Jonathan Watts
@jonathan-watts.bsky.social
Author of The Many Lives of James Lovelock, founder of Sumaúma.com and the Rainforest Journalism Fund. Guardian environment writer.
RIP Paul Brown, a mentor, friend and journalistic hero. Quiet-spoken but dogged and precise, he was an inspiration for me and many other environmental reporters. He and John Vidal pioneered coverage of climate, nature and energy at The Guardian & far beyond www.theguardian.com/media/2026/a...
Paul Brown obituary
The Guardian’s environment correspondent at a time when international concern over the climate began to take hold
theguardian.com
What an incredible human being and what a life! RIP Dolly Parton. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/a...
Dolly Parton, country star, actor and philanthropist, dies aged 80
Songwriter of I Will Always Love You, Jolene and 9 to 5 also invested millions in child literacy, Covid-19 vaccine development and other causes
theguardian.com
“This may be the best biography I’ve ever read” A selection of goodreads reviews of The Many Lives of James Lovelock: Science, Secrets and Gaia Theory.
Threatening thaw: climate professor on heatwave risks to permafrost Prof Gustaf Hugelius warns wildfires could accelerate release of methane and carbon as vast regions approach irreversible thresholds Latest Q&A by me in tipping point series. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
The threatening thaw: climate professor on heatwave risks to tipping point of permafrost
Prof Gustaf Hugelius warns wildfires could accelerate release of methane and carbon as vast regions approach irreversible thresholds
theguardian.com
‘The obsession with endless growth can only end in tears’: your questions on extreme weather this summer answered From Europe’s deadly heat to floods in Asia, it’s been a terrifying summer. Environment writers share causes for concern and hope. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘The obsession with endless growth can only end in tears’: your questions on extreme weather this summer answered
From Europe’s deadly heat to floods in Asia, it’s been a terrifying summer. Environment writers Jonathan Watts and Ajit Niranjan answered Reddit users’ questions about their work – and their sources o...
theguardian.com
The Lovelock Papers: Shell’s Hidden Climate Knowledge Under Scrutiny as Court Battle Looms. Ahead of a landmark climate lawsuit, confidential documents show how British scientist James Lovelock warned executives of the risks of burning fossil fuels in the 1960s. www.desmog.com/2026/07/29/t...
The Lovelock Papers: Shell’s Hidden Climate Knowledge Under Scrutiny as Court Battle Looms
“What seems to be important,” wrote the visionary British scientist, James Lovelock, in June 1966, is “the almost certain fact that the climate is worsening and the probability that the combustion of ...
desmog.com
Lancamento em São Paulo do meu livro: As Muitas Vidas de James Lovelock: Ciência, Segredos e a Teoria de Gaia. Inscreva-se aqui: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Trump and the Far Right are being fuelled by fossil money to hold back the tide of the energy transition. History and science suggest this will be calamitous for the US and the world. I eleborate on this theory with Bob Grove of Climate Hour. climatehour.net/americas-bea...
America’s Beautiful Epoch Of Oil Is Collapsing - Climate Hour
Despite desperate efforts by the oil industry and its captive U.S. government, the epoch of oil is collapsing.
climatehour.net
Masked gunmen invade Amazon communities in organised crime surge, say local leaders Delegation sent to Brasília after ‘assassins’ enter indigenous homes near Brazil’s border with Peru Story by me on narco-gang threat to rainforest and its people. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Masked men invading and taking Amazon communities ‘hostage’ in organised crime surge, say local leaders
Delegation sent to Brasília after gunmen from organised crime group enter homes in western Amazon
theguardian.com
The world’s biggest meat company, JBS, faces a landmark legal challenge to disclose how its $6 billion global expansion plan is compatible with responsibilities to the climate, nature and human rights. @jonathan-watts.bsky.social reports for @theguardian.com:
World’s largest meat company faces legal challenge over green credentials of $6bn global expansion
Greenpeace petitions Dutch courts to order JBS to disclose how its aims are compatible with responsibilities to climate and human rights
buff.ly
Myth buster: Heatwaves and climate I channel 13 sceptic doubts. The great Ed Hawkins bats each away with aplomb. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
The 13 biggest myths about heatwaves – and how to bust them
With some still unable to accept humanity’s role in climate chaos, we tackle common misconceptions and deceptions
theguardian.com
Fuel on the fire As the world swelters in ever more dangerous heat, why are oil companies being allowed to turn up the gas instead of paying for the consequences of their greed? My column on Big Oil’s mad, bad plan to increase production. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Fuel on the fire: why oil companies are profiting as the world gets dangerously hot
The scientific consensus is that burning fossil fuels drives the climate crisis, yet the world’s biggest oil companies are planning to increase production
theguardian.com
Wow! No photo but I am fairly sure I just saw a jaguar on my way home from watching the Brazil game in town. I’ve never seen one before but it crossed the road in front of me as I passed the airport. I can’t believe how big it looked. Breathtaking.
