The Guardian

Devon and Cornwall force’s idea to ease the pressure of policing the cull was termed ‘appalling’

A police force has been strongly criticised by animal rights campaigners after proposing the suspension of the law that protects badgers in areas where the government’s controversial cull has been taking place.

Devon and Cornwall police suggested that decriminalising the taking of badgers in cull zones would ease pressure on resources, save the public money and could help stop the spread of bovine TB.

Paris remained on flood alert after the Seine burst its banks, leaving streets inundated and forcing part of the Louvre to close. Forecasters said the flooding should peak by the end of the day

The war on plastic waste is extending to the UK’s favourite beverage, with a major retailer in the final stages of developing a fully biodegradable paper teabag that does not contain plastic.

The Co-op is to make its own-brand Fairtrade 99 teabags free of polypropylene, a sealant used industry wide to enable teabags to hold their shape, and the guilt-free brew is due to go on sale by the end of the year.

Welburn, North Yorkshire: A spring from the lime-rich bedrock calcifies all in its path, from pine cones to snail shells

January has wrapped itself so tight around the valley that there is no view today. Even the short sightlines in the woods are cloaked and murky. The mud on the main track is tedious, so I’m tempted by the firmer footing of a leafy badger path. It starts well but soon becomes steep and hostile, with bramble snares every few paces. The hulk of a dead birch gives way as I grasp it for support; muddied and disheartened, I try to cut back.

I emerge instead in the swamp landscape of a dinosaur picture book, thick with dead horsetails banded bone-white and brown like okapi legs. A few more squelching steps and I reach what must be the source of the small spring we call the Trickle. Here, its early course runs white over a petrified woodland floor. Bathed in water sprung from the lime-rich bedrock, twigs, leaves, pine cones and needles are turning to stone.

Environment department says it will no longer consider changes that would provide greatest health benefit

Moves to introduce stringent regulations for Australian fuels have been excluded from the government’s most recent consultation paper in favour of cheaper options that would result in more damage to the environment and public health.

The Ministerial Forum on Vehicle Emissions is considering changes that would reduce emissions from motor vehicles, including regulations that would improve the fuel-efficiency of new cars and limits on pollution levels in fuel.

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

The second-hottest year recorded at Earth’s surface was the hottest in its oceans

Among scientists who work on climate change, perhaps the most anticipated information each year is how much the Earth has warmed. That information can only come from the oceans, because almost all heat is stored there. If you want to understand global warming, you need to first understand ocean warming.

This isn’t to say other measurements are not also important. For instance, measurements of the air temperature just above the Earth are really important. We live in this air; it affects us directly. A great commentary on 2017 air temperatures is provided by my colleague Dana Nuccitelli. Another measurement that is important is sea level rise; so too is ocean acidification. We could go on and on identifying the markers of climate change. But in terms of understanding how fast the Earth is warming, the key is the oceans.

A major study in Hong Kong shows the risk of death rises sharply on hazy days, when air pollution is much worse

The risk of death for people with mental and behavioural disorders rises sharply on days when air pollution reaches toxic peaks, a major study in Hong Kong has found.

Researchers analysed a decade of death statistics and revealed a strong link, with the mortality risk rising 16% on the first day of haze and 27% on the second day compared to normal days. If the haze was accompanied by high ozone pollution, the risk of death increased by 79%.

This winter the first wolf in 100 years arrived in Belgium, completing the animals’ return to mainland Europe. But can Europeans relearn how to live alongside the predators?

To some it is a roe deer that eats meat: an adaptable animal capable of living peaceably alongside humans. To others it is a demonic killing machine that ruins farmers – and whose presence is a symbol of the city’s contempt for rural life.

The wolf is on the rise in Europe. This winter it finally reconquered Belgium, the last mainland European country from which it had been absent after decades of persecution.

Sumatran elephants, an injured bear and a wandering wallaby are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

Drone footage is building up the missing data on dolphin populations that is crucial to ensuring their protection and long-term survival

The drone is hovering above the Amazon river, but its battery is running low. André Coelho, the chief pilot, steers it back to safety with skills perfected by playing video games. Long hours practising on Need for Speed have become a surprising asset in the effort to conserve the dolphins that live in the river.

Marcelo Oliveira, a conservation specialist at WWF Brazil, stands on the bow of the boat with arms aloft. He plucks the white drone from the air, changes the battery, and swiftly sends it back into the sky.

RSPB says successful breeding season and kind weather could see many species faring well in this year’s Big Garden Birdwatch

Blue tits, great tits, greenfinches and chaffinches are set to bounce back into British gardens this winter after a successful breeding season and “relatively kind” conditions.

More than half a million people are expected to spend an hour this weekend spotting birds and other wildlife in the 39th year of the Big Garden Birdwatch, the world’s biggest wildlife survey.

A major new study estimates 11bn pieces of plastic contaminate vital reefs and result in infections: ‘It’s like getting gangrene,’ scientists warn

Billions of pieces of plastic pollution are snagged on coral reefs, sending disease rates soaring, new research has revealed. The discovery compounds the damage being done to a vital habitat that already faces an existential threat from the warming caused by climate change.

Scientists examined 125,000 corals across the Asia-Pacific region, home to half the world’s reefs, and found 89% of those fouled by plastic were suffering disease. On plastic-free reefs, only 4% of the corals were diseased.

Government is being sued for third time to act quickly on illegal levels of toxic air

Air pollution will continue to take a heavy toll on people’s health for many years to come unless the UK government is forced once again to improve its action plan, the high court has been told.

Ministers have already had two previous plans declared illegal but environmental lawyers ClientEarth argue that even the latest plan fails to cut widespread illegal levels of pollution in the “shortest possible time”, as required by EU law.

It is true that we no longer lend out the Ben Nicholsons and Alfred Wallises that Harland Walshaw was lucky enough to choose from as a student (Letters, 24 January), but we do still invite students in to Kettle’s Yard to choose a work of art, which for a small deposit and a modest fee they can hang on their walls for the year. And there are some beautiful works to choose from. We do love to hear the stories from those who enjoyed Jim Ede’s generosity when he was still living here.
Andrew Nairne
Director, Kettle’s Yard

• As I hunted through Sainsbury’s recently for unpackaged vegetables (MPs urge supermarkets to banish plastic waste, 20 January), my route to the nice, clean carrots and leeks – two of the very few naked veggies on display – was blocked by shoppers carefully decanting them into plastic bags.
Vicky Woodcraft
Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire

Researchers have discovered why mosquitoes prefer some people over others – and how a swat teaches them to avoid you

Researchers have found a solution for those plagued by mosquitoes: thrash about, and the insects will learn to give you a wide berth.

While it has long been known that mosquitoes favour some individuals over others – and can shift those preferences when availability is scarce – it was not clear what was behind the switch.

New search for communities willing to host underground site for thousands of years

Local communities around England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be offered £1m a year to volunteer to host an underground nuclear waste disposal facility for thousands of years, as part of a rebooted government programme.

The financial incentive is one way the government hopes to encourage communities to host the £12bn facility, after previous efforts failed in 2013 when Cumbria county council rejected the project.

From the minuscule to the mighty, tree-dwellers to pond-swimmers, millions of beetle species reveal a wealth of information about the world we live in

Free refill points and fountains will be set up in shops, cafes and high streets in every English town and city, under plans announced by the water industry

Consumers will be encouraged to refill their water bottles free of charge in tens of thousands of shops, cafes, businesses and water fountains in England under plans announced by the water industry.

The national scheme aims to fight the growing scourge of waste created by single-use plastic by preventing the use of tens of millions of plastic bottles every year, as well as increasing the availability of quality drinking water.

Sandy, Bedfordshire: At the tree’s base, an autopsy of its last seconds was written in splits, snaps, rips and a broken heart

When the last storm whipped through our valley it brought down the tallest tree on the river. An old Lombardy poplar, a spire without a church, it belonged to an age when planting poplars was popular. They were the leylandii of their day, for they shot up as fast as rockets and looked like them too. They were often grown in rows as windbreaks, though nobody much thought about old age and the wind’s revenge.

For a day or so after, my eyes clawed at the air, looking for the absent shape of a tower that had been a crow’s nest for a magpie, a labyrinth for tits, a cricked neck. I saw only a wooded ridge, some houses, and sky – so much sky that it snuffed out the memory. For a day or so only, passersby stopped to inspect the toppled giant, as they might view the corpse of a beached whale.