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With a string of recent record hot summers, climate change is adding a new imperative to New Zealand's bold plan to go feral free by 2050.

They are the scourge of Australian beaches and seem to be back this summer with a vengeance.

Zoos, emphasising natural behaviour and conservation, remain more popular than ever. Gabriel Pollard/Flickr, CC BY

The recently announced closure of the Ringling circus in the US, which has been running more than a century, has been heralded as bringing to an end an era when it was seen as entertaining for humans, especially children, to view animals performing tricks: dogs riding bicycles, elephants dancing, and lions jumping through hoops.

At almost the same time the killer whale Tilikum at Seaworld, Orlando, died. His shows will not be replaced, again ending an era of public entertainment by showing them animals doing tricks.

So attitudes must have changed since that time – we’ve become more ethical. Or have we?

Circus popularity waning

People no longer have to visit circuses to see animals perform tricks; videos are available by the thousands that effectively portray the same thing. In these animals are frequently doing unnatural and bizarre acts: dogs riding surfboards, or cats on sledges.

However, there is one important difference. Circuses reportedly use cruel methods to train animals, which are kept in cramped conditions, particularly when travelling from town to town.

This leads to performance of stereotyped behaviours, like weaving in elephants. These persist even after animals are retired from circuses and are evidence of poor welfare of circus animals.

The main reason that circuses such as Ringling Brothers Circus are closing is because of declining attendance, due in part to the many alternative attractions for children today.

Associated with this has been the unrelenting criticism by a wide variety of animal advocacy groups, from the more moderate, such as the RSPCA, to the more radical, such as PETA. Their strong influence on public opinion, through highly efficient use of modern media, is evident.

Circuses have fought back. In a recent review of The Welfare of Performing Animals by David Wilson, animal behaviourist Marthe Kiley-Worthington cites the amazing tasks that animals have been trained to perform as reason to maintain these outmoded forms of entertainment.

She justifies circuses on the grounds that animals don’t know that the tricks are demeaning to them, and that there is cruelty in every animal industry. This is like saying that murdering people is acceptable because people also kill during wars.

Viewing animals being belittled in this way – in particular animals forced to behave like children – is wrong because it damages our relationship with animals. It encourages anthropocentrism, in which humans must dominate and control the animal kingdom.

Zoos keep public support

Zoos have escaped criticism that their displays encourage humans to adopt such an anthropocentric attitude.

Firstly, this is because they attempt to keep animals in as natural a setting as possible. Nothing could be further from nature than a chimp riding a bicycle around a circus arena, but in a zoo chimps will have enrichment that supports their natural behaviour and companionship that replicates their social grouping in the wild.

Second, zoos purport to have both conservation and educational roles.

Third, they do not make extensive use of negative reinforcement, or punishment, when they teach animals tricks, if they do that at all.

Although live demonstrations of tigers, seals and other zoo animals are more popular than ever before, they focus on demonstrating animals’ capabilities in the wild or their physical prowess.

Why are attitudes changing?

This is evidence of a mature and responsible attitude towards animals developing in the public. This is due in no small measure to the public being shown the breadth and depth of the animal kingdom through modern media.

Since Charles Darwin’s day it has become increasingly clear that people want and need to see how the animal kingdom lives and functions. This symbiotic relationship may even be deeply embedded in our genetic makeup. It demonstrates that we are acknowledging and acting on our responsibilities for animals.

In the West, the Christian religion has also shaped our attitudes to animals, but its ancient origins provided an outdated, anthropocentric approach to the animal kingdom. As the Bible tells us in its first chapter:

God …said to them [mankind]… “Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

The decline of Christianity in the West, for all of the problems that this brings, may have one beneficial effect of encouraging a less dominant attitude towards animals. We may increasingly recognise that we all live in a giant ecosystem and are just as dependent on a vibrant natural world for survival as nature is dependent on us.

We need to understand animals better

With growing public acknowledgement of responsibility to animals, there is the danger of false anthropomorphism. Scientists are rapidly trying to discover what animals feel, but in the absence of this knowledge the public increasingly give animals the benefit of the doubt. This is further evidence of a changing attitude to animals.

From Rudyard Kipling to J.K. Rowling, animals have been credited with powers that no scientist can prove they have – which an objective scientist must condemn as false anthropomorphism. A goat is good at being a goat, but if it devoted 20% of its energy intake to cognitive processes as we do it simply would not survive.

