As Mark Cocker approaches a landmark for the world’s oldest column in an English-language newspaper, he is still inspired by powerful encounters with nature
In the autumn of 1987, Mark Cocker sat in a field near Norwich and watched a jay burying acorns for the long winter ahead. He described the scene in his first country diary for the Guardian. Thirty-nine years on, some of those jay-planted acorns will be mature oaks now, and Cocker is completing his 1,000th diary for the world’s oldest column in an English-language newspaper.
In his next diary, he will reflect on the changing birdlife around Flint Clough, in the Peak District, where he first marvelled at rare birds aged 12 after devouring bird books in his bedroom. As a boy, he would find cuckoo, golden plover, ring ouzel and twite, a once-common bird which is now virtually extinct in England.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
10/17/2026 - 07:00
10/17/2026 - 06:00
Environmental watchdog Mighty Earth reveals two-year effort to postpone and weaken EU Deforestation Regulation
US corporate lobbyists launched a two-year “blitz” to postpone and weaken the world’s most progressive legislation to protect forests, according to a new investigation by the environmental watchdog Mighty Earth.
Major US firms and trade associations, including Cargill, Bunge, Mondelēz and the US Soybean Export Council, as well as numerous other US firms and organizations, sought to influence the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) in more than 350 meetings, the advocacy group found.
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10/17/2026 - 04:00
As a surge in beekeepers has lead to increased numbers of honeybees, researchers record them pushing bumblebees and other rival species away from flowers
Honeybees are outcompeting wild pollinators for resources by aggressively bumping into them and chasing them away from flowers, research has shown.
The study, by researchers from Anglia Ruskin University, found that areas where there were higher concentrations of honeybees had fewer wild pollinators, such as bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies.
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10/17/2026 - 04:00
Data shows 2026 could be worst harvest on record, as growers suggest painting faces on vegetables instead of carving
In the lead-up to Halloween, front porches across the country feature fat, proudly carved pumpkins, lit from within by tea lights.
But this year there is likely to be a shortage due to drought, experts have warned, with the squashes much smaller than usual.
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10/16/2026 - 16:30
Chancellor says government will study responses to public consultation, with airports being ‘big part of jobs and growth’
John Healey has said there is a pro-growth case for going ahead with a third runway at Heathrow despite the prime minister declining to back it.
Healey’s predecessor as chancellor, Rachel Reeves, put approval of the long-planned runway at the heart of her “growth speech” last year, saying it would “make Britain the world’s best-connected place to do business”.
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10/16/2026 - 13:56
Forest clearance at smallest total since records began in 1988 in success for Lula ahead of presidential run-off
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has fallen to its lowest level since records began, new government data shows.
But whether this globally important success is maintained or reversed is on a knife edge ahead of a presidential election run-off on 25 October between two candidates with sharply different visions for the future of the rainforest and how that affects relations with the US under Donald Trump.
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10/16/2026 - 10:00
Polls show that Democrats and Republicans in battleground states want to hear more from candidates about the climate crisis
Most Americans feel unease or alarm about the climate crisis and, in both red and blue states, want to know how political leaders are going to fix it. But in midterm election campaigns across the US, candidates have responded to this desire with near silence.
People in the US have this year endured a record hot summer as well as soaring costs, equating to roughly $2,000 per household, in extra energy and mortgage payments, due to the country’s dependence on a fossil fuel supply scrambled by Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran.
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10/16/2026 - 08:00
Low-interest loans kept many eateries afloat. But the industry never recovered enough for them to repay the debt
For almost 20 years, Jai Mazumdar has served vegetarian curries, samosas, gulab jamun and other Indian delicacies at Spice N Curry, a cafe and grocery nestled inside a modest strip mall near Florida International University (FIU) in Miami. When the Covid-19 pandemic devastated his business, as it did with so many restaurants, Mazumdar took out a $370,000 economic injury disaster loan (EIDL) from the federal government in early 2021.
At the time, it provided a desperately needed lifeline. He was confident that once business returned to normal he could begin repaying the 30-year loan, which came with a low 3.75% interest rate and a 30-month deferment period. But when his business didn’t recover, the disaster loan turned out to be a disaster of its own.
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10/16/2026 - 04:37
Iguazu Falls, an Unesco world heritage site, has reached a record water flow after heavy rains across the river basin. El Niño weather patterns are said to have driven the water flow to hit 10 times the normal amount. Usually the water flow is 1.5m litres per second, but local government registered a flow of 15m litres of water per second.
Argentina temporarily closes Iguazu Falls after El Niño-fuelled surge in water levels
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10/16/2026 - 03:51
Landslide blocks river and triggers downstream flooding, while summer temperatures persist in Portugal
Flash floods have swept through Nepal’s central Gorkha district after a pre-dawn landslide on 11 October blocked the Budhi Gandaki River, triggering severe downstream flooding. Two villages in the worst-affected Chumanubri rural municipality were reportedly destroyed, with homes, roads and bridges washed away. Part of a hydropower station was also damaged.
After river levels surged from 2 metres to nearly 8.5 metres within hours, the national disaster risk reduction and management authority reported that 204 homes were damaged, and more than 650 people had been affected. More than 100 foreign trekkers were stranded in the popular hiking region. The floods come just two months after catastrophic flooding and landslides devastated parts of the country on the border with Tibet, leaving thousands dead or missing.
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