Environment | The Guardian

Mowi to give fishers 36 per fish after loss from farm in what campaigners say is a disaster for wild salmon'The global seafood company Mowi is offering a bounty to fishers who catch escaped salmon after an estimated 27,000 fish went missing from a farm off the Norwegian coast in what campaigners said was a disaster for wild salmon".The world's largest farmed salmon producer is offering a reward of 500 kroner (36) per salmon caught after it said a quarter of its 105,000 salmon population escaped from a cage in Troms, north-west Norway. Continue reading...

A wave of incidents threatens the survival of the species in the country, say conservationistsInside the Pakistan Museum of Natural History, in Islamabad, two taxidermists work on a leopard skin. They scrape away at the remaining flesh and sprinkle the underside with boric acid powder. It's difficult to look away from the two holes where the leopard's eyes should be.We ask conservation groups, if they find any dead specimen, to relay it to us so that we can preserve it and make it available to young researchers," says Muhammad Asif Khan, the museum's director of zoological science. This particular leopard died from gunshot wounds in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir region," he says.Clockwise from main image: taxidermists at the Pakistan Natural History Museum work on a leopard specimen that was shot in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir region; Asif Khan holds a piece of shot; a bullet hole or shot wound can be seen in the pelt Continue reading...

If Starmer and Reeves really want a greener, cleaner, wilder nation, then why attack vital state bodies that are already on their knees?This might sound astonishing, but the UK government's core programme now appears to be the same as Donald Trump's: dismantling the administrative state. There's less theatre, but the results could prove harder to contest. Absurd? Consider the evidence.Take the government's brutal expulsion of the chair of the Competition and Markets Authority, Marcus Bokkerink. His crime, it seems, was to take his role seriously, seeking to prevent the formation of corporate monopolies. He has been replaced with the former manager of Amazon UK, a company widely accused of monopolistic practices. This is pure Trump: kick out the regulator and insert someone from a company they were seeking to regulate. Continue reading...

Order rolls back Biden policy to phase out federal purchases of single-use plastic as Trump calls it a ridiculous situation'

Government cranks handle again for group owning Yorkshire power plant because cheaper generating capacity not in place

Pesticide-backed proposed law that opponents call Cancer Gag Act' pits Iowa farm groups against each otherPesticide company efforts to push through laws that could block litigation against them is igniting battles in several US farm states and pitting some farm groups against each other.Laws have been introduced in at least eight states so far and drafts are circulating in more than 20 states, backed by a deluge of advertising supporting the measures. Continue reading...

Secondhand market thrived as sales of new EVs also reached highest levels to date, SMMT trade body says

North Yorkshire power plant has been criticised for burning wood pellets sourced from US and Canadian forests

Insurers blame significant and consistent bad weather' after year of 12 named stormsInsurers paid out a record 585m for weather-related damage to homes and possessions in Britain last year, after record-breaking rain and storms hit the country.The data, from the Association of British Insurers (ABI), revealed that claims for damage to homes from windstorms, flooding and frozen pipes in 2024 surpassed the previous record in 2022, for the same types of claim, by 77m. The figure is 127m higher than the weather-related claims payouts for 2023. Continue reading...

On Qikiqtaruk, off Canada's Yukon coast, scientists are wielding virtual-reality cameras, 3D models and digital archives to protect the island's history and culture before it disappearsIt was early July when the waters of the Beaufort Sea crept, then rushed, over the gravel spit of a remote Arctic island. For hours, the narrow strip of land, extending like the tail of a comma into the waters, gradually disappeared into the ocean.When Canadian scientists on Qikiqtaruk (also known as Herschel Island), off the coast of Canada's Yukon territory, surveyed the deluge, they saw a grimly comical scene unfold. Continue reading...

Storm brings hail to Harden in NSW - video Continue reading...

