Environment news

• Experience: A cockroach got stuck in my ear

  10-11-2017 11:00
  It clawed further in, burrowing deeper with its mouth. It was excruciatingly painfulIt was January 2014, and I was living in Darwin, Australia, with a couple of friends. It had been an uneventful Tuesday evening and I went to sleep as normal, around midnight. I was living in an older-style house, which, for ventilation, had a gap of about 45cm between the internal walls and the roof.I woke up at about 2am and realised I couldn’t hear in one ear. I was sleepy and perplexed, but I knew
  
  Read more

• Rising temperatures may increase flood risk through river ‘whiplash’, study finds

  17-06-2026 15:24
  Sudden shifts from wet to dry weather, or vice versa, may foil typical drought- and flood-prevention measuresRising temperatures may trigger a dangerous increase in “hydroclimatic whiplash” in rivers that would make traditional approaches to flood and drought planning insufficient, a study has found.As temperatures rise owing to the worsening climate crisis, rivers will experience increasingly rapid transitions between heavy downpours and long dry spells – called hydroclimatic
  
  Read more

• US public still favours action on climate change despite Trump’s fossil fuel drive

  17-06-2026 14:00
  
  Two-thirds of Americans say they are worried about climate but level of media coverage does not reflect thisUS political and media discourse has drifted away from the climate crisis amid a frontal assault by Donald Trump upon policies to limit global heating and the president’s pugnacious demands to “drill, baby, drill” for more oil and gas.Yet while elite attention on climate has waned, even among some previously vocal Democrats who have wound back on criticism of the fossil f
  
  Read more

• Why farmers see Colombia’s knife-edge election as a battle for the Amazon’s future

  17-06-2026 13:00
  Many small-scale landowners now include conservation measures alongside everyday farming. But progress is precarious, and the threat of guerrilla violence and poverty remain whichever candidate winsLike most people settling in the area, Pablo Peña was seeking to escape violence and make a living from a patch of land when he moved to Guaviare in central Colombia. More than 30 years on, he says his life is now about conflict and deforestation.Peña first visited Guaviare during his ma
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• The ocean has shielded us from the worst of climate change. Now it is running a fever | Karina Von Schuckmann

  17-06-2026 12:00
  Nearly every indicator of climate change is flashing red. But we still hold the tools available to bring the planet back into balanceThe ocean is running a fever. In 2025, the number of days of marine heatwaves – prolonged spells when the sea turns abnormally, dangerously warm – was more than triple what it was in the early 1990s.These are not abstract statistics. A severe and persistent marine heatwave bleaches coral reefs, strips away the kelp forests that shelter young fish, empti
  
  Read more

• Campaigner threatened with prosecution by Environment Agency after waterway cleanup

  17-06-2026 10:00
  Paul Powlesland told he acted illegally after organising volunteers to remove litter, weed and silt from River RodingA river campaigner who organised a cleanup of his local waterway is being threatened with prosecution by the Environment Agency for acting illegally.Paul Powlesland, a lawyer and environmental campaigner, organised a team of volunteers to tackle the removal of litter, weed and silt from a section of the River Roding, after repeatedly asking the agency to act. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• ‘I don’t like being stuck in an office’: the young people helping plant a ring of trees around London

  17-06-2026 08:00
  London Tree Ring project aims to create corridors of plant and animal life around the city to strengthen its biodiversityHarry Ewing is heaping branches and foliage from the forest floor on to a dead hedge, reinforcing the protective circle around his newly planted trees in Hadley Wood, north London. He is in a glade created by a fallen oak that was previously overrun with thick bramble.“I feel very happy – the trees are growing already. It’s really nice seeing it when it start
  
