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  • Nimbys. Naysayers. Traitors. Children take note, why learn oracy when insults will do? | Catherine Bennett February 9, 2025
    Keir Starmer’s rhetoric against green campaigners appears to have taken a playground turn Before the last election, in what was billed as his “most personal interview yet”, Keir Starmer said: “I’m not in the habit of bandying insults around”. It was once part of his appeal, or meant to be, that his speech was polite, even […]
    Catherine Bennett
  • I live in a forest my parents planted when I was a child. It’s not too late for you to grow one too | Jessie Cole February 8, 2025
    Sometimes a branch grows so low and bushy that it blocks access to my room. I diligently cut it backMore summer essentialsIn the late 1970s when my parents built the house I still live in, there was no forest. The property was a disused cow pasture, full of scrappy grass and weeds. My parents began […]
    Jessie Cole
  • Victoria’s Halls Gap survived the flames – but as tourists stay away the dark clouds remain February 8, 2025
    Resilience is wearing thin in the town, with business owners facing mass booking cancellations and insurers turning their backsFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe tourist road from Dunkeld to Halls Gap is eerily quiet. Blackened trees stretch spidery branches towards a sky […]
    Stephanie Convery
  • Labour’s clean energy plan will not only cut emissions but lift hundreds of thousands out of fuel poverty | Ed Miliband February 8, 2025
    The party’s agenda is about energy security, lower bills, economic growth and good jobsEd Miliband is the Labour MP for Doncaster North and secretary of state for energy security and net zeroDuring four years in opposition and in the seven months since this government came to office, we have been clear: smart climate policy means […]
    Ed Miliband
  • Where the heart is: the artist memorialising homes lost in the LA fires – in pictures February 8, 2025
    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 […]
    Killian Fox
  • Kew’s rescue mission: arborists head to Scotland after hundreds of trees and plants felled by Storm Éowyn February 8, 2025
    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 Éowyn, hundreds of rare and historic trees in the living collection of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh were lost.The charity has […]
    Donna Ferguson
  • Western food was unhealthy and costly. So they turned back to bison and mushrooms February 8, 2025
    The Siċaŋġu Nation in South Dakota is building community and climate resilience through traditional foodsOn a Wednesday summer evening on the Rosebud Reservation, members of the Siċaŋġu Nation arrange 12 tables to form a U in the parking lot of a South Dakota Boys & Girls Club. The tables at the Siċaŋġu Harvest Market are […]
    Grace Hussain, Sentient Media
  • ‘Backsliding’: most countries to miss vital climate deadline as Cop30 nears February 8, 2025
    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 […]
    Fiona Harvey Environment editor
  • UK conservation goals insufficient to save ants and bees, says expert February 8, 2025
    Science committee chair calls for monitored species to include groups such as moths, lice and hymenopteraThe UK’s targets to stop the destruction of the natural world are so inadequate that they could be met even if all the country’s bees, wasps, ants and moths were to go extinct, the government has been warned.Natural England’s red […]
    Guardian staff
  • More than 100,000 homes in England could be built in highest-risk flood zones February 8, 2025
    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 […]
    Sandra Laville
  • What lies beneath: Melbourne’s often maligned surf has created a growing snorkelling scene February 7, 2025
    One dedicated Facebook group now has almost 20,000 members, attracted by sea life found just metres from Port Phillip Bay’s shoreGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWading into the warm, crystal-clear water at the northern end of Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay – bearing flippers, a snorkel and a mask – a […]
    James Norman
  • Detox your kitchen: three things you can do right now to avoid toxic chemicals February 7, 2025
    Pfas and microplastics lurk everywhere – from pots and pans to storage containers and utensils. These simple changes are a first step in reducing them quicklySign up for the Detox Your Kitchen newsletterIt seems like every week there is a new scientific study about microplastics in food, Pfas in pans, BPA in plastic containers or […]
    Tom Perkins
  • Peter Garrett: ‘This is the worst deal ever done by a sovereign Australian government’ February 7, 2025
    The Midnight Oil frontman, former Labor MP and conservationist muses on politics, prescient lyrics, and whether the Rolling Stones should give up touringGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailDescribing Peter Garrett as highly recognisable is a bit like saying the Sydney Opera House is quite noticeable.Some stop in their tracks upon encountering him while meandering, […]
    Paul Daley
  • Week in wildlife in pictures: a newborn turtle, a tiny frog and a rare tiger February 7, 2025
    The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...
    Joanna Ruck
  • Fancy a stroll? Across Europe, young people like me are finding friends by walking our cities | Viola Di Grado February 7, 2025
    We are the post-pandemic flâneurs: 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 […]
    Viola Di Grado
  • Bradford clean air zone saves NHS over £30,000 a month in first year February 7, 2025
    After one year of the zone, which is the second largest in England, GP visits for respiratory illnesses were down by a quarterBradford’s clean air zone has reduced air pollution and saved the health service about £30,700 a month in its first year, a study has found.Low emission or clean air zones are often controversial, […]
    Gary Fuller
  • Jeff Bezos fund ends support for climate group amid fears billionaires ‘bowing down’ to Trump February 6, 2025
    Concerns raised as $10bn Bezos Earth Fund halts funding for Science Based Targets initiative, which monitors companies’ decarbonisationJeff Bezos’s $10bn climate and biodiversity fund has halted its funding of one of the world’s most important climate certification organisations, amid broader concerns US billionaires are “bowing down to Trump” and his anti-climate action rhetoric.The Bezos Earth […]
    Phoebe Weston
  • Snake catchers find 102 red-bellied black snakes found in a single mulch pile in Sydney – video February 6, 2025
    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 […]
  • Norway rules out fish farm ban despite ‘existential threat’ to wild salmon February 4, 2025
    Open-net farms to continue despite numbers of wild fish halving as minister looks for ‘acceptable’ pollution levels Norway’s environment minister has ruled out a ban on open-net fish farming at sea despite acknowledging that the wild North Atlantic salmon is under “existential threat”.With yearly exports of 1.2m tonnes, Norway is the largest producer of farmed […]
    Miranda Bryant, Nordic correspondent
  • The last fragments of ancient Irish rainforests may face a new threat … trees February 4, 2025
    As commercial monocultures increase, ecologists are calling for the remaining splinters of native woodland to be identified, protected - and expandedPhotographs by Rob Stothard“This could almost be part of Lapland, up here,” says retired researcher John Spence, approaching a clearing in the Correl Glen nature reserve in Fermanagh, near Northern Ireland’s land border with the […]
    Tommy Greene