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An extinct bird that lived 120 million years ago had iridescent feathers, probably to attract a mate, fossil evidence shows.

With the potential to curb urban congestion, could a successful trial scheme in Morocco act as a launchpad for borrowing bikes across the whole continent?

Moroccans claim you can identify someone as a true Marrakech local if they own a bicycle. The streets of this north African city were once full of ardent cyclists, but in recent decades they’ve been overtaken by scooters and cars that swarm the city’s congested roads.

Now, French bike company Smoove, is trying to revive Marrakech’s biking culture — and boost sustainable transport — by launching Africa’s first fully functioning bike share scheme in the city. The launch coincided with the start of the COP22 climate conference in the city.

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Photographer Richard Jones’s Energy+Notion project tells the story of energy in Wales, from the remnants of coal mining that shaped its towns and landscapes to the new windfarms springing up where the mines once stood. The project was conceived in collaboration with the Arts Council of Wales.

• These photos feature as part of a touring digital installation and photo exhibition. The next venue is Blackwood Miners’ Institute, November 24 and 25

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The Australian Heritage Council is assessing the Governors’ Domain and Civic Precinct for potential inclusion on the National Heritage List. Comments close 24 February 2017.

Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire Perhaps it is a human-sized story – that after 400,000 days on Earth, the Major Oak is still full of life

Although British place names make frequent reference to different tree species, there can be few road signs giving directions to a single specimen. Nor can there be many English woods more steeped in story than Sherwood Forest.

I found a few incidental tales even as I walked up to the Major oak. There were fairy bonnet mushrooms painting their way across a dead stump like Lowry crowds through Salford. There were some last wasps around a waste bin, and wood pigeons so glutted on acorns their crops bulged. A robin laced its sad song among the birches, but sadder still was a bench with the following inscribed across its seat: “Abby Louise Hucknall – Missed So Much.” An emotional counterpoint came amid much open-armed laughter from the children playing along a Halloween-themed trail.

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15 November 1927: A central authority to control inland waters must be a priority for the government

The appointment by the Minister of Health and the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries of a representative Joint Advisory Committee under the chairmanship of Sir Horace Monro “to consider and from time to time report” upon the pollution of rivers and streams and suggest appropriate legislative or administrative measures to reduce what is admittedly a growing evil is welcome, though tardy, news.

Such administrative bodies as the Mersey and Irwell Joint Committee, the West Riding of Yorkshire Rivers Board, the Ribble Joint Committee, the Thames Conservancy Board, and other similar bodies have long been doing excellent work. But the problem is a national one. A strong deputation, representing numerous interests, recently urged upon the Government the immediate need for “a central authority to control inland waters.” It was able to support this demand by quotations from Royal Commissions, Select Committees, Departmental Committees, and scientific authorities for a period of more than half a century.

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The latest Reef Trust Phase IV grant round is now open. It targets sediment losses from gullies and stream banks in priority Reef catchments. Applications close 15 December 2016.

French consumers and industrial groups warned to expect rolling blackouts and soaring power prices as one-third of nuclear fleet closed due to safety issues.

AGL Energy says it's likely nearly one-third of Australian households will have rooftop solar by 2025, and will want battery storage too.

ABC News still saying renewables "largely blamed" for South Australia blackout, ignores BoM report on cyclonic winds, stands by Uhlmann reports.

Unitywater is developing a waste-to-energy feasibility study that could revolutionise the way we think about sewage.

Victoria regulator says network value of solar so small it is not worth adding to solar feed in tariff. It says battery storage could add significant value to rooftop solar, in some areas, but will need market reforms to deliver that value to households. In New York, meanwhile ...

Photos of a Russian bear with a tin can stuck in its mouth 'highlight the dangers of litter'.

The Request for Tenders for an Australian and Queensland government funded project to support cane farmer trials of enhanced efficiency fertiliser technology across the Great Barrier Reef catchment has now opened. The full details of the services...

A new software platform in Germany lets utilities buy and sell “regional electricity” by connecting up small producers with consumers.

In 2016, an isolated scientific outpost in northwest Tasmania made a historic finding. The Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station measured carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere exceeding 400 parts per million.

This wasn’t the first time the world has breached the symbolic climate change threshold – that honour was reached by the northern hemisphere in 2013 – but it was a first for the south.

Behind these recent findings is a history of Australia’s role in global scientific advancement. The Cape Grim station has now been running for 40 years and the resulting data set chronicles the major changes in our global atmosphere.

A national response

In 1798, Matthew Flinders’ encounter with Cape Grim confirmed to Europeans that Tasmania (then Van Diemen’s Land) was separated from the mainland of Australia.