  Read more

• Plantwatch: Russian dandelion offers solution to global rubber shortage

  17-06-2026 07:00
  Scientists are returning to a wartime solution that may be more sustainable than the traditional rubber treeThere is a global shortage of natural rubber and dandelions may be coming to the rescue. In the second world war there was such a severe shortage of rubber that the Allies used the Russian dandelion, Taraxacum koksaghyz, from Kazakhstan. Soviet scientists found the dandelion roots produced enough white milky latex to make natural rubber, but when the war ended producers returned to the tra
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Country diary: Everybody loves to hate the stinging nettle – don’t they? | Derek Niemann

  17-06-2026 06:30
  Frome, Somerset: This much-maligned midsummer menace has few friends among humans, but look closely and you might find an orgy of eating and matingEyes smarting, throat tickling, nostrils dog-wet, I pick my way along a thready footpath up the combe, only half-prepared for the next irritation. Nettles, I am watching you. But not well enough it seems, for a sneaky one hidden under the skirts of encroaching grasses and umbellifers grazes the back of my bare calf. It induces that tingling somewhere
  
  Read more

• As an ocean swimmer, I try not to think of sharks, but we all know that this is their territory | Eleanor Limprecht

  17-06-2026 05:31
  It used to be easier to say that the chances of a shark attack were slim. Now I feel as though that pretence of safety has been shattered After nearly a year’s break, I started ocean swimming again this May, delighting in the clarity of the water and the quieter beaches of Sydney’s winter. I’d stopped because of an injury but then found that the longer I was out of the water the harder it was to get back in.It only took that first return swim, however, to remember the absolute
  
  Read more

• The tide is turning on Thames Water: special administration looks best | Nils Pratley

  16-06-2026 20:00
  It is still not totally clear what the government wants but the political mood seems to be shifting towards a decisionThames Water nationalisation moves closer as government objects to rescue dealAt last, Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, has opined on the future of Thames Water. So what’s it to be? A takeover by the company’s creditors? Special administration, which would allow anyone to pitch up with an offer while the state temporarily funds the company? Or even a quick fl
  
  Read more

• ‘At first, the idea does sound crazy’: meet the scientists trying to refreeze the Arctic

  16-06-2026 16:00
  
  Sea ice is melting fast, worsening the climate crisis, but a bold attempt to rethicken it is showing early signs of success ‘This would have been a wild dream a year ago,” says Andrea Ceccolini, standing on Arctic sea ice just a 4-mile snowmobile ride from the Inuit town of Cambridge Bay, northern Canada. To his left are sky blue ponds of meltwater created in the last few days by a sun that no longer sets in the high north summer. To his right, the sea ice is still a brilliant white,
  
  Read more

• Spanish households save €10 a month thanks to renewables expansion, report finds

  16-06-2026 09:00
  
  Thinktank says decoupling electricity from gas prices has also helped shield Spain from hikes caused by Iran warSpanish households save €10 a month on electricity bills because of wind turbines and solar panels installed in the last five years, a report has found.Typical energy bills would be 19% more expensive if electricity costs were still as tightly coupled to gas prices as in 2021, according to Ember, a climate thinktank. It found Spain’s “strategic” expansion of rene
  
  Read more

• The bat that weighs the same as a teaspoon of salt – and the biologist who rediscovered it

  16-06-2026 08:00
  The short-tailed roundleaf bat was feared extinct until scientist Iroro Tanshi found one in Afi sanctuary in Nigeria, and set out to protect the only confirmed roosting colonyJust after sunrise, a cacophony of whoops and chatter can be heard over the verdant forests of the Afi mountain wildlife sanctuary. Nestled within the Cross River rainforest in south-east Nigeria, and spanning an area about the size of central Paris, the steep sanctuary is a haven for endangered gorillas, drill monkeys, the
  
  Read more

• AI could help win ‘race against extinction’ of vital plants, say botanists

  16-06-2026 08:00
  Tech is helping to identify and save new specimens and could open ‘genomic goldmine’ of fungi dataThe rise of AI and digitisation could be a turning point in the “race against extinction” faced by botanists trying to identify and save vital plants before they vanish, according to a major report from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.New technology is enabling scientists to track how flowering times have shifted by weeks around the world, rapidly identify new specimens and even g
  