Elementary schoolers in the San Francisco Bay Area are embarking on tasting journeys of fruits and vegetablesOn a crisp winter morning in San Francisco, a team of six-year-olds declare that their favorite fruits and vegetables are peaches and broccoli - but then again, they have yet to venture out into the farmers' market where produce they have never tried before awaits them. With handfuls of tokens, they will purchase persimmons, pomegranates, Asian pears, purple potatoes, kale and more from the farmers who grew them - then embark on a tasting journey, featuring new and familiar spices.The first-graders are visiting the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market - a Bay Area institution that draws more than 100 farmers to San Francisco's waterfront three days a week - with 22 of their classmates from Lincoln elementary. That morning, the children had ridden the subway from their school in Oakland's Chinatown into the city with parent chaperones and their teacher, Kitty Chen. Continue reading...

There's no point trying to make plans around the whims of Trump. The PM instead needs to turn to EuropeTo Elon Musk, I say this! To perform one Nazi salute at Donald Trump's inauguration, while simultaneously offering full support to European neo-Nazis, might be considered a misfortune. To perform two Nazi salutes at Donald Trump's inauguration, while simultaneously offering full support to European neo-Nazis, begins to look like carelessness.I didn't write that joke. I have cannibalised it from one by the gay Irish Victorian Oscar Wilde, a typical diversity hire who would have achieved nothing had his work not been promoted by the famously woke 19th-century British establishment. Luckily, Wilde was dead long before he had the opportunity to emigrate to the US and take an air traffic controller job from a more deserving straight white male, where his gayness would have caused planes to crash.Stewart Lee tours Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf this year, with a Royal Festival Hall run in JulyDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

Heading off the environmental crisis and growing the economy are not at odds. They are two sides of a coin - as our politicians should realiseIf you care about the world we are handing on to future generations, the news on Thursday morning was dramatic. This January was the warmest on record; temperatures in 18 of the past 19 months have exceeded pre-industrial averages by 1.5C. There can be no comfort that the epoch-changing climate crisis is 20 or even 10 years away. It is already upon us.Temperatures should have been moderated this winter by cooler air over the Pacific; it did not happen. Scientists are bewildered and scared. James Hansen, doyen of climate crisis research, believes that, unless this pace of deterioration is reversed, warm ocean waters flowing from the southern to the northern hemisphere will be trapped as vast sea currents cease. Sea levels will rise to impose a civilisational threat. It is a global imperative to dial down the rate of carbon emissions. Continue reading...

David Crisafulli says infrastructure to be replaced after floods needs greater ability' to withstand natural disasters

Sometimes a branch grows so low and bushy that it blocks access to my room. I diligently cut it back

The party's agenda is about energy security, lower bills, economic growth and good jobs

On 10 January, as fires raged across Los Angeles, local portrait artist Asher Bingham made an offer via an Instagram reel: To anyone that has lost a home in the #LAfires I will draw [it] for free." She had already drawn the house of a close friend that had burned down; by offering her services more widely, she hoped to help others grieve for what they'd lost. She wasn't prepared for the response. So many people sent in photos - 1,300 and counting - that she had to recruit volunteers to keep up with demand. For Bingham, it's all about the small details: wind chimes, potted plants. Anywhere I can see people put love into their home, I draw it," she says. I'm trying to recreate a memory that only lives in their minds of the beautiful time they lived there."

Scotland's botanic gardens suffer unimaginable' loss of rare specimensFor more than a century, whenever winter came to Scotland, they stood tall against the wind and rain and snow. But last month, battered by Storm Eowyn, hundreds of rare and historic trees in the living collection of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh were lost.The charity has four sites in Scotland. Its tallest tree in Edinburgh, a 166-year-old Himalayan cedar, fell during Eowyn's gusts of up to 80mph, while Benmore Botanic Garden on the west coast has suffered unimaginable" devastation. Continue reading...

The Siau Nation in South Dakota is building community and climate resilience through traditional foodsOn a Wednesday summer evening on the Rosebud Reservation, members of the Siau Nation arrange 12 tables to form a U in the parking lot of a South Dakota Boys & Girls Club. The tables at the Siau Harvest Market are laden with homemade foods for sale: tortillas, cooked beans, pickles and fresh-squeezed lemonade.The market is one of many ways the non-profit increases access to traditional and healthful foods that also happen to come with a low climate impact. The Lakota, of which Siau is one of seven nations, were traditionally hunters and gatherers, but today, the Siau Co non-profit is building on both new and old traditions to fulfill its mission. Continue reading...

