Huge glasshouse, home to world’s oldest potted plant, to get £50m refit as part of emissions-cutting drive at gardens
It has been the tropical jewel in one of the UK’s most famous gardens for more than 175 years, and now the Palm House in the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew is to get a green makeover.
The attraction, which houses Kew’s tropical rainforest, will close for five years to allow engineers and botanists to transform it into the first net zero glasshouse in the world.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/16/2025 - 03:27
07/16/2025 - 02:58
Restriction begins on Monday and follows announcement that four areas of England officially in drought
Southern Water has issued a hosepipe ban affecting 1 million people across Hampshire, joining Yorkshire, Thames and South East Water in issuing restrictions.
The ban will come into force across large swathes of Hampshire and all of the Isle of Wight from 9am on Monday.
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07/16/2025 - 00:31
Whale is having a ‘full harbour experience’, says an expert aboard a maritime boat shadowing the supersized mammal
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An “inquisitive” humpback whale that wandered from its usual migratory route and into the centre of Sydney Harbour is causing “navigational challenges” for ferries and vessels as its tour of the world-famous harbour continues.
The sub-adult whale was spotted by commuters on a harbour ferry service near Fort Denison about 8am on Wednesday. It swam to Circular Quay – Sydney’s central ferry terminal – before moving east towards the defence base of Garden Island then to Watsons Bay and north to Balmoral Bay.
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07/16/2025 - 00:26
Search for missing man comes after series of attacks across Japan this month in which at least two people have died
Authorities in Japan are searching for a hunter who went missing on a mountain in Hokkaido near where a brown bear was recently spotted, amid a spate of deadly attacks by the animals that has triggered the declaration of a bear emergency in one town.
The hunter was reported missing by a friend on Mt Esan on Tuesday afternoon in the northern island of Hokkaido after he failed to return home. A rifle believed to belong to the missing man was found on the side of a mountain road, and bloodstains were discovered nearby. A large brown bear was seen near the road on Saturday.
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07/15/2025 - 23:00
National parks, famous for their rich natural heritage, should be at the heart of efforts to protect habitats and wildlife. Instead, experts say they are declining – fast
Photographs by Abbie Trayler-Smith
Dartmoor is a place where the wild things are. Rivers thread through open moorland past towering rocky outcrops. Radioactive-coloured lichens cling to 300m-year-old boulders. Bronze age burial mounds and standing stones are reminders that humans have been drawn here for thousands of years. It is considered one of the UK’s most beautiful and precious landscapes.
Much of this moorland is officially protected as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) because it is considered home to the country’s most valued wildlife. Its blanket bogs, heathlands and high altitude oak woodlands are treasure troves of nature.
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07/15/2025 - 23:00
Survey across six continents uncovers accounts of abuse causing defenders to fear for their safety
Death threats, doxing and cyber-attacks are just some of the online threats recounted by land and climate defenders in a new report, amid concerns that harassment is having a chilling effect on environmental activism.
Interviews and questionaires sent out to more than 200 environmental defenders across six continents by Global Witness found that nine in 10 activists reported receiving abuse over their work. Three in four defenders who said they had experienced offline harm believed that digital harassment contributed to it.
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07/15/2025 - 10:00
Australia has no hope of curbing emissions without ‘world’s best carbon policy’, Ken Henry tells National Press Club
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Federal Labor should make the case for a new carbon tax, former Treasury secretary Ken Henry says, describing the measure as “the world’s best carbon policy”.
Speaking in Canberra about ways to fix the nation’s broken environment protection laws, Henry said Australia had no hope of curbing carbon emissions without re-embracing a pricing mechanism.
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07/15/2025 - 09:00
Growing number of campaigners urge government to ensure green investment is not done ‘on backs of the poor’
What is a wealth tax and would it work in the UK?
A growing number of climate groups are campaigning for the introduction of a wealth tax to ensure the transition to a sustainable economy is not done “on the backs of the poor”.
Last week campaigners from Green New Deal Rising staged a sit-in outside the Reform UK party’s London headquarters as part of a wave of protests targeting the offices, shops and private clubs of the super-rich across the UK.
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07/15/2025 - 06:34
Ministers call for hosepipe bans as East and West Midlands enter drought, joining Yorkshire and north-west
Four areas of England are now in drought as the East and West Midlands have joined Yorkshire and the north-west.
Continuing hot and dry weather was a hazard to crop production and wildlife, ministers said, as they urged water companies to put hosepipe bans in place to conserve water as levels deplete.
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07/15/2025 - 05:30
Large parts of Dartmoor have been denuded of wildlife, harmed by farming and a mess of government schemes that are costly in every way
Britain’s uplands are dying. What should be some of the very best places for nature are the absolute worst. Across vast tracts of some of our most beautiful landscapes, life is rapidly ebbing away. Where once there was purple heather, bilberry and buzzing insect life, there are now over-grazed, sheep-infested ecological disaster zones. For a nation of nature lovers, it’s a disgrace.
One of the very worst areas is the Dartmoor commons. These exemplify everything that is wrong about England’s upland management. In a recent Natural England survey of Dartmoor’s protected sites, only 26 out of 22,494 hectares (55,583 acres) were found to be in an ecologically favourable condition – that’s 0.1%. All the blanket bogs and all the heathland surveyed are in an appalling state, and in many places these once wonderful habitats are in decline.
Chris Packham is a naturalist, broadcaster and campaigner
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