An international symbol for the city, the sign is also hallmark of the region's environmental richnessAtop Mount Lee, in the heart of Los Angeles, the wind is quiet. Two red-tailed hawks sail above, barely flapping as they coast the thermal air like surfers on a wave. Standing beside the giant letters of the Hollywood sign, the city seems peaceful. On a clear day, blocks and blocks of homes unfold beneath and the skies reveal sights all the way to Catalina Island - 10 miles out, across the Pacific.That's the beauty seen from the Hollywood sign. Continue reading...

Italian police say Maltese citizen under investigation for smuggling after animals found packed in carA Maltese man is facing animal cruelty charges after allegedly attempting to transport 300 tortoises and 77 parrots from Sicily to Malta.The animals were found packed into a car near the boarding area for a Malta-bound catamaran during an inspection at the Sicilian port of Pozzallo, the local unit of Italy's financial police squad said on Monday. Continue reading...

Court starts new term hearing Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil's attempt to stop lawsuits at state levelThe US supreme court begins its new nine-month term hearing arguments Monday in a high-stakes case in which big oil companies are attempting to strike a fatal blow against lawsuits that seek to hold them accountable for the climate crisis.In Suncor Energy versus the County Commissioners of Boulder County, local officials in Boulder are suing Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil in state court to force the companies to share a portion of the costs that climate change has imposed on local taxpayers. However, Exxon and Canada-based Suncor are arguing that federal law prevents state courts from hearing Boulder's climate change lawsuit. Continue reading...

Anthony Albanese joins about 4,000 people in Fiji for preparatory meeting for year-ending Cop31 UN climate summit

Temperatures in US state forecast to hit high 30s celsius this week, while regions in Indonesia grapple with wildfiresThe National Weather Service in the US has issued extreme heat warnings for parts of southern California, including Los Angeles, until Thursday, as temperatures are expected to hit the high 30s celsius. Burbank, a suburb north of Los Angeles, recorded 39C on Saturday, a few degrees shy of the October record for the region set in 1987. A persistent area of high pressure will remain in place this week, leading to further hazardous hot weather and increased fire risk.Parts of Indonesia are in the midst of an extreme wildfire season, which has peaked over the past month. Western Kalimantan (Borneo) and southern Sumatra have been particularly badly affected. The lack of rainfall has dried the usually water-logged tropical soils, meaning that fires have been able to spread quickly, above and below the surface. Indonesia's soils are also extremely rich in peat, meaning that the smoke produced from the fires contain higher levels of toxic gases such as sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide. Cities in surrounding areas and as far as Malaysia and Singapore have experienced reduced air quality in recent weeks as a result. Drought and wildfires are more common in this part of the world during El Nino events owing to suppressed thunderstorm activity. Continue reading...

As trawlers compete with Greenland sharks for halibut and cod, conservationists and fishers clash over what to do about misunderstood speciesWhen I accidentally catch a shark, I bring it to my dogs," Henrik Jensen, a 27-year-old from Greenland's west coast, says casually. I don't let it back down because [the sharks] bully me and cut my lines."Jensen has fished for halibut in Ilulissat, Greenland's third largest town, for a decade. He works an hour north of the town's main iceberg-laden fishery, which sustains the livelihood of nearly 400 fishers. There, the halibut are bigger and more plentiful, but so are the Greenland sharks. Continue reading...

A statewide initiative pairs climate-focused coursework with community service - and is spreading to other statesAs a student at a high school not far from Denver's main airport, Anthony Munoz wondered whether the jet fuel from airplanes flying above his campus was harming living things.An avid gardener, Munoz partnered with a local university to create a garden on the campus of his charter school, Vista Academy, filling it with native plants that could detect ground-level ozone pollution. He also worked with climate scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a federal office in nearby Boulder, who directed Munoz on what data to collect, what the condition of leaves reveals about air quality and why milkweed matters for monarch butterfly migration. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Climate Change Authority chair says planning commission did not account for climate-related economic damage in NSW

As the midterms approach, Americans' digestive health has become a bizarre talking pointDonald Trump seems to spend an unusual amount of time thinking about toilets.Back in 2019, he bizarrely claimed: People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times as opposed to once." He repeated this claim at a Michigan rally the following year. Ten times, right, 10 times," Trump complained. Not me, of course not me, but you," he added while pointing at an unfortunate audience member. Continue reading...

