The Guardian

Last August, holidaymakers in East Sussex fell ill after a poisonous yellow cloud spread across the sky. What was it, and where did it come from?

Mark Sawyer has worked for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution for nearly 30 years, and since 2001 he’s been the full-time coxswain at the Eastbourne lifeboat station. Shortly after 5pm on the Sunday of a bank holiday weekend last August, he received a report from the coastguard in Southampton about an incident at a beach seven miles west of his station. “The call we got was that there had either been a fire or an explosion at Birling Gap, and they’d got 50-plus casualties suffering from smoke inhalation or burns.” There was what looked like a layer of thick smoke hanging just above the sea.

Birling Gap is a popular National Trust spot between Beachy Head and Seaford, a dip in the chalk cliffs of the Seven Sisters, with a steel staircase leading down to a pebble beach. At low tide there is sand and rockpools; on the cliffs above there is a visitor centre, cafe, car park and coastguard station.

Dolbenmaen, Gwynedd: As a climber, I’d often pass within metres of the peregrine falcons on the cliff face, harsh chattering between the pair echoing from the rock walls

The huge dolerite cliff at the head of the valley glows in afternoon light. A pale green algal cast accentuates white streaks and fresh spatterings. This is peregrine and raven territory, the latter maintaining a respectful distance from the former. They’ve been present here for at least 50 years.

I first saw the falcons at their inaccessible eyrie under the great overhang in 1968. That was the time when peregrine and raven populations in Wales were recovering from dramatic postwar declines caused by organochlorine pesticides, used in dusting racing pigeons for fleas, treating crops, dipping sheep for parasites. The DDT, particularly, concentrated in the birds’ food chains, led to the thinning of eggshells and repeated brood failures.

Shipping firms to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 as part of historic agreement

Carbon dioxide from ships at sea will be regulated for the first time following a historic agreement reached after two weeks of detailed talks in London.

Shipping companies will halve their greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 under the plan, brokered by the International Maritime Organization and binding across its 170 member states.

Call by Cristiana Pașca Palmer comes ahead of a major biodiversity conference in Beijing in 2020

At least half of the world should be made more nature-friendly by 2050 to ensure the wellbeing of humanity, according to the UN chief leading efforts to create a new global pact on biodiversity.

The call to strengthen the world’s life support system comes ahead of a major conference in Beijing in 2020 that many hope will be the biodiversity equivalent of the Paris climate agreement.

Karen state activists mourning community leader Saw O Moo, who campaigned to protect a local forest and for residents’ land rights

Indigenous activists in Myanmar’s Karen state are mourning the killing of a community leader who campaigned for a peace park to protect a local forest and its residents’ land rights.

Saw O Moo was ambushed by government troops on 5 April as he was riding a motorbike with a soldier from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), a rebel group that is fighting for autonomy.

Orphaned baby elephants and mating hamlets are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

How close the world is to a catastrophic collapse of giant ocean currents is unknown, making halting global warming more critical than ever, scientists say

Serious disruption to the Gulf Stream ocean currents that are crucial in controlling global climate must be avoided “at all costs”, senior scientists have warned. The alert follows the revelation this week that the system is at its weakest ever recorded.

Past collapses of the giant network have seen some of the most extreme impacts in climate history, with western Europe particularly vulnerable to a descent into freezing winters. A significantly weakened system is also likely to cause more severe storms in Europe, faster sea level rise on the east coast of the US and increasing drought in the Sahel in Africa.

Committees seek clarity on indecision over taxpayer support and price guarantees for flagship tidal clean energy scheme to harness tide power

MPs are to press ministers on why they have left investors hanging in limbo over taxpayer support for a pioneering £1.3bn tidal lagoon in Swansea.

The business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) committee and Welsh affairs committee will call on government to explain why no decision has been forthcoming on the flagship scheme. The government has still not indicated whether it is minded to support the lagoon, 15 months since an independent review told ministers to back the clean energy project.

We’d like to hear from people who have crossed from one side of the debate to the other

A heated debate among evangelicals is taking place across the US, with some Christians protesting in the name of protecting the Earth and others not seeing it as existing at all.

Evangelicals have traditionally been the bedrock of conservative US politics, including on climate change, but some are taking action. One group has even built a chapel in the way of an oil pipeline and a radical pastor has encouraged his congregation to put themselves in the way of the diggers. However some resistance remains – a climate scientist who denies the world is warming and a preacher in Florida who sees the fact his home was flood as a welcome sign of divine presence.

An internal battle is simmering among evangelicals in the US over whether climate change is a call to protect the Earth, the work of God to be welcomed, or does not exist at all.

