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Numbers may be at an all time low as a new adaptation of the novel hits our TV screens

The real Watership Down is not hard to find.

In the introduction to his book, Richard Adams helpfully gives the Ordnance Survey map reference – sheet 174. Once located on paper, long-remembered names jump from the map: Nuthanger Farm, Ashley Warren and Honeycomb are all there. It was the multitude of rabbits found on this little square of England that inspired Adams to write Watership Down.

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For the next few months, Jemima Kiss explores how we can all move towards a life without plastic, starting with Christmas

We all know the physical and emotional toll Christmas can take, particularly on women; it is hard bloody work. But I also enjoy making the magic happen because I love the ritual, and the nostalgia, and the gratitude. I loved it when I was a kid, when Father Christmas left sooty boot prints across our lounge carpet, crumbs of mince pies and dribbles of whisky on the floor. I loved the map he left me that Christmas morning in 1984 that led to a real bunny rabbit waiting for me downstairs. I loved my Mum’s Christmas pudding. I loved hand-making my cards. I loved giving presents. Thirtysomething years later I still love all of this, and now I unironically have Michael Bublé’s Christmas album, too.

Related: Plastic pollution discovered at deepest point of ocean

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• White House denied administrator’s ‘red team, blue team’ idea
  
• Emails: staff considered questioning greenhouse gases finding

In Scott Pruitt’s final weeks as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, his political advisers were still considering ways to formally raise doubts about climate change science, agency records show.

Related: Deadly weather: the human cost of 2018's climate disasters – visual guide

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Scientists can now quickly determine a chick’s gender before it hatches, potentially ending the need to cull billions of male chicks worldwide

The world’s first ever no-kill eggs are now on sale in Berlin after German scientists found an easy way to determine a chick’s gender before it hatches, in a breakthrough that could put an end to the annual live shredding of billions of male chicks worldwide.

The patented “Seleggt” process can determine the sex of a chick just nine days after an egg has been fertilised. Male eggs are processed into animal feed, leaving only female chicks to hatch at the end of a 21-day incubation period.

“If you can determine the sex of a hatching egg you can entirely dispense with the culling of live male chicks,” said Seleggt managing director Dr Ludger Breloh, who spearheaded the four-year programme by German supermarket Rewe Group to make its own-brand eggs more sustainable.

“It’s not about winning or losing,” he added of the worldwide race to find a marketable solution. “We all have the same goal, which is to end the culling of chicks in the supply chain. Of course, there’s competition, but it’s positive in that it keeps us all focused on that goal.”

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These curious coral reef inhabitants have evolved some remarkable adaptations to thrive in the underwater realm. [Repeat]

**CP Daily will not be published between Dec. 22 and Jan. 1. Carbon Pulse will file stories and send out CP Alerts on merit during that period. Regular coverage will resume Jan. 2. Happy holidays to all our readers!** Presenting CP Daily, Carbon Pulse’s free newsletter. It’s a daily summary of our news plus bite-sized […]

Emitters have surrendered more than 55% of all Colombian offsets issued to date against the country’s carbon tax, data compiled by Carbon Pulse shows, suggesting the market for the units is being squeezed as demand drastically outpaces supply.

Hamish the polar bear celebrates his first birthday in his Highland home.

Workshops have been held in Whitley Bay to help reduce the use of plastic over Christmas.

Governments will in early 2020 revisit negotiations for rules covering international emissions trade, recycling much of last week's failed Paris Agreement Article 6 text that gave wide scope for cross-border dealing.

Maryland has finalised its post-2020 RGGI Model Rule changes ahead of the new year, making it the fifth state to do so.

California and Quebec will auction nearly 90 million current and future allowances on Feb. 20, including California’s remaining unsold volume.

European carbon surged to a new three-month high late on Friday, finally topping €25 as it resumed its pre-holiday rally.

New York is likely to join ten jurisdictions aiming to design a cap-and-trade to regulate emissions from the transportation sector by the end of 2019, multiple sources told Carbon Pulse.

We’ve been trashing the planet over recent decades while creating a miserable, insecure society, writes Natalie Bennett. Plus Siân Charnley on the changing language of environmental protest

In Larry Elliott’s article (We’re back to 1930s politics: anger and, yes, appeasement, 20 December), it is good to see an economics editor addressing, as Kate Raworth has done so effectively with Doughnut Economics, the fact that the economy is a complete subset of the environment. And Elliott is right to say that the official declaration that came out of Katowice was not nearly enough.

But that wasn’t the only thing that came from the climate talks. There was a newly prominent place for civil society, from teenager Greta Thunberg to nonagenarian David Attenborough, and some companies, and many state and city governments, stepping up to the plate.

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Brazil is absolutely opposed to double counting when it comes to carbon credits, and has consistently supported efforts to prevent double counting, says Thiago de Araujo Mendes of Brazil’s environment ministry

Throughout the COP24 climate summit, Brazil urged all parties to work together to enable greater private-sector climate action. Brazil was constantly involved in negotiations to ensure COP24 delivered a workable toolbox to limit global warming. So we warmly welcome the positive outcome of COP24, including the agreement to keep working on a stronger global market mechanism for emission reductions.

Unfortunately, there have been several misrepresentations made about Brazil’s positions (Encouraging signs – but new rifts also exposed by hard-won deal at climate talks, 17 December), which do not help in the work ahead for all countries.

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Bounding blackbucks, a hungry baby bear, an albino orangutan and more

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Artist Lucy Smith draws plants so that they can be recorded for science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

With feathers preened and claws trimmed, birds vie for top spot in the pecking order at an annual contest in İzmir

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Earth is not the only planet with icy scenes this festive season, the European Space Agency says.