Spotting tawnies is a bit like completing a crossword: it's easier once you are familiar with the patterns, but you can always get stumped

Prof Christian Downie points to the Business Council of Australia and News Corp newspapers as examples of deliberate obstruction

Exclusive: Luis Vayas Valdivieso says he is quitting for personal and professional reasons after reports of pressure behind the scenesThe chair of stalled UN plastics treaty talks, Luis Vayas Valdivieso, is preparing to step down, after accounts of behind-the-scenes pressure from the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep).The move will be announced at a UN meeting on Tuesday, with an official announcement expected by Thursday. Vayas Valdivieso confirmed in an interview with the Guardian that he was resigning and said: There have been some challenges in the process." Continue reading...

Scientists find 10% chance that similar events to the unheard of' temperatures in 2023 could occur each yearThe unprecedented marine heatwave of 2023 was in line with climate modelling, research shows, as scientists warn such events will become more frequent.The unheard of" heatwave off the UK and Irish coasts during a summer of 40C temperatures raised concerns that fish, shellfish and kelp would not be able to survive. Continue reading...

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young called environment department bureaucrats weak' - though later withdrew the remark

Young people in Whitehaven on England's north-west coast rely on the power plant for everything from jobs to civic investment. But for those who see their future elsewhere, options can be limited

National Trust gardeners expect vivid hues and bountiful fungi, nuts and berries thanks to recent weather conditionsThe season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is likely to be particularly vivid this year, with the combination of a sun-drenched summer and rainy September causing excellent conditions for autumn colour in many of the UK's loveliest gardens.Experts at the National Trust are predicting a long, gradual wave of reds and yellows, the warm conditions meaning annuals and herbaceous perennials are having a second flush, adding to the bright palette. Continue reading...

Ambler Road project, approved in Trump's first term but blocked by Biden, would harm Native tribes and wildlifeDonald Trump on Monday ordered the approval of a proposed 211-mile road through an Alaska wilderness to allow mining of copper, cobalt, gold and other minerals.The long-debated Ambler Road project was approved in the US president's first term, but was later blocked by the Biden administration after an analysis determined the project would threaten caribou and other wildlife and harm Alaska Indigenous tribes that rely on hunting and fishing. Continue reading...

Record solar expansion and steady wind growth driving world's shift away from fossil fuels in 2025, report findsThe world's wind and solar farms have generated more electricity than coal plants for the first time this year, marking a turning point for the global power system, according to research.A report by the climate thinktank Ember found that in the first six months of 2025, renewable energy outpaced the world's growing appetite for electricity, leading to a small decline in coal and gas use. Continue reading...

Toxic mass chiselled out of Feltham pipes amid campaign to stop people tipping harmful substances down drainsA team of water engineers have spent a month blasting and chiselling a 100-tonne fatberg loose from under the streets of west London.The blockage consisting mainly of wet wipes glued together by congealed fat, oil and grease, was the equivalent in mass of eight doubledecker buses, stuck 10 metres below street level. Continue reading...

Analysis of 25 years of evidence shows most schemes are poor quality and fail to lower emissionsThe failure of carbon offsets to cut planet-heating pollution is not due to a few bad apples", a review paper has found, but down to deep-seated systemic problems that incremental change will not solve.Research over two decades has found intractable" problems that have made carbon credits in most big programmes poor quality, according to the study. While the industry and diplomats have made efforts to improve the system, it found much-awaited rules agreed at a UN climate summit last year did not substantially address the quality problem". Continue reading...

Marineland's warning comes after Canadian official blocked the transfer of the beluga whales to a theme park in ChinaMarineland has threatened to euthanize 30 beluga whales if Canada's federal government does not provide financial support for the embattled Niagara Falls amusement park. The warning comes after the country's fisheries minister blocked the transfer of the captive whales to a theme park in China.Marineland, an amusement park, zoo, aquarium and forest occupying nearly 1,000 acres (400 hectares) of land in Ontario, has endured mounting scrutiny over allegations the animals are living in poor conditions. The park, which once saw millions of visitors, did not open for the summer season and is winding down its operations in anticipation of a sale. In February, a lawyer for the park said it was planning to expeditiously" remove the remaining animals still on the grounds. Continue reading...

