Environment | The Guardian

Water campaigner Feargal Sharkey says newly designated sites will join ignoble, floundering list of failure'Twenty-seven new bathing sites will be designated in England ahead of this summer's swimming season, the government has announced.Giving waterways bathing status means the Environment Agency has to test them for pollution during the summer months, putting pressure on water companies to stop dumping sewage in them.Church Cliff beach, Lyme Regis, DorsetCoastguards beach, River Erme, DevonConiston boating centre, Coniston Water, CumbriaConiston Brown Howe, Coniston Water, CumbriaDerwent Water at Crow Park, Keswick, CumbriaGoring beach, Worthing, West SussexLittlehaven beach, Tyne and WearManningtree beach, EssexMonk Coniston, Coniston Water, CumbriaRiver Avon at Fordingbridge, HampshireRiver Cam at Sheep's Green, Cambridge, CambridgeshireRiver Dart estuary at Dittisham, DevonRiver Dart estuary at Steamer Quay, Totnes, DevonRiver Dart estuary at Stoke Gabriel, DevonRiver Dart estuary at Warfleet, Dartmouth, DevonRiver Frome at Farleigh Hungerford, SomersetRiver Nidd at the Lido leisure park in Knaresborough, North YorkshireRiver Ribble at Edisford Bridge, LancashireRiver Severn at Ironbridge, ShropshireRiver Severn at Shrewsbury, ShropshireRiver Stour at Sudbury, SuffolkRiver Teme at Ludlow, ShropshireRiver Tone in French Weir Park, Taunton, SomersetRiver Wharfe at Wetherby Riverside, High St, Wetherby, West YorkshireRottingdean beach, Rottingdean, East SussexWallingford beach, River Thames, BerkshireWorthing Beach House, Worthing, West Sussex Continue reading...

Charity that challenged UK's Rwanda policy helps create space designed to evoke happier memories of homelandsThe healing power of horticulture for survivors of torture is to be celebrated at this year's Chelsea flower show in a garden also promoting the work of a charity at the forefront of challenging the government's Rwanda deportation plans.The garden, one of the most politically themed yet to appear at the annual event, will be relocated afterwards so it can be used as part of the therapy work undertaken by the human rights charity Freedom from Torture (FFT). Continue reading...

Among world's top 60 banks those in US are biggest fossil fuel financiers, while Barclays leads way in EuropeThe world's big banks have handed nearly $7tn (5.6tn) in funding to the fossil fuel industry since the Paris agreement to limit carbon emissions, according to research.In 2016, after talks in Paris, 196 countries signed an agreement to limit global heating as a result of carbon emissions to at most 2C above preindustrial levels, with an ideal limit of 1.5C to prevent the worst impacts of a drastically changed climate. Continue reading...

Animal lingered around a campsite at night, wildlife officers say - days before a 10-year-old boy was bitten

H5N1 has been found in commercially available milk - but gaps in testing of cattle and humans are hampering effort to stop virusSerious gaps in testing animals and people could be obscuring the true rate of avian influenza cases in the US and make it difficult to understand how the H5N1 virus is spreading - and how to stop it, experts say.Facing reluctance from farms to test workers and animals, scientists are now turning to experimental studies to understand how H5N1, a highly pathogenic bird flu, is spreading through cows and on to other farms. Continue reading...

SES issues minor flood warnings for the Hawkesbury River at North Richmond and the Colo River

Top temperatures expected, but heavy rain to follow with weather warnings in place for week aheadBritain will experience its hottest temperatures of the year on Sunday - before thunderstorms and heavy rain bring an end to the sunny conditions that the country has enjoyed over the past few days.The Met Office forecasts temperatures will peak at around 27C before the wet weather arrives. Western areas, including parts of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, will be the first to encounter the storms. Continue reading...

