Environment news

• Gotta watch ‘em all? Pokémon-style app for birdwatching launches

  17-02-2026 17:42
  Users of Birdex get points for each bird they see and can compete with friends, with 200,000 sightings logged so farA new app has launched that aims to gamify birdwatching by allowing people to collect digital cards of UK bird species whenever they record seeing one.Users of Birdex accumulate points for each bird they see, with less common and rare species yielding the greatest rewards. It is possible to add friends and compete over bird sightings. The app has got birdwatchers talking online &nd
  
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• Cardboard crazy! Scavenger genius Shigeru Ban on building cathedrals and quake shelters with paper

  17-02-2026 17:16
  From high-end boutiques to housing in disaster zones with beer-crate foundations, the Japanese architect creates with things people throw away. What will his distillery in whisky’s holy land look like?‘I don’t like waste,” says Shigeru Ban. It’s a simple statement – yet it encapsulates everything about the Japanese architect’s work. He takes materials others might overlook or discard – from cardboard tubes to beer crates, styrofoam to shipping cont
  
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• France issues red flood alerts after ‘exceptional’ rainfall

  17-02-2026 13:23
  Aftermath of Storm Nils causes chaos across country with flooding under way or expected on Garonne, Maine and Loire rivers France has issued red alerts for flooding in three départements as the aftermath of Storm Nils causes chaos across the country.Flood waters have inundated homes and isolated villages after the Garonne River overflowed its banks, with hydrologists warning that rain is falling on soils that have hit record-breaking levels of saturation. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘It’s betrayal’: Shetland’s scallop fishers brace for arrival of UK’s largest salmon farm

  17-02-2026 13:00
  Huge project by Norwegian-owned Scottish Sea Farms gets go-ahead amid concerns over the environmental cost of fish farming and threat to traditional way of lifeAt Collafirth, north Shetland, Sydney Johnson is unloading bags of two-dozen scallops by throwing them over his head like medicine balls to the pier above. Johnson, who has just finished a 10-hour shift on his boat, the Golden Shore, is concerned that plans for a new salmon farm will put fishers like him and his two sons out of business.&
  
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• Country diary: It’s extraordinary how much our orchards are founded on connection | Mark Cocker

  17-02-2026 06:30
  Buxton, Derbyshire: From those who planted them, to those who pruned them, to the pollinators and the mosses, it’s a long, collective endeavourAs I prune one of our pears – a black Worcester, incidentally, a British variety from the 13th century – I ponder the linguistic connections that arise from our garden “acre” in a place called “Hogshaw”. The first word derives from Old English æcer, meaning an “acorn”. It was linked to
  
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• Claims that AI can help fix climate dismissed as greenwashing

  17-02-2026 06:00
  Industry using ‘diversionary’ tactics, says analyst, as energy-hungry complex functions such as video generation and deep research proliferateTech companies are conflating traditional artificial intelligence with generative AI when claiming the energy-hungry technology could help avert climate breakdown, according to a report.Most claims that AI can help avert climate breakdown refer to machine learning and not the energy-hungry chatbots and image generation tools driving the sector&
  
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• ‘Daunting but doable’: Europe urged to prepare for 3C of global heating

  17-02-2026 00:01
  Advisory board member says Europe already paying price for lack of preparation butadapting is ‘not rocket science’Keeping Europe safe from extreme weather “is not rocket science”, a top researcher has said, as the EU’s climate advisory board urges countries to prepare for a catastrophic 3C of global heating.Maarten van Aalst, a member of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (ESABCC), said the continent was already “paying a price” for
  
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