National park authority backs plan to dig mile-deep shaft under protected moorland and tunnel 16km inland from coast, with promise of 1,000 jobsA small corner of one of Britain’s most stunning national parks will be dug up to make way for a £1.7bn potash mine after locals were wooed with promises of more than 1,000 jobs – and the idea of restoring the proud mining heritage of the north-east of England.After a four-year planning wrangle, members of the North York Moors National Park Authority were cheered on Tuesday when they narrowly gave the green light to UK firm Sirius Minerals – via its subsidiary York Potash – to dig a mile-deep shaft under heavily protected moorland overlooking Whitby and Robin Hood’s Bay. Continue reading...

Environment watchdog investigates RN Yuganskneftegaz for water protection violations due to leak at Nefteyugansk that threatens to enter Ob riverRussia’s environmental watchdog has opened a case against state-owned oil corporation Rosneft after a pipeline leak resulted in oily water filling backyards and flowing out of locals’ taps in Siberia.

President Dilma Rousseff pledged to restore 12m hectares of deforested land and increase renewable energy use by 2030 as part of climate partnership with US

The European commission put bold plans to scrap waste on hold last year, but is preparing to present a new and improved proposalIn December last year, the European commission stepped back from its circular economy package, which had included a ban on sending recyclable materials to landfill by 2025 and a target for EU states to recycle 70% of municipal waste by 2030.While Friends of the Earth condemned the commission’s decision, it was an outcome that the lobby group BusinessEurope had hoped for, arguing that the package would inhibit the competitiveness of European businesses. Continue reading...

The bestselling author, futurist and computer scientist tells Marc Gunther that ideas and well-regulated markets will solve the climate change challengeFuturist and author Ramez Naam is an optimist, even when it comes to the problem of climate change.Related: Naomi Klein: the hypocrisy behind the big business climate change battle Continue reading...

We asked you for photos of places you want to save from rising tides, changing temperatures and natural disasters. Contribute in the comments below

China submits carbon-curbing plan to UN ahead of Paris climate change summit, saying it will ‘work hard’ to peak emissions earlier than 2030 targetChina will aim to cut its greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 60-65% from 2005 levels under a plan submitted to the United Nations ahead of crucial climate change talks in Paris later this year.The pledge has been eagerly awaited as the country is the world’s largest carbon emitter. Continue reading...

With high expectations from the 2012 mayoral election and experienced London Assembly members standing down, the Green Party in the capital needs to choose its candidates for 2016 well

If Britain fails to meet its own ambitions on climate change, we lose opportunities for increased food production, new jobs, and new growth areasIn November, representatives from 196 countries will meet in Paris to try to agree a deal to prevent dangerous increases in global temperatures.Efforts to date aim to begin the “peaceful divorce” between greenhouse gas emissions and economic growth: no longer do the two need to go together. Last year was the first year where the world economy grew but greenhouse gas emissions did not. We wait to see if this is an indication of a broader trend or a blip. Continue reading...

Promising to create over 1,000 jobs and pump £1bn-plus into the UK economy, the scheme has won over many locals but angered environmentalistsOne of the biggest developments in a UK national park in living memory could get the go-ahead on Tuesday if councillors approve plans for a £1.7bn mineral mine under the North York Moors.Following Lancashire council’s surprise decision to defy its own planners and legal advisers by rejecting fracking on Monday, the meeting in Whitby will be closely watched by those keen to see whether big resources projects can win over local officials. Continue reading...

Hollywood blockbuster surrounded by further controversy after a makeup artist working on a nearby set attackedA monkey thought to be from the Gold Coast set of Pirates of the Caribbean 5 has attacked a makeup artist working on the set of another movie.The artist, a woman in her 50s, told paramedics she was in the sound stage of the Movie World theme park about midday on Tuesday when the monkey bit her on the ear. Continue reading...

Claxton, Norfolk These deer of such sweet mien momentarily suggested nothing less than something sabre-toothed and predatoryThrough the hedge on the path to the marsh I could hear their commotion. Sharp-tipped hooves stabbing the ground and then a telltale blur of orange flanks that revealed them as Chinese water deer. Males squared up in combat.As my binoculars dialled into crisp detail, they answered a long-standing mystery. For years I’ve found handfuls of loose deer hair strewn on the ground, but was always puzzled why it was shed in that fashion. Here was the answer. Continue reading...

