Environment news

• Interstellar visitor's identity solved

  27-06-2018 19:11 via bbc.co.uk
  'Oumuamua's shifting identity may reveal details about other solar systems.
  
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• Economics has failed on the climate crisis. This complexity scientist has a plan to fix that

  12-02-2026 09:00
  Doyne Farmer says a super-simulator of the global economy would accelerate the transition to a green, clean worldIt’s a mind-blowing idea: an economic model of the world in which every company is individually represented, making realistic decisions that change as the economy changes. From this astonishing complexity would emerge forecasts of unprecedented clarity. These would be transformative: no more flying blind into global financial crashes, no more climate policies that fail to shift
  
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• Weatherwatch: How frost flowers turn icy landscapes into beautiful gardens

  12-02-2026 07:00
  Intricate ice formations can grow on frozen lakes and seas when relatively warm ice is exposed to still airIntricate fern-like “frost flowers”, said to be painted on windows and windscreens by Jack Frost, are a familiar feature of British winter. In Arctic regions there is an even prettier three-dimensional version.These frost flowers are typically 3-4cm across and whole gardens of them grow on frozen lakes and seas. Like the window version, they are the result of ice crystals growin
  
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• Why red roses on Valentine's Day are so bad for the planet – video

  12-02-2026 06:11
  A dozen red roses may say 'I love you', but many conventional bouquets carry an environmental price, having been imported by air, dipped in chemicals and wrapped in plastic. Guardian Australia's Petra Stock explains how you can choose flowers that show you care for both a valentine and the environmentRoses are red, violets are blue: why Valentine’s Day flowers need a redo Continue reading...
  
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• Labor will never have a better time to revisit carbon pricing – but does it have the stomach to make polluters pay? | Clear Air

  12-02-2026 01:58
  The government has not made enough of a dent in emissions, but global trends and a shambolic opposition offer a rare opportunity to actWant to get this in your inbox when it publishes? Sign up for the Clear Air Australia newsletter hereThere is good news out there, even if it feels like scraps in a world on the brink. Some came last week – with plenty of caveats – when analysts at the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) found coal-fired power generation decreased in both Ch
  
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• Alex Kirby obituary

  11-02-2026 18:24
  My father, Alex Kirby, who has died of cancer aged 86, was a well-respected journalist – at the BBC and elsewhere – and, despite beginning his career in the church, ended up dedicating much of his life to chronicling the climate crisis.Following a degree in theology at Keble College, Oxford, he trained for the priesthood at the Anglo-Catholic theological college in Mirfield, Yorkshire, and after ordination, became a deacon in the Isle of Dogs, east London. Continue reading...
  
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• Point of no return: a hellish ‘hothouse Earth’ getting closer, scientists say

  11-02-2026 17:00
  Continued global heating could set irreversible course by triggering climate tipping points, but most people unaware The world is closer than thought to a “point of no return” after which runaway global heating cannot be stopped, scientists have said.Continued global heating could trigger climate tipping points, leading to a cascade of further tipping points and feedback loops, they said. This would lock the world into a new and hellish “hothouse Earth” climate far worse
  
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• ‘The normal should be darkness’: why one Belgian national park is turning off ‘pointless’ streetlights

  11-02-2026 13:00
  The radical project is an attempt to preserve wildlife in one of Europe’s most light-polluted countries, but can they persuade local people they will still feel safe?Two yellowing street lamps cast a pool of light on the dark road winding into the woods outside Mazée village. This scene is typical for narrow countryside roads in Wallonia in the south of Belgium. “Having lights here is logical,” says André Detournay, 77, who has lived in the village for four decade
  
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• ‘The trend is irreversible’: has Romania shattered the link between economic growth and high emissions?

  11-02-2026 07:00
  Emissions have plunged 75% since communist times in the birthplace of big oil – but for some the transition has been brutal Once the frozen fields outside Bucharest have thawed, workers will assemble the largest solar farm in Europe: one million photovoltaic panels backed by batteries to power homes after sunset. But the 760MW project in southern Romania will not hold the title for long. In the north-west, authorities have approved a bigger plant that will boast a capacity of 1GW.The sun-l
  
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• Birdwatch: Rain, water, wings – a winter’s gift at Cheddar reservoir

  11-02-2026 07:00
  Vast flocks of birds return to Somerset and a rare grebe turns an ordinary walk into something specialAfter weeks of heavy rain, Cheddar reservoir in Somerset is finally full again – of water, and of birds. Thousands of coots, hundreds of gulls and ducks, and dozens of great crested grebes crowd the surface, some already moulting into their smart breeding plumage, crests and all.They feed almost constantly, building up energy reserves for the breeding season. Among the throng are some less
  
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• Country diary: Echoes of Iona at this tiny, precious church | Merryn Glover

  11-02-2026 06:30
  Kincraig, Badenoch: The Loch Insh Old Kirk is a compelling place, and yet, like the copious wildlife here, it is on the edge of existenceThe snow has retreated to the tops of the Cairngorms and the last fragments of ice are crumbling at the edges of Loch Insh. In a muddy landscape, an old white church rises on a knoll on the northern shore. The simple stone building with its bell tower and arched windows dates to 1792, though the site was established by early monks from Iona, probably as fa
  
