© Mario Tama/Getty Images
As Cop17 kicks off, records since 1921 show more bee species declining than increasing in all parts of Europe except the Alps
Most of Europe’s wild bee species and about half of its hover fly species have declined over the last century, a study has found, as a UN biodiversity summit begins in Armenia.
Records since 1921 show more bee species are declining than increasing in all parts of Europe except the Alpine region. The richness of bee and hover fly species suffered a persistent drop in the Atlantic and Continental regions, the study found, though trends in other regions were mixed or even positive.
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© Photograph: Niall Carson/PA
© Photograph: Niall Carson/PA
© Photograph: Niall Carson/PA
Letter from 150 scientists, MPs and activists calls for action to protect lower-income and minority-ethnic communities
The government must hold an inquiry into the unequal impacts of air pollution, 150 scientists, MPs and activists have urged.
Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that across England, lower-income areas have persistently higher levels of air pollution than wealthier areas.
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© Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
© Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
© Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
Singer ‘mortified’ about wearing diamonds from Argyle mine at centre of environmental concerns about Indigenous land
The singer Ellie Goulding has admitted her error at having promoted diamonds at the centre of environmental concerns about Indigenous land in Australia, despite having spent years campaigning on environmental issues – including the effects of mining on ancestral lands.
She appeared at a event in London earlier this month for the jewellery brand Boodles, modelling some of its newly acquired pink diamonds, some of which came from a controversial mine in Western Australia.
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© Photograph: Dave Benett/Getty Images for Boodles
© Photograph: Dave Benett/Getty Images for Boodles
© Photograph: Dave Benett/Getty Images for Boodles
Exclusive: Chris Hinchliff urges environment watchdog to block rules that will allow almost 16,000 new homes in one of UK’s most protected areas
The environment watchdog is being urged to intervene in “cash to trash” planning rules that will allow almost 16,000 new homes in the Norfolk Broads despite the damage to one of the UK’s most environmentally protected areas.
Labour’s flagship planning reforms allow damage to protected habitats and species to be overlooked if developers pay into a central nature restoration fund, which is used for conservation actions at a later date. These environmental delivery plans (EDPs) have been called “cash to trash” by critics, who say they roll back decades of environmental law and are a “licence to kill nature”.
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© Photograph: Jim Laws/Alamy
© Photograph: Jim Laws/Alamy
© Photograph: Jim Laws/Alamy
So far not a single target of the plan has been met. As negotiators convene for Cop17, the pressure is on to find a way to honour the commitments made at previous summits
Passersby could smell the dead fish before they saw them. In August, more than 3,000 pike, roach, carp and rudd were found lifeless along the River Wensum in Norwich. Some gasped for air in their final moments, desperate for the oxygen that heatwave conditions had depleted in the water. Investigators believe that the die-off was triggered by heavy rainfall that flushed through high concentrations of pollution at a time when wildlife were already struggling.
The 45-mile (70km) chalk river is one of about 250 in the country. They are a geological accident almost unique to Britain – and one of Earth’s rarest habitats. They emerge from chalk aquifers and are home to species such as freshwater shrimp, otters and stoneflies, also providing drinking water for millions of people. But just 11 have formal protection, with many ravaged by sewage pollution and overextraction. The Norfolk river is one of the few that does have legal protection, but it is in poor ecological health.
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© Photograph: Norwich Green Party
© Photograph: Norwich Green Party
© Photograph: Norwich Green Party
Conservation work by RSPB has led to recovery of terns, gulls, plovers and oystercatchers on England’s south coast
The colony of sandwich terns nesting at Pagham harbour, West Sussex, was completely wiped out by bird flu in 2022. But numbers have bounced back from zero to 756 breeding pairs in just three years after conservation work in the Solent.
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© Photograph: David Kinchin Smith/RSPB
© Photograph: David Kinchin Smith/RSPB
© Photograph: David Kinchin Smith/RSPB
20 October 1926: After the long dry spell the wood was the place to enjoy it
NEW FOREST: After the long dry spell how good the damp earth smells. The wood was the place to enjoy it. It is still very green. The colours are slow in coming this year. Even now there is more colour on the ground than in the trees. The fern has run through gold and copper to rusty red. Here and there a bramble flames, and bilberry patches are shot with crimson. The green tracks were spotted with fungi, white and yellow, brown and purply red. And pale yellow tormentil trailed across the grass. The white beam has lost its berries, which hung in scarlet bunches a week ago. All that are left hang by ones or twos or are scattered on the ground.
