Environment news

• Coronavirus and Antarctica: 'Isolated within isolation'

  14-05-2020 01:24 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Why the people on the only continent without a recorded case of coronavirus are in lockdown.
  
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• A job that changed me: Working the pool kiosk in the summer of ’82, I was excited when older boys came by – but I learned that respect is better than attention

  14-09-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  My job made me the envy of the cool girls; it made me visible. Then Johnno, Stevo and Whack paid a visitIn the summer of 1982, at the age of 14, I was hired to work in the ticket office and kiosk at the Sale Memorial Pool in Victoria’s Gippsland region. The cool girls at school, who did not usually acknowledge me, were seething with jealousy. It was a sought-after job in a time before fast-food outlets and chain supermarkets.I was anxious because I didn’t look like the girls who usua
  
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• £100,000 boost for community eco-friendly projects

  14-09-2026 13:44 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Community groups and young people across the West Midlands are being invited to apply for a grant.
  
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• Zambians warned not to eat dead wildlife after anthrax kills dozens of animals

  14-09-2026 13:35 via bbc.co.uk
  
  At least 12 people are being treated for anthrax after eating infected meat from wildlife carcasses.
  
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• Disaster insurance, datacenters, right to repair: meet the midterm candidates running on green policies

  14-09-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Some of the everyday struggles animating voters have a climate link lurking in the backgroundWhen Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a law erasing the words “climate change” from state statutes in May 2024 – colloquially known as the “don’t say climate change” law – Democrats were outraged. Just six months later, many liberal politicians began to go quiet on the issue themselves. After Donald Trump won the 2024 election, mentions of the climate crisis
  
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• ‘Carbon fever’ threatens hard-won Indigenous rights in Bolivian Amazon

  14-09-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Leaders in Pando region denounce opaque deals over carbon credits as government and companies rush to monetise Amazon rainforest after 2024 rulingIn the village plazas of Pando, a remote northern Amazonian region of Bolivia, the main talk is no longer just about the next harvest. One pressing issue is the “invisible air” being sold to foreigners who regularly visit their communities.In June 2024, the country’s constitutional court struck down the ban on a funding mechanism link
  
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• The Hotspot | South Korea pushes for football season to make winter switch after unbearable summer

  14-09-2026 10:30 via theguardian.com
  Why fainting fans and perspiring players are a worry for the Asian league seeking to follow Japan and align with EuropeSouth Korean football is trying to find the goldilocks time to play the K-League. Winters have long been too cold and, increasingly, summers are too hot. This may be the Land of the Morning Calm but, for much of the time, the weather can be pretty extreme.Last week a survey revealed that more than 70% of 29 respondent coaches in Asia’s oldest professional league support a
  
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• ‘Tidal wave’ of Pfas being launched to satisfy AI industry, campaigners warn

  14-09-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Big manufacturers planning to produce more of the forever chemicals to meet demand from datacentresPfas companies are launching a “tidal wave” of forever chemicals production to meet demand from the AI industry, a campaign organisation has warned.Despite alarm over the chemicals, which have been linked to cancer, a survey of the 10 biggest manufacturers found most had plans to increase production. Continue reading...
  
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• Conservationist honoured for protecting rare animals

  14-09-2026 07:35 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Tullis Matson runs Nature's SAFE, a charity that has been freezing cells from some of the world's most endangered animals
  
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• How this summer may have been when climate change felt real

  14-09-2026 07:22 via bbc.co.uk
  
  This summer has seen hot weather records broken, drought and major damage from fires.
  
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• Restored wetland becomes haven for rare birds

  14-09-2026 07:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Woolston Eyes, near Warrington, is home to the largest black-necked grebe population in the UK.
  
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• Kent's shark secrets discovered in new project

  14-09-2026 07:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The project involves sharks in Kent's waters being tagged so that scientists can gain vital data.
  
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• Country diary: Notice anything wrong with this ripe, succulent plum? | Claire Stares

  14-09-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Langstone, Hampshire: My garden is full of Victoria plums, but they’re not supposed to be crunchy insideThis summer has been challenging for the fruit trees in my garden, with intense heat and a lack of rain causing poor cropping, premature ripening and pre-harvest drop.While my dessert and cooking apples have produced just a handful of stunted, crab-apple-sized fruit, and my quince is bare, the Victoria plum growing next to the greenhouse is the exception. Its branches are
  
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• We greet the news that AI could extinguish us with a glazed indifference. What is the way out of this nihilism? | Brigid Delaney

  14-09-2026 05:49 via theguardian.com
  There are several answers, and none of them will be provided by tech. One thing we must do is identify the ingredients for human flourishingTo imagine the future as being almost entirely bleak has somehow crept into the collective this year.Last week I was having coffee with an old friend. He was telling me about what his kids wanted to study when they went to university, when he suddenly broke off, stared into the middle distance and said, “I wish I never had children.” Continue rea
  
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• The Himalayas are melting faster - and India's economy is 'at risk'

  14-09-2026 00:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A new report warns Himalayan glaciers are melting faster, threatening India’s water, economy and communities.
  
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• Rabbits are the biggest threat to Australia’s native species. Why are their numbers booming again?

  13-09-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Scientists say good rainfall and growing resistance to viruses are to blame for increasing rabbit populations around the countryGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastJojo the rabbit-detecting dog is working eight days on, two days off, running up to 20 kilometres a day chasing rabbits in the south-west of Bon Bon Reserve in South Australia’s arid centre.“She’s being kept very busy,” says Dr Pat Taggart, an ecologist with Bush Heritage Australia, a con
  
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• Blankets of colour: Western Australia’s wildflower season bursts to life – in pictures

  13-09-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  On Wajarri Yamaji country in WA’s remote mid-west sits Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO’s Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. This year, early winter rains have left the telescopes surrounded by a carpet of splendid native blooms Continue reading...
  
