Environment news

• 'Spider bite' double amputation likely to be mistaken identity, experts say

  05-04-2017 07:09 via theguardian.com
  
  White-tail spider unlikely to be responsible for necrotising skin infection that led to amputation of Filipino tourist’s legsA Melbourne man’s double amputation is likely to have been misattributed to a white-tail spider bite.
  The family of Terry Pareja, a Filipino tourist, say he may have been bitten by a white-tailed spider while visiting relatives in Birchip in regional Victoria in late February.Continue reading...
  
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• Australia faces summer of extreme weather, Anthony Albanese warns at pre-Cop

  06-10-2026 13:24 via theguardian.com
  Prime minister tells delegates in Tuvalu and Fiji that ‘super El Niño’ brewing in the Pacific shows climate change is ‘here right now’Anthony Albanese has warned Australia faces a hazardous summer, likely including floods, cyclones and extreme heat, due to the immediate threat of the climate change and a rising “super El Niño”.Speaker alongside national leaders at a climate summit in Fiji, the prime minister said the expected nasty summer and the
  
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• Drax datacentre could create nearly twice the yearly emissions of all Gatwick flights

  06-10-2026 12:27 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Campaign group’s analysis of North Yorkshire plans finds datacentre would have to burn 4.9m tonnes of wood a yearDrax’s planned datacentre could produce nearly double the emissions of all flights out of Gatwick airport each year by burning 4.9m tonnes of wood annually, an analysis has shown.Campaigners say this would make it “one of the dirtiest datacentres out there”. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘They take our water, our soil’: protesters fight ‘foreignisation’ as Javier Milei encourages land sales in Argentina

  06-10-2026 12:00 via theguardian.com
  The country’s far-right president is courting billionaire investors by removing a block on foreign ownership of land and natural resourcesOn 19 September, Marta Sahores, an 84-year-old chemistry professor and activist who has mobilised against mega-mining projects for more than two decades, took to the streets in Argentina. Alongside workers, retirees, students, Indigenous groups and human rights organisations, Sahores was there to protest against the country’s far-right president, J
  
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• The pest I’ll never forget: the cockroaches I still dream about

  06-10-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  My student house in Manchester had several thousand other occupants. Despite pest controllers regularly dousing the property, the glossy, greasy, relentless insects marched onwards, endlessly reproducing‘You do know about the cockroaches?” I’ve forgotten most things people said to me in the 80s, but never that. It was said by one of the occupants of the student house in Longsight, Manchester, that I had signed up to live in the following year. When the landlord had shown me and
  
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• Agreement to transition away from fossil fuels ‘not open for renegotiation’, Pacific leader tells pre-Cop

  06-10-2026 07:01 via theguardian.com
  International leaders visit Tuvalu as part of climate talks co-hosted by Australia ahead of Cop31 conferencePacific island leaders have urged a promised global transition away from fossil fuels must not be left open to renegotiation as they gather in tiny Tuvalu in a bid to build momentum before a major climate summit.About 50 dignitaries – 14 national heads including Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, a list of climate change ministers and the heads of global agencies &nd
  
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• Country diary: On the bluest of days, the plaintive call of a pipit | Mark Cocker

  06-10-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Combs Moss, Derbyshire: There is plenty to be gloomy about, but today was not the day for it up on the moorThe morning was sunlit and the sky the sort of deepest blue dome that makes your heart sing – and all the louder for being at the time of least natural sound.Autumn is the most silent season for birds, but at least I could hear the passing meadow pipits more clearly as they came out the blue in small numbers and crossed overhead on migration. There is something inherently melanch
  
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• Green party drops longstanding opposition to nuclear power

  05-10-2026 17:53 via theguardian.com
  Party in England and Wales ditches commitment to phase out nuclear in major shift in its energy policyGreen party members have voted to end the party’s opposition to nuclear power, dropping a commitment to phase out the technology in a major shift in its energy policy.The motion, adopted at conference, removes a “blanket opposition to nuclear fission” and instead commits the Green party of England and Wales to assessing nuclear projects alongside other low-carbon technologies.
  
