Environment news

• Bletchley Park: New crisis for code-breaking hub

  24-08-2020 14:23 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The chief executive of the Bletchley Park Trust says it is struggling to survive.
  
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• How Trump’s promise to slash energy bills in half has failed across the US

  17-01-2026 16:00 via theguardian.com
  Guardian analysis shows electricity bills were up 6.7% last year, and much higher in some states, and gas bills up 5.2%Donald Trump has comprehensively failed to meet a key election promise to slash Americans’ energy bills in half within the first year of his presidency, with power prices instead surging across the US.The average household electricity bill in the US was 6.7% more expensive in 2025 compared with the previous year, according to a Guardian analysis of data from the Energy Inf
  
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• ‘I’m losing £1,800 a day’: the stark reality for Britain’s dairy farmers

  17-01-2026 15:00 via theguardian.com
  The cost of producing milk is higher than that being paid by milk processors, leaving farmers operating at a loss“Every morning that I roll out of bed at 4.40am, I know I’m losing £1,800 that day, just by getting up.” This is the stark daily reality for Paul Tompkins, as he and his fellow dairy farmers struggle in the face of plummeting milk prices.Tompkins, who is the third generation to run his family’s 234-hectare (600-acre) farm in the Vale of York, can produce
  
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• UK urged to ratify high seas treaty to avoid being shut out of Ocean Cop summit

  17-01-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  As international treaty comes into force, bill to make it law in Britain is moving at ‘glacial pace’ through parliamentThe UK risks being shut out of a historic oceans summit because parliament has failed to ratify the UN’s high seas treaty, environmental charities and campaigners have warned.The high seas treaty, formally known as the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, comes into force on Satu
  
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• Rare twins born in DRC raise cautious hope for endangered mountain gorillas

  17-01-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Virunga park ranger says babies are well cared for by mother Mafuko but high infant mortality makes first weeks criticalIt was noon by the time Jacques Katutu first saw the newborn mountain gorillas. Cradled in the arms of their mother, Mafuko, the tiny twins clung to her body for warmth in the forest clearing in Virunga national park, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).Katutu, head of gorilla monitoring in Virunga, has seen dozens of newborns in his 15 years as a ranger. But, he
  
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• Country diary: There’s a hard, ancient pleasure to laying a hedge | Michael White

  17-01-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Cranbrook, Kent: I have a stretch of leggy hawthorn that needs attention, so I head out into the cold with my axe and billhookWire netting is everywhere in the Kent Weald – barbed boundaries to ancient pastures where sheep and cattle still idly graze. But what did farmers do for the hundreds of years before stock fencing was invented?Hedges, so rooted in what we wistfully consider to be our natural landscape, are in fact human-made features, planted almost solely for the purpose
  
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• ‘The whole thing was just mind-blowing’: my trip into the abyss to see the Titanic

  16-01-2026 22:59 via theguardian.com
  From Sydney’s northern beaches to the bottom of the Atlantic – the story of a man who won a trip of a lifetime in a local supermarket competitionBandra, Mumbai, 1998.Andrew Rogers, a 34-year-old Sydney greenkeeper, was visiting family in India with his wife, Winnie, and one-year-old son, Terence. Inside, as aunties prepared breakfast – the kitchen a sanctuary from the humid, honking streets – the phone rang. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘Garden of Eden’: the Spanish farm growing citrus you’ve never heard of

  16-01-2026 15:14 via theguardian.com
  Todolí foundation produces varieties from Buddha’s hands to sudachi and hopes to help citrus survive climate changeIt was on a trip with a friend to the east coast of Spain that the chef Matthew Slotover came across the “Garden of Eden”, an organic farm growing citrus varieties he had never heard of. The Todolí Citrus Foundation is a nonprofit venture and the largest private collection of citrus in the world with more than 500 varieties, and its owners think the r
  
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• Sustainability on the clock: how to make your workplace more eco-friendly

  16-01-2026 15:01 via theguardian.com
  From ride-to-work challenges to waste-conscious catering, making your office more environmentally minded doesn’t have to be a slogChange 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] marks the start of a new work year, and as Australians head back to the office, site or shop floor, it’s a good opportu
  
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• Fatberg the size of four buses likely birthed poo balls that closed Sydney beaches – and it can’t be cleared

  16-01-2026 15:01 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Secret report suggests fats, oils and grease accumulate in ‘inaccessible dead zone’ at Malabar plant, then dislodge when pumping pressure ‘rapidly increases’Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA giant fatberg, potentially the size of four Sydney buses, within Sydney Water’s Malabar deepwater ocean sewer has been identified as the likely source of the debris balls that washed up on Sydney beaches a year ago.Sydney Water isn’t s
  
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• As Adelaide rolls out the welcome mat to cycling world for Tour Down Under, I feel ashamed | Maeve Plouffe

  16-01-2026 15:01 via theguardian.com
  Australia’s WorldTour race on my local roads fills me with pride, but as the years go on it feels like hosting international friends in a house that is visibly on fireSweat rolls off my brow as my legs roll powerless beneath me. Eyes fixed on my glowing bike computer screen, watching as my heart rate climbs faster than the power that can be produced by my legs. 150, 160, 170bpm. How long has that been? I wipe the bead of sweat obscuring the timer. Only five minutes.I can barely squeeze in
  
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• ‘We’re in danger of extinction’: can Bolivia’s ‘water people’ survive a rising tide of salt and migration?

  16-01-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  The Uru Chipaya, one of South America’s most ancient civilisations, are battling drought, salinity and an exodus of their people as the climate crisis wreaks havoc on their landIn the small town of Chipaya, everything is dry. Only a few people walk along the sandy streets, and many houses look abandoned – some secured with a padlock. The wind is so strong that it forces you to close your eyes.Chipaya lies on Bolivia’s Altiplano, 35 miles from the Chilean border. The vast platea
  
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• Are our bodies full of microplastics or not? There’s a way to resolve this debate, and scientists must hurry | Debora MacKenzie

  16-01-2026 12:00 via theguardian.com
  This week’s furore is microplastics researchers’ ozone moment. If they fail, the powerful plastics lobby will step into the breachDebora MacKenzie is a science journalist and author of Stopping the Next Pandemic: How Covid-19 Can Help Us Save HumanityAre we being injured and killed by ubiquitous, teeny-tiny shards of toxic plastic? Or aren’t we? For many months, the Guardian has reported a series of worrying scientific resultsthat our bodies are full of jagged microplastic part
  
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• Extreme rainfall inundates South Africa and Mozambique

  16-01-2026 11:16 via theguardian.com
  Flood warning raised to highest level with roads washed away and rain forcing evacuation of Kruger national parkLarge areas of north-eastern South Africa and neighbouring Mozambique have been inundated for several days with exceptionally heavy rainfall. Some locations in South Africa recorded hundreds of millimetres of rain over the weekend, such as Graskop in Mpumalanga, where 113mm fell in 24 hours, and Phalaborwa, which recorded about 85mm of rainfall. Rain has continued to fall across the re
  
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• Water restored to most Kent and Sussex homes after six days’ disruption

  16-01-2026 11:10 via theguardian.com
  Up to 30,000 customers of South East Water had no supply or low pressure at height of incidentWater has been restored to most homes across Kent and Sussex after almost a week of disruption.South East Water (SEW) said the outage, which began on Saturday, was the result of Storm Goretti causing burst pipes and power cuts. Continue reading...
  
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• Week in wildlife: monkey spa day, a frisky kākāpō and a camouflaged owl

  16-01-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• Trump’s anti-climate agenda won’t just hurt the planet, but American incomes too

  16-01-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  In this week’s newsletter: US earnings would be 12% higher without the climate crisis, a study reveals – and the hotter the world gets, the greater the economic losses• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereDonald Trump has long railed against emissions-cutting policy as an expensive “hoax” and “scam”. But the climate crisis itself comes with a major price tag for Americans, a new study shows.Previous research has found that g
  
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• ‘Walk like penguin’ to avoid adding to winter trip toll

  16-01-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Changing the way you get about offers some protection from the hazards of ice, snow and compacted leavesWinter is peak season for slipping and falling outdoors, which is ironic given that we are advised to go outside for our mental and physical wellbeing.Ice is the most obvious danger but snow, which looks so cheering, becomes a slip hazard when compacted or melted and refrozen. The most common risk, though, is from fallen leaves. Safe when dry, leaves crushed underfoot exude a mix of waxes, lig
  
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• Country diary: The new year shopping centre is packed – with hundreds of pied wagtails | Claire Stares

  16-01-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Whiteley, Hampshire: It’s a remarkably mundane place for a large communal roost, but these birds are here for good reasonAt the heart of the shopping centre, a courtyard opens between the shops and restaurants. A row of ornamental silver birches rises from the concrete paving, their pale trunks reflecting the glow from the storefronts. I was passing through on my way to meet friends for dinner when a burst of sound pulled my gaze upwards. The crown of the nearest tree was alive with moveme
  
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• ‘If you’re flushing the toilet with grey water, people should know’: how China turned rain into an asset

  16-01-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Architects and designers have recycled ancient practice of collecting rainwater to make buildings ecologically friendlyWhen the legendary Taiwanese rock band Mayday were due to perform in Beijing one evening in May 2023, some fans were worried that the rainy weather could affect the show. Mayday were taking to the stage in Beijing’s National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, built for the 2008 Olympics. Like the real-life twig piles that give the building its nickname, the stad
  
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• See how Victoria’s bushfires spread: a visual guide to the scale of devastation

