Environment news

• Secrets of the shiny yellow buttercup

  14-05-2017 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  When it comes to attracting pollinators, buttercup petals hold all the aces. They even provide their guests with heatingDo you like butter? Hold a buttercup under your chin and folklore says if there is a yellow reflection on your skin it means you do. But the real reason the flowers seem to shine with an intense glittering yellow is nothing to do with butter but about advertising the plants to insect pollinators from a great distance.Buttercups get their bright colour from yellow pigments in th
  
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• My neighbours and I were left with no water this week. Why was I the only one who seemed annoyed?

  15-07-2026 18:23 via theguardian.com
  A burst pipe left me high, dry and desperate to wash my hair. But around me, everyone seemed stoic and unsurprised - no rolling of eyes, tutting or, God forbid, speaking ill of the water companyOn Monday morning, the water coming out of my tap was but a dribble. Disappointing. I checked the water company website and there was something about some problem somewhere that was being resolved. It was sorted. Then Tuesday evening, uh-oh, not even a dribble. Not again, surely. Back to the water company
  
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• Australia has a love-hate relationship with cats – but under all the emotion is a fascinating history | Jodie Stewart

  15-07-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  We got our first feline hero in 1971 when Matthew Flinders’ heartfelt tribute to his pet Trim was discoveredIn 1872, the city of Melbourne hosted its first cat show one year after London’s Crystal Palace debuted its first show. By 1885, “cats were seldom treated very well” in Australia, according to a writer in the Victorian Almanac that year – but they were pleased to report that Australians were starting to appreciate them more.The colonial newspapers were also be
  
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• ‘I’ve never worked with so many conservatives’: the Texans fighting the Big Bend border wall

  15-07-2026 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Residents across party lines say Trump’s proposed wall threatens their homes, livelihoods and wilderness along the Rio GrandeLast February, 41-year-old Molly Walker posted an Instagram story: a photo of herself standing in the desert, sunglasses hooked over the front of her shirt, jeans slung low beneath her exposed midriff. She held a protest sign fashioned from a pizza box, a hand-drawn heart framing the words “Border Cultura”, with “NO WALL” scrawled beneath.The
  
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• Extreme temperature warnings in place as ‘heat dome’ bakes US

  15-07-2026 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Americans warned to be on alert for heat-related illness as parts of country experience record high temperaturesExtreme heat warnings are in place for large swaths of the United States this week, as an unusual weather pattern eclipses record temperature highs.In Billings, Montana, residents experienced a sweltering 111F (43.9C) on Sunday, the hottest day in its history. Salt Lake City in Utah also hit an all-time record high on Sunday at 109F (42.8C). Boston has seen more 90F (32.3C) days than a
  
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• The battle over peat: why do some gardeners still insist on using it?

  15-07-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Peat bogs are essential to the environment, holding twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests. But in the UK, 80% are damaged, most of what is extracted is used in horticulture – and some campaigners fear the problem is getting worse‘I don’t see how I can possibly do my job and eat mushrooms,” says Sally Nex, a campaign advocate for the Peat-Free Partnership. “An awful lot of the food you buy in the supermarket is grown in peat: field mushrooms and littl
  
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• Surviving extreme heat increasingly boils down to this: access to air conditioning | Mark Wolfe

  15-07-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  The next great climate divide will be between countries that have the resources to adapt and those that don’tThis summer, much of the media’s attention has focused on record temperatures across Europe and the United States. Television coverage has been filled with familiar images: heat maps shaded deep red, schools closing, rail lines slowing, wildfires spreading and emergency rooms treating growing numbers of people with heat-related illnesses.Public officials have responded with eq
  
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• As Europe’s heatwaves get more dangerous, here are four ways we can protect ourselves and others

  15-07-2026 13:03 via theguardian.com
  In the newsletter: From avoiding flights to checking on vulnerable neighbours, there are steps we can all take to fight the effects of extreme heat• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereFrom the comfort of a friend’s air-conditioned car last weekend, I watched a dozen sweaty men on a “beer bike tour” chug booze while pedalling through Berlin, as the city broke its temperature record with 39.2C heat. Few wore hats, and their tender pink necks s
  
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• Blockades, marches and human shields: Bolivia’s farmers resist as land opened up to industry

  15-07-2026 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Indigenous groups organised mass protests over a series of deals by the president, Rodrigo Paz, that prioritise agribusiness and mining interestsFrom her home in the Bolivian Amazon, Vivian Palomequi walked for a month and more than 560 miles (900km) to the capital, La Paz. She arrived in late April to protest over a law she fears would open the door to accelerated deforestation and land privatisation. “We declared a state of emergency and started marching,” says Palomequi, who leads
  
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• Shipwrecks of Shackleton and Scott recreated in 3D digital form after deep sea expedition

  15-07-2026 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Canadian scientists visit remains of polar exploration vessels in ‘golden era for shipwreck investigating’Moments after devouring the final glimmers of light, the seafloor offered nothing but darkness and silt. Then the bow appeared.More than 1,000ft (305 metres) below the surface of the Labrador Sea, off the coast of Canada, the skeleton of the final ship used by the famed polar explorer Ernest Shackleton appeared in its silty grave. Continue reading...
  
