Environment news

• From coal to cabernet: the wine seller using a flooded mine to cut heating bills

  20-06-2026 11:00 via theguardian.com
  Lanchester Wines in north-east England uses heat from a disused coalmine to maintain wine temperatures and with 23,000 flooded mines in the UK, there’s huge potential for more businesses and homes to follow its leadShove them in a fridge, stash them in a cellar – this is how most people store their favourite bottles of wine. But if you have warehouses full of thousands of vintages, you have to think a little differently.For the last eight winters, Lanchester Wines has used heat from
  
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• ‘It’s Russian roulette’: alarm as Europe backs critical minerals mines in water-stressed regions

  20-06-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: European Commission planning to rewrite key law to allow water-intensive mines in regions suffering from droughtThe European Commission plans to rewrite the EU’s flagship water protection law to speed up the development of critical minerals mines, despite many being located in drying and water-stressed regions, analysis has found.Mining is a water-intensive industry, requiring large volumes of water for ore processing, dust suppression, waste management and mine dewatering. Whil
  
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• Country diary: For the beloved Ash Dome, death is not the end | Anita Roy

  20-06-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd: This living sculpture, planted in the 1970s ‘for the 21st century’, is fading fast. But heartbreak is not the only responseTen years ago when I visited the Ash Dome, it was an elegant, twisting circle of beautiful trees. Ten years ago, ash dieback had not yet reached this corner of Wales. Returning now to this secret location, I steeled myself for heartbreak. And there it was.Today, the Ash Dome, a living sculpture by the renowned artist David Nash,
  
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• Can we electrify the world? Ambition moves from nerdish backwater to centre stage

  20-06-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Apart from effort to electrify, there were geopolitical tensions around climate science and the 1.5C goal at pre-Cop31 climate talksElectrifying the world – with electric vehicles, electric heating and cooling, and modernised heavy industry – could be the next biggest step towards phasing out fossil fuels, replacing the 80% of global energy that still comes from hydrocarbons. As using electrical energy is much more efficient than combustion, the move would save billions of dollars fo
  
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