently. Tricky politics has driven Tony Abbott into yet another crisis.So many of the prime minister’s problems begin in the strange netherworld of decision making, where policy is crafted to fit a slogan rather than the other way around, based on the insulting assumption that voters are too dumb to notice. Continue reading...

Climate Change Authority chairman Bernie Fraser says ‘more ambitious targets than those adopted by the government can be achieved at modest costs’The independent Climate Change Authority has shot down key parts of Tony Abbott’s new environmental message, saying the government’s new target is not “in the middle of the pack” of similar countries but rather “at or near the bottom”, that the $600bn price tag the government attributes to Labor’s target is “wrong” and its antagonism to emissions trading schemes is also misguided.Related: Tony Abbott defends 2030 emissions target criticised as 'pathetically' low Continue reading...

Leaked methane and other toxic gases are polluting the air with serious health risks for local communities whose fortunes depend on oil and gas in the shale boom state“My daughter has asthma. She is not the only one around here, something is wrong here, our air quality shouldn’t be this way.”Shirley “Sug” McNall is leaning up against a fence staring at a natural gas well about 40 meters from a playground behind the primary school where her daughter used to teach in Aztec, New Mexico. She believes that the gas industry and the explosion of fracking in her state is responsible for serious impacts on local air quality which are affecting people’s health. Continue reading...

Hundreds add their support to an open letter urging medical charity to ‘do no harm’ and not profit from fossil fuelsClose to 1,000 health professionals from around the world have thrown their weight behind an open letter asking the multi-billion pound health charity, the Wellcome Trust, to move its money out of fossil fuels on ethical grounds.The letter invokes one of the foremost principles of medical ethics, asking the Trust to “do no harm” because of the current and future impacts of climate change on global public health. Continue reading...

Almost 1,000, from New York to New Zealand, sign open letter to the medical charity calling on it to move its money out of fossil fuels on ethical groundsDear members of the Wellcome Trust Executive Board,We write as concerned health professionals and academics in relation to the Guardian’s Keep It In the Ground campaign calling on the Wellcome Trust and Gates Foundation to divest from the world’s 200 largest fossil fuel companies over the next five years. Continue reading...

Langstone, Hampshire As soon as the first workers hatched out, they took over nest building and foraging duties, leaving the queen to her egg layingFor the past two months I have been watching the construction of a hornets’ nest inside a bird box in my garden. The hive has grown from a small cluster of barnacle-like cells cupped in a striated cone, to layers of comb encased in a woodpulp-and-saliva papier-mâché-like shell that now fills the cavity.For several weeks the queen toiled alone, initially carrying nest material into the box, then later the headless, wingless corpses of moths, bees and other species of wasp to feed her brood. Continue reading...

State government to spend $250,000 on a tagging project, a public education campaign and new lookout towers after a series of encouters on the north coastThe New South Wales government is to step up shark surveillance and tagging efforts after a spate of attacks off the NSW north coast but has backed away from a cull.

Close-up footage of a great white shark near Guadalupe Island. The female shark, known as Deep Blue, is thought to be at least 50 years old. This clip was posted to Facebook by Mauricio Hoyos Padilla, a marine conservationist who is fundraising to protect sharks in the area, especially females with pups, from threats such as fishing nets and illegal hunters

Physicists at the University of California have found 1.6 million people in China die each year from heart, lung and stroke problems because of polluted airAir pollution is killing about 4,000 people in China a day, accounting for one in six premature deaths in the world’s most populous country, a new study finds.Related: Welcome to Baoding, China's most polluted city Continue reading...

New project has already scored the “scientific credibility” of climate science stories on CNN, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and Daily TelegraphWhat kind of impulses might rush through climate scientists’ minds as they scroll through some of the gumph that gets written on climate change?Perhaps partaking of a violent act at the expense of a computer monitor after reading how they’re only carrying on this atmospheric physics hoax to maintain the gargantuan salaries that they don’t get? Continue reading...

