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There is a whole generation of women out here who were protesters at Greenham Common, Aldermaston, and the Newbury Bypass (Anti-Fracking groups plan protest camps, 26 May). Besides working with our partners to help our children carve out a life in a horribly hostile financial climate, we are volunteering on committees to help keep youth and children’s centres, libraries, and village halls open, because council budgets are totally inadequate. In our 50s, 60s and 70s, we are supporting the junior doctors, standing against welfare cuts, and for renewable energy. We want this government to publish the report, which they have been sitting on since the end of March, on the Environmental Impact of Shale Gas Technology, by the independent Climate Change Committee. Yes, I think there will be anti-fracking camps like Balcombe here in the north. I think there might be all sorts of imaginative social disobedience. We’ve been round the block already, and demographics show that our age group is growing. Even if we didn’t get to Greenham Common, there are quite a lot of us who might make up for it in Kirby Misperton, Preston New Road, or Roseacre Wood.
Janet Russell
Silsden, West Yorkshire

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After North Yorkshire allows test drilling, villagers in Misson are determined to stop the same happening in former bomber pilot testing ground

When councillors in North Yorkshire ignored widespread public opposition and granted planning permission for the fracking company Third Energy to carry out test drilling, there were groans around the Nottinghamshire village of Misson.

For the last two years, tenacious locals in this quiet fenland hamlet have been fighting attempts by another energy firm to set up a shale gas exploration site in a nearby field.

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Fears about damage to the Great Barrier Reef were removed from UN report along with concern about a threat to the environment in two other heritage sites

A draft UN report on climate change, which was scrubbed of all reference to Australia over fears it could deter visitors to the Great Barrier Reef, also outlined possible threats to the Tasmania wilderness and Kakadu.

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Zoo officials shoot dead a gorilla after it grabbed a four-year-old boy who fell into its enclosure in the US city of Cincinnati.

In the first of a series, we visit the Hellisheiði plant, which provides 300MW of power – and Reykjavik’s hot water

Thanks to its position on a volatile section of the Mid-Atlantic ridge, Iceland is a world leader in the the use of geothermal energy, and of the six geothermal power plants in Iceland, Hellisheiði (pronounced “het-li-shay-thee”) is the newest and largest. Fully operational since 2010, it sits on the mossy slopes of the Hengill volcano in the south-west of the country; a green and placid-looking landscape that belies the turbulent geological activity rumbling beneath it.

To access the potential energy under the surface, wells are drilled thousands of metres into the ground, penetrating reservoirs of pressurised water. Heated by the Earth’s energy, this water can be more than 300C in temperature, and when released it boils up from the well, turning partly to steam on its way. At Hellisheiði, the steam is separated from the water to power some of the plant’s seven turbines, while the remaining water is further depressurised to create more steam, used to power other turbines. At its maximum output the station can produce 303MW of electricity, making it one of the three largest single geothermal power stations in the world.

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Female opposition to drilling soars as mothers unite in desire to safeguard children’s future

“We are ready for them,” said Tina Louise Rothery. “It has been a long battle but we have been ready for a confrontation for a long time.”

Rothery is one of a growing group of women at the forefront of opposition to fracking. Of the 250 anti-fracking community groups that have sprung up in Britain in the past few years, very many are led, or strongly backed, by women, who say they have been outraged at plans to risk people’s health by exploiting the countryside for shale gas.

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Piecing together the bare bones of a sea reptile that swam at the time of the dinosaurs.

Time to help the creatures that, wrested from habitats where they swim thousands of miles, end up atrophying in tanks

We need to talk about Dory. As Pixar’s charming version of a tropical blue tang swims on to screens in Finding Dory next month, conservationists fear a wave of inappropriate fish buying.

Finding Nemo, which triggered just such a global craze in 2003, posed less of a threat. Clownfish (Nemo’s ilk) are usually bred in captivity for the aquarium trade, but blue tangs are “harvested” from the wild for aquariums, with up to 80% dying during capture and transportation. There is intense pressure on wild populations, especially around coral reefs.

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Alma telescope peers into space from Chile

A third of the CSIRO's climate scientists have been sacked. It's part of a radical change in direction at Australia's premier science organisation. Will this leave Australia vulnerable to climate change? Paddy Manning investigates.

Deep sea scientists exploring the remote waters between Hawaii and Midway atoll find a gigantic sea sponge “about the size of a minivan” that could be the oldest animal on earth. A remote-operated submersible found the sponge about 2,100m (7,000ft) down, while exploring the depths of the Papahānaumokuākea marine park

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An onboard camera has captured the successful landing of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, returning from space after launching an Asian communications satellite.

Mega dam on Congo river to produce electricity equal to 20 large nuclear power stations, but critics say it will displace 60,000 people and wreck the ecosystem

The largest dam in the world is set to begin construction within months and could be generating electricity in under five years. But 35,000 people may have to be relocated and it could be built without any environmental or social impact surveys, say critics.

The $14bn (£9.5bn) Inga 3 project, the first part of the mega-project, is being fast-tracked by the Democratic Republic of Congo government will span one channel of the vast river Congo at Inga Falls. It involves a large dam and a 4,800MW hydro-electric plant.

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Strathnairn, Highlands In all the years we had lived here, we had never had a red squirrel in the garden. This has been the subject of much banter in the village shop

One of the main wildlife mysteries in the strath is the distribution of red squirrels in gardens in the adjoining villages of Farr and Inverarnie. Over many years we have advised people over putting out peanuts and feeders, and every one has succeeded in attracting them. However, one garden of an acre with mature trees and seemingly ideal has not succeeded, and it is ours!

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Western Australia is being invaded by starlings from many sources in the east, not just one in bordering South Australia.

Kerrie Mengersen describes her use of mathematics in estimating populations of jaguars and other rare animals in Peru and elsewhere.

Saudi Arabia got rich selling oil. Australia could do the same exporting power from vast fields of solar panels.

Researchers believe the creature found by scientists 2,100m below the surface of the ocean is the largest of its kind ever documented

Scientists on a deep-sea expedition in the waters off Hawaii have discovered what they say is the world’s largest known sponge.

The creature, roughly the size of a minivan, was discovered about 2,100m (7,000ft) down in a marine conservation area off the shores of the north-western Hawaiian -islands. The rare sponge, with a bluish-white colour and brain-like appearance, stunned scientists when it appeared in the remote cameras attached to their underwater rover.

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How to trap a platypus ..with wildlife ecologist, Josh Griffiths.

..with wildlife ecologist, Josh Griffiths.