Environment news

• Oil down; U.S. crude settles below $50 on stockpile concerns

  25-10-2016 21:43
  By Ethan Lou NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell more than 1 percent on Tuesday, with U.S. crude settling below $50 per barrel for the first time in a week ahead of data likely to show a build in domestic inventories. Producers' verbal jockeying about the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC) planned output cut weighed further on the market, analysts said, noting Iraq's resistance to the plan and its rising output for October. Trade group American Petroleum Institute will is
  
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• Four days of rain slashed population of world's rarest orangutans, study says

  11-06-2026 05:50 via bbc.com
  
  Climate change-induced weather events are pushing orangutan populations to extinction, says a study.
  
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• 'Worrying' pollution in Cotswolds river - volunteers

  10-06-2026 20:11 via bbc.com
  
  Volunteers record high phosphate and nitrate levels and call on the Environment Agency to investigate.
  
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• The fight to stop animals dying in fishing nets

  10-06-2026 19:17 via bbc.com
  
  Thousands of sea mammals and birds are killed as a result of fishing nets every year.
  
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• Rare butterfly population increases by 9000%

  10-06-2026 18:53 via bbc.com
  
  A record number of Duke of Burgundy butterflies were recorded in Kent last year, a charity says.
  
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• Toby Carvery to fund orchard replanting as settlement for felling ancient oak

  10-06-2026 17:30
  Enfield council in north London took legal action against restaurant chain after outrage over damage to treeThe UK restaurant chain Toby Carvery has settled a legal dispute over taking a chainsaw to an ancient oak tree without permission, by agreeing to pay to restore a lost orchard.The unauthorised partial felling of the 500-year-old oak next to a Toby Carvery car park in Whitewebbs Park, Enfield, north London, in April last year, prompted widespread public outrage and questions in parliament.
  
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• Deepest and most extensive whale graveyard discovered in Indian Ocean

  10-06-2026 17:00
  Some remains found in Diamantina fracture zone date back more than 5m years and reveal species and ecosystems unknown to scienceThe oldest, deepest and most extensive whale graveyard yet discovered has been found in the south-eastern Indian Ocean, with fossils dating back more than 5m years.Whale falls – the term for dead whales that sink to the ocean floor – are not uncommon, but most have been found at depths of less than 4km (2.5 miles). By contrast, the newly discovered necropoli
  
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• ‘Every day it’s more barriers’: how the US is shutting out climate refugees

  10-06-2026 15:00
  As the US shuts its doors to most refugees, there’s little hope of a new system to help those forced from home by climate impactsTrump targets migrants from countries hit most by climate shocksMillions of people around the world are having their lives upended by floods, storms and heatwaves worsened by the climate crisis. Those forced to flee their home countries, however, are finding that the door to the US is more firmly shut than ever.Neither US nor international law recognizes environm
  
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• The rightwing campaign to control how US judges view the climate crisis

  10-06-2026 14:00
  US energy secretary Chris Wright featured in seminars to judges when he was a fracking executiveAs cities and states sue big oil for billions in damages over allegations that it covered up the dangers of its products, rightwing organizations are attempting to discredit the wave of litigation. They claim the lawyers behind it are teaming up with an environmentally focused legal education non-profit to bias federal judges against oil companies.But it is actually fossil fuel-backed organizations th
  
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• Big agriculture is killing our bees. We’ll all pay the price | Jennie Durant

  10-06-2026 12:00
  We’re thinking about the crisis facing pollinators all wrong. And we’ve come to a crucial momentLast winter, commercial beekeepers lost more than 60% of their colonies – their worst losses on record. We tend to blame bee losses on separate, singular threats: pests, pesticides, habitat loss or extreme weather. But we’ve been thinking about bee losses wrong.The real culprit is our industrial food system. Continue reading...
  
