Ecologists say 283 purple emperor recordings on one day at Knepp signal higher numbers nationwide
A conservation project in West Sussex has had its best day on record for rare purple emperor butterfly sighting, and ecologists say they are confident the species is doing well nationally.
Purple emperor populations steadily declined over the course of the 20th century but they have been slowly recolonising the landscape at Knepp since 2001, when Isabella Tree and her husband, Charlie Burrell, decided to turn the stretch of former farmland into a “process-led” rewilding project.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/04/2025 - 10:00
The women are raising larvae of the endangered Taylor’s checkerspot for release into the wild
Trista Egli was standing in a greenhouse, tearing up strips of plantain and preparing to feed them to butterfly larvae.
Of the many things the team here has tried to tempt larvae of the Taylor’s checkerspot – a native of the Pacific north-west – with, it is the invasive English plantain they seem to love the most.
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07/04/2025 - 08:00
Loss of access to lake and waterfall in Thomas Hardy country prompts action at Bridehead estate
Heaven only knows what Thomas Hardy would have made of it. On Saturday, protesters will arrive at the Bridehead estate in Dorset, hop across a low stone wall and take part in a “peaceful trespass” to express their anger and sadness at the loss of access to a spot in the sort of landscape Hardy wrote about so evocatively.
They will picnic near a lake, listen to songs and some will join a writing workshop, while drawing attention to the closure of a permissive path that local people and visitors have used for generations.
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07/04/2025 - 07:00
In an Arctic reshaped by the climate crisis, less ice really means more as countries face risks in push for more ships
For millennia, a mass of sea ice in the high Arctic has changed with the seasons, casting off its outer layer in summer and expanding in winter as it spins between Russia, Canada and Alaska. Known as the Beaufort Gyre, this fluke of geography and oceanography was once a proving ground for ice to “mature” into thick sheets.
But no more. A rapidly changing climate has reshaped the region, reducing perennial sea ice. As ocean currents spin what is left of the gyre, chunks of ice now clog many of the channels separating the northern islands.
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07/04/2025 - 06:00
New study finds troubling levels of Pfas near wastewater plants and sludge sites in 19 states
Sewage sludge and wastewater treatment plants are major sources of Pfas water pollution, new research finds, raising questions about whether the US is safely managing its waste.
A first-of-its-kind study tested rivers bordering 32 sewage sludge sites, including wastewater treatment plants and fields where the substance is spread as fertilizer – it found concerning levels of Pfas around all but one.
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07/04/2025 - 03:00
Eni has filed at least six defamation suits against journalists and NGOs since 2019 in what critics say is intimidation campaign
‘Legal bullying’: global protest rights on line in Dutch court case, say activists
When Antonio Tricarico was summoned to his local police station in October and told he was being investigated for defamation, he was stressed but not shocked. Months earlier, Tricarico, the director of the Italian environment NGO ReCommon, had filed a joint legal challenge against the country’s biggest oil company, Eni, which he knew had a history of using lawyers to clamp down on critics.
The company had previously limited itself to civil defamation lawsuits, including against ReCommon, but in Tricarico’s case it initiated criminal proceedings over statements he had made in a television interview.
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07/04/2025 - 01:00
The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world
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07/03/2025 - 19:11
Letter from workers, which EPA claims is ‘unlawful’, says agency is no longer living up to its mission
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday put on administrative leave 139 employees who signed a “declaration of dissent” about its policies, accusing them of “unlawfully undermining” the Trump administration’s agenda.
In a letter made public on Monday, the employees wrote that the agency is no longer living up to its mission to protect human health and the environment. The letter represented rare public criticism from agency employees who knew they could face blowback for speaking out against a weakening of funding and federal support for climate, environmental and health science.
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07/03/2025 - 17:28
NAACP plans to sue over massive Memphis datacenter near Black residents, who have long dealt with pollution
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI has been granted a permit to run methane gas generators at its massive datacenter in Memphis, Tennessee. The county health department approved the permit for the 15 machines late on Wednesday, a move that has sparked outcry from the local community and environmental leaders, who say the generators pollute their neighborhoods.
“Our local leaders are entrusted with protecting us from corporations violating on our right to clean air, but we are witnessing their failure to do so,” said KeShaun Pearson, the director of the local environmental non-profit Memphis Community Against Pollution.
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07/03/2025 - 16:53
Costa Rica-based inter-American court of human rights says states have obligation to respond to climate change
There is a human right to a stable climate and states have a duty to protect it, a top court has ruled.
Announcing the publication of a crucial advisory opinion on climate change on Thursday, Nancy Hernández López, president of the inter-American court of human rights (IACHR), said climate change carries “extraordinary risks” that are felt particularly keenly by people who are already vulnerable.
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