The Guardian

More than half of Britain’s 59 native species are in long-term decline, UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme finds

Last summer was the fifth worst in nearly half a century for butterflies in Britain, according to the biggest scientific survey of insect populations in the world.

For the first time since scientific recording began in 1976, more than half of Britain’s 59 native species are in long-term decline.

A 19th-century zoologist found the ‘little salt dweller’, which could be a portal to the past – if only we could locate it again

Last February, with colleagues Gert and Philipp and my daughter Francesca, I made the long journey to an unremarkable city called Río Cuarto, east of the Argentinian Andes. We went in search of a worm of unusual distinction.

Why a worm? As humans, we naturally love the animals that are most familiar. But from a zoologist’s point of view, the vertebrates, from mammals and birds to frogs and fish, can be seen as variations on a single theme. We all have a head at one end (with skull, eyes and jaws); in the middle, a couple of pairs of limbs (a goldfish’s fins, or your arms and legs); and, holding all this together, a backbone ending in a tail.

Government wants to spur economic growth and drive housebuilding but charities say nature should be priority

Wildlife groups have expressed alarm after ministers promised a radically “streamlined” approach to UK environmental regulation intended to drive economic growth and speed up new housing, as well as major projects such as airports.

While officials said the plans should boost nature conservation overall, the removal of what one called “bat by bat” decisions, a reference to the £100m bat shelter constructed for part of HS2, could water down individual protections.

Invertebrates may be the unsung heroes of the planet but they have received a lot of love and recognition from Guardian readers. A dazzling array of nominations have flown in for insects, arachnids, snails, crustaceans, corals and many more obscure creatures for our invertebrate of the year competition. Natural history reporter Patrick Barkham reviews this year’s shortlist of 10

• Vote for the beast that may be as ruthlessly predatory as us – the fen raft spider

Experts say previous economic models underestimated impact of global heating – as well as likely ‘cascading supply chain disruptions’

Economic models have systematically underestimated how global heating will affect people’s wealth, according to a new study that finds 4C warming will make the average person 40% poorer – an almost four-fold increase on some estimates.

The study, by Australian scientists, says average global GDP per person will be reduced by 16% even if warming is kept to 2C higher, . This is much higher than previous estimates of a drop of about 1.4%.

The flood-affected area in outback Queensland has grown to double the size of Victoria after experiencing its worst deluge in 50 years. Water broke the banks of a makeshift levee in Thargomindah in the state's south-west, forcing the evacuation of 100 residents. Stock losses are expected to be catastrophic and more rain is forecast for the coming week

• Outback deluge pushes Queensland towns to the brink: ‘Out here it’s drought or floods’

• Rain records to fall in Queensland with Townsville to set new annual high – in April

You can forget the advice on disguises, secret codes and spreading propaganda by dropping leaflets in train carriages. But there is something for us all here about the need for action

The SOE Syllabus was a series of lectures given to prospective secret agents in Britain during the second world war. These “lessons in ungentlemanly warfare” were released from the top secret bit of the Public Record Office (now known as the National Archive) and published as a historical curio in 2001, when my esteemed colleague John Crace picked out the sillier bits in one of his Digested Read reviews. There was a whole lecture about how to craft a disguise, in which people with sticky-out ears were advised to use glue to pin them back.

But now, 24 years later, I have picked up the book with a graver purpose – just on the off-chance that if we end up having to resist a fascist state, the past might have something to offer. They won’t know everything, these ungentlemanly gentlemen, being as they didn’t have the internet. But they can’t have known nothing.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

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Unsustainable logging is one of the global north’s best-kept secrets. We’re running out of time to stop it

The world is running out of time to halt deforestation and forest degradation. Yet instead of stepping up, the United States is dismantling forest protections and undermining global progress – highlighting the dangers of global forest policy that fails to hold the wealthiest, most powerful countries accountable.

Unsustainable logging is one of the global north’s best-kept secrets. Each year, millions of acres of old-growth and primary forests across North America, Europe, and Australia are clearcut under the guise of “sustainable forest management”. International policy, by design, looks the other way, focusing attention instead on deforestation in the tropics. This double standard allows the world’s wealthiest nations to evade accountability for industrial logging’s catastrophic consequences.

Jennifer Skene is director of global northern forests policy for the Natural Resources Defense Council

Questions about funding and infrastructure as biggest flood since 1974 isolates towns and causes ‘soul-destroying’ stock losses

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In the dusty Queensland channel country, those old enough to remember still talk about the 1974 outback floods. For more than 50 years that has been the ultimate measuring stick for every downpour or trickle to flow through the central desert towards Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre.

On Sunday, in the tiny town of Jundah, in the heart of Queensland’s outback, the flood waters in some places measured 50cm higher than in 1974. Most of the town (including the pub) is still inundated. Surrounding towns are cut-off and could be isolated for weeks.