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• Rare tiger cub from litter of four dies

  10-06-2026 10:29 via bbc.com
  
  These Sumatran tigers are the first of this breed to be welcomed at the animal park in Kent.
  
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• Pollinators in peril: scientists reveal the hidden human health costs of the world’s disappearing bees

  10-06-2026 10:00
  Crops and flowers rely on them for survival, but wild bees are declining – andcrucial nutrients will go missing from our diets as a resultThere are few ways in and out of Nepal’s Jumla district. The Karnali highway, considered one of the world’s most dangerous roads, provides the only land link, splicing through the Himalayas to connect Jumla’s terraced valleys to the rest of the country. As such, the 120,000 people that live there are almost entirely self-sufficient, wit
  
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• Nothing says stupidity like Reform's obsession with destroying British jobs | George Monbiot

  10-06-2026 09:00
  The net zero economy is booming, so claims that prosperity depends on oil and gas are bunkum – unless you’re a Reform backer with fossil fuel interests, of courseReally? You want to destroy a million jobs? Vote Reform UK for mass unemployment: is that your pitch? Hammer these questions home whenever you meet a supporter of the party. Or, for that matter, a Conservative, as their party now takes an almost identical line.The figures are stark. They were compiled not by Just Stop Oil or
  
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• A question for Nigel Farage – why is your nationalist party so obsessed with destroying British jobs? | George Monbiot

  10-06-2026 09:00
  The net zero economy is booming, so claims that prosperity depends on oil and gas are bunkum – unless you’re a Reform backer with fossil fuel interests, of courseReally? You want to destroy a million jobs? Vote Reform UK for mass unemployment: is that your pitch? Hammer these questions home whenever you meet a supporter of the party. Or, for that matter, a Conservative, as their party now takes an almost identical line.The figures are stark. They were compiled not by Just Stop Oil or
  
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• More than half of clean energy schemes needed for Labour’s 2030 target offered grid connection

  10-06-2026 08:00
  The 700 projects include wind and solar farms, battery storage, gas and hydro plansMore than half the renewable energy projects needed to meet the government’s clean power targets by 2030 are now able to plug into the electricity grid after years of delay, according to the system operator.The National Energy System Operator (Neso) has offered more than 700 clean energy projects in Great Britain a grid connection date since the start of the year, after a two-year process to unblock a bottle
  
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• Women prepare for 'space jobs that don't exist yet'

  10-06-2026 07:21 via bbc.com
  
  Hundreds of women attend the annual AeroWomen women event in Yeovil.
  
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• Super-rich’s assets cause outsized amount of climate harm, study says

  10-06-2026 07:00
  Greenpeace calculates that wealthiest contribute nearly $1tn of damage a year with ownership-based emissionsUltra-wealthy people zooming across the world on their private jets, lounging on yachts and conspicuous by their Instagrammable consumption are among the most easily identified individual culprits when it comes to the climate crisis – but new research argues that it is not just their heady lifestyles to blame, but also their bank accounts.Through their ownership of companies and priv
  
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• Country diary: A late-night nightingale serenade | Nic Wilson

  10-06-2026 06:30
  Strawberry Hill, Bedfordshire: After an evening round the campfire, we head into the wonderfully, chaotically alive scrub, to hear the headline act“Now I walk in beauty / Beauty is before me”. Earlier this evening we learned the simple melody to this Navajo prayer, and sang it as a round in the hawthorn clearing, adding our voices to the chorus of chiffchaff, blackcap and garden warbler. Afterwards we sat for a few moments, listening, newly aware of the beauty before us. Across the m
  
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• Bycatch has ‘shocking’ toll on British marine life, first-ever analysis reveals

  10-06-2026 06:00
  Conservationists say cherished creatures such as whales, dolphins and seabirds are being killed in large numbers by fishing tackleThousands of Britain’s most charismatic and protected marine wildlife, including whales, porpoises, dolphins, seals and seabirds are being killed as “collateral damage” by fishing vessels every year, according to the first-ever analysis of bycatch data.The analysis, by the Wildlife and Countryside Link, a coalition of voluntary conservation groups, r
  
