The Guardian

Wearers of any brand of soft lens can now have them collected or drop them off at recycling bins

The UK’s first free national recycling scheme for plastic contact lenses – worn by an estimated 3.7 million people – is being rolled out this week.

Wearers of any brand of soft lens will have the option of either having their discarded items and packaging collected or dropping them off at a network of recycling bins at Boots Opticians and selected independent stores.

Bird-watchers flock to Werribee treatment plant, near Melbourne, to see Eurasia native

The Werribee sewage ponds are one of the most popular bird-watching locations in Australia. On a good day, says Birdlife Australia’s Sean Dooley, you may see as many as five or six other cars there.

That was before the tufted duck arrived.

Scientist Brad Lister returned to Puerto Rican rainforest after 35 years to find 98% of ground insects had vanished

“We knew that something was amiss in the first couple days,” said Brad Lister. “We were driving into the forest and at the same time both Andres and I said: ‘Where are all the birds?’ There was nothing.”

His return to the Luquillo rainforest in Puerto Rico after 35 years was to reveal an appalling discovery. The insect population that once provided plentiful food for birds throughout the mountainous national park had collapsed. On the ground, 98% had gone. Up in the leafy canopy, 80% had vanished. The most likely culprit by far is global warming.

Proposed revised rules include a change that would allow oil companies to select third party companies to evaluate the safety of their equipment

The Trump administration is expected to give BP and other big oil companies more power to self-regulate their offshore drilling operations, years after investigators found that lax regulatory oversight was one of the leading culprits behind the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, the worst environmental catastrophe in US history.

The move to relax new rules that were put in place by the Obama administration after the BP disaster, which killed 11 workers, spewed 4m barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and cost BP $65bn, comes as the White House is seeking to open offshore oil and gas drilling to the vast majority of US coastal waters, including in the Arctic.

New government strategy aims to reduce ammonia emissions by changing farming methods

Muck-spreading, the agricultural practice of spraying fields with liquid manure, will effectively be banned under government plans to reduce air pollution.

Animal manure is a key source of ammonia, a powerful pollutant that, combined with other chemicals in the air, form fine particles that can lodge deep in the lungs, harming human health.

Opponents know least about the science but believe they know the most, surveys find

The most extreme opponents of genetically modified foods know the least about science but believe they know the most, researchers have found.

The findings from public surveys in the US, France and Germany suggest that rather than being a barrier to the possession of strongly held views, ignorance of the matter at hand might better be described as a fuel.

Experts hope cities can provide sanctuary for pollinators as rural populations decline

Allotments, weedy corners and fancy gardens are all urban havens for bees and other pollinators, a study has found.

The widespread decline of bees resulting from the loss of wild areas and pesticide use has caused great concern in recent years, but towns and cities have been suggested as potential sanctuaries.

Government has astonishing record of fighting demands to meet legal obligations

• Air pollution plans improve on EU rules, government claims
  

Air pollution was until recently regarded as a problem mainly for those whose health was already compromised or vulnerable in some way: the very old, the very young, and those with existing respiratory problems such as asthma. Thanks to groundbreaking research in the last few years, we now know the problem goes much further, to the root of human health: air pollution has been linked to miscarriage, dementia, heart disease and lower intelligence.

There is scarcely an aspect of human health that is not affected by the silent insinuation of this invisible killer into our lungs, our blood, our brains and every other organ.

UK proposals include new regulations on farmers, wood-burning stoves and diesel cars

• What will happen to air quality standards after Brexit?
  

The government has set out new plans on air pollution that ministers say go beyond existing EU rules, with a pledge to improve air quality nationwide to the standards the World Health Organization (WH0) recommends.

Farmers will be subject to air quality regulations for the first time to cut their growing contribution to pollution, under the government plans set out on Monday, while diesel vehicle drivers and owners of wood-burning stoves will also face restrictions.

With the fashion industry’s environmental impact under scrutiny, there’s a move to eschew new stuff and wear what you already own

Splashed out in the sales? Cashed in your Christmas gift cards? The average Briton spends more than £1,000 on new clothes and shoes each year, according to the statistics agency Eurostat – and many are shelling out much, much more. But with a focus now on the environmental impact of the fashion industry, some of the bloggers, vloggers and influencers who cut their teeth sharing details of an endless array of new clothes and products, are changing tack – enter the “no-buy” movement.