President said he will sign an executive order next week despite global plastics crisisDonald Trump has said that he will reverse Joe Biden's plan to phase out plastic straws across the US government, complaining that paper alternatives don't work and that a move is needed to go BACK TO PLASTIC!"Trump said in a Truth Social post that he will sign an executive order next week ending the ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws, which don't work. BACK TO PLASTIC!" The US president added in a separate post that Biden's mandate" for paper straws was now dead: Enjoy your next drink without a straw that disgustingly dissolves in your mouth!!!" Continue reading...

Nine in ten traditional orchards in England have been lost since the second world war. Farmers and cider makers are now fighting for their survivalThey are a symbol of the bucolic English countryside and a staple of the West Country landscape, but since the second world war, 90% of traditional orchards have disappeared.Defined as a collection of five or more fruit trees planted in permanent grassland and managed in a non-intensive way, traditional orchards have suffered from neglect, been razed for development and converted to intensive bush orchards or alternative crops. Continue reading...

Developing countries urge biggest polluters to act as Trump's return to the White House heightens geopolitical turmoilThe vast majority of governments are likely to miss a looming deadline to file vital plans that will determine whether or not the world has a chance of avoiding the worst ravages of climate breakdown.Despite the urgency of the crisis, the UN is relatively relaxed at the prospect of the missed date. Officials are urging countries instead to take time to work harder on their targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions and divest from fossil fuels. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Analysis suggests development in flood regions result of Labour push for 1.5m new homes in five yearsMore than 100,000 new homes will be built on the highest-risk flood zones in England in the next five years as part of the government's push for 1.5m extra properties by the end of this parliament, Guardian analysis suggests.Building on areas with the highest risk of serious flooding is supposed to be discouraged. Experts say development should be avoided unless absolutely necessary because there is a significant chance of regular deluges, which will flood the properties, cause hundreds of millions of pounds of economic damage and make homes uninsurable. Continue reading...

Residents living near the Sarandi have long complained about pollution in the areaA small river in greater Buenos Aires was dyed a deep and worrying shade of red on Thursday after what is thought to have been a leak of dye from a nearby factory.The violent hue of the Sarandi, which runs through the municipality of Avellaneda, six miles (9.6km) south of the Argentinian capital, alarmed local residents, who have long complained about industrial pollution in the area. Continue reading...

Musk believes Tesla's rivals are more vulnerable to Trump's moves against electric vehiclesDonald Trump's attempts to slash incentives for electric cars would cause sales of the vehicles to plummet, with this effort cheered on by a seemingly confounding supporter - Elon Musk, the billionaire chief executive of Tesla and erstwhile champion for action on the climate crisis.Trump has said that he will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American auto workers". Continue reading...

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

We are the post-pandemic flaneurs: stepping out of social media silos to meet people and connect with the world around usWhen I moved back to London from Rome just before the second lockdown in 2020, I found a city that was hardly welcoming, with shops closed and an atmosphere of silent apprehension. Young, single people like me were only socialising online with existing friends, and opportunities to make fresh connections were rare.When I met Irenka from Poland at a literary festival, she looked as thirsty for new friends as I was. As we started complaining about the difficulties of mingling she introduced me to an app that allows people to find new pals on organised walks. I quickly downloaded it. Continue reading...

Billions of pounds from energy bill payers to run out in 2027 but could be extended as soon as MondayGreen campaigners fear ministers are poised to award billions of pounds in fresh subsidies to Drax power station, despite strong concerns that burning trees to produce electricity is bad for the environment.Drax burns wood to generate about 8% of the UK's green" power, and 4% of overall electricity. This is classed as low-carbon" because the harvested trees are replaced by others that take up carbon from the atmosphere as they grow. Continue reading...

Researchers have found a pattern indicating certain words' are used more often than others - but humans won't be speaking whale any time soon

Greenpeace says PM has swallowed industry spin whole' after plans unveiled to expand in England and WalesKeir Starmer has channelled his inner Donald Trump and promised to build, baby, build" in his push for more nuclear power stations, despite warnings from environmental groups about the industry's record for soaring costs and long delays.A day after the prime minister unveiled his plans to revamp planning rules to bring in a series of small modular reactors (SMRs) across England and Wales, Greenpeace said Starmer had swallowed the nuclear industry spin whole", and Friends of the Earth described the plans as overblown, costly hype". Continue reading...

Conservation groups say policy would allow Doug Burgum to redraw boundaries of protected areas to boost fossil fuelsThe US interior department has raised fears among conservationist groups about how national monuments will be affected in its transformation to support the Trump administration's pro-fossil fuel agenda.A review from Trump's pick for interior secretary, Doug Burgum, released on his first full day in the position on Monday, instructs federal officials to reverse Biden-era regulations on oil and gas industries and boost drilling. Continue reading...

Middlewick Ranges in Colchester considered to be of national importance for nightingales and acid grasslandA council is proposing to remove the second-best place for nightingales in the UK from its local plan for 1,000 new homes, in a win for community campaigners and environmentalists.Middlewick Ranges, a former Ministry of Defence firing range on the southern edge of Colchester, is set to be dropped from the city council's allocated housing sites after councillors heeded a growing array of ecological evidence highlighting its national importance for nature. Continue reading...

On almost every level the chancellor's decision to expand the London airport looks naive, if not foolishFor 20 years, politicians, industry leaders and campaigners have fought in courts, parliament and public meetings over the idea of building a new runway for Heathrow. For some, a third runway would not only boost passenger numbers at the airport but would be a symbol of the country's determination to seek economic regeneration. For others, it would demonstrate, in vivid terms, our complete failure to understand the grim, global threat posed by further increasing carbon emissions.Last week, Rachel Reeves chose to enter the fray. Remarkably, for a supposed green chancellor, she elected to back the project and seek the expansion of Heathrow to raise its annual passenger capacity by 50% to about 140 million. A third runway at Heathrow would unlock further growth, boost investment, increase exports and make the UK more open and more connected," she claimed. It was a bold move. It is unlikely history will view it as a sensible or justifiable one, however. On almost every level - political, local or environmental - her decision looks naive, if not foolish. Continue reading...

New EPA administrator Lee Zeldin's pillars pledge to help auto industry and have no mention of the climate crisisA new and starkly different vision for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been outlined by the Trump administration - one that involves mass staff cuts, an influx of industry lobbyists and, unusually, the promotion of artificial intelligence as a key agency priority.A set of five pillars" issued by new EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, to guide the agency, set up under President Richard Nixon in 1970 to protect US public health and the environment, does include one referencing clean land, air and water for every American". Continue reading...

Dylan Cooper and Cory Kerewaro from Reptile Relocation Sydney have removed 102 red-bellied black snakes from a single mulch pile on a property in western Sydney. Upon arrival they had expected to remove only four red-bellies which had been seen by the owner of the Horsley Park home. But during summer it can be common for some female snakes to congregate and share the same birthing site

Multimillion-dollar home perched at edge of Cape Cod Bay in Wellfleet affected by erosion accelerated by climate crisisThe waters of Cape Cod Bay are coming for the big brown house perched on the edge of a sandy bluff high above the beach. It's just a matter of when.Erosion has marched right up to the concrete footings of the multimillion-dollar Massachusetts home where it overlooks the bay. Massive sliding doors that used to open onto a wide deck, complete with a hot tub, are now barricaded by thin wooden slats that prevent anyone from stepping through and falling 25ft to the beach below. Continue reading...

State-owned Equinor becomes latest fossil fuel firm to backtrack on clean energy pledges with move to halve budget to $5bnThe Norwegian oil company fighting to open a giant new oilfield off Shetland has cut billions of pounds from its green spending plans in favour of producing more fossil fuels.Equinor set out plans on Wednesday to halve its investments in low-carbon energy while producing more oil and gas, becoming the latest in a line of fossil fuel firms to backtrack on its green promises. Continue reading...

Ian Wood wins Natural History Museum's people's choice award with photo taken in St Leonards-on-SeaA badger captured glancing up at a graffiti version of itself has won the Natural History Museum's people's choice award for wildlife photographer of the year.The image was taken by a British photographer, Ian Wood, on a quiet road in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex. Continue reading...