On her @brutalistplants Instagram page, Olivia Broome collects photographs that combine the angular shapes of raw concrete with the greenery of the natural world. I really enjoy the aesthetic of eco-brutalism and tropical modernism," she says. I love mezzanines and ziggurats, and when you pair them with plants it softens them up. Brutalism can be this quite harsh, austere architecture style, but with nature involved, it balances it all out." Now collected in a book, the images bring together buildings from across the globe, from Hong Kong to Sri Lanka, London to Mexico. It's a pleasant movement that people can get behind, especially in smaller spaces and modern cities - it's nice to fill them with plants and nature."

Virus sent to high-security facility so that experts can examine the potential risks to people and livestockAvian flu typically spreads by infecting wild birds and moving along migration routes, but the virus currently running rampant in the US is about to be transported across the Atlantic by plane.This category A pathogen, which is now spreading among cows in the US, is being sent to a high-security laboratory in the UK so that experts can better understand the potential risks to people and livestock. Continue reading...

Fears Climate Change Committee's advice not to allow carryover from last carbon budget will be ignoredMinisters are considering plans to weaken the UK's carbon-cutting plans by allowing the unused portion of the last carbon budget to be carried over to the next period.This would go against the strong recommendation of the government's statutory climate advisers, the Climate Change Committee. Continue reading...

Climate scientists have told the Guardian they expect catastrophic levels of global heating. Here's what that would mean for the planet

Loss of habitat and food sources driving fruit bats closer to urban centres, leading to bat deaths, power outages

Group says two women in their 80s took hammer and chisel to protective glass at British LibraryTwo Just Stop Oil protesters have smashed the glass around Magna Carta at the British Library.The Rev Sue Parfitt, 82, and Judy Bruce, 85, a retired biology teacher, targeted the protective enclosure with a hammer and chisel on Friday morning. Continue reading...

All designers who have gone through carbon audit are eligible for consideration for green awardA green medal for sustainability is to be introduced at the Chelsea flower show, rewarding gardens with the lowest carbon impact.Landscape designers are reporting that clients are commissioning them to make their gardens more wildlife-rich and eco-friendly, and that nature-friendly gardening is becoming increasingly important. Continue reading...

British-grown fruit much bigger after unusual winter and spring conditions led to slower ripeningTennis fans may be treated to juicier strawberries at Wimbledon this year after a wet and dark winter slowed the growing times, resulting in bigger and more flavoursome fruits.Growers said the further wet and cold weather this spring, as well as less sunlight, has delayed the British strawberry season by a fortnight this year, with the main harvest expected at the end of May. Continue reading...

One way to mitigate the eco-guilt of a to-go habit is to choose restaurants that serve food in sustainable containersGetting restaurant meals to go often comes with a side of guilt: Did I need to supersize? I should have saved the money and cooked at home." And the final sting, perhaps muttered while hovering over the trash and recycling bins deciding where to toss the empty boxes: Oh, the waste."Dietary and budgeting concerns notwithstanding, one way to mitigate the environmental impact (or the eco-guilt) of a takeout habit is to choose restaurants that serve their food in more sustainable containers. Continue reading...

Trust builds passes under road bisecting Berkshire commons for increasingly endangered venomous snakeHow did the adder cross the road? It didn't - it was too scared.Now, however, road-shy populations of the increasingly endangered snake are being given a helping hand with the construction of Britain's first adder tunnels. Continue reading...

NFU's director of strategy asked for review of EU-derived protections as part of post-Brexit loosening of rulesThe National Farmers' Union lobbied to increase the amount of pesticides allowed in the UK's drinking water and to allow farmers to spread manure more frequently as part of a post-Brexit loosening of environmental regulations, it can be revealed.Nick von Westenholz, the director of strategy for the lobby group, met Timothy Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, the Earl of Minto, who is the minister of state for regulatory reform, last year and asked him to review EU-derived environmental protections. Continue reading...

The best of this week's wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

Waste and cost among drawbacks, as researchers say renewables could power UK entirelyIn the battle to prevent the climate overheating, wind and solar are making impressive inroads into the once dominant market share of coal. Even investors in gas plants are increasingly seen as taking a gamble.With researchers at Oxford and elsewhere agreeing that the UK could easily become entirely powered by wind and solar - with no fossil fuels required - it seems an anomaly that nuclear power is still getting the lion's share of taxpayer subsidies to keep the ailing industry alive. Continue reading...

Trust aims to boost small pearl-bordered fritillary colonies in Shropshire Hills by planting 20,000 violets this year for their caterpillarsA mass planting of marsh violets across England's Shropshire Hills is to take place to try to prevent further decline of the small pearl-bordered fritillary or Boloria selene, a rare UK butterfly.The small pearl-bordered fritillary's distribution across the UK has plunged 71% since the mid 1970s and the species is now listed as vulnerable, according to the 2022 state of UK butterflies report. Continue reading...

Sugar's texture and taste can be as individualistic as coffee beans or wine grapes grown in specific regions, but most of us don't know thatOne night, I was preparing steak for dinner and mistakenly reached for the wrong white granulated substance. Instead of salting my steak to create a brown crust by searing, I created a brown crust with notes of caramel.Ethan Frisch, co-founder of Burlap & Barrel, an artisanal spice company that works with small producers worldwide, laughed wryly when he heard this story over Zoom. This is the first time in history anyone could make that mistake. Refined, white-bleached sugar is a very modern development in the centuries-old sugar industry. Sugar is brown! It's only white when you do a lot of work to remove the brownness." Continue reading...

Trump promised to 20 executives at Mar-a-Lago dinner to increase oil drilling and reverse pollution rules among other pitchesDonald Trump dangled a brazen deal" in front of some of the top US oil bosses last month, proposing that they give him $1bn for his White House re-election campaign and vowing that once back in office he would instantly tear up Joe Biden's environmental regulations and prevent any new ones, according to a bombshell new report.According to the Washington Post, the former US president made his jaw-dropping pitch, which the paper described as remarkably blunt and transactional", at a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago home and club. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Samuel Sandy, chair of Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation, says the treatment of its submission was wrong and upsetting'

Top climate figures respond to Guardian survey of scientists who expect temperatures to soar, saying leaders must act radically

The 44ft-long whale corpse was an endangered sei whale, which will now be examined to determine how it diedA cruise ship has journeyed into New York City's harbor bearing a gruesome cargo in the form of a huge, dead whale sprawled across its bow.The incident happened on Saturday, according to local US media reports, and the event is being held by some as further evidence of the unfortunate impact on sea life that large vessels can have. Continue reading...

Andreas B. Heide has been shortlisted for a Shackleton award for his work in the far north, getting up close to nature to connect people emotionally with a fragile ecosystemTo say the images of Andreas B. Heide during his working day are dramatic is an understatement: a freediver deep underwater in a black wetsuit, his lean silhouette enhanced by powerful bladed fins, looking up towards a group of orcas; or standing on an ice sheet next to a small sailboat in the Arctic, amid a sea full of dangerous looking ice floes in poor visibility.But for the marine biologist and adventurer, plunging into freezing waters with orcas or embarking on a 4,500-mile sailing expedition from the Arctic north to the UK and back, documenting whale behaviour and their dramatic encounters with polar bears, whales and walruses, is all part and parcel of storytelling that he hopes can ultimately change human behaviour. He works with scientists and conservationists, photographers and drone pilots, to underline the importance of conservation in the extreme north, under challenging conditions.The crew land at the Sjuoyane, Svalbard 2023, wearing a rifle for polar bear protection. From left: Zimbabwean sailor Tawanda Chikasha; Andreas B. Heide; Spanish marine biotechnologist Almu Alvarez; and Norwegian photographer Tord Karlsen. Photograph: Tord Karlsen/Barba Continue reading...

If passed, the groundbreaking measure could be a model for other states to hold fossil fuel companies liableVermont is poised to pass a groundbreaking measure forcing major polluting companies to help pay for damages caused by the climate crisis, in a move being closely watched by other states including New York and California.Modeled after the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund program, which forces companies to pay for toxic waste cleanup, the climate superfund bill would charge major fossil fuel companies doing business within the state billions of dollars for their past emissions. Continue reading...

