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...
by Sandra Laville Environment correspondent on (#78FFM)
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
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...
by Sandra Laville and Carmen Aguilar García on (#78EX6)
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...
Trump's EPA strips itself of regulation ability, gutting Clean Air Act in what experts say is a gift to planet pollutersOn the heels of the hottest summer ever recorded in the US, the Trump administration has said it will erase any limits on emissions from coal and gas plants that are dangerously heating up our planet.The US Environmental Protection Agency said it will strip itself of its ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions coming from power plants under the Clean Air Act, removing a key tool to address the climate crisis. Continue reading...
Energy Transfer, whose CEO is a major Trump donor, named as biggest single methane producer in new rankingsDown a short gravel track in a largely nondescript corner of Louisiana sits a gas processing facility, operated by a company whose chief executive is a major donor to Donald Trump. It may be the largest emitter of methane in the US.The Energy Transfer site, located near the city of Shreveport, is named as the biggest single super emitter" in new rankings of US oil and gas operations for the largest releases of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that is rapidly overheating our planet, according to a new UCLA study, which is based on satellite data. Continue reading...
Cal Fire official says Sunday was big turning point' to reduce blaze in Lake county, now 30% containedFirefighters made progress toward containing northern California's Lucas fire, state officials said on Sunday.Fire officials are still investigating the cause of the fire, which has burned more than 4,120 acres across Lake and Mendocino counties. The fire was 30% contained by Monday morning, according to the California department of forestry and fire protection, or Cal Fire. Continue reading...
Teen was swimming at a popular spot at the time of the attack, the latest in a string that have occurred in the stateA 13-year-old Maryland boy is reported to be recovering from multiple surgeries and nerve damage after being attacked by a rabid beaver.The teen, Dominick Cebula, was swimming at a popular spot in Cunningham Falls state park in Thurmont, Maryland, on 26 July when a beaver attacked his chest underwater, a relatively rare kind of encounter that more recently has been recurring, according to reporting from local news outlets. Continue reading...
Greens accuse Labour of hiding position to avoid criticism before contest, in which Zack Polanski is standingA decision on approving the controversial Jackdaw gasfield in the North Sea is to be delayed until later this autumn, with the Greens accusing Labour of hiding their position before the crucial Holborn and St Pancras byelection.Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary, had been poised to give her recommendation to approve the Jackdaw field off the coast of Aberdeen next week. Continue reading...
Businesses, charities and other groups sign letter calling for levies to be paid by the governmentMore than 120 organisations including big businesses and charities have called for the removal of hidden taxes" added to energy bills to help reduce costs for consumers and prevent businesses closing.In a letter to the chancellor the signatories - including Energy UK, business trade body the CBI, End Fuel Poverty and Age UK - called for levies amounting to 10% of energy bills that fund policies to be paid for by the government. John Healey is to present his first budget on 28 October. Continue reading...
Findings on decline of species such as Arctic tern and turtle dove published alongside flyways pledge at Kenya summitOne in nine migratory birds are threatened with extinction and 45% of migratory species such as cuckoos, turtle doves and Arctic terns are in decline, according to a global report.The migratory slender-billed curlew was officially declared extinct last year, the first global bird extinction in mainland Eurasia and Africa in recent centuries. Worldwide, seven migratory bird species have been confirmed or are suspected to have become extinct over the last 150 years. Continue reading...
The country is one of just three that still permits commercial whaling, while its government has faced mounting pressure to ban the practiceIceland will submit a bill in February 2027 which could permanently ban whaling in its waters, a move that would leave Norway and Japan as the only two countries to permit commercial whaling.Whaling in Iceland has been put under intense scrutiny since a government-commissioned report was published in 2023 that found harpooned whales took two hours to die. The report led to a temporary suspension of the hunt that year. Continue reading...
