The Guardian

A new study finds a stark contrast between Exxon’s research and what the company told the public

Read all of these documents and make up your own mind.

That was the challenge ExxonMobil issued when investigative journalism by Inside Climate News revealed that while it was at the forefront of climate science research in the 1970s and 1980s, Exxon engaged in a campaign to misinform the public.

London’s historic food market also aims to achieve zero landfill with biodegradable packaging and compostable leftovers

London’s Borough Market is to introduce free drinking water fountains as part of a new pledge to phase out sales of all single-use plastic bottles over the next six months.

The renowned foodie haven – the only fully independent market in the capital – is aiming to become the UK’s biggest food shopping destination that is entirely plastic-free.

Glastraeth, Gwynedd A vastness of light and water, the sea’s immensity and the intimacy of the creeks, overwhelms the self

Among the glittering spillways, a vastness of light and water, the self is overwhelmed by the immensity of mountains and sea, and the intimacy of samphire lawns, sea aster flowers and creeks. We wander into the salt marsh with sheep, a drift of Canada geese, an egret sharpening its idea of the strike, a group of Romany foragers, a raven and a story.

When the monastery at Bangor-is-y-Coed was sacked in the early seventh century, on account of its allegiance to the Pelagian heresy, the surviving monks fled to what is now the magically circular walled church of Llanfihangel-y-Traethau on a little hill above the Dwyryd and Glaslyn estuary.

As the motor car industry is at the forefront of environmental degradation both globally and locally, it is only right that manufacturers take a lead in tackling the problem (Ford launches £2,000 scrappage scheme, 22 August). Instead, they offer only a scheme to sell more cars based on an unproven theory. This appears to posit that the pollution created by running an “old” car is so much greater than that of running a “new” one, that an environmental disaster might be delayed if we buy new cars more quickly. If Ford will reveal their figures for this old/new pollution differential and compare them with an evaluation of the pollution created in manufacturing a brand-new vehicle, then we might establish whether or not they know what they are talking about.
Dr Kevin Bannon
London

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Two baby apes were discovered in tiny cages in Ketapang, Borneo. A man has been arrested for trafficking wildlife via social media

A UK charity has helped rescue two baby orangutans who were found by police in West Borneo caged and ready to be sold through social media to illegal buyers.

The two apes, a one-year-old male and an eight-month-old female, who were discovered in tiny cages are now in the care of International Animal Rescue (IAR) at its centre in Ketapang, Borneo.

Research finds endangered Antarctic blue, fin and southern right whales struggling to recover despite hunting bans

Populations of the endangered blue and fin whales, which were hunted nearly to extinction in the 20th century, will not have recovered to even half of their pre-whaling numbers by 2100, according to a new Australian study.

The research, published in the Fish and Fisheries journal next month, analysed 122 years of whaling data from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and current population survey data to project future population growth, based on predicted food availability in the southern oceans.

Report reveals improvement but also details danger posed by tourist-generated pollution, oil extraction and climate change

Just below the surface of the turquoise sea, coral flutters majestically amid schools of puffed up porcupinefish and fluorescent blue and yellow angelfish.

The gangly staghorn and fanning elkhorn corals are thriving in swimming distance of Laughing Bird Caye, a tiny Caribbean sandy islet in southern Belize, thanks to a restoration project that is yielding striking results.

The Sill, Once Brewed, Northumberland Planting at the National Landscape Discovery Centre aims to recreate the area’s rare whin grasslands

Standing on the roof of the Sill with the wind in my hair, I have a new view of familiar countryside. For years I’ve driven along Hadrian’s Wall, enjoying the way the land forms a series of waves like a frozen sea.

Now, from the highest point of this building, I watch a buzzard circling above the Roman quarry at Barcombe Hill, see walkers labouring up the craggy steps at Steel Rigg, glimpse far-off bales in a recently cut hay field and cows tail flicking in the summer heat.

Taronga Western Plains zoo in Dubbo, New South Wales, has welcomed two brand new additions to the giraffe herd, born within one week of each other. This video was shot within minutes of the first calf’s birth and shows it taking its first steps and bonding with adult members of the giraffe herd. The first calf is named Zuberi, which means strong in Swahili, and the second calf is Kibo, which means the highest. The zoo says that in just 30 years the global giraffe population has fallen by up to 40% due to poaching for bush meat and habitat encroachment. The zoo aims to spread awareness of their plight and raise money for conservation in Kenya

Common moss changes shape in areas of high nitrogen pollution and drought and has potential to be big bioindicator, say scientists

Delicate mosses found on rocks and trees in cities around the world can be used to measure the impact of atmospheric change and could prove a low-cost way to monitor urban pollution, according to Japanese scientists.

Moss, a “bioindicator”, responds to pollution or drought-stress by changing shape, density or by disappearing, allowing scientists to calculate atmospheric alterations, said Yoshitaka Oishi, associate professor at Fukui Prefectural University.

Noxious byproducts from slurry spill at Crouchland biogas farm poisoned neighbouring land and animals

Lynda and Richard Whittemore bought Quennells farm in the quiet Sussex countryside six years ago. They were hoping for what Lynda calls “an idyllic lifestyle”, tending their flock of 400 pedigree sheep and 45 cattle on 180 acres of farmland.

