The Guardian

Actor and environmental activist tells UN awards ceremony that truth about climate change has spread like ‘wildfire’ despite prominent science deniers

Tackling climate change is the “biggest economic opportunity” in the history of the US no matter who holds political office, the Hollywood star and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio said on Friday.

Related: Leonardo DiCaprio meets Trump as climate sceptic nominated

Dispute over major tourist attraction and conservation area is tearing local communities apart

“There’s, like, 50 people on the way up, so take your photos,” said a young American man, shirtless, his face daubed with paint, as he came striding through the forest towards the look-out. The view was spectacular: lush tropical foliage clinging to the sheer rock-face of a canyon plunging several 100 feet to a series of stunning turquoisey pools where tourists could be spotted swimming.

This was Semuc Champey, a must-visit on the Central American backpacker circuit and increasingly one of Guatemala’s most well-known tourist destinations. “Hidden”, “unique” and “natural paradise” are all thrown around to describe it. Lonely Planet calls Semuc “arguably the loveliest spot in the country”, while CNN dubbed the River Cahabón, which flows under the pools, the world’s “third best river for travellers” after the Amazon and Zambezi.

关闭全球合法象牙交易市场对拯救大象具有重要意义，但要彻底根除偷猎大象和非法象牙消费，我们必须对非法象牙贸易宣战。 (翻译：金艳/chinadialogue)

• Why the Guardian is publishing its elephant reporting in Chinese
  

目前看来，一个不可避免的趋势是几乎所有合法象牙交易市场最终都将关闭。这是一个由多家动物权利及福利组织共同提出的大象保护首选方案，其目的就是阻止大象偷猎行为。这些组织认为，象牙合法贸易会为非法交易提供掩护，并刺激象牙需求。

支持该计划的人认为，废除合法贸易，需求就会下降。禁止一切象牙销售有两大益处，一是方便执法，二是可以避免消费者买到非法产品。现在，认同这一观点的人越来越多。今年9月，世界自然保护联盟通过一项提议，建议全球所有国家关闭自己的国内象牙市场。几星期后的10月，《濒危野生动植物物种国际贸易公约》第17届缔约方会议召开，会上也通过了类似的提案。

Red Shoot wood, New Forest A pony will strain every muscle in its neck to reach the most tender branch-end leaves

As we press on along the ridge above the wood, on the north side of the path we find ponies raising the browse line as they stretch high into the hollies. A large white one strains every muscle in its neck to get at the most tender branch-end leaves. Forest ponies eat a huge quantity of holly during the cold weather. People often cut branches to make life easier for them, but this group don’t need any help.

On the other side, we spot one of the woodland’s giants that has come to grief. Possibly dating from the origins of Red Shoot Wood in the 17th and 18th centuries, this huge oak has been caught by some vortex-wind, and lifted enough to break the myriad of cable-like roots anchoring it into the shallow clay that coats the underlying gravels.

Ministers claim soaring number is a success in effort to cut bovine TB in England but charities question cull’s effectiveness

The number of animals shot in England’s controversial badger cull soared to more than 10,000 this autumn, as part of the government’s attempt to cut tuberculosis (TB) in cattle.

Ministers claimed the result as a success but a leading scientist said there was “no basis” for suggesting the cull was effective, while wildlife charities said badgers were being used as a scapegoat for failures in the intensive livestock industry.

The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox

Feeding Bryde’s whales, fighting seals and a Harry Potter spider are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

Patrick Muhayirwa was trapped in an ambush while patrolling to protect gorillas in Africa’s oldest national park

• Another day, another dead wildlife ranger. We must do more to help them
  

A 26-year-old wildlife ranger has been gunned down by militia operating in the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

According to park authorities, Patrick Prince Muhayirwa was part of a group of rangers and DRC army personnel patrolling the huge park to prevent poaching.

Improved light, ventilation and heat control can boost workers’ productivity by thousands of dollars a year and reduce instances of sick building syndrome

People working in green buildings think better in the office and sleep better when they get home, a new study has revealed.

The research indicates that better ventilation, lighting and heat control improves workers’ performance and could boost their productivity by thousands of dollars a year. It also suggests that more subjective aspects, such as beautiful design, may make workers happier and more productive.

Scientists stepped outside their comfort zones to protest the attacks they face from the incoming administration

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and for scientists, these are desperate measures.

Tuesday in San Francisco’s Jessie Square, approximately 500 people gathered for a ‘rally to stand up for science.’ Many of the attendees were scientists who had migrated to the rally from the nearby Moscone Center, where some 26,000 Earth scientists are attending the annual American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference this week.

Company owned by Centrica gave $20,000 to TPPF, praised by new US energy secretary for opposing ‘hysteria of global warming’

British Gas’s parent company, Centrica, has given tens of thousands of dollars to a US thinktank that denies climate change and is backed by Donald Trump’s energy secretary.

Direct Energy, a US energy company wholly owned by Centrica, donated $20,000 to the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) in 2010, according to tax filings.

Stanage, Derbyshire On a bleak night, with a folk memory of wolves and belief in evil spirits, who wouldn’t need protection?

The long flowing line of Stanage Edge is, for rock climbers, one of the world’s great crags, segmented, like a gritstone worm, into various buttresses and features, each of them named, each providing many different routes to the top, each of those – and there are hundreds – also named.

I am at a buttress at the crag’s southern end known, paradoxically, as Apparent North, near a short tough climb called Hamper’s Hang. I am shrinking inside my jacket against a dismal wet day. I thought I knew this place, having been here as a climber scores of times, but my understanding of it has just been turned on its head.

For more than a decade, Australia has been held back by climate science denial and an antipathy towards environmentalism

If you can hear what sounds like a faint drumroll coming from across the Pacific then it’s the sound of millions of jaws dropping on hard surfaces.

President-elect Donald Trump is a phrase journalists are regularly typing into their keyboards. That was jaw dropping enough, even for some Republicans.

The emerging biofuel industry is casting the net wide to find solutions to two environmental problems: reducing waste and increasing fuel production

In a world of dwindling resources, waste is one thing in no danger of running out. Each Australian generates more than 2,000kg of waste per year, and around half of that ends up in landfill. But at least some of that waste could be turned into a resource that is both in demand and in decline: fuel.

The global waste-to-fuel industry is considering options as varied as agave, plastics and disused tyres to solve two environmental problems – reducing waste and increasing fuel production.

Exclusive: Warning against sale of seafood from environmentally destructive fishing fleets operating with slave-like conditions

Greenpeace has warned that Australia’s weak labelling laws may be allowing the sale of seafood from environmentally destructive and unethical fishing fleets in south-east Asia.

The group has released the results of a 12-month investigation of Thailand’s ghost fishing fleet, a collection of refrigerated vessels, or reefers, notorious for causing damage to fragile ecosystems and subjecting vulnerable migrant labour to slave-like conditions.

Rampant road building has split the Earth’s land into 600,000 fragments, most of which are too tiny to support significant wildlife, study shows

Rampant road building has shattered the Earth’s land into 600,000 fragments, most of which are too tiny to support significant wildlife, a new study has revealed.

The researchers warn roadless areas are disappearing and that urgent action is needed to protect these last wildernesses, which help provide vital natural services to humanity such as clean water and air.

Critics argue the president-elect’s picks represent ‘an unprecedented amount of influence from the fossil fuel industry’. Their statements don’t do much to dispel the notion

As Donald Trump assembles his cabinet, one consistent theme has emerged: many of his nominees have expressed doubt about the science of human-caused climate change.

“We’re seeing an unprecedented amount of influence from the fossil fuel industry in Trump’s cabinet,” Jeremy Symons, who works on climate politics for the Environmental Defense Fund. “What’s missing from this cabinet is the balance one would expect to bring the other side to the equation and it really leaves us wondering: who is looking out for us? Clearly the oil companies are well attended, but who’s looking out for us?”

Waste companies call for tax on packaging to drive up rates as UK likely to miss EU recycling targets

Recycling rates in England have fallen for the first time ever, prompting calls for a tax on packaging and meaning EU targets are now almost certain to be missed.

The amount of rubbish sent to recycling plants by householders had been steadily increasing for more than a decade, but more recently flatlined for three years. Now new government figures published on Thursday show that the recycling rate in England has dropped from 44.8% in 2014 to 43.9% in 2015.

Environmentalists should be alert but not pessimistic over the impact of Trump’s presidency, says the leading climate economist

The impact of Donald Trump’s presidency on the environment may not be as catastrophic as some fear, says leading climate economist Lord Nicholas Stern.

The cross-bench peer said that while it was difficult to predict what Trump would do in office, those worried that Trump’s leadership spelled disaster for the planet should focus on the good things he has said on climate change rather than dwelling on the bad.

Malcolm Roberts attends meeting with Trump EPA transition team head Myron Ebell and other longtime deniers

A key figure picked to prepare the US federal environment agency for life under a Donald Trump administration has met in Washington DC with some of the world’s most notorious and longest-serving climate science deniers, including One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts.

Myron Ebell, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), was picked by the now president-elect to lead the Environmental Protection Agency “transition team” back in September.