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Purchase of a soundproof booth for EPA chief violates federal law that prohibits spending more than $5,000 on office improvements

An internal government watchdog says the Environmental Protection Agency violated federal spending laws when purchasing a $43,000 soundproof privacy booth for administrator Scott Pruitt to make private phone calls in his office.

The Government Accountability Office issued its findings on Monday in a letter to Senate Democrats who had requested a review of Pruitt’s spending.

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EU carbon prices briefly climbed to a new seven-year high above €14 on Monday, gaining for the seventh consecutive session as observers pointed to further gains.

With Australia’s beaches and oceans covered in rubbish, Tangaroa Blue volunteers spend days trying to clean things up. While these images are not beautiful or professionally taken, they are the harsh reality of the world’s plastic pollution problem.

• ‘Plastic is literally everywhere’: the epidemic attacking Australia’s oceans

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UK astronomer Bill Chaplin demonstrates the noises that stars make and why this is useful to know.

Biodiversity concerns prompt emergency plan to use ferrets to round up the few rabbits left

It is not a pastime for which rabbits usually require much encouragement. But a mystery depletion in numbers on the Dutch island of Schiermonnikoog has led to an emergency effort to coax the local population into breeding … well, like rabbits.

Ferrets are being deployed to chase the reluctant remaining animals out of their warrens and into the hands of conservationists, who are bringing them together, safe from the stress of predators, in the hope that romance will blossom.

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The Tess mission will survey nearly the entire sky and is expected to find thousands of new worlds.

Oil companies? The government? The public? All of the above share the blame.

There are numerous ongoing legal challenges in an effort to determine who’s responsible for climate change. Exxon is under investigation by state attorneys general, cities are suing oil companies over sea level rise costs, and Our Children’s Trust is suing the federal government for failing to protect their generation from climate change. At the heart of these legal challenges lies the question – who bears culpability for climate change and liability for its costs and consequences?

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US Military drones will be put to work on farms throughout Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Australia’s federal government over the weekend issued a new discussion paper on the National Energy Guarantee (NEG), shrugging off massive criticism to stand firm on the scheme’s overall emissions ambition, approach to state-based renewables targets and use of carbon offsets.

A man has been bitten by a shark off the coast of Western Australia, prompting authorities to close down the nearby Margaret River Pro international surfing event. The man, in his 30s, was flown to Royal Perth hospital with leg injuries, but was conscious according to a St John Ambulance spokesperson

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Campaign against plan to remove chicks from their nests and rear them in captivity raises £25,000 in four days

A controversial plan to remove the chicks of endangered birds from their nests and rear them in captivity could be challenged in the high court after a crowdfunded campaign raised £25,000 in four days.

Wildlife campaigner and author Mark Avery is leading an application for a judicial review of the hen harrier “brood management” plan, in which chicks will be raised in captivity and released into the wild.

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18 April 1918 Flowers range from the poet’s narcissus to the deepest yellow of the daffodil or the orange-rimmed gold of the small-crowned narcissi

Kew Gardens, April 17
One longs for sunshine to show a visitor the full loveliness of the Gardens at this time, and we have had very little sunshine for a fortnight and more. It is the heyday of the narcissi. We have had some of this joyous family for the past six weeks, but now is the time when they fill the woodland, and when, wherever you turn, the limits of the lawns are outlined with gold. The “woodland walk” is largely composed of beech trees whose quaker-grey stems, often fretted with black, are as yet unrelieved by any green.

Related: Old-fashioned narcissi are part of the fabric of the woodland

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Patents by female inventors from the 1890s reveal the creative ways women made their body mobile through clothing

Much has been written about the bicycle’s role as a vehicle of women’s liberation. But far less is known about another critical technology women used to forge new mobile and public lives – cyclewear. I have been studying what Victorian women wore when they started cycling. Researching how early cyclists made their bodies mobile through clothing reveals much about the social and physical barriers they were navigating and brings to light fascinating tales of ingenious inventions.

Cycling was incredibly popular for middle- and upper-class women and men in the late 19th century, and women had to deal with distinct social and sartorial challenges. Cycling exaggerated the irrationality of women’s conventional fashions more than any other physical activity. Heavy, layered petticoats and long skirts caught in spokes and around pedals. Newspapers regularly published gruesome accounts of women dying or becoming disfigured in cycling crashes due to their clothing.

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Aigas, Invernessshire and Uganda: Wintering wheatears were abundant in Uganda, looking exactly the same as they do when they arrive in the Highlands

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New survey reveals energy efficiency enjoys extremely high levels of public support. But that's not why we should be embracing it.

Elon Musk tells interview Model 3 production has settled at 2,000 a week, should grow "three or four-fold" by Q2 2018.

The redesigned NEG is likely to cause electricity prices to rise before they fall.

Report finds up to $21.5m a year going directly to host communities through wind farm benefit sharing mechanisms; billions to broader regional economies.

NSW has raised $38 billion from energy asset sales, yet has reinvested not a single dollar - despite facing the fact that most of its coal fired power stations will close in the next 14 years.

Just because something is advertised as 'flushable' doesn't mean you should put it in your toilet. Ian Wright, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science, Western Sydney University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.