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Do you keep it real or try and fake it? When it comes to Christmas trees try and find an organic one and, if possible, a living one so you can dust off the tinsel and keep it going for next year

This year I’m going real. Given the plastic pandemic, my goodwill doesn’t extend to manufacturers of oil-based fake trees shipped across the globe.

From an ecological point of view, all cut trees are imperfect. Three-quarters of the trees put up this Christmas in the UK will be grown here (this at least cuts down on tree miles). But these trees are raised on plantations that are as quick growing as possible. They are not carefully calibrated forests for the benefit of the future.

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China-Australia renewable energy firm lands PPA with AGL for construction of 300MW of large scale solar - the biggest contract so far in Australia.

AGL confirms plans to invest in 1.6GW of wind and solar, plus storage and other technologies, to replace the ageing coal clunker, Liddell, which it will close in 2022, much to the annoyance of the federal Coalition.

Australia in the Antarctic and the story of Heard Island, a tiny, volcanic dot on the map.

Collecting in the clouds: Remembering the British plant-hunters who diced with death to discover plants

More and more waste plastic is ending up in our oceans. How big is the problem and why is plastic such a threat?

Birds that were once rare visitors to Britain are becoming a regular sight in England, but in Scotland, Arctic species are likely to vanish

Even though almost half a century has passed, I can still recall in vivid detail the events of a hot, sunny afternoon in August 1970. My mother and I were visiting Brownsea Island, off the Dorset coast. We entered a dark hide, opened the window and looked out across the lagoon. And there – shining like a beacon – was a Persil-white apparition: my first little egret.

Back then, this ghostly member of the heron family was a very rare visitor to Britain. Nowadays, little egrets are so numerous that we hardly give them a second glance. On my local patch, the Avalon Marshes in the heart of Somerset, I have seen up to 60 in a single feeding flock. And, according to the magazine British Birds, there are now more than 1,000 breeding pairs, as far north as the Scottish border.

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Video filmed in the Canadian Arctic provides graphic evidence of the impacts of climate change on polar bears in the region, showing an emaciated animal scrounging for food on ice-free land. The footage was recorded by the conservation group Sea Legacy during a late summer expedition in Baffin Island. ‘My entire Sea Legacy team was pushing through their tears and emotions while documenting this dying polar bear,’ the photographer Paul Nicklen wrote on social media.

‘Soul-crushing’ video of starving polar bear exposes climate crisis, experts say

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The Chevin, Otley, West Yorkshire In the waning light the massed black-headed gulls move like a cloud of incense

The light that drenches the far side of Wharfedale has the translucence of burning coal, burnishing fields with the illusion of deep warmth. But it presages the onset of a bitterly cold night; the meagre heat of the winter sun is lost as my surroundings, the Danefield woods on the Chevin escarpment, are plunged into dusk.

My run has been prolonged by enthusiasm. Now I feel as exposed as a North Sea swimmer, the heat of my body’s movement the only thing that fends off the searing cold. Arriving with an Arctic air mass, a stinging wind sweeps from the north, is lifted up by the escarpment, and slices straight through my woefully inadequate clothing. The light on the opposite side of the valley deepens into an orange tauntingly redolent of a late summer evening, but pausing to admire it for too long would genuinely tempt hypothermia. I swerve around people swaddled in down jackets, get my feet tangled around dogs, and generally plough onwards.

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Continuing her talk from last week, Alison Crook outlines a new model for electricity generation, distribution and retailing, moving power to the people with the promise of cleaner electricity and lower prices.

Charlie Veron's been diving for 50 years and has discovered more than 20% of the world's coral species

Footage from Canada’s Arctic shows emaciated animal seeking food in scene that left researchers ‘pushing through their tears’

Video footage captured in Canada’s Arctic has offered a devastating look at the impact climate change is having on polar bears in the region, showing an emaciated bear clinging to life as it scrounged for food on iceless land.

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Michael Shiels, supervisor of the bird department at Taronga zoo says birds are an integral part of Australian life. 

Shiels is unable to give a single answer to Guardian Australia's bird of the year poll, but believes all Australians love birds, even if they don't know it. The poll closes today at midnight

• Share your best – or most underwhelming – Australian bird pictures

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It’s maligned in Australia but if some simple rules are observed, bird feeding is a great way to connect with the wild world

• Vote in the Australian bird of the year poll 2017

There’s a sulphur-crested cockatoo that visits my balcony daily. She lives in a hollow tree nearby, and every day at around 7.30am, she flutters up to the railing outside the living room windows of my third-floor apartment. She lets out a polite, low croak to let me know she’s there, and I come out and give her a handful of birdseed.

Interacting with birds is really good for us, mentally and physically.

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We’d like to see your best – or indeed most underwhelming – bird images of the year, whether or not the subject features on our shortlist

As we prepare to reveal the winner of the Australian bird of the year 2017, we want to see your best (or your most underwhelming) photos of Australian birds.

Whether it’s a hi-res calendar worthy masterpiece, or the quick out-of-focus snap on your phone, share your Australian native bird images, videos and stories with us, and we’ll feature the best (or worst) on site and in the live blog as we get ready to announce the winner after the poll closes today.

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A history of Vietnam from the earliest times to the present.

Moves to disclose the effects of climate change on homes, roads, dams and property are part of a global push to report climate risk to protect financial stability.

Teenage refugees go bush to tell their stories; country kids polish up their team sports skills; crowdfunding helps save a native fish; and meet Kempsey's stamp lady, Lyn Saul.

Passionate advocate for some of the world’s least-known creatures and for new approaches to wildlife conservation

Tony Whitten, who has died aged 64 in a cycling accident, was an inspirational figure in global conservation circles thanks to his collaboration with religious groups and his passionate advocacy for some of the world’s least-known creatures. Like the snails, beetles and mites that he championed, Whitten was never a household name, but his influence as a mentor and explorer – particularly in the caves and rocky environments of Asia – was such that 11 species have been named after him. He was also instrumental in the first fatwa declared against the illegal wildlife trade.

At the time of his death, he was senior adviser at Flora & Fauna International, one of the world’s oldest conservation organisations, and had recently established a specialist group on karst habitats – the crags, caves, sinkholes and disappearing streams formed by the dissolution of limestone and other soluble rocks – for the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

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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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