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The whale plays a crucial role in maintaining the health of the oceans, which means that these days it’s more a matter of the giant creatures saving us

When the whalers of the mid-19th century harpooned the planet’s biggest marine mammals into near-oblivion, at least they took copious notes. These are now being used to better understand ocean science: if you enjoy a bit of historical ecology, you’ll find them at whaling.oldweather.org.

I wish whaling was all historical, but right now the Japanese whaler Nisshin Maru is likely to be in hot pursuit of the Southern Ocean’s remaining whales. At least they face opposition from direct action charity Sea Shepherd, which recently launched Ocean Warrior, a new anti-whaling vessel.

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Two-year project aims to learn why carcasses have washed up on Argentina’s coast

Researchers are to launch an investigation into the unexplained deaths of hundreds of young southern right whales, one of the planet’s most vulnerable marine species.

The £740,000 project – jointly funded by Defra, the UK environment department, and the EU – will involve researchers tagging whales and calves, tracking them by satellite and identifying individuals by taking DNA samples. The aim is find out why the carcasses of almost 500 young southern right whales have washed up on Argentina’s Valdés Peninsula, one of the species’ key calving areas, over the past decade.

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55-year-old in a stable condition after suffering significant abdominal injuries in attack east of Murray Island in the Torres Strait

A scuba driver endured a four-hour boat ride to a medical facility after being mauled by a shark while scuba diving in Queensland’s far north near the Great Barrier Reef.

The 55-year-old man suffered significant abdominal injuries in the attack while diving east of Murray Island in the Torres Strait on Saturday. Emergency services were notified around 12.40pm AEST.

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A project aims to plant three million trees - one for every man, woman and child - in Greater Manchester over the next 25 years.

Corruption in many Pacific countries appears endemic, the Pacific has the world’s fastest growth rate of HIV infection and the Pacific is predicted to surpass Africa as the world’s poorest region in the foreseeable future Is the Pacific not sinking but being sunk?

Corruption in many Pacific countries appears endemic, the Pacific has the world’s fastest growth rate of HIV infection and the Pacific is predicted to surpass Africa as the world’s poorest region in the foreseeable future Is the Pacific not sinking but being sunk?

If you go down to the woods today... you might find a school, a photographer’s studio, or a carpenter’s workshop. Britain’s forests are getting a new lease of life

In the stillness of autumn, the only sound on the old Saxon road is the gentle tapping of beech nuts falling on a carpet of terracotta-coloured leaves. “You must meet Robert Cunningham – he’s tremendous,” says Kathy Harris, pausing to touch the huge trunk of a venerable beech tree. Harris knows all the ancient trees in this 25-acre wood as individuals. There is also a decaying ash called Cecelia and a beech with two trunks: one has thrown out a limb to fuse with the other, like twins holding hands. There are badgers, rare bats, otters and water rails. A bonfire crackles with burning holly and, as dusk falls, a tawny owl hoots.

Harris is one of a growing number of small woodland owners in Britain – a market for resellers, who buy big forests and subdivide them into “affordable” four- or five-acre plots. One, woodlands.co.uk, has sold more than 625 plots in the past four years. Prices range from £39,000 for six acres in Wales to £95,000 for a similar plot in Hampshire. The reasons for becoming a woodlander are varied and often idealistic, but the Mark Twain quote “Buy land – they’re not making it any more” usually lurks somewhere in the background. Large forests may be the preserve of tax-dodging multimillionaires (if a wood is managed commercially, harvesting timber, it is exempt from inheritance tax), but most woodlanders are a long way from being able to run a commercial operation.

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Blashford Lakes, Hampshire Dead trees don’t get much of a press. For each one remembered, a million will be forgotten

On a dry, dull-grey day, we have come to this popular local nature reserve for a gentle recuperative ramble and some birdwatching. The info board states that we may see bittern, water rail, great egret, and widgeon aplenty. It says nothing about the host of visitors like us who have congested the Blashford Lakes car park, and with whom we exchange pleasantries as our paths cross.