Scientists are calling for greater protection of Great Barrier Reef table corals, which offer protection from the sun's rays to groups of fish. The researchers at James Cook University found that depletion of such large corals forces fish to leave their ecosystems Continue reading...

World-first surrogacy between a wallaby and a kangaroo occurred after the tree kangaroo’s mother was killed by a falling branchAn orphaned tree kangaroo has been raised by a surrogate wallaby mother at Adelaide zoo, in what vets say is a world first.The cross–species surrogacy between a wallaby and a kangaroo has never been attempted before but was forced on the zoo when the the tree kangaroo’s mother was killed by a falling branch. Continue reading...

As dieticians increasingly focus on the environment, they’re finding that what’s better for the earth is usually also better for the bodyDieticians and food companies are awaiting the US Department of Agriculture’s highly anticipated new dietary guidelines by the end of this year with one key question in mind: will they include environmental considerations?The USDA updates its guidelines on what’s healthy for Americans to eat and what’s not every five years. This year, for the first time, the USDA’s advisory panel recommended that those guidelines should also include sustainability. The government agency is being asked to factor in whether or not a food is good for the planet when deciding whether its healthy. Continue reading...

Justices invalidate new rules in move that could make Environmental Protection Agency more vulnerable to challenges to new regulations on carbon emissionsThe US supreme court struck down new rules for America’s biggest air polluters on Monday, dealing a blow to the Obama administration’s efforts to set limits on the amount of mercury, arsenic and other toxins coal-fired power plants can spew into the air, lakes and rivers.The 5-4 decision was a major setback to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and could leave the agency more vulnerable to legal challenges to its other new carbon pollution rules, from industries and Republican-led states. Continue reading...

When Typhoon Ketsana struck Manila in 2009, causing $1.09bn in damage and 747 deaths, it captured headlines and a flurry of emergency aid. But extreme flooding now appears to be the new normal in the Philippines, which was battered by so many storms last year that they exceeded the letters in the alphabet. Climate change and environmental degradation have increased the frequency of flooding along the Marikina and Nagka rivers, with evacuations disrupting daily life in the capital for months of what's become an annual flood season.

Pace of negotiations for a climate deal in Paris later this year is too slow, says UN secretary general, as China says it will shortly submit its carbon pledgeNegotiations for a deal to fight climate change were moving at a “snail’s pace”, the United Nations chief, Ban Ki-Moon, told a high-level meeting on Monday.A promise from China – the world’s biggest carbon polluter – for ambitious cuts to greenhouse gas emissions “very soon” could inject some much-needed optimism into the talks. Continue reading...

Iceland fisheries ministry issues whalers with a quota of 154 fin whales in defiance of 1986 ban and more than 700,000 signatures against the huntIcelandic whaling boats have left port to begin the 2015 whaling season, authorities said on Monday as more than 700,000 people signed a petition calling for an end to the hunt.

170,000 people could come to an event that proudly proclaims itself meat- and fish-free. Wouldn’t it be great for Glastonbury to be able to say ‘no animals were harmed during the making of this festival?’We are trained in consumption from the first glimmers of consciousness. Wherever we look, we are bombarded by exhortations to develop new, unmet needs; to acquire a hunger that can never be sated.The aim of advertising, marketing and the media is to create social norms: to ensure that certain suites of behaviour are normalised and naturalised to the degree that they become almost instinctive. Continue reading...

Cuadrilla are almost certain to appeal Lancashire county council’s decision, but the nascent fracking industry in the UK may never recover from this blowBe in no doubt, it is a seismic decision. Nine county councillors have defied the full-throated backing of David Cameron, well over £100m of spending from shale gas firm Cuadrilla and their own planning officers to reject plans for the UK’s first full-scale fracking.

