Environment news

• Can this lynx born in a zoo learn to live in the wild?

  02-05-2025 12:02 via bbc.com
  It has been moved to Germany's Black Forest in preparation for its release
  
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• Green groups decry EU ‘betrayal’ after vote to reduce oversight of firms

  16-12-2025 17:10
  Social and environmental reporting to be required of fewer companies after EPP aligns with far right to achieve goalsEurope live – latest updatesFewer companies operating in Europe will be made to carry out due diligence on the societal harms they cause, in what green groups have called a “betrayal” of communities affected by corporate abuse.The gutting of the EU’s sustainability reporting and due diligence rules, which was greenlit by MEPs on Tuesday, slashes the number
  
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• The trauma after the storm: Hurricane Melissa leaves trail of emotional devastation across Jamaica

  16-12-2025 15:00
  Experts are calling for the integration of mental health into climate-disaster policy in the Caribbean as studies show that PTSD risks increase after hurricanes and displacementWhen Hurricane Melissa struck Jamaica on 28 October with 185mph winds, destroying homes, hospitals and infrastructure, killing 32 people and affecting 1.5 million, Toni-Jan Ifill immediately realised it would leave many with long-term traumatic memories.A month and a half after the storm, which also affected eastern Cuba,
  
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• Water levels across the Great Lakes are falling – just as US data centers move in

  16-12-2025 14:00
  Region struggling with drought now threatened by energy-hungry facilities – but some residents are fighting backThe sign outside Tom Hermes’s farmyard in Perkins Township in Ohio, a short drive south of the shores of Lake Erie, proudly claims that his family have farmed the land here since 1900. Today, he raises 130 head of cattle and grows corn, wheat, grass and soybeans on 1,200 acres of land.For his family, his animals and wider business, water is life. Continue reading...
  
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• This is another ‘ozone layer’ moment. Now, we must urgently target methane | Mia Mottley

  16-12-2025 09:00
  The oil and gas industry must be legally bound to cut methane emissions. With climate tipping points approaching, time is running out • Mia Mottley is the prime minister of BarbadosThe timing is brutal. Just as the world celebrates the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Paris climate agreement this month, new evidence shows that the world is crashing through the main defence that was constructed against climate catastrophe.The three-year temperature average is – for the first tim
  
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• ‘No water, no life’: Iraq’s Tigris River in danger of disappearing

  16-12-2025 07:00
  Unless urgent action is taken life will be fundamentally altered for the ancient communities who live on its banksAs a leader of one of the oldest gnostic religions in the world, Sheikh Nidham Kreidi al-Sabahi must use only water taken from a flowing river, even for drinking.The 68-year-old has a long grey beard hanging over his simple tan robe and a white cap covering his equally long hair, which sheikhs are forbidden from cutting. He says he has never got ill from drinking water from the Tigri
  
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• Country diary: Here’s the charm of the goldfinch – we want them to be near us | Mark Cocker

  16-12-2025 06:30
  Hogshaw, Derbyshire: They’re in our paintings, in our folklore. A little opportunistic planting and I’ve got them in my gardenAs I cleared our garden of dead vegetation, including many old teasels, I realised that the latter were still shedding seeds and luring goldfinches to them. Not wishing to deprive winter birds of food, or myself of opportunity, I planted the stalks in a single grove, and set up a mobile hide. Within minutes, a kind of magic unfolded. Sulphur wings twittered as
  
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• ‘We hate it. It’s desecration’: the real cost of HS2

  16-12-2025 06:00
  Ten years after I first followed the proposed route, I retraced my steps to see what life was like along the world’s most expensive, heavily delayed railway lineTen years ago, I walked the route of HS2, the 140-mile railway proposed to run from London to Birmingham, to discover what lay in its path. Nothing had actually been constructed of this, supposedly the first phase of a high-speed line going north. The only trace was the furtive ecological consultants mapping newts and bats and the
  
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• Glaciers to reach peak rate of extinction in the Alps in eight years

  15-12-2025 17:00
  Climate crisis forecast to wipe out thousands of glaciers a year globally, threatening water supplies and cultural heritageEurope live – latest updatesGlaciers in the European Alps are likely to reach their peak rate of extinction in only eight years, according to a study, with more than 100 due to melt away permanently by 2033. Glaciers in the western US and Canada are forecast to reach their peak year of loss less than a decade later, with more than 800 disappearing each year by then.The
  
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• Chances of EU trucking industry hitting zero emissions targets are dire, says industry body

  15-12-2025 15:02
  Only 10,000 out of economic bloc’s 6m trucks are electric and are more likely to be operating on short routesBusiness live – latest updatesThe chances of the European trucking industry hitting zero emissions targets are “dire”, an industry body has warned, as it emerged that only a tiny amount of lorries delivering goods in the EU are electric.Speaking as the European Commission prepares to water down electric car targets, the boss of the association for commercial vehicl
  