By grazing between trees and removing potential wildfire fuel, wild horses help protect Galicia’s delicate ecosystems, but Europe’s largest herd has declined to just 10,000

Detail not yet clear about new nature watchdog plan, which comes after previous attempt drew backlash from Western Australia

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Anthony Albanese has confirmed the federal environmental protection agency he has promised to establish if elected would not be “the same model” as the one he promised but failed to legislate during this term of government.

In his first public comments about reviving the nature watchdog plan, Albanese confirmed Labor would pursue a different model in consultation with the states, industry and environmental groups.

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Adelaide records driest period in decades and Perth swelters through temperatures above 35C as BoM forecasts record rainfall in Queensland

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From intense rain and floods to heatwaves and drought, Australians across the country faced weather extremes as politicians headed into their first full week of campaigning.

Queensland cities and towns were still dealing with the effects of flooding on Monday, including extensive stock losses and widespread damage, after a year’s worth of rain fell in a matter of days.

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Testing had previously revealed the mine was emitting more than 11 times the legal limit of dust containing heavy metals

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The operators of Cadia goldmine have been ordered to pay $350,000 in fines and convicted of three offences after a prosecution by the New South Wales Environmental Protection Authority.

Cadia Holdings Limited, trading as Cadia Valley Operations, pleaded guilty to three offences under the environmental protection act relating to breaches of clean air regulations at the mine in central west NSW.

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Labour’s measures to ban deep-peat burning aim to safeguard habitats, tackle carbon emissions, and protect wildlife, so why are hunters up in arms?

Burning vegetation on deep peat will be banned under government plans to protect nature and reduce carbon emissions.

Vegetation on peatland is often burned to create habitat for grouse, which like to feed on the fresh shoots of new plants that grow after the burn. This increases the number of birds available to be shot for sport.

The thylacine might walk again. Or Lake Pedder might rise again. The possibility of ecological restoration in the island state plays into the appeal of going back in time

There is something about Tasmania that makes it a place where people want to restore the past, and not just because Tasmanians still regularly report seeing thylacines bounding off into the forest.

Certainly, it’s a retro kind of place. The landed gentry are still a thing, the powerful families of modern Tasmania tracing their ancestry back to the original squatters, who either took the land by force or bought it from the colonial government, no questions asked. Georgian mansions scatter the rural landscape; in Hobart, convict hewn stone is a building material of choice. Nearly 70% of Tasmanians had both parents born in Australia (the overall figure for the country is 47%), and more than 80% identify with a white ancestry (65% for Australia as a whole). If you ignore the giant cruise ships, the Teslas and the puffer jackets, you could imagine yourself in mid-century Australia.

If a tree-planting scheme in western England can match the first national forest, people as well as wildlife will benefit

The benefits for bats were presumably not at the top of the government’s list of reasons for announcing the creation of the new western forest. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, regards rules that protect these nocturnal mammals as a nuisance. Nevertheless, the rare Bechstein’s bat, as well as the pine marten and various fungi, are expected to be among species that benefit from the multiyear project, to which central government has so far committed £7.5m.

Like England’s only existing national forest, in the Midlands, this one will be broken up across a wide area, featuring grassland, farmland, towns and villages as well as densely planted, closed-canopy woodland. John Everitt, who heads the National Forest organisation (which is both a charity and a government arm’s length body), describes this type of landscape as “forest in the medieval sense with a mosaic of habitats”.

Cyclone Alfred drives wild seas, a seagull eclipses the moon, and our Kylie performs on a trapeze: Guardian Australia looks at some of the month’s best images

This immense worm moves slowly and gracefully underground and can grow to the length of an outstretched arm

• More fantastic invertebrate nominations here

The giant Gippsland earthworm already has an upbeat campaign song.

“I am a real worm, I am an actual worm,” bangs the chorus of Doctor Worm, a late-90s novelty hit by the American indie rock band They Might Be Giants.

Environmentalists call bid to skirt UN treaty ‘reckless’ amid fears that mining will cause irreversible loss of biodiversity

A Canadian deep-sea mining firm has revealed it has been negotiating with the Trump administration to bypass a UN treaty and potentially gain authorisation from the US to mine in international waters.

The revelation has stunned environmentalists, who condemned the move as “reckless” and a “slap in the face for multilateralism”.

British eel trader says move will destroy traditional elvering but campaigners welcome decision

Endangered eels caught in British estuaries will no longer be exported to Russia after the government banned the trade.

In a decision that Britain’s last remaining eel trader said would end centuries of traditional elvering, a request to dispatch millions of glass eels – young eels that develop into elvers – to a restocking project in Kaliningrad was refused by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).