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Data suggests male northern quolls rest less than females and spend much more time on the move, leading to their death after a single breeding season. As Guardian Australia's science report Donna Lu explains, Australian scientists have been researching why male quolls finish the mating season looking 'terrible', with some ending up in an 'early grave'. After equipping the endangered native animals with miniature backpacks and tracking them for seven weeks during the breeding season, researchers observed the males were spending very little time resting and were constantly on the move, all in the dogged pursuit to mate

• Dying for sex: endangered male quolls may be mating themselves to death instead of sleeping, scientists say
• Snakes have clitorises: scientists overcome ‘a massive taboo around female genitalia’
• Release of 10 quolls boosts ‘insurance’ population of endangered marsupial

The Biden administration's goal of carbon-free electricity generation by 2035 will require an overhaul of the U.S. energy sector. Experts across the industry shared their views of how it might work.

(Image credit: AFP via Getty Images)

Large volumes of traps, nets and marine debris in sperm whale’s intestinal tract highlight plastic pollution’s threat to wildlife

A sperm whale that washed ashore in Hawaii over the weekend probably died in part because it ate large volumes of fishing traps, fishing nets, plastic bags and other marine debris, scientists said on Thursday, highlighting the threat to wildlife from the millions of tons of plastic that ends up in oceans every year.

The body of the 56ft (17-meter) long, 120,000-pound (54,000kg) animal was first noticed on a reef off Kauai on Friday. High tide brought it ashore on Saturday.

Nearly 14,000 people from two Nigerian communities are seeking justice in the high court in London against the fossil fuel giant Shell, claiming it is responsible for devastating pollution of their water sources and destruction of their way of life. The individuals from the Niger delta area of Ogale, a farming community, joined more than 2,000 people from the Bille area, a large fishing community. Shell have been operating on the Niger delta for over 80 years and recently announced that they will be ceasing all operations. The oil company made record-breaking profits in 2022, generating over $32bn in the first three quarters. The oil giant are arguing that they are not responsible for a clean-up of Nigerian communities for spills that they say were caused by criminal gangs over five years ago. Lawyers representing the fishing villages argue that the scale of oil spills in the delta masks a human tragedy on an extraordinary scale

• Nearly 14,000 Nigerians take Shell to court over devastating impact of pollution
• Calls for bigger windfall tax after Shell makes ‘obscene’ $40bn profit

Sir Richard Kleinwort has not given permission for viable walking and cycling route between Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath

An aristocrat is at odds with his local council after blocking plans for a green walkway linking two Sussex towns through his estate, which would give children a safe route to walk or cycle home from school.

Local people complain that to travel between Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath, they have to use two winding country roads with no pavements and fast traffic. Mid Sussex district council has proposed a “green path” through the lush fields and pretty woodland of the nearby area, where people could walk and cycle.

Moree Plains company found guilty of knowingly taking water with faulty metering equipment for crops such as cotton

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A Moree Plains irrigator has been ordered to pay a record $350,000 in fines after pleading guilty to knowingly taking water, using an under-recording meter system and constructing an unlawful dam.

It is the first time a “tier one” offence has been successfully prosecuted by the Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR).

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An online tour is being launched of an enclosure on the Holnicote estate in Somerset that is home to a family of five beavers. In what is billed as the first of its kind, the tour allows viewers to navigate through the 2.7-acre Exmoor enclosure where two adult beavers and their three offspring live. Other wildlife captured include kingfishers, stoats, roe deer and bull finches, all of which are believed to have benefited from the changes the beavers are making to the area

• Somerset estate offers rare peek into life of beavers with launch of online tour
  

A wave of unionization has swept the non-profit sector – but workers say they are experiencing aggressive opposition and retaliation

Workers at some of the top environmental organizations in the US are calling out their managers as “incredibly hypocritical” as they argue the progressive non-profits are fighting workers’ efforts to unionize.

A wave of unionization efforts has swept the non-profit sector as part of a renewed national enthusiasm for unionization. Shortly into the Covid-19 pandemic, workers at 350.org, Sunrise Movement, the National Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, Greenpeace USA, the Public Interest Network and the Center for Biological Diversity unionized.

The energy industry is turning waste from dairy farms into renewable natural gas – but will it actually reduce emissions?

On an early August afternoon at Pinnacle Dairy, a farm located near the middle of California’s long Central Valley, 1,300 Jersey cows idle in the shade of open-air barns. Above them whir fans the size of satellites, circulating a breeze as the temperature pushes 100F (38C). Underfoot, a wet layer of feces emits a thick stench that hangs in the air. Just a tad unpleasant, the smell represents a potential goldmine.

