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About 23 million people across country affected by water-saving measures with ‘prolonged dry weather’ in eight areas
About 23 million people will be banned from using hosepipes by this weekend, as England and Wales moves closer to drought status.
On Tuesday Thames Water became the latest water company to announce a hosepipe ban, covering the more than 10 million customers it supplies water to across London and the Thames valley.
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Scientists recorded slower reduction over past 20 years, but study finds this was ‘temporary rather than sustained’
A previously recorded slowdown in Arctic sea ice decline has ended, according to a new study, with the largest year-to-year wintertime reduction ever recorded.
In a study published last summer, researchers found that melting sea ice in the Arctic had slowed down over the past 20 years, with no statistically significant decline in its extent recorded between 2005 and 2024.
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Industry says government’s failure to address cooling demands means AI growth plans are ‘fatally flawed’
The UK will not have enough water for future datacentres, the water industry has said in stark criticism of the government’s AI growth plans.
Datacentres rely on large amounts of water to manage the heat generated by densely packed servers. Cooling towers, chillers and humidification systems make direct use of this water, with large volumes also consumed indirectly through high electrical power needs.
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Hartington Meadows, Derbyshire: Amid a complex reticulation of stalks, stems, blooms and leaves, the right response might be to drop down before it
In his glorious poem Haymaking, about a flower meadow, Edward Thomas describes how the fiery day “had a kernel sweet of cold” and “the white empty road was lightly strewn/With leaves”. The heat here, however, was unrelieved, and if the road was empty, it was also liquefying at its margin. Sweat banded my cap and ran in the creases at the backs of my bare legs, where, I noticed, the horseflies focused their attentions.
Flower meadows, more than any other British land form, seem to be the most entangled and entangling places we have. They encircle and almost invade you with a sense of richness: not just the entwining hum of insect wings, nor the penetrating chromatic songs of the flowers themselves, but in an exuberant aura of living abundance.
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Drivers in West Midlands say buses ‘unbearable’ during heatwaves, raising employee and passenger safety fears
Bus drivers in the West Midlands have spoken out about the “horrendous” working conditions they have experienced during heatwaves, which led to 40C temperatures in their cabs.
The UK was hit by high temperatures and dry weather in three successive heatwaves, with temperatures topping 37C last month when the country recorded its hottest ever June day. Last week, the Met Office warned climate extremes were becoming the “new ‘normal’ for the UK”.
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The Guardian goes on the ground with Brazilian forces fighting to eradicate mining that has destroyed protected areas of Indigenous land
The jerry-built bordello at the foot of Vila Cururu, an illegal gold-mining settlement at the heart of Brazil’s most desecrated Indigenous territory, was a hive of depravity until just a few weeks ago.
Inebriated prospectors huddled around wooden tables, swigging beer and Scotch whisky, and ogling pole-dancing sex workers before going with them to shacks behind the brothel.
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Experts warn increase in enhanced photos on birding platforms creating fake sightings, threatening credibility of tool used by scientists
For many birdwatchers, recording a species outside its normal range is the holy grail. In the UK, the discoveries often make national headlines. The western reef heron, for example, usually found in Africa and southern Europe, was spotted in a seaside town in north Wales in June, and widely celebrated on birding forums.
But a new scourge is threatening to disrupt the fun: AI slop.
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Portable fans, a ‘cooling necklace’, sun protective hats and more products we reach for when the heat won’t quit
If you’ve stepped outside lately, you know the heat isn’t letting up. With another round of triple-digit temperatures and heat advisories blanketing parts of the US, we asked our writers to share the things they rely on when summer gets unbearable.
They shared recommendations for portable fans, a powerful dehumidifier and shorts that keep you cool even after hours of walking. Multiple writers recommended REI’s Sahara hoodie. You’ll also find clever picks you may not have considered, such as reusable ice packs and a “cooling necklace”. Here are our 12 tried-and-true essentials that are keeping us from melting on hot, sticky summer days.
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Experts share tips to avoid the blood-sucking pests that can transmit Lyme disease and other illnesses on to humans
I won’t go into gory detail about the tick I found latched behind my ear approximately 35 hours after a hike in early June. Suffice it to say, the parasite was well fed, and I was horrified.
I am far from alone in making such a disgusting discovery. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), emergency room visits for tick bites have been unusually high in the US this year. Thirty-one million Americans are bitten by ticks annually – and the number has been trending up for over a decade. In the UK, ticks appear to be rising in number and species variety.
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Air polluters try to ensure toxic emissions happen far from monitors – but the people who live nearby still feel it
Kimbrelle Kyereh lives just a few hundred feet from the massive chemical storage tanks in St Rose, in south-eastern Louisiana. Oily fumes sometimes drift into her home, bringing headaches, nausea and insomnia. On one such night, she grabbed her son at 3am and fled to an all-night Ihop.
In 2023, after years of coping with the noxious odors, Kyereh began collecting air samples in her yard for a local environmental justice group. But soon after, Louisiana passed an industry-backed law that sharply restricted how that kind of data could be used.
Ten of Louisiana’s heaviest air-polluting facilities, based on self-reported data shared with the EPA, operate without a single public air monitor within five miles.
This list includes Dow Chemical’s plastics factory in Plaquemine, which is about eight miles from the nearest air monitoring station. The station measures only ozone even though the plant releases an array of toxic pollutants including ethylene oxide, a known carcinogen.
No public monitors measure ammonia – despite the fact that CF Industries’ Donaldsonville plant emits more than 7m lb of the hazardous chemical each year, according to EPA data.
The three chemicals that researchers have concluded “together account for the large majority of total cancer risk” in the area – ethylene oxide, chloroprene and formaldehyde – aren’t monitored by the state at all.
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