Environment news

• Flickers of movement where no plane flies

  03-04-2017 06:30
  
  Manchester airport A grounded traveller is distracted by the pied wagtails swarming over the terminal roofThe storm has mostly moved over, but its trailing coat still ruffles the air outside Terminal 1 of Manchester airport, and the backlog of cancelled and delayed flights testifies to its handiwork. With an unexpected three hours to kill, I leave the terminal by way of a first-floor access road, as the dregs of the day drain from the oppressively blank sky.I am braced for boredom, but an incong
  
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• Weatherwatch: Cleaner clouds may slow rate of global heating

  02-07-2026 07:00
  Study shows falling dust levels are making clouds more reflective, an effect not taken into account in climate modelsCleaner clouds are helping to slow the rate of global heating, a study shows. Falling levels of dust in the atmosphere are making clouds more reflective. This previously unidentified effect is not being taken into account by current climate models, which may mean they are slightly overestimating the projected rate of global heating.Researchers analysed satellite observations of hi
  
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• How Bolivia’s breakthrough in jaguar rehabilitation could bring the big cat back from the brink

  02-07-2026 07:00
  More jaguars are killed in Bolivia each year by poachers than in any other country, driving the population to critical levels. But a recent successful release from captivity could radically increase the jaguar’s chances of survivalA tentative paw emerged from a steel cage on to the sandy riverbed deep in the Bolivian rainforest. Then, another. Slowly, the female jaguar looked right, left and right again, as if waiting to cross a busy road. Then, muscles stiff from the long journey, it stro
  
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• Global boom in livestock farming since 2006 is piling pressure on nature, report finds

  02-07-2026 07:00
  
  Wildlife at risk as demand for cropland and water grows to feed 50% rise in farmed animals, campaign alliance saysThe number of mammals and poultry farmed worldwide has increased by half in the last two decades, research shows, and the amount of cropland used for feeding livestock has increased by about a quarter.These increases are putting rising pressure on natural systems, threatening wildlife and plant species and adding to the climate crisis. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘Exploratory and curious animals’: mysterious rise in orca sightings off Northumberland coast

  02-07-2026 07:00
  Reasons for increase not clear but experts say it could be welcome sign marine ecosystem is becoming healthierThe Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast have long drawn fans of the natural world keen to catch sight of the resident guillemots and puffins.But as recently as last week, another much bigger black-and-white animal has been delighting wildlife spotters. Orcas have been appearing more regularly than ever before. Continue reading...
  
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• EU-approved pesticide found to have potential effects on brain development

  02-07-2026 07:00
  
  New study on fluazinam’s neurotoxicity comes up with different findings from earlier report based on manufacturer’s dataResearchers who re-ran a crucial fungicide study on neurotoxicity have come up with significantly different findings, and campaigners argue that the substance should now be withdrawn from the market.In 2005, a study conducted by Huntingdon Life Sciences on behalf of ISK, the manufacturer of fluazinam, on the development of neurotoxicity of fluazinam in pregnant rats
  
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• Can Bolivia’s historic big cat release help change jaguar conservation in the country?

  02-07-2026 07:00
  Poaching and wildfires have driven the country’s jaguar population to a critical level, and until now even rescued animals faced life in captivity. A new approach to rehabilitation could change that – but critics are unsureA tentative paw emerged from a steel cage on to the sandy riverbed deep in the Bolivian rainforest. Then, another. Slowly, the female jaguar looked right, left and right again, as if waiting to cross a busy road. Then, muscles stiff from the long journey, it stroll
  
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• Scientists fear seabird die-off as El Niño looms: ‘We don’t know how bad this will get’

  01-07-2026 21:37
  Many seabirds are starving to death as a marine heat wave lingers off California and fish seek deeper, cooler watersWithin minutes of walking on a San Diego beach, marine ornithologist Tammy Russell found the feathered carcasses – one after another.Some were mixed in with washed up kelp. Others were under rocks. Continue reading...
  
