Environment news

• Country diary: dodder is such a pretty parasite

  14-08-2020 06:30
  
  Morwenstow, North Cornwall: Clumps of what look like pink spaghetti are strewn amid the gorseThe topography of the South West Coast Path has more ups and downs than a stockmarket graph, as anyone who has walked sections of this 630-mile trail knows all too well.The track rises to grassland plateaus, perched on towering cliffs raked by sea breezes, then plunges down steep-sided valleys where streams spill into sheltered coves, before rising again on a rollercoaster route around the western penins
  
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• Jason White on plastic pollution in the food chain – cartoon

  03-01-2026 12:00
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• ‘Just an unbelievable amount of pollution’: how big a threat is AI to the climate?

  03-01-2026 09:00
  Defenders say AI can do good to fight the climate crisis. But spiralling energy and water costs leave experts worriedDuring a golden sunset in Memphis in May, Sharon Wilson pointed a thermal imaging camera at Elon Musk’s flagship datacentre to reveal a planetary threat her eyes could not. Free from pollution controls, the gas-fired turbines that power the world’s biggest AI supercomputer were pumping invisible fumes into the Tennessee sky.“It was jaw-dropping,” said Wilso
  
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• Country diary: A wave of relief on the farm with the inheritance tax change | Andrea Meanwell

  03-01-2026 06:30
  Tebay, Cumbria: Small farms like ours contribute to society, but we need help to survive. A huge cloud has lifted over our futureJust before Christmas I attended a farmers’ conference near Penrith, which included a presentation on the inheritance tax rules for agricultural land. An accountant worked through an example of a typical hill farm like ours: the bill worked out as £59,000 every year for 10 years.Between the farm and our off‑farm jobs, we can’t generate
  
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• 2025 was UK’s hottest and sunniest year on record, says Met Office

  02-01-2026 14:36
  Mean temperature for year was 10.09C, surpassing 2022 record, and 1,648.5 hours of sunshine were recorded2025 was the UK’s warmest and sunniest year on record, the Met Office has confirmed.The UK’s three hottest years on record have now all been in this decade, which meteorologists say is proof of a rapidly changing climate. All of the top 10 warmest years have happened in the past two decades. Continue reading...
  
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• Rapid expansion of ring-necked parakeets in UK sparks concern

  02-01-2026 13:00
  Bird organisations say more research on the species needed to control impact on other wildlifeIn the past 20 years, the soundscape in the ancient wild, rolling landscape of Richmond Park has been transformed. Once you would have heard the chirrup of the stonechat, the chirp of the greater spotted woodpecker or the song of the skylark. Today, the auditory power of one bird dominates.The bright green ring-necked parakeet increased 25-fold from 1994-2023 in the UK. They are still mainly based in th
  
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• What makes an elephant abandon her calf – and is it a growing problem?

  02-01-2026 12:00
  A helpless baby elephant has won the Thai public’s sympathy but her case has shed light on the pressures facing herds across AsiaKhao Tom, a two-month-old elephant, plays with a wildlife officer, nudging his face and curling her trunk around his wrist. When she lifts her trunk in the air, signalling that she is hungry, the team at the rescue centre seems relieved – she has not been eating well. A vet prepares a pint-sized bottle of formula, which she gulps down impatiently.Khao Tom h
  
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• Week in wildlife: a hide-and-seek squirrel and an otter in a Christmas tree

  02-01-2026 09:00
  This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• Cop30, Trump and the fragile future of climate cooperation

  02-01-2026 08:00
  In this week’s newsletter: From geopolitics to populism, multilateralism is under pressure – but climate action cannot succeed in a fractured world• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereJanuary might seem a bit too early to propose a word of the year, but I know mine already: multilateralism – the principle that common problems should have common solutions. It rests on the idea that all countries and people have a stake in the future of the pl
  
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• When north and south winds collide, torrential rain falls in south-east Asia

  02-01-2026 07:00
  The monsoon season is crucial for agriculture, making up 80% of annual rainfall, but also extremely destructive January brings torrential rain to south-east Asia – more than 250mm fell in just two days in Singapore last year. This is because of the monsoon, a pattern of wind and rainfall, the name of which stems from the Arabic word for “season”.The monsoon is sometimes described in terms of a sea breeze, in which the wind reverses direction in the morning and evening as the re
  
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• What if floods left your home unsellable? That’s the reality facing more and more people in Britain | Kirsty Major

  02-01-2026 07:00
  Christine wanted to enjoy her retirement, but then the banks of a local brook burst and turned her and her neighbours’ lives upside-downWhen I visited Christine’s bungalow in Trowell, Nottinghamshire, and asked if I should take my shoes off, she joked: “I wouldn’t worry, I’ll be getting a new carpet soon enough when it floods again.” She’s got another good one about the time she, a 70-year-old great-grandmother, had to climb through her conservatory wind
  