Freedom of information data reveals violations on intensive poultry and pig farmsIndustrial-scale livestock farms across East Anglia have breached environmental regulations more than 700 times in the past seven years, freedom of information (FoI) data has revealed.The farms across Norfolk and Suffolk are among the largest in the country. Pig and poultry farming is concentrated in the region and 28% of England's pig population was farmed in the area in 2023. Continue reading...

Did you know molluscs protect the citizens of Poland from water pollution? It's true!

Members reportedly sought access to IT systems at agency that Project 2025 has called harmful to US prosperity'Staffers with Elon Musk's department of government efficiency" (Doge) reportedly entered the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in Silver Spring, Maryland, and the Department of Commerce in Washington DC today, inciting concerns of downsizing at the agency.They apparently just sort of walked past security and said: Get out of my way,' and they're looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies," said Andrew Rosenberg, a former Noaa official who is now a fellow at the University of New Hampshire. They will have access to the entire computer system, a lot of which is confidential information." Continue reading...

Labour pledges to protect 66,500 more properties, criticising previous Tory effortsMinisters are topping up flood defence investment in England to a record" 2.65bn, after accusing the previous government of putting lives at risk" by under-spending.An extra 250m is being pledged on top of the 2.4bn previously announced, to shore up defences and protect an extra 66,500 properties from flooding over a two-year period, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said. Continue reading...

Exclusive: cross-party backing likely for amendment to GB Energy bill aiming to block solar panels made by forced labourThe government is facing defeat next week over a move to guarantee that companies using forced labour do not drive the UK's green energy transition.The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have thrown their weight behind an amendment by the cross-bench peer David Alton to the Great British Energy bill, which is making its way through the House of Lords. Continue reading...

Prof James Hansen says pace of global heating has been significantly underestimated, though other scientists disagreeThe pace of global heating has been significantly underestimated, according to renowned climate scientist Prof James Hansen, who said the international 2C target is dead".A new analysis by Hansen and colleagues concludes that both the impact of recent cuts in sun-blocking shipping pollution, which has raised temperatures, and the sensitivity of the climate to increasing fossil fuels emissions are greater than thought. Continue reading...

Deprived of Rachel Reeves's affections, the energy secretary revelled in playing climate crisis hero to her villainHe lives!They seek him here! They seek him there! For the last 10 days or so, Ed Miliband has been the Invisible Man. A large number of the cabinet were in Oxfordshire for Rachel Reeves's growth speech last Wednesday. Ed was not. Continue reading...

Scientists say unusually mild temperatures linked to low-pressure system over Iceland directing strong flow of warm air towards north poleTemperatures at the north pole soared more than 20C above average on Sunday, crossing the threshold for ice to melt.Temperatures north of Svalbard in Norway had already risen to 18C hotter than the 1991-2020 average on Saturday, according to models from weather agencies in Europe and the US, with actual temperatures close to ice's melting point of 0C. By Sunday, the temperature anomaly had risen to more than 20C. Continue reading...

Just 9,119 were counted in 2024 - down 96% on previous year and second-lowest mark in nearly three decadesThe number of monarch butterflies spending the winter in the western United States has dropped to its second-lowest mark in nearly three decades as pesticides, diminishing habitat and the climate crisis take their toll on the beloved pollinator.The butterflies, known for their distinctive orange-and-black wings, are found across North America. Monarchs in the eastern US spend their winters in Mexico, while monarchs west of the Rocky Mountains typically overwinter along the California coast. Continue reading...

Italian politician said a video posted online showed Trump Jr with a ruddy shelduck while on hunting tripA politician from Italy's Veneto region says he has reported Donald Trump Jr to the authorities for allegedly killing a protected species of duck while hunting in Venice lagoon.Andrea Zanoni, the regional counsellor and environmentalist, said an online video from Field Ethos - published by Trump Jr and marketed as a premier lifestyle publication for the unapologetic man" - showed some people, including Donald Trump Jr, killing various ducks". Continue reading...

Mountaineers now scaling more peaks for first global study of nanoplastics, which can enter lungs and bloodstreamParticles from vehicle tyre wear are the biggest source of nanoplastic pollution in the high Alps, a pioneering project has revealed.Expert mountaineers teamed up with scientists to collect contamination-free samples and are now scaling peaks to produce the first global assessment of nanoplastics, which are easily carried around the world by winds. Continue reading...