Environment news

• What I saw reporting on the American lives cut short by killer heat

  05-12-2025 08:00
  In this week’s newsletter: Coroners can’t agree on how to count heat fatalities – and the dismantling of climate investments is leaving fragile communities exposed• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereDonald Trump’s decision to boycott Cop30, withdraw the US from the Paris agreement and illegally terminate a slew of investments in renewable energy will not change the reality of climate breakdown for Americans.In what has become an annua
  
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• Houseplant hacks: can grow lights help plants during winter?

  09-12-2025 11:00
  As the days grow shorter and darkness descends, tropical varieties can struggle. But there’s a clever fix that nature can’t provideThe problem
  In the dark days of winter, the whole house is darker, days are shorter, skies are greyer and our tropical houseplants receive far less light than they would in their natural habitat. Leaves fade and growth slows as plants struggle to photosynthesise.The hack
  Grow lights offer a clever fix, topping up what nature can’t provide. But with
  
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• ‘Food and fossil fuel production causing $5bn of environmental damage an hour’

  09-12-2025 10:00
  UN GEO report says ending this harm key to global transformation required ‘before collapse becomes inevitable’The unsustainable production of food and fossil fuels causes $5bn (£3.8bn) of environmental damage per hour, according to a major UN report.Ending this harm was a key part of the global transformation of governance, economics and finance required “before collapse becomes inevitable”, the experts said. Continue reading...
  
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• UK households bin 168m Christmas lights and ‘fast tech’ items a year

  09-12-2025 09:00
  Consumers spent £1.7bn on festive lighting last year and much of it is treated as disposableUK households have thrown away an estimated 168m light-up Christmas items and other “fast-tech” gifts over the past year, a study suggests.The research by the non-profit group Material Focus found about £1.7bn was spent last year on Christmas lighting, including 39m sets of fairy lights. Continue reading...
  
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• Caribbean reefs have lost 48% of hard coral since 1980, study finds

  09-12-2025 07:00
  ‘Destructive’ marine heatwaves driving loss of microalgae that feed coral, says Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network Caribbean reefs have half as much hard coral now as they did in 1980, a study has found.The 48% decrease in coral cover has been driven by climate breakdown, specifically marine heatwaves. They affect the microalgae that feed coral, making them toxic and forcing the coral to expel them. Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: A close encounter with a buzzard – but something’s not quite right | Ed Douglas

  09-12-2025 06:30
  Hargatewall, Derbyshire: Cycling towards a frosty Kinder Scout, I was waylaid by a raptor so settled she wouldn’t even move for a passing tractorNorth of Hargatewall, the country has an austere quality, a high limestone plateau with a tracery of walls the colour of old bones dividing oblongs of pasture. The hamlet’s name has nothing to do with gates or walls. It’s derived from Old English words meaning “herd farm by the spring” – a clue to the deep roots that
  
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• It’s the world’s rarest ape. Now a billion-dollar dig for gold threatens its future

  09-12-2025 06:00
  Tapanuli orangutans survive only in Indonesia’s Sumatran rainforest where a mine expansion will cut through their home. Yet the mining company says the alternative will be worseA small brown line snakes its way through the rainforest in northern Sumatra, carving 300 metres through dense patches of meranti trees, oak and mahua. Picked up by satellites, the access road – though modest now – will soon extend 2km to connect with the Tor Ulu Ala pit, an expansion site of Indonesia&r
  
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• 2025 ‘virtually certain’ to be second- or third-hottest year on record, EU data shows

  09-12-2025 04:00
  Copernicus deputy director says three-year average for 2023 to 2025 on track to exceed 1.5C of heating for first timeThis year is “virtually certain” to end as the second- or third-hottest year on record, EU scientists have found, as climate breakdown continues to push the planet away from the stable conditions in which humanity evolved.Global temperatures from January to November were on average 1.48C higher than preindustrial levels, according to the Copernicus, the EU’s eart
  
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• The Guardian view on solar geoengineering: Africa has a point about this risky technology | Editorial

  08-12-2025 19:08
  Sun-dimming risks putting the planet’s thermostat under Donald Trump’s control. Better to adopt the precautionary principle with high-stakes scienceIt is fitting that this week’s UN environment talks are in Nairobi, with Africa shaping the global climate conversation. The continent’s diplomats are dealing with the vexed question of whether it is wise to try to cool the planet by dimming the sun’s rays. While not on the formal summit agenda, on the sidelines they are
  
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• Cornish activist injured as police remove her from tree-felling protest

  08-12-2025 18:30
  Charity worker had joined 40 demonstrators ‘bearing witness’ to the loss of three lime trees in FalmouthA charity worker suffered a head injury when police tried to remove her from a protest against trees being felled in a Cornish seaside town.Debs Newman, 60, was “bearing witness” to the loss of three mature lime trees in Falmouth when she was seized by officers. Continue reading...
  