Records show Vineland facility in New Jersey emitted health-harming pollution before regulators stepped inDataOne, the Microsoft-linked New Jersey datacenter recently hit with a $1m fine for running unpermitted generators, emitted large amounts of health-harming air pollution for nearly a year before state regulators stepped in, according to public records obtained by Floodlight.The Vineland facility's 62 gas-fired generators became public in August after a Floodlight/Guardian visual investigation found them operating without permits. The New Jersey department of environmental protection last week fined the company over the fleet but did not disclose how long the generators had been operating nor how much air pollution they had released into the surrounding community over the past year.This story is from Floodlight, a non-profit newsroom that investigates the powers stalling climate action. Sign up for Floodlight's newsletter here Continue reading...

Gavin Newsom says Trump is a gift' to the climate cause for dispelling notions of fossil fuel energy securityOf all the epithets hurled at Donald Trump since he became US president, perhaps the most unusual was delivered last week - that he is, in fact, some sort of environmentalist.Trump is the greatest gift" to the environmental movement, argued Gavin Newsom, California's governor, due to the fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran. Continue reading...

Our wildlife series Young Country Diary is looking for articles written by children, about their autumn encounters with natureOnce again, the Young Country Diary series is open for submissions! Every three months we ask you to send us an article written by a child aged 8-14.The article needs to be about a recent encounter they've had with nature - whether it's a hedge full of berries, a beetle on the move, or a nervous deer. Continue reading...

Some rivers are receiving more rain than before but have lower water flow, according to a studyMore rain and snow equals more water in rivers, right? Not necessarily. A new study shows that, despite receiving more rainfall than they used to, river water levels are falling because of changes in climate.Global heating is intensifying the hydrological cycle, making wet regions wetter and dry regions drier, but how is this affecting river flow? Researchers from the Pennsylvania State University, in the US, have analysed precipitation and river flow records in more than 10,000 rivers between 1951 and 2020. In nearly one-third of rivers, they found that flow trends did not match with the changes observed in rainfall and snow. Continue reading...

Alpine regions in Europe experiencing extreme glacier collapse due to heat-trapping effects of fossil fuel pollutionSwitzerland has lost almost one-fifth of its ice in just five years, research has found, in a dramatic reshaping of the Alpine country whose big white glaciers have been reduced to moonlike rock deserts, scientists say.Swiss glaciers shrank by 5.5% in the first eight months of 2026, according to an annual monitoring report, after a summer of scorching heatwaves that followed a winter with little snow. The reduction in ice volume falls just shy of the record set in 2022 and brings the total loss of glacier ice since 2021 to 19.4%. Continue reading...

There is no greater treachery than this failure to face up to the climate crisis. How can we now fend off despair?The Independent Planning Commission's published reasons for approving the largest coalmine in New South Wales history in the context of mounting death, disaster and despair brought on by global heating reads like a hostage statement.In its decision, the commission accepts that the extension of the Hunter Valley Operations' mine for a further 19 years - resulting 809m tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution - will materially worsen global warming. The panel members cite CSIRO's finding that climate change is having a growing effect on the lives and livelihoods of all Australians and that the severity of that impact will depend on the speed at which global greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced". They reject the idea that keeping HVO's coal in the ground would make no difference to global warming. Continue reading...

