Environment news

• ‘It’s a depressing sight’: climate change unleashes ghostly death on Great Barrier Reef

  21-09-2016 22:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Months after the worst coral bleaching event to hit the reef, Australian conservationist Tim Flannery returns to a tourism hot spot 50km north-east of Port Douglas to witness the destruction wrought by a warming planetJohn Rumney says that just a year ago, this particular spot was once the most stunning coral garden on the entire Great Barrier Reef. If a film crew said it wanted to get a cliche shot of the reef with its mind-boggling richness of coral and fish species, this was where he took the
  
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• Owners fear 'healthy' dog died due to orange substance exposure on contaminated land

  11-10-2026 16:48 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Donna and Pete O'Brien say Misty's health declined after a walk.
  
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• Why a Chilean salt flat is a microcosm of the extractive frontiers of green capitalism

  11-10-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  In the Atacama desert, the extraction of lithium – so crucial to addressing the climate crisis – comes with escalating social and environmental costsA high-altitude desert plateau traverses Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. I am on the Chilean side, sitting in a Jeep along with two other researchers. The afternoon air is thin and brisk but the sun is piercing – a combination I am familiar with from years of living and travelling in South America’s Andean range.The landscape i
  
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• Rapid showers and no flushing toilets: drought pushes Lundy island to the brink

  11-10-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  A dry summer has left the Bristol Channel island critically short of water, forcing visitor caps and talk of evacuating its 28 residentsTom Carr was peering up at the clouds scudding around the island of Lundy, 10 miles off the coast of north Devon. “That one’s definitely got rain in it,” he said. “The mainland will be wet at the moment. And look over at Wales – it’s getting a real soaking just now.”But above Lundy the sky was, stubbornly, blue. No signi
  
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• ‘Some aren’t going to make it’: how pressure on farmers threatens UK food security

  11-10-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Food producers are adding their voices to the chorus of warnings about the vulnerability of British supply chains“There are so many decent, capable, productive, efficient arable farmers out there, asking how they are supposed to finance the crop they are meant to be putting in the ground,” Jamie Burrows says.Sitting in his tractor at his arable farm in Norfolk, Burrows is listing the multiple challenges facing him and other food producers. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘I didn’t want to write about this’: the man who first saw chimps waging civil war

  11-10-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  John Mitani spent years studying a huge community of chimpanzees in Uganda. But then things took a dark turn – and his findings stunned the scientific worldJohn Mitani can still remember the first time he set foot in Uganda’s Kibale national park. The old-growth east African rainforest enveloped him, its canopy stretching to heights of 40 metres. Fruit trees bowed under the weight of African star apples and bountiful Ficus mucuso figs. And then there were the chimpanzees. Furry black
  
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• ‘A living hell’: how Los Angeles got taken over by mosquitoes

  11-10-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Heat and humidity have led to one of the worst mosquito years in recent history, with West Nile virus at a decade highLos Angeles might be best known for blue skies, beaches and film premiers — but for the last several years it’s held another, unenviable distinction: the most mosquito-infested city in America.And this year has been especially nightmarish, thanks to a series of heatwaves and an extra-powerful El Niño. Locals have called it a summer of “living hell”
  
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• Council exceeds Surrey tree planting target

  11-10-2026 09:04 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A report finds some 885,000 trees have been planted, but there are concerns over survival rates.
  
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• 'I watched Apollo 17 launch with Neil Armstrong'

  11-10-2026 08:32 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Dermot Gethings was 16 when Nasa picked him to watch the Apollo 17 launch alongside Neil Armstrong.
  
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• Retrofit schools and consider moving exams to beat extreme heat, says teaching union leader

  11-10-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  NEU’s Daniel Kebede says earlier start times and longer summer breaks may be needed to help pupils and teachersSchools should consider changing start and finish times, reordering holidays and moving exams from the summer months in an effort to adapt to the UK’s increasingly severe heatwaves, according to the leader of the country’s biggest education union.Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said this summer’s repeated bouts of extre
  
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• Four dead and thousands without power after Hurricane Isaias lashes US

  11-10-2026 01:19 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Roofs were ripped off buildings after Isaias barrelled into the US on Friday evening, before it weakened to a post-tropical cyclone.
  
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• Blooming beautiful! The Tesselaar tulip festival – in pictures

  11-10-2026 01:00 via theguardian.com
  The annual month-long festival takes place at a flower farm in the Victorian town of Silvan when the tulips are at their best Continue reading...
  
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• Despair after 200-year-old ‘grandmother’ tree toppled for Trump’s border wall: ‘It crushes your heart’

  10-10-2026 22:57 via theguardian.com
  Protesters spent months occupying an ancient cottonwood. Then a tense standoff with US border patrol came to a headA 200-year-old cottonwood tree near the US-Mexico border, known as the “grandmother”, has been destroyed to make way for the construction of Donald Trump’s border wall, despite a months-long effort by protesters trying to save it.In late July, land defenders began a tree-sit in the ghost town of Lochiel, Arizona, taking turns occupying a platform high in the tree&r
  
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• Four dead as Isaias weakens to post-tropical cyclone after striking Florida panhandle

  10-10-2026 21:08 via theguardian.com
  Some of deaths came from falling trees as nearly a million people are without power and rain and flooding remain a concernHurricane Isaias latest updates – liveAt least four people were reported dead on Saturday amid Isaias after it made landfall late on Friday on Florida’s panhandle as a category 2 hurricane, according to authorities.The storm also took down trees, knocked out electricity for hundreds of thousands and flooded highways – but as Saturday evening approached, the
  
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• ‘We cannot accept foxes as part of our landscape’: the plan to save Australia’s threatened wildlife

  10-10-2026 21:00 via theguardian.com
  Draft national strategy accepts the wily invasive species can’t be eradicated but outlines steps to protect native animals most at riskSign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter hereThey dart across playgrounds on dainty paws, sneak into back yard coops to eat suburban chickens and kill more than a million native animals every day.The European red fox – a wily invasive species – is “one of the most impactful threats” for
  
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• Still wielding a chainsaw at 85: the Australians restoring nature in retirement

  10-10-2026 21:00 via theguardian.com
  For a growing band of older Australians, retirement has become an unlikely second act, spent rewilding mountains, counting sea slugs and coaxing damaged country back to lifeGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailWhen Susan Downes stepped into the hallway of an old farmhouse for sale in York, Western Australia, she felt an oddly certain sense of knowing. “Oh, this is my house,” the retired GP remembers thinking. There was just one problem: it came with 200 hectares.Widowed and wit
  
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• Two dead as Isaias weakens to post-tropical cyclone after striking Florida panhandle

  10-10-2026 16:34 via theguardian.com
  Deaths came from falling trees as nearly a million people are without power and rain and flooding remain a concernTwo people have died amid Isaias after it made landfall late on Friday on Florida’s panhandle as a category 2 hurricane, according to authorities.Both of those deaths occurred after trees fell on homes, one in Escambia county, Florida, and another in Birmingham, Alabama, as the storm moved in inland, local officials said. Continue reading...
  
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• Hundreds protest over data centre plans

  10-10-2026 15:40 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Placard-waving opponents highlight concerns about a data centre development on the local landscape.
  
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• Marina Silva on Flávio Bolsonaro: He will try to finish his father’s ‘perverse project’ to destroy the Amazon

  10-10-2026 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Former Brazilian environment minister warns of destruction as far-right scion favourite to become presidentThe former Brazilian environment minister Marina Silva has said that if Flávio Bolsonaro becomes president he will seek to finish the “perverse project” of rampant rainforest destruction initiated by his jailed far-right father.The Amazon was thrown into chaos during Jair Bolsonaro’s 2019-2022 presidency, when Brazil’s environment and Indigenous pro
  
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• How a South African billionaire is turning a corner of Somerset into ‘one man’s estate’

  10-10-2026 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Koos Bekker’s Newt estateencompasses luxury hotels, pubs and high street business, with local concerns including floodingWhen South African billionaire Koos Bekker bought an old country estate in a sleepy corner of Somerset to turn it into a luxury hotel, residents thought it was a sign their area was on the up.Walking through his peaceful manicured gardens, which feature a maze of apple trees twisted into perfect shapes using the espalier method, it’s easy to feel that all is well i
  
