Guardian US readers share how global heating and biodiversity loss affected their lives in ways that don't always make the headlinesThe past year was another one of record-setting heat and catastrophic storms. But across the US, the climate crisis showed up in smaller, deeply personal ways too.Campfires that once defined summer trips were never lit due to wildfire risks. There were no bites where fish were once abundant, forests turned to meadows after a big burn and childhood memories of winter wonderlands turned to slush. Continue reading...

I've spent six years writing about environmental justice. The uncomfortable truth is that we're not all in it together - but people power is reshaping the fightIt's been another year of climate chaos and inadequate political action. And it's hard not to feel despondent and powerless.I joined the Guardian full time in 2019, as the paper's first environmental justice correspondent, and have reported from across the US and the region over the past six years. It's been painful to see so many families - and entire communities - devastated by fires, floods, extreme heat, sea level rise and food shortages. But what's given me hope during these six years of reporting as both an environmental and climate justice reporter are the people fighting to save our planet from catastrophe - in their communities, on the streets and in courtrooms across the world. Continue reading...

Albanese will face a crucial test on the economy while the Coalition deals with existential questions after an election drubbing

Environmental advocates notched key wins at local and state levels this year despite Trump rollbacksAs 2025 draws to a close, environmental advocates across the US find themselves weighing a year marked by both setbacks and successes.Despite major environmental reversals taken by the Donald Trump administration including loosening fossil fuel rules and weakening endangered-species safeguards, conservationists, lawmakers and researchers still notched key wins at local and state levels. Continue reading...

The challenges and strains have been almost too much to take. But in 2025, words of depth and courage have been an antidote to numbnessI once saw a young glassblower in Istanbul, still new to his craft, shatter a beautiful vase while taking it out of the furnace. The artisan master standing by his side calmly nodded and said something that I still think about. He told him: You put too much pressure on it, you kept it unbalanced and you forgot that it, too, has a heart."The year we are leaving behind has been plagued from the start by a series of social, economic, environmental, technological and institutional challenges, all happening with such speed and intensity that we are yet to fully comprehend their impact on our lives, let alone on future generations. As the overwhelming strain of domestic and geopolitical changes continues to build up, I cannot help but remember the man's words. Too much pressure. Unstable, uncertain and replete with deep inequalities. This could well be the year we forgot that the Earth, too, has a heart. It definitely feels like the year when the world was broken. Continue reading...

From moules mariniere to scallop, bacon and garlic butter rolls, here's how to cast your culinary net wider and embrace more sustainable speciesFor a nation surrounded by water, Britain's seafood tastes are remarkably parochial - we mostly eat cod, haddock, salmon, tuna and prawns. But with a huge range of species out there, making the decision to swap the big five" for more sustainable options could be a good new year resolution to aim for. Here are five species to consider - and if you're worried these won't taste as good as cod and chips, we've rounded up a selection of top chefs to tell you how to make the best of what could be on your plate in 2026. Continue reading...

Bereaved relatives say delays over risks at village churchyards are causing distress and call for council actionFamilies of people buried in graves vulnerable to coastal erosion say indecision over how to tackle the problem is causing them avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their loved ones.North Norfolk district council (NNDC) has identified three church graveyards in the villages of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being at risk of being engulfed by the sea in the coming decades. Continue reading...

Law's original author points to removal of obligations for downstream traders to verify origin of commoditiesIt was hailed by campaigners around the world as a game-changing piece of legislation that would help stop deforestation.But when a bullet-ridden version of the EU's deforestation regulation, once supposed to be the crown of the Green Deal, finally limped across the legislative line this month, not even its architect was smiling, and one politician said it had been pretty much dismantled". Continue reading...

Meteorological office reports high temperatures across country and record measured at Seyisfjorur in eastRecord temperatures of almost 20C were reached in Iceland on Christmas Eve, the local meteorological office has confirmed.Seyisfjorur, a small town in the east of Iceland, hit 19.8C on 24 December. Average December temperatures in Iceland are between -1C and 4C. Continue reading...

Dry and warm 2025 spring gave glimmer of hope for threatened wild birds but many remain in long-term declineThe warmest and sunniest spring on record this year led to an increase in the breeding of some of Britain's best-loved songbirds, data has shown.Scientists said the dry and warm spring had provided a glimmer of hope for threatened wild birds. In the 2025 breeding season, from May to August, there were higher than average breeding successes for 14 species including the chiffchaff, garden warbler, whitethroat, coal tit, blue tit, great tit and robin. Continue reading...

