Environment news

• Fast charge

  06-03-2018 01:15 via bbc.co.uk
  A breakthrough in materials technology could see fast-charging supercapacitors rival lithium-ion batteries.
  
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• Whale in Wales: amateur photographer captures stunning footage - video

  20-10-2026 15:51 via theguardian.com
  Amateur wildlife photographer Rhys Morgan has caught extraordinary footage of one of the largest whale species on Earth. While sailing off the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales, Morgan and his friends spotted the blowholes of a fin whale in the distance, recognisable by the hooked fin near its tail, a dark grey upper body, white belly, and an asymmetrical jaw that is dark on the left and white on the right.People who have enjoyed the video online are trying to raise awareness of fin whales being hunt
  
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• Giving £2 a day to people in the Amazon helps protect rainforest, pilot project finds

  20-10-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Researchers say almost 90% of participants in unconditional basic income scheme in Peru adopted environmentally beneficial practicesA pioneering project to provide Indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon with an unconditional basic income has contributed to the protection of the rainforest, according to a study.The analysis from the University of Bath is expected to contribute to a growing debate about the role of direct payments to communities that maintain globally important ecosystems. Conti
  
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• ‘For Panama, it is life or death’: how drought is choking the canal that feeds a nation

  20-10-2026 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Failed rains and a dire El Niño threaten the waterway that sustains the country, with farmers selling cattle to surviveThe cattle should be ambling, grazing contentedly, through Robert Delgado’s fields. Instead, the animals slump in the shade, tongues lolling, in futile attempts to avoid the blistering heat. Soon it will matter little whether their appetite returns, for there will be no grass left to graze.In Azuero, an agricultural region in Panama’s Arco Seco (Dry Arc), the
  
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• Excessive wealth, extreme emissions – and ecocide: what I learned at Europe’s big superyacht show

  20-10-2026 11:00 via theguardian.com
  These yachts are highly popular with the ‘super-bourgeoisie’ – and getting bigger. Can anything be done to stop them destroying our seas?Who knew? Apparently everyone did, apart from me: you don’t wear shoes on a superyacht. Now, about to step on to my first teak deck at the Monaco Yacht Show, I’ve got to take my trainers off, and I’m having a sock panic. Have they got holes? Do they even match? Do they smell?To be honest, I’ve come dressed all wrong for
  
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• The CO2-absorbing building made of old sinks, windscreens and toilets: Ghent’s £17m design museum is a green marvel

  20-10-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Inspired by a gothic cathedral partly built using human bones, this gleaming monument to recycling boasts 62,000 bricks derived from construction waste – each made by the public during a two-day brick-making festivalMuseums often try to reflect the world around them, but rarely are they made so literally of their surroundings as the new design museum in Ghent. Rising above the Belgian city’s medieval tiled rooftops like an angular white watchtower, the new building has vacuumed up th
  
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• Do not be distracted by global crises. Nature cannot wait for a better year – we must act now | Steven Guilbeault

  20-10-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  In 2022, I helped push through the international agreement to protect biodiversity. Wars and economic pressures can make nature seem like a ‘nice-to-have’. But it is a critical asset, and Cop17 must deliver real actionWhen I was five, property developers came to cut down the woods behind my home in La Tuque, Quebec. My mother encouraged me to climb one of the trees in protest, then told the developers, straight-faced, that there was nothing she could do when they asked her to get me
  
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• Why have countries been pushing for a vital global climate report to be delayed?

  20-10-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Saudi Arabia, Russia and China among those claiming developed countries have skewed findings of IPCC reviewThe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suspended an important meeting on Friday in Addis Ababa without setting out a firm timetable for its next report. The world’s governments are due to meet in less than a month for the Cop31 climate summit, and this leaves the future of scientific advice to governments on the climate in doubt. Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: A species brought to the edge of extinction, recovering in the fens | Mark Cocker

  20-10-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Ouse Fen, Cambridgeshire: The great egret’s story is remarkable, as is the conversion of this low-grade agricultural land into one of the richest wetlands in BritainIn keeping with this region’s summer of torrid heat and drought, the field by the path was an expanse of burnt, dead thistles. What was totally unexpected were the 13 great egrets among it. Ironically, the birds may well be here as a consequence of the climate crisis, but their appearance in a parched brown expanse felt s
  
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• Listen out for Lanny: can Max Porter’s mythic tale of a mulch-guzzler really be heard in this woodland?

