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Governments across region grappling for response as temperatures soar to unseasonable highsThousands of schools in the Philippines have stopped in-person classes due to unbearable heat. In Indonesia, prolonged dry weather has caused rice prices to soar. In Thailand’s waters, temperatures are so high that scientists fear coral could be destroyed.A “historic heatwave” is being experienced across south-east Asia, according to Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist...

The same year, 2022, company replaced plastic sleeves in EU with paper and cardboard, and cut plastic packaging globally by 11.6%The amount of plastic packaging waste created by Amazon has increased in the US even as the online retail giant sought to phase out plastics elsewhere in the world, a report claims, amid growing pressure for a global treaty to end plastic pollution.Amazon created...

Despite major progress in Brazil and Colombia, deforestation led by farming still cleared an area nearly equal to Switzerland The destruction of the world’s most pristine rainforests continued at a relentless rate in 2023, despite dramatic falls in forest loss in the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon, new figures show.An area nearly the size of Switzerland was cleared from previously undisturbed rainforests last year, totalling...

Schemes to replace EU subsidies will not plug gap left by loss of EU subsidies for most farmersFarmers are calling for the government to grant them a universal basic income, saying the post-Brexit agriculture subsidy scheme has left many poorer.Delays to the sustainable farming schemes put in place after the UK left the European Union, to replace the common agricultural policy (CAP), have meant...

Emmerson Mnangagwa says country needs $2bn of aid as severe dry spell caused by El Niño afflicts southern AfricaZimbabwe has declared a national disaster over a drought caused by the climate event known as El Niño and President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said the country needs $2bn in aid to help millions of people who are going hungry.The severe dry spell is wreaking havoc across...

German’s appointment to head Convention on Biological Diversity follows global failure to meet any targets on protecting ecosystemsThe next UN biodiversity chief will be Astrid Schomaker, an EU civil servant who will be entrusted with helping the world confront the ongoing catastrophic loss of nature.Schomaker has been a career official with the EU commission for 30 years. A surprise appointment, she will be tasked...

Monitoring station detects predatory species using artificial intelligence and sends alert so nests can be tracedAn early warning system designed to track and trace predatory Asian hornets using artificial intelligence has been unveiled by experts from a British university.Researchers from the University of Exeter have invented a system that draws hornets to a monitoring station. They land on a sponge cloth impregnated with food...

Meteorologist says bears were not aggressive but they fired signal gun to scare them awayKatarzyna Kudłacz was preparing a breakfast of scrambled eggs at a research station on Svalbard when she looked up to see she had three unexpected guests.Shocked and in awe, the meteorologist immediately alerted her colleagues to the female polar bear and her two cubs peering into the Polish research station...

Possible charity highlights financial savings and environmental benefits for low-paid staffMinisters should consider a social leasing scheme for care workers in rural areas across the UK to use electric cars, a climate charity has argued, saying this would save often low-paid staff large sums, also bringing a big environmental boost.A focus group of carers in rural and semi-rural parts of the UK, carried out...

Charity publishes survey findings as it calls for youngsters to be no more than a 15-minute walk from green spacesMore than three-quarters of children want to spend more time in nature, the National Trust has found, as the conservation charity pushes ministers to ensure youngsters are no more than a 15-minute walk from green spaces.Nearly two-thirds – 63% – of parents are able to...

Exclusive: Satellite analysis revealed to the Guardian shows farms devastated and nearly half of the territory’s trees razed. Alongside mounting air and water pollution, experts says Israel’s onslaught on Gaza’s ecosystems has made the area unlivableIn a dilapidated warehouse in Rafah, Soha Abu Diab is living with her three young daughters and more than 20 other family members. They have no running water, no...

World’s fossil-fuel producers on track to nearly quadruple output from newly approved projects by decade’s end, report findsThe world’s fossil-fuel producers are on track to nearly quadruple the amount of extracted oil and gas from newly approved projects by the end of this decade, with the US leading the way in a surge of activity that threatens to blow apart agreed climate goals, a...

