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Wildflowers have erupted across California deserts in the past month in a phenomenon known as a ‘super bloom’. After heavy rainfall ended months of drought, the flowers carpeted such vast areas that the transformation was visible from space

• Video courtesy of Heather Lomax
• Images courtesy of Planet Labs

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The deepest and oldest waters on Earth are not immune from contamination, warn scientists.

Mount Etna, India’s ship graveyard and trees in Africa are among the images captured by European Space Agency and Nasa satellites last month

The Mackenzie river system is Canada’s largest watershed, and the 10th largest water basin in the world. The river runs 4,200km (2,600 miles) from the Columbia icefield in the Canadian Rockies to the Arctic Ocean. If your vehicle weighs less than 22,000lb, you can drive the frozen river out to Reindeer Station. The bitterly cold ice road runs for 194km between the remote outposts of Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. White, snow- and ice-covered waterways of the east channel of the Mackenzie river delta stand out amid green, pine-covered land. The low angle of the sunlight bathes the higher elevations in golden light. The pond- and lake-covered lands around the river are home to caribou, waterfowl, and a number of fish species. Several thousand reindeer travel through this area each year on the way to their calving grounds.

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The new cycling and walking investment strategy is the first legislation of its kind to legally bind the government to long-term funding for cycling and walking provision

Unless you’re an avid transport campaigner, it’s likely that among the rush of government announcements made last week, you will have missed one very important one: the publication of the cycling and walking investment strategy (CWIS),

The government’s intention to launch a CWIS was first announced in January 2015. It took more than two years, but we now have the first legislation of its kind in England to bind the government with legal commitments to invest in cycling and walking provision.

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Scientists have calculated the optimal strategy for throwing something accurately, even a ball of paper.

Plunging wind and solar costs put "hydrogen" economy at tipping point, with Australia urged to lay groundwork for opportunity to develop "green fuel" exports to replace coal and gas, a market potentially worth $40bn a year. ARENA likely to make it one of its key investment priorities this year.

South Australia reaches record wind output of 1,540MW on Anzac Day.

Figsbury Ring, Wiltshire Sewn like gems into the sward, these little blue flowers take shelter in the lee of the earthwork rings

Bluer than the sky, bluer than the sheen on rooks and the lustre of oil beetles, the milkwort flowers are sewn like gems into the sward. Polygala calcarea is the chalk milkwort, with a gentian-blue far brighter than the common milkwort flowers I’m used to seeing on Wenlock Edge. High on Salisbury Plain, open to the winds and shafts of sunlight through distant showers, the little blue flowers take shelter in the lee of earthwork rings, an archaeological monument within the largest remaining area of calcareous grassland in north-west Europe.

Milkwort gets its name not from increasing milk yield in grazing cattle but from herbalists prescribing it to new mothers to aid breastfeeding, although I’m not sure anyone would now. It has also been used as an anti-inflammatory and a hepatoprotector (against liver damage), but perhaps its most important cultural role here was that it was collected at Rogationtide.

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Monash Uni offers long-term contract for 55GWh of new wind or solar in Australia's biggest non-government renewables tender, to date.

Tesla is making charging an even greater priority as they prepare for their first mass-market vehicle and continues to increase our Model S and Model X fleet.

Southern Cross VC fund backs NSW-based “internet of things” energy data company Wattwatchers.

ASX-listed battery maker Redflow discovers electrolyte problems at pivotal time of home battery storage roll-out.

Policy initiatives in China, India and Australia to help deliver a near doubling of wind energy capacity within 5 years.

The plans are part of the Saudi Arabia's recently-announced intention to grow its renewable energy sources and spur development of wind and solar.

Building IQ has received a United States Patent for Predictive Energy OptimizationTM (PEO) technology that serves as a cornerstone for its 5i Platform.

Scientists reveal unique, intimate form of communication between humpback mothers and calves as well as silent method to initiate suckling

Newborn humpback whales and their mothers whisper to each other to escape potential predators, scientists reported Wednesday, revealing the existence of a previously unknown survival technique.

“They don’t want any unwanted listeners,” researcher Simone Videsen, lead author of a study published in Functional Ecology, said.

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HISTORIC MISSION: NASA's Cassini spacecraft begins the first of 22 historic dives between Saturn and its rings to collect valuable data about the environment, before it ends its mission by plunging into the planet in September.

Homo naledi could be from just 200,000 years ago, not three million, a study suggests.

The probe will be out of radio contact as it dives in between the planet's rings and cloudtops.

Global index reveals 60% of asset owners are now taking some action, but warns there is still ‘enormous resistance’ to managing climate risk

For the first time a majority of global investor heavyweights recognise the financial risks of climate change, according to the results of a major global index rating how investors manage such risks.

But despite the advances, the Asset Owner Disclosure Project chairman, John Hewson, has warned there is still an “enormous resistance” to managing climate risk.

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