The Guardian

A singularly distinguished roster of scientists, and others, with an interest in wildlife conservation have signed a petition calling for Theresa May to impose a “total UK ban on ivory sales” (Conservationists and MPs call for a total UK ban on ivory sales, theguardian.com, 22 September), claiming that Andrea Leadsom’s announcement of a ban on post-1947 ivory “falls short of what is needed”. I beg to differ.

The entire community of art historians, curators, connoisseurs and collectors unequivocally supports the preservation of endangered species. But by the same token it can be said with confidence that bona fide, pre-1947 works of art documented by Cites (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) made of or incorporating ivory have no impact whatsoever on the thirst for modern tusks and trinkets: these are two utterly separate issues.

If you live in an area where your council is opposed to fracking, we’d like to hear from you. Get in touch below

Within the next fortnight, the government will decide whether to accept shale company Cuadrilla’s appeal against Lancashire county council’s decision last year to turn down its application for two fracking sites.

Related: Bid to drill shale wells in Nottinghamshire 'should get green light'

Officials say IGas application to drill two wells at Springs Road, former cold war missile launch site, should be approved

• Do you live in an area where proposed fracking is condemned by your council?

A planning application to drill two exploratory shale gas wells at a former cold war missile launch site in north Nottinghamshire should go ahead, officials have said.

In a report hundreds of pages long, planning officers for Nottinghamshire county council said the bid by shale company IGas to drill at Springs Road, Misson, should be granted.

The UK’s withdrawal from the EU could also force it to exit the Euratom treaty on nuclear energy, ENDS has learned

The UK’s withdrawal from the EU could also force it to exit the Euratom Treaty on nuclear energy, ENDS has learned.

The Euratom Treaty, which applies to all EU member states, seeks to promote nuclear safety standards, investment and research within the bloc. Although it is governed by EU institutions, it has retained a separate legal identity since its adoption in 1957.

As Ineos takes first shale gas shipment from US, its CEO Jim Ratcliffe says without fracking UK manufacturing’s future is ‘gloomy’

The billionaire hoping to become Britain’s biggest fracker has said banning shale gas would cement the decline of UK manufacturing, as he brushed off environmental concerns about the hotly disputed energy source.

Speaking as his petrochemicals firm Ineos took delivery of the first ever shipment of shale gas from the US, Jim Ratcliffe addressed Labour’s announcement that it would ban fracking, which he insists could create jobs in some of the party’s former industrial heartlands.

Beijing faces pressure at global summit to close 200 farms where tigers are bred for luxury goods and end its obstructive tactics

China has been accused of deceiving the international community by allowing a network of farms to breed thousands of captive tigers for the sale of their body parts, in breach of their own longstanding ban on the trade.

The Chinese government has allowed about 200 specialist farms to hold an estimated 6,000 tigers for slaughter, before their skins are sold as decoration and their bones are marinated to produce tonics and lotions. Campaigners say this has increased demand for the products and provoked the poaching of thousands of wild tigers, whose global population is now down to just 3,500.

Evidence obtained by the Guardian shows how treasury coffers swelled with 2% tax on trades worth up to $45m including tigers, rhinos and elephants

• Help fund our journalism by becoming a Guardian supporter.

Officials at the highest level of an Asian government have been helping wildlife criminals smuggle millions of dollars worth of endangered species through their territory, the Guardian can reveal.

In an apparent breach of current national and international law, for more than a decade the office of the prime minister of Laos has cut deals with three leading traffickers to move hundreds of tonnes of wildlife through selected border crossings.

With biofuel potential limited and emissions rising, the need for industry to act is urgent. Hopes rest on a global UN carbon offset scheme to be negotiated at the ICAO summit this week - but critics remain unconvinced

When a South Africa Airways scheduled flight flew from Johannesburg to Cape Town last month, it carried nearly 300 passengers.

Neither the passengers or the pilots would have noticed any difference between that flight and any other.

UN agency recognises ‘importance of strengthening our vegetation protection laws’, Queensland’s Jackie Trad says

Unesco has acknowledged the importance of stymied tree-clearing controls in Queensland to efforts to protect the Great Barrier Reef, according to the state’s deputy premier, Jackie Trad.

Trad has emerged from a meeting in Paris with a Unesco official, Fanny Douvere, to declare the state Labor government would restore clearing controls, one of its “key commitments” to the reef, if it won another term of office.

More than 1 million people died from dirty air in one year, according to World Health Organisation

China is the world’s deadliest country for outdoor air pollution, according to analysis by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The UN agency has previously warned that tiny particulates from cars, power plants and other sources are killing 3 million people worldwide each year.

Having your new home custom designed to your specifications sounds like a pretty good idea. What’s involved?

