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Swimming and surfing in the ocean is fun and invigorating. But sharing the water with animals comes with risks to us and them. Rebecca Olive, Vice Chancellor's Senior Research Fellow, RMIT University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Urban green spaces are threatened by growing cities. But research shows the importance of protecting access to nature as housing densification increases. Elizabeth Elliot Noe, Postdoctoral Fellow, Lincoln University, New Zealand Ottilie Stolte, Senior Lecturer, University of Waikato Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Commitment to ‘civil resistance’ comes after Extinction Rebellion said it would prioritise ‘relationships over roadblocks’

Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil have doubled down on their commitment to disruptive climate “civil resistance” after Extinction Rebellion announced new tactics prioritising “relationships over roadblocks”.

“It’s 2023 and XR has quit,” Just Stop Oil said in a statement. “But it’s 2023, and we are barrelling down the highway to the loss of ordered civil society, as extreme weather impacts tens of millions, as our country becomes unrecognisable … there is now a need to face reality.

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From high-end luxury sedans, to modest hatchbacks – we take a look at 10 of the new models set for release in 2023

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Australia can’t brag about having the world’s most developed or diverse electric vehicle market, but that may be about to change in 2023 with a range of new battery-electric cars expected for release down under.

If 2022 showed the huge demand among Australian drivers for brands like the Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5, dealers next year are expected to start taking orders on 21 new models.

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Hunters will be allowed to kill 75 wolves from an already endangered population of 460 as public acceptance falls

The biggest wolf cull in modern times has begun in Sweden as nature organisations warn it could drastically harm the population.

Hunters will be allowed to kill 75 wolves from a population of 460, as the government seeks to reduce the population density of the predators in certain districts.

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Volunteers are needed to help identify sharks, skates and rays as part of a conservation project.

Climate protest group says temporary shift will ‘prioritise relationships over roadblocks’

The climate protest group Extinction Rebellion is shifting tactics from disruptions such as smashing windows and glueing themselves to public places in 2023, it has announced.

A new year resolution to “prioritise attendance over arrest and relationships over roadblocks”, was spelled out in a 1 January statement titled “We quit”, which said “constantly evolving tactics is a necessary approach”.

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Research in England and Wales shows that conservatories, extensions and changing behaviour cancelled out any savings

Conservatories and house extensions could be helping to wipe out the reductions in gas use secured by insulating homes, according to a study that found insulation only provides a short-term fall in energy consumption.

In a surprise finding, the study into the long-term effect of loft and cavity wall insulation in England and Wales showed that the fall in gas consumption for each household was small, with all energy savings disappearing by the fourth year after it had been fitted.

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Former special forces personnel are being deployed to ‘hide in the undergrowth’ and catch criminal gangs dumping dangerous waste

Special forces war veterans are being deployed undercover to help tackle the increasingly violent criminal networks moving into fly-tipping and the dumping of dangerous waste.

Former SAS and special reconnaissance regiment (SRR) service personnel, who specialise in surveillance and “close-target” reconnaissance and who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, are being drafted in to collect evidence against organised crime groups that use collusion, corruption and the threat of violence to profit from environmental offences.

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Thunberg’s funny exchange is a reminder of the connection between machismo, misogyny and hostility to climate action

On 27 December, former kickboxer and professional misogynist and online entrepreneur Andrew Tate, 36, sent a boastfully hostile tweet to climate activist Greta Thunberg, 19, about his sports car collection. “Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions,” he wrote. He was probably hoping to enhance his status by mocking her climate commitment. Instead, she burned the macho guy to a crisp in nine words.

Cars are routinely tokens of virility and status for men, and the image accompanying his tweet of him pumping gas into one of his vehicles, coupled with his claims about their “enormous emissions”, had unsolicited dick pic energy. Thunberg seemed aware of that when she replied: “yes, please do enlighten me. email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com”.

Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her most recent books are Recollections of My Nonexistence and Orwell’s Roses

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A nurse says she is heartbroken that nothing can be done to save her house from coastal erosion.

The past year has seen public outrage over sewage with volunteers taking action into their own hands.

The number of registrants in the California cap-and-trade programme set a new all-time high in the fourth quarter amid a continued influx of financial players, according to data published Friday.

Regulated parties built up their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) net length but pared back their RGGI Allowance (RGA) position this week, as financial players trimmed their overall WCI holdings as the Dec-22 contract went to expiry and fell below a reporting threshold, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

Federal courts had thrown out Trump-era rule governing Clean Water Act lifting regulations imposed by Obama administration

The Biden administration on Friday finalized regulations to protect hundreds of thousands of streams, wetlands and other waterways, repealing a Trump-era rule federal courts threw out and environmentalists said left waterways vulnerable to pollution.

The rule defines which “waters of the United States” are protected by the Clean Water Act. For decades, the term has been a flashpoint between environmental groups that want to broaden limits on pollution and farmers, builders and industry groups that say extending regulations too far is onerous for business.

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A carbon project developer and technology services firm on Thursday announced it has purchased a South African agriculture group and formed a joint partnership with a New York-based biomass company, as it prepares to launch a product next year that will “leapfrog” traditional carbon credit generation approaches.

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including sharks swimming with a kayaker and a rainbow lorikeet

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It’s the potential of individuals to change the world which is at the heart of democratic liberalism – but their actions must be matched by global support

As we farewell 2022, many of the world’s citizens will be hoping for a better new year. It is hard to look back on the past year – indeed couple of years – without a high degree of angst about the direction of our global community.

We have been battered by a pandemic that, while past the peak for most nations, is still disrupting societies and economies. After two years of its hermit-like isolation, 1.4 billion Chinese citizens are now experiencing a nationwide Covid onslaught for the first time with ripples that will not only affect the lives of those in China but the rest of the world linked to the second largest economy.

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Branded ‘farmland pests’ and a risk to humans, boar are breathing life back into the countryside

Read the coverage about the wild boar that have made their home in Scotland and you’d be forgiven for thinking the country had become overrun with mutant, dangerous, sheep-eating feral pigs.

According to the Telegraph, they “eat anything” and “attack humans”, and local press in Scotland refers to them as a “farmland pest” that “fights back”. Farming unions have told the BBC that the animals are frequently seen killing and eating sheep, though there has been little evidence of this.

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Project has been planting grass to help restore vital peatland but found some of it was not taking

Green sludge pours out of thick hosepipes wielded by two Welshmen in a bog in the north of England. It is not many people’s vision of cutting-edge technology.

But although the goop splattering messily on to bare patches of moorland may not look much, it is the first of its kind – a special type of glue designed to help restore vital peatland, which has been disappearing at rapid rates.

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