Environment news

• The Guardian view on a carbon-free economy: no just transition in sight – yet

  03-01-2025 19:30 via theguardian.com
  Factory closures highlight the turbulent shift to a green economy, exposing political challenges and the urgent need for a equitable move to net zeroOne of the biggest political battles of the future began to take shape in 2024, yet it did not centre on Westminster. Instead, try Grangemouth in central Scotland, Port Talbot in south Wales and Luton in the south of England. Their stories were not front-page staples, but each was of huge significance – locally, nationally and economicall
  
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• California tribes celebrate historic dam removal: ‘More successful than we ever imagined’

  03-01-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  After four dams were blasted from the Klamath River, the work to restore the ecosystem is under wayExplosions roared through the canyons lining the Klamath River earlier this year, signaling a new chapter for the region that hugs the Oregon-California border.In October, the removal of four hydroelectric dams built on the river was completed – the largest project of its kind in US history. Continue reading...
  
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• Back from the dead: the ‘zombie’ ponds repumping nature into Essex farmland

  03-01-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A conservation project is helping identify and restore wildlife-rich sites previously degraded and dried upWhen Joe Gray coppiced a patch of woodland on his Essex farm, he noticed that an abandoned pond sprang back into life after it was exposed to sunlight.“It was a hole in the woods with some leaves in it – we didn’t think of it as a pond,” he says. Since then, he and his wife, Emma, have restored 11 “zombie” ponds on their 450-hectare (1,100-acre) regenerat
  
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• ‘A look into the future’: TV drama about Danish climate refugees divides opinion

  03-01-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Families Like Ours has become national talking point but some scientists say events depicted could not happenFeaturing scenes of huge crowds boarding ferries, protest and desperation as six million Danes become climate refugees and life as they know it rapidly collapses, the new TV series by the Oscar-winning director Thomas Vinterberg is a potential “look into the future”, he says.Familier som vores (Families Like Ours) – a drama which depicts a flooded Denmark shut down and e
  
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• Is pistachio the new pumpkin spice? Why production of the nut is booming in California

  03-01-2025 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The trendy green nut is drought-resistant and sustainable – making it appealing to farmers and consumers alikePistachios have long polarized the world’s taste buds – the flavor is bold, nothing like the subtlety of an almond or a walnut. You either love them or hate them.But one side of the pistachio debate appears to be reigning supreme. Pistachios were named nut of the year in 2023, unsurprising to anyone who had an eye on pop culture. Pistachio is now a popular flavor of lat
  
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• ‘A place for kids to play and a place to store water’: the stormwater capture zone that is also a playground

  03-01-2025 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Flood-prone Hoboken, New Jersey, has opened a play area for its youngest residents that doubles as storage for stormwater runoffFor a city that is almost small enough to fit inside Manhattan’s Central Park just a few miles away, a lot of history has played out within the narrow borders of Hoboken, New Jersey.It was the site of the first organised baseball game in 1846, home of one of the US’s first breweries in the 17th century and the place where Oreo cookies were first sold in 1912
  
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• ‘They’ve heard so much wrong information’: Selling heat pumps across Germany’s political divide

  03-01-2025 11:13 via theguardian.com
  Green heating has an image problem, especially where climate-sceptic parties hold sway. Now energy groups are promoting them on grounds of cost, status and energy securityA few dozen people had gathered on the dancefloor of the nightclub in eastern Germany when Stefan Vetter took to the stage, his face chequered by neon lights that bounced off spinning disco balls, and flicked through PowerPoint slides of homeowners and their heaters. “We know that oil and gas are not getting cheaper in fu
  
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• Week in wildlife in pictures: a rare warbler, a young chimp and sheltering joeys

  03-01-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• Weatherwatch: The need to wake up to sea level rise in the UK

  03-01-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Policymakers and insurers act as if Britain’s coastlines are fixed, but the waters are advancing faster than beforeThe increasing speed of sea level rise hardly seems to register with policymakers in Britain – even though with the UK weather getting more violent, destructive storm surges are increasingly likely. The future looks bleak for properties on fast-eroding cliffs and large areas of rich agricultural land on the east coast, already at or even below sea level.The evidence that
  
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• Country diary: Hoofing up the hill to a bluebell wood | Nicola Chester

  03-01-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire: Looking down on the valley, the new year low light brings a glossy, silvery quality to all belowThe climb up Hurstbourne Hill into the sleeping bluebell wood is accompanied by the sound of vehicles straining up the A343 towards Andover, one field away. My boots make a light hollow thump on the chalk. Bullfinches pipe through tight, nascent catkins. A soaring rose briar wobbles like a raised whip over an arched plume of traveller’s joy or bedwine, the feather
  
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• Researchers seek to expand ‘citizen scientist’ testing of UK river quality

  03-01-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Volunteers’ data should be included in official monitoring reports to tackle pollution crisis, says EarthwatchCitizen science testing of river water quality will expand this year in an attempt to make the data part of official monitoring of waterways, the head of an independent environmental research group has said.The use of ordinary people across the country to test river water quality for pollutants including phosphates, nitrates and other chemicals has captured the imagination of thous
  
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• Bereaved whale spotted pushing another dead calf

  03-01-2025 05:11 via bbc.com
  
  A whale that famously pushed its calf's dead body for 17 days in 2018 appears to be grieving again.
  
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• To conserve or cull? Life in Australia's crocodile capital

  03-01-2025 02:01 via bbc.com
  
  The Northern Territory is home to over 100,000 saltwater crocodiles, but not everyone wants them there.
  
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• Sweden's green industry hopes hit by Northvolt woes

  03-01-2025 01:04 via bbc.com
  
  Financial problems at battery maker Northvolt have shaken hopes for Sweden's green industry sector.
  
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