Poorer countries will be hit most by falls in production for major crops but UK and and US will also be exposed to resulting instability, says taskforceMajor “shocks” to global food production will be three times more likely within 25 years because of an increase in extreme weather brought about by global warming, warns a new report.The likelihood of such a shock, where production of the world’s four major commodity crops – maize, soybean, wheat and rice – falls by 5-7%, is currently once-in-a-century. But such an event will occur every 30 years or more by 2040, according to the study by the UK-US Taskforce on Extreme Weather and Global Food System Resilience. Continue reading...

Effects already proving devastating for Navajo Nation as attorneys general from affected states Colorado, New Mexico and Utah promise ‘to be vigilant’The spill of toxic wastewater from an abandoned gold mine high in Colorado’s San Juan mountains caused untold millions in economic disruptions and damages in three states – to rafting companies, Native American farmers unable to irrigate, municipal water systems, and possibly water well owners. And largely because the federal government inadvertently triggered the release, it has vowed to pay the bill.

When children from the slums of Nairobi met wild elephants for the first time, it was love at first sightIt’s 7.30 am, on August 12th, World Elephant Day. I’m in Amboseli National Park and the sun is rising over the Savannah. I’m about to go out to the field and meet the American Ambassador Robert Godec, the Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Environment Judi Wakhungu, rangers and conservationists.

With the increasing numbers of pound shops, and our demand for a bargain, or cheap deals in supermarkets, it’s no surprise UK farmers are being forced to take such direct action (Report, 12 August). Until prices of milk reflect the cost of production, more UK farmers will be squeezed out by discount food chains and multimillion-pound supermarkets. Latest reports state our farmers need to be paid at least 30p a litre to cover their costs, yet they were only paid an average 23.66p for a litre of milk in June, according to British dairy organisation AHDB Dairy. If we want our farmers to earn the income they deserve, surely we ought to buy directly from the suppliers – our farmers – and cut out the “middleman” until their prices reflect the true value of production.

Labor leader promises to dismantle Coalition scheme that he says gives ‘great wads of taxpayer cash to big polluters to keep polluting’Bill Shorten will “axe” Tony Abbott’s emissions reduction fund if he wins next year’s federal election, gaining budget savings of up to $4.3bn over a decade.Shorten will promise to honour contracts already signed with polluters by the Coalition but will then abandon the scheme, which he describes as “a waste of money built on one counter-productive idea: giving great wads of taxpayer cash to big polluters to keep polluting”. Continue reading...

It’s not supermarkets’ fault – consumers are the biggest culprits. But until we know what it is like not to have enough to eat, this obscenity is likely to continueAs Miss Piggy once sagely advised: “Never eat more than you can lift.” The trouble is that we seem to buy food as though we intend to do just this and as a result a huge amount goes to waste.According to the UN, developed countries throw away around 30-40% of all food purchased. And if food waste was cut by a quarter, world famine could be solved. Here in the UK, of the 41m tonnes of food that is bought each year, 15m is wasted. Continue reading...

Long-running billing controversy, customer complaints and Ofgem intervention hurts profitsProfits at npower have tumbled 60% as it struggles with billing problems which have sent customer complaints soaring.Many customers have been receiving late bills or no bills at all, since npower introduced a new billing system in 2013.

A wedge-tailed eagle, also known as an eaglehawk, takes down a drone as it is flown over grassland in Victoria, Australia. Melbourne Aerial Video, the company which captured the footage, says the eagle – Australia’s largest bird of prey, highly-territorial and known to fly at 6,000ft – escaped unharmed

Drought and forest fires could mean Mediterranean resorts losing out to cooler climes and holidaymakers travelling outside peak season, EU report predictsThe traditional summer holiday in Spain and other popular Mediterranean holiday destinations is at risk from droughts and forest fires because of global warming, a European commission report says.In contrast, northern European countries could see a rise in tourist numbers and related income, according to the analysis by the commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). Continue reading...

Two recently launched ‘Shazam for birds’ apps promise to recognise hundreds of birdsongs with a point and click of your mobile phone. But are they really a substitute for learning the calls yourself?Once upon a time, O younger readers, if you wanted to know the title and artist of a new song you heard on the radio, you had to hope and pray that, when the music came to an end, the DJ would remember to tell you. They usually didn’t, which meant your only option was to visit the nearest record shop and hum the tune to a bemused assistant.