Under the Spanish chestnuts the prickly balls lay open, star-shaped, showing their white lining with the shiny nuts up-standing in their places or spilt upon the ground. It was very still in the wood – outside noises were cut off; one’s steps made no sound on the sodden leaves and grass. Once I heard the gurgling of a little watercourse that had long been dry. Twice from the tree-tops came the sudden clatter of a wood pigeon getting under weigh; and that was all.
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© Photograph: Gillian Pullinger/Alamy
© Photograph: Gillian Pullinger/Alamy
© Photograph: Gillian Pullinger/Alamy
Warning for other Arctic communities as residents told not to use water in Longyearbyen in Svalbard, one of the fastest-warming places in the world
Residents of a remote town in Norway that is in one of the fastest-warming places in the world have been told they must no longer drink tap water due to heavy metal contamination that scientists have linked to the thawing permafrost.
Longyearbyen, in the archipelago of Svalbard, gets its main drinking water supply from a 1.5 mile-long (2.5km) dammed lake called Isdammen, or “ice pond”. Higher temperatures as a result of the climate crisis have thawed permafrost, leading to newly exposed bedrock leaching metals into the pond.
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© Photograph: Rimante_Hegland/Getty Images/iStockphoto
© Photograph: Rimante_Hegland/Getty Images/iStockphoto
© Photograph: Rimante_Hegland/Getty Images/iStockphoto
This month’s biodiversity summit in Yerevan, Armenia, aims to push governments to meet the 23 targets agreed at Cop15 in 2022
This month, nearly every country on Earth will return to the question of how to stem the rapid destruction of the natural world. Humans are driving it, but so far we have not found a way to stop it.
In late 2022, governments reached an ambitious once-in-a-decade deal to better protect nature amid scientific warnings that the planet is going through the largest loss of life since the extinction of the dinosaurs. Now, they are assessing their progress on the targets for the first time.
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© Photograph: Andrej Ivanov/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Andrej Ivanov/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Andrej Ivanov/AFP/Getty Images
Spar pilot scheme will test whether heirloom fruit can thrive in today’s commercial and environmental conditions
Only about 10 of the 2,000 types of apples growing in Austria can be found in supermarkets among the polished, pristine fruit usually on display – a sad ratio according to fans of historic varieties being primed for a comeback.
One of the country’s biggest retail chains has embarked on a pilot rollout of unusual and long-forgotten apples enjoyed in previous centuries, riding an international trend of reviving heirloom fruit and vegetables.
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© Photograph: Marek Slusarczyk/Alamy
© Photograph: Marek Slusarczyk/Alamy
© Photograph: Marek Slusarczyk/Alamy
In the face of terrible crises, it can feel right to shock people into action. But what if that has the opposite effect?
These days, it’s easy to succumb to hopelessness. Whether you’re thinking about the climate crisis, the prospect of AI apocalypse, war or political turmoil, the list of challenges facing humanity can seem insurmountable.
It certainly feels unprecedented, and much of it may be. The sense of impending doom, on the other hand, is nothing new. And what we have learned from the past is that doomerism can lead to paralysis. If everyone freezes, then nothing changes – but if we want to have a chance of mitigating some of the threats I’ve mentioned then action is what’s required.
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© Illustration: Elia Barbieri
© Illustration: Elia Barbieri
© Illustration: Elia Barbieri
Iboga root, central to several Gabonese ritual traditions, is believed to have huge potential for use in treating addiction and some mental illnesses
The temple is dark, its sandy floor edged with candles. People sit shoulder to shoulder beneath palm fronds hung from the rafters. Through the night, they swallow what they have come here for: a bitter root bark called iboga.
Tabernanthe iboga is a slow-growing central African rainforest shrub, the root bark of which has long been used in several Gabonese ritual traditions.
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© Photograph: Jorge Fernández/LightRocket/Getty Images
© Photograph: Jorge Fernández/LightRocket/Getty Images
© Photograph: Jorge Fernández/LightRocket/Getty Images
Rapid coastal erosion threatens coastal homes and economies, and as Super El Niño rounds the corner, a town is reckoning with the reality of climate crisis
San Clemente is one of southern California’s most picture-perfect beach towns – a capital of American surf culture since the 1950s. In two years, 2028 Olympic surfers will compete at Lower Trestles, a world-class surfing beach.
