The Guardian

Group says people in rural areas have to walk on roads without pavement, which can be very dangerous

Give people the right to walk around the edges of privately owned fields, say campaigners seeking to open up more paths in the British countryside.

Slow Ways, a group advocating for more access to the countryside, said people in rural areas often have to walk on roads that do not have pavements, which can be extremely dangerous.

Caring for God’s Acre mapped out 20,000 cemeteries and recorded 10,000 species

Churchyards are vital havens for rare wildlife including dormice, bats and beetles, according to an extensive audit of burial grounds around the UK.

The conservation charity Caring for God’s Acre mapped out 20,325 cemeteries, with 800,000 wildlife records submitted and more than 10,800 species recorded.

A rise in the number of remarriages and a baby boom in the years since 2004 gave hope to survivors and helped them cope with the tragedy

It was Mahyuddin’s mother who had pestered him to go out on Sunday morning, 20 years ago. Dozens of relatives were visiting their small coastal village in Indonesia for a wedding party, but a powerful earthquake had struck just before 8am. Buildings in some areas had collapsed. He should go and check on his employer’s office to see if they needed help, his mother said.

As he drove into town, he found chaos and panic. The road was heavy with traffic: cars, motorbikes, trucks, all rushing in the same direction. People were running, shouting that water was coming.

Campaigners jubilant after government heeded warning 2031 cutoff would mean loss of precious footpaths

A deadline for registering historic rights of way is to be scrapped after a warning that the looming cutoff date could result in the loss of thousands of miles of footpaths.

The last government set a deadline of 2031 for all rights of way in England to be added to an official map, after abandoning a previous commitment to scrap the policy.

Evaluation could lead to limits or bans on substances commonly used in the production of plastic and rubber

The Environmental Protection Agency is launching a formal review of five highly toxic plastic chemicals, including vinyl chloride, the notorious compound at the center of the East Palestine, Ohio, train wreck fire.

The move could lead to strong limits or bans on the substances.

In a little understood quirk of nature foresters have been putting the aspen tree under duress to promote flowering

On a nature reserve deep in the Scottish Highlands there is a polytunnel which houses a small forest of slender grey aspen trees. It is known as the “torture chamber”.

The aspen is one of the UK’s scarcest but most valuable trees. And to produce the tiny, delicate aspen seeds being harvested by the charity Trees for Life, these 104 specimens are deliberately made to suffer.

Campaigners say consumption such as travel, gifts and food are destroying planet and the meaning of Christmas

Whether out of poverty or virtue, many of us spend much of the year reining in our appetites to save our pennies and our health. But at Christmas many of us put our worries aside and go wild in an orgy of lavish gifting, extensive travel and a gluttonous feeding frenzy.

This carnival of consumption has a cost: not just to our wallets and our waistlines, but also to the climate.

Betchcott Hill has glorious views across the county and a mix of habitats home to curlew, cuckoo and lapwing

One of the most scenic and nature-rich spots in western England could be protected for ever in a boost for the curlew, cuckoo, lapwing and snipe that nest there.

Betchcott Hill has views across much of the county and its mix of grassland, wet flushes, woodland and heath sings with the calls of endangered birds in spring.

Conservationists and scientists in New Zealand were astonished to find the world’s rarest whale washed ashore in South Island in July. As only the seventh spade-toothed whale identified, and with none ever seen alive, this month saw the first dissection of a complete specimen

Charges encompass a total of 102 alleged offences relating to 26 sites, including Rozelle parklands

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The New South Wales Environment Protection Authority is prosecuting three companies and one individual in response to its investigation into Sydney’s asbestos in mulch scandal.

The prosecutions encompass 102 alleged offences relating to 26 sites, including Rozelle parklands.

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OECD’s Pisa program will measure the ability of students to take action in response to climate anxiety and ‘take their position and role in the global world’

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“It’s going to get hot and everything’s going to be on fire and the oceans will rise. That’s just like the worst of the worst. How do you combat that?” asks year 11 student, Josh Dorian.

