Environment news

• Police using AI risks making discrimination worse, researchers warn

  25-10-2026 13:18 via BBC News
  
  AI tools learn from biased records and may deepen discrimination against minorities without oversight, researchers say.
  
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• The Iran war is deepening the US energy crisis. A bad winter is ahead | Mark Wolfe

  30-10-2026 15:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Congress must act to ensure that families are able to heat their homes before the start of the seasonHeating oil may be the clearest warning yet of how the war in Iran is deepening the US’s energy affordability crisis. Families who heat their homes with oil are facing bills that could be 50% higher this winter, adding nearly $900 to the cost of keeping their homes warm. These families were already struggling before the war began.As the Guardian recently reported, research by my organization fo
  
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• Freakish frocks and ghoulish guises: last-minute Halloween costumes that won’t haunt the environment

  30-10-2026 15:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Keen to join in the revelry but don’t have a costume? You can still fashion a get-up without buying – or wasting – anythingChange by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprintGot a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at [email protected] thrill of an event like Halloween doesn’t come from a brand new costume or “two pillowcases’ worth of sweets”, says play specialist
  
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• Severe rainfall and flood warnings issued for central Greece and western Turkey

  30-10-2026 11:07 via Environment | The Guardian
  
  Turkey has been hit by powerful thunderstorms and a fatal tornado this week with more heavy rain expectedHeavy rain and strong winds will continue to affect parts of south-eastern Europe and Turkey over the next few days, as an area of low pressure in the region has allowed for the formation of powerful thunderstorms. During a particularly intense thunderstorm in Antalya, a coastal city in the south-west of Turkey, the formation of a tornado resulted in the deaths of four construction workers on
  
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• Healey’s budget cuts mean Britain is likely to miss green heating targets

  30-10-2026 11:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  
  Ex-energy secretary Ed Miliband’s agenda appears undermined as money is diverted from renewables to defenceBritain is unlikely to hit its targets on green heating after the cuts announced by John Healey this week, experts have warned, as critics of Ed Miliband claim the former energy secretary’s green agenda is being dismantled.The chancellor unveiled more than £3bn worth of cuts to the energy department’s budget this week, much of which will pay for higher defence spending. Continue read
  
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• ‘You can see the water going down’: residents on edge as one of England’s worst-hit reservoirs dries up

  30-10-2026 10:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  
  After UK’s hottest summer on record, Ardingly near Haywards Heath is just 19% full – and next-closest reservoir is unusable due to broken treatment works“You can see the water level at Ardingly going down and down. I don’t remember ever seeing it this low,” says Caroline Allan, a lifetime resident of Haywards Heath, the nearest town to one of England’s most depleted reservoirs.The Ardingly reservoir, managed by South East Water and serving about 95,000 properties in and around Haywar
  
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• Week in wildlife: a fishing anhinga, a northern nutcracker and cuddling seals

  30-10-2026 09:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• Biodiversity Cop17 seems to be stalling. Is it time to reform the process?

  30-10-2026 08:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  In this week’s newsletter: There are too many meetings, and not enough decisions, say experts – and time is running out• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereWhen things are not going well at an environmental summit, organisers often tell delegates that the “world is watching” in an attempt to focus minds. But spend any time at biodiversity Cop17 in Armenia and it is clear that the world’s attention is elsewhere.The negotiating halls of Yerevan’s Meridian
  
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• How many of these official creature kindness badges have you earned? | First Dog on the Moon

  30-10-2026 07:01 via Environment | The Guardian
  A cartoon that celebrates small acts of graceSign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are publishedGet all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints Continue reading...
  
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• Greener front gardens could help combat air pollution and summer heat

  30-10-2026 07:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Scientists call for incentives to preserve vegetation as study highlights benefits of plentiful planting in LondonYour front garden could be a first line of defence against air pollution, according to a year-long field study in two London neighbourhoods.The UK’s 26m gardens cover nearly 5% of the country’s land area, but they account for a much larger share in urban areas. In Greater London, domestic gardens cover 41% of the city, compared with 27% of Cardiff and 23% of Edinburgh. Continue r
  
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• Country diary: The light and shade of autumn’s shortening days | Merryn Glover

  30-10-2026 06:30 via Environment | The Guardian
  Loch Insh, Cairngorms: In my three decades in Scotland I’ve adjusted to the darkness of this time of year, and found glory in the quality of lightIt is the one clear day in a fortnight of heavy cloud, wind and rain, so I am out by the loch, basking in the rays of light, breathing them in, hoarding for the weeks to come.This time of year makes them all the more precious. Here in the Highlands, once we are past the autumnal equinox, we can almost feel the Earth tipping away from the sun as the l
  
