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Iconic Stan Smiths can be styled with almost anything, but most white sneakers are costly to the environment. Lucky for us, there are many sustainable alternatives that are just as cool. Lisa Heinze, PhD candidate Sustainability, Fashion & Everyday Life, University of Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Delegates ‘do not have the luxury of lots of philosophical discussions’ but must focus on advancing the pledges set out in the Paris agreement

The UN hopes to create an “operating manual” for implementing the Paris agreement on climate change, with talks in the next two weeks in Bonn.

“We want to advance further, faster, together to meet the goals set out in the Paris agreement,” said Patricia Espinosa, the UN’s chief official on the climate, at the opening of the talks. “We need an operating manual for the Paris agreement. This has to be the launchpad for the next level of ambition on climate change action, because we know the pledges [to cut emissions] made so far are not enough to take us to [meeting the Paris goals].”

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Steve Ludlow has been injecting himself with venom for more than 30 years

Shale gas firm Cuadrilla says 29 Lancashire households will get payments – but one says they will refuse ‘blood money’

A group of residents in Lancashire will soon receive £2,070 each for living near a fracking site, in the first payments made direct to British householders by a shale gas company.

Cuadrilla said that 29 households would get the payment as part of a £100,000 community benefit fund for the second well it is drilling at a site between Blackpool and Preston that has attracted ongoing anti-fracking protests.

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The giant build-up of plastic bottles, cutlery and polystyrene plates was captured by underwater photographer Caroline Power.

At a depth of 700 metres, a Blue Planet II submarine was shoved by enormous sharks.

Radical proposal to pedestrianise area west of Oxford Circus is aimed at improving air quality and tackling congestion

A large section of London’s Oxford Street could be traffic-free by next December under a proposal unveiled by the mayor on Monday to improve the area for shoppers.

A public consultation has opened into banning all forms of transport between Oxford Circus and Orchard Street to coincide with the launch of the new Elizabeth line at the end of 2018.

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Data so far this year points to 2017 continuing a long-term trend of record breaking temperatures around the world, says World Meteorological Organization

2017 is set to be one of the hottest three years on record, provisional data suggests, confirming yet again a warming trend that scientists say bears the fingerprints of human actions.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said temperatures in the first nine months of this year were unlikely to have been higher than 2016, when there was a strong El Niño weather system, but higher than anything before 2015.

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Scientists say that 2017 shows a continuing trend of high temperatures and extreme weather events.

This year is poised to go down as the hottest non-El Niño year ever recorded, with record low polar ice and extreme weather that left many regions battling bushfires and hurricanes. Andrew King, Climate Extremes Research Fellow, University of Melbourne David Karoly, Professor of Atmospheric Science, University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Republican climate science denial reared its ugly head at Bridenstine’s congressional hearing

Unlike past Nasa administrators, Trump nominee Jim Bridenstine doesn’t have a scientific background. He’s a Republican Congressman from Oklahoma and former Navy pilot. He also has a history of denying basic climate science. That’s concerning because Nasa does some of the world’s best climate science research, and Bridenstine previously introduced legislation that would eliminate Earth science from Nasa’s mission statement.

At his Senate hearing last week, Bridenstine tried to remake his image. He said that his previous science-denying, politically polarizing comments came with the job of being a Republican congressman, and that as Nasa administrator he would be apolitical. A kinder, gentler Bridenstine. But while he softened his climate science denial, his proclaimed new views remain in line with the rest of the harshly anti-science Trump administration. That’s very troubling.

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The European Space Agency has part-funded the pilot project involving five ambulances in the Highlands.

India’s population and emissions are rising fast, and its ability to tackle poverty without massive fossil fuel use will decide the fate of the planet

“It’s a lucky charm,” says Rajesh, pointing to the solar-powered battery in his window that he has smeared with turmeric as a blessing. “It has changed our life.”

He lives in Rajghat, a village on the border of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh states, and until very recently was one of the 240 million Indians who live without electricity. In the poverty that results, Rajghat has become a village of bachelors, with just two weddings in 20 years.

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Brothers Mike and JP Andrews bought a drone camera, flew to Australia, and embarked on Abstract Aerial Art, a 70,000-mile global photographic odyssey

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Hosts Fiji will be aiming to build transparency and constructive dialogue – and this will be crucial to successfully ratcheting up the tough climate targets sidestepped at Paris

Talanoa is a Fijian term for discussions aimed at building consensus, airing differences constructively, and finding ways to overcome difficulties or embark on new projects. It is one of the building blocks of Fijian society, used for centuries to foster greater understanding among a people distributed over many small islands, and carry them through a tough existence.

This week, talanoa comes to Europe, and the rest of the world. Fiji is hosting the UN’s climate talks, following on from the landmark Paris agreement of 2015, and will hold the conference in Bonn, Germany. Talanoa will be the founding principle of the conference, the means by which Fiji hopes to break through some of the seemingly intractable problems that have made these 20-plus years of negotiations a source of bitter conflict.

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A pending decision on Monsanto’s ubiquitous weedkiller is a crucial opportunity to protect our children from the toxic cocktail of pesticides polluting their food, water and play areas

Our children are growing up exposed to a toxic cocktail of weedkillers, insecticides, and fungicides. It’s on their food and in their water, and it’s even doused over their parks and playgrounds. Many governments insist that our standards of protection from these pesticides are strong enough. But as a scientist and a lawyer who specialises in chemicals and their potential impact on people’s fundamental rights, I beg to differ.

Last month it was revealed that in recommending that glyphosate – the world’s most widely-used pesticide – was safe, the EU’s food safety watchdog copied and pasted pages of a report directly from Monsanto, the pesticide’s manufacturer. Revelations like these are simply shocking.

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Kirkham Priory, Malton, North Yorkshire The skeleton of a building offers respite from a biting wind and a final home for the last of the summer’s wasps

It is one of those season-hinge days when the slightest atmospheric whim might swing it either way. There is some warmth in the intermittent sunshine and autumn’s colours are still bright, but the wind is pure north and it carries smatters of cold rain. The river is swollen, with violet reflections in oxtail-brown water – an ominous palette of decay.

This stretch of the Derwent was once used to transport stone a mile from the ancient Whitwell Quarry to Kirkham, where in 1122 a local nobleman founded an Augustinian priory as a memorial to his son, who died falling from his horse on the hill above. For 400 years, monks went about their practical and spiritual business here. Orchards spread on to the surrounding slopes, fishponds were excavated on the flood meadow.

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New Energy Solar is hoping to bankroll big solar buy up in US, and Australia and other markets, with $300m IPO.

Rooftop solar expected to provide more than 20% of local generation by 2025, ushering in transition to consumer focused grid in South Australia. Meanwhile, S.A. begins to benefit from renewables, with prices so far in 2017/18 lower than coal-dominated Victoria and NSW.

Beijing Jingneng Clean Energy adds Biala wind farm, approved for development in NSW Southern Tablelands, to growing Australian portfolio.