A project on Spain's Costa Brava is reviving dwindling populations of the prized seafood - and keeping small-scale fishers in businessClinging to almost vertical cliffs on the Costa Brava in north-east Spain, the resort of l'Estartit has a dramatic location but the real drama is unfolding under the waves, where an innovative approach to ancient techniques is helping to revive declining populations of prized cuttlefishCuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) are a valuable catch for Spanish fishers and a popular dish, either on their own or as a key ingredient in seafood paella. However, their numbers have declined on the Catalan coast through a combination of pollution and unregulated recreational fishing. Continue reading...

It's difficult to overstate how rapidly Australians have embraced solar power - there's now more rooftop solar than coal-fired power. The key question is what policymakers can learn from its success

Bethany Beach firefly, found in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, faces dangers to habitat because of climate changeThe US government is seeking to consider a firefly species as endangered for the first time, according to a proposal from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.The Bethany Beach firefly, found in coastal Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, is facing increasing dangers to its natural habitat because of climate change-related events. They include sea level rise, which is predicted to affect all sites within the known distribution by the end of the century, and the lowering of groundwater aquifers. Continue reading...

Birds outnumber residents in Hilario Ascasubi, after deforestation leads them to seek food, shelter and waterThe town of Hilario Ascasubi near Argentina's eastern Atlantic coast has a parrot problem.Thousands of the green, yellow and red birds have invaded, driven by deforestation in the surrounding hills, according to biologists. They bite on the town's electric cables, causing outages, and are driving residents around the bend with their incessant screeching and deposits everywhere of parrot poo. Continue reading...

We learn about butterflies when we are small because it is foreshadowing: you too will change. But they are an imperfect metaphor for what it feels like to liveThe very funny naturalist and writer Redmond O'Hanlon was on a sandbank on the edge of a river in Borneo when hundreds of butterflies started to fly towards him and his travel companion and landed on their boots, trousers, and shirts, and sucked the sweat from our arms."He watched them for a while - there were Whites, Yellows and Blues, Swallow-tails, black, banded, or spotted with blue-greens" - and then stood up and brushed them off gently. Continue reading...

Labor government has undermined case to co-host 2026 UN climate summit with island nations, Dr Maina Talia declares

River erosion has pushed the mountain upwards and added an extra 15 to 50 metres over the past 89,000 yearsClimbing Mount Everest has always been a feat, but it seems the task might be getting harder: researchers say Everest is having something of a growth spurt.The Himalayas formed about 50m years ago, when the Indian subcontinent smashed into the Eurasian tectonic plate - although recent research has suggested the edges of these plates were already very high before the collision. Continue reading...

Calls grow for lifting of moratorium on onshore drilling in England to become policy under new leader

Interstate highway shut down in both directions in the area, as residents urged to evacuate or shelter in placeSome residents east of Atlanta were evacuated while others were told to shelter in place on Sunday to avoid contaminants from a chemical plant fire that sent a huge tower of dark smoke into the air that could be seen from miles away.Interstate 20 was shut down in both directions in the area, the Georgia department of transportation said in a post on X. Reports said traffic was snarled as vehicles backed up. Continue reading...

Lawmakers in Miami-Dade and Broward counties at odds regarding using former airport site to build toxic' facilityResidents of two south Florida counties are feuding over the proposed construction of a huge trash incineration plant that environmentalists say will subject thousands of people to toxic fumes and a risk of polluted drinking water.The mayor of Miami-Dade county, Daniella Levine Cava, settled on a long-disused airport far from any of its own residential neighborhoods as the preferred site to build a $1.5bn replacement for a previous waste-to-energy facility that burned down last year. Continue reading...

The decision comes after a ProPublica and Guardian investigation revealed that the EPA had found that one of the fuels had a huge cancer risk

UK's 142-year history of coal-fired electricity ends as turbines at Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant in Nottinghamshire stop for goodBritain's only remaining coal power plant at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire will generate electricity for the last time on Monday after powering the UK for 57 years.The power plant will come to the end of its life in line with the government's world-leading policy to phase out coal power which was first signalled almost a decade ago. Continue reading...

