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China is taking up renewable energy faster than any other country. It’s all on display in the Solar Valley.

Millions of shorebirds fly between Australasia and the Arctic every year. They navigate over oceans using stars and magnetic fields, they sleep with half their brain at a time while they're on the wing. But for some of them, this will be the last flight.

As Winter bites in the south, Tim Entwisle and Matthew Crawford investigate a late start to the north's dry season, birds that spread fire, a collision of accountancy and botany, and a warmer future for our only Winter-hibernating marsupial.

Four-year package, to be announced by Adam Bandt on Saturday, will allow the ventures to generate tax-free profits from the electricity created

The Greens will announce that they will spend $265.2m on community-owned renewable energy projects, including allowing these to generate tax-free profits from the electricity created.

The Greens energy spokesman, Adam Bandt, will announce the four-year package on Saturday in North Fitzroy at an apartment block seeking to establish a community-owned renewable project.

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This week fabulous fungi in the Tarkine wilderness; Fish Creek hosts a tea cosy festival; Nathan Griggs makes a monster whip for a world record attempt; and success for an indigenous working scheme in the Kimberley.

Environmental crime is now the world’s fourth biggest crime and is a growing threat to security and natural resources, say UN and Interpol

The value of the black market industry behind crimes such as ivory smuggling, illegal logging and toxic waste dumping has jumped by 26% since 2014 to between $91bn (£62bn) and $258bn, according to an assessment by the UN and Interpol.

Environmental crime is now the world’s fourth largest illicit enterprise after drug smuggling, counterfeiting and human trafficking and has outstripped the illegal trade in small arms.

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If implemented, weakened proposal means 14,000 people could die prematurely across Europe each year from 2030

EU states have agreed to water down a proposed law aimed at halving the number of deaths from air pollution within 15 years, after intense lobbying from the UK that cross-party MEPs have condemned as “appalling”.

Some 14,000 people will die prematurely every year across Europe from 2030 as a result, if the weakened proposal is implemented, according to figures cited by the environment commissioner, Karmenu Vella.

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Residents voice their fears as the water level of the Seine river in Paris continues to rise. Officials forecast the Seine could peak at 6.5 metres, its highest level for more than 30 years in central Paris, stressing this is still well below the level at which it would threaten residents and businesses. Photograph: Philippe Wojazer/Reuters

• Europe floods: Seine could peak at 6.5 metres as Louvre closes doors
  
• Sinkholes and landslides follow flooding in France and Germany – video

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We’re halfway through the year with the month of June and we’d like to see your photos of the June wildlife near you

The southern hemisphere approaches winter during the month of June while the northern hemisphere basks in warm, sunny weather. So what sort of wildlife will we all discover on our doorsteps? We’d like to see your photos of the June wildlife near you.

Share your photos and videos with us and we’ll feature our favourites on the Guardian site.

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We asked you to share your May pictures of the wildlife around the world wherever you are. Here’s a selection of our favourites

• You can add your June wildlife photographs by clicking on the ‘Contribute’ button below

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Fighting snakes, a rare sand cat family and Belgium’s newborn giant panda are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

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The Universe may be expanding up to 9% faster than previously thought, according to new measurements from the Hubble Space Telescope.

City is under increasing pressure to change test methods that scientists said may underestimate the amount of lead found in water after a Guardian investigation

The Philadelphia water department, accused by some experts of having water testing “worse than Flint”, is facing a class action lawsuit and a lead-testing campaign mounted by citizens concerned about water quality.

On Thursday, hours after the Guardian published an investigation into the water-testing practices of 33 cities east of the Mississippi River, the Hagens Berman law firm announced a class action lawsuit against Philadelphia, based in part on the city’s outdated test practices.

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Four men face charges over images on social media showing them going off trail in fragile area of park, after earlier wake-boarding incident at Bonneville Salt Flats

Authorities in Yellowstone national park are urging a group of Canadian men accused of tramping off trail and dabbing in a delicate hot spring to turn themselves in, after images were posted on social media of their reported antics there and across a string of American “national treasures”.

Federal warrants have been issued in Wyoming for the arrest of the four friends, who market themselves under variations of their Vancouver-based clothing and entertainment brand High on Life.

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Droughts, floods, forest fires and melting poles – climate change is impacting Earth like never before. From the Australia to Greenland, Ashley Cooper’s work spans 13 years and over 30 countries. This selection, taken from his new book, shows a changing landscape, scarred by pollution and natural disasters – but there is hope too, with the steady rise of renewable energy

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Ancient underwater remains thought to be a "long lost city" are in fact the result of a naturally occurring phenomenon, researchers find.

Snails use two brain cells to make "complex decisions", a team of scientists finds.

A flat lens made of paint whitener on a sliver of glass could revolutionise optics, its US inventors say.

Two government agencies at odds with colleagues on bleaching taskforce over extent of reef damage, even though figures are broadly similar

• Share your pictures and stories of climate change in Australia
  

Almost a quarter of the coral on the Great Barrier Reef is now dead, according to two government agencies, with the previously pristine remote northern sections worst affected.

