The 55 pilot whales, which had to be euthanised, had been following a female having a difficult birth, scientists believe
The mass stranding and death of 55 whales on the Isle of Lewis in 2023 was caused by the mammals’ loyalty to their pod, a report has concluded.
It had been thought that the unusually large incident on Tràigh Mhòr beach, Tolsta, could have been caused by trauma, disease or acoustic disturbance from military or industrially generated noise.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
03/06/2026 - 01:00
03/06/2026 - 00:52
Lazarus taxa
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03/05/2026 - 17:03
BoM issues flood watch covering most of Queensland while NT authorities warn houses and roads could be inundated
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Queensland and Northern Territory towns are being warned to prepare for major flooding as multiple tropical lows across northern Australia unleash a deluge.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a flood watch covering most of Queensland, with major flood warnings in place across several river catchments including the Flinders, Georgina and Thomson rivers and the Eyre and Cooper creeks.
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03/05/2026 - 13:56
Lower house votes in favour of polarising law after rapid increase in population and attack on grazing farm animals
Wolf hunting will be allowed in Germany under legislation passed by the lower house of parliament in response to a rapidly growing population and a sharp rise in attacks on livestock.
The return and growth of the wolf population in the last three decades has emerged as a wedge issue in Germany, the land of the Brothers Grimm who popularised the spectre of the Big Bad Wolf.
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03/05/2026 - 09:01
The country’s network of footpaths is growing – with hopes they will develop local economies and better preserve the environment
Follow the yellow footprints along Brazil’s newest long-distance trail, and they will take you through lush green forests and sandy shrubland, past sweeping vistas and bizarre rock formations, into grottos and rural communities.
Spanning 186km (115 miles) of paths once used by 19th-century merchants, the Caminhos da Ibiapaba is the first waymarked long-distance footpath in Brazil’s north-east region, adding to a growing network of hiking trails in the country.
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03/05/2026 - 06:00
Fossil fuel price surge after US-Israeli attacks on Iran prompts calls to end dependence on ‘volatile’ energy source
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The UK government must double down on its clean energy drive to protect bill payers from increasingly volatile fossil fuel markets in the wake of the US-Israel war on Iran, climate groups, academics and energy experts have warned.
Research published on Thursday shows that the last fossil fuel energy crisis, caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, cost the EU and the UK $1.8tn between 2022 and 2025, driving up bills and fuelling a devastating cost of living crisis.
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03/05/2026 - 06:00
Pacific island says the US weakened its proposal to advance a key climate ruling but vows to hold major polluters accountable
The Trump administration’s attempt to sink a UN resolution demanding countries act on the climate crisis has caused cuts to the proposal but hasn’t entirely killed it, according to the tiny Pacific island country spearheading the effort.
The US has demanded that Vanuatu, an archipelago in the south Pacific, drop its UN draft resolution that calls on the world to implement a landmark international court of justice (ICJ) ruling from last year that countries could face paying reparations if they fail to stem the climate crisis.
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03/05/2026 - 03:02
Regulator says failures that hit nearly 300,000 customers made worse by utility’s failure to maintain efficient supply system
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South East Water has been fined £22.5m by Ofwat for repeated supply failures in Kent and Sussex between 2020 and 2023 that affected more than 280,000 people.
While the root cause of the water shortages was extreme weather, the water regulator for England and Wales found that they were “in part attributable to and/or exacerbated by failures by South East Water itself to develop and maintain an efficient water supply system”.
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03/05/2026 - 01:00
At least eight councils receive legal threats alleging flyers criticising wood burners are in breach of advertising codes
Lobbyists for the UK wood-burning stove industry have threatened councils with legal action over public information campaigns warning of the harms of air pollution.
At least eight councils have received legal threats, according to research by the British Medical Journal (BMJ). The Stove Industry Association (SIA), which represents the UK’s expanding industry around the burning of wood in domestic settings, wrote to the councils, all London boroughs, in late 2023 complaining that flyers stating wood burners were “careless, not cosy” were in breach of UK advertising codes.
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03/05/2026 - 00:47
A sweeping new study of more than 2,000 insect species reveals a troubling reality: many insects may be far less capable of coping with rising temperatures than scientists once hoped. Researchers found that while some species living at higher altitudes can temporarily boost their heat tolerance, many insects in tropical lowlands—where biodiversity is highest—lack this flexibility. Because insects play essential roles as pollinators, decomposers, and predators, their vulnerability could ripple through entire ecosystems.