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• ‘I consider him my first son’: how living with a baby monkey taught me I’m ready to be a dad

  15-12-2025 11:00
  I went from selling flats in Paris to being alone in a cabin in Guinea looking after primates. It changed my life, but one relationship marked me like no otherIn 2022, I had a job at an estate agents in Paris selling ridiculously expensive flats, and decided I needed to do something more meaningful with my life. I resigned, and six months later arrived in Guinea.In hindsight I was a young kid, full of anger, not happy with his life. That 26-year-old is definitely not me now – and it was li
  
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• Weather tracker: Bushfires ravage Western Australia as temperatures soar

  15-12-2025 09:54
  Extreme heat follows blazes in New South Wales, while winds plunge Brazil’s largest city into darknessExtreme heat and bushfires have ravaged the parched landscape of Western Australia. With temperatures expected to continue soaring above 40C (104F) over the coming days, the Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe heatwave warning across much of the south-west.The conditions follow bushfires in New South Wales this month, which resulted in the destruction of homes and loss of life. Sever
  
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• Tabletop tomatoes and drought-resistant roses tipped as 2026’s top garden trends

  15-12-2025 07:00
  RHS predicts big shift in gardening habits as green-fingered Britons adapt to climate breakdownBouquets of cut flowers will be swapped for tabletop vegetable plants next year, the Royal Horticultural Society has said, as the UK charity announces its top plant trend predictions for 2026.Mini-planters of aubergines, chillies, peppers and tomatoes will be displayed in homes instead of flowers, as breeders develop dwarf varieties that are decorative and capable of supplementing the weekly shop, the
  
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• Country diary: I love these soggy winter bogs – and so do the snipe | Charlie Elder

  15-12-2025 06:30
  Dartmoor, Devon: In these treacherous conditions for the moorland walker, one false move and a wary wader will burst into the airDays of torrential rain have yet to drain from this broad ridge at the westernmost edge of Dartmoor. The wide path to the top of Gibbet Hill, with views of Wheal Betsy, the nearby abandoned mine, is glazed with puddles, and I am forced to hop between tussocks of sedge to avoid treading ankle-deep in the liquid earth.This is my favourite season on Dartmoor – a tim
  
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• Conservatives would end 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars

  14-12-2025 23:00
  Party would also abolish zero-emission vehicle mandate, cutting legal requirement on carmakers to sell EVsThe Conservatives have announced proposals to end the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars and cut the legal requirement on car manufacturers to sell electric vehicles.A Conservative government would abolish the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, ending the legal requirement for manufacturers to sell a fixed rising percentage of zero-emission vehicles each year – 80% of new cars an
  
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• Too fancy? Not rugged enough? Or a mainstream sweet spot? We took Australia’s cheapest EV ute out for a day

  13-12-2025 20:00
  Jessica O’Bryan puts the $60,000 Musso EV through its paces in suburban Sydney and finds some pluses, some minuses – but no charging pointsFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWhen I am handed the keys to Australia’s first affordable fully electric ute, to say I feel nervous is an understatement.I’ve been driving a 2014 Volkswagen Polo for the past four years, and before that, a Holden Astra that
  
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• Carbon capture was spruiked as a way of limiting our emissions – but has Australia been greenwashed?

  13-12-2025 20:00
  Despite billions in investment and backing from the federal government, carbon capture and storage technology ‘should be in no way treated as a climate solution’, critics sayFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe US energy company Chevron describes it as the world’s largest industrial carbon dioxide injection project of its kind. But it has a problem. It still isn’t working as promised and the r
  
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• Australia’s best news agency photography for 2025 – in pictures

  13-12-2025 20:00
  Floods, fires, festivities and legal wins are all captured in the best images from the wire agencies in 2025Best of Australian politics 2025 – in pictures Continue reading...
  
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• ‘A shift no country can ignore’: where global emissions stand, 10 years after the Paris climate agreement

  13-12-2025 07:00
  The watershed summit in 2015 was far from perfect, but its impact so far has been significant and measurableTen years on from the historic Paris climate summit, which ended with the world’s first and only global agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions, it is easy to dwell on its failures. But the successes go less remarked.Renewable energy smashed records last year, growing by 15% and accounting for more than 90% of all new power generation capacity. Investment in clean energy topped $2
  
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• Country diary: Clinging to a crag in a place of constant change | Eben Muse

  13-12-2025 06:30
  Neath, south Wales: This quarry built the abbey and the nearby terraced towns – and it’s different every time I visitThe way to Neath Abbey Quarry is a perfect stranger to me this morning. It’s been three years since my last visit, and the maze of the path has shifted; old tree trunks have turned to mulch and the brook carves a different channel. My companion and I shoulder big bouldering pads, poorly proportioned for tight manoeuvres, yet we bump, turn and pivot our way throug
  
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• The path of least emissions: how to take a sustainable holiday this summer

  13-12-2025 00:00
  While it’s impossible to escape the emissions associated with flying, some travel methods are more carbon-intensive than othersChange 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] the Australian summer gets under way, many of us are planning holidays.When it comes to limiting emissions associated with travel, a
  
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• Families washed out of tents as flood waters course through Gaza

  12-12-2025 16:26
  Gaza has been hit by heavy rains and low temperatures, deepening the misery of most of its 2.2 million population who are living in tents after two years of Israeli bombardment. Thousands of homeless people have been washed out of their makeshift shelters and forced to seek emergency refuge Continue reading...
  
