‘For Panama, it is life or death’: how drought is choking the canal that feeds a nation 20 October 2026 at 06:00

‘For Panama, it is life or death’: how drought is choking the canal that feeds a nation

20 October 2026 at 06:00

Failed rains and a dire El Niño threaten the waterway that sustains the country, with farmers selling cattle to survive

The cattle should be ambling, grazing contentedly, through Robert Delgado’s fields. Instead, the animals slump in the shade, tongues lolling, in futile attempts to avoid the blistering heat. Soon it will matter little whether their appetite returns, for there will be no grass left to graze.

In Azuero, an agricultural region in Panama’s Arco Seco (Dry Arc), the summer is generally relentless and unforgiving. But this year, the crucial rainy season that precedes it – typically from May to December – has brought little rain to parched fields. The watering holes, streams and rivers that farmers rely on have not been replenished, and pastures – the vital source of animal feed during the dry months – have not regenerated themselves.

Stop ‘cash to trash’ housebuilding in Norfolk Broads, says Labour MP 19 October 2026 at 08:20

Stop ‘cash to trash’ housebuilding in Norfolk Broads, says Labour MP

The Guardian

By: Sandra Laville Environment correspondent

19 October 2026 at 08:20

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”.

Four years ago countries made a historic deal to save nature. Is it dead in the water? 19 October 2026 at 06:16

Four years ago countries made a historic deal to save nature. Is it dead in the water?

The Guardian

By: Patrick Greenfield

19 October 2026 at 06:16

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

Cop17 at a glance: everything you need to know about the UN’s nature summit

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.

Businesses could be barred from non-essential water use amid supply threat 14 October 2026 at 02:00

Businesses could be barred from non-essential water use amid supply threat

The Guardian

By: Sandra Laville

14 October 2026 at 02:00

Golf clubs, private schools and car washes may face tighter rules from water companies as England’s drought continues

Three water companies are seeking to impose severe restrictions on businesses as the drought continues across most of England, putting rivers and wildlife under huge pressure.

Golf clubs and private schools could be barred from using mains water to irrigate playing fields and courses, and commercial car washes stopped from operating, under “non-essential use bans” being sought by the companies.

‘It’s not glamorous’: the volunteers counting flushed wet wipes on the banks of the Thames 13 October 2026 at 06:00

‘It’s not glamorous’: the volunteers counting flushed wet wipes on the banks of the Thames

The Guardian

By: Matthew Pearce

13 October 2026 at 06:00

A Thames21 charity citizen science project helps track plastic pollution in the capital’s river

On a pale-blue Sunday morning on the foreshore of the River Thames, 40 people are searching for what others have tried to lose. Dotted across a 250-metre stretch under Hammersmith Bridge, they are combing through layers of silt, seashells and dirty driftwood to find one of the river’s most stubborn problems: wet wipes.

“People come and walk here and it looks just like mud, at a distance,” says the organiser, Dr Felicity Rhodes. “And then you get closer in and see.”

Don’t rebuild the dam: Ukrainian experts urge Unesco to protect site uncovered by Russian sabotage 10 October 2026 at 06:00

Don’t rebuild the dam: Ukrainian experts urge Unesco to protect site uncovered by Russian sabotage

The Guardian

By: Charlotte Higgins and Mariana Matveichuk in Khortytsia

10 October 2026 at 06:00

As archaeologists find treasure trove along new floodplain, conservationists say another Nova Kakhovka would be ecocide

On a warm September day, a group of underwater archaeologists and researchers were boiling water for tea on their campfire on the banks of the Dnipro River, tents pitched on the sandy shoreline. They were three weeks into an archaeological expedition of the waters around Khortytsia – a rocky island 12.5km long and 2.5km wide that lies just downstream of the city of Zaporizhzhia, in south-eastern Ukraine.

High above the island, a Shahed drone whined on its way. A Ukrainian interceptor, and small-arms fire from the ground, tried, unsuccessfully, to bring it down. The archaeologists ignored it. This is life as normal, 28 miles (45km) from the combat zone in Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Revealed: the ‘black box’ wastewater trade that rakes in millions for UK utility companies 9 October 2026 at 01:00

Revealed: the ‘black box’ wastewater trade that rakes in millions for UK utility companies

The Guardian

By: Rachel Salvidge

9 October 2026 at 01:00

Exclusive: Firms made more than £340m last year from processing industrial and commercial wastewater at sewage works that are unable to remove many chemical pollutants

Water companies in the UK made more than £340m in revenue last year by pouring billions of litres of industrial and commercial wastewater into sewage treatment works that experts say are not designed to remove most chemicals, leaving pollutants to pass into rivers, seas and farmland.

Water companies in England are required by law to take industrial wastewater and issue permits called “trade-effluent consents” that allow businesses to send it to sewage works, though water companies can refuse applications.

Poor shad! Where is thy redress? 24 September 2026 at 13:23

Poor shad! Where is thy redress?

MetaFilter

By: Rumple

24 September 2026 at 13:23

Tens of thousands of small barriers hamper fish recovery in the northeastern United States. But while the demolition of big dams out west gets the most attention, a similar revolution is revitalizing northeastern streams and rivers—one tiny dam at a time.

Dam removal is often described as rewilding rivers, but it also liberates the human imagination, the latest installment in Ben Goldfarb's Wildlife at the Crossroads series.

Choking Global Trade 10 September 2026 at 15:15

Choking Global Trade

NYT: Science

By: Claire Brown

10 September 2026 at 15:15

Low rainfall and shrinking rivers are causing shipping bottlenecks, and higher prices, around the world.

Tesla’s Cybercab Is Being Investigated by Federal Regulators 4 September 2026 at 14:07

Tesla’s Cybercab Is Being Investigated by Federal Regulators

NYT: Technology

By: Jack Ewing

4 September 2026 at 14:07

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it would examine whether the company’s new self-driving taxi, which has no steering wheel, meets federal auto regulations.

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