Environment news

• The EU is working on a blanket ban of ‘forever chemicals’. Why isn't Britain? | Pippa Neill

  10-02-2026 16:32
  In Lancashire, I met people living with dangerous levels of Pfas, including in their food. The government is failing themLast week, on the morning the government published its Pfas action plan, I got a worried phone call from a woman called Sam who lives next door to a chemical factory in Lancashire. Sam had just been hand-delivered a letter from her local council informing her that after testing, it had been confirmed that her ducks’ eggs, reared in her garden in Thornton-Cleveleys, near
  
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• More pollution and higher energy costs: critics condemn Trump’s anti-environment agenda

  10-02-2026 15:00
  US courts, scholars and Democrats are pushing back against the president’s aggressive drive to boost fossil fuelsDonald Trump’s aggressive drive to boost fossil fuels, including dirty coal, coupled with his administration’s moves to roll back wind and solar power, face mounting fire from courts, scholars and Democrats for raising the cost of electricity and worsening the climate crisis.Four judges, including a Trump appointee, in recent weeks have issued temporary injunctions a
  
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• ‘We feel kinda bad when a solo bird shows up’: Canada sees its first European robin – but how did it get there?

  10-02-2026 13:00
  Birdwatchers flock to Montréal for rare sighting of ‘vagrant’ bird that has made its home during a bitterly cold winterOn a quiet Montréal street of low-rise brick apartment buildings on one side and cement barrier wall on the other, a crowd has gathered, binoculars around their necks and cameras at the ready. A European robin has taken up residence in the neighbourhood, which is sandwiched between two industrial areas with warehouses and railway lines and, a few blocks
  
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• Iran’s shadow fleet of old tankers a ticking time bomb for sea life, say experts

  10-02-2026 12:50
  Exclusive: Analysts say there will be oil spill catastrophe that could be far bigger than Exxon Valdez disasterDecrepit oil tankers in Iran’s sanctions-busting shadow fleet are a “ticking time bomb”, and it is only a matter of time before there is a catastrophic environmental disaster, maritime intelligence analysts have warned.Such an oil spill could be far bigger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster that released 37,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea, they said. Continue rea
  
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• Iran’s shadow fleet of old tankers a ticking bomb for sea life, say experts

  10-02-2026 12:50
  Exclusive: Analysts say there will be oil spill catastrophe that could be far bigger than Exxon Valdez disasterDecrepit oil tankers in Iran’s sanctions-busting shadow fleet are a “ticking time bomb”, and it is only a matter of time before there is a catastrophic environmental disaster, maritime intelligence analysts have warned.Such an oil spill could be far bigger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster that released 37,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea, they said. Continue rea
  
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• Rethinking Economics, the movement changing how the subject is taught

  10-02-2026 09:00
  Born of student disquiet after the 2008 crash, the group says it reshaping economists’ educationAs the fallout from the 2008 global financial crash reverberated around the world, a group of students at Harvard University in the US walked out of their introductory economics class complaining it was teaching a “specific and limited view” that perpetuated “a problematic and inefficient system of economic inequality”.A few weeks later, on the other side of the Atlantic,
  
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• ‘Every shirt has a story’: the designers saving football kits from landfill

  10-02-2026 09:00
  The beautiful game has a fast fashion problem, with clubs bringing out multiple kits every season. But a move towards upcycling old shirts and wearing vintage garments is on the riseIt may have been a quiet January transfer window, but even so, thousands of new shirts will be printed for Lucas Paquetá, returning to his former Brazilian club Flamengo, while his West Ham shirt instantly feels old. Not to mention the thousands of other players moving from one club to another. Uefa estimates
  
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• Country diary: Ding ding! Round 2 for the brawling badgers | Ed Douglas

  10-02-2026 06:30
  Abbeydale, Sheffield: I’m genuinely scared when I wake at 2am to the sound of screaming. Then I see two male badgers in an almighty scrapFast asleep, my dreamworld takes an unexpected swerve as raucous screaming erupts outside the open bedroom window. For a moment, I assume this is imagined, some emotional outburst from my subconscious. Then I realise that I’m awake. This is real. I check the time: 2am. The screaming continues. In fact, it’s now louder and somehow more intense.
  
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