The Guardian

Wood burners are incredibly bad for the environment – and flood our homes with toxins, too. I wish I’d known that in 2008

It’s shame that has stopped me writing about it before. The shame of failing to think for myself and see the bigger picture, which is more or less my job description. Instead, I followed the crowd.

In 2008 I was refitting my house. It was a century old and poorly built. Insulating it and installing efficient appliances was expensive but straightforward, and the decisions I made were generally good ones. But the toughest issue was heating. The technology that had seemed to show most promise a few years before – domestic fuel cells – hadn’t materialised. Domestic heat pumps (which are now more accessible) were extremely expensive and scarcely deployed in the UK. That left only two options: gas or wood. I wanted to unhook myself from fossil fuels. So I went with wood.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

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Most expensive storm cost $100bn while deadliest floods killed 1,700 and displaced 7 million, report finds

The 10 most expensive storms, floods and droughts in 2022 each cost at least $3bn (£2.5bn) in a “devastating” year on the frontline of the climate crisis, a report shows.

Christian Aid has highlighted the worst climate-related disasters of the year asmore intense storms, heavy downpours and droughts are driven by rising global temperatures as a result of human activity.

Woodside Energy, Santos and BHP among companies who have sponsorship deals with Australian arts, sport, education and community organisations

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Fossil fuel interests have signed more than 500 sponsorship deals with Australian arts, sport, education and community organisations, prompting accusations they are “engineering a social licence to operate” in the face of growing public pressure on coal, gas and oil.

The oil and gas company Woodside Energy was the most frequent entrant on a list of 535 sponsorship agreements, having signed 56 deals, including with AFL team the Fremantle Dockers and the West Australian Nippers surf lifesaving program.

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For less than a tenner, do as I do: buy a hand lens, head outside and discover fungi and moulds lighting up the darkness

The profound therapeutic benefits of connecting with nature and spending time outside are well known. But in winter? When it’s cold, gloomy and everything looks dead? In fact, especially in the winter, when we are susceptible to fatigue, illness and seasonal low mood. And actually there is plenty of life, beauty and wonder right outside our doors, if we look closely.

Come and take a short walk with me in my nearest wild patch – an urban cemetery, a common environment across the British Isles.

Cop15’s long-awaited agreement will be closely watched, says the Guardian’s biodiversity editor, but it was by no means the only positive nature news, despite the heartbreaking ravages of avian flu

After 12 years, two years of Covid-related delays and two weeks of intense negotiation in Montreal, the world finally got it its once-in-a-decade deal to halt the destruction of nature. Many lauded this month’s agreement at Cop15 in Montreal as “historic”; many are hopeful that its ambition can be achieved; and many are concerned about whether action will meet words: not one of the last set of targets, set in Japan in 2010, was met in full.

But the fact that nearly 200 countries were able to sign off on an international agreement to halt the loss of biodiversity is something to applaud. Few thought it would happen. Now it is all about the implementation. With an estimated 1 million species at risk of extinction and a 69% average plunge in wildlife populations between 1970 and 2018, we must not “pause for a second”, warned the UN’s environment chief, Inger Andersen.

Increased plant growth due to warmer climate appears to be prompting change in eating habits

As the Arctic warms, concern for the plight of Santa’s favourite sleigh pullers is mounting. But in one small corner of the far flung north – Svalbard – Rudolph and his friends are thriving.

Warmer temperatures are boosting plant growth and giving Svalbard reindeer more time to build up fat reserves; they also appear to be shifting their diets towards “popsicle-like” grasses that poke up through the ice and snow, data suggests.

Frodsham golf course joins growing number of sites being put to new, more community friendly use

It was once an immaculate golf course where footballers such as Michael Owen and Dietmar Hamann teed off.

These days, the only holes are those made by badgers and woodpeckers. Instead of golfers, self-sown silver birch saplings march over the greens.

Guardian photographers travelled across the country to capture the work of nature lovers and conservationists. They came back with heritage oats, urban oases and the sadness of storm-ripped trees

Test your knowledge

1 From December to early February, the sound of foxes shrieking at night can be heard across the UK. What does the shriek mean?

A Vixens are telling males where to dig their dens

Wilder Blean project aims to utilise ‘ecosystem engineers’ to naturally rewild former pine plantation

The UK’s first wild bison herd for thousands of years has been completed in time for Christmas with the release of the herd’s bull.

Three females were released into woods in Kent in July as part of the Wilder Blean project. But the bull’s arrival from Germany had been delayed by five months due to post-Brexit paperwork complexities. The herd also has a young calf, thanks to a surprise birth in September.

Spending bill passed by Senate includes less than $1bn in climate assistance for poorer nations even though Biden promised $11.4bn

The US has risked alienating developing countries hit hardest by the climate crisis, after Congress delivered just a fraction of the money promised by Joe Biden to help poorer nations adapt to worsening storms, floods and droughts.