Evangelicals have traditionally been the bedrock of conservative US politics, including on climate change. But a heated debate is taking place across the country, with some Christians protesting in the name of protecting the Earth, seeing it as a duty to be done in God’s name. One group has even built a chapel in the way of an oil pipeline and a radical pastor has encouraged his congregation to put themselves in the way of the diggers.

But resistance remains – a climate scientist who denies the world is warming and a preacher in Florida who sees the fact his home was flood as a welcome sign of divine presence.

Could a surprising section of Christian Americans offer hope regarding the country’s attitude to climate change?

Study of PM2.5 levels in Utah suggests increase in diagnoses of viral infections such as bronchitis follows even brief upticks in pollution

Even short-term increases in air pollution are linked to a higher risk of developing viral chest infections that turn into conditions such as bronchiolitis, new research suggests.

The study, carried out by scientists in the US, looked at levels of tiny particles in the air known as PM2.5s across eight locations along the Wasatch Front in Utah, including Salt Lake City. This area features a string of towns and is home the majority of the state’s population and, due to various factors, experiences large variations in air pollution.

Gosforth Park nature reserve, Newcastle: Among the calling of birds and the swishing of reeds, only the sound of an ice-cream van reminds me how close to the city I am

As soon as we enter the wood, the noise of traffic seems to recede, replaced by a feeling of calm. Our focus shifts to take in birdsong, the drumming of a woodpecker, the rustle of dry leaves. Gosforth Park nature reserve is a retreat from busyness, the quiet eye of the storm. With access restricted to members of the Natural History Society of Northumbria, its wildlife is undisturbed.

This is an open wood with a high canopy of oak trees and an understorey of coppiced hazel. There’s the occasional lofty Scots pine or dense, dark holly. Fixed to tree trunks are numerous bat boxes; seven species of bats have been recorded here, including Daubenton’s, noctule, Nathusius’ pipistrelle and Brandt’s. In summer, though very hard to spot flying among the tops of the oak trees, flit purple hairstreak butterflies.

Proliferation of giraffes, lions, tigers and elephants in toy shops and films creates ‘virtual population’ and skews our perception

Animals such as elephants, tigers, lions and panda bears are everywhere in movies, books and toy stores. But their wide pop culture presence skews public perception of how endangered these animals really are, researchers say.

Online surveys, zoo websites, animated films and school questionnaires were scoured by US and French researchers for the study, published in journal PLOS Biology.

Traffic has fallen by 40% in the City since 1999 – good news for air pollution and people’s fitness

City workers are swapping their pinstripe suits for cycle helmets and hi-vis jackets. Since 1999, total traffic in the City of London has fallen by 40% and bicycles are now the dominant vehicle during the rush hour.

This is good news for air pollution in an area that breaches EU limit values for nitrogen dioxide, but an increase in active travel has many other benefits: less road traffic noise, fewer climate change emissions and people benefiting from more exercise.

Kevin Chmielewski told lawmakers he faced retaliation after pushing against outsized spending demands from EPA chief and his top aides

A high-ranking political staffer at the Environmental Protection Agency has told lawmakers he faced retaliation after pushing back against outsized spending demands from administrator Scott Pruitt and his top aides.

House and Senate Democrats sent letters on Thursday to Donald Trump and Pruitt describing a meeting they had with Kevin Chmielewski, who was recently placed on involuntary, unpaid leave from his position as EPA’s deputy chief of staff for operations.

The Mary river turtle is just one of many endangered Australian reptile species which have fallen between the conservation cracks

The Australian government does not have a plan to save an endangered Australian turtle species that received global attention on Thursday for its green mohawk and its ability to breathe through its genitals.

The Mary river turtle, found only in that one river in Queensland, attracted worldwide headlines as one of the standout species on a new list of the most vulnerable reptile species compiled by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

Multimillion dollar project will scan and make public methane leaks from oil and gas plants that are a major contributor to global warming

Methane leaking from oil and gas facilities around the world – a major contributor to global warming – is set to be spotted from space.

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has announced it aims to launch a satellite called MethaneSAT by 2021 to scan the globe and make major leaks public. That information will then enable governments to force action, EDF hopes. Building and launching the satellite will cost tens of millions of dollars, but EDF says it has already raised most of the money.

Stretch of road outside Stockholm transfers energy from two tracks of rail in the road, recharging the batteries of electric cars and trucks

The world’s first electrified road that recharges the batteries of cars and trucks driving on it has been opened in Sweden.

About 2km (1.2 miles) of electric rail has been embedded in a public road near Stockholm, but the government’s roads agency has already drafted a national map for future expansion.

The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox

A new book published by the Natural History Museum showcases some of the most memorable underwater photographs taken over the last few decades in its annual wildlife photographer of the year competition. The stories behind the pictures - about both the behaviour and the photographers’ experiences - are often as interesting as the pictures themselves