Since Zack Polanski took over as leader, the party has doubled its membership and its four MPs want to take on Reform's anger and build community spiritSomeone has to be out there making the narrative for social security. Someone has to fight the corrosive attitudes to people on benefits," says Sian Berry, who has just finished her first year as a Green MP in the House of Commons.She is speaking to the Guardian in her Brighton constituency office, formerly occupied by the legendary Caroline Lucas who flew a lone flag as the only member of parliament for the Green party for 14 years. Continue reading...

Species that is critically endangered in Britain is spotted in Mersey, Bollin and Goyt rivers in north-westYoung Atlantic salmon have been seen in three rivers in north-west England for the first time since 2015, marking a significant environmental turnaround".The salmon species was declared critically endangered in Britain in 2023 but fish have been spotted in the Mersey, Bollin and Goyt rivers, meaning they have successfully travelled from the Arctic Circle to spawn. Continue reading...

How do you photograph darkness? A question Sarah Lee considers with her work as the nights draw in: I've always been drawn to photographing the darkness as the winter months draw in after the clocks go back and we head towards the solstice. I wondered why that was given that the world itself seems so dark at the moment. I realised this year that it is not the darkness I'm photographing, but, rather, the light. Always the light.' Continue reading...

Planet's oldest bee species and primary pollinators were under threat from deforestation and competition from killer bees'Stingless bees from the Amazon have become the first insects to be granted legal rights anywhere in the world, in a breakthrough supporters hope will be a catalyst for similar moves to protect bees elsewhere.It means that across a broad swathe of the Peruvian Amazon, the rainforest's long-overlooked native bees - which, unlike their cousins the European honeybees, have no sting - now have the right to exist and to flourish. Continue reading...

Conservationists and scientists criticise state for backtracking and say alternative non-lethal methods such as netting are more effective

Trump ratcheted up his questionable claims about the environment and how to deal, if at all, with the threats to itIn the past decade at the forefront of US politics, Donald Trump has unleashed a barrage of unusual, misleading or dubious assertions about the climate crisis, which he most famously called a hoax".This year has seen Trump ratchet up his often questionable claims about the environment and how to deal, if at all, with the threats to it. In a year littered with lies and wild declarations, these are the five that stood out as the most startling. Continue reading...

Attenborough, 99, enthuses about tube-riding pigeons, foxes, parakeets and others in Wild London for the BBCFilming the wildlife of London requires an intrepid, agile presenter, willing to lie on damp grass after dark to encounter hedgehogs, scale heights to hold a peregrine falcon chick, and stake out a Tottenham allotment to get within touching distance of wary wild foxes.Step forward Sir David Attenborough, who spent his 100th summer seeking out the hidden nature of his home city for an unusually personal and intimate BBC documentary. Continue reading...

These unfairly maligned animals were nuggets for our ancestors and served for the UK during the second world warIs there something I would figuratively die on a hill for? Yes, there is - and as it happens, I'm sitting on a literal hill right now, feeding them. Pigeons. Why pigeons? Because it's about time they get the respect they deserve.I like pigeons. Because they're like me, working class. You can tell pigeons are working class because every pigeon looks knackered. It's about this point in the conversation that people politely make their excuses and slowly back away (literally) while avoiding eye contact. No doubt, reading this, you are doing the same (figuratively).Toussaint Douglass is a comedian from Lewisham, south London. His show Accessible Pigeon Material will be showing at Soho Theatre, 26-31 January 2026 Continue reading...

In 2014 the Malaysian Airlines jet vanished over the Indian Ocean. Now the team that located Shackleton's Endurance is looking again with the latest undersea robots

West Somerset Lagoon would harness renewable energy for UK's AI boom - and create iconic' arc around Bristol ChannelThe architect of the London Eye wants to build a vast tidal power station in a 14-mile arc off the coast of Somerset that could help Britain meet surging electricity demand to power artificial intelligence - and create a new race track to let cyclists skim over the Bristol Channel.Julia Barfield, who designed the Eye and the i360 observation tower in Brighton, is part of a team that has drawn up the 11bn proposal. It would curve from Minehead to Watchet and use 125 underwater turbines to harness the power of the second-highest tidal range in the world. Continue reading...

