The Guardian

Biologist Rob Dunn is the David Attenborough of the domestic sphere, uncovering everything from microbes in the shower to spiders in the basement. He goes on safari in the satisfyingly dusty corners of one Copenhagen home

The good news is that I will never be home alone again. The bad news – well, it’s not in fact bad news, but it is slightly unsettling – is that I share my home with at least 5,000 other species: wasps, flies, spiders, silverfish and an exotic bunch of wild bacteria.

All that information is apparently contained in a patch of grey dust I have just swabbed with my right index finger from a door frame in my living room. It’s like a DNA test of my house, says Rob Dunn, a 43-year-old American biologist who has come to my house in Copenhagen to hunt microbial life. He carries no lab gear and his blue crewneck jumper and striped Oxford shirt are hardly the combat suit of an exterminator. But with every discovery we make, with every spider we find lurking in the corner or each swab of dust, he displays an almost childlike sense of excitement. He swears and smiles, even whoops with delight: “This dust sample contains bacteria, your body microbes, your wife’s body microbes, your child’s body microbes. If you smoke weed we would find marijuana DNA in there. Everything is visible, but it’s also present in every breath. Every time you inhale, you inhale that story of your home.”

Victoria’s first waste-to-energy project is going ahead but these projects threaten recycling and could pose health concerns

It’s the controversial scheme that’s attracting attention across the nation but as more waste-to-energy facilities get the green light, critics fear the opportunity to improve Australia’s recycling industry is going up in smoke.

Waste-to-energy, also called bioenergy, has been used in Europe, east Asia and the United States for decades to destroy garbage that would otherwise go to landfill. The trash is burned as feedstock at high temperatures to create fuel, gas or steam that drives a turbine and churns out electricity.

On Instagram, the congresswoman said millennials are choosing to be childless because of the climate crisis. But that approach risks overlooking systematic factors

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, freshman congresswoman and social media sensation, has taken time out from baiting Donald Trump and establishment members of her own party to raise a profound moral question for us all: in light of the escalating climate emergency, should we still be having children?

During a recent Q&A live-streamed on Instagram, apparently shot while she was pottering in her kitchen, the rising star of the Democratic party – and one of the few frontline politicians to get the scale of the environmental emergency – pulled no punches in telling viewers that unless we take urgent, radical action on emissions, there is no hope for the future. “It is basically a scientific consensus that the lives of our children are going to be very difficult, and it does lead young people to have a legitimate question: is it OK to still have children?”

Move to evict protesters who have squatted site since 2010 comes days before judicial review of third runway plans

Bailiffs have moved in on a community of environmental protesters who have been camping near Heathrow for almost nine years, following an eviction order to remove the men and women occupying part of the land.

Related: Charity calls for court to livestream Heathrow third runway challenge

Protesters glued themselves to windows of central London hotel hosting industry event

Nine activists from the environmental group Extinction Rebellion have been arrested after they glued themselves to the front of a central London hotel to demand that the petroleum industry end its “deeply immoral” behaviour in driving climate change.

Specialist police officers spent about two hours unsticking the protesters from windows next to the entrance of the InterContinental Park Lane hotel in Mayfair, which was hosting an oil and gas industry conference.

John Watson, who has died aged 93, was a first-generation dairy farmer near Dartington, south Devon, driven by the writings of the environmental movement (particularly Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and the Club of Rome Limits to Growth report) to resist chemical fertilisers, which he could see were depleting the soil, and become an early convert to organic farming.

He combined a life of the mind with a relentless will to action, believing that examples inspired others far more than words. In 1974 his farm, Riverford, was possibly the first in the country to open for tours, which demystified farming for visitors. Riverford later became a beacon for the organic dairy, meat and vegetable movement, selling direct to customers, as his children developed various sustainable businesses on the farm.

Every year Pakistan produces around 20m tonnes of rubbish, with around half of it is burned or thrown into rivers, causing pollution, disease and flooding. But a recycling hub in Islamabad is getting to grips with the problem

Photographs by Hazel Thompson/Tearfund

Now in it’s fourth year, the Underwater Photographer of the Year competition attracts thousands of entries from scores of countries. Here are a selection of the 2019 winners

London, Leeds, Doncaster and Maidstone are among the worst affected

Almost 2,000 locations across the UK have levels of air pollution that exceed safety limits, according to a pollution map released by campaigners.

In 2017, the worst location for nitrogen dioxide pollution was Kensington and Chelsea, followed by Leeds and Doncaster.

Scientists say some marine animals with high levels of pollutants are failing to calve

Plastics are an increasing cause of concern due to potential sources of chemicals that disrupt hormones and affect the growth and reproductive success of a wide variety of wildlife, according to a new report.

Wildlife in the oceans and on land are subject to cocktails of pollutants known as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), but little is still known about how these common substances interact in the environment despite years of research. The increasing problem of plastic waste breaking down in fragile ecosystems is now one of the key areas of research for scientists.