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• Blankets of colour: Western Australia’s wildflower season bursts into life – in pictures

  13-09-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  On Wajarri Yamaji country in WA’s remote mid-west sits Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO’s Murchison radio-astronomy observatory. This year’s early winter rains have left the telescopes surrounded by a carpet of splendid native blooms Continue reading...
  
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• A joyful harvest: the young Welsh farmers growing food for Birmingham

  13-09-2026 16:00 via theguardian.com
  A charity in Powys provides the land while growers do the hard work, producing bumper crops for city childrenKilos and kilos of courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes and salad leaves are ripe and ready for picking on a small Welsh farm in the rural county of Powys.The haul being harvested by Tilly Gomersall is not just impressive after a difficult growing season hit by a record string of heatwaves and drought across all of Wales and most of England, but all the more remarkable given that 18 months ago
  
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• The bird that changed Ecuador: how a chance discovery of a rare species helped to save many more

  13-09-2026 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Thirty years after a US ornithologist first sighted a jocotoco antpitta, the foundation he set up to restore biodiversity is a model for conservation globallyI have to confess that I rarely enjoy birding in montane cloud forests. The birds that live in these mountainous, cool and humid habitats are masters of disguise, usually passing themselves off as a leaf or other form of foliage. But if I want to see antpittas – elusive, ground-dwelling birds that rarely show themselves – then I
  
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• ‘Spraying should be the last option’: how farmers are exploring alternatives to pesticides

  13-09-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  When pesticide proved no match for the insect, desperate Phyllis Nvuda tried a new way to save her infested orchardFor two decades, Phyllis Nduva, 72, has grown mangoes and citrus in Wote, a town in Kenya’s eastern Makueni County. In the beginning, she only had to worry about ordinary fruit flies. She handled them simply, buying chemical pesticides and spraying her trees whenever they appeared.But then, in 2014, the false codling moth turned up on her farm. The small brown creature had bee
  
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• Think of the parable of a frog in boiling water. That’s us dithering as the ‘unprecedented‘ weather becomes more extreme | Helen Pilcher

  13-09-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  The complacency is staggering: just another hot summer, a flooded street, a crop failure. We are accepting this extraordinary deterioration as normalRecently, I overheard a conversation in a cafe where someone described their toast as “awesome”. I felt myself bristle. Not because the toast wasn’t good – I didn’t taste it – but because I remember a time when “awesome” meant something that inspired awe: towering mountains, the vastness of the night s
  
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• Summer wildfires caused catastrophic hidden damage, scientists warn

  13-09-2026 08:12 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Bangor University researchers say the scale of damage is far greater than what is immediately visible.
  
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• Who are the 514 people accused of starting French wildfires and what motivates them?

  13-09-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Experts believe one-third of wildfires in France are set deliberately, with arson the biggest single cause of forest fires last yearOne is a boy of 15, who threw a burning cigarette into a wood near Bordeaux. Another is a 36-year-old man who set a paper bag of rubbish on fire in bushes near Perpignan. A third is a 50-year-old woman accused of lighting 17 fires south of La Rochelle.According to the French interior ministry, since the start of a summer in which a record 115,000 hectares of forest,
  
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• France confronts arson problem after devastating summer of wildfires

  13-09-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Experts believe one-third of wildfires in France are set deliberately, with arson the biggest single cause of forest fires last yearOne is a boy of 15, who threw a burning cigarette into a wood near Bordeaux. Another is a 36-year-old man who set a paper bag of rubbish on fire in bushes near Perpignan. A third is a 50-year-old woman accused of lighting 17 fires south of La Rochelle.According to the French interior ministry, since the start of a summer in which a record 115,000 hectares of forest,
  
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• Five night sky events to look out for this autumn

  13-09-2026 01:53 via bbc.co.uk
  
  From meteor showers to a November supermoon, there are a number of impressive sights to behold in the autumn night sky.
  
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• Warm ski season a warning of bleak future for Australia’s snow tourism: ‘So this is our new normal’

  12-09-2026 22:00 via theguardian.com
  While holidaymakers have maintained ‘super positive attitudes’, average snow depths measured since 1954 have declined by nearly 20%If you freeze it, they will come. For now.On a weekday morning in early September, Perisher is beautiful. Too beautiful. The snow guns have just laid down a blanket of fresh powder when the lifts open at 8.30am, the front valley glistening as the sun rises over the Snowy Mountains.People ski on human-made snow at Perisher Blue Ski Resort. Continue reading
  
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• Record heatwaves in France set to make champagne stronger

  12-09-2026 15:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Winemakers can produce bubbly up to 15% ABV following an unusual harvest that produced sweeter grapes.
  
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• We know how to prevent black lung, so why are workers still dying?

  12-09-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Silicosis sufferers are getting younger as Trump and the coal mining industry push back on protectionsSilicosis is one of the oldest workplace hazards and public health experts have known for decades how to prevent it. Yet a new wave of workers, from Appalachian coalminers to Latino countertop fabrication workers, are developing and dying from the disease as industry fights new protections and regulators fail to defend the rules that could protect them.John Robinson’s grandfather developed
  
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• Beyond the heatwave: what it really takes for climate warnings to cut through in the UK

  12-09-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  As trust in institutions wavers, experts say local, collective action is more effective in driving changeWildfires, excess deaths, hosepipe bans, school closures: this summer many British people have experienced the often devastating effects of the climate crisis in ways they had not before. In that sense, policymakers and climate experts have a unique opportunity to engage with the public about what needs to happen to better prepare the country for the years ahead. But as trust in institutions
  
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