The Guardian

Every year, volunteers brave the icy Tuel Lane lock in West Yorkshire to clear leaves, litter – and pickled onions

It is said that an imitation Rolex watch was once found during the spring clean of the UK’s deepest canal lock. Today the most glamorous discoveries are a Tesco shopping trolley and an empty can of Sprite – but spirits are still high.

“I did once come across a full jar of pickled onions,” said Maureen Readle, a volunteer. “But that was a bit further up. Here it is mostly leaves.”

Australia has a huge of diversity of worms on land, sand and sea such as the giant Gippsland earthworm which can stretch up to 3 metres

One of the world’s largest worms might escape notice, if not for the loud gurgling noises that can be heard coming from underground as the species burrows and squelches through its moist clay.

The giant Gippsland earthworm, a purple and pink colossus that lives in a small, wet patch about 100km east of Melbourne in south-east Australia, reportedly stretches as long as 2 to 3 metres.

Sudden stratospheric warming event expected to develop in next two weeks and will probably weaken the jet stream

A sudden stratospheric warming event is expected to develop over the next two weeks, leading to a rapid collapse of the polar vortex.

This will be the second and probably final disruption of the polar vortex this winter in the northern hemisphere, the first having taken place earlier last month, which was associated with a severe cold spell across much of the eastern half of the US.

Melting Antarctic ice is releasing cold, fresh water into the ocean, which is projected to cause the slowdown

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In a high emissions future, the world’s strongest ocean current could slow down by 20% by 2050, further accelerating Antarctic ice sheet melting and sea level rise, an Australian-led study has found.

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current – a clockwise current more than four times stronger than the Gulf Stream that links the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans – plays a critical role in the climate system by influencing the uptake of heat and carbon dioxide in the ocean and preventing warmer waters from reaching Antarctica.

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Bold pledges to fund climate projects now appear under threat, exposing deeper fiscal constraints and policy dilemmas within the government

In October, the prime minister, chancellor and energy secretary pledged billions to kickstart the UK’s first carbon capture projects – one of the biggest green spending promises of the parliament. By December, Ed Miliband was signing contracts, Sir Keir Starmer vowed to “reignite our industrial heartlands” and Rachel Reeves warned that without bold action, Britain would be stuck with low growth and falling living standards. More importantly, net zero targets wouldn’t be met without removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Fast forward and the Treasury is, reportedly, preparing to scrap the £22bn plan, after economic growth failed to materialise. What a difference a few weeks make.

Inaugural Tune into Nature prize is aiming to highlight how the natural world is central to creative life

One is a dreamy soundscape collected from the peaks of the Dolomites. The other is a drum’n’bass track that samples a nightingale’s quickfire song.

These contrasting tunes have won the inaugural Tune into Nature music prize, a contest that seeks to showcase new music by upcoming artists that is inspired by the natural world.

British farms laying on ‘lamb watch’ holidays for tourists seeking a return to nature – and fluffy hugs

In a shed in the Malvern Hills, lambs struggle clumsily to their feet as holidaymaking couples look on.

Clare John, the third generation in her family to farm these 50 acres of Worcestershire pasture, began offering lambing-themed breaks two years ago in response to a surge of customer requests. Rowley Farm’s holiday cottages are block-booked for the 2025 spring lambing season, which traditionally peaks around Easter.

Self-denial will save the Earth, we’re told. But big emitters seemingly haven’t had the memo

That I fully expect to be dead by the time the UK achieves net zero is, of course, no reason to dodge interim advice from the Climate Change Committee (CCC), the UK’s official climate authority. Its latest report to government is of particular interest to the public, in arguing that a third of the emissions cuts required to achieve net zero by 2050 will have to come from consumers themselves.

Unless we – individual households – accept heat pumps and electric cars and deterrents to flying and less meat (skipping two kebabs per week), the CCC explains, the target cannot be met. And assuming the introduction of a selective news blackout that reduces public awareness of UK plutocrats, celebrities and influencers with colossal carbon footprints, such a behavioural transformation may not be impossible.

Experts hope research can create greener methods of extracting the metal vital for renewable energy revolution and boom in electrical devices

It is the key ingredient of bronze, the alloy that helped create some of the world’s greatest civilisations and took humanity out of the stone age on its way to modern times. For good measure, the metal is invaluable for electrical wiring, plumbing and industrial machinery. We owe a lot to copper.