The trajectory is only up, in terms of insured costs,' professor of climate risk warns

Critics say move to axe Bill Clinton's roadless rule' that protected key old-growth forests will be devastating to environmentIn 1999, Bill Clinton ascended one of the highest summits in Virginia to announce that the last, best unprotected wild lands anywhere in our nation" would be shielded by a new rule that banned roads, drilling and other disturbances within America's most prized forests.But today, this site in George Washington national forest, along with other near-pristine forests across the US that amount to 58m acres, equivalent to the size of the UK, could soon see chainsaws whir and logging trucks rumble through them amid a push by Donald Trump to raze these ecosystems for timber. Continue reading...

Local community group says whatever the cause kids shouldn't be in the water' with dead fish

You can now vote in the 2025 Australian bird of the year poll. Guardian Australia's Matilda Boseley explains how voting works, while remaining surprisingly neutral about her bird of choice

It wasn't until I was in my 20s that I realised birds could have a powerful significance even for people who weren't bird-nerds like me

Over 80% of Wayne national forest classified as suitable for logging, drawing concern from localsIn the Appalachian foothills outside Athens, Ohio, more than 20,000 acres of forest land was mined for coal in the early 20th century, destroying miles upon miles of pristine woodlands.By the 1930s, the federal government had to step in, taking it out of private hands and establishing the Wayne national forest in an attempt to prevent further degradation. In the decades since, maple, oak and other hardwood trees have taken over, returning to nature a region previously better known for extraction. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Differences over changes to environmental and legal provisions to prompt economic growth hint at chaos at heart of governmentRachel Reeves is set to announce a round of planning changes before the budget as a way to kickstart Britain's sluggish economic growth, but ministers are at odds over how radical to be.The chancellor will announce a number of moves designed to make it easier for developers to build houses and infrastructure projects, in the hope that they will fill about 3bn of her estimated 30bn black hole. Continue reading...

Sunrise Movement, which led calls for a Green New Deal, will organize against Trump's attacks on universitiesAs the Trump administration cracks down on both environmental policies and progressive activism, the Sunrise Movement, the youth-led climate justice organization that popularized calls for a Green New Deal, is widening its mission to fight authoritarianism.Every day, Donald Trump is seizing power and shredding the Constitution," Sunrise's executive director, Aru Shiney-Ajay, wrote in an open letter to Sunrise members, funders and allies. What ordinary people do in the coming months will determine whether he and his billionaire cronies can cement their grip on power and turn this country into a playground for the rich and powerful." Continue reading...

As well as embracing beautiful coal', the president has set about obliterating clean energy projects Continue reading...

Warm weather follows deluges in more than a dozen places in NSW and Queensland which topped daily records for the month

Exclusive: Activist tells Swedish officials she has been subjected to harsh treatment, including insufficient food and waterThe environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg has told Swedish officials she is being subjected to harsh treatment in Israeli custody after her detention and removal from a flotilla carrying aid to Gaza, according to correspondence seen by the Guardian.According to the correspondence, Israeli forces are also reported by another detainee to have taken photographs where Thunberg was allegedly forced to hold flags. The identity of the flags is unknown. Continue reading...

Some parks are closed, some are trying to function with a skeleton staff - and visitors and employees are frustratedKim Nachazel had been looking forward to a road trip to Mesa Verde national park in Colorado this week. Her husband had been mesmerized by the park since he read about it in high school, and she'd planned them a full day of adventure - two tours of famous cliff dwellings, a camping spot on BLM land, and even a spot for her pup at a dog-boarding place inside the park grounds.She knew about the government shutdown, but that didn't deter her. I had hope and optimism that this park wouldn't really be affected," she says, and that we would have an amazing day exploring." Continue reading...

Tech companies' use of Pfas gas at facilities may mean datacenters' climate impact is worse than previously thoughtDatacenters' electricity demands have been accused of delaying the US's transition to clean energy and requiring fossil fuel plants to stay online, while their high level of water consumption has also raised alarm. Now public health advocates fear another environmental problem could be linked to them - Pfas forever chemical" pollution.Big tech companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon often need datacenters to store servers and networking equipment that process the world's digital traffic, and the artificial intelligence boom is driving demand for more facilities. Continue reading...

Democrats and environmental groups slam move as sick political game' and say it will drive up energy billsThe Trump administration is cancelling $7.6bn in grants that supported hundreds of clean energy projects in 16 states, all of which voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in last year's presidential election.The move comes as Donald Trump threatens deep cuts in his fight with congressional Democrats over the government shutdown. Continue reading...

