Environment news

• Data inconclusive linking death and air pollution, says Indian minister

  08-02-2017 12:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Environment minister Anil Madhav Dave overlooks Greenpeace research stating 1.2m Indians die each year from airborne pollutantsIndia’s environment minister has been accused of playing down the health risks of the country’s extremely polluted air by claiming, contrary to research, that there is no conclusive data available linking “death exclusively with air pollution”.The environmental group Greenpeace released a report in January citing Global Burden of Disease (GBD) res
  
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• The Guardian view on the Nepal-Tibet floods: a spur to action on climate | Editorial

  17-09-2026 19:47 via theguardian.com
  
  New research links last month’s disaster to fossil fuel pollution. Supporting disaster-hit countries must be at the centre of climate politicsFollowing a familiar pattern, coverage of the glacier collapse on the Nepal-Tibet border three weeks ago has subsided with the initial shock. But while the world’s attention has shifted, Nepal remains in the midst of an appalling tragedy. As well as at least 1,300 people who are known to have been killed, more than 5,000 are missing, some of th
  
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• Scientists are fighting a longer mosquito season with ... more mosquitoes

  17-09-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Nearly half a million more of the insects are being released in California – they’re all male and carry a bacteriumThe box arrived in the San Gabriel Valley, just east of Los Angeles, filled with more than two dozen paper tubes about the size of toilet paper rolls.“All 25 tubes are here,” said Tristan Hallum, who oversees scientific programs for the San Gabriel Valley mosquito and vector control district. Continue reading...
  
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• Planet’s atmosphere breaks record for water vapour levels increasing risk of extreme heat and rainfall

  17-09-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Global heating contributes to record, with a warmer atmosphere able to hold more water, scientists sayThe planet’s atmosphere held more water vapour in August than any other month on record, further increasing the risk of extreme heat and rainfall around the world, according to Europe’s climate change service.Climate scientists said global heating was a contributor to the record because a warmer atmosphere can hold more water, and the historic El Niño in the Pacific Ocean was
  
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• Fire, ice and family: Australia’s 2026 Bowness photography prize – in pictures

  17-09-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Here are 26 images by the shortlisted artists who submitted works for the 21st William and Winifred Bowness photography prize.Tamara Dean has been named the winner. The judges says her photograph is ‘operatic and poetic: an opus that is the culmination of a sustained body of work evident not only in its conception and process but also in its exquisite execution and presentation’ Continue reading...
  
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• ‘It bloody works’: why the world’s oldest cheddar-maker uses a ‘milk-source’ heat pump

  17-09-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Barber’s Farmhouse Cheesemakers can draw enough heat from cows’ fresh milk to bring water close to the boil, slashing carbon emissionsIn many ways, the world’s oldest cheddar-maker hews to tradition. Since 1833, Barber’s Farmhouse Cheesemakers has operated from the rolling green pastures of south-west England, milking grass-fed cows and fermenting the milk with microbial starters passed down for generations. That heritage has led to award-winning cheese, now popular acros
  
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• British people understand the climate crisis threat. Today I’m empowering them to tackle it | Andy Burnham

  17-09-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  With nearly £30m of funding, I’m giving communities power over local energy. They know the gravity of global heating, and they want to be part of the solutionAndy Burnham: UK must fully commit to reaching net zero by 2050On the day I became prime minister, I pledged to bring power to every postcode. Today, we begin to make good on that promise in the most literal sense. With nearly £30m of funding for People’s Power projects, communities across every nation of the UK will
  
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• Andy Burnham: UK must fully commit to reaching net zero by 2050

  17-09-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: PM, who is facing pressure over whether to approve North Sea oil and gasfields, makes strongest comments yet on issueBritish people understand the climate crisis threat. Today I’m empowering them to tackle itUK politics live – latest updatesThe UK must fully commit to reaching net zero by 2050, Andy Burnham has argued in his strongest comments yet on the issue, saying it is no longer possible for Britons to believe they are not already affected by a changing climate.Writin
  
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• ‘I see them like my own children’: reforesting Ethiopia with 50bn trees, one step at a time

  17-09-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  After losing much of its forests in recent decades, ordinary citizens have led the way in planting saplings across the country as part of the government’s Green Legacy InitiativeWhen Halima Kedir first began planting trees, she was met with scepticism and even mockery. “My neighbours discouraged me,” she recalls, sitting on a wooden chair in her garden, which is lush with the trees and fruits she has planted – banana, olive and grevillea among them.“They thought I w
  
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• Fifty billion trees by 2030: how Ethiopia is recruiting citizens across the country to plant, plant, plant

  17-09-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  After losing much of its forests in recent decades, the country’s people have led the way in planting saplings across the country as part of the government’s Green Legacy InitiativeWhen Halima Kedir first began planting trees, she was met with scepticism and even mockery. “My neighbours discouraged me,” she recalls, sitting on a wooden chair in her garden, which is lush with the trees and fruits she has planted – banana, olive and grevillea among them.“They th
  
