The Guardian

Exclusive: Analysis shows federal and state environment spending cut while industry awarded $2.5bn in fuel tax credits

Mining companies will receive more than twice as much in fuel tax credits as the Turnbull government will spend on environment and biodiversity programs this financial year, an analysis has found.

Coalmining companies alone are expected to get more back than the diminishing funding allocated to the federal environment department.

We’ve come to accept Trump’s ignorance, but it’s often dangerous

Donald Trump has decimated all presidential norms to such a degree that it’s now difficult to feel alarmed or outraged when he inevitably breaks another. It was difficult to raise an eyebrow when the story broke that Trump paid off a porn star to remain silent about their affair, which happened just after his third wife had given birth to his fifth child, because it’s Donald Trump – of course he did.

Likewise, when Trump made a number of grossly ignorant and wrong comments about climate change in an interview with Piers Morgan last week, my first reaction was ‘it’s Donald Trump – of course he did.’

Warning over wider global health impacts after findings reveal thousands of tonnes of colostin - the ‘antibiotic of last resort’ - are being shipped to India’s farms

Chickens raised in India for food have been dosed with some of the strongest antibiotics known to medicine, in practices that could have repercussions throughout the world.

Thousands of tonnes of an “antibiotic of last resort” – only used in the most extreme cases of sickness - are shipped to India each year to be used, without medical supervision, on animals that may not require the drugs but are being dosed with them nevertheless to promote the growth of healthy animals.

Get involved in our project mapping the change in UK seasons: tell us if you’re seeing an early spring near you

Has spring sprung early where you are? Are you already noticing changes to the appearance or behaviour of flora and fauna in gardens, window boxes or local wild spaces? If so, we’d like to hear about it for a project mapping what appears to be a trend of shorter winters in the northern hemisphere.

Related: Spring flowers in autumn, birdsong in winter: what a freak year for nature

Scientists say climate targets cannot be met using the technologies, which either risk huge damage to the environment or are very costly

Ways of sucking carbon dioxide from the air will not work on the vast scales needed to beat climate change, Europe’s science academies warned on Thursday.

From simply planting trees to filtering CO2 out of the air, the technologies that some hope could be a “silver bullet” in halting global warming either risk huge damage to the environment themselves or are likely to be very costly.

Durham city: Minute male capsules on the prothallus burst open, releasing sperm with whiplash tails that swim frantically towards the egg cells

Since humans first began to pile stone upon stone to build walls, and later learned to stabilise them with mortar, plants have taken root in the crevices. They are often ephemeral opportunists, growing from seeds distributed by birds, but for some spleenwort ferns that naturally colonised bare limestone cliffs the crumbly alkaline cement of the manmade alternative offers almost unlimited opportunities.

Directive seeks better access to safe drinking water to reduce use of throw-away containers

The EU is to oblige national governments to provide greater access to drinking fountains, encourage restaurants to offer free tap water, and raise the standards required of suppliers, as part of a move to clamp down on plastic waste and improve the health of Europeans.

Related: Bottled water is a nonsense. Just ban it and fill our towns with drinking fountains | Sonia Sodha

Campaigners ask Westminster to ‘drive war on plastic waste’ and Prince Charles calls for action

Campaigners are demanding that the UK parliament cuts its use of throwaway plastics, as new figures show the Westminster estate purchased more than 2m plastic straws, bottled drinks, plastic-lined coffee cups, food sachets and cutlery items last year.

Freedom of information requests submitted by Surfers Against Sewage show that hundreds of thousands of items of plastic cutlery, more than a million takeaway coffee cups and nearly 22,000 plastic straws were used last year in the Commons and Lords.

Boxset comes with message from David Attenborough as PM hopes for China’s help to cut pollution

Theresa May will present Xi Jinping with a Blue Planet boxset when the two meet in Beijing on Thursday, but the Chinese president may have already seen the BBC series – considering its huge popularity in his country.

The seven-part series was watched by millions across the globe, and proved especially popular in China where an estimated 26 million people saw the first episode and approximately 100 million watched the second online, resulting in the country’s internet slowing to glacial pace.

Naturalist describes accolade as ‘Boaty McBoatface in book form’ after Fingers in the Sparkle Jar beats Wind in the Willows and The Peregrine

When academics asked readers to vote for Britain’s favourite piece of nature writing, they probably didn’t expect a celebrity memoir about Asperger’s to trounce otters, badgers and peregrines.

