Environment news

• Extinction crisis: Five things you should know

  30-11-2018 02:55 via bbc.co.uk
  The United Nations biodiversity chief on why extinction is a "silent killer" and deserves more attention.
  
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• This US neighborhood is full of hazardous air pollution. Can a network of sensors make ‘the invisible visible’?

  09-06-2026 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Pacoima is hemmed in by highways and heavy industry, and its residents are fighting pollution with hyperlocal air quality monitoringJose Luis Salas looks up at the ladder. “Are you ready?” he asks Shance Taylor, an environmental project manager who’s holding a white container, about the size of a shoebox, covered with wires and numbers.Taylor nods and climbs up to reach the side of Salas’s tidy house in Pacoima, a neighborhood in Los Angeles’s north-east San Fernand
  
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• This LA neighborhood is choked by smog. The solution: a network of sensors on offices, homes and bags

  09-06-2026 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Pacoima is hemmed in by highways and heavy industry, and its residents are fighting pollution with hyperlocal air quality monitoringJose Luis Salas looks up at the ladder. “Are you ready?” he asks Shance Taylor, an environmental project manager who’s holding a white container, about the size of a shoebox, covered with wires and numbers.Taylor nods and climbs up to reach the side of Salas’s tidy house in Pacoima, a neighborhood in Los Angeles’s north-east San Fernand
  
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• Here are 10 ways a ‘super’ El Niño could impact the planet | Benjamin Selwyn

  09-06-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  The climate phenomenon is intensifying an already unequal global economy Continue reading...
  
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• The Galápagos is a wildlife haven. But is that enough to protect the rare scalloped hammerhead shark?

  09-06-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  The species is abundant within the protected archipelago but when they migrate outside the marine reserve to give birth they run the gauntlet of industrial fishingThe unmistakable fluted T-shape of a scalloped hammerhead shark slides by, followed by a diver holding his breath and a metal spear like an extra-long snooker cue. The spear hits the fish behind its dorsal fin and the 2-metre shark darts away, disgruntled but otherwise unharmed.Carlos Robalino, a marine biologist from the Galápa
  
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• ‘Electrify daily life’, urges Cop31 host

  09-06-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Third of world’s energy needs should come from electricity by 2035, says Murat Kurum, as priorities set out for this year’s UN climate summitThe world should aim to meet a third of its energy needs from electricity within a decade to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the host of the next UN climate summit has said.While about a third of global electricity generation already comes from renewable sources, other energy-intensive sectors – chiefly transport, heating and industries &nda
  
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• A third of world’s energy needs should come from electricity by 2035, says Cop31 host

  09-06-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Turkish minister Murat Kurum says ‘electrifying daily life’ will be priority for this year’s UN climate summitThe world should aim to meet a third of its energy needs from electricity within a decade to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the host of the next UN climate summit has said.While about a third of global electricity generation already comes from renewable sources, other energy-intensive sectors – chiefly transport, heating and industries – have lagged behind. C
  
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• World’s largest banks pledged $906bn to fossil fuel companies in ‘unfathomable’ increase in 2025, report finds

  09-06-2026 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  JPMorgan Chase leads 65 banks making decisions incompatible with restraining rising temperatures, researchers sayThe world’s largest banks committed $906bn in financing to the fossil fuel industry last year, an “unfathomable” increase in investment locking in years more of coal, oil and gas production as the world continues to overheat, a new report has found.The surge in new fossil fuel lending, up $64bn or nearly 8% on 2024, shows that the world’s largest 65 banks are m
  
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• Christian leaders alarmed by climate crisis raise questions over GB News owner’s £28m church donations

  09-06-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Sir Paul Marshall’s climate views and those broadcast on GB News said to be ‘in direct opposition’ to those ofChurch of EnglandThe co-owner of GB News, a British TV channel accused of broadcasting climate change denial, has donated £28m to influential Church of England institutions that support climate action.This raises “serious questions”, say Christian leaders, given that Sir Paul Marshall’s views on the climate crisis and those frequently
  
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• Country diary: Ladybirds and wasps are the unsung heroes of the farm | Colin Chappell

  09-06-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Brigg, Lincolnshire: With harvest approaching, we’re putting the glorious long evenings to good use, and both humans and insects are working hard to protect the cropsThere’s something magical about the long evenings in June, the warmth and the way the setting sun casts long shadows across the fields. The extra hours are much-needed though as there is plenty to do.We’re in the run-up to harvest in July, so if the weather is dry we walk up and down the seed crop tramlin
  
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• Ping-pong sponges, ‘black smokers’ and floating somethings: the secrets of the deep sea

  09-06-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  The bottom of the ocean has barely been explored, but every journey to the deep reveals wondrous new lifeforms. As underwater mining gains momentum, we risk destroying one of the Earth’s last great wildernessesOn 8 March 2014, at 1.20am, Malaysian Airlines flight 370 veered off its scheduled route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. An hour later, military radar spotted the plane heading west over the Andaman Sea. Six or seven hours later, it is presumed to have crashed somewhere over the southe
  
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• Blue mushrooms, shy trees and glowing seas: Beaker Street science photography prize – in pictures

  09-06-2026 02:00 via theguardian.com
  The 12 finalists will be exhibited at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery during Beaker Street festival from 6 to 17 August, including images of newborn fish, a native wasp and satellite trails across the night skyThe language of termites: Liss Fenwick’s The Colony – in pictures Continue reading...
  
