Author: Grace Johnson

Plastic bottles and debris that likely originated in Canada and date back to the 1960s and 1970s have washed up on a beach in Orkney. Litter pickers say the amount of plastic on the shoreline at Howar Sands in Sanday has overwhelmed them in recent weeks. David Warner, who organises beach clean-ups, collected 42 plastic bottles last year. He has already found hundreds this year. Experts blame unusual weather conditions, including strong south-easterly winds, for the surge in retro rubbish. Warner, 35, said some bottles appeared to come from Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada. He worries that even more debris…

Iceland experienced its hottest year on record in 2025, yet scientists warn northern Europe could face a severe cold shock. Researchers express concern over a major Atlantic ocean current that could collapse, potentially plunging the region into a new Ice Age. According to the Icelandic Met Office, the national average temperature reached 5.2°C, 1.1°C higher than the 1991-2020 average. This marks the warmest year since Iceland began keeping records. Almost every month registered “well above average” temperatures, with spring standing out. A ten-day heatwave in mid-May pushed temperatures to 26.6°C at Egilsstaðir Airport. Annual rainfall remained below the ten-year average…

Defenceless penguins face mass killings as pumas recover in Monte Leon National Park in Patagonia, Argentina. After cattle ranching ended in the 1990s, pumas recolonised parts of their historic range. Meanwhile, Magellanic penguins expanded from nearby islands to the mainland, where land predators had been absent. Scientists now warn this interaction has created a “conservation dilemma” that could reduce penguin populations. A new study by Oxford University quantifies the long-term risks for these birds. Pumas emerge as penguins’ greatest predator Researchers from the Centro de Investigaciones de Puerto Deseado at the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral worked with park…

Sardinia’s griffon vultures once teetered on the brink of extinction, but today their numbers soar, marking a remarkable conservation turnaround. In 2014, only around 60 birds survived on the island, confined to a small stretch between Bosa and Alghero. Poisoned food sources, including pesticides and chemicals in scavenged animals, drove the population to collapse, while direct human persecution worsened their plight. These majestic birds play a crucial ecological role, cleaning carcasses and preventing the spread of harmful bacteria. Their decline threatened the balance of Sardinia’s ecosystem. Sardinia’s griffon vultures risked extinction By the early 2010s, Sardinia’s griffon vultures faced near-total…

Portugal led the European Union in renewable electricity production in January 2026, driven by surges in hydro and wind power. The Portuguese Association for Renewable Energies (APREN) reported that 80.7 per cent of the country’s electricity last month came from renewable sources. This marks Portugal’s best performance in nine months and moves the nation to second place in Europe overall. Non-EU Norway generated 96.3 per cent of its electricity from renewables, while Denmark fell to third with 78.8 per cent.* Portugal leads the renewable energy race Hydropower dominated Portugal’s energy mix in January, contributing 36.8 per cent of total electricity…

Thailand is giving birth control vaccines to wild elephants to prevent deadly conflicts with people. Authorities say farms are expanding into forests and pushing elephants out of their habitats. Elephants then move closer to villages to find food and water. Officials want to reduce dangerous encounters between humans and elephants before the situation worsens. Human-elephant conflict is rising fast Thailand recorded 30 deaths and 29 injuries caused by wild elephants last year. Authorities also reported more than 2,000 incidents of elephants destroying crops. Officials say shrinking forests force elephants to search for food in farmland and settlements. Sukhee Boonsang from…

US President Donald Trump framed his sweeping rollback of federal climate policy as a political victory over the Democratic Party’s environmental agenda. Republicans used this message in past elections and could use it again before the crucial midterm elections in November. His announcement at the White House marked one of the most significant moves of his second term in office. Trump said he revoked an Obama-era endangerment finding from 2009 that stated pollution harms public health and the environment. For almost 17 years, the United States used this scientific finding as the legal basis to establish policies that reduced emissions…

Areas across the UK from Cornwall to County Down recorded their wettest January on record, and heavy rain continued in February. The country experienced intense rainfall in the last week because a blocked weather pattern trapped wet air over the region. A high pressure system over Scandinavia stopped the weather system from moving away and prolonged the downpour. The Met Office estimates that at current warming levels, wet winters like 2023/24 shifted from once every 80 years to once every 20 years. Further warming could make such winters even more common. This shift could seriously affect housing, transport, and food…

While the eastern states battle bone-chilling cold, the western US experiences the opposite extreme. A record snow drought combined with unprecedented heat is sweeping across the region. Scientists warn that this threatens future water supplies, increases wildfire risks, and damages winter tourism and recreation. Snow cover and depth have dropped to levels not seen in decades, while at least 67 Western weather stations recorded their warmest December through early February on record. Normal snow cover this time of year should reach about 460,000 square miles—roughly the size of California, Utah, Idaho, and Montana—but this year it covers only 155,000 square…

As countries compete for rare earth deposits, researchers reveal these valuable elements hide in plain sight. Scientists say we can extract them without conventional mining. Fungi Could Unlock Hidden Resources In a Vienna lab, two scientists watch a fungus grow. Its mycelium spreads through tiny networks, searching, feeding, and absorbing nutrients. Some fungi also soak up materials humans need. The team grows the fungus on special clay infused with rare earth elements. These metals power batteries, magnets, and renewable energy devices. Researchers hope the fungus can extract rare earths efficiently. “You might actually recover resources,” says Alexander Bismarck, head of…