The Guardian

Local and international efforts might be enough to limit the damage Trump’s scorched Earth approach

I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris

So said Donald Trump in a speech justifying his irrational, historically irresponsible decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris international climate treaty. Of course, 75% of Pittsburgh residents voted for Hillary Clinton, and many city residents have since written about the outdatedness and absurdity of Trump’s invocation of Pittsburgh, which aims to be 100% powered by renewable energy by 2035. In fact, Pittsburgh joined 210 other “climate cities” representing 54 million Americans (17% of the national population), pledging:

Rich Thomson was surfing off Bantham beach in south Devon when a metre-long shark bit his hand

It won’t go down as a great tale of derring-do on the high seas and it is very unlikely that a film or book deal will follow. But a teacher from Devon has a salty story to tell after an episode in which a “small shark” drew blood while he was surfing in south-west England.

Rich Thomson, 30, a chemistry teacher at Kingsbridge community college, was off Bantham beach in south Devon when he said he felt something grab him by the leg.

Large-scale installations across Aarhus city depict nature, and man’s relationship with it, in three categories: the past, present and future – from a structure highlighting bee decline to a reflection on light pollution

• ARoS Art Museum’s triennial The Garden – End of Times, Beginning of Times runs until 30 July; The Past section runs until 10 Sept

Plastic bags are an infamous problem in Nairobi. They clog its waterways and litter its streets. The Kenyan government is attempting to ban their use from August – with implications for businesses from supermarkets to recyclers.

Sandy Bedfordshire As the damsels flew upstream I began to wade with the fishes, it felt like a release, liberation even

Walking barefoot through a field of long grass, I poked into a molehill with my big toe. Its summit was like toasted breadcrumbs and the dislodged granules rolled down the slopes as loose scree.

My rotating foot waggled deeper, finding darker, damp, earth that held firm. The moisture suggested that this molehill was an eruption from the night before; the toes told what the eyes could only surmise.

Unlikely environmentalist Frances Bender is taking legal action against Tasmanian government for failing to protect the environment

There’s trouble brewing in Tasmania’s waterways once again.

In the 1980s, protests over the proposed Franklin River hydroelectric dam threw the Apple Isle’s conservation plight onto the national stage. This time, it is the state’s salmon farming industry that is under a cloud. The relatively young industry is worth over $700m a year and now outpaces all other farming activities on the island but environmental campaigners are worried about its impact on the region’s pristine waters.

Exclusive: On the eve of the long-awaited Finkel review, analysis shows Australia’s emissions rose sharply in the first quarter of 2017

Australia’s carbon emissions jumped at the start of 2017, the first time they have risen in the first few months of a year for more than a decade, according to projections produced exclusively for the Guardian.

Emissions in the first three months of the year normally drop compared with the previous quarter, driven by seasonal factors and holidays. But in something not seen in since 2005, emissions rose in the first quarter of 2017 compared with the last quarter of 2016 by 1.54m tonnes of CO2, according to the study by consultants NDEVR Environmental. The rise was driven by increases in emissions from electricity generation.

In a change of tone, Utah governor Gary Herbert has backpedaled and asked the federal government not to allow oil and gas drilling around the famous park

When Utah governor Gary Herbert changed his mind last week and decided oil and gas companies should not be allowed to drill near Zion national park, it seemed like a remarkable change of tone.

The Republican has been a staunch advocate for rolling back public land protections and had earlier endorsed the idea of drilling near the 229 sq mile park. In February, he signed a resolution urging Donald Trump to rescind national monument status for the 1.3m acres known as Bears Ears in south-eastern Utah. Doing so would allow expansion of current leases for oil and gas development and grazing.

In just 31 hours, Guardian US exceeded its target to support a new series on the threat to America’s public lands. We’d like to thank you for your generosity

• In Montana, land transfer threatens the American rancher’s way of life
  

We would like to extend a huge thank you to the more than 1,000 Guardian readers who made contributions to support This Land is Your Land, our series on the threat to America’s public lands. We launched our fundraising campaign on Monday morning, and hit our $50,000 goal at 1pm Tuesday, just 31 hours after the launch. When this article was published we had exceeded our goal by 20%, with $60,166 pledged. More than 1,000 readers have contributed.

Nuclear, wind and solar power in UK generate more electricity than gas and coal combined for first time ever

The windy weather across Europe in the past 24 hours may have been a curse for summer picnics, but it has set records for renewable power.