Royal couple's desire for more privacy means 2.3-mile perimeter exclusion zone and less public land for walkersFor almost two decades Tina has enjoyed early morning walks through Windsor Great Park's ancient-oak studded open fields with the freedom to let her dog off the lead.In recent weeks, however, she has noticed disturbing changes: fencing appearing around her regular route near Cranbourne Gate, trenches being dug, hedges planted and CCTV cameras erected. Continue reading...

Shift raises food safety and welfare concerns as imports can bypass standards for domestic producersUkraine and Poland have overtaken other EU countries to become the UK's biggest egg suppliers, sparking warnings that imports of eggs from caged hens are slipping through the back door" despite welfare pledges.Freedom of information data from the Animal and Plant Health Agency shows that, while the Netherlands supplied a large proportion of UK eggs in 2022, its share has steadily fallen. By 2025, Ukraine and Poland together accounted for more than 15m kilograms, with Spain, Italy and other southern and eastern European countries also having increased their exports. Continue reading...

EVs rise nearly a third in September compared with a year earlier, as plug-in hybrids jump by 56%British electric car sales hit a record high in September as new taxpayer subsidies helped to attract buyers in the most important month for the market.Battery EV sales rose by nearly a third in September compared with a year earlier, to 72,800, according to preliminary figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a lobby group. Continue reading...

Leader tells party's conference he is ready to take the fight to Labour and speak out in support of immigration

NZBA had nearly 150 members but banks began leaving when Trump was re-elected on promise to drill, baby, drill'The global banking industry's net zero target-setting group has announced it will shut down immediately, amid faltering climate commitments around the world.The Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), which was rocked by a wave of departures after Donald Trump's re-election, said its remaining members had voted to transition from a member-based alliance and to establish its guidance as a framework". Continue reading...

Gavin Newsom, who has vetoed environmental bills before, feeling push from industry and celebrity chefs on next stepsGavin Newsom, the California governor, is facing intense pressure from industry, and even some celebrity chefs, as he weighs whether or not to sign a bill that bans the sale of cookware made with Pfas or forever chemicals".The legislation, approved by the California legislature on 12 September, comes as Newsom contemplates a run for the Democratic presidential nomination, heightening the scrutiny of his decision. Continue reading...

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

Pumped hydro project in Kosciuszko national park is 67% complete, but supply chain cost increases and issues with a borer have caused cost overrun

Of 200 fires in the past 44 years, half of the fires that cost US$1bn or more were in the last decadeWildfires tore through central Chile last year, killing 133 people. In California, 18,000 buildings were destroyed in 2018 causing US$16bn (A$24bn, 12bn) in damage. Portugal, Greece, Algeria and Australia have all felt the grief and the economic pain in recent years.As the headlines, the death tolls and the billion-dollar losses from wildfires have stacked up around the world, so too have the rising temperatures - fuelled by the climate crisis - that create tinderbox conditions. Continue reading...

Kemi Badenoch's plan to scrap the Climate Change Act is reckless. Ed Miliband offers a bolder, fairer vision. The future must be built on renewablesLet's scrap Britain's successful climate law so we can burn more gas, lose investment and have higher bills. Crazy as it might seem, that is the message of KemiBadenoch's new energy strategy. The Conservative leader proposes to repeal the 2008 Climate Change Act in favour of a plan to maximise oil and gas extraction", and remove all legally binding carbon targets. It's pitched as pragmatism. But it's a lurch into ideological self-harm.Britain's energy problem isn't its climate legislation, which is admired globally, backed by industry and supported by the public. It's that this country remains too dependent on volatile fossil fuels. Emissions targets are not the reason for high bills. It is gas prices, which skyrocketed after Russia invaded Ukraine. They set UK electricity prices. In Europe, they don't - that's why bills are lower there. Rather, Mrs Badenoch is choosing to follow DonaldTrump in rolling back climate goals and seeingelectricity prices in the US rise, not fall.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...

Tory leader also claims the party was close to bankruptcy when she took over last year

Latest disposal by punk' beer company follows 37m loss and closure of 10 pubsBrewDog has sold a Highlands rewilding estate it bought with great fanfare in 2020 after posting losses last year of 37m on its beer businesses.The company paid 8.8m for Kinrara near Aviemore and pledged it would plant millions of trees on 50 sq km of land, initially telling customers the project would be partly funded by sales of its Lost Forest beer. Continue reading...