The lassitude that distinguishes our moment is born of sorrow and buried rage. We act like colonial subjects because, in effect, that's what we areKids these days are such snowflakes! So flaccid and self-involved, so doomy and anxious. If it's not the drugs, it's the screen time, right? I mean, what's their problem?"I try to sidestep conversations like these. Engaging saps so much time and energy. But avoiding them leaves me feeling dirty. Not because I've forgone an opportunity to win an argument, but because I know I've failed to defend those who need and deserve my solidarity. Continue reading...

Two countries agree to modifications beneath Matterhorn peak, one of Europe's highest summitsSwitzerland and Italy have redrawn a border that traverses an Alpine peak as melting glaciers shift the historically defined frontier.The two countries agreed to the modifications beneath the Matterhorn, one of the highest mountains in Europe, which straddles Switzerland's Zermatt region and Italy's Aosta valley. Continue reading...

The Grapevine', which connects the metropolis to the state's agricultural hub, now serves as a window to the effects of climate crisisWildfires. Snowstorms. Falling boulders. DC Williams has long given up on predicting what the day will bring on Interstate 5 near Tejon Pass, an eight-lane stretch of highway that winds through the steep mountains north of Los Angeles.Williams has been an officer with the California Highway Patrol and worked in this area for 11 years. On a chilly day this spring, he wore a thick black jacket even as he sat inside his Ford Explorer on a bridge overlooking the highway. Continue reading...

Rightwing US thinktank claimed in report that non-profit holding trainings is corruptly influencing the courts'A rightwing organization is attacking efforts to educate judges about the climate crisis. The group appears to be connected to Leonard Leo, the architect of the rightwing takeover of the American judiciary who helped select Trump's supreme court nominees, the Guardian has learned.The Washington DC-based non-profit Environmental Law Institute (ELI)'s Climate Judiciary Project holds seminars for lawyers and judges about the climate crisis. It aims to provide neutral, objective information to the judiciary about the science of climate change as it is understood by the expert scientific community and relevant to current and future litigation", according to ELI's website. Continue reading...

More than 30 businesses have written to the environment secretary calling for mandatory reporting of wasted foodFood companies should have to report how much they throw away as a first step towards reducing the vast amounts of edible food squandered in the UK, a group of prominent businesses have said.About a third of the food produced globally every year is binned, much of it before it reaches the consumer at a cost of almost 22bn annually to the UK economy. Continue reading...

Noisy miners, butcherbirds and masked lapwings will also go on the offensive to protect their eggs and young

Pawpaw, a tree fruit that can help farmers and the environment, stays resilient in face of a climate crisisAbout five years ago, Matt Feyerabend, co-owner of an Arkansas ice-cream business, wanted to explore new flavors and use more native fruits, so while delivering a batch of product to a restaurant in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, he asked if anyone knew a grower of pawpaws, a tree fruit native to the United States with a flavor described as a mix between a mango and a banana.A server said her father, a veterinarian, had trees on his property. Feyerabend and his wife, Meghan, now annually purchase hundreds of pounds of the fruit from the vet and other growers and sell pawpaw ice-cream and other treats containing the fruit and its seeds. Continue reading...

Research also reveals that a mixture of arable crops and cattle helps improve the biodiversity of the landCows may belch methane into the atmosphere at alarming rates, but new data shows they may play an important role in renewing farm soil.Research by the Soil Association Exchange shows that farms with a mixture of arable crops and livestock have about a third more carbon stored within their soil than those with only arable crops, thanks to the animals'manure. Continue reading...

Intense heat in the north, epic rains in Miami, fires in New Mexico and California. Trump plans for energy dominance', removing protection from mining and drilling on public lands

Conservationists celebrate as efforts to save the Caretta caretta sea turtle, which has existed for 100m years, pay offAfter nearly a quarter of a century observing one of the world's most famous sea turtle nesting grounds, Charikleia Minotou is convinced of one thing: nature, she says, has a way of sending messages".Along the sandy shores of Sekania, on the Ionian island of Zakynthos, what she has seen both this year and last, has been beyond her wildest dreams. The beach, long described as the Mediterranean's greatest maternity ward" for the Caretta caretta loggerhead sea turtle, has become host to not only record numbers of nests, but record numbers of surviving hatchlings as the species makes an extraordinary resurgence. Continue reading...

