Environment news

• Study unlocks surprising behaviour of soil bacteria

  17-06-2016 13:53 via BBC News
  
  Newly sequenced genomes of soil bacteria have led to questions about how differing land management affects the organisms' behaviour, on agriculture and emissions.
  
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• The Guardian view on Oxford Street’s pedestrianisation: cities should be designed around people, not cars | Editorial

  25-10-2026 18:25 via Environment | The Guardian
  The transformation of Europe’s busiest shopping street should be a case study in making cities greener, less congested and more inviting places to liveSadiq Khan has been trying to pedestrianise Oxford Street since he first became the mayor of London in 2016. On Monday, after numerous setbacks, his plan will finally come to fruition. The busiest stretch of the nation’s famous shopping street will be closed to traffic in a scheme designed to improve the area and make it more attractive to ped
  
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• Man killed by falling tree as Storm Boelo batters Scotland

  25-10-2026 18:15 via BBC News
  
  The 60-year-old man was struck by the tree near Castle Douglas as Storm Boelo brought strong winds and heavy rain to Scotland.
  
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• When will the weather settle after Storm Boelo?

  25-10-2026 18:04 via BBC News
  
  Gillian Smart has the weather forecast after the worst of Storm Boelo.
  
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• Travel disruption and power cuts after back-to-back storms

  25-10-2026 16:58 via BBC News
  
  Authorities said they were dealing with flooding and fallen trees as Storm Boelo followed Storm Austen.
  
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• Flight disruption and thousands without electricity after Storm Boelo

  25-10-2026 16:14 via BBC News
  
  About 350 incidents, including fallen trees and flooding, have been reported to the Department for Infrastructure.
  
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• ‘They paved paradise’: fighting back over the loss of green spaces in Cameroon’s capital

  25-10-2026 16:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Concrete sprawl in Yaoundé has devastated the city’s trees and parks, so volunteers are stepping up, shrub by shrubA little piece of paradise is buried under the asphalt that is now lined with parked cars. The romantic spot where Sosthène Hugues Ngono used to bring his first dates had been green and beautiful. “It wasn’t just a park,” he says, standing at the edge of what is now a private car park in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé.“It was where I came to clear my head when things fel
  
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• Koalas are cute, furry, iconic – and dying of chlamydia. But how well does the approved vaccine work?

  25-10-2026 15:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Queensland researchers say a published study contains ‘silly mistake’ that over-inflates vaccine’s efficacy, but the regulator is standing by decision to approve itAt wildlife hospitals across eastern Australia, many koalas brought in have distinctive brown patches on their bottoms – a sign of urinary incontinence and a painful inflamed bladder. Others have red, weeping eyes, pointing to a bacterial disease that can cause blindness in the endangered marsupials.Chlamydia infection, also k
  
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• 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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• U-turn on EV policy could stall UK’s take-up of EVs | Fiona Harvey and Jasper Jolly

  25-10-2026 13:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  The 2030 target for 80% of new cars to have zero emissions could be cut to as low as halfElectric cars make people happy. More than nine in 10 EV drivers – 94% in a recent poll – are saving money, and a similar number would stick with electric for their next purchase, and recommend them to family and friends. Sales are soaring: more than half of the new cars sold in the UK last month were electric, if hybrids are taken into account, and about 28% of new car sales overall were electric only.T
  
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• 'What was in the Clyde is basically now on the shore'

  25-10-2026 12:42 via BBC News
  
  BBC Scotland reports from the scene at Cardross as Storm Boelo batters the country.
  
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• Lights out: the island that goes dark to save young seabirds – in pictures

  25-10-2026 12:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Every autumn, Corvo Island in thre Azores turns off its public lighting for a few key days to help fledgling Cory’s shearwaters as they attempt to fly to the ocean guided by the starsOnce a year, Corvo, the smallest and most northerly island of Portugal’s Azores archipelago, goes dark. Since 2019, the island’s 450 or so inhabitants have chosen to switch off the lights every autumn for five nights to tackle the disastrous effects of artificial light on Cory’s shearwaters, a seabird endemi
  
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• More wet and windy weather to follow stormy weekend

  25-10-2026 11:16 via BBC News
  
  Following the first two named storms of the season, wet and very windy conditions are set to continue into the start of the new week.
  
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• The penguins are noisy, the people fantastic - what it takes to be an Antarctic postmaster

  25-10-2026 10:59 via BBC News
  
  George Clarke from Bristol will run the post office at Port Lockroy in Antarctica from October to March.
  
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• Musk says SpaceX restricted Ukraine's Starlink connection as service restored

  25-10-2026 10:00 via BBC News
  
  The tech billionaire accuses Ukraine of violating its terms of service by using the network for military activity.
  
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• Seabirds and sewage among UNESCO status challenges

  25-10-2026 08:22 via BBC News
  
  A report marking 10 years of the Isle of Man as a UNESCO Biosphere highlights the scheme's progress.
  
