Environment news

• Conservative party to ditch commitment to net zero in UK by 2050

  17-03-2025 23:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Break in cross-party consensus on issue to be announced on TuesdayKemi Badenoch is dropping her party’s commitment to reaching net zero by 2050, as she launches the Conservatives’ widest policy review in a generation.The Tory leader will give a speech on Tuesday in which she will argue that hitting Britain’s legally binding climate target is “impossible”, abandoning one of the most significant policies enacted by her recent predecessor Theresa May. Continue reading.
  
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• Scientists at Antarctic base rocked by alleged assault

  17-03-2025 18:55 via bbc.com
  
  A spokesperson for the South African government told the BBC there had been an assault at the station.
  
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• 'Stranded astronauts' Butch and Suni set to begin journey home

  17-03-2025 18:12 via bbc.com
  
  The Nasa astronauts prepare to head to Earth after an eight-day mission turned into nine months.
  
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• Cop30 in talks to hire PR firm that worked for lobby seeking weaker Amazon protections

  17-03-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Revealed: Edelman worked for Brazilian trade group accused of pushing for environmental rollbacks in AmazonEdelman, the world’s largest public relations agency, is in talks to work with the Cop30 team organising the UN climate summit in the Amazon later this year despite its prior connections to a major trade group accused of lobbying to roll back measures to protect the area from deforestation, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting can reveal.The summit is set to take place in
  
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• Storrington in West Sussex named UK’s first European stork village

  17-03-2025 16:19 via theguardian.com
  Village joins continental network alongside nearby Knepp estate, as birds previously extinct in Britain flourishThe Saxons knew the West Sussex village of Storrington as Estorchestone, the “abode of the storks”.But the graceful white birds disappeared from its skies more than 600 years ago, when they became extinct in Britain. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘Like a game of black-belt level Jenga’: inside the ancient art of Japanese carpentry

  17-03-2025 13:57 via theguardian.com
  
  From the earthquake-defying joints that support a 13th-century temple to the delicacy of sashimono puzzle boxes, a new exhibition shows off the myriad possibilities of this centuries-old craftDo you know your ant’s head from your shell mouth? Or your cogged lap from your scarfed gooseneck? These are just some of the mind-boggling array of timber jointing techniques on display in a new exhibition spotlighting the meticulous craft of Japanese carpentry. The basement gallery of London’s
  
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• The one change that worked: I got out of my car in the middle of my commute and sat under the trees

  17-03-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Three years ago, when I was stuck in a traffic jam, I decided to stop to visit a park I’d passed by many times. Now, I go there at least one morning a weekI must have passed it 100 times. Until one day in 2022, stuck in Melbourne traffic, I glanced towards the park in Bayside and saw mist rising from the trees, as if they had just exhaled into the dawn sunlight. This sight cheered me, lifting the pall of the workday grind ahead. Right then I made a resolution to interrupt my commute at lea
  
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• Ed Miliband vows to engage with China on climate after Tory ‘negligence’

  17-03-2025 11:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Energy security and net zero secretary travels to Beijing for countries’ first formal climate meetings since 2017Ed Miliband has accused the previous Conservative government of negligence for failing to engage with China on climate issues, as he travelled to Beijing for the countries’ first formal climate meetings since 2017.The secretary of state for energy security and net zero was in Beijing to announce a new annual UK-China climate dialogue. The first summit will take place in Lo
  
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• From sewage and scum to swimming in ‘blue gold’: how Switzerland transformed its rivers

  17-03-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  In the 1960s, the Swiss had some of the dirtiest water in Europe. Now, their cities boast pristine rivers and lakes – and other countries are looking to follow their leadIn the first days of spring, people flock to Lake Geneva’s broad, tree-lined promenade, their faces tilted towards the sun. Dior, Cartier and Rolex are among the high-end shopfronts overlooking the water. René Rottenberg, 75, has just finished his 400m swim through this upmarket urban jungle – a ritual h
  
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• Coal pollution chokes Ulaanbataar – in pictures

  17-03-2025 10:00 via theguardian.com
  The toxic smog that settles over the Mongolian capital every winter has been a suffocating problem for well over a decade that successive governments have failed to dispel. In the depths of winter, the city’s daily average of PM 2.5 small particulate that can enter the lungs and bloodstream, can be 27 times higher than the level considered safe by the World Health Organization. Respiratory illness cases have risen steadily, with pneumonia the second leading cause of death for children unde
  
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• The pop-up megacity: how the Kumbh Mela prepared for 660m Hindu devotees

  17-03-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Hundreds of millions of pilgrims flocked to the Ganges for this year’s festival, housed in a sprawling temporary metropolis stretching across 4,000 hectares of the floodplains of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh For 45 days the floodplains of Prayagraj, a city in Uttar Pradesh known as Allahabad until 2018, were a churning sea of humanity. Millions waded into the freezing waters of the sangam – the sacred confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, plus a mythical one, the Saraswati &ndash
  
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• Country diary: These black-headed gulls look like tired teenagers – for good reason | Mary Montague

  17-03-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  River Lagan, Belfast: Going through puberty is an exhausting business, but that is effectively what our birds are doing this time of yearIn the high wind, black-headed gulls are shrieking like teenagers on a rollercoaster. Quick and graceful as terns, they swerve and jockey over the river, goading each other with jealous cries. As I continue walking along the bank, I watch for the flash of white at the leading edge of their wings – a more reliable cue to species identity than the mutable h
  
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• Small electric cars were said to be the future – but SUVs now rule the road

  17-03-2025 01:03 via bbc.com
  
  Despite dire predictions of climate breakdown, more Sports Utility Vehicles are being spotted on, and off, the roads.
  
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