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Rammed earth sourced from, or near, the grounds of a proposed building site is attracting attention as an eco-friendly construction material
From afar, the low-rise homestead perched in the Wiltshire countryside may look like any other rural outpost, but step closer and the texture of the walls reveal something distinct from the usual facade of cement, brick and steel.
The Rammed Earth House in Cranborne Chase is one of the few projects in the UK that has been made by unstabilised rammed earth – a building material that consists entirely of compacted earth and which has been used as far back as the Neolithic period.
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Charity praises effort to stop Ramsgate’s Pie Factory Music closing but calls for more youth services in coastal towns
The last remaining youth centre in one of England’s most deprived coastal places has been saved from being sold after a long campaign by the charity that has for 13 years called it home.
In November the Guardian revealed how the centre in Ramsgate on the Kent coast was facing being auctioned off by Kent county council, despite an independent report that estimated the centre was saving the council more than £500,000 a year in costs, including for services in mental health, youth justice and social care.
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Shas Sheehan challenges refusal to remove 25,000 tonnes of waste causing ‘grave environmental hazard’ near school
A 25,000-tonne illegal waste dump next to a primary school in Wigan presents “a grave environmental hazard” and should be cleared, the chair of the Lords environment committee has told the government.
Shas Sheehan challenged the refusal of the Environment Agency to clean up an illegal waste dump in Bolton House Road in the Greater Manchester town, given the agency was spending millions clearing up illegal waste deposited in Kidlington, Oxfordshire.
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CAA’s guidance also including booking sites to enable passengers to make ‘more informed travel decisions’
Airlines and booking firms should give UK customers information about the environmental impact of their flights, the regulator has said.
The Civil Aviation Authority urged booking sites to enable passengers to make “more informed travel decisions” by setting out estimates for carbon emissions for flights landing or taking off from British airports.
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States and financial bodies using modelling that ignores shocks from extreme weather and climate tipping points
Flawed economic models mean the accelerating impact of the climate crisis could lead to a global financial crash, experts warn.
Recovery would be far harder than after the 2008 financial crash, they said, as “we can’t bail out the Earth like we did the banks”.
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At a party event in a school hall in Lewisham, people told me how disillusionment with Labour has led to this moment
“How many?”
On the end of the phone is a nice press officer for the Greens, head full from a long day in Gorton, Manchester, showing off their would-be MP. And now, as Friday’s sky turns indigo, I’m calling about reports from Lewisham, south London, that tomorrow they’re expecting a flood of 500 Green activists. This comes as a surprise to the party’s own news machine.
Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist
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Animal Equality says two surprise inspections in three years suggests ‘embarrassingly poor’ level of scrutiny
Scottish salmon farmers recorded more than 35m unexpected salmon deaths in just under three years but there were only two unannounced inspections of facilities over the same period.
In December, the Scottish government’s secretary for rural affairs, Mairi Gougeon, said that there was “a really robust regulatory regime when it comes to fin-fish aquaculture” but animal welfare campaigners say the figures call that claim into question.
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With plans to sell off over a million acres of natural habitat for oil and gas development, the Trump administration is ignoring the dire impact on its fragile ecosystem
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This week, the Trump administration took a key step towards opening new leases for oil and gas drilling across millions of acres in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – a pristine and biodiverse expanse in northern Alaska and one of the last wildlands in the US still left untouched.
With a call for nominations officially issued on Tuesday, the US Bureau of Land Management began evaluating plots across the 1.5 million-acre Coastal Plain at the heart of the refuge – an area often referred to as the American Serengeti, thanks to its rich tundra ecosystems, which provide habitat for close to 200 species and serve as the traditional homelands of the Iñupiat and Gwichʼin peoples.
Flawed economic models mean climate crisis could crash global economy, experts warn
Fossil fuel firms may have to pay for climate damage under proposed UN tax
The lithium boom: could a disused quarry bring riches to Cornwall?
Trump’s Greenland threats open old wounds for Inuit across Arctic
‘Erasure of years of work’: outcry as White House moves to open Arctic reserve to oil and gas drilling
Arctic endured year of record heat as climate scientists warn of ‘winter being redefined’
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Research in Wales found that home, not outdoor travel, was largest contributor to children’s daily exposure
Children living in homes with wood burners could be exposed to over three times more pollution than those in non-wood-burning homes. The results come from a study that looked at air pollution experienced by primary schoolchildren in Wales.
Fifty-three children from two primary schools in Anglesey (Ynys Môn) were given backpacks equipped with air pollution sensors. They took the packs home and carried them during their journeys to and from school.
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A mangrove conservation project in Guanabara Bay has shown how a dying ecosystem can be transformed into a thriving sanctuary
With deep blue waters flanked by dramatic peaks, Guanabara Bay is the postcard view of Rio de Janeiro – but it is also one of Brazil’s most polluted coastal environments. Raw sewage and solid waste flow into the bay from surrounding cities, home to more than 8 million people. Cargo ships and oil platforms chug in and out of commercial ports, while dozens of abandoned vessels lie rotting in the water.
But at the head of the bay, between the cities of Itaboraí and Magé, the environment feels different. The air is purer, the waters are empty but for small fishing canoes, and flocks of birds soar overhead.
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