The Guardian

Plastic pollution in our seas is depressing – but there are imaginative moves afoot to address the problem

I’ve been sceptical about the power of running shoes to affect global change. So naturally I had it in for UltraBoost Uncaged Parley, Adidas trainers that claim to make peace with the ocean. The shoe’s upper is created from plastic waste retrieved from a clean-up operation in the Maldives, and recycled polyester. But Adidas has committed to producing a million pairs of these ocean waste running shoes, and a swimwear line.

Adidas has committed to producing a million pairs of ocean waste running shoes

Palaszczuk government and mining giant apparently at odds as Adani says ‘there are no ongoing negotiations’ on Carmichael scheme

Queensland’s government says it is still negotiating with Adani over the details of its royalties agreement for its $16.5bn Carmichael mine, despite the deal being officially agreed months ago.

Adani announced in May it had reached agreement with the government over royalty payments, after a more generous offer of concessions was scrapped amid internal pressure from within the state Labor cabinet and caucus.

Our seafood diet must adapt, say scientists, as climate change forces some favourites to colder waters and threatens others

Britain must prepare itself for invasions of growing numbers of foreign sea creatures attracted by our warming waters, a new report has warned. Some newcomers could have devastating effects, others could be beneficial, say the researchers.

Examples provided by the team include slipper limpets that could destroy mussel and oyster beds. By contrast, new arrivals such as the American razor clam and Pacific oyster could become the bases of profitable industries for British fishermen.

Harlech, Gwynedd Redshank circle above Ynys while Roma samphire pickers search the saltings

A flight of redshank, wings elegantly barred and bent, clatter and yelp out of a draining channel as I circle Glastraeth, the “green strand” at the mouth of the river Dwyryd, which was once a crucial Welsh wintering ground for curlews, pintails and geese.

Related: Birdwatch: Common redshank

Veteran conservationist compares situation to a nationwide action he led against the Franklin Dam in Tasmania in the 1980s

Veteran conservationist Bob Brown has criticised the “destructive wealth and arrogance” of Indian mining group Adani at a Sydney protest against the Galilee Basin mine.

The Adani chairman, Gautam Adani, announced this week that the company would break ground on it’s $16.5bn coal mine in Queensland in October.

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

NGO Earthsight reports charcoal from the Chaco region has been sold in Aldi, Lidl and Carrefour in Spain and Germany

No tropical forests anywhere in the world are being destroyed more rapidly than the Chaco stretching across Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. Not the Amazon in Brazil, nor in Indonesia, Malaysia or the Democratic Republic of Congo.

At least, that is according to a University of Maryland-led study published in 2013. And the carnage continues today. In July British NGO Earthsight released a report stating that “the latest available analysis [by Paraguayan NGO Guyra], covering January 2017, suggests that the rate of deforestation has kept pace since the Maryland paper. The Paraguayan Chaco is on course to lose more than 200,000 hectares of forest this year: an area the size of Manhattan every fortnight.”

Marabou storks, Kamchatka brown bears and playful lion cubs are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

Thousands of people are using home air quality monitoring kits due to fears official figures are not capturing dangerous pollution levels, say Friends of the Earth

A growing number of citizens are monitoring local air quality because of fears official figures are not capturing “dangerous” levels of pollution.

The environmental charity Friends of the Earth has said 70 local groups are now using their testing kits and noted a “surprising” increase in people taking monitoring into their own hands.

When Aric Harding, a Houston pastor and musician, returned to fetch some belongings from his home after it was flooded by Harvey, he wanted to show his son that their piano still worked. So Harding sat in the knee-deep water and played a few chords as a friend recorded the moment.

• Texas flooding: 100,000 homes damaged by Harvey – as it happened

Students from New Taipei City collected samples from urban rivers, creeks and ports which they then froze in moulds and preserved in resin. ‘We hope when more people see this they can change their lifestyles,’ said one of the group

August rains wiped out the promise of a long-awaited bumper summer for birds, insects and plants, say experts, though autumn will be good for fungi

The summer holiday washout wiped out a much needed bumper season for wildlife across the UK, according to wildlife experts at the National Trust.

