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From parrots in the snow and penguins waddling through the forest to dinosaur-like reptiles, a new three-part part series from the BBC’s Natural History Unit, narrated by actor Sam Neill, showcases the island chain’s rich and intriguing wildlife that has resulted from 80 million years of isolation.

• Episode one airs on Tuesday 19 July at 9pm on BBC Two.

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Nasa has sent a DNA sequencer to the International Space Station in an effort to help astronauts monitor their own health.

Area made up of four archaeological sites and three wetland marshes in southern Iraq was once ravaged by Saddam Hussein

Unesco has named Iraqi marshlands once ravaged by dictator Saddam Hussein as a world heritage site, a bright spot for a country where jihadists have repeatedly sought to wipe out history.

The area named “is made up of seven sites: three archaeological sites and four wetland marsh areas in southern Iraq,” Unesco said.

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The fossil fuel industry copied Big Tobacco’s racketeering playbook. They’re following the same path to court, where tobacco lost

Investigative journalism has uncovered a “web of denial” in which polluting industries pay “independent” groups to disseminate misinformation to the public and policymakers. The same groups and tactics were employed first by the tobacco industry, then fossil fuel companies. Big Tobacco has been to court and lost; now it’s Big Oil’s turn. Political leaders are choosing sides in this war.

Research by Inside Climate News revealed that Exxon did top notch climate science research in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which revealed the dangers its products posed via climate change. Soon thereafter, Exxon launched misinformation campaigns by funding “think tanks” and front groups to manufacture doubt about climate science and the expert consensus on human-caused global warming.

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The Amazon is the driest it has been at the start of the dry season since 2002 — and that probably means the rainforest is in for a particularly nasty wildfire season, reports Mongabay

Conditions created by the strong El Niño event that warmed up Pacific waters in 2015 and early 2016 altered rainfall patterns around the world. In the Amazon basin, that meant reduced rainfall during the wet season, plunging some parts of the region into severe drought.

According to NASA, the Amazon is the driest it’s been at the start of the dry season since 2002 — and that probably means the rainforest is in for a particularly nasty wildfire season, according to Doug Morton, an Earth scientist with the U.S. agency and a co-creator of the Amazon fire forecast, which uses climate observations and active fire detections by NASA satellites to predict fire season severity.

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A SpaceX cargo rocket is bound for the International Space Station after a successful launch from Florida.

Turnbull names pro-nuclear Josh Frydenberg to head combined energy-environment portfolio, climate denier Matt Canavan to head resources.

Climate change envoy singles out both countries for subsidising the fossil fuel industry and says the UK has lost its position as a climate leader

Ban Ki-moon’s climate change envoy has accused the UK and Germany of backtracking on the spirit of the Paris climate deal by financing the fossil fuel industry through subsidies.

Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and UN special envoy on climate change and El Niño, said she had to speak out after Germany promised compensation for coal power and the UK provided tax breaks for oil and gas.

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The Bass Rock, East Lothian As more offshore wind farms are built, the scientists want to know how high the birds fly before diving down to fish

Just over a mile off the coast of Scotland, within sight of the Forth Railway Bridge, is a truly wild place. The Bass Rock, 100m at its highest point, is white with guano and ringed with a halo of constantly honking seabirds. This is the largest colony of gannets on a single island on Earth, with up to 250,000 crowding into its three hectares in summer.

Scientists from Leeds University are studying their foraging habits. Crucially, as more offshore wind farms are built, they want to know how high the birds fly before diving down to fish.

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The weekly round up of the electricity market. Plus: What if both Hazelwood and Portland closed down?

The price spikes that hit South Australia were once common place in Australia, but have now all but disappeared since the build out of wind and solar. But the conservatives don't want to know.

South Korean company with biggest share of Australian grid-connected battery storage market has released new range, from stackable 3.3kWh lithium-ion to 9.8kWh.

Richard Branson says all cars on roads in 15 years will be electric vehicles.

UK residential battery storage upstart Moixa has recently attracted the interest – and funds – of three former leaders of Britain's old energy order.

PHD student David Kainer believes the energy density of oils drawn from biomass and foliage of species like Mallee is not only fit for aircraft fuel, it could be grown and harvested sustainably.

Preliminary data from Fraunhofer’s Energy Charts project indicates that Germany will probably surpass its 2020 target for renewable electricity this year.

Greg Clark was appointed head of the new department during a dramatic cabinet reshuffle after the new prime minister axed the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Given the recent media attention, here are some charts on the relationship between clean energy installations and your electricity bills..

Agency application on ecological sustainability - call for public comments open from 18 July 2016 until 15 August 2016

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 21 July 1916

I had no intention of commenting upon a highly sensational account of a “Lady’s Thrill” which appeared in one of the papers, but when it was copied into several others I felt that it was time to protest. The account stated that a lady, when bathing at Bull Bay, in Anglesey, was chased by a ferocious “sea lion.” The sea lion, which we may see diving, swimming, and catching fish which are thrown to it in the fine tank at Belle Vue, is commercially the most important of the fur-bearing seals; it inhabits the Pacific – and the Pacific only. Seal hunters do not care much about bathing in icy seas, but even if they did I doubt if the sea lion would attack a man in the water.

What apparently did happen at Bull Bay was that a grey seal reared its head out of the water and looked at the lady when she was bathing. Perhaps it yawned and showed its teeth, for they do not, as a rule, “project over the sides.” Possibly, too, seeing something with which it was unfamiliar in the water, and not suspecting the presence of a human being so far from the shore, it swam nearer for closer inspection. At any rate, there is no recorded instance that I know of, of the timid grey seal swimming after and attacking any bather.

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