The Guardian

The Trundle, West Sussex Ramparts’ busy archaeologists send forth iron age pottery, shells and bones as they excavate

As we walked the perimeter of the ramparts, we noticed that the cropped turf-covered contours below were heavily tracked with molehills. We came across an area of fresh tumps, the newly excavated soil still damp and dark like coffee grounds.

Related: Moles dig up buried treasure where human trowels are banned

Anglers warned to avoid area as authorities and Qantas investigate leak of chemicals classified as an ‘emerging contaminant’

A significant spill of firefighting foam at Brisbane airport has contaminated nearby waterways, killing fish and prompting warnings to recreational anglers.

About 22,000 litres of the foam leaked in a Qantas hangar on Monday, the Queensland government confirmed.

EPA administrator declared an end to the government’s ‘war’ on coal in a speech to miners – an agenda that has been bitterly opposed by agency staff

Scott Pruitt, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, heralded a new era of environmental deregulation on Thursday, in a speech at a coal mine that was fined last year for contaminating local waterways with toxic materials.

Pruitt said the new “back to basics” agenda for the EPA would focus on devolving oversight of clean air and water to individual states, and bolstering jobs in industries such as coal, oil and gas.

Ducks, red deer, cherry blossoms and leopards in the hill forests of Myanmar are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

Hopes that ministers will make special case for Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland after visit by business secretary

Ministers are believed to be on the verge of a U-turn on their manifesto pledge to halt the spread of subsidised onshore windfarms – on remote Scottish islands, at least.

The business secretary, Greg Clark, visited the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles on Monday to discuss the possibility of government support for turbines off the mainland.

The World Wildlife Fund released this footage filmed in March 2017 that shows the view from a camera attached to a whale in Antarctica. Scientists used suction cups to attach cameras to humpback and minke whales, revealing new feeding habits and their social lives. The data gathered will be used to protect whales and their ecosystems

Nearly every house in this rural 450-acre development of stargazers is equipped with its own domed observatory, and outdoor lights are strictly forbidden. Does it also hold answers for combatting America’s problem with light pollution?

Take a nighttime drive into Arizona Sky Village, in a remote valley in south-east Arizona, and the only thing you can see clearly are the millions of stars twinkling overhead. Beyond the light show, the sky is a deep inky black, and the ground below is nothing but shadows. Dimmed car headlights might pick up spooked jackrabbits hopping through the desert brush, but the village’s unlit houses are all but invisible in the darkness.

That’s the way the residents of this astronomy-loving community like it. The less light, the better their view of the universe.

New tool maps the potential increase in bike journeys under different scenarios – from routes avoiding hills to adopting e-bikes – revealing health benefits and informing future investment

Chances are you live in a place where less than one in 20 commuters regularly cycle to work. Sometimes people assume this is because England is too hilly, or that most home-to-work distances are too far to cycle. Hilliness and distance do matter. However, new research has found that this is only part of the story. With the right cycling conditions, cycling levels could be much higher than they are now.

First WI report on food waste finds confusion persists over ‘best before’ and ‘sell by’ dates, with supermarkets potentially contributing to the problem

The Women’s Institute is urging supermarkets to do more to help consumers reduce their domestic food waste, after a survey of its own membership revealed widespread confusion about “best before” and “use by” labelling on packaging.

Its new analysis of products on supermarket shelves found that “once-opened” instructions were often contradictory and often failed to make clear whether they were a guide to food safety or quality.

For 40 years I hunted elephants and other big game in the forests of Rwanda. This is how I became an ex-poacher

I was born in Kinigi, in Rwanda’s Musanze district, about 65 years ago, and it is still my home. I come from the Batwa community; we are very short people. There are about 400 of us, which makes us the smallest tribe in Rwanda.

We lived in the forests long before the government took them over, and we were known as their keepers. They meant everything to us. I did not even know what a school was. Like my parents, my brother and my two sisters, all I knew was life in the forest.

Sandy, Bedfordshire Climate change has boosted the songbirds’ advance northwards, and they seem to fill every copse

In the rising chorus over the past few weeks, one migratory bird has stood out as insistent, persistent, and more variable in its simple song than most books would have us believe.

Chiffchaffs are on the up; climate change has warmed their advance northwards, and here in the south they seem to be filling every copse, every patch of scrubland. They are often heard, but far less frequently seen.

Committee calls for deposit return scheme and free refill stations after finding capital hooked on bottled water but not recycling

The amount of waste from single-use plastic bottles in London has risen out of control, according to a report from the London assembly environment committee.

It calls on the mayor to consider introducing a deposit return scheme and to provide free tap water as an alternative.

The home of BHP and Mad Max can now take credit for kickstarting the large-scale solar industry in Australia

Broken Hill is the birthplace of modern mining in Australia. It lends its initials “BH” to the mining giant BHP, and in January 2015 in an Australian first, the so-called Silver City was added to the National Heritage list in part due to its mining industry.

The city is cut in half by a mine, with a giant pile of waste material rising from its centre. It can be seen from every street in town, like a monument to the stuff the city was built from.

It may be the spirtual home of Priscilla and Mad Max, but Australia’s first heritage-listed city is reimagining its future post mining and shifting its focus to renewable energy with large-scale wind and solar farms

• Transforming waste into a cleaner Cowra

The adder (Vipera berus) is Britain’s only venomous snake. An adder bite can be very painful and cause a nasty inflammation. The males emerge from hibernation as early as February but do little until early April when the females come out

Residents ‘dismayed’ after judges uphold decision to approve Cuadrilla shale gas operation in Fylde

Lancashire residents fighting to block a fracking site have said they are “truly dismayed” after losing a high court legal challenge.

The Preston New Road Action Group and Gayzer Frackman, a professional clown, had applied for a judicial review of the government’s decision to approve Cuadrilla drilling for shale gas in Fylde. The group had argued five points of law had been breached.

The demise of Davie Bell memorial race has led to a fitting tribute to the legendary Scottish cyclist

The loss of a once popular road race from the UK cycling calendar is never a good thing, but a unique legacy has emerged from the ashes of one event in Scotland.

The demise of the Davie Bell Memorial Race in 2015 – a National ‘A’ event which had been running since 1966 – prompted the organiser to look for other ways to promote cycling.

The Australian Conservation Foundation and Australian Marine Conservation Foundation say this footage shows the wetlands before and after the Abbot Point port water release, which caused visible coal dust contamination of Queensland wetland. After Cyclone Debbie, additional water was released from the Adani facility with government permission, but port manager Adani denies there has been visible contamination. The Queensland environment department is investigating

From epic vistas to the churn of industry, 19th-century American photographers captured a country beginning to define its identity

Mild winter, cold spring and late summer lead to fall in numbers as 40 of 57 species struggle to cope with fluctuating weather

Butterflies in the UK have suffered one of their worst years on record, with 70% of all species experiencing a decline in numbers over the past year, according to conservationists.

The annual UK butterfly monitoring scheme (UKBMS) found that 40 out of the 57 species studied saw numbers drop between 2015 and 2016, making 2016 the fourth worst year on record for the insects.