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Northumberland coastline famed for Arctic terns and Atlantic puffins granted greater protection by Natural England

A stretch of coastline which is one of the most important sites in the UK for seabirds such as Arctic terns and Atlantic puffins has been given greater protection.

The newly-designated Northumberland marine special protected area (SPA) stretches 12 miles from the coast into the North Sea, covering an area larger than 120,000 football pitches, government conservation body Natural England said.

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Lithium-ion batteries that are resistant to exploding or igniting have been developed by scientists in the US.

It came without warning, and without equivalent. Now a flash drought is fueling fires and hurting the lives of those who work the land

When Rick Kirn planted his 1,000 acres of spring wheat in May, there were no signs of a weather calamity on the horizon. Three months later, when he should have been harvesting and getting ready to sell his wheat, Kirn was staring out across vast cracked, gray, empty fields dotted with weeds and little patches of stunted wheat.

“It’s a total loss for me,” said Kirn, who operates a small family wheat farm on the Fort Peck Reservation, an area of north-eastern Montana that lies right in the heart of the extreme climactic episode. “There’s nothing to harvest.”

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Government data reveals Tesco deducted administration costs from plastic bag sales, unlike other major supermarkets, angering senior MPs

Millions of pounds in administration costs were deducted from the charitable donations made by Tesco using funds generated from the plastic bag tax, government data has revealed. No other major supermarket made any such deductions, leading senior MPs to urge Tesco to follow their lead.

The 5p charge for plastic bags was introduced in England in October 2015 and has led to an 83% reduction in their use, equivalent to 9bn fewer bags. It is also credited with a drop by nearly half in plastic bags found littering beaches.

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How much does climate change have to do with the recent hurricanes in North America and the Caribbean?

What would the world be like if we weren’t dependent on oil? Photographer Richard Allenby-Pratt imagines a deserted Dubai in which the wealthy have fled, leaving giraffes and zebras to wander the alien landscapes

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As AEMO works to shore up Australia's grid, fossil fuel proponents are barracking for "a giant blackout on a super hot day this coming summer.”

London-based designer Ryan Yasin used his background in aeronautical engineering to develop sustainable clothing to fit babies through to toddlers

An origami-inspired range of children’s clothing made from a durable pleated fabric that expands to fit growing babies and toddlers has won its 24-year-old designer a prestigious James Dyson award.

Ryan Yasin devised the material using scientific principles he studied for his aeronautical engineering degree, after noting the lack of sustainability in the clothing industry and being frustrated by how quickly his baby niece and nephew outgrew garments he bought for them.

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Retailer Flow Power signs PPA with Ararat wind farm to pass on cheap renewable energy to business customers. It aims for 1,000MW of such contracts.

Liddell was bought for nothing and for good reason - "it's clapped out". Turnbull's intervention raises probity issues and could have as devastating an impact on new technology as canning of the carbon price and the attempt to kill the RET.

Australia’s politicians marked the country’s annual Threatened Species Day by welcoming a range of animals to Canberra – some of whom were more happy to be there than others. The day marks the death of the last Tasmanian thylacine in 1936

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Joyce says Australia under attack from “green peril”, that will only become apparent to all when the power goes out, leaving people stuck in a lift, busting for a pee. Oh, and he doesn't think India will want Australia's thermal coal. Say, what?

While politicians waffle on climate change, Los Angeles is tackling the problem head on with a radical plan to lower the temperature of the city.

Whatever the recent VEEC market volatility may imply, it seems clear that the intent exists within government to bring about change, the question now remains what will the end result be?

Though the awareness of climate risk disclosure has become more prevalent, such disclosures by Australian companies are still the exception rather than the norm.

Federal funding for biodiversity conservation has dropped by 37% since 2013 and all MPs need to take greater action

Australia is rapidly losing its world-famous biodiversity. More than 90 species have gone extinct since European colonisation (including three in just the past decade) and more than 1,700 species are now formally recognised as being in danger of extinction.

Despite the pride many Australians feel in our unique natural heritage (and the billions of dollars made from nature-based tourism), the amount of federal funding for biodiversity conservation has dropped by 37% since 2013.

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Would British forensic science benefit from having its own outdoor laboratory to study human decomposition?

A national study shows that R&D grants to firms significantly boosts growth and creates jobs.

A wine producer in the Burgundy region of France blames climate change for this year's low yield.

