The most wonderful story!
A chance social media encounter has led to the race-against-time discovery of a new species of giant waterlily that has until now been hidden in the depths of Colombia’s jungle.
@pippaneill.bsky.social@pippaneill.bsky.social
@pippaneill.bsky.social
Environment Reporter at The Guardian. Formerly News Editor at The ENDS Report. DMs open.
@pippaneill.bsky.social@pippaneill.bsky.socialNew: The “astonishing and bizarre” Bendy Tree in Northern Ireland has been crowned the winner of this year’s tree of the year competition.
"I guess it gives people a bit of a smile on their day," says John Martin, director of the Woodland Trust NI.
@pippaneill.bsky.socialThe British government must be honest about the scale of the threat posed by climate and nature breakdown, researchers have said, after nine out of 10 people surveyed after watching a briefing on the issue felt more motivated to act.
@pippaneill.bsky.socialBreaking: July was the worst on record for wildfires in England, provisional data shows, with England experiencing a clear upward trend in the total number of wildfires recorded.
@pippaneill.bsky.socialMore fire, more ash, more crime, more death. That is the prospect for the Amazon rainforest if Flávio Bolsonaro holds on to the lead he established this week in the first round of Brazil’s presidential election.
Writes Jonathan Watts
@pippaneill.bsky.socialFinnish authorities have ordered a halt to building work at two planned Google data centres amid concerns over the clearance of more than 300 hectares of forest.
@pippaneill.bsky.socialBREAKING: Drax’s planned datacentre could produce nearly double the emissions of all flights out of Gatwick airport each year by burning 4.9m tonnes of wood annually, an analysis has shown.
@pippaneill.bsky.socialThe Stanlow oil refinery spilled chemicals such as cyanide, benzene, and heavy oils into the air and local waterway including the Mersey Estuary on dozens of occasions in 2023 and 2024.
@esmestallard.bsky.social
@source-material.org
@pippaneill.bsky.socialCases of cancer have risen sharply among younger people, factors such as obesity, poor diet, insufficient exercise, alcohol, smoking and environmental exposures (such as pollutants, chemicals, plastics, water and air pollution) could be contributing
@guyshrubsole.bsky.socialReposted by @pippaneill.bsky.socialRevealed: Government quietly dropped plan to prepare England for wildfires
I discovered via an FOI request that DEFRA’s commitment in the National Adaptation Programme to run a “wildfire risk programme” since 2023 “was not brought into effect”.
@pippaneill.bsky.socialThe Avannaata municipality had approved a plan to cull 1,000 Greenland sharks, offering 300 krone for every heart.
The plan was eventually dropped after the government questioned its legality, but the prospect of a future cull remains.
@pippaneill.bsky.socialREVEALED: The government quietly scrapped plans to prepare the countryside in England for wildfires. This was despite new data showing fire crews do not have the proper protective gear to tackle them.
@pippaneill.bsky.socialBritish farmers are experiencing the worst bluetongue season on record, with the climate crisis blamed as the virus that originated in Africa spreads to livestock as far north as Aberdeenshire
@pippaneill.bsky.socialThrilled to share that Boy Wasted, a podcast I worked on while at ENDS Report, has been awarded Best Audio 2026 at the prestigious DIG Festival 🏆 Boy Wasted exposes how the death of a young Afghan refugee is connected to British waste Listen wherever you get your podcasts
@pippaneill.bsky.socialSwiss glaciers have suffered a near-record loss of ice in 2026.
More than 5% of the country's remaining glacier ice has disappeared in the last 12 months, which scientists say is "extraordinary".
This could threaten water supplies in the decades ahead.
@pippaneill.bsky.socialA ‘freaked out’ US food industry is hitting back at Maha – with social media influencers
“The wellness economy that profits from fear about food and ‘toxins’ is enormously lucrative."
By Rachel Leingang and Riley Messer
@pippaneill.bsky.socialNEW: ‘Are these chemicals in my blood?’ How one community learned the truth about Pfas pollution
@pippaneill.bsky.socialNEW: How the illegal dumping of toxic waste in a Croatian town sparked national calls for clean-up
@pippaneill.bsky.socialI'm looking to speak to farmers who missed out on SFI funding yesterday. If this is you and you're free to chat, please drop me a DM.
@pippaneill.bsky.socialNEW: ‘Worse than the scramble for Oasis tickets’: England’s sustainable farming funds run out in just six hours