Brazil, China, India and South Africa say they are disappointed in failure to make good on promise six years ago to mobilise $100bn a year by 2020Rich countries are very, very far from raising the billions they promised to help poor countries fight climate change, jeopardising the prospects of reaching a global warming deal at Paris, the world’s rising economies warned.As a key United Nations meeting got underway, Brazil, China, India and South Africa said they were disappointed in rich countries’ failure to make good on a promise six years ago to mobilise $100bn a year by 2020 for climate finance.

Wildlife artist and teacher best known for his book Drawing Birds“My work is rooted in landscape and in the living birds and animals as they are part of it. I aim to show how creatures move and to express the visual delight they bring. I try to combine accuracy with artistry.” So the wildlife artist John Busby, who has died aged 87, summed up his approach. As well as portraying the natural world in his inimitable style, Busby also inspired several generations of leading artists: not simply through his drawings and paintings, but also through the more direct medium of teaching.He was born in Bradford, son of Eric and Margaret Busby. Eric was a director of the department store Busbys’ of Bradford and later, because of his interest in John’s work as an artist, opened the Goosewell Gallery, in the village of Menston, Wharfedale. John was brought up in Wharfedale, where he developed an early interest in nature, especially birds. He attended Ilkley grammar school, and then studied art at Leeds University and Edinburgh College of Art. After graduating in 1955, he travelled to France and Italy before returning to Edinburgh, where he taught drawing and painting at the art college for more than 30 years until his retirement in 1988. Continue reading...

Anti-fracking campaigners visibly delighted as councillors reject Cuadrilla’s application to drill for shale gas at Preston New RoadLancashire county council has rejected a planning application by shale gas explorer Cuadrilla to frack in the county, in a major blow to what would have been the UK’s biggest round of fracking so far.Hundreds of anti-fracking campaigners outside the council’s town hall in Preston, where the verdict was announced, reacted with delight and cheers, and people in the council chamber applauded. Continue reading...

Lucy Cooke, the 'amphibian avenger', really loves frogs. She travels to a remote region of Colombia's wild west to look for one of the world's most toxic animals: Phyllobates terribilis, the golden poison frog. Protecting it from extinction isn't an easy job – it lives among gold mines, drug runners, guerrillas and local people sceptical of protecting a frog that could kill them. Can Lucy's love for this rare orange frog convince them?

The Solar Impulse 2, which is attempting an around-the-world flight, leaves Japan on Monday bound for Hawaii. A previous takeoff was abandoned last week because of bad weather. Its journey across the Pacific Ocean – from Nanjing, China to Hawaii – is expected to be the most difficult stretch of the journey Continue reading...

As part of its campaign against an open-cut coalmine expansion, a Hunter Valley community has funded and produced this video profiling 65-year-old Kevin Taggart, an elder of the local Wonnarua traditional custodians. Bulga residents, alongside the custodians, have been fighting for more than five years to stop the expansion by Rio Tinto. They say it will create severe noise and dust pollution, destroy a critically endangered woodland and threaten 110 registered Aboriginal cultural sites. A final decision is expected within weeks.

Wheelock Canal, Cheshire I see the saucer-sized, creamy-white elderflowers, the essence of summer. Celtic lore has it that fairies will appear to those who stand under an elder tree on Midsummer’s EveThe sky is a speedwell blue as I walk along the towpath of the Wheelock canal, which runs parallel to the river Weaver. Bottle-green and crimson narrowboats decorated with pots of geraniums and horseshoes pootle by. There are dandelions bold as brass in the grass. Cow parsley, or Queen Anne’s Lace, frills the bank. Peacock butterflies alight on a purple buddleia growing out of a stone wall flecked with burnt-orange and pale-grey lichen, showing their eye-spots.I pass under a bridge and hear the rush of water from the lock; out the other side, an explosion of swallows alternating royal-blue backs and scarlet throats as they skim the water for insects. There is a female mallard, five balls of golden-brown fluff paddling furiously to keep up with her. Continue reading...

US president has opportunity to put questions to naturalist but ends up admitting action on climate change must be global and quickerBarack Obama was the one asking the questions in an interview with British naturalist David Attenborough that aired on Sunday in which they agreed that combating climate change would require a global effort.Saying he had long been a “huge admirer” of Attenborough’s TV documentaries about the environment, Obama turned the tables on Attenborough in an interview taped on 8 May at the White House, which aired on the BBC and other international broadcasters. Continue reading...