The discovery of these underwater hot springs in 1977 solved the mystery of how life first began on Earth, but it was locating the world's most famous shipwreck that made me a celebrityThe mid-ocean ridge is where the Earth creates its outer skin. It's called the boundary of creation. We knew there was life on the bottom of the ocean but not entire ecosystems supporting large animals until our expedition went down there in 1977.First, we sent down an unmanned vehicle called Angus, which was essentially a camera system and strobe lights within a two-tonne steel cage. It was going down in the eternal darkness, slaloming back and forth like a skier down a mountain. Continue reading...

The island nation is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world, as changing weather patterns bring more dry spells and unpredictable rainy seasons. Sean Smith travelled to the south to meet those affected and to report on the ways they are trying to prepare for an altered future Continue reading...

Government's failure to match EU measures to improve condition of rivers, lakes and oceans called deeply concerning'England's rivers are likely to remain in a poor state for years to come because the government is failing to put in place EU clean water laws post-Brexit, the watchdog has found.When Britain was a member of the EU, the government was required to follow the water framework directive (WFD), standards for waterways that have been credited with cleaning up Europe's dirty water.Under their worst-case assessment, just 21% of surface waters will be in a good ecological state by 2027, representing only a 5% improvement on the current situation. This would break the Environment Act, which aims to improve air and water quality, protect wildlife, increase recycling and reduce plastic waste.There is insufficient funding to meet the targets, meaning that under the WFD ministers are being compelled by the OEP to write a new, properly funded plan to protect the country's waters. The Environment Agency has calculated a cost of 51bn to clean up England's waters, which would provide 64bn in monetisable benefits. However, confirmed funding of only 6.2bn is just 12% of that required.There is not enough monitoring taking place to find out the state of England's waterways, making it nigh on impossible to clean them up. Continue reading...

The mining company insists the storage hub is safe but many are unconvinced about injecting carbon dioxide into a major Australian water resource

Climate chaos is threatening food production, trade and lives, says World Meteorological OrganizationHunger and disease are rising in Latin America after a year of record heat, floods and drought, a report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has shown.The continent, which is trapped between the freakishly hot Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, probably suffered tens of thousands of climate-related deaths in 2023, at least $21bn (17bn) of economic damage and the greatest calorific loss" of any region, the study found. Continue reading...

Devastating floods in Rio Grande do Sul state have about left 90 dead with survivors seeking food and shelter

Exclusive: Planet is headed for at least 2.5C of heating with disastrous results for humanity, poll of hundreds of scientists finds

Scientists reclassify Humboldt glacier, also known as La Corona, after it melted faster than expectedVenezuela has lost its last remaining glacier after it shrunk so much that scientists reclassified it as an ice field.It is thought Venezuela is the first country to have lost all its glaciers in modern times. Continue reading...

Also known as devil birds' for their haunting scream, they are just starting to arrive from sub-Saharan AfricaMay Day dawns cold and breezy, with sullen grey clouds promising rain. Hope seems very far away. But then, a distant dark streak scythes through the skies over the Avalon Marshes, stiff-winged, direct and determined. A single swift, my first of the year.As I do every spring, I silently recite the words of the poet Ted Hughes: They've made it again, which means the globe's still working ... " Continue reading...

Report says humans may be on brink of cutting fossil fuel generation, even as demand for electricity risesRenewable energy accounted for more than 30% of the world's electricity for the first time last year following a rapid rise in wind and solar power, according to new figures.A report on the global power system has found that the world may be on the brink of driving down fossil fuel generation, even as overall demand for electricity continues to rise. Continue reading...

The US cattle industry adopted a climate neutral' goal in 2021 but scientists say that misses the point' in keeping global temperature rises below 1.5C

Campaigners appalled' as French energy company EDF gets go-ahead for next stage of projectA planned nuclear power station at Sizewell in Suffolk has been granted the first site licence in more than a decade as investors and government officials race to finalise a deal for the multibillion-pound project this year.The licence from the nuclear regulator is considered a milestone for EDF, which plans to build Sizewell C as a replica of its Hinkley Point C project in Somerset, which has been dogged by delays and cost overruns. Continue reading...