Rooftop solar alone generates more than half of all power used, as clear sunny days and low demand drive record-breaking surge

Prime minister says climate security is the new national security' in keynote speech in New York

Prime ministers of Australia and Iceland discuss effects on their countries even as some shy away in face of war and inflationWorld political leaders are descending on New York for the UN general assembly and some of them are putting the climate crisis on the agenda as they spoke on Monday at the start of the city's annual Climate Week.This year's Climate Week - which runs alongside UNGA - comes after months of extreme heat in large parts of the world including Europe and the US, wildfires in Africa, flash flooding in Asia and a record-breaking El Nino. Continue reading...

Super El-Nino has already broken temperature records and is predicted to bring an extremely wet winter to the state

New rules include a ban near schools and require datacentres to source their own renewable energy, but won't apply to projects already in pipeline

Iowa senator Chuck Grassley calls for embargo on diesel exports as tariffs and Iran war drive up costs for sectorDonald Trump is facing growing calls, including from within his own party, to boost support for US farmers as his administration faces mounting anger over its treatment of the agricultural sector.Republican senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa called on the US president to place an embargo on diesel exports this weekend and help farmers grapple with high prices. Continue reading...

New report shows key indicators of Earth's health are outside the safe operating space' as climate disaster loomsThe planetary life support systems relied upon by humans have deteriorated to their worst levels ever recorded amid ongoing pollution and habitat destruction, according to a key yet grim annual update by scientists.Of the nine planetary boundaries" that help determine whether life can flourish on Earth, seven are being breached at their highest ever levels of transgression, according to the latest planetary health check, a process that was established in 2009. Continue reading...

Customs and Border Protection faces bipartisan backlash from locals for 30ft border wall through west TexasThe Trump administration is pressing forward with construction on the controversial border wall in the Big Bend region of west Texas, even as Customs and Border Protection (CBP) faces furious backlash from local leaders and landowners for its fast-moving plans.Construction began this week in Hudspeth county, which lies just east of the city of El Paso. CBP has been pressing landowners there to grant permission to allow the agency to erect a 30ft steel bollard border wall in that area, offering them signing bonuses as an incentive to avoid eminent domain disputes. Continue reading...

Drone footage from 17 September shows the Araguaia River drying up, as severe drought grips parts of Brazil. The country is preparing for potential El Nino impacts in late 2026-27, with the Tocantins-Araguaia basin already experiencing severe drought conditions Continue reading...

Soil and water around military bases show elevated levels of Pfas pollution due to chemicals used in firefighting foamMany US military veterans have much higher levels of Pfas forever chemicals" in their blood than non-veterans, new peer-reviewed research finds, raising more questions about health risks the nation's service members face after serving at polluted bases.Ground water, surface water and soil around military bases show among the highest levels of Pfas pollution in the US because the chemicals are used in firefighting foam deployed during training and emergencies. While the problem has been clear for over a decade, the new Brown University-led study is the first to compare levels in veterans' blood with those in civilians. Continue reading...

The public will, for the 12th year in a row, vote for the fattest of brown bears in Alaska's Katmai national parkThe bears have returned to the river and are packing on the pounds as another Fat Bear Week begins at Katmai national park.The 12th annual Fat Bear Week, in which the public will vote for the fattest of Katmai's brown bears as mothers, cubs and males gather along the salmon-run at Brooks river in Alaska begins on Monday. Continue reading...

Number of private jets has surged in recent years, but they do not pay commensurate portion of fees to FAA operationsA new report has put a spotlight on the rapid expansion of private jet travel in the US, revealing that owners are not paying their fair share of aviation tax despite the average owner's wealth being $190m and private jets being up to 14 times more polluting than commercial flights.The Institute for Policy Studies' new report, High Flyers 2026, examines the growing use of private aircraft, the public infrastructure supporting them and the tax policies benefiting private jet owners. Continue reading...

