Environment news

• Canadian backpacker’s death poses question for Queensland’s K’gari: can dingoes and tourists coexist?

  23-01-2026 23:19 via theguardian.com
  Coroner is yet to determine the cause of death of Piper James, a 19-year-old Canadian woman found surrounded by dingoes on MondayIn the early hours of Monday morning, a young woman’s body was found being mauled by a pack of dingoes near a shipwreck on a windswept stretch of white sand beach on an island off the east coast of Australia.The island was K’gari, formerly known as Fraser Island, in southern Queensland, home to about 150 human inhabitants and a population of dingoes genetic
  
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• 'The world's ugliest lawn' isn't really that ugly, according to its Australian owner – video

  23-01-2026 22:29 via theguardian.com
  Jarno Coone, the winner of the international 'world's ugliest lawn' competition, says he doesn't let his garden grow wild to annoy his neighbours in the regional Victorian town of Kyneton. He says he is 'proud to get the message out there for water conservation and living more harmoniously with nature'. 'I really do believe it is better for the environment,' he says Continue reading...
  
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• ‘I’ve never watered it’: how an Australian groundskeeper achieved the world’s ugliest lawn

  23-01-2026 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Neighbours might look askance at Jarno Coone’s unkempt yard, but the local birds, bees and bats aren’t bothered by the aestheticsWhen they moved in about 13 years ago, there was plush green lawn out the front. Nowadays the grass is so high that neighbours fear it could be harbouring snakes. Even the meter reader is a bit wary.“I’d love to have snakes in the front yard. But they need water. And so they stay down by the river, which is a couple of blocks away,” says J
  
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• New filtration technology could be gamechanger in removal of Pfas ‘forever chemicals’

  23-01-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Researchers found a new way to filter and destroy Pfas chemicals at 100 times the rate of current systemsNew filtration technology developed by Rice University may absorb some Pfas “forever chemicals” at 100 times the rate previously possible, which could dramatically improve pollution control and speed remediations.Researchers also say they have also found a way to destroy Pfas, though both technologies face a steep challenge in being deployed on an industrial scale. Continue readin
  
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• New filtration technology could be game-changer in removal of Pfas ‘forever chemicals’

  23-01-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Researchers found a new way to filter and destroy Pfas chemicals at 100 times the rate of current systemsNew filtration technology developed by Rice University may absorb some Pfas “forever chemicals” at 100 times the rate than previously possible, which could dramatically improve pollution control and speed remediations.Researchers also say they have also found a way to destroy Pfas, though both technologies face a steep challenge in being deployed on an industrial scale. Continue r
  
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• Hundreds of illegal waste tips operating in England - including 11 'super sites'

  23-01-2026 09:19 via bbc.com
  A BBC investigation uncovers how criminals are operating huge illegal rubbish tips across the country.
  
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• Week in wildlife: a proud eagle, an adorable axolotl and a goofy seal

  23-01-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• Thailand’s endangered ‘sea cows’ are washing ashore – pointing to a crisis in our seas

  23-01-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The Andaman Coast has one of the largest concentration of dugong in the world, so why are numbers falling dramatically and what can they tell us about a biodiversity warning cry• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThailand’s Andaman Coast is home to one of the largest dugong populations in the world, with 273 of the plump marine mammals, sometimes called sea cows, estimated to be living there as of 2022. In recent years, though, more and more dead or st
  
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• Particle pollution in the Balkans is the highest in Europe, research finds

  23-01-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Study also says Balkan levels are often higher than in Beijing – and sometimes among the highest in the worldWhen we think of the world’s most polluted cities, images of Delhi or Beijing come to mind, but new data has revealed acute pollution problems close to the heart of Europe.Prof Andre Prevot, of the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland, explained: “In winter, the particle pollution in the Balkans is the highest in Europe. Particle pollution levels are often higher
  
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• Dramatic rise in water-related violence recorded since 2022

  23-01-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Experts say climate crisis, corruption and lack or misuse of infrastructure among factors driving water conflictsWater-related violence has almost doubled since 2022 and little is being done to understand and address the trend and prevent new and escalating risks, experts have said.There were 419 incidents of water-related violence recorded in 2024, up from 235 in 2022, according to the Pacific Institute, a US-based thinktank. Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: Mammoth and bear, replaced by mattress and beer can | Michael J Warren

  23-01-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Grays, Essex: I visit an unassuming gorge where a wealth of ice age fossils was once found, telling us about Britain’s megafauna – and NeanderthalsYou wouldn’t know the Lion Pit was there. This overgrown gorge exists quietly, without the sensation its name implies, below a housing estate, by Lakeside shopping centre and within earshot of the M25, wedged on all sides as tightly as the newbuilds that line its cliffs. This is industrial West Thurrock, far south Essex, where t
  
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• Indonesia takes action against mining firms after floods devastate population of world’s rarest ape

  23-01-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Conservationists hail the ‘desperately needed’ measures and urge greater protection after up to 11% of endangered Tapanuli orangutans wiped outThe floods and landslides that tore through Indonesia’s fragile Batang Toru ecosystem in November 2024 – killing up to 11% of the world’s Tapanuli orangutan population – prompted widespread scrutiny of the extractive companies operating in the area at the time of the ecological catastrophe.For weeks, investigators searc
  
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• European cold snap may increase bird migration to UK

  23-01-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  This year’s RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, which begins on Friday, could reveal ‘some surprise migratory visitors’The chances of spotting a fieldfare or redwing in 2026 have risen, thanks to cold and unsettled weather in Europe, prompting a bumper year in birds migrating to the UK.The RSPB highlighted the trend on the eve of the Big Garden Birdwatch, an annual event that constitutes the world’s largest garden wildlife survey, which will take place between 23 and 25 January. C
  
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• ‘An environmental nuclear bomb’: documentary examines fight to save Great Salt Lake

  23-01-2026 01:15 via theguardian.com
  Sundance film festival: A cautionary new film, executive-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, warns of the devastating consequences if the Utah lake continues to disappearThe Sundance film festival kicked off its final edition on Thursday in Park City, the Utah ski enclave that has housed the independent film hub for more than four decades. Beginning in 2027, the festival will move to Boulder, Colorado, after a multi-year selection process that many assumed would end in Salt Lake City.Utah’s lar
  
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• MPs ask Serious Fraud Office to investigate UK home insulation sector

  23-01-2026 01:01 via theguardian.com
  More than 30,000 households left with defects after ‘catastrophic failure’ of Tory government schemesMembers of parliament have called for the Serious Fraud Office to investigate the UK’s home insulation sector, after thousands of householders suffered ruined homes, big financial losses and months of disruption from the “clear and catastrophic failure” of two Conservative government schemes.More than 30,000 households were left with defects, some of them severe, inc
  
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