Environment news

• Canadian scientists offer support to muzzled US counterparts

  27-01-2017 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  For nine years under Canada’s previous government, science suffered harsh restrictions. Now US scientists may be facing a similar fateCanadian scientists – who were muzzled for nearly a decade by the country’s previous Conservative government – have been making contact with their counterparts in the US to offer their support and solidarity amid mounting fears that Donald Trump’s presidency will seek to suppress climate science.For nine years, scientists with Canada&
  
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• ‘You can’t just bet everything on exports’: as its gas runs out, is Bolivia doomed to repeat history?

  24-09-2026 15:00 via theguardian.com
  A fossil gas boom that lifted millions out of poverty has collapsed and inflation is rising – but not everyone believes selling gold and soya is the answerOnce hailed as the “energy heart of South America”, Bolivia’s economy was buoyed up by a fossil gas boom from 2006 to 2014. At its height, then-president Evo Morales commissioned a gleaming presidential skyscraper and installed the world’s longest urban cable car network in La Paz, the seat of government.Flush wit
  
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• Elephants use medicinal plants to treat themselves, researchers find

  24-09-2026 13:42 via bbc.co.uk
  
  African elephants use dozens of different medicinal plants to treat themselves and their families when they are sick, research reveals.
  
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• When and how to see the Harvest Moon in 2026

  24-09-2026 12:46 via bbc.co.uk
  
  September's full Moon will rise across on Saturday 26 September. The best viewing conditions currently look to be across southern and eastern parts of the UK.
  
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• Mass sardine die-off pits survival of South Africa’s penguins against fishers’ livelihoods

  24-09-2026 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Known as the ‘energy bars of the sea’ the fish are a key food source for many species, but closing fisheries to allow numbers to recover would cost millions It began on 28 July, when fishers near Saldanha Bay on the west coast of South Africa reported seeing dead sardines (also known as pilchards) floating at sea. Then, in early August, more dead sardines began washing up on beaches near Cape Town.In the weeks that followed, similar reports came in from places across a vast area span
  
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• Big-eyed bugs and praying mantises: climate crisis drives new visitors to UK shores

  24-09-2026 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Britain has seen an explosion of migrating insects – in some cases from as far as northern Africa It was a stifling evening in July and Matt Phelps was out for a stroll, when a piercing, whirring noise stopped him in his tracks. As an ecologist, Phelps knows his fauna – and he could think of no UK creature that could emit such a sound.“It was like the classic sound effect of a cricket in a film, a beeping sort of little trilling sound,” said Phelps, who works at Knepp Est
  
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• A bumper year for bugs: as the world warms up, insects are moving northwards

  24-09-2026 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Britain has seen an explosion of migrating insects – in some cases from as far as northern Africa It was a stifling evening in July and Matt Phelps was out for a stroll, when a piercing, whirring noise stopped him in his tracks. As an ecologist, Phelps knows his fauna – and he could think of no UK creature that could emit such a sound.“It was like the classic sound effect of a cricket in a film, a beeping sort of little trilling sound,” said Phelps, who works at Knepp Est
  
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• Blood tests find high level of cancer-causing forever chemical in residents near factory

  24-09-2026 09:10 via bbc.co.uk
  
  People living near a major chemical factory in Lancashire are told they could be at risk of serious health conditions.
  
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• ‘Cash to trash’ levy on house developers too low to offset damage to Norfolk Broads, say critics

  24-09-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Levy that allows almost 16,000 houses to be built on Norfolk Broads will not cover cost of mitigating environmental damage, critics sayA new levy on developers to allow almost 16,000 homes to be built in the environmentally protected Norfolk Broads has been cut by tens of thousands of pounds per house, the Guardian can reveal.Ministers say the government’s environmental delivery plans (EDPs) were created to unblock housing growth across the country and are a “win-win&rdquo
  
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• Waste sector crisis could see rubbish piling up on streets, experts warn

  24-09-2026 07:13 via bbc.co.uk
  
  There are warnings over a combination of significantly reduced landfill space and a breakdown of Glasgow's main incinerator.
  