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• Trump’s love of fossil fuels is about more than money | Moira Donegan

  17-09-2026 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The US decision to remove limits on coal and gas plant emissions is rooted in a perception of manliness in these industriesYou can impress a certain kind of person at a party by reciting the fact that there are more yoga instructors in the US than there are coalminers. In fact, the disparity is greater than this catchy phrasing suggests: there are actually more yoga instructors in the US than there are people employed in the entirely of the coalmining industry, miners and otherwise. It’s n
  
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• ‘It’s beautiful when it’s clean’: the Argentine neighbourhood saving a contaminated river

  17-09-2026 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Sewage, dog carcasses and industrial waste clog Argentina’s second most-polluted river. Meet the activists cleaning it upTwenty-three years ago, María Monges looked around her flooded neighbourhood and knew something had to be done.Founded in 1998 in Buenos Aires province’s San Martín district, the community of Costa Esperanza sits on the banks of the Reconquista, Argentina’s second most-polluted river and owes its name to the fictional location of a hit Argentine
  
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• Access-to-nature crisis ‘on par with that of Victorian Britain’s filthy air’

  17-09-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Research finds many in England lack proximity to green and blue spaces as Labour urged to speed up manifesto pledgeNearly half of all parliamentary constituencies in England have low access to nature despite a government target to ensure everyone is within a 15-minute walk from a green or blue space, new research reveals.The analysis by the Wildlife Trusts comes as the charity presents a green paper to ministers in an attempt to speed up Labour’s manifesto promise to improve access to natu
  
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• Country diary: Facing the flax – this city was once built on the stuff | Mary Montague

  17-09-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Botanic Meadow, Belfast: I visit my local community garden, and the woman who has returned to growing this graceful crop that eventually becomes linenIn my hands is a brownish-grey hank of flax yarn. I twine it between my fingers to feel the thread’s strength and admire the fibres’ diffuse sheen. Along with fruit and vegetables, it’s the produce of our Friends of the Field community garden. It’s also the work of Merle, whose love of textile crafts has led her creative pro
  
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• ‘Like a Disney movie’: Three wild dog brothers make Africa’s longest journey

  17-09-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  As three siblings came of age and had to leave their pack, scientists tracked the dogs’ perilous 2,500-mile odyssey to find their own territoryIt sounds like a Disney movie: three wild dogs, all brothers, on an epic journey to find a home of their own after their family tells them to leave. They dodge cars and hunters in search of a new life, navigating bushmeat snares and the hostility of a human-dominated landscape until they find a new haven on the African savannah.But this is exactly w
  
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• English Heritage trains new generation of scythers to maintain meadows and craft

  17-09-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Initiative aims to keep alive age-old skill, and at Muchelney Abbey in Somerset improve habitat for rare shrill carder beeIt sounds like something out of a Thomas Hardy novel: a merry band of men and women roaming the West Country cutting meadows by hand in exchange for hunks of bread and cheese.But the conservation charity English Heritage is recruiting a team of volunteer scythers to maintain 21st-century meadowland in the old-fashioned way. Continue reading...
  
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• 2025 was among driest years on record for world’s rivers, study finds

  17-09-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Analysis of global resources reveals depletion in world’s water savings bank to 42% below normal levels last yearRivers across the world experienced one of their driest years in more than three decades in 2025, a comprehensive study of global water resources has found.The assessment of the global water cycle by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) reveals a depletion in the world’s water savings bank: the amount of freshwater held on or under the ground, including groundwater,
  
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• Do whales grieve? Rare footage of humpback alongside stillborn calf suggests they might | Olaf Meynecke for the Conversation

  17-09-2026 04:22 via theguardian.com
  The behaviours we observed could represent grief, but they could also reflect maternal attachment, confusion or instinctive caregivingIt was a tragic sight.One day last July, a newborn humpback whale calf lay motionless on the seafloor, just a kilometre off Australia’s Gold Coast. The encounter was captured through underwater video. Continue reading...
  
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• Climate crisis probably weakened glacier that caused devastating Nepal-Tibet floods, first study finds

  17-09-2026 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Scientists say global heating was a destabilising factor in collapse of 200,000 sq metre glacier in AugustClimate breakdown probably weakened the glacier that collapsed causing catastrophic floods and killing hundreds of people in Nepal and Tibet last month, the first scientific study of the disaster has found.Researchers identified unusually warm conditions before the glacier’s collapse, which sent an avalanche of 110m cubic metres (3,885 cu ft) of snow and ice into the valley below. This
  
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• Climate crisis likely behind devastating Nepal-Tibet floods that killed more than 1,300, first study finds

  17-09-2026 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Scientists say global heating was a destabilising factor in collapse of 200,000 sq metre glacier in AugustClimate breakdown probably weakened the glacier that collapsed causing catastrophic floods and killing hundreds of people in Nepal and Tibet last month, the first scientific study of the disaster has found.Researchers identified unusually warm conditions before the glacier’s collapse, which sent an avalanche of 110m cubic metres (3,885 cu ft) of snow and ice into the valley below. This
  
