Persistent wet weather is affecting farmers, builders, sports, wildlife – and damaging roads and homes
“Feel like it hasn’t stopped raining?” the Met Office asked on Monday. For some places, the forecaster said, it really had rained every day so far this year.
People who live in parts of Devon, Cornwall and Worcestershire have been dodging deluges or showers for 40 days – the same number of days that it rained in the Bible’s Noah’s ark story, the same number of soggy days you can expect if it rains on St Swithin’s Day, according to folklore.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
02/10/2026 - 03:00
Born of student disquiet after the 2008 crash, the group says it is reshaping economists’ education
As the fallout from the 2008 global financial crash reverberated around the world, a group of students at Harvard University in the US walked out of their introductory economics class complaining it was teaching a “specific and limited view” that perpetuated “a problematic and inefficient system of economic inequality”.
A few weeks later, on the other side of the Atlantic, economics students at Manchester University in the UK, unhappy that the rigid mathematical formulas they were being taught in the classroom bore little relation to the tumultuous economic fallout they were living through, set up a “post-crash economics society”.
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02/10/2026 - 01:00
Scientists find underwater acoustic project to stop fish being sucked into cooling systems could save 44 tonnes a year
Scientists have found that plans to use a “fish disco” to deter migratory marine life from the nearby Hinkley Point C nuclear reactor could help save 90% of fish from the power plant’s water intake pipes – but the solution is set to cost its developer £700m.
EDF Energy, which is building the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant in Somerset, said research it commissioned from scientists at Swansea University had found that using an acoustic deterrent system helped to ward off the “vast majority” of fish it tagged for the experiment.
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02/09/2026 - 17:30
UK projects will allow local areas to control and profit from renewable power generation, says energy secretary
The UK government is pledging to spend up to £1bn on community-owned green energy schemes in an effort to combat growing scepticism and resistance to renewables and grid upgrade projects.
Ed Miliband, the UK energy secretary, said the new funding was intended to help democratise the energy system, increase the wealth and financial independence of local communities, and potentially cut some local energy bills.
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02/09/2026 - 14:00
Release into Helman Tor reserve marks historical first for keystone species hunted to extinction in UK 400 years ago
Shivering and rain-drenched at the side of a pond in Cornwall, a huddle of people watched in hushed silence as a beaver took its first tentative steps into its new habitat. As it dived into the water with a determined “plop” and began swimming laps, the suspense broke and everyone looked around, grinning.
The soggy but momentous occasion marks the first time in English history that beavers have been legally released into a river system, almost one year after the government finally agreed to grant licences for releases.
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02/09/2026 - 13:50
The disruption and distress caused by record downpours must focus minds on the need for climate preparedness
With flood warnings still in place across south-west England and Wales on Monday, followed by another fortnight of wet weather forecasts, the sodden ground across swathes of the UK is not likely to dry up any time soon. Reports that Aberdonians have not seen so much as a sliver of sun since 21 January prompted an outburst of stoicism on BBC radio, with one resident commenting: “You have to get on with it, brighter days are coming”.
Before then, however, north-east Scotland is braced for more heavy rain. For farmers and businesses in the affected areas, the impact goes far beyond inconvenience. Marketing consultant Sam Kirby told the Guardian that she had to work from a car park in Cornwall following Storm Goretti, because her broadband wasn’t working. And Goretti was the first of three January storms.
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02/09/2026 - 12:22
City faced one of longest periods of subzero cold since 1961, forcing ‘code blue’ and extreme weather warnings
Deadly cold tests New York’s ability to protect its homeless communities
The death toll related to New York City’s dangerous and enduring cold has risen to 18, officials said on Sunday.
The climbing number of fatalities came as a stark reminder of the danger of the subzero temperatures gripping the area, which has been subjected to one of the longest stretches of subzero cold since 1961.
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02/09/2026 - 09:00
Thinktank analysis suggests Japan campaigns to prolong the carbon industry in Australia and hinder move to clean energy
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Australian government ministers met Japanese gas company executives more than 20 times in the last term of parliament as Labor encouraged investment in the fossil fuel industry.
The list of meetings is detailed in a report by the thinktank InfluenceMap that argues Japanese liquefied natural gas (LNG) companies have worked with Australian gas interests to lobby for favourable local government policy to prolong the life of the industry and slow a shift to clean energy in the Asia-Pacific.
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02/09/2026 - 07:00
Corteva will discontinue a mixture of Agent Orange and glyphosate, but another of its herbicides will still use Vietnam war-era defoliant
The chemical giant Corteva will stop producing Enlist Duo, a herbicide considered to be among the most dangerous still used in the US by environmentalists because it contains a mix of Agent Orange and glyphosate, which have both been linked to cancer and widespread ecological damage.
The US military deployed Agent Orange, a chemical weapon, to destroy vegetation during the Vietnam war, causing serious health problems among soldiers and Vietnamese residents.
This article was amended on 9 February 2026 to add comment from a Corteva spokesperson.
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02/09/2026 - 03:00
Exclusive: António Guterres says world’s accounting systems should place true value on the environment
Economic growth is still heating the planet. Is there any way out?
The global economy must be radically transformed to stop it rewarding pollution and waste, UN secretary general António Guterres has warned.
Speaking to the Guardian after the UN hosted a meeting of leading global economists, Guterres said humanity’s future required the urgent overhaul of the world’s “existing accounting systems” he said were driving the planet to the brink of disaster.
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