But Chris Packham has seen off famous poets and naturalists such as John Clare, Kathleen Jamie and Gilbert White, as well as much-loved children’s classics The Wind in the Willows and Tarka the Otter, to top the online poll organised by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Study warns that use of anti-malarial nets may reduce people’s protection and affect fish stocks, and calls for urgent research into potential impacts

Anti-malarial mosquito nets are being used to catch fish around the world, according to the first global survey, risking harm to people and fish stocks.

More research is urgently needed to assess these impacts, say the scientists, but they also caution that the draconian bans on mosquito net fishing seen in some countries may cause more harm than good, particularly where people rely on the fish caught to survive.

Charcoal is an integral part of everyday life in Uganda, where most people rely on some form of wood fuel to cook or boil water. For many, the sale of trees also provides a valuable income. Yet this levelling of the landscape, which causes loss of habitat for wildlife and leads to climate change, is unsustainable

All photographs by Jennifer Huxta

Lawmakers overwhelmingly vote for the bill to abolish trade by 2021, which will shut down a massive ivory market and throw a ‘lifeline’ to elephants

Hong Kong has voted to ban ivory sales in a landmark move to end the infamous trade in the city.

Lawmakers overwhelmingly voted for Wednesday’s bill, which will abolish the trade by 2021, following China’s complete ban on ivory sales that went into effect at the end of last year.

Three-person team reported to have been attacked by government forces while patrolling in the Keo Seima wildlife conservation sanctuary

Soldiers in an area of north-eastern Cambodia where illicit logging and smuggling are rife are reported to have killed a forest protection ranger, a military police officer and a conservation worker in apparent retaliation for their seizure of equipment from illegal loggers, officials have said.

Keo Sopheak, a senior environmental official in Mondulkiri province, said the three-person team was attacked late Tuesday afternoon after patrolling in the Keo Seima wildlife conservation sanctuary. He said the dead civilian was a Cambodian employee of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

Climate experiment shows trees release water but stop absorbing carbon in extreme heat

Australian researchers growing trees in climate change conditions have found the leaves “sweat” to survive extreme heatwaves.

The year-long experiment showed that trees continue to release water through their leaves as an evaporative cooling system during periods of extreme heat, despite the carbon-fixing process of photosynthesis grinding to a halt.

Footage taken at the Sealife Melbourne aquarium shows a green sea turtle that was rescued from a beach on the Mornington peninsula swimming laps alongside predators  to prepare for his release into the wild. Terry the turtle has a phalanx of divers to act as bodyguards for his first foray into the tank

The stripy fields have been planted across England as part of a trial to boost the natural predators of pests that attack cereal crops

Long strips of bright wildflowers are being planted through crop fields to boost the natural predators of pests and potentially cut pesticide spraying.

The strips were planted on 15 large arable farms in central and eastern England last autumn and will be monitored for five years, as part of a trial run by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH).

The turtle washed up on a beach in August and will be released into the wild next month

A green sea turtle rescued from a beach has been swimming laps alongside predators at Sealife Melbourne aquarium to prepare for his release into the wild, with a phalanx of divers to act as bodyguards.

The immature turtle was discovered washed up on a beach on the Mornington Peninsula in August, severely underweight and battling pneumonia.

By the tidal waters of a lowland river it’s a thrill to spot this Arctic breeding shorebird – even if, for this bird, sleep is on the schedule

The birds were so well camouflaged I almost didn’t see them. A dozen waders, perched on a rocky outcrop alongside the River Parrett, Somerset, at high tide, the water lapping at their feet. Most were turnstones, whose faded tortoiseshell plumage blended in surprisingly well with the rocks. A couple of dunlins, too, the ubiquitous small wader also in drab winter garb.

And one other bird: plump, dark and fast asleep, head tucked beneath its feathers. Only an unusual plumage feature, the patch of yellow at the base of its bill, gave away its identity as a purple sandpiper. Though at this time of year slate-grey sandpiper might be more apt.

The seaman Jon Castle, who has died of cancer aged 67, led many of Greenpeace’s most dramatic marine campaigns, including the occupation of the Brent Spar oil platform and the opposition to nuclear testing.

After 25 years with Greenpeace he turned his skills to wider humanitarian causes, including rescuing refugees in the Mediterranean and sailing to the Chagos Islands in protest at the British refusal to allow people to return to their homeland following their eviction to allow the US to build a military base. He always acted, he said, not just out of a love of nature but for right against wrong.