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• Rosebank: Life on the oil field at the centre of a political storm

  25-10-2026 08:15 via BBC News
  
  Scotland editor James Cook finds out what life is like on board a ship in an untapped oil field awaiting its fate.
  
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• From Russian cages to Irish sanctuary: The five-year rescue journey of Bu and Tyapa

  25-10-2026 01:02 via BBC News
  
  For Bu and Tyapa, the five-year journey from Russia to the Irish countryside was anything but straightforward.
  
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• The BoM’s temperature record keeping is under attack – again. What’s going on? | Temperature Check

  24-10-2026 21:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  An ‘audit’ of the Bureau of Meteorology main dataset for measuring climate change claims it contains ‘widespread errors’. It doesn’t stack upWant to get this in your inbox when it publishes? Sign up for the Clear Air Australia newsletter hereAustralia’s climate has warmed by more than 1.5C since 1910, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s main long-term temperature data.If you were so motivated, you might think if you could discredit this data, then you would undermine the whole
  
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• Amber weather warning as Storm Boelo hits Scotland

  24-10-2026 16:40 via BBC News
  
  The Met Office has issued an amber warning for wind over Scotland from 21:00 until 21:00 on Sunday.
  
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• ‘Bolso shows all signs of fascism’: the journalist who predicted Brazil’s future – and paid the ultimate price

  24-10-2026 14:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Dom Phillips warned that Jair Bolsonaro would make life more dangerous for reporters and the Amazon rainforest, and that his sons were even more extreme“Bolso shows all signs of fascism, as do his supporters,” the murdered British journalist Dom Phillips told me before his death. “His sons are all more extreme if anything.”These words were written in 2018 by the Guardian contributor shortly before the election of the far-right former army captain Jair Bolsonaro as president of Brazil –
  
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• Storm Boelo to bring severe gales and heavy rain into Sunday

  24-10-2026 13:48 via BBC News
  
  An amber weather warning has been issued for much of Scotland, parts of Northern Ireland and northern England, as Storm Boelo approaches.
  
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• Wales plans to ban steel pylons as government launches consultation

  24-10-2026 12:04 via BBC News
  
  The Welsh government says it is consulting on an "undergrounding-first approach" to electricity lines.
  
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• Young country diary: A red squirrel examines a nut, right in front of me | Tom

  24-10-2026 12:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  
  Brownsea Island, Dorset: I’ve been here lots of times to see the squirrels, so I know exactly where to find them – behind the church in the woodsEvery October my family have an annual trip to Brownsea Island. We go in autumn because this is a good time to see the red squirrels. In the other seasons, they are high up, hidden in the trees. We catch the ferry from Poole Harbour, and we know we are close when we can see the castle come into view. When we arrive we’re greeted by nosy chickens a
  
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• Trains cancelled and road warnings as Scotland prepares for Storm Boelo

  24-10-2026 11:41 via BBC News
  
  Heavy rain and strong winds are expected during the second named storm to hit in two days, with gusts of up to 80mph forecast.
  
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• Weather warnings in place ahead of Storm Boelo

  24-10-2026 10:28 via BBC News
  
  The amber Met Office alert for counties Antrim and Londonderry lasts from 21:00 BST on Saturday until 21:00 GMT on Sunday.
  
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• ‘False autumn’: stressed trees drop leaves early after scorching English summer

  24-10-2026 10:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Season will be less vibrant with trees such as birches, which usually offer a striking burst of yellow leaves, already bareAmong a canvas of copper, red and purple autumn leaves on display at Wisley garden in Surrey, south-east England, one tree stands conspicuously naked.“The birch has lost all its leaves,” says Guy Barter, the chief horticulturist at the Royal Horticultural Society. “That’s the effect of drought, so it’ll have no autumn colour this year.” Continue reading...
  
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• ‘You need persistence’: the Norfolk couple who took on environmental regulators three times – and won

  24-10-2026 09:00 via Environment | The Guardian
  Tim and Geli Harris have spent more than a decade fighting to protect Catfield Fen, a rare wetland in the Norfolk BroadsPolluters and regulators who fail to stop pollution must quake in their boots when they receive a letter from the lawyers for Tim and Geli Harris. The couple, who farm 460 acres in the Norfolk Broads, have now scored a hat-trick of landmark legal victories to save an internationally important wetland after they won again in the high court this month.Lady Justice Lieven found th
  
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• Second storm to hit UK with up to 80mph gusts as hundreds still without power

  24-10-2026 08:40 via BBC News
  
  An amber weather warning has been issued for much of Scotland, parts of Northern Ireland and northern England, as Storm Boelo approaches.
  
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• Project to restore rare native trees with DNA testing

  24-10-2026 08:17 via BBC News
  
  Conservation groups say black poplars are endangered due to felling, land drainage and habitat loss.
  
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