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Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 19 October 1917

Someone had taken a wasps’ nest. Perhaps as he carried it home some of the inmates objected, or he discovered that most of the cells were empty; at any rate it had been dropped, and lay broken by the path. Over the grubless cakes a few weary workers, chilled by the night exposure, crawled feebly, and three young queens refused to leave the ruins of what had once been their home. They seemed puzzled by the tragedy which had overtaken the busy colony, but they were too weak or too stupid to fly in search of shelter. Two of them died quietly in my killing bottle, but it was not until I pinned the bodies on a setting-board that I discovered that one was abnormal. Either through accident in her youth or from birth she was a cripple; the second and third legs on the right side were missing. Imperfectly developed insects are not rare; but the interesting point about this wasp was that she had made the best of a bad business. When she was alive I did not notice anything peculiar about her gait, but when I attempted to set her limbs I found that the third leg refused to remain on the left side. It was only then that I found that the right legs were missing, and that, in order to avoid the bias of three legs against one, the third left leg was bent under so as to work on the right side. I was sorry that I had not kept her alive to watch her manner of walking.

Related: Conservationists slam 'hateful' survey promoting wasp killing

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It never occurred to me, peering through rain-soaked binoculars, that I would have to wait 43 years to see another one

It was late September 1974. Manchester United led the old Second Division, Kung Fu Fighting was top of the pop charts, and the BBC had just launched its Ceefax service. Meanwhile, I was birdwatching on the Isles of Scilly, thanks to my mother’s far-sighted decision to take me out of school for a fortnight, slap-bang in the middle of the migration season.

We saw some good birds, including Iceland gull, scarlet rosefinch and a sharp-tailed sandpiper from Siberia. But nearly 50 years later, those I remember best were three buff-breasted sandpipers, plump little waders that had flown all the way across the Atlantic, driven off course by the tail end of a hurricane.

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Increased sightings of endangered species doesn't mean it's recovering – but that's the argument being made by the native forest logging industry. David Lindenmayer, Professor, The Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Jack Weaver and his brother-in-law Patrick Widen walked around police barricades, through a creek and up treacherous hilly roads to film the devastation caused by the wildfires in Santa Rosa, California. Weaver’s mother, Katherine, was convinced the family’s dog, Izzy, had died in the fire that destroyed their neighbourhood. When the men reached the end of the narrow road, they saw their house was completely ruined. But then Izzy came bounding out of the rubble for a joyous reunion. Weaver captured the scene on his phone

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Wind isn’t just mysterious, destructive and exhilarating – capturing just 2% of it would solve the planet’s energy needs at a stroke. And as the windiest country in Europe, Britain is at the forefront of this green revolution

The wind rips along the Humber estuary in Hull. It’s the kind that presses your coat to your back and pushes you on to your toes. “A bit too windy,” shouts Andy Sykes, before his words are swept away. He is the head of operational excellence at the Siemens factory, which supplies blades – the bits that turn – to windfarms in the North Sea. At 75 metres long, they are hard to manoeuvre when it’s gusting.

Inside the vast factory hall, the blades lie in various states of undress. Several hundred layers of fibreglass and balsa wood are being tucked into giant moulds by hand. There are “naked” blades that require paint and whose bodies have the patina of polished tortoiseshell. Look through the hollow blades from the broadest part, and a pale green path, the tinge of fibreglass, snakes down the long tunnel, tapering to a small burst of daylight at its tip.

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Naturalist says experience making second series of BBC show revealed devastating threat posed to oceans by plastic

Sir David Attenborough has called for the world to cut back on its use of plastic in order to protect oceans. His new BBC TV series, Blue Planet II, is to demonstrate the damage the material is causing to marine life.

Speaking at the launch of Blue Planet II, which will be broadcast 16 years after the original series, the broadcaster and naturalist said action on plastics should be taken immediately and that humanity held the future of the planet “in the palm of its hands”.

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As the annual solar race across Australia wraps up, a Dutch entry averaged 69kmh from Darwin to Adelaide and resupplied the grid

A futuristic family car that not only uses the sun as power but supplies energy back to the grid has been hailed as “the future” as the annual World Solar Challenge wrapped up in Australia.

Related: How green is Britain’s record on renewable energy supply?

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Cotton has a disastrous foorprint, leather is destroying the Amazon, polyester threatens the ozone layer. Luckily there are some new fabrics on the way

The current exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art asks: “Is Fashion Modern?” Looking at the industry’s main materials you would have to answer “no”. The global wardrobe of cotton and polyester (invented around 80 years ago) spells ecological disaster.

