The Guardian

Britain’s milder weather is attracting exotic guests. While we may celebrate their arrival now it should also alert us to what’s ahead

Mediterranean egrets balancing on the backs of cows, multicoloured moths the size of a human hand, and impossibly exotic bee-eaters hawking for insects under English skies. All are here as a direct consequence of the climate crisis, which has allowed continental European species to extend their ranges northwards, and then make the leap across the Channel to gain a foothold in southern Britain.

Whenever I take a walk along the disused railway line across the Avalon marshes, near my Somerset home, I can’t help noticing these new arrivals. Tall and elegant, great white egrets first arrived here from France just a few years ago; now I encounter them every time I visit. Down the road, at the Somerset Wildlife Trust’s reserve at Catcott Lows, flocks of cattle egrets – the same species we see in wildlife films from Africa – gather to feed, perched appropriately on the backs of cattle. Elsewhere on the marshes, secretive night herons and little bitterns have also bred in recent years.

An Australian magpie  has been caught on camera mimicking the sound of emergency vehicle sirens during the bushfire crisis affecting large parts of the country. Almost 400 homes have been confirmed as destroyed in New South Wales alone in the past week, with thousands of people told to evacuate coastal communities. The Australian magpie, voted bird of the year by Guardian Australia readers in 2019, is well known for mimicking the sounds it hears most frequently, such as dogs and car alarms.  

Australian bushfires: nine dead and hundreds of properties destroyed

The town of Conjola Park on the south coast of New South Wales is in ruins after a blaze ripped through on 31 December. On Thursday, a major operation to reach thousands of people stranded in fire-ravaged south coast seaside towns was under way after deadly bushfires ripped through popular tourist spots and rural areas

• Latest updates: RFS warns south coast tourists to leave as Victoria bushfires continue

Exclusive: Concerns about groundwater security at Cherrabah overridden by Campbell Newman’s government

Queensland government experts raised repeated warnings about the long-term sustainability of groundwater extraction at a southern Queensland property which has since been approved to operate as a commercial water mine.

The approval for the 96m litre a year bottled water extraction operation at Cherrabah – in a severely drought-hit area where locals are on water rations and communities at imminent risk of running dry – has raised significant questions about the oversight and regulation of critical water resources in Queensland.

A Yorkshire village’s sense of community remains unbroken amid damaged homes, insurance battles and debris

Until November, Fishlake, a small and sleepy Doncaster village with only a couple of cafes, a pub and a church at its heart, was little known to most outside the area.

But after heavy rainfall brought parts of northern England and the Midlands to a standstill, it became the centre of a media frenzy. Approximately 140 of about 200 homes in the village were swamped in sewage-contaminated floodwater after the River Don burst its banks.

Australia’s south-east devastated by fires that have left nine people dead and hundreds of homes destroyed since Christmas

• Australia’s bushfire towns battle on, despite what they have lost: supplies, power, houses, ‘the lot’

Winning images from the year’s national and international wildlife photography competitions

New rules introduced by International Maritime Organisation expected to reduce certain forms of air pollution

Sulphur will be cut drastically from global shipping transport fuels in 2020, in a move that should reduce some forms of air pollution, and may help towards tackling the climate emergency – but which could also lead to a rise in the price of flights.

From 1 January 2020, ships will only be allowed to use fuel oil with a very low sulphur content, under rules brought in by the International Maritime Organisation. This cut in sulphur content has been more than a decade in the planning, and almost all shipping around the world is expected to comply, or face penalties.

Residents of Australia’s capital are told to stay indoors and brace for more smog in the coming days

Canberra has experienced its worst air quality on record, as bushfire smoke became trapped by atmospheric conditions and residents were told to stay indoors and brace for more smog in the coming days.

The ACT’s acting chief health officer, Dr Paul Dugdale, said the smoke was the worst since the 2003 bushfires and was “certainly the worst” since air quality monitoring started in the city 15 years ago.

Allan, a 1.5 metre corn snake, had been driving to Oldham with its owners for Christmas

A 1.5 metre (5ft) snake named Allan had to be rescued from inside a car after escaping while travelling with its owners over Christmas.

The pet corn snake got out of its vivarium as it was travelling with owner Ellie Bond from Nottingham to Oldham to spend the Christmas break with family.

