Environment news

• How a Welsh village saved its forest … and its future

  22-02-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  In an edited extract from her latest book, Hazel Sheffield sets out a new blueprint for community stewardship It was a Saturday in February 2020 when the flood came. It had been a wet winter, so wet it seemed that before the month was out, the brown trout of the River Taff might be washed clean out into Cardiff Bay before the fishing season had even begun. But this is Wales. People are used to a spot of rain. No one realised how bad it would get.For two days, it hammered on the windows of the ho
  
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• Less snow, or more risk? What you need to know about avalanches and climate change

  22-02-2026 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Rising temperatures are forcing some ski resorts to close, while leaving others at greater risk of extreme weatherAvalanches kill about 100 people in Europe each year, with vast masses of ice, snow and rock regularly crashing down on hikers and skiers who have been caught unawares.The structure of the snow, angle of the slope and variation of the weather can dictate whether a gentle disturbance – like a gust of wind or the glide of a snowboard – can trigger a deadly shift in the moun
  
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• The Great Olympic lie: untold story of Winter Games’ huge environmental impact

  22-02-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Rivers drained dry to create artificial snow, a forest cut down for the bobsleigh track – IOC’s claims to prioritise sustainability at Milano Cortina exposedOn the foothills of the mountains, by the banks of the river in Cortina, there was a forest. It was full of tall larch trees. Arborists said the oldest of them had been there for 150 years and dendrologists that it was unique because it was unusual to find a monocultural forest growing at such a low altitude in the southern 
  
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• ‘That’s a losing battle’: baboon incursions cause tense human-wildlife standoff in Cape Town

  22-02-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Animal rights activists disagree with authorities on how best to handle boom in primate population near Table MountainAt the edge of Da Gama Park, where the Cape Town suburb meets the mountain, baboons jumped from the road to garden walls to roofs and back again. Children from South African navy families living in the area’s modest houses played in the street. Some were delighted; some wary; most were unfazed by the animals.A few miles away, overlooking a soaring peak and sweeping bay, Nic
  
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