From merrily dismissing climate science, to promoting irresponsible health claims, the podcast was an unintentional warning for our timesLooking back on this crazy year, one event, right at the start, seems to me to encapsulate the whole. In January, recording his podcast in a studio in Austin, Texas, the host, Joe Rogan, and the actor Mel Gibson merrily dissed climate science. At the same time, about 1,200 miles away in California, Gibson's $14m home was being incinerated in the Palisades wildfire. In this and other respects, their discussion could be seen as prefiguring the entire 12 months.The loss of his house hadn't been confirmed at the time of the interview, but Gibson said his son had just sent him a video of my neighbourhood, and it's in flames. It looks like an inferno." According to World Weather Attribution, January's fires in California were made significantly more likely by climate breakdown. Factors such as the extreme lack of rainfall and stronger winds made such fires both more likely to happen and more intense than they would have been without human-caused global heating. Continue reading...

With the snow line edging higher, 186 French ski resorts have shut, while global heating threatens dozens moreWhen Ceuze 2000 ski resort closed at the end of the season in 2018, the workers assumed they would be back the following winter. Maps of the pistes were left stacked beside a stapler; the staff rota pinned to the wall.Six years on, a yellowing newspaper dated 8 March 2018 sits folded on its side, as if someone has just flicked through it during a quiet spell. A half-drunk bottle of water remains on the table. Continue reading...

Beachgoers from the Tweed to Batemans Bay have been asked to be on the lookout - and every nest reported to TurtleWatch NSW will be protected

New polling shows 65% of registered US voters believe global heating is affecting cost of livingMost Americans now connect the worsening climate crisis with their cost of living pressures, with clear majorities also disagreeing with moves by the Trump administration to gut climate research and halt windfarms, new polling has found.About 65% of registered voters in the US think that global heating is affecting the cost of living, according to the polling by Yale University. Continue reading...

As part of the Guardian's Against the tide series, readers aged 18 to 30 share what they love about living in their coastal town, the challenges and why they often choose to leaveMegan, a 24-year-old from the Isle of Wight, is very familiar with saying goodbye. She decided university wasn't for her and remembers how, one by one, she waved off her friends who left the island to study. Many never came back. Continue reading...

We look back over the year's wildlife photographs, and hand out some much-deserved gongs to brilliant and beautiful creatures around the world Continue reading...

Mersey Valley Way takes in Manchester and Stockport on its 13-mile route with other walks to be identified in 2026A new river walk has been announced by the government as ministers try to improve access to nature in England.The 13-mile (21km) walk will go through Greater Manchester and the north-west of England. There will be a river walk in each region of the country by the end of parliament, the government has pledged. Continue reading...

Provisional figures in government mandate's first year show 20% shortfall in levels of SAF supplied for UK flightsThe take-up of sustainable aviation fuels is on course to fall short of the UK government's first annual mandate, official figures suggest.Production data published by the Department for Transport (DfT) covering most of 2025 shows that sustainable fuels (SAF) only accounted for 1.6% of fuel supplied for UK flights - 20% less fuel in volume than the 2% needed to fulfil the requirement. Continue reading...

Now is the time to think of new beginnings Continue reading...

In order to be less scared, I imagine the huge Australian huntsman as a girlie, just chilling and listening to us yap. It sounds dumb, but it worked (a little bit)

Low-cost tech and joined-up funding have reduced illegal logging, mining and poaching in the Darien Gap - it's a success story that could stop deforestation worldwideThere are no roads through the Darien Gap. This vast impenetrable forest spans the width of the land bridge between South and Central America, but there is almost no way through it: hundreds have lost their lives trying to cross it on foot.Its size and hostility have shielded it from development for millennia, protecting hundreds of species - from harpy eagles and giant anteaters to jaguars and red-crested tamarins - in one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. But it has also made it incredibly difficult to protect. Looking after 575,000 hectares (1,420,856 acres) of beach, mangrove and rainforest with just 20 rangers often felt impossible, says Segundo Sugasti, the director of Darien national park. Like tropical forests all over the world, it has been steadily shrinking, with at least 15% lost to logging, mining and cattle ranching in two decades. Continue reading...

Government poised to officially protect 200,000 hectares of remote Patagonian coastline and forestChile's government is poised to create the country's 47th national park, protecting nearly 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) of pristine wilderness and completing a wildlife corridor stretching 1,700 miles (2,800km) to the southernmost tip of the Americas.The Cape Froward national park is a wild expanse of wind-torn coastline and forested valleys that harbours unrivalled biodiversity and has played host to millennia of human history. Continue reading...

Smallest number of new chargers since 2022 as carmakers persuade government to weaken EV sales targetsThe UK's rollout of electric car chargers slackened markedly in 2025 amid investor concerns over a slower-than-expected switch to cleaner battery vehicles.There were 87,200 chargers installed in the UK at the end of November, an increase of 13,500 compared with the end of 2024, according to data from Zapmap, which tracks charger installations. Continue reading...

Penguins hand over pebbles; scorpionflies give spitballs. But I'm hankering after a sea sponge presented by a dolphinThis Christmas morning, are you worried you didn't choose quite the right gift for that someone special? I always try my hardest, but everywhere I turn I'm bombarded with unhelpful suggestions. No, I don't want a candle that smells like turkey, because, well, we'll be cooking turkey. Nor do I want a sunrise alarm clock that mimics natural light, because I can leave the curtains open. And I definitely don't want a salmon DNA pink collagen jelly mask (Good Housekeeping's Best for Beauty Lovers), because said DNA comes from milt. AKA semen. If I wanted fish sperm on my face, I would tickle some pollocks.So if, like me, you're always looking for inspiration, my advice is: learn from the animal kingdom. Humans didn't invent gifting. The practice has been around for at least 100m years, long before our species evolved. With a little help from natural selection, this has given wild animals ample time to perfect the art of giving. Hell, some spiders even gift-wrap!Helen Pilcher is a science writer and the author of Bring Back the King: The New Science of De-Extinction Continue reading...

Royal Horticultural Society's call backs government aim to increase woodland cover from 10% to at least 16.5% by 2050Gardeners should plant native tredges" - foliage between the size of a tree and a hedge - to boost England's tree cover, the Royal Horticultural Society has said.Taking inspiration from ancient woodlands could boost wildlife across England's 25m gardens, according to experts, and help increase native tree cover. The UK's woodland cover is approximately 10% and the government aims to increase this to at least 16.5% of all land in England by 2050.Beech (Fagus sylvatica)Holly (Ilex aquifolium)Western red cedar (Thuja plicata)Common yew (Taxus baccata)Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) Continue reading...

More than a year after the storm ripped apart families and farms, growers are bullish about strength of their industryChristmas tree farmers in western North Carolina are still rebuilding from last year's devastating Hurricane Helene, but growers are optimistic about business and the overall strength of their industry in the region.There's still a lot of recovery that needs to happen, but we're in much better shape than we were this time last year ... sales are good," Kevin Gray, owner of Hickory Creek Farm Christmas Trees in Greensboro, said earlier this month, while the buying season was in full swing. Continue reading...

Victoria Atkins says announcement to raise tax threshold from 1m to 2.5m days before Christmas seems very odd'

Seaweed has become a key cash crop as climate change and industrial trawling test the resilient culture of the semi-nomadic Vezo peopleAlong Madagascar's south-west coast, the Vezo people, who have fished the Mozambique Channel for countless generations, are defined by a way of life sustained by the sea. Yet climate change and industrial exploitation are pushing this ocean-based culture to its limits.Coastal villages around Toliara, a city in southern Madagascar, host tens of thousands of the semi-nomadic Vezo people, who make a living from small-scale fishing on the ocean. For centuries, they have launched pirogues, small boats carved from single tree trunks, every day into the turquoise shallows to catch tuna, barracuda and grouper.A boat near lines of seaweed, which has become a main source of income for Ambatomilo village as warmer seas, bleached reefs and erratic weather accelerate the decline of local fish populations Continue reading...

New protections for hares, and more humane conditions on farms, should be welcomed by allLooking after wildlife and improving the lives of farm animals and pets are the related but distinct aims of the government's new animal welfare strategy for England. Its launch is timely: more than 1 billion chickens and around 8 million turkeys are reared each year - with many of the latter slaughtered in the run-up to Christmas. Winter is also peak season for pet abandonments, with animal charities particularly fearful this year, given the already high numbers of dogs and cats being dumped.Pledges to end the use of cages for laying hens, and cramped farrowing crates for pigs, will be welcomed byall who object to animal cruelty. So will a proposal toreplace the carbon dioxide stunning of pigs with an alternativethat is less distressing for them. New rules for farmed fish are also on the way. Until now, fish have been largely excluded from the evolving set of regulations aimed at minimising suffering at the pointof slaughter.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...

U-turn lifts limit from 1m to 2.5m after protests and warnings that family farms were at riskMinisters will increase the threshold for taxing inherited farmland from 1m to 2.5m after months of pressure from campaigners and MPs representing rural areas.In a statement slipped out just before Christmas, the environment department announced the U-turn, which will apply from April when the tax kicks in. Continue reading...

