Without federal climate regulation, fossil fuel industry may be more vulnerable to local lawsuits
The Trump administration’s repeal of a foundational climate determination could clear a path for new litigation and policies targeting big oil, legal experts say.
Earlier this month, Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule revoking the “endangerment finding”, a 2009 determination that established that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. The move eliminated federal limits on climate-warming emissions from motor vehicles, and is expected to extend to all other pollution sources.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
02/24/2026 - 05:00
Taster days and training are offering teenagers an escape from a future of part-time, seasonal work – and giving a boost to a declining industry
It’s mid-morning on a rare calm day in Newlyn, Cornwall. Will Roberts is back at the quayside with a catch of mackerel to unload, having set off from the harbour before dawn. At 22, he is something of a rarity here, one of a handful of young fishers running his own small commercial boat from the port.
“It’s a magical feeling when you set out in the dark, with no one else around, and see the Milky Way in the sky above you,” he says. “I couldn’t imagine working in an office or somewhere indoors, and not be surrounded by all of this.”
Potential recruits learn more about career opportunities at sea at a taster day for young people in Newlyn
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02/24/2026 - 03:00
With the rhetoric not matching the reality, future Olympics hosts need to forge clearer sustainable standards
By the end of the 21st century, only eight of the 21 cities that have hosted the Winter Olympics are projected to be cold enough to reliably host the Games due to climate change. Challenges faced by Milano Cortina 2026 organisers such as producing artificial snow, establishing transport links between remote locations and building new infrastructure are likely to become more omnipresent at future editions.
In response to a petition asking the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to prevent fossil fuel companies from sponsoring winter sports, the IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, said the governing body is “having conversations in order to be better” in its approach to climate change. A New Weather Institute report estimated that the fossil fuel giant Eni, carmaker Stellantis and ITA Airways sponsoring Milano Cortina 2026 will induce an additional 40% to the Games’ carbon footprint, enough to melt 3.2 square km of snow cover and 20 million tonnes of glacier ice.
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02/24/2026 - 01:00
Exclusive: Documents show Andrea Jenkyns asked how she could help firm after major gas find in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire’s Reform party mayor, Dame Andrea Jenkyns, has courted the head of an American oil and gas dynasty in the hope of bringing fracking to the county, the Guardian can reveal.
Egdon Resources, a British subsidiary of the US fracker Heyco Energy, announced a major gas discovery in Lincolnshire’s Gainsborough Trough last year. Jenkyns, who became the first mayor of Greater Lincolnshire in May, reached out personally to the company asking how she “could help with your recent gas find in my county”, according to records released by the mayoral authority in response to a freedom of information request.
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02/23/2026 - 17:49
The World Nature Photography awards have announced the winners for 2026 and Australian Jono Allen has taken out the top prize
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02/23/2026 - 16:00
As the drama shows, private firms no longer able to pollute the coast of England of Wales just switched to rivers instead
There is a moment in Channel 4’s drama Dirty Business when Julie Maughan holds the body of her dead child and lets out an anguished cry. It is as brutal as it is compelling.
Her eight-year-old daughter Heather had just died in hospital, two weeks after playing in the sea on the beach at Dawlish Warren in Devon, where she contracted E coli O157, a bug which comes from raw sewage. She became ill with diarrhoea and blood loss. Transferred to Bristol children’s hospital, her parents agreed to switch off her life-support machine after she suffered kidney failure and brain damage.
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02/23/2026 - 11:38
OpenAI CEO also downplayed concerns about how much water datacenters require at AI summit in India
The OpenAI boss, Sam Altman, has tried to ease concerns about how much power is used by artificial intelligence models by comparing it to the amount of energy required by human development.
“People talk about how much energy it takes to train an AI model – but it also takes a lot of energy to train a human,” Altman told the Indian Express recently while in India for the AI Impact summit. “It takes about 20 years of life – and all the food you consume during that time – before you become smart.”
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02/23/2026 - 11:04
Judgment in city of Boulder’s lawsuit against Suncor Energy USA and ExxonMobil could affect wave of climate litigation
The US supreme court has decided to hear arguments in a climate accountability lawsuit, marking the first time the high court has weighed in on such a case. The decision could potentially hinder the wave of climate litigation the US has seen in recent years.
“It’s not a good sign,” said Pat Parenteau, a professor of environmental law at Vermont Law and Graduate School.
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02/23/2026 - 11:03
Company admits three pollution events that killed fish and insects in Pools Brook country park near Chesterfield
A water company has been fined more than £700,000 for repeatedly releasing sewage into a stream.
Yorkshire Water was issued with the penalty after pleading guilty to three offences of sewage pollution in Pools Brook country park near Chesterfield.
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02/23/2026 - 08:29
Weakened food security could tip into unrest after a cyber-attack, extreme weather or conflict, analysis finds
One shock could spark social unrest and even food riots in the UK, according to dozens of the country’s top food experts, because chronic issues have left the food system a “tinderbox”.
The group first identified a series of issues that are making access to food vulnerable in the UK, including the climate crisis, low incomes, poor farming policy and fragile just-in-time supply chains. These have left the UK dangerously exposed, the researchers said.
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