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Spurred into action by the species’ threatened future, two best friends embarked on a project to release 250 of the animals in Devon
Doing somersaults in the corner of a field in Devon this week were the fluffy results of an audacious wildlife project by two 13-year-old girls.
Best friends Eva Wishart and Emily Smith had become devoted to harvest mice, and were upset, a couple of years ago, to find out the species is threatened in England due to farming practices and habitat loss.
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In the waters of the Johor strait, Indigenous communities are struggling to survive as nearby cities expand and fishing stocks dwindle
Aween Bin Terawin submerges himself in the mangrove swamp to reach a crab cage on the riverbed below. After a moment of suspense, he lifts the cage above the water’s surface and inspects its interior. Empty.
After stowing the collapsible cage away in his boat, he continues his journey through the vast swamp to retrieve the 40 cages he set early that morning, each marked by a floating bottle tied to string.
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Localised rises in temperature caused by land clearance cause 28,330 heat-related deaths a year, researchers find
Deforestation has killed more than half a million people in the tropics over the past two decades as a result of heat-related illness, a study has found.
Land clearance is raising the temperature in the rainforests of the Amazon, Congo and south-east Asia because it reduces shade, diminishes rainfall and increases the risk of fire, the authors of the paper found.
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Picked from a record 60,636 entries, the first images from the Natural History Museum’s wildlife photographer of the year competition have been released. The photographs, which range from a lion facing down a cobra to magnified mould spores, show the diversity, beauty and complexity of the natural world and humanity’s relationship with it. The winners will be announced on 14 October
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A tournament in Cornwall will pit anglers against these magnificent creatures, as part of a rising trend for so-called ‘sportfishing’
It’s the UK equivalent of bullfighting. Next week, in Falmouth in Cornwall, anglers will compete to fish for bluefin tuna in a three-day tournament. Sponsored by companies including Suzuki and Shimano, it’s a festival of cruelty and destruction, waging war on a magnificent giant which, in a rare instance of ecological hope, has begun returning to our shores.
Where’s the sport in this “sportfishing”? While some forms of angling require knowledge and skill, in this case the paying customer (the angler) sits in a boat while the professional skipper motors up and down, trailing a set of lures. When a tuna is hooked, the angler, strapped into a harness, either stands or sits in what is called the “fighting chair” and “plays” the fish to exhaustion: a one-sided fight of 30 minutes or more. It’s a risk-free means of pitting yourself against nature, a truly pathetic form of macho gratification. You can imagine my surprise on discovering that Nigel Farage is a big fan.
George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist
The Guardian’s climate assembly with George Monbiot and special guests On 16 September, join George Monbiot, Mikaela Loach and Emma Pinchbeck as they discuss the forces driving the big climate pushback, with an address by Feargal Sharkey
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The Marches, Shropshire: The wonderful Stiperstones nature reserve now includes two sites from a community organisation, with a welcome focus on restoration, not just protection
A shower of rain finds Nipstone Rock. After days of oppressive heat, there’s a scent released from the heath: peaty earth, heather, glistening stone. Smell is an associative sense and, like a shared memory, we’re returned to a place from an earlier age that is refreshed – innocent yet fiercely “singular”, as Tom Wall, who was the first warden of the Stiperstones national nature reserve (NNR), puts it.
This feeling of restoration is why we’re here. Rain dampens a group of conservationists at the Nipstone Rock, but not their enthusiasm to celebrate new additions to the Stiperstones NNR, tripling its size. Tony Juniper, the chair of Natural England, says the extended Stiperstones is number 11 of the 25 new NNRs that are being created under the “King’s series” banner. The series marks a change: from 70 years of traditional protection of remnants of wildlife habitats to a focus on the ecological restoration of landscapes and creating a jigsaw of places for communities and the natural world.
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The old saying about late summer rain being good for vineyards and bees may be plausible
Each month has its weather folklore, and according to one old saying: “When it rains in August, it rains honey and wine.”
Historically, vineyards were not irrigated, and some winemakers believe natural rainfall is needed to keep the all-important terroircharacteristic of a particular area. Irrigation increases the grape yield, potentially quadrupling the weight per hectare, but supposedly reduces wine quality. Similarly drought years are sometimes said to produce the best vintages.
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Educators across the country confronted with how to deal with children in their schools who experienced tragedy
Schools in parts of Texas reopened their doors two months earlier than planned this summer. But the reason was tragic.
They were transformed into “relief hubs” to welcome volunteers whose efforts were instrumental in responding to devastating floods in the state. Now, as lessons have mostly resumed in Texas, the classrooms have been turned back from temporary emergency centres into places of learning, but that’s not to say the memories of what was lost will linger with the community indefinitely.
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Warm weather has created strong flavours that some say means fruit that’s ripe enough for still wine
UK vineyards are getting ready for a vintage year – and a very early harvest – with the warm, sunny weather caused by the heating climate delivering strong flavours in their grapes.
Across the UK the total amount of wine produced is likely to be up on last year. English growers alone added more than 1,000 hectares of vines in 2024, taking the total to 4,841, of which 3,763 was in active production in 2024, according to the industry body Wine GB.
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Campaigners accuse Yorkshire Water of negligence and say plan to top up reservoirs will kill the river’s fish
With its pebble beach and shallow areas for paddling, the River Wharfe at Ilkley has long been a popular swimming location in the pretty Yorkshire town. But plagued by sewage and agricultural runoff, the river has been designated as “poor” quality, and a sign has been put up warning people against bathing in it. And now, the health of the river has been put further at risk with emergency drought plans by Yorkshire Water to suck water from it to top up its reservoirs.
A drive by campaigners and wild swimmers led it in 2021 to be the first in the country to get designated bathing status – meaning the government tests it for the harmful E coli and intestinal enterococci bacteria.
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pub. Scribner (an imprint of Simon & Schuster, London, UK) 2002