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• Nominate your invertebrate of the year

  01-07-2026 18:07
  
  We’re asking people from around the world to nominate their favourite spineless species for our third Invertebrate of the Year competitionStep aside World Cup heroes, there’s a bigger global competition in town. The whistle has been blown to launch the third Invertebrate of the Year contest.We want you to nominate your favourite spineless creature for the hugely popular annual Guardian jamboree which celebrates the wonder and importance of the world’s invertebrates. Continue re
  
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• England has just had its hottest June on record, Met Office data shows

  01-07-2026 17:47
  
  Chief scientist says dangerous heatwaves, which are getting more likely, ‘bring home the implications of climate change’The month of June was the hottest in England on record, driven by a searing heatwave in the final days of the month, which for the first time had red heat alerts for three days, according to Met Office data.The Met Office said provisional statistics showed Wales and the UK as a whole had recorded their second-warmest June since 1884. Continue reading...
  
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• New Orleans residents on warning to abandon sinking city: ‘Nobody wants to leave home’

  01-07-2026 14:00
  After a recent study found New Orleans is at a ‘point of no return’ amid the climate crisis, some locals say they will ‘only leave if forced to’. But what would it take to stay?When a study in May concluded that New Orleans has hit a “point of no return” due to the climate crisis that will require people to eventually retreat from their storied yet ultimately doomed city, the local reaction was swift and fiery.The onward march of rising seas around a sinking c
  
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• Sycamore Gap tree sapling stolen from castle grounds months after planting

  01-07-2026 12:01
  Cumbria police and National Trust appeal for information after young tree taken from Wray parkland and castle A sapling taken from the Sycamore Gap tree has been stolen from the grounds of a castle just months after it was planted.The Sycamore Gap tree, on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, was one of the UK’s best-known and most loved trees. It was criminally felled for no apparent reason on a stormy night in September 2023. Continue reading...
  
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• What is the United States of America now? | Rebecca Solnit

  01-07-2026 12:00
  The United States of America is ... so many things, horrific and magnificent, good and evil, promising and cursedThe United States of America is a truck that has driven into a ditch. The United States of America is a program that has been hacked. The United States of America is ... so many things, horrific and magnificent, good and evil, promising and cursed, as it approaches its quarter millennium mark. I say it as though the US was one thing, but it is a thousand things.It is the masked ICE ag
  
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• Toxic for 100 years: the UK golf course built on chemical waste

  01-07-2026 11:42
  Despite contamination at Malkins Bank in Cheshire, it is deemed suitable for golf … and now a children’s play areaOne morning in Sandbach, a neighbour appeared at Graham Warner’s door with a large folder: a delivery, she said, from an unidentified source.“I think you’ll find this very interesting. Happy reading,” she said. Continue reading...
  
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• A 1,000kg mammal is wreaking havoc in Tasmania – and Neil the seal is loved for it

  01-07-2026 08:46
  The elephant seal has been crushing fences, blocking traffic and bashing into parked cars, in what experts say is play-fighting behaviourFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastBollards, traffic cones, fences and LandCruisers stand little chance against a 1-tonne giant known as Neil the seal, now a local legend in southern Tasmania.Neil – a five-year-old elephant seal – has once again taken up residence in Tasma
  
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• When the right promotes heat-stress denial, ask yourself this: whose children’s lives is it willing to risk? | George Monbiot

  01-07-2026 08:00
  The class politics of extreme heat are very real and very dangerous – but that doesn’t stop the billionaire press from peddling its agendaEvery time you think the idiocy has hit rock bottom, it discovers a new level. It turns out there’s an even deeper hole you can dig for yourself than climate-science denial: heat-stress denial. Across the billionaire press last week, columnists and leader writers minimised the health impacts of the heatwave, particularly in schools. Expect mo
  
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• When the right denies the true danger of heatwaves, ask yourself this: whose children’s lives is it willing to risk? | George Monbiot

  01-07-2026 08:00
  The class politics of extreme heat are very real and very dangerous – but that doesn’t stop the billionaire press from peddling its agendaEvery time you think the idiocy has hit rock bottom, it discovers a new level. It turns out there’s an even deeper hole you can dig for yourself than climate-science denial: heat-stress denial. Across the billionaire press last week, columnists and leader writers minimised the health impacts of the heatwave, particularly in schools. Expect mo
  
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• ScottishPower owes me £1,000 in solar panel payments

  01-07-2026 08:00
  For months I’ve been trying to receive my FIT payment, which should be more than £1,000I moved into my new house 14 months ago, and soon afterwards applied to ScottishPower, with whom the solar panels are registered for a feed-in tariff (Fit), for transfer of ownership of the panels and the tariff.After many emails back and forth, I got a response saying they had all the information required. Continue reading...
  
