Environment | The Guardian
- Buddha taught us to be happy with less. How does this apply to the climate crisis? | Bhikkhu Sujato and Nadine Levy May 5, 2024We must ask ourselves what it is that we really need. Only then can we stop our endless consumption and save the planetMaking sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to navigate everyday lifeFrom a Buddhist perspective, everyone can learn to live simply and be happy. There’s no […]Bhikkhu Sujato and Nadine Levy
- Work under way to bridge 32km gap in NSW dog fence – but ecologists say it should be taken down May 5, 2024The 5,614km barrier runs from South Australia to southern Queensland and was built to keep dingoes out, but some experts say it’s ‘making things worse’ for semi-arid ecosystemsSign up for the Rural Network email newsletterJoin the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the communityIn the far-western reaches of New South Wales, the […]Eliza Spencer
- UK installs record number of public electric vehicle chargers May 5, 2024About 6,000 have been installed this year, a quarter of them rapid chargers that can power up a car in under an hourThe UK has installed a record number of public electric car chargers this year, as companies race to keep up with the growing number of battery vehicles on British roads.Nearly 6,000 new chargers […]Jasper Jolly
- Readers reply: which conspiracy theories have been proved true? May 5, 2024The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsWhich conspiracy theories have been proved true? Anne Gibson, LeicesterSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue reading...
- ‘I see cocaine in wild shrimp in Suffolk’: meet the scientist who analyses our wastewater May 5, 2024Water detective Dr Leon Barron studies London’s wastewater, analysing it in all its chemical, narcotic, polluted glory, before and after treatment. Amazingly, he still drinks the stuff from the tapIf you live in London, Dr Leon Barron knows what you’re up to. He knows what prescribed drugs you’re on – painkillers, antidepressants, antipsychotics or beta […]Emma Beddington
- ‘We’re looking at losing 20% of Olympic nations’: how the climate crisis is changing sport May 5, 2024Athletics Kenya is worried about how the climate might shape the future of its country, let alone its sport. And it is not aloneThe drive from the tiny Eldoret airport to the town of Iten in the south-west corner of Kenya takes about an hour. It’s a winding unlit road with few road signs: you […]Madeleine Orr
- Cop29 summit to call for peace between warring states, says host Azerbaijan May 5, 2024Organisers of this year’s environmental conference hope cooperation on green issues could help ease global tensions This year’s Cop29 UN climate summit will be the first “Cop of peace”, focusing on the prevention of future climate-fuelled conflicts and using international cooperation on green issues to help heal existing tensions, according to plans being drawn up […]Fiona Harvey in Baku
- ‘Inside an oven’: sweltering heat ravages crops and takes lives in south-east Asia May 4, 2024Governments issue health warnings as schools shut and crops fail, with fears that worse is to come as heatwave tightens gripExtreme heat has gripped much of south and south-east Asia over recent weeks, killing dozens of people, forcing millions of students to miss school and destroying crops.Both the Philippines and Bangladesh shut schools due to […]Rebecca Ratcliffe
- Florida workers brace for summer with no protections: ‘My body would tremble’ May 4, 2024Effects of heat are expected to worsen after bill prohibiting municipalities from enacting shade and water protection is passedFor Javier Torres and other workers whose jobs are conducted outdoors in south Florida, the heat is unavoidable. A new law recently signed by Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, that prohibits any municipalities in the state from […]Michael Sainato
- Bumblebee nests are overheating to fatal levels, study finds May 4, 2024More frequent heatwaves mean bees are unable to thermoregulate their hives – further endangering a species already in declineBumblebee nests may be overheating, killing off broods and placing one of the Earth’s critical pollinators in decline as temperatures rise, new research has found.Around the world, many species of Bombus, or bumblebee, have suffered population declines […]Sophie Kevany
- ‘I’m happy we’re not killing them any more’: Ireland’s last basking shark hunter on the return of the giants May 4, 2024For 30 years, Brian McNeill hunted the world’s second-biggest fish from small boats off the wild west coast of Ireland. Now the species has made a recovery so rapid it has astounded scientistsThe ambush was simple. A spotter on a hill would scan the sea and when he saw the big black fins approach, he […]Rory Carroll on Achill Island
- Country diary: Lambing would be almost impossible without this super crook | Andrea Meanwell May 4, 2024Tebay, Cumbria: It’s been a tricky season, especially with the wet start to the year, but this remarkable device changes everythingIn his book The Hill Shepherd, written in 1977, Edward Hart says that “the hill shepherd works effectively with the very minimum of equipment”. I was thinking about this quote as I laced my Gore-Tex […]Andrea Meanwell
- Week in wildlife – in pictures: a giant hamster, a mustachioed deer and a zebra on the run May 3, 2024The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...Joanna Ruck
- Australia’s best new sustainable homes of 2024 – in pictures May 3, 2024A pocket-sized city terrace extension and a multigenerational riverside property inspired by a country shed are among the innovative dwellings shortlisted in the sustainability category of the Houses awards, Australia’s premier residential design prize. This year’s five-panel jury noted a number of new sustainable design trends, including a move towards net-zero housing, abodes that accommodate […]Guardian Staff
- Violent attacks against environmental journalists on the rise, report finds May 2, 2024Unesco joint research dating back 15 years found violence and intimidation against about 750 reporters and 44 murdersMore than 70% of environmental journalists have been attacked for their work since 2009, according to a Unesco report, which warns of rising threats against those covering the climate crisis.At least 749 environmental journalists have faced violence and […]Patrick Greenfield
- Chimps are dying of the common cold. Is great ape tourism to blame? May 2, 2024Viruses that cause mild sniffles in humans are devastating populations of chimpanzees and gorillas. In some ape communities, it’s a bigger killer than habitat loss or poachingThere was something wrong with the chimpanzees. For weeks, a community of 205 animals in Uganda’s Kibale national park had been coughing, sneezing and looking generally miserable. But no […]Rachel Nuwer
- All we wanted was to protect the River Wye from pollution. Now we’re stuck in a catch-22 | Oliver Bullough May 1, 2024To protect our local river we had to prove it was being used for swimming. But that, bizarrely, is the reason we were rejectedThe state of Britain’s rivers is incredibly depressing: the water companies dump too much sewage, the farmers dump too much muck, and the regulators are too cowed and underfunded to do their […]Oliver Bullough
- Across the world, journalists are under threat for sharing the truth | Jonathan Watts April 30, 2024Last year was the most dangerous to be a reporter since 2015. Without the courage of correspondents risking everything to report from conflict areas, we could be at risk of ‘zones of silence’ spreading around the worldConflict in Gaza, war in Ukraine, a battle over the global environment – the world is becoming an increasingly […]Jonathan Watts
- ‘The Greens are our enemy’: What is fuelling the far right in Germany? April 30, 2024The far right are on the march in Germany and the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany has become the most popular party in several states. Immigration and a sense of being economically left behind have been driving factors in the rise in popularity but the Green party and the federal government’s climate policies have also borne […]Ajit Niranjan, Adam Sich, Ken Macfarlane and Temujin Doran
- The stream of plastic pollution: could a global treaty help us turn off the tap? – podcast April 30, 2024Guardian Seascapes reporter Karen McVeigh tells Madeleine Finlay about a recent trip to the Galápagos Islands, where mounds of plastic waste are washing up and causing problems for endemic species. Tackling this kind of waste and the overproduction of plastic were the topics on the table in Ottawa this week, as countries met to negotiate […]Presented by Madeleine Finlay with Karen McVeigh, produced by Madeleine Finlay and Holly Fisher, sound design by Tony Onuchukwu, the executive producer is Ellie Bury