Scientists also name an overlooked snowdrop growing in the UK and a fruit that tastes like banana and guava
A zombie fungus that springs from a trapdoor and a flame-like shrub named after the fire demon in the Studio Ghibli film Howl’s Moving Castle are among the species of plant and fungi named by scientists in 2025.
A list of 10 “weird and wonderful” new species was compiled by scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG), Kew and their international partners, who together named 125 new plants last year. The list also includes an orchid whose flowers look bloodstained and attract sexually aroused flies, and a beautiful snowdrop that had been hiding in plain sight in UK gardens.
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01/07/2026 - 19:01
01/07/2026 - 18:44
It might be time to face some cold, hard facts
See more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here
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01/07/2026 - 17:30
Emma Reynolds is expected to say an application window for the Sustainable Farming Incentive will be opened to smaller and new farms first
Smaller farms will be prioritised for nature funding, the environment secretary is to announce, in a shake-up of post-EU nature subsidies.
Emma Reynolds is expected to tell the Oxford Farming Conference on Thursday that in June an application window for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) will be opened solely for smaller farms and new entrants to the scheme, with larger farms only allowed to apply from September.
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01/07/2026 - 12:52
Sarat Sampada founders Harjeet Singh and Jyoti Aswati say allegations are ‘baseless, biased and misleading’
Police have raided the home of one of India’s leading environmental activists over claims his campaigning for a treaty to cut the use of fossil fuels was undermining the national interest.
Investigators from India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) claim Harjeet Singh and his wife, Jyoti Awasthi, co-founders of Satat Sampada (Nature Forever), were paid almost £500,000 to advocate for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty (FFNPT).
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01/07/2026 - 12:52
Sarat Sampada founders Harjeet Singh and Jyoti Aswati say allegations are ‘baseless, biased and misleading’
Police have raided the home of one of India’s leading environmental activists over claims his campaigning for a treaty to cut the use of fossil fuels was undermining the national interest.
Investigators from India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) claim Harjeet Singh and his wife, Jyoti Awasthi, co-founders of Satat Sampada (Nature Forever), were paid almost £500,000 to advocate for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty (FFNPT).
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01/07/2026 - 06:00
A year after the Eaton fire, residents returning to Altadena confront lingering contamination and little official clarity
One year on from the Eaton fire, long after the vicious winds that sent embers cascading from the San Gabriel mountains and the flames that swallowed entire streets, a shadow still hangs over Altadena.
Construction on new properties is under way, and families whose homes survived the fire have begun to return. But many are grappling with an urgent question: is it safe to be here?
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01/07/2026 - 06:00
How might we prevent sea-level rise? Satellite-based radar, solar-powered drones, robot submarines and lab-based ‘artificial glaciers’ could all play a role
Sea levels are rising faster than at any point in human history, and for every foot that waters rise, 100 million people lose their homes. At current projections, that means about 300 million people will be forced to move in the decades to come, along with the social and political conflict as people migrate inland. Despite this looming crisis, the world still lacks specific, reliable forecasts for when and where the seas will rise – and we have invested almost nothing in understanding whether and how we can slow it down.
Societies must continue to focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but it’s increasingly clear that the world needs to do more: we need to predict the future of the world’s ice with precision, and to explore safe, science-backed methods to keep it from melting away.
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01/07/2026 - 01:00
When rain falls on snow it creates a layer of ice that impedes feeding, which in turn has reduced herds’ birthrates
Reindeer survive typically harsh Arctic winters by using their specially adapted hooves to scrape through the snow to nibble on the lichen and moss below. But paradoxically a warming climate is making it harder for them to reach this food, and research shows it has led to a drop in reindeer birthrates.
When rain falls on snow, the snow melts and refreezes, creating layers of ice that make it more difficult for reindeer to scrape through to the fodder below. Climate records going back to 1960 show that warmer winters have resulted in more rain-on-snow events in Arctic regions. By comparing the weather data with reindeer herd birth statistics from Norway and Finland, researchers have shown that birth rates tend to drop in summers that follow winters with lots of rain-on-snow events.
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01/06/2026 - 12:50
Democrats and ‘make America healthy again’ movement pushed back on the rider in a funding bill led by Bayer
In a setback for the pesticide industry, Democrats have succeeded in removing a rider from a congressional appropriations bill that would have helped protect pesticide makers from being sued and could have hindered state efforts to warn about pesticide risks.
Chellie Pingree, a Democratic representative from Maine and ranking member of the House appropriations interior, environment, and related agencies subcommittee, said Monday that the controversial measure pushed by the agrochemical giant Bayer and industry allies has been stripped from the 2026 funding bill.
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01/06/2026 - 09:48
Problem at water treatment centre left 24,000 Tunbridge Wells homes without drinking water for two weeks
A failure at a water treatment centre that left tens of thousands of Kent households without water was foreseen weeks before it happened and could have been stopped, the regulator has said.
Twenty-four thousand homes in the Tunbridge Wells area were without drinking water for two weeks from 30 November last year due to a failure at the Pembury water treatment centre.
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