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• Three beaver kits born in Wyre Forest enclosure

  01-07-2026 07:38 via bbc.co.uk
  
  New beaver kits are captured on camera after a family of six beavers were first released in 2024.
  
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• Tears and celebrations as river 'wiggle' restored

  01-07-2026 07:29 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The meander in the River Kemp has been restored in a project led by Severn Rivers Trust.
  
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• Neil the seal wreaks beautiful havoc in southern Tasmania – video

  01-07-2026 07:27
  Bollards, cones, fences and LandCruisers stand little chance against a 1,000kg giant known as 'Neil the seal'. The five-and-a-half-year-old elephant seal is already a local legend and has once again taken up residence in towns in southern Tasmania. He's bypassing barricades, he's crushing fences, he's lying in roadsTasmania's Neil the seal has found viral fame, leaving experts concerned for his welfare Continue reading...
  
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• Beavers stop station from flooding, ecologists say

  01-07-2026 07:11 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A colony of beavers reintroduced to Ealing has also helped other wildlife to thrive, ecologists say.
  
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• Specieswatch: How heatwaves play havoc with bees’ fertility

  01-07-2026 07:00
  
  Study reveals extreme heat causes sharp drop with knock-on effect for pollination of food crops in following yearsWe know heatwaves have serious health consequences for humans, but what about other species? A study has shown they severely diminish bees’ fertility, with significant implications for the pollination of food crops in the following years.Prof James Gilbert of the University of Hull his and colleagues simulated a three-day UK heatwave in the lab and measured its effect on solita
  
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• Country diary: A story of water pollution, told in seaweed | Sara Hudston

  01-07-2026 06:30
  Charmouth, Dorset: On a busy beach day, I find bright green gutweed thriving by the river mouth. It’s resilient – and loves the nutrients found in sewageCharmouth beach is always busy. Even on grey and stormy winter days, walkers and their dogs patrol the hissing waves, and fossil hunters pick over rubble newly fallen from the black cliffs.With summer here and school holidays approaching, the sands are strewn with visitors and the car park packed with glittering windscreens. It&rsquo
  
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• Ocean surface temperatures hit a record high for June

  01-07-2026 04:00
  
  European scientists warn of consequences for weather patterns, the global climate and marine lifeTemperatures on the ocean surface have hit a record high, raising fears of another burst of extreme heat this summer.On 21 June, temperatures outside the polar regions exceeded the extraordinary highs observed at the same time in 2023 and 2024, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Wednesday. Continue reading...
  
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• Dangerous heatwave to hit US ahead of holiday weekend

  01-07-2026 00:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  North America will bake in extreme temperatures amid celebrations for the United States' 250th birthday.
  
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• ‘But we’re just 1% of emissions’: do smaller countries’ climate efforts matter?

  30-06-2026 17:53
  Past and present leaders of wealthy nations such as UK and Germany have argued their actions are insignificantOn first hearing, it is a position that sounds reasonable. “When our share of global emissions is less than 1%,” Rishi Sunak argued when he was the UK prime minister in 2023, “how can it be right that British citizens are now being told to sacrifice even more than others?”Sunak is not the only world leader to have cited such figures while delaying cuts to pollutio
  
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• Potentially dangerous heatwave to sweep across the eastern United States

  30-06-2026 17:42 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A heatwave developing across the eastern United States will bring daytime heat, high humidity and stifling overnight temperatures as Ben Rich explains.
  
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• ‘Is there a way out of this mess?’: Your questions answered on Europe’s week of hellish heat

  30-06-2026 16:14
  As the the shocking heatwave continues, our European environment correspondent Ajit Niranjan answered your questions about which countries have responded best, who is being held to account, and why people are surprised after decades of warningssloth_101 asks: Most reports still talk about this issue in terms of “records”? Technically, that might be correct but it feels like it’s missing the urgency of the matter. “Records” are meant to be broken. These records clear
  
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• Researchers find millions more insect species

  30-06-2026 14:35 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists estimate at least between 14 and 30 million insect species, not just six million.
  
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