Guardian Environment

Ana Reyes demands Trump officials explain East Potomac tree cutting and says it will likely cause ‘irreparable harm’ US district judge Ana Reyes on Monday ordered a 24-hour halt to tree cutting at the historic East Potomac golf course while she decides on an emergency order from plaintiffs concerned that Donald Trump’s plans for the course are moving forward despite a pending court case challenging them. “Tree removal for routine maintenance is not exempt from this order,” Reyes’ wrote. “Plainti

Planting cover crops or perennial plants can protect soil amid potential flooding. Congress must act to protect these practices As forecasters warn that this year’s El Niño could become the strongest on record, concerns are growing about its effect on agriculture and food security. The United States will not be hit nearly as hard as Central and South America, the Caribbean, and southern Africa, but severe weather could cause significant crop loss in some parts of the country. Liz Carlisle is ass

John Mitani spent years studying a huge community of chimpanzees in Uganda. But then things took a dark turn – and his findings stunned the scientific world John Mitani can still remember the first time he set foot in Uganda’s Kibale national park. The old-growth east African rainforest enveloped him, its canopy stretching to heights of 40 metres. Fruit trees bowed under the weight of African star apples and bountiful Ficus mucuso figs. And then there were the chimpanzees. Furry black blobs dart

The annual month-long festival takes place at a flower farm in the Victorian town of Silvan when tulips and other springs flowers are at their most vibrant Continue reading...

This liveblog is now closed. Read the full story here Key things to know about Hurricane Isaias Sign up for the US Breaking News email Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, said no requests for search and rescue assistance had been received following Isaias, which he described as “cautiously, a good sign”. Speaking to Fox News, he said: I think that may be a sign that people heeded the warnings, took proper precautions. We sure would love to say we have not gotten a report of a fatality yet, and we’

Protesters spent months occupying an ancient cottonwood. Then a tense standoff with US border patrol came to a head A 200-year-old cottonwood tree near the US-Mexico border, known as the “grandmother”, has been destroyed to make way for the construction of Donald Trump’s border wall, despite a months-long effort by protesters trying to save it. In late July, land defenders began a tree-sit in the ghost town of Lochiel, Arizona, taking turns occupying a platform high in the tree’s canopy. The gro

Marsala on island’s west coast badly affected after powerful storm approached from Mediterranean Two tornadoes have struck the coastal town of Marsala in western Sicily, injuring dozens of people, damaging buildings including a school, and overturning cars. A series of videos began to circulate on Friday morning showing two waterspouts approaching the Sicilian town from the sea as people braced for their arrival. Continue reading...

Changing tide levels, shifting sands and hardened shorelines put waves at risk, affecting more than just surfers The climate crisis is coming for some of the world’s greatest surf breaks, submerging some as sea level rises and wiping out others as classic breaks get crushed against coastal developments. Analysis of dozens of famous waves in world surfing reserves (WSR) found more than three-quarters were at high risk because of changing tide levels, hardened shorelines and shifting sands. Contin

The hurricane is first in the Atlantic in what has turned into a very late season. Here’s what forecasters are saying about where Isaias will hit and how hard Hurricane Isaias, which made landfall on the US Gulf coast Friday night, was forecast to bring a dangerous storm surge, significant rainfall, flooding and strong winds across the US Gulf coast this weekend. Millions of people across several states, including Florida, Georgia and Alabama, were under evacuation orders as officials prepared f

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

A new global biodiversity report strikes an encouraging note. But we cannot rest on our laurels – and resilience is key The new Living Planet Report is out. Published every two years, it assesses the health of the natural world and, historically, it’s made for gloomy reading. Take 2024’s report, which showed global wildlife populations had plummeted by 73% in 50 years and that ecosystems were being pushed toward collapse. Continue reading...

Claudia Galeno-Sánchez has turned her home into a sanctuary for the insects by planting native milkweed and wildflowers – and sharing her experience Along the concrete streets of Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, a vividly colored home stands out among the rest. Over the past few years, Claudia Galeno-Sánchez has transformed her modest family home, which she shares with her husband and two children, into a sanctuary and educational space dedicated to the monarch butterfly. Galeno-Sánchez painted he

The UK state is dumping its responsibilities on our doorsteps, while green-lighting policies that lead us closer to crisis Would you mind fixing the NHS? And while you’re at it, could you please build an anti-missile system in your garden? Then regulate the banks, replace the water mains, tax the very rich and use the proceeds to rebuild our schools. Well, come on people: what are you waiting for? I exaggerate, but this isn’t very far from the approach taken by the government’s Prepare campaign.

The Norwegian government has given a permit to a mining company to release waste into Førde fjord despite a 17-year battle by campaigners and a supreme court ruling against it Shortly after the Norwegian stock market closed on 17 June 2026, a few dozen local people from the small west coast town of Vevring crowded around a laptop in a school. Surrounded by children’s drawings and windows looking out over Førde fjord, they listened as news arrived from Oslo. Norway’s supreme court had ruled again

A mix of natural disasters could all befall the state at once as it finds itself in the crosshairs of the climate phenomenon On a cloudless autumn afternoon, sunlight sparkled on the water that had quietly swallowed a busy intersection to the north of San Francisco, as the surrounding rush-hour traffic slowed to a painful crawl. There were no crashing waves or storm surges to blame for the flood. Marin county was one of many areas up and down the California coast affected by high tides last week

A farm labor contractor exposed laborers on H-2A agricultural visas to heat-related health hazards, but is still bringing hundreds of migrant farm workers to North Carolina It was 4pm and 90F (32C) when Carlos Vargas Moreno and other farm workers set out to weed a watermelon field in Goldsboro, North Carolina, on 19 July 2022. The work day had begun at 7am and included two 15-minute breaks and a one-hour lunch eaten outdoors. The heat index – what the temperature feels like to the human body whe

As well as books, the new facility in Colorado offers equipment to help connect people with the natural world. We asked five of the first visitors what they thought of it Mark Fink knows exactly why he opened the first public nature library in the US. “There are a lot of barriers for people to access nature here. We want people to learn about the birds and the plants in their own back yard and to appreciate that you don’t need a three-day camping trip in the mountains to experience nature.” The

As trawlers compete with Greenland sharks for halibut and cod, conservationists and fishers clash over what to do about misunderstood species ‘When I accidentally catch a shark, I bring it to my dogs,” Henrik Jensen, a 27-year-old from Greenland’s west coast, says casually. “I don’t let it back down because [the sharks] bully me and cut my lines.” Jensen has fished for halibut in Ilulissat, Greenland’s third largest town, for a decade. He works an hour north of the town’s main iceberg-laden fish

The 20 best residential gardens have been revealed in the first-ever Landscape Australia awards shortlist. Jury chair Emily Wong said each project was a response to urgent issues such as the climate crisis, fire and flood resilience, and the loss of biodiversity. They saw gardens as ‘part of a larger living commons that supports different ecologies and also … the future of Australian cities’. Wong also noted that private gardens take up a large quantity of space in Australian cities. ‘So really,

A third runway would fly in the face of reason. If we are to prioritise human life over short-term ‘growth’, we need to use planes less, not more If a third runway is built at Heathrow, what will be the impact on the wealth of the nation? It will cost us somewhere between £23.4bn and £62.5bn. These are not my figures; they weren’t calculated by environmental groups, but by the Department for Transport. For decades, government ministers have told us that airport expansion is essential for “growth