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The Picture It competition organised by the Natural Environment Research Council (Nerc) asked budding photographers to explore how they interacted with or were inspired by the environment in everyday life.

Visitors to Nerc’s UnEarthed showcase in Edinburgh last weekend were asked to pick the winners from nine shortlisted images and more than 1,000 entries. The winners from the three categories will be invited to the official naming of Nerc’s new polar research vessel, the RRS Sir David Attenborough, next year

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More than a thousand rangers have been killed while protecting elephants – and a corrupted legal market, operating for a few wealthy clients, exacerbates that risk

Related: Trump postpones decision on allowing import of elephant parts

The announcement that the Trump administration is considering overturning the US ban on elephant trophy imports from Zambia and Zimbabwe is one that directly threatens the lives of African park rangers who are tasked with protecting elephants and their ecosystems.

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The genes that caused scales to become feathers in the early ancestors of birds have been found by US scientists.

Exclusive: Frontier Economics’ modelling commissioned by government says 6,000MW of renewable capacity entering market will reduce prices in 2018-20

Modelling commissioned by the Turnbull government as part of its efforts to back in the national energy guarantee says renewables will drive the first wave of price reductions under the policy. It also floats substantial regulatory intervention to stop the electricity market becoming even more concentrated.

The work by Frontier Economics, obtained by Guardian Australia, says a steep decline in wholesale electricity prices forecast between 2018 and 2022 is due to the entry of 6,000MW of renewable capacity which has already been incentivised by the existing renewable energy target.

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Experts say the large cloud of the radioactive isotope ruthenium-106 doesn't present a health risk to humans.

Despite a national hunting ban, the attitude to bears has become increasingly hostile, with some remote villagers taking matters into their own hands

High up in the Carpathian mountains, a forest guard named Csaba Demeter was leaving the woods one evening early this summer when a brown bear attacked him from behind. It pinned him to the ground, sunk its teeth into his limbs and tore deep lacerations into his back with its claws. Demeter pulled his coat over his head and played dead, holding his breath and stiffening his limbs as the bear dug into his flesh. It was five minutes before the animal gave up and moved slowly back into the forest, leaving Demeter barely alive on the mountainside.

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Study finds ‘strong association’ between high levels of fine particulate matter and abnormal sperm shape - but impact on wider fertility remains unclear

High levels of air pollution are associated with poor sperm quality and could be partly responsible for the sharp drop in male fertility, according to a new study.

A team of scientists, led by researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, studied the sperm of nearly 6,500 men and found a “strong association” between high levels of fine particulate air pollution and “abnormal sperm shape.”

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Wenlock Edge, Shropshire It couldn’t be the power-station chimney, it was in the wrong place. And it was too late in the year to be a stack of hay

As the match-flare of a November afternoon dimmed in the trees, I caught a glimpse of a tower. Peering through hazel branches I could make out a tall structure that looked like the power-station chimney – except that was north and this was west. It could have been a stack of hay bales, but harvest was over long ago.

Curious to discover what I had seen, I wandered down the wooded bank, losing the long view, crossed the road and went through the gate on to a green lane, now used only by dog-walkers, sheep and an occasional tractor, but once the thoroughfare over the Edge to a hamlet on common land below.

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Bill Shorten gives emu a leg up, Malcolm Turnbull takes flight and Scott Ludlam offers shock support for ibis

• Vote now for your favourite Australian bird

Forget Bennelong or New England, the battle for Australia’s favourite bird is on.

As the inaugural bird of the year poll launched on Monday, the nation’s celebrities, political leaders and media outlets immediately began their campaigns.

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In the upcoming Queensland election all major parties are talking up public investment in energy generation. But are these policies paying heed to climate science? John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Taiwanese study finds that men exposed to higher levels of air pollution have poorer quality sperm. Add that to climate impacts and lung disease of fossil fuels.

I hate to break the news, but north Queensland will not be getting a new coal fired power station if the LNP are elected on Saturday.

Ratch Australia Corporation announced the completion of the first wind turbine at the Mount Emerald Wind Farm near Walkamin today after the three 16 tonne blades, each 57m long, were positioned in place atop a 90-metre tower.

The new wind farm, which will come on stream in the second semester of 2018, has a total capacity of 132MW. The electricity generated by the facility will all be sold in the wholesale market.

ATA report says a 100% renewable grid by 2030 not just doable for Australia, but cheaper and safer than building new coal plants.

Solar and storage bodies create Smart Energy Council to better reflect merger of solar, storage and smart software technologies.

New modelling predicts India is within a decade of peak coal demand for the power sector. This is sooner than anyone has predicted.

In the final week before an election, the biggest-selling newspaper in the Australian state of Queensland screamed a front-page headline that cut into one of the poll’s most divisive issues.

So long solar. NEG design assumes no large scale solar investments in Australia for at least eight years - despite recognition that large scale renewables responsible for most bill reductions.

A Supreme Court Justice launches the first of a series of scientific guides for UK judges.