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More than 100 protesters block and climb on trucks at dairies in the Midlands and southern England

More than 100 supporters of Animal Rebellion stopped the supply of fresh milk across large areas of England in the early hours of Sunday, including Arla Aylesbury, which processes 10% of the UK supply.

It came after the activist group, who campaign for a sustainable plant-based food system, received no response to a letter to Downing Street in August, in which they warned of disruptive action in September unless progress towards their demands was made.

Photographer Lisa Alexander is based on a merino sheep property near Blackall in south-west Queensland. She believes we are constantly surrounded by beauty, even in the depths of drought, and seeks to capture this in her work

Question mark over freeport in Tees Valley after ecological disaster puts communities in the north east of England at loggerheads with the government

Stan Rennie has indelicate hands that aren’t good for typing. He’s not the kind of person who cares much for technology at all.

But over the last year, the fisherman has found himself spending less time outdoors and more time glued to his computer, tapping out stern emails to politicians and researching niche areas of environmental law. “It’s taken over his life,” his daughter Sarah, 36, says.

Decades-long research of the southern right whale reveals normal calving times every three years has increased to four to five years

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An endangered whale species found off Australia’s southern coast is calving less often, a decades-long research project has revealed.

The southern right whale usually calf every three years but a Curtin University-led study has found the majority of whales are having an offspring every four to five years.

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Ukraine's president accused Russia of 'radiation blackmail' after shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. 'They want you to show weakness, to give up and stop supporting Ukraine,' said Zelenskiy in an address to Ambrosetti International Economic Forum in Italy on Friday. 

An IAEA inspection team finally reached the Russian-controlled nuclear power plant on Thursday. 'It is obvious that the plant and physical integrity of the plant have been violated several times,' said the chief inspector, Rafael Grossi, in brief comments to reporters after his team took a preliminary look at the plant's condition. 

Energoatom, Ukraine's nuclear energy agency however, said the IAEA was not shown certain areas of the site on Telegram. Energoatom accused Russia of giving a limited tour of the plant to undermine the IAEA's ability to get a grip on the 'facts on the ground'

• Physical integrity of Zaporizhzhia plant ‘violated’, says UN nuclear chief
• Russia-Ukraine war: Russia says gas pipeline suspended indefinitely; G7 nations agree price cap for Russian oil – live

The successful reintroduction of these charismatic, industrious rodents proves that restoring ecosystems is possible

“Merely a trifle! Merely a trifle! And it isn’t really finished!” says CS Lewis’s Mr Beaver when Susan, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, compliments his dam. In icy Narnia, the Beavers come to the children’s rescue after their friend Mr Tumnus is captured. They are ingenious, energetic, helpful to humans – in other words, not entirely dissimilar from how conservationists might describe them (with the exception of Lewis’s thoroughly old-fashioned view of gender roles: while Mr Beaver is the couple’s builder, Mrs Beaver is a seamstress).

Beavers were hunted to extinction across much of Europe hundreds of years ago. When The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was published in 1950 they were, although not mythical creatures, partly imaginary ones in the sense that vanishingly few Britons had ever seen one. It is no wonder, given how warmly their memory lived on in books such as Lewis’s, that their successful reintroduction to England and Scotland is widely if not universally regarded as good news.

Protesters tweet photo showing three members in front of Speaker’s seat as two others hold up signs

Climate activists have superglued themselves in a chain around the Speaker’s chair in the House of Commons chamber.

Extinction Rebellion said its supporters launched the protest in parliament in support of a “citizens’ assembly” to help deliver action on the climate crisis.

Exclusive: conservationists hail government-backed projects led by farmers and landowners to revive biodiversity

Ambitious schemes by farmers and landowners to restore nature and reduce flooding while still producing food will be supported by the government in 22 locations across England.

The landscape recovery scheme is being hailed by land managers and conservationists as the most “exciting and important” step in a generation to restore lost biodiversity.

New paper issues ‘warning to humanity’ as it calls for urgent action to protect world’s 60,000 tree species

Scientists have issued an urgent “warning to humanity” about the global impact of tree extinctions.

A new paper predicts severe consequences for people, wildlife and the planet’s ecosystems if the widespread loss of trees continues. “Last year, we published the State of the World’s Trees report, where we showed at least 17,500 tree species, about a third of the world’s 60,000 tree species, are at risk of extinction,” said Malin Rivers, lead author of the paper and head of conservation prioritisation at Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). “Now we want to highlight why it matters that so many tree species are going extinct.

Aid projects in DRC and Zimbabwe encourage rural inhabitants to eat insects rich in vitamins and minerals

UK aid spending is encouraging hunger-stricken Africans to eat insects, with projects aiming to develop the practice in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe.

Edible insects have long been touted as a resource-efficient source of protein, requiring less land and water than conventional livestock. However, taste and cultural resistance have proved to be stumbling blocks in extending the practice in many parts of the world.

Experts warn drop from 100,000 samples in 2012 to 41,519 last year means huge risk to water quality

Testing of rivers in England has fallen dramatically in the past 10 years, with experts warning it leaves a vacuum of knowledge about the effects of pollution.

Environment Agency data shows its river testing has fallen from nearly 100,000 samples a year in 2012 to 41,519 in 2021 – the lowest level of sampling in 20 years apart from the drop-off during Covid in 2020.

Vegan protesters aim to block supermarkets this month and stop millions of people from buying milk

Vegan activists have vowed to cause massive disruption to the UK’s milk supplies this month, as they demand the government supports a transition to a “plant-based food system” and rewild land used for animal pasture.

