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Outdoor pollution has risen 8% in five years with fast-growing cities in the developing world worst affected, WHO data shows

• Air pollution: how does it affect you?
  

Outdoor air pollution has grown 8% globally in the past five years, with billions of people around the world now exposed to dangerous air, according to new data from more than 3,000 cities compiled by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

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DEEP-SEA RICHES: A global snapshot of thousands of close relatives of the starfish has provided an unprecedented view into the richness and diversity of deep-sea life.

SPACE DUST: The oldest fossils of cosmic dust ever discovered provide a glimpse into atmospheric conditions above the Earth more than 2.7 billion years ago and could do the same on other planets.

James Rebanks is a shepherd from the Lake District in Northern England. Breeding and tending sheep is a tradition that dates back some 600 years in his family and, as with all farmers, his life and work is measured according to the cycle of the seasons.

Community energy groups are coming up with renewable energy schemes. Shouldn’t government extend a hand to help them?

Yackandandah, like most Australian towns, has had its ups and its downs. One of its biggest ups was the north-east Victorian gold rush. By the 1890s our town was full of miners toiling to extract what was left of its alluvial gold. The only thing holding these folks back was an energy crisis. The miners were unable to source the power needed to sluice and dredge or crush the ore. The solution was a water race from high up on the West Kiewa river, which wasn’t the brainchild of government, or even the mines department – but rather a local man.

John Wallace, a Yackandandah resident, recognised a problem that needed immediate action and set about solving it.

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With some Indian Ocean tuna stocks on the brink of collapse, the expedition exposes harmful methods by the world’s largest tuna company, Thai Union, owner of John West

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Airport will ban arrivals and departures before 5.30am, and support the launch of an independent noise authority

Heathrow has agreed to curb night flights if permission is granted for a third runway, as it announced measures it claimed met all the conditions set by the Airports Commission for its expansion plan.

As well as banning all arrivals and departures before 5.30am, the airport said it would support the introduction of an independent noise authority, and pledged not to add new capacity unless it can do so without delaying UK compliance with EU air quality limits.

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Are we underestimating the biomedical implications of global warming?

Filed patents show the British engineering firm may use solid-state batteries that could stretch electric car’s range to hundreds of miles and increase safety

Dyson could become the next Tesla motors as it develops a new electric car, according to a leading industry expert. Filed patents show the Dyson vehicle may use solid-state batteries, which would see the car’s range stretch to hundreds of miles and also be safer than current batteries.

In March, a government document revealed funding to help Dyson develop “a new battery electric vehicle”. The company declined to comment but in 2015 it said it planned to invest £1bn in battery technology and in October it bought solid-state battery company, Sakti3, for $90m, which founder Sir James Dyson said had “developed a breakthrough in battery technology”.

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A national citizen science project reveals which which bird species are dominating the backyard bird bath

WORLD'S OLDEST AXE: A fragment of the world's oldest known ground-edge axe has been found in the remote Kimberley region of northern Australia.

Interactive map commissioned by Lock the Gate shows fossil fuel claims cover 37% of Australia’s landmass

More than a third of Australia’s landmass is earmarked for coal or gas, according to a new analysis and interactive map commissioned by the community group Lock the Gate.

No single register of fossil fuel exploration and extraction licences and applications exists so, commissioned by Lock the Gate, Energy Resources Insights gathered spatial information on land earmarked for fossil fuels from state and federal regulators.

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Six more islands have large swaths of land, and villages, washed into sea as coastline of Solomon Islands eroded and overwhelmed

• Headlines ‘exaggerated’ climate link to sinking of Pacific islands

Five tiny Pacific islands have disappeared due to rising seas and erosion, a discovery thought to be the first scientific confirmation of the impact of climate change on coastlines in the Pacific, according to Australian researchers.

Related: Sea levels set to 'rise far more rapidly than expected'

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The major parties have been taking turns, accusing each other of doing deals with the Greens.

As the populations of our cities swell and temperatures rise, what are the best ways to deal with traffic congestion, water shortages, crime and sanitation?

GREAT MOMENTS IN SCIENCE: If you're a sucker for a good vampire movie, be warned ... Dr Karl takes two big bites out of the legend.

TRANSIT OF MERCURY: Sky watchers have had a rare opportunity to witness Mercury fly directly across the face of the Sun, a sight that unfolds about once every 10 years, as Earth and its smaller neighbouring planet came into perfect alignment.

THIN AIR: Air bubbles trapped in 2.7 billion-year-old lava flows in the Pilbara suggest the Earth's atmosphere weighed less than half that of today and was far thinner than previously thought.

CARROT COLOUR: The humble supermarket carrot owes its deep orange colour to a newly-found gene, according to an analysis of the full carrot genome.

Currently the world’s biggest producer of lithium, Australia is well-placed to take advantage of the lithium-ion battery solar storage boom

Out Western Australia way unlikely new environmental heroes can be found toiling in the red ochre dust of the Pilbara.

Until recently companies such as Altura Mining, which has a long rap sheet of coal projects to its name, weren’t exactly contributing to the effort to curb global carbon emissions, but that is about to change.

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