Some experts worry factors affecting wheat exports could push global food prices even higher than they are nowWheat prices are at their highest level in three years, which means farmer Merrill Nielsen should be getting more for his crops out of his 2,500-acre (1,010-hectare) Kansas farm.Yet even as future prices for bread-type wheat are up 39%, Nielsen is unsure whether increased prices will raise his bottom line. The price of diesel fuel, which he needs to run his tractor, has hit record highs. Then there's the erratic weather that made him lose his entire wheat crop in the spring, and drought has overtaken the southern Great Plains. Continue reading...

This week's best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

Efra committee calls for emergency legislation enabling government to take public control of the companyAndy Burnham is under further pressure to take control of ailing Thames Water from a cross-party group of MPs who are calling for ministers to break off talks with the US hedge funds who are effectively running the company.Adding their voices to demands that the prime minister takes public control of the company, which has debts of 20bn and is being controlled by a group of 100 hedge funds and distressed-debt investors, the MPs said in a report that ministers should consider emergency legislation to take control of its financial affairs to stabilise the company. Continue reading...

New species of wild feline was discovered in Bolivia's Yungas forest that is smaller than the average domestic catA diminutive wild cat that inhabits Bolivia's cloud forest has been identified as a previously unknown species, marking the first time a new living feline species has been formally named and described in more than a century.The cat, called tilcayo by local communities, is part of a group called tiger cats found across much of South America. It was found in Bolivia's lush Yungas forest, a mountainous region where forests are often covered by clouds and surrounded by high humidity, according to researchers. It measures about 18in (46cm) long and weighs about 3lb (1.4kg), making it smaller than the average domestic cat. Continue reading...

New research links last month's disaster to fossil fuel pollution. Supporting disaster-hit countries must be at the centre of climate politicsFollowing a familiar pattern, coverage of the glacier collapse on the Nepal-Tibet border three weeks ago has subsided with the initial shock. But while the world's attention has shifted, Nepal remains in the midst of an appalling tragedy. As well as at least 1,300 people who are known to have been killed, more than 5,000 are missing, some of them trapped in tunnels linked to the 13 hydropower plants that were damaged by the floods. On Wednesday four bodies were recovered from one of these tunnels, with searches ongoing. Families of the missing people are desperate for news.Last week the country's foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, said that it would ask the UN's loss and damage fund for $20m (15m) towards a total rebuilding cost of around $5bn (3.75bn) - including the replacement of up to 20,000 homes. The first academic study linking the disaster to the climate crisis will now be added to that application. Scientists at Imperial College London, along with international collaborators on the World Weather Attribution project, found that a number of drivers of the glacier fall had been made worse by atmospheric heating. While not the sole cause, fossil fuel pollution was judged to have destabilised the geology of the mountain environment.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

This blog is now closedAndrew Griffith has delivered his speech, and he is now taking questions.Q: You want the government to pause the making tax digital programme. Is that an admission that the last government got this wrong when it introduced it?It is an admission that despite [good] intentions, the execution of that has left a lot to be desired.In fact, coming to parliament from business, I can confess the law that we pass the most often is the law of unintended consequences. And I think making tax digital is a good example of that.The truth is that Burnham and Miliband ignored the advice they were given - which was that if they were determined to sanction Israel, they should not do so before the Israeli election on 27 October.It may not be surprising that this was the message from the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa'ar, when Miliband called him on 11 August to warn sanctions were imminent. He said postpone it until after the elections,' a diplomatic source confirms. It was also the message the Israeli embassy in London - and its new charge d'affaires Chris Cantor - was relaying to the Foreign Office. Their message was clear: why do it now? Wait until after the elections, because something might change,' a senior Labour figure says. Continue reading...

Nearly half a million more of the insects are being released in California - they're all male and carry a bacteriumThe box arrived in the San Gabriel Valley, just east of Los Angeles, filled with more than two dozen paper tubes about the size of toilet paper rolls.All 25 tubes are here," said Tristan Hallum, who oversees scientific programs for the San Gabriel Valley mosquito and vector control district. Continue reading...