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• The Guardian view on climate equality: a richer life and real public abundance, not just more stuff | Editorial

  08-06-2026 19:28 via theguardian.com
  The Global Justice Report offers a hopeful bargain: tax extreme wealth and replace consumer excess with social and economic security for allHumanity can raise living standards, reduce inequality and keep global heating within a 2C rise, according to a sweeping vision for planetary survival, the Guardian reported last week. In an age of ecological dread, that is a bracingly hopeful claim. The optimism came courtesy of the Global Justice Report, produced by Thomas Piketty’s World Inequality
  
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• ‘Severe’ stress on oceans as rate of sea level rise doubles in 10 years, UN warns

  08-06-2026 18:45 via theguardian.com
  Global effort needed to limit effects of pollution, industrial fishing and climate crisis, World Ocean Assessment saysThe world’s oceans are under “severe and accelerating” pressure from human activities, with the rate of sea-level rise double that of a decade ago, according to a damning assessment from the United Nations.The “intensifying” stressors, which include pollution and large-scale industrial fishing, are cumulative, said the report, resulting in widespread
  
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• If Australian data centres are going to power the AI revolution, we deserve a fair return | David Pocock

  08-06-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  We cannot afford to make the same mistake as we did with gas. If tech companies are going to use our land, energy and water for AI, they must pay their fair share of taxFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastOver the past few months, tens of thousands of Australians have emailed their local MP calling for a 25% tax on gas exports. More than 2,200 people have even chipped in their own money to fund billboards promoting the
  
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• Diver captures rare footage of great white shark in the Mediterranean Sea – video

  08-06-2026 16:19 via theguardian.com
  Footage captured by a diver shows a rare sighting of a great white shark in the Mediterranean Sea, spotted between Tunisia and Sicily. The sighting happened during a mission, organised by the NGO Healthy Seas Foundation in partnership with Ghost Diving and the Society for Documentation of Submerged Sites, to remove abandoned fishing nets in the strait of Sicily. Healthy Seas, which removes rubbish from seas, said the video was believed to be the first underwater footage captured of an adult grea
  
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• Call to phase out ‘inhumane’ guga hunt by working with Hebridean islanders

  08-06-2026 16:05 via theguardian.com
  Annual killing of infant gannets has been carried out on a remote Scottish island for at least 400 yearsAnimal welfare campaigners have called for talks on phasing out the “inhumane” hunt for infant gannets known as guga, which are killed by hunters on a remote Scottish island once a year.OneKind and the League Against Cruel Sports said it should be slowly phased out in dialogue with the Hebridean islanders who see the hunt, which has been carried out for at least 400 years, as a cul
  
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• Elusive gull drifts thousands of kilometres off course to Australia, turning birdwatching into ‘extreme sport’

  08-06-2026 11:37 via theguardian.com
  ‘Twitchers’ rush to coastal Western Australia to see black-headed gull, which usually flies between Europe and AsiaGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA lone seabird has caused a stir in the nation’s birdwatching community after landing on the Western Australian coast, thousands of kilometres off its usual migratory flight path.The black-headed gull, which usually flies between Europe and Asia, has been spotted in the coastal city of Geraldton. Continue r
  
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• Giving guitarfish a chance: one man’s mission to persuade fishers to farm giant snails instead

  08-06-2026 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Marine biologist Issah Seidu has found a way for Ghana’s fishing communities to earn a living – and help protect the ancient and critically endangered fish speciesGuitarfish are an odd-looking and ancient species, with the tail of a shark and the flattened body of a ray, but their coveted fins have driven populations to the brink of extinction. In west Africa, where their meat is also a local delicacy, many guitarfish species are among the most critically endangered fish in the ocean
  
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• Octopus surge spreads up UK coast as far as Scotland, study finds

  08-06-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Record numbers linked to warming waters is mixed news for fishers, with shellfish catches down but octopus catches boomingRecord numbers of octopuses found off the south-west coast of England last year have now spread as far as Scotland and Wales and are transforming the fishing industry and the marine ecosystem, according to a study.The surge in sightings of one of the world’s most intelligent invertebrates was first recorded in 2025 off the south coast of Devon and Cornwall. Continue rea
  