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• Snakes, bobcats, mountain lions: the secret animal world beneath the Hollywood sign

  05-10-2026 16:00 via theguardian.com
  An international symbol for the city, the sign is also hallmark of the region’s environmental richnessAtop Mount Lee, in the heart of Los Angeles, the wind is quiet. Two red-tailed hawks sail above, barely flapping as they coast the thermal air like surfers on a wave. Standing beside the giant letters of the Hollywood sign, the city seems peaceful. On a clear day, blocks and blocks of homes unfold beneath and the skies reveal sights all the way to Catalina Island – 10 miles out, acro
  
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• Mixed start for pre-Cop as just two non-Pacific leaders accept Australian invitation to climate summit

  05-10-2026 11:52 via theguardian.com
  Anthony Albanese joins about 4,000 people in Fiji for preparatory meeting for year-ending Cop31 UN climate summitSign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter hereThe Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has declared it is “important that Pacific voices are heard” after landing in Fiji on Monday to attend his first UN climate summit since becoming prime minister more than four years ago.Albanese joined about 4,000 people in Nadi for
  
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• Revealed: the methane mega-leaks from UN climate summit host Turkey

  05-10-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Cop31 leader calling for global curbs on climate-heating gas has landfills producing some of world’s worst plumesTwo or three nights each week, the smell descends. Residents of villages on the rural outskirts of Istanbul don’t know what the smell is, but they have been plagued by it for years: a smell so bad they have to sleep with their windows closed even during hot summer nights. They know the source, too: the huge Silivri municipal waste dump a few miles away that is b
  
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• Country diary: Lave net fishing is a tradition in trouble | Gwyneth Lewis

  05-10-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Portskewett, Monmouthshire: For hundreds of years this has been a method of catching salmon in the Severn’s churning waters. I visit one of the few fishermen still goingEvery time I cross the new Severn Bridge leaving Wales, I check the state of the tide, using a buoy in the middle of the channel. I learned to sail in these cocoa-coloured waters of the Bristol Channel, with its ferocious tidal range (the distance between low and high water) the second highest in the world. You can’t
  
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• To cull or not to cull: Greenland debates fate of world’s slowest shark

  05-10-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  As trawlers compete with Greenland sharks for halibut and cod, conservationists and fishers clash over what to do about misunderstood species‘When I accidentally catch a shark, I bring it to my dogs,” Henrik Jensen, a 27-year-old from Greenland’s west coast, says casually. “I don’t let it back down because [the sharks] bully me and cut my lines.”Jensen has fished for halibut in Ilulissat, Greenland’s third largest town, for a decade. He works an hour nor
  
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• Tories to pledge to scrap Environment Agency and Natural England

  04-10-2026 23:00 via theguardian.com
  Shadow chancellor will also promise to scrap affordable homes regulations as part of strategy to refocus on growthThe Conservatives will announce a bonfire of regulations including abolishing affordable homes and community funding rules as well as scrapping Natural England and the Environment Agency.The shadow chancellor, Andrew Griffith, will say the party intends to “streamline regulations” that protect nature and oblige developers to include affordable homes and community services
  
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• More than 1,200 Colorado students have earned a climate ‘seal’: ‘We’re the ones growing up in this world’

  04-10-2026 14:30 via theguardian.com
  A statewide initiative pairs climate-focused coursework with community service – and is spreading to other statesAs a student at a high school not far from Denver’s main airport, Anthony Muñoz wondered whether the jet fuel from airplanes flying above his campus was harming living things.An avid gardener, Muñoz partnered with a local university to create a garden on the campus of his charter school, Vista Academy, filling it with native plants that could detect ground-le
  
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• Rare tree on Somerset clifftops being protected

  04-10-2026 14:14 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A rare tree, Fay's whitebeam, that is only found on cliffs in Somerset is being protected.
  
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• Purchase of field aims to expand 'green lung'

  04-10-2026 13:05 via bbc.co.uk
  
  It is hoped the prospective sale provides a haven for wildlife in an urban area.
  
