In this week’s Down To Earth newsletter: These essential features – chosen by the Guardian’s Long Reads editors, cover everything from dirty water and sentient trees to how to find hope in a climate crisis
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This year the Guardian Long Read series celebrates its 10th anniversary. Since we launched in 2014, we’ve run more than 1,000 pieces, on everything from Algerian sheep fighting to the trials and tribulations of Durex’s chief condom guy. Over the years, we’ve also run plenty of great environment stories, and for this special edition of Down to Earth we want to highlight a few of our favourites from the archive.

Below we’ve picked 10 of our favourite climate pieces to dig into over the Christmas break – but first, this week’s most important reads.

CO2 emissions from new North Sea drilling sites would match 30 years’ worth from UK households

Ghosts of the landscape: how folklore and songs are a key to rewilding Finland’s reindeer

‘You won’t find the real criminals here’: a Just Stop Oil activist in jail at Christmas