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A selection of the best science and environment reads this year.

Was the remarkable 2017 hurricane season the worst ever? And did climate change play any part?

After 35 years, some of the same sleepy lizards are still alive, still with the same lizard partner. Now, they will have a new scientist. {For RN Summer we're playing the best programs of the year, and this one first aired in April, 2017}

The first Briton in space and a leading member of the Cassini mission are among those on new year list.

Earlier this year the ABC launched its War on Waste series. It was a campaign to make us stop and think about how we live, look at how we could re-use and recycle items in our homes, and cut down on unnecessary waste. In today's episode we see how seafood shells from restaurants are being recycled and used to form a reef in Victoria's Port Phillip Bay.

A rare golden monkey, Hawaiian green sea turtles and Malaysia’’s last female Sumatran rhinoceros all feature in this week’s pick of images from the natural world

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Suganshi Ropia says a piece she read after the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement helped her realise we shouldn’t wait to make our voices heard

Suganshi Ropia, 21, is a law student from Pune, India

I try to keep in touch with news related to climate change, and am particularly interested in environmental law. My compulsion to do something positive about climate change was one of the reasons I decided to study law. When I read the opinion piece Civil disobedience is the only way left to fight climate change, by Kara Moses, in spring 2016, it crystallised my feelings about the responsibility we have as a community of humans to do more.

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Fungicides are found to be the strongest factor linked to steep bumblebee declines, surprising scientists and adding to the threats to vital pollinators

Common fungicides are the strongest factor linked to steep declines in bumblebees across the US, according to the first landscape-scale analysis.

The surprising result has alarmed bee experts because fungicides are targeted at molds and mildews – not insects – but now appear to be a cause of major harm. How fungicides kill bees is now being studied, but is likely to be by making them more susceptible to the deadly nosema parasite or by exacerbating the toxicity of other pesticides.

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A new treatment that has saved a dog's broken leg is to be tried on humans.

In the wake of Colombia’s peace deal, the rush to clear Amazon jungle for cattle ranches and coca caused deforestation to soar. A new scheme hopes to enable farmers to make a sustainable living from the forest

In a cool forest patch along a rutted dirt road outside the Amazon jungle town of El Retorno in Guaviare, southern Colombia, Luis Vergara lifts his machete to clear a path through the brush. He walks through a 90-hectare plot of land he has replanted with valuable abarco trees – Colombian mahogany – in an attempt to replace what he logged from it.

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A pest that can infect hundreds of plants from lavender to olive trees is of growing concern in the UK.

From the Pink Floyd shrimp that makes a noise so loud it can kill small fish, to giant stick insects and new types of orangutans and gibbons, here is a round up of new animal species discovered this year

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As the rest of the country relaxes into that comfortable space between Christmas and the new year, Andrew Lock is returning to the Arctic Circle with his expedition partner, Neil Ward, in an attempt to become the first to cross the Brooks Range in the depths of winter.

The planned 10-week, 1,600km expedition will be the second attempt for the pair. Almost 12 months ago a record-breaking cold snap, a foot infection and inadequate gear forced Lock and Ward to abandon their attempt just 10 days into the journey.

Before leaving, Lock sat down with Guardian Australia to discuss what went wrong, and why he is going back

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Advanced plans by Dutch power grid aims to build power hub possibly at Dogger Bank whose scale would dwarf current offshore sites

Britain’s homes could be lit and powered by windfarms surrounding an artificial island deep out in the North Sea, under advanced plans by a Dutch energy network.

The radical proposal envisages an island being built to act as a hub for vast offshore windfarms that would eclipse today’s facilities in scale. Dogger Bank, 125km (78 miles) off the East Yorkshire coast, has been identified as a potentially windy and shallow site.

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Stamford, Lincolnshire Hieroglyphics left by fleeting feet provide a record of their ways, written on the ground

Cold comes, and life hunkers. A hedgehog asleep in a nest of leaves behind the shed. Inside it, there are big spiders and signs of shredding, mice probably. So much life that stays unnoticed most of the year, then moves indoors undetected. But the birds are always noticed. Though in winter, less.

Morning, and the inside is filled with a quiet, odd brightness. Outside is a four-inch mantle of snow. Softening, just. No signs of life. Then I see something inscribed in the white. What Richard Clapham called “the hieroglyphics left by the feet of nature’s wild things” (Bird Tracks in the Snow, 1920).

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2017 brought wild, wacky and even deadly weather. Australia was hit by heatwaves and torrential rains, plus some surprisingly cool spells. Hurricanes hit America, and a killer monsoon lashed Asia. Andrew King, Climate Extremes Research Fellow, University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A multi-million pound weather satellite is lost after being programmed to take off from the wrong base.

This year is set to be the third warmest on record in the US, as scientists say the fingerprints of climate change can be seen in numerous extreme weather events

Scientists say 2017 is set to be the third warmest year on record in the US as they look back on a year littered with stark signals of climate change.

The year-to-date average temperature across the contiguous US has been 2.6F above the 20th century average, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), placing it only behind 2012 and 2016 in terms of record warmth.

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As the year draws to a close, we celebrate the finest weather photos our readers’ have snapped this year – from January dawns to December snowfalls

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We have to develop digital forecasts of species’ responses to climate change, design robust strategies to protect as many as possible, and help nature to adapt

Each day increasingly dangerous hurricanes, wildfires, and floods betray the influence of climate change. We are appalled at the accruing losses of life and property. The arguments to address climate change at the recent UN climate conference in Bonn focused most often on these more concrete risks. However, the worst effects of climate change will come not from severe weather but from the irreversible loss of species and ecosystems.

Moulded over millions of years by natural selection, the diversity of species on Earth does more than just inspire awe. They are technical marvels and solutions to problems we do not yet know exist.

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