Scuba divers and agricultural experts develop a project to work out if growing plants in pods on the seabed could be a viable solution to future food securityBeneath the blue waters 100m off the coast of Noli in northwest Italy lies a cluster of balloon-like pods pegged to the seabed by ropes half a dozen or so metres long. Inside a range of produce is being grown, including red cabbage, lettuce, beans basil and strawberries.It may sound like something you’d find in a science fiction novel, but this is the work of Ocean Reef Group. With the help of agricultural experts, the Genova-based scuba diving company is applying its knowledge and technology to finding new ways to produce food. Continue reading...

President of Kiribati calls for immediate worldwide moratorium on new coalmines and expansions ahead of Paris climate talksA major global insurer has warned of the “grave reputational risks” of bankrolling Adani’s huge Queensland coal project, as the vulnerable island nation of Kiribati has begun a diplomatic campaign to halt new coalmines worldwide.The investment arm of UK-based Aviva, which manages assets worth $522bn, is the latest international financier to flag concerns over the Carmichael coalmine, which it said could become a “stranded asset” and was “the antithesis of what was needed” ahead of key UN climate talks in Paris in December. Continue reading...

Four capybara cubs born on Monday receive their first routine check-ups at San Diego zoo on Wednesday. As well as being weighed and examined, a sample of their hair is also taken to help determine their sex. This is the sixth litter of cubs born to a capybara named Buttercup. At just three days old, the cubs already swim and walk on their ownFootage courtesy of San Diego zooWatch: GoPro camera captures Gung the elephant playing rugby at Taronga Zoo Continue reading...

After several failed rescue attempts by wildlife officers, whale finds its own way out of the lagoon and back into the oceanA whale has mysteriously freed itself after being stranded in a lagoon on the Great Barrier Reef.The Bryde’s whale, rare for the area, was first spotted by a tourist on a scenic flight over Elford Reef, near Cairns, in June. Continue reading...

Sandy Bedfordshire: The starlings’ tip-off came, a burst of chirping - and there was the sparrowhawk, overhead, wings swept backAll through this summer the best birdwatchers around have alerted me to the appearance of a sparrowhawk in the neighbourhood. Had I been a small bird I would have died eight or nine times since March, for, each time, I failed to see the predator coming.It happened again the other morning in the market square: the tip-off came, as surely and identifiably as a personalised text message call on a mobile, a clear high volley of tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick calls. Continue reading...

Government-owned Solid Energy, which employs around 700 staff, announces it is placing itself in voluntary administrationNew Zealand’s largest coalminer has been forced into a managed bankruptcy due to a steep fall in coal prices.Government-owned Solid Energy announced on Thursday it was placing itself in voluntary administration, a process it hopes will allow it to keep trading as it tries to sell its assets. Whether any of its coal operations remain viable will be up to any potential buyers to decide. Continue reading...

Greens had called for commonwealth help to expand centre operations after Queensland government stepped in with up to $50,000 interim fundingThe Senate has backed a Greens push for the federal government to consider urgent funding for a struggling far north Queensland cassowary rehabilitation centre.

By playing the long game on the highly-politicised issues of climate change and same-sex marriage, the Coalition will, in time, be seen as the wiser partyThis week saw a teetering Coalition government dig in on gay marriage and climate. The government’s positions on both issues will emerge as strong ones, with time.Related: My fight for marriage equality is personal. I want to make my first boyfriend proud | Kristina Keneally Continue reading...

New planning guidance gives local authorities 16 weeks to approve or reject planning applications, after which ministers can intervene on a decisionMinisters will intervene on planning applications for controversial fracking operations if local authorities fail to act quickly enough, the government announced on Thursday, in a bid to fast-track fracking.Industry and the government have been frustrated at the slow rate of progress on exploratory fracking for shale gas and oil in the UK, which has been bogged down in the planning process. Ministers have been told that applications to drill and frack in Lancashire could be delayed by 16 months in an appeals process after they were rejected by Lancashire county council. Continue reading...

Nuclear accidents spell disaster for our environment. But researchers at the University of New South Wales use the radioactive material that travels through ocean currents as tracer elements to help them monitor CO2, which is contained in the ocean and travels along with the radioactive currents Continue reading...