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• Hurricane Isaias live updates: warning of ‘spinoff tornadoes’ as hundreds of thousands without power

  10-10-2026 13:55 via theguardian.com
  First Atlantic hurricane of the 2026 season makes landfall in the USFull story: Hurricane Isaias hammers Gulf coastSign up for the US Breaking News emailIf you’re just joining us, here are the main developments:Hurricane Isaias has weakened to a post-tropical cyclone early Saturday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said, after it made landfall in Florida and lashed the US Gulf Coast with heavy rain and fierce winds.The category 2 hurricane hit the coast near Destin, Florida, late Friday
  
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• Hurricane Isaias downgraded after making landfall in Florida

  10-10-2026 13:55 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Hundreds of thousands of households are without power in Florida and Alabama as Isaias continues its path across south-eastern US.
  
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• Hurricane Isaias live updates: hundreds of thousands without power as storm batters US Gulf Coast

  10-10-2026 13:30 via theguardian.com
  First Atlantic hurricane of the 2026 season makes landfall in the USFull story: Hurricane Isaias hammers Gulf coastSign up for the US Breaking News emailOne significant effect of the stronger El Niño is fewer hurricanes in the Atlantic. In the 30 years to 2020, on average the first hurricane arrived by 11 August, the second by 26 August and the third by 7 September. Isaias’s October arrival marks a stark contrast from this trend.Right now, we are worried about strong winds, heavy ra
  
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• Tourism expansion v turtle nests: the dispute dividing communities in one Tobago resort

  10-10-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Plans for a 200-room project on an unspoiled beach have pitted developers against the conservationists fighting for smaller-scale schemes to protect the island’s habitatVisitors to Rocky Point in south-west Tobago are drawn to its sandy beach, fringed by coral reefs and dark rock formations and carpeted with the fruit-bearing trees found on Caribbean coastlines – almonds, sea grapes, coconuts, and the poisonous manchineel. The beach is part of Back Bay, a 500-metre swathe of land, an
  
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• Dozens injured and buildings damaged as tornadoes hit Sicily

  10-10-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Marsala on island’s west coast badly affected after powerful storm approached from MediterraneanTwo tornadoes have struck the coastal town of Marsala in western Sicily, injuring dozens of people, damaging buildings including a school, and overturning cars.A series of videos began to circulate on Friday morning showing two waterspouts approaching the Sicilian town from the sea as people braced for their arrival. Continue reading...
  
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• Don’t rebuild the dam: Ukrainian experts urge Unesco to protect site uncovered by Russian sabotage

  10-10-2026 12:00 via theguardian.com
  As archaeologists find treasure trove along new floodplain, conservationists say another Nova Kakhovka would be ecocideOn a warm September day, a group of underwater archaeologists and researchers were boiling water for tea on their campfire on the banks of the Dnipro River, tents pitched on the sandy shoreline. They were three weeks into an archaeological expedition of the waters around Khortytsia – a rocky island 12.5km long and 2.5km wide that lies just downstream of the city of Zaporiz
  
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• How drones are hunting fires hidden beneath the Cairngorms

  10-10-2026 11:31 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Dramatic flames from the huge Cairngorms wildfire in July have disappeared - but hot spots can continue to burn beneath the earth.
  
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• Asbestos mystery leaves beloved beach closed

  10-10-2026 08:16 via bbc.co.uk
  
  With Mount Batten Beach fenced off since July, residents and campaigners are demanding answers.
  
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• Chemicals at former fuel depot 'have been removed'

  10-10-2026 08:13 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Barrels of forever chemicals left at a development site have been removed, a developer has said.
  
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• Country diary: The house martins are gone for another year. But they’re not forgotten | Ed Douglas

  10-10-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Lockerbrook, Derbyshire: Last week they were here, now they are not. Yet the details of their epic migration are still a mystery to usThe sudden absence of something, even though you know it’s coming, can dent the heart a little. The Japanese, inevitably, have a phrase for it: mono no aware, the pathos of things – and by things, in this case, I mean house martins.Last week I had stood in the same spot, looking across the same valley. The weather then was much the same as it was today
  
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