Here are 26 images by the shortlisted artists who submitted works for the 21st William and Winifred Bowness photography prize.Tamara Dean has been named the winner. The judges says her photograph is operatic and poetic: an opus that is the culmination of a sustained body of work evident not only in its conception and process but also in its exquisite execution and presentation' Continue reading...

With nearly 30m of funding, I'm giving communities power over local energy. They know the gravity of global heating, and they want to be part of the solution

Exclusive: PM, who is facing pressure over whether to approve North Sea oil and gasfields, makes strongest comments yet on issue

The US decision to remove limits on coal and gas plant emissions is rooted in a perception of manliness in these industriesYou can impress a certain kind of person at a party by reciting the fact that there are more yoga instructors in the US than there are coalminers. In fact, the disparity is greater than this catchy phrasing suggests: there are actually more yoga instructors in the US than there are people employed in the entirely of the coalmining industry, miners and otherwise. It's not even especially close: about 38,000 people in the US work in coal, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, compared to about 100,000 yoga instructors who are registered with the Yoga Alliance, an industry group.If you looked only at the numbers, you might think a politician would be incentivized to talk about the interests of the yoga industry, about the dignity that yoga jobs give to American families, or about the need to foster growth in the yoga industry, more than they talk about these things for coal; after all, yoga, not coal, is putting food on the table in more American households. But no politician would ever talk about the interests of yoga teachers, or wax poetic about their role in the American dream, the way they do with coal miners; if they did, they'd be laughed out of the room. And we all know why: yoga is thought of as decadent, cosmopolitan and feminine, while coal mining is imagined as hardscrabble, honorable and masculine.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Research finds many in England lack proximity to green and blue spaces as Labour urged to speed up manifesto pledgeNearly half of all parliamentary constituencies in England have low access to nature despite a government target to ensure everyone is within a 15-minute walk from a green or blue space, new research reveals.The analysis by the Wildlife Trusts comes as the charity presents a green paper to ministers in an attempt to speed up Labour's manifesto promise to improve access to nature and promote biodiversity.Make it more affordable for local authorities to use compulsory purchase powers for land purchase.Establish a community right to buy land for nature access.Treat nature as essential infrastructure, and free up capital funds to pay for the ongoing maintenance of natural spaces.Make it mandatory for developers to create climate- and nature-friendly housing estates.Make access to major rivers, especially those in urban areas, a statutory right. Continue reading...

Analysis of global resources reveals depletion in world's water savings bank to 42% below normal levels last yearRivers across the world experienced one of their driest years in more than three decades in 2025, a comprehensive study of global water resources has found.The assessment of the global water cycle by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reveals a depletion in the world's water savings bank: the amount of freshwater held on or under the ground, including groundwater, lakes, rivers, snow, ice moisture in the soil and inside plants and trees, was 42% below normal across the world last year. Continue reading...

The behaviours we observed could represent grief, but they could also reflect maternal attachment, confusion or instinctive caregivingIt was a tragic sight.One day last July, a newborn humpback whale calf lay motionless on the seafloor, just a kilometre off Australia's Gold Coast. The encounter was captured through underwater video. Continue reading...

Claims that dismantling pollution rules will lower energy bills and have little climate impact are far from convincingIn allowing US power plants to emit any amount of planet-heating pollution they wish to, the Trump administration made two striking claims - that this will cut Americans' electricity bills and that the pollution itself doesn't really matter anyway. Both claims struggle to stand up to even basic scrutiny.On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it would erase any limits on emissions from coal and gas plants that are dangerously heating up our planet. This move, which follows a similar dismantling of pollution limits from cars ands trucks, is part of a broader push to eliminate the longstanding legal authority of this, or any future, US administration to deal with the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Critically endangered Bornean orangutans flee forests as staff at Cabang Panti work round the clock to stave off blazeWildfires in Indonesia are sweeping through a critical research site for Bornean orangutans and are now threatening a celebrated research camp, home to one of the world's longest-running studies of wild apes.In the past few days, the fires have burned within 200 metres of Rangkong research station, a satellite of Cabang Panti research station, which lies about four miles north in Gunung Palung national park. Continue reading...

