Rising temperatures and extreme drought are driving more destructive spring fires across the American Great Plains. This year, forces aligned to create the perfect storm in Nebraska
In a normal year, the vast grasslands that roll across the American Great Plains would be starting to green. But at the center of the US, where most of the nation’s beef producers graze their herds, this spring brought fire instead of moisture, leaving more than a million acres black and barren.
Multiple blazes raged across Nebraska, where the records for the annual acreage burned were obliterated in a single month. The state logged the largest blaze ever recorded when the Morrill fire cascaded across more than 642,000 acres before it was contained in March.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
04/14/2026 - 06:00
04/14/2026 - 05:13
Citi analysts upgrade profit forecast by 20% to $2.6bn for January to March despite flat oil and gas production
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BP expects to post “exceptional” earnings from its oil trading desk, reaping a windfall from choppy energy markets triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Energy traders are navigating significant market volatility after Tehran’s effective closure of the key strait of Hormuz shipping route.
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04/14/2026 - 02:11
Researchers examined trends in 10 global cities, with Sydney’s summer growing at two-and-a-half times the average
Scientist Ted Scott could feel that summers in his home state of Minnesota were not what they used to be.
With the climate crisis accelerating, Scott could feel and see the seasons changing from their usual patterns – especially summer – and he wanted to know what the data said.
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04/14/2026 - 02:00
The government hails the ‘green revolution’ as a solution to economic decline, but some young jobseekers say the rhetoric does not match their experience
On paper, Jake Snell, 19, sounds like the perfect candidate for a role in the UK’s burgeoning green energy sector. He has high grades in maths and physics A-level, a distinction in BTec engineering and another distinction in an extended engineering diploma. He has also done work experience at an engineering company.
He is from Lowestoft, a coastal town in Suffolk, outside Great Yarmouth. Both towns contain areas that fall within the most deprived 20% in England and are part of a wider pattern of coastal places with low employment opportunities.
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04/14/2026 - 01:01
The artist and film-maker spent a summer on the island making poetic images of the local flora – and exploring their connections to Grenada’s historical trauma
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04/14/2026 - 00:30
A skull fragment found in a tray of unsorted fossils collected more than a century ago leads to discovery
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A prehistoric fossil, hiding in plain sight in museum storage for more than a century, has revealed that giant echidnas once roamed Victoria.
The Owen’s giant echidna, Megalibgwilia owenii, lived during the Pleistocene, a geological epoch that began 2.5m years ago. It grew to about 1 metre long and weighed up to 15kg – about twice the size of Australia’s modern echidnas.
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04/14/2026 - 00:00
Exclusive: Ministers accused of trying to keep investment firm’s withdrawal from partnership with NatureScot under wraps
A funding deal to raise £100m from private investors for urgently needed nature restoration in Scotland has fallen through without the Scottish parliament being told.
The Guardian has learned that Aberdeen, the investment firm, decided to withdraw from a partnership with the agency NatureScot to raise at least £100m for conservation projects from commercial and private investors late last year.
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04/13/2026 - 23:00
Amid growing evidence of fungi’s key role in ecosystems and storing carbon, African scientists are championing the need to preserve ‘funga’ as much as flora and fauna
Madagascar has long been celebrated for its remarkable wildlife, with the vast majority of its species – from ring-tailed lemurs to certain species of baobab trees – found nowhere else on the planet. But when discussing the island nation’s endemic treasures, fungi are often left out of the conversation.
Yet “fungi are some of the most important things in the world”, says Anna Ralaiveloarisoa, a Malagasy scientist. “They feed 90% of terrestrial plants. Without them, there is no life on the Earth.”
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04/13/2026 - 13:01
Dozens of feral pachyderms linked to drug kingpin to be killed because of threat to native species and villagers
Colombian officials have authorized a plan to cull dozens of hippos descended from animals brought to the country in the 1980s by Pablo Escobar, after the feral beasts displaced native species and threatened local villagers.
The environment minister, Irene Vélez, said the decision was reached because other methods to control their population had been expensive and unsuccessful, including neutering some of the animals or moving them to zoos. Vélez said that up to 80 hippos would be affected by the measure. She did not say when the hunting would begin.
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04/13/2026 - 09:47
Colourful tulips, hyacinths, wisteria and daffodils appear across country as gardeners prepare for shows
Colourful tulips, hyacinths, wisteria and daffodils have made a remarkable display across England after a short period of hot weather followed by a cold snap created excellent conditions for spring blooms.
There were record temperatures last week in many parts of the UK as the country recorded one of the hottest April days in the last 80 years.
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