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• England risks building new ‘death traps’ as experts warn of overheating crisis

  15-07-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Vulnerable people more at risk as research finds only half of local authority plans require cooling strategiesEngland risks constructing a new generation of “death trap” buildings that can fatally overheat unless the government tightens standards and prioritises climate safeguards, planning experts have said.Fears are growing about the plight of vulnerable people in heatwaves, with research this week suggesting that 2,700 people had died in the May and June heatwaves in England and W
  
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• Drivers charging electric cars handed shock parking fines

  15-07-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  EV owners were sent hefty PCNs but say some signs in private car parks fail to warn of fees to park and recharge carDoes refuelling your car class as parking? The answer appears to be yes if it’s an electric vehicle. Guardian Money has been contacted by several readers who were fined after charging their cars away from home.The motorists report being caught out by signs that fail to make clear that charging points are subject to parking tariffs or to store opening times. Also, they ha
  
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• Plantwatch: Beware a tasty mushroom with a powerful hallucinogen

  15-07-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Anyone eating Lanmaoa asiatica could have visions for days of tiny people running and jumping aroundLanmaoa asiatica is a bolete mushroom, prized for its delicious taste and hugely popular in Yunnan province, China, where it is found growing in a symbiotic relationship with pine trees. But anyone eating the mushroom needs to be careful because it also gives hallucinations of lots of tiny people about 2cm tall wearing brightly coloured clothes, all jumping, running, climbing and being generally p
  
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• Country diary: The rewards of sloping off down an old railway line | Derek Niemann

  15-07-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Frome, Somerset: I feel like a walking carriage, trundling down Colliers Way, glimpsing hedgerows and hayfields and, best of all, one of the original tracksIf there is such a thing as a level playing field in the Mendip Hills, I have yet to find it. Not one street has “Rise” in its name, for nigh on every road has a rise (and fall). Folk here walk, run and cycle up the steepest of climbs. The former Guardian journalist Matthew Engel once interviewed an elderly yet sprightly man in a
  
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• ‘Unprecedented’ changes in UK climate are normalising extremes, report says

  15-07-2026 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Annual State of the UK Climate analysis finds last four years in UK are in top five hottest on recordThe UK’s climatic extremes are becoming increasingly normal, a report has found, with last year the hottest on record and further “unprecedented changes” likely to break the record again soon.Data stretching back to 1884 shows the UK has never experienced a year as hot as 2025, according to the annual State of the UK Climate report, with temperatures pushed to dizzying heights b
  
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• Seven Britons among 12 foreign nationals killed in Spain’s deadly wildfires

  15-07-2026 00:38 via theguardian.com
  Fire broke out last Thursday in the southeastern province of Almería, which is home to many foreign residents
  Seven Britons are among 12 foreign nationals killed in wildfires in southern Spain, authorities said.Officials said 12 of the 13 victims were foreign nationals after completing postmortem examinations after the fires that swept through Andalusia. Continue reading...
  
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• Andy Burnham must act fast on the climate – or risk getting stuck in a ‘derailment’ doom loop | Laurie Laybourn

  14-07-2026 18:51 via theguardian.com
  Around the world, climate-sceptic parties are exploiting floods and fires to make political capital. Without urgent changes, this deadly spiral will continueRecent unprecedented heatwaves in the UK may have killed thousands of people. Children are suffering in overheating schools. NHS trusts are straining under record-breaking demand. This all comes after climate extremes have even affected national security, with three of Britain’s five worst harvests coming since 2020, impairing food sec
  
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• California faces highest shark numbers in years as great whites head north

  14-07-2026 16:00 via theguardian.com
  El Niño climate phenomenon heating waters off Mexico but incidents with humans remain a rarityCalifornia is set to see one of its sharkiest summers in a decade, with large numbers of juvenile great whites already on a reverse vacation from the warm waters of Mexico to cooler pastures along the western United States.The marine predator has become more common along the west coast in recent years, with stories of surfers seeing underwater behemoths closer to shore and scientists saying swimm
  
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• Inside the secret Laos shops selling pangolin scales, bear bile and tiger bones to tourists

  14-07-2026 13:17 via theguardian.com
  Covert footage obtained by the Guardian shows how crime networks are using front souvenir shops to hide a booming wildlife trade targeted at a new influx of Chinese touristsThe shop is dark and deserted. Though the door is open, there is clearly no expectation of any customers walking in off the street. Visits are likely by appointment and from a specific clientele. This shop is part of an organised crime network. What is being sold is highly illegal and incredibly unethical.Anyone wandering in
  
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• Undercover in Laos: how Chinese tourism fuels animal trafficking – video