Fast forward to the early 1970s and a small group of innovative scientists were hatching a plan to take advantage of Cape Grim’s isolation and unique geographical position. The site soon became one of the world’s most significant atmospheric measurement sites, meticulously measuring and recording some of the cleanest air that can be accessed on the planet.

There were two threads to the beginnings of Cape Grim. One was the young scientists at CSIRO, keen to pioneer an emerging field of science. The second was a call from the United Nations for global governments to work together to set up a network of monitoring stations. The Australian response was championed by Bill Priestley and Bill Gibbs, the respective senior climate figureheads at CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology.

The scientific community decided that Cape Grim was the most appropriate site for a permanent monitoring station, thereby establishing in 1976 the Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station.

The first set of instruments lived in an ex-NASA caravan. Today the station is managed by the Bureau of Meteorology and housed in a permanent building that features state-of-the-art infrastructure, including a tower fitted with important monitoring equipment. Many of the early pioneering scientists are still actively involved in this research.

The first set of air monitoring instruments lived in an ex-NASA caravan. CSIRO/Bureau of Meteorology The world’s cleanest air

The station, part of the World Meteorological Organisation’s Global Atmosphere Watch network, was sited at Cape Grim to take advantage of the “roaring forties” - the prevailing westerly winds that bring clean air from over the Southern Ocean to the station.

Air that arrives at the station from the southwest is classified as “baseline” air. Having had no recent contact with land, it represents the background atmosphere and is perhaps some of the cleanest in the world.

While we focus on this clean air, most of the instruments monitor continuously, regardless of wind direction, and can detect pollution from Melbourne and other parts of Tasmania in certain conditions.

The station measures all major and minor greenhouse gases; ozone-depleting chemicals; aerosols (including black carbon or soot); reactive gases including lower-atmosphere ozone, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds; radon (an indicator of changes to the land); solar radiation; the chemical composition of rainwater; mercury; persistent organic pollutants; and finally the weather.

The Cape Grim Air Archive, initiated by CSIRO in 1978 and soon adopted into the operations of the station, is now the world’s most important and unique collection of background atmospheric air samples, underpinning many research papers on global and Australian emissions of greenhouse and ozone depleting gases.

The human fingerprint

Cape Grim data are freely available and have been widely used in all five international climate change assessments (1990-2013), all ten international ozone depletion assessments (1985-2014), in four State of the Climate Reports 2010-2016 and in lower-atmosphere ozone assessments.

Measurements at Cape Grim have demonstrated the impact of human activity on the atmosphere. For example, CO₂ has increased from about 330 parts per million (ppm) in 1976 to more than 400 ppm today, an average increase of 1.9 ppm per year since 1976. Since 2010 the rate has been 2.3 ppm per year. The isotopic ratios of CO₂ measured at Cape Grim have changed in a way that is consistent with fossil fuels being the source of higher concentrations.

Cape Grim has also demonstrated the effectiveness of action to reduce human impacts. The decline in concentrations of ozone-depleting substances measured at Cape Grim demonstrates the progress of the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement to phase out the use of these chemicals, and leading to the gradual recovery of the ozone hole.

Measurements at Cape Grim have contributed significantly to global understanding of marine aerosols, including some of the first evidence that microscopic marine plants (phytoplankton) are a source of gases that play a role in cloud formation. With 70% of the Earth’s surface covered by oceans, aerosols in the marine environment play an important role in the climate system.

Cape Grim data are also used by the Australian government to meet international obligations. For example, the station’s greenhouse gas data have independently verified parts of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, which reports Australia’s annual emissions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Persistent organic pollutants have been reported to the Stockholm Convention on these chemicals and Cape Grim mercury data will be reported to the Minimata Convention.

Data collected from the Cape Grim Station have been used in more than 700 research papers on climate change and atmospheric pollution. By working with universities Cape Grim is a training ground for the next generation of climate scientists.

CSIRO/Bureau of Meteorology

Melita Keywood is employed by CSIRO and receives funding from the Department of the Environment and Energy, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, University of Wollongong.

Paul Fraser receives funding from MIT, NASA, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Department of the Environment and Energy, and Refrigerant Reclaim Australia.

Paul Krummel receives funding from MIT, NASA, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Department of the Environment and Energy, and Refrigerant Reclaim Australia.

Sam Cleland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

US SunShot Initiative aims to slash cost of utility scale solar to just US2/kWh by 2030. Is this what good solar policy looks like?

2016 is set to be the hottest year on record by a significant margin, with temperatures that are 1.2˚C above pre-industrial times.

For the third year in a row, global carbon emissions have remained flat, thanks in large part to declining emissions in China.

GE project shows that Trump or no Trump, the global clean energy train has left the station.