No 10 has largely played down health secretary's commentsThe Treasury has published this explainer setting out in detail how the inheritance tax rules will apply to farms after today's announcement.When the government first announced its plan to extend inheritance tax to farms, it said that this would raise around 520m a year from 2028-29.The changes we are implementing reflects the concerns that have been raised while preserving the majority of the revenue from reform to help cut debt and borrowing and fund public services. The costings for today's announcement will be incorporated into the next OBR forecast. Continue reading...

Work under way to refloat boats on emptied waterway after earthwork more than 200 years old failsThe dramatic breach of a canal in the early hours of Monday, which sent two narrowboats tumbling into a hole and left others stranded, was caused by the collapse of an artificial embankment that had stood for more than 200 years.As emergency services declared the major incident phase over more than 24 hours after the embankment failure, work was beginning to isolate the damaged section of the canal and refloat boats still stranded either side of the emptied section of waterway. Continue reading...

As the number of the semi-aquatic creatures soars so can tensions. But the Swiss have a tried and tested system to calm the neighbours and restore harmonyI hate beavers," a woman tells the beaver hotline. Forty years ago she planted an oak tree in a small town in southern Zurich - now at the frontier of beaver expansion - and it has just been felled: gnawed by the large, semi-aquatic rodents as they enter their seasonal home-improvement mode.The caller is one of 10 new people getting in touch each week at this time of year. Beavers, nature's great engineers, can unleash mayhem during winter as they renovate their lodges and build up their dams. For people, this can mean flooding, sinkholes appearing in roads and trees being felled. A single incident can clock up 70,000 Swiss francs (65,000) in damages. Continue reading...

Met Office says temperatures are tracking ahead of 2022 after year of heatwaves and drought, though late cold spell could yet interveneForecasters say 2025 is more likely than not" to break the record for the hottest year in the UK since records began, after a summer of heatwaves and drought followed by a mild autumn.According to the Met Office, the official forecaster, the mean temperature for 2025 is tracking well ahead of the previous highest year, set in 2022. However, a colder spell expected from Christmas until the new year makes it too close to call definitively. Continue reading...

Advocates say State Electricity Commission's $650m Delburn windfarm will be a new chapter' for region previously home to Hazelwood coal power station

Major incident declared as 50-metre-long breach opens up in waterway previously flagged as amber risk'A man has told of his narrow escape after waking up just in time to raise the alarm as his canal boat and those of others were swallowed by a fast-appearing giant hole.Emergency services declared a major incident after the 50-metre-long crater - initially described by emergency services and other agencies as a sinkhole - breached the Llangollen canal in England's West Midlands, leaving boats teetering on the edge of a steep drop or stuck at the bottom of the cavity. Continue reading...

Black Diamond Pool eruption provides dramatic footage after being captured on official cameraA hot spring in Yellowstone national park that erupts sporadically was captured on an official camera exploding in spectacular muddy plumes at the weekend.Volcanic experts at the US Geological Survey described the eruption as simply Kablooey!" Continue reading...

Interior department move affects five projects under construction in latest blow to industry targeted by TrumpThe Trump administration has said it is immediately pausing all leases for offshore wind farms already under construction, in the heaviest blow yet to an industry that the administration has relentlessly targeted throughout the year.Trump's Department of the Interior said that it was halting the building of five wind projects due to national security risks". The department said it would work with the US Department of Defense to mitigate the risk of the wind turbine towers creating radar interference called clutter" that could in some way hamper the US military. Continue reading...

Video shared by the US Geological Survey on social media shows mud spraying up and out from the Black Diamond Pool in Yellowstone national park. Other recent eruptions have mostly been audible but not visible because they happened either at night or when the camera was obscured by ice. The agency said the Black Diamond Pool was previously the site of a hydrothermal explosion, in July 2024, that sent rocks and mud flying hundreds of feet into the air and damaged a boardwalk. It prompted the closure of the area to visitors due to the damage and potential for additional hazardous activity Continue reading...

Mass of congealed fat, oil and grease 100 metres in length found blocking sewers in Whitechapel area of capitalA fatberg" weighing an estimated 100 tonnes has been discovered blocking sewers in east London, officials have said.The mass of congealed fats, oils and grease measures about 100 metres long (328ft) and weighs about a third more than the heaviest of the British army's battle tanks. It has been called the grandchild of the 2017 Whitechapel fatberg, which weighed 130 tonnes and stretched for more than 250 metres (820ft). Continue reading...