Photographer Jem Cresswell spent five years documenting the southern hemisphere's humpback whales in the waters surrounding the Tonga Trench for his new book Giants, out now Continue reading...

Swinging wildly from confident to confused, and permanently dishevelled, this most relatable of cuckoos blunders through life as best it can

The battle inside No 10 about whether the PM should attend an absolutely crucial climate summit in Brazil is ludicrous. He must assert himself - and goNo sooner has Keir Starmer reshuffled his cabinet, pronounced on Reform's racist policies and made his party conference speech, than another key decision comes hurtling towards him. But this one concerns the future of the world. The issue is whether the prime minister attends the UN climate summit in Brazil next month.You may think this would not require too much thought. Two years ago, Starmer attacked Rishi Sunak for not going to a much less significant climate meeting and said that, were he prime minister, he would definitely attend.Michael Jacobs is professor of political economy at the University of Sheffield and a visiting senior fellow at the thinktank ODI Global Continue reading...

Barack Obama, Prince William and Tanzanian president among many to mark death of primatologist at age of 91World leaders, friends and former colleagues have been paying tribute to the primatologist Jane Goodall, who died in California on Wednesday, aged 91.Goodall devoted her life to studying chimpanzees and other great apes, and became a global champion for primates and for conservation, helping to challenge the idea that the primates were vegetarian and that only humans could use tools. She died in her sleep from natural causes while on a speaking tour in Los Angeles, according to her institute, leading to an outpouring of dedications from around the world. Continue reading...

Experts are finding new and more humane ways to protect the last 74 southern resident killer whalesNestled between the US state of Washington and Vancouver Island, the San Juan Islands are a vibrant haven for North American wildlife. Here, all of the world's remaining 74 southern resident sub-species of orcas find sanctuary, surfacing daily from the depths of the Salish Sea.Out at sea watching the whales is Dr Deborah Giles, an orca scientist, with her colleague, Eba. Eba is a brown and white rescue dog with a remarkable nose. Found as a cold, wet, five-month-old puppy on the streets of Sacramento, she has been detecting whale scat - or faeces - since the age of four. Continue reading...

The theme of this year's Women By Women exhibition, Rooted in Resistance, is to showcase images of women defending their land and communities from destruction - by powerful people and corporations or the climate crisis. The pictures, taken by female photographers from Nepal, Cambodia, Brazil and Nigeria, will be on show at the Oxo Gallery in London from 9 to 12 October Continue reading...

Tory leader says she would replace it with cheap energy' strategy, ending decades-long consensus on climateKemi Badenoch has vowed to repeal the Climate Change Act if the Conservatives win the next election, doing away with controls on greenhouse gas emissions and dismantling what has been the cornerstone of green and energy policy for successive governments.The Conservative party leader was already committed to scrapping the UK's net zero target but repeal of the Climate Change Act would go much further. It would remove the need to meet carbon budgets" - ceilings, set for five-year periods, on the amount of greenhouse gas that can be emitted - and disband the Climate Change Committee, the watchdog that advises on how policies affect the UK's carbon footprint. Continue reading...

Residents of Woodgate estate in West Sussex enjoy its open spaces and wildlife but conservationists say it has set worrying precedent

Greta Thunberg arrested and taken into custody after six of the flotilla's boats were boarded

Nominee companies - paid to be listed as shareholders on behalf of unnamed investors - could be reducing accountability over financial support of industry

Pontiff laments that some ridicule those who speak of global warming', days after Trump's claims of con job'Pope Leo XIV has taken aim at people who ridicule those who speak of global warming" as he embraced Pope Francis's environmental legacy and made it his own in some of his strongest and most extensive comments on the subject to date.Leo presided over the 10th-anniversary celebration of Francis's landmark ecological encyclical, Laudato Si (Praised Be), at a global gathering south of Rome. The encyclical cast care for the planet as an urgent and existential moral concern and launched a global grassroots movement to advocate for caring for God's creation and the peoples most harmed by its exploitation. Continue reading...

Hours before the shutdown, NPS staff began preparations to close down some parts of popular US public landsOn Tuesday evening, in the final hours before the US government shutdown, the National Park Service (NPS) began preparations to close down parts of popular public lands across the country - while trails and other open-access areas remain open.The guidance for park leaders in advance of the federal shutdown had been uncertain as the impasse loomed, raising fears that the parks could be forced to stay open without anyone to staff them. Continue reading...