But the town’s longtime cultural and economic driver, its beaches, are now under threat. As pounding waves driven by late-summer storms in the Pacific devour chunks of the California coastline, some of San Clemente’s beaches are growing narrower, the sand increasingly eaten away.
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© Photograph: Ruaridh Stewart/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Ruaridh Stewart/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Ruaridh Stewart/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
In attempting to turn a public space in DC into an enclave for elites, Trump is moving the US capital closer to Graceland
When is a tree not a tree? When it’s an obstacle to a par-3. If a tree falls in the middle of a golf course, does it make a sound? Yeah, probably. I wasn’t there, but I have to assume, based on my limited knowledge of the laws of physics.
What I do know is that Donald Trump’s crusade to clear more than 400 trees for the purposes of redeveloping East Potomac Golf Links into a championship-level course isn’t happening. For now.
Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist
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© Photograph: Giorgio Viera/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Giorgio Viera/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Giorgio Viera/AFP/Getty Images
They’re healthy, versatile, sustainable and available. Yet pea consumption in the UK is at a 50-year low. Here are the curries, dips, pasta dishes and even cakes that could turn all that around
It’s not good news for the pea farmers: pea consumption in the UK has fallen to a 50-year low. According to data from Defra, the average Briton ate just 37g of peas per week in 2025, down from 144g per week in 1975.
Though a classic British staple, peas are not for everybody. Apparently only 22% of gen Z associate peas with Britain at all (which is patently ridiculous: 90% of the peas we consume in the UK are grown here, while we produce about 160,000 tonnes for freezing alone each year).
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© Photograph: Norman Posselt/Getty Images/fStop
© Photograph: Norman Posselt/Getty Images/fStop
© Photograph: Norman Posselt/Getty Images/fStop
Warm homes plan would create 50,000 jobs, compared with about 1,100 for Rosebank oilfield, thinktank finds
Insulating Britain’s homes and investing in heat pumps would do more to cut the cost of living, create jobs and boost the UK’s economy than drilling for new oil, research suggests.
The government’s £15bn warm homes plan, currently under threat of cuts as ministers seek budget savings, would slash £1bn a year from household energy bills across the UK, concentrated on those on low incomes, according to research by the thinktank E3G. It would also provide a £1.6bn yearly boost to the economy, and about 50,000 new jobs spread across thousands of small businesses.
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© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
As the planet warms, airlines are grappling with what this means for air travel – and for the passengers who simply refuse to keep their seatbelts fastened
It was a swelteringly hot afternoon in south-west Myanmar on 21 May 2024. Tropical thunderstorms, showers and highs of 36C were forecast for the area around the Irrawaddy Basin. High above, monsoonal heat and humidity were building into a vast convective column of water vapour, a towering cumulonimbus cloud soaring up to 35,000ft (more than 10,500 metres) into the air. From the ground, it would have looked like something from a children’s picture book – a soft, fluffy white mass. But for Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 passing just above, it was anything but benign.
In the cabin of the Boeing 777, passengers were being woken up for breakfast with three hours to go on the journey from London to Singapore. For the 210 travellers on board, the past 10 hours had been uneventful. The seatbelt signs were off. Some were milling around, others were using the toilets, and cabin staff were preparing trolleys for service. At 2.19pm and 23 seconds local time, moderate turbulence shook the plane for 17 seconds and the seatbelt sign was switched on. Then, as one passenger described it, it was “like a grenade had gone off”. In just 4.6 seconds, any passenger not strapped in hit the roof with 1.5 times the force of gravity and was thrown back on the floor in an instant.
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© Illustration: Guardian Design
© Illustration: Guardian Design
© Illustration: Guardian Design
As Mark Cocker approaches a landmark for the world’s oldest column in an English-language newspaper, he is still inspired by powerful encounters with nature
In the autumn of 1987, Mark Cocker sat in a field near Norwich and watched a jay burying acorns for the long winter ahead. He described the scene in his first country diary for the Guardian. Thirty-nine years on, some of those jay-planted acorns will be mature oaks now, and Cocker is completing his 1,000th diary for the world’s oldest column in an English-language newspaper.
In his next diary, he will reflect on the changing birdlife around Flint Clough, in the Peak District, where he first marvelled at rare birds aged 12 after devouring bird books in his bedroom. As a boy, he would find cuckoo, golden plover, ring ouzel and twite, a once-common bird which is now virtually extinct in England.
