Environment news

• Japan to face criticism at international summit for flouting whaling ruling

  20-10-2016 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Japanese fleets have killed more than 300 minke whales in the Southern Ocean despite a court ruling and three-decade-old banJapan is likely to face international criticism at a whaling summit this week for killing whales in the Southern Ocean in defiance of a court ruling.Japanese fleets killed more than 300 minke whales, many of them pregnant, when they resumed so-called scientific whaling in 2015-16 after a hiatus the year before because the international court of justice decided the hunts wer
  
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• Bear-y good neighbors: humans and animals are learning to live together in an expanding LA

  20-09-2026 16:00 via theguardian.com
  People are increasingly crossing paths with the wild animals as homes ring the outskirts of forests, sparking a new era of coexistenceEvery year, as summer draws to a close and fall begins, California’s bears get hungry.Black bears have long roamed the state, hunting for acorns, ants and pine nuts by the bucketload to pack on calories before hibernation. But increasingly, for every berry and root, there’s an even greater temptation: our trash and the detritus of human existence. Cont
  
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• ‘You could absolutely rip your bloody hand off’: competitors gather for England oyster shucking championship

  20-09-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  The English have been eating oysters for thousands of years, and advocates say they are an important indicator of the health of coastal watersBeneath bunting in the middle of Mayfair, there was a feverish atmosphere as the finals of potentially the poshest sport in England began: oyster shucking, judged by actor Stanley Tucci.“The secret is not being scared of stabbing yourself in the hand,” says Quincy Coulter Young from Rocks Oysters, one of the fastest oyster shuckers in the count
  
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• ‘Do you have to be dead?’: US coalminers plead for benefits as black-lung disease cases surge

  20-09-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Trump says he digs coal – but pneumoconiosis cases are at a 50-year high, and sick miners are mired in benefit delaysFor 38 years, Josh Armes worked as a coal miner in West Virginia and Virginia.After retirement, Armes, 74, of Grundy, Virginia, was diagnosed with black lung disease, medically known as coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), caused by breathing in coal dust over long periods, which irreversibly damages the lungs. Continue reading...
  
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• China’s stranglehold on rare earths must be ended, says hopeful supplier to EU

  20-09-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Rafael Moreno, whose company has opened demo plant in Brazil, says market is ‘nervous’ as Trump-Xi summit loomsThe head of a mining company hoping to supply the EU with rare earths in two years’ time has said it is “paramount” to end China’s stranglehold on the supply of the raw materials used in everything from cars to wind turbines and military jets.As Donald Trump and China’s president, Xi Jinping, prepare to meet on Thursday in their second summit of
  
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• A coalmine on Trish’s Queensland farm has been abandoned. Will anyone clean it up?

  19-09-2026 22:00 via theguardian.com
  The state government is reviewing laws introduced to ensure taxpayers are not left footing the bill for rehabilitation, leaving one cattle farmer wondering: what happens next?Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWhen Trish Goodwin discovered this week that the Bluff coalmine – cut like a gaping wound into her cattle farm – had been officially abandoned, it came as no surprise.“I always said they’d
  
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• Brazil’s wind farms have been a huge success. So why isn’t everybody reaping the benefits?

  19-09-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  While the country’s ambition is to be the ‘Saudi Arabia of green energy’,communities in the north-east are bearing the cost in diminished health and livelihoodsBeneath the power lines cutting across Antonio de Souza’s property in Serra do Mel, in north-east Brazil’s Rio Grande do Norte state, rows of cashew trees once stood – until the clean energy company ordered them to be cut down.De Souza cannot plant crops in the affected area and the tractor cannot be dr
  
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• Before-and-after images show effects of rain in drought-hit England and Wales

  19-09-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Much of the UK is still officially in drought after its hottest summer on record, but grasslands are slowly recovering their colourThe landscapes of southern England and Wales are slowly regaining their colour after this summer’s extreme heat.The UK’s hottest summer on record left the south of the country dried out and brown, making the impact of the drought particularly visual. Continue reading...
  
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• Spider season! Ten species you’ll see scuttling across Britain’s carpets and lawns this autumn

  19-09-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The world is suddenly full of webs and hairy legs. But why? And what do they belong to? Meet the spiders you’re most likely to encounter, from cardinals to false wolvesSummer is at an end, and suddenly spiders seem to be everywhere – in your house, in your garden, in your hair. Fresh webs hang from doorways, walls, shrubs and fence posts, creating invisible obstacle courses. Where do all these spiders come from, what kind are they and what, if anything, should we do about them?The sh
  
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• ‘Summer of truth’: will political leaders act as climate chaos comes knocking?

