Environment

We will vote to prevent any developments of shale gas in the UK unless the Tories and Lib Dems concede to reforms of the regulatory regime

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Chancellor’s list of requests, including responding to ‘asks’ from Cuadrilla, laid out in letter to cabinet colleagues
• Read George Osborne’s letter in full Continue reading...

Chancellor's letter to cabinet committee on economic affairs requests that ministers make dozens of interventions to fast-track shale gas drilling Continue reading...

Pitsford Water, Northamptonshire The radiance of the low sun picks out noisy skeins of Canada geese and flashes back bright and green from the heads of drake mallards

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Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 29 January 1915

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Decision could trigger a lawsuit by activists who want to fly the orca from Miami and prepare her for release into the wild

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The president recommends more than 12 million acres of the region receive the highest level of protection available for public lands.

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• British biotech firm awaiting FDA approval to release bugs in the Florida Keys
  
• Change.org petition gets more than 130,000 signatures to stop experiment

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According to the Doomsday Clock, which measures the relative probability of mankind’s demise in terms of climate change and nuclear threat, it is now 11:57 – the latest it’s been since 1983 Continue reading...

• President will propose 12.28 million-acre expansion of protected area
• Alaska senator Murkowski: ‘We will fight back with every resource'

President Barack Obama will propose expanding the protected area of Alaska’s Arctic refuge by 12.28 million acres, including the state’s Coastal Plain where oil and gas are drilled, the Interior Department said on Sunday.

The proposal to expand the part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge designated as wilderness faces an uphill battle in Congress, where Republicans in control of both chambers oppose curbs to oil production, and drew immediate criticism.

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Decision set to lead to contracts worth billions of dollars but hopes for a US-China-style air pollution deal are dashed

US industrial interests took centre-stage at the start of Barack Obama’s visit to India as he and the prime minister, Narendra Modi, outlined a deal to limit the legal liability of US suppliers in the event of a nuclear power plant catastrophe.

Thirty years after an infamous chemical leak killed thousands at Union Carbide’s factory in Bhopal, the threat of tough Indian compensation laws has frustrated US hopes of an export boom in the energy sector – despite an agreement by former US president George W Bush to share civil nuclear technology in 2005.

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Decades in the making, Iter, a huge experimental nuclear fusion reactor in rural France, could be the site of breakthroughs that will provide limitless, clean energy and secure the planet’s future

The countryside of Saint-Paul-lez-Durance in Provence is a serene terrain of thickly wooded hills. On chilly January mornings, the air becomes thick with mist and the sky glows red as the sun pokes up above the horizon at dawn. By mid-morning, that haze is usually gone, leaving behind a bright blue sky with only the faintest wisp of high-altitude cloud.

As picture-postcard scenes go, it is as rural and peaceful as it gets. But incongruously nestled among these hills and vineyards, the most sophisticated, expensive machine ever built is slowly taking shape at the local Cadarache nuclear facility. It is a scientific collaboration on a worldwide scale, meant to tackle one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century – with the human population growing every year, how do we continue to make ever more electricity past 2050 (the date that the EU has set for full decarbonisation of power generation) without destroying the environment? The scientists and engineers in Saint-Paul-lez-Durance think the solution is nuclear fusion – they want to recreate a star in a box on Earth.

Iter will need 100,000km of superconducting wire for its magnets – enough to wrap around the equator twice.

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It’s a decade since the inaugural Observer Ethical Awards. We’ve had 10 amazing years of inspirational eco entrepreneurs, campaigners for social justice and radical thinkers. Lucy Siegle introduces the 2015 Awards and explains how to nominate. Your green heroes could be winners this year

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We’ve all heard stories of islands of floating rubbish in the middle of the oceans, but it’s the trillions of barely visible microscopic fragments that are set to be the world’s next ecological emergency. Lucy Siegle reports

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Justin Chisholm asks the sailors racing around the world about the state of the seas

Drowning in plastic: the world’s next ecological emergency

For the majority of landlubbers, the fact that the world’s oceans are clogging up with the detritus of a rampant consumer society can easily be ignored. For most, the watery expanses beyond our coastlines might just as well be another planet.

Not so for the crews of the fleet of high-speed ocean racing yachts currently competing in the Volvo Ocean Race around the world, which spend up to three weeks at a time at sea racing day and night. For them the effects of ocean littering are all too obvious.

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The sea off our coasts teems with microscopic life that breaks down the carbon dioxide we pump into the air. Now a series of expeditions aims to find out more

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State government plans $100,000 trial of system that would alert lifesavers to the presence of sharks, but has ruled out culling

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• Cause of spill that left cancer-causing benzene in Montana’s city water probed
• Officials say residents can drink water but must run taps for 15 to 20 minutes

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Castle Cary, Somerset The market house has proved, like the local farmers, adaptable to changing times Continue reading...