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• Why the strengthening El Niño means fewer Atlantic hurricanes

  24-09-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  The weather pattern is associated with extreme, stormy weather, but authorities predict a quiet year in one ocean at least‘Supersizing before our eyes’: UN warns of record El Niño approachingOne significant effect of the stronger El Niño is fewer hurricanes in the Atlantic. In the 30 years to 2020, on average the first hurricane arrived by 11 August, the second by 26 August and the third by 7 September. This year the total so far has been zero.At the start of the season
  
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• Country diary: The snails are back to reclaim my garden – and leave behind a little artwork | Josie George

  24-09-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire: So much to admire in these creatures, from their resilience over summer, to the detailed pattern of their trailsHere’s a lovely word: aestivate. It’s what my garden snails did through the parched weeks of our summer drought, pulling their bodies high up into their shells and closing the door. Here’s another: epiphragm – the pearl-like door they make to keep moisture in as they slow their hearts and their breathing, until just a thread of lif
  
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• ‘The eels were climbing out of the water to die’: why did every fish in this idyllic lake perish overnight?

  24-09-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Furnace Brook in East Sussex was home to carp, tench, bream, roach and trout – and 15 trailer-loads had to be buried. The mystery led to a neighbouring farm, and a story of waste, pollution and dirty rivers that reveals a lot about Britain todayWhen Alistair and Diane Gould bought Furnace Brook in 2013, they had big plans. It was an idyllic spot: a stream-fed fishing lake nestled in a secluded valley in the High Weald, East Sussex, surrounded by woodland and fields. “People loved to
  
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• Twenty years after An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore still believes in the climate fight: ‘We are going to win this’

  23-09-2026 23:43 via theguardian.com
  Former US vice-president still has optimism for climate advocacy two decades after groundbreaking documentaryTwo decades after the release of his groundbreaking documentary An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore has admitted he was surprised by the ferocious, ongoing backlash from the fossil fuel industry and its political allies. But the former US vice-president insists he still has optimism the world will confront the climate crisis.At a New York event to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of th
  
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• Did El Niño turn Hurricane Polo into the most powerful storm of the season?

  23-09-2026 19:33 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The BBC's Courtney Sargent explains how El Niño could have rapidly turned Hurricane Polo into one of the Pacific season's most powerful storms.
  
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• Trump reveals millions of dollars' worth of share deals in big tech and AI

  23-09-2026 18:42 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Stock in major firms such as Microsoft, Nvidia and SpaceX was bought and sold on behalf of the US president.
  
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• Millions of lettuces ruined by UK aphid outbreak

  23-09-2026 18:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Growers are facing losses of £10m, as 30 million heads of lettuce will be rendered unusable.
  
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• Bats originated in Europe, rewriting mammals’ family tree, study reveals

  23-09-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Biggest study of its kind provides insights into bats’ evolution – a potential gamechanger for research into treating viruses and cancer in humansIn the northern forests of the Congo-Brazzaville, as the sun slips away, a distinctive honking fills the dusky sky. Every evening, thousands of hammer-headed fruit bats depart their daytime roosts in search of mates, calling out through large, box-shaped snouts that give the flying mammals the appearance of a winged moose. Here, along the C
  
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• ‘Watermelons’: Zack Polanski and the rise of the ‘green outside, red inside’ eco-populists

  23-09-2026 15:52 via theguardian.com
  Author Russell Warfield argues the Green leader’s brand of politics is not new but has evolved in the party over time Watermelons: the term used to describe the members of the Green party of England and Wales who are green on the outside and red on the inside. People in this faction are environmentalists, but when you cut them open, they bleed socialist ideologies.Of the roughly 160,000 people that have flocked to the party since Zack Polanski became leader last year, most are thought to b
  
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• The climate fight has one great ally. You just can’t look at it directly | Bill McKibben

  23-09-2026 12:00 via theguardian.com
  There is hope in solar power. As the UN meets, we are urging leaders to pursue a clear goal: clean energy for all by 2030Our message to global leaders: we need solar power everywhere by the decade’s endAs climate experts from around the world gather in New York for their annual week of talking through the world’s deepest dilemma, the vibes are mostly bad.Though 2026 seems likely to set a new global temperature record (and 2027, as El Niño gathers steam, is almost certain to br
  
