Around The Web

A giant otter that roamed China six million years ago had a surprisingly strong bite, say scientists.

The nation’s bees welcomed the news that Britain backing a Europe-wide ban on insect-harming pesticides

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Donald Trump has pulled the US out of the Paris accord – but other Americans are standing with the world to help fight the ‘existential crisis’ of global warming

Deep schisms in the US over climate change are on show at the UN climate talks in Bonn – where two sharply different visions of America’s role in addressing dangerous global warming have been put forward to the world.

Donald Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the Paris climate agreement has created a vacuum into which dozens of state, city and business leaders have leapt, with the aim of convincing other countries at the international summit that the administration is out of kilter with the American people.

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Subsidy-free plant would cover 900 acres of farmland near Great Expectations marshes at Faversham, dwarfing output of UK’s current largest solar site

An enormous solar power station is planned for the north Kent coast that would be the UK’s biggest and dwarf existing solar farms, providing a significant boost to an industry that has stalled since ministers halted subsidies 18 months ago.

Cleve Hill, a mile from the historic town of Faversham, would have five times the capacity of the UK’s current largest solar farm and provide enough power for around 110,000 households if it comes online in 2020 as proposed.

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An extended ban on controversial neonicotinoid pesticides will be supported by the UK, Michael Gove says.

Critics say widely-used glyphosate is harmful, as the EU postpones a decision on it.

Pollution in a car can be worse than outside, as it traps nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and soot-like particles.

Michael Gove, the environment secretary, has said the UK will ban insect-harming pesticides, so we want to see your photos of bees

It’s been a terrible time to be an bee. But there may be cause for optimism, with the announcement that the UK will back a total ban on insect-harming pesticides in fields across Europe.

Related: UK will back total ban on bee-harming pesticides, Michael Gove reveals

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RN Drive sifts fact from fiction from the week's science news.

From snakes to spiders, wasps to scorpions, the Natural History Museum’s new Venom exhibition promises to unnerve and entice, as it explores one of nature’s deadliest forces and its power to both kill and cure

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Exclusive: Billionaire’s campaign has seen half of US coal plants close in six years. Now he is targeting Europe and beyond to fight climate change and air pollution

The battle to end coal-burning, backed by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, is expanding out of the US and around the world in its bid to reduce the global warming threat posed by the most polluting fossil fuel.

Bloomberg, a UN special envoy on climate change and former mayor of New York city, has funded a $164m campaign in the US since 2010, during which time more than half the nation’s coal-fired power plants have been closed.

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Exclusive: The latest research leads the environment secretary to overturn the government’s previous opposition, making a total EU ban much more likely

A total ban on insect-harming pesticides in fields across Europe will be backed by the UK, environment secretary Michael Gove has revealed.

The decision reverses the government’s previous position and is justified by recent new evidence showing neonicotinoids have contaminated the whole landscape and cause damage to colonies of bees. It also follows the revelation that 75% of all flying insects have disappeared in Germany and probably much further afield, a discovery Gove said had shocked him.

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With more and more evidence emerging that these pesticides harm bees and other insects, it would be irresponsible not to restrict their use

Two principles guide this government’s approach to the natural world. We want not just to protect but to enhance the environment. And we want our decisions to be informed at all times by rigorous scientific evidence.

Which is why when the science shows that our environment is in increasing danger we have to act. Like many others, I was deeply concerned by a recently published German study into the health of some insect populations. The Guardian covered the report in depth, not least because the statistics were so stark. Data gathered over 25 years appeared to indicate a 75% fall in the numbers of flying insects within those sites.

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While other countries race into the distance, Australia is still on the starting grid when it comes to electric cars. Why so slow? Because we don't have a proper recharging network. Graciela Metternicht, Professor of Environmental Geography, School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW Danielle Drozdzewski, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, UNSW Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

LNP leader Tim Nicholls says the advertising plan is to ‘overcome misleading green activist scare campaigns’

A Liberal National party plan to spend $4m on a Great Barrier Reef marketing campaign if it takes power in Queensland has drawn fire as an attempt at “greenwashing” in a void of climate policy.

The LNP leader, Tim Nicholls, said the advertising was to “overcome the misleading green activist scare campaigns which have talked down our greatest natural wonder”.

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SA energy minister Tom Koutsantonis says cannot support NEG, saying it attack on renewables and designed to keep alive dirty coal.

If the Turnbull government was setting the standard for global climate action... we'd be going to hell in a handcart, says new report.

International Energy Agency says solar, hydro and and wind have enormous potential for use in industrial processes – particularly in places like Australia, where the cost will be $USUS30/MWh.

For the first time in 113 years, live data is streaming from the top of the UK's tallest mountain.

Big fossil-fuel-based utilities are overcharging their customers, going on a “'gorging spree” while they still can.