Environment | The Guardian

Company's Starbase launch site in Texas near the Mexican border has seen test failures resulting in large explosionsMexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has threatened legal action over falling debris and contamination from billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket launches across the border in the United States.Mexico's government was studying which international laws were being violated in order to file the necessary lawsuits" because there is indeed contamination", Sheinbaum told her morning news conference on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Millions seek relief from a severe heat dome that's led to lake drownings, leaking methane gas and affected farmersAt a splash pad on the banks of the Great Miami River in downtown Dayton, Michelle Winston, her partner and their daughter have come to cool off from the brutal heat.It's our first time down here this year, but because it's so hot, we'll be coming back for sure," she says as she helps her daughter clear water from her eyes. Continue reading...

Amid abnormally high tides this week, councils report a rising frequency of inundation and erosion events due to climate change

People are disgusted by the idea of eating bugs despite their lighter planetary cost compared to traditional livestockRecent efforts to encourage people to eat insects are doomed to fail because of widespread public disgust at the idea, making it unlikely insects will help people switch from the environmentally ruinous habit of meat consumption, a new study has found.Farming and eating insects has been touted in recent years as a greener alternative to eating traditional meat due to the heavy environmental toll of raising livestock, which is a leading driver of deforestation, responsible for more than half of global water pollution, and may cause more than a third of all greenhouse gases that can be allowed if the world is to avoid disastrous climate change, the new research finds. Continue reading...

From peat bogs containing centuries of history to the fascinating world of sea creatures' senses, the theme for this year's annual event is Biosphere' Continue reading...

More than 1,000 of one UK's rarest butterflies seen around Holnicote Estate thanks to grazing cattle and good weatherThe combination of sunny spring weather and habitat improved by a herd of red Devon cattle has led to a surge in numbers of one of the UK's rarest butterflies on moorland in the English west country.As well as increasing in established pockets on Exmoor, the heath fritillary is spreading to new areas, which experts say is highly unusual. Continue reading...

Maasai pastoralists living by the national park in Kenya's capital are helping wildlife with a crucial migratory route through their land - at great risk to their cherished cattleNairobi national park in Kenya is the only large wildlife conservation area to fall within a capital city. It is hemmed in on three sides by human development, and unfenced only on its southern boundary - this gap providing a crucial wildlife passageway, linking the park's animals to other populations of wildlife and wider gene pools.The gap, however, is also home to a small Maasai community, where farmers face an agonising choice between protecting livestock and making space for the predators that prey on their cattle. Continue reading...

Scrutiny of how companies plan to meet climate commitments is growing, with many successful legal challengesJudges across the world are proving sceptical of companies' attempts to offset their greenhouse gas emissions by buying carbon credits, a report has found.In an analysis of nearly 3,000 climate-related lawsuits filed around the world since 2015, the latest annual review of climate litigation by the London School of Economics found action against corporations in particular was evolving", with growing scrutiny of how companies plan to meet their stated climate commitments. Continue reading...

Trump officials had ordered states not to spend $5bn given by Biden under national EV infrastructure schemeA US district judge has blocked the Trump administration from withholding funds previously awarded to 14 states for electric vehicle charger infrastructure.Seattle-based judge Tana Lin, who was appointed to the bench by Joe Biden in 2021, granted a partial injunction to the states that filed suit against Trump's Department of Transportation. Continue reading...

Extreme heat is bringing a stifling, dangerous, start to summer across much of the eastern US this weekA rare June heatwave is bringing a stifling, dangerous, start to summer across much of the eastern US this week, with forecasts for temperatures to get even hotter on Tuesday.On Monday, just the second day of summer, the National Weather Service placed extreme heat warnings in effect from the Carolinas to Maine, advising against any outdoor activities under the conditions.Eric Holthaus is a meteorologist and climate journalist based in Minnesota Continue reading...

A mass casualty incident' as temperatures soar to upper 90s fahrenheit in the regionMore than 150 people fell ill with heat at an outdoor high school graduation ceremony in New Jersey on Monday - and the fire chief of the city of Paterson declared a mass casualty incident" due to the overwhelming number of those who needed emergency treatment.The incident happened as students from several local schools in the city gathered at Hinchliffe Stadium to hear their names read out as graduates. Paterson's fire department said about 50 people were evaluated, and nine were sent to a local hospital from the stadium. Continue reading...

