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• Couple arrested for breeding exotic cats in Spain

  15-04-2025 00:23 via bbc.com
  
  The couple is suspected of selling exotic cats online, including protected species such as white tigers.
  
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• Ill winds are blowing for Labour’s 2030 deadline for clean energy

  07-05-2025 19:38 via theguardian.com
  
  Loss of the vast Hornsea 4 offshore wind project is bad news but it reveals a big flaw in setting a deadlineDanish firm shelves huge UK windfarm project over rising costs“Immensely challenging” and pushing the limits “of what is feasibly deliverable”. That was the state-owned National Energy System Operator’s description of its own proposals on how to decarbonise electricity generation in Great Britain by 2030. In short, it thought clean power by that date, a key La
  
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• Sea pigs, icefish and trilobites: Antarctica’s mysterious marine life – in pictures

  07-05-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Characterised by darkness and cold temperatures, the extreme environment of Antarctica’s deep sea is largely unexplored. Now, after a special marine science voyage, a team aboard Australia’s national icebreaker, RSV Nuyina, has collected some remarkable species from the waters around the Denman Glacier Read more about RSV Nuyina’s crucial mission to Antarctica Continue reading...
  
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• Inside the Chornobyl exclusion zone – in pictures

  07-05-2025 15:46 via theguardian.com
  A Russian drone attack has inflicted tens of millions of pounds of damage to the site of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, according to experts. The photographer Julia Kochetova has gained access to the area Continue reading...
  
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• ‘A cemetery of trees’: vast green expanses turned to dust as loggers plunder South America’s Gran Chaco

  07-05-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Jaguars, giant armadillos and ocelots among species threatened by shrinking habitat in one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the worldIn the Gran Chaco forest, vast green expanses – home to jaguars, giant armadillos and howler monkeys – have turned to fields of dust. The forest once brimmed with life, says Bashe Nuhem, a member of the Indigenous Qom community, but then came a road, and soon after that logging companies. “It was an invasion. Loggers came without any consul
  
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• Real-world geoengineering experiments revealed by UK agency

  07-05-2025 13:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Trials will test ways to block sunlight and slow climate crisis that threatens to trigger catastrophic tipping pointsReal-world geoengineering experiments spanning the globe from the Arctic to the Great Barrier Reef are being funded by the UK government. They will test sun-reflecting particles in the stratosphere, brightening reflective clouds using sprays of seawater and pumping water on to sea ice to thicken it.Getting this “critical missing scientific data” is vital with the Earth
  
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• ‘It’s like putting a whale in a blender’: the rise of deadly ship collisions in Chile

  07-05-2025 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  On average, five fatal whale strikes occur in the country’s waters each year, the highest in the world – and just a fraction of the total number killed, say researchersPhotographs by Francis PérezThe memory of a blue whale gliding past his small boat haunts Patricio Ortiz. A deep wound disfigured the cetacean’s giant body – a big chunk had been ripped from its dorsal fin. Cargo ships are the only adversary capable of inflicting such harm on a blue whale, he says.&l
  
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• New reports tell us cattle and sheep farming can be sustainable – don’t believe them, it’s all bull | George Monbiot

  07-05-2025 11:53 via theguardian.com
  
  Feeding the world sustainably is an incredibly complex challenge, yet some people are trying to sell us a bucolic fairytaleThe fire that has just destroyed 500 hectares (1,230 acres) of Dartmoor should have been impossible. It should not be a fire-prone landscape. But sheep, cattle and ponies have made it so. They selectively browse out tree seedlings, preventing the return of temperate rainforest, which is extremely difficult to burn. In dry weather, the moor grass, bracken and heather covering
  
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• Two-thirds of global heating caused by richest 10%, study suggests

  07-05-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  Paper in Nature Climate Change journal reveals major role wealthy emitters play in driving climate extremesThe world’s wealthiest 10% are responsible for two-thirds of global heating since 1990, driving droughts and heatwaves in the poorest parts of the world, according to a study.While researchers have previously shown that higher income groups emit disproportionately large amounts of greenhouse gases, the latest survey is the first to try to pin down how that inequality translates into r
  
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• UK government admits almost no evidence nature protections block development

  07-05-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Whitehall analysis provides no data or research to support the government argument that environmental legislation holds up buildingThere is very little evidence that protections for nature are a blocker to development, the government has admitted in its own impact assessment of the controversial new planning and infrastructure bill.The analysis by Whitehall officials provides no data or research to back up the government’s central argument that it is environmental legislation that holds up
  
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• Country diary: I can hear the badgers, I can smell the badgers – but where are they? |

  07-05-2025 06:31 via theguardian.com
  
  Inkpen, Berkshire: Settled against one my favourite oaks, the birdsong falls away and the subterranean bumps and noises beginI’ve been waiting for a good time to go badger watching at an old, old sett I’ve known for 20 years. I’m hoping for a first sight of this year’s cubs, which begin to emerge around now. An evening after rain is best, before the nettles get too high. In damp ground, the worms might be up and badgers love to forage those, but we haven’t had signi
  
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• Attenborough at 99 delivers 'greatest message he's ever told'

  06-05-2025 18:30 via bbc.com
  
  Sir David says his new film Ocean is one of the most important of his career.
  