The critically endangered Leadbeater's Possum lives within a single federal electorate. Their local MP has a responsibility to be their voice. Zoos Victoria

Australia is rapidly losing its world-famous biodiversity. More than 90 species have gone extinct since European colonisation (including three in just the past decade), and more than 1,700 species are now formally recognised as being in danger of extinction.

Despite the pride many Australians feel in our unique natural heritage (and the billions of dollars made from nature-based tourism) the amount of federal funding for biodiversity conservation has dropped by 37% since 2013.

Read more: The environment needs billions of dollars more: here’s how to raise the money

If a local industry or public institution experienced such a drastic funding cut, the people affected would petition their local representatives and the issue would be raised in parliament as a matter of local or national importance.

Threatened species cannot of course lobby government. But all threatened species on the land have at least one elected official who should take responsibility for them.

Threatened species as local constituents

A member of parliament’s primary job, besides being a party member and parliamentarian, is to speak up for local interests. Data from the Species of National Environmental Significance shows that every federal electorate contains at least one threatened species, so every single federally elected politician has a role to play in abating species extinction.

We’ve used that data to create an interactive map that shows the number of threatened species in each federal electorate, along with details of the local MP and their party. It’s obvious from a glance that a handful electorates contain most of Australia’s threatened species. (You can click on an electorate to view information on the local member, and to download its threatened species lists.)

This is because species are not uniformly spread across the landscape, and also because electorate size varies hugely according to population density. The biggest electorate is the Division of Durack, which at 1.6 million square kilometres is half the size of Germany, while the smallest (the Division of Grayndler in inner Sydney) is 0.002% Durack’s size.

Because extremely large seats are in remote and rural areas, they are dominated by Liberal and National politicians. Melissa Price, the Liberal member for Durack, represents 359 threatened species, or about 20% of Australia’s total.

The box below highlights the 10 seats with the most threatened species. Between them, the members for these 10 electorates represent 609 – or 36% – of all threatened species in Australia. These MPs need to be empowered to protect the natural heritage of their electorates.

Green Fire Science, CC BY-ND

While this issue affects every MP, some 79 electorates contain a species that resides mainly – or even only – inside that electoral boundary. Several electorates have more than 50 species that rely on habitat found in one electorate, including the divisions of Durack (Liberal), O’Connor (Liberal), Lingiari (Labor), and Lyons (Labor).

The figure below shows electorates that contain more than 80% of a species’ range. The size of the bubble scales directly to the size of the electorate. It’s clear that some electorates are important sites of biodiversity.

Author provided

For example, Warren Entsch, the Liberal National member for Leichardt, has the endangered Golden shouldered parrot living entirely within his electoral boundaries. The federal division of Canberra, represented by Labour MP Gai Brodtmann, contains the entire habitat of the spectacular Brindabella Midge-orchid. These are just two of 79 members who can make such a claim.

Local members should not just be aware of this but active in saving these species.

While many of the factors that imperil threatened species come from far outside an electorate’s borders, local threatened species need local voices. As arguably the strongest local voice, all federal MPs can fight for more money and more action for threatened species, especially those within their electoral boundaries. And given the inequity in terms of threatened species per electorate, some will need to fight for much greater resourcing than others.

Extinction is forever, and every time we lose a species our world becomes a poorer place. Ultimately, only local action on the ground can prevent the irreversible loss of our precious threatened species.

James Watson receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Environmental Science Programme and the Science for Nature and People Partnership. He is the Director of the Science and Research Initiative at the Wildlife Conservation Society.

April Reside receives funding from NESP Threatened Species Recovery Hub. She sits on the Black-throated Finch Recovery Team and Birdlife Australia's Research and Conservation Committee.

Hugh Possingham receives research funding from The Australian Research Council, the National Environmental Science Program and other small granting agencies. He is employed by The Nature Conservancy.

Martine Maron receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Environmental Science Programme, the Science for Nature and People Partnership, and the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage. She is a Director of BirdLife Australia and a Governor of WWF Australia.

Michelle Ward receives funding from an Australian Postgraduate Award. She is a volunteer for Wildcare Australia and a Commission Member for the IUCN WCPA.

Richard Fuller receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the National Environmental Science Programme.

Stephen Kearney receives funding from an Australian Postgraduate Award.

Brooke Williams and Scott Consaul Atkinson do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.