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• Many native New Zealand species face threat of extinction, report finds

  07-04-2025 22:31 via theguardian.com
  
  A three-yearly environmental update issues stark warning over biodiversity – and reports air pollution has improved in some areasA major new report on New Zealand’s environment has revealed a worrying outlook for its unique species and highlighted declining water health, while also noting some improvements in air quality.The ministry of the environment’s three-yearly update, Our Environment 2025, collates statistics, data and research across five domains – air, atmosphere
  
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• When sadness strikes I remember I’m not alone in loving the wild boundless beauty of the living world | Georgina Woods

  07-04-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Nature will reclaim its place as a terrifying quasi-divine force that cannot be mastered. I find this strangely comfortingExplore the series – Last chance: the extinction crisis being ignored this electionGet Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an emailAt times my work takes me to the big city and the tall buildings where people with power make decisions that affect the rest of us. While I am there, crossing busy roads, wearing tidy clothes and car
  
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• Labor's home batteries policy could help people who will never take it up. Here's how | Adam Morton

  07-04-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The government’s promise to slash the cost of household batteries should be welcomed – it could drive a change that benefits everyone who uses the power gridWant to get this in your inbox when it publishes? Sign up for the Clear Air Australia newsletter hereIt’s taken years to get here, but Labor’s election pledge to make household batteries cheaper is a significant step forward that should cut climate pollution and limit power price rises. While it has been criticised by
  
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• Endangered far eastern curlews, and the scientist standing up for them – video

  07-04-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Dr Amanda Lilleyman, a shorebird expert and advocate, says a defence housing project and an industrial development plan in Darwin are threatening the habitat of the critically endangered far eastern curlew.  The bird relies on undisturbed Australian shorelines to fatten up before making an epic migration to the northern hemisphere. It’s one of more than 2,000 Australian species listed as under threat in what scientists are calling an extinction crisisA high-flying visitor – the
  
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• A high-flying visitor – the wondrous far eastern curlew – faces fresh threat in NT wetlands haven

  07-04-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Guardian Australia is highlighting the plight of our endangered native species during an election campaign that is ignoring broken environment laws and rapidly declining ecosystemsExplore the series – Last chance: the extinction crisis being ignored this electionGet Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an emailHundreds of far eastern curlews fly non-stop more than 10,000km every year to Darwin Harbour from Russia and China. But their southern habita
  
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• Bid to build Europe’s first research station on Atlantic temperate rainforest in Cornwall

  07-04-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Charity crowdfunding initial sum to build £750,000 facility on Bodmin Moor to study overlooked but biodiverse natural habitatEurope’s first research station for the study of Atlantic temperate rainforest is set to be built beside an ancient wood in Cornwall.The Thousand Year Trust charity is crowdfunding an initial amount to build the £750,000 facility, which will enable students and academics to study this historically overlooked but biodiverse natural habitat. Continue readin
  
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• Silence surrounds the disappearance of Chilean grandmother Julia Chuñil. What really happened?

  07-04-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Nearly five months ago, the Indigenous land rights defender went out to herd animals in the forest and vanished. Her family say she had been threatened – and no trace of her has been foundJulia Chuñil Catricura’s home is a wooden cabin nestled within the dense foliage of the hilly Valdivian rainforest. It has no running water, electricity or mobile phone coverage. It is a modest setup – for Chuñil, living here was an act of resistance, a vindication of her rights.
  