The Alaska senator, who helped deal Trump's first big legislative setback, believes there can be only so much fear that Americans can handleLate one night about six months into Donald Trump's first term, John McCain stepped on to the Senate floor and with a dramatic thumbs-down gesture dealt the president his first major legislative setback by defeating an attempt by his fellow Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act.It was the last major political effort of the Arizona senator, who would die the following year from brain cancer, but his no vote would not have been effective had he not been joined by fellow Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska - who gives that incident, and many other brushes with Trump, a prominent place in Far from Home, the memoir she released on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Agriculture secretary to scrap roadless rule' that protects lands including largest old growth forest in countryThe Trump administration will rescind protections that prevent logging on nearly a third of national forest lands, including the largest old growth forest in the country, the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, announced on Monday.The announcement will be followed by a formal notice rescinding the roadless rule", a nickname for the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, in coming weeks, the Associated Press reports. The rule prohibits road building and logging on all national forest land without roads, accounting for about 59m acres (24m hectares) of US national forest land. Continue reading...

Researchers say urgent conservation efforts will be needed to mitigate the shocking statistic' that threatens to unravel ecosystemsMore than 500 bird species could vanish within the next century, researchers have found, calling for urgent special recovery programmes" such as captive breeding and habitat restoration to rescue unique species.Birds such as the puffin, European turtle dove and great bustard will be among those to disappear from our skies if trends continue, according to the paper. Their loss threatens to unravel ecosystems across the globe. Continue reading...

The prospect of handing control of the energy company to overseas buyers has raised a series of concerns. But many of them are nebulousAmid the multifarious chaos of the past week, many of us might have missed the controversy over the proposed purchase of the energy business Santos by an overseas consortium. But the proposal is likely to create big problems for Australian governments and its resolution will reveal a lot about how Australian policymakers view energy and climate policy.Santos is one of the largest and oldest Australian producers of oil and gas, second only to Woodside Energy (its name is an acronym of South Australia and Northern Territory Oil Search). The core of its operation is the Moomba gas field in the Cooper Basin, in the north-east corner of South Australia. The company now supplies gas to the entire eastern seaboard and has assets in the Timor Sea and Papua New Guinea.John Quiggin is a professor at the University of Queensland's school of economicsThis article originally stated that XRG was owned by the Carlyle Group and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc). It was amended on 25 June 2025 to clarify that it is wholly owned by Adnoc and includes the Carlyle Group among its members Continue reading...

The Lower Thames Crossing proves the point. It's a white elephant plan, sucking money from local projects that could actually improve livesThere appear to be two main determinants of what infrastructure gets built. The first is whether it provides large and lucrative contracts for powerful corporations. The second is whether ministers can pose beside it in hard hats and yellow jackets. Otherwise, it is hard to explain the decisions made.Both determinants favour large and spectacular schemes. Big corporations don't want to dabble in minor improvements: real money comes from prestige projects over which governments cannot afford to lose face, ensuring that they keep throwing cash, however high the budget spirals. And few ministers want to pose beside a new bus stop: a grand ego demands a grand setting.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

About 110 million people suffer stress and sleep disturbance that lead to tens of thousands of early deathsMore than 110 million people across Europe suffer high levels of health-damaging noise pollution, according to a report. The resulting physiological stress and sleep disturbance leads to 66,000 early deaths a year and many cases of heart disease, diabetes and depression.The report, from the European Environment Agency (EEA), focuses on noise from cars, trains and aeroplanes and found that 20% of the population of the European Economic Area (EEA) were affected. Separate research, using a slightly lower threshold for dangerous noise pollution, found that 40% of the UK population were exposed to harmful transport noise. Continue reading...

Governor says plant upstate is a critical energy initiative' while renewable energy groups slammed the decisionKathy Hochul has announced plans to build a nuclear-power plant in New York, the first major new US plant in over 15 years, and one designed to add to add at least 1GW of nuclear power generation.The governor said in a statement that she had directed the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to develop and construct a zero-emission advanced nuclear power plant in upstate New York to support a reliable and affordable electric grid. Continue reading...

A new tower brings apartments, office space and tens of thousands of plants to the heart of Utrecht Continue reading...

Behavior in orca population off coast of US and Canada captured by scientists using drone observationKiller whales have been observed mutually grooming each other with a type of seaweed, the first known instance of a marine animal using tools in a way that was previously thought to be the preserve of primates such as humans.A group of killer whales, which are also known as orcas, have been biting off short sections of bull kelp and then rolling these stems between their bodies, possibly to remove dead skin or parasites. The behavior is the first such documented mutual grooming in marine animals and is outlined in a new scientific paper. Continue reading...

Super fund, on the brink of becoming Whitehaven's biggest shareholder, says company's acquisition of metallurgical coal assets made it a more attractive investment

Nature in Australia's smallest state is in poor health, but this has been largely ignored by both major parties in the lead-up to the early state election

Scientists fear thousands of tonnes of chemicals dumped in mining tunnels in Alsace may seep into an aquifer, with devastating consequences for people and wildlifeEight police officers linger with their backs to the two-hectare (five-acre) site known as Stocamine. The place is nondescript in the morning drizzle: two mine shafts, some modern-looking office buildings, a staff car park, lines of landscaped trees. The reason for the police presence, however, is what lies beneath: 42,000 tonnes of toxic waste stored under our feet.Stocamine, which lies in the old industrial town of Wittelsheim, Alsace, once held an old potash mine. Now, the mine shafts are closed, storing poisonous waste from elsewhere. Above the mine shafts is one of Europe's largest aquifers. Continue reading...

Dr Veronique Paris has a hands-on approach to her research - she lets hundreds of mosquitoes bite her arm in order to feed and maintain her mosquito lab. Paris helps research mosquito-borne diseases. We have people working on mosquitoes here that don't feed their own colonies, there will always be volunteers around that can do that, so no one has to feed mosquitos if they don't want to and that's totally fine," Paris says Continue reading...

Measure announced by Keir Starmer is key plank of government's long-awaited industrial strategy 10-year planThe government is to slash green levies on thousands of businesses, in an effort to bring down sky-high energy costs for firms and boost the manufacturing sector in Labour heartlands.The measure is a key plank of the long-awaited industrial strategy, a 10-year plan to boost sectors ranging from the creative industries to manufacturing. Continue reading...

Much of country from Minnesota to Maine under heat advisory as temperatures expected to pass 100F this weekTens of millions of people across the midwest and east braced on Sunday for another sweltering day of dangerously hot temperatures as a rare June heatwave continued to grip parts of the US.Most of the north-eastern quadrant of the country from Minnesota to Maine was under some type of heat advisory on Sunday. So were parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi. Continue reading...

Britain faces rising climate threats, yet lacks a country adaptation plan. Urgent, coordinated investment is needed to protect lives and infrastructureBritain's four-day heatwave - made 100 times more likely by the climate crisis - is expected to claim about 600 lives. Researchers say high temperatures from Thursday to Sunday would lead to a sharp rise in excess mortality, especially among older people in cities such as London and Birmingham. They forecast the deadliest day as Saturday, with temperatures above 32C and about 266 deaths. These are not abstract figures, but lives cut short by a threat we understand, yet remain unprepared for.Young people seem to grasp this. In a YouGov poll last week, roughly a quarter of 18- to 24-year-olds said they hoped there would be a heatwave - while more than two-fifths of older people welcomed the sunshine. That generational split isn't just cultural. It reflects an entirely rational anxiety: younger people face a future living in a climate emergency. The generation that caused and benefited from the conditions driving global heating will be gone long before the worst costs - financial, environmental, social - have to be paid. Continue reading...

400m to be set aside for on-street charging points instead of motorways after RCF was mired in delaysLabour ministers have scrapped a promise by the previous government for a 950m fund for installing electric car chargers near motorways, instead setting aside a smaller sum mainly for on-street charging points.The rapid charging fund (RCF) was first announced in 2020 by Rishi Sunak, then Conservative chancellor, with the aim of supporting upgrades to the grid so that more electric vehicles could be rapidly charged at the same time. Continue reading...

