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Prof Gustaf Hugelius warns wildfires could accelerate release of methane and carbon as vast regions approach irreversible thresholds
Heatwaves and wildfires are not just scorching forests, they are adding to the tipping point risks in the world’s vast permafrost regions, which contain three times more carbon than all the living vegetation on Earth.
This is a major concern for Gustaf Hugelius, a professor at the Bolin Centre of Climate Research at Stockholm University, Sweden, and a leading authority on the risks from thawing tundra and peatlands. In this Q&A, he explains why the world should pay attention.
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In a much closer contest than previous years – when the tardigrade and the common earthworm won with popular landslides – the winner of the 2026 Guardian Invertebrate of the year has been decided.
The competition was launched three years ago to celebrate overlooked and often derided invertebrates, which number at least 1.7m species – about 97% of all animals – with probably millions more still to be discovered and described.
Watch presenter and naturalist Chris Packham run down the top three to reveal the winner.
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Most allotment holders say the heat has meant more work for smaller crops, although some have found a silver lining
After a summer of repeated heatwaves and exceptionally dry weather in the UK, rain has brought some relief this week, but drought remains widespread and experts warn it will take weeks of sustained rainfall for water supplies to recover.
For people growing their own fruit and vegetables, it has been a challenging and sometimes surprising season. The Guardian spoke to growers across England about how they are adapting to a hotter, drier climate.
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Novice gardeners James Reed McGuire and Crystal Fritz wanted to try something new when they moved out to the suburbs. Little did they know they were joining a nationwide movement
When James Reed McGuire and Crystal Fritz first decided to replace their lawn with native plants, they did not really know what they were doing. As former city-dwellers who had moved from Chicago out to the suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, they had never done much gardening together beyond growing some planters of herbs and flowers on their balcony.
But for McGuire, an avid birder who did not want to live with a sea of turf that does “absolutely nothing for the environment”, figuring out an alternative to the suburban status quo was imperative.
Crystal Fritz and James Reed McGuire’s Highland Park front garden before they transformed it with native plants
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This punishingly hot and dry summer will probably be followed by another wet winter. But it’s nothing compared with what Britain will endure in years to come
This summer could be the hottest, driest and deadliest in English history. Successive heatwaves have so far claimed almost 3,000 lives. Nearly three-quarters of England and all of Wales is in drought, while key reservoirs are parched. Across this brown and stickily unpleasant land, from Grimsby down to St Ives, hosepipe bans are in force, while music festivals are staged not on green fields but in giant dust bowls.
Just how bad is it? I asked a leading climate scientist.
Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist
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Andy Burnham promises drive to tackle toxic waste, raise fines and use AI-powered drones to detect illegal activity
Illegal dumps in West Yorkshire, Surrey and Kent will be cleared up using taxpayer money, Andy Burnham has announced, as the prime minister promises a new drive to tackle toxic waste.
Ministers have identified dumps in Bradford, Runnymede and the Isle of Sheppey, which collectively contain about 22,000 tonnes of illegal waste, to be cleared in the next phase of the government’s national clear-up effort.
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The overpopulation of axis deer has taken an environmental toll, but Maui Nui Venison sees it as a resource instead of a pest
In 1868, the government of Hong Kong gave eight axis deer to Hawaii’s King Kamehameha V. They were a beautiful gift, these creatures that hail from south Asia, with their honey-colored pelts marked by a smattering of white spots. But their incursion into Maui started much later, in the 1950s, when they were brought to the island for recreational hunters.
Now, more than a century after their introduction, an estimated 60,000 traverse the Hawaiian islands of Lanai, Maui and Molokai in herds that are reshaping the environment. Unlike the white-tailed deer common along the US east coast, whose breeding season lasts from October to January, axis deer breed year-round. Their herds are constantly reduplicating. They feast on native grasses and endangered plants, chewing them down to their roots, leaving wide swathes of lands fallow. They can leap 10ft over fencing or barrel through it, consuming farmers’ crops and the cattle feed needed for Maui’s small beef industry.
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Five hundred people turn up to adopt plants from conservatory that will reopen in 2030 after renovation project
Above the waxy monstera leaves and bright pink hibiscus flowers in the Barbican conservatory hangs a giant net to catch the panes of glass that are at risk of falling from the ceiling on the unwitting plant lovers below.
This precarious situation has caused the estate to shutter its greenhouse on the third and fourth floors for three years so a full refurbishment can take place. But the hiatus has a silver lining for many of those who visited on Wednesday to give the plants from the conservatory a new home.
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Many species under threat use the African-Eurasian flyway, one of the planet’s largest mass-migration systems
It may still feel like summer, but in the world of birds, autumn migration is already well under way. Cuckoos and swifts have already left us, and while swallows and many species of warbler will not depart our shores until September, many species of Arctic-breeding waders have begun to stop off at our coastal marshes to refuel for their long journey south.
This year, however, there could be fewer than usual. A review by the British Trust for Ornithology, working with other international conservation organisations, has found that more than half of these global travellers are suffering major declines in numbers – a worrying downward trend. Many of those under threat use the African-Eurasian flyway, one of the largest mass-migration systems on the planet.
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If elected, Guyanese politician Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett wants to prioritise climate issues and ensure the United Nations remains a force for good
As the Guardian’s Caribbean correspondent, I sometimes encounter stories that everyone is talking about in the region, but are not on the radar of the international media. Today, I’m taking over the Long Wave to bring you one of those stories. This summer, Guyanese ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett has made history as the first Caribbean candidate for the prestigious post of United Nations secretary general. If successful, she will be the first woman to hold the position too. I spoke to her about the value of the UN, and what a Caribbean leader could bring to the role.
Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett started life in the remote Indigenous village of Santa Rosa, in the interior of the Caribbean and South American nation of Guyana.
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