Charity asks people to charm worms to the surface and count their numbers to contribute to worm map of UKDancing for worms may seem an odd pursuit, but an environment charity is calling for people across the UK to charm the creatures from the depths in order to count them.The Soil Association is trying to get a nationwide picture of worm abundance, to track their decline and see where they need the most help. Continue reading...

Outgoing special rapporteur David Boyd says there's something wrong with our brains that we can't understand how grave this is'The race to save the planet is being impeded by a global economy that is contingent on the exploitation of people and nature, according to the UN's outgoing leading environment and human rights expert.David Boyd, who served as UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment from 2018 to April 2024, told the Guardian that states failing to take meaningful climate action and regulating polluting industries could soon face a slew of lawsuits. Continue reading...

Abalobi provides a real-time marketplace for fishers to sell their catch, while also monitoring fish populations, and the tech could go globalThe 59-year-old Wilfred Poggenpoel is a fisher from Lambert's Bay, a picturesque town 170 miles north of Cape Town that's popular with surfers and home to 17,000 breeding pairs of Cape gannets. Five years ago, he made the decision to join a virtual marketplace called Abalobi, which enables fishers such as him to sell their catch directly to restaurants, retailers and consumers using a custom-built app.I get a better price and I can sell more species now," he says. I've bought a 60-horsepower motor that I'd never have been able to afford before. I've bought a second boat." He joined, he says, because he didn't want to spend all day walking around town in the sun trying to sell fish. My quality of life has improved. I've even been able to help some old people in the community." Continue reading...

More than 200 expected to join protest calling for climate action and to cut ties with Israeli institutions

Your daily caffeine habit is not good for the planet. Thankfully, researchers are finding alternatives to ground coffee beansName: Synthetic coffee.Age: Three. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Mukhtar Babayev says clear accounting crucial to build trust as developing world seeks trillions in supportPoor countries must demonstrate clearer accounting and transparency to back up their calls for trillions of dollars of climate finance, the president of global climate negotiations has said.Mukhtar Babayev, the ecology minister of Azerbaijan, who will lead the Cop29 UN climate summit in November, urged governments in developing countries to draw up reports showing their progress on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and their spending on the climate crisis. Continue reading...

This part of South America is no stranger to major rainfall, but last week's storms were particularly devastatingTorrential rainstorms in Brazil's southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul have caused the worst flooding the country has seen in 80 years, many deaths and the displacement of thousands of families. Central parts of the state were hit the hardest after the storms began last Monday, with unofficial weather stations in the area recording 50-100cm (20-40in) of rain over the past week.Widespread floods and landslides have caused major damage to homes and infrastructure, most alarmingly triggering the partial collapse of a small hydroelectric dam on Thursday, which sent a 2-metre-high wave through the surrounding area. At least 57 deaths have been reported and 24,000 people have been displaced, alongside an estimated 500,000 being without power and clean water. Continue reading...

Union cites extreme wet weather and post-Brexit phasing-out of EU subsidies as main reasons for slumpFarmers' confidence has hit its lowest level in at least 14 years, a long-running survey by the biggest farming union in Britain has found, with extreme weather and the post-Brexit phasing-out of EU subsidies blamed for the drop.The National Farmers' Union warned there had been a collapse of confidence" and that the outlook was at its lowest since the annual poll of its members in England and Wales began in 2010. Continue reading...

Officials in Rio Grande do Sul state say more than 80,000 have been displaced by record water levelsSeventy-five people are now known to have died in the flooding in Brazil's southern Rio Grande do Sul state, while more than 100 people remain missing, local authorities said on Sunday.The state's civil defence authority said 101 people were unaccounted for and more than 80,000 had been displaced after record-breaking floods swept across the state, which borders Uruguay and Argentina. Continue reading...

Audio collected with underwater microphones suggests numbers at least stable after centuries of industrial whaling left only a few hundred alive