Solar Impulse 2 sets off on Pacific crossing from Japan to Hawaii, expected to last five days and nights in most difficult leg yet of Andre Borschberg’s attemptA solar plane took off for what could be the longest solo flight in history on Monday, with its Swiss pilot confronting the “moment of truth” of a journey around the Pacific Ocean and around the world.

Australian national parks staff and water police freed a migrating humpback whale from a fishing trap near Sydney Heads on Sunday. Whale watchers, tracking a pod of three frolicking whales, raised the alarm when it became clear one distressed adult was entangled in a fishing trap, dragging three buoys behind it Continue reading...

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 2 July 1915A friend has sent some insects for identification, asking if they are useful or harmful in a garden. The green caterpillar with yellow stripes and collar is the larva of the common quaker, a neat, drab-coloured moth, as its name suggests; this grub appears to flourish on the leaves of any tree, and it was engaged in devouring the foliage of the pear when it was found; it is abundant and destructive. But he also sent me two green larvae, somewhat slug-like in shape, but with the power of lengthening out after the manner of a leech; these are as much our friends as the other green grubs are our foes. These sluggish larvae, hardly noticeable as they cling to the underside of rose or fruit tree leaves, will eventually turn into those beautiful and exceedingly active flies which poise with whirring wings above the flowers in our gardens, every now and then darting to one side or the other with a sudden jerk. There are few more voracious devourers of aphides, or green flies, than these hover-fly larvae, and, as every gardener knows, the aphis is a destructive pest. There are many books dealing with insect pests, but few give any information about insect friends; it is true that the hover-fly larvae are mentioned as natural checks on the increase of green fly and other destructive insects in several Board of Agriculture pamphlets, but in one only have I seen any attempt to describe the insect, and no figure is given. How is the puzzled agriculturist to know what to kill and what to preserve? Continue reading...

Travel the world and you will see many of the same types of lorries, buses and cars on the roads but what comes from their exhaust can be very different.The US, Japan and Europe were the first to set limits on health-harmful exhaust. European limits began in 1992 and got progressively tighter; allowing technology to be developed and perfected. Much of the world is following Europe but Russia lags by around eight years and others such as India, China, Mexico and Australia have no plans to adopt the latest European standards. India has no regulations beyond 15-year-old European standards and China has no national schemes beyond Europe’s 2005 standards for buses and lorries. Continue reading...

Victim in sixth shark attack off in two weeks coast had arrived in critical risk of dying, but his condition has improved, hospital spokeswoman saysA hospital spokeswoman said on Sunday the latest victim of a shark attack off North Carolina’s coast had arrived in critical risk of dying, but his condition had improved.Carol Flynn said the teenager arrived at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, on Saturday in critical condition. He was in serious condition on Sunday, Flynn said. Continue reading...

Vatican officials to discuss climate change and environment with scientists and activists including Naomi KleinThousands of campaigners and religious leaders have marched through Rome, backing Pope Francis’s uncompromising environmental message ahead of a Vatican conference on climate change, and urging world leaders to take action.Holy See officials will this week discuss the environment with activists and scientists at a meeting at which Naomi Klein, a prominent social activist, will take centre stage alongside Cardinal Peter Turkson, one of the pontiff’s most senior aides. Continue reading...

Major conservation project will take seven big cats from South Africa to Akagera national park, where lion population died out after 1994 genocideSeven lions in South Africa are to be tranquillised, placed in steel crates and loaded on to a charter flight to Rwanda on Monday, restoring the predator to the east African country after a 15-year absence.Cattle herders poisoned Rwanda’s last remaining lions after parks were left unmanaged and occupied by displaced people in the wake of the 1994 genocide, according to the conservation group African Parks, which is organising the repopulation drive. Continue reading...

Davies Commission expected to back expansion in report this week, with Zac Goldsmith’s opposition a potential problem for ToriesGareth Thomas, the only Labour London mayoral candidate backing expansion at Heathrow, says his stance means he is in the strongest position to challenge the Tory Zac Goldsmith, a passionate opponent of a third runway.

