The Guardian

Gemini windpark off the coast of the Netherlands will eventually meet the energy needs of about 1.5 million people, according to its owners

Dutch officials have opened what is being billed as one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms, with 150 turbines spinning far out in the North Sea.

Over the next 15 years the Gemini windpark, which lies some 85km (53 miles) off the northern coast of the Netherlands, will meet the energy needs of about 1.5 million people.

Defending decision not to finance mine, Brian Hartzer says coal needed for economy to 2050 can be met by existing mines

The Adani Carmichael coalmine is not needed to support the economy, the Westpac chief executive has said in defence of his bank’s decision not to finance the mine.

On Radio National on Tuesday, Brian Hartzer said Westpac’s decision to set a climate policy, which in effect rules out financing the Adani Carmichael coalmine, was based on its acceptance that climate change should be limited to 2C by 2050.

Friends of the Earth urges other retailers to follow suit after studies show damaging effects of neonicotinoids on bees

All flowering plants sold by B&Q are to be grown without using pesticides that are harmful to bees, the retailer has announced.

A series of scientific studies have shown that bees are exposed to neonicotinoid pesticides in fields and suffer serious harm from the doses they receive. The European commission has drawn up draft legislation to ban the pesticides, citing “high acute risks to bees”.

A new study shows how a switch in a major climate system could accelerate global temperatures to a 1.5C limit, but some scientists are challenging the assumptions

In the Brazilian city of São Paulo, more than 80 experts, including dozens of climate scientists, gathered back in March for a giant planning meeting

As part of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the group from 39 different countries were starting their work on a major report that will tell governments and policy makers what kind of impacts they can expect when global warming reaches 1.5C.

Locals at Dooagh, Achill island, had got used to their sandless beach, which storms in 1984 turned into just rocks and pools. But a freak tide at Easter has brought hundreds of tonnes of sand back to the bay off Ireland’s County Mayo coast

• Irish beach washed away 33 years ago reappears overnight after freak tide

Cross-section of MPs urge £612m pension fund to show greater leadership and “take climate change seriously”

A campaign calling on parliament’s £612m pension fund to divest from fossil fuels has won the backing of 50 MPs from across the UK’s main political parties.

The Divest Parliament campaign has announced it has secured support from a cross-section of MPs from Labour, the Conservatives, Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, SDLP and Plaid Cymru, who are all urging the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund (PCPF) to show greater leadership on tackling climate change.

Administrator Scott Pruitt, in choosing not to renew nine members’ terms, has ‘eviscerated’ board of scientific counselors, says chair

The Environmental Protection Agency has “eviscerated” a key scientific review board by removing half its members and seeking to replace them with industry-aligned figures, according to the board’s chair.

Related: Worried world urges Trump not to pull out of Paris climate agreement

Two forest patrollers have been killed and four hospitalised in what is believed to be retaliatory action from illegal settlers in Sapo National Park

Two forest rangers have been killed by a violent mob in a Liberian rainforest after discovering a community illegally settling and hunting in the park, according to authorities.

Related: Another day, another dead wildlife ranger. Where is the outrage? | Sean Willmore

A daring Australian Museum expedition to Balls Pyramid near Lord Howe Island has succeeded in its search for the rare and elusive Lord Howe Island stick insect

A new study finds that explaining the techniques of science denial makes people resistant to their effects

After receiving misinformation from the anti-vaccine movement, including its founder Andrew Wakefield, immunization rates plummeted in a community of Somali immigrants in Minnesota, causing a measles outbreak among their children. It’s a disturbing trend on the rise in America that shows the importance of immunization and the dangerous power of misinformation.

A new paper published in PLOS One by John Cook, Stephan Lewandowsky, and Ullrich Ecker tests the power of inoculation; not against disease, but against the sort of misinformation that created the conditions leading to Minnesota measles outbreak. Inoculation theory suggests that exposing people to the tricks used to spread misinformation can equip them with the tools to recognize and reject such bogus claims.

While travelling across the country’s vast swampland – the Sudd – doing medical assessments, Chandra Gilmore, International Medical Corps’ South Sudan famine response team leader, took photographs and notes

The tragic death of Mike Hall, hit by a car in an Australian road race, left a hole in the world of endurance cycling. Craig Cunningham is one of many he inspired to ride an audax and experience the thrill of these most extreme rides

On 31 March I remember waking and looking at my phone to find an abundance of posts commemorating the life of cyclist Mike Hall. Hall was hit by a motorist in Australia and killed, just hours from completing the Indian Pacific Wheel Race which saw contestants ride across Australia unsupported, with the hardest riders pushing themselves for as much as 20 hours a day.