EPA says water quality data shows Animas River water in La Plata County is back to normal but impact of heavy metal load in river sediment could last yearsEnvironmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy said late Wednesday that data shows water quality in one affected Colorado county has “returned to pre-event conditions” following a toxic mining spill in the Animas River.The Colorado department of public health and environment also said on Wednesday that people in the city of Durango can now drink water from the Animas River. Continue reading...

Earth ‘overshoot day’ – the day each year when our demands on the planet outstrip its ability to regenerate – comes six days earlier than 2014, with world’s population currently consuming the equivalent of 1.6 planets a yearHumans have exhausted a year’s supply of natural resources in less than eight months, according to an analysis of the demands the world’s population are placing on the planet.The Earth’s “overshoot day” for 2015, the point at which humanity goes into ecological debt, will occur on Thursday six days earlier than last year, based on an estimate by the Global Footprint Network (GFN). Continue reading...

Most of the Coalition’s planned emission cuts to meet its new 2030 target come from yet to be detailed measures – any serious assessment is impossible in this policy voidTony Abbott’s climate “strategy” – repeated sagely in many columns since Tuesday – is to “neutralise” the “environmental” argument with his new 26% greenhouse target and then attack Labor’s policy on economic grounds. This argument is several different kinds of stupid.First the target can only “neutralise” the environmental argument if voters are silly enough to accept two things. One, that Australia has no obligation to do its fair share of the job of limiting global warming to 2 degrees. (The target is sort of in the ball-park of other developed nations’ targets, but it doesn’t represent a fair share.) And, two, that they take on trust that the Coalition’s “surprise box” of yet-to-be-announced climate policy (see graphic below) is capable of meeting the target, and delivering the environmental benefit. (Using a range of policies is probably quite sensible, but the only announced policy is the emissions reduction fund – all the others are not yet detailed, to the deep consternation of business leaders, who are calling out the policy void.) Continue reading...

‘Trying to cost what they have on the table is really just grasping at straws. We need to start filling in the detail,’ says head of Australian Industry Group• Comment: why Tony Abbott’s climate ‘strategy’ won’t neutralise the environmental argumentBusiness leaders have said Tony Abbott has no detailed policies to meet his new climate change target and fear the uncertainty of the current “blank sheet of paper” on greenhouse policy could harm the economy and push up power prices.The prime minister is arguing he can achieve the target to cut Australia’s emissions by 26% by 2030 more cheaply than Labor, even though neither major party has outlined a detailed or costed climate policy. Continue reading...

Barbecue summer or washout? Drought or floods? Shivering with cold or sweltering in the heat? August can be a fickle month, and over recent years the full gamut of weather conditions has been seen in this month.Some Augusts are baking hot: during the 20th century, those of 1911, 1932, 1975 and the long hot summer of 1976, all had temperature records broken at least somewhere in the UK. Continue reading...

A marine mammal expert says veterinarian’s distant observations of mistreatment of whales and sea lions may lead to ‘premature conclusions’The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have launched a renewed attack against SeaWorld with claims by the organization’s veterinarian Dr Heather Rally that she found multiple violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act at a SeaWorld park in San Antonio.

More than 300,000 households in Lancashire still facing water restrictions as water watchdog investigates cause of cryptosporidium bugThe water contamination incident affecting more than 300,000 households in Lancashire could lead to criminal prosecutions according to a government watchdog, as experts said animal faeces or a dead carcass was most likely to blame.Investigations are continuing into how traces of the Cryptosporidium bug found its way into a water treatment plant near Garstang, run by United Utilities.

How much oil would make Shell’s controversial Arctic bid profitable? What would be the impact of a catastrophic oil spill? And can the venture succeed as the world adapts to climate change?As Shell’s Polar Pioneer rig whirrs through the Chukchi sea bedrock this week, there’s a lot riding on what it finds.This is the first time the Anglo-Dutch giant’s star-crossed Arctic programme will drill deep enough to hit oil. The company has reportedly spent $7bn (£4.5bn) on getting to this point, including replacing its prize Kulluk rig after it ran aground off Alaska in 2012. For them to gain any of this back, a number of things need to happen. Continue reading...