Supporters rally to Rachel Kyte after criticism of appointment over link to investment firm Quadrature CapitalThe UK's new climate envoy will retain her role on the board of a charity whose founders made a multimillion-pound donation to the Labour party and have investments in fossil fuels, the Guardian has learned.Rachel Kyte, the former World Bank climate chief who was announced as the UK's special representative on climate this week, is on the climate advisory board of Quadrature Climate Foundation, a charity set up by the founders of the Quadrature Capital investment company. Continue reading...

Residents in several states suffer power outages and heavy flooding as officials warn of very dangerous environment'Helene left a dizzying path of destruction as it raged across the south-east United States on Friday, killing at least 40 people across four states, causing dangerous flooding and leaving millions without power.The storm - which registered maximum sustained winds of 140mph - crashed ashore late on Thursday in north-western Florida as a potent category 4 hurricane. It weakened to a tropical storm and then to a depression as it moved across Georgia as well as the Carolinas on Friday afternoon, when residents whose communities experienced Helene's peak effects more directly were only just beginning to fathom the recovery process ahead. Continue reading...

September has offered little reprieve after a sweltering summer, with Las Vegas on 102nd day of temperatures above 100FBrutal heat continues to plague the south-west US, with excessive heat alerts lingering long into September as parts of the region set grim new records for deaths connected to the sweltering temperatures.Autumn has offered little reprieve for cities that have already spent months mired in triple-digit temperatures. This week, Las Vegas, Nevada; Phoenix, Arizona; and Palm Springs, California, are all grappling with severe weather, with highs that have pushed over 100F (38C). More than 16 million people in the US were under heat alerts on Friday, according to the National Weather Service, mostly clustered in the southern tips of Nevada, Arizona and California. Continue reading...

Record floods propel aggressive Mozambique tilapia throughout Mary River, compromising efforts to save ancient fish and endangered turtles

Builders already have the tools needed to build cooler homes for an increasingly hotter worldThe US sweltered under record-breaking heat this year, with new research suggesting that air conditioning is no longer enough to keep homes cool. Spiraling energy demands and costs of indoor cooling now have planners looking to alternative ways to keep buildings cool - some fresh out of the lab, others centuries old.The amount of buildings we expect to go up in the next couple decades is just staggering," says Alexi Miller, director of building innovation at the non-profit New Buildings Institute (NBI). If we build them the way we built them yesterday, we're going to use a phenomenal amount of energy. There are lots of ways we could be doing this better. It's not all fancy, emerging technology - there's some basic stuff we don't do nearly enough." Continue reading...

Domesticated creatures feature heavily in contemporary contributions to Guardian column compared to diaries of 1920sIn the early 1920s, the British countryside was a place where blackbirds sang, rabbits scurried and the summer skies were animated by swallows and house martins. A century on, blackbirds still sing and ancient oaks stand proud but the landscape is dominated by sheep, cows and dogs - according to Guardian country diarists.A study of the most-featured species in the Country Diary column from 2021-24 and a century earlier reveals a surprising dominance of domesticated creatures in the mind's eye of the contemporary contributors. Continue reading...

JD Vance had to cancel two events in Georgia on Thursday after the category 4 storm surged across the regionJD Vance has been forced to cancel two campaign events in Georgia due to the threat posed by Hurricane Helene, in the latest instance of Donald Trump's presidential bid being affected by extreme weather worsened by a climate crisis that both Trump and Vance have routinely mocked.Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, scrapped plans to make a speech in Macon, Georgia, and then hold a rally in Flowery Branch, Georgia, on Thursday due to the hurricane, which has surged across the Gulf of Mexico and hit Florida's west coast as a category 4 storm. Continue reading...

