Environment news

• Jean Hedley obituary

  23-08-2018 18:19
  
  My mother, Jean Hedley, who has died aged 80, was a headteacher who used her creative and organisational talents to inspire young pupils and colleagues alike. In retirement she was appointed MBE for services to nature conservation.Born in Goudhurst, Kent, Jean was the youngest of three daughters of Jess (nee MacDonald) and William Hartnell, who were in service as a lady’s maid and chauffeur. During the second world war the family moved to Glasgow, where William became an engineer with Roll
  
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• How a Welsh village saved its forest … and its future

  22-02-2026 13:00
  In an edited extract from her latest book, Hazel Sheffield sets out a new blueprint for community stewardship It was a Saturday in February 2020 when the flood came. It had been a wet winter, so wet it seemed that before the month was out, the brown trout of the River Taff might be washed clean out into Cardiff Bay before the fishing season had even begun. But this is Wales. People are used to a spot of rain. No one realised how bad it would get.For two days, it hammered on the windows of the ho
  
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• Less snow, or more risk? What you need to know about avalanches and climate change

  22-02-2026 10:00
  Rising temperatures are forcing some ski resorts to close, while leaving others at greater risk of extreme weatherAvalanches kill about 100 people in Europe each year, with vast masses of ice, snow and rock regularly crashing down on hikers and skiers who have been caught unawares.The structure of the snow, angle of the slope and variation of the weather can dictate whether a gentle disturbance – like a gust of wind or the glide of a snowboard – can trigger a deadly shift in the moun
  
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• The Great Olympic lie: untold story of Winter Games’ huge environmental impact

  22-02-2026 09:00
  Rivers drained dry to create artificial snow, a forest cut down for the bobsleigh track – IOC’s claims to prioritise sustainability at Milano Cortina exposedOn the foothills of the mountains, by the banks of the river in Cortina, there was a forest. It was full of tall larch trees. Arborists said the oldest of them had been there for 150 years and dendrologists that it was unique because it was unusual to find a monocultural forest growing at such a low altitude in the southern 
  
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• ‘That’s a losing battle’: baboon incursions cause tense human-wildlife standoff in Cape Town

  22-02-2026 08:00
  Animal rights activists disagree with authorities on how best to handle boom in primate population near Table MountainAt the edge of Da Gama Park, where the Cape Town suburb meets the mountain, baboons jumped from the road to garden walls to roofs and back again. Children from South African navy families living in the area’s modest houses played in the street. Some were delighted; some wary; most were unfazed by the animals.A few miles away, overlooking a soaring peak and sweeping bay, Nic
  
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• Nasa astronauts' moon mission delayed due to rocket issue

  21-02-2026 22:05 via bbc.com
  The mission to the far side of the Moon and back will be postponed after problems with were spotted with its rocket, a Nasa official said.
  
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• Let a thousand stinky blossoms bloom: how Australia became the world’s corpse flower destination

  21-02-2026 20:00
  Australian collections of the endangered and notoriously unpredictable flowers have popped off in recent years, as ‘personas’ like Putricia, Stinkerella and Smellanie prove a hit with nosy spectatorsSign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter hereFrom little things glorious fetid things grow. Corpse flower blooms, once vanishingly rare, are becoming more commonplace in Australia.More than a dozen bloomed across the country in 2025, includi
  
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• How an Australian farmer is planning to get US consumers hooked on camel milk

  21-02-2026 20:00
  A staple in African and Arab communities for millennia, camel milk is now being marketed as a ‘superfood’Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastCaroline’s sultry and soulful eyes are hooded and heavy-lashed.“She’s straight out of central,” Paul Martin whispers, gazing at his star performer with admiration. Continue reading...
  
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• Giant tortoises return to Galápagos island after nearly 200 years

  21-02-2026 19:32 via bbc.com
  The native species was driven to extinction by sailors in the 1800s. Now, 158 juvenile giant tortoises have been reintroduced to the island.
  
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• US farmers are rejecting multimillion-dollar datacenter bids for their land: ‘I’m not for sale’

  21-02-2026 15:00
  Families are navigating the tough choice between unimaginable riches and the identity that comes with landWhen two men knocked on Ida Huddleston’s door last May, they carried a contract worth more than $33m in exchange for the Kentucky farm that had fed her family for centuries.According to Huddleston, the men’s client, an unnamed “Fortune 100 company”, sought her 650 acres (260 hectares) in Mason county for an unspecified industrial development. Finding out any more woul
  
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• Under water, in denial: is Europe drowning out the climate crisis?