We'd like to hear from people about the impact of extreme heat this summer - and if you've had your power cutIt's been a record summer of heat in the US with rolling heat domes and July being the hottest month ever recorded in the country, surpassing temperatures stretching back over 132 years of reliable measurements, to 1895. July's temperatures surpassed previous high marks set in July 1936, in the teeth of dust bowl conditions, and in July 2012.
Environment Agency says talks under way about increasing prices for industrial users to try to reduce poor water managementMinisters are exploring making water more expensive for some users, in the face of severe supply shortages.Despite the UK being a famously wet country, the precarious nature of the water supply has been made particularly acute this summer, with almost three-quarters of England and all of Wales in drought and 27 million people facing restrictions on their water use. Continue reading...
by Ames Alexander and Brad Racino for Floodlight on (#789VX)
As public air monitors disappear, federal rollbacks and state laws are making it harder than ever to know what's in the airAs the US's network for monitoring air pollution deteriorates, a Floodlight investigation has found that the chemical industry is going state-to-state to restrict one of the few options citizens have left for holding polluters accountable: low-cost air sensors.Over the past two years, the non-profit investigative newsroom determined, lawmakers in Louisiana, Kentucky and Ohio have passed strikingly similar laws barring regulators from acting on air-quality data that communities collect themselves - unless it comes from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-approved equipment that typically costs tens of thousands of dollars. Similar legislation has repeatedly been introduced in West Virginia. Continue reading...
Warning by United Nations climate chief comes as EU data shows August 2026 was joint hottest month everAttempts to stoke a climate crisis culture war must be rejected or the world will face economic disaster, the UN's climate chief has warned.Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, warned that this year's hot as hell" summer had killed tens of thousands of people in Europe alone and hammered" infrastructure, businesses and economics, costing a likely 180bn (155bn), as well as leading to forced migration around the world. Continue reading...
Emissions of planet-heating methane and CO2 from natural sources are worsening the climate crisis, paper saysRising global temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels are transforming the world's forests, wetlands and tundra to the point they are releasing emissions that could further worsen global heating by as much as 30%, a new study has found.As the world heats up, permafrost in the high latitudes is thawing, fiercer wildfires are burning in drying forests and wetlands and lakes are warming. All of these changes are themselves causing the release of planet-heating methane and carbon dioxide locked in trees and soils, therefore worsening the climate crisis, the paper states. Continue reading...
The Syrian rock hyrax depends on the fragile landscapes of the border region. Alongside other environmentalists, I have been documenting the destruction of its habitatWars are usually measured in the number of people killed, homes destroyed and towns erased. Far less attention is paid to what happens beneath the rubble. Across southern Lebanon, repeated large-scale detonations are not only causing human tragedy by demolishing villages, they are also destroying the ancient limestone habitats that have sheltered colonies of rock hyrax for centuries.As founder and president of Green Southerners, an environmental organisation documenting the ecological effects of war in southern Lebanon, I have been helping colleagues to record the damage inflicted on forests, wildlife and fragile ecosystems across the border region. Continue reading...
Climate catastrophe is on our doorstep - yet Labour's impending approval of further drilling will bring more pain for negligible gainsPinch yourself, it's happening again. Here is a Labour government spending a vast amount of political capital to earn tiny material gains while risking huge political losses. It occurred repeatedly under Keir Starmer, and now - with the impending decision to approve further gas and oil drilling in the North Sea - it is happening under Andy Burnham. You rack your brains to explain it, but no rational explanation comes.Burnham is studiously cryptic about his reasons. His clearest statement to date goes as follows: There is a resource there. When people are struggling, we can't ignore that." Does he mean that oil and gas workers are struggling? If so, this decision will be of little use to them. The Jackdaw gasfield, likely to be approved this week, will generate a grand total of 27 direct full-time jobs. The Rosebank oilfield, whose approval is likely to follow soon, will support 450 UK-based jobs during its lifetime. Yet the UK's net zero economy directly employs 300,000 people, and a further 400,000 jobs are planned. The rest of the green economy employs more than 600,000. A just transition for fossil fuel workers, securing jobs in the green economy, is better for everyone.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...