14 Aug 2025

Image description: Aerial view of two tractors driving toward each other along parallel lines. Photo by Johny Goerend on Unsplash   After legal pressure from campaign group River Action, the Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs has closed what they claim was “a major loophole”; manure can now only be spread when crops actually […]

14 Aug 2025

 Image description: strawberries in a black plastic punnet. Image by Engin Akyurt / Pexels   A new report from Deep Science Ventures has uncovered that the industrial economy has created more than 100 million ‘novel entities’ (chemicals not found in nature), and around 40,000 – 350,000 can be found in commercial use and production. However, […]

14 Aug 2025

Image description: A field of dry grass. Image by Alexandre Debiève / Unsplash   The National Drought Group met this week with the current water shortfall situation in England now defined as a “nationally significant incident” according to the Environment Agency. The agency reported that five of its fourteen operational regions are already in drought, […]

31 Jul 2025

Farmers in England will get new payments for cleaning up the waterways near their land, the environment secretary has said, as reported in the Guardian. Speaking at the National Farmers’ Union water summit at Beeston Hall farm in West Yorkshire, Steve Reed said his department would be launching changes to the sustainable farming incentive (SFI) […]

31 Jul 2025

Ofwat has proposed a £62.8m enforcement package following its finding that Anglian Water has breached its legal obligations in operating its wastewater treatment works and network.     Ofwat’s investigation found that Anglian Water has failed to operate, maintain and upgrade its wastewater assets adequately to ensure they could cope with the flows of sewage […]

31 Jul 2025

New findings from studying over two decades of satellite observations reveal that Earth’s continents have experienced unprecedented freshwater loss since 2002, driven by climate change, unsustainable groundwater use and extreme droughts. The study, led by Arizona State University and published in Science Advances, highlights the emergence of four continental-scale “mega-drying” regions, all located in the northern hemisphere, […]

31 Jul 2025

A new report released by the Convention on Wetlands warns that wetlands—ecosystems that provide water, food, livelihoods, and climate protection—are disappearing at an alarming rate. If current trends continue, up to 20% of the world’s remaining wetlands could vanish by 2050, putting an estimated $39 trillion in global benefits at risk.   Photo: Nick Fewings […]

31 Jul 2025

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) is to conclude its investigation into the regulation of combined sewer overflows after securing significant progress in tackling the issues it has raised. Through its investigation the OEP found that there have been failures to comply with environmental law by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), […]