Some of the world’s leading voices on the environment discuss concerns and areas of optimism

At the end of a tumultuous decade for biodiversity, in which a report based on the most comprehensive study of life on Earth warned that “nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history”, we spoke to some of the world’s leading voices on the environment about their greatest fears for the next decade – and also their hopes. As the IPBES report’s authors noted: “It is not too late to make a difference, but only if we start now at every level from local to global.”

We asked three questions:

New woodlands and wild places are needed to fight climate crisis and improve people’s health

Half of the nation’s farmland needs to be transformed into woodlands and natural habitat to fight the climate crisis and restore wildlife, according to a former chief scientific adviser to the UK government.

Prof Sir Ian Boyd said such a change could mean the amount of cattle and sheep would fall by 90%, with farmers instead being paid for storing carbon dioxide, helping prevent floods and providing beautiful landscapes where people could boost their health and wellbeing.

Thousands were evacuated on the New South Wales south coast and Victoria’s East Gippsland region on New Year’s Eve as multiple bushfires threatened towns and cut off highways. Many were forced to seek shelter on jetties or in lakes or the ocean as their escape routes were cut off. Two men were confirmed to have died at Cobargo in NSW and another was reported missing.

• ‘We’ve lost our beautiful town’: Mogo residents flee as bushfire rages up NSW south coast

UK Wildlife Trusts report says 2019 saw sea change in public attitudes to marine conservation

Seals, dolphins and seabirds in British coastal waters are increasingly being disturbed by people using drones, kayaks and jetskis, according to a new report.

Plastics, ocean waste and discarded fishing equipment have continued to devastate marine species in the UK’s coastal waters, while warming seas driven by the climate crisis have caused a boom in the non-native Pacific oyster, according to the Wildlife Trusts.

Scottish Salmon Company wants to build 20-cage site close to tourist destination

Islanders on Arran are protesting against plans to install one of the UK’s largest fish farms close to one of the island’s most treasured holiday destinations.

The Scottish Salmon Company (SSC) wants to build a fish farm near Lochranza on the northern tip of Arran, which will be more than twice the size of most other salmon farms.

• Swedish activist and president attended UN climate summit
• ‘He’s not listening to experts … why would he listen to me?’

Greta Thunberg has said she wouldn’t have wasted her time talking to Donald Trump about climate change at the UN climate change summit in New York earlier this year – the same event she was pictured glaring at the one of the world’s leading climate-change deniers.

Related: Vladimir Putin thanks Donald Trump for tip that foiled Russian terror plot

Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough thanked each other for their climate activism when they spoke for the first time in a Skype call. The discussion was part of the Swedish activist's guest-editing slot on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Attenborough praised the teenager for raising awareness of the climate crisis, to which Greta said nature documentaries inspired her to take on the cause

• Greta Thunberg: climate activism has made her 'very happy', says father
  

Greta Thunberg's father has spoken about how activism helped his daughter out of depression. Speaking to the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Svante Thunberg says he had thought it was 'a bad idea' for his daughter to take to the frontline of the battle against climate change but adds that her activism helped her battle depression. 'You think she's not ordinary now because she's special, and she's very famous, and all these things. But to me she's now an ordinary child,' he says. As part of Greta’s guest editorship of the programme, she also talks to Sir David Attenborough for the first time.

• Greta Thunberg: climate activism has made her 'very happy', says father
  

Svante Thunberg says he was concerned about his daughter’s school strike but that her campaigning had helped her beat depression

Greta Thunberg’s father has opened up about how activism helped his daughter out of depression but still worries about how she will deal with the impact of her international fame.

Speaking to the BBC to mark his daughter’s guest-editing slot on the Today programme, Svante Thunberg revealed he thought it was a “bad idea” for Greta to stage the school strike that catapulted her into the public eye.

Unless we focus on shared solutions, violent storms and devastating blazes could be the least of the world’s troubles. Civilisation itself will be at risk

‘Good morning. Here is the shipping forecast for midday, 21 June, 2050. Seas will be rough, with violent storms and visibility ranging from poor to very poor for the next 24 hours. The outlook for tomorrow is less fair.”

All being well, this could be a weather bulletin released by the Met Office and broadcast by the BBC in the middle of this century. Destructive gales may not sound like good news, but they will be among the least of the world’s problems in the coming era of peak climate turbulence. With social collapse a very real threat in the next 30 years, it will be an achievement in 2050 if there are still institutions to make weather predictions, radio transmitters to share them and seafarers willing to listen to the archaic content.