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On a remote island in the Tasman Sea scientists are battling to save flesh-footed Shearwater chicks.

Cutting single-use plastics can be surprisingly challenging but there are easy alternatives

My first Plastic Free July was in 2013. At the time most of my friends were signing up for Dry July, the month where participants go alcohol free and raise funds for cancer support organisations across Australia.

Instead, I decided to participate in what was then a relatively unknown challenge to reduce my single-use plastics over a month after watching the eco-documentary The Clean Bin Project.

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What the growing controversies around entrepreneur Elon Musk might mean for his many futuristic projects.

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

Volunteers make new homes for native wildlife; turn your backyard into an urban market garden; and kick up your heels at the Kooroorinya Races jive competition.

Ontario has halted the development of its offset protocols following Premier-designate Doug Ford’s decision to scrap the province’s carbon market, leaving project developers and investors in limbo and hoping the Canadian federal government will step in to save the burgeoning industry.

An extensive climate justice bill that would have implemented a “market-based compliance mechanism” in New York along with a suite of other GHG targets and environmental justice provisions did not advance to a vote for the third year running as the state Senate wrapped up this week.

Readers respond to Patrick Barkham’s article about declining swift numbers

Reading Patrick Barkham’s piece (Can our swifts fill summer’s skies again? It’s up to us to help, 19 June) reminded me of an experience that made me marvel at the swift’s aeronautical prowess and makes me anticipate their screeching return each May.

A few years ago I saw a small black bird fluttering on a roadside. I stopped and on closer inspection realised that the bird was a swift, which once grounded finds it hard to take to the air again. I cradled the bird in my hands and threw it upwards where it unfurled some six or eight feet above me, caught the air and shot away, out of sight in seconds.

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EU governments could knock as much as €5 off EUA prices and lose billions of euros of low carbon funding if they rush to auction allowances for the bloc’s Innovation Fund, according to ICIS analysts.

The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox

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A single emitter in China’s biggest pilot emissions trading scheme failed to meet the annual compliance deadline, Guangdong regulators said Friday, again choosing to not disclose emissions data.

Burkina Faso’s sacred crocodiles, a family of cheetahs and a humpback whale are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

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Europe's Sentinel-5P satellite tracks formaldehyde emissions in the air over the Indian sub-continent.

Below is a table of the closing prices, ranges and volumes for China's regional pilot carbon markets this week. All prices are in RMB, and volumes in tonnes of CO2e. Data sourced from local exchanges.

Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator has terminated four more contracts through which its Emissions Reduction Fund had agreed to buy almost 4.5 million offsets.

EU carbon prices rose above €15 for the first time this week on Friday as a strong auction jolted prices upwards.

Reusable bags, bottles and containers are the key to success for these buyers in Birmingham.

Wildlife rescuers have reported a spike in the number of eastern grey kangaroos that appear to have Phalaris 'staggers', a condition commonly seen in ruminants such as sheep and cattle that have been grazing on the new shoots of Phalaris grasses, particularly Phalaris aquatica

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The news media routinely 'beats up' shark stories in search of clicks and profits, according to focus groups and surveys of social media posts. Peter Simmons, Associate Professor, Communication, Charles Sturt University Michael Mehmet, Lecturer in Marketing, Charles Sturt University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Hathersage, Derbyshire: Vibrant and restless, swifts are never anywhere for long

I’m not sure why Coggers Lane is so named. A “cogger” in these parts is someone who wields a hammer, and by extension someone who hammers people: a fighter. Hathersage has its moments, but I’m guessing the name is more a fossil of the village’s industrial past. I do know it offers one of the prettiest views of the Derwent valley to the south, and to the east high above the gritstone cap of Higger Tor, richly coloured by the early evening sun. I stood drinking it in until the swarming midges drove me inside.

When I emerged hours later the sky was deepening to black, on the threshold of night. Blinking in the gloom, I heard them first: an outburst of screaming that broke over my head. Looking up, half a dozen swifts were slicing and jinking through the thickening dark as they skimmed the roof, or else dived towards their young sheltering in the eaves. Then they were back out, blading through warm air still thick with those hateful midges. Their throats bulged with them, a ball of protein glued together with saliva to bring back to their brood.

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