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The Guardian
Extreme heat affecting nearly 23m people across US south-west and pushing Texas’s electrical grid to the limit.
UN says a global ‘backlash’ against climate action is being stoked by fossil fuel companies
Temperatures reach 45C in parts of the country and 225 people seek treatment for heatstroke
As the climate crisis causes heavier and more frequent floods across the US, one in four small businesses are one disaster away from shutting down
Melting of ice is slowing planet’s rotation and could disrupt internet traffic, financial transactions and GPS
Warning after intensification of storm aided by unusually hot ocean waters in much of Beryl’s path. Hurricane Beryl, which slammed into Texas on Monday after wreaking havoc in the Caribbean, was supercharged by “absolutely crazy” ocean temperatures that are likely to fuel further violent storms in the coming months, scientists have warned.
Blackened trees, dead animals and scorched earth – early wildfires have already devastated Brazil’s Pantanal and local people worry they may lose the battle to save them
Economic growth allows the few to grow ever-wealthier. Ending poverty and environmental catastrophe demands fresh thinking
Small increase in temperature of intruding water could lead to very big increase in loss of ice, scientists say
Scientists warn of ‘scary’ feedback loop in which fires create more heating, which causes more fires worldwide
The contaminants have also recently been found in testes and semen amid concerns about falling male fertility
This year elections are taking place across the globe, covering almost half of the world’s population. It is also likely to be, yet again, the hottest year recorded as the climate crisis intensifies. The Guardian asked young climate activists around the world what they want from the elections and whether politics is working in the fight to halt global heating.
Sudden cut in pollution in 2020 meant less shade from sun and was ‘substantial’ factor in record surface temperatures in 2023, study finds
Winter downpours also made 20% wetter and will occur every three years without urgent carbon cuts, experts warn
‘Catastrophic’ global decline due to dams, mining, diverting water and pollution threatens humans and ecosystems, study warns
Human-caused climate crisis brought soaring temperatures across Asia, from Gaza to Delhi to Manila
Nous avons demandé à 380 climatologues de renom ce qu’ils pensaient de l’avenir… Ils sont terrifiés, mais déterminés à continuer à se battre. Exclusif : Une enquête menée auprès de centaines d’experts révèle une image terrifiante de l’avenir, mais ils préviennent que la lutte contre le changement climatique ne doit pas être abandonnée.
Een enquête van de Britse krant The Guardian onder 380 vooraanstaande klimaatwetenschappers levert ontnuchterende resultaten op. Amper 1 op de 20 gelooft nog in het meest optimistische scenario. Toch moet de wereld blijven strijden tegen elke fractie opwarming.
Climate scientists have told the Guardian they expect catastrophic levels of global heating. Here’s what that would mean for the planet
Editorial: Top experts believe global temperatures will rise by at least 2.5C above pre-industrial levels by 2100. That frightening prediction must spur us to action
Exclusive: Survey of hundreds of experts reveals harrowing picture of future, but they warn climate fight must not be abandoned
Exclusive: Planet is headed for at least 2.5C of heating with disastrous results for humanity, poll of hundreds of scientists finds
Outgoing special rapporteur David Boyd says ‘there’s something wrong with our brains that we can’t understand how grave this is’
Oil and gas equipment intended to cut methane emissions is preventing scientists from accurately detecting greenhouse gases and pollutants, a satellite image investigation has revealed. Energy companies operating in countries such as the US, UK, Germany and Norway appear to have installed technology that could stop researchers from identifying methane, carbon dioxide emissions and pollutants at industrial facilities involved in the disposal of unprofitable natural gas, known in the industry as flaring.
Unesco joint research dating back 15 years found violence and intimidation against about 750 reporters and 44 murders
Marcus Decker dared to protