The Guardian

Dutch artist Suzanne Jongmans creates photographs that echo the old masters, but with a modern twist: she crafts intricate costumes using recycled plastics, old blankets and used packaging. Jongmans finds inspiration in painters such as Jan van Eyck, Rembrandt and Holbein, whose level of detail she aims to replicate. “When you look at the old masters, you can really see the time that is put into the paintings,” she says. “And that fits with the method I developed.” There is an implicit environmental message in her work but, she says, her primary objective is giving a new life to these old materials. “I’m a collector mostly – I collect all kinds of things, like blankets, wool, things from nature. And I would like all these materials to tell a story.”

Protesters plan to close five main bridges across Thames over extinction crisis

Thousands of people have descended on central London for a “day of rebellion” in protest over the looming climate crisis.

People began massing on five bridges over the River Thames from 10am on Saturday. A short time later groups of protesters began to block the roads on the bridges, some of the busiest and most important in the capital.

Scientists in Brazil find first evidence of plastic pollution in Amazon basin freshwater fish

Scientists have found the first evidence of plastic contamination in freshwater fish in the Amazon, highlighting the extent to which bags, bottles and other waste dumped in rivers is affecting the world’s wildlife.

Tests on the stomach contents of fish in Brazil’s Xingu River, one of the major tributaries of the Amazon, revealed plastic particles in more than 80% of the species examined, including the omnivorous parrot pacu, herbivorous redhook silver dollar, and meat-eating red-bellied piranha.

Cuadrilla won’t say if it has halted Preston New Road exploration, at cost of £94,000 a day

The shale gas firm Cuadrilla has refused to confirm whether it has halted fracking after triggering a series of minor earthquakes near Blackpool, raising questions over the operation’s future prospects.

Dozens of small tremors have been registered near the company’s Preston New Road site, after it started pumping high volumes of water underground in October to explore for gas.

Starlings over Rome and the ‘smiling angel’ of the Yangtze are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

Huge expansion of agri-food industry is harming environment, say investigators

Green energy subsidies are fuelling the rise of poultry mega-farms across Northern Ireland, with owners accused of contaminating sensitive habitats with emissions from chicken faeces.

An alliance of agri-food companies enlisted the support of Northern Ireland politicians to unlock an estimated £800m in subsidies for contractors. This has paved the way for industry expansion at the expense of the environment, according to an investigation by the not-for-profit journalism group SourceMaterial.

Ranking of countries’ goals shows even EU on course for more than double safe level of warming

China, Russia and Canada’s current climate policies would drive the world above a catastrophic 5C of warming by the end of the century, according to a study that ranks the climate goals of different countries.

The US and Australia are only slightly behind with both pushing the global temperature rise dangerously over 4C above pre-industrial levels says the paper, while even the EU, which is usually seen as a climate leader, is on course to more than double the 1.5C that scientists say is a moderately safe level of heating.

From Belize to Barbados, tourist beaches have been swamped by huge tides of foul-smelling sargassum – and climate change could make the problem worse

“It was like something out of a science fiction movie,” says Barbara Hall from the office of the beachside hotel she runs in Placencia, southern Belize.

“I woke up at 6am, looked out my window and realised we had a big problem. It was absolutely overwhelming.”

Wool-shearing footage, filmed by campaigners on 49 farms, appears to show animals being kicked, slapped and beaten with metal clippers

Footage which appears to show sheep being kicked, beaten and abused during wool-shearing on English and Scottish farms has been released by animal rights activists.

Peta Asia carried out an undercover investigation over the summer in the British sheep shearing industry. The 18 minutes of footage released today is a small part of a wider investigation, in which Peta documented alleged abuse on 25 farms in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Suffolk, Essex, and Northumberland counties. In Scotland they have collected evidence from 24 farms in West Lothian, Fife, the Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian and South Lanarkshire.

In the last 30 years, gulls have come among us as never before. But is their moment coming to an end as we tackle our waste problem?

When was the last day you didn’t see a gull? Throughout Britain we ordinarily cross paths with these birds more often than with any other wild creature. They are hard to avoid. In the last 30 years – the lifespan of a large gull – they have come among us as never before. Though still popularly regarded as seagulls, many have moved inland, far from the seaside or saltwater. They have adapted to life in many places we have made, and they have thrived.