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• The EU is working on a blanket ban of ‘forever chemicals’. Why isn't Britain? | Pippa Neill

  10-02-2026 16:32
  In Lancashire, I met people living with dangerous levels of Pfas, including in their food. The government is failing themLast week, on the morning the government published its Pfas action plan, I got a worried phone call from a woman called Sam who lives next door to a chemical factory in Lancashire. Sam had just been hand-delivered a letter from her local council informing her that after testing, it had been confirmed that her ducks’ eggs, reared in her garden in Thornton-Cleveleys, near
  
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• More pollution and higher energy costs: critics condemn Trump’s anti-environment agenda

  10-02-2026 15:00
  US courts, scholars and Democrats are pushing back against the president’s aggressive drive to boost fossil fuelsDonald Trump’s aggressive drive to boost fossil fuels, including dirty coal, coupled with his administration’s moves to roll back wind and solar power, face mounting fire from courts, scholars and Democrats for raising the cost of electricity and worsening the climate crisis.Four judges, including a Trump appointee, in recent weeks have issued temporary injunctions a
  
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• ‘We feel kinda bad when a solo bird shows up’: Canada sees its first European robin – but how did it get there?

  10-02-2026 13:00
  Birdwatchers flock to Montréal for rare sighting of ‘vagrant’ bird that has made its home during a bitterly cold winterOn a quiet Montréal street of low-rise brick apartment buildings on one side and cement barrier wall on the other, a crowd has gathered, binoculars around their necks and cameras at the ready. A European robin has taken up residence in the neighbourhood, which is sandwiched between two industrial areas with warehouses and railway lines and, a few blocks
  
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• Iran’s shadow fleet of old tankers a ticking time bomb for sea life, say experts

  10-02-2026 12:50
  Exclusive: Analysts say there will be oil spill catastrophe that could be far bigger than Exxon Valdez disasterDecrepit oil tankers in Iran’s sanctions-busting shadow fleet are a “ticking time bomb”, and it is only a matter of time before there is a catastrophic environmental disaster, maritime intelligence analysts have warned.Such an oil spill could be far bigger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster that released 37,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea, they said. Continue rea
  
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• Iran’s shadow fleet of old tankers a ticking bomb for sea life, say experts

  10-02-2026 12:50
  Exclusive: Analysts say there will be oil spill catastrophe that could be far bigger than Exxon Valdez disasterDecrepit oil tankers in Iran’s sanctions-busting shadow fleet are a “ticking time bomb”, and it is only a matter of time before there is a catastrophic environmental disaster, maritime intelligence analysts have warned.Such an oil spill could be far bigger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster that released 37,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea, they said. Continue rea
  
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• Rethinking Economics, the movement changing how the subject is taught

  10-02-2026 09:00
  Born of student disquiet after the 2008 crash, the group says it reshaping economists’ educationAs the fallout from the 2008 global financial crash reverberated around the world, a group of students at Harvard University in the US walked out of their introductory economics class complaining it was teaching a “specific and limited view” that perpetuated “a problematic and inefficient system of economic inequality”.A few weeks later, on the other side of the Atlantic,
  
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• ‘Every shirt has a story’: the designers saving football kits from landfill

  10-02-2026 09:00
  The beautiful game has a fast fashion problem, with clubs bringing out multiple kits every season. But a move towards upcycling old shirts and wearing vintage garments is on the riseIt may have been a quiet January transfer window, but even so, thousands of new shirts will be printed for Lucas Paquetá, returning to his former Brazilian club Flamengo, while his West Ham shirt instantly feels old. Not to mention the thousands of other players moving from one club to another. Uefa estimates
  
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• Country diary: Ding ding! Round 2 for the brawling badgers | Ed Douglas

  10-02-2026 06:30
  Abbeydale, Sheffield: I’m genuinely scared when I wake at 2am to the sound of screaming. Then I see two male badgers in an almighty scrapFast asleep, my dreamworld takes an unexpected swerve as raucous screaming erupts outside the open bedroom window. For a moment, I assume this is imagined, some emotional outburst from my subconscious. Then I realise that I’m awake. This is real. I check the time: 2am. The screaming continues. In fact, it’s now louder and somehow more intense.
  
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• ‘A beaver blind date’: animals given freedom to repopulate Cornish rivers

  09-02-2026 20:00
  Release into Helman Tor reserve marks historical first for keystone species hunted to extinction in UK 400 years agoShivering and rain-drenched at the side of a pond in Cornwall, a huddle of people watched in hushed silence as a beaver took its first tentative steps into its new habitat. As it dived into the water with a determined “plop” and began swimming laps, the suspense broke and everyone looked around, grinning.The soggy but momentous occasion marks the first time in English h
  
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• The Guardian view on heavy rain: England’s flood defences are not strong enough | Editorial

  09-02-2026 19:50
  The disruption and distress caused by record downpours must focus minds on the need for climate preparednessWith flood warnings still in place across south-west England and Wales on Monday, followed by another fortnight of wet weather forecasts, the sodden ground across swathes of the UK is not likely to dry up any time soon. Reports that Aberdonians have not seen so much as a sliver of sun since 21 January prompted an outburst of stoicism on BBC radio, with one resident commenting: “You h
  
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• Why is the UK so rainy this year and how is the climate crisis making matters worse?