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• Our message to global leaders: we need solar power everywhere by the decade’s end | Open letter

  23-09-2026 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  As the UN gathers, signatories from Bernie Sanders to Yeb Saño issue an open letter calling for clean power for allThe climate fight has one great ally. You just can’t look at it directly
We the undersigned write this letter out of great fear and great hope.Over the last few months, we’ve seen the world set ablaze by both war and warming. From the conflict in Iran, which has claimed thousands of lives and disrupted billions more, to the series of ever worsening climate d
  
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• At Climate Week, Elmo recalls a storm on Sesame Street: ‘Courage is when you still help others’

  23-09-2026 12:00 via theguardian.com
  New York event hears about the red Muppet’s fears during a recent storm as climate crisis increasingly affects childrenA generation of political leaders has failed to galvanize sufficient action on the climate crisis for so long now that it was perhaps little surprise that an audience in New York City turned to a three-and-a-half-year-old red furry monster for inspiration on Tuesday.Elmo, the Sesame Street denizen, made a starry appearance at a Climate Week event that highlighted how the i
  
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• Alpabzug! Swiss mountain alpaca herding – in pictures

  23-09-2026 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Each autumn the traditional alpabzug (descent of herds) sees farmers in Switzerland move their livestock from mountain pastures down to valley barns. In the Griesalp area above Kiental around 70 alpacas were herded down the valley, before being transported by truck to their winter farm at Aeschi, near Spiez, in the Bernese OberlandContinue reading...
  
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• Farmers' fury as race for £233m funding compared to 'scramble for Oasis tickets'

  23-09-2026 11:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Farmers fear they may not be able to carry out environmental work because they lost out on funding.
  
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• What is an El Niño and how could it cause the hottest year on record? – video

  23-09-2026 08:31 via theguardian.com
  This year’s ‘super' El Niño currently heating up the planet has surpassed the highest temperature ever recorded for the phenomenon, several months before it has even reached its expected peak. But what exactly is an El Niño and how do they work? Matilda Boseley explains• Huge El Niño projected to cause 450,000 deaths in next six months Continue reading...
  
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• Rare snails lay eggs during car journey to zoo

  23-09-2026 07:11 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The zoo near Canterbury says glutinous snails started laying eggs on their way to Kent.
  
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• How opencast mining risks reawakening dormant geological faults

  23-09-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  New study finds subsidence caused by groundwater extraction can take place as far as 20km from site of mineThe impact of opencast mining goes far beyond the edge of the pit. Studies of an opencast coalmine in western Germany show that opencast mining triggered extensive subsidence in the surrounding area and re-activated dormant geological faults.Underground mines are often associated with ground subsidence, but less is known about the risks associated with opencast mines. Researchers from the G
  
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• More than 170,000 respiratory cases recorded in haze-choked Indonesia

  23-09-2026 06:20 via bbc.co.uk
  
  More than 40,000 of the cases – which range from mild coughs to pneumonia – involve toddlers.
  
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• Huge El Niño projected to cause more than 450,000 deaths by February

  23-09-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  New report predicts a heavy toll from Nigeria to the US – and comes on top of existing impacts of the climate crisisMore than 450,000 people are projected to die from the additional heat brought by the super El Niño by February, according to estimates by climate scientists.The toll is on top of the early deaths resulting from temperatures already driven up by the climate crisis. It will strike across the globe, from Indonesia to India, and Nigeria to the US. Many further deaths are
  
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• Huge El Niño projected to cause 450,000 deaths in next six months

  23-09-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  New report predicts a heavy toll from Nigeria to the US – and comes on top of existing impacts of the climate crisisMore than 450,000 people are projected to die from the additional heat brought by the super El Niño in the next six months, according to estimates by climate scientists.The toll is on top of the early deaths resulting from temperatures already driven up by the climate crisis. It will strike across the globe, from Indonesia to India, and Nigeria to the US. Many further
  
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