The Guardian

Barack Obama tightens restriction on sale of elephant ivory within the US to clamp down on illegal trade

Barack Obama imposed a near total ban on the commercial trade in elephant ivory on Thursday in an effort to choke off smuggling networks and end the slaughter of African wildlife.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service rules ban the sale of elephant ivory across state lines, and deepen restrictions on international ivory sales.

Multiple listings of banned species found and since Guardian investigation 19 ads were closed down – but controlling the trade is akin to a game of whack-a-mole

A killer algae, a monstrous pondweed, a tree that has infested the Everglades and a dozen more of the US’s most environmentally destructive plants have been discovered for sale on eBay. Online traders told the Guardian that ignorance of the law led them to create listings that had spread hundreds of illegal specimens across the country.

Ebay hosted multiple listings for 15 species from the federal noxious weeds list the nation’s highest level of plant biosecurity. Most offered import to the US from abroad. But six sellers were hawking plants from within the country.

The world needs to move away from industrial agriculture to avoid ecological, social and human health crises, say scientists

A new approach to farming is needed to safeguard human health and avoid rising air and water pollution, high greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss, a group of 20 leading agronomists, health, nutrition and social scientists has concluded.

Rather than the giant feedlots used to rear animals or the uniform crop monocultures that now dominate farming worldwide, the solution is to diversify agriculture and re-orient it around ecological practices, says the report (pdf) by the International panel of experts on sustainable food systems (IPES-Food).

Georgia O’Keeffe camping with Ansel Adams, paintings of the Tetons and comparisons of Yellowstone from 1871 and now are some of the highlights at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming. A series of exhibitions celebrates a range of arts focused on the anniversary of the national parks, running now until 28 August

Exclusive: Guardian investigation reveals testing regimes similar to that of Flint were in place in major cities including Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia

• Water departments to change lead-testing methods after investigation

At least 33 cities across 17 US states have used water testing “cheats” that potentially conceal dangerous levels of lead, a Guardian investigation launched in the wake of the toxic water crisis in Flint, Michigan, has found.

Related: Chicago residents take action to be rid of lead pipes as fear of toxic water grows

Instructions provided varied greatly, ranging from those that contained protocols the EPA advised against a decade ago to those that were periodically updated

• At least 33 US cities used water testing ‘cheats’ over lead concerns

Water departments that use controversial lead-testing practices have told the Guardian they will change their methods after an investigation revealed they were not following environmental guidelines.

Most of the water departments involved said they used the testing methods because state governments told them to, federal guidance was not clear, or they had not received any word that practices may underestimate lead content.

Violent storms and downpours have lashed parts of northern Europe in recent days, leaving four dead in Germany, breaching the banks of the Seine in Paris and flooding rural roads and villages

As scientists warn the future of the Great Barrier Reef looks even bleaker than feared, we want to see the impacts of global warming on your part of the country

Climate change has put the Great Barrier Reef into dire trouble, raising water temperatures and causing its worst bleaching event in recorded history. Researchers have warned that now is the last chance to step in and give it a fighting chance.

Meanwhile, Australia is drying out, and world heritage forests in Tasmania have burnt for the first time ever.

EU directives have helped to protect an array of animals – even though agricultural policy has sometimes had a negative effect

From the sea to the land to the air, EU directives on habitats and birds have protected and enabled the recovery of wildlife, including dolphins, orchids and butterflies and the booming marsh-dwelling bird the bittern.

But, with the intensification of farming having seriously harmed wildlife in past decades, the impact of the EU’s huge common agricultural policy (CAP), has often been in the opposite direction.

Drastic cuts to hit remediation work – the process of detoxifying soil, with plans to phase it out by 2017, MPs on environmental audit committee find

The government has drastically cut funds needed to encourage new building on “brownfield” sites, despite claiming that such sites would be key to solving the housing crisis.

Many sites that have previously held buildings or other developments need remediation – a process to remove potentially dangerous toxins from the soil – in order to be considered for new houses, of which the government plans to build hundreds of thousands a year to ease the pressure on the UK’s over-stretched stock.

