Environment news

• More than 80% of the world’s reefs hit by bleaching after worst global event on record

  23-04-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  An ashen pallor and an eerie stillness all that remains where there should fluttering fish and vibrant colours in the reefscape, one conservationist saysThe world’s coral reefs have been pushed into “uncharted territory” by the worst global bleaching event on record that has now hit more than 80% of the planet’s reefs, scientists have warned.Reefs in at least 82 countries and territories have been exposed to enough heat to turn corals white since the global event started
  
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• ‘Radiator rattling’ earthquake hits Lancashire village for second time in two weeks

  19-12-2025 15:47 via theguardian.com
  People of Silverdale report rattling and shaking as 2.5 magnitude earthquake strikes in probable aftershockA village in Lancashire has been hit by a “radiator rattling” earthquake for the second time in little over two weeks.Residents of Silverdale, a small coastal village located five miles south of the Cumbria border, reported the now strangely familiar feeling of rattling and shaking in their homes at 5.03am as a 2.5-magnitude earthquake hit the area with its epicentre 1.6 miles (
  
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• Food becoming more calorific but less nutritious due to rising carbon dioxide

  19-12-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  Researchers noticed ‘dramatic’ changes in nutrients in crops, including drop in zinc and rise in leadMore carbon dioxide in the environment is making food more calorific but less nutritious – and also potentially more toxic, a study has found.Sterre ter Haar, a lecturer at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and other researchers at the institution created a method to compare multiple studies on plants’ responses to increased CO2 levels. The results, she said, were a sh
  
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• Weather tracker: Early snowfall in New York and a storm ruins Christmas lights in Spain

  19-12-2025 10:24 via theguardian.com
  Long Island receives 21cm of snow, while a tornado tears down decorations near MálagaHeavy snow fell in parts of New England this week. New York’s Central Park received a few centimetres of snow, while 21cm (8.5in) was dumped in parts of Long Island. This is the earliest New York has experienced snowfall since 2018.New York narrowly missed out on widespread snowfall a few weeks ago. The low-pressure system tracked ever so slightly to the north of New York, enabling the warmer air to
  
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• ‘I can’t think of a place more pristine’: 133,000 hectares of Chilean Patagonia preserved after local fundraising

  19-12-2025 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Ancient forests and turquoise rivers of the Cochamó Valley protected from logging, damming and developmentA wild valley in Chilean Patagonia has been preserved for future generations and protected from logging, damming and unbridled development after a remarkable fundraising effort by local groups, the Guardian can reveal.The 133,000 hectares (328,000 acres) of pristine wilderness in the Cochamó Valley was bought for $78m (£58m) after a grassroots campaign led by t
  
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• Week in wildlife: honeymooning owls, an otter on the razz and a magical frog

  19-12-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• As the US invests in fossil fuels, young climate activists push back in the courts

  19-12-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  In this week’s newsletter: A generation is using the legal system to demand accountability for climate harm• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereRikki Held grew up on her family’s ranch in Montana, watching the land transform amid the climate crisis. The Powder River, which runs through the property, has sometimes dried up during drought, leaving crops and livestock without water. At other points, rapid snowmelt and heavy rains have caused flooding
  
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• How we hold back the tide: levees, drains and a bronze age circle of skulls

  19-12-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Were children’s bones found at the edge of European lake settlements an attempt to appease water gods?Flood protection takes many forms, from the levees of Louisiana to the drains of East Anglia. Some villages in bronze age Europe may have had a more unusual barrier: a circle of skulls.Researchers from Basel University have found children’s skulls at the edge of lake settlements vulnerable to flooding, dating to the ninth century BC. As flooding became worse, villages in the Circum-A
  
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• Country diary: Postcard from a pier, where brent geese are the main attraction | Lev Parikian

  19-12-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Ryde, Isle of Wight: Lots of commotion here among the hovercraft and herring gulls, but it’s the wonderful, tubby geese that make my winterThere’s a hovercraft on the sand, skirts deflated, dumped like a beached whale. Behind it, the pier stretches into the Solent. The air has the dull taste of off-season resort, with background notes of seaweed and vinegar. Welcome to Ryde.We eat fish and chips, fending off the attention of a hungry herring gull. The clicks and whistles of 20 starli
  
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• They survived wildfires. But something else is killing Greece’s iconic fir forests

  19-12-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  In the Peloponnese mountains, the usually hardy trees are turning brown even where fires haven’t reached. Experts are raising the alarm on a complex crisisIn the southern Peloponnese, the Greek fir is a towering presence. The deep green, slow-growing conifers have long defined the region’s high-altitude forests, thriving in the mountains and rocky soils. For generations they have been one of the country’s hardier species, unusually capable of withstanding drought, insects and t
  
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• ‘We’ve future-proofed’: how UK’s biggest car factory upgraded for EV revolution