While it might be easier to choose a standard design on offer from your local home builder, some of us would like a unique home that reflects our individuality. But is it really worth going through the process of designing everything from the ground up?

Susan Briggs thinks so. When she and her husband Nigel decided to bite the bullet, demolish their 1950s Perth home, and build a new one, they sought a builder who would love their unusual block the same way they did.

Whitley Chapel, Northumberland Water drains from surrounding sandy banks into a peaty bowl where it is held by underlying clay

The area south of Hexham known as the Shire is an undulating landscape of fields and woods threaded by minor roads. It has a homely quality, a hint of Tolkien’s Shire. Among its small settlements is Whitley Chapel, where the church of St Helen squats on the knoll of Chapel Hill.

In the 17th century the Society of Friends held their meetings on Chapel Hill and the boggy area below it was known as Quakers’ Hollow, now Quakers’ Hole. Two farms border this semi-natural wetland, Moss House and Mire House, their names speaking of the terrain, ”moss” being a Northumbrian word for a bog.

Queensland court of appeal finds ‘proposed mining would not detrimentally affect global greenhouse gas emissions’ because Asian power stations would buy coal elsewhere if Alpha blocked

Miners could run afoul of Queensland’s environmental protection laws if the burning of their export coal overseas were shown to negatively impact global carbon pollution, the state’s highest court has ruled.

But the court of appeal has dismissed a challenge to Gina Rinehart’s Alpha mine because of an earlier land court finding that it would “not detrimentally affect global greenhouse gas emissions” because Asian power stations would simply buy coal elsewhere if the mine were blocked.

Former prime minister says commercial shark fishery should be considered for north coast of New South Wales

Tony Abbott has called for nets to be put in place to protect beachgoers in regional New South Wales, saying he is on the side of people rather than sharks, after a teenager was bitten while surfing.

The former prime minister has argued that it was unfair nets were in place off metropolitan beaches but not regional ones.

Tiny plastic particles released by synthetic fabrics can cause harm to marine life when they enter rivers and oceans

Each cycle of a washing machine could release more than 700,000 microscopic plastic fibres into the environment, according to a study.

Related: Inside the lonely fight against the biggest environmental problem you've never heard of

Committee on Climate Change chair urges UK to bring in new laws to replace EU legislation and says Scotland must do more to prepare for global warming

The UK must not water down its environmental laws as it leaves the European Union, one of the government’s most senior advisers on climate change has warned.

Lord Krebs, chairman of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), told the Guardian: “It will be absolutely crucial that governments in the UK replace European legislation and don’t see this as an opportunity to say we can now have dirtier vehicles or less efficient household appliances.”

From your report (22 September) on the endangered New Zealand parrot the kea: “its destructive habits such as … attacking stock and habitually stealing food”. A wild creature has no concept of harm or property, so both “attacking” and “habitually stealing” are demonising anthropomorphism. The kea, like any other predator species, is simply and instinctively taking its share of nature’s bounty, the only way it could have survived until now. By any rational criterion, a wild animal is beyond human conceits of blame and responsibility.
Alex Watson
North Nibley, Gloucestershire

• Samuel Gibbs fingers a poor battery as the iPhone 7’s big weakness (Technology review, 24 September). This after five hours’ music, three hours’ browsing, photos, emails, etc. Allowing for seven hours sleep where do, you know, people, fit in?
Bill Steedman
Edinburgh

Party’s union donor says Britain would be forced to rely on ‘henchmen, hangmen and headchopper’ dictators for gas

Labour’s third biggest union donor has attacked the party’s decision to pledge a ban on fracking in the UK as “nonsense” and “madness”.

The GMB, which backed Owen Smith for the party leadership, criticised the move, saying it would force the UK to rely on foreign dictators – “henchman, hangmen and headchoppers” – for gas, as well as needlessly stop the creation of high-skilled jobs.

As the 17th world wildlife conference opens, South Africa’s environment minister Edna Bomo Molewa explains the country’s commitment to protecting wildlife

Over the next two weeks, South Africa will welcome an estimated 3,500 delegates to Cop17, the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites).

Related: Saving Africa's elephants: 'Can you imagine them no longer existing?'

Even if US implements emissions-cutting proposals it could still overshoot target by nearly 1bn tonnes of greenhouse gases, according to scientific study

The US is on course to miss its emissions reduction target agreed in the Paris climate accord nine months ago, with new research finding that the world’s largest historical emitter doesn’t currently have the policies in place to meet its pledge.

Even if the US implements a range of emissions-slashing proposals that have yet to be introduced, the nation could still overshoot its 2025 target by nearly 1bn tonnes of greenhouse gases. This failure would have profound consequences for the US’s position as a climate leader, as well for the global effort to stave off the dangerous heatwaves, sea level rise and extreme weather associated with climate change.