The Guardian

Readers have asked how to get involved after the Guardian’s 24-hour digital event last week. Opportunites abound to make a difference, from setting up an online petition, to joining a local green group, to entering politics

The planet is getting hotter, leaving people hungry and fuelling wars around the world and you want to do something about it. But with a green movement to cater for every age, location, and type of plastic recycling, how do you turn your enthusiasm into action?

We talked to campaigners and politicians to glean their top tips for getting started as a climate activist.

Denial and “alternative facts” haven’t stopped the Earth from warming to record-shattering levels

According to Nasa, in 2016 the Earth’s surface temperature shattered the previous record for hottest year by 0.12°C. That record was set in 2015, which broke the previous record by 0.13°C. That record had been set in 2014, beating out 2010, which in turn had broken the previous record set in 2005.

If you think that seems like a lot of record-breaking hot years, you’re right. The streak of three consecutive record hot years is unprecedented since measurements began in 1880. In the 35 years between 1945 and 1979, there were no record-breakers. In the 37 years since 1980, there have been 12. The video below illustrates all of the record-breaking years in the Nasa global surface temperature record since 1880.

St Bees Head, Cumbria The red sandstone cliffs are home to a reserve that claims to be the largest seabird colony in the north-west

At Cumbria’s most westerly point, I watch two fulmars glide stiff-winged on the wind over the unmanned lighthouse. Guillemots follow suit, as does a razorbill (inappropriately named, for, though similar, their beaks are blunter and thicker). The adjacent red sandstone cliffs, 300ft high, are home to an RSPB bird reserve that claims to be the largest seabird colony in north-west England.

B-o-o-om! “What was that?” asks a startled woman, one of a group tackling Wainwright’s Coast-to-Coast walk. “It’s not the foghorn,” says another walker, consulting a guidebook. “Says here it has long been decommissioned. Maybe it’s wind hitting the cliffs.” She reads from the book: “Wreckers once lured ships below the headland with lanterns, then plundered the wreckage.” They stride on towards Robin Hood’s Bay 14 days and 190-odd miles to the east.

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 30 January 1917

The biting east wind played on the swaying wires beside the road, striking notes now melancholy moans, now high-pitched screams; it swept across the mere, lashing white foam from the wavelets; it drove floating ice fragments into the rushes and reeds, scrunching and churning them against the ice-discs which clung to each stalwart stem. The western shore was caked with ice, each grass stem which had caught the splashing waters deep within a transparent icicle; a dead mallard was coated in an icy blanket, driving the hungry rats from the meal they had begun. To the south-east broad shafts, like beams from a searchlight, crossed the sullen clouds which hid the wintry sun, and, beyond, the snow-clad hills of the Derbyshire border faded into the misty horizon. The coots, weary of tossing, chilly waters, fed in a mob on the grass, where they were joined by fifty clonking Canada geese. The hungry redwings searched the frozen fields so unsuccessfully that one bird, separated from its companions, had only energy for an occasional flutter. One felt indeed that

Winter reigneth o’er the land,
Freezing with its icy breath.

Deputy prime minister criticises ‘romantic’ targets set by states as some Coalition MPs call to ditch RET if US pulls out of Paris climate deal

Barnaby Joyce has refused to commit the government to maintain the Renewable Energy Target, after a report that conservative Coalition MPs want to ditch it if the United States pulls out of the Paris climate agreement.

The deputy prime minister ruled out pulling out of the Paris agreement, but criticised “romantic” renewable targets set by states and said MPs were free to think and say what they like about the RET.

This tiny ball of fluff with an impossibly long tail, has almost doubled in numbers since the 1980s

A brief, high-pitched “see-see-see” sound, followed by the appearance of half-a-dozen tiny balls of fluff, each attached to what looks like a protruding stick. Then, more calls, as these flying lollipops flit from one tree to the next, pause, grab an invisible insect, and then move rapidly on.

