Exclusive: ‘Ransom note’ requests would leave Environment Agency unable to prosecute company or management
Lenders vying to take over Thames Water have demanded that the struggling company and its management be granted immunity from prosecution for serious environmental crimes as a condition of acquiring it, the Guardian can reveal.
Creditors want the environment secretary, Steve Reed, to grant the water company extraordinary clemency from a series of strict rules covering everything from sewage spills to failure to upgrade its water treatment works.
Continue reading...
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
06/07/2025 - 12:00
06/07/2025 - 12:00
Pioneering broadcaster recalls incident during discussion with royal about latest documentary, Ocean
Sir David Attenborough almost drowned when testing a scuba-diving helmet for his 1957 dive on the Great Barrier Reef, the broadcasting veteran has revealed in a discussion with Prince William.
Discussing his latest documentary, Ocean, the pioneering film-maker described the incident to the Prince of Wales.
Continue reading...
06/07/2025 - 10:00
Less than a year after four dams were removed from the river, life has blossomed along its banks, presenting new challenges and joys of recovery
Bill Cross pulled his truck to the side of a dusty mountain road and jumped out to scan a stretch of rapids rippling through the hillsides below.
As an expert and a guide, Cross had spent more than 40 years boating the Klamath River, etching its turns, drops and eddies into his memory. But this run was brand new. On a warm day in mid-May, he would be one of the very first to raft it with high spring flows.
Continue reading...
06/07/2025 - 06:00
Campaigners say designation promotes unsustainable sheep farming at expense of nature recovery and local communities
Conservationists have launched a campaign to revoke the Lake District’s Unesco world heritage status, arguing that it promotes unsustainable sheep farming at the expense of nature recovery and local communities.
In a letter to Unesco, the ecologist Lee Schofield argues that the designation “promotes a false perception of farming, is not economically sustainable, is working against crucial efforts to restore the natural environment and mitigate the impacts of climate change, does not help sustain farming livelihoods, is not wanted by local people and is contributing to damaging overtourism.”
Continue reading...
06/07/2025 - 04:00
NGO says Afghan capital’s 7 million people face existential crisis that world needs urgently to address
Kabul could become the first modern city to completely run out of water, experts have warned.
Water levels within Kabul’s aquifers have dropped by up to 30 metres over the past decade owing to rapid urbanisation and climate breakdown, according to a report by the NGO Mercy Corps.
Continue reading...
06/07/2025 - 03:00
Environmental lawyer Cormac Cullinan lauded for his work to establish continent’s legal status to protect its interests
Cormac Cullinan has a dream. A dream, he says, that will “change how humanity sees, understands and relates to Antarctica”. The vast frozen continent – home to emperor and Adélie penguins, leopard and Ross seals, and feeding grounds for orcas, beaked whales and albatrosses – should be recognised as an autonomous legal entity “at least equivalent to a country”, says the environmental lawyer.
And this week that dream became one step closer to reality as judges awarded Cullinan the Shackleton medal for the protection of the polar regions.
Continue reading...
06/06/2025 - 22:12
Frogs, salamanders, and other amphibians are not just battling habitat loss and pollution they're now also contending with increasingly brutal heat waves and droughts. A sweeping 40-year study shows a direct link between the rise in extreme weather events and the growing number of species landing on the endangered list. Europe, the Amazon, and Madagascar have become danger zones, with amphibians unable to adapt quickly enough. But there s hope scientists are calling for focused conservation efforts like habitat restoration and micro-refuges to help these vulnerable creatures survive.
06/06/2025 - 08:00
A little-known provision would open thousands of nearby acres to a foreign mining company, risking acid drainage
The story is co-published with Public Domain, an investigative newsroom that covers public lands, wildlife and government
A little-known provision of Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” would open thousands of acres of public lands at the edge of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters wilderness to a foreign-owned mining company.
Continue reading...
06/06/2025 - 07:10
Exclusive: emissions from power-hungry warehouses at Lincolnshire facility expected to be 850,000 tonnes a year
A vast new datacentre to feed Britain’s rising demand for artificial intelligence could cause more greenhouse gas emissions than five international airports.
Elsham datacentre in Lincolnshire is on course to cost £10bn and its 15 power-hungry computer warehouses are projected to release five times the carbon dioxide of Birmingham airport, including from take-offs and landings.
Continue reading...
06/06/2025 - 06:00
Exclusive: Friends of the Earth tells Keir Starmer any major green cuts by Rachel Reeves will be challenged
If the decisions the UK government makes in its upcoming spending review are not in line with the net zero climate target it risks being taken to court again, campaigners have said.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, will set out her spending review for the rest of this parliament on Wednesday. Amid continuing economic uncertainty and Labour’s promise to boost defence spending, many departments are facing deep cuts to dearly held commitments.
Continue reading...
