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Crucial role of Britain’s shelf seas in absorbing carbon dioxide is under threat, says report

The shallow seas around Britain absorb tens of million of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year, scientists have discovered. This plays a critical role in stabilising the country’s ecology and in lessening the impact of carbon emissions.

But researchers warn that shelf seas are increasingly vulnerable to climate change and the impact is likely to worsen. In particular, rising temperatures and increased numbers of intense storms threaten to disrupt the coastal regions’ ability to absorb carbon dioxide. This could accelerate climate change, they state in Shelf Seas: The Engine of Productivity, published this week.

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As air pollution fears rise, Cheltenham ‘put people before traffic’ and banned cars from part of its centre. But not everyone is happy

In the Regency spa town of Cheltenham, famous for its mineral springs and horse racing festival, an angry rebellion is gathering steam.

At its centre is a stone fountain supported by three cherubs. The landmark used to be on a roundabout, with cars, buses and trucks swirling around both it and pedestrians trying to cross the high street. Several decades ago the road layout changed to create a tiny plaza around the fountain, which became known as Boots Corner. But heavy traffic still rumbled by.

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Tremor at Cuadrilla site in Little Plumpton is 18th since fracking restarted 12 days ago

A second tremor in a 24-hour period has been recorded at the UK’s only active fracking site near Blackpool.

Cuadrilla was forced to halt operations for 18 hours on Friday after a 0.8-magnitude tremor. Fracking restarted on Saturday morning before a second tremor was detected.

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Exclusive: Simple act of breathing is killing 7 million people a year and harming billions more, but ‘a smog of complacency pervades the planet’, says Dr Tedros Adhanom

• Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: Air pollution is the new tobacco. Time to tackle this epidemic

Air pollution is the “new tobacco”, the head of the World Health Organization has warned, saying the simple act of breathing is killing 7 million people a year and harming billions more.

Over 90% of the world’s population suffers toxic air and research is increasingly revealing the profound impacts on the health of people, especially children.

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Native to North America, it was an extraordinary string of luck including a gold rush, cyclones, the rise of ornamental gardening that led to the naturalisation of the monarch butterfly in Australia.

Len Fisher offers ideas for getting politicians to see beyond the electoral cycle.

The transport secretary says the government will back major development on the Oxford-Cambridge arc.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

General Motors (GM) advocated Friday for the US federal government to establish a national zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) programme similar to California’s system to promote the adoption of clean cars and lower emissions, as the Trump administration moves to eliminate state initiatives.

In October 1903 a relentless series of Atlantic lows brought rain almost every day and many crops rotted in the ground

We in Britain are used to variations in our weather from month to month and year to year. But few periods in history were quite so variable as the period around the turn of the twentieth century, which saw both the driest month on record (February 1891), and the wettest (October 1903), since reliable rainfall records began in 1766.

In October 1903, across most of Britain, it rained almost every day. The cause was a relentless series of Atlantic lows, sweeping rapidly across the country from the west, and dumping their contents over the land.

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"Water cooler moment" as greener cooling idea is scaled up to help chill homes and buildings.

Governments at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) this week got off to a slow start in agreeing measures to help meet emission reduction goals, but the group took steps to keep in play the launch of a market-based measure from 2023.

It’s known in the biz as a side hustle – the job you have on the side outside your normal day job and farmer James Walker has multiple side hustles

European carbon tumbled nearly 5% on Friday, breaking below key technical supports to potentially set up further losses next week amid wider bearish conditions.

How your LinkedIn profile, Twitter engagement and other social media activities are influencing the views of potential employers. And James Walker, from western QLD, has so many work projects he is not even sure which is his 'side' hustle.

Virginia’s cap-and-trade regulations are unlikely to be approved in 2018 due to various regulatory and administrative steps that must take place before final approval can occur, a state official told Carbon Pulse.

Body of Julián Carrillo found with multiple bullet wounds in Chihuahua state on 24 October

Mexico is cementing its reputation as one of the deadliest places in the world for environmental and land defenders, human rights activists have warned after the latest murder of a prominent indigenous rights campaigner.

The body of Julián Carrillo, a member of the Alianza Sierra Madre organisation, was found with multiple bullet wounds in the mountains of Chihuahua state on the evening of 24 October.

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Rowan Williams backs call for mass civil obedience ‘to bypass the government’s inaction and defend life itself’

• Letter: Facts about our ecological crisis are incontrovertible. We must take action

A new group of “concerned citizens” is planning a campaign of mass civil disobedience starting next month and promises it has hundreds of people – from teenagers to pensioners – ready to get arrested in an effort to draw attention to the unfolding climate emergency.

The group, called Extinction Rebellion, is today backed by almost 100 senior academics from across the UK, including the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

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Agreement with unions includes early retirement for miners, re-skilling and environmental restoration

Spain is to shut down most of its coal mines by the end of the year after government and unions struck a deal that will mean €250m (£221m) will be invested in mining regions over the next decade.

Pedro Sánchez’s new leftwing administration has moved quickly on environmental policy, abolishing a controversial “sunshine tax” on the solar industry, and announcing the launch of Spain’s long-delayed national climate plan next month.

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Shale gas firm halts work near Blackpool after 17th quake is first over 0.5 magnitude limit

Cuadrilla has been forced to stop fracking after its operations at a well near Blackpool triggered an earthquake that breached the official threshold.

The company said it had paused work for 18 hours after the tremor on Friday morning. It was the 17th quake in the area since fracking began 11 days ago, but the first to be powerful enough to pass a regulatory threshold that requires fracking to stop.

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