Environment news

• The microscopic magic of plankton

  06-06-2015 21:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Plankton are the tiny enablers of life on Earth, but their fragile ecosystems are under attack from climate change. A three-year study is helping marine experts understand them for the first timeThe beauty of plankton – in picturesIn the astonishing world of plankton, bright pink, micron-sized dinoflagellates looking like spaceships glide slowly over the surface of the sea; beautiful, flute-like tintinnids exchange genes temporarily with each other; and slender chaetognatha, or arrow worms, br
  
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• Environment Agency faces landfill tax bill worth millions to clear illegal waste

  06-12-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: ‘extremely unhelpful’ policy seen as deterrent to clearing thousands of dump sites across EnglandMillions of pounds in landfill tax owed to the government has to be paid by the Environment Agency (EA) if it clears any of the thousands of illegal waste dumps across the country.Of the £15m that taxpayers are paying for the clearance of the only site the agency has committed to clearing up – a vast illegal dump at Hoad’s Wood in Kent – £4m is lan
  
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• How many spiders and pseudoscorpions does it take to make one of the world’s greatest taxonomists?

  06-12-2025 00:00 via theguardian.com
  Former Perth curator Mark Harvey is one of the few people on Earth to have described 1,000 new species, many of them arachnids. Colleagues say his legacy is ‘unquantifiable’Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastFor most people around the world, 16 August 1977 was memorable because it was the day Elvis Presley died.“We turned the radio on when we got back in the car and that was the headline. Elvis was dead,” remembers Dr Mark Harvey. Continue reading.
  
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• Just not that into ewes: ‘gay sheep’ escape slaughter and take over a New York catwalk

  05-12-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  Designer Michael Schmidt’s 36-piece collection was made from the wool of rams who have shown same-sex attractionWhen a ram tips its head back, curls its upper lip, and takes a deep breath – what is known in the world of animal husbandry as a “flehmen response” – it is often a sign of arousal. Sheep have a small sensory organ located above the roof of the mouth, and the flehmen response helps to flood it with any sex pheromones wafting about.Usually, rams flehmen whe
  
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• The dream that grew into the GreenWay – a car-free corridor from Sydney Harbour to the Cooks River

  05-12-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Plans that evolved over more than two decades are about to become reality as a 6km cycling, walking and nature corridor opens through Sydney’s inner westGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAbout 25 years ago, Bruce Ashley was walking beside the Hawthorne canal in Sydney’s inner west when he stopped to chat with two men planting native species next to the footpath.Ashley, an environmental planning consultant, had been thinking about how to link paths and scraps
  
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• Streets named after birds in Britain on rise as species’ populations plummet

  05-12-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  RSPB says growing trend for honouring species that are in decline is not matched by action on conservationBritain’s street names are being inspired by skylarks, lapwings and starlings, even as bird populations decline.According to a report by the RSPB, names such as Skylark Lane and Swift Avenue are increasingly common. Using OS Open Names data from 2004 to 2024, the conservation charity found that road names featuring bird species had risen by 350% for skylarks, 156% for starlings and 104
  
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• Fir or faux: which Christmas tree is best for the environment?

  05-12-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Using an already existing artificial tree until its bedraggled end will be more environmentally friendly than buying a felled pine every year, but the answer isn’t clearcut Change by Degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprintGot a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at [email protected] it might be difficult to imagine the yuletide without one, Christmas trees are a rel
  
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• Nature recovery plan in England hit by clause allowing contracts to end with a year’s notice

  05-12-2025 12:51 via theguardian.com
  Conservationists say changes, coupled with underfunding, will curb take-up and leave less land protected for natureUK politics live – latest updatesAn ambitious scheme to restore England’s nature over coming decades has been undermined after the government inserted a clause allowing it to terminate contracts with only a year’s notice, conservationists have said.The project was designed to fund landscape-scale restoration over thousands of hectares, whether on large estates or a
  
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• Weather tracker: Heavy snow blankets parts of US as winter storms hit

  05-12-2025 11:20 via theguardian.com
  Snowfall moves south-east over Wyoming and Colorado and combines with dense fog in some areasA cold spell continued to grip parts of the US this week. After a winter storm brought 20-30cm of snow across Wisconsin, and even up to 35cm in places last weekend, the focus of the winter weather hazards shifted elsewhere early this week.A storm system moving south-east over Wyoming and Colorado brought a continuous period of snowfall until Thursday morning. Central Colorado and northern New Mexico bore
  
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• Week in wildlife: a studious deer and a partying raccoon

  05-12-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• What I saw reporting on the American lives cut short by killer heat

  05-12-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  In this week’s newsletter: Coroners can’t agree on how to count heat fatalities – and the dismantling of climate investments is leaving fragile communities exposed• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereDonald Trump’s decision to boycott Cop30, withdraw the US from the Paris agreement and illegally terminate a slew of investments in renewable energy will not change the reality of climate breakdown for Americans.In what has become an annua
  
