Environment news

• ‘I wasn’t going to be diverted,’ says King Charles about campaign on the environment

  28-01-2026 18:30
  Monarch says he has remained focused despite early criticisms of his beliefs, in new film Finding Harmony: A King’s VisionKing Charles has revealed he “wasn’t going to be diverted” from his environmental campaigning despite criticism in the past in a new documentary showcasing his philosophy of “Harmony”.In the Amazon Prime Video film, his first project with a streaming platform, Charles recalls past attacks on his outspokenness on the environment, saying: &ld
  
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• Dutch government discriminated against Bonaire islanders over climate adaptation, court rules

  28-01-2026 17:55
  Judgment in The Hague orders Netherlands to do more to protect Caribbean people in its territory from impacts of climate crisisThe Dutch government discriminated against people in one of its most vulnerable territories by not helping them adapt to climate change, a court has found.The judgment, announced on Wednesday in The Hague, chastises the Netherlands for treating people on the island of Bonaire, in the Caribbean, differently to inhabitants of the European part of the country and for not do
  
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• ‘Like a sea out there’: flooded Somerset residents wonder how water can be managed

  28-01-2026 16:40
  People in south-west mop up after Storm Chandra and prepare for next bout of rain, with major incident declaredIn the early hours, the Wade family’s boxer puppy began barking. Thinking it needed to be let out, they traipsed downstairs and opened the back door – to be greeted not by their neat garden but an expanse of water.“It was like a sea out there,” said James Wade. Over the coming hours the water crept into their home on a modern estate in Taunton, forcing James, his
  
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• Swift bricks to be installed on all new buildings in Scotland as MSPs back law

  28-01-2026 12:22
  Rest of UK has resisted calls to make builders install bricks that provide nesting for swifts and other endangered birdsSwift bricks will be installed in all new buildings in Scotland after the Scottish parliament voted in favour of a law to help endangered cavity-nesting birds.The Scottish government and MSPs across the parties backed an amendment by Scottish Green Mark Ruskell to make swift bricks mandatory for all new dwellings “where reasonably practical and appropriate”. Continu
  
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• Pregnant, 19 and facing down a mutiny: how did Mary Ann Patten steer her way into seafaring lore?

  28-01-2026 12:00
  Finding herself in charge of her sick husband’s clipper, a self-taught working-class teenager overcame storms, icebergs and a disloyal first mate to get her ship to safetyNo one knows exactly what Mary Ann Patten said in September 1856 when she convinced a crew on the verge of mutiny to accept her command as captain. What is known is that Patten, who was 19 and pregnant, was a force to be reckoned with.After taking the helm from her sick husband in the middle of a ferocious storm off the c
  
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• Sunken Thames barges create new island for birds

  28-01-2026 08:02 via bbc.com
  The National Trust describes the Northey Island project as "a bold marine engineering feat".
  
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• Smothering, bullying, stabbing: how it feels to be in one of the hottest places on Earth

  28-01-2026 07:52
  Everything felt like it was swelling, and despite my diligent consumption of water and Hydralyte, I couldn’t quite escape the persistent, low-level nausea. Even thinking took longerMy mother grew up in Warracknabeal, a speck of a town four hours from Melbourne, Australia, in the wide, wheat country of the Wimmera – that part of Victoria where the sky starts to stretch, where you can see weather happening 100 kilometres away.Once or twice a year, our family would pack into the rattlin
  
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• Filming a Frosty Fruit in 48C heat. Spoiler alert: the camera couldn't handle it – video

  28-01-2026 07:41
  How long does it take for a Frosty Fruit to melt in a heatwave? Guardian Australia sacrificed three ice blocks in Melbourne, Sydney and Ouyen, where the temperature hit 48C on Tuesday. It was the fifth day in a row that temperatures have exceeded 40C, with four more forecast to followExplainer: What happens to the human body in 49C heat? Australians are finding out Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: A woodpecker with a difference – it’s not pecking at wood | Charlie Elder

  28-01-2026 06:30
  West Dartmoor, Devon: It’s quite normal for greater spotteds to start staking out territories in January, less so on a plastic box near my bedroom windowThe electrical junction box, fixed to the top of the roadside telegraph pole, displays a yellow sign that warns “Danger of death”. Not that the bird perched on top seemed the slightest bit concerned – the acoustics are exceptional.I was first woken one snowy morning early in January to short bursts of drilling outside the
  
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• ‘My Tesla has become ordinary’: Turkey catches up with EU in electric car sales

  28-01-2026 06:00
  Popularity of EVs in country is part of global trend of emerging markets spurning fossil fuel cars at surprising speedsWhen Berke Astarcıoğlu bought a BMW i3 in 2016, he was one of just 44 people in a country of 80 million to buy a battery electric vehicle (BEV) that year. By the time he bought a Tesla in 2023, BEVs were no longer a complete oddity in Turkey, making up 7% of new car sales.Fast-forward two years and electric cars are selling so fast that Turkey has caught up with the EU
  
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