Environment news

• The Guardian view on SUVs: London’s mayor is right to push back on supersize cars | Editorial

  16-03-2026 19:40
  Huge vehicles are popular with drivers, but their wider impacts on road safety and the environment must be tackledNo one who walks, cycles or drives around London, or many of the world’s big cities, could fail to notice the vastly increased size of the typical car. A type of vehicle once associated with rural settings and outdoor lifestyles is now ubiquitous. Heavily marketed as sports utility vehicles (SUVs), supersize cars are among the key consumer trends of recent decade
  
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• Trump’s war is bringing economic calamity to the UK – and another shock to our politics | Gaby Hinsliff

  16-03-2026 19:08
  Hard choices lie ahead for Downing Street if higher fuel prices spark resentment and trigger a renewed cost of living crisisSeventy years ago this winter, the streets of Britain fell eerily quiet. After one last panic buying spree, many garages shut, and traffic even in the heart of London dwindled away. The formal introduction of petrol rationing had begun, limiting drivers to 200 miles’ worth a month – with exceptions for farmers, doctors and vicars – after the Suez crisis bl
  
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• Realtime pollution alerts needed on Windermere, campaigners say after boy nearly dies

  16-03-2026 17:00
  Exclusive: Claire Earley’s son Rex spent six weeks in hospital after contracting E coli from contaminated lakeRealtime pollution alerts are needed across Windermere urgently, campaigners have said, as the mother of a seven-year-old boy who kayaked on the lake described how he nearly died after contracting a dangerous strain of E coli from contaminated water.Claire Earley’s son Rex spent six weeks in hospital, and underwent two emergency operations, after a family kayaking trip on Win
  
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• Oldest-known whale song recording provides new insight into ocean sounds

  16-03-2026 14:05
  Recording of humpback whale from 1949 could also provide new understanding of how the huge animals communicateA haunting whale song discovered on decades-old audio equipment could open up a new understanding of how the huge animals communicate, according to researchers who say it is the oldest such recording known.The song is that of a humpback whale, a marine giant beloved by whale watchers for its docile nature and spectacular leaps from the water, and was recorded by scientists in March 1949
  
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• ‘We cannot replace USAID, but we can do big things’: conservation plots a future without American money

  16-03-2026 13:00
  The Trump administration’s cuts to biodiversity funding have imperiled species, habitats and the people who defend both. Now the world is seeking a new way forwardOn 22 January 2024, at the inauguration of the current Liberian president, Joseph Boakai, the US-based Liberian poet Patricia Jabbeh Wesley paid tribute to the west African nation’s tropical forests – one of the places where, she said, “our fathers came / centuries ago, and planted our umbilical cords / deep in
  
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• Farmers 'hammered' by fertiliser and fuel rises

  16-03-2026 07:13 via bbc.com
  Andrew Williamson, who farms near Bridgnorth, says he is concerned how the Iran war is affecting prices.
  
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• Country diary: A saliva test for George the pony, and a rethink on worm control | Kate Blincoe

  16-03-2026 06:30
  Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: Deworming horses is as important as ever, but not at the expense of dung beetles – which are coming out of hibernation nowI slide a medical spatula into George the Connemara pony’s mouth, carefully finding the interdental gap in his teeth after his incisors. He begins licking and chewing, working out if it is edible. My job is to hold it in place for at least 30 seconds to get a good sample of his saliva on the absorbent swab, which will be analysed to see
  
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