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© Photograph: Fabio de Paola/The Guardian
© Photograph: Fabio de Paola/The Guardian
© Photograph: Fabio de Paola/The Guardian
Environmental watchdog Mighty Earth reveals two-year effort to postpone and weaken EU Deforestation Regulation
US corporate lobbyists launched a two-year “blitz” to postpone and weaken the world’s most progressive legislation to protect forests, according to a new investigation by the environmental watchdog Mighty Earth.
Major US firms and trade associations, including Cargill, Bunge, Mondelēz and the US Soybean Export Council, as well as numerous other US firms and organizations, sought to influence the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) in more than 350 meetings, the advocacy group found.
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© Photograph: Angela Ponce/Bloomberg via Getty Images
© Photograph: Angela Ponce/Bloomberg via Getty Images
© Photograph: Angela Ponce/Bloomberg via Getty Images
In an extract from his new book, the nature historian explains how technology could help the seabird survive
For centuries human beings have exploited puffins, harvesting them by the thousand on their breeding grounds for their food and feathers. Over time, though, this relationship has changed, so that today we have come to love them, celebrating their quirky character and comical appearance and giving them a central place in our affections – a journey described by the environmental historian Dr Rob Lambert as the shift “from use to delight”.
How ironic, then, that just as we have come to truly appreciate them, our own existence now threatens theirs. The climate crisis threatens almost all the world’s roughly 11,000 species of birds, but its consequences have particularly dire significance for seabirds, whose life cycle is so intimately connected to the timing and abundance of their food supplies.
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© Photograph: Tim Graham/Alamy
© Photograph: Tim Graham/Alamy
© Photograph: Tim Graham/Alamy
As a surge in beekeepers has led to increased numbers of honeybees, researchers record them pushing bumblebees and other rival species away from flowers
Honeybees are outcompeting wild pollinators for resources by aggressively bumping into them and chasing them away from flowers, research has shown.
The study, by researchers from Anglia Ruskin University, found that areas where there were higher concentrations of honeybees had fewer wild pollinators, such as bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies.
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© Photograph: Dr Tom Ings/Anglia Ruskin University
© Photograph: Dr Tom Ings/Anglia Ruskin University
© Photograph: Dr Tom Ings/Anglia Ruskin University
Data shows 2026 could be worst harvest on record, as growers suggest painting faces on vegetables instead of carving
In the lead-up to Halloween, front porches across the country feature fat, proudly carved pumpkins, lit from within by tea lights.
But this year there is likely to be a shortage due to drought, experts have warned, with the squashes much smaller than usual.
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© Photograph: Natalia Ganelin/Getty Images
© Photograph: Natalia Ganelin/Getty Images
© Photograph: Natalia Ganelin/Getty Images
Glenisla, Angus: Damage by squirrels is common; the mustelid less so. Still, as a local told me, ‘you cannae blame them wanting somewhere to live’
That the thatch is thick with moss and crusted with the brittle fronds of lichen is not unusual for a roof of this age. What’s puzzling me is the hole in its centre. It is about 10in wide – a dark scoop, as if someone has taken a giant ladle to the roof.
When I climb the ladder for a closer look, I can see toothmarks on the reed. I also see that the hole does not go all the way through – the animal obviously gave up after an exploratory burrow.
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© Photograph: Mark Hamblin/2020VISION/Devon Wildlife Trust/PA
© Photograph: Mark Hamblin/2020VISION/Devon Wildlife Trust/PA
© Photograph: Mark Hamblin/2020VISION/Devon Wildlife Trust/PA
The tawaki, or Fiordland crested penguin, known for its prominent yellow eyebrows, has for years baffled scientists with its unusual habits
Deep in the misty fjords of New Zealand’s South Island, a team of researchers is trying to catch one of the world’s most elusive penguins: the forest-dwelling tawaki, or Fiordland crested penguin.For weeks, researchers stand sentry each day over a burrow on Eleanor Island, hoping to corner the female bird so they can retrieve data from its tagging device.
But this penguin has developed a clever exit strategy – digging multiple tunnels to elude its captors.
The Tutoko I prepares for a research trip during its annual Fiordland crested penguin nest survey around Doubtful Sound
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© Photograph: Derek Morrison
© Photograph: Derek Morrison
© Photograph: Derek Morrison
Chancellor says government will study responses to public consultation, with airports being ‘big part of jobs and growth’
John Healey has said there is a pro-growth case for going ahead with a third runway at Heathrow despite the prime minister declining to back it.
Healey’s predecessor as chancellor, Rachel Reeves, put approval of the long-planned runway at the heart of her “growth speech” last year, saying it would “make Britain the world’s best-connected place to do business”.