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• Airline industry chiefs say 2050 net zero goal now unlikely

  08-06-2026 08:47 via theguardian.com
  Iata boss Willie Walsh blames fuel suppliers, governments and aircraft makers, saying new ‘realistic timeline’ now neededAir fare rises ‘inevitable’ as airlines face extra $100bn jet fuel billThe aviation industry’s landmark pledges to be net zero by 2050 will probably not now be achieved, airline leaders have admitted.The collective goal to eliminate net carbon emissions was declared by global airlines only five years ago in 2021, with similar pledges made by natio
  
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• Country diary: Trees growing out of trees – the more I look, the more I find them | Merryn Glover

  08-06-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Badenoch, Cairngorms: It started with a tiny Scots pine growing out of a huge old birch, but soon I find more examples of this strange magicThe sight pulls me up short. It looks like something out of myth or a book of spells. Here is a miniature Scots pine growing 6ft up, right in the fork of a shaggy old birch. It delights and baffles me in equal measure. In further wanderings, I discover more examples of this strange magic. A rowan and a birch appear to sprout from the same stem, while a holly
  
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• ‘We forget how bloody good we are’: old quarry atop extinct volcano transformed into Sydney’s newest bushland park

  07-06-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Guardian Australia road tests Hornsby Park and explores the history of turning industrial sites into peaceful green escapes in the heart of the cityFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastI’m a denizen of the inner city, more used to plane trees than eucalypts. But Hornsby Park won me over immediately.A highlight is the heritage steps, which stretch for about 1km, connecting Hornsby pool at one end and the Great North
  
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• The fight to save Australia’s ‘incredibly captivating’ endangered spiny crayfish

  07-06-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Global heating is destroying creeks the crayfish call home. They’re the canary in the coalmine for other species living in the delicate ecosystemsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastNightfall comes early under the dense cloak of the rainforest canopy and Ollie Scully – boots off and barefoot – is wading through the cool water with his torch scouring the rocky bottom of a shallow creek.We are at an undisclosed spot in the hinterland of Queensland’s S
  
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• A quarry atop an ancient volcano is Sydney’s newest bushland park. It’s just the start of an ‘intergenerational project’

  07-06-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Hornsby Park is the latest former industrial site transformed into a peaceful green escape in a city known for its vistasSydney’s newest bushland park in Hornsby, on the city’s upper north shore, has been created at the site of an old quarry abandoned since 2003. The 60 hectares is a peaceful retreat just 10 minutes on foot from the local train station, which will eventually service 6,000 new homes.Hornsby Park sits atop an ancient volcano on Dharug and GuriNgai country. The former i
  
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• Dining across the divide: ‘I’m not a climate denier, but aiming for net zero by 2050 is unrealistic’

  07-06-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  An ‘apolitical’ retired IT manager and a ‘far left’ biologist disagree over tackling global heating – but are they in harmony over truth and reconciliation?• Want to meet someone from across the divide? Click here to find out howDon, 74, FarnhamOccupation Retired IT project manager Continue reading...
  
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• Tax-break trees: how woodland became a store of wealth for the rich

  07-06-2026 11:00 via theguardian.com
  Attempt to turn a stretch of the English-Scottish border into a commercial forest exposes threat to habitats from wealthy investorsOn the English-Scottish border a small species of butterfly, the northern brown argus, has fended off one of the biggest investors in the UK.Todrig, with its heath moorlands and hundreds of species of flora and fauna, represents an investment that could save Britain’s wealthiest families millions of pounds in inheritance tax. Continue reading...
  
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• Fisher with a mission: first woman to chair Grayling Society wants to protect ‘lady of the stream’

  07-06-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Marnie Lovejoy hopes to inspire other women to fish, protect England’s rivers and lift up the ‘beautiful’ graylingWith its iridescent pink scales and elegant dorsal fin, the grayling is known to anglers as the “lady of the stream”, yet the society fighting for its protection has never been led by a woman, until now.Angling, and fly-fishing in particular, has always been a very male-dominated sport. The fly-fisher’s club in Mayfair, London, where anglers meet t
  
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• Village solar system model shows planets and stars

  07-06-2026 08:15 via bbc.com
  
  How a Kent village created a scale model of the solar system to help people understand space.
  
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• Drought and floods drove them from their homes. But hunger and poverty have followed them to a Mogadishu camp

  06-06-2026 15:00 via theguardian.com
  More than 6.5 million Somalis have been pushed to the brink of severe hunger as the climate crisis, fighting and cuts in aid leave a trail of despairFor three years, Zeynab Ibrahim watched as her little town shrivelled up and died. The rains never came, the reservoirs were depleted and the farms gradually turned to dust. Hunger and sickness swept through the village, claiming the lives of many, including four of Ibrahim’s 10 children.“We tried every means to survive – selling d
  
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