Environment news

• ‘A slap in the face’: small farmers say Trump is turning his back on them

  11-07-2026 16:00
  
  The president wooed farmers in his campaign, but now the USDA is yanking funding, citing ‘DEI’ and wasteful spendingIt’s just an eighth of an acre, but for Lawrencia Rogers, the plot where she grows broccolini, lettuce and beans on land once tilled by poorhouse residents in eastern Iowa is the closest she has come to living her dream.Iowa is one of the most agriculturally productive states in the country, but getting into farming is not easy, particularly for people like Rogers
  
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• ‘Every time the rain falls, the fear comes back’: life in Lagos under the constant threat of floods

  11-07-2026 13:00
  As Nigeria braces for another season of devastating rains, people affected describe the mental toll of repeatedly rebuilding their livesMurky water first tore down a perimeter fence, then bubbled into the yard before spilling into every room. Within minutes, electronics, kitchen appliances, furniture, documents and academic certificates lay submerged.With the water rising rapidly, Daniel Ebiesua evacuated his home in the Shogunle area of Lagos, with his wife, their two-week-old baby, four-year-o
  
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• ‘Like a sauna’: London tube travellers swelter in temperatures higher than legal limit for cattle

  11-07-2026 10:45
  
  The tube cannot easily be adapted to cope with heatwaves, making conditions almost unbearableAs the escalator descends below ground at King’s Cross St Pancras station in London, the shift from what was already a hot station entrance to the furnace-like subterranean depths is perceptible.On the tube it’s worse: a man leans back in his seat, eyes closed, sweltering; people hold electric fans an inch away from their faces. London commuters are known for their stoicism and the heat appea
  
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• A swarm of stink bugs and a river of rats: why India’s flowering bamboo causes a crisis for humans

  11-07-2026 10:00
  Every few decades mass blooming in Mizoram’s forests causes a rodent boom – and devastation to crops. The cycle is well-known, so why aren’t farmers and authorities better prepared?In the hills of Mizoram state in north-east India, the first thing that farmers notice are the swarms of stink bugs, known locally as thangnang. It can mean only one thing: the rats are coming. And with them, famine.As dawn breaks in Mamit district, Maunsanga, a 62-year-old farmer, walks across his p
  
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• The 13 biggest myths about heatwaves – and how to bust them

  11-07-2026 09:00
  With some still unable to accept humanity’s role in climate chaos, we tackle common misconceptions and deceptionsSome people – and media organisations – still have difficulty connecting the heatwaves currently gripping much of the world and human-caused climate chaos. Others are in outright denial. So how to address their evasions, distractions and lies?The Guardian has trawled through climate sceptics’ claims and put their doubts to one of the UK’s top climate scie
  
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• Days of salted codfish and cabbage leaves are over: how climate crisis is shaping Tour de France’s future

  11-07-2026 09:00
  Heatwaves have long been part of the Tour but temperatures now are pushing the riders to limit of human enduranceThe Tour de France and the heat of the midday sun are old bedfellows, going back long before an era when the biggest catastrophe of the Tour’s opening week was a major fault in the Visma team bus’s air conditioning. Flip back 50 years to my favourite Tour read, the late Geoffrey Nicholson’s The Great Bike Race, and we find the doyen of cycling writers discussing a To
  
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• ‘Children were calling for their mummies’: UK pupils struggle in 40C-plus classrooms

  11-07-2026 08:00
  Teachers call for schools to be urgently adapted for hot weather amid reports of nausea, fainting and heatstrokeThe extreme heat that has hit the UK twice in the past few weeks has left teachers struggling to cope as temperatures in some classrooms climb above 40C, with pupils and staff suffering from heatstroke, nausea and headaches.Teachers say they have been desperately trying to keep children safe, with some covering younger pupils in wet paper towels as they lie on the floor, while older st
  
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• Country diary: Harvest time has arrived – and it’s three weeks earlier than 20 years ago | Colin Chappell

  11-07-2026 06:30
  Brigg, Lincolnshire: It’ll take six weeks to cut it all, starting with barley and likely ending with beans. Thank goodness the combine has air-conditioningThe crops have managed to survive winter flooding (almost) and two heatwaves, but another hot spell of weather is on the way as we embark on the enormous task of harvesting our crops.Winter barley for seed is usually first, followed by oilseed rape (OSR), then probably wheat. Beans are nearly always last to be cut, often in September, bu
  
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• Death trap: what to do about the everyday items catching and killing Australian wildlife

  11-07-2026 02:00
  Thousands of native animals get caught in back yard fruit nets, fences and fishing line every year. Here’s what you can do to helpChange by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprintGot a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at [email protected] of native animals get snared in fruit tree netting, fencing and fishing gear every year in Australia – events that fr
  
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