  16-01-2026 02:45 via theguardian.com
  Authorities and firefighters say the Victorian fires of January 2026 were unlike anything seen before in speed, scale and destruction. And they came much earlier than normalGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA new fight for Victorian farmers – saving livestock that survived devastating bushfiresVictoria has been battered by some of the most destructive bushfires in its history, with blazes tearing through 400,000 hectares across the state and claiming the life of a
  
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• Judge allows offshore windfarm halted by Trump to resume construction

  15-01-2026 23:22 via theguardian.com
  Setback for president, who has called windfarms ‘losers’, as Empire Wind project allowed to move forwardA federal judge on Thursday cleared the way for a New York offshore wind project to resume construction, a victory for the developer who said a Trump administration order to pause it would probably kill the project in a matter of days.District judge Carl J Nichols, an appointee of Donald Trump, ruled construction on the Empire Wind project could go forward while he considers the me
  
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• Spain’s meteorologists subjected to ‘alarming’ rise in hate speech, minister warns

  15-01-2026 14:01 via theguardian.com
  Environment minister says attacks on social media affect perceptions of meteorology and denigrate researchers’ workEurope live – latest updatesSpain’s environment minister has written to prosecutors to warn of “an alarming increase” in hate speech and social media attacks directed against climate science communicators, meteorologists and researchers.In a letter sent to hate crimes prosecutors on Wednesday, Sara Aagesen said a number of recent reports examined by the
  
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• Greenland: new shipping routes, hidden minerals – and a frontline between the US and Russia?

  15-01-2026 13:10 via theguardian.com
  Key maps show the growing strategic importance of Greenland as Arctic ice melts under global heatingLying between the US and Russia, Greenland has become a critical frontline as the Arctic opens up because of global heating.Its importance has been underscored by Donald Trump openly considering the US taking the island from its Nato partner Denmark, either by buying it, or by force. Continue reading...
  
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• Historic market in Kinshasa ready to reopen to a million shoppers a day after five-year makeover

  15-01-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Long criticised as overcrowded and filthy, the city’s Zando marketplace has had an elegant and sustainable redesignSelling vegetables was Dieudonné Bakarani’s first job. He had a little stall at Kinshasa Central Market in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Decades later, the 57-year-old entrepreneur is redeveloping the historic marketplace that gave him his start in business to be an award-winning city landmark.Bakarani hopes to see the market, known as Zando, flourish agai
  
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• Six-yearly count to track diverging fortunes of UK and Ireland’s wintering swans

  15-01-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  The international swan census takes place this weekend, with volunteers helping count whooper and Bewick’s swans Volunteer birders across the UK and Ireland will be among those taking part in the six-yearly international swan census this weekend, counting numbers of the countries’ two wintering species, whooper and Bewick’s swans.The survey, which last took place in January 2020, aims to track changes in the populations of these charismatic wildfowl in the UK and Ireland. The w
  
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• Country diary: A chilly tour of our historic churches (while the tourists are away) | Virginia Spierss

  15-01-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  St Kew, Cornwall: Midwinter is the best time for us to visit heritage sites and speculate on legends, starting at the secluded St Winnow’s churchThe stained glass window of St Kew’s church, with a tamed bear at the saint’s feet, is temporarily out of sight, penned in by a jumble of scaffolding. On a chilly hilltop a few miles to the south, St Mabyn’s tower features weathered carvings of heraldic beasts, including a muzzled bear pointing its snout northwards; ins
  
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• The crisis whisperer: how Adam Tooze makes sense of our bewildering age

  15-01-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Whether it’s the financial crash, the climate emergency or the breakdown of the international order, historian Adam Tooze has become the go-to guide to the radical new world we’ve enteredIn late January 2025, 10 days after Donald Trump was sworn in for a second time as president of the United States, an economic conference in Brussels brought together several officials from the recently deposed Biden administration for a discussion about the global economy. In Washington, Trump and h
  
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• Africa’s great elephant divide: countries struggle with too many elephants – or too few

  15-01-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  In countries such as South Sudan, the great herds have all but disappeared. But further south, conservation success mean increasing human-wildlife conflictIt is late on a January afternoon in the middle of South Sudan’s dry season, and the landscape, pricked with stubby acacias, is hazy with smoke from people burning the grasslands to encourage new growth. Even from the perspective of a single-engine ultralight aircraft, we are warned it will be hard to spot the last elephant in Badingilo
  
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• Traces of cancer-linked pesticide found in tests at UK playgrounds

  15-01-2026 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Pressure mounting for use of glyphosate, listed by WHO since 2015 as probable carcinogen, to be heavily restrictedChildren are potentially being exposed to the controversial weedkiller glyphosate at playgrounds across the UK, campaigners have said after testing playgrounds in London and the home counties.The World Health Organization has listed glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen since 2015. However, campaigners say local authorities in the UK are still using thousands of litres of glyphos
  
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