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• White storks to make historic return to London in 2026

  08-12-2025 15:00
  Species extinct as breeding birds in Britain since 1416 to be reintroduced in Barking and Dagenham as part of rewilding effortAbove the roar of traffic, the rumble of the tube and the juddering construction noise of a towering new datacentre in Dagenham, east London, will soon rise a beautiful and unlikely melody: the bill-clattering of white storks.The birds will next year make a historic return to the UK capital as part of an ambitious rewilding effort to bring charismatic nature into busy cit
  
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• ‘I’m a prisoner of hope’: Olafur Eliasson on using art to bring us together to save the world

  08-12-2025 15:00
  Inside Presence, the Icelandic-Danish artist’s epic new show in Brisbane, what you see changes based on where you stand or how you look – crucial when it comes to tackling the climate crisisI gasp as it comes into view: an enormous sun looming above, its surface roiling with what looks like thousands of tiny atomic explosions. It seems to notice me as well: when I stop, it stops too. It’s both awe-inspiring and unnerving.In the mirrors around the glowing orb, I spot Icelandic-D
  
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• Canada’s environmental ‘realism’ looks more like surrender | Tzeporah Berman

  08-12-2025 14:00
  At a time when the UK and other countries are finally taking bold steps for climate, Canada is preparing a new oil pipelineLast week, the United Kingdom did something all too rare: it chose leadership by backing science and prioritizing public safety. The Labour government announced it would ban new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, strengthen a windfall tax and accelerate phasing out of fossil-fuel subsidies.These are not symbolic gestures. They are an acknowledgment that the global energy
  
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• Weather tracker: Atmospheric rivers to bring heavy rain and snow to Pacific north-west

  08-12-2025 13:05
  Flood and weather alerts in place across western half of region as parts of Iraq and Iran also face significant rainWeather alerts are in effect across the Pacific north-west this week as a series of atmospheric rivers are forecast to deliver multiple rainfall events and heavy mountain snow from western British Columbia in Canada, to Washington and Oregon in the US.More than 200mm (8ins) of rainfall is expected across the western half of Washington state and north-west Oregon by Friday, with bet
  
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• The one change that worked: I started bringing my own takeaway box to every meal – and sparked a mini movement

  08-12-2025 11:00
  Every year, 1bn tonnes of food are wasted. I value my meals and the work that has gone into them, so I am now always prepared and ready to take home delicious leftoversI’ve always loved catching up with friends and family over a meal out. Not only is it a chance to find out the latest gossip and what everyone’s up to, but it’s also an opportunity to try out new foods and share that experience together.But looking back, I’ve realised that I’ve been guilty of contribu
  
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• ‘Zombie’ electricity projects in Britain face axe to ease quicker grid connections

  08-12-2025 07:00
  Backlog delaying ‘shovel-ready’ ventures will be cleared with aim of building virtually zero-carbon power system by 2030Britain’s energy system operator is pulling the plug on hundreds of electricity generation projects to clear a huge backlog that is stopping “shovel-ready” schemes from connecting to the power grid.Developers will be told on Monday whether their plans will be dismissed by the National Energy System Operator (Neso) – or whether they will be pr
  
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• Country diary: Time for a Christmas cut of holly – and we’ve both come armed | Susie White

  08-12-2025 06:30
  Allendale, Northumberland: Every winter I return to it with my secateurs, but hollies certainly know how to protect themselvesIt has become an annual ritual, the cutting of branches from this shapely holly for a winter wreath. A mixture of the wild and of things garnered from my garden, I push twigs and vines into a metal frame packed with moss from drystone walls. Resinous rosemary and pine, silver seedheads of clematis, trails of ivy, lichens, ferns, honesty – each year is different with
  
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• Zipcar’s demise means people such as me are back in the slow lane – and stuck needing their own costly car | Phineas Finn

  07-12-2025 13:00
  The impending collapse of UK carsharing is an embarrassment for a government attempting to curb the dominance of carsZipcar, the world’s largest carsharing club, is leaving the UK. The company, which operates about 3,000 shared vehicles in Britain, has announced plans to shutter its UK operations at the end of the month. The news comes as a bitter blow to the hundreds of thousands of Britons who regularly rely on carsharing, and is a major setback in efforts to reduce emissions and traffic
  
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• Canada may approve a new oil pipeline. First Nations tribes fear another ‘worst-case scenario’

  07-12-2025 13:00
  Mark Carney is considering lifting a tanker ban that has protected coastal communities for 53 years The distress call went out to the Canadian coast guard station after midnight on an October night. The Nathan E Stewart, an American-flagged tugboat, sailing through the light winds and rain of the central British Columbia coast, had grounded on a reef.The captain tried to reverse, moving the rudder from hard over port to hard over starboard. The boat pivoted but did not move, and the tug repeated
  
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• Canada may approve a new oil pipeline. First Nations fear another ‘worst-case scenario’

  07-12-2025 13:00
  Mark Carney is considering lifting a tanker ban that has protected coastal communities for 53 years The distress call went out to the Canadian coast guard station after midnight on an October night. The Nathan E Stewart, an American-flagged tugboat, sailing through the light winds and rain of the central British Columbia coast, had grounded on a reef.The captain tried to reverse, moving the rudder from hard over port to hard over starboard. The boat pivoted but did not move, and the tug repeated
  