Biden has promised $11.4bn each year for developing countries to ease climate impacts and help them shift to renewable energy but the vast $1.7tn spending bill to keep the US government running, passed by the Senate on Thursday, includes less than $1bn in climate assistance for these countries.

It may sound anti-Christmas, but we need to control these pests to protect our native ecosystems

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As Christmas approaches, the image of Rudolph’s red nose and the sound of jingling bells as Santa’s trusty team of reindeer pull his sleigh captures the imagination of Australian children. But while these reindeer bring joy to the Christmas season, there is a darker side to their Australian counterparts. Feral deer are one of the most serious emerging environmental and agricultural threats to Australia.

Deer don’t belong in the Australian bush. Unlike much of the world, where deer are native, our plants and wildlife haven’t evolved to deal with their hard hooves and voracious appetite. They overgraze and trample native grasslands, they ring-bark native shrubs and trees and they cause erosion and pollution by wallowing in wetlands and streams. They eat fruit trees, grapevines, crops and pastures and destroy fences, costing farmers tens of thousands of dollars every year. Deer browse on and kill trees planted by Landcare groups, foresters, farmers and local councils. After bushfires, feral deer eat any new growth and stop revegetation.

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As I lie down under a 2,000-year-old small-leaved lime coppice, I contemplate what is truly sacred

• What was the image on your phone that defined 2022? Writers give their perspectives

This is me trying to have a sacred encounter with the 2,000-year-old small-leaved lime coppice at Westonbirt Arboretum. Because of my terrible hunched posture I’m always looking for an opportunity to lie down and alleviate the pain in my back. Because of my great love of trees I am always looking for an opportunity to lie down in a woodland. And because we lost a beloved cousin tragically young this summer, I was also looking for opportunities to be quiet and think of him and have a little cry. This was my moment.

We recently welcomed a puppy to our family, and he has taken a special liking to me because I’m the person who walks him and feeds him; I’m not really a dog person, so he’s made it his personal mission to convert me. I guess it’s working, I love him in a sort of gently revelatory, deeply trying, must-learn-to-be-patient way. He joined me in the ancient green cavern, whining. I don’t like to have my face licked when I’m having a reflective moment. His name is Happy, so if you were passing the lime coppice you would have heard me saying, “No Happy. Fuck’s sake, Happy. Happy, please leave me alone for two seconds.”

Max Porter’s new novel, Shy, is out next year

Cold air from north Canada brings wind-chill warnings over area stretching down to Mexico border

Much of the United States is experiencing very cold conditions as cold air plunges south from northern Canada all the way to the Gulf coast, giving freezing temperatures across most of the country.

An area of low pressure in the Great Lakes region brought snow and bitter winds. Twenty centimetres (8in) of snow was reported in the twin city area of Minneapolis-Saint Paul in Minnesota on Wednesday. The surge of cold air also affected areas farther west, with a sharp cold front bringing a dramatic 22C (40F) drop in just 30 minutes in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a released Iberian lynx, spectacled teals and twin giraffes

Exclusive: Forestry Act 1967 to change from 1 January to deter people from flattening trees and accepting paltry penalties

Illegal tree felling in England will be punishable by unlimited fines and prison sentences from 1 January, the government has announced.

The current fine for cutting down a tree without a licence, established by the Forestry Act 1967, is £2,500 or twice the value of the timber, whichever is the higher.

Environment Agency under fire for extending schedule for tackling pollution in rivers, lakes and coastal waters to 2063

Targets to clean up the majority of England’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters suffering from a cocktail of agricultural and sewage pollution have been pushed back from 2027 to 2063.

Not one English waterway, including rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters is in good ecological and chemical health at present, with pollution from water treatment plants and agriculture the key sources of the damage. The Environment Agency said on Thursday £5.3bn was being invested for the next five years to stop the further deterioration of waterways.

The environmental crisis changed the political tide in 2022. There are some reasons to be optimistic about the outlook ahead – but much more to be done

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The year 2022 is likely to be seen as one in which Australians started to act as though the climate and environmental crises are not just abstract ideas that mostly happen somewhere else or in the distant future.

As it marks the end of its first decade, Guardian Australia will scrutinise climate policies, cost-of-living measures and contribute to the Indigenous voice debate

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Many of us emerged from the anxious isolation of the Covid years hesitantly, measuring our steps into the new normal of life. We settled into different patterns of working, travelled a little and dared to plan for things other than just getting through the pandemic.

But Australians also seemed to resume their lives with a resolve that some things should change.

November statistics show fear EU regressing on climate commitments because of war in Ukraine is unfounded

Returning to coal-fired power generation in some parts of Europe has not prevented strong progress on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, data shows.

Emissions for November for the EU were at their lowest in at least 30 years, as were gas consumption, carbon from the power sector, and power generation from fossil fuels, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.