We stop beside a group studying the top of a high tree. We can’t see the bird either, and move on. A chance to sit down in Ivy South Hide and watch from there would be a welcome break, but all the benches are occupied, and others are waiting. We press on across the boardwalk, and find ourselves on a path devoid of people.

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Local and global effects have combined to produce a marked change in the climate of south western Australia. Reduced rainfall has impacted on agricultural output and the people of Perth now rely on desalination plants. Bill Bunbury reports.

As the new president settles in, much of the world reaffirms its commitment to the Paris agreement.

The migratory birds have flown about 10,000kms all the way to the arctic for food, sex, and to hatch the next generation of flying machines.

Climate change | Definite articles | So… | Weetabix concoctions | Playground rhymes

Chris Goodall’s list of 15 things you can do to help save the world (G2, 19 January) misses what is surely the most important thing: have fewer children. Without controlling population growth we have to run ever faster to stay in the same place as far as climate change is concerned.
Catherine Goundry
Retford, Nottinghamshire

• In an item regarding Gambia, the country was referred to as “the Gambia” (Report, 19 January). I remember from my youth many countries referred to in this way and am interested as to the reason. There was the Argentine, the Levant, the Lebanon etc. Does anyone know why they were prefaced with “the”?
Tony Burson
Campinas, Brazil

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The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox

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Hugging deer, feeding green turtles and a Konik foal are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

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Ex-US Vice President Al Gore, who has made a new climate change film, says he thinks campaigners will "win" the debate.

We asked the world’s climate leaders for their messages to Trump ahead of his inauguration as the 45th US president

To fulfil his campaign slogan of “make America great again”, Donald Trump must back the boom in green technology – that was the message from the leading climate figures ahead of his inauguration as president on Friday.

Unleashing US innovation on the trillion-dollar clean technology market will create good US jobs, stimulate its economy, maintain the US’s political leadership around the globe and, not least, make the world a safer place by tackling climate change, the experts told the Guardian.

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MPs and council leaders to face questions about their plans for local parks and green spaces amid concern about cuts

Thousands of people are expected to take part in a crowdsourced investigation to find out how many of England’s parks and green spaces are at risk.

The campaign group 38 degrees is asking its members to contact local council leaders to ask about their plans for parks, and will help them send follow-up questions in freedom of information requests.

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Baslow, Derbyshire Inside this pleasing medieval church is a strange relic of a long redundant rural occupation

I came down the hill to Baslow in a stinging wind that was driving thin broken cloud over the white moor-tops. In the fields below, sheep pushed their faces through the snow to excavate tufts of grass buried in last night’s fall. From Bubnell, I crossed the Derwent on Baslow’s old bridge, an elegant three-arched structure with a pocket-sized tollbooth from the early 1600s. Before the river was tamed for industry, a wilder Derwent regularly swept bridges away: but not this one. In the low winter light, the stream was a sheet of rippled bronze.

On the east bank, overlooking the river, stood St Anne’s, among the most pleasing churches in this part of Derbyshire, with its eccentrically offset medieval tower, skirted with trees and a jumble of gravestones. Offering a silent prayer, I tried the door with my raw pink hand; it opened. I stepped gratefully out of the wind and stood defrosting in the nave, absorbing the building’s complex architecture; it feels organic, more accretion than lofty concept. But even empty the church felt vibrant.

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When Malcolm Turnbull deposed Tony Abbott as prime minister, serious action on global warming was hoped for – but almost nothing has changed

Australia’s January news has been full of official reports of record-breaking extreme weather devastating our ecosystems on land and in the sea and government ministers suggesting we build new coal-fired power stations, provide billion-dollar subsidised loans to rail lines for new coal mega-mines, increase coal exports to reduce temperature rises and reduce our ambitions for renewable power.

The disconnect is glaring but perhaps dimmed in the eyes of some readers because Australian politicians have been dissembling on climate change for decades, pretending it will be possible to do what we must without any impact on our position as the world’s largest coal exporter or our domestic reliance on brown coal-fired power, or without incurring any costs.

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