The idea is simple: instead of buying new clothes or beauty products, you make a commitment to use the things you already own. Some people, such as the beauty blogger Hannah Louise Poston, sign up to a “no-buy year” – and document their progress in much the same way that they once tracked their purchases. Others pledge not to buy for a few weeks or months or opt for “low-buy” options with a strict spending cap. A subreddit thread named MakeupRehab, offering tips and support for those undertaking not to buy new products, now has more than 50,000 subscribers.

Interior department continues processing permits and moves forward with controversial plan to increase drilling in the Arctic

Three weeks into the longest US government shutdown in history, many important government services have been paused – but the Trump administration has continued efforts to expand oil drilling.

Despite the shutdown directive, which has seen national park staff furloughed and the parks suffering from neglect, the interior department has continued processing oil drilling permits and applications. It has also moved forward with a controversial plan to increase drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A).

Scientists called study’s findings upsetting and said toxic air must be cut

Air pollution is as bad for pregnant women as smoking in raising the risk of miscarriage, according to a scientific study. They said the finding was upsetting and that toxic air must be cut to protect the health of the next generation.

Air pollution is already known to harm foetuses by increasing the risk of premature birth and low birth weight. Recent research has also found pollution particles in placentas.

The wildlife artist Greg Poole, who has died aged 58 after a heart attack, was among the best of a generation who revitalised a tradition always in danger of lapsing into decorative prettiness. His artwork is distinctive for its bold design and graphic verve, the confidence and intensity of his line, a vivid palette and the successful capture of the continuum of life. Snapshots of the natural world – otters, bees, curlews, bluebells – executed with speed and the intensity of field sketches, coalesce into fully realised pictures of nature at large.

His was a kind of subjective realism. He drew his animals and plants as they were (he was always interested in habitats too), but also as he experienced them. Many wildlife artists start out with art and find their subject; he began as a birdwatcher and wildlife observer and found art the only release for what nature stirred in him. He worked in the field, sprawled on the ground, with paper clipped to a card (no easel, no artist’s stool) and often used twigs as his pens or brushes. Encamped in a Norfolk saltmarsh, he requisitioned old cornflake boxes to print miraculous images of the samphire at his feet and the oystercatchers in a creek.

Residents in a rural area of southern Brazil were rained on by spiders this week. Experts say it’s typical in Minas Gerais state during hot, humid weather. While it looks like the spiders are falling from the sky, they’ve actually created a huge web to catch prey. Scientists say the parawixia bistriata species builds a community web so fine that it’s nearly impossible to see with the human eye, giving the illusion that the spiders are floating on air

An adopted leopard cub, a preening moorhen and tiny turtles feature in this week’s gallery

Move by Japanese firm would be blow to UK plans to replace coal plants and ageing reactors

The Japanese conglomerate Hitachi looks certain to cancel its plans for a £16bn nuclear power station in Wales, leaving Britain’s ambitions for a nuclear renaissance in tatters.

An impasse in months-long talks between the company, London and Toyko on financing is expected to result in the flagship project being axed at a Hitachi board meeting next week, according to the Nikkei newspaper.

Charlie Ewart discovered the 64-metre lump and will be part of the team breaking it up

Charlie Ewart, a 51-year-old father of two from Plymouth, has been battling blockages in the sewers of south-west England for 15 years.

But even he was not prepared for the dreadful sight, and smell, of what he found lurking beneath the elegant seafront in the regency town of Sidmouth when he scrambled through a small manhole.

Attorney general quashes Ella Kissi-Debrah verdict, paving way for fresh hearing

The mother of a schoolgirl who died of an asthma attack linked to air pollution has won the right to seek a new inquest at the high court.

The attorney general moved on Friday to quash the inquest into the death of Ella Kissi-Debrah at the age of nine, after new evidence linked it to air pollution spikes from traffic near her home in south London.

Buried deep under the Greenland ice sheet is a unique archive of life on Earth 40,000 years ago. Scientists are using this information to try to predict future changes to the planet

Mikołaj Golachowski describes plan as ‘evil’ and warns of environmental consequences

Conservationists have branded plans by the Polish government to cull almost the entire wild boar population of the country as “pointless, counterproductive and evil”.

In a move to tackle an epidemic of African swine fever, the Polish government has ordered a series of hunts, beginning this weekend, with the aim of killing the vast majority of the country’s population of around 200,000 wild boar.