The Guardian

Flowers used in the ‘microbiome garden’ can enhance gut health by being eaten or just walked past

An “edible meadow” designed to improve gut health is to be displayed at the Chelsea flower show this year.

The two gardeners behind the “microbiome garden” say it will be filled with flowers that can enhance gut health by being eaten or just walked past.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

Ecologists condemn watchdog decision, accusing it of making reckless changes to allow easier logging of state forests containing glider habitat

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NSW’s environmental watchdog has put the endangered greater glider on a fast track to extinction by watering down logging protections, experts say.

Ecologists from WWF-Australia and Wilderness Australia have condemned the watchdog, accusing it of making reckless changes so Forestry Corporation can more easily log state forests.

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At least 80 pairs recorded in 2023 after species began breeding again in 1979, having disappeared from UK in 16th century

Britain’s tallest bird, the spectacular, wetland-loving crane bred in higher numbers last summer than at any point since they disappeared from the UK in the 16th century.

At least 80 pairs of cranes were recorded in 2023, up from the previous high of 72 two years earlier. The birds, which make distinctive bugling calls but are surprisingly elusive in the breeding season, as they hide in reedbeds, successfully fledged at least 36 chicks.

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Researchers say they have found how anemonefish identify unwelcome guests of their own kind, by counting white markings

Unlike the star of Disney’s Finding Nemo, real-life common clownfish are not keen on sharing their home with members of their own species.

Researchers say they have discovered how they kick unwelcome guests out, by counting the stranger’s vertical white markings.

Exclusive: Meal attended by Environment Agency and Ofwat chairs attacked as outrageous example of ‘regulatory capture’

Water company bosses and the chairs of the regulator Ofwat and the Environment Agency went for dinner at an exclusive private members’ club to discuss how to quell public anger over bill rises and sewage spills, the Guardian can reveal.

Campaigners have said the private meeting is an outrageous example of “regulatory capture” as Ofwat and the Environment Agency are supposed to hold water companies to account, rather than help with their public relations.

Exclusive: Investigation finds banned chemicals at levels up to 260 times higher than that deemed safe to consume

Seventeen landfills across England are known to be producing a highly toxic liquid substance containing some banned and potentially carcinogenic “forever chemicals”, in some cases at levels 260 times higher than that deemed safe for drinking water, it can be revealed.

However the government says it does not know where these landfills are.

Federal and Queensland governments are trying to convince UN body not to add the reef to list of world heritage sites in danger

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The Albanese government has claimed it is “on track” to have national climate targets that would be in line with keeping global heating to 1.5C in a report to Unesco on efforts to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

The federal and Queensland governments are trying to convince Unesco not to recommend the world’s biggest coral reef system be placed on a list of world heritage sites in danger – with a decision due at a meeting in India in July.

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Exclusive: Pet owners risk contaminating their hands with neurotoxins for at least 28 days after application, scientists find

Vets should limit the use of flea treatments containing pesticides on dogs and cats, scientists have said, after a study revealed the vast amount of toxic substances in them that end up in rivers.

Pet owners using these flea treatments risk contaminating their hands with fipronil and imidacloprid, two insecticides, for at least 28 days after the treatment has been applied, according to research by the University of Sussex and Imperial College London.

The move to grant 17 companies the right to drill for fossil fuels is ‘a pipe dream’ that will do little for energy security, say environmentalists

Britain has handed major oil companies the right to drill for fossil fuels in 24 new licence areas across the North Sea as part of the government’s mission to extend the life of the ageing oil and gas basin.

The North Sea regulator said 17 oil companies, including Shell and BP, were granted licences in the Central North Sea, Northern North Sea and West of Shetland areas to “provide benefits to the local and wider economy”.

As a young woman, I knew public life wouldn’t be easy – but Monday was a new low when my image was manipulated and misused

Monday was the day that duck shooting should have been banned in Victoria. Instead it was the day we saw the government betray parliamentary processes, our wildlife and our community. And somehow, that day ended with a bizarre form of sexism against me.

