Environment news

• The UK government didn't want you to see this report on ecosystem collapse. I'm not surprised | George Monbiot

  27-01-2026 17:52 via theguardian.com
  It took an FOI request to bring this national security assessment to light. For ‘doomsayers’ like us, it is the ultimate vindicationI know it’s almost impossible to turn your eyes away from the Trump show, but that’s the point. His antics, ever-grosser and more preposterous, are designed to keep him in our minds, to crowd out other issues. His insatiable craving for attention is a global-threat multiplier. You can’t help wondering whether there’s anything he w
  
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• Through the heatwave haze, the hypocrisy of Australia’s fossil fuel policy shines bright | Clean Air

  27-01-2026 15:00 via theguardian.com
  The heatwave in Melbourne and Adelaide this week is likely to become the norm. We should prepare nowWant to get this in your inbox when it publishes? Sign up for the Clear Air Australia newsletter hereOn Tuesday, Australia’s second largest city baked through one of its hottest days since modern instrumental records began in 1910. Several Melbourne suburbs topped 45C.The country’s fifth largest city, Adelaide, reached that temperature on Monday. Its residents then suffered through the
  
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• The 16-month battle to reveal the truth about Sydney Water’s poo balls

  27-01-2026 15:00 via theguardian.com
  After debris balls closed Sydney beaches in October 2024, Guardian Australia reported they could be linked to sewage outfalls. Authorities were less keen to talkGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastLast week, after torrential rain in Sydney, fresh poo balls washed up on the beach at Malabar, the closest beach to the problematic Malabar sewage treatment plant.Signs were erected on the beach warning people not to touch the “debris balls” or swim. But authorities d
  
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• Europe’s supermarket shelves packed with ‘misleading’ claims about recycled plastic packaging

  27-01-2026 14:48 via theguardian.com
  Manufacturers use method that labels plastic as ‘circular’ and climate-friendly, despite being mostly fossil-basedEurope’s supermarket shelves are packed with brands billing their plastic packaging as sustainable, but often only a fraction of the materials are truly recovered from waste, with the rest made from petroleum.Brands using plastic packaging – from Kraft’s Heinz Beanz to Mondelēz’s Philadelphia – use materials made by the plastic manufactu
  
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• ‘The land will be left as ashes’: why Patagonia’s wildfires are almost impossible to stop

  27-01-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Funding cuts, conspiracy theories and ‘powder keg’ pine plantations have seen January’s forest fires tear through Chubut in southern Argentina Lucas Chiappe had known for a long time that the fire was coming. For decades, the environmentalist had warned that replacing native trees in the Andes mountain range with highly flammable foreign pine was a recipe for disaster.In early January, flames raced down the Pirque hill and edged closer to his home in the Patagonian town of Epuy
  
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• Air pollution kills thousands a year in the UK and abroad – why isn’t there a bigger uproar? | Devi Sridhar

  27-01-2026 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Initiatives such as London’s ULEZ can be a model for other cities. But even more could be done to save lives and protect us from deadly toxins in the airBreathwork is everywhere, whether it’s in yoga studios, corporate retreats or self-help reels. We’re told to “just breathe”. Be mindful. Lower our stress levels. Inhale. Exhale. In the yogic tradition, bringing clean air into our lungs and our body (pranayama in Sanskrit) is about purifying and detoxing, and then ex
  
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• Ouyen may have hit the highest recorded temperature in Victoria’s history – and some fear it could get even hotter

  27-01-2026 08:48 via theguardian.com
  As the temperature nears 49C in the Mallee region, residents take refuge in air-conditioned rooms Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastIn the slanting, late-afternoon summer sun, the fields around the small Australian town of Ouyen – almost 450km north-west of Melbourne – turn the colour of honey. The edges shimmer with silver, that old cruel trick of feigning water where it hasn’t rained for weeks.Summ
  
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• The Fukushima towns frozen in time: nature has thrived since the nuclear disaster but what happens if humans return?

  27-01-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Fifteen years after a tsunami caused the Fukushima nuclear accident, only bears, raccoons and boar are seen on the streets. But the authorities and some locals want people to move backNorio Kimura pauses to gaze through the dirt-flecked window of Kumamachi primary school in Fukushima. Inside, there are still textbooks lying on the desks, pencil cases are strewn across the floor; empty bento boxes that were never taken home.Along the corridor, shoes line the route the children took when they fled
  
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• Country diary: In my moment of loss, birds came like gifts | Amy-Jane Beer

  27-01-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Ripon City Wetlands and Welburn, North Yorkshire: First a starling ​and then a robin​ arrived like visitations​. I am truly grateful for ​them bothI’ve heard it said that birds come to people who’ve lost someone dear. It seemed a nice thing to believe, but I never really imagined it might be true. But neither did I imagine losing my only sibling at the age of 53. Nic’s childhood nickname, Twinkle, was apt. She was the brightest, kindest person I’ve
  
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