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• ‘We can tell farmers the problems’: experts say seismic waves can check soil health and boost yields

  05-12-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  ‘Soilsmology’ aims to map world’s soils and help avert famine, says not-for-profit co-founded by George MonbiotGeorge Monbiot: Over a pint in Oxford, we may well have stumbled upon the holy grail of agricultureA groundbreaking soil-health measuring technique could help avert famine and drought, scientists have said.At the moment, scientists have to dig lots of holes to study the soil, which is time-consuming and damages its structure, making the sampling less accurate. Continue
  
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• Over a pint in Oxford, we may have stumbled upon the holy grail of agriculture | George Monbiot

  05-12-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  I knew that a revolution in our understanding of soil could change the world. Then came a eureka moment – and the birth of the Earth Rover ProgramReport: Experts say seismic waves can check soil health and boost yieldsIt felt like walking up a mountain during a temperature inversion. You struggle through fog so dense you can scarcely see where you’re going. Suddenly, you break through the top of the cloud, and the world is laid out before you. It was that rare and remarkable thing: a
  
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• 60,000 African penguins starved to death after sardine numbers collapsed – study

  05-12-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Climate crisis and overfishing contributed to loss of 95% of penguins in two breeding colonies in South Africa, research findsMore than 60,000 penguins in colonies off the coast of South Africa have starved to death as a result of disappearing sardines, a new paper has found.More than 95% of the African penguins in two of the most important breeding colonies, on Dassen Island and Robben Island, died between 2004 and 2012. The breeding penguins probably starved to death during the moulting period
  
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• 60,000 African penguins starve to death after sardine numbers collapse – study

  05-12-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Climate crisis and overfishing contributed to loss of 95% of penguins in two breeding colonies in South Africa, research findsMore than 60,000 penguins in colonies off the coast of South Africa have starved to death as a result of disappearing sardines, a new paper has found.More than 95% of the African penguins in two of the most important breeding colonies, on Dassen Island and Robben Island, died between 2004 and 2012. The breeding penguins probably starved to death during the moulting period
  
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• Country diary: Green shoots in the ancient forest | Country diary

  05-12-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Glen Einich, Cairngorms: A wintry walk in the Rothiemurchus woodland is always glorious. To see some of its barer expanses starting to recover tops it offIn The Living Mountain, Nan Shepherd writes wistfully of the ancient Caledonian woods of Rothiemurchus: “Not much is left now of this great pine forest.” She had witnessed the vast fellings of both world wars to meet the need for homegrown timber; it was enough to prompt Frank Fraser Darling to say in 1949: “Our land is so dev
  
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• ‘We miss having a dog but it’s the price you pay’: the village that banned pets to save wildlife

  04-12-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Australian eco community is a sanctuary for native animals and a showcase of sustainable livingBill Smart has never heard the word “solarpunk”. But the softly spoken 77-year-old lights up when given the definition from Wikipedia: a literary, artistic and social movement that envisions and works towards actualising a sustainable future interconnected with nature and community.Solar refers not just to renewable energy but to an optimistic, anti-dystopian vision of the future. Punk is a
  
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• Thirsty work: how the rise of massive datacentres strains Australia’s drinking water supply

  04-12-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  The demand for use in cooling in Sydney alone is expected to exceed the volume of Canberra’s total drinking water within the next decadeSign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter hereAs Australia rides the AI boom with dozens of new investments in datacentres in Sydney and Melbourne, experts are warning about the impact these massive projects will have on already strained water resources.Water demand to service datacentres in Sydney alone is fo
  
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• A diving prince, sunken treasure and snared by the Titanic: Joe MacInnis on his ‘rip-roaring’ life as an ocean adventurer

  04-12-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  At 88, the Canadian reflects on a golden era of underwater discovery and how shipwrecks and the cruel sea are the ‘greatest of all teachers’Joe MacInnis admits there are simply too many places to begin telling the story of life in the ocean depths. At 88, the famed Canadian undersea explorer, has many decades to draw on. There was the time he and a Russian explorer and deep-water pilot, Anatoly Sagalevich, were snagged by a telephone wire strung from the pilot house of the Titanic, t
  
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• Earthquake of 3.3 magnitude rattles Lancashire and Lake District

  04-12-2025 13:39 via theguardian.com
  Residents report homes shaking from quake with epicentre near the village of Silverdale in LancashireResidents were shaken by what felt like an “underground explosion” after England’s biggest earthquake in two years affected towns and villages across Lancashire and Cumbria.A 3.3-magnitude earthquake was felt as far as 12 miles from the epicentre near the coastal village of Silverdale in Lancashire shortly after 11.23pm on Wednesday. Continue reading...
  