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© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA
© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA
© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA
Forest clearance at smallest total since records began in 1988 in success for Lula ahead of presidential run-off
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has fallen to its lowest level since records began, new government data shows.
But whether this globally important success is maintained or reversed is on a knife edge ahead of a presidential election run-off on 25 October between two candidates with sharply different visions for the future of the rainforest and how that affects relations with the US under Donald Trump.
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© Photograph: Edmar Barros/AP
© Photograph: Edmar Barros/AP
© Photograph: Edmar Barros/AP
Millions affected by smoke from wildfires as schools close, respiratory illnesses soar and diplomatic tensions rise
Singapore is threatening to prosecute companies responsible for some of the worst fires in years in neighbouring Indonesia, as the region grows increasingly frustrated with a persistent, acrid haze that could result in diplomatic relations fraying.
Lawrence Wong, the Singaporean prime minister, said his government was distributing masks to vulnerable citizens and working with countries in the region to deal with the smoke. “At the same time, we are looking into which companies may be responsible for the fires,” he said in a Facebook post on Thursday, adding that he was exploring the idea of “joint action with other countries”.
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© Photograph: REINA/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: REINA/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: REINA/AFP/Getty Images
Landslide blocks river and triggers downstream flooding, while summer temperatures persist in Portugal
Flash floods have swept through Nepal’s central Gorkha district after a pre-dawn landslide on 11 October blocked the Budhi Gandaki River, triggering severe downstream flooding. Two villages in the worst-affected Chumanubri rural municipality were reportedly destroyed, with homes, roads and bridges washed away. Part of a hydropower station was also damaged.
After river levels surged from 2 metres to nearly 8.5 metres within hours, the national disaster risk reduction and management authority reported that 204 homes were damaged, and more than 650 people had been affected. More than 100 foreign trekkers were stranded in the popular hiking region. The floods come just two months after catastrophic flooding and landslides devastated parts of the country on the border with Tibet, leaving thousands dead or missing.
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© Photograph: Nepal Army/EPA
© Photograph: Nepal Army/EPA
© Photograph: Nepal Army/EPA
Iguazu Falls, an Unesco world heritage site, has reached a record water flow after heavy rains across the river basin. El Niño weather patterns are said to have driven the water flow to hit 10 times the normal amount. Usually the water flow is 1.5m litres per second, but local government registered a flow of 15m litres of water per second.
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© Photograph: Reuters
© Photograph: Reuters
© Photograph: Reuters
Mines in supply chains of western carmakers linked to widespread deforestation of primary rainforest in nickel-rich lands inhabited by Tolaki people in Indonesia
Volkswagen, Ford and Tesla are among the electric carmakers whose batteries may contain nickel mined in indigenous woodlands plagued by deforestation, an analysis has found, highlighting the struggle to make vehicles that are free from environmental destruction.
Corporate disclosures and trade flows from the last two years show mines in the battery supply chains of automotive giants are linked to the loss of trees in Sulawesi, a wildlife hotspot in Indonesia that houses the world’s largest nickel deposits. The metal is widely used in cathodes in car batteries because it boosts energy density and increases range.
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© Photograph: Didi Hardiana, NGO Puspaham
© Photograph: Didi Hardiana, NGO Puspaham
© Photograph: Didi Hardiana, NGO Puspaham
This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world
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© Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian
© Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian
© Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian
The world pledged to halt biodiversity loss by 2030, but as Cop17 delegates meet in Armenia next week the outlook is bleak and optimism has faded
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The world has lost its way on nature once again. Next week, biodiversity Cop17 begins in Yerevan, Armenia, and expectations are low. Very low.
Almost four years ago, governments reached an historic agreement at the biodiversity Cop15 to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems – to rapturous applause in Montreal, Canada. I still remember the excitement in the hall in the early hours of that freezing December morning.
A perfect storm: how the super El Niño is devastating the fishing industry
‘We need less point scoring’: What party conference season taught us about UK climate action
‘I didn’t want to write about this’: the man who first saw chimps waging civil war
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© Photograph: IISD
© Photograph: IISD
© Photograph: IISD
How architects worked with harsh environment to create sustainable building in location where fossils were found
Viewed from afar, the silver-hued Hami Pterosaur Museum almost looks like a space base on Mars. Viewed from above, it resembles a collection of dinosaur eggs in the sand. Nestled in the Gobi desert, in north-west China, the new tourist attraction showcases hundreds of impressive fossils of pterosaurs, ancient flying reptiles related to dinosaurs. But far from reflecting its prehistoric exhibits, the building itself is a modern-day architectural specimen.