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• ‘Blood timber’: western firms fuel conflict and ‘slavery’ in Colombia

  06-05-2025 18:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Trade in uncertified hardwood illegally logged in Chocó rainforest and imported by US and Europe is financing paramilitaries, says Environmental Investigation AgencyThe Atrato River winds through the dense rainforest of Colombia’s Chocó region for nearly 400 miles (600km) before spilling into the Caribbean Sea. Some of these tropical forests are among the wettest on Earth. Their flooded lowlands and swollen rivers are so impenetrable they have acted as an evolutionary barrier
  
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• England faces drought this summer as reservoir water levels dwindle

  06-05-2025 17:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: Government and water firms preparing for possible shortages as dry weather is expected to continueEngland is heading towards a drought this summer unless there is significant rainfall soon, as reservoir water levels dwindle.The government will on Wednesday convene the National Drought Group of water companies, farming groups and other experts to prepare for what is expected to be a dry summer with potential water shortages. Continue reading...
  
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• Plastics industry pushed ‘advanced recycling’ despite knowing problems – report

  06-05-2025 17:48 via theguardian.com
  
  Producers promoted chemical recycling – processes used to break plastics into tiny molecules – but knew of limitationsPlastic producers have pushed “advanced recycling” as a salve to the plastic waste crisis despite knowing for years that it is not a technically or economically feasible solution, a new report argues.Advanced recycling, also known as chemical recycling, refers to a variety of processes used to break plastics into tiny molecules. The industry has increasing
  
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• ‘It’s pretty scary’: Sunshine Coast residents fear storm surges as Bribie Island buffer erodes away

  06-05-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Successive cyclones have gradually worn away the northern tip of the Queensland barrier island, which shields coastal residents on the mainlandGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastJen Kettleton-Butler is on “a postage stamp of island” trying to rescue an echidna she calls Eddie.Wind roars in her microphone and the camera she holds pans from a public toilet that is disappearing beneath waves to a thin strip of coastal forest that, too, is being reclaimed by the o
  
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• GM mosquitoes: inside the lab breeding six-legged agents in the war on malaria

  06-05-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A British company is producing mosquitoes that carry a ‘self-limiting’ gene that kills off female offspring, limiting the spread of diseases such as malaria and dengue feverIn an unassuming building on an industrial estate outside Oxford, Michal Bilski sits in a windowless room with electric fly swatters and sticky tape on the wall, peering down a microscope. On the slide before him is a line of mosquito eggs that he collected less than an hour previously and put into position with a
  
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• UK falling behind on tackling microplastic pollution, scientists say

  06-05-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Researchers call for urgent action as fragments of plastic found in human brains and pollute food, water and airThe UK is falling behind on international efforts to tackle microplastics, scientists have said, as the pollutants continue to infiltrate food, ecosystems and human bodies.The tiny fragments of plastic have been found in human testicles and brains, and they burrow into plants, inhibiting their ability to photosynthesise. The impact on human health is largely unknown, but they have been
  
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• Aviation industry is ‘failing dramatically’ on climate, insiders say

  06-05-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Professionals call for a fundamental transition including controlling flight numbersThe aviation industry is “failing dramatically” in its efforts to tackle its role in the climate crisis, according to a newly formed group of aviation professionals.They say they are torn between their passion for flying and their concern for the planet and are calling for a fundamental transition of the industry, including controlling flight numbers. Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: I inhaled a whiff of wolf urine – it was the true essence of wilderness | Mark Cocker

  06-05-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Białowieża Forest, Poland: This is a vast and overwhelming place, a glimpse into a world as it was before we came alongThis place, which straddles two eastern European countries, has a reputation as the continent’s last primeval forest – a glimpse of a world before it was smothered in ourselves and the homolith. To arrive at night is to tunnel through trees for mile after mile without end. And this, you realise, represents a fraction of the whole. Because beyond the border
  
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• Country diary: A whiff of wolf urine is the true essence of wilderness | Mark Cocker

  06-05-2025 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Białowieża Forest, Poland: This is a vast and overwhelming place, a glimpse into a world as it was before we came alongThis place, which straddles two eastern European countries, has a reputation as the continent’s last primeval forest – a glimpse of a world before it was smothered in ourselves and the homolith. To arrive at night is to tunnel through trees for mile after mile without end. And this, you realise, represents a fraction of the whole. Because beyond the border
  
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• New York’s serene Central Park makeover fixes years of neglect: in pictures

  05-05-2025 17:14 via theguardian.com
  
  Officials have unveiled dramatic changes to the northern edge of Central Park. The $160m project is the park’s most expansive update in years and part of an effort to rectify decades of disregard Continue reading...
  