Scientists say it is likely no marine ecosystems are left that are not affected by pollution

The world’s deepest ocean trenches are becoming “the ultimate sink” for plastic waste, according to a study that reveals contamination of animals even in these dark, remote regions of the planet.

For the first time, scientists found microplastic ingestion by organisms in the Mariana trench and five other areas with a depth of more than 6,000 metres, prompting them to conclude “it is highly likely there are no marine ecosystems left that are not impacted by plastic pollution”.

Song thrush and soil fertility under threat from decline of surface-dwelling worms

There are three types of earthworm: those that live on the surface, others that feed and dwell in the soil, while a third group makes deep burrows and comes to the surface to feed on dead leaves.

All are vital to the soil health, providing nutrients and drainage, so it is concerning when they are scarce or absent on farmland.

The dead humpback whale lying in an Amazon rainforest clearing distils our knowledge that human actions have changed the climate and polluted the oceans

There could scarcely be a sadder image of nature in chaos. A young humpback whale lies flat out in a forest clearing made by its own bulk. If it had sunk in the sea, this whale would be food for hagfish and cookiecutter sharks. Instead its yellowed, sagging blubber has been pecked at by birds. What baffling force could have thrown this giant ocean mammal into the Amazon rainforest?

It’s the kind of prodigious sight that previous ages would have interpreted as an omen – and we still can’t resist seeing it that way. The sheer out-of-placeness of this poor juvenile stranded in death without the sea in sight is even more disconcerting than a pod of whales washed up on a beach or a lone cetacean in the Thames. It shows how the medieval cosmology of the four elements lodges in our imaginations: how has a creature of the water ended up on the earth? Or to put it in the more contemporary language of conspiracy theories: this dead sea mammal is very fishy. Perhaps it was taken by aliens to be probed, then dumped here. Maybe it was airlifted by the deep state for reasons of its own.

Film appears to show cows and calves being punched, beaten and dragged across the floor

The RSPCA is investigating a British farm, after undercover footage which appears to show dairy cows and calves being force fed, punched and beaten was released by an animal rights group.

The footage, taken on a farm in Buckinghamshire, appears to show workers beating and swearing at dairy cows. Later in the footage, workers appear to drag young calves across the floor, and at one point appear to be force-feeding a young calf, as well as beating it. At one point a cow appears to be attempting to tend to a still-born calf.

Greater Manchester mayor says this part of levy would disproportionately affect poor

The mayor of Greater Manchester has been accused of a “cop-out” after a decision to exempt private cars from a daily charge under which polluting vehicles will pay up to £100 a day to use roads in the region.

Andy Burnham asked the government for £116m to implement Greater Manchester’s plan, which includes a clean air zone designed to drastically reduce harmful levels of nitrogen dioxide by 2024.

Whale discovered at Marajó Island should have been in Antarctica at this time of year

A young humpback whale has been found dead after being washed ashore on a remote swamp in the Amazon River.

The humpback whale should have migrated thousands of miles to Antarctica by this time of year, but members of the conservation group Bicho D’Água said they found it at Marajó Island in Brazil’s north-east.

We’d like to hear about the action you and yours have taken to reduce greenhouse gases

It’s the crisis that we just can’t seem to tame: the ominous rise of global temperatures, aggravated by the burning of fossil fuels and the release of carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases.

But not everyone is belching out emissions like there is no tomorrow. Communities, cities, even whole countries are taking unilateral action to cut emissions - and we want to hear about them...

Joyous blooms mix with climate fears as you tell the story of the UK’s surprise burst of warmth

UK experiences winter temperatures of 20C for first time

Record temperatures in complete contrast to the weather at this time last year have led to signs that spring has sprung much earlier than usual in the UK, and naturalists have expressed worry about what this means for the environment.

Related: Naturalists concerned for early-emerging spring species in UK

Exclusive: mining giant received payments and carbon credits for shutting down oil generator before switching to diesel plant

Australians have paid about $2m from the Morrison government’s emissions reduction fund, now rebadged as a “climate solutions” policy, to mining giant Rio Tinto for a diesel-fired power station at a mine in Arnhem Land.

The multinational company qualified for climate funding to help pay for the fossil fuel plant at its Gove Peninsula bauxite mine despite the generator being commissioned before the fund opened.

Incidents of snow turning green and black are causing increasing alarm. So just how worried should we be about the world’s increasingly colourful snow?

Don’t eat yellow snow has always been good advice. To that we can now add warnings against green, pink, orange and black snow, as new evidence of our trashing of the planet is now being etched out on the most pristine of environments – our dwindling snow caps.

A spate of incidents in Russia has grabbed internet attention. Residents of Siberian towns watched with dismay as the snow around them turned green and black, with toxic emissions forcing some to wear masks. These seem to be connected to local factories, with a chrome plant in particular behind the green snow, and, as protests gather pace, the Putin government has come under pressure.