Designed with underground exhibition halls, giant light funnels and sprawling solar farms, the museum is able to operate sustainably while withstanding an extremely harsh environment.
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© Photograph: Turenscape
© Photograph: Turenscape
© Photograph: Turenscape
US research says nitrogen dioxide in restaurants that cook with gas can exceed WHO limits, which also affects diners
Each time we enjoy a meal out or order a takeaway, someone cooks for us in a commercial kitchen. In the UK, 3.6 million people work in catering and hospitality. In the US it is estimated at close to 16 million. A first-of-its-kind study in the US has found catering staff can experience high air pollution at work – and that this can affect diners too.
Dr Drew Michanowicz, senior author of the study at non-profit research institute PSE Healthy Energy, said: “I was motivated by what we have learned over the years about what just 30 minutes of gas cooking can do to air quality in homes with the realisation that millions of people cook for a living for hours on end.”
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© Photograph: Cavan Images/Alamy
© Photograph: Cavan Images/Alamy
© Photograph: Cavan Images/Alamy
Golden Valley, Herefordshire: Even vicars can get stuck too much behind a desk, and the 800th anniversary of St Francis of Assisi’s death is a good excuse to strike out, and speak to local people
I was sitting at my desk again, with the dull hum and the blue glow of the screen. It seems that every occupation traps people at their desk, and being a vicar is no different. But I wanted to resist, and it happened to be the 800th anniversary of Saint Francis of Assisi’s death. With Jesus of Galilee as inspiration, Saint Francis was known for his vow of simplicity, his love of the Earth and his critique of the wealth accumulated by the religious elite at the expense of the poor. He was also horrified by the Fifth Crusade, so he travelled to Egypt, hoping to make peace.
Francis also walked the walk, as it were, sleeping in caves in the Umbrian hills, taking nothing with him. No sitting at the desk for Francis. So I decided to do the same, spending three days walking the bridleways, holloways, footpaths and country lanes of the Golden Valley, speaking to people along the way. My sanctuary for the night was one of my parish churches – Madley, Tyberton, then Peterchurch, with its very welcome underfloor heating.
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© Photograph: Simon Lockett
© Photograph: Simon Lockett
© Photograph: Simon Lockett
From crop failures to coral bleaching, a new tool developed by climate scientists aims to predict in detail the impacts of each megatonne of carbon emissions
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The emissions from a single coalmine expansion might not seem like a lot when compared with the scale of global emissions, which are measured in gigatonnes (that’s one thousand million tonnes).
However, scientists have been saying for years that every tonne of carbon dioxide adds to global warming, and every fraction of a degree increase matters.
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© Illustration: Guardian Design
© Illustration: Guardian Design
© Illustration: Guardian Design
Some reservoirs in south at critical levels as water companies call for extended restrictions that would affect golf clubs, private schools and car washes
A severe drought has been declared in six areas of England, with some reservoirs at critically low levels, threatening public supplies.
Parts of Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, East Sussex and West Sussex have moved into severe drought, and urgent measures are being taken to secure public supplies of water after the UK experienced its hottest summer on record.
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© Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
© Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
© Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
Families in Vaca Muerta, the centre of Patagonia’s shale operation, report cancers, miscarriages and pollution
In Allen, a small town in Argentine Patagonia, many people living on the same street ended up falling ill. For some, it was severe migraines, nausea or skin irritation. For others, cancers, congenital abnormalities, miscarriages or stillbirth seemed to affect foetuses or children. People say it all started 13 years ago – when a well was drilled near their homes to extract gas and oil.
Calle Ciega 10 [Dead-end Street 10] lies on the eastern edge of Vaca Muerta, a vital area for Argentina’s economy, home to the world’s second-largest reserve of shale gas and fourth-largest reserve of shale oil. The region has more than 2,600 active wells, including one on this small street where about 20 families live, most of them seasonal workers on fruit farms.
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© Photograph: Erica Canepa/The Guardian
© Photograph: Erica Canepa/The Guardian
© Photograph: Erica Canepa/The Guardian
While anglers cannot take endangered sand tiger sharks, a loophole lets private firms catch the fish to sell abroad, profiting from Delaware Bay’s conservation success
Shortly after 12.45pm, what remains of a 300-metre line goes taut. Somewhere beneath the murky green surface of Delaware Bay, on the eastern US coast, a sand tiger shark has taken the bait of a mackerel chunk. Marine researchers at the University of Delaware haul the line towards a small boat as the shark’s grey-brown outline emerges.