Climate activists opposed to the Mountain Valley pipeline were accused of breaking West Virginia's new critical infrastructure law

Findings come amid growing concerns about overuse of medicines in farm animals and rise of superbugsNone of the UK's large supermarket chains are ensuring their suppliers use antibiotics in the most responsible way, an assessment by campaigners has found, despite heightened concerns about their overuse in farm animals.Supermarkets play an important role in the fight against superbugs, because most of the world's antibiotics are used on livestock and retailers can enforce strict standards on the farm suppliers they use. Resistant bacteria known as superbugs are rapidly developing, posing an increasing risk to human health. Continue reading...

Three-quarters plan to invest solely in continued fossil fuel production between now and 2030, research showsNorth Sea oil and gas companies are failing to switch their investments to renewable energy, research has shown.Three-quarters of the offshore oil and gas companies operating in the UK plan to invest solely in continued fossil fuel production between now and the end of the decade, according to data compiled by the analyst company Rystad. Continue reading...

High levels of antibiotics and other drugs have been found in water in the country's most treasured and protected landscapes, raising concerns over antimicrobial resistance

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

We should be celebrating the revival of the bluefin tuna - but a ravenous fishing industry, backed by government and science', is already licking its lipsOver the past three weeks, I've been watching one of the greatest natural spectacles on Earth, here in south Devon. At a certain station of the tide, within a few metres of the coast, the sea erupts with monsters. They can travel at 45mph. They grow to 2.5 metres (8ft 2in) in length and 600kg in weight. They herd smaller fish - saury and garfish in this case - against the surface, then accelerate into the shoal so fast that they overshoot sometimes 2 or 3 metres into the air. Bluefin tuna. They are here, on our southern coasts, right now.When I've mentioned this on social media, some people refuse to believe me: you must be seeing dolphins, they say. Yes, I often see dolphins too, and it's not hard to spot the difference. They don't believe it because we have forgotten that our coastal waters were once among the richest on Earth. Bluefin and longfin tuna were common here. So were several species of whale, including sperm, fin, humpback and Atlantic grey, and a wide range of large sharks. Halibut the size of barn doors hunted the coastal shallows. Cod reached almost 2 metres in length, haddock nearly a metre, turbot were the size of tabletops, oysters as big as dinner plates, shoals of herring and mackerel were miles long.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Why are so many settler Australians haunted by this almost mythical bird? Why?

At least 46 people, most of them children, drowned in the eastern state of Bihar while bathing in rivers swollen by recent floods in observance of Jivitputrika Vrat.At least 46 people have drowned, most of them children, while bathing in rivers and ponds swollen by recent floods, during the observance of a Hindu religious festival celebrated by millions in India.The dead include 37 children and seven women who drowned in the eastern state of Bihar in scattered incidents across 15 districts, authorities said on Thursday. Continue reading...

The south-east of England could also see lightning, winds of up to 50mph and even isolated, brief tornadoes'Parts of the UK have been hit by further flash floods and the Met Office has warned of more heavy rain throughout the evening and into Friday morning.The Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (Torro) is also forecasting that much of the south-east of England could see lightning, winds up to 50mph and even isolated brief tornadoes". This includes much of East Anglia, the south-east Midlands and central southern England. Continue reading...

Lobbyists and lawmakers have coordinated to enact new laws that increase criminal penalties for peaceful protestsFossil fuel lobbyists coordinated with lawmakers behind the scenes and across state lines to push and shape laws that are escalating a crackdown on peaceful protests against oil and gas expansion, a new Guardian investigation reveals.Records obtained by the Guardian show that lobbyists working for major North American oil and gas companies were key architects of anti-protest laws that increase penalties and could lead to non-violent environmental and climate activists being imprisoned up to 10 years. Continue reading...

It's that time of year when homes fill with hairy eight-legged monsters. At least they keep the flies under control ...It is giant spider season and I am delighted. As someone who is ravaged by flying insects all summer, I welcome these eight-legged death machines into my home with open arms. Speckle-backed Tegeneria? Be my guest! Iwould far rather something that looks like an animated tomato stalk occasionally scuttled across my curtain than be beset by a swarm of fruit flies, bluebottles or midges. I have even heard that spiders might eat clothes moths, although I think for them to have a significant impact on numbers I would have to lean even further into my Miss Havisham alter ego and stroll around bedecked by webs.I wasn't always this way. As a child, I was as terrified of spiders as I am today by droughts and unfiled tax returns. I would watch in amazed horror as my country-born mother picked up arachnids the size and heft of dogs and calmly threw them out the window. There were whole cupboards I refused to open for fear of spiders. Once, after accidentally walking into a web during a game of hide and seek, Iactually vomited at the thought ofaspider being close to my skin (they found me quite quickly after that). Continue reading...