  Read more

• Half of world’s children exposed to at least three climate hazards, Unicef says

  16-06-2026 07:00
  Almost every child, including those from high-income countries, is now exposed to at least one hazardHalf of the world’s children are exposed to at least three overlapping climate hazards threatening their health, education and survival, according to a Unicef report.Globally, children face increasing threats from heatwaves, storms, floods and droughts as the climate crisis worsens, with more than one billion facing at least three of these at once. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Country diary: A revelation among the ‘clints and grikes’ of my limestone seat | Mark Cocker

  16-06-2026 06:30
  Wharfedale, Yorkshire: On the trail of a wood warbler, I find a suite of woodland plants rising up from a fascinating land formation – limestone pavementGrass Wood is a magnificent fragment of ancient woodland owned and exceptionally well managed by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. It is home to some lovely plants, including lily of the valley and herb paris. What became my defining revelation about the place and, in truth, about this whole area was down to a wood warbler.It is among my favou
  
  Read more

• Trump wants to put a $75m coal terminal in this liberal California city. Residents aren’t having it

  15-06-2026 17:01
  Residents of West Oakland, which suffers from toxic waste and high pollution rates, rally against a coal export facilityWest Oakland, a California neighborhood known for its rich history of Black activism from the Pullman Porters’ union to the Black Panthers, might not seem like the site of the country’s next great coal project.But that’s exactly what the Trump administration is pushing for – with the injection of $75m to build a sprawling coal export terminal in the near
  
  Read more

• ‘Like a horror movie’: Coogee’s regulars think twice about swimming after shock shark attack

  15-06-2026 17:00
  ‘Saddened, stunned, surprised and haunted’ is how one surfer describes the mood at the popular Sydney beach two days after Leah Stewart was bitten by a great whiteGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastUnder a clear blue sky on a Monday morning, Coogee beach in Sydney’s east is quiet.A few swimmers have ventured into the ocean pools at the northern and southern ends of the beach. Most others sit on the sand, looking towards the water. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Backlash against ‘short-termist’ UK plans to weaken EV sales targets

  15-06-2026 14:40
  Charging industry and electric vehicle manufacturers say measure could cost jobs and harm UK automotive sectorThe UK government’s plans to further weaken electric car targets have provoked a furious backlash from the charging industry and the electric car brand Polestar, which would lose out from the changes.The Labour government is expected to dilute rules known as the zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate. Government sources have said it will reduce a target for pure electric cars from 80%
  
  Read more

• Weather tracker: Saharan heat to send temperatures soaring across Europe

  15-06-2026 10:34
  
  Heatwave conditions build over much of continent, while mild start to winter continues in parts of AustraliaHot weather is expected across Europe this week as heatwave conditions build over large swathes of the continent.A mass of hot air from the Sahara has settled over the Iberian peninsula and spread into southern and western France, pushing temperatures widely into the low- and mid-30s celsius. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• ‘The Antarctic is the last frontier’: the quest to save Shackleton’s Endurance

  15-06-2026 08:00
  Amid fears the wreck will be more accessible to explorers – and new species – as the climate warms, conservationists want to create the region’s first underwater protected areaThe harsh temperatures, treacherous currents and shifting pack ice of the Antarctic’s Weddell Sea, which crushed and sank his ship, Endurance, in 1915, led Ernest Shackleton to describe it as the “worst portion of the worst sea in the world”.For more than a century, the inhospitable cond
  
  Read more

• Country diary: Our island’s wandering wallabies come at a cost | Tim Earl

  15-06-2026 06:30
  Ballaugh, Isle of Man: As I discover, spotting one of these marsupials isn’t hard. The problem is how to manage themWalking through Ballaugh Curraghs, a marshland in the north of the island, I’m taking part in a favourite island pastime: spotting red-necked wallabies. Creeping through the stands of willows, I soon see a grey shape with beady eyes and pricked up ears watching me, unafraid. Another appears and I check for the ultimate sighting … a joey poking out from a pouch, b
  
  Read more

• Fears dogs to blame for drop in little tern numbers

  14-06-2026 17:09 via bbc.com
  
  It has been the worst year for dogs getting too close to the nesting birds, a wildlife trust says.
  
