Environment news

• Toxic wildfire pollution infiltrates homes of 1bn people a year, study finds

  14-05-2025 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Dangerous indoor pollution could be tackled with air purifiers but costs are too high for many, researchers sayToxic pollution from wildfires has infiltrated the homes of more than a billion people a year over the last two decades, according to new research.The climate crisis is driving up the risk of wildfires by increasing heatwaves and droughts, making the issue of wildfire smoke a “pressing global issue”, scientists said. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Attempt to protect rare chalk streams in planning bill rejected by Labour MPs

  14-05-2025 17:55 via theguardian.com
  Government vetoes cross-party effort to protect threatened waterways from push to rip up environmental red tapeA cross-party attempt to protect England’s rare and threatened chalk streams in the government’s planning bill was rejected by Labour on Wednesday.The attempt to give the globally rare ecosystems the strongest protections as irreplaceable habitats failed after all the Labour MPs on the parliamentary committee examining the draft law rejected an amendment containing the extra
  
  Read more

• Exceptionally low river flows forecast across UK as drought threat grows

  14-05-2025 17:32 via theguardian.com
  Predicted dry, warm weather likely to increase pressure on rivers, whose flows are already far below normalExceptionally low river flows are predicted across the UK this summer as a drought becomes more likely, scientists have said.An update from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) says dry, warm weather is expected over the next three months, putting pressure on water resources. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Exceptionally low river levels raise fears over water supplies

  14-05-2025 16:25 via bbc.com
  The warning comes after some parts of the UK had the driest Spring in nearly a century.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• How memories of clean water, frogs and fresh air could help save Rio’s favelas from future climate disaster

  14-05-2025 14:04 via theguardian.com
  
  A new exhibition in the Brazilian city looks at how water, the environment and extreme weather is interwoven with personal stories from 10 marginalised communitiesLeticia Pinheiro grew up hearing stories about the Acari River. Her grandmother bathed in its clean waters; her father caught frogs on its margins; and many in the community made a living from fishing there.Now, Pinheiro, 28, and her peers do not even call it a river; it’s become known as a valão – an open canal for
  
  Read more

• Country diary: A blossom-laden spring to make up for last year | Virginia Spiers

  14-05-2025 13:52 via theguardian.com
  St Dominic, Tamar Valley: First the pear and now the apple and cherry trees are in full show. We should be in for a bumper harvestAfter five days away near the sun-dazzled Solent, we returned home to a verdant haven. Fruit blossom has dropped with some apples already set; and the 50-year-old Judas tree is covered with purple flowers, vivid against diaphanous beech and swags of native May tree.Before going upcountry, I walked on my mended hip in James Evans and Mary Martin’s documented and
  
  Read more

• Early air pollution exposure affects health in adolescence, study finds

  14-05-2025 11:01 via theguardian.com
  UCL study of 9,000 children also found marked inequality, with people from ethnic minority backgrounds having higher exposure riskYoung children who are exposed to high levels of air pollution are more likely to experience poor health outcomes in later adolescence, according to new research.The study, conducted by academics at University College London, looked at data from 9,000 young people taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study born between 2000 and 2002 across the UK, measuring their expo
  
  Read more

• ‘Time slows down in Lastovo’: I may just have found Croatia’s most unspoilt archipelago

  14-05-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Five hours by ferry from Split – and a world away from the clubs of Hvar – the islands’ wooded hills, pine-shaded beaches and transparent waters are buzzing with natureThe sound of a baby crying echoes eerily in the night sky, seemingly coming from the uninhabited Zaklopatica islet that faces the terrace of our holiday rental in Lastovo. “Do you think that’s a bird?” I ask my husband. “At this time of night? Doubt it,” he says.Fast forward a couple
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• European firms ramping up lobbying for climate action, report finds

  14-05-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Research shows companies ‘aligned’ with strategies to meet climate goals have risen from 3% in 2019 to 23% in 2025European companies are increasingly lobbying for strong climate action, research has found, in a “profound shift” that analysts say challenges the narrative that businesses see green rules as a threat to profits.The share of companies whose corporate lobbying is “aligned” with pathways to meet global climate goals rose from 3% in 2019 to 23% in 202
  
  Read more

• Climate experts criticise handling of Tata changes

  14-05-2025 07:27 via bbc.com
  Ministers should have been better at planning and making sure green jobs were available, report says.
  
  Read more

• Will this woman be the first Briton to walk on the Moon?

  14-05-2025 07:01 via bbc.com
  The BBC meets astronaut Rosemary Coogan who is training at Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.
  
  Read more

• Birdwatch: After six decades, I finally catch up with the Alpine accentor

  14-05-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  I visited Bhutan to see some of world’s most striking birds, but one I’d sought since childhood was my highlightI was about seven years old when, in the pages of the European field guide illustrated by the legendary bird artist Roger Tory Peterson, I first came across the Alpine accentor.Something about this bulky cousin of our familiar dunnock must have clicked, because soon afterwards I was convinced I had seen one in our suburban front garden. Not just unlikely but, as I later dis
  
  Read more

• Wild chimpanzees filmed using forest 'first aid'

  14-05-2025 06:35 via bbc.com
  The research builds on the discovery that chimps seek out and eat certain plants to self-medicate.
  
  Read more

• Chimpanzees use leaves to wipe bums and clean up after sex, study finds

  14-05-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Research looking at hygiene and healthcare habits of the primates finds implications for understanding origin of human healthcareHumans are not unique in having a host of hygiene and healthcare habits, researchers have found: chimpanzees also wipe their bottoms, tend each other’s wounds and even clean up after sex, according to a new study.The research from the University of Oxford is not the first to show that great apes take care of themselves. Scientists have previously found chimpanzee
  
  Read more

• Dairy companies ‘turning blind eye’ to global methane emissions, report suggests

  14-05-2025 00:01 via theguardian.com
  Assessment of leading dairy and coffee shop chains reveals failure to set out methane reduction targetsBig dairy companies are “turning a blind eye” to climate-damaging methane emissions, an assessment of the industry’s performance has found.Animal agriculture accounts for 32% of global emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas about 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, with the breeding of cattle for milk and meat a key driver. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!