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A newly hatched turtle, a roaming peacock and egrets in China are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
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From plastic forks to Arctic oil, here are eight crackdowns any plastic-restricting government should consider
• Cotton buds and plastic straws could be banned in England next year
At least two decades after cotton buds (known in my childhood home as “ear cleaners”) became well known as a public health hazard, never, ever to be placed anywhere near ears, the government has announced plans to ban them, maybe next year. Low-hanging fruit and all that, but like the 5p plastic bag charge introduced in 2015, this is a bit feeble.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t good news: because they are small, hard and pointy these nasty pieces of plastic are dangerous for marine creatures, who sometimes eat them, and the sooner we get rid of them the better. The same goes for coffee stirrers and plastic straws, 8.5bn of which are thrown away in the UK each year. I blame dentists for my late conversion to straw-hating: they recommend straws (well, mine did) because sugary drinks are conducted more directly to children’s throats, bypassing teeth.
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Supermarket clashes with Compassion in World Farming over award given in 2010
Sainsbury’s has been accused of breaking promises on improving welfare conditions for chickens after it handed back a good practice award.
The animal rights pressure group Compassion in World Farming said Sainsbury’s applied for the group’s “good chicken” award in 2010 and committed to upgrade within five years all its fresh own-label chicken to the RSPCA welfare mark, which involved giving birds more living space and light.
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The energy friendly agenda inside Trump’s interior department is revealed in records obtained by the Guardian and the watchdog groups Documented and the Western Values Project
The Texas hornshell is a sleek green-grey mussel that once thrived in the Rio Grande watershed, its habitat stretching from southern New Mexico down into the arid Texas borderlands. Some of its habitat happens to overlap with rich deposits of oil and gas.
Amid a long-term decline in its range, the Obama administration in 2016 proposed to declare the mussel an endangered species. Upon taking office, however, the Trump administration changed tack.
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The funeral industry is catering for the growing number of people who want to deal with their mortal remains in an environmentally sound way
The grass may be greener on the other side – but is death?
Growing numbers of people who spend their lives recycling their plastics and watching their air miles are wondering about the most environmentally sound way to deal with their mortal remains. Now, help is at hand from a funeral industry increasingly tuned in to the varied and exotic last wishes of the “consumer”.
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New installation at Somerset House in London lets visitors experience the air of some pollution hotspots – plus a pristine Norwegian island
New Delhi: the suffocating smell of old cars and industry. São Paulo: enough ethanol to make your eyes water. And in London, a scent called Living Diesel.
Those are the dominant notes of those cities’ contaminated air, according to an “artist’s approximation” that aims to raise awareness of the problem of pollution around the world.
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Return of Great Caledonian forest speeded up with fungi spores to help saplings flourish
The return of the Great Caledonian forest that once covered much of Scotland’s highlands is being boosted with a special mix of mushroom spores that should help saplings survive better on the hills.
Fungi living on the roots of trees play a vital role in the ecology, helping to break down nutrients in the soil. But trees were lost in much of the Highlands many years ago so the fungi vanished too.
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Latest ambush worst attack to date at home to world’s largest population of mountain gorillas
Five rangers and a driver have been killed in an ambush in Virunga national park in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
A sixth ranger was injured in the attack on Monday that took place in the central section of the vast reserve, known globally for its population of rare mountain gorillas.
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As the price of pods has soared so has violence – and forest defenders are increasingly risking their lives to protect precious wildlife habitat from being felled for profit
The vanilla thieves of Anjahana were so confident of their power to intimidate farmers they provided advance warning of raids. “We are coming tonight,” they would write in a note pushed under doors in this remote coastal village in Madagascar. “Prepare what we want.”
But they either undervalued their target commodity or overestimated the meekness of their victims. After one assault too many at the turn of the year, a crowd rounded up five alleged gangsters, dragged them into the village square and then set about the bloody task of mob justice.
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This year, in collaboration with Global Witness, the Guardian aims to record the deaths of all people killed while protecting land or natural resources. At the current rate, about four defenders will die this week somewhere on the planet
Continue reading...Patient's lives are being saved by poo, but how far can microbial medicine go?
Health ministers call on company to lower price of cystic fibrosis drug Orkambi so the NHS can afford it.
Allied Healthcare, one of the UK's biggest providers of in-home care, blames a "challenging environment".
Some 40,000 runners are due to take part in the London Marathon, but are those 26.2 miles doing us harm?
The patient had a lucky escape say doctors, but now two more cases have been discovered.
This London Marathon may break the record for the hottest yet, so how do you run in the heat?
An international team found that a protein causes brain cells to die when it is stuck in the jelly phase.
The court has also refused permission for the parents of the terminally ill toddler to appeal.
Gbadebo Olasunkanmi Alabi said "Everything on your body is perfect" to the patient.
An internal investigation will take place at Russells Hall Hospital after Natalie Billingham's death
Thousands of chickens have been donated to herdsmen in northern China to combat crop-destroying locust swarms.
Saturday, April 21, is no-fee day at national parks to mark the start of National Park Week. Which one will you visit?
Cornell scientists have launched a new tool on theBirdCast website that shows in near real-time the volume of migratory birds traveling through the country.
A marauding badger has managed to shut down a centuries-old fortress.
The Hubble Space Telescope sent back new images of the Lagoon Nebula as a 28th anniversary gift.
The plan to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is linked to the GOP's tax overhaul plan.
A new species of octopus has been found laying eggs on in too-warm water with too-little oxygen. Many of them are probably doomed.
Famed naturalist and conservationist John Muir was so much more than the father of our national parks.
A new wildlife corridor in Brazil's Atlantic Forest will help animals like the golden lion tamarin thrive in its preferred environment.
Findings from a new study that suggest the Almahata Sitta are postcards from a ghost planet could reshape our understanding of the solar system.
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