It is a large animal: 225cm (7ft) long with a 90cm girth. Its mouth hangs open, revealing rows of jagged teeth. The researchers work quickly, measuring the shark, recording its sex, and taking blood and muscle samples. A tag is then fastened beneath its dorsal fin, through its thick sandpapery skin.
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© Photograph: Maya Young/The Guardian
© Photograph: Maya Young/The Guardian
© Photograph: Maya Young/The Guardian
Defra promised in March to work towards free access to data on large plots in England and Wales
The government has refused to say when the public will be able to freely access information about who owns large plots of land across England and Wales.
Emma Reynolds, the previous secretary of state for the environment, announced in March that the paywall protecting large amounts of the Land Registry would be partly lifted.
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© Photograph: Keith Morris/Alamy
© Photograph: Keith Morris/Alamy
© Photograph: Keith Morris/Alamy
Downe, Kent: It’s hard not to feel the earth move by a visit to the great man’s house. He truly valued these creatures of the dirt
The garden beds are moistened by steady rain, but the ground is still unyielding. A blackbird hops across bare soil. A dart, a jab, and up it comes – a wriggling tube of pink flesh. A simple catch. But when I rummage in the dirt, my only reward is loam under the fingernails. Perhaps I should have brought a bassoon.
I’ve come to Down House. Here, Charles Darwin changed the world. And here he wrote his last book, its title usually shortened for convenience: Earthworms.
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© Photograph: blickwinkel/Alamy
© Photograph: blickwinkel/Alamy
© Photograph: blickwinkel/Alamy
As climate breakdown pushes families to starvation, many feel forced to ‘sacrifice’ daughters to save siblings. Photographer Elise Blanchard travelled the country speaking to girls as young as eight, 10 and 14 who have been engaged or married to repay debts or pay for food
‘I’m not happy about this,” says 11-year-old Khatira, who was sold into marriage to repay debts, sitting in her home in Qala-e-Naw, capital of Badghis province in north-west Afghanistan. “She was healthy before her engagement, now she is worried and cries a lot,” says her 40-year-old mother, Noor Bibi.
When her 20-year-old husband-to-be comes to her home, Khatira runs away. Since her engagement, she has stopped going outside because she “is ashamed of having a husband in front of the other girls”, says her mother.
Shepherds watch over their sheep in the hills of Bala-Murghab, Badghis province, north-west Afghanistan. By March, the pasture was already too dry for the season
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© Photograph: Elise Blanchard
© Photograph: Elise Blanchard
© Photograph: Elise Blanchard
Peru’s anchoveta have made up about a 10th of the entire global commercial fishing catch since 1970, more than any other fish. A combination of warming seas and decades-long overfishing spells disaster
On 10 June 2026, the government of Peru made a decision that it knew would hurt one of the world’s major fishing industries. It stopped all anchoveta fishing boats from going out to sea, suspending the fishing season. At first the order was temporary, but in mid-August, the suspension turned into a total closure. This was no easy call. For one thing, it was a brutal blow to the Peruvian economy.
Peruvian anchovies – the scientific name is Engraulis ringens – are not the salty, punch-packing little fillets in a puttanesca sauce or caesar salad dressing. That is a different species – Engraulis encrasicolus – which is smaller, tastier and found mostly in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Only a small part of Peru’s anchoveta catch is eaten in fish form. The rest – more than 90% – is immediately processed as fishmeal and fish oil, packed in sacks and barrels, and shipped to fish, shellfish and seaweed farms, factory farms and nutritional supplement producers around the world.
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© Photograph: Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images
Environmentalists of all political hues must find the language and ideas that turn passion for climate action into impetus
The future of Green politics is under constant discussion after the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, but a much heavier clash – in meaning, symbolism and portent – happened earlier this summer, in King’s Lynn and West Norfolk. The council declared a climate emergency in 2021, along with hundreds of others, and while it was under Conservative control. It is now controlled by independents, and a Reform UK councillor, Austen Moore, moved to scrap the declaration.