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• Sinkholes, scarred land and scapegoats: the scourge of illegal gold mining in Johannesburg

  30-10-2026 06:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  
  There is no end in sight for the drivers of illegal mining, while police action appears ineffectiveCora Bailey has been encountering illegal miners ever since she first started treating injured animals in the townships around Roodepoort, west of Johannesburg, in 1991. But as the price of gold has soared, so too has activity in the abandoned mine shafts that mark the area.In late September, dozens of zama zamas – the name given to illegal miners in South Africa, meaning roughly “to take a cha
  
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• El Niño-driven drought in Papua New Guinea a ‘national crisis’ as rivers dry up and local farms fail

  30-10-2026 02:45 via Environment | The Guardian
  As many as 8 million people have been affected by food shortages, electricity blackouts and health clinic closuresExtreme drought driven by an historic El Niño is affecting as many as 8 million people in Papua New Guinea, causing a cascade of issues from shortages of food and water, to electricity scarcity and schooling disruption.An influential coalition that includes churches, trade unions and business groups has said the Pacific nation is in the midst of a “national crisis”, but there ap
  
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• Why jet lag throws even foraging seabirds off course

  29-10-2026 19:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Oxford study shows Manx shearwaters lose direction when their body clocks get out of syncSeabirds returning from foraging trips can be thrown hundreds of miles off course by a form of jet lag that arises when their body clocks get out of sync with local time, researchers say.Tracking data from Manx shearwaters on the west coast of the UK revealed that when the birds returned home to their colonies after trips over the Atlantic, their rapid eastward flights disrupted their sense of time and navig
  
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• Migrating seabirds face a surprising problem: jet lag

  29-10-2026 19:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Oxford study shows Manx shearwaters get lost when their body clocks get out of syncSeabirds returning from foraging trips can be thrown hundreds of miles off course by a form of jet lag that arises when their body clocks get out of sync with local time, researchers say.Tracking data from Manx shearwaters on the west coast of the UK revealed that when the birds returned home to their colonies after trips over the Atlantic, their rapid eastward flights disrupted their sense of time and navigation.
  
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• A new wave of electric ferries is here in the US. Some even fly

  29-10-2026 11:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Replacing diesel-powered ferries with electric vessels could reduce emissions and improve air quality Cutting through New York Harbor in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, the small white boat we were riding on caught the attention of passengers aboard a nearby sightseeing ferry.“It’s quite a curiosity at the moment,” Eric Laakmann, the chief executive and co-founder of Vessev, said.Climate Central is an independent group of scientists and communicators who research and report the facts
  
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• Queen of Spain butterfly invades Britain – but will it become native?

  29-10-2026 07:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  This year thousands of the golden-coloured butterfly have arrived in Britain in what one expert calls ‘a bold attempt at colonisation’The Queen of Spain has invaded. The enigmatic British visits of this gorgeous golden-coloured butterfly with distinctively shaped, squared-off hindwings have been recorded by lepidopterists for four centuries. Usually there are barely a handful of sightings each summer of a butterfly that is widespread across continental Europe.This year, thousands have flown
  
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• Angry Labour MPs urge leadership not to overrule energy secretary on Rosebank

  29-10-2026 07:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  
  Exclusive: Backbenchers voice alarm over ‘intolerable position’ faced by Miatta Fahnbulleh over oilfield decisionFurious Labour MPs have been lobbying the prime minister and chancellor not to overrule the energy secretary should she decide to block the Rosebank oilfield.MPs say they are alarmed at the cabinet splits that have emerged over the issue after sources told the Guardian that Miatta Fahnbulleh was minded to refuse environmental permission for the field. Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: A new chapter for the farm – we’re going organic | Andrea Meanwell

  29-10-2026 06:30 via Environment | The Guardian
  Tebay, Cumbria: Historically it’s been a tricky thing for hill farms to do, but we’ve always run ours on organic principles, and now we’re fully convertingFrom 1 November we have change happening on our farm. We have decided to become an organic farm and have started the two-year conversion process with the Soil Association. We’ve always run the farm on organic principles, but now, with our small shop selling our beef, lamb and pork, we’ve decided that we will convert, prioritising soi
  
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• When the weather is frightful, you don’t need to be: everything you need to stay cozy during cold months

  28-10-2026 15:15 via Environment | The Guardian
  Here are some of our writers’ best ways to stay toasty and occupied, even during cold weather, from teas to pajamasSign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better thingsWhen the weather starts to take a turn for the brisk, the impulse to stay inside and hibernate is nothing new – but there are ways to optimize your time spent inside for maximum coziness and pleasure.From a limited-edition candle to a plush, furry comforter that does double duty, here are some
  