  19-09-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Amid record-shattering heatwaves and popular demand for climate action, why are politicians often timid or in denial?It was, according to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, the “summer of truth”. Climate chaos ripped through Europe and the northern hemisphere, sending heat records tumbling, scorching crops in the fields, burning forests, emptying rivers and reservoirs, warping train tracks, melting roads and killing about 35,000 people in Europe alone.The EU has
  
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• How to flood-proof your home: from water-thirsty plants to deflated footballs

  19-09-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  After summer’s heatwaves, prepare for winter of storms and heavy rain, with millions of UK homes at risk of flooding The accelerating climate crisis and this year’s record-breaking El Niño mean that, although the summer’s heatwaves are still fresh in the memory, households in the UK are already being told to prepare for a potentially destructive winter of storms and heavy rain – leaving millions of homes at risk of flooding.Government action is needed to improve fl
  
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• Burning forests, emptying rivers, €180bn in damage: Europe’s politicians face reckoning after ‘summer of truth’

  19-09-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Amid record-shattering heatwaves and popular demand for climate action, why are politicians often timid or in denial?It was, according to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, the “summer of truth”. Climate chaos ripped through Europe and the northern hemisphere, sending heat records tumbling, scorching crops in the fields, burning forests, emptying rivers and reservoirs, warping train tracks, melting roads and killing about 35,000 people in Europe alone.The EU has
  
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• Country diary: A lesson from my final diary after nearly 40 years – keep looking closely | Phil Gates

  19-09-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Stanhope, Weardale: I’ve realised in that time that beauty and fascination can lie in the most mundane of plants – in this case, broad-leaved dockAfter another exceptionally dry summer, there’s a nagging question lurking at the back of naturalists’ minds: which species will be the winners and losers in our evolving climate?Throughout summer’s heatwaves and drought, I watched a dense stand of broad-leaved docks, Rumex obtusifolius, thrive while surrounding fields tur
  
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• Australia’s renewables transition is well under way – but meeting its 2030 target will be ‘extremely challenging’

  18-09-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  A gap looms between the Albanese government’s goal of 82% renewable energy and planned solar and wind projectsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe challenges of Australia’s energy transition – from a system once fired by coal and gas to one powered by solar, wind and supporting technologies – are being underlined on an almost weekly basis.On Tuesday, the Carroll Labor government in Victoria announced a review of the Western Renewables Link, a maj
  
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• Drone footage shows severe drought hitting river in Brazil – video

  18-09-2026 16:04 via theguardian.com
  Drone footage from 17 September shows the Araguaia River drying up, as severe drought grips parts of Brazil. The country is preparing for potential El Niño impacts in late 2026-27, with the Tocantins-Araguaia basin already experiencing severe drought conditions Continue reading...
  
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• Drone footage shows severe drought hitting Brazil’s northern river – video

  18-09-2026 16:04 via theguardian.com
  
  Drone footage from 17 September shows the Araguaia River drying up, as severe drought grips Brazil’s northern basin. The country is preparing for potential El Niño impacts in late 2026-27, with the Tocantins-Araguaia basin already experiencing severe drought conditions Continue reading...
  
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• Fat Bear Week has returned – and the salmon are swimming for their lives

  18-09-2026 15:00 via theguardian.com
  The public will, for the 12th year in a row, vote for the fattest of brown bears in Alaska’s Katmai national parkThe bears have returned to the river and are packing on the pounds as another Fat Bear Week begins at Katmai national park.The 12th annual Fat Bear Week, in which the public will vote for the fattest of Katmai’s brown bears as mothers, cubs and males gather along the salmon-run at Brooks river in Alaska begins on Monday. Continue reading...
  
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• From old railways to an oasis of art, food and nature: how an eco-park was born in Greater Manchester

  18-09-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Northern Roots is launching Britain’s biggest urban farm and eco-park, in an effort to boost people’s health and wellbeingStanding in the open green space of Northern Roots, it is hard to imagine the landscape as it once was.Two cotton mills, two coalmines and an industrial railway once occupied this 65-hectare (160-acre) site in Oldham, Greater Manchester. Later, about 24 hectares became a tip, with much of the space left to nature. Continue reading...
  
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• Week in wildlife: swimming pigs, circling sharks and a fox on the cricket pitch

  18-09-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• The world’s rivers are at breaking point. Can we save them before it is too late?