“Well, you fix it, you stop it from happening, you take preventive measures,” says Josh, who is studying VCE environmental science at Mount Lilydale Mercy College, a high school in Melbourne’s outer east. “Involving kids in that is scary, but I think it’s necessary.”

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Exclusive: Efforts to eradicate American mink help boost population of river-residing mammal in 11 areas of country

Water voles continue to decline in their distribution across Britain but there are signs of recovery in some regions, with populations bouncing back in 11 key areas, according to a report.

The river-residing mammal, which inspired Ratty in the Wind in the Willows, has revived in number in parts of Yorkshire, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire and East Anglia thanks to targeted conservation work.

Temperatures expected to reach about 10C in Copenhagen and highs of 5-6C in Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki

Nordic countries are often associated with cold, snowy winters and temperatures well below zero celsius. However, this year unseasonably mild weather is forecast to move in across Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland over the Christmas period, with temperatures well above the seasonal average.

A particularly mild air mass is expected to arrive on Christmas Day, with temperatures widely rising above 0C (32F). Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki will probably have highs of 5-6C on Christmas Day, with a high of about 10C in Copenhagen. These temperatures would be 4-5C above the seasonal average, but the highest anomalies will be found further north across Finland, where temperatures in Rovaniemi – the capital of Lapland – will be up to 8C above average with an expected high of 2C on 25 December.

For the past decade, the Barcelona-based visual artist Xavi Bou has devoted his work to revealing “the hidden beauty of natural movement”. His initial focus was birds; now he’s moved on to insects. In collaboration with US entomologist Adrian Smith he’s created an eye-popping series that captures – by merging multiple frames into a single image – the rhythmic flutterings of butterflies and chaotic leaps of spittlebugs and treehoppers. As well as their beauty, Bou was struck by the crucial role that insects play in ecosystems, even as their numbers plummet – it’s estimated that the biomass of flying insect species has decreased by 75% over the past 27 years. “We need to move beyond seeing insects as mere nuisances,” says Bou. “They are fascinating, essential creatures, and we owe them a great deal.”

• See more of Xavi Bou’s images here

Ministers set out plans for outlawing neonicotinoids but considering application by farmers to use Cruiser SB

Bee-killing pesticides are to be banned by the UK government, as ministers set out plans to outlaw the use of neonicotinoids.

However, the highly toxic neonicotinoid Cruiser SB could be allowed for use next year, as ministers are considering applications from the National Farmers’ Union and British Sugar.

From break dancing to nude bathers and the country’s best mullets, here’s a selection of our photographers’ finest work

Researchers say species is second-longest living mammal on Earth after bowhead whales

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In 1893, the World’s Fair was getting under way in Chicago, the world’s first number plates appeared on cars in Paris, and Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination would later spark the first world war, spent time hunting kangaroos and emus in the NSW town of Narromine.

Also, according to researchers, up to 10% of southern right whales in existence could have still been swimming the ocean today, if not for other factors.

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Labour seems gripped by a form of denialism. The danger is real and incremental change won’t avert it

• Jeremy Corbyn is independent MP for Islington North and was leader of the Labour party from 2015 to 2020

There is no need to overcomplicate things: a rise in global temperatures of 3.1C is not compatible with human survival. That is where we are heading, unless we act now. On our current path, the world will exceed 1.5C of warming, and could reach a rise of 2.6-3.1C by the end of the century.

For you, today, that might make the difference between wearing a jumper or a jacket. For humanity, it is the difference between survival and extinction. Paris and Berlin will bake under heatwaves. New York will be hit by frequent storm-surges. Coastal towns will be submerged; 800 million people are living on land that will be underwater.

Jeremy Corbyn is independent MP for Islington North and was leader of the Labour party from 2015 to 2020

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The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

New research comes as dozens of small potential fields have received some form of license from the government

Potential new North Sea oil and gas fields with early stage licences from the UK would emit as much carbon dioxide as British households produce in three decades.

The finding has led to calls to the government to reject demands from fossil fuel producers for the final permits needed to allow their operations to go ahead.