  14-07-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Chinese tourism is booming in Laos and the illegal wildlife trade is booming with it. Pangolin scales, rhino horn and elephant ivory are all being sold at secret shops and restaurants as a new high-speed rail line brings millions of visitors to the country. Working with Chinese activists, the Guardian goes undercover to investigate the criminal networks profiting from this trade and to reveal how wildlife trafficking is pushing the critically endangered pangolin ever closer to extinction Continu
  
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• Giving nature a say: why Scottish marine scientists appointed the ocean to their board

  14-07-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  As the rights of nature are increasingly being recognised, the Scottish Association for Marine Science is the latest organisation to make the ocean a trusteeIn a boardroom in an office building in Oban, a picturesque town on the west coast of Scotland, trustees attending meetings have long been able to see the breaking waves of the Atlantic through the windows. But since last month, the ocean has also been present in the room, with an unusual new initiative ensuring that it now has a say on deci
  
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• Can you spot the poacher’s handprint? Earth Photo award winners – in pictures

  14-07-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  From scientific tricks to stop turtle traffickers to stranded seals and displaced workers, these images all scooped prizes at this year’s Earth Photo awards Continue reading...
  
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• Most UK media reports on June heatwave failed to mention climate crisis

  14-07-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: Analysis of nearly 2,500 articles finds almost three-quarters made no reference to global heatingMost of the UK media stories about the record-breaking heatwave that struck in June failed to mention the climate crisis, analysis has found.Nearly 2,500 articles about the extreme heat – when temperatures topped 37C, a record for the time of year – appeared in the UK’s nine main national daily media publications. But nearly three-quarters of them – about 72% &ndash
  
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• Country diary: Spot the young hare – they know how to make it hard | Ed Douglas

  14-07-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Eyam Moor, Derbyshire: I go in search of a leveret, which is a tricky business. For them, subterfuge is key to survivalHigh on Eyam Moor, there was no shortage of things to look at. Meadow vetch and lady’s bedstraw had turned the trackside a vibrant yellow. The moor itself glittered white with heath bedstraw, over which small heath butterflies fluttered restlessly. The rich and ceaseless accompaniment to this was a skylark overhead, and as I approached the farmhouse and the stand of sycamo
  
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• Who is ‘stealing’ Bali’s water? How tourism siphoned off a prized resource

  14-07-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Along with the rice fields, a centuries-old infrastructure that treated water as a gift to be shared is disappearing I Putu Partayasa pushes his fingers into the soil as he squats at the edge of a rice terrace. They come up dry. His field has water; his neighbour’s does not. “We have a big problem in the dry season,” he says. “Fifteen years ago, we have water every day. But today it’s getting less.”The 52-year-old, who goes by the name Parta, is lucky because
  
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• Lancashire chemicals factory facing potential legal claim announces closure

  13-07-2026 20:05 via theguardian.com
  More than 90 residents have expressed interest in contamination claim against AGC Chemicals EuropeA Pfas factory in Lancashire has announced plans to close down, just days after the Guardian revealed that more than 90 residents had signed up to be involved in a potential legal claim over contamination of the local area.AGC Chemicals Europe is consulting with employees and their union representatives about plans to cease operations at its manufacturing plant in Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire. The
  
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• UK in ‘firewave’ as extreme heat provides ideal conditions for wildfires, experts warn

  13-07-2026 18:19 via theguardian.com
  National Fire Chiefs Council say emergency services dealing with 19 wildfires across Britain, many near urban areasThe UK is in the grip of a “firewave”, as the summer’s extreme heat produces the ideal conditions for wildfires, scientists and environmentalists have warned.A particular danger was that more blazes seem to be taking place closer to urban areas rather than in remote countryside, causing hazards to homes and health, they said. Continue reading...
  
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• British couple named among 13 killed in Spanish wildfires

  13-07-2026 17:54 via theguardian.com
  Pete and Fran Gillam confirmed dead as authorities use DNA samples to identify victims of blaze in AlmeríaA British couple have been named among the 13 people killed by wildfires in Spain, as authorities race to use DNA to identify victims who were unable to escape the blaze.Pete and Fran Gillam, who lived in Bédar, the village that bore the brunt of the wildfires on Thursday, were confirmed dead by their family. Continue reading...
  
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• Hello from the outside: heat domes impeding radio and other signals in US midwest

  13-07-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Higher temperatures can cause radio, TV and microwave signals to travel hundreds of miles farther, upsetting communicationsIt was 3am in north-east Indiana’s Huntington county when the outdoor emergency alarm went off on 1 July.The only issue? There wasn’t a storm, tornado or any other emergency weather event forecast or present anywhere for hundreds of miles. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘As if a hurricane had passed’: Puerto Ricans at breaking point after weeks without water

  13-07-2026 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Shortages triggered by pipeline rupture drive up costs and deepen frustrations, as pressure grows on water utilityJonathan Collazo owns two restaurants in a bustling section of San Juan, which has been plagued by water outages, severely disrupting the daily lives of residents and businesses alike.The water scarcity is part of an escalating frustration felt by thousands of customers of Puerto Rico’s water utility over the past several months, prompting the governor to activate the national
  
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