Leaders say automated mowers’ blades threaten nocturnal animals as studies highlight risks to wildlife
German mayors have called for a nationwide ban on night-time use of robot lawnmowers to protect hedgehogs and other small nocturnal animals from being killed or maimed in the dark.
Recent studies have highlighted the threat lawnmower blades pose to wildlife active between dusk and dawn, prompting growing calls for regulation. Hedgehogs also tend to curl into a ball when threatened rather than running away, making them harder for a robot mower’s sensors to detect.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
04/06/2026 - 07:20
04/06/2026 - 06:00
New legislation comes amid push from big oil, as critics warn polluters’ profits prioritized over Americans’ health
Utah has made it nearly impossible for residents to hold fossil fuel companies legally accountable for climate damages in a move one advocacy group described as putting “profits for the biggest polluters over communities”, with other states expected to follow suit.
The new state legislation comes as part of a push from big oil and its political allies – including groups tied to rightwing impresario Leonard Leo – for legal immunity in red statehouses and Congress, with a goal of winning state and federal legal immunity similar to the liability waiver granted to the firearms industry in 2005.
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04/06/2026 - 04:22
Oliver Tokic-Bensley, 16, says he had been in the water mere minutes when a shark bit his foot
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A teenage surfer bitten by a shark at a South Australian beach has described how he “flicked it off” and “legged it back to shore”.
Oliver Tokic-Bensley, 16, was bitten on his foot while surfing on Good Friday near his family beach house at Middleton, 80km south of Adelaide.
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04/06/2026 - 04:00
As a child, Dominique Bikaba, was displaced by a new national park in the DRC. Now he is helping to secure land for wildlife and Indigenous groups against the backdrop of ongoing fighting
Mist hangs low over the forested slopes of Kahuzi-Biega national park, where the canopy still shelters one of the last strongholds of the eastern lowland, or Grauer’s, gorilla. It is a landscape of immense biological wealth and equally immense political fragility. For 54-year-old Dominique Bikaba, it was once home.
His family was among those displaced when their ancestral land was incorporated into the park in the 1970s. The protected area, in the lowlands of South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), harbours elephants and a remarkable range of wildlife, but it is best known as the principal home of the Grauer’s gorilla, the largest subspecies of primates, known to grow up to 250kg (39st) in weight. It is one of five great ape species found in the DRC’s vast forests, including mountain gorillas, which are also found in other parts of the Great Lakes region, such as Rwanda and Uganda.
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04/06/2026 - 04:00
Making women more powerful in my farm business and closing the gender pay gap was not just the right thing to do – it has brought commercial benefits
On International Women’s Day this year, I found myself in Selfridges listening to my wife, Geetie, talk about her experiences as a childhood communard, mother, restaurateur, environmental campaigner and, of course, as a woman. I was one of two men in the audience. Some might ask what a 65-year-old male farmer was doing there at all. I would contend, first, that as many of the issues discussed on IWD relate to male behaviour, men should be paying as much attention as women; and second (and more practically) that too many blokes being blokey does not get the strawberries picked.
Success in farming depends on being able to build and maintain relationships. I’d say that’s true of most businesses. When we first measured our gender pay gap at Riverford in 2017, women earned an average of 91p an hour to their male colleagues’ £1. We made excuses and weak efforts at change, but most of the men at the top were unwilling to challenge their unspoken prejudice. My own farm, Baddaford, has been happier, more productive and more profitable since I, and my male head grower, put our best picker – a woman half our age – in charge of the picking and people.
Guy Singh-Watson is the founder of organic veg box company Riverford
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04/06/2026 - 03:14
While path and strength of storm remain uncertain, BoM warns Cape York could again take direct hit if cyclone makes landfall
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Another cyclone may hit the Queensland coast just over three weeks after the same area was smashed by Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle, the Bureau of Meteorology says.
But a meteorologist warned forecasts predicting the path and strength of Severe Tropical Cyclone Maila remained uncertain, with the storm likely to make landfall over the weekend.
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04/05/2026 - 14:10
Rally met with bipartisan support after US border patrol revealed plans for steel wall across parts of beloved parks
The story is co-published with Public Domain, an investigative newsroom that covers public lands, wildlife and government
Thousands of people gathered at the steps of the Texas capitol on Saturday to protest against the construction of a border wall through Big Bend, in a show of bipartisan opposition to the White House’s plans.
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04/05/2026 - 08:20
The National Trust’s wetlands project officer has described the effect of four Eurasian beavers on the ecosystem as astonishing, a year after they were reintroduced into the wild in England for the first time in 400 years.
Beavers were hunted to extinction in England in the 16th century and remained absent until a year ago, when a landmark project announced by the National Trust, Defra and Natural England released two pairs relocated from Scotland into a freshwater lake in the Purbeck Heaths nature reserve in Dorset. Since their release, the beavers have constructed a 35-metre dam, improving local habitats for plants, insects, amphibians, birds and bats. Trail cameras even captured the beavers playing with an otter, while a barn owl, a protected species in the UK, was also seen flying nearby.
The project allows for the release of 10 to 25 adult beavers, with the next release expected to take place this autumn.
Beavers ‘breathe new life’ into Dorset as dams built and biodiversity returns
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04/05/2026 - 02:00
Under Anne Hidalgo – mayor for 12 years until last week – the French capital added bike lanes, cut traffic and reclaimed public space, but not without resistance
When Corentin Roudaut moved to Paris 10 years ago, he was too scared to cycle. The IT developer had biked everywhere as a student in Rennes but felt overwhelmed by the bustling French capital. Cars were everywhere. Cyclists had almost no protection.
But once authorities carved out space for a segregated bike lane on Boulevard Voltaire near his home in the 11th arrondissement, Roudaut returned to the two-wheel commute and did not look back.
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03/30/2026 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 31 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s44183-026-00194-1
Canada’s accelerating biodiversity and climate crises threaten ecosystems, communities, and the economy. Significant progress toward international and national conservation targets—supported by federal investment and Indigenous‑led stewardship—is now at risk as key funding programs near expiration. Here, we caution that stalled initiatives will jeopardize hard‑won gains that have taken decades to materialize, undermine reconciliation commitments, while escalating long‑term ecological and economic costs. Renewed federal leadership is essential to safeguard Nature and maintain Canada’s global conservation momentum.