Attributing human qualities to animals that they do not possess may make it easier for children, and some adults, to empathise with them, but it does not help us to provide for their needs in the ecological niche to which they are adapted.

We cannot justify the misery that many circus animals endure by their display of tricks, but neither can we justify ignoring the plight of animals suffering from intensive farming, climate change, habitat destruction or pet overpopulation.

Clive Phillips is on the Scientific Council for Voiceless and is a Director of Minding Animals.

Camden, City of London, and Westminster hit 10 out of 10 on index, while pollution levels across UK also peaked

London has been put on “very high” alert as cold and still weather, traffic, and a peak in the use of wood-burning stoves combined to send air pollution soaring in the capital and across swathes of the UK.

According to data from King’s College London, areas of London including Camden, the City of London and Westminster all reached 10 out of 10 on the air pollution index, with many other areas rated seven or higher.

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Red dunes turn white as record snowfall blankets desert near town of Aïn Séfra in Algeria

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Readers have asked how to get involved after the Guardian’s 24-hour digital event last week. Opportunites abound to make a difference, from setting up an online petition, to joining a local green group, to entering politics

The planet is getting hotter, leaving people hungry and fuelling wars around the world and you want to do something about it. But with a green movement to cater for every age, location, and type of plastic recycling, how do you turn your enthusiasm into action?

We talked to campaigners and politicians to glean their top tips for getting started as a climate activist.

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Motoring journalist Quentin Willson calls for cheaper and simpler prices to encourage the use of electric cars.

Denial and “alternative facts” haven’t stopped the Earth from warming to record-shattering levels

According to Nasa, in 2016 the Earth’s surface temperature shattered the previous record for hottest year by 0.12°C. That record was set in 2015, which broke the previous record by 0.13°C. That record had been set in 2014, beating out 2010, which in turn had broken the previous record set in 2005.

If you think that seems like a lot of record-breaking hot years, you’re right. The streak of three consecutive record hot years is unprecedented since measurements began in 1880. In the 35 years between 1945 and 1979, there were no record-breakers. In the 37 years since 1980, there have been 12. The video below illustrates all of the record-breaking years in the Nasa global surface temperature record since 1880.

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Texan Christy Kroboth used to have a quiet job in a dentist's surgery. Now she spends her time jumping on animals many times her size - and taping their jaws tightly shut.

The opal dubbed the Fire of Australia is back on public display after 70 years in a safe deposit box.

St Bees Head, Cumbria The red sandstone cliffs are home to a reserve that claims to be the largest seabird colony in the north-west

At Cumbria’s most westerly point, I watch two fulmars glide stiff-winged on the wind over the unmanned lighthouse. Guillemots follow suit, as does a razorbill (inappropriately named, for, though similar, their beaks are blunter and thicker). The adjacent red sandstone cliffs, 300ft high, are home to an RSPB bird reserve that claims to be the largest seabird colony in north-west England.

B-o-o-om! “What was that?” asks a startled woman, one of a group tackling Wainwright’s Coast-to-Coast walk. “It’s not the foghorn,” says another walker, consulting a guidebook. “Says here it has long been decommissioned. Maybe it’s wind hitting the cliffs.” She reads from the book: “Wreckers once lured ships below the headland with lanterns, then plundered the wreckage.” They stride on towards Robin Hood’s Bay 14 days and 190-odd miles to the east.

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Concern at fabricated stories on websites prompts a psychological study to help people spot fake news.

Labor, clean energy industry lampoon Coalition's "crazy brave" attempts to bring end to popular renewable energy target.

SERA predicts $1.3 billion in large scale solar investment set for 2017 will be surpassed by close to $2 billion in 2018.

AEMO appoints the head of New York's reforming the Energy Vision - one of the world's most progressive energy reform plans - as CEO of the body that runs Australia's grids. That could help change the conversation about Australia's energy future.

Queensland prices soar again; more on AGL's cheap price for wind energy; and battery storage costs falling quickly.

The AEMO is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms Audrey Zibelman to the role of AEMO CEO, effective Monday, 20 March 2017.

As expected, France was heavily dependent on power imports during the first cold spell of this winter, even with most of its nuclear reactors back online. And it is paying twice as much for peak power as Germany.

The inevitable has apparently happened; utility-scale solar-generated power appears to be cheaper than wind - and both are cheaper than fossil-fuel generated power.

Trump administration's first statement on energy, used to justify the elimination of environmental rules, was a distortion.