Environment news

• Humanity is waging war on nature, says UN secretary general

  02-12-2020 15:24 via theguardian.com
  
  António Guterres lists human-inflicted wounds on natural world in stark messageWorld is ‘doubling down’ on fossil fuels despite climate crisis – UN reportHumanity is facing a new war, unprecedented in history, the secretary general of the UN has warned, which is in danger of destroying our future before we have fully understood the risk.The stark message from António Guterres follows a year of global upheaval, with the coronavirus pandemic causing governments to s
  
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• 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.
  
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• ‘People start connecting the dots’: why an investment fund is rewilding a North Yorkshire estate

  14-06-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  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...
  
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• Jamaica’s beach access crisis: ‘We shouldn’t be forced to fight for what is already ours’

  14-06-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  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
  
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• ‘It’s going to be extremely hot’: workers imperiled as sweltering World Cup temperatures are forecast

  14-06-2026 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  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
  
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• Amoc collapse could change Europe’s climate 10x faster than expected. We aren’t ready

  14-06-2026 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  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
  
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• How forgotten voyages helped track El Nino

  14-06-2026 09:35 via bbc.com
  
  A century ago, research ship William Scoresby left Hull for pioneering work in the southern oceans.
  
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• Rare butterfly find drives conservation research

  14-06-2026 08:11 via bbc.com
  
  Gareth Tilley is credited as being the first to discover the elusive black hairstreak in Surrey.
  
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• I was a hardcore twitcher. I understand why the Cocos booby has Australia’s birders in a frenzy | Andrew Stafford

  13-06-2026 22:00 via theguardian.com
  Twitchers can be the subject of derision but they have greatly expanded our understanding of birdlife in the age of extinctionThe discovery of a black-headed gull in Geraldton, Western Australia, has put Australian birders in a bit of a flap. Normal people might wonder why, considering it is abundant in the northern hemisphere – it is the ubiquitous resident seagull in London. But twitchers, the bucket listers of birding, are proudly not normal.As a semi-reformed, semi-retired twitcher, yo
  
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• ‘Flamin’ cockatoos’ have lost much of their habitat to bushfires. Can the species survive?

  13-06-2026 22:00 via theguardian.com
  Two fires in 12 years wiped out all but a handful of the mature native pines in Victoria’s Wyperfeld national park, a key breeding ground for endangered pink cockatoosGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAt the entrance to Wyperfeld national park, in north-west Victoria, more than a dozen pink cockatoos are sprinkled across a hedge row of pine trees like Christmas decorations. These are Aleppo pines, not the native conifers that the birds rely on for nesting habitat a
  
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• Denial is back in vogue. As Australia leads climate talks, it’s beyond time we took the issue seriously

  13-06-2026 22:00 via theguardian.com
  It is unlikely that many voters are flocking to Pauline Hanson for her scientific insights – but that is where they are lining up, regardlessWant to get this in your inbox when it publishes? Sign up for the Clear Air Australia newsletter herePolitics is disconnecting from long-held assumptions at historic speed and no one knows where the great unhinging will take us. On the climate crisis, denial is back in vogue – depending on what the algorithm feeds you.One Nation’s surge in
  
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• Calls to restore chalk grassland for rare insects

  13-06-2026 15:01 via bbc.com
  
  Buglife says the project aims to restore more than 30 hectares of the vital ecosystem.
  
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• Freedivers, leftover cables and bits of clay: Cuba gets inventive to save its pristine reefs amid US blockade

  13-06-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  With limited resources and sanctions tightening, conservationists are forced to find new ways to protect the coral reefs of Ciénaga de Zapata national parkAt 8am, scuba divers gather to collect plastic and drinks cans from the sea at Cuba’s Ciénaga de Zapata national park. Amid a power crisis that has virtually paralysed the country’s economy, they use an electric trailer to move to a designated spot. In only a few hours, they have collected five sacks of cans and waste
  
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• How a new arrival could help save rare giraffe

  13-06-2026 12:03 via bbc.com
  
  Three-year-old Stanley will be critical to helping the Wiltshire safari park conserve his species.
  
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• Tropical heron spotted in UK for first time as more exotic birds arrive to thrill birdwatchers

  13-06-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Appearance of a western reef heron in north Wales is unlikely to be the last, as heating temperatures mean species can survive Britain’s winter, say expertsIt is a tropical bird typically encountered between west Africa and India, but last week a western reef heron arrived in north Wales in what is believed to be the first ever sighting in the UK.The heron was first spotted in Foryd Bay at the weekend before flying to nearby Caernarfon harbour where it fed among the boats. Continue reading
  
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• ‘Fast-track’ regulation could expose Britons to harmful chemicals, say campaigners

  13-06-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: Fighting Dirty taking legal action against government over proposal it says could import weaker standardsAn environmental campaign group is taking legal action against the government over proposals that it claims could fast-track chemical hazard classifications from other countries with lower standards into UK law.Fighting Dirty claims proposals to change the classification and labelling of potentially hazardous chemicals could result in the UK weakening standards on cancer-causing su
  