A normal winter and balmy spring provided ideal conditions for birds, insects and plants but the heavy rains that rolled in during August dampened the promised bonanza. However, the weather patterns should see a good autumn for fungi and some nuts and berries.

Chew Valley Lake, Somerset Redshank, mud-wort, cudweed and crowfoot – their names are peasant-simple – rise from the mud like miniature Grendels

The lake in late summer is brimming with life. Swallows and martins sweep through rafts of duck, coot and gulls, sometimes dipping to sip flies from the surface. The shoreline is lush with plants and wet with drizzle. We push through shoulder-high bushes of water mint and spires of gypsywort and golden dock.

This is the seasonal outburst of the inundation community, the plants that spring up on the mud of the lake edge. The vegetation may have a grand title but the plants themselves have earthy, Old English names, mud-savoury and peasant-simple.

A herd of elephant hawkmoth caterpillars is trooping across my garden to pupate

Caterpillars are on the march. In the past week I’ve found several elephant hawkmoth caterpillars trooping across my garden. These are arguably the most subtly beautiful of the charismatic hawkmoth grubs. They are deep brown and charcoal grey with four arresting “eyes” of black, brown and silver – part of an armoury of deterrents against voracious birds, which includes the sudden switching into “snake” mode when disturbed, to discombobulate predators.

The adult moth takes its name from the caterpillar’s trunk-like snout, although its bewitching pink hued wings are also the colour of a cartoon elephant.

Experiment in the Bellingshuan Sea reveals temperature rise has more alarming implications for biodiversity in polar waters than previously thought

Marine life on the Antarctic seabed is likely to be far more affected by global warming than previously thought, say scientists who have conducted the most sophisticated study to date of heating impacts in the species-rich environment.

Growth rates of some fauna doubled – including colonising moss animals and undersea worms – following a 1C increase in temperature, making them more dominant, pushing out other species and reducing overall levels of biodiversity, according to the study published on Thursday in Current Biology.

Rising sea levels pose a serious threat to cites like Boston, New York and Miami Beach. So what are they doing to protect themselves?

Tropical storm Harvey may have bared its teeth at Houston, but other cities in the US have felt the pangs of nervousness. Several cities are vulnerable to the fiercer storms and sea level rise that are being fueled by climate change.

Cities, by their very nature, struggle during flood situations. Water that would have been soaked up by grass and other vegetation washes off the concrete and asphalt of urban areas and, if not properly diverted away, can inundate homes.

Rescue operations continue to save people across Texas stranded by tropical storm Harvey. Though rainfall is slowing and wind speeds have dropped, officials say the flooding will take longer to subside. Harvey weakened as it moved inland over Louisiana on Thursday, leaving behind record flooding

• Houston flooding: two explosions take place at Texas chemical plant
  

Protests planned after president suggests Roșia Montană Unesco application could be withdrawn, potentially enabling the return of a controversial mining project

Romania’s prime minister has suggested his government will seek to withdraw an application to have the former gold mining area of Roșia Montană declared a Unesco world heritage site, potentially paving the way for the return of a controversial mining project.

A climate “red team” is just a polite way to describe bailing out scientific losers

Climate contrarians, like Trump’s EPA administrator Scott Pruitt and Energy Secretary Rick Perry, don’t understand how scientific research works. They are basically asking for a government handout to scientists to do what scientists are should already be doing. They are also requesting handouts for scientists who have been less successful in research and publications – a move antithetical to the survival of the fitness approach that has formed the scientific community for decades.

The helping handout would be through a proposed exercise called a “red team/blue team” effort. It is a proposal that would reportedly find groups of scientists on both “sides” of the climate issue (whatever that means), and have them try to poke holes in each others’ positions. I will explain why this is a handout but first let’s talk about the plan and how it interferes with the scientific process.

Winning and shortlisted images from this year’s competition, from awe-inspiring action shots to charming portraits, featured in a new book celebrating some of the best bird photography of the year