Environment news

• Chance of El Niño forming in Pacific Ocean may push global temperatures to record highs in 2027

  07-02-2026 20:00 via theguardian.com
  One expert says 2027 could be even hotter than the last three years, which have been the top three warmest on recordSign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter hereWeather agencies and climate scientists have pointed to the possibility of an El Niño forming in the Pacific Ocean later this year – a phenomenon that could push global temperatures to all-time record highs in 2027.
  Both the US government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheri
  
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• UK electric vehicle charging firms ‘seeking buyers amid rising costs and tough competition’

  07-02-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Mergers and acquisitions will shrink number of operators from more than 100 to five or six, says Be.EV co-founderBritish electric charger companies are asking rivals to buy them as they run out of cash amid rising costs and intense competition, according to industry bosses.A wave of mergers and acquisitions is likely to shrink the number of charge point operators from as many as 150 to a market dominated by five or six players, said Asif Ghafoor, a co-founder of Be.EV, a charging company backed
  
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• Post-Brexit sales of British farm products to EU fall by 37%

  07-02-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  NFU warn it could take years to restore Brexit losses despite efforts to smooth negotiations on farming and other elements of UK-EU resetExports of British farm products to the EU have dropped almost 40% in the five years since Brexit, highlighting the trade barriers caused by the UK’s divorce from the EU in 2020.Analysis of HMRC data by the National Farmers’ Union shows the decline in sales of everything from British beef to cheddar cheese has dropped by 37.4% in the five years sinc
  
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• Deafening, draining and potentially deadly: are we facing a snoring epidemic?

  07-02-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Experts say dangerous sleep apnoea affects an estimated 8 million in the UK alone, and everything from evolution to obesity or even the climate crisis could be to blameWhen Matt Hillier was in his 20s, he went camping with a friend who was a nurse. In the morning she told him she had been shocked by the snoring coming from his tent. “She basically said, ‘For a 25-year-old non-smoker who’s quite skinny, you snore pretty loudly,’” says Hiller, now 32.Perhaps because o
  
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• Bermuda snail thought to be extinct now thrives after a decade’s effort

  07-02-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Special pods at Chester zoo helped conservationists breed and release more than 100,000 greater Bermuda snailsA button-sized snail once feared extinct in its Bermudian home is thriving again after conservationists bred and released more than 100,000 of the molluscs.The greater Bermuda snail (Poecilozonites bermudensis) was found in the fossil record but believed to have vanished from the North Atlantic archipelago, until a remnant population was discovered in a damp and overgrown alleyway in Ham
  
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• Country diary: Which farm produces the smelliest silage? I went to find out | Rev Simon Lockett

  07-02-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Peterchurch, Herefordshire: Some silage competitions are assessed in a lab far away, this one takes place in a noisy pub, with judges getting their hands dirtyWhat a night. I’ve just got home from the Nags Head, Peterchurch, having attended the Eskleyside Agricultural Society’s annual silage competition. The Nags is one of the great social spots in the Golden valley. Here you can meet potato growers, social workers, sheep farmers, stranded pilgrims, water diviners and Thomas the cat.
  
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