These incredible achievements aren’t done for giant cheques or coloured jerseys – the tangible rewards are just byproducts of a more personal journey. Such motives didn’t become clear to me until I took the plunge. I only realised the true extent on completing the London Wales London (LWL) audax – a 400km ride with a 27-hour time limit, vicious climbs including Yat Rock. The name alone held gravitas, bringing to mind professional races such as Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the legendary audax events of Paris-Brest-Paris.

Email mix-up blamed after historically significant plant samples incinerated by quarantine officials

Australian biosecurity officials have destroyed historically significant plant samples from 19th century France and damaged the reputation of Australian researchers, the head of the peak herbaria body has said.

In two separate incidents, quarantine officials have incinerated specimens sent to Australian research facilities from overseas.

Zed Seselja says Turnbull government committed to climate change agreement, but if the US pulls out, it would put a question mark over the deal

A leading government conservative has put a question mark over Australia’s continued participation in the Paris climate agreement in the event Donald Trump decides the United States will pull out.

The assistant minister for social services and multicultural affairs, Zed Seselja, one of the government’s up-and-coming conservative figures, told Sky News on Monday that “as it stands” the Turnbull government was committed to Paris agreement, but if the US quit the pact, that would change the nature of the agreement.

Clarach, Ceredigion Some like the smell, others endure it. In my case, the scent of Allium ursinum makes me feel hungry

My route through the beech woods was chosen to avoid the worst of the cold northerly wind that was cutting across the valley. Though the majority of leaves were still to open, the trees broke up the breeze and let me slacken the pace I’d needed to keep warm.

The acoustic of this woodland is softened by its deep, moist leaf litter; outside sounds are dramatically attenuated, letting you focus on the spring birdsong and the occasional creak of high branches stirring in the wind.

World Bank argues structured migration program would prevent forced migration in future generations

Australia and New Zealand should allow open migration for citizens of Pacific nations threatened by climate change, to boost struggling island economies and prevent a later mass forced migration, a paper from the World Bank argues.

The policy paper, Pacific Possible, suggests, as one climate change adaptation measure, open access migration from Tuvalu and Kiribati – for work and permanent settlement – to Australia and New Zealand.

With the UK government ending subsidies for onshore wind and the Trump administration pushing for a return to coal, you might think the wind power revolution had run out of puff. Far from it. The cost of energy from offshore wind in Britain has fallen by a third since 2012, and wind accounts for over 40% of new capacity in the US, representing an annual investment of $13bn. Now next-generation wind technologies promise to make wind energy safer and more affordable – if they can make the difficult jump from research prototypes to commercial products

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 11 May 1917

The bees are exceedingly busy amongst the flowers, the stocks and flowering currants perhaps getting most attention in the garden, but the gooseberry bushes and other blossoms on the fruit trees also prove attractive. Enjoying their feast of honey, these insects bustle from flower to flower, poking in their tongues and dusting their hairy heads and bodies with pollen; they comb it off with their legs until their “thighs” are thickly loaded with yellow, brown, or white lumps. The earth bees, many of them ruddy-haired, are the smallest but most numerous; they but lately emerged from pupal sleep, but are now filling their newly-excavated burrows in grass plot, path, or sunny bank with pollen food for their infant grubs which will shortly emerge from the eggs. They have various parasitical enemies, and it is amusing to see them enter the burrow, see that all is well within, back out and back in again, remaining then looking out from their doorway, alert and on guard.

The round-bodied flower bees, many of them with long, hairy legs, are larger; they too, inhabit burrows which they excavate themselves. The biggest of all are the bumble-bees, some banded with brown and black, some with white, some with reddish tails, others warm brown all over, and the biggest and handsomest of all black, with big red tips to their ample abdomens. Often after a feast these bumble-bees are so lethargic that they halt to snooze on the flower heads, the stones, or, at the peril of their lives, on the public paths. If we touch them gently they raise an expostulating leg, one of the second pair, waving away the approaching finger. They do not sting readily; they are far too busy when really awake and too sleepy at other times to be troublesome, but it is well not to handle them roughly.

Clean air and low emission zones, one proposal in the government’s new air pollution plan, are already in place across Europe. Do they work?

Following a high court order the government have launched their new clean air plan. One proposal is for clean air or low emission zones in many UK towns and cities aiming to reduce traffic pollution by restricting vehicles with weaker exhaust controls.

There are over 200 zones across Europe, but do they work? Europe’s largest is in London. Before the scheme the capital had one of the oldest delivery fleets in the UK. This changed in the run-up to the implementation of the zone and exhaust particles decreased alongside busy roads in outer London.

Artist Shezad Dawood’s multi-platform work, Leviathan, weaves a tale of oceanic ecology and migration in paintings, sculpture, fiction and a cycle of 10 films – to be released between now and 2020. Watch a trailer for the saga’s first episode, entitled Ben