French president tells Brazil forum both parties need to be ‘much stronger’ on biodiversity and climateEmmanuel Macron has called a proposed trade agreement between the EU and South America’s Mercosur bloc a “very bad deal” that lacks proper climate considerations.“As it is negotiated today, it is a very bad deal, for you and for us,” the French president told Brazilian businessmen in São Paulo...

Steven Miles urges authorities to enable magpie to be reunited with ‘devastated’ Gold Coast carers and its ‘best friend’, their Staffy dog PeggyGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastQueensland’s premier has thrown his support for a campaign to return an Instagram-famous magpie to its former carers and its dog best friend, after it was seized by the environment...

Eccentric Victorian owner of Waterton Park, near Wakefield, made pioneering decisions to protect wildlifeA Yorkshire parkland regarded as the world’s first nature reserve – which was created by an eccentric pioneering 19th-century environmentalist – has been given a Grade II listing.Historic England said Waterton Park, near Wakefield, was the earliest known example of a landscape designed specifically to attract and protect native wildlife. Continue...

Just 2% of continent’s gas capacity has planned retirement date despite pledges to decarbonise, study showsEurope’s “tone-deaf” expansion of fossil gas is accelerating climate breakdown and increasing reliance on hostile regimes, campaigners have warned.Just four of Europe’s gas-fired power plants have a retirement plan and new projects will increase the continent’s gas generation capacity by 27%, according to analysis from the campaign group Beyond...

Heavy rainfall brings landslides to country’s south-east. Elsewhere, a wild temperature fluctuation in IberiaBrazil was hit by devastating floods over the weekend that have so far claimed 20 lives in the resultant landslides and mudslides. There was heavy rainfall in parts of the south-east, including Rio de Janeiro, Petrópolis and the larger Espírito Santo region, with hourly rainfall totals of about 20mm recorded in...

First Nations activists call legislation ‘a betrayal’ while Greens leader tells parliament Labor are ‘climate con artists’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastThe Albanese government and the Coalition have voted to cut short debate on Labor’s offshore gas bill, which the crossbench and environment groups have labelled “window dressing” that...

National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme aims to understand why population has declinedArtificial intelligence will be used for the first time to track hedgehog populations as part of a pioneering project aimed at understanding how many of them are left in the UK and why they have suffered a decline.Images of the prickly mammals snuffling around urban parks, private gardens, woodlands and farmland will be captured...

Heritage orchard at RHS Rosemoor to be sampled this spring as part of search for previously unrecorded ‘survivor’ cultivarsGardeners are searching for lost apple varieties by sequencing the genetics of trees in ancient orchards, in the hope they hold traits that can help the fruit survive climate breakdown.Heritage apple trees at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) garden Rosemoor will be sampled this spring with...

States including Texas, Louisiana and Florida say federal government lacks authority to broadly deny permitsSixteen US states, including Texas, Louisiana and Florida, have filed a lawsuit to challenge the US federal government’s ban on approving applications to export liquefied natural gas, the office of Texas attorney general Ken Paxton said on Thursday.The lawsuit argues the federal government lacks the authority to broadly deny those...

Fossil of giant river dolphin found in Peru, whose closest living relation is in South Asia, gives clues to future extinction threatsScientists have discovered the fossilised skull of a giant river dolphin, from a species thought to have fled the ocean and sought refuge in Peru’s Amazonian rivers 16m years ago. The extinct species would have measured up to 3.5 metres long, making it...

Year of devastating wildfires meant Canadians were breathing worse air than southern neighbours for first time everCanada’s pristine air quality has been long praised by its citizens and prized by its government. But the thick plumes of smoke and miles of haze released by a record-breaking season of wildfires deteriorated the country’s air so much that it has fallen behind the United States for...

Teluk has one of country’s dirtiest beaches and the problem has worsened due to weatherAn Indonesian fishing village has been inundated with tonnes of rubbish after recent heavy rains resulted in stronger tides.Teluk, in the Indonesian province of Banten on the western edge of Java island, has one of the country’s dirtiest beaches. But the arrival of tonnes of rubbish on the shore has...