Environment news

• The Dangers Behind Fast Food Packaging

  08-02-2017 23:56 via feedproxy.google.com
  We’ve all known for a long time that eating fast food is bad for you. It’s greasy, fatty, high in sodium and the calorie count is obscene. Now comes news that even the packaging that food comes in might be dangerous to your health.A new study found dangerous chemical compounds in almost half of the 400 fast food containers it tested from 27 fast food franchises. Packaging tested in this study came from the Big Four: McDonald’s, Chipotle Mexican Grill, S
  
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• Polanski calls for report on ecosystem collapse to be published in full

  09-09-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Green leader says ministers must stop ‘hiding the truth’ about threat to UK security from climate and nature crisisZack Polanski will challenge Andy Burnham’s government to publish an unredacted version of an explosive report by the UK’s spy chiefs that found the collapse of overseas ecosystems would have catastrophic consequences for the UK’s national security.The Green party leader in England will demand that the prime minister come clean about the scale and impac
  
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• Birdwatch: the avian equivalent of a catwalk model, blue cranes are under threat

  09-09-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Numbers of the exquisitely graceful species are falling amid loss of food supply and habitatFew birds are quite as elegant as the blue crane. As I watched a pair feeding alongside a busy road in South Africa, against the rather incongruous backdrop of a herd of cows, I was struck by their sheer beauty. With a slender body, curved neck, long legs, elongated tail plumes and a subtle, dove-grey plumage, this bird really is the avian equivalent of a catwalk model.But not all is well for the blue cra
  
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• Country diary: Wetland plants have prospered this year – and I love this understated beauty | Sarah Lambert

  09-09-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Ailsworth, Cambridgeshire: Trifid bur-marigold is struggling nationally, but thanks to a little ‘Goldilocks’ land management, it has the perfect conditions hereAfter a night of storms, the air feels freshly washed. I breathe in delicious scents of damp grass, earth, and sweet, winey blackberry from hedges weighed down with a bumper harvest. Once again, I’m drawn to the River Nene, a ribbon of blue and green that snakes lazily through the valley. I stand for a while on the bridg
  
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• Reclaiming the streets: the architects clawing back Europe’s car-centric spaces

  09-09-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  The European Prize for Urban Public Space’s shortlist highlights projects helping people cope with climate crisisIn the words of Joni Mitchell, the planners of many urban centres around the world “paved paradise and put up a parking lot”. The European Prize for Urban Public Space tries to show that cities don’t have to be locked in the automotive age for ever.The prize’s latest shortlist, announced on Wednesday, highlights architectural projects that convert infrast
  
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• Two more people arrested over ‘mountain of illegal waste’ dumped in Oxfordshire

  08-09-2026 23:54 via theguardian.com
  
  A total of six people apprehended as clean-up of rubbish stacked 10 metres high cost about £6mTwo men have been arrested after fly-tippers dumped a “mountain of illegal waste”, stacked 10 metres high, in Oxfordshire.Hundreds of tonnes of rubbish appeared in a field between the River Cherwell and the A34 near Kidlington in November last year. The waste tip was so large that removing it could cost more than the local council’s annual budget, the area’s MP said. Contin
  
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• US federal court says no constitutional right to clean water in Mississippi case

  08-09-2026 19:37 via theguardian.com
  
  Appeals court dismisses lawsuit from Jackson residents claiming that tainted drinking water violated their rights A US appellate court has decided that the federal constitution does not guarantee a right to clean water.That legal opinion came in the form of a decision on Friday from the fifth circuit court of appeals to uphold a lower court’s dismissal of a 2022 lawsuit from several Jackson, Mississippi, residents claiming that tainted drinking water violated their constitutional rights. C
  
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• One in 12 golf clubs in England broke water extraction rules in past five years

  08-09-2026 14:06 via theguardian.com
  More than 140 clubs breached licences, with a third caught taking water illegally, analysis shows – but no fines issuedMore than 140 golf clubs in England have breached their water extraction licences in the past five years, according to data analysis by the Guardian.More than a third of these clubs were caught taking water illegally from the environment, either by taking more than permitted or by removing it outside the permitted period. Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: This moorland needed rainfall – it got something even better | Ed Douglas

  08-09-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Eyam Moor, Derbyshire: It’s a place that I treasure greatly, and now it has a change of ownership that is worth celebratingCan a landscape sigh with relief? It felt that way, pushing through bilberry and cowberry hung with pearls of overnight rain that soaked my lower legs.On the path, dry, dusty soil had reverted to reassuring gloop. I was thrilled, at one point, to step cautiously round a puddle. Overhead, a buzzard wheeled and a small gang of swallows skimmed across heather whose p
  