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• ‘We’re all rattled’: early season fires spook towns across Australia, even if it’s not black summer conditions – yet

  12-12-2025 15:00
  Fast-moving fires in parched urban fringes have residents on edge, and no one needs a reminder of how bad things can getIt was 3am Sunday when Robin and Paul McLean received the text. A fire was encroaching on their Lake Macquarie home, and it was too late to leave.Their adult daughter, who lives with them, is confined to her bed due to disability and has her own evacuation plan that includes calling an ambulance if they reach a “watch and act” alert level – the second of three
  
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• ‘The worst is when the rubbish explodes’: the children living in Patagonia’s vast dumps

  12-12-2025 15:00
  In sprawling landfills, thousands of Argentinian families scavenge for survival amid toxic waste and government neglect, dreaming of steady jobs and escape The sun rises over the plateau of Neuquén’s open-air rubbish tip. Maia, nine, and her brothers, aged 11 and seven, huddle by a campfire. Their mother, Gisel, rummages through bags that smell of rotten fruit and meat.Situated at the northern end of Argentinian Patagonia, 100km (60 miles) from Vaca Muerta – one of the world&r
  
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• Indonesia floods were ‘extinction level’ disturbance for world’s rarest ape

  12-12-2025 14:42
  Conservationists fear up to 11% of Tapanuli orangutan population perished in disaster that also killed 1,000 peopleThe skull of a Tapanuli orangutan, caked in debris, stares out from a tomb of mud in North Sumatra, killed in catastrophic flooding that swept through Indonesia.The late November floods have been an “extinction-level disturbance” for the world’s rarest great ape, scientists have said, causing catastrophic damage to its habitat and survival prospects. Continue readi
  
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• Indonesia floods were ‘extinction level’ disturbance for rare orangutan species

  12-12-2025 14:42
  Conservationists fear up to 11% of Tapanuli population perished in disaster that also killed 1,000 peopleIndonesia’s deadly flooding was an “extinction-level disturbance” for the world’s rarest great ape, the Tapanuli orangutan, causing catastrophic damage to its habitat and survival prospects, scientists warned on Friday.Only scientifically classified as a species in 2017, Tapanulis are incredibly rare, with fewer than 800 left in the wild, confined to a small range in p
  
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• ‘Soil is more important than oil’: inside the perennial grain revolution

  12-12-2025 13:00
  Scientists in Kansas believe Kernza could cut emissions, restore degraded soils and reshape the future of agricultureOn the concrete floor of a greenhouse in rural Kansas stands a neat grid of 100 plastic plant pots, each holding a straggly crown of strappy, grass-like leaves. These plants are perennials – they keep growing, year after year. That single characteristic separates them from soya beans, wheat, maize, rice and every other major grain crop, all of which are annuals: plants that
  
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• The Paris climate treaty changed the world. Here’s how | Rebecca Solnit

  12-12-2025 12:00
  There’s much more to do, but we should be encouraged by the progress we have madeToday marks the 10th anniversary of the Paris climate treaty, one of the landmark days in climate-action history. Attending the conference as a journalist, I watched and listened and wondered whether 194 countries could ever agree on anything at all, and the night before they did, people who I thought were more sophisticated than me assured me they couldn’t. Then they did. There are a lot of ways to tell
  
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• EA to spend millions clearing Oxfordshire illegal waste mountain in break with policy

  12-12-2025 11:47
  Announcement draws anger from Labour MP over refusal to remove tonnes of rubbish dumped near school in WiganThe Environment Agency is to spend millions of pounds to clear an enormous illegal rubbish dump in Oxfordshire, saying the waste is at risk of catching fire.But the decision announced on Thursday to clear up the thousands of tonnes of waste illegally dumped outside Kidlington has drawn an angry response from a Labour MP in Greater Manchester whose constituents have been living alongside 25
  
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• Hightailing along high streets and raiding ponds: otters’ revival in Britain

  12-12-2025 11:00
  Still rare only 20 years ago, the charismatic animals are in almost every UK river and a conservation success storyOn a quiet Friday evening, an otter and a fox trot through Lincoln city centre. The pair scurry past charity shops and through deserted streets, the encounter lit by the security lamps of shuttered takeaways. Each animal inspects the nooks and crannies of the high street before disappearing into the night, ending the unlikely scene captured by CCTV last month.Unlike the fox, the ott
  
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