The Guardian

The president has reportedly made his decision on the landmark climate deal, as exasperated world leaders get ready to move on with or without the US

Donald Trump’s Twitter pledge to make a decision on whether to remain in the Paris climate agreement this week promises resolution to months of fevered lobbying over US involvement in the global accord.

Related: The top five worst things Trump has done on climate change – so far

A ‘faceless’ fish has been rediscovered by scientists on an expedition in the depths of a massive abyss in waters south of Sydney. The 40cm fish was found 4km below sea level. It was last seen in waters off Australia in 1873

• ‘Faceless’ fish missing for more than a century rediscovered by Australian scientists
  

Environmental lawyers who have defeated ministers twice return to court in a bid to remove ‘major flaws’ from air quality plans

Environmental lawyers are taking the government to the high court for a third time in a bid to remove “major flaws” from minister’s plans to tackle the UK’s illegal levels of air pollution.

ClientEarth has inflicted two humiliating defeats on the government over previous plans, which were ruled not to meet legal requirements. Lawyers from ClientEarth had requested improvements to the latest plan from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) but were refused, prompting the new court action.

Peter Wohlleben’s book has become bestseller in Germany but he tells Hay festival audience it has annoyed scientists

Trees are social creatures that mother their young, talk to each other, experience pain, remember things and have sex with each other, a bestselling author has said.

If that persuades you to go and hug the nearest tree, then great, said Peter Wohlleben. Just avoid a birch: “It is not very sociable. Try a beech.”

Expedition leader says the deep-sea fish had not been seen in waters off Australia since 1873

A “faceless” deep-sea fish not seen for more than a century has been rediscovered by scientists trawling the depths of a massive abyss off Australia’s east coast, along with “amazing” quantities of rubbish.

The 40cm fish was rediscovered 4km below sea level in waters south of Sydney by scientists from Museums Victoria and the Australian government’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) on the weekend.

As the US president weighs up whether or not to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, we look at his most frightening actions on global warming

In March, Scott Pruitt infamously said about carbon dioxide that “I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see”, in contradiction to climate scientists, including those at his own agency. Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief has deep ties to fossil fuel interests and joined with them on numerous occasions to challenge EPA pollution rules while attorney general of Oklahoma. He has opined that the EPA has become distracted from its core mission by climate concerns and has begin the process of ripping up Obama-era emissions regulations.

St Dominic, Tamar Valley Pennywort and mosses add to the verdure of the shadiest lanes, now green tunnels overhung by ash flowers

Rain enhances the growth of luxuriant ferns that dominate hedge banks and undergrowth in the woods. Beside narrow lanes, fronds of male ferns and soft shield ferns overwhelm the pink, white and blue of campion, stitchwort and bluebell, masking the eroded earth of rabbit burrows.

Foxglove, sorrel and bracken emerge through the leafy tops of these old banks, where, despite the annual cutback with mechanical flails, diverse woody shrubs are covered in fresh leaves interwoven with new shoots of rose, honeysuckle and bramble.

Minister says Australia’s view clear to US although departmental secretary unable to point to ‘particular discussion’

The employment minister, Michaelia Cash, says Australia’s national interest is best served if Donald Trump stays the course with the Paris climate agreement.

With the US president expected to make a decision this week about whether America will pull out of the Paris accord, officials were asked during Senate estimates hearings whether Australia had made diplomatic representations to the Trump administration encouraging the president to remain in the agreement.

António Guterres says exiting landmark accord would threaten US economy and society: ‘If someone leaves a void, I guarantee someone will fill it’

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, warned on Tuesday that if the US exits the Paris climate agreement, there could be negative economic, security and societal consequences for the country.

Karla Way-McPhail, who runs mining labour and equipment companies, will not say whether she will recuse herself from Carmichael decision

A director of the independent board due to provide recommendations regarding a $900m taxpayer loan to Adani publicly declared she was “very supportive” of its “vital” coal project, a day after she was accused of allowing a perceived conflict of interest to develop.

Karla Way-McPhail, who runs mining labour and equipment hire companies, last week told a central Queensland newspaper that Adani’s Carmichael mine project would be “a huge boost” for the region.

Exclusive: ice cores and records from the Black Death show lead entered the air from human activity – and scientists claim “natural background” levels are zero

Analysis of an ice cores taken from the Swiss Alps together with records dating from the time of the Black Death have revealed that there is no “natural” level of lead in the air, researchers have claimed.

