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Exclusive: Campaigners claim changes will let companies ‘off the hook’, as government prepares to unveil new white paper for water industry
Water companies could be let off fines for polluting the environment under changes announced in the government’s new white paper.
The environment secretary, Emma Reynolds, hailed the changes as “once-in-a-generation reforms” featuring “tough oversight, real accountability and no more excuses”.
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The Andaman coast was one of very few places in the world with a viable population but then dead dugongs began washing up. Now half have gone
A solitary figure stands on the shore of Thailand’s Tang Khen Bay. The tide is slowly rising over the expanse of sandy beach, but the man does not seem to notice. His eyes are not fixed on the sea, but on the small screen clutched between his hands.
About 600 metres offshore, past the shadowy fringe of coral reef, his drone hovers over the murky sea, focused on a whirling grey shape: Miracle, the local dugong, is back.
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Changing temperatures may be behind change in behaviour, which experts fear threatens three species’ survival
Penguins in Antarctica have radically shifted their breeding season, apparently as a response to climate change, research has found.
Dramatic shifts in behaviour were revealed by a decade-long study led by Penguin Watch at the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University, with some penguins’ breeding period moving forward by more than three weeks.
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Studies detecting microplastics throughout human bodies have made for alarming reading in recent years. But last week, the Guardian’s environment editor, Damian Carrington, reported on major doubts among a group of scientists about how some of this research has been conducted.
Damian tells Ian Sample how he first heard about the concerns, why the scientists think the discoveries are probably the result of contamination and false positives, and where it leaves the field. He also reflects on how we should now think about our exposure to microplastics
Clips: Vox, Detroit Local 4
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Intense rainfall has caused the water to go murky in some areas, making them attractive spots for fish and sharks to feed
Four people have been attacked by sharks in New South Wales in 48 hours, including three incidents at Sydney beaches.
Any shark bite incident is traumatic and Sydney swimmers have been warned to stay out of the water.
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Buxton, Derbyshire: Others are taller, wider, older, but our varied stock of willows have a generosity that sets them apart
Usually in this country when we think about important trees, we focus on height, girth, age, visual impact – in short, their material properties. Few therefore would probably name willow as a number one British species.
Willows often have no central trunk as in our archetypal tree model, and few specimens are more than 7 metres tall. Yet there is a sphere in which willows are pre‑eminent: more invertebrates live on them (452 species) than any other trees, including oaks, their closest contenders (423). In his glorious guide Trees of Britain and Ireland, Jon Stokes points out that 160 lichens thrive on willows too.
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Trust had $254m invested in companies such as Chevron, BP and Shell in 2024, a nine-year record, analysis shows
The Gates Foundation Trust holds hundreds of millions of dollars in fossil fuel extractors despite Bill Gates’ claims of divestment made in 2019.
End-of-year filings reveal that in 2024 the trust invested $254m in companies that extract fossil fuels such as Chevron, BP and Shell. This was a nine-year record and up 21% from 2016, Guardian analysis found. Adjusting for inflation, it was the highest amount since 2019.
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Experts call for tighter regulation as GPS tracking reveals how people’s behaviour affects the lives of some of the world’s largest birds
Many people look up to admire the silhouette of raptors, some of the planet’s largest birds, soaring through seemingly empty skies. But increasingly, research shows us that this fascination runs both ways. From high above, these birds are watching us too.
Thanks to the development of tiny GPS tracking devices attached to their bodies, researchers are getting millions of data points on the day-to-day lives of these apex predators of the skies, giving us greater insight into where they hunt and rest, and how they die.
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A return to nuclear power is at the heart of Japan’s energy policy but, in the wake of the 2011 disaster, residents’ fears about tsunamis, earthquakes and evacuation plans remain
The activity around the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant is reaching its peak: workers remove earth to expand the width of a main road, while lorries arrive at its heavily guarded entrance. A long perimeter fence is lined with countless coils of razor wire, and in a layby, a police patrol car monitors visitors to the beach – one of the few locations with a clear view of the reactors, framed by a snowy Mount Yoneyama.
When all seven of its reactors are working, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa generates 8.2 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power millions of households. Occupying 4.2 sq km of land in Niigata prefecture on the Japan Sea coast, it is the biggest nuclear power plant in the world.
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There are so many koalas in some places that food is the issue – while elsewhere populations are threatened by habitat loss. And there are no easy fixes
On French Island in Victoria’s Western Port Bay, koalas are dropping from trees. Eucalypts have been eaten bare by the marsupials, with local reports of some found starving and dead. Multiple koalas – usually solitary animals – can often be seen on a single gum.
Koalas were first introduced to French Island from the mainland in the 1880s, a move that protected the species from extinction in the decades they were extensively hunted for their pelts. In the absence of predators and diseases such as chlamydia, the population thrived.
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