  18-12-2025 18:41 via theguardian.com
  Nissan builds in capability to go fully electric at Sunderland plant amid scaling back of transition targets across EuropeCar bodies suspended from overhead rails move through Nissan’s factory in Sunderland, with workers stepping in to fit parts at different stations. At the newly installed battery “marriage station”, lifting machines push the most crucial component up into the body. Robots fit and tighten 16 bolts in under a minute – quick enough to ensure the constant f
  
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• ‘You learn tricks to reduce it’: the smart bins measuring food waste in South Korea

  18-12-2025 15:29 via theguardian.com
  Digital facilities that track wastage down to the gram have brought about behavioural change among users Min Geum-nan walks towards a metal bin beneath her apartment block in Gangdong district, eastern Seoul carrying a small bag of vegetable peelings. She taps her resident card on the reader, the lid swings open, she empties the contents and scans again and a digital screen flashes: 0.5kg.“You have no choice but to pay attention because you can see exactly what you’re wasting,”
  
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• Rain transforms Iranian beach into striking red spectacle – video

  18-12-2025 13:44 via theguardian.com
  Rainfall on Hormuz Island briefly transformed the coastline of its famed Red Beach into a striking natural scene this week, as soil flowed into the sea and turned the water shades of deep red. The beach is known for its vivid red sand and cliffs, created by high concentrations of iron oxide Continue reading...
  
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• How climate breakdown is putting the world’s food in peril - in maps and charts

  18-12-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  From floods to droughts, erratic weather patterns are affecting food security, with crop yields projected to fall if changes are not madeExperts have warned that the world’s ability to feed itself is under threat from the “chaos” of extreme weather caused by climate change.Crop yields have increased enormously over the past few decades. But early warning signs have arrived as crop yield rates flatline, prompting warnings of efficiency hitting its limits and the impacts of clima
  
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• Is chorus of winter birdsong a herald of spring – or warning of climate crisis?

  18-12-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Spells of unseasonably mild weather are prompting species such as the skylark to burst into song December is not noted for birdsong in the UK, as most species are more concerned with finding food during the short hours of daylight than preparing for the breeding season to come. Yet during spells of unseasonably mild winter weather some will practice their sweet refrains.Over the past few weeks I’ve heard several species singing: not quite as forcefully as in the spring, but enough for me t
  
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• Country diary: The clock is ticking for these colourful castaways | Claire Stares

  18-12-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Hayling Island, Hampshire: Piles of goose barnacles are stranded on the beach after a long journey hitched on a barrel. They’re fascinating creatures, but they won’t survive longA message pinged on to my phone – a photo from a friend out walking her dog. Her whippet, head cocked and nose quivering, was investigating a strange object that had washed up on the beach. Later, curiosity got the better of me and, though it was raining heavily, I went down to the shore to see for myse
  
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• ‘It’s an open invasion’: how millions of quagga mussels changed Lake Geneva for ever

  18-12-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  The molluscs are decimating food chains in Switzerland, have devastated the Great Lakes in the US, and this week were spotted in Northern Ireland for the first timeLike cholesterol clogging up an artery, it took just a couple of years for the quagga mussels to infiltrate the 5km (3-mile) highway of pipes under the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne (EPFL). By the time anyone realised what was going on, it was too late. The power of some heat exchangers had dropped by a third, blocked
  
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• Met Office: 2026 will bring heat more than 1.4C above preindustrial levels

  18-12-2025 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Forecast is slightly cooler than the record 1.55C reached in 2024, but 2026 set to be among four hottest years since 1850Next year will bring heat more than 1.4C above preindustrial levels, meteorologists project, as fossil fuel pollution continues to bake the Earth and fuel extreme weather.The UK Met Office’s central forecast is slightly cooler than the 1.55C reached in 2024, the warmest year on record, but 2026 is set to be among the four hottest years dating back to 1850. Continue readi
  
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• Gifts with heart: 15 thoughtful US ideas that support causes in need

  17-12-2025 21:29 via theguardian.com
  For often-underfunded non-profits, merch can help raise funds and visibility – here are gifts that support animal conservation, civil liberties and public media19 unique small business gifts that beat predictable US big brandsSign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better thingsLast year, when my daughter opened her axolotl stuffed animal from her grandmother, I admit I was slightly peeved. Did we really need yet another stuffy? But this one had a purpose:
  
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• Scientists log rare case of female polar bear adopting cub: ‘They’re really good moms’

  17-12-2025 18:20 via theguardian.com
  Canadian researchers tracking bear known as X33991 noticed she had gained a second cub who likely needed helpScientists in Canada have documented a rare case of female polar bear adopting a new cub, in an episode of “curious behaviour” that highlights the complex relationships among the apex Arctic predators.Polar Bears International, a non-profit conservation group, said on Wednesday that when they first placed a GPS collar on a female polar bear in the spring, she had one young cub
  
