Environment news

• UK runs without coal power for three days in a row

  24-04-2018 11:12 via theguardian.com
  Demand lower following recent warm weather, making it easier for gas, renewables and nuclear to cover UK’s needsThe UK has been powered without coal for three days in a row, setting a new record and underlining the polluting fuel’s rapid decline.Coal has historically been at the cornerstone of the UK’s electricity mix, but last year saw the first 24-hour period that the the country ran without the fuel since the 19th century. Continue reading...
  
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• The fight to save Australia’s ‘incredibly captivating’ endangered spiny crayfish

  07-06-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Global heating is destroying creeks the crayfish call home. They’re the canary in the coalmine for other species living in the delicate ecosystemsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastNightfall comes early under the dense cloak of the rainforest canopy and Ollie Scully – boots off and barefoot – is wading through the cool water with his torch scouring the rocky bottom of a shallow creek.We are at an undisclosed spot in the hinterland of Queensland’s S
  
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• A quarry atop an ancient volcano is Sydney’s newest bushland park. It’s just the start of an ‘intergenerational project’

  07-06-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Hornsby Park is the latest former industrial site transformed into a peaceful green escape in a city known for its vistasSydney’s newest bushland park in Hornsby, on the city’s upper north shore, has been created at the site of an old quarry abandoned since 2003. The 60 hectares is a peaceful retreat just 10 minutes on foot from the local train station, which will eventually service 6,000 new homes.Hornsby Park sits atop an ancient volcano on Dharug and GuriNgai country. The former i
  
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• Dining across the divide: ‘I’m not a climate denier, but aiming for net zero by 2050 is unrealistic’

  07-06-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  An ‘apolitical’ retired IT manager and a ‘far left’ biologist disagree over tackling global heating – but are they in harmony over truth and reconciliation?• Want to meet someone from across the divide? Click here to find out howDon, 74, FarnhamOccupation Retired IT project manager Continue reading...
  
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• Tax-break trees: how woodland became a store of wealth for the rich

  07-06-2026 11:00 via theguardian.com
  Attempt to turn a stretch of the English-Scottish border into a commercial forest exposes threat to habitats from wealthy investorsOn the English-Scottish border a small species of butterfly, the northern brown argus, has fended off one of the biggest investors in the UK.Todrig, with its heath moorlands and hundreds of species of flora and fauna, represents an investment that could save Britain’s wealthiest families millions of pounds in inheritance tax. Continue reading...
  
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• Fisher with a mission: first woman to chair Grayling Society wants to protect ‘lady of the stream’

  07-06-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Marnie Lovejoy hopes to inspire other women to fish, protect England’s rivers and lift up the ‘beautiful’ graylingWith its iridescent pink scales and elegant dorsal fin, the grayling is known to anglers as the “lady of the stream”, yet the society fighting for its protection has never been led by a woman, until now.Angling, and fly-fishing in particular, has always been a very male-dominated sport. The fly-fisher’s club in Mayfair, London, where anglers meet t
  
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• Village solar system model shows planets and stars

  07-06-2026 08:15 via bbc.com
  
  How a Kent village created a scale model of the solar system to help people understand space.
  
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• Drought and floods drove them from their homes. But hunger and poverty have followed them to a Mogadishu camp

  06-06-2026 15:00 via theguardian.com
  More than 6.5 million Somalis have been pushed to the brink of severe hunger as the climate crisis, fighting and cuts in aid leave a trail of despairFor three years, Zeynab Ibrahim watched as her little town shrivelled up and died. The rains never came, the reservoirs were depleted and the farms gradually turned to dust. Hunger and sickness swept through the village, claiming the lives of many, including four of Ibrahim’s 10 children.“We tried every means to survive – selling d
  
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• How the ‘Picasso of ponds’ went from shaping golf courses to making freshwater homes for wildlife

  06-06-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Shaun Hancox has created scores of ponds for rewilding projects across Britain – and he says there’s a lot more to it than digging a holeHe is known as “the Picasso of ponds” but the tableaux being created by Shaun Hancox in a boggy field in Somerset currently looks more like a building site. An orange and black excavator is rhythmically removing lumpy clay soil and sculpting it into brown banks.The result looks like a scar of bare earth on what was once green pasture &nd
  
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• Country diary: A plough, a haybale – who would live in a house like this? | Nicola Chester

  06-06-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Hungerford, Berkshire: In a nearby farm, ever-resourceful birds and bees are getting creative with where they build their nestsThere are some unusual nesting spots being utilised in the farm and stableyard, revealed by pauses between chores.My wheelbarrow trips to the muck heap are attended by pied and grey wagtail pairs that make small aerial assaults on insects, though I’ve yet to locate their nests. Swallows too are well-served here by midges and flies swarming around warm-blooded anima
  
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• Mountain path repairs 'first big work' since 1980s

  06-06-2026 08:13 via bbc.com
  
  A helicopter is used to transport more than 100 tonnes of stone to the site at Helvellyn.
  
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• Predator or prey? The confounding case of the missing sea eagle

  06-06-2026 07:00 via theguardian.com
  The UK’s biggest bird of prey has been compared to a flying barn door. So how can one fitted with a satellite tracker disappear in prime grouse-shooting country?The six police officers arrived at the Snilesworth estate in two pickup trucks last week, according to one account. They asked to go up on the moors, a source said, and “so off they went”.A vast expanse of spectacularly undulating lands on the western edge of the North York Moors, Snilesworth is globally renowned for it
  
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• How campaigners beat industrial farming in Denmark’s ‘pig election’

  06-06-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Mette Frederiksen’s new government promises overhaul for people – and animals – in home of ultra-intensive farmingLike all new prime ministers, when Mette Frederiksen secured a third consecutive term as Denmark’s head of government this week, she promised her administration would take steps to “improve the everyday lives” of the country’s inhabitants.Unlike most new prime ministers, however, she specified that her left-leaning coalition’s policy pr
  
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• Astronauts return to ISS after sheltering during air leak repair attempt

  05-06-2026 23:35 via bbc.com
  
  Russian attempt to repair tunnel area sparks safe-haven procedure for five other astronauts onboard.
  
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• Trump to meet AI leaders to discuss US investment in their companies

  05-06-2026 21:36 via bbc.com
  
  The US president said on Friday he expects to meet the leaders of top AI companies next week.
  
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• Jupiter and Venus to share 'cosmic kiss'

  05-06-2026 16:42 via bbc.com
  
  Elizabeth Rizzini looks at the prospects for seeing a spectacular planetary conjunction.
  
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• The Trump administration is trying to kill a rule that protects millions of acres of national forests | Charles F Sams III

  05-06-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  The bipartisan Roadless Rule is under fire. It’s just one way Trump could make our public lands unrecognizableModern roads in the United States will last for decades. And yet the damage they cause in our national forests is immediate.Since 2001, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule has protected more than 58m acres of national forests from development, barring road construction and timber harvests. The policy came to be with huge bipartisan support; almost 2 million people submitted comment
  
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• Scientists warn Trump plan to axe US ocean monitoring system will leave world ‘flying blind’

  05-06-2026 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Experts say dismantling the ocean observation system will ‘severely degrade’ the accuracy of weather predictionsThe Trump administration’s plan to dismantle an ocean observation system vital to understanding the climate crisis and marine ecosystems would “severely degrade” the accuracy of weather predictions and El Niño forecasts, with economic consequences for the US, European and American scientists have warned.Decommissioning the US system, which plays a m
  
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• A disease of deforestation: how Ebola is linked to the smartphone in your pocket

  05-06-2026 11:00 via theguardian.com
  As demand for cobalt, gold and other minerals grows, mining is accelerating deforestation in the Congo basin – and increasing the risk of deadly Ebola outbreaksFor decades after the discovery of Ebolavirus in 1976, outbreaks of the disease were relatively small and contained, affecting a few hundred people at most.Not any more. In recent years, outbreaks of Ebola have been much larger, affecting thousands and even tens of thousands of people across multiple countries. The 2014 outbreak of
  
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• Average person eats six times more chicken than in 1961, UN report finds

  05-06-2026 10:00 via theguardian.com
  UN report says global meat supply has risen fourfold in last 60 years and is expected to keep risingAnalysis: Ingredients in place for shift to plant-based diets but meat still dominatesThe average person eats about six times as much chicken and twice as much pork as their grandparents’ generation did, data from a UN report suggests, with global meat supply having risen fourfold in the last 60 years and expected to keep rising.The supply of poultry rose from below 3kg a person in 1961 to 1
  
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• Week in wildlife: a lazy sea lion, baby ospreys and rare lemur quads

  05-06-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• Get set for a painted lady summer: big year for orange butterflies in Britain

  05-06-2026 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Migrant insects have been seen in large numbers along east coast thanks to heatwave and benign southerly windsIf you’ve spotted a pale orange butterfly dashing at frenetic pace through streets, fields or gardens, you’ve noticed the new migrants that will add colour to the summer in record-breaking numbers.What is expected to be the largest arrival of painted lady butterflies in Britain for 17 years is under way after heatwaves and favourable winds ushered thousands if not millions of
  
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• How the insatiable thirst of datacenters is leaving communities across the US high and dry

  05-06-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  In this week’s newsletter: Utah’s gargantuan Stratos development is the latest battleground in the AI-driven fight for water, energy, and our environmental future• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereKevin O’Leary is many things. He is a flamboyant venture capitalist, co-host of the TV show Shark Tank, vocal supporter of Donald Trump and, recently, a villainous tycoon (or, in his character’s words, a vampire born in 1601) in the Oscar-n
  
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• Henry Moore works to be unveiled at botanic garden

  05-06-2026 07:22 via bbc.com
  
  The botanic garden says the pieces aim to encourage visitors to reflect on nature and humanity.
  
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• 'It's a very big deal' - curlew eggs hatch after being saved from wildfire

  05-06-2026 07:15 via bbc.com
  
  The four chicks, which hatched from the eggs, are being cared for until they are old and strong enough to be released.
  
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• Country diary: The ‘queen of trees’ is holding a secret | Elizabeth-Jane Burnett

  05-06-2026 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Eggesford Forest, Devon: I thought I was alone in admiring a towering beech in the chilly wood, but I was notI breathe in the bluebells as a blackcap sings. At the crescendo, a flash of yellow breaks up the blue – a brimstone butterfly flies up to my face, then moves back, approaches, then draws back, repeating the fluttered action until I follow.Together, we weave through fresh-scented firs before my companion flits away and I realise that I have come further into the forest than intended
  
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• Scramble for biofuel as oil prices rise ‘could push world closer to food crisis’

  05-06-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Experts say increased use of crops for fuel is ‘dangerous game’ that could send food price inflation soaringDemand for biofuels is likely to leap by nearly a third this year, which could send food price inflation soaring further and push the world closer to a global food crisis.More countries are opting to increase biofuel use as the price of oil has jumped to nearly $100 a barrel after the US-Israeli attacks on Iran and the closure of the strait of Hormuz. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘I couldn’t breathe’: the sinister spread of France’s killer seaweed – podcast

  05-06-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  After a series of deaths on the beaches of Brittany, one bereaved family set out to prove the foul-smelling bloom was to blameBy Marta Zaraska. Read by Lucy Bromilow Continue reading...
  
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• Experience: I sat under an oak tree every day for a year

  05-06-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  After a period of burnout, I realised that nature knows what you need, and is always ready to offer it – you just have to be quiet enough to receive itIn 2022 I moved to Clevedon, near Bristol. As soon as I saw the oak tree behind my flat, I started sitting under it. It’s not in some beautiful, remote place – it’s on an urban hill surrounded by grassland – but as a solitary tree on the side of a hill, it drew my attention. I was burned out. For 10 yea
  
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• ‘Unpredictable and extreme’: Asia braces for El Niño

  05-06-2026 04:30 via theguardian.com
  Weather models project a potentially strong El Niño this year, which could spell disaster for heatwave-hit India, drench China and hurt agriculture across south-east AsiaThe UN has warned that the world must prepare for the imminent return of El Niño and the raised global temperatures and weather extremes it brings.The powerful natural weather pattern has an 80% chance of forming before September and a 90% chance before November, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on
  
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