On my return to the UK from Brazil I've seen how northern latitudes are behaving like the equatorial marginsReturning to British suburbia from the Brazilian Amazon is always disconcerting, but it has been doubly weird in the past few days because the London commuter belt has been inundated with volumes of rain that normally belong in the tropics.Mini-tornadoes, flash floods and the dumping of a month's worth of rain in a single day have flooded transport hubs, high street pubs, and the shrubs of semidetached homes.Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!It isn't fit for humans now, Continue reading...

Roland Cherry, from Warwickshire, sustained severe bite wounds after being mauled by animal during safariA man narrowly survived after being dragged to the bottom of a river and thrown through the air like a rag doll" when he was attacked by hippo while canoeing on holiday in Zambia.Roland Cherry, who was on a five-week holiday through southern Africa with his wife, Shirley, sustained severe bite wounds across his body, including a 25cm (10in) wound to his abdomen, as well as a thigh injury and dislocated shoulder in the attack. Continue reading...

Lilly, an 8.5-metre tall puppet designed to help children talk about the environment, provokes mixed responseThey say it is rude to comment on a baby's appearance but that has not stopped the residents of Rochdale, who awoke on Wednesday to a freaky" new arrival.Lilly, an 8.5-metre tall puppet designed to help children talk about the environment, went on display in the town centre to a somewhat bewildered response. Continue reading...

Loved-up brown bears and whispering raccoons feature in this light-hearted look at a selection of finalists from the Nikon Comedy Wildlife awards. A winner will be announced on 10 December Continue reading...

From breeding spots overrun by visitors to photographers disturbing endangered species, experts say the rarer the find is, the bigger the problemWith its impressive size, striking plumage and rowdy displays, sighting a capercaillie is many birders' dream. Only about 530 of the large woodland grouse survive in the wild, most in Scotland's Cairngorms national park.But in recent years, those tasked with saving the species from extinction have had to walk a line between calling attention to the birds' plight and discouraging people from seeking them out. Continue reading...

Carbon Brief says more than 800m will need to be spent in each of the next two yearsThe UK government has been failing to meet its commitments to fund nature protection in the developing world, and will need to double current spending to meet the targets, new data has shown.Underspending on overseas climate aid by the previous Conservative government has meant spending averaged 450m a year for the three full years since 2021 - less than half the 3bn that was pledged for nature projects in poor countries. Continue reading...

Upgrade to Merseyside site will allow it to build hybrid cars and prepare for electric vehicle productionJaguar Land Rover has said it will spend half a billion pounds to upgrade a Merseyside factory to build hybrid cars and prepare for electric vehicle production.Britain's largest automotive employer - officially known as JLR - said it has already spent 250m on new car production lines, machinery, people and digital technology at the Halewood plant, with plans for 250m more over the coming years. Continue reading...

Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour call for reset as party faces deepest crisis for a decade' after Brandenburg resultThe leaders of Germany's Greens, partners in the embattled central government of Olaf Scholz, have announced their resignation, saying that a series of election defeats requires a radical reset.Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour, joint leaders since 2022, said on Wednesday that the environmental party, a trailblazer in Europe and the first to have MPs elected to a national parliament, faced its deepest crisis in a decade after the result of the Brandenburg state election on Sunday. Continue reading...

So far there are no costings and no details on what type of reactors there would be, their size or who would build them

Residents in Sierra Madre report increased bear sightings - and some bears are finding their way into homes and yardsHumans are building homes closer to the forest in southern California, and bears are putting their foot, or their paw, down.Residents in Sierra Madre, a city neighboring the more than 700,000-acre (283,280-hectare) Angeles national forest, have had black bears break into their homes, cars and yards. Continue reading...