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• ‘We have really cool sharks’: three-year project to lift lid on Britain’s little-understood species

  08-09-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Anglers will help scientists investigate the porbeagle, tope and blue shark to boost knowledge and conservation‘We have really cool sharks,” says Dr Lucy Hawkes. She is not referring to animals in the rich coastal waters of South Africa or Mexico, but instead talking about the species that live around Britain. Hawkes, an associate professor at the University of Exeter, is co-leading a new three-year project to investigate the lives of three of England’s most vulnerable shark sp
  
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• Nepal says big polluters must ‘wake up’ as it calls for climate compensation over flood disaster

  08-09-2026 02:58 via theguardian.com
  Foreign minister Shisir Khanal tells the Guardian the world’s biggest economies need to help Nepal, which contributes less than 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions Nepal is demanding $20m in climate compensation for the recent devastating floods, as a senior minister called on the world’s most polluting countries to “wake up” and accept shared responsibility for a disaster that led to the death or disappearance of more than 6,000 people.Scientists believe the climate
  
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• Global move away from oil could lead to conflict and migration, experts say

  08-09-2026 02:00 via theguardian.com
  Researchers urge governments to help worst afflicted countries, such as Nigeria and Algeria, which rely on oil revenues for public servicesConflict, migration and economic upheaval will accompany the global move away from oil, unless governments act urgently to help the worst afflicted countries to cope, research has found.Nigeria, Iran, Angola and Algeria are among the countries that will be severely affected, as they rely strongly on oil revenues for their government and provision of public se
  
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• Cities in Great Britain most vulnerable to extreme heat revealed

  08-09-2026 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  OS index examines which ‘urban heat islands’ suffer the most – and which cope the best with rising temperaturesPortsmouth, Leicester, Exeter, Bristol and Nottingham will be among the cities that warm the most by the end of this century as global heating turns British cities into urban heat islands, according to research.Analysis from Ordnance Survey (OS) has created a heat vulnerability index for all cities in Great Britain. Portsmouth, which sits on the south coast of England
  
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• French winemakers forecast 30-year low harvest after severe drought and heat

  07-09-2026 17:10 via theguardian.com
  Estimates suggest drop in production with vineyards also concerned ‘smoke taint’ from wildfires may affect qualityFrench vineyards hit by severe drought and heatwaves are expected to report a 30-year low in wine production after the country’s hottest ever recorded summer, according to the agriculture ministry.Initial estimates suggest winemakers will produce just under 34m hectolitres from this year’s harvest: a drop of 6% on last year, and 17% less than ‌the 2021-20
  
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• Can breath be art? Liz Larner on sculpting with hair, lashes, leather – and international group exhalation

  07-09-2026 16:57 via theguardian.com
  The Californian once cultivated petri dishes breathed on by artists that turned ‘murky and scary’. But now, in our dystopian age of space technocrats, she’s taking inspiration from Nasa shots of asteroids‘I had artists from all over the world breathe over petri dishes,” says Liz Larner. “It was a piece of international art made from breath bacteria.” The American sculptor is reminiscing about her 1988 work Every Artist Gave a Breath, a fragile and strang
  
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• Public asked to have their say on proposed new renewable energy company

  07-09-2026 16:35 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The proposed plans aim to reduce the cost of energy in the long-term, but won't be able to set bills.
  
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• Heatwaves and wildfires are setting back air quality improvements, UN finds

  07-09-2026 13:35 via theguardian.com
  WMO report details extreme weather events causing climatic feedback loop with serious health consequencesBig increases in wildfires and heatwaves supercharged by the climate crisis are hindering improvements to air quality around the world, UN experts have said.Regions that had recorded a fall in pollution emitted by cars and industrial sites are facing new threats to air quality because of exposure to smoke from wildfires, according to a new report, while rising temperatures caused by intense h
  
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• Study to reveal more about Guernsey's wild ferrets

  07-09-2026 13:29 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A conservation group has been spending a year studying wild ferrets after securing government funds.
  
