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Global heating is supercharging storms, floods and droughts, affecting entire ecosystems and billions of people
The climate crisis is “wreaking havoc” on the planet’s water cycle, with ferocious floods and crippling droughts affecting billions of people, a report has found.
Water is people’s most vital natural resource but global heating is changing the way water moves around the Earth. The analysis of water disasters in 2024, which was the hottest year on record, found they had killed at least 8,700 people, driven 40 million from their homes and caused economic damage of more than $550bn (£445bn).
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A woodland charity has enlisted about 1,000 people to create Lower Chew Forest and help fight climate breakdown
On a chilly day in December under stubborn grey skies, a band of green-fingered volunteers can be found in Somerset’s Chew valley with spades in their hands and dirt under their fingernails.
There are about 30 helpers, split into pairs, carefully planting hawthorn, blackthorn and crab apple saplings, one tree at a time. Undaunted by the scale of the project, they are planting one of the biggest new woodlands in England.
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As people have shaped the natural world, so wildlife – from mahoganies to magpies – has had to evolve to survive
From the highest mountains to the depths of the ocean, humanity’s influence has touched every part of planet Earth. Many plants and animals are evolving in response, adapting to a human-dominated world. One notable example came during the Industrial Revolution, when the peppered moth turned from black and white to entirely black after soot darkened its habitat. The black moths were camouflaged against the soot-covered trees, surviving to pass on their genes to the next generation.
As human influence has expanded, so too have the strange adaptations forced on the natural world. We asked researchers around the world for similar changes they have noticed in the 21st century.
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Hitchin, Hertfordshire: Is it a mallard, is it a gadwall? In fact we have one of each, paired-up in an example of waterfowl hybridisation that isn’t unusual
We could be hiking through an upland ravine, miles from civilisation, were it not for the graffiti and half-submerged washing machine. Hart’s-tongue ferns hang down from the steep banks above us. The tang of fox rises from fallen hemlock stems, their dried umbels pointing towards the River Hiz. The water, smutty and lacking in vegetation, slides past an almost‑bridge – two brick abutments joined by an arch of sky.
Further on, the river widens round a bend and we’re greeted by a lemon flicker of undertail feathers. Dip, flick, dip, flick. A grey wagtail bobs on a rocky corner. Judging by the mizzle of midges round my head, the area must be a rich feeding ground for these insectivorous birds. I’m so enjoying the wagtail’s light-footed antics that I hardly register the mallards under the willows. It’s not until they drift towards me that I see a mazy grey tracery on the breast of one of the males, and that distinctive black rear end – a gadwall! On the river! He keeps pace with a female and, as gadwalls form pairs in autumn and winter, I assume he’s accompanying his less-conspicuous mate.
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The French movie star has written an open letter to rescue Rillette, the boar faced with being put down by the French authorities
It is hard to raise much sympathy for a wild boar in France: hunters like to shoot and eat them; farmers claim they cause around €1m of damage to crops every year; health officials claim they spread diseases. The unfortunately named Rillette – it means a type of potted meat – however, is the exception to the general rule.
A threat by the local authorities in the Aube, eastern France, to put down the female boar has spread into an international campaign to save Rillette supported by animal activist and former actor Brigitte Bardot.
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After flood defences failed yet again, heartbroken residents of Merseyside and Cheshire now face a painful clean-up and possible financial ruin
At about 3.15am on New Year’s Day, Caroline McClymont looked out of her bedroom window at the Sankey brook over the road. It looked a bit fuller than usual – to be expected, given the rain. “But there was nothing out of the ordinary,” McClymont said. “There was no indication it was going to flood.”
Within an hour, the whole street was under water. The home McClymont, a science lecturer, has owned with her husband Alan, a technician, for 31 years was filled with dirty water, higher than the kitchen countertops. It covered the sofas, washing machine, Christmas tree, everything on the ground floor. The neighbour’s car was submerged. “Everything is destroyed. Nothing could be saved,” McClymont said. “It’ll take six, seven months to get right again.
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British chef Mike Keen paddled up the coast of Greenland eating only what local people did, and the health benefits led him to question the global food system
For a period of two months last year, a typical day for chef Mike Keen would see him skipping breakfast and lunch in favour of snacks such as dried capelin (a small bait fish), dried halibut, jerky-like dried whale and a local Greenlandic whale skin and blubber treat called mattak.
Mike Keen eats fermented seal blood in Sermilik fjord, east Greenland. Photograph: Mike Keen
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Watch Duty – which began in California and has expanded across 14 states – alerted the public to more than 9,000 wildfires in 2024
Cristy Thomas began to panic as she called 911 for the second time on a warm October day but couldn’t get through. She anxiously watched the plume of black smoke pouring over her rural community in central California get larger.
Then she heard a familiar ping.
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They spent their lives and careers looking after animals and when the 2019-20 fires erupted they responded on the front lines. Veterinarians and carers recall those months – and the impact it has had since
The day before the fire front hit, the forest fell deadly silent. Normally, says wildlife carer Susie Pulis, “if you are driving or walking in the bush it’s nothing but chitter chatter. There’s lots and lots of noise, all the different bird life and insects and everything buzzing around.” But this was different. “The birds had gone.”
Pulis and her son were scouting for animals before the fires hit. “We could see the fire in the distance, we could see the flames.
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From post and planes to TV, phones and retail chains – and even a central bank – here are the chiefs facing the most testing of times
A year is a long time in business: enough time for things to turn sour financially, or to engineer a comeback. Here are our picks of the figures across all sectors who face a testing year with something big to prove in 2025
Continue reading...The government pledged to cut the list of patients waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment in England by nearly half a million over the next year.
The challenge involves forgoing alcohol and unhealthy food for 75 days and doing multiple daily workouts.
Plans for an upgraded NHS app to allow more patients in England to book treatments will be announced by the health secretary on Monday.
Horsham's Fay Louise planned her own funeral after doctors found a tumour in her appendix in 2023.
The number of people with flu in hospital has quadrupled in the last month, the latest data shows.
The first steps to creating a National Care Service are announced - but critics say the pace of the plan "feels far too long".
Awareness campaigns and new screening approaches are having an impact, says NHS England.
Leading end-of-life doctors warn system is struggling, and changing law could make situation worse.
BBC News speaks to two terminally ill people with opposing views on the impact of assisted dying.
MPs have backed a change in the law, but the measure still faces many hurdles before coming into force.
Alarm bells screamed for nature in 2024. But amid the gloom, quiet victories emerged, as ordinary people made extraordinary progress for nature.
It was a year of rough seas for the world’s oceans. But that didn’t stop conservationists and communities from working to protect the seas. Here are highlights from the year.
Conservation International researchers in Peru have uncovered a wealth of wildlife, including species new to science.
As 2024 comes to a close, global temperatures are at an all-time high — topping the previous hottest-year on record: 2023. Yet amid this backdrop, research consistently shows nature is a powerful climate ally.
“Invest in one woman, and that ripples out to her family, her community and beyond. It changes people’s lives.”
In southern Africa, grasses can beat the heat better than trees, according to Conservation International research.
An unheralded breakthrough at the recent UN biodiversity conference highlights the often-overlooked connection between our health and the planet’s, a Conservation International expert says.
A recent study on climate solutions downplays nature’s potential, two Conservation International experts say.
A new study found that seaweed forests may play a bigger role in fighting climate change than previously thought — absorbing as much climate-warming carbon as the Amazon rainforest. But not all seaweed forests are created equal.
For the conscientious consumer, finding the perfect present can be a challenge. Not to worry, Conservation International's 2024 gift guide has you covered.