It was the end of June, and the meeting had to be called off, because of the extreme heat in the King’s Lynn council chamber. A lot of people paused to grimly remark on that irony, but not Moore, who simply rescheduled the motion for the following week, where it was voted down (by 33 to seven). A local scientist and member of Extinction Rebellion liveblogged that debate, adding helpful maps, such as how much of the county was already below the annual flood level – most of it, including King’s Lynn itself. If this all sounds like a cheerful take home, numerous other Reform-led councils have had the same debate and Reform has prevailed. Their arguments can be terrifyingly illiterate. In Kent, councillor Linden Kemkaran asserted that climate change is fine because the world was warmer in Roman times, and as “carbon dioxide … is a trace gas essential for life on Earth”, to try to cut carbon emissions would itself be dangerous.
Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist
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© Photograph: Thomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Thomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Thomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
Government says ambition for 2036 will be good for food and climate resilience, but concerns remain over funding
The government has set an ambition to increase the share of English land farmed organically to 10% by 2036, but concerns remain over how the transition will be funded.
Currently, just 3.4% of England’s agricultural land is farmed organically, one of the smallest shares in Europe. France, for example, farms 10.4% of its land organically, and aims to increase this to 18% by 2027.
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© Photograph: Cultura Creative (RF)/Alamy
© Photograph: Cultura Creative (RF)/Alamy
© Photograph: Cultura Creative (RF)/Alamy
John Foster and Carol Peaker express their disappointment at Zack Polanski’s failure to focus on the climate crisis
There was no mention in Zack Polanski’s self-serving apologia of the real reason why we need the Green party – to insist unremittingly on putting the climate and ecological crisis top of the political agenda (Yes, it’s been a tough week for the Greens: but don’t lose sight of how we’re transforming British politics, 11 October).
Polanski should recognise that it is his own downplaying of that task in favour of populist foreign-policy posturing (along with bashing the rich) that has fuelled the anti-Jewish entryism he deplores, but isn’t quite brave enough to call out.
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© Photograph: Isabel Infantes/Reuters
© Photograph: Isabel Infantes/Reuters
© Photograph: Isabel Infantes/Reuters
Peak of French mountain now 4,807 metres high and fluctuates year by year due to changes in Alpine climate
Western Europe’s highest mountain shrank by more than a metre last year. The peak of Mont Blanc in France now stands 4,807.47 metres above sea level, a team of surveyors said on Wednesday, putting “the roof of Europe” 1.29 metres lower than in 2025.
The mountain is about 4,792 metres tall but the summit constantly shifts as heat, wind and precipitation change the thickness of snow and ice on top. The height scientists recorded during an expedition last month was 1.88 metres greater than it was in 2023, when it reached the lowest levels in recent memory.
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© Photograph: Design Pics Inc/Alamy
© Photograph: Design Pics Inc/Alamy
© Photograph: Design Pics Inc/Alamy
A thrifty and delicious crumble-like autumnal treat, a bit like a cobbler … or a buckle … or a grunt …
We have a family tradition of making our daughter a fruit pie of some sort for her first day of school each September. Last year, it was a simple apple pie, but we intend to make our way through the myriad heritage desserts, from crumbles and crisps to cobblers, buckles, pandowdys, grunts, slumps and sonkers. This year, we made a brown betty, a wonderful, crumble-like dessert made with stale bread. We kept things seasonal with apples and blackberries from the garden, but any combination of fruit works really. I sweetened this one with maple syrup, but use your sweetener of choice: each adds its own unique flavour.
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© Photograph: Tom Hunt/The Guardian
© Photograph: Tom Hunt/The Guardian
© Photograph: Tom Hunt/The Guardian
Insurers are taking on more risk than they should. If – or when – a major disaster hits, the catastrophe will have far-reaching consequences
I work for a major insurer, assessing the risk posed by natural disasters on properties around the world, from family homes to schools, government offices and multibillion-dollar commercial centres. The world is facing greater risk than ever from extreme weather. We are not prepared – and that inaction could have profound consequences for the global financial system.
In the face of ever more extreme and unpredictable climate risks, I am coming under pressure to cut my forecasts for the losses that disasters will cause in order to make insurance more affordable – and get my employer more business. In some instances, the questioning of our numbers and models is justified. But too often, it is not being done to produce more accurate models, but to artificially lower prices. If this is happening at my firm, which is struggling to compete with rivals’ prices, it’s happening elsewhere.
The writer is a modeller working in the insurance industry. A version of this piece originally appeared with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism as part of their Secret Source series, a regular column featuring industry whistleblowers
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© Photograph: Iain Masterton/Alamy
© Photograph: Iain Masterton/Alamy
© Photograph: Iain Masterton/Alamy
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