Prioritise low pesticide residue vegetables and broaden your definition of ethical food to include social justiceI’m glad we’ve raised our collective aspirations when it comes to student food, recognising that the Pot Noodle is not necessarily the greatest thing since sliced bread. Still, not everyone’s parents can have a weekly organic veg box delivered to their kid’s student home (it does happen, apparently).But budget organic shopping is possible if you prioritise. Slowly turn over store-cupboard staples like cans of beans to organic (frugality is easier if you can cook). Not eating meat helps with cost. But seasoned organic budget shoppers prioritise perishables with low “plate pesticide” counts. Check out the Pesticide Action Network – it has identified food with high pesticide residues. Substitute the worst offenders for organic. Continue reading...

A 17-year-old boy is airlifted to hospital after being attacked while swimming with a group in the Outer Banks on SaturdayOfficials say a 17-year-old boy is the latest victim of a shark attack off North Carolina’s coast, the second attack in as many days and the sixth attack in the past two weeks.The unidentified teenager was swimming in the Outer Banks on Saturday when he was bitten, officials said. Continue reading...

Social activist ‘surprised but delighted’ to join top cardinal in high-level environment conference at the VaticanShe is one of the world’s most high-profile social activists and a ferocious critic of 21st-century capitalism. He is one of the pope’s most senior aides and a professor of climate change economics. But this week the secular radical will join forces with the Catholic cardinal in the latest move by Pope Francis to shift the debate on global warming.Naomi Klein and Cardinal Peter Turkson are to lead a high-level conference on the environment, bringing together churchmen, scientists and activists to debate climate change action. Klein, who campaigns for an overhaul of the global financial system to tackle climate change, told the Observer she was surprised but delighted to receive the invitation from Turkson’s office. Continue reading...

Long before Pope Francis called for the faithful to work toward environmental justice, water and drought were natural concerns for many in the western US and willing disciples may galvanize like never beforeOn a June morning, Father Rob Yaksich, a park ranger until he found his calling in mid-life as a Catholic priest, presided over his first ever Sunday Mass at the historic Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis in Santa Fe, New Mexico. That day, he chose the power of spreading the faith as the theme of his sermon.“Think of the mustard seed,” he told those gathered for the early morning Spanish language mass. “We all carry little mustard seeds of faith in our hearts. This mustard seed grows, and if it is nourished, it grows into a great tree.” Continue reading...

Falling oil prices, a strong US dollar and a weakened Chinese economy are combining to make the global business of recycling less profitable than everTucked in the woods 50km north of Washington is a plant packed with energy-guzzling machines that can make even an environmentalist’s heart sing – giant conveyor belts, sorters and crushers saving a thousand tonnes of paper, plastic and other recyclables from reaching landfills each day. The 24-hour operation is a sign that after three decades of trying, a culture of kerbside recycling has become ingrained in cities and counties across the United States. Happy Valley, however, it is not.Once a profitable business for cities and private employers alike, recycling in recent years has become a money-sucking enterprise. The District of Columbia, Baltimore and many counties in between are contributing millions annually to prop up one of the nation’s busiest facilities here – but it is still losing money. In fact, almost every facility like it in the country is running in the red. And Waste Management and other recyclers say that more than 2,000 municipalities nationwide are paying to dispose of their recyclables instead of the other way around. Continue reading...

Strathnairn, Highland One night, just after midnight, there were seven badgers just outside the end of the houseUsing a red filtered torch to watch for badgers coming into the garden for peanuts is becoming a nightly ritual. The problem is judging just when they will arrive.A week ago we put out a camera that would record what was happening through the late evening, at night, and early morning. There have been a number of surprises – one was the numbers of badgers coming in. One night, just after midnight, there were seven of them just outside the end of the house. There was no competition between them at any time, and the only contacts we recorded were two badgers grooming each other and a pair mating. Another highlight was when an adult brought in two cubs and they all tucked into the peanuts. Only once did we see a badger drink from the bird bath on the ground. Continue reading...

A short break on tropical Gaya island is a dream for snorkellers and conservationists alike – but just beware of the monkeys