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Wildlife artist whose skill derived from his deep understanding of the living world

The wildlife artist Greg Poole, who has died aged 58 after a heart attack, was among the best of a generation who revitalised a tradition always in danger of lapsing into decorative prettiness. His artwork is distinctive for its bold design and graphic verve, the confidence and intensity of his line, a vivid palette and the successful capture of the continuum of life. Snapshots of the natural world – otters, bees, curlews, bluebells – executed with speed and the intensity of field sketches, coalesce into fully realised pictures of nature at large.

His was a kind of subjective realism. He drew his animals and plants as they were (he was always interested in habitats too), but also as he experienced them. Many wildlife artists start out with art and find their subject; he began as a birdwatcher and wildlife observer and found art the only release for what nature stirred in him. He worked in the field, sprawled on the ground, with paper clipped to a card (no easel, no artist’s stool) and often used twigs as his pens or brushes. Encamped in a Norfolk saltmarsh, he requisitioned old cornflake boxes to print miraculous images of the samphire at his feet and the oystercatchers in a creek.

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Germany’s weekly EU carbon auctions will resume on Feb. 1, platform hosts EEX announced late Friday, marking the end of an almost three-month stoppage in the country’s sales.

The $3bn refurbishment of the original sat-phone network will help transform air-traffic surveillance.

The facility is set to produce 150 million tomatoes a year, helped by red LED lights and bees.

The scheduled implementation of Mexico’s ETS from 2022 onward will have minimal impact on the country's economy, but some potential burdens on heavy industry could be alleviated through certain measures in the early years of the programme, new analysis has found.

Residents in a rural area of southern Brazil were rained on by spiders this week. Experts say it’s typical in Minas Gerais state during hot, humid weather. While it looks like the spiders are falling from the sky, they’ve actually created a huge web to catch prey. Scientists say the parawixia bistriata species builds a community web so fine that it’s nearly impossible to see with the human eye, giving the illusion that the spiders are floating on air

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Zoologists in Belarus are helping the flying mammal to get some sleep during hibernation season.

An adopted leopard cub, a preening moorhen and tiny turtles feature in this week’s gallery

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Move by Japanese firm would be blow to UK plans to replace coal plants and ageing reactors

The Japanese conglomerate Hitachi looks certain to cancel its plans for a £16bn nuclear power station in Wales, leaving Britain’s ambitions for a nuclear renaissance in tatters.

An impasse in months-long talks between the company, London and Toyko on financing is expected to result in the flagship project being axed at a Hitachi board meeting next week, according to the Nikkei newspaper.

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Charlie Ewart discovered the 64-metre lump and will be part of the team breaking it up

Charlie Ewart, a 51-year-old father of two from Plymouth, has been battling blockages in the sewers of south-west England for 15 years.

But even he was not prepared for the dreadful sight, and smell, of what he found lurking beneath the elegant seafront in the regency town of Sidmouth when he scrambled through a small manhole.

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A Chinese rover and static lander put on the far side of the Moon take pictures of each other.

Attorney general quashes Ella Kissi-Debrah verdict, paving way for fresh hearing

The mother of a schoolgirl who died of an asthma attack linked to air pollution has won the right to seek a new inquest at the high court.

The attorney general moved on Friday to quash the inquest into the death of Ella Kissi-Debrah at the age of nine, after new evidence linked it to air pollution spikes from traffic near her home in south London.

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Attorney general backs new look at whether air pollution was to blame for nine-year-old girl's death.

"I love their facial expressions," says wildlife cameraman Russell Savory.

Buried deep under the Greenland ice sheet is a unique archive of life on Earth 40,000 years ago. Scientists are using this information to try to predict future changes to the planet

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Mikołaj Golachowski describes plan as ‘evil’ and warns of environmental consequences

Conservationists have branded plans by the Polish government to cull almost the entire wild boar population of the country as “pointless, counterproductive and evil”.

In a move to tackle an epidemic of African swine fever, the Polish government has ordered a series of hunts, beginning this weekend, with the aim of killing the vast majority of the country’s population of around 200,000 wild boar.

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Logo drawn up by water firms aims to ensure only wipes that degrade properly are flushed

The fight to eliminate “fatbergs” is to receive a major boost with the launch of a universal standard for wet wipes, clarifying which can be safely flushed down the toilet.

Manufacturers of wipes will be able to use a “fine to flush” symbol on their packaging – drawn up by the water industry – provided they pass stringent tests. The logo aims to reassure consumers that the products do not contain plastic and will break down in the sewer system instead of clogging up sewers and contributing to fatbergs.

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The environmental education association Re-Think has launched The Guidebook of Marine Debris to highlight the 101 most commonly found plastic items washed up on Taiwan’s beaches. From Hello Kitty toys to cigarette lighters from thousands of kilometres away on the Midway Islands, Re-Think photographed the items in a bid to educate young people on the extent of the problem. The project took a year to complete with the help of beach clean-up volunteers around Taiwan and the Society of Wilderness.

The oldest piece of waste was a military food pack found in Kinmen dated 1988. It still carried the slogan: “Unite against the Communists and promote love for our compatriots.”

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The BBC's Aaron Heslehurst explains how dynamite became a million dollar idea.

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