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• When the weather is frightful, you don’t need to be: everything we love to stay cozy during cold months

  28-10-2026 15:15 via Environment | The Guardian
  Here are some of our writers’ best ways to stay toasty and occupied, even during cold weather, from teas to pajamasHow to start whimsymaxxing: 22 weird and wonderful products we loveSign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better thingsWhen the weather starts to take a turn for the brisk, the impulse to stay inside and hibernate is nothing new – but there are ways to optimize your time spent inside for maximum coziness and pleasure.From a limited-edition candl
  
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• Snail ate your mail? Why gastropods munch paper – and how to stop them

  28-10-2026 15:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  In wet weather, garden snails can seek shelter in letterboxes – and find a feast there waiting for themWe’ve all heard of snail mail – a term popularised since the advent of electronic mail – but who knew that snails eat mail? It might sound far-fetched but it’s true.We have it on good authority from the ecologist Simon Mustoe, who said snails ate his letter from Sir David Attenborough, a BBC report announcing the closure of a Northumberland Royal Mail postbox because of snails “munc
  
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• Mark Carney is celebrated abroad – while consolidating power at home | Shiri Pasternak

  28-10-2026 14:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  The Canadian prime minister’s reckoning with Trumpism in Davos clashes with his attacks on environmental, Indigenous and labour rightsThe Canadian prime minister is a hero around the world for his Davos speech that reckoned with a reconfiguration of power in the shadow of Donald Trump.But at home, Mark Carney is mirroring the US president by radically centralizing power within his office and cabinet and taking a hatchet to dozens of laws protecting environmental, Indigenous and labour rights,
  
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• Will it be AI or the climate crisis that ends humanity? We can make it neither | Adam McKay and Philip Eubanks

  28-10-2026 13:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Both of these threats have the same roots: private entities seeking to cash in. We have the power to stand against themA summer of extreme heat, entire villages obliterated in Nepal, a super El Niño breaking records, Exxon publicly saying we may reach 3C by 2050 – could it possibly be any worse?How about throwing AI extinction in the mix? Continue reading...
  
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• The climate crisis will destroy our economies – we learned this 20 years ago. When will we act? | Fiona Harvey

  28-10-2026 09:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  The radical Stern report showed that a low-carbon future is also good economics. But it seems that capitalism needs a reminderSaving the only planet we have makes good economic sense. There is, after all, no money to be made on a dead Earth. There may be costs involved now, but they are worth paying to protect our children from certain destruction.These propositions seem self-evident now. But two decades ago, mainstream economists had very different ideas. They had proved that the climate crisis
  
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• Sea of crimson: vivid ‘red beach’ transforms China’s wetlands and marshes – in pictures

  28-10-2026 07:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  A striking transformation takes place along the coast of Qinqdao in autumn, when a native seepweed turns a brilliant shade of red.The ‘red beach’ phenemon can be seen in the salt marshes and wetlands on the coast of China’s Shandong province, where the Suaeda glauca plant matures and absorbs water, changing it from green to crimson between September and November Continue reading...
  
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• How rising seas transformed dry land into Venice lagoon

  28-10-2026 07:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Scientists uncover ancient hills and swamps that disappeared as sea levels rose across northern AdriaticVenice is famed for being a floating city, but research shows the land it sits on once lay many miles inland. Dramatic changes in sea level over 10,000 years have reshaped the northern Adriatic coastline, with much of the land that our ancestors roamed now lying beneath the waves.Samuele Ongaro, at the University of Southampton, and colleagues combined seismic data with sedimentary cores from
  
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• Country diary: A vial of water from the rivers, becks and springs of Yorkshire – but not without permission | Amy-Jane Beer

  28-10-2026 06:30 via Environment | The Guardian
  Wharram and York, North Yorkshire: It’s the nervy few days before a ceremony that will honour our local waterways, and I have work to doI visit the source of the tiny stream called the Gypsey Race now and then, drawn by the everyday miracle of its water welling to catch sunlight like a plaything and alchemise it into colours and sparks. Today, though, is different, because I’ve come to ask for something. Something like permission, or approval maybe.I’ve been helping to organise a gatheri
  
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• A bust-up between mathematicians is fuelling fears that AI could undermine science

  28-10-2026 02:01 via BBC News
  
  AI has made some awesome scientific discoveries. But now, questions are being raised about its accuracy
  
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• Aerial video shows California flooding amid ‘record-breaking tides’ – video

  27-10-2026 22:55 via Environment | The Guardian
  Coastal communities across California were preparing for days of flooding amid potentially 'record-breaking tides' this week, as water levels began rising on Monday.Coastal California braces for flooding amid forecast of ‘record-breaking tides’ Continue reading...
  
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