The molluscs are decimating food chains in Switzerland, have devastated the Great Lakes in the US, and this week were spotted in Northern Ireland for the first time
Like cholesterol clogging up an artery, it took just a couple of years for the quagga mussels to infiltrate the 5km (3-mile) highway of pipes under the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne (EPFL). By the time anyone realised what was going on, it was too late. The power of some heat exchangers had dropped by a third, blocked with ground-up shells.
The air conditioning faltered, and buildings that should have been less than 24C in the summer heat couldn’t get below 26 to 27C. The invasive mollusc had infiltrated pipes that suck cold water from a depth of 75 metres (250ft) in Lake Geneva to cool buildings. “It’s an open invasion,” says Mathurin Dupanier, utilities operations manager at EPFL.
Mathurin Dupanier indicates the water cooling systems that were blocked by the invasive quagga mussels. Photographs: Phoebe Weston/the Guardian; École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
12/18/2025 - 00:00
12/17/2025 - 19:01
Forecast is slightly cooler than the record 1.55C reached in 2024, but 2026 set to be among four hottest years since 1850
Next year will bring heat more than 1.4C above preindustrial levels, meteorologists project, as fossil fuel pollution continues to bake the Earth and fuel extreme weather.
The UK Met Office’s central forecast is slightly cooler than the 1.55C reached in 2024, the warmest year on record, but 2026 is set to be among the four hottest years dating back to 1850.
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12/17/2025 - 19:00
Record rains have forced hundreds of rescues, swamped communities and left rivers high, with more storms forecast
The extent of the damage in Washington state is profound but unclear after more than a week of heavy rains and record flooding, according to the state’s governor, Bob Ferguson.
A barrage of storms from weather systems stretching across the Pacific has dumped close to 2ft (0.6 metres) of rain in parts of the state, swelling rivers far beyond their banks and prompting more than 600 rescues across 10 counties.
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12/17/2025 - 11:59
Governor Jared Polis warned that breaking up Boulder’s NCAR would put ‘public safety at risk’
The Trump administration is breaking up a research center praised as a “crown jewel” of climate research after accusing it of spreading “alarmism” about climate change.
Russell Vought, the director of the White House’s office and management budget, said the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, would be dismantled under the supervision of the National Science Foundation.
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12/17/2025 - 11:00
Residents of Gloster, Mississippi, are suing plant that exports wood pellets to UK and Europe. Company says it is reducing emissions
When Helen Reed first learned about the bioenergy mill opening in her hometown of Gloster, Mississippi, the word was it would bring jobs and economic opportunities. It was only later that she learned that activity came with a cost: the Amite Bioenergy mill, opened in 2014 by British energy giant Drax, emits large – and sometimes illegal – quantities of air pollutants, including methanol, acrolein and formaldehyde, which are linked to cancers and other serious illnesses.
“When I go out, I can’t hardly catch my breath,” Reed said. “Everything is worse since Drax came here.”
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12/17/2025 - 09:00
Legal temporary farm workers also worry about the H-2A visa program and Trump’s anti-immigration regime
This article is a collaboration between the Guardian and Enlace Latino NC, an independent bilingual publication. Read this article in Spanish.
On a cold December afternoon, about 10 workers load the season’s final Christmas trees onto a truck at Wolf Creek Tree Farm and Nursery in Cullowhee, North Carolina. Nearby, another group takes a break, warming up around a barrel fire. More workers are out in the fields, a half-hour’s drive up further into the mountains.
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12/17/2025 - 07:00
Greece is hoping that protected areas will help keep daytrippers away and allow vulnerable monk seals to return to their island habitats
Deep in a sea cave in Greece’s northern Sporades, a bulky shape moves in the gloom. Someone on the boat bobbing at a distance offshore passes round a pair of binoculars and yes! – there it is. It’s a huge Mediterranean monk seal, one of the world’s rarest marine mammals , which at up to 2.8 metres and over 300kg (660lbs), is also one of the world’s largest types of seal.
Piperi, where the seal has come ashore, is a strictly guarded island in the National Marine Park of Alonissos and Northern Sporades, Greece’s largest marine protected area (MPA) and a critical breeding habitat for the seals. Only researchers are allowed within three miles of its shores, with permission from the government’s Natural Environment and Climate Change Agency.
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12/17/2025 - 05:41
Ministers hint at further relaxation of zero emission mandate but say will not follow EU over 2035 petrol cars ban
The UK is to bring forward its review of electric vehicle sales targets from 2027 to next year, as the government said it would listen to the concerns of the car industry.
The news came as ministers said they would not weaken plans to ban the sale of new petrol or diesel cars from 2035, after the EU announced plans to water down the timing of the phaseout of new combustion engine vehicles.
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12/17/2025 - 01:00
Price of turkey jumps as much as £15 compared with 2024, while chocolate has steepest mark-up
Shoppers are paying up to 70% more for Christmas chocolate treats compared with last year, while the price of a turkey has jumped by as much as £15, according to the consumer champion Which?
The group analysed a range of ingredients for a typical Christmas dinner, as well as other typical festive treats including mince pies, sparkling wine and chocolates.
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12/17/2025 - 00:00
Researcher in Kerala rainforest sounds alarm after being told frogs had died after being handled by humans
A group of endangered “galaxy frogs” are missing, presumed dead, after trespassing photographers reportedly destroyed their microhabitats for photos.
Melanobatrachus indicus, each the size of a fingertip, is the only species in its family, and lives under logs in the lush rainforest in Kerala, India. Their miraculous spots do not indicate poison, as people sometimes assume, but are thought to be used as a mode of communication, according to Rajkumar K P, a Zoological Society of London fellow and researcher.
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