  Read more

• ‘People start connecting the dots’: why an investment fund is rewilding a North Yorkshire estate

  14-06-2026 13:00
  
  Rebalance Earth is investing in Broughton Sanctuary to generate financial, environmental and social returnsFrom a high point on the hill, the North Yorkshire landscape unrolls below. The moorland above gives way to grassland, trees and then pasture, divided by the region’s traditional dry stone walls.The view may be idyllic, but it belies the condition of parts of this land, belonging to the sprawling 1,100 hectare (2,500-acre) Broughton Sanctuary estate, near Skipton. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Jamaica’s beach access crisis: ‘We shouldn’t be forced to fight for what is already ours’

  14-06-2026 13:00
  Activists argue business model is ‘plantation tourism’ designed to benefit elite and disadvantage most JamaicansCampaigners go to court to fight privatisation of Jamaican coastDevon Taylor remembers when the Mammee Bay shoreline in St Ann, Jamaica, was filled with children frolicking in the ocean after school, fishers haggling with locals over the price of their daily catch and craft vendors carving souvenirs under almond trees.“I grew up on Mammee Bay,” Taylor says. He r
  
  Read more

• Jamaican beach access campaigners go to court to fight privatisation of coast

  14-06-2026 13:00
  Activists are challenging colonial-era law and demanding ‘free, legal, unfettered, forever rights’ to use beachesJamaica’s beach access crisis: ‘We shouldn’t be forced to fight for what is already ours’Campaigners in Jamaica are heading to court next week to try to prevent the government from cutting off access to more of their beaches.They argue that ceding their shorelines to big hotel chains enriches private investors and benefits tourists and outsiders whi
  
  Read more

• ‘It’s going to be extremely hot’: workers imperiled as sweltering World Cup temperatures are forecast

  14-06-2026 12:00
  
  It could top 90F in several cities hosting World Cup games – and workers could pay the price with their healthAs the World Cup kicks off, labor advocates and scholars warn that the workers making the tournament possible could face serious heat-related risks.“It’s going to be extremely hot, and you just cannot leave people unprotected or you’re going to deal with a lot of injuries,” said Jonathan Alingu, co-executive director of Central Florida Jobs With Justice, whi
  
  Read more

• Amoc collapse could change Europe’s climate 10x faster than expected. We aren’t ready | Penny Holliday, Femke de Jong and Sjoerd Groeskamp

  14-06-2026 12:00
  The system of ocean current that moves heat in the Atlantic Ocean plays a key role in regulating climate. Today’s monitoring of it may be discontinuedImagine we detect a large asteroid heading straight for Earth. We are able to intervene and prevent disaster, but instead we cut the funding needed to track it. A few million dollars, it was argued, was too expensive to have a chance to save society.While this scenario isn’t real, the metaphor is alarmingly accurate. In Europe, we spend
  
  Read more

• Amoc collapse could change Europe’s climate 10x faster than expected. We aren’t ready

  14-06-2026 12:00
  
  The system of ocean current that moves heat in the Atlantic Ocean plays a key role in regulating climate. Today’s monitoring of it may be discontinuedImagine we detect a large asteroid heading straight for Earth. We are able to intervene and prevent disaster, but instead we cut the funding needed to track it. A few million dollars, it was argued, was too expensive to have a chance to save society.While this scenario isn’t real, the metaphor is alarmingly accurate. In Europe, we spend
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!