How do you take the cow (with its thunderous footprint) out of a pair of leather shoes?

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Richard Di Natale ‘confident’ if project can’t be stopped in parliament or for financial reasons, Australians will stand in front of bulldozers

Adani’s Carmichael coalmine won’t go ahead, the Greens leader Richard Di Natale said, predicting “many, many thousands” of Australians would come together to protest any moves to stop the project.

Di Natale said he believed Australians largely stood against the Carmichael coalmine, choosing the Great Barrier Reef and the environment over the construction of what has been billed as the largest coal project in the southern hemisphere.

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The devastating winds of 1987 felled 15 million trees but also prompted a radical change to the way we work with the countryside to let it heal itself

It is remembered as a generation-defining moment, the night when ships ran aground, London endured its first blackout since the Blitz, 18 people died and 15 million trees were toppled. But the devastation wrought by the Great Storm of 1987 also left in its wake a startling woodland recovery, prompting a radical reshaping of the way we work with nature to care for the countryside.

Thirty years ago on Monday the storm hit south-east England after a fierce wind swooped up from the Bay of Biscay, across a corner of northern France before making landfall in the south-west and sweeping through southern England to bring the full force of its 100mph winds to bear on the south-east.

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Nominations for Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards include images of endangered species on island of Sulawesi

Nona is a Sulawesi crested black macaque. Photographed here by Stefano Unterthiner, she is seen chained to a chair outside the house where she is kept as a pet. The scene is made particularly poignant because Unterthiner has included in his image the shadow of Nona, her chain and a tree, thus underlining the freedom that the little animal has lost. At the same time, the owner of Nona – which means “miss” – stands relaxing in the early morning sun.

It is illegal to keep this critically endangered animal in captivity. Yet the law is rarely enforced, particularly in remote areas. Hence the grim picture – though far worse was taken by Unterthiner, an Italian wildlife photographer, during his visit to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Hunting, the live-animal trade and forest clearance have caused the animal’s population on the island to crash by 90% in the past 30 years. Only a few thousand are left there.

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Bodycam footage from a Sonoma County police officer shows the rescue of a woman in Santa Rosa. Thirty-five fatalities have been recorded so far, making it the deadliest week in California wildfire history. The death toll could rise further as search-and-rescue teams are deployed to sift through the remains of 3,500 burned buildings. Hundreds of missing persons reports have been resolved, but stories continue to emerge of people who did not make it out alive

‘Just ash and bones’: California wildfire survivors mourn loved ones

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Leading researchers and campaigners express concern that geoengineering research could be used as an excuse not to reduce CO2 emissions

Leading climate scientists have warned that geoengineering research could be hijacked by climate change deniers as an excuse not to reduce CO2 emissions, citing the US administration under Donald Trump as a major threat to their work.

David Keith, a solar geoengineering (GE) expert at Harvard University has said there is a real danger that his work could be exploited by those who oppose action on emissions, at the same time as he defended himself and colleagues from the claims GE strengthens the argument for abandoning the targets set by the Paris climate agreement.

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Ribblesdale, North Yorkshire Wild trout are once again thriving in the beck my grandfather tended for the Manchester Anglers’ Association

When I was a kid I recall fishing for minnows with a jam jar by the Ribble and being sketched by a man in wire-framed specs. It was the writer Arthur Ransome, who was there with my grandfather, Nat Hunt, then river keeper for the Manchester Anglers’ Association. I no longer have that sketch, but I do still own a card Ransome sent Grandad praising his hand-crafted trout flies (“north country spiders”).

Related: Peak District: Rewilding the rivers

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Forensic investigation needed to identify newly found worms in South Australia’s Gulf St Vincent.

A recent clean-up using volunteers collected 700Kg of plastic in just two hours. Plastic is ingested by many marine creatures blocking their intestines leading to death.

Preserving species that are both rare and elusive has led an Australian whale specialist to the Himalayas to search for big cat poo.

Preserving species that are both rare and elusive has led an Australian whale specialist to the Himalayas to search for big cat poo.

The ‘Seabin’ can collect the equivalent of around 83,000 plastic bags a year.

An organic orchard turns itself into a farm co-op; a Swiss engineer makes boutique olive oil; the Australian Boys Choir sings in the outback; and we go paddling the Darling River.