Prime minister Stefan Löfven should keep his election promise of clean energy and not let state-owned Vattenfall sell its coal mines to EPH

The history of the fossil fuel industry can feel like it is told in complicated deals the public isn’t meant to understand. This is what is happening in Sweden. The government-owned energy company, Vattenfall, is demanding the sale of its coal mines and power plants based in Germany to a Czech company, EPH. The deal includes some of Germany’s largest coal mines – and three of the top 10 most polluting coal plants in Europe. They are going to a deeply unattractive buyer – EPH, a company hell-bent on burning as much coal as possible.

In the next couple of weeks, Swedish prime minister, Stefan Löfven, is facing a stark choice. On one hand, he could approve the sale of the most climate-destroying assets in Europe, breaking his own election promises in the process. Or, he could promote a transition to keep coal in the ground – and support a liveable climate – in an unprecedented decision by a government to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Coal is the most polluting of all fossil fuels, and lignite or ‘brown coal’ is the most polluting type of coal and the greatest threat to EU climate goals.

Widdybank Fell, Teesdale Vivid bird’s-eye primroses survive and bloom in the bleak grandeur of the north Pennines

A skylark rose from among the dry grasses and heather beside the footpath, spiralling higher and higher, showering us with song until it was lost from view in an almost cloudless sky.

In dozens of visits here on May mornings over the past 40 years this was the most perfect day we could recall: still air, warm sunshine and crystal-clear visibility. Bitterly cold wind is expected and horizontal sleet not uncommon at this time of year in one of the last places that spring reaches in the north Pennines.

Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in marine science program gives students insight into reality of the field

Jackie Makie never thought of becoming a marine biologist.

If statistics are anything to go by, that’s not surprising. Indigenous students make up 3% of the total population but less than 1% of students at university.

The Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in marine science program has been reconnecting Indigenous children to the Great Barrier Reef and a world that is central to their traditional culture. It enrols about 40 children from schools along the reef coastline and introduces them to the world of marine science

The move comes two years after opposition Liberal National party banned mentions of climate change impacts from planning policy

The Queensland Labor government will bankroll projects by coastal councils to mitigate the effects of rising sea levels, less than two years after its Liberal National predecessor banned mentions of climate change impacts from planning policy.

The Palaszczuk government has set up a modest $12m fund, launching it in Redcliffe, north of Brisbane, which it said was “one of the communities on the frontline in the battle against the worst predicted effects” of rising sea levels.

Drum lines were set in the wake of the attack on Ben Gerring and a 4.2m-long great white was caught shortly afterwards

Western Australia’s fisheries department has trapped and killed a large great white shark in baited drum lines close to the site where a surfer suffered life-threatening injuries in an attack.

The authorities took samples from the 4.2m-long shark to see whether it was responsible for the attack which left a 29-year-old fly-in fly-out worker, Ben Gerring, fighting for his life.

Sugarcane waste, drones, solar-powered alumina refining and strata-owned solar: which Arena R&D projects could make a big difference to Australia’s energy sector?

Although there are numerous innovative projects seeking to improve the sustainability of Australia’s energy sector, one of the main barriers to making them happen is – as with most things – money.

With the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) set to lose $1.3bn in unallocated funds, the agency has announced a raft of grants for green projects, including $17m for nine research and development projects that “have a pathway to being fully commercial” through industry partners.

Report from US Geological Survey says northern wildfires must now be seen as significant driver of climate change, not just a side-effect

The devastating rise in Alaska’s wildfires is making global warming even worse than scientists expected, US government researchers said on Wednesday.

The sharp spike in Alaska’s wildfires, where more than 5 million acres burned last year, are destroying a main buffer against climate change: the carbon-rich boreal forests, tundra and permafrost that have served as an enormous carbon sink.

Last year saw record worldwide investment and implementation of clean energy such as wind, solar and hydropower

An upsurge in new wind, solar and hydro plants and capacity saw renewable energy smash global records last year, according to a report on new supply.

Some 147 Gigawatts of renewable electricity came online in 2015 - the largest annual increase ever and as much as Africa’s entire power generating capacity.

Pressure mounts on ministers to release full evidence behind the decision to end mandatory use of a harmful chemical sheep dip

MPs are demanding that ministers release key documents and correspondence connected to the decision to end the mandatory use of a chemical sheep dip by farmers.

The call comes as the government made a partial release of evidence to explain why it ended use of the chemical. The documents, published for the first time, show ministers were advised to end use of the chemical because of its failure to eradicate the disease (sheep scab) caused by the parasite.