The energy industry is transforming mounds of manure into a lucrative “carbon negative fuel” capable of powering everything from municipal buses to cargo trucks. To do so, it’s turning to dairy farms, which offer a reliable, long-term supply of the material. Pinnacle is just one of hundreds across the state that have recently sold the rights to their manure to energy producers.

Co-author of paper says results have implications for anyone who has to think hard in polluted areas

Chess experts make more mistakes when air pollution is high, a study has found.

Experts used computer models to analyse the quality of games played and found that with a modest increase in fine particulate matter, the probability that chess players would make an error increased by 2.1 percentage points, and the magnitude of those errors increased by 10.8%.

Retailer and green groups warn of ‘high environmental cost’ of fish aggregating devices to tuna stocks and other endangered marine life

The EU is under pressure to significantly restrict its huge fleet of fishing vessels from using “fish aggregating devices” that make it easier to catch huge numbers of fish and contribute further to overfishing.

A letter signed by Marks & Spencer and more than 100 environmental groups, including the International Pole and Line Foundation, warns EU officials that the devices (FADs) are one of the main contributors to overfishing of yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean, because they catch high numbers of juveniles.

Community health workers are stepping in to provide critical services and information in rural areas with few hospitals or doctors

When Claudia Salazar and her family migrated to San Elizario, Texas, a small city in El Paso county, they settled into a colonia – informal, low-income housing often found in rural parts along the US-Mexico border. Their house was small, but had enough room for her four kids, and before long, it felt like home.

But the remoteness of their new home soon presented problems – Salazar suddenly found herself in a medical desert. The nearest hospital is a 35-minute drive away. Even that is challenging to get to – the community’s mostly farm worker population works 10- to 12-hour days, and often lacks adequate time to travel for medical attention between workdays.

Twenty states have enacted laws restricting rights to peaceful protest, as environmentalists are increasingly criminalized

The shooting of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, believed to be the first environmental defender killed in the US, is the culmination of a dangerous escalation in the criminalization and repression of those who seek to protect natural resources in America, campaigners have warned.

The death of the 26-year-old, who was also known as “Tortuguita” or “Little Turtle,” in a forest on the fringes of Atlanta was the sort of deadly act “people who have been paying attention to this issue assumed would happen soon, with no sense of joy”, according to Marla Marcum, founder of the Climate Disobedience Center, which supports climate protesters.

Record-breaking French freediver Arthur Guérin-Boëri holds five world championship titles. Here, he dives into Kvaenangen Fjord, Norway, to swim with killer whales

Interior department report recommends scaled-back version of ConocoPhillips’ Willow project despite Biden campaign pledge

The Biden administration has advanced a $8bn drilling project on Alaska’s north slope. The ConocoPhillips Willow project, which would be one of the largest oil and gas developments on federal territory, has drawn fierce opposition from environmentalists, who say its approval runs counter to the president’s ambitious climate goals.

An environmental assessment released by the interior department on Wednesday recommends a scaled-back version of the project ConocoPhillips originally proposed, and would produce about 600m barrels of oil over 30 years, with a peak of 180,000 barrels of crude oil a day.

The psychologist has turned his hand to exposing new audiences to old arguments from climate change deniers

Canadian psychologist and darling of conservatives and the alt-right, Jordan Peterson, has been on an all-out attack on the science of climate change and the risks of global heating.

Peterson has 6.3 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, and his videos also run as audio podcasts on platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

Brörán leader Yehry Rivera, 45, was shot and killed by Juan Varela during conflict in Terraba community in February 2020

A Costa Rican court has sentenced a man to 22 years behind bars for the murder of an Indigenous land rights defender in 2020, in a case which stoked decades-old tensions between native communities and farmers over disputed territory.

Yehry Rivera, a leader of the Brörán people, was shot from behind and killed by farmer Juan Varela during a land conflict in the Terraba community, 80 miles (130 km) south-east of the capital San Jose in Puntarenas province.

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Mauricio Cantor, behavioral ecologist at Oregon State University, about his study on how humans and dolphins work together to fish in a southern Brazilian city.

California files competing proposal on cutting water use of the river as hopes of western states reaching consensus fade

California filed a competing conservation plan for the Colorado River on Tuesday, just one day after opting out of a proposal put forward by six other western states, signaling a breakdown in negotiations over how to drastically cut water use from the imperiled waterway.

Officials with the Bureau of Reclamation had called on the states to come to a consensus on how to curb between 2 and 4m acre-feet or roughly enough water to supply 8m households for a full year.