Science & Environment

Esme Stallard,Climate and science reporter, BBC News and Becky Dale and Wesley Stephenson,Senior data journalists, BBC Verify Getty Images Water companies have been ordered to tackle potentially harmful levels of so-called forever chemicals in drinking water sources for more than six million people, the BBC can reveal. Forever chemicals, or PFAS, are a group of thousands of substances used in …

Kevin KeaneEnvironment, energy and rural affairs correspondent, BBC Scotland BBC Farmer Johnnie Balfour says there needs to be a more nuanced approach to climate change Johnnie Balfour farms a 300-strong herd of Aberdeen Angus – and is planning to expand operations. Cattle are notoriously the most planet-warming, methane-emitting of all the farmed animals. But Johnnie’s business, near Glenrothes in Fife, …

Azadeh MoshiriPakistan Correspondent BBC Floods have swept across Pakistan, hitting urban and rural areas, including the capital of Punjab, Lahore Rescuers and relatives searched knee-deep in water for the body of one-year-old Zara. She’d been swept away by flash floods; the bodies of her parents and three siblings had already been found days earlier. “We suddenly saw a lot of …

Rebecca Morelle,Science Editor and Alison Francis,Senior Science Journalist Chris Damant/Bernwood Ecology About half of all churches in England have bats in them It’s a job that can only be done under the cover of darkness. As night falls, the bat hunters make their way amongst the gravestones of Guestwick Church in Norfolk. The creaking door opens. Inside is the pitch …

Available for over a year What’s been called the storm of the century – Hurricane Melissa – has barrelled through Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas over the past two days. Hannah Cloke, Professor of Hydrology at the University of Reading, explains whether Melissa was caused – or made worse – by human-made climate change. As the H5N1 bird flu season …

Mark PoyntingClimate reporter, BBC News Getty Images World leaders will soon gather for their annual meeting on how to tackle climate change. COP30 is taking place ten years after the Paris climate agreement, in which countries pledged to try to restrict the rise in global temperatures to 1.5C. What is COP30 and what does it stand for? COP30 is the …

Jason Arunn MurugesuNorth East and Cumbria Teesworks BP and South Tees Group have competing plans for part of the Teesworks site A government decision on whether a hydrogen plant can be built has been delayed for a second time amid a row over land that is also earmarked for an artificial intelligence (AI) data centre. Energy company BP is seeking …

PA Media Aulonia albimana was last recorded in the UK in 1985 A critically endangered spider not seen in the UK for 40 years has been rediscovered. Aulonia albimana, which was last recorded in the UK in 1985, was found at the National Trust’s Newtown National Nature Reserve on the Isle of Wight. The team that found the tiny orange-legged …

Evie LakeNorth East and Cumbria John Millard Rothbury Estate in Northumberland is a 15-sq-mile (30-sq-km) tract of former grouse moor, woodland and farmland Sir David Attenborough has championed a bid by conservationists to raise £30m to buy the entirety of a vast upland estate. The Wildlife Trusts and Northumberland Wildlife Trust are attempting to complete the purchase of the Rothbury …

Justin RowlattEnvironment Editor BBC It is 1am on 3 June. A near gale force wind is blasting into Scotland. Great weather for the Moray East and West offshore wind farms, you would have thought. The two farms are 13 miles off the north-east coast of Scotland and include some of the biggest wind turbines in the UK, at 257m high. …