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Plastic is destroying our oceans, yet big corporations are still being given money to produce cheap plastic. It’s time for polluters to pay for the damage they cause

A six-year-old boy, Harrison Forsyth, provided us with a much needed wake-up call last week. He called on the boss of Aldi to protect our oceans:

“Dear boss of Aldi, I have watched this programme called Blue Planet 2 and I have seen that the plastic in the sea is making the animals sick and die.

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Coalition pressures Queensland government to back Aurizon proposal to build rail link

Labor has inched closer to resolving its stance on the controversial Adani coalmine as the federal resources minister, Matt Canavan, declared he was looking at alternatives to open up the Queensland coal basin and “get these jobs going”.

With federal parliament resuming for the new political year on Monday, the shadow cabinet was expected to discuss policy options on Adani after the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, toughened his rhetoric substantially against the north Queensland mine.

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There's yet more disagreement over the Murray Darling basin plan.

Peers use evidence-free anecdotes and cabbie hearsay to claim cycle lanes cause congestion – shouldn’t we demand a higher standard?

• House of Lords peers criticised for ‘propagating bike lane myths’

A number of peers have attempted to defend unsubstantiated claims that cycle lanes cause congestion and air pollution, apparently echoing anecdotal evidence from their own observations, taxi drivers and the rightwing press. These claims tend to go unchallenged and are allowed to shape the political debate – but this has to stop.

In a House of Lords debate on air pollution on 15 January, the prominent scientist and Labour peer Lord Robert Winston questioned the government over journey times for motor traffic before and after cycle lane construction, saying idling or slow-moving engines pollute more at slow speeds.

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The incidence of 'wind turbine syndrome' in countries that don't speak English is low, Simon Chapman says.

Large filter feeders, such as baleen whales and basking sharks, could be particularly at risk from ingesting the tiny plastic particles, say scientists

Whales, some sharks and other marine species such as rays are increasingly at risk from microplastics in the oceans, a new study suggests.

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5 February 1918 The sap is running, forcing on new life. In the withy bed the hares in couples, weeks before their proverbial date for madness, dodge round the clumps, while a ‘joyous clamour’ rises from the mere

The gay cock chaffinch, in smart, nuptial garments, rattles out repeated challenges to a distant rival, who strives to answer in as sprightly terms; it began to sing here three days ago at least. The blackbird this morning pipes airs and variations with such skill and finish that we can hardly realise that he has only just begun to sing.

The spring-like weather, which has brought out the semi-wild snowdrops in a Cheshire wood, has dotted the yellow crocuses about our gardens, awakened the sleepy bees and sent them to the winter aconites, has stirred their blood.

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Ilkley, West Yorkshire: The Cow and the Calf have become monuments to our longing to anchor ourselves in the world

On the horizons surrounding Wharfedale, snow, sky and space are warring in spectacular ways; white clouds roll over the white moors like billows of steam, vaporising the distinction between both, and the sun occasionally provides episodes of dazzling icy brightness. Winter’s sorcery has turned Rombald’s Moor into a convincing impression of blizzard-swept Arctic tundra a few miles from the middle of Bradford. Undeterred, the weekend visitors are out in force around the great millstone grit forms of the Cow and Calf above Ilkley.

Like many of the tors, outcrops and escarpments dotting the gritstone Pennines, this imposing crag and its smaller counterpart together act as a natural gathering point for the surrounding civilisation. Climbers climb them; children instinctively recognise them as venues for play; adults stride to the lip of boulders and strike noble poses for phone cameras. Spend any time people-watching at the nearby Brimham Rocks, Almscliffe Crag or the Chevin and see further evidence of how we are innately drawn towards wild rock formations.

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Scientists call for monitoring of plastic pollution risks to whales, sharks and rays that strain water to feed.

Incident in January shows how Tesla big battery is already breaking the stranglehold of the gas cartel in South Australia's electricity market. And for the first time, a wind farm bid in FCAS to keep prices down.

Tasmania's Liberal government flags plan to quit NEM, as bipartisan Parliamentary report concludes electricity market is broken, needs rebuilding.

Analysis shows renewable energy generation supplied more of Europe's electricity than coal in 2017 for the first time ever.

Bond price jump may hit renewable energy projects; state Labor governments under threat; and debate shifts to dispatchable renewable energy.

Tindo Solar to win big after mandate for Tesla virtual power plant calls for half of the 250MW solar capacity to be sourced from Australia.

Hyundai Motor Company Australia has become a founding member of new automotive industry body Hydrogen Mobility Australia (HMA).

A dozen leading researchers have issued an urgent call to action for the Murray-Darling Basin, arguing that the billions spent on water-efficient irrigation have done little for the rivers' health. Quentin Grafton, Director of the Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Darla Hatton MacDonald, Associate Professor, University of Tasmania David Paton, Associate Professor, University of Adelaide Graham Harris, Professorial Fellow, University of Wollongong Henning Bjornlund, Professor, University of South Australia Jeffery D Connor, Professor in Water Economics, University of South Australia John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland John Williams, Adjunct Professor Environment and Natural Resources, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Lin Crase, Professor of Economics and Head of School, University of South Australia Richard Kingsford, Professor, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW Sarah Ann Wheeler, Professor in Water Economics, University of Adelaide Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Pond snails use things like rocks or the side of their aquarium as their bed, attaching themselves while they sleep. This might not seem very relaxing but their shells do hang away from their body. John Lesku, PhD, Senior Lecturer in Sleep Ecophysiology, La Trobe University Anne Aulsebrook, PhD candidate, University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Scientists and economists issue urgent warning that $4bn plan is not improving basin health

A group of prominent scientists and economists has issued a stark warning to the nation’s politicians: the Murray-Darling basin plan is failing to achieve environmental goals and is a “gross waste” of money.

The group of seven economists and five scientists with deep expertise in the river are meeting on Monday morning in Adelaide to issue what they are calling the Murray-Darling declaration.

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It’s a simple idea: strip CO2 from the air and use it to produce carbon-neutral fuel. But can it work on an industrial scale?

It’s nothing much to look at, but the tangle of pipes, pumps, tanks, reactors, chimneys and ducts on a messy industrial estate outside the logging town of Squamish in western Canada could just provide the fix to stop the world tipping into runaway climate change and substitute dwindling supplies of conventional fuel.

It could also make Harvard superstar physicist David Keith, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and oil sands magnate Norman Murray Edwards more money than they could ever dream of.

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South Australia unveils plans to build 250MW "virtual power plant", linking household rooftop solar and battery storage, in what it says will be world's biggest. It will involve 50,000 homes, each with 5kW rooftop solar and a Tesla Powerwall 2.