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Tim and Geli Harris have spent more than a decade fighting to protect Catfield Fen, a rare wetland in the Norfolk Broads
Polluters and regulators who fail to stop pollution must quake in their boots when they receive a letter from the lawyers for Tim and Geli Harris. The couple, who farm 460 acres in the Norfolk Broads, have now scored a hat-trick of landmark legal victories to save an internationally important wetland after they won again in the high court this month.
Lady Justice Lieven found that Natural England failed in its statutory duty to protect Catfield Fen from pollution after nitrates and phosphates washed from arable fields into one of the finest examples of calcareous fen in western Europe, home to 2,500 species including rarities such as the fen orchid, crested buckler fern, breeding bittern and swallowtail butterflies.
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Season will be less vibrant with trees such as birches, which usually offer a striking burst of yellow leaves, already bare
Among a canvas of copper, red and purple autumn leaves on display at Wisley garden in Surrey, south-east England, one tree stands conspicuously naked.
“The birch has lost all its leaves,” says Guy Barter, the chief horticulturist at the Royal Horticultural Society. “That’s the effect of drought, so it’ll have no autumn colour this year.”
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Exclusive: Angela Eagle tells utility bosses next price review ‘must focus on value for money for customers’
Ministers will make an unprecedented intervention in water bills and how companies prioritise investment, directing bosses to bring down costs and stop leaks and sewage overflows.
Angela Eagle, the environment secretary, has told suppliers in England and Wales she plans to intervene in the next price review – conducted by the water regulator, Ofwat.
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Brownsea Island, Dorset: I’ve been here lots of times to see the squirrels, so I know exactly where to find them – behind the church in the woods
Every October my family have an annual trip to Brownsea Island. We go in autumn because this is a good time to see the red squirrels. In the other seasons, they are high up, hidden in the trees. We catch the ferry from Poole Harbour, and we know we are close when we can see the castle come into view. When we arrive we’re greeted by nosy chickens and attention-seeking peacocks on the lawns.
We go behind the little church into the woods. It is a different world there. There is a mix of crunchy and soggy brown leaves on the ground and little mushrooms popping up from the earth. Some mushrooms are sprouting from rotting logs.
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This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world
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People succumbed to heat at highest rates in Malta, Italy and Hungary, with health issues, loneliness and poverty exacerbating toll
Heat killed a record 50,000 people in European cities this summer, new research suggests, with scientists blaming climate breakdown for two in every three of the deaths.
Morgues and funeral homes filled with bodies from June to August as the heat added by planet-baking pollution cut short an extra 32,000 lives in urban areas, the researchers found. Hot days pushed vulnerable bodies into overdrive and warm nights prevented them from recovering.
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Company ordered to stop work at two sites in country, which has found itself at forefront of tech firms’ latest push
Behind a wire fence lies a vast gaping wound of earth. Before Google’s arrival a few months ago, an estimated quarter of a million trees occupied the 330 hectares (815 acres) of forest near the town of Muhos in rural northern Finland. Now they are all gone.
After the tech company illegally stripped the entire area to build a datacentre – taking even the top soil with it – all that remains is a vast expanse of mud indented with the trail marks of machinery, puddles and mounds of earth, roots and branches. Residents say that brown water flowing off the site is going into a stream that feeds the Oulujoki River.
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Dom Phillips warned that Jair Bolsonaro would make life more dangerous for reporters and the Amazon rainforest, and that his sons were even more extreme
“Bolso shows all signs of fascism, as do his supporters,” the murdered British journalist Dom Phillips told me before his death. “His sons are all more extreme if anything.”
These words were written in 2018 by the Guardian contributor shortly before the election of the far-right former army captain Jair Bolsonaro as president of Brazil – a prospect that Dom viewed with dread.
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Electrifying your block of flats could cut emissions and save money. Don’t wait to plan the change
Change by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint
Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at [email protected]
Around Australia, homes are getting off gas. Gas cooktops are being swapped for induction stoves, gas hot water replaced by heat pumps, and gas space heating with reverse cycle air conditioners.
In combination with solar panels, batteries and better insulation, electrification saves money, cuts emissions and makes homes healthier to live in.
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UK allies have long urged people to stockpile supplies for a crisis. How are people from France to Australia being advised to prepare?
The UK has told people to fill their pantries with food for three days in case of catastrophe, joining a host of countries urging citizens to ready themselves for core systems failing.
Such advice, once dismissed as the preserve of preppers, has become more common in government circles as climate breakdown worsens weather extremes and geopolitical tensions turn cyber-attacks and sabotage into a regular occurrence.
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Photo: Vivian Grisogono
