Environment news

• As seas rise, American history could be washed away

  02-07-2026 20:00
  In Jamestown, Virginia, one of the most important places in American history is in a race against time from rising watersSean Romo stops digging the moment he sees a faint line emerge in the sandy Virginia soil.It’s just a slight change in color, but to Romo, director of archaeology for Jamestown Rediscovery, it may be another piece of America’s origin story.Climate Central is an independent group of scientists and communicators who research and report the facts about our changing cl
  
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• Defra breached law when it let farmers use bee-killing pesticide, watchdog says

  02-07-2026 19:10
  Office for Environmental Protection finds failures by department when it granted emergency authorisation in 2023 and 2024The UK government breached environmental law on several occasions when granting farmers permission to use a bee-killing pesticide, a watchdog has found.In 2023 and 2024, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in the then Conservative government granted emergency authorisation to allow farmers to use a banned neonicotinoid pesticide on sugar beet crops.
  
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• ‘I don’t just watch climate change happening’: the young Swedes being paid to make a difference

  02-07-2026 17:14
  Participant-led YPS scheme creates green projects while providing summer jobs in country with high youth unemploymentOona Verveld and Clara Vikberg have just secured their first paid summer jobs. While their peers are mostly limited to entry-level positions in retail or fast-food restaurants, the 18-year-olds are some of the first among their generation to have landed a new type of role: young planetary stewards.“Someone came up with the simple idea that, since young people clearly need jo
  
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• Donald Trump is the accidental hero of a real-life feelgood climate tale even as a creeping horror story plays alongside | Clear Air

  02-07-2026 17:00
  Despite a deadly heatwave sweeping through Europe, the US president’s ineptness has created reason for optimism on the climate crisisSign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter hereTwo real-life climate-themed movies are playing in parallel across the globe. They are about the world today, but they are also a snapshot of the future. The first is a slow-building horror story; the second, a feelgood summer hit. Both are worth watching.Horror films
  
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• Trout sushi for breakfast? The surprising diets of Wimbledon stars

  02-07-2026 15:03
  With probiotic foods thought to boost performance, tournament chefs are catering with gut health in mindTrout sushi washed down with coffee kombucha may not be the stereotypical breakfast of champions, but it’s become the go-to for Wimbledon’s tennis stars.Athletes are increasingly demanding sustainable options, as well as seeking out gut-friendly foods aligned with a microbiome diet, according to the tournament’s chefs. Recent research has shown a link between gut health, whic
  
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• ‘A sanitized view of America’: inside Trump’s campaign to erase US history from national parks

  02-07-2026 15:00
  Critics say the Trump administration is trying to rewrite and whitewash history by removing and altering scores of signs on public landsJerry Bransford, a former US National Park Service (NPS) ranger, has always had a deep connection with the land he grew up on – and the land hundreds of feet below it. His great-great-grandfather, Materson “Mat” Bransford, was one of the earliest explorers of Mammoth Cave in south-central Kentucky, the largest known cave system on the planet.Bu
  
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• Voyage to the end of the world: floating lab to explore life in Arctic adrift in ice

  02-07-2026 13:00
  
  An eight-month expedition will set off soon from Norway on a mission to find new species before the climate crisis and pollution changes the northern ocean for everSix scientists and six crew will travel next month to Kirkenes, a remote Arctic town in Norway near the Russian border, to begin an odyssey to one of the most inhospitable, inaccessible and least-studied regions on Earth. There, they will climb onboard a futuristic, floating laboratory – the French-built Tara polar station.They
  
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• Understanding Ebola’s wildlife origins is crucial to preventing next big outbreak

  02-07-2026 11:00
  If we don’t know the source, not only do humans remain at risk but wildlife can suffer needlessly via retaliationWhile virologists and public health departments were palpitating over the news of an Andes virus infectious disease outbreak on a cruise ship (13 cases, three deaths), in the Democratic Republic of the Congo the Bundibugyo virus, the root of the current Ebola outbreak (currently more than 1,250 cases and at least 362 deaths), was smouldering under the radar.Bundibugyo virus is a
  
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• Weatherwatch: Cleaner clouds may slow rate of global heating

  02-07-2026 07:00
  Study shows falling dust levels are making clouds more reflective, an effect not taken into account in climate modelsCleaner clouds are helping to slow the rate of global heating, a study shows. Falling levels of dust in the atmosphere are making clouds more reflective. This previously unidentified effect is not being taken into account by current climate models, which may mean they are slightly overestimating the projected rate of global heating.Researchers analysed satellite observations of hi
  
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• How Bolivia’s breakthrough in jaguar rehabilitation could bring the big cat back from the brink

  02-07-2026 07:00
  More jaguars are killed in Bolivia each year by poachers than in any other country, driving the population to critical levels. But a recent successful release from captivity could radically increase the jaguar’s chances of survivalA tentative paw emerged from a steel cage on to the sandy riverbed deep in the Bolivian rainforest. Then, another. Slowly, the female jaguar looked right, left and right again, as if waiting to cross a busy road. Then, muscles stiff from the long journey, it stro
  
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• Global boom in livestock farming since 2006 is piling pressure on nature, report finds

  02-07-2026 07:00
  
  Wildlife at risk as demand for cropland and water grows to feed 50% rise in farmed animals, campaign alliance saysThe number of mammals and poultry farmed worldwide has increased by half in the last two decades, research shows, and the amount of cropland used for feeding livestock has increased by about a quarter.These increases are putting rising pressure on natural systems, threatening wildlife and plant species and adding to the climate crisis. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘Exploratory and curious animals’: mysterious rise in orca sightings off Northumberland coast

  02-07-2026 07:00
  Reasons for increase not clear but experts say it could be welcome sign marine ecosystem is becoming healthierThe Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast have long drawn fans of the natural world keen to catch sight of the resident guillemots and puffins.But as recently as last week, another much bigger black-and-white animal has been delighting wildlife spotters. Orcas have been appearing more regularly than ever before. Continue reading...
  
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• EU-approved pesticide found to have potential effects on brain development

  02-07-2026 07:00
  
  New study on fluazinam’s neurotoxicity comes up with different findings from earlier report based on manufacturer’s dataResearchers who re-ran a crucial fungicide study on neurotoxicity have come up with significantly different findings, and campaigners argue that the substance should now be withdrawn from the market.In 2005, a study conducted by Huntingdon Life Sciences on behalf of ISK, the manufacturer of fluazinam, on the development of neurotoxicity of fluazinam in pregnant rats
  
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• Can Bolivia’s historic big cat release help change jaguar conservation in the country?

  02-07-2026 07:00
  Poaching and wildfires have driven the country’s jaguar population to a critical level, and until now even rescued animals faced life in captivity. A new approach to rehabilitation could change that – but critics are unsureA tentative paw emerged from a steel cage on to the sandy riverbed deep in the Bolivian rainforest. Then, another. Slowly, the female jaguar looked right, left and right again, as if waiting to cross a busy road. Then, muscles stiff from the long journey, it stroll
  
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