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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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Thinktank predicts wider inequality gap and calls for revised policies to tackle flying and excess private car use
Inequality in transport emissions between the richest and the poorest in the UK is set to widen dramatically over the next decade, an analysis has found.
The most affluent and mobile already produce 10 times more carbon through their domestic travel than the poorest and least mobile. Under current decarbonisation policies, thinktank researchers forecast this to grow to 13 times by 2035.
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Researchers say findings show need for conservation efforts to focus on nutritional diversity
Wild bees strategically visit different flowers to balance their intake of protein, fat and carbohydrates, a study has found.
A team of ecologists observed eight species of wild bumblebees in the Colorado Rockies over eight years to develop a comprehensive nutritional map.
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Across the globe, oil, gas and coal companies use an ever-widening set of tactics to crush competition and opposition. With the world’s most powerful man helping them at every turn, it’s critical we reveal their full impact
Today the Guardian launches its annual environment support campaign. To back our vital climate journalism, please click here
Why does capital love fossil fuels? It’s not hard to explain. They exist in a small number of discrete locations, where the right to exploit them can be owned and monopolised. Most can be extracted commercially only at scale, excluding small competitors. They can be stored and traded all over the world, allowing prices to be optimised across time and space. Renewable energy, by contrast, can be generated almost anywhere, by almost anyone with a small amount of money to invest.
Renewables might now be cheaper than fossil fuel in the vast majority of cases, but this makes them less attractive to capital, not more. Fossil fuels are uncompetitive and highly profitable. Renewables are highly competitive and not very profitable.
Join George Monbiot and special guests on 16 September for a special climate assembly to discuss the growing and dramatic political and corporate threats to the planet. Book tickets – in person or livestream
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Creedy Valley, Devon: A walk in the newly shorn fields reveals tiny patches of an incredibly resilient plant – wild radish
In one of the last fields of wheat to be cut, a large white butterfly skims the top of the parched crop. The two black dots on each flapping forewing bring a polka-dot touch to the monochrome field. Through the heat, its flutter brings a welcome motion. Otherwise, it is still, quiet, only the sound of fallen stems crunching underfoot. Where the butterfly lands, a cluster of oxeye daisies gleams, sheltered from the glare by the wheat.
In the next field, the hill rises, newly shorn. The sky blares blue above low gold stalks, no trace of cloud, no breath of wind. In the stripped fields, there are tiny patches of white, where wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum) has survived. It has many other common names, including wild charlock, runch, wild turnip and wild kale, as well as several variations of radish: jointed, jointed wild, fodder, and the more generic moniker, white weed.
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Mean temperature is tracking at 16.13C after four heatwaves, significantly above current record of 15.76C
This summer is set to be the warmest on record for the UK, the Met Office has said, after the country experienced four heatwaves.
The mean temperature for summer is tracking at 16.13C (61.03F), which is significantly above the current record of 15.76C set in 2018.
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A group of farmers, bikers, truckers and scientists from the political left and right are working to bring attention to the health risks of using toxic sludge as fertilizer
An unlikely alliance of farmers, bikers, truckers, a detective and scientists from across the political spectrum are working to pressure the Trump administration and Republican leadership to rein in the use of toxic sewage sludge as fertilizer on the nation’s farmland.
Sludge often teems with Pfas, or “forever chemicals”, which present a health risk to farmers and the public, and have destroyed farms and contaminated water across the country. The issue has touched the groups’ lives in different ways, highlighting its broad risks to health.
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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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