  21-02-2026 07:00
  Even as weather extremes worsen, the voices calling for the rolling back of environmental rules have grown louder and more influentialIn the timeless week between Christmas and the new year, two Spanish men in their early 50s – friends since childhood, popular around town – went to a restaurant and did not come home.Francisco Zea Bravo, a maths teacher active in a book club and rock band, and Antonio Morales Serrano, the owner of a popular cafe and ice-cream parlour, had gone to eat
  
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• Country diary: Foraging for cockles feeling alive alive-o | Michael White

  21-02-2026 06:30
  Romney Marsh, Kent: It’s a family outing, raking the wet sand looking for plump shellfish. Out of everyone, though, I’m the most enthusiasticThe vast tidal flats are empty save for the hunched figures of three black-backed gulls considering a decomposed dogfish, and four humans (one rather small) trudging through the endless silt. A light mist obscures the coast with its string of motley houses and, on the breeze, there is only the distant soughing of shallow waves chasing foam over
  
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• Floreana giant tortoise reintroduced to Galápagos island after almost 200 years

  20-02-2026 22:00
  Subspecies driven to extinction by hungry whalers returns after ‘back breeding’ programme using partial descendantsGiant tortoises, the life-giving engineers of remote small island ecosystems, are plodding over the Galápagos island of Floreana for the first time in more than 180 years.The Floreana giant tortoise (Chelonoidis niger niger), a subspecies of the giant tortoise once found across the Galápagos, was driven to extinction in the 1840s by whalers who removed thou
  
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• Weather tracker: heavy snow brings transport chaos to Romania

  20-02-2026 16:31
  Winter storm dumps more than 40cm of snow on the capital, while in France, Storm Pedro follows hot of heels of Storm NilsWhile the days are lengthening and meteorological spring is just a couple of weeks away, Romania has been firmly in the grip of winter.A storm brought blizzard conditions and heavy snowfall across much of the south-east of the country, with the capital, Bucharest, receiving 40cm of snow – far above the February average of 11cm. Continue reading...
  
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• Floaters: the coming-of-age novel inspired by the UK’s sewage crisis

  20-02-2026 12:56
  C M Taylor’s book, which will raise funds for charity, follows teenagers whose favourite swim spot is contaminatedA water company discharges sewage into a river with impunity and the government fails to stop them. The story may sound familiar, but this one is different: there’s a satisfying comeuppance all round.The ongoing saga of sewage being pumped into the Thames has inspired a new YA (young adult) novel, Floaters – and when its limited first edition is published later this
  
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• There are problems with a geoengineering techno-fix for the climate crisis | Mike Hume

  20-02-2026 12:00
  Geoengineering does little to defuse most of the risks that really matter for people – and it runs the risk of making some harms worsePlanetary-scale solar geoengineering interventions involve the deliberate injection of either natural or artificial particulates into the stratosphere – stratospheric aerosol injection, or SAI – with a view to offset some of the global heating caused by greenhouse gases. If implemented, the technology would create a metaphorical thermostat for th
  
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• There are problems with a geoengineering techno-fix for the climate crisis | Mike Hulme

  20-02-2026 12:00
  Geoengineering does little to defuse most of the risks that really matter for people – and it runs the risk of making some harms worsePlanetary-scale solar geoengineering interventions involve the deliberate injection of either natural or artificial particulates into the stratosphere – stratospheric aerosol injection, or SAI – with a view to offset some of the global heating caused by greenhouse gases. If implemented, the technology would create a metaphorical thermostat for th
  
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• The true cost of Ecuador’s perfect roses: how the global flower trade poisons workers

  20-02-2026 12:00
  Many farmers in the Andes rely on growing blooms for export, but high water usage and risky pesticides threaten Indigenous communitiesThe fertile high valley near La Chimba trembles with sounds. The rhythms of brass bands and cumbia music clash like weather fronts, each playing its own beats in the Andean rain. A rainbow spans the slopes and white plastic greenhouses, protecting the region’s treasure: roses bred for beauty, shipped abroad, blooming far from home.Amid the drizzle, Patricia
  
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• Fly-tipping dog caught on CCTV in Sicily – video

  20-02-2026 11:34
  A man in Catania, Sicily, trained his dog to dump rubbish bags by the roadside in an attempt to outsmart anti-fly-tipping cameras, municipal police have said. The 'canine courier' was caught on newly installed surveillance footage, prompting officers to post the clip on the city’s official Facebook page with a pointed message: 'Inventiveness can never become an alibi for incivility.' The owner has since been identified and fined.Illegal dumping is a chronic problem across Italy, particular
  
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• Week in wildlife: a peek-a-boo fish, dunkin’ frogs and a white crow

  20-02-2026 09:00
  This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• The heat suffocates, the fires rage – even by Australian standards, this summer is brutal

  20-02-2026 08:00
  In this week’s newsletter: The south-east of the country is suffering through the worst heatwave since 2019’s ‘black summer’, while the government continues to back fossil fuel projects • Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereAustralians are no strangers to blistering weather – being a “sunburnt country” of “droughts and flooding rains” is baked into our national identity. But since the 2019-20 bushfires, whi
  
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• Wood burning pollution leads to 8,600 premature US deaths a year, study finds

  20-02-2026 07:00
  Wood is primary heating in 2% of homes but contributes to producing 21% ofcountry’s wintertime particle pollutionAir pollution from home wood burning is estimated to lead to 8,600 premature deaths in the US each year, according to research.Just 2% of US homes use wood for primary heating. Another 8% burn wood for pleasure, aesthetics or supplementary heating, but combined they produce 21% of the country’s wintertime particle pollution. Continue reading...
  
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• How ‘smog capital of Poland’ saved 6,000 lives by cutting soot levels

  20-02-2026 07:00
  Kraków’s ban on burning solid fuels plus subsidies for cleaner heating has led to clearer air and better healthAs a child, Marcel Mazur had to hold his breath in parts of Kraków thick with “so much smoke you could see and smell it”. Now, as an allergy specialist at Jagiellonian University Medical College who treats patients struggling to breathe, he knows all too well the damage those toxic gases do inside the human body.“It’s not that we have this fee
  
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• Country diary: Was this the fox version of a ‘come-hither’ smile? | Clare Stares

  20-02-2026 06:30
  Langstone, Hampshire: The vixen approached the male, her mouth slightly open, gave a brief shake of her head, then darted off againWalking the coastal path, I stopped to scan the flooded horse paddock for the kingfisher reported there in recent days. Three grey herons loitered along the fence line, hunchbacked and watchful. Where shallow pools had formed, teals dabbled and drifted in loose rafts, while a dozen little egrets fed on the margins, using their yellow feet to stir up the mud and flush
  
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• New drone unit to investigate illegal waste dumping across England

  20-02-2026 06:00
  Government announces tougher measures to tackle unlicensed sites as ‘prolific waste criminal’ is ordered to pay £1.4mA new 33-strong drone unit is being deployed to investigate the scourge of illegal waste dumping across England, the government has announced.The improvements to the investigation of illegal waste dumping – which costs the UK economy £1bn a year – come as the ringleader of a major waste crime gang was ordered to pay £1.4m after being convi
  
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• Nasa boss says Boeing Starliner failure one of worst in its history

  20-02-2026 02:44 via bbc.com
  The agency released a critical report that puts the Starliner incident at same mistake level assigned to the fatal Columbia and Challenger shuttle disasters.
  
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• Deer culling to be made easier to protect trees and crops

  19-02-2026 23:58 via bbc.com
  The government unveils a long awaited 10-year deer management plan that will identify priority culling areas.
  
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• Deer shooting to be facilitated in England to protect woodlands

  19-02-2026 23:30
  Government plans legislation giving landowners and tenants rights to cull deer to protect crops and propertyIt will be much easier to shoot deer in England under government plans that aim to curb the damage the animals are doing to the country’s woodlands.Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, plans to bring forward new legislation to give landowners and tenants legal rights to shoot deer to protect crops and property. Continue reading...
  
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• More than 90 deaths this season: Are we seeing more avalanches?

  19-02-2026 22:57 via bbc.com
  Recent deadly incidents in California and Europe are putting avalanches - and how to avoid them - in the spotlight.
  
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• The Guardian view on Merz and Meloni: an emerging Berlin-Rome axis is threatening the EU’s green deal

  19-02-2026 20:05
  The deregulation agenda being pushed by Germany’s chancellor and Italy’s prime minister is economically and ethically flawedWhen the European Union launched its green deal in 2019, putting into law the goal of climate neutrality by the middle of the century, it showed strategic foresight as well as global leadership. Russia’s war in Ukraine has starkly underlined the extent to which the continent’s energy security – and its future prosperity – is dependent on
  
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