The data from in-water surveys, released on Friday afternoon, was from the two agencies that were part of the national coral bleaching taskforce.

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Our EcoCheck series takes the pulse of some of Australia’s most important ecosystems to find out if they’re in good health or on the wane.

Western Australia’s iconic Banksia woodlands are the predominant ecosystem along the Swan Coastal Plain – part of the southwest Australian global biodiversity hotspot, a region internationally recognised for its huge diversity of flowers and other wildlife.

The Swan Coastal Plain, home to Banksia woodlands, and most of Western Australia’s humans. Hesperian/IBRA/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

With more than 2,100 plant species, 2,250 invertebrates and 256 vertebrates, these woodlands are truly unique. However, they share this coastal plain with Perth, one of the fastest-growing cities in the world. Staggeringly, the Perth-Mandurah urban corridor is larger than the official city boundaries of Los Angeles and Tokyo put together (although, in fairness, those cities' satellite regions have their share of urban sprawl too).

Greater Perth’s population has crept past 2 million, across an area that extends 123km along the coast and about 30km inland. By 2050, Perth’s population is projected to reach 3.5 million and to stretch more than 240km along the coast.

While there have been some efforts to look at how to contain the sprawl, new land is still being released for development.

Banksia woodlands are under threat

Banksia woodlands are disappearing at an alarming rate. The woodlands have essentially been lost from the central part of their range (the Perth metropolitan area), leaving behind a scattering of suburban remnants.

These remnants, which include the 267 hectares of bushland in Perth’s iconic Kings Park, are under stress from other threats too, including inappropriate fire regimes, invasive species and climate change. Over the past 60 years these factors have contributed to a loss of many mature Banksia trees.

Around 80% of the woodland plants depend on pollinators such as native insects, birds, and mammals like Western Australia’s unique Honey Possum. Therefore, it is critical to maintain a connected network of woodland remnants across the metropolitan region, so that these pollinators can move freely throughout the habitat. It is not enough simply to conserve isolated patches such as Kings Park.

The federal government is assessing whether to add these Banksia woodlands to its list of threatened ecological communities, which would pave the way for a co-ordinated program to help protect them.

This is timely, coming in the face of the WA government’s proposed Perth-Peel Green Growth Plan, which will result in the loss of a further 9,800ha of Banksia woodlands (about 13,611 soccer fields, or 24.5 times the total area of Kings Park) and a further decline in numbers of the endangered Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo.

A way forward?

The good news is that Banksia woodlands can be successfully restored, and indeed some small pockets have been already. Roughly 70% of species returned to a restored site previously used for collecting construction sand.

However, Banksia trees take decades to reach maturity, making restoration a slow process, not to mention an expensive one. The cost of restoring cleared land has previously been estimated at A$30,000 per hectare, and Banksia attenuata seed alone can cost A$220 per 1,000 seeds.

The Perth-Peel plan would include the creation of 170,000ha of woodland reserves as mitigation for development. However, this is not a net gain, as these areas already exist. Some revegetation is planned, but as we have seen above, this is expensive and not always successful.

Perth has one of the lowest population densities in the world, with an average of just ten homes per hectare. Infill development has been proposed as an antidote to urban sprawl, but care needs to be taken that this infill does not fragment urban woodlands still further.

For a city of 2 million, Perth is still pretty flat. Bev Sykes/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY Smarter planning

We cannot undo past developments. However, we should learn from them and reduce our future impact. This means using the best available restoration science and translating it into smarter planning and development to preserve existing woodlands on the Swan Coastal Plain, rather than trying to fix or offset the losses.

We need to know how changes in climate, particularly rainfall, will impact on Banksia woodlands. But, above all, the issue needs to be communicated beyond the scientific community. The public should be aware of the environmental and social benefits of conserving and restoring Banksia woodlands, from cooling our city streets to preserving WA’s beloved black cockatoos.

Finding the balance between urban sprawl and healthy woodlands will require collaboration between ecologists, policy scientists, urban planners, developers and local councils. Only with smarter development planning will we secure the successful management and future of the Banksia woodlands that once covered the Swan Coastal Plain.

Are you a researcher who studies an iconic Australian ecosystem and would like to give it an EcoCheck? Get in touch.

Alison Ritchie receives research funding from Urban Resources. She is Honorary Secretary of the Society for Ecological Restoration Australasia (SERA).

Elizabeth Sinclair receives funding from Australian Research Council.

Jason Stevens receives funding from the Western Australian State Government, Australian Research Council.

Lucy Commander receives funding from Sinosteel Midwest Corporation. She is a board member of the Society for Ecological Restoration Australasia (SERA).

Robert Davis has previously received funding from Perth Region NRM and the Department of Parks and Wildlife to study Banksia woodland birds. He is an immediate past director of Birdlife Australia.

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