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• Ministers may cut green tech mandate from new homes regulations in England

  02-01-2026 07:00
  Exclusive: Critics say removing battery installation requirement will reduce amount homebuyers save on energy billsMinisters are poised to allow homes in England to be built without carbon-cutting technology in what experts have said is a climbdown after pressure from housebuilders.The future homes standard (FHS), due to be published in January, will regulate how all homes are built and is expected to enforce tough new regulations such as mandating solar panels on nearly all houses and high stan
  
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• Country diary: Here for all to see – nature’s remarkable ability to rebound | Mark Cocker

  02-01-2026 06:30
  Mousley Bottom, Derbyshire: This area was a literal dump 40 years ago, devoid of life. But time and a dedicated council have worked their magicStand in this wood by the River Goyt, listening to the basso profundo of ravens overhead, and you could imagine that this place is some long-tempered blend of town and country.In one sense it is. High overhead to the east is the busy Albion Road bridge leading into New Mills town centre. Turn north, and in front of you trees stret
  
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• Winter blooming of hundreds of plants in UK ‘visible signal’ of climate breakdown

  02-01-2026 06:00
  New year plant hunt shows rising temperatures are shifting natural cycles of wildflowers such as daisies Daisies and dandelions are among hundreds of native plant species blooming in the UK, in what scientists have called a “visible signal” of climate breakdown disrupting the natural world.A Met Office analysis of data from the annual new year’s plant hunt over the past nine years found an extra 2.5 species in bloom during the new year period for every 1C rise in temperature at
  
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• ‘These trees may not survive’: Jordan’s ancient olive harvest wilts under record-breaking heat

  01-01-2026 16:00
  Extreme heat and drought has destroyed 70% of Jordan’s olive crop, endangering livelihoods of 80,000 families and a centuries-old traditionAbu Khaled al-Zoubi, 67, walks slowly through his orchard in Irbid, northern Jordan, his footsteps kicking up dust from the parched earth beneath centuries-old olive trees. He stops at a gnarled trunk, its bark split and peeling from months of unrelenting heat.He points out that the branches should be sagging under the weight of ripening fruit, but inst
  
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• ‘The source of all life is here’: plan to mine lithium in Chilean salt flat sparks fears of water scarcity

  01-01-2026 15:00
  The Colla Indigenous people claim Rio Tinto’s plans to extract the key mineral will harm fragile ecosystems and livelihoodsMiriam Rivera Bordones tends her goats in a dusty paddock in the russet mountains of Chile’s Atacama desert. She also keeps chickens and has planted quince and peach trees and grapevines, which are watered by a stream winding down the hills towards the Indigenous community of Copiapó.But now the huge British-Australian mining multinational Rio Tinto has si
  
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• From rent to utility bills: the politicians and advocates making climate policy part of the affordability agenda

  01-01-2026 13:30
  As the Trump administration derides climate policy as a ‘scam’, emissions-cutting measures are gaining popularityA group of progressive politicians and advocates are reframing emissions-cutting measures as a form of economic populism as the Trump administration derides climate policy as a “scam” and fails to deliver on promises to tame energy costs and inflation.Climate politics were once cast as a test of moral resolve, calling on Americans to accept higher costs to aver
  
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• Often brutal, always beautiful: the sea hounds of the Frisian Islands – in pictures

  01-01-2026 09:00
  For 10 years, the scientist and photographer Jeroen Hoekendijk has been observing pinnipeds (seals, sea lions and walruses) on the fragile North Sea archipelago stretching along the Dutch, German and Danish coastline. A remainder of the now-drowned Doggerland, left behind after the ice age, the low-lying islands are an advance warning sign of the warming and rising seas of the climate crisisPhotographs by Jeroen Hoekendijk, text by Philip Hoare Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: A novel way to farm this ‘black desert’ | Sara Hudston

  01-01-2026 06:30
  Greinton, Somerset Levels: Instead of drying the peat to make it fit for agriculture, a small group of farmers have decided to work with the wetIt looks like nothing more than a few soggy acres of bulrush, brown and broken, edged by a striding line of electricity pylons. But this modest patch of reeds and weeds is at the forefront of a novel farming method that upends ideas about how to manage some of our wettest landscapes.For centuries people have worked to drain the Somerset Levels, tran
  
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• EU’s new ‘green tariff’ rules on high-carbon goods come into force

  01-01-2026 06:00
  The ‘border adjustment mechanism’ aims to create a level playing field while also encouraging decarbonisationThe biggest shake-up of green trade rules for decades comes into force today, as companies selling steel, cement and other high-carbon goods into the EU will have to prove they comply with low-carbon regulations or face fines.But a lack of clarity on how the rules will be applied, and the failure of the UK government to strike a deal with Brussels over the issue, could lead to
  
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• Intriguing finds could solve mystery of women in medieval cemetery

  01-01-2026 01:34 via bbc.com
  There is growing evidence that the women were part of an early female religious community.
  