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• Gopher tortoises find new home on Florida coast after astonishing journey to flee hurricane

  07-04-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘Everybody in the ecosystem benefits from gopher tortoises being there,’ says ranger at park where the animals settledDozens of gopher tortoises survived a perilous sea crossing after being swept from their homes during Hurricane Helene last summer, and are enjoying a new lease of life on a remote stretch of Florida coastline.Rangers at Fort de Soto county park near St Petersburg say that before the September storm only eight of the vulnerable species were known to be living there. C
  
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• We passed the 1.5C climate threshhold. We must now explore extreme options | Sir David King

  07-04-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  We do not have the luxury of rejecting solutions before we have thoroughly investigated their risks, trade-offs and feasibilityAs a lifelong scientist, I have always believed that if something is possible, we can find a way to achieve it. And yet, one of the starkest realities we now face is that the world is failing to meet its climate goals. Last year marked a historic and deeply troubling threshold: for the first time, global temperatures exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Without dra
  
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• ‘We made everything bear-proof’: the Italian village that learned to love its bears

  07-04-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  By learning to live with its ursine neighbours, mountainous Pettorano sul Gizio has drawn tourists and new residents, bucking a trend of rural declinePettorano sul Gizio is a medieval mountain town full of alleys, watchful cats and wooden doors locked sometime in the last century. In the lower parts of town, rustic charm turns into abandonment – branches grow out of walls and roofs have fallen in. The only bar closed at Christmas, after the owner died. Some “For Sale” signs hav
  
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• It's only early April and north India is bracing for extreme heat

  07-04-2025 09:05 via bbc.com
  India's weather department has issued a yellow alert for parts for northern India until Wednesday.
  
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• It’s heroic, hardy and less than a millimetre long: meet the 2025 invertebrate of the year | Patrick Barkham

  07-04-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Guardian readers around the world voted in the this year’s contest, celebrating our spineless, friendly neighbours. But which creature won?If you didn’t vote in the recent ballot, you missed out. Here was a vote where all 10 candidates were creative and morally upstanding, a vote unsullied by dubious lobbies, dodgy polls or demagogues. And if you’re seeking inspiration from a figure of strength who is also strangely cute then look no further than the winner of 2025: Milnesium t
  
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• Scientists target queen bees in search of secret to longer life

  07-04-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  UK’s £800m research body backs project that could unlock radical therapies to extend human lifespansThe curious case of the queen bee has long had scientists pondering whether the head of the hive harbours the secret to a long and healthy life.While queen bees and workers have nearly identical DNA, the queens enjoy what might be regarded as royal privileges. They are larger, fertile throughout life and survive for years compared with workers, who last a few months at best. Continue r
  
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• Poor countries say rich world betraying them over climate pledges on shipping

  07-04-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Proposal that ships pay levy on emissions to fund climate action in poor countries opposed by powerful economiesPoor countries have accused the rich world of “backsliding” and betrayal of their climate commitments, as they desperately tried to keep alive a long-awaited deal to cut carbon from shipping.Nations from 175 countries have gathered in London this week at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to hammer out the final details of a deal, more than a decade in the making
  
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• Country diary: There’s a new star in the garden – the tree bumblebee | Ed Douglas

  07-04-2025 06:31 via theguardian.com
  
  Abbeydale, Sheffield: With the bees returning, spring has truly arrived, and they’re attracted particularly to our neighbour’s cherry plumThrough the winter I went out every day to get my fix of nature. Now, though, it’s practically breaking into the house. I need only open the bedroom curtains. Beneath me, as happens every spring, the neighbour’s cherry plum is having its moment in the spotlight. Some years, in fact most, this is a fleeting glimpse of pink that disappear
  
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• ‘Polluting’ Silvertown tunnel is already out of date despite just opening, say campaigners

  07-04-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Victoria Rance says the ‘1970s technology’ will cause pollution that will damage health for decades, but London mayor and TfL claim it will reduce congestionA multibillion-pound road tunnel under the River Thames will be out of date the moment it opens, according to campaigners.The first cars and lorries are due through the Silvertown tunnel in east London on Monday, passing between Greenwich on the south side of the river and Newham in the north. Continue reading...
  
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• Parrtjima, a festival in light – in pictures

  07-04-2025 05:28 via theguardian.com
  Now in it’s 10th year the Parrtjima festival is a free event, showcasing installations, interactive workshops and performances, all centred around this year’s theme ‘Timelessness’. The festival is on now at Alice Springs Desert Park until 13 April Continue reading...
  
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