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VW, BMW, Opel and Daimler’s promise to fix 5 million cars not enough to undo the damage done by emissions scandal, say campaigners

Major car makers are being accused of clutching at straws after they agreed to fit software to 5m diesel vehicles in Germany to reduce harmful emissions by up to 30%.

VW, Daimler, BMW and Opel made the decision at a summit with leading politicians in Berlin. They have been under pressure since the diesel emissions scandal two years ago exposed how VW and – it is suspected – other manufacturers have been cheating the testing regime.

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Scott Pruitt claims change is testament to responsiveness but makes no mention of legal challenge over Obama-era rules to lessen ground-level ozone

One day after getting sued by 15 states, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief, Scott Pruitt, reversed his decision to delay implementation of Obama-era rules reducing emissions of smog-causing air pollutants.

Pruitt presented the change as his agency being more responsive than past administrations to the needs of state environmental regulators. He made no mention of the legal challenge filed against his prior position in a federal appeals court.

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Over four decades of exploration and extraction have caused an environmental and health crisis in indigenous communities

Who is going to clean up Peru’s northern Amazon after decades of companies spilling oil and dumping billions of barrels of toxic production waters? Certainly not US company Occidental which ran the biggest concession, Lot 1-AB, until 2000, nor, it would seem, Petroperu, which ran the other major concession, Lot 8, until 1996 and operates the rusty, leaking North Peruvian Pipeline to this day.

Nor Pluspetrol, a company founded in Argentina and now registered in the Netherlands which took over both Lot 1-AB and Lot 8, if its actions to date are anything to go by. Nor the China National Petroleum Corporation, which bought 45% stakes in both concessions in 2003. Nor the subsidiary of a Canadian company now called Frontera Energy which, in 2015, when Lot 1-AB’s name was effectively changed to Lot 192, bought 100% of operations in a two year temporary contract.

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Deforestation and climate change appear to be amplifying droughts in the Amazon

If you are like me, you picture the Amazon region as an ever lush, wet, tropical region filled with numerous plant and animal species. Who would imagine the Amazon experiencing drought? I mean sure, if we think of drought as “less water than usual,” then any place could have a drought. But what I tend to envision with respect to drought is truly dry.

People who work in this field have a more advanced understanding than I do about drought, how and why it occurs, its frequency and severity, and the impact on natural and human worlds. This recognition brings us to a very interesting paper recently published in Scientific Reports, entitled Unprecedented drought over tropical South America in 2016: significantly under-predicted by tropical SST [sea surface temperature]. So, what did this paper show?

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It's comforting to think of climate change as a far away danger.

Researchers are racing for answers after at least 10 deaths of north Atlantic right whales, marking the deadliest year since tracking began

Researchers are scrambling to figure out why one of the world’s most endangered whale species is dying in “unprecedented” numbers, after at least 10 north Atlantic right whales have been found floating lifelessly off the coast of Canada.

The first whale carcass was reported in early June. Within a month, another six reports came in, leaving researchers reeling. This week, after several carcasses washed up on the shores of western Newfoundland, Canadian officials confirmed that the number of whale deaths had risen to at least 10, making 2017 the deadliest year for the marine mammal since researchers began tracking them in the 1980s.

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The Department is seeking comments on the draft revised referral guideline for the three Western Australian black cockatoos. The consultation period closes 5 September 2017.

Hamsterley Forest, Weardale Their visual sensitivity challenges us and their ability to track small fast objects is unparalleled

Much of Hamsterley forest lay in deep shadow and the scent of conifer resin hung in the still air between the spruces. No one had passed this way this morning; there were intact spiders’ webs stretched across the path high above Spurleswood beck.

And there we found a female golden-ringed dragonfly, Cordulegaster boltonii, clinging to rushes, still grounded by the lingering chill of the night. It’s the largest and, with its jet-black and yellow markings, the most startling, dragonfly species in the north Pennines.

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World needs 1.7 Earths to continue as it is. If everyone lived like Australians, we'd need 5.2 Earths.

Tesla puts net orders for Model 3 at 455,000+, as Musk and other employees become first to have solar roof installed at homes.

A new start-up accelerator program dedicated entirely to fast-tracking the commercialisation of innovative energy market technologies and solutions has been launched in Australia.

The new product, available to U.K. online customers, will retail from £3,000 for a standalone battery, or from £6,925 for the solar panel-plus-battery package.

ANU researchers identify 5,000 potential pumped hydro energy storage sites, which they say could support a 100% renewable Australian grid – 35 times over.

Solar PV outstripped coal as the leading source of new electricity generation worldwide last year.

The FBI is investigating an Arizona power company for its role in the election of utility-friendly and anti-solar regulators.

In a dramatic U-turn, Sri Lanka’s energy regulator has approved a new long-term electricity supply plan that rejects the construction of any new coal plants between now and 2037.

The National Trust weighs into the campaign to keep subsidies for Britain's farmers at the current level.

DNA is shedding light on the people who built Greece's earliest civilizations.

Some of Australia's most iconic beers are set to be brewed using solar and wind after Foster's Group and CUB parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev pledged to shift its 6 terrawatt-hours of annual energy consumption to 100 per cent renewables by 2025.

SAILING SPIDERS: Trapdoor spiders are reluctant travellers, but millions of years ago one species appears to have made an epic journey from Africa across the vast Indian Ocean to call Australia home.