  20-10-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Every sun-dappled object is an instrument as composer Dom Coyote and sound designers Elena Peña and Dave Price conjure trip-hop-inspired rhythms in the Mendips for a new stage adaptationThe woodland is stuck to our skin. Sound designers Elena Peña and Dave Price are hunched next to me, burying a microphone into mossy ground. Composer Dom Coyote is listening on headphones, crunching out a rhythm with his boot before shucking his shoes for a subtler sound. “It’s got to be
  
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• Listen for Lanny: can Max Porter’s mythic tale be heard in this woodland?

  20-10-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Every sun-dappled object is an instrument as composer Dom Coyote and sound designers Elena Peña and Dave Price conjure trip-hop-inspired rhythms in the Mendips for a new stage adaptationThe woodland is stuck to our skin. Sound designers Elena Peña and Dave Price are hunched next to me, burying a microphone into mossy ground. Composer Dom Coyote is listening on headphones, crunching out a rhythm with his boot before shucking his shoes for a subtler sound. “It’s got to be
  
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• Colorado wildlife overpass cut vehicle-animal collisions by 91%, report finds

  20-10-2026 01:17 via theguardian.com
  Elk, bear, frogs and other animals have used the overpass, which connects 39,000 acres of habitat, since its completionColorado officials have tracked herds of elk, bears, pronghorn and even northern leopard frogs ambling across its new wildlife overpass. According to a newly released report, the overpass, which acts as a bridge over a busy stretch of interstate, has helped cut wildlife-vehicle collisions by 91% since its completion 10 months ago.The overpass is the centerpiece of a larger syste
  
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• Five ways El Niño is affecting the weather around the world

  20-10-2026 01:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  As the strongest El Niño on record continues to intensify, what impacts on weather patterns are already being felt across the globe? Sarah Keith-Lucas looks at the evidence.
  
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• Mission blasts off for Mars to grab a piece of its moon

  19-10-2026 21:45 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A spacecraft is set to launch on an ambitious mission to bring 10g of Martian moon dust back to Earth.
  
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• Melting Ron DeSantis statue unveiled to call out his inaction on climate crisis

  19-10-2026 21:22 via theguardian.com
  
  Florida governor has consistently opposed any legislation to curb planet-heating emissions, calling it a ‘radical climate agenda’A life-sized statue of Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, was unveiled and promptly began melting in front of an audience in Tallahassee in a symbolic protest at his rejection of action on the climate crisis.The silvery statue, revealed to an audience of onlookers last week, melted away to show a skull under DeSantis’s face. The structure was cast fr
  
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• ‘Crucial opportunity to act’ as study finds most of Europe’s wild bee species in decline

  19-10-2026 21:00 via theguardian.com
  As Cop17 kicks off, records since 1921 show more bee species declining than increasing in all parts of Europe except the Alps Most of Europe’s wild bee species and about half of its hover fly species have declined over the last century, a study has found, as a UN biodiversity summit begins in Armenia.Records since 1921 show more bee species are declining than increasing in all parts of Europe except the Alpine region. The richness of bee and hover fly species suffered a persistent drop in
  
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• Capybara pups at Manx zoo draw record crowds

  19-10-2026 18:12 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Curraghs Wildlife Park has its busiest October weekend ever after the birth of eight capybara pups.
  
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• Volunteers help save one of London's rarest plants

  19-10-2026 15:22 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Tower mustard has suffered steep decline in London but has been successfully grown and replanted.
  
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• Stop ‘cash to trash’ housebuilding in Norfolk Broads, says Labour MP

  19-10-2026 14:20 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Chris Hinchliff urges environment watchdog to block rules that will allow almost 16,000 new homes in one of UK’s most protected areasThe environment watchdog is being urged to intervene in “cash to trash” planning rules that will allow almost 16,000 new homes in the Norfolk Broads despite the damage to one of the UK’s most environmentally protected areas.Labour’s flagship planning reforms allow damage to protected habitats and species to be overlooked if
  
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• Stop ‘cash for trash’ housebuilding in Norfolk Broads, says Labour MP

  19-10-2026 14:20 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: Chris Hinchcliff urges environment watchdog to block rules that will allow almost 16,000 new homes in one of UK’s most protected areasThe environment watchdog is being urged to intervene in “cash to trash” planning rules that will allow almost 16,000 new homes in the Norfolk Broads despite the damage to one of the UK’s most environmentally protected areas.Labour’s flagship planning reforms allow damage to protected habitats and species to be overlooked if
  
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• Four years ago countries made a historic deal to save nature. Is it dead in the water?