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• Country diary: It’s a painted lady summer, the stuff of lepidopterists’ legend | Phil Gates

  13-06-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Wolsingham, Weardale: These stunning butterflies are here in incredible numbers this year, yet what’s most remarkable is their multigenerational migrationThere’s a painted lady basking on the footpath. Her orange, black-tipped, white-spotted wings, a little worn after her long journey, blend with shadows and sun-flecks on heatwave-baked mud, so she’s almost under our feet before she takes flight. And here’s another, nectaring on a dandelion; and another; then several more
  
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• Trees may store less planet-heating carbon than hoped, study suggests

  13-06-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Photosynthesis does not always result in wood growth, a key factor in carbon dioxide sequestrationTrees may not be able to store as much planet-heating carbon as hoped, a study suggests, with researchers finding photosynthesis does not always lead to wood growth.Scientists studied 137 sites across the US and found trees stopped growing months before the point in the year at which photosynthesis stopped. Continue reading...
  
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• Elon Musk's stratospheric rise to trillionaire status - in charts

  13-06-2026 01:05 via bbc.com
  
  The BBC breaks down how the tech mogul's fortune has grown.
  
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• Elon Musk gets public trading of SpaceX under way from Texas

  12-06-2026 17:56 via bbc.com
  
  SpaceX founder Elon Musk said he gave the company "less than a 10% chance of succeeding at all" when it first started, and it is now going public "with the largest IPO ever".
  
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• What is the super new Moon?

  12-06-2026 17:30 via bbc.com
  
  A super new Moon is coming. While you won’t be able to see it, it's still going to have an impact. But, what exactly is it and what does it have to do with the tide?
  
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• Meet the people protecting the magic beans of life from extinction | Jess Harwood

  12-06-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  The Australian PlantBank is like no other place on EarthSee more of Jess Harwood’s cartoons here Continue reading...
  
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• Antarctica’s west coast missing an area of sea ice the size of France as temperatures peak 20C above average

  12-06-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive A vast area of the Bellingshausen Sea should be covered by sea ice by now, with one expert calling the loss of ice ‘depressing’Antarctica’s west coast is missing an area of winter sea ice the size of France, sparking concerns for threatened penguins other marine life and global sea levels.One expert said the loss of ice in the Bellingshausen Sea was “depressing” and the failure of ice to form could have intensified a heatwave over the continent’s pen
  
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• ‘It’s massive destruction’: outcry in Texas over waivers to allow border wall in Big Bend national park

  12-06-2026 16:00 via theguardian.com
  Despite plunging border crossings, the Trump administration is circumventing laws to expedite building in a vast, pristine wilderness The Trump administration has waived a slew of environmental and historical preservation laws that would allow it to build a towering border wall that cuts through Big Bend national park, a vast protected wilderness in south Texas.Congress poured a whopping $46.5bn for border wall construction into the “Big, Beautiful” bill last year, supercharging Dona
  
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• ‘This is what I was born for’: the drought-ridden Colombian town that took on Coca-Cola Femsa – and won

  12-06-2026 13:30 via theguardian.com
  While La Calera faced severe water rationing, local springs were being drained by the drinks giant’s franchise. So the residents fought backWhen a severe drought struck La Calera near Bogotá, many of its residents lost their water for drinking, cooking and farming and faced up to 15 days of strict water rationing each month. Yet the area is home to Chingaza reservoir, which supplies about 70% of the drinking water for Colombia’s capital.As the drought stretched from April 2024
  
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• Have you ever heard of Earthshine?

  12-06-2026 13:20 via bbc.com
  
  Sophia Herod looks at how the Moon can be lit by sunlight reflected from the Earth.
  
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• 'I was employee number one at SpaceX'

  12-06-2026 11:59 via bbc.com
  
  The BBC's Michelle Fleury spoke to Tom Mueller, who was one of the company's founders alongside Elon Musk in 2002.
  
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• Week in wildlife: a squirrel with a splint, hungry hyenas and a great white shark

  12-06-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• The underwater wonders I saw on my once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Galápagos

  12-06-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  In this week’s newsletter: Joining a research team on the Darwin and Wolf Islands off the Ecuadorian coast revealed how critically endangered species are reacting to their rapidly changing ocean environment• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereDarwin and Wolf Islands in the Galápagos archipelago are the kinds of places scuba divers and marine biologists dream of visiting, myself included. I even wrote a children’s book imagining a team of sc
  
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• Emergency hospital admissions fell after introduction of London’s T-charge and Ulez, study suggests

  12-06-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Imperial College scientists analysed health records before and after introduction of air pollution reduction zonesLow emission and clean air zones attract controversy whenever they are proposed, but there is growing evidence that they work in improving air quality. The Bradford zone was followed by a reduction of about 25% in GP visits for heart and breathing problems and survey data shows that the central London zone was followed by a reduction in the likelihood of a person taking sick leave.No
  
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