Environment news

• ‘I felt nothing but disgust’: Tesla owners vent their anger at Elon Musk

  25-02-2025 18:09 via theguardian.com
  
  The tycoon’s links with Donald Trump and Germany’s far-right AfD have slammed the brakes on sales and put the car’s owners in a spinTesla sales almost halve in Europe over Musk’s ties to TrumpWhen Mike Schwede first sat in a Tesla Roadster 15 years ago, he felt like it was a glimpse into the future. By 2016, he was the proud owner of a Tesla, revelling in the thumbs up he would get from other drivers as he whizzed along Europe’s highways in the electric vehicle.But
  
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• ‘We’re being treated as grifters or terrorists’: US federal workers on the fear and chaos of their firings

  25-02-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  An educator, archaeologist and scientist were among the thousands of government workers culled by Musk’s agencyThe Trump administration has fired at least 20,000 government employees in its first month, as Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) dramatically overhauls work at federal agencies. Some economists have speculated that these terminations, which could affect nearly 300,000 workers, will be the biggest job cuts in US history.Most of the
  
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• Do worms feel pain and are ants happy? Why the science on invertebrate feelings is evolving

  25-02-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  For the next few weeks we’re asking readers to nominate their invertebrate of the year: click here to give us your suggestionsDoes a worm feel pain if it gets trodden on? Does a fly ache when its wings are pulled off? Is an ant happy when it finds a food source? If so, they may be sentient beings, which means they can “feel”, a bit or a lot, like we do.Invertebrate sentience is becoming an ever livelier topic of debate and with new science we are getting new insights. But Dr An
  
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• California faces worsening drought despite recent heavy rainstorms

  25-02-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Dry pattern seen among entire ‘lower basin’ of the Colorado River, including Arizona and desert cities such as Las VegasDramatic rainstorms earlier this month brought more than 6in of rain to the California mountains – a full month’s worth of rain in little more than a day – but the deluge wasn’t enough to reverse a worsening drought trend that is set to intensify further in the coming weeks and months.Along the iconic Pacific Coast highway in Malibu, where ju
  
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• Farmers worried if they will make it to 2026 amid ‘cashflow crisis’, says NFU

  25-02-2025 15:59 via theguardian.com
  Union conference dominated by row over planned inheritance tax changes as farmers battle the bad weather and turbulent geopoliticsFarmers are warning of a “cashflow crisis” that has left many in the agricultural sector wondering how they will make it to the end of the year.At the annual meeting of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) of England and Wales, its president told members that “bad policy, geopolitics and unprecedented weather” had left some sectors of UK far
  
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• US anti-pipeline activists say charges against them ‘meant to intimidate’

  25-02-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Protesters who tried to disrupt completion of Mountain Valley pipeline to defend themselves in Virginia courtClimate activists who tried to disrupt the completion of a fossil-fuel pipeline through Appalachian forests will appear in court in Virginia on Tuesday to face serious criminal charges that they vehemently deny.The Mountain Valley pipeline (MVP) was pushed through by the Biden administration in mid-2023 – overriding court orders, regulatory blocks and widespread opposition to the 30
  
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• Seven planets to be visible in night sky for last time until 2040

  25-02-2025 11:54 via bbc.com
  
  The best chance to see as many as possible will be after sunset on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
  
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• ‘I know their names, what they eat’: tracking polar bears on Svalbard’s shifting icescapes

  25-02-2025 10:00 via theguardian.com
  For more than 20 years, scientists have followed the animals in Norway’s Arctic archipelago to understand how they may adapt to changing threats as the ice they depend on meltsWhen Rolf-Arne Ølberg is hanging out of a helicopter with a gun, he needs to be able to assess from a distance of about 10 metres the sex and approximate weight of the moving animal he is aiming at, as well as how fat or muscular it is and whether it is in any distress. Only then can he dart it with the correc
  
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• How scientists capture a polar bear – video

  25-02-2025 09:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Each spring since 2003, Jon Aars, senior scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute, and his team have conducted an annual polar bear monitoring program on Svalbard - collaring, capturing and taking samples from as many bears as they can across several weeks.By studying polar bears they get a better understanding of what is happening in this part of the Arctic environment. The bears roam over large distances and, being apex predators, provide lots of information about what is happening lower in
  
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• Crucial UN nature talks are about to reopen in Rome – but will enough countries turn up?

  25-02-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  After last year’s Cop16 biodiversity talks in Cali left key issues unresolved, the extra summit will attempt to seek consensus, especially over fundingGlobal talks to halt the loss of nature will reopen today in Rome, amid “loss of trust” in the United Nations-led process and concerns that countries will not turn up for the meeting. Delegates are due to meet at Cop16, the UN’s biodiversity conference, to discuss global targets to stop nature loss by 2030.The additional me
  
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• UK’s seasonal farm worker scheme to be extended for five years

  25-02-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Environment secretary will hope move can reset relations with farmers after inheritance tax rowThe environment secretary, Steve Reed, is to announce a five-year extension of the seasonal farm worker scheme in an attempt to reset relations with farmers after fury over inheritance tax.Making his pitch to farmers at the National Farmers’ Union conference in central London on Tuesday, Reed will also announce the opening of a new national biosecurity centre to tackle diseases including foot-and
  
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• Dartmoor wild boar sightings prompt suspicions of guerrilla rewilding

  25-02-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Dog walker’s close encounter prompts debate over whether the animals, once native to UK, should remainSightings of wild boar on Dartmoor have raised suspicions a guerrilla rewilder has been releasing them – and prompted a debate over whether they should be allowed to remain.Videos of a group of boar on the moors in Devon were posted online earlier this month, and a dog walker has recently complained of a close encounter with one of them, which frightened his pet. Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: This spring gives so much life, today we give something back | Amy-Jane Beer

  25-02-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Lady’s Spring Wood, North Yorkshire: Sitting close to the River Derwent, it has provided for a castle, a fort and now a town. It deserves better than poo bags and beer cansIt seems to be precisely when February’s sleet and muck threaten to become unbearable that the aeons-old conversation between celestial and terrestrial turns to growth and greening. We’re now past the pagan quarter festival of Imbolc, which honours a goddess of many guises. Of particular relevance here,
  
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• Shimmering oarfish rarely seen near ocean surface pops up on Mexico beach

  25-02-2025 03:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Distinctive, slender deep-sea creature, also known as ‘doomsday’ fish, seen wriggling on Baja California beachA shimmery, slinky oarfish – a deep-sea creature that is rarely seen near the surface – was spotted in Baja California Sur, along Mexico’s Pacific Coast, this month. A group of people visiting the area noticed the shiny, wriggling fish along the beach, and tried to guide it back into the water.The slender creatures live at depths between 660 and 3,280ft unde
  
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