Environment news

• New lab to become centre for investigating uplands

  21-10-2026 22:36 via BBC News
  
  The research facility in Penrith will also help train the next generation of environmental scientists.
  
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• Pupils who designed a badge sent to space meet NASA astronaut

  21-10-2026 21:39 via BBC News
  
  Frank Rubio is set to be in the crew for the Artemis III mission and previously spent a year in space.
  
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• How bad is Jackdaw gasfield approval for the climate? – The Latest

  21-10-2026 20:51 via Environment | The Guardian
  Climate campaigners have condemned the UK government’s decision to allow the drilling of the Jackdaw gasfield. Critics argue the move will put climate targets at risk, while failing to reduce energy bills and the cost of living crisis. But there could be a significant victory for green activists when it comes to the much larger Rosebank oilfield, with the energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, leaning towards rejecting approval. Michael Safi speaks to environment correspondent Matthew Taylor
  
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• How bad is Jackdaw gasfield approval for the climate? - The Latest

  21-10-2026 20:51 via Environment | The Guardian
  Climate campaigners have condemned the UK government’s decision to allow the drilling of the Jackdaw gasfield. Critics argue the move will put climate targets at risk, while failing to reduce energy bills and the cost of living crisis. But there could be a significant victory for green activists when it comes to the much larger Rosebank oilfield, with the energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, leaning towards rejecting approval. Michael Safi speaks to environment correspondent Matthew Taylor
  
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• Fuel leak which killed fish in River Taff stopped

  21-10-2026 20:28 via BBC News
  
  GE Aerospace previously confirmed fuel got into the river while repair work took place nearby.
  
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• Burnham approves Jackdaw – and Labour’s unity on climate action is imperilled with the stroke of a pen | Zoe Williams

  21-10-2026 19:14 via Environment | The Guardian
  This foolish decision undermines hopes that this government will take the necessary steps the climate crisis demandsWhen the news broke that the UK government had approved the Jackdaw gasfield, I was at a Guardian climate event at the Royal Geographical Society. Appropriately, the theme suggested by readers was what can the public actually do in the face of what feels like paralysing climate doom?There is so much going on that is hopeful: biodiversity tracking, river protection, rewilding. Shrut
  
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• Ben Jennings on Andy Burnham’s decision to approve the Jackdaw North Sea gasfield – cartoon

  21-10-2026 18:50 via Environment | The Guardian
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• Can a giant tunnel save Windermere?

  21-10-2026 18:30 via BBC News
  
  A £3.6bn proposal to stop sewage being discharged into Windermere, England's largest lake, has been unveiled.
  
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• Will Jackdaw cut your energy bills?

  21-10-2026 18:17 via BBC News
  
  BBC Verify's Ben Chu explains why energy prices are so high, and what Jackdaw could mean for your bills.
  
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• Orionid meteor shower to peak in UK skies into Thursday

  21-10-2026 17:44 via BBC News
  
  Clear skies permitting, skygazers could be able to spot as many as 10-20 meteors per hour as the shower peaks this week.
  
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• Burnham defends Jackdaw decision as Badenoch urges PM to overturn ban on new oil and gas licences

  21-10-2026 17:36 via BBC News
  
  The UK government says the field, which is opposed by environmental campaigners, could be producing gas by the end of this month.
  
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• A grieving female elephant carrying a stillborn baby: Federico Veronesi’s best photograph

  21-10-2026 16:08 via Environment | The Guardian
  ‘She carried the dead calf for hours even though it wasn’t hers. She had had a miscarriage two years before – and now picked up the stillborn babies of other mothers’My love of African animals, in particular elephants, dates back to when I was three or four years old, growing up in Milan in a house full of old nature books. When I was six, my parents took me on my first safari in Kenya – I cried on the plane home, feeling I was being torn away from the savanna I&rsq
  
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• How Jackdaw ignites row over climate and costs

  21-10-2026 15:46 via BBC News
  
  How Jackdaw ignites arguments over climate and costs
  
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• Andy Burnham says decision on Jackdaw is something the Tories 'messed up' - video

  21-10-2026 15:27 via Environment | The Guardian
  The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, thanked the prime minister for backing Jackdaw after the Tories approved it in 2022. But Burnham said he made a decision on something the Tories messed up, and the government had made a bridge to the future and the transition to clean energyUK politics live – latest updatesUK approves Jackdaw gasfield in North SeaClimate campaigners condemn ‘maddening’ decision to approve Jackdaw gasfield Continue reading...
  
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• Energy secretary leaning towards rejecting Rosebank oilfield

  21-10-2026 14:31 via Environment | The Guardian
  Exclusive: Officials say Miatta Fahnbulleh minded not to give approval in victory for climate campaignersUK politics live – latest updatesMiatta Fahnbulleh is leaning towards rejecting the giant Rosebank oilfield, the Guardian understands, in what would be a blow for the North Sea energy industry and a major victory for climate campaigners.Officials say the energy secretary is minded to refuse approval for the field, which would be one of the biggest in the North Sea. Fahnbulleh approved t
  
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• How much gas could Jackdaw provide? And will it cut your energy bills?

  21-10-2026 13:57 via BBC News
  
  BBC Verify looks at what the Jackdaw decision means for bills, energy security and the environment.
  
