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Others languishing near bottom of 61-country study include Canada, Germany, Israel, Japan and Spain
Britain is one of the least “nature connected” nations in the world, according to the first ever global study of how people relate to the natural world.
Britain ranks 55th out of 61 countries in the study of 57,000 people, which looks at how attitudes towards nature are shaped by social, economic, geographical and cultural factors.
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Many waterways vulnerable to breaches and closures and face mounting maintenance costs, charity says
Britain’s network of canals and rivers is under strain from funding shortfalls and growing climate pressures, campaigners warn.
Three-quarters of the country’s waterways face financial peril, according to the Inland Waterways Association (IWA), an independent charity advocating for Britain’s canals and rivers, as the country braces for heavier winter rainfall and intensifying summer droughts.
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Keir Starmer is taking the lead on tackling the climate crisis. With the US backing away, now is the moment when other nations must step up
With the once-familiar pillars of the old world order crumbling and the US stepping away from action on climate crisis, it falls to others to assume global environmental leadership. Those leaders who understand the urgency should seize the opportunity afforded by Brazil hosting Cop30 this month to build a coalition of committed countries determined to turn back the climate deniers.
Many now see China – the most successful manufacturer of solar, wind, battery and electric vehicle technologies – as the global low-carbon powerhouse. But its national emission goals, recently submitted to the UN, are underwhelming and it is unclear whether China is willing to take up the mantle of climate leadership.
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Decision to stay away from Cop30 meeting in Brazil underscores administration’s hostility to climate action
The Trump administration has confirmed that no high-level representatives will be sent by the US to upcoming UN climate talks in Brazil, underscoring the administration’s hostile stance towards action on the climate crisis.
The US has always sent delegations of various sizes to UN climate summits over the past three decades, even during periods under George W Bush and in Donald Trump’s first term, where there was scant desire to address the global heating crisis.
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Laxey, Isle of Man: I’m lucky to see my first ever wild Atlantic salmon, but it’s no fluke that they are present in our rivers
You need a little luck to see some species of wildlife, and fortune was on my side as I peered into the River Laxey on the Isle of Man’s east coast. There below me, holding in a pool, was the first wild Atlantic salmon I’ve ever seen.
At this time of year, salmon run up the Laxey to return to their breeding grounds,and the locals aren’t far behind – angling for them and sea trout in the rivers forms part of the government’s unseen economy. The thing that I needed to look closely at was the tail: if it was square-cut, the fish was a sea trout, but in this case, the concave fin was conclusive.
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Huge increase in tree-killing disease is result of climate crisis, experts say
A golden mushroom that grows in clusters and can attack and kill trees has increased by 200% in the UK in a year because of the hot summer and damp autumn.
Recorded sightings of honey fungus are up by almost 200% compared with the same period last year, according to iNaturalist.
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Trio argued orange powder protest day before 2024 solstice was justified because of focus on climate emergency
Three Just Stop Oil protesters have been cleared over a protest at Stonehenge during which orange powder was sprayed on to the prehistoric circle.
Rajan Naidu, 74, Niamh Lynch, 23, and Luke Watson, 36, targeted Stonehenge the day before last year’s summer solstice.
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The Australian PM’s non-attendance at Cop30 would ‘raise questions’ about his seriousness about co-hosting Cop31 in Adelaide
Anthony Albanese is in the middle of summit season. Since late September he has visited the US twice, and just returned from Malaysia and South Korea. He heads to South Africa in three weeks for the G20.
But diplomatic and business leaders say there is another trip the prime minister should be making if he is serious about the climate crisis – and particularly the Australian government’s bid to co-host a major climate conference in Adelaide in November 2026.
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Inspired by childhood encyclopedias and Jane Goodall, Beth Pratt writes about the more than 150 species in the national park – and transports readers to a rarefied world
A shrill call was followed by a flash of movement through a pile of boulders on a high country slope in Yosemite national park. “Hello, Sophie!” Beth Pratt responded to the round, feisty pika who had briefly emerged to pose defiantly in the sun.
Pratt, a conservation leader and wildlife advocate, has spent more than a decade observing the tiny mammals and the other inhabitants of these serene granite domes and the alpine meadows they overlook, which gleamed gold on a crisp afternoon in mid-October.
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While still on track to meet net zero commitments, climate groups say country’s toughest hurdles are yet to come
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