I won’t pretend public life since my election as an MP has been easy, especially as a young woman.

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Three new levels added by US Coral Reef Watch after ‘extreme’ unprecedented heat, with highest alert warning of ‘near complete mortality’

The world’s main system for warning about heat stress on the planet’s coral reefs has been forced to add three new alert categories to represent ever-increasing temperature extremes.

The changes introduced by the US government’s Coral Reef Watch program come after reefs across the Americas were hit by unprecedented levels of heat stress last year that bleached and killed corals en masse.

Order to leave 4% of land fallow to encourage biodiversity waived for year in light of flooding, drought and heatwaves

Farmers protesting across Europe have won their first concession from Brussels, with the EU announcing a delay in rules that would have forced them to set aside land to encourage biodiversity and soil health.

The European Commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, described Wednesday’s decision, which is expected to be rubber-stamped by member states within 15 days, as “a helping hand” for the sector at a difficult time.

Business leader says investment in low-carbon economy is ‘absolute minimum’, a view echoed by other experts

• What is Labour’s £28bn green plan – and could it be shelved?

Labour’s proposed investment of £28bn a year in the low-carbon economy is an absolute minimum, a leading business figure has said, adding that without green investment on that scale the UK will face steep decline as a result of crumbling infrastructure and stagnating industry.

Jürgen Maier, the former UK head of Siemens, the German industrial giant and major investor, said massive investment was needed to rebuild the UK economy and make it fit for the future, and that it should concentrate on low-carbon energy, transport and industry.

When Rakel took over the last farm in her Norwegian village, she was not only taking responsibility for a flock of accident-prone woolly animals, but also a way of life at a crossroads. This was a chance to follow in the footsteps of her much-loved father, and live the way she had always dreamed, alongside her wife. A flock of sheep comes with a flock of problems, so the saying goes. With the help of community and family, can Rakel succeed?

A historic legal victory in Oslo has boosted our campaign against the Rosebank field and other British drilling projects

• Tessa Khan is executive director of climate action organisation Uplift

There has been a dramatic change in how oil drilling rights are approved on one side of the invisible line that divides the North Sea between the UK and Norway.

On the Norwegian side, after a groundbreaking decision by the Oslo district court on 18 January, the government must now take into account the emissions that come from the burning of oil and gas reserves in addition to the impact of getting the reserves out of the ground, before they approve a new field. The legal win, which applies for the first time the reasoning of a separate case in the Norwegian Supreme Court, was a result of Greenpeace Norway and Young Friends of the Earth Norway challenging the approval of three new oil and gas fields by the government. They argued the government had not been properly vetted for climate harm. The court agreed.

Exclusive: Report proposes action to reduce overall demand rather than simply increasing ‘green’ production

The global extraction of raw materials is expected to increase by 60% by 2060, with calamitous consequences for the climate and the environment, according an unpublished UN analysis seen by the Guardian.

Natural resource extraction has soared by almost 400% since 1970 due to industrialisation, urbanisation and population growth, according to a presentation of the five-yearly UN Global Resource Outlook made to EU ministers last week.

Analysis finds difference between greenhouse gas emissions the automakers declared and the researchers’ estimates averaged 27%

Some of the world’s biggest automakers are still “grossly under-reporting” greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report, despite improvements in their estimates.

The research, undertaken by consultancy firms Carbon Tracker and Nomisma, was released on Wednesday and found car manufacturers ranked among the world’s highest carbon producers and needed to improve the way they declared their environmental impacts.

Country may be the first to do so, amid increasing concerns about the health and environmental risks posed by the virtually indestructible chemicals

New Zealand is banning so-called “forever chemicals” in cosmetics from 2026, in what could be the first example of a country doing so.

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) said it has banned the use of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in cosmetics to protect people and the environment from the chemicals.