Related: 'Spectacular' drop in renewable energy costs leads to record global boost

A peacock which found its way into a Californian liquor store causes hundreds of dollars of damage before an animal control officer and the store manager are able to capture it

The human-elephant conflict plays a huge role in the rapid decline elephant numbers. A panel of experts share ideas on how to mitigate this problem

We need conservation (not just fighting the illegal wildlife trade which has captured the limelight more recently) to be far higher up the political agenda. For example, we in the UK could be much more effectively linking overseas aid (budget of £12bn this year) to poverty relief, sustainable development and environmental protection, ecosystem services and conservation priorities. Will Travers, president, Born Free Foundation

China, US and Europe accounted for more than 90% of electric vehicle sales last year with decreasing costs driving demand

The number of electric cars in the world accelerated past the 2m barrier last year, as prices fell and manufacturers launched new models.

The number of battery-powered vehicles numbered just hundreds globally in 2005 and passed the 1m milestone in 2015, but sales jumped 60% in 2016.

• Princeton-Rutgers study finds sharp increase in risk of frequent deluges
• ‘Many cities are behind the eight-ball in terms of preparing for flooding’

US coastal areas are set to be deluged by far more frequent and severe flooding events if greenhouse gas emissions aren’t slashed, with rare floods becoming the norm for places such as New York City, Seattle and San Diego, new research has found.

Related: Climate change progress at Trump's EPA is grinding to a halt, workers reveal

A growth in demand for elephant parts to be used in traditional medicine in Asia means the number of elephants being killed in Myanmar is rising

Case files and laminated photos of poachers spill out of captain Than Naing’s folder. As the chief of police in Okekan township, one of Myanmar’s recent poaching hotspots, he is trying to track down the men who have killed at least three elephants in the area over the past year. So far, he has arrested 11 people suspected of having assisted the poachers. Meanwhile the poachers themselves remain at large.

“These are the two men who we believe killed one of the elephants,” he says, pointing to two photos. “They are still on the run.”

Mizen Head to Malin Head is a 510-mile trip that takes in the breathtaking Maumturk Mountains, the empty beaches of Cork and Kerry, and the wilderness of the Burren

Send anyone to the west coast of Ireland and they will fall in love with it at some point. For me it was at a junction in Maum, County Galway, where I had stopped to take a photo of a signpost but ended up having my breath taken away by the Maumturk Mountains in all their pastoral, sunlit glory.

Guardian experts give their view on the main parties’ public service manifesto pledges. Here, our environment editor looks at energy, pollution and recycling

• Denis Campbell on health
• David Brindle on social care
• Patrick Butler on social security
• Dawn Foster on housing
• Anna Bawden on local government
• Frances Ryan on disability
• Alan Travis on criminal justice and immigration
• Jane Dudman on the civil service
• Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

New support for fracking to extract shale and coal seam gas is the most striking pledge from the Conservatives, with the easing of planning rules, a new dedicated regulator and more of any future tax revenues going directly to communities hosting shale gas sites. Wind power remains ruled out in England, but offshore wind farms are supported. The energy efficiency of all fuel-poor homes would be upgraded to meet energy performance certificate (EPC) band C criteria by 2030. There is no environment section in the manifesto and the UK’s air pollution crisis gets a single sentence: “We will take action against poor air quality in urban areas.” A free vote on repealing the ban on fox hunting with dogs is promised.

66% spike in captures as bumper wet season connects major river systems in Northern Territory, allowed deadly reptiles to move around more freely

The number of crocodiles caught in the Top End has soared after Territorians endured the third wettest wet season on record.

There’s been a 66% spike in crocodile captures around Darwin and Katherine in the past year, the NT Parks and Wildlife Commission says.

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire The stripy sun fly joins the summer swarm of insects to the opening of the festival of flowers

The sun fly alights on a bramble leaf and alters its position as if by the clockwise clicks of an invisible dial. Gold on black, black on gold, it radiates. The sun fly is one of the syrphid flies, a hoverfly of rough flowery places such as this verge of a long-abandoned railway line through the woods.

It’s a chunky little fist of bling, folding up a cut-glass wingspan of 25mm. Its thorax is black with three vertical yellow stripes – which has earned it the nickname of the footballer or the common tiger hoverfly. It presents a regal, black-banded backside of an abdomen with crescentic yellow markings like the folded gold of Saxon hoards.

Falling solar and wind prices have led to new power deals across the world despite investment in renewables falling

Renewable energy capacity around the world was boosted by a record amount in 2016 and delivered at a markedly lower cost, according to new global data – although the total financial investment in renewables actually fell.

The greater “bang-for-buck” resulted from plummeting prices for solar and wind power and led to new power deals in countries including Denmark, Egypt, India, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates all being priced well below fossil fuel or nuclear options.