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• Global race to secure critical minerals for weapons threatens climate, warns report

  04-12-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Study reveals US earmarked billions to stockpile critical minerals for military use, including precision-guided weaponry and AI-driven warfareThe accelerating global arms race is hindering climate action as critical minerals that are key to a sustainable future are being diverted to make the latest military hardware, according to a reportThe study from the Transition Security Project – a joint US and UK venture – reveals how the Pentagon is stockpiling huge stores of critical mineral
  
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• England earthquake of 3.3 magnitude rattles Lancashire and Lake District

  04-12-2025 07:50 via theguardian.com
  Residents report homes shaking from 3.3-magnitude quake that British Geological Survey says was centred just off the coast of Silverdale, LancashireA 3.3-magnitude earthquake shook homes in north-west England late on Wednesday, the British Geological Survey (BGS) reported.The quake struck shortly after 11.23pm and was felt across Lancashire and the southern Lake District, including the towns of Kendal and Ulverston, within 12 miles of the epicentre. Continue reading...
  
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• High levels of ‘forever chemical’ found in cereal products across Europe – study

  04-12-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Pesticide Action Network Europe study finds average concentrations 100 times higher than in tap waterHigh levels of a toxic “forever chemical” have been found in cereal products across Europe because of its presence in pesticides.The most contaminated food is breakfast cereal, according to a study by Pesticide Action Network Europe (PAN), with average concentrations 100 times higher than in tap water. Continue reading...
  
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• Garden ponds provide vital habitats – and a revival is under way in Britain

  04-12-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Even tiny ponds can create biodiversity hotspots, as well as helping out during heatwaves and heavy rainA few years ago I created a little pond in my back garden. It’s barely bigger than a paving slab, but since the pond has been in place we have had a garden teeming with frogs, hedgehogs have taken up residence and bird life has abounded.Not only do humble ponds like this give nature a boost; they also help to buffer climate extremes. In recent decades, Britain’s ponds have been dis
  
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• Country Diary: A lonely chapel that whispers and roars | Sara Hudston

  04-12-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Abbotsbury, Dorset: Long ago this was the place to come and wish for a husband. It is empty today, but still so full of presenceTwo ascending buzzards dazzle against the sun as I climb to St Catherine’s Chapel alone on its hill above the sea. It is the saint’s own feast day (25 November), when women once came to recite a charm for getting married. The traditional wording was blunt: “A husband, St Catherine, a handsome one, St Catherine, a rich one, St Catherine,
  
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• Rockets, gold and the Foreign Legion: can Europe defend its frontier in the Amazon? | Alexander Hurst

  04-12-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  It borders Brazil, but French Guiana is now a remote outpost of the EU. It is home to Europe’s only spaceport, some of the most biodiverse forest on the planet and a military mission that is testing the limits of western powerAbove me, a ceiling of rough wooden branches and tarp. To my right, an officer in the French Foreign Legion types up the daily situation report. In front of me a French gendarme named David is standing in front of a table full of large assault rifles, pointing out loc
  
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• ‘It moved … it was hopping!’ One man’s search for a wild wallaby in the UK

  04-12-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Reports of escaped wallabies are on the rise, especially in southern England. But how easy is it to spot these strange and charismatic marsupials – and why would a quintessentially Australian creature settle here?It was about 9.30 or 10 on a dark, late November night; Molly Laird was driving her pink Mini home along country lanes to her Warwickshire cottage. Suddenly, the headlights’ beam picked up an animal sitting in the road. “I thought it was a deer at first,” Molly t
  
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• How an invasion of purple flowers made Iceland an Instagram paradise – and caused a biodiversity crisis

  04-12-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Nootka lupins, introduced in the 1940s to repair damaged soil, are rampaging across the island, threatening its native speciesIt was only when huge areas of Iceland started turning purple that authorities realised they had made a mistake. By then, it was too late. The Nootka lupin, native to Alaska, had coated the sides of fjords, sent tendrils across mountain tops and covered lava fields, grasslands and protected areas.Since it arrived in the 1940s, it has become an accidental national symbol.
  
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• UK farmers lose £800m after heat and drought cause one of worst harvests on record

  04-12-2025 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Many now concerned about ability to make living in fast-changing climate after one of worst grain harvests recordedRecord heat and drought cost Britain’s arable farmers more than £800m in lost production in 2025 in one of the worst harvests recorded, analysis has estimated.Three of the five worst harvests on record have now occurred since 2020, leaving some farmers asking whether the growing impacts of the climate crisis are making it too financially risky to sow their crops. Farmers
  
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• The environmental costs of corn: should the US change how it grows its dominant crop?

  03-12-2025 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Amid concerns over greenhouse gas emissions, the Trump administration has abolished climate-friendly farming incentivesThis article was produced in partnership with FloodlightFor decades, corn has reigned over American agriculture. It sprawls across 90m acres – about the size of Montana – and goes into everything from livestock feed and processed foods to the ethanol blended into most of the nation’s gasoline. Continue reading...
  
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