Environment | The Guardian
- ‘Heartbreaking’: Iceland’s pioneering female fishing guides fear for wild salmon February 2, 2025First women working as fishing guides on Laxá River, featured in new film, call for action after farmed fish escapeFor seven generations, Andrea Ósk Hermóðsdóttir’s family have been fishing on the Laxá River in Aðaldalur. Iceland has a reputation as a world leader on feminism, but until recently women have not been able to work […]Miranda Bryant in Reykjavík
- Airport expansion puts the government on the flight path to years of trouble and strife February 2, 2025On top of the added levels of noise and air pollution, there’s the non-trivial matter of demolishing hundreds of homes, diverting several waterways and rerouting a long stretch of the M25Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has illuminated the “fasten seat belts” sign. Not only have Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves run into severe turbulence […]Andrew Rawnsley
- Tax on UK incinerators may push councils to send more waste to landfill February 2, 2025Government scheme to penalise pollution from burning rubbish won’t ensure more is recycled, consultants warnCouncils may be forced to send more rubbish to landfill or export it overseas because of a new pollution tax set to be imposed on the UK’s network of waste incinerators.There are already more than 60 energy-from-waste incinerators across the UK […]Jon Ungoed-Thomas
- How can a new runway at Heathrow be good for the planet? | Observer letters February 2, 2025A West End play reveals the way in which powerful vested interests brought about the demise of the climate protocolIn his review of the play Kyoto (“The Kyoto climate treaty is hailed on stage, but reality tells a different story”, Focus), Robin McKie rightly points out that the world is failing dismally to effectively get […]Letters
- Reeves’s Heathrow third runway report was commissioned by London airport February 1, 2025The chancellor is under fire after a study cited as evidence for expanding the terminal to boost the UK’s economic growth was ordered by Heathrow itself Rachel Reeves was facing criticism on Saturday night as it was confirmed that a report she cited as evidence that a third runway at Heathrow would boost the UK […]Toby Helm Political editor
- Peace, permanence and affordable prices: six ways to solve Britain’s housing crisis February 1, 2025Taking anxiety off the market to create a better society is not easy – but it can be done, says our architecture criticImagine a country where everyone could live securely in a decent home, one with room enough for your ordinary needs, that would also be a haven for your dreams and an expression of […]Rowan Moore
- ‘It’s incredible, the place just swarms with birdlife’: inside England’s biggest bird sanctuary February 1, 2025The reserve in Geltsdale in the north Pennines has been expanded by a third after RSPB buys land It covers more than 50 square kilometres of blanket bog, heath, meadows and woodland and rises from a valley floor to the 640m summit of Cold Fell in the north Pennines. This is RSPB Geltsdale, and it […]Robin McKie Science Editor
- Campaigners hail ‘important victory’ in protection of England’s national parks February 1, 2025Minister says there was error when Manningtree station car park extension was approved under last governmentCampaigners have celebrated an “important victory” in a closely watched case that will determine whether the government will enforce new legislation aimed at protecting national parks and landscapes in England.Dedham Vale is a designated “national landscape” on the border of […]Sammy Gecsoyler
- Labour warned it risks losing support for net zero if costs not spread fairly February 1, 2025Exclusive: Chief climate adviser calls on Starmer to make ‘strong, confident’ case for green UK that public can buy intoEnsuring that the costs of decarbonisation are shared fairly across society must be a top priority for ministers or they risk losing public support for net zero, the UK’s chief climate adviser has warned.Keir Starmer and […]Fiona Harvey Environment editor
- ‘We’d go absolutely nuts’: PM warned of Labour fight if he backs huge oilfield January 31, 2025Exclusive: MPs and ministers say they would oppose Starmer if he tries to approve Rosebank developmentSenior Labour figures are warning of a serious fight if Keir Starmer tries to give the go-ahead to a giant new oilfield off Shetland later this year.MPs and ministers have told the Guardian they are prepared to oppose the UK […]Kiran Stacey, Jessica Elgot, Peter Walker and Matthew Taylor
- Trump plots healthier America but deregulation likely to feature on menu January 31, 2025President’s cabinet picks suggest help for big companies and regulatory rollbacks will take precedence in food policyTrump will change the face of US food policy. These are the players to watchWhen Robert F Kennedy Jr suspended his campaign for the presidency in August 2024, throwing his support behind Donald Trump, he promised to continue fighting […]Cecilia Nowell
- ‘Insanely tasty green food’: how the meaty Danes embraced a world-first plant-based plan January 31, 2025Agreement between farmers, politicians and environmental groups led to a €170m action fund for plant based food“Plant-based foods are the future.” That is not a statement you would expect from a right-wing farming minister in a major meat-producing nation. Denmark produces more meat per capita than any other country in the world, with its 6 […]Damian Carrington
- I’m a Labour MP – but the government’s ‘growth’ mission reeks of panic | Clive Lewis January 31, 2025The decision to expand Heathrow is just the latest evidence that my party is chasing policies that serve profit, not peopleChancellor Rachel Reeves’s recent “big growth agenda” speech wasn’t just the expression of a vision for the economy. It was also a warning shot to wavering Labour MPs. The message was blunt: get on board […]Clive Lewis
- Week in wildlife in pictures: a new shrew, itchy deer and tortoises on rafts January 31, 2025The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...Joanna Ruck
- Butterflywatch: The tactics different species use to survive winter in Britain January 31, 2025Strategies vary from hibernating as adult butterflies to forming a chrysalis – or by not being in the country at allSurviving winter is the ultimate challenge for the 60 butterfly species that make their living in Britain.Different species use different tactics. The riskiest, and therefore chosen by the fewest, is to hibernate as adult butterflies. […]Patrick Barkham
- From missing goats to health tips: how a female-run radio station is giving rural India a voice January 31, 2025For nearly two decades, ‘General’ Narsamma and her team at Sangham Radio have honed their craft, learning every aspect of broadcasting, including fixing the radio mast and interview techniquesWords and photographs by Uday NarayananAs twilight settles over Sangareddy district in the southern Indian state of Telangana, the airwaves crackle to life. It is the voice […]Guardian Staff
- Ben Jennings on Labour’s climate climbdown – cartoon January 30, 2025Continue reading...Ben Jennings
- ‘The world order could start to evolve from the Arctic’: Trump, thin ice and the fight for the Northwest Passage January 30, 2025While the US president seems hellbent on securing Greenland, local experts believe that controlling the potentially lucrative shipping route will be no mean featIf shipping boss Niels Clemensen were to offer any advice to Donald Trump or anyone else trying to get a foothold in Greenland, it would be this: “Come up here and see […]Miranda Bryant in Nuuk
- In the most untouched, pristine parts of the Amazon, birds are dying. Scientists may finally know why January 30, 2025Populations have been falling for decades, even in tracts of forest undamaged by humans. Experts have spent two decades trying to understand what is going onSomething was happening to the birds at Tiputini. The biodiversity research centre, buried deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, has always been special. It is astonishingly remote: a tiny scattering of […]Tess McClure
- Aquarium surprised by ‘virgin birth’ of swell shark in all-female tank January 28, 2025Baby shark Yoko hatched in early January, flummoxing staff and experts at a US aquariumBirds do it, bees do it. Even educated fleas do it, according to Cole Porter’s classic song on the universal nature of sex.But a baby swell shark born in a Louisiana aquarium that houses only females has flummoxed marine experts and […]Karen McVeigh