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Corridors of nectar-rich plants encourage pollination and brighten up city streets at the same time
Take a closer look at the colourful plants dotted along an initially unassuming Bristol alleyway and you’ll see them teeming with insects. Bumblebees, hoverflies and ladybirds throng around a mixture of catmint, yarrow, geraniums and anemones. “It’s buzzing with pollinators now,” Flora Beverley says.
Just over a year ago, the alley we are walking down was a dreary, litter-strewn dumping ground. Now, thanks to the pollinator pathways project, it is filled with nectar-rich plants and bee hotels. Colourful murals line the walls. A neighbour and her son passing by stop to tell Beverley they watered the plants yesterday. The local people who helped to transform the pathways continue to maintain them too.
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Data shows more than 1m hectares torched so far this year, with records also broken for CO2 and other air pollutants
Wildfires ravaging the EU have torched more than 1m hectares this year, marking 2025 as the worst year on record, a full month before the fire season ends.
Deadly infernos that have emptied out villages and forced farmers to become firefighters have engulfed four times as much land this year as the average for the same period over the past two decades, according to official data that was updated on Friday and may be revised further.
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Researchers ‘shocked’ to discover some species settling down for sleep 50 minutes later than rural counterparts
Urban birds stay up significantly later than their rural counterparts, according to research that highlights the impact of light pollution on wildlife.
The study, based on recordings submitted by bird enthusiasts to a popular species identification and mapping website, showed that light pollution caused birds to sing for an average of 50 minutes longer each day, with some species waking up an hour earlier and settling down for the evening an hour later.
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Manchester: The woodlice, worms, slugs and snails are all working hard to make the compost as good as possible
The fresh “forest floor” smell filled my nostrils as Mum twisted the lid off the compost bin. “Get a lungful,” she said, sticking her head over it and encouraging me to do so. It smelled fantastic – magical almost – raw nature broken down into dark, crumbly, nutrient rich compost; not pungent and wet like in winter.
We call it our black gold. We’ve been taking turns to stir it all year, rain or shine, mixing our compost “soup”. We add layers of kitchen waste – greens and browns – fruit skins, vegetable peelings and cardboard tubes. We chop them up so they break down more easily. We water our heap when it feels dry, with the rainwater that collects in our water butt and rolls down the drainpipe from Dad’s shed.
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The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
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Glenisla, Angus: Scottish thatchers are few and far between, so I’m lucky to be working on this roundhouse in a glen that’s rich in wildlife
As I drive north through Angus, birch and rowan begin to replace ash and oak, and by the time I reach the foot of the glen, the purple-streaked tops of the Cairngorms have come into view. Glenisla is the last lowland valley before the mountains begin, and it’s home to a rare sight on either side of the Highland line: a thatched roof.
The building is a lodge house on the Knockshannoch estate, and is believed to be the only remaining thatched roundhouse in Scotland. I’ve driven three hours north from the Scottish Borders to repair a hole in its roof (Scottish thatchers are few and far between, so travelling long distances is not unusual here).
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More than 300 dead after downpours in mountainous regions and several killed in Indian city of Mumbai
Heavy monsoon rains have continued to pummel the Indian subcontinent over the past week, bringing devastating flooding and landslides and leaving hundreds of people dead in what has already been one of the deadliest monsoon seasons in recent years.
Moist air surging inland from the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea was driven into Pakistan and north-west India late last week by strong southwesterly monsoon winds. Combined with developing areas of low pressure, this triggered a succession of torrential downpours.
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The close call in Tracy Arm 50 miles south of Juneau on 10 August is the latest sign that as glaciers melt, risks may rise
The landslide that triggered a powerful tsunami in Alaska’s Inside Passage early on 10 August was a close call, say scientists, tour operators and agency officials, with the risk of such events apparently increasing as glaciers retreat because of climate change.
“It’s a historic event,” said scientist Dennis Staley from the US Geological Survey of the slide, which occurred in the Tracy Arm fjord 50 miles (80km) south of Juneau.
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Unpredictable weather fuelled by the climate crisis is forcing millions from their homes, with many struggling to access water
Julius Chibonda has moved twice in the past 16 months in search of enough water and fertile land to support his entrepreneurial dreams, one of millions of rural Malawians struggling with increasingly unpredictable rainfall and droughts made more ferocious by the climate crisis.
The 61-year-old farmer was eager to talk and quick to smile. But his face fell when he saw the dry, empty land in the village of Kampheko 2, where he had grown tomatoes, garlic, okra and maize.
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Leading researcher forecasts ‘beginning of the age of non-tourism’ despite industry returning to pre-pandemic highs
It was a prediction nobody wanted to hear. On the main stage of the world’s biggest tourism fair, Stefan Gössling, a leading researcher in sustainable transport, had just calmly announced the looming death of the holiday industry.
“We have already entered the beginning of the age of non-tourism,” said Gössling, to an uneasy audience of travel agencies, car rental companies, cruise operators and hoteliers.
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