“We have an undulating field at the back of the stream, winding to the other corner,” Lynda says. “Usually it has lovely clear water, with a gentle slope down to the water supply. It’s picturesque – the [livestock] don’t need troughs, they can walk down to drink the water.”

Environment Agency figures show severe incidents are weekly occurrence as farms struggle with cost of pollution prevention despite subsidies

Serious pollution incidents in the UK from dairy, poultry and pig farms are now a weekly occurrence, leading to damage to wildlife, fish, farm livestock and air and water pollution.

The Environment Agency in England and its devolved counterparts in Wales and Scotland recorded 536 of the most severe incidents between 2010 and 2016, the worst instances among more than 5,300 cases of agricultural pollution in the period.

Airedale, West Yorkshire Under one board are two young lizards, one buff, one a dramatic charcoal-grey; under another a dark-green frog

It’s all gone a bit quiet down by the river. The breeding season has petered out, and by and large the birds have retired from public life: to moult, to regrow, to regroup. It’s a drab, warm morning. One of the kingfishers hunches over the streaming shallows. A young bullfinch mopes in the low branches of an ash. Damp late-summer greenery – ferns, goosegrass, rosebay willowherb – chokes the pathways.

Here and there, in the riverside woodland, the warden has laid down boards of planking for young adventurers to peer beneath. Typically there’ll be worms and snails, sage-green slugs and hectic centipedes, perhaps a wood mouse’s midden of neatly nibbled cherry pits.

Goldfinches are common in our gardens nowadays. But there is something special about watching them in a wild setting

The tinkling sound is familiar now; as familiar as the chirp of sparrows used to be when I was growing up. In those days, the goldfinch was a special sight: one would occasionally visit our suburban garden, delighting us with its colourful plumage. I can still remember seeing for the first time the bird’s crimson face-patch and – when it flew – a sudden flash of gold in the wings.

How things have changed – and in the goldfinch’s case, for the better. Today I see, or more often hear, goldfinches almost everywhere I go. They fly over our Somerset garden, distracting me as I sit and write; and are constant companions whenever I take the dog for a walk down the lane behind our home.

Reversal of ban shows ‘corporate agenda is king and people and environment are left behind’, say campaigners

The Trump administration’s decision to reverse a ban on the sale of plastic water bottles in some of America’s most famous national parks, including the Grand Canyon, shows “the corporate agenda is king and people and the environment are left behind”, campaigners have said.

Related: Day of doom for national monuments is approaching

Created by Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, the Cascade-Siskiyou monument protects Oregon’s extraordinary biodiversity, from butterflies to trout. But a Trump review threatens to open the landscape to the timber industry

Dave Willis, a grizzled woodsmen and backcountry outfitter, has spent decades laboring to protect the mountains of southwestern Oregon, one of the most beautiful, biodiverse regions in the country.

Through grassroots activism, Willis and his conservationist allies have won the support of two US presidents. In 2000, Bill Clinton created the roughly 52,000-acre Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, proclaiming it an “ecological wonderland”. Located just outside of Ashland, it was the first such monument established solely for its extraordinary species diversity. It’s a place that harbors rare lilies and endemic trout, Pacific fishers and goshawks, black bears and a stunning array of butterflies.

Don’t get spooked by the pro-fossil fuel lobby: when we abandon petrol and diesel, our whole world is going to change

When it comes to cars, I had a bit of luck this summer. No, I wasn’t loaned the new Tesla Model 3. My street underwent a pavement improvement scheme. All the parking bays were suspended and minicabs no longer idled their engines during the night. I found myself living in an accidental Low Emissions Zone. It was wonderful.

The best I can say about the anti-EV campaign is that it lacks imagination

Populations of gannets, puffins and other marine birds are in freefall, but a crucial scientific study to pinpoint the causes is being blocked, say experts

Bempton Cliffs bird reserve was in fine fettle last week. The last of its population of puffins had departed for the winter a few weeks earlier, while its thousands of young gannets were still being cared for by their parents on the chalk cliffs of the East Yorkshire nature site. For good measure, kittiwakes, cormorants and fulmars were also bathing in the sunshine.

Related: We must stop seabird numbers falling off a cliff. After all, we’re to blame | Adam Nicolson

The mysterious islands of the Salish Sea, between British Columbia and Washington State, are home to the ecological artist Jill Bliss, who since 2012 has devoted herself to exploring the isolated region, artistically and literally. The archipelago has its own unique ecosystem, and Bliss’s medleys of mushrooms and other arcane plants, which she calls her “living sculptures”, are gathered during a “daily treasure hunt”, hiking through woods and staying in isolated cabins. “This particular medley was made while lost deep in the woods of Cortes Island,” she says of one of her favourite works (see first image, below). “I first spotted the amanita [toadstool] glowing under the shadows of a downed tree.”

Pressure is mounting against multi-faceted smugglers but the legal case, though strong, is enormously complex

Late on 6 June 2014 Kenyan police, acting on a tip-off, raided a used car lot in Mombasa’s industrial area. Inside Fuji Motors East Africa Ltd, in one of the lock-ups, they found two tonnes of ivory.

Days earlier a white Mitsubishi truck, its paperwork claiming “household equipment” but in fact carrying more than 300 elephant tusks secreted beneath a tarpaulin, had pulled into the yard on Mombasa Island’s dirty northern fringe, far from the tourist hotels and beaches for which the city is famous.