Encountering a flock of long-tailed tits on a frosty January day is always a delight. Few other birds so immediately provoke a smile, for few other birds are quite so… well, adorable is the word that most readily to mind. When you discover that – as my friend and fellow nature writer Dominic Couzens puts it – the long-tailed tit is the only small bird that spends Christmas with its family, then their status in the pantheon of cuteness is confirmed.

New research into the cold weather killer suggests health authorities need to start taking action much earlier in the season

Earlier this month the cold snap across Europe claimed more than 60 lives. In Poland temperatures fell to below -30°C in some regions and 10 people died of the cold on 8 January alone. Meanwhile in Greece and Turkey refugees and homeless people suffered greatly in the unseasonably heavy snow. The sad thing is that almost all of these deaths were preventable.

Every winter hypothermia extends its icy grip, causing 25,000 extra deaths per year in England for example. A decrease in air temperature of 1°C causes a 1.35% increase in mortality across Europe, and added up over the years, cold weather has caused far more deaths than any single heatwave event.

Featuring a sturdy leather head-strap and mask, two large tubes and a transparent backpack containing a small potted plant, designer Chih Chiu’s response to crowded, polluted cities is stark.

“My initial idea was to separate an individual from the public space,” he says.

The whale plays a crucial role in maintaining the health of the oceans, which means that these days it’s more a matter of the giant creatures saving us

When the whalers of the mid-19th century harpooned the planet’s biggest marine mammals into near-oblivion, at least they took copious notes. These are now being used to better understand ocean science: if you enjoy a bit of historical ecology, you’ll find them at whaling.oldweather.org.

I wish whaling was all historical, but right now the Japanese whaler Nisshin Maru is likely to be in hot pursuit of the Southern Ocean’s remaining whales. At least they face opposition from direct action charity Sea Shepherd, which recently launched Ocean Warrior, a new anti-whaling vessel.

Two-year project aims to learn why carcasses have washed up on Argentina’s coast

Researchers are to launch an investigation into the unexplained deaths of hundreds of young southern right whales, one of the planet’s most vulnerable marine species.

The £740,000 project – jointly funded by Defra, the UK environment department, and the EU – will involve researchers tagging whales and calves, tracking them by satellite and identifying individuals by taking DNA samples. The aim is find out why the carcasses of almost 500 young southern right whales have washed up on Argentina’s Valdés Peninsula, one of the species’ key calving areas, over the past decade.

55-year-old in a stable condition after suffering significant abdominal injuries in attack east of Murray Island in the Torres Strait

A scuba driver endured a four-hour boat ride to a medical facility after being mauled by a shark while scuba diving in Queensland’s far north near the Great Barrier Reef.

The 55-year-old man suffered significant abdominal injuries in the attack while diving east of Murray Island in the Torres Strait on Saturday. Emergency services were notified around 12.40pm AEST.

If you go down to the woods today... you might find a school, a photographer’s studio, or a carpenter’s workshop. Britain’s forests are getting a new lease of life

In the stillness of autumn, the only sound on the old Saxon road is the gentle tapping of beech nuts falling on a carpet of terracotta-coloured leaves. “You must meet Robert Cunningham – he’s tremendous,” says Kathy Harris, pausing to touch the huge trunk of a venerable beech tree. Harris knows all the ancient trees in this 25-acre wood as individuals. There is also a decaying ash called Cecelia and a beech with two trunks: one has thrown out a limb to fuse with the other, like twins holding hands. There are badgers, rare bats, otters and water rails. A bonfire crackles with burning holly and, as dusk falls, a tawny owl hoots.

Harris is one of a growing number of small woodland owners in Britain – a market for resellers, who buy big forests and subdivide them into “affordable” four- or five-acre plots. One, woodlands.co.uk, has sold more than 625 plots in the past four years. Prices range from £39,000 for six acres in Wales to £95,000 for a similar plot in Hampshire. The reasons for becoming a woodlander are varied and often idealistic, but the Mark Twain quote “Buy land – they’re not making it any more” usually lurks somewhere in the background. Large forests may be the preserve of tax-dodging multimillionaires (if a wood is managed commercially, harvesting timber, it is exempt from inheritance tax), but most woodlanders are a long way from being able to run a commercial operation.