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• Microplastics in soil pose global threat by acting like ‘Trojan horse’ to deliver toxins

  16-09-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Plastic surfaces form hotspots with an increase of antibiotic-resistant genes, study findsMicroplastics act like a “Trojan horse” delivering pollutants, pesticides and bacteria through the soil, a five-year multinational research project has found.The EU-funded project, which has so far resulted in 22 peer-reviewed studies, found microplastics in the soil of all 227 agricultural fields it tested across 11 European countries. The researchers said this poses a global threat,
  
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• Datacenter rush will create ‘tsunami’ of discarded electronics, report says

  16-09-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Global push will triple toxic e-waste annually in 25 years, filling enough shipping containers to circle globe six timesThe ongoing campaign to build thousands of massive datacenters for AI will create a “tsunami” of discarded electronics, putting the world on a course to triple its annual generation of toxic e-waste in the next 25 years, a new report projects.The electronic trash AI generates in the next 25 years could fill enough shipping containers to encircle the globe six times,
  
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• ‘We’re near a breaking point:’ firefighters say US government is failing them amid intense wildfire season

  16-09-2026 12:00 via theguardian.com
  US grapples with federal firefighter shortage as crews say they’re spread thin and lack resources during unrelenting year of fireFirefighters battling enormous wildfires in the United States say the federal government is failing them at a time when supercharged blazes have made their jobs exponentially more dangerous.While the US continues to grapple with a critical shortage of federal firefighters – with especially large gaps in essential management positions – the Trump admin
  
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• Company behind failed Surrey oilfield project sells site at massive loss

  16-09-2026 11:00 via theguardian.com
  New owners apply for permission to extract oil in Horse Hill despite landmark ruling from supreme court in 2024After years of trying to dig for oil in Surrey, the company behind the drilling project that was turned down in a landmark supreme court ruling has sold off the site for a fraction of the money it spent on it, and rebranded as a clean energy company.Meanwhile, the new owners, who picked up the site for £1m, are applying, once again, for permission to dig. Continue reading...
  
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• Record heatwaves bring Britain’s second-best butterfly season in 16 years

  16-09-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Volunteers counted almost 1.4m common butterflies and moths, with painted ladies up 335% on last yearThe recording-breaking heat of 2026 delivered the second-best British butterfly season of the past 16 years, according to the Big Butterfly Count.The largest insect count in the world, in which more than 100,000 volunteers counted almost 1.4m common butterflies and day-flying moths, confirmed what many people experienced – a noticeable profusion of butterflies during the five-heatwave summe
  
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• Plantwatch: The insect-eating alpine plant that proves Darwin was right

  16-09-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Study shows Saxifraga candelabrum traps and digests midges – just as the evolutionary biologist predicted back in 1875In 1875, Charles Darwin predicted that Saxifraga candelabrum, a small alpine plant, could eat insects.Its leaves, petals and stems are smothered in tiny, sticky hairs and – just as the evolutionary biologist suspected – the sweet glue on the hairs can lure and trap midges before digesting them with an enzyme. Continue reading...
  
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• People protecting nature and land set up self-defence units amid threat of murder

  16-09-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Defenders of forests and rivers killed at rate of one every three days in 2025, with 85% of deaths in Latin AmericaNature and land defenders were murdered at the rate of one every three days last year, prompting many communities to set up self-defence units, according to the latest annual death toll by the independent watchdog Global Witness.Organised crime groups or professional killers were implicated in more than a third of the 124 killings of defenders in 2025 as narco-trafficking activities
  
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• Drama on the trail cam – this is Somerset’s version of the snow leopard | Derek Niemann

  16-09-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Frome: We’ve been trying to help out struggling hedgehogs, and finally we have a sighting. But how long should we intervene for?Deep into the night, and out of our sight, tiny claws rake over plastic. The animal skitters halfway through a pipe, then stops. A hunter five times its weight is on its tail, but it is safe from harm, and not just because the tunnel is too narrow for the hunter to enter. Curiosity killed the cat’s predatory thoughts with a face full of prickl
  
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• Country diary: Drama on the trail cam – this is Somerset’s version of the snow leopard | Derek Niemann

  16-09-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Frome: We’ve been trying to help out struggling hedgehogs, and finally we have a sighting. But how long should we intervene for?Deep into the night, and out of our sight, tiny claws rake over plastic. The animal skitters halfway through a pipe, then stops. A hunter five times its weight is on its tail, but it is safe from harm, and not just because the tunnel is too narrow for the hunter to enter. Curiosity killed the cat’s predatory thoughts with a face full of prickl
  
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• The rubbishscapes of Essex: why our buried trash is back to haunt us – podcast

  16-09-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.This week, from 2023: Landfill sites have swallowed many a beauty spot along the Thames estuary in the past 50 years. Now, as those dumps start to disgorge tonnes of mouldering detritus into the river, it truly feels like the Age of ConsequencesBy Tim Burrows. Read by Sam Swainsbury Continue reading...
  
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