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The Department has published a new Threat Abatement Plan for the impacts of marine debris on the vertebrate wildlife of Australia’s coasts and oceans.

Despite the Coalition cheer-leading, data from AEMO and the Chief Economist shows quite graphically that thermal coal is in structural decline – in Australia and globally.

An archaeological dig unearths an ancient campfire; we go gardening in marginal country; young Rory has his heart set on a music career; and Charlie goes truffle hunting in the alps.

Are children a source of hope where adults have failed? A youth climate march set for Washington DC this weekend raises the question: what new methods can young people use to boost climate action?

The 350MW Cleve Hill solar farm near Kent aims to generate lowest cost electricity without subsidies. Success could be a game changer.

A fully electric, piloted "flying car" – it's true, watch the video! – has just qualified as an ultralight aircraft for use in the US.

There is no guarantee that the products you recycle are actually recycled, the UK watchdog warns.

Millions of tons of plastic sent abroad for recycling may be being dumped in landfill

Millions of tons of waste plastic from British businesses and homes may be ending up in landfill sites across the world, the government’s spending watchdog has warned.

Huge amounts of packaging waste is being sent overseas on the basis that it will be recycled and turned into new products. However, concerns have been raised that in reality much of it is being dumped in sites from Turkey to Malaysia.

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Study says the date by which we consume a year’s worth of resources is arriving faster

Humanity is devouring our planet’s resources in increasingly destructive volumes, according to a new study that reveals we have consumed a year’s worth of carbon, food, water, fibre, land and timber in a record 212 days.

As a result, the Earth Overshoot Day – which marks the point at which consumption exceeds the capacity of nature to regenerate – has moved forward two days to 1 August, the earliest date ever recorded.

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For just ten years Antarctica was home to a nuclear power station called "Nukey Poo". Hanne E.F. Nielsen, PhD Candidate in Antarctic Representations, University of Tasmania Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The British billionaire investing in South Australia believes renewables are the future of energy, because it makes economic sense

The British billionaire who rescued the Whyalla steelworks from administration and is spending more than $2bn on clean energy and green steel developments in regional South Australia says most Australians are yet to grasp that solar power is now a cheaper option than new coal-fired electricity.

Sanjeev Gupta, an industrialist whose family-owned GFG Alliance group of companies has been credited with resurrecting Britain’s steel industry, says he considered investing in coal generation in the state’s Upper Spencer Gulf after buying Arrium’s steel mill last year but found solar backed by “firming” storage technologies made better economic sense.

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Collie shire council, in the heart of West Australia’s last remaining coal mining district, votes against installing rooftop solar because “we should be burning more coal.”

This was the scene on a beach in the Dominican Republic after a storm.

Michael Gove’s plan does not oblige fishing industry to eliminate bycatch, where boats accidentally net sea species

Protection for dolphins and seabirds will be weaker under government plans for Brexit than if Britain stayed in the EU, according to a new analysis by environmental groups.

Under the EU’s Seabird Plan of Action, the fishing industry is obliged to eliminate “bycatch”, where boats accidentally catch seabirds, dolphins and other species. Under laws set out in environment secretary Michael Gove’s white paper on fisheries, they would need only to implement “practical and effective risk-based mitigation”.

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Gaia. Not the goddess. It's big. Bigger than both of us. 

We’d like to hear from people who’ve been affected by the drought in New South Wales and other states in east Australia. Share your experiences

A record dry spell has caused the worst drought in 100 years in parts of eastern Australia. Farmers with livestock in parts of New South Wales have been some of the most affected as low rainfall and a dry winter have depleted the grass needed to feed livestock.

Farmers are having to buy expensive feed to keep animals alive and the extra costs are putting some livelihoods at risk. The NSW government recently approved an emergency drought relief package of $600m, at least $250m of which will cover low-interest loans to assist eligible farms. Though the package has been welcomed there are concerns among farmers that it’s not enough.

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Jeremy Corbyn to announce policy that aims to raise rural workers’ living standards in areas of high inequality

Labour has pledged to improve the pay and conditions of rural workers in England by reinstating the Agricultural Wages Board, which was abolished five years ago.

Jeremy Corbyn will announce the policy on Sunday at the annual Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival in Dorset, which commemorates the history of trade unionism and agricultural workers’ struggle for fair pay.

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Biologist Jürgen Otto and colleagues have named two species of the extraordinarily colourful dancing spiders

It is only a few millimetres in size, performs a dance as part of a courtship ritual and has striking coloured markings on its back that “look like a pharaoh’s headdress”.

But when biologist Jürgen Otto first spotted the peacock spider species he has named Maratus unicup, he didn’t immediately recognise how special it was.

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We asked, you answered – and there was no shortage of examples of excessive plastic packaging across Australia shared via Guardian Witness

• Waste crisis: spot the excessive plastic packaging – in pictures
  

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On a planet of billions, nine represent the strong minority battling murder in the global corruption of land rights

Individually, they are stories of courage and tragedy. Together, they tell a tale of a natural world under ever more violent assault.

The portraits in this series are of nine people who are risking their lives to defend the land and environment in some of the planet’s most remote or conflict-riven regions.

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