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• The loggers and ranchers are closing in but still Brazil’s Kawahiva people wait for protection

  07-12-2025 07:00
  Bureaucratic delays and funding shortages stall plans to carve out a forest reserve for the uncontacted Indigenous group on the southern fringe of the Brazilian AmazonIn 2024, agents of the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai) walked more than 60 miles through rainforest on the southern fringe of the Brazilian Amazon on a mission to monitor and help protect a group of Indigenous people who had no contact with the modern world.What they found was a small basket freshly woven from le
  
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• ‘No one knows where it came from’: first wild beaver spotted in Norfolk in 500 years

  07-12-2025 07:00
  Cameras capture lone creature collecting materials for its lodge in riverside nature reserveA wild beaver has been spotted in Norfolk for the first time since beavers were hunted to extinction in England at the beginning of the 16th century.It was filmed dragging logs and establishing a lodge in a “perfect beaver habitat” on the River Wensum at Pensthorpe, a nature reserve near Fakenham in Norfolk. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘No one knows where it came from’: first wild beaver spotted in Norfolk for 400 years

  07-12-2025 07:00
  Cameras capture lone creature collecting materials for its lodge in riverside nature reserveA wild beaver has been spotted in Norfolk for the first time since beavers were hunted to extinction in England at the beginning of the 16th century.It was filmed dragging logs and establishing a lodge in a “perfect beaver habitat” on the River Wensum at Pensthorpe, a nature reserve near Fakenham in Norfolk. Continue reading...
  
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• Environment Agency faces landfill tax bill worth millions to clear illegal waste

  06-12-2025 07:00
  Exclusive: ‘extremely unhelpful’ policy seen as deterrent to clearing thousands of dump sites across EnglandMillions of pounds in landfill tax owed to the government has to be paid by the Environment Agency (EA) if it clears any of the thousands of illegal waste dumps across the country.Of the £15m that taxpayers are paying for the clearance of the only site the agency has committed to clearing up – a vast illegal dump at Hoad’s Wood in Kent – £4m is lan
  
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• Country diary: Lapwings are birds of my childhood – finally they have returned | Kate Blincoe

  06-12-2025 06:30
  Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: I have memories of seeing them at night, on our pyjama-clad safaris round the farm, but they haven’t been here for a decadeThere’s a shimmering in the sky and I can’t work it out. Driving, I can only snatch glimpses of flickering light. I pull into a lay-by near home. Now I can make out five or six broad-winged birds, flying in a loose flock. They are black and white and their motion reflects the low sun, flashing light and contrasting dark, like a&n
  
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• How many spiders and pseudoscorpions does it take to make one of the world’s greatest taxonomists?

  06-12-2025 00:00
  Former Perth curator Mark Harvey is one of the few people on Earth to have described 1,000 new species, many of them arachnids. Colleagues say his legacy is ‘unquantifiable’Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastFor most people around the world, 16 August 1977 was memorable because it was the day Elvis Presley died.“We turned the radio on when we got back in the car and that was the headline. Elvis was dead,” remembers Dr Mark Harvey. Continue reading.
  
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• Just not that into ewes: ‘gay sheep’ escape slaughter and take over a New York catwalk

  05-12-2025 16:00
  Designer Michael Schmidt’s 36-piece collection was made from the wool of rams who have shown same-sex attractionWhen a ram tips its head back, curls its upper lip, and takes a deep breath – what is known in the world of animal husbandry as a “flehmen response” – it is often a sign of arousal. Sheep have a small sensory organ located above the roof of the mouth, and the flehmen response helps to flood it with any sex pheromones wafting about.Usually, rams flehmen whe
  
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• The dream that grew into the GreenWay – a car-free corridor from Sydney Harbour to the Cooks River

  05-12-2025 15:00
  Plans that evolved over more than two decades are about to become reality as a 6km cycling, walking and nature corridor opens through Sydney’s inner westGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAbout 25 years ago, Bruce Ashley was walking beside the Hawthorne canal in Sydney’s inner west when he stopped to chat with two men planting native species next to the footpath.Ashley, an environmental planning consultant, had been thinking about how to link paths and scraps
  
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• Streets named after birds in Britain on rise as species’ populations plummet

  05-12-2025 15:00
  RSPB says growing trend for honouring species that are in decline is not matched by action on conservationBritain’s street names are being inspired by skylarks, lapwings and starlings, even as bird populations decline.According to a report by the RSPB, names such as Skylark Lane and Swift Avenue are increasingly common. Using OS Open Names data from 2004 to 2024, the conservation charity found that road names featuring bird species had risen by 350% for skylarks, 156% for starlings and 104
  
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• Fir or faux: which Christmas tree is best for the environment?

  05-12-2025 15:00
  Using an already existing artificial tree until its bedraggled end will be more environmentally friendly than buying a felled pine every year, but the answer isn’t clearcut Change 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] it might be difficult to imagine the yuletide without one, Christmas trees are a rel
  
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