  09-02-2026 15:56
  It has rained in parts of the country every day of the year so far and downpours are expected to continue this weekIn a “miserable and relentlessly wet” start to the year, rain has fallen somewhere in the UK every single day for weeks on end.With more than 100 flood warnings in force across the country and further downpours forecast this week, scientists say the atmospheric forces behind Britain’s endless drizzle are the same ones driving devastating floods across Spain and Por
  
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• ‘We’re being turned into an energy colony’: Argentina’s nuclear plan faces backlash over US interests

  09-02-2026 15:00
  Push to restart uranium mining in Patagonia has sparked fears about the environmental impact and loss of sovereignty over key resourcesOn an outcrop above the Chubut River, one of the few to cut across the arid Patagonian steppe of southern Argentina, Sergio Pichiñán points across a wide swath of scrubland to colourful rock formations on a distant hillside.“That’s where they dug for uranium before, and when the miners left, they left the mountain destroyed, the houses a
  
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• Businesses face extinction unless they protect nature, major report warns

  09-02-2026 14:00 via bbc.com
  Experts call for urgent action by businesses to restore the natural systems that keep them running.
  
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• US chemical giant to stop producing herbicide called ‘toxic cocktail’ by critics

  09-02-2026 13:00
  Corteva will discontinue a mixture of Agent Orange and glyphosate, but another of its herbicides will still use Vietnam war-era defoliantThe chemical giant Corteva will stop producing Enlist Duo, a herbicide considered to be among the most dangerous still used in the US by environmentalists because it contains a mix of Agent Orange and glyphosate, which have both been linked to cancer and widespread ecological damage.The US military deployed Agent Orange, a chemical weapon, to destroy vegetation
  
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• Weather tracker: Spain and Portugal hit by third deadly storm in two weeks

  09-02-2026 12:00
  Storm Marta sweeps Iberian peninsula just days after Storms Kristin and Leonardo brought deadly flooding and major damageSpain and Portugal have endured another storm over the weekend, just days after the deadly flooding and major damage caused by Storm Kristin and Storm Leonardo last week. Storm Marta passed over the Iberian peninsula on Saturday, bringing fresh torrential rain and killing two people. Storm Kristin killed at least five people after it made landfall on 28 January with Storm Leon
  
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• Economic growth is still heating the planet. Is there any way out?

  09-02-2026 09:00
  Rising GDP continues to mean more carbon emissions and wider damage to the planet. Can the two be decoupled?During Cop30 negotiations in Brazil last year, delegates heard a familiar argument: rising emissions are unavoidable for countries pursuing growth.Since the first Cop in the 1990s, developing nations have had looser reduction targets to reflect the economic gap between them and richer countries, which emitted millions of tonnes of CO2 as they pulled ahead. The concession comes from the ide
  
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• ‘To live a normal life again, it’s a dream come true’: UK’s first climate evacuees can cast off their homes and trauma

  09-02-2026 07:00
  Forty-odd residents of Clydach Terrace in Ynysybwl, south Wales, relieved by council buyout after years in fear of fast floodingWhen Storm Dennis hit the UK in 2020, a wall of dirty, frigid water from a tributary of the Taff threw Paul Thomas against the front of his house in the south Wales village of Ynysybwl. He managed to swim back into his home before the storm surge changed direction, almost carrying him out of the smashed-in front door.“I was holding on to downpipes to stop myself b
  
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• Country diary: A walk on the wild side of Whin Sill | Susie White

  09-02-2026 06:30
  Cullernose Point, Northumberland: These cliffs are always thrilling, but today is a riot of sound and damp air as we take the coastal pathThe sea is still raging after yesterday’s storm, waves the highest that I’ve seen here, more ocean than North Sea. The grey-green water, full of churned up sand, is frothing and erupting against dark rocks, bursting with the force of geysers as it collides with the land.Here at Cullernose Point, the dolerite cliffs of the Whin Sill thrust a giant w
  
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• ‘We’ve lost everything’: anger and despair in Sicilian town collapsing after landslide

  09-02-2026 06:00
  People in Niscemi struggle to comprehend loss of homes and businesses and feel disaster could have been avoidedFor days, the 25,000 residents of the Sicilian town of Niscemi have been living on the edge of a 25-metre abyss. On 25 January, after torrential rain brought by Cyclone Harry, a devastating landslide ripped away an entire slope of the town, creating a 4km-long chasm. Roads collapsed, cars were swallowed, and whole sections of the urban fabric plunged into the valley below.Dozens of hous
  
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