More than 330,000 sea turtles arrived in southern Mexico in a mass nesting phenomenon known as an arribada'.The sixth arribada of the season, which began in March, brought thousands of turtles to the beach in less than 48 hours to lay their eggs, according to officials at La Escobilla beach sanctuary in Oaxaca, Mexico.The olive ridley turtle plays a fundamental role in marine and coastal ecosystems by contributing nutrients to beach-dune systems and regulating populations of jellyfish and sponges, according to Mexico's federal attorney for environmental protection, but the climate crisis is now threatening their survival Continue reading...

Vibrant yellow fields of canola light up the landscape, as an ideal growing season sees crops flowering earlier than usual. in the south-west slopes and Riverina regions of New South Wales Continue reading...

Firms manage $7.3tn in assets and could afford to transition away from fossil fuels yet invest in natural gas and coal-fired plants to power datacentersThe energy portfolios of 20 private equity firms produce 1.5bn tons of greenhouse gases a year, more than the annual emissions of any country except China, the US, India and Russia, according to a new report.Together, these firms manage $7.3tn in assets of all kinds, affording them the ability to shape the pace of the transition away from fossil fuels. However their energy investments include significant fossil fuel assets including natural gas and coal-fired power plants to provide electricity to datacenters. Continue reading...

Labour should replace levy in 2027 rather than 2030 as energy bills are poised to surge over the winter, says lobby groupThe North Sea oil and gas industry has called on Labour to scrap the windfall tax on fossil fuel firms three years early, as Britain heads into a winter with energy bills expected to reach their highest level since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), the industry's trade body, wants the tax replaced in 2027, rather than in 2030, with a narrower levy that only applies during price spikes. Continue reading...

Grant applications in England surge as interest grows in habitat that captures carbon and helps reduce flood riskThe ancient craft of hedge laying is experiencing a strong revival as farmers use techniques that peaked in the 18th and 19th centuries to boost wildlife, capture carbon and help tackle flooding.Hedge laying, which restores and revives mature hedges to keep them fresh, was among the four most popular categories of capital grants selected by farmers out of a total pot of 225m provided by the government this year to support practical environmental improvements on farms and across the countryside. Continue reading...

One of the biggest upheavals in a millennium is on its way, strengthened by the climate crisis. We need leaders who make things better not worseIf you think you have heard enough about the growing super" El Nino, trust me, you are going to hear a lot more. What is happening in the equatorial Pacific is jaw-dropping and could well mark one of the biggest global weather upheavals in a millennium. It will spawn a string of weather catastrophes around our world in what remains of this year and in 2027, and there is no reason to think the UK will be immune.To recap briefly, El Nino involves a heating of the central and eastern equatorial Pacific ocean. It happens every few years and is part of a natural cycle termed the El Nino southern oscillation, which switches between warm (El Nino) and cool (La Nina) phases. El Ninos that see heating reach or exceed 2C are defined as super" but this one, which is forecast to top-out at an astonishing 4C later this year, is so much bigger, the term hyper" might be more appropriate.Bill McGuire is professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL. His latest book is The Fate of the World: A History and Future of the Climate Crisis (HarperCollins Publishers, 20). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply. Continue reading...

As human development and roads increasingly fragment their habitats, a study suggests traffic noise could be altering the animals' wake-up callDawn has broken, and the air is cool and still. It's at about this time that gibbons usually erupt into song, wa-oo-ing and wa-ing from the highest branches and filling the tree tops with rich melodies. But in this corner of Malaysian forest, bordered by housing and roads, the resident white-handed gibbons are quiet. All that can be heard is the hum of traffic from a nearby highway.This isn't a rare occurrence for this group of gibbons, according to research, which found these particular gibbons, named Mambang and Walinong, appeared to be producing far fewer morning songs than others that are not exposed to the same level of traffic noise. Continue reading...