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• Glowworms shine again in North Yorkshire after larvae reared in garden shed

  07-09-2026 12:49 via theguardian.com
  Volunteer ‘glow-getters’ overseeing reintroduction of endangered beetles at Nosterfield nature reserveThe bioluminescent beams of “fairy folk” are shining again from a nature reserve in North Yorkshire for the first time in a century after the successful reintroduction of endangered glowworms.Female glowworms were spotted over multiple weeks at Nosterfield nature reserve this summer following a no-frills, almost zero-budget reintroduction of the much-loved invertebrates,
  
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• Weather tracker: Typhoon Saudel causes mass evacuations in south-east China

  07-09-2026 10:27 via theguardian.com
  Torrential rain causes widespread damage; while north-west South Africa hit by thunderstorms and central-southern US faces oppressive heatTyphoon Saudel brought days of torrential rain to Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong provinces in south-east China last week. The city of Putian, in Fujian province, recorded 416.5mm of rain in a 24-hour period between Thursday and Friday, with surrounding villages recording more than 500mm in the same period. In Fujian, authorities estimate that almost 6
  
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• We’re the mayors of Paris, Milan and Phoenix. The heat crisis has us all facing the same question | Emmanuel Grégoire, Giuseppe Sala and Kate Gallego

  07-09-2026 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Our three cities are learning from each other about how to protect residents. These climate policies are also public health measuresThis summer, mayors met in London during the heatwave that ironically threatened to derail London Climate Action Week.As temperatures broke records across the UK and Europe, leading some climate talks to be suspended or cancelled, we found ourselves seeking shelter and comparing how our cities prepare for extreme heat: how we protect vulnerable residents, communicat
  
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• Pioneering fossil hunter recognised with blue plaque

  07-09-2026 08:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Dorothea Bate discovered the dwarf elephant and the myotragus, an extinct goat-like antelope.
  
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• Hot summer helps group clear 'buckets' of lake litter

  07-09-2026 07:13 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The hot summer has meant lakes and rivers across the country have been running low.
  
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• Turtle doves released in bid to stop extinction

  07-09-2026 07:12 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Conservationists release more than two dozen turtle doves in the South Downs National Park.
  
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• Country diary: A dreadful den of murder and thievery – or is it? | Merryn Glover

  07-09-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Lynchat, Spey Valley: So many stories fill the iron age Raitts Cave, from wild legend to the more quotidian truth of its historyThe word “cave” is full of possibility. It speaks of darkness, secrets, treasures and escapees, all of which can be found in the stories of Raitts Cave, which lies in a field near the hamlet of Lynchat, Inverness-shire.Its Gaelic name is An Uaimh Mhor, “the great cave”, and one legend claims it was built by giants, the females hollowing
  
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• ‘Sharks are my film stars’: how the Jacques Cousteau of the North Sea finally unlocked its beauty

  07-09-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Epic plankton blooms make filming in the North Sea notoriously difficult. But a new documentary gives a rare glimpse of the kaleidoscopic life – seals, sharks, tuna, orcas and shorthorn sculpins – lurking beneath its wavesThe North Sea, as even its greatest admirers will concede, often glowers an unappetising grey or brown. And we assume that its dull exterior is matched by sediment-filled waters where little life dwells. For years, the friends and family of Peter van Rodijnen wonder
  
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• Reindeer and rare-earth minerals: Swedish politicians take aim at Indigenous Sami in mining dispute

  07-09-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Gabna community fear their traditional herding routes will be sacrificed as far-right rhetoric ramps up against themFor the Swedish-Sami politician Åsa Larsson Blind, it was something of a watershed moment in the national conversation around Indigenous rights.In late April and May, as the country geared up for this month’s elections, the deputy prime minister and energy minister, Ebba Busch, gave a series of speeches and articles publicly attacking the Sami’s rights to graze re
  
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• Turning cooler with wet and windy weather forecast for UK this week

  07-09-2026 05:09 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Weekend warmth gives way to rain and strong winds for many into the start of the new week.
  
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• The volunteers risking their lives to defuse Indonesia's wildfire 'carbon bombs'

  07-09-2026 01:13 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Peat fires in Borneo are releasing ancient stores of carbon - and sending a toxic smog across South East Asia.
  
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• Biopsies, aerial drills and a personal pizza: a day in the life of a shark scientist

  06-09-2026 18:00 via theguardian.com
  Jasmin Graham, a shark scientist and science communicator, also makes time in her day to practice her hobbies and play music bingo with friends“Sharks are not monsters, they just need better PR,” writes Jasmin Graham. And she should know: Graham is a shark scientist and science communicator.Here’s what a day in Graham’s life in Sarasota, Florida looks like. Continue reading...
  
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