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• Astronaut surprise video leaves pupils starstruck

  21-10-2026 13:55 via BBC News
  
  The surprise came after a teacher's father met Peake while working on a cruise ship.
  
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• Giant tunnel proposed to tackle Windermere sewage discharges

  21-10-2026 12:32 via Environment | The Guardian
  United Utilities, Environment Agency and local campaigners say 12-mile tunnel could take sewage away from England’s largest lakePlans are under way for a new giant tunnel to transport sewage away from Windermere, England’s largest lake.Windermere, in the Lake District, has suffered from widespread raw sewage and bacterial pollution driven by discharges from United Utilities. Campaigners say this pollution has caused more frequent toxic blue-green algal blooms, with the public advised
  
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• US extreme weather survivors are a growing group – now they want to be a political force

  21-10-2026 12:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  At a gathering in Texas, near where floods killed 136 people last year, survivors are united on the need for urgent actionIt may be a club none of its members actually want to be in, but the growing number of people in the US affected by extreme weather disasters are starting to organize into a political force.Severe wildfires, floods storms and other calamities now touch the lives of huge numbers of Americans – about half of all people in the US by one estimate – as the climate cris
  
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• Jackdaw approval is a step towards a grownup North Sea policy

  21-10-2026 11:59 via Environment | The Guardian
  Government decision is about how much oil and gas is sensible for UK to produce on the way to net zeroBusiness live – latest updatesAndy Burnham hit the nail on the (well)head in his first fortnight as prime minister when he said: “The question isn’t whether Britain will still be using oil and gas, the question is, where does it come from?”It was a nod towards several awkward energy facts. First, oil and gas provided 75% of the UK’s energy in 2025, government data s
  
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• Farmer lost out by minutes in race for wildlife funding

  21-10-2026 11:49 via BBC News
  
  Richard Peace is among thousands of farmers who missed out as funding was snapped up in hours.
  
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• What an eyesore! My day at Norfolk’s frightful fridge mountain

  21-10-2026 11:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  This summer alone, 26 local authorities in the UK had to stop accepting fridges and freezers for recycling. Now the appliances are piling up around the country – with no proper disposal date in sightNot much is happening in the tiny Norfolk hamlet of Little Hautbois on the day I visit. The pub, once popular with airmen from RAF Coltishall, stopped being a pub a long time ago, even before RAF Coltishall stopped being RAF Coltishall. It’s not Saturday, so there are no weddings at Hautb
  
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• Elon Musk confirms he is considering merging Tesla and SpaceX

  21-10-2026 10:42 via BBC News
  
  Musk says special committees within both companies have been formed to look at a possible mega-merger.
  
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• Why is Elon Musk plotting a mega-merger of SpaceX and Tesla?

  21-10-2026 08:36 via BBC News
  
  Musk says there's "a lot to be gained" by combining the firms in what would be the biggest merger in history.
  
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• UK approves Jackdaw gasfield in North Sea

  21-10-2026 08:15 via Environment | The Guardian
  Decision was widely expected after lobbying by Shell but will dismay environmental campaigners What does the UK’s approval of the Jackdaw gasfield mean?The UK government has approved the controversial Jackdaw gasfield in the North Sea, a widely expected move that will nonetheless dismay environmental campaigners and a number of Labour MPs.While Labour’s 2024 election manifesto committed to a ban on new drilling licences in the North Sea, the companies behind Jackdaw and the Rosebank
  
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• This Norwegian village is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth. How can its people save it?

  21-10-2026 08:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  As glaciers melt and permafrost thaws, Longyearbyen, on the remote Arctic islands of Svalbard, faces climate-induced problems from tap water to housebuilding to landslides• Heavy metals make Norwegian village’s tap water toxicOn a rugged mountain plateau of snow-dusted rocks, in the remote archipelago of Svalbard, a glaciologist, Andy Hodson, points out the “ears” of ice, white against the rock, that gave Foxfonna glacier its name, after the arctic fox.The small glacier, o
  
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• World must cut emissions by 18% in four years ‘to find our way back’, UN says

  21-10-2026 07:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Action needed to avoid disastrous overshoot of climate targets, according to organisation’s environment bodyThe world needs to cut carbon emissions by nearly a fifth in the next four years, and by close to half within a decade, to avoid overshooting climate targets by a disastrous margin.Although the “window has closed” on holding temperature rises to 1.5C, in line with scientific advice, limiting the “overshoot” of that target is still possible, according to the UN
  
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• Giant tunnel proposed to clean up Windermere's sewage problem

  21-10-2026 06:44 via BBC News
  
  The plan would eliminate sewage spills into Windermere, blamed for turning the water green.
  
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• Country diary: What a privilege it is to witness bird migration on such a scale | Country diary

  21-10-2026 06:30 via Environment | The Guardian
  
  Poole, Dorset: At this time of year, migrants are constantly on the move here, whether leaving, arriving or just stopping to refuelWith the sadness of our summer migrants departing the UK for another year comes the joy of our wintering birds returning. Working in conservation at Poole harbour, I’m out most days, connected to the ebb and flow of this change.As it is one of the largest natural harbours in the world, and located on the East Atlantic Flyway, birds are constantly on the move he
  
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