Environment news

• Airlines should tell UK customers the carbon impact of flights, watchdog says

  05-02-2026 17:05 via theguardian.com
  CAA’s guidance also including booking sites aims to enable passengers to make ‘more informed travel decisions’Airlines and booking firms should give UK customers information about the environmental impact of their flights, the regulator has said.The Civil Aviation Authority urged booking sites to enable passengers to make “more informed travel decisions” by setting out estimates for carbon emissions for flights landing or taking off from British airports. Continue r
  
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• Postcard-pretty … and filled with pollution: how Brazil’s fishers are reviving Rio de Janeiro’s famous bay

  05-02-2026 15:00 via theguardian.com
  A mangrove conservation project in Guanabara Bay has shown how a dying ecosystem can be transformed into a thriving sanctuaryWith deep blue waters flanked by dramatic peaks, Guanabara Bay is the postcard view of Rio de Janeiro – but it is also one of Brazil’s most polluted coastal environments. Raw sewage and solid waste flow into the bay from surrounding cities, home to more than 8 million people. Cargo ships and oil platforms chug in and out of commercial ports, while dozens of aba
  
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• Anger over Scottish salmon farm inspections amid 35m unexpected fish deaths

  05-02-2026 14:43 via theguardian.com
  Animal Equality says two surprise inspections in three years suggests ‘embarrassingly poor’ level of scrutinyScottish salmon farmers recorded more than 35m unexpected salmon deaths in just under three years but there were only two unannounced inspections of facilities over the same period.In December, the Scottish government’s secretary for rural affairs, Mairi Gougeon, said that there was “a really robust regulatory regime when it comes to fin-fish aquaculture” but
  
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• What are critical minerals and why do countries need them?

  05-02-2026 14:22 via bbc.com
  Countries are racing to secure the critical minerals and rare earths needed to make vital products.
  
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• ‘We can learn from the old’: how architects are returning to the earth to build homes for the future

  05-02-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Rammed earth sourced from, or near, the grounds of a proposed building site is attracting attention as an eco-friendly construction materialFrom afar, the low-rise homestead perched in the Wiltshire countryside may look like any other rural outpost, but step closer and the texture of the walls reveal something distinct from the usual facade of cement, brick and steel.The Rammed Earth House in Cranborne Chase is one of the few projects in the UK that has been made by unstabilised rammed earth &nd
  
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• UK's £8bn research fund faces 'hard decisions' as it pauses new grants

  05-02-2026 13:00 via bbc.com
  UKRI boss Ian Chapman said it had been told by the government to "focus and do fewer things better".
  
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• ‘Hope and relief’ as seaside town’s last youth centre saved

  05-02-2026 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Charity praises effort to stop Ramsgate’s Pie Factory Music closing but calls for more youth services in coastal townsThe last remaining youth centre in one of England’s most deprived coastal places has been saved from being sold after a long campaign by the charity that has for 13 years called it home.In November the Guardian revealed how the centre in Ramsgate on the Kent coast was facing being auctioned off by Kent county council, despite an independent report that estimated the c
  
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• Fumes, rats and maggots: peer urges Environment Agency to clear illegal dump in Wigan

  05-02-2026 10:13 via theguardian.com
  Shas Sheehan challenges refusal to remove 25,000 tonnes of waste causing ‘grave environmental hazard’ near schoolA 25,000-tonne illegal waste dump next to a primary school in Wigan presents “a grave environmental hazard” and should be cleared, the chair of the Lords environment committee has told the government.Shas Sheehan challenged the refusal of the Environment Agency to clean up an illegal waste dump in Bolton House Road in the Greater Manchester town, given the agen
  
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• The Green surge shows British politics has reached a turning point - and it has surprisingly little to do with Zack Polanski | Aditya Chakrabortty

  05-02-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  At a party event in a school hall in Lewisham, people told me how disillusionment with Labour has led to this moment“How many?”On the end of the phone is a nice press officer for the Greens, head full from a long day in Gorton, Manchester, showing off their would-be MP. And now, as Friday’s sky turns indigo, I’m calling about reports from Lewisham, south London, that tomorrow they’re expecting a flood of 500 Green activists. This comes as a surprise to the party&rsq
  
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• Country diary: There’s a seaweed party going on on the storm beach | Tim Earl

  05-02-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Castletown Bay, Isle of Man: The smell is unpleasant, but these slimy mounds are full of flies, molluscs and sand hoppers – all vital winter foodMy British Trust for Ornithology wetland bird survey includes patrolling a storm beach, which, at this time of year, has huge piles of rotting wrack thrown up by the gales. They’re made up of hand-like fronds of laminaria, bladderwrack with its buoyant bubble vesicles, sugar kelp and the long “washing line” strands of non-native
  
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• ‘Everything is quagga mussel now’: can invasive species be stopped? – podcast

  05-02-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  On a recent trip to Lake Geneva in Switzerland, biodiversity reporter Phoebe Weston witnessed the impact of one of the planet’s most potent invasive species, the quagga mussel. In just a decade the mollusc, originally from the Ponto-Caspian region of the Black Sea, has caused irreversible change beneath the surface of the picturesque lake. While ecologists believe invasive species play a major role in more than 60% of plant and animal extinctions, stopping them in their tracks is almost im
  
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• Green energy sector drove more than 90% of China’s investment growth last year, analysis finds

  05-02-2026 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Industry bigger than all but seven world economies, and accounts for more than third of China’s economic growthChina’s clean energy industries drove more than 90% of the country’s investment growth last year, making the sectors bigger than all but seven of the world’s economies, a new analysis has shown.For the second time in three years, the report showed the manufacture, installation and export of batteries, electric cars, solar, wind and related technologies accounted
  
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• Flawed economic models mean climate crisis could crash global economy, experts warn

  05-02-2026 01:01 via theguardian.com
  States and financial bodies using modelling that ignores shocks from extreme weather and climate tipping points Flawed economic models mean the accelerating impact of the climate crisis could lead to a global financial crash, experts warn.Recovery would be far harder than after the 2008 financial crash, they said, as “we can’t bail out the Earth like we did the banks”. Continue reading...
  
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