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How can you create public transport in the jungle without polluting it? The isolated Achuar peoples of Ecuador have created an ingenious solution.

How can you create public transport in the jungle without polluting it? The isolated Achuar peoples of Ecuador have created an ingenious solution.

• Latest in a string of investigations into Pruitt’s travel spending
  
• Trips included Disneyland and attendance at sporting games

The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general will investigate agency administrator Scott Pruitt’s use of his official security detail on recent personal trips, the latest in a string of congressional, White House and internal investigations into his spending on security and travel.

The investigation comes at the request of Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse, he announced on Thursday, a month after he asked Inspector General Arthur Elkins to look into Pruitt’s “unprecedented use” of his taxpayer-funded security detail documented in six weeks of obtained schedules and travel logs.

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We all know that tap water is better than buying bottled water, from an environmental standpoint at least. But what should you drink it out of? A single-use bottle, used multiple times, might be best. Trevor Thornton, Lecturer, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University Simon Lockrey, Research Fellow, RMIT University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

People across the UK have been enjoying unusually warm weather, but when can we call it a heatwave?

In an example of human natural selection, Asia's Bajau people have evolved bigger spleens for diving.

EU carbon prices fell to their lowest in a week on Thursday as a breach of a technical support level triggered selling despite a stronger auction.

It’s not just Chris Packham who has helped birdwatching become mainstream, writes Jennifer M Jones

It was encouraging to read your item on birding becoming mainstream (Shortcuts, G2, 19 April). While Chris Packham and the ’watches teams have indeed contributed to this, please do not ascribe this emerging enthusiasm to just one source. Other TV naturalists, including Iolo Williams and Mike Dilger, have done much to encourage and enlighten young people about wildlife issues. Organisations such as the British Trust for Ornithology and RSPB provide excellent opportunities for youngsters to realise that birding can be fun. Local RSPB reserves and groups, Wildlife Trusts and talented individuals are also playing a part. We need these youngsters to care for the future and should be grateful to all those, often working hard behind the scenes, who are enabling this. Many an older birder will express gratitude to one enthusiastic mentor who set them on the road to a lifetime of birdwatching. Long may this continue and not just rely on charismatic TV presenters.
Dr Jennifer M Jones
Liverpool

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

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A lack of technical infrastructure and guidance from the Ontario government regarding its compliance offset programme is holding up the first investment and project submissions, according to stakeholders.

Nova Scotia’s cap-and-trade programme should include auctions not currently part of the province’s market design, while also providing for more industry protection and linkage opportunities, according to stakeholders.

Scientist Vladimir Uglev has no doubt the agent that poisoned the Skripals was made in Russia.

Scientist Vladimir Uglev has no doubt the agent that poisoned the Skripals was made in Russia.

Electric vehicles’ share of new UK registrations rises to 2%, still falling far short of Norway’s 48%

Sales of electric cars in the UK have risen 11% on last year, putting the country in the premier league of those ditching petrol and diesel engines, though it is still miles behind Norway and China.

An analysis of the latest global sales of electric vehicles found that nearly half the vehicles registered in Norway in the first three months of 2018 were electric (48%), compared to just over a third (35%) during the same period in 2017. The vehicles are run almost exclusively off the nation’s hydropower resource, underlining Norway’s claim as the world leader.

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Some countries aren’t waiting until 2020 to make changes to their national climate commitments. As countries ratify the Paris Agreement, some have decided to revise their INDCs and communicate the changes as part of their first NDCs. WRI provides a summary.

Revenues raised from carbon pricing policies rose 45% last year to $32 billion, with most coming from taxes rather than trading and no clear trend emerging on where the money is spent, a report found on Thursday.

Repairs to masonry damaged by intruder put Craignethan’s cellar tunnel out of bounds to public

Parts of a Scottish castle remain closed to the public after a “very angry badger” took up residence. The cellar tunnel at Craignethan Castle, in South Lanarkshire, was initially closed last week after the animal arrived, and remains closed while the damage it caused is repaired.

It is thought the animal had become lost, and staff tried to lure it out with cat food and honey.

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Saltwell Gill, Durham city: A swathe of wildlings in a wood was a spectacle to make the spirits soar after a long, cold winter

This meandering stream, a mile south of the city centre, has carved a small, steep-sided, wooded valley through soft alluvial soil, providing a refuge for flora and fauna that have long since been displaced by surrounding agriculture. Had I not strayed from the footpath around the fields and explored its slopes I might never have stumbled upon a hidden, isolated population of wild primroses (Primula vulgaris). They were growing in an unharvested hazel coppice that, judging by the diameter of the trunks, had been forgotten for several decades.

Context counts for a lot in the aesthetic impact of wild flowers. A primrose transplanted into a garden is a pretty flower. Finding this swathe of wildlings in such a classic, albeit semi-natural, habitat, soon to be followed by the promise of bluebells, was much more: a spectacle to make the spirits soar after a long, cold winter.

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Ipswich is the first council in the country to dump its recycling program.

Nasa's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (Tess) searches for new planets.

China’s State Council has approved an allocation plan for the power sector’s trial emissions trading system, local media reported Thursday, a sign that the government is on track to launch the simulated market this year as planned.