Creditors owed 13bn say ministers should prioritise environmental betterment over punitive enforcement'Lenders trying to take control of Thames Water are attempting to thwart environmental campaigners by asking the government to block them from pursuing high court claims.Creditors owed 13bn by Britain's biggest water company want ministers to order the Environment Agency (EA) to prioritise environmental betterment over punitive enforcement" - which they believe would significantly mitigate" the risk of campaigners bringing judicial reviews or private prosecutions. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Agriculture minister Julie Collins and Indigenous affairs minister Malarndirri McCarthy expressed concern over Sturt Plateau pipeline's construction

The evidence against the Drax power station is damning, yet the government wants to continue its massive public fundingHow green is this? We pay billions of pounds to cut down ancient forests in the US and Canada, ship the wood across the Atlantic in diesel tankers, then burn it in a Yorkshire-based power station.Welcome to the scandal of Drax, where Britain's biggest polluter gets to play climate hero. The reality is that billions in public subsidies has enabled Drax to generate electricity by burning 300m trees. Now the government is trying to force through an extension that would grant Drax an estimated 1.8bn in public subsidies on top of the 11bn it has already pocketed, keeping this circus going until at least 2031.Dale Vince is a green energy industrialist and campaignerDo 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.

Research suggests longest day is a cue for beeches and other species to launch their growth strategiesFor millennia, the summer solstice has marked a pivotal moment in the human calendar - a turning point steeped in mythology, when the oak king is said to yield to the holly king, and the days begin to shorten.Now, science is increasingly revealing that trees really do respond to this celestial shift, with changes in their growth and reproductive strategies occuring immediately after the calendar's longest day. A study gives fresh insights into why this happens, with implications for how forests might adapt to changing climates. Continue reading...

Residents of a Portuguese rural idyll where four vast mines are planned are among those who feel they will pay too high a cost for the energy transitionFilipe Gomes had been craving fresh air and quiet routine when he and his partner quit the chaos of London's catering industry for the fog-misted hills of Covas do Barroso, the sleepy Portuguese farming village in which he was raised.But his rural idyll has been disturbed by miners drilling boreholes as they push to dig four vast lithium mines right beside the village. The prospecting has sparked resistance from residents who fear the mines will foul the soil, drain the water and fill the air with the rumbling thunder of heavy trucks. Continue reading...

Temperatures at or above 100F expected as extreme hot air and humidity are trapped in atmosphereScores of millions of people across the central and eastern US will swelter under the summer's first heat dome" beginning this weekend and extending through the end of next week as extreme hot air and humidity get trapped in the atmosphere.The arrival of the heatwave coincides with Friday's first day of summer and will bring temperatures at or above 100F (37.7C) to numerous cities as it moves to the east of the US in the coming days, forecasters say. Continue reading...

A cinematic immersive experience and stampeding animal puppets are bringing the climate emergency into the cityAs parts of the UK swelter, this week brought yet more alarming reports of increasing temperatures, extreme weather events and dwindling chances of meeting the global 1.5C target. It was the UK's warmest spring on record and its driest in more than 50 years.Communicating the urgency of our predicament without provoking despair and hopelessness is an intractable challenge, especially when it comes to children. But two trail-blazing theatre experiences are bringing the breakdown of the natural world into urban metropolises, and raising the alarm with such immediacy that even those of us fortunate enough to live in places that have so far been relatively unaffected by the climate crisis must pay attention. Continue reading...

Court votes to back challenge to state waiver that allows it to set tougher car emission standards than federal limitsFossil fuel companies are able to challenge California's ability to set stricter standards reducing the amount of polluting coming from cars, the US supreme court has ruled in a case that is set to unravel one of the key tools used to curb planet-heating emissions in recent years.The conservative-dominated supreme court voted by seven to two to back a challenge by oil and gas companies, along with 17 Republican-led states, to a waiver that California has received periodically from the federal government since 1967 that allows it to set tougher standards than national rules limiting pollution from cars. The state has separately stipulated that only zero-emission cars will be able to sold there by 2035. Continue reading...

Residents of Bille and Ogale in Niger delta are suing Shell and subsidiary, but company denies liabilityResidents of two Nigerian communities who are taking legal action against Shell over oil pollution are set to take their cases to trial at the high court in 2027.Members of the Bille and Ogale communities in the Niger delta, which have a combined population of about 50,000, are suing Shell and a Nigerian-based subsidiary of the company, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, which is now the Renaissance Africa Energy Company. Continue reading...

One plant produces more arsenic pollution than any other in US, and the other has been slated for closure since 2021The Trump administration is moving to keep open two Michigan coal plants that emit about 45% of the state's greenhouse gas pollution, which opponents say is an indication of how the US president plans to wield his controversial national energy emergency executive order.Already, the US Department of Energy (DoE) has ordered the JH Campbell coal plant on Lake Michigan to remain open beyond its 31 May closure date, while the administration is expected to prolong the life of the Monroe power plant on Lake Erie, currently scheduled to begin closing in 2028. Continue reading...