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• ‘Everything is worse since Drax came here’: US residents say wood-pellet plant harming their town

  17-12-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Residents of Gloster, Mississippi, are suing plant that exports wood pellets to UK and Europe. Company says it is reducing emissionsWhen Helen Reed first learned about the bioenergy mill opening in her hometown of Gloster, Mississippi, the word was it would bring jobs and economic opportunities. It was only later that she learned that activity came with a cost: the Amite Bioenergy mill, opened in 2014 by British energy giant Drax, emits large – and sometimes illegal – quantities of a
  
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• Greek tragedy: the rare seals hiding in caves to escape tourists

  17-12-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Greece is hoping that protected areas will help keep daytrippers away and allow vulnerable monk seals to return to their island habitatsDeep in a sea cave in Greece’s northern Sporades, a bulky shape moves in the gloom. Someone on the boat bobbing quietly on the water close by passes round a pair of binoculars and yes! – there it is. It’s a huge Mediterranean monk seal, one of the world’s rarest marine mammals , which at up to 2.8 metres and over 300kg (660lbs), is also o
  
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• Police investigate after white-tailed eagles go missing across UK

  17-12-2025 12:12 via theguardian.com
  Conservationists appeal to public for help after rare birds disappear in suspicious circumstancesOne of the first white-tailed eagles to fledge in England for hundreds of years has vanished in suspicious circumstances, alongside two more “devastating” disappearances of the reintroduced raptor.Police are appealing for public help as they investigate the disappearances, which are a setback to the bird’s successful reintroduction. Their disappearance is being investigated by sever
  
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• A moment that changed me: a pigeon fell out of the sky – and she led me to a secret underground rescue network

  17-12-2025 07:55 via theguardian.com
  I had no idea what to do with the injured bird I named Belinda. But suddenly 3,000 Mancunians were happy to help, giving me a whole new appreciation of my home town
  The plane pushed through wall after wall of sleet on its descent into Manchester. I’d had a sinking feeling during the flight that only deepened as I shuffled through the terminal. I resented having to be back in the city where I had grown up, after living on the other side of the world for what had felt like a lifetime.After a
  
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• Plantwatch: Pitcher plant’s sweet nectar is laced with toxic nerve agent

  17-12-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Nepenthes khasiana oozes an enticing liquid on the rim of its pitchers that tempts its prey into a deadly trapA carnivorous pitcher plant has recently been found to use a chemical nerve agent to drug its prey and lead them to a deadly end, being consumed in digestive juices at the bottom of the pitcher traps.The pitcher plant Nepenthes khasiana oozes an enticing sweet nectar on the rim of its pitchers for visiting insects, particularly ants, to feed on to lure them into the trap. But the nectar
  
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• Worried about winter? 10 ways to thrive – from socialising to Sad lamps to celebrating the new year in April

  17-12-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  The temptation is to sit at home and hibernate, but beating the winter blues can be done. Here’s how to embrace the coldest and arguably most beautiful seasonStephanie Fitzgerald, a chartered clinical psychologist, used to dread winter. Like many, she coped by keeping busy at work and hibernating at home, waiting for the cold, dark days to be over. But this approach wasn’t making her happy. So she sought out the science that would help her embrace the winter months, rather than try t
  
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• ‘Magical’ galaxy frogs disappear after reports of photographers destroying their habitats

  17-12-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Researcher in Kerala rainforest sounds alarm after being told frogs had died after being handled by humansA group of endangered “galaxy frogs” are missing, presumed dead, after trespassing photographers reportedly destroyed their microhabitats for photos.Melanobatrachus indicus, each the size of a fingertip, is the only species in its family, and lives under logs in the lush rainforest in Kerala, India. Their miraculous spots do not indicate poison, as people sometimes assume, but ar
  
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• EU waters down plans to end new petrol and diesel car sales by 2035

  16-12-2025 20:28 via bbc.com
  Carmakers, particularly in Germany, have lobbied heavily for concessions to the planned rules.
  
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• Government rolls back nature protections to boost housing

  16-12-2025 18:51 via bbc.com
  Critics say government changes to a flagship biodiversity policy could stall nature recovery.
  
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• Arctic endured year of record heat as climate scientists warn of ‘winter being redefined’

  16-12-2025 18:01 via theguardian.com
  Region known as ‘world’s refrigerator’ is heating up as much as four times as quickly as global average, Noaa experts sayThe Arctic endured a year of record heat and shrunken sea ice as the world’s northern latitudes continue a rapid shift to becoming rainier and less ice-bound due to the climate crisis, scientists have reported.From October 2024 to September 2025, temperatures across the entire Arctic region were the hottest in 125 years of modern record keeping, the US
  
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