Animal Rebellion, an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion that focuses on the environmental harms of animal agriculture, claims it has hundreds of supporters willing to be arrested and go to prison for taking direct action.

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including preening flamingos, a jackal cub and a kelp forest

While France and Germany have introduced bans, Britain continues to slaughter 29 million unwanted chicks every year

UK retailers are blocking moves to end the killing of millions of day-old male chicks each year, farmers and breeding companies have said.

The industrial-scale culling of unwanted chicks is common practice around the world, with 330 million males slaughtered by crushing or gassing each year in Europe, according to campaigners, 29 million of those in the UK.

Warnings of grave impacts on children’s health from energy price rises should prompt anger as well as practical support

Adding to existing worries about the cost of living, the implications of the latest report from the Institute of Health Equity are deeply alarming. Its author, Prof Michael Marmot, spells out the links between rising fuel poverty and various forms of illness, and warns that the threat is greatest for those who are already least well-off. By January next year, 55% of UK households, or 15 million, are expected to be fuel-poor (though a change in the way this is officially defined in England, and differences with Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, make comparisons difficult).

Warnings of surging demand at food banks, and a backdrop of acute concern about the growing gap between incomes and prices, make the picture drawn by the report all the bleaker. It predicts worsening respiratory and mental health for children in affected homes, and highlights the increased circulation of viruses and infections, including bronchiolitis, associated with colder temperatures. The contribution of damp and mould to asthma is also pointed out. So are links between poverty, cold, poor housing and mental illness.

Judgment is huge victory for campaigners concerned about effect of seismic waves on marine life

A South African court has upheld a ban imposed on the energy giant Shell from using seismic waves to explore for oil and gas off the Indian Ocean coast.

The judgment delivered in Makhanda on Thursday marks a monumental victory for environmentalists concerned about the impact the exploration would have on whales and other marine life.

Amid mounting energy and climate crises, the would-be prime minister is burying her head in an eternal culture war

How best to describe wilfully vandalising the planet and threatening human life to satisfy ideological bloodlust? Liz Truss – already a plausible contender for the “worst prime minister ever” gong before she even assumes office – apparently intends to issue up to 130 drilling licences for oil and gas firms. If the purpose of this is to confront the looming social catastrophe of energy bills, to describe it as an exercise in futility would be generous: it takes the best part of three decades to pump fossil fuels out of the ground and put them onstream.

As Russia switches off Europe’s flow of gas via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline – it implausibly cites maintenance work as the reason – the need for drastic, swift action could not be more obvious, yet our soon-to-be prime minister has nothing meaningful to offer.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

Part of the key to collective action may be to overcome the ‘false social reality’ that makes us assume no one else cares about the climate

America is polarized, but a new study has revealed one issue on which the nation is surprisingly united: mitigating climate change.

Yet Americans themselves underestimate the US population’s concern for the state of the climate and support for major climate mitigation policies – by a whopping 80–90%, according to researchers from Boston College, Princeton University and Indiana University Bloomington.

Adrienne Matei is a freelance journalist

He risks ruining his legacy for a project that will bring more pollution to some of London’s worst-hit areas

‘I am the first green mayor of London,” Sadiq Khan proclaimed last year during the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. The Labour party mayor has built a reputation for tackling air pollution. In 2019, he introduced ultra-low emission zones in the nation’s capital. New cycle infrastructure has appeared throughout the city, alongside cycling training courses, and London is brimming with electric buses. It’s no surprise that since 2016, the year Khan was elected, air pollution in London has plunged dramatically.

So it makes little sense that Khan has refused to reverse the Silvertown tunnel. The 1.4km twin-bore road tunnel under the Thames is due for completion in 2025 and will connect the boroughs of Greenwich and Newham. The project is a Johnson mayoral-era solution to the severe delays at the Blackwall tunnel that links Greenwich to Tower Hamlets. TfL claims that the Silvertown tunnel will “help reduce the environmental impact of traffic congestion on some of London’s most polluted roads”, but Greenwich and Newham locals argue that it will do the exact opposite, bringing more pollution to the area.

Diyora Shadijanova is a journalist and writer

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com

George Monbiot criticised ‘chefs and foodies’ like me for focusing on regenerative grazing. But alternative, lab-grown foods, could have terrible consequences

I have huge admiration for George Monbiot, a columnist of this newspaper. His work has highlighted the urgent need to reduce our CO2 emissions and switch to greener energy. He has also shown intensive farming’s role in the dramatic levels of species decline and biodiversity loss. Much of what he writes I wholeheartedly agree with – but when it comes to the solutions we need to change our farming and food systems, we have radically different takes.

It is indisputable that the farming “revolution” of the 1950s, with its widespread use of ammonia fertilisers and herbicides, pesticides and fungicides, has waged war on nature. These intensive, monocultural ways of producing food are not only contaminating our land and waterways, but are heating up our planet and contributing to a crisis in human health (more people die of diet-related disease globally than smoking, according to a study published in the Lancet). The animals in factory farms don’t have a great time either. The decline of insect life is incredibly worrying: without the earthworm, beetle and bee, life as we know it could cease. Topsoils, which we use to grow 95% of the world’s food, are depleting at an astonishing rate. We need to change the way we eat and produce food, and we need to do it quickly.

Thomasina Miers is a cook, writer and restaurateur

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com