  18-09-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  In this week’s newsletter: As the Guardian launches a year-long project, Our Rivers, we take stock of the issues facing waterways around the worldDon’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThe nicknames of the world’s biggest rivers give a sense of how we feel about them: “the great river”, “the river that swallows all rivers”, “Mother Ganga” and “Old father Thames”. They feed and water us, and many other animal
  
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• MPs urge ministers to break off Thames Water talks with US hedge funds

  18-09-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Efra committee calls for emergency legislation enabling government to take public control of the company Andy Burnham is under further pressure to take control of ailing Thames Water from a cross-party group of MPs who are calling for ministers to break off talks with the US hedge funds who are effectively running the company.Adding their voices to demands that the prime minister takes public control of the company, which has debts of £20bn and is being controlled by a group of 100 hedge f
  
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• Improved air quality linked to better mental development in toddlers, study finds

  18-09-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Long-term research in New York shows efforts to reduce air pollution associated with higher cognitive test scoresImprovements in air pollution are leading to brighter, smarter toddlers, according to a new study from Columbia University in New York.For more than two decades, Prof Frederica Perera and a team from the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health measured the air pollution exposure of pregnant women and the development of their children in the disadvantaged communities
  
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• Country diary: Dinner time for the buzzard family is not a dignified affair | Kate Blincoe

  18-09-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: We have three breeding pairs on the farm, and one in particular has been a source of fascination and amusementI’m out on the farm most days, but I miss so much. It took a few days to notice a mother mallard with her late brood of 12 ducklings until they were all dabbling in a yard puddle. Dad sees more than me. He told me of the lazy adult buzzard that waited in a tree, then dive-bombed a peregrine that had caught a pigeon. The peregrine dropped its prey, which
  
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• ‘Forcing a reckoning’: How Asia is preparing for a ‘supersized’ El Niño

  18-09-2026 01:57 via theguardian.com
  From Sri Lanka to South Korea, governments are preparing for droughts, wildfires, typhoons and floods – with climate plans facing their biggest challenge to dateAsian governments are rushing preparations for the most severe El Niño weather event on record, with hundreds of millions of people bracing for multiple crises at once as extreme heat, heavy rain and food shortages hit the region.Fuelled by exceptionally warm ocean conditions across the tropical Pacific – and developin
  
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• The Guardian view on the Nepal-Tibet floods: a spur to action on climate | Editorial

  17-09-2026 19:47 via theguardian.com
  
  New research links last month’s disaster to fossil fuel pollution. Supporting disaster-hit countries must be at the centre of climate politicsFollowing a familiar pattern, coverage of the glacier collapse on the Nepal-Tibet border three weeks ago has subsided with the initial shock. But while the world’s attention has shifted, Nepal remains in the midst of an appalling tragedy. As well as at least 1,300 people who are known to have been killed, more than 5,000 are missing, some of th
  
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• Scientists are fighting a longer mosquito season with ... more mosquitoes

  17-09-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Nearly half a million more of the insects are being released in California – they’re all male and carry a bacteriumThe box arrived in the San Gabriel Valley, just east of Los Angeles, filled with more than two dozen paper tubes about the size of toilet paper rolls.“All 25 tubes are here,” said Tristan Hallum, who oversees scientific programs for the San Gabriel Valley mosquito and vector control district. Continue reading...
  
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• Planet’s atmosphere breaks record for water vapour levels increasing risk of extreme heat and rainfall

  17-09-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Global heating contributes to record, with a warmer atmosphere able to hold more water, scientists sayThe planet’s atmosphere held more water vapour in August than any other month on record, further increasing the risk of extreme heat and rainfall around the world, according to Europe’s climate change service.Climate scientists said global heating was a contributor to the record because a warmer atmosphere can hold more water, and the historic El Niño in the Pacific Ocean was
  
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• Fire, ice and family: Australia’s 2026 Bowness photography prize – in pictures

  17-09-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Here are 26 images by the shortlisted artists who submitted works for the 21st William and Winifred Bowness photography prize.Tamara Dean has been named the winner. The judges says her photograph is ‘operatic and poetic: an opus that is the culmination of a sustained body of work evident not only in its conception and process but also in its exquisite execution and presentation’ Continue reading...
  
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• El Niño and global heating pushes water vapour in Earth’s atmosphere to record levels in August

  17-09-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Global heating contributes to record, with a warmer atmosphere able to hold more water, scientists sayThe planet’s atmosphere held more water vapour in August than any other month on record, further increasing the risk of extreme heat and rainfall around the world, according to Europe’s climate change service.Climate scientists said global heating was a contributor to the record because a warmer atmosphere can hold more water, and the historic El Niño in the Pacific Ocean was
  
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• ‘It bloody works’: why the world’s oldest cheddar-maker uses a ‘milk-source’ heat pump

  17-09-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Barber’s Farmhouse Cheesemakers can draw enough heat from cows’ fresh milk to bring water close to the boil, slashing carbon emissionsIn many ways, the world’s oldest cheddar-maker hews to tradition. Since 1833, Barber’s Farmhouse Cheesemakers has operated from the rolling green pastures of south-west England, milking grass-fed cows and fermenting the milk with microbial starters passed down for generations. That heritage has led to award-winning cheese, now popular acros
  
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