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PM to look at imposing restriction on devices in public spaces, though campaigners fear it does not go far enough
The government will look at banning disposable barbecues as wildfires continue to rage across the UK, Andy Burnham has said.
Disposable barbecues have been the cause of a number of serious fires over the last few years, but campaigners were critical of the prime minister’s failure to link those fires more broadly to the climate crisis.
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Rejecting North Sea drilling licences and protecting nature are just some measures Andy Burnham must implement to ready country
From record-smashing temperatures, wildfires, hosepipe bans and thousands of premature deaths, the climate crisis has left its mark across the summer of 2026.
Tackling the root cause – the burning of fossil fuels – and ending the crisis will take years. So will fixing the UK government’s calamitous failure to protect lives and livelihoods against the long-predicted affects of global heating.
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The gigantic aquatic acrobats are exciting Brazil’s tourists as numbers recover from whaling. But some marine biologists question how booming tourism and conservation can coexist
The anticipation is palpable onboard the Boaventura II as the yacht sets off from Rio de Janeiro at sunrise. Once beyond the Cagarras Islands, rocky outcrops just three miles off Ipanema beach, the group gathers at the bow and starts scanning the horizon.
They do not have to wait long. “Eleven o’clock!” someone calls out, as a pod of bottlenose dolphins appears, playfully diving in and out of the water. Then, two spouts of vapour hanging in the air signal the reason for the outing: a pair of humpback whales. The majestic mammals surface to breathe with an unhurried chuff, before revealing the underside of their fluke as they dive back underwater.
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It might seem an unlikely way to stop overheating, but many owners have found the tech a lifeline in hot weather
“If it is 35C outdoors, I can get the temperature down to 21C,” says Andrew Ingram of the sanctuary that his living room has provided this summer.
“On the nights I’ve slept in there, you have to put your thick pyjamas on,” jokes Ingram, who lives in Maidenhead, Berkshire, with his wife, Sue.
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Populations starting to stabilise but much still needs to be done to reverse loss of 30m that almost led to species vanishing
How do you lose 30 million house sparrows? That is the number that have vanished from Britain’s hedgerows, fields and gardens during my lifetime.
I can recall clouds of sparrows rising up in the fields behind my suburban childhood home on the edge of London. But by the late 1990s they had simply vanished from many of their former haunts.
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Frome, Somerset: While other plants are withering or skeletal, tansy is growing in great profusion, and it rewards close observation
At first light, the scent of ’76 hangs in the air, a reminder of that endless summer burning itself into autumn, just like this one. I first caught a sniff of it walking home one sweltering evening in the June heatwave and said: “Too soon, too soon.”
Now the toasted aroma of spent grass is everywhere – on crispy playing fields, straw village greens, and these scorched tawny meadows of the combe. Scattered groups of cattle have their heads down here. For them I think eating the grass must be like consuming a Pot Noodle before the water is poured in.
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Smart, sociable squid use funnel-like organ to force water to jet propel themselves along in and out of sea
On a research vessel 15 years ago, a group of Japanese scientists documented something that had only previously been described by startled sailors to disbelieving listeners. They saw a formation of squid flying through the air.
The shoal of about 100 squid rose unexpectedly from a patch of the Pacific Ocean around 370 miles from Tokyo and glided near the boat for about 30 metres. The astonished researchers were the first to capture photographs of such a thing, which looked like the early stages of an alien invasion.
Voting is open from 12 August to midnight on 16 August; click here to vote for your favourite invertebrate and the winner will be announced on Tuesday 18 August
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As London restaurants say wild birds are smaller and fewer this year, experts say countryside should not be ‘playground for bloodsports’
Every year on 12 August, fans of traditional British cuisine flock to plush restaurants in Mayfair to dine on grouse served with bread sauce and game chips. But those hoping to find the small wild birds, sourced from the UK’s moorlands, may be disappointed.
Wildfires have been raging on moors across the UK, burning habitats and incinerating wildlife, after record-breaking heat turned the landscape into a tinderbox.
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Eilish Rothney’s first instinct was to get rid of the wasps entering her converted shipping container in Norfolk. Now she enjoys their constant hum
When wasps began streaming through a rusted gap in her office door one June morning, Eilish Rothney’s first instinct was the same most people would have: get rid of them. The reserve manager for the Trinity Broads, part of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, had discovered a wasp colony taking up residence in her office, a converted shipping container.
“They just built the nest inside my door,” she says. “My first thought was: ‘Oh no, I have to get rid of that now.’ But then I realised: ‘Wait, why? Why do I have to do that?’”
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Tenacious and confounding, the horseshoe crab pre-dates dinosaurs and has copper-based blood vital to vaccine safety
They pre-date dinosaurs, eat food using their legs and contain blue blood that we use to keep us healthy. Horseshoe crabs are the supreme, if offbeat, survivors of the invertebrate world.
Voting is open from 12 August to midnight on 16 August; click here to vote for your favourite invertebrate and the winner will be announced on Tuesday 18 August
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