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• Cattle in England to get tuberculosis vaccine from 2030 as badger cull to end

  10-06-2026 01:01
  
  Targeted vaccination and improved testing planned as part of drive to eradicate disease by 2038Cattle will be vaccinated against tuberculosis from 2030 as a “gamechanging” part of a new strategy to drive eradication of the disease in England by 2038. In parallel, the last badger culls are expected to end by 2029, with vaccination of badgers expanded.More than 20,000 infected cattle are slaughtered each year, costing taxpayers £100m and inflicting a heavy toll on affected farmer
  
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• Nasa reveals crew for Artemis III mission

  09-06-2026 20:44 via bbc.com
  
  The crew, who are all men, are scheduled to blast off in 2027 to test systems ahead of a planned Moon landing.
  
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• Nasa names next astronauts for Artemis Moon programme

  09-06-2026 19:46 via bbc.com
  
  Nasa names its next Artemis crew, though they will not be walking on the Moon or even going anywhere near it.
  
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• Nasa has named the Artemis III crew - what is their mission?

  09-06-2026 19:45 via bbc.com
  
  Artemis III will help test crucial systems needed for the planned Artemis IV Moon landing in 2028.
  
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• What is El Niño and why could it mean record temperatures?

  09-06-2026 16:50 via bbc.com
  
  Global temperatures are expected to rise in the coming months as El Niño begins.
  
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• This US neighborhood is full of hazardous air pollution. Can a network of sensors make ‘the invisible visible’?

  09-06-2026 15:00
  Pacoima is hemmed in by highways and heavy industry, and its residents are fighting pollution with hyperlocal air quality monitoringJose Luis Salas looks up at the ladder. “Are you ready?” he asks Shance Taylor, an environmental project manager who’s holding a white container, about the size of a shoebox, covered with wires and numbers.Taylor nods and climbs up to reach the side of Salas’s tidy house in Pacoima, a neighborhood in Los Angeles’s north-east San Fernand
  
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• This LA neighborhood is choked by smog. The solution: a network of sensors on offices, homes and bags

  09-06-2026 15:00
  Pacoima is hemmed in by highways and heavy industry, and its residents are fighting pollution with hyperlocal air quality monitoringJose Luis Salas looks up at the ladder. “Are you ready?” he asks Shance Taylor, an environmental project manager who’s holding a white container, about the size of a shoebox, covered with wires and numbers.Taylor nods and climbs up to reach the side of Salas’s tidy house in Pacoima, a neighborhood in Los Angeles’s north-east San Fernand
  
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• Here are 10 ways a ‘super’ El Niño could impact the planet | Benjamin Selwyn

  09-06-2026 14:00
  The climate phenomenon is intensifying an already unequal global economy Continue reading...
  
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• Scotland's greenhouse gas emissions fall slightly as progress slows

  09-06-2026 13:42 via bbc.com
  
  The amount of planet-warming gases produced in 2024 fell by 1% compared to the previous year.
  
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• UK's last outstanding coal mine plan rejected

  09-06-2026 13:19 via bbc.com
  
  Plans to dig for 85,000 tonnes of coal at Glan Lash mine near Llandybie have been refused.
  
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• The Galápagos is a wildlife haven. But is that enough to protect the rare scalloped hammerhead shark?

  09-06-2026 13:00
  The species is abundant within the protected archipelago but when they migrate outside the marine reserve to give birth they run the gauntlet of industrial fishingThe unmistakable fluted T-shape of a scalloped hammerhead shark slides by, followed by a diver holding his breath and a metal spear like an extra-long snooker cue. The spear hits the fish behind its dorsal fin and the 2-metre shark darts away, disgruntled but otherwise unharmed.Carlos Robalino, a marine biologist from the Galápa
  
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