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The society has announced the winners of its 2021 science photographer of the year competition. An exhibition of the winning images is the headline attraction at the Manchester science festival, which is taking place digitally from 12 to 21 February. A climate change category was introduced to the competition to reflect the theme of this year’s festival

Roger Read, Val Machin, Fiona Raffaelli and Alastair McLeish respond to an article by Rafael Behr

Rafael Behr asserts that the case for Scottish independence is as “flaky and dishonest” as the Tory Brexit prospectus once was (Sturgeon and Johnson have made Scottish independence seem inevitable. It isn’t, 9 February). By flaky, he seems to refer to issues of currency, national debt, a budget black hole, a customs border with England and how much it would all cost. By dishonest, he seems to mean that Scots are being deceived about these issues. If Covid has proved anything, it is that it is long-term, not short-term, economics that count.

Scotland’s future includes self-sufficiency in the essentials of renewable energy, water supply and food production at a time of climate crisis. It can become an exporter of products based on such resources, for example, of hydrogen as a key fuel of tomorrow. It has a green future, which has the potential to bring with it a way of life that is of the community and at a distance from the exploitative global economy. It is clear that automation will diminish the value of cheap-labour economies and that the future lies with human services and production at regional and local levels.

Analysis: campaigners argue that, as with Heathrow, climate obligations should make £27bn scheme unviable

The first sign that the government was in serious trouble over the long-mooted expansion of Heathrow airport came in a little-noticed letter from the Department for Transport in May 2019. In it, a government official acknowledged for the first time that the UK’s obligations under the Paris agreement, and its carbon budgets, would have to be taken into account in infrastructure planning decisions.

At that point the government had publicly vowed to press ahead with the airport expansion following a parliamentary vote in favour in June 2018. But the letter, to the green campaign group Plan B, showed its decision was vulnerable, as the official wrote: “I can confirm that the department will carefully consider this request [for a review of the airports national policy statement]. As well as giving careful consideration to the net zero report and the declaration of environment and climate emergency … it may be necessary to consider the Committee on Climate Change’s recommended policy approach for aviation … and any relevant decisions taken by the government in the coming months as a result.”

Precipitation fills reservoirs, limits fire danger and feeds important crops. But the state has seen only 30% to 70% of what it would expect

There’s a race on in California, and each day matters: the precipitation during winter that fuels the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada and fills groundwater supplies has been slow to start, and faltering at best.

Northern California remains stuck in one of the worst two-year rainfall deficits seen since the 1849 Gold Rush, increasing the risk of water restrictions and potentially setting up dangerous wildfire conditions next summer. The current precipitation is only 30% to 70% of what the state would expect to have seen during a normal year – with no more big rainfall events on the horizon for February.

Related: A catastrophic year casts a pall of uncertainty across California’s agricultural valleys

Last year, even with one dry year we had a tremendous fire season