But the metal now faces an uncertain future as manufacturers prepare to expand its use to make the electric cars, renewable power plants and other devices that will help the planet move towards net zero. Unrestricted extraction could cause widespread ecological devastation, scientists have warned.

The cute rodent helps combat drought and boosts biodiversity. Its rewilding is welcome and long overdue

The first time I laid eyes on a beaver was a couple of years ago on the Devon farm of Derek Gow, the farmer turned rewilder, who brought the furry rodents back to the UK 30 years ago.

It was magical. Sitting in the June dusk, the pink-and-purple sky was reflected in the still ponds of the beaver habitat. Suddenly, ripples emerged from the lodge and the head of a kit – a baby beaver – popped up from underwater.

Backing of Glencore angers campaigners who have highlighted firm’s environmental breaches in South Africa

One of the world’s biggest banks, JP Morgan, has promoted ­environmental and “sustainable” funds to customers which have invested more than £200m in the mining giant Glencore, it can be revealed.

Ethical investing has become big business for JP Morgan and other financial giants, with worldwide “sustainable” investing expected to surpass $40tn by 2030. But the industry now faces scrutiny over the rules around investments focusing on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.

Local MP writes to authorities over ‘irresponsible’ motorists flocking to see sunrise and sunset at Mam tor

An MP has called for action on irresponsible parking at Peak District beauty spots that he says is being fuelled by a TikTok craze.

Jon Pearce, the Labour MP for High Peak in Derbyshire, said people had been flocking to the area to see the sunrise and sunset at Mam tor.

The nuclear plan handily leapfrogs the next 10 years – when a Dutton government might actually hold office – a critical time for emissions reduction

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I don’t often agree with Matt Canavan on matters to do with global heating. But when the senator labelled the Coalition’s nuclear plan a “political fix” last year, I think he was speaking the truth.

For 15 gruelling years the Coalition has been trying to distract a voting public, ever more aware of the climate crisis, from its inability to get a credible climate and energy policy past the climate sceptics and do-nothing-much-to-reduce-emissions exponents in its own ranks (including the Queensland senator).

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The World Nature Photography awards have announced their winners for 2025. From white-cheeked terns to a blue-tailed damselfly peeking through a daisy, the photographs are a stark reminder of the beauty and chaos of the natural world. The top award went to Maruša Puhek’s image of two deers running through a Slovenian vineyard

Chris Jones is behind change in law to release beavers in England after witnessing the incredible benefits on his land

• Beaver releases into wild to be allowed in England for first time in centuries

Chris Jones, a beef farmer, is very proud of his beavers. “They are just extraordinary,” he says.

Since releasing a couple into an enclosure on his Cornwall farm in 2017, he says they have saved it from drought, prevented flooding in the nearby village, boosted the local economy and even improved oyster beds in Falmouth Bay.

Bianca, Garance and Honde churn across Indian Ocean as Alfred, Rae and Seru spin through south-west Pacific

An uncommon meteorological event unfolded on Tuesday when six named tropical cyclones were active simultaneously in the southern hemisphere, several in close proximity to one another.

Three developed in the south-west Pacific. Severe Tropical Cyclone Alfred formed on 20 February in the Coral Sea to the north-east of Australia, reaching an intensity equivalent to a category 4 hurricane on Thursday with sustained winds of 105mph (170km/h) and gusts at about 140mph.

Floods, whale strandings and coral bleaching all more likely, say researchers, as 10% of ocean hits record high temperatures in 2023-24

The world’s oceans experienced three-and-a-half times as many marine heatwave days last year and in 2023 compared with any other year on record, a study has found.

The sustained spike in ocean temperatures cost lives and caused billions of dollars in storm damage, increased whale and dolphin stranding risks, harmed commercial fishing and sparked a global coral bleaching, according to the paper published on Friday in Nature Climate Change.

Small patches of scrambled egg lichen moved from Cornwall to Breckland region, where it was last seen in 1994

A rare lichen has been reintroduced to its historical habitat of East Anglia – with the help of some bookbinding glue.

Scrambled egg lichen, so named for its bright yellow, crumbly appearance, was once common in the Breckland region of Norfolk and Suffolk but was last seen there in 1994.

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

Exclusive: Government to grant nature groups a licence for release of rodent species after earlier setbacks

The release of beavers into English waterways is to be allowed for the first time in centuries, the Guardian can reveal.

The environment secretary, Steve Reed, is to announce that nature groups will be able to get a licence for the release. The first releases could happen this autumn.