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• ‘We have been dispossessed’: Nick Hayes on land rights and a peaceful revolution at the real Toad Hall

  04-10-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  The co-founder of the Right to Roam campaign and author of The Book of Trespass discusses the Oxfordshire riverside community he calls home and how Hardwick Hall has been taken back by the peopleOn the banks of the Thames in South Oxfordshire, the Hardwick estate has been owned by the Rose family for generations. When Sir Charles Rose, a banker, sportsman, yachtsman and aviator, sped through the lanes in his Rolls-Royce in the early days of motoring, he inspired Kenneth Grahame to create Mr
  
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• Revealed: Government quietly dropped plan to prepare England for wildfires

  04-10-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  FOI request shows wildfire risk scheme scrapped, as survey highlights many fire services lack proper protective gearThe government quietly scrapped plans to prepare the countryside in England for wildfires, it has been revealed. This was despite new data showing fire crews do not have the proper protective gear to tackle them.This summer has been a potent reminder of the scale of the threat posed by the climate crisis, with the UK experiencing record-breaking wildfires after punishingly hot and
  
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• Trust warns of 'tangible' climate threat to heritage sites

  04-10-2026 08:21 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A National Trust manager says recent summers have "brought home" the impact of climate change.
  
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• Students blast off to US for Nasa robotics competition

  04-10-2026 07:19 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The students will head to Florida to compete against university teams from Australia, India and the US.
  
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• Astronomers get permission for mini-observatory

  03-10-2026 21:05 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Shropshire Astronomical Society plans to install the dome at Rodington village hall.
  
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• Whales on Australia’s ‘humpback highway’ are at growing risk of injury from boat and propellor strikes

  03-10-2026 21:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: Images show deep cuts and damage to tails and fins, as experts warn the migrating species often aren’t able to avoid a collision Gruesome images of adult and juvenile humpback whales along Australia’s east coast with slash and gouge injuries from boat and propeller strikes highlight what experts say is a growing problem, as the population booms 60 years after the ban on whaling.Missing tail parts, deep red lacerations and shocking injuries to the spine of a whale calf can
  
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• Whales on Australia’s ‘humpback highway’ are at growing risk of injury from boat and propeller strikes

  03-10-2026 21:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Images show deep cuts and damage to tails and fins, as experts warn the migrating species often aren’t able to avoid a collision Gruesome images of adult and juvenile humpback whales along Australia’s east coast with slash and gouge injuries from boat and propeller strikes highlight what experts say is a growing problem, as the population booms 60 years after the ban on whaling.Missing tail parts, deep red lacerations and shocking injuries to the spine of a whale calf can
  
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• From urban rooftops to working cattle farms: Australia’s best home gardens – in pictures

  03-10-2026 21:00 via theguardian.com
  The 20 best residential gardens have been revealed in the first-ever Landscape Australia awards shortlist. Jury chair Emily Wong said each project was a response to urgent issues like the climate crisis, fire and flood resilience, and the loss of biodiversity. They saw gardens as ‘part of a larger living commons that supports different ecologies and also … the future of Australian cities’. Wong also noted that private gardens take up a large quantity of space in Australian cit
  
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• I'm a wildlife cameraman but 'special' rare sightings can still take me by surprise

  03-10-2026 19:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Wildlife cameraman Dan Abbot is caught off guard by a humpback whale, a rare sight in Welsh waters.
  
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• Woodlands project records more trees than expected

  03-10-2026 14:47 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Lost Woods of the Low Weald and Downs project aims to restore some of Sussex's ancient woodland.
  
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• The expansion of Heathrow would be an expensive disaster for Britain and the world. Burnham needs to block it | George Monbiot

  03-10-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  A third runway would fly in the face of reason. If we are to prioritise human life over short-term ‘growth’, we need to use planes less, not moreIf a third runway is built at Heathrow, what will be the impact on the wealth of the nation? It will cost us somewhere between £23.4bn and £62.5bn. These are not my figures; they weren’t calculated by environmental groups, but by the Department for Transport.For decades, government ministers have told us that airport expans
  
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• Island hosts inter-island environment summit

  03-10-2026 08:24 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The annual event brings together delegates to share ideas and develop joint projects.
  
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• ‘It’s shocking really’: Devon community tracks River Dart sewage spills

  03-10-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Citizen environmentalists create online platform that flags spills in real time and highlights repeatedly polluted spots The easy thing for the people who live on the banks of the River Dart in Devon might have been to grumble and groan about the sewage spills that blight their beloved waterway.Instead, citizen environmentalists in the area have created a unique online platform that flags up spills in real time, highlights spots that are repeatedly polluted, and sets out where improvement work i
  
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