  19-10-2026 12:16 via theguardian.com
  So far not a single target of the plan has been met. As negotiators convene for Cop17, the pressure is on to find a way to honour the commitments made at previous summitsCop17 at a glance: everything you need to know about the UN’s nature summitPassersby could smell the dead fish before they saw them. In August, more than 3,000 pike, roach, carp and rudd were found lifeless along the River Wensum in Norwich. Some gasped for air in their final moments, desperate for the oxygen that heatwave
  
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• Can countries deliver on a deal to save the world’s plants and animals?

  19-10-2026 12:16 via theguardian.com
  Four years ago nearly every government on Earth agreed to protect nature. Now, as countries gather for Cop17, the pressure is on to follow through on those commitmentsCop17 at a glance: everything you need to know about the UN’s nature summitPassersby could smell the dead fish before they saw them. In August, more than 3,000 pike, roach, carp and rudd were found lifeless along the River Wensum in Norwich. Some gasped for air in their final moments, desperate for the oxygen that heatwave co
  
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• Musk and Anthropic pledge public share giveaways

  19-10-2026 11:38 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Musk's announcement comes after Anthropic pledged to create a public benefit fund ahead of its blockbuster stock market listing.
  
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• Seabird numbers bounce back in Solent region after 2022 avian flu wipeout

  19-10-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Conservation work by RSPB has led to recovery of terns, gulls, plovers and oystercatchers on England’s south coast
  The colony of sandwich terns nesting at Pagham harbour, West Sussex, was completely wiped out by bird flu in 2022. But numbers have bounced back from zero to 756 breeding pairs in just three years after conservation work in the Solent. Continue reading...
  
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• Volunteers plant 109,000 trees in new woodlands

  19-10-2026 07:38 via bbc.co.uk
  
  In the last two seasons, almost 500,000 trees and 27,233 metres of new hedges, have been planted.
  
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• Tap water no longer drinkable in Norwegian village as climate-related thawing releases heavy metals

  19-10-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Warning for other Arctic communities as residents told not to use water in Longyearbyen in Svalbard, one of the world’s fastest-warming placesResidents of a remote village in Norway that is in one of the fastest-warming places in the world have been told they must no longer drink tap water due to heavy metal contamination that scientists have linked to the thawing permafrost.Longyearbyen, in the archipelago of Svalbard, gets its main drinking water supply from a 1.5 mile-long (2.5km) damme
  
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• Tap water no longer drinkable in Norwegian town as climate-related thawing releases heavy metals

  19-10-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Warning for other Arctic communities as residents told not to use water in Longyearbyen in Svalbard, one of the fastest-warming places in the worldResidents of a remote town in Norway that is in one of the fastest-warming places in the world have been told they must no longer drink tap water due to heavy metal contamination that scientists have linked to the thawing permafrost.Longyearbyen, in the archipelago of Svalbard, gets its main drinking water supply from a 1.5 mile-long (2.5km) dammed la
  
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• Burnham urged to launch inquiry into unequal health impacts of air pollution

  19-10-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Letter from 150 scientists, MPs and activists calls for action to protect lower-income and minority-ethnic communitiesThe government must hold an inquiry into the unequal impacts of air pollution, 150 scientists, MPs and activists have urged.Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that across England, lower-income areas have persistently higher levels of air pollution than wealthier areas. Continue reading...
  
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• Amelia Earhart researchers leave remote atoll empty-handed after ‘plane debris’ found to be a clump of trees

  19-10-2026 06:43 via theguardian.com
  Expedition was drawn to Nikumaroro after spotting what was described as a metallic glint in waters off uninhabited islandA US expedition that voyaged to a remote Pacific island in the hope of solving the mystery of what happened to pioneering pilot Amelia Earhart has said an object they suspected to be her plane was a clump of washed-up trees.“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find that smoking gun,” said Steve Schultz of Purdue University, standing on the sand in front of a bl
  
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• Country diary: At this time of year, an ancient urge to forage kicks in | Kate Blincoe

  19-10-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: Rosehips, sweet chestnuts, sloes – there’s an order and a rhythm to their gathering, tied to the season and to the devilThe government suggests stockpiling, and while tins and candles might prove useful, a more ancient urge kicks in for me at this time of year. Walking the hedgerows, the colours of jewels entice me, and my pockets fill with rosehips or glossy conkers. It’s ingrained. For a vast stretch of human history, we survived by foraging f
  
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