Environment news

• ‘You’re ringing an old lady in outback Queensland for life advice’: travellers worried about floods skip AI and pick up the phone

  05-01-2026 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Flooding across the state’s north and west blocks roads and cuts off towns at a time of year when so many are on holidaysGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastOver the weekend, Narelle Hetherington got a call from a couple planning a more than 1,000km trip across Queensland. The drive would see them pass through Winton, where Hetherington runs a motel – the couple wanted a room.“I’m like, ‘mate, the roads are all cut off out here,’”
  
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• Nine scientific breakthroughs I’d like to see in 2026 – from earworms to procrastination | Emma Beddington

  05-01-2026 14:43 via theguardian.com
  There’s nothing more uplifting than hearing about a world-shaking, life-enhancing new development. But science shouldn’t overlook the small stuff, or stop looking for new species of cute, fluffy mammals …People who greet the new year with hope, ambitious plans and optimised gut microbiomes might be obnoxiously apparent at the moment, but we all know they’re a minority. Most of us lurched into 2026 catastrophically depleted and grey-faced, juggling deep Lemsip dependency
  
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• Monarch butterflies could disappear. Butterfly Town USA is scrambling to save them

  05-01-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Pacific Grove is known as ‘Butterfly Town USA’ for its role as an overwintering spot. As the insect’s population plummets, residents are coming to its rescueIn the tiny seaside village of Pacific Grove, California, there’s no escaping the monarch butterfly.Here, butterfly murals abound: one splashes across the side of a hotel, another adorns a school. As for local businesses, there’s the Monarch Pub, the Butterfly Grove Inn, even Monarch Knitting (a local yarn shop)
  
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• ‘A silent majority’: MPs underestimate support for green policies, study reveals

  05-01-2026 13:38 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: From solar subsidies to meat taxes, minority rightwing voices appear to drown out the consensus“There may have been a silent majority in favour of windfarms and higher petrol taxes, but if there was, these people were mighty quiet. Essentially, all I ever heard from was people objecting to them.” That was the view of a former UK MP who took part in new research that reveals how significantly British and Belgian politicians underestimate the public’s support for clima
  
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• Weather tracker: Arctic air grips Europe as severe winds batter Corsica

  05-01-2026 10:15 via theguardian.com
  Subzero temperatures, heavy snowfall and powerful gusts mark a harsh start to 2026 for manyIt has been a cold start to the year across much of Europe, particularly in central regions, where temperatures dropped to double-digit negatives. Heavy snowfall hit parts of eastern and central Europe on New Year’s Eve, notably in Poland and Ukraine, with similar conditions across the Alps on the first few days of the year.The cold is likely to continue this week as an Arctic air mass sinks south ac
  
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• How demand for elite falcons in the Middle East is driving illegal trade of British birds

  05-01-2026 09:51 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: data reveals hundreds of UK nests have been raided in the past decade amid growing appetite to own prized birds for racing and breedingIn the echoing exhibition halls of Abu Dhabi’s International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition, hundreds of falcons sit on perches under bright lights. Decorated hoods fit snugly over their heads, blocking their vision to keep them calm.In a small glass room marked Elite Falcons Hall, four young birds belonging to an undisclosed Emirati sheikh ar
  
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• Country diary: The calm after the storm | John Gilbey

  05-01-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Comins Coch, Ceredigion: The winds have died down, so I head out on an eerily still morning among frozen fallen leaves and emerging catkinsThe bitter wind from the east rattles around the house, upturning plant pots and causing a number of worryingly loud crashes in the gathering dusk. The gale peaks around dawn, then blows itself out to leave an uncannily still, clear morning.In the lane, a deeply eroded trackway of indeterminate age, a fresh rash of fallen branches marks th
  
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