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South Uist The plumage of the few birds present seems to be in harmony with the muted colours of the day

The hail shower begins within seconds of the car coming to a halt. Driven by furious gusts, the ice pellets ping off the roof and rattle against the windscreen, sliding down the glass to obscure the sight of the sand and the sea beyond. Then, departing as swiftly as it arrived, the squall is past, the wind subsiding again to a stiff breeze. Getting out for a walk, which had seemed so unlikely just a few minutes before, now becomes a certainty.

Down on the beach there is a curious quality about the day, for it is both bright and simultaneously without clarity. After yesterday’s gale the pale sea still shows line after line after line of foam-topped waves, which, despite the falling tide, are still surging as far up the sand as their diminishing energy will allow.

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Phil Seddon argues that despite some wins, the big picture conservation battle is being lost.

Slow breeding sea lions may be extinct in 50 years if fishing practices do not change.

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.

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.

Millions of pieces of man-made trash are orbiting the Earth. Some are tiny, but all pose a risk.

The findings in your article (Hundreds of thousands of children being exposed to illegal levels of damaging air pollution from diesel vehicles, 4 April) are scandalous. We are storing up huge unknowns in terms of the future of our children’s lung health. We need urgent action. The government must bring in a fair and ambitious Clean Air Act with targets to ensure pollution levels are monitored around every school and nursery located close to busy roads, arming parents and teachers with the information they need to take action to protect children’s health. Traffic emissions are the main culprit, but we know people bought their old diesel cars in good faith. A targeted scrappage incentive scheme would be a positive step, which could persuade drivers to switch quickly to cleaner vehicles. The Guardian and Greenpeace’s investigation shows our children’s lung health demands action now.
Dr Penny Woods
Chief executive, British Lung Foundation

• Your article highlights diesel fumes in London.In Hampstead, north-west London, pleas to Camden council to take account of the EU air quality directive and limit developments with massive lorry movements have not been heard. The council accepts that if it complied with the directive it will have to stop developments, and it is just not going to do that. Some 12,500 children go to schools in Hampstead every day, many under the age of seven. Development after development is approved by Camden and government planning inspectors right next to schools where children are exposed to lorry diesel fumes. One such development will see 2,000 lorry movements.

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The assertion by Professor Dave Goulson (Farmers could slash pesticide use without losses, research reveals, 6 April) cannot go unchallenged. He says that pesticides are massively over-used because farmers are advised by agronomists working on commission to sell products.

The Agricultural Industries Confederation represents the majority of businesses that supply both agronomy advice and crop protection products to UK farmers. Farmers can elect to pay separately for agronomy advice and crop protection products. Farmers also have access to information from agrochemical manufacturers as well as independent agronomy research organisations – much of it free online. In many instances, those delivering advice do not receive commission.

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Experts have suggested car makers pay for the air pollution crisis rather than drivers. If you own a diesel car we’d like to hear what you think

In an attempt to combat the amount of toxic pollution produced by diesel cars, the UK’s current plans are focused on making diesel drivers pay to enter cities and a possible taxpayer-funded scrappage scheme.

However experts have suggested that motor companies should pay for the crisis rather than drivers. Both the German and French governments have already required that manufacturers including Volkswagen, Opel, Audi, Mercedes and Renault fix over a million diesel vehicles which were spewing far higher levels of toxic pollution on the road than in official tests.

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Snowshoe hare, flying fish and pink flamingos are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

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Ridhima Pandey, daughter of green activist, urges ministers to reduce emissions to limit impact on younger generations

A nine-year-old girl has filed a lawsuit against the Indian government for failing to take action on climate change, warning that young people will pay the price for the country’s inaction.

In the petition filed with the National Green Tribunal, a special court for environment-related cases, Ridhima Pandey said the government had failed to implement its environment laws.

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Scientists capture a dramatic collision between two young stars that tore apart their stellar nursery.

He said he was looking for parasitic wasps but volunteers at Daneway Banks where the large blue is flourishing suspected Phillip Cullen had ulterior motives

Mark Greaves, a butterfly enthusiast, points out the slope where he first spotted Phillip Cullen. “He and his mate parked in the layby, climbed over that locked gate, and he was down there running around with a little net.”

Greaves asked Cullen what on earth he thought he was doing with a net on one of the most precious butterfly sites in the UK and was doubtful about the explanation.

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Phillip Cullen sentenced for illegally capturing and killing specimens of the large blue, Britain’s rarest butterfly

An insect enthusiast who illegally captured and killed specimens of Britain’s rarest butterfly, the large blue, has been given a six-month suspended prison sentence.

The amateur entomologist and former body builder Phillip Cullen, 57, was caught after being spotted by volunteers and wardens acting suspiciously at two nature reserves in the west of England.

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New law allows private landowners to cut down any number of trees without applying for permission or even informing authorities

A controversial change to Polish environmental law has unleashed what campaigners describe as a “massacre” of trees across the country.

The new amendment, commonly known as “Szyszko’s law”, after Jan Szyszko, Poland’s environment minister, removes the obligation for private landowners to apply for permission to cut down trees, pay compensation or plant new trees, or even to inform local authorities that trees have been or will be removed.

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Cheating, dodging rules and heavy lobbying by motor manufacturers fuelled the toxic air the UK is struggling with today

Conniving car makers and their lobbying might, assisted by the 2008 financial crash, were the key factors in producing the diesel-fuelled air pollution crisis the UK is struggling with today, according to key observers of the disaster.

Earlier government decisions to incentivise diesel vehicles, which produce less climate-warming carbon dioxide, sparked the problem but were made in good faith. The heart of the disaster is instead a giant broken promise: the motor industry said it would clean up diesel but instead cheated and dodged the rules for years.

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Human activities are altering the jet stream, which leads to extreme weather patterns getting stuck in place

It was only a few weeks ago that I wrote about changes to extreme weather in a warming world. That prior article dealt with the increase of extreme precipitation events as the Earth warms. I termed the relationship a thermodynamic one; it was driven by local thermodynamic processes. But extreme weather can also occur because of large-scale changes to the atmosphere and oceans. This issue is the topic of another just-published paper that makes a convincing case for a whole new type of influence of humans on extreme weather. In a certain sense, this study confirms what was previously reported here and here. With the march of science, the tools, methods, and evidence get better each year.

Before getting into the study, a little background. The jet stream(s) are high-speed rivers of air that flow in the upper atmosphere. There’s more than one jet stream; they blow west to east and they mark the separation of zones of different temperatures. A good primer on jet streams is available here.

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Everything you know about memory may be wrong.

From basking gharial to stampeding muskoxen, these images from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition have been selected for a Natural History Museum book, Unforgettable Behaviour, and offer a unique glimpse into hidden worlds of animal survival and joy

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Dartmoor, Devon A thick cylindrical form, bent double like a trombone pipe, in a sheltered patch of grass, stops me short

Beneath the granite knuckles of this east Dartmoor tor the land spreads and softens high above the valley. Sheep-clipped grasses and scattered clumps of gorse cover the sides of the outcrop, punctuated by exposed boulders. After a lengthy spell of rain, morning sunshine makes a welcome change, and the temperature along this south-facing incline is climbing steadily.

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