May heatwaves, deaths, ruined harvests: study of Europe’s summer paints grim picture for the future
EU Copernicus report shows surface air temperatures from June to August were 2.5C above decadal averageThe scorching heat that persistently baked western Europe this summer was the worst on record, a report has found, with more than half the continent…
‘Water yes, mining no!’: the 87-year-old farmer who became a nature hero in Colombia
Porfirio Garcés is one of the ‘Jerico 11’, who face kidnapping charges after opposing a copper mine. Now, with a far-right president prioritising extraction, their fight has become more urgentIn the rural hamlet of Palo Cabildo in Colombia’s western…
The zero-bills home: how one family is beating the energy price hikes
The Naylors’ four-bedroom home in Milton Keynes acts like a mini-power station after retrofitting solar panels, a battery and a heat pumpClare Naylor paid close attention to how much energy she and her family were using last winter, filling hot-water…
Country diary: Which tree sounds the best in the wind? Take a bough, the poplar | Derek Niemann
Frome, Somerset: With a sway and a swoosh, we’re entering the season to enjoy psithurism – the aural quality of the breeze in the treesThe wind-catchers along the bottom of the valley miss nothing. Even the lightest breath has them whispering. And when…
‘They raped our country’: documentary follows Kenyans’ fight for restitution over stolen land
Multinational tea companies still occupy ancestral highlands of communities displaced during British colonial eraFor British colonialists, the fertile and cool uplands of central Kenya were the “White Highlands”, to be reserved exclusively for European…
‘Explosion of melt rates’: 20% of Swiss glaciers lost in five years
Alpine regions in Europe experiencing extreme glacier collapse due to heat-trapping effects of fossil fuel pollutionSwitzerland has lost almost one-fifth of its ice in just five years, research has found, in a dramatic reshaping of the Alpine country…
‘The toll is huge’: El Niño-driven wildfires overwhelm Indonesia’s orangutan population
The global climate phenomenon has triggered devastating infernos in the ape’s Indonesian heartlands, with long-term effects on the animals still unknownThe mother’s hands were peeling from walking on the torched ground. Her eight-month-old baby, which…
The Guardian view on Lula v the Bolsonaros: the decision of Brazilian voters will affect us all | Editorial
Sunday’s general election is too close to call, with the incumbent president facing the son of the man who attempted a coup against himSunday’s election in Brazil could hardly be a clearer-cut choice – nor a closer call. President Luiz Inácio Lula da…
Two million people in England unaware their properties are at risk of flooding
Environment Agency warns residents of 6m at-risk properties to prepare for wet and windy three months aheadMore than two million people in England are unaware their properties are at risk of flooding, as the UK braces for a wet and stormy start to the…
Wildlife arrives on time at rewilded chalk grasslands built along HS2 route
The trains may be running late, but the Western Slopes project is already attracting birds and insects on lands around the high-speed railwayThe air is scented with the sweet tang of ladies bedstraw and made musical by skylark and blackcap song. An…