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• How the climate crisis showed up in Americans’ lives this year: ‘The shift has been swift and stark’

  31-12-2025 16:00
  Guardian US readers share how global heating and biodiversity loss affected their lives in ways that don’t always make the headlines The past year was another one of record-setting heat and catastrophic storms. But across the US, the climate crisis showed up in smaller, deeply personal ways too.Campfires that once defined summer trips were never lit due to wildfire risks. There were no bites where fish were once abundant, forests turned to meadows after a big burn and childhood memories of
  
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• It’s easy to feel powerless about climate chaos. Here’s what gives me hope | Nina Lakhani

  31-12-2025 15:00
  I’ve spent six years writing about environmental justice. The uncomfortable truth is that we’re not all in it together – but people power is reshaping the fightIt’s been another year of climate chaos and inadequate political action. And it’s hard not to feel despondent and powerless.I joined the Guardian full time in 2019, as the paper’s first environmental justice correspondent, and have reported from across the US and the region over the past six years. It&r
  
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• A polycrisis has shattered our world this year. But with care, we can put it back together | Elif Shafak

  31-12-2025 13:00
  The challenges and strains have been almost too much to take. But in 2025, words of depth and courage have been an antidote to numbnessI once saw a young glassblower in Istanbul, still new to his craft, shatter a beautiful vase while taking it out of the furnace. The artisan master standing by his side calmly nodded and said something that I still think about. He told him: “You put too much pressure on it, you kept it unbalanced and you forgot that it, too, has a heart.”The year we a
  
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• ‘They didn’t de-extinct anything’: can Colossal’s genetically engineered animals ever be the real thing?

  31-12-2025 12:00
  The bioscience startup has attracted billions in investment – and a flurry of criticism, but founder tells the Guardian plans to bring back the woolly mammoth will not be derailedDeath and taxes are supposed to be the things we can depend on in this life. But in 2025, the American entrepreneur Ben Lamm sold much of the world on the idea that death did not, after all, need to be for ever.This was the year the billionaire’s genetics startup, Colossal Biosciences, claimed it had resurre
  
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• Northumberland nature recovery project takes shape with biggest land sale in 30 years

  31-12-2025 08:00
  Wildlife trust is raising funds to buy largest piece of land in single ownership to come up for sale in England for a generation“We’ve lost so much,” says Mike Pratt, reflecting on Britain’s nature crisis. “We’re getting to the point where if we’re not careful, children in the future won’t know what a hedgehog is. They won’t have encountered one.”Pratt, the chief executive of Northumberland Wildlife Trust, is speaking on an unseasonably
  
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• Curb the cod, park the prawns: top chefs on how to swap out the ‘big five’ seafood

  31-12-2025 07:00
  From moules marinière to scallop, bacon and garlic butter rolls, here’s how to cast your culinary net wider and embrace more sustainable speciesFor a nation surrounded by water, Britain’s seafood tastes are remarkably parochial – we mostly eat cod, haddock, salmon, tuna and prawns. But with a huge range of species out there, making the decision to swap the “big five” for more sustainable options could be a good new year resolution to aim for. Here are five sp
  
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• Country diary: There’s a new tenant in my rickety old greenhouse | Phil Gates

  31-12-2025 06:30
  Crook, County Durham: In among the dead leaves and stacks of clay flower pots is a wren, in the relative warm of its winter roostIt takes a hard shove to free the greenhouse door from the grip of overnight frost. It opens suddenly, with a clatter. Inside, it’s quiet enough to hear a mouse’s footfall, which was what I thought might be the source of the rustling, down among the stacked clay flower pots.Then a wren – rotund body, perky cocked tail – appears, hops along the b
  
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• ‘You could see bones’: Families’ anguish over coastal erosion threat to Norfolk graves

  31-12-2025 06:00
  Bereaved relatives say delays over risks at village churchyards are causing distress and call for council actionFamilies of people buried in graves vulnerable to coastal erosion say indecision over how to tackle the problem is causing them avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their loved ones.North Norfolk district council (NNDC) has identified three church graveyards in the villages of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being at risk of being engulfed by the sea in the com
  
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• Ten English fire services tackled record number of grass, forest and crop fires in 2025

  31-12-2025 06:00
  Fire chief says summer, the UK’s hottest on record, was ‘one of the most challenging for wildfires that we’ve ever faced’Ten English fire services tackled a record number of grassland, woodland and crop fires during what was the UK’s hottest spring and summer on record, figures show.In total nearly 27,000 wildfires were dealt with by fire services in England during the prolonged dry weather of 2025, according to analysis by PA Media. Continue reading...
  
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