It's almost a month now since I read this EXCELLENT piece by @jonathan-watts.bsky.social, and I still can't get it out of my head. In fact, I probably never will, it explains so much about the times we're living through. That's a mark of the very best journalism. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
The American epoch of oil is collapsing. What comes next could be ugly | Jonathan Watts
China is dominating the energy transition with astonishing results, while fossil fuel fascists in the US try to turn back the clock
theguardian.com
Welcome to Trump’s World Cup, a depressingly angry version of football uniting the planet | Barney Ronay www.theguardian.com/football/202...
Welcome to Trump’s World Cup, a depressingly angry version of football uniting the planet | Barney Ronay
Ted Lasso will deliver a message of hope before the USA’s first game, in an America that is not a fit or desirable host right now
theguardian.com
Record winter temperatures in Antarctic raise fears over speed of climate breakdown - Temperatures above 15C ‘very strange’ say scientists, as snow melts and rain falls on glaciers in usually frozen region #climatecrisis Story by @jonathan-watts.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Record winter temperatures in Antarctic raise fears over speed of climate breakdown
Temperatures above 15C ‘very strange’ say scientists, as snow melts and rain falls on glaciers in usually frozen region
theguardian.com
Wishing all my China friends an unforgettable national amnesia day.
‘An equal and habitable world is possible’ New report outlines vision of doubling incomes, halving working hours and keeping global heating below 2C. My article on the Global Justice Report by Thomas Picketty, Cornelia Mohren and colleagues. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: academics set out sweeping vision for planetary survival
Global report provides an alternative to climate breakdown, political extremism and economic tensions
theguardian.com
Rainforests pushed to breaking point by new demands for resources, report says. Need for minerals, biofuels and pulp adding to pressures from ranching, monocrops, oil and logging, analysis finds Story by me. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Rainforests pushed to breaking point by new demands for resources, report says
Need for minerals, biofuels and pulp adding to pressures from ranching, monocrops, oil and logging, analysis finds
theguardian.com
This, by @jonathan-watts.bsky.social, is a brilliant, fascinating and definitional article. If you want to understand what's happening around the world, you should read it. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
The American epoch of oil is collapsing. What comes next could be ugly | Jonathan Watts
China is dominating the energy transition with astonishing result, while fossil fuel fascists in the US try to turn back the clock
theguardian.com
The 2015-2025 decade was the hottest ever measured with more than 90% of the excess heat absorbed by the #ocean. @jonathan-watts.bsky.social reports on the latest annual @wmo-global.bsky.social State of the Global #Climate report, which shows “no respite in sight” www.theguardian.com/environment/...
📣 Submissions are now OPEN for the 2026 CCNow Journalism Awards! 🔔
Extraordinary victory for the people of the Tapajos. And all of us Great article by @jonathan-watts.bsky.social - "Amid scientific warnings that the loss of the Amazon is perilously close to the point of no return, we all owe a debt to Alessandra Korap Munduruku & others who stood up" for the river
Guardian Environment@environment.theguardian.com · 7mo ago‘The river won’: how campaigners in Brazilian Amazon stopped privatisation of waterway
China’s Yangtze River shows signs of remarkable recovery after fishing ban - the most positive freshwater conservation story in the world in 20 years, says one veteran biologist Story by @jonathan-watts.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...
China’s Yangtze River shows signs of remarkable recovery after fishing ban
Doubling of fish biomass and rebounding of endangered species shows government measures starting to work, biologists say
theguardian.com
Mountain slope instability is sometimes overlooked as an acute climate risk. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
‘We’ve lost everything’: anger and despair in Sicilian town collapsing after landslide
People in Niscemi struggle to comprehend loss of homes and businesses and feel disaster could have been avoided
theguardian.com
Why Europe is pivoting from the US to China Victoria Wei interviews me about renewable energy, critical minerals, a historical turning point, the Sulker-in-Chief in the White House and reasons to be cautious about Beijing’s intentions. www.radioara.org/episodes/pan...
Panda and hotpot N° 0029 05.02.2026 Climate Change talk with Adriana and Jonathan - Radio ARA
This episode of Panda and Hotpot takes listeners on a comprehensive journey through the critical issues of climate change, featuring insights from Adriana Gonzalez of EcoCitizen Luxembourg and Jonatha...
radioara.org
Spain to ban social media access for children under 16 reut.rs/4rNX6in
Spain to ban social media access for children under 16
Spain will ban access to social media for minors under 16 and platforms will be required to implement age verification systems, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
reut.rs
🔥3.8 billion people will be exposed to extreme heat by 2050. Great to see my @smithschool.ox.ac.uk colleague and teacher Radhika Khosla interviewed by @jonathan-watts.bsky.social for the Guardian.
Number of people living in extreme heat to double by 2050 if 2C rise occurs, study finds
Scientists expect 41% of the projected global population to face the extremes, with ‘no part of the world’ immune
theguardian.com
US attack on Venezuela aims to shift direction of South America’s mineral wealth Rare earths and other resources could drive China-led energy transition or strengthen US military power and oil interests Analysis by me of latest US security strategy document. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
US attack on Venezuela will decide direction of South America’s vast mineral wealth
Outcome of aggression will determine whether rare earths and other resources drive energy transition – or strengthen US military power and oil interests
theguardian.com