Four ducklings add to safety-net population of African species that is estimated to be down to 5,000 in the wildChester zoo has successfully hatched one of Africa's rarest species of duck for the first time.It said the successful breeding of four maccoa ducklings formed part of growing efforts to safeguard Africa's most threatened species. Continue reading...

Hundreds are being released across the country to reverse 98% decline in mating pairs since the 1970sHundreds of turtle doves are being released this summer as conservationists race against the clock to save the species from extinction in England.The cooing doves, which mate for life, are the fastest-declining bird species in the country. Just 2,000 pairs are left, a decline of 98% since the 1970s. This is because their habitats in scrubby areas have been destroyed and thousands are shot on their migratory route across Europe. Continue reading...

Heatwave and an invitation to name storms created record-breaking opportunities to indulge nation's favourite pastimeThe best descriptions of summer heat, in my view, come from Carson McCullers's The Member of the Wedding, a novel in which, the world seemed to die each afternoon and nothing moved any longer ... like a silent crazy jungle under glass." Or Muriel Spark, in her short story The Seraph and the Zambezi, set in southern Africa in 1946, where the heat distorted every word" and sound, writes Spark, reached my ears a fraction behind time". Of a bunch of white settlers enjoying pink gins on the terrace, she writes, the glasses made a tinkle that was not of the substance of glass, but of bottles wrapped in tissue paper. Sometimes, for a moment, a shriek or a cackle would hang torpidly in space, but these were unreal sounds as if projected from a distant country." Continue reading...

Let the echidna discourse begin!

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

High temperatures likely to cause deaths and will worsen in future as global heating intensifies, scientists warnThe dangerous 32C heat that will be endured by people in the south-east of England on Saturday will have been made 100 times more likely by the climate crisis, scientists have calculated.Global heating, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, is making every heatwave more likely and more intense. The 32C (89.6F) day forecast on Saturday would have been expected only once every 2,500 years without the climate crisis, the researchers said, and June heatwaves are now about 2-4C (3.6-7.2F) hotter than in the past. Continue reading...

School leaders call for action on adaptation measures as DfE research warns of potential impact of climate crisisChildren in England face prolonged lost learning" caused by extreme heat and flooding at school, according to research on the potential impact of the climate crisis on education.School leaders and teachers said the scenarios published by the Department for Education made for grim reading and urged ministers to move quickly to improve school resilience. Continue reading...

Michael Shanks says guidance brings clarity' to approval process as analysis finds UK will be almost fully dependent on foreign gas by 2050 even if sites get green lightMinisters have opened the door to approving drilling at two controversial North Sea oilfields, as new guidance on how energy firms should account for future emissions was released.Michael Shanks, the energy security minister, said on Thursday the guidance would offer clarity on the way forward for the North Sea oil and gas industry", after a supreme court ruling in 2024 that blocked drilling. Continue reading...

People will see that we're making progress on it,' treasurer Daniel Mookhey tells Guardian Australia

UKHSA warns of risk to people aged 65 and over as temperatures of up to 33C expected until MondayAmber heat alerts have been issued in England as the UK experiences its hottest day of the year so far, with a temperature of 32.2C recorded at Kew in west London.The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) issued the warningd on Thursday, and stated there could be a rise in deaths" across all nine English regions, with those aged 65 and over or people with health conditions" particularly at risk as the temperature is expected to rise sharply. Continue reading...

Environmental group says adding levies to airline tickets would help ease financial burden on poor countriesAdding a levy to airline tickets could raise more than 100bn a year to pay for the damage done by climate breakdown, research has found.Flying is the most carbon-intensive means of travel, but is artificially cheap as airline fuel is often not taxed, and the environmental impacts are not paid for. Continue reading...

Government accused of making secret exchange deal' with fossil fuel companies to compensate for tax hikeThe chancellor, Rachel Reeves, told a fossil fuel company the industry would receive a quid pro quo" in return for higher taxes on its windfall profits, it can be revealed.In a meeting with the Norwegian state energy company Equinor on 27 August, Reeves suggested that the government's carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) subsidies were a payoff for oil firms being hit with a higher tax rate. Continue reading...