Blashford Lakes, Hampshire Dead trees don’t get much of a press. For each one remembered, a million will be forgotten

On a dry, dull-grey day, we have come to this popular local nature reserve for a gentle recuperative ramble and some birdwatching. The info board states that we may see bittern, water rail, great egret, and widgeon aplenty. It says nothing about the host of visitors like us who have congested the Blashford Lakes car park, and with whom we exchange pleasantries as our paths cross.

We stop beside a group studying the top of a high tree. We can’t see the bird either, and move on. A chance to sit down in Ivy South Hide and watch from there would be a welcome break, but all the benches are occupied, and others are waiting. We press on across the boardwalk, and find ourselves on a path devoid of people.

Chris Goodall’s list of 15 things you can do to help save the world (G2, 19 January) misses what is surely the most important thing: have fewer children. Without controlling population growth we have to run ever faster to stay in the same place as far as climate change is concerned.
Catherine Goundry
Retford, Nottinghamshire

• In an item regarding Gambia, the country was referred to as “the Gambia” (Report, 19 January). I remember from my youth many countries referred to in this way and am interested as to the reason. There was the Argentine, the Levant, the Lebanon etc. Does anyone know why they were prefaced with “the”?
Tony Burson
Campinas, Brazil

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Hugging deer, feeding green turtles and a Konik foal are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

We asked the world’s climate leaders for their messages to Trump ahead of his inauguration as the 45th US president

To fulfil his campaign slogan of “make America great again”, Donald Trump must back the boom in green technology – that was the message from the leading climate figures ahead of his inauguration as president on Friday.

Unleashing US innovation on the trillion-dollar clean technology market will create good US jobs, stimulate its economy, maintain the US’s political leadership around the globe and, not least, make the world a safer place by tackling climate change, the experts told the Guardian.

MPs and council leaders to face questions about their plans for local parks and green spaces amid concern about cuts

Thousands of people are expected to take part in a crowdsourced investigation to find out how many of England’s parks and green spaces are at risk.

The campaign group 38 degrees is asking its members to contact local council leaders to ask about their plans for parks, and will help them send follow-up questions in freedom of information requests.

Baslow, Derbyshire Inside this pleasing medieval church is a strange relic of a long redundant rural occupation

I came down the hill to Baslow in a stinging wind that was driving thin broken cloud over the white moor-tops. In the fields below, sheep pushed their faces through the snow to excavate tufts of grass buried in last night’s fall. From Bubnell, I crossed the Derwent on Baslow’s old bridge, an elegant three-arched structure with a pocket-sized tollbooth from the early 1600s. Before the river was tamed for industry, a wilder Derwent regularly swept bridges away: but not this one. In the low winter light, the stream was a sheet of rippled bronze.

On the east bank, overlooking the river, stood St Anne’s, among the most pleasing churches in this part of Derbyshire, with its eccentrically offset medieval tower, skirted with trees and a jumble of gravestones. Offering a silent prayer, I tried the door with my raw pink hand; it opened. I stepped gratefully out of the wind and stood defrosting in the nave, absorbing the building’s complex architecture; it feels organic, more accretion than lofty concept. But even empty the church felt vibrant.

When Malcolm Turnbull deposed Tony Abbott as prime minister, serious action on global warming was hoped for – but almost nothing has changed

Australia’s January news has been full of official reports of record-breaking extreme weather devastating our ecosystems on land and in the sea and government ministers suggesting we build new coal-fired power stations, provide billion-dollar subsidised loans to rail lines for new coal mega-mines, increase coal exports to reduce temperature rises and reduce our ambitions for renewable power.

The disconnect is glaring but perhaps dimmed in the eyes of some readers because Australian politicians have been dissembling on climate change for decades, pretending it will be possible to do what we must without any impact on our position as the world’s largest coal exporter or our domestic reliance on brown coal-fired power, or without incurring any costs.