-
Experts say climate crisis, corruption and lack or misuse of infrastructure among factors driving water conflicts
Water-related violence has almost doubled since 2022 and little is being done to understand and address the trend and prevent new and escalating risks, experts have said.
There were 419 incidents of water-related violence recorded in 2024, up from 235 in 2022, according to the Pacific Institute, a US-based thinktank.
Continue reading...
-
Pollution from wood burners kills thousands but proposed emissions limit would cut toxic particles by 10%
New wood-burning stoves will carry a health warning highlighting the impact of the air pollution they produce, under UK government plans.
Ministers have also proposed cutting the limit on the smoke emitted from wood burners by 80%. However, the measure would only apply to new stoves, most of which already meet the stricter limit. The new limit would cut the annual toxic emissions from wood burning in the UK by only 10% over the next decade, according to the consultation.
Continue reading...
-
Study also says Balkan levels are often higher than in Beijing – and sometimes among the highest in the world
When we think of the world’s most polluted cities, images of Delhi or Beijing come to mind, but new data has revealed acute pollution problems close to the heart of Europe.
Prof Andre Prevot, of the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland, explained: “In winter, the particle pollution in the Balkans is the highest in Europe. Particle pollution levels are often higher than in Beijing and on some days they are among the highest in the world. Sulphur dioxide in winter can be over 30 times greater than what we normally see in western Europe.”
Continue reading...
-
This year’s RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, which begins on Friday, could reveal ‘some surprise migratory visitors’
The chances of spotting a fieldfare or redwing in 2026 have risen, thanks to cold and unsettled weather in Europe, prompting a bumper year in birds migrating to the UK.
The RSPB highlighted the trend on the eve of the Big Garden Birdwatch, an annual event that constitutes the world’s largest garden wildlife survey, which will take place between 23 and 25 January.
Continue reading...
-
Grays, Essex: I visit an unassuming gorge where a wealth of ice age fossils was once found, telling us about Britain’s megafauna – and Neanderthals
You wouldn’t know the Lion Pit was there. This overgrown gorge exists quietly, without the sensation its name implies, below a housing estate, by Lakeside shopping centre and within earshot of the M25, wedged on all sides as tightly as the newbuilds that line its cliffs. This is industrial West Thurrock, far south Essex, where the wild marshes that still thrive on the Blackwater Estuary, where I live in the north-east of the county, have long since disappeared.
As I arrive, a fox strolls up the road, urbanely cool. It darts over the edge and into the gorge. I follow it. Descend into the pit, and you’re down in deep time. Ice age time, to be precise, because this location has produced some of the most important archaeological finds of Britain’s Palaeolithic past.
Continue reading...
-
More than 30,000 households left with defects after ‘catastrophic failure’ of Tory government schemes
Members of parliament have called for the Serious Fraud Office to investigate the UK’s home insulation sector, after thousands of householders suffered ruined homes, big financial losses and months of disruption from the “clear and catastrophic failure” of two Conservative government schemes.
More than 30,000 households were left with defects, some of them severe, including mould, water ingress and damage to the fabric of walls, with about 3,000 dwellings so badly damaged they presented immediate health and safety risks to occupants.
Continue reading...
-
Exclusive: Beijing, Delhi, Los Angeles and Rio de Janeiro among worst affected, with demand close to exceeding supply
Half the world’s 100 largest cities are experiencing high levels of water stress, with 38 of these sitting in regions of “extremely high water stress”, new analysis and mapping has shown.
Water stress means that water withdrawals for public water supply and industry are close to exceeding available supplies, often caused by poor management of water resources exacerbated by climate breakdown.
Continue reading...
-
The Andaman Coast has one of the largest concentration of dugong in the world, so why are numbers falling dramatically and what can they tell us about a biodiversity warning cry
• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up here
Thailand’s Andaman Coast is home to one of the largest dugong populations in the world, with 273 of the plump marine mammals, sometimes called sea cows, estimated to be living there as of 2022. In recent years, though, more and more dead or stranded dugongs have been washing ashore. Now the Andaman Coast population may have fallen by more than half, experts say.
In late November, I travelled to Phuket, following in the footsteps of film-makers Mailee Osten-Tan and Nick Axelrod, who have been investigating Thailand’s dugong crisis over the past year for a new Guardian documentary.
The fate of the planet’s coastlines depends on how fast Antarctica’s ice sheets melt. We don’t know what’s coming
‘Every time I look at one, I smile!’: how axolotls took over the world
Labour’s warm homes plan is all carrot and no stick for UK households
Continue reading...
-
Sundance film festival: A cautionary new film, executive-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, warns of the devastating consequences if the Utah lake continues to disappear
The Sundance film festival kicked off its final edition on Thursday in Park City, the Utah ski enclave that has housed the independent film hub for more than four decades. Beginning in 2027, the festival will move to Boulder, Colorado, after a multi-year selection process that many assumed would end in Salt Lake City.
Utah’s largest city, a mere 30 miles from the festival center, has long hosted extra Sundance events and served as its transit center. It’s a rapidly growing metropolitan area, a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts, a major US city – and, according to a new documentary that opened this year’s festival, facing an imminent ecological crisis.
Continue reading...
-
Manual for building design aims to encourage low-carbon construction as alternative to steel and concrete
An airport made of bamboo? A tower reaching 20 metres high? For many years, bamboo has been mostly known as the favourite food of giant pandas, but a group of engineers say it’s time we took it seriously as a building material, too.
This week the Institution of Structural Engineers called for architects to be “bamboo-ready” as they published a manual for designing permanent buildings made of the material, in an effort to encourage low-carbon construction and position bamboo as a proper alternative to steel and concrete.
Continue reading...