Cities and their hinterlands where we jettison our rubbish now sustain far more gulls than the birds’ former more traditional marine habitats. Indeed, in a paradox that might define the Anthropocene era, surviving coastal birds are now regarded as threatened with local extinction, while the same gull species in urban areas are so prevalent they are thought of as pests.

Hunter and Latrobe valleys lead the list of polluted postcodes in survey by Australian Conservation Foundation

Almost all of Australia’s most polluting industries are located in low-income areas, according to new research by the Australian Conservation Foundation.

The report looks at pollution from emitters including coal-fired power stations as well as mining, refineries and manufacturing and finds the country’s five most polluted areas are the Hunter Valley in NSW, the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, Mount Isa in Queensland and Newman and Collie in WA.

Japanese fleet has departed for the southern ocean for a ‘scientific’ hunt, ignoring pleas for the practice to end

Prime minister Scott Morrison is being urged to personally raise Australia’s opposition to Japan’s unjustified “scientific” whaling program during talks with Japanese prime minister Shinzō Abe.

Abe today becomes the first Japanese leader to visit Darwin since Japan’s deadly 1942 bombing of the city. The visit comes just days after the Japanese whaling fleet departed for the southern ocean for a “scientific” hunt that could see as many as 333 minke whales killed.

UK’s largest retailer falls short of removing palm oil from own-brand foods in sustainability drive

Tesco and WWF have announced they are to collaborate on a long-running sustainable food effort, pledging to halve the environmental impact of the average UK shopping basket within 12 months.

The four-year partnership between the UK’s largest retailer and one of the world’s leading environmental organisations is believed to be the first of its kind. They hope its scale will help drive the industry to eliminate food waste and packaging waste and encourage customers to eat more sustainably.

Booming LNG sector is driving Australia’s rising emissions, but lobby group claims reporting emissions would damage international competitiveness

The Australian oil and gas lobby is pushing to limit public information about greenhouse gas emissions from liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants, a move that contradicts the global industry’s pledge to increase transparency about their impact on the climate.

The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (Appea) has called for LNG plants to be able to apply for emissions data to be withheld from the public on the grounds that releasing it could help its competitors overseas. It has been backed by Chevron, which operates the Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG developments in Western Australia.

Surprise judgment means government must halt capacity market scheme

The UK’s scheme for ensuring power supplies during the winter months has been suspended after a ruling by the European court of justice that it constitutes illegal state aid.

Payments under the £1bn capacity market scheme will be halted until the government can win permission from the European commission to restart it.

The Empire of the Eagle: An Illustrated Natural History, by Mike Unwin and David Tipling, is published by Yale University Press and celebrates the world’s 68 eagle species in all their magnificence and beguiling diversity

Greenpeace says retailers failing to take responsibility for reducing footprint

Big supermarkets are producing billions of single-use plastic bags each year despite charges that are designed to reduce their use by the public.

The UK’s 10 leading supermarkets, including Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose, Co-op and Aldi, continue to put plastic bags into their shops three years after the introduction of 5p charges under EU law.

Retired engineer and manager Bill Bray volunteers with Citizens Climate Lobby, which aims to meet with all legislators twice a year

Bill Bray makes sure to wear his ExxonMobil baseball cap to the farmers’ markets and Rotary clubs he visits in Texas to talk about climate change.

Related: Shell boss says mass reforestation needed to limit temperature rises to 1.5C

Hilcorp’s plan to extract 70,000 barrels a day follows Trump’s reversal of an Obama-era ban on fossil fuel activity in the region

Plans to establish the first oil drilling operation in US Arctic waters have hit an ironic snag – a lack of sea ice caused by rapid warming in the region.

Last month, the Trump administration approved the go-ahead of the Liberty project to extract oil from beneath the Beaufort Sea, off Alaska’s north coast. The drilling would be the first of its kind in federal waters in the Arctic and follows Trump’s reversal of an Obama-era ban on fossil fuel activity in the polar region.

Coral reef scientist jointly awarded John Maddox prize weeks after his research centre lost government funding

Judges have awarded an Australian scientist a prestigious international prize, saying he has battled political smears and public attempts to discredit his work in order to shine a light on the devastating effects of climate change on coral reefs.

Prof Terry Hughes was jointly awarded the John Maddox prize on Wednesday for bringing public attention to coral bleaching.