British Petroleum has again drawn the ire of environmentalists after a security guard at one of its Alaskan oil fields shot dead a polar bear, an animal listed as threatened with extinction.

Ludwig is born in Alexandria. When his Austrian father, a failed artist, does not return from a trip abroad, his Dutch mother Marthe is forced to bring him up alone. He is nicknamed Caesarion – Little Caesar – in reference to another child abandoned by his father.

Corporation suspends relations with leading film-maker accused of conflict of interests over 'palm oil' programmes

The keys to vast reserves of oil off the coast of Alaska may have been handed to Shell this week after President Barack Obama's administration granted it provisional permission to drill exploration wells in the Beaufort Sea's frigid waters despite fierce opposition from environmentalists.

This is the first novel by jack-of-all-trades Chan Koonchung. Born in Hong Kong, and resident in Beijing, he has been a screenwriter, film producer, journalist magazine editor, environmental activist and political campaigner. Already banned in Chan's homeland, The Fat Years is propelled by a smart dystopian conceit. In 2011, a month of Chinese history goes missing: 28 days in February and March separating a global economic meltdown from the beginning of "China's Golden Age of Ascendancy". Weirdly, the majority of citizens are too satisfied with their lives to notice the lacuna. A few people – an unhappy few as it turns out – are immune to the communal well-being, and wonder where the time has gone.

They didn't do bestseller lists in Richard Jefferies' day, but even if they had, it's hard to imagine him submitting to the publicity interviews and book signings faced by the modern commercial author.

A region of Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta suffers widespread ecological damage as spilled oil seeps into its drinking water, destroys plants and remains in the ground for decades at a time, said a United Nations report released today.

The fight to stop thousands of badgers being culled has been joined by the campaign group which played a key role in forcing the Government to drop plans to sell off forests.

It is a development that will be savoured by environmentalists. Jeremy Clarkson, patron saint of petrol heads and serial denouncer of "eco-mentalists", can look forward to a recycling depot being built within a Lamborghini Murcielago's braking distance of his country home.

It's 30 years since MTV launched and in its three decades, it’s changed the way we think about – as well as watch – music. Gillian Orr charts its greatest hits

The wolf, pursuing its lightning reconquest of France, has reached the Vosges Mountains on the Alsace-Lorraine border for the first time in 80 years.

Three environmental activists with links to European anarchist groups were found guilty Friday of plotting a bomb attack on an unfinished IBM nanotech research facility near the Swiss city of Zurich.

Outlook Having seen what happened to BP in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, one can understand why Cairn Energy might feel a little edgy about the protests against its drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Greenland. But if an oil company were to write a masterplan for setting itself up as a big bad bogey figure, the way Cairn is behaving in its continuing dispute with Greenpeace would surely provide the blueprint.

Three of Britain's most senior judges launched a scathing attack on the Crown Prosecution Service yesterday after 20 environmental activists had their sentences quashed.