The Guardian

The Guardian’s Bottling It series is shining a light on the problem of what to do with the 1m plastic drinking bottles produced every minute. Your replies were thoughtful and inspiring

We often hear from members about our environment reporting – you tell us that you value it and would like us to increase our focus in this area. So we were interested in hearing your views on our Bottling It series, which asks who is responsible for the world’s plastic binge, and how we might solve the environmental crisis it is creating. Thank you to all who got in touch – your thoughts were informed, passionate and often inspiring, which is why we have published a selection of them below.

The series has been very well read, and this week continues with our reporter Nicola Davis documenting her attempts to avoid buying anything with plastic in it or on it. Do you want to join her? Let us know how you get on using #nomoreplastic on Twitter and Instagram.

Six of the secretive cats could be released in Northumberland’s Kielder forest if an application by the Lynx UK Trust is approved

After an absence of 1,300 years, the lynx could be back in UK forests by the end of 2017. The Lynx UK Trust has announced it will apply for a trial reintroduction for six lynx into the Kielder forest, Northumberland, following a two-year consultation process with local stakeholders.

The secretive cat can grow to 1.5m in length and feeds almost exclusively by ambushing deer. Attacks on humans are unknown, but it was hunted to extinction for its fur in the UK. The Kielder forest was chosen by the trust from five possible sites, due to its abundance of deer, large forest area and the absence of major roads.

We asked readers to share their experiences and memories from the public lands of America that are, for now, preserved for all Americans

• Help support the Guardian’s coverage of the government’s public land sell-off

The landscape for America’s public lands is shifting, with Congress looking to transfer large swaths of federal land over to states in a move that could diminish access and result in a sell-off to private interest.

Related: Campaign against Trump’s threat to US national monuments gathers pace

America the beautiful … it’s a land of dramatic – and protected – scenery but, with 27 national monuments’ status under review, change may be coming. Here, are 22 of the threatened mainland sites

Hungry robin chicks, a herd of wild donkeys and a tapir are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

Donald Trump wants to remove wording from a draft communique that would commit the US to an agreed international approach on reducing fossil fuel emissions, it has been suggested

Donald Trump is trying to water down the wording of a G20 draft communique about lowering fossil fuel emissions, it has been suggested.

The section, seen by the Guardian, took note of the US decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement on climate change, but added: “The United States affirms its strong commitment to a global approach that lowers emissions while supporting economic growth and improving energy security needs.”

As global sales of plastic drinking bottles approach half a trillion a year, share your stories and photos of the environmental implications of plastic waste

The world is bingeing on plastic. A million plastic bottles are bought every minute, and that figure is set to increase another 20% by 2021. More than half a trillion will be sold annually by the end of the decade.

Related: A million bottles a minute: world's plastic binge 'as dangerous as climate change'

Photographer Murdo MacLeod travelled on a converted fishing boat to the Treshnish Isles and Staffa in the Inner Hebrides to admire puffin breeding colonies, where the birds nest in burrows on the edge of the cliffs

In Scotland, the much-loved puffin – or Fachach in Gaelic – nests on the Treshnish Isles and Staffa in the Inner Hebrides. Outside of the breeding season they spend most of their lives at sea, resting on the waves when not swimming.

This distinctive seabird, famous for its stout patterned beak, flies thousands of miles in migration, can dive to more than 60 metres and live for more than 40 years.

Guardian India correspondent Michael Safi takes a journey along the Yamuna river. Stretching 855 miles (1,375km) across the north of the country, at its source in the Himalayas its water is crystal clear. However, once it streams through New Delhi, it turns into one of the filthiest rivers in the world. Rapid urbanisation is partly to blame, but so is lax enforcement of laws against illegal dumping

Naomi Klein tells Owen Jones that Donald Trump’s administration is using a ‘new formula’ for pushing through its agenda. Rather than the disaster capitalism she outlined in her book The Shock Doctrine, Klein says the Republican party is using Donald Trump’s ‘mental instability, out-of-control ego and general man-babyness’ to distract from their policies, which are ‘savaging’ environmental standards and already-inadequate financial regulations

An extended version of this interview is available on Owen Jones’s YouTube channel

The quietly released details confirm previous analysis done for the Guardian, which revealed a bigger rise in emissions than projected

Australia’s official greenhouse gas data, showing a continued increase in emissions, was quietly published on a government website on Friday, after internal government correspondence showed it had been held back from release for more than a month.

The figures broadly confirm independent analysis done exclusively for Guardian Australia by consultants at NDEVR Environmental, published last month. Those projections proved about 98% accurate, with emissions rising by even more than was projected.

