The Guardian Environment

• ‘I was contaminated’: study reveals how hard it is to avoid pesticide exposure

  Silicone wristbands worn by volunteers in the Netherlands captured 173 substances in one week

  For decades, Khoji Wesselius has noticed the oily scent of pesticides during spraying periods when the wind has blown through his tiny farming village in a rural corner of the Netherlands.

  Now, after volunteering in an experiment to count how many such substances people are subjected to, Wesselius and his wife are one step closer to understanding the consequences of living among chemical-sprayed fields of seed potato, sugar beet, wheat, rye and onion.

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• Tanni Grey-Thompson says disabled drivers at risk of missing out on switch to electric cars

  Former Paralympics champion says inaccessible charging points show government ‘has forgotten about us’

  Campaigners including Tanni Grey-Thompson have warned that disabled drivers are at risk of being locked out of the electric car transition because of inaccessible chargers.

  The former Paralympics champion and the Electric Vehicle Association England are pushing for the government to introduce standards to ensure chargers are easy to reach.

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• Young country diary: The foxes and I have been watching each other closely

  London: In spring the family of foxes stared at us while we gardened. Now I’m watching them as the cubs have grown up, ready to leave

  I have been watching a family of foxes through my bedroom window for a long time now. Today I decided to record 15 minutes of one of the fox’s days. It went like this: 12:30pm – the fox is asleep, 12:40pm – the fox is still asleep (foxes are mainly nocturnal animals and sleep up to 10 hours during the day), 12:52pm – the fox wakes up and walks out of sight, probably to go through some bins or steal our garden gloves, 12:54pm – the fox jumps on top of the shed, 12:54pm – the fox is asleep again.

  Many urban foxes find shelter around people’s gardens. This can include under sheds, in bushes, behind bins or in their own burrows, called earths. In spring, baby foxes are born, and when we’re gardening they stare at us through the bushes, or quickly pass through when our backs are turned. I know I should clap and scare them away, but the cubs grow up bold, and it’s peaceful sometimes to pull up weeds and pretend you can’t see the amber eyes watching you.

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• Airport expansion will put UK’s net zero goal in ‘serious jeopardy’, MPs warn

  Committee urges ministers to set out measures to reduce carbon emissions before work starts on new runways

  Airport expansion plans backed by the government are putting the UK’s net zero target in “serious jeopardy”, MPs have warned.

  Without new safeguards, proposals to enlarge airports including Heathrow and Gatwick could push the UK over its carbon budgets, according to a report from the cross-party Commons environmental audit committee.

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• Why the climate crisis is especially bad news for frightened flyers

  There are three common types of turbulence – and our volatile atmosphere is making them worse

  Turbulence has always been an inconvenience for airline passengers and can cause alarm for the already nervous. Part of the problem is that most of the time you cannot see it coming – pilots can run into severe clear-air turbulence in a perfect blue sky.

  High in the atmosphere, where most intercontinental flights cruise to make maximum use of fuel, the jet stream can behave erratically, causing wind shear that can throw around an airliner in the sky.

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