Once in the body, lead is known to have harmful impacts on health, from behavioural to neurological, reproductive and cardiovascular effects.

Actor’s efforts to persuade Temple Guiting to generate its own electricity captured in BBC4’s Great Village Green Crusade

Robert Llewellyn is not a typical eco-activist. “Oh, I’m absolutely un-green,” says the actor and TV presenter. “I’m as un-green as a corporate exec. I fly a lot. Though I have hugged a tree. Actually, I’ve lent against one while I was having a wee in the woods, I’m not sure if that counts?”

You don’t need to wear an environmental hairshirt, however, to believe it’s possible to live in a different, more sustainable way. For the actor, who presented Scrapheap Challenge on Channel 4 and is best known for playing Kryten on BBC2’s Red Dwarf, that belief stemmed from a longstanding passion for new technologies, particularly renewable energy.

New Noaa research shows that strict conservation measures in Hawaii have not spared corals from a warming ocean in one of its most prized bays

Some of America’s most protected corals have been blighted by bleaching, with scientists warning that US reefs are on course to largely disappear within just a few decades because of global warming.

Related: Coral bleaching on Great Barrier Reef worse than expected, surveys show

A 21st-century American infrastructure agenda depends on the Paris Agreement

There is only one part of President Trump’s agenda with real opportunity for a big win, right now, and that is infrastructure. And the Paris Agreement—the strongest ever signal pointing toward transformational infrastructure investment—is the only way to mobilize the capital necessary to get to that big win.

The common misunderstanding about the Paris accord is its impact on business and investment. Opponents fret about costs and economic change, but achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals will unlock capital investment at a rate no other policy initiative can match.

In northern South Africa, former soldiers are fighting both the illegal wildlife trade and the twin scourges of unemployment and PTSD

The sun has set over the scrubby savannah. The moon is full. It is time for Ryan Tate and his men to go to work. In camouflage fatigues, they check their weapons and head to the vehicles.

Somewhere beyond the ring of light cast by the campfire, out in the vast dark expanse of thornbushes, baobab trees, rocks and grass, are the rhinos. Somewhere, too, may be the poachers who will kill them to get their precious horns.

Ford, Devon For some, the figures are the crowning glory of a roof – and a chance to show off a thatcher’s skill and imagination

At the end of the roof I’m working on, the peacock sits, still as a bookend. Two pheasants eye each other coyly on the ridge of the thatched cottage opposite, while on a house further down the lane, a fox prowls between the chimneys. Up among the rooftops of this village near Plymouth, I am surrounded by a shadowy cast of creatures: straw animal finials.

Today I am repairing the ridge with the straw peacock. Typically the ridge on a thatched house needs to be replaced at least once during the roof’s lifetime – that much all thatchers can agree on. More controversial is the question of whether to add a straw animal.

Combination of carbon emissions and ‘urban heat island’ effect of concrete and asphalt gives rise to worst-case scenario by end of 21st century

Under a dual onslaught of global warming and localised urban heating, some of the world’s cities may be as much as 8C (14.4F) warmer by 2100, researchers have warned.

Such a temperature spike would have dire consequences for the health of city-dwellers, rob companies and industries of able workers, and put pressure on already strained natural resources such as water.

A reality check on some of the big claims made to justify the proposed new mine, which would be the biggest in Australia. From ‘tens of thousands of new jobs’ to ‘good for the environment’, we unpack several of the most common claims to see if they stand up to scrutiny
• The new coal frontier: Australia’s carbon bomb
• Indian solar power prices hit record low

Leading economists, including Joseph Stiglitz and Nicholas Stern say taxes of $100 per metric ton could be needed by 2030

A group of leading economists warned on Monday that the world risked catastrophic global warming in just 13 years unless countries ramped up taxes on carbon emissions to as much as $100 (£77) per metric ton.

Experts including Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern said governments needed to move quickly to tackle polluting industries with a tax on carbon dioxide at $40-$80 per ton by 2020.

European commission given more powers to monitor testing and fine firms after Germany’s initial objections are overcome

The European Union has moved towards cracking down on carmakers who cheat emissions tests by giving the EU executive more powers to monitor testing and impose fines.

The European council overcame initial objections from Germany and agreed to try to reform the system for approving vehicles in Europe in the wake of the Volkswagen emissions scandal.