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The Royal Society’s annual contest celebrates the power of photography to communicate science, and the role great images play in making science accessible to a wide audience. This year the competition has proved more popular than ever, attracting more than 1,100 entries.

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Wild relatives of modern crops deemed crucial for food security are threatened with extinction.

New migrants are arriving while rising temperatures drive others away, and egg laying is taking place earlier in the year

Climate change is radically reshuffling Britain’s birds, with some species disappearing while new migrants are settling. Timings are being reset too, with egg laying getting earlier in the year, while autumn departures for warmer climes are delayed by up to a month.

The State of the UK’s Birds report for 2017, published on Tuesday, reveals the profound impact of global warming on Britain’s bird life, which is set to become even greater in the future.

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Blue Planet 2 producers say final episode lays bare shocking damage humanity is wreaking in the seas, from climate change to plastic pollution to noise

The world’s oceans are under the greatest threat in history, according to Sir David Attenborough. The seas are a vital part of the global ecosystem, leaving the future of all life on Earth dependent on humanity’s actions, he says.

Attenborough will issue the warning in the final episode of the Blue Planet 2 series, which details the damage being wreaked in seas around the globe by climate change, plastic pollution, overfishing and even noise.

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Rockland Broad, Norfolk The water rail’s distressed call tells you everything about its solitary life buried in deepest cover

As the light falls in my neighouring parish and the mercury drops, so the bird sounds acquire extra layers of intensity. I’m thinking of the hysterical chinking of blackbirds in the ivy and the disembodied sharp pitt notes of Cetti’s warblers. Most evocative of all, however, are the water rails.

Related to the moorhen and coot, this arch introvert is long-legged and long-billed, with a curious laterally compressed body that enables it to thread tiny gaps between reed stems. It is common in our valley but I seldom see one. Tonight there are four, and the way they answer each other’s sounds at 100-metre intervals across the marsh tells you everything about their solitariness and oddity.

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Australia’s former prime minister talks about the failure of his country’s climate policy, the rise of China and the Carmichael coal mine.

Around the world, energy auctions have tracked the stunning falls in the cost of solar. But in Australia, auction results are not released, typical of a market that trades in ignorance and scarcity, for the benefit of the incumbents rather than the consumer.

Decmil Group signs MOU with Maoneng for development of 250MW Sunraysia solar farm, one of the biggest in NSW development pipeline.

Modelling presented by Energy Security Board in favour of the NEG looks, kindly put, implausible. The old aphorism is that if it looks long it probably is. So why are we building policy around it?

Renew Power Group to build 4.9MW solar farm in South Australia, which will be biggest in the state till bigger projects are completed.

Solar panel system owners are becoming more and more ambitious about what they want from their PV systems, and are now installing 10kW + PV arrays and over-sizing their inverters.

India is powering the growth of solar with its ambitious targets for clean energy and is expected to be ranked as the world’s third largest solar market in 2017. Enphase plans to support this rapid growth with the opening of its Bangalore R&D center.

Migratory birds are arriving in the UK earlier each spring and leaving later each autumn, a study shows.

Life in the seas risks irreparable damage from the ever-increasing tide of plastic waste, the UN's head of oceans has warned.

Market uncertainty created by proposed National Energy Guarantee has caused longer term LGC prices to jump, while STC market worried about oversupply.

Many are now watching to see what impact the battery has on the SA electricity market, and whether it could be a game-changer nationally.

You should never try to drive through floodwater, because you never know what's beneath the surface. And new research shows some roads are more treacherous than others. Andrew Gissing, Director Resilience, Macquarie University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Last week in SA the "world's largest" lithium ion battery was launched. Will its storage capacity and versatility be a game-changer for Australia's energy market? Dylan McConnell, Researcher at the Australian German Climate and Energy College, University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The president is expected to announce the shrinking of two national monuments on a visit to Utah but native tribes are uniting to oppose a ‘monumental mistake’

On Monday, Donald Trump will visit Salt Lake City. He is expected to formally announce plans to substantially shrink two Utah national monuments: Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears.

Related: 'As close as the US gets to Egypt’s pyramids': how Chaco Canyon is endangered by drilling

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Meeting government walking and cycling targets would save 13,000 lives and almost £10bn, finds Sustrans study

If the UK hits government targets for walking and cycling more than 13,000 lives and almost £10bn would be saved over the next decade, according to a new report.

The study from the transport charity Sustrans has found that meeting government plans in England and Scotland for an increase in walking or cycling would reduce deaths from air pollution by more than 13,000 in the next 10 years. It would also save almost £9.31bn.

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