Environment news

• Live colossal squid captured on video in wild for first time ever – video

  16-04-2025 19:13 via theguardian.com
  
  The colossal squid, the heaviest invertebrate in the world, has been filmed alive in the wild for the first time since it was identified a century ago. The individual captured on film near the South Sandwich Islands, in the south Atlantic Ocean, is a baby, at just 11.8in (30cm) in lengthLive colossal squid captured on video in wild for first time ever Continue reading...
  
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• Live colossal squid captured on video in wild for first time ever

  16-04-2025 18:07 via theguardian.com
  
  A young Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, the heaviest invertebrate on earth, was filmed in the Atlantic OceanThe colossal squid, the heaviest invertebrate in the world, has been filmed alive in the wild for the first time since it was identified a century ago.Growing up to 23ft (seven metres) long and weighing up to half a tonne, the squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, is the heaviest invertebrate on the planet. The individual captured on film near the South Sandwich Islands, in the south Atlantic Oce
  
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• Council plans legal action over ancient London oak felled by Toby Carvery

  16-04-2025 17:36 via theguardian.com
  
  Enfield council disputes restaurant chain’s claim 500-year-old tree in Whitewebbs Park was ‘mostly dead’ Toby Carvery has been threatened with legal action by a council over the felling of an ancient oak in a park in north London.The restaurant chain is facing national outrage after its decision to fell the up to 500-year-old tree without warning on 3 April. Continue reading...
  
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• Lab-grown chicken ‘nuggets’ hailed as ‘transformative step’ for cultured meat

  16-04-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Japanese-led team grow 11g chunk of chicken – and say product could be on market in five- to 10 yearsResearchers are claiming a breakthrough in lab-grown meat after producing nugget-sized chunks of chicken in a device that mimics the blood vessels that make up the circulatory system.The approach uses fine hollow fibres to deliver oxygen and nutrients to chicken muscle cells suspended in a gel, an advance that allowed scientists to grow lumps of meat up to 2cm long and 1cm thick. Continue r
  
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• Colossal squid filmed in ocean for the first time

  16-04-2025 15:15 via bbc.com
  Stunned scientists say the extremely rare squid can weigh up to 500kg (1,100lb).
  
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• Number of UK homes overheating soars to 80% in a decade, study finds

  16-04-2025 13:28 via theguardian.com
  Researchers say urgent action needed to inform people about risks of heatwave temperatures and adapt homesThe number of UK homes overheating in summer quadrupled to 80% over the past decade, according to a study, with experts calling the situation a crisis.Heat already kills thousands of people each year in the UK and the toll will rise as the climate crisis intensifies. Urgent action is needed both to inform people on how to cope with high temperatures and to adapt homes, which are largely desi
  
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• UK government report calls for taskforce to save England’s historic trees

  16-04-2025 12:40 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Ancient oaks ‘as precious as stately homes’ could receive stronger legal safeguards under new proposalsAncient and culturally important trees in England could be given legal protections under plans set out in a UK government-commissioned report.Sentencing guidelines would be changed so those who destroy important trees would face tougher criminal penalties. Additionally, a database of such trees would be drawn up and they could be given automatic protections, with the curr
  
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• The houseplant murderer: can I become green fingered in eight easy steps?

  16-04-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  I have around 20 houseplants – some obviously near death. I called in an expert to teach me how to keep them not just alive, but thrivingI’ve always owned houseplants – but not, it must be said, always the same houseplants.Of the handful of plants I tend to acquire every year, only one or two survive to see in the next. It’s not that I knowingly neglect them: I try to be attentive to their needs, water them regularly, assess their lighting. Every now and again I’ll
  
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• UK's rarest wildlife being 'pushed to extinction' by grass fires

  16-04-2025 10:32 via bbc.com
  Wildfires 'could spell the end' for rare species such as water voles and hen harriers.
  
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• Australia’s next government may be Great Barrier Reef’s last chance after sixth mass bleaching, conservationist says

  16-04-2025 09:58 via theguardian.com
  
  Consecutive and severe bleaching is ‘fundamentally changing’ nature of reef, the International Coral Reef Society saysGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastThe Great Barrier Reef was hit by a sixth widespread coral bleaching event since 2016 this summer – the second time the world’s biggest coral reef has seen the phenomenon strike in back-to-back years – according to government authorities.Scientists and conservationists reacted with disma
  
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• Underwater Argonauts! The deep-sea scientists logging Med pollution – in pictures

  16-04-2025 08:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Juliette Pavy’s photographs of eco expeditions bring an element of lyrical storytelling to the global impact of invisible pollutants, from the Mediterranean to the ArcticContinue reading...
  
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• Sauntering on streets and grazing on lawns: what happens when rhinos move into town?

  16-04-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  In one Nepali village, the resident rhinos are a conservation success story and attract thousands of visitors, but attacks on humans are on the rise“I can’t talk now, I’m in hospital,” Ram Kumar Aryal says when he picks up the phone. “Someone has been attacked by one of the rhinos.” Every few months, Aryal – who is one of the architects of Nepal’s celebrated rhino conservation programme – ends up in one of the hospitals around Chitwan nationa
  
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• Wildflowers could be absorbing toxic metals that pass on to bees, study finds

  16-04-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Scientists call for urban areas to be tested for contaminants and potentially cleaned before wildflowers are plantedWildflowers could be absorbing toxic metals from soil in urban areas and passing toxins on to pollinators, a study has found.Researchers from the University of Cambridge found that common plants including white clover and bindweed, which are vital forage for pollinators in cities, can accumulate arsenic, cadmium, chromium and lead from contaminated soils. Continue reading...
  
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• Resurrected pools, remnants of last ice age, attract wildlife in Norfolk

  16-04-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Seeds can germinate having been buried in sediments of ‘ghost ponds’ for thousands of yearsGhosts of the ice age are being resurrected in Norfolk. When the ice sheets retreated at the end of the last ice age, mounds of ice called pingos remained underground until they thawed and the soil slumped, leaving behind shallow hollows that filled with water.These turned into swampy wetland habitats rich in plants and wildlife and Breckland, in Norfolk, became pocked with hundreds of these pi
  
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• Country diary: A carpet of green to rouse beasts unseen | Derek Niemann

  16-04-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Frome, Somerset: In the woods, a chive-like scent hangs in the air – it’s ramsons, or, for good reason, bear’s garlicAmong the ancient woods of the west, ghosts of creatures long gone linger in an odour that grows stronger by the day. That first whiff came in February with a lift of a chill breeze. Or was it stirred by the brush of a blackbird’s wing? Either way, a jolt of recognition made me exclaim in soft exultation: “Bärlauch!”The leaves poking u
  
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• Water companies’ pollution incidents in England increased by 30% in 2024

  16-04-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The sector, which had been set a target to reduce spillages by 40%, needs ‘radical reform’, campaigners sayWater companies have missed their targets to reduce pollution with 2,487 incidents recorded in 2024 – twice the limit set by the Environment Agency.Data revealed under freedom of information law shows the companies were collectively set an Environment Agency target of a 40% reduction in pollution incidents, but instead recorded a 30% increase. Continue reading...
  
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• England water pollution at 10-year high, campaigners say

  16-04-2025 05:24 via bbc.com
  Campaigners release official data showing the most serious pollution incidents in England are double the target.
  
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• New speed climbing record set in the Swiss Alps

  16-04-2025 03:45 via bbc.com
  A climbing pair shatter the record for completing the daunting north faces of a famed trio of Swiss mountains.
  
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