Beachgoing in the UK has dropped by 20% – small wonder when there are more faecal particles in the sand than in the muckiest seaHave we stopped going to the beach? A National Trust survey says there has been a 20% reduction in visits to the coast. Apparently, people even prefer “urban beaches” – such as those in London and Sheffield. For a cyber generation, one can see how the fantasy or ersatz version might be better than the real thing. A blue screen is preferable to a blue horizon. All that sand in your sandwiches. Swarming jellyfish. Voracious, tortoise-murdering gulls. And cold water – I’ve lost count of the number of people who look at me as if I’m mad when I say I swim in the sea all year round, who proudly tell me they wouldn’t consider it even in the height of summer.Maybe it’s an inverted class thing. The “hoi polloi”, used to flying off to European resorts or further afield, regard a British holiday as an admission of failure – leaving the coves of Cornwall to the likes of David Cameron and James Cracknell (who last weekend, along with his 11-year-old son, saved a grandfather and grandson from the Devonian waves). Continue reading...

A year before the Olympic Games, Guanabara Bay – where the sailing events will take place – has been described as “basically raw sewage”, raising health and safety concerns.

Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush and Rick Perry among candidates poised to see biggest benefits from handful of wealthy individuals and corporationsRepublican presidential candidates have banked millions of dollars in donations from a small number of mega-rich individuals and corporations with close ties to the fossil fuel industries that stand to lose the most from the fight against climate change.Eight out of the 17 GOP figures currently jostling for their party’s presidential nomination have between them attracted a bonanza of at least $62m so far this year from sources either directly involved in polluting industries or with close financial ties to them. Three Republican contenders stand out as recipients of this fossil fuel largesse: the Republican climate change denier-in-chief, Ted Cruz; the party establishment favorite Jeb Bush; and the former governor of Texas, Rick Perry. Continue reading...

US Catholic organisations have millions invested in oil, coal and gas but so far few dioceses have reviewed their finances in response to Pope Francis’s encyclical on climate changePope Francis heartened environmentalists around the world in June when he urged immediate action to save the planet from the effects of climate change, declaring that the use of “highly polluting fossil fuels needs to be progressively replaced without delay”.

Conservationists say India is not doing enough to protect tigers six months after country claimed tiger population was growing fastSix months after India boasted that its tiger population was growing fast, conservationists said 41 big cats had already died this year and worried that the country was not doing enough to save them.Despite awareness campaigns, India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority and the wildlife group Traffic on Wednesday said only seven of the big cats died from natural causes, one was killed by authorities and the rest were illegally poached between January and August. Continue reading...

Climate model global surface temperature projections have been quite accurate

In Dakar, an Uber-like SMS service has reduced the cost of emptying pit latrines by nearly half – and now customers can sell their waste to be turned into energyRelated: Secret aid worker: I'm a sanitation specialist but I'm squeamish about pooOn a stormy day in Dakar, Tina Gomis, a local woman in Sicap Mbao, laughs at the idea of selling her own excrement to the government. But this may soon become a reality in a city with a reputation for terrible waste management. Continue reading...

Conservative government argues that already watered-down laws to limit toxic pollution that causes tens of thousands of deaths each year will cause job losses in the coal mining sectorLeaked documents show the UK is pushing for watered-down EU air pollution laws to be weakened further, arguing they would cause pit closures leading to substantial job losses and the need to import coal.The EU rules could help curb toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions, although campaigners criticised them following revelations that they were partly drafted by the same companies they were meant to regulate. Continue reading...

The final tranche of 96m black plastic shade balls is released into the Los Angeles reservoir at Sylmar, to help improve water quality and prevent evaporation. The LA water and power department began pouring the balls into the water two months ago, as can be seen in the first clip, and the final balls are introduced this week.The idea was conceived in 2007 in an effort to prevent the reservoir becoming contaminated with bromate, a substance formed when chemicals in the water react with sunlight. The balls are a relatively low-cost solution, at $34.5m, and are expected to save about $250m over 10 years, and prevent 300m gallons of water evaporating