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• New York unveils most dramatic changes to Central Park in years – in pictures

  05-05-2025 17:14 via theguardian.com
  
  The $160m makeover to the park’s north side is part of a long-term project to address years of neglect Continue reading...
  
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• Australia has backed a rapid shift to renewable energy - and given Labor a chance on climate. How will it act? | Clear Air

  05-05-2025 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  After a landslide election win, there will never be a better chance to shake off old policy impasses and deliver a more ambitious plan for the environmentWant to get this in your inbox when it publishes? Sign up for the Clear Air Australia newsletter hereAnalysis of the election result has barely begun, but this much is clear – the country has backed a rapid acceleration towards renewable energy. Labor didn’t say much about the climate crisis during the campaign, announcing only one
  
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• Two Britons to challenge UK’s ‘weak’ response to climate crisis in Strasbourg court

  05-05-2025 15:50 via theguardian.com
  Doug Paulley and Kevin Jordan say their lives being ruined, and lack of effective strategy infringes their human rightsTwo men who say they are being failed by the UK’s flawed response to climate breakdown are taking their case to Europe’s top human rights court.Doug Paulley and Kevin Jordan say their lives have been ruined by the rising temperatures and extreme weather caused by the climate crisis, and that the government’s response fails to respect their human rights. Continu
  
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• ​‘The hypocrisy is staggering’; will swift bricks fall prey to government fears of Reform

  05-05-2025 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Campaigner Hannah Bourne-Taylor fears goal of requiring all new homes to include a hollow brick to help endangered cavity-nesting birds, may be droppedOn more than 50 occasions over the past three years, Hannah Bourne-Taylor has lugged an oversized brick through the parliament’s security screening.Security staff know her fondly as “the swift brick lady”. But now Bourne-Taylor is having to ruffle political feathers over what appears the simplest of nature-friendly measures &ndas
  
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• Is Tony Blair a ‘serious threat’ to climate policy – or out of touch?

  05-05-2025 13:17 via theguardian.com
  Before his call for a net zero ‘reset’, there has been criticism of ex-PM’s lucrative links with fossil fuel nationsFrom the lush gardens of the Four Seasons luxury hotel in Sharm el-Sheikh, amid banks of bougainvillaea and trailing jasmine, green lawns and air-conditioned courtyards, the surrounding desert is kept at bay by hidden sprinklers, and the chaotic poverty of the rest of Egypt by high walls and discreet security.In late 2022, on the sidelines of the Cop27 UN climate
  
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• How ‘out of touch’ Tony Blair became a serious threat to climate action

  05-05-2025 13:17 via theguardian.com
  
  Even before his call for a net zero ‘reset’, there had been criticism of ex-PM’s lucrative links with fossil fuel nationsFrom the lush gardens of the Four Seasons luxury hotel in Sharm el-Sheikh, amid banks of bougainvillaea and trailing jasmine, green lawns and air-conditioned courtyards, the surrounding desert is kept at bay by hidden sprinklers, and the chaotic poverty of the rest of Egypt by high walls and discreet security.In late 2022, on the sidelines of the Cop27 UN cli
  
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• How the climate crisis threatens Indigenous traditions in Canada: ‘It’s not the way it used to be’

  05-05-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  Shorter winters and thinning ice are imperiling cultural activities in the north, including hockey, broomball and huntingJanelle Oombash stands on the smooth ice of an outdoor rink, keeping score and watching the time as two teams of teenagers run across the ice, whacking a ball with sticks under the afternoon sun. Outside the rink, a bonfire crackles, keeping spectators warm as they watch the game.Broomball has been played for more than a century in northern Ontario. The game is similar to hock
  
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• Weather tracker: Deadly storms in India and huge hailstones in Paris

  05-05-2025 09:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Severe thunderstorms around Delhi cause seven deaths, with western Europe also hit by stormy conditions Residents of Delhi and surrounding areas woke last week to severe thunderstorms with intense rainfall, large hailstones and squally winds. The storms arrived in the early hours of the night, lasting six hours before easing by about 8.30am on Friday morning. At Safdarjung, the primary weather station in Delhi, 77mm of rain was recorded, the majority of which, 60mm, fell within the first three h
  
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