Doubts about the science are being replaced by doubts about the motives of scientists and their political supporters. Once this kind of cynicism takes hold, is there any hope for the truth? By David Runciman

Last month Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord. For his supporters, it provided evidence, at last, that the president is a man of his word. He may not have kept many campaign promises, but he kept this one. For his numerous critics it is just another sign of how little Trump cares about evidence of any kind. His decision to junk the Paris accord confirms Trump as the poster politician for the “post-truth” age.

But this is not just about Trump. The motley array of candidates who ran for the Republican presidential nomination was divided on many things, but not on climate change. None of them was willing to take the issue seriously. In a bitterly contentious election, it was a rare instance of unanimity. The consensus that climate is a non-subject was shared by all the candidates who appeared in the first major Republican debate in August 2015 – Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Chris Christie, John Kasich, Mike Huckabee and Trump. Republican voters were offered 10 shades of denialism.

The billionaire founder of Tesla announces the building of the 129MWh battery to store renewable energy in South Australia, and confirms his pledge to deliver it within 100 days or it will be free. Musk tells reporters the project will not be without technical challenges, given it will be the largest battery installation in the world ‘by a significant margin’

Meeth Quarry, Devon I’m prepared for disappointment. Then the sun works its magic, teasing winged life from the undergrowth

The entrance is easy to miss: an understated wooden sign roughly halfway along the main road traversing Devon north to south. From the turning beside an abandoned rail station a quiet lane that once shuddered under the weight of heavy diggers leads to a car park at Meeth Quarry where I join 20 or so Devon Wildlife Trust members for a field trip.

While the others may have come to enjoy the variety of flora and fauna thriving at this relatively new nature reserve, I have one species on my mind – a delicate national rarity that endured here as the land about it was torn apart.

Figure underscores need for federal oversight as the Trump administration seeks to slash the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget and roll back rules

Texas companies involved in illegal air pollution releases were penalized by the state in fewer than 3% of all cases,according to a new report.

The figure underscores the need for strong federal oversight in a period when the Trump administration is seeking to slash the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget and roll back rules, said Ilan Levin, associate director of the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP).

Last summer was the fourth worst since scientific monitoring began in 1976, but let’s be delighted and count these small blessings

I don’t want to jinx it so I’m only whispering but, shhh, we may be blessed with a half-decent butterfly summer. Last week, I saw a purple emperor, tipsy on sap from an old oak, lurching around a meadow on a deeply overcast day that normally only brings out the ringlets and meadow browns.

Like most of our 59 native butterflies, the midsummer-loving purple emperor has emerged ten days earlier than usual. On the exuberant rewilded farmland of Knepp Castle, West Sussex, there are more emperors flying than anywhere else in the country. This iridescent beauty inspires great obsession and its leading devotees, Matthew Oates of the National Trust and Butterfly Conservation’s Neil Hulme, spotted 148 emperors in one day last week. That’s extreme butterflying.

Prospect of seasonal labour crisis prompts calls for introducing new scheme to ensure UK farms have enough workers to pick fruit and veg

The price of British strawberries could rise by 50% if ministers fail to plug growing gaps in seasonal labour which are expected to get worse after Brexit, MPs have heard.

The prospect of a £3 punnet of strawberries was raised by MPs as they called for a new seasonal agricultural workers scheme to be introduced by next year – or sooner – to stop the shortage of EU labour becoming a crisis.

Officials say world’s ‘largest ever’ seizure of about 7.2 tonnes of ivory has an estimated street value of $72m

Authorities in Hong Kong have announced what they say is the world’s largest ever seizure of about 7.2 tonnes of ivory tusks with an estimated street value close to $72m.

If the size of the haul is verified, it will replace the current record held by Singapore for a seizure of 7.138 tonnes of ivory tusks in 2002.

Exotic migrants to the UK have set up home in a quarry owned by a sand mining company – an industry that is destroying wildlife habitats worldwide

At the end of June some exotic migrants flew into the country who have been enthusiastically welcomed by the Daily Mail. Following a hazardous journey from southern Europe a gang of seven bee-eaters have set up home in a desolate quarry in Nottinghamshire.

But while their presence is an inspiring example of the benefits of free movement, their choice of a quarry owned by Mexican minerals multinational Cemex raises some difficult questions about the relationship conservation has with big business.

A week after the Chinese bike sharing scheme hit Manchester, the Guardian’s North of England editor Helen Pidd is already hooked

I was sceptical about Manchester’s new hire bikes, fearing they would all end up at the bottom of the Ship Canal.

Yet just a week after Chinese firm Mobike plonked 1,000 silver and orange two-wheelers on the streets of Manchester and Salford, I’m already a convert. Yes, there have been a few glitches with the app (you’re supposed to be able to reserve a bike for 15 minutes but I haven’t been able to for a few days), and I’ve no idea what those messages say that they’ve sent me in Chinese. But Mobikes are significantly better than London’s hire bikes, or any I’ve tried in other cities across the world. Here’s why: