Environment news

• Week in wildlife: a leopard cat, a vulture puppet and a hare playing hide and seek

  02-05-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• ‘I consider him my first son’: how living with a baby monkey taught me I’m ready to be a dad

  15-12-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  I went from selling flats in Paris to being alone in a cabin in Guinea looking after primates. It changed my life, but one relationship marked me like no otherIn 2022, I had a job at an estate agents in Paris selling ridiculously expensive flats, and decided I needed to do something more meaningful with my life. I resigned, and six months later arrived in Guinea.In hindsight I was a young kid, full of anger, not happy with his life. That 26-year-old is definitely not me now – and it was li
  
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• Weather tracker: Bushfires ravage Western Australia as temperatures soar

  15-12-2025 09:54 via theguardian.com
  Extreme heat follows blazes in New South Wales, while winds plunge Brazil’s largest city into darknessExtreme heat and bushfires have ravaged the parched landscape of Western Australia. With temperatures expected to continue soaring above 40C (104F) over the coming days, the Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe heatwave warning across much of the south-west.The conditions follow bushfires in New South Wales this month, which resulted in the destruction of homes and loss of life. Sever
  
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• Tabletop tomatoes and drought-resistant roses tipped as 2026’s top garden trends

  15-12-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  RHS predicts big shift in gardening habits as green-fingered Britons adapt to climate breakdownBouquets of cut flowers will be swapped for tabletop vegetable plants next year, the Royal Horticultural Society has said, as the UK charity announces its top plant trend predictions for 2026.Mini-planters of aubergines, chillies, peppers and tomatoes will be displayed in homes instead of flowers, as breeders develop dwarf varieties that are decorative and capable of supplementing the weekly shop, the
  
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• Country diary: I love these soggy winter bogs – and so do the snipe | Charlie Elder

  15-12-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Dartmoor, Devon: In these treacherous conditions for the moorland walker, one false move and a wary wader will burst into the airDays of torrential rain have yet to drain from this broad ridge at the westernmost edge of Dartmoor. The wide path to the top of Gibbet Hill, with views of Wheal Betsy, the nearby abandoned mine, is glazed with puddles, and I am forced to hop between tussocks of sedge to avoid treading ankle-deep in the liquid earth.This is my favourite season on Dartmoor – a tim
  
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• Conservatives would end 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars

  14-12-2025 23:00 via theguardian.com
  Party would also abolish zero-emission vehicle mandate, cutting legal requirement on carmakers to sell EVsThe Conservatives have announced proposals to end the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars and cut the legal requirement on car manufacturers to sell electric vehicles.A Conservative government would abolish the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, ending the legal requirement for manufacturers to sell a fixed rising percentage of zero-emission vehicles each year – 80% of new cars an
  
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• Too fancy? Not rugged enough? Or a mainstream sweet spot? We took Australia’s cheapest EV ute out for a day

  13-12-2025 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Jessica O’Bryan puts the $60,000 Musso EV through its paces in suburban Sydney and finds some pluses, some minuses – but no charging pointsFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWhen I am handed the keys to Australia’s first affordable fully electric ute, to say I feel nervous is an understatement.I’ve been driving a 2014 Volkswagen Polo for the past four years, and before that, a Holden Astra that
  
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• Carbon capture was spruiked as a way of limiting our emissions – but has Australia been greenwashed?

  13-12-2025 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Despite billions in investment and backing from the federal government, carbon capture and storage technology ‘should be in no way treated as a climate solution’, critics sayFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe US energy company Chevron describes it as the world’s largest industrial carbon dioxide injection project of its kind. But it has a problem. It still isn’t working as promised and the r
  
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• Australia’s best news agency photography for 2025 – in pictures

  13-12-2025 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Floods, fires, festivities and legal wins are all captured in the best images from the wire agencies in 2025Best of Australian politics 2025 – in pictures Continue reading...
  
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• ‘A shift no country can ignore’: where global emissions stand, 10 years after the Paris climate agreement

  13-12-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  The watershed summit in 2015 was far from perfect, but its impact so far has been significant and measurableTen years on from the historic Paris climate summit, which ended with the world’s first and only global agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions, it is easy to dwell on its failures. But the successes go less remarked.Renewable energy smashed records last year, growing by 15% and accounting for more than 90% of all new power generation capacity. Investment in clean energy topped $2
  
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• Country diary: Clinging to a crag in a place of constant change | Eben Muse

  13-12-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Neath, south Wales: This quarry built the abbey and the nearby terraced towns – and it’s different every time I visitThe way to Neath Abbey Quarry is a perfect stranger to me this morning. It’s been three years since my last visit, and the maze of the path has shifted; old tree trunks have turned to mulch and the brook carves a different channel. My companion and I shoulder big bouldering pads, poorly proportioned for tight manoeuvres, yet we bump, turn and pivot our way throug
  
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• The path of least emissions: how to take a sustainable holiday this summer

  13-12-2025 00:00 via theguardian.com
  While it’s impossible to escape the emissions associated with flying, some travel methods are more carbon-intensive than othersChange by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprintGot a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at [email protected] the Australian summer gets under way, many of us are planning holidays.When it comes to limiting emissions associated with travel, a
  
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• Families washed out of tents as flood waters course through Gaza

  12-12-2025 16:26 via theguardian.com
  Gaza has been hit by heavy rains and low temperatures, deepening the misery of most of its 2.2 million population who are living in tents after two years of Israeli bombardment. Thousands of homeless people have been washed out of their makeshift shelters and forced to seek emergency refuge Continue reading...
  
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• ‘We’re all rattled’: early season fires spook towns across Australia, even if it’s not black summer conditions – yet

  12-12-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Fast-moving fires in parched urban fringes have residents on edge, and no one needs a reminder of how bad things can getIt was 3am Sunday when Robin and Paul McLean received the text. A fire was encroaching on their Lake Macquarie home, and it was too late to leave.Their adult daughter, who lives with them, is confined to her bed due to disability and has her own evacuation plan that includes calling an ambulance if they reach a “watch and act” alert level – the second of three
  
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• ‘The worst is when the rubbish explodes’: the children living in Patagonia’s vast dumps

  12-12-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  In sprawling landfills, thousands of Argentinian families scavenge for survival amid toxic waste and government neglect, dreaming of steady jobs and escape The sun rises over the plateau of Neuquén’s open-air rubbish tip. Maia, nine, and her brothers, aged 11 and seven, huddle by a campfire. Their mother, Gisel, rummages through bags that smell of rotten fruit and meat.Situated at the northern end of Argentinian Patagonia, 100km (60 miles) from Vaca Muerta – one of the world&r
  
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• Indonesia floods were ‘extinction level’ disturbance for world’s rarest ape

  12-12-2025 14:42 via theguardian.com
  Conservationists fear up to 11% of Tapanuli orangutan population perished in disaster that also killed 1,000 peopleThe skull of a Tapanuli orangutan, caked in debris, stares out from a tomb of mud in North Sumatra, killed in catastrophic flooding that swept through Indonesia.The late November floods have been an “extinction-level disturbance” for the world’s rarest great ape, scientists have said, causing catastrophic damage to its habitat and survival prospects. Continue readi
  
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• Indonesia floods were ‘extinction level’ disturbance for rare orangutan species

  12-12-2025 14:42 via theguardian.com
  Conservationists fear up to 11% of Tapanuli population perished in disaster that also killed 1,000 peopleIndonesia’s deadly flooding was an “extinction-level disturbance” for the world’s rarest great ape, the Tapanuli orangutan, causing catastrophic damage to its habitat and survival prospects, scientists warned on Friday.Only scientifically classified as a species in 2017, Tapanulis are incredibly rare, with fewer than 800 left in the wild, confined to a small range in p
  
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• ‘Soil is more important than oil’: inside the perennial grain revolution

  12-12-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Scientists in Kansas believe Kernza could cut emissions, restore degraded soils and reshape the future of agricultureOn the concrete floor of a greenhouse in rural Kansas stands a neat grid of 100 plastic plant pots, each holding a straggly crown of strappy, grass-like leaves. These plants are perennials – they keep growing, year after year. That single characteristic separates them from soya beans, wheat, maize, rice and every other major grain crop, all of which are annuals: plants that
  
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• The Paris climate treaty changed the world. Here’s how | Rebecca Solnit

  12-12-2025 12:00 via theguardian.com
  There’s much more to do, but we should be encouraged by the progress we have madeToday marks the 10th anniversary of the Paris climate treaty, one of the landmark days in climate-action history. Attending the conference as a journalist, I watched and listened and wondered whether 194 countries could ever agree on anything at all, and the night before they did, people who I thought were more sophisticated than me assured me they couldn’t. Then they did. There are a lot of ways to tell
  
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• EA to spend millions clearing Oxfordshire illegal waste mountain in break with policy

  12-12-2025 11:47 via theguardian.com
  Announcement draws anger from Labour MP over refusal to remove tonnes of rubbish dumped near school in WiganThe Environment Agency is to spend millions of pounds to clear an enormous illegal rubbish dump in Oxfordshire, saying the waste is at risk of catching fire.But the decision announced on Thursday to clear up the thousands of tonnes of waste illegally dumped outside Kidlington has drawn an angry response from a Labour MP in Greater Manchester whose constituents have been living alongside 25
  
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• Hightailing along high streets and raiding ponds: otters’ revival in Britain

  12-12-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  Still rare only 20 years ago, the charismatic animals are in almost every UK river and a conservation success storyOn a quiet Friday evening, an otter and a fox trot through Lincoln city centre. The pair scurry past charity shops and through deserted streets, the encounter lit by the security lamps of shuttered takeaways. Each animal inspects the nooks and crannies of the high street before disappearing into the night, ending the unlikely scene captured by CCTV last month.Unlike the fox, the ott
  
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• Hightailing along city streets and raiding ponds: otters’ revival in Britain

  12-12-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  Still rare only 20 years ago, the charismatic animals are in almost every UK river and a conservation success storyOn a quiet Friday evening, an otter and a fox trot through Lincoln city centre. The pair scurry past charity shops and through deserted streets, the encounter lit by the security lamps of shuttered takeaways. Each animal inspects the nooks and crannies of the high street before disappearing into the night, ending the unlikely scene captured by CCTV last month.Unlike the fox, the ott
  
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• Week in wildlife: a baby echidna, a 600lb gator and an ‘unbearable’ bear

  12-12-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
  
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• Geminid meteor shower set to light up sky during weekend peak

  12-12-2025 08:37 via bbc.com
  The meteor shower peaks this weekend with dark skies giving the UK a good chance of seeing them, weather-permitting
  
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• As the UK looks to invest in nuclear, here’s what it could mean for Britain’s environment

  12-12-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  In this week’s newsletter:​ The government’s bid to speed up nuclear construction could usher in sweeping deregulation, with experts warning of profound consequences for nature• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereWhen UK prime minister Keir Starmer announced last week that he was “implementing the Fingleton review”, you can forgive the pulse of most Britons for failing to quicken.But behind the uninspiring statement lies potentia
  
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• Country diary: Twenty years ago this thriving woodland didn’t even exist | Phil Gates

  12-12-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Low Burnhall wood, Durham: The smell of decay, the screech of jays – nearly 100,000 trees planted in 2008 have really come of age“I remember when these were all open fields,” said with a sigh, is a lament usually associated with open countryside disappearing under creeping urban sprawl. Not here at Low Burnhall Wood, two miles south of Durham city centre, where former farmland in the valley of the River Wear is now filled with thriving young native trees.For 30 years I saw arab
  
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• Changes to polar bear DNA could help them adapt to global heating, study finds

  12-12-2025 02:00 via theguardian.com
  Scientists say bears in southern Greenland differ genetically to those in the north, suggesting they could adjustChanges in polar bear DNA that could help the animals adapt to warmer climates have been detected by researchers, in a study thought to be the first time a statistically significant link has been found between rising temperatures and changing DNA in a wild mammal species.Climate breakdown is threatening the survival of polar bears. Two-thirds of them are expected to have disappeared b
  
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• Cameras on killer whales record first evidence of joint hunt with dolphins

  11-12-2025 19:03 via bbc.com
  Researchers say the footage, captured near the North-West Pacific coast, is the first recorded evidence of the two working together.
  
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• Will net zero really cost UK households £500 a year?

  11-12-2025 18:25 via theguardian.com
  An official report lays out different scenarios for the cost of transitioning away from fossil fuels to net zero by 2050Britain’s official energy system operator has attempted to work out what achieving net zero carbon emissions will cost, with its figures showing surging spending in the coming years.The scale and speed of the shift to a low-carbon economy, and how to fund it, are hotly debated by political parties. Continue reading...
  
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• Orcas team up with dolphins to hunt salmon, study finds

  11-12-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Northern resident killer whales appear to use dolphins as ‘scouts’, in asurprising cooperative hunting strategyOrcas and dolphins have been spotted for the first time working as a team to hunt salmon off the coast of British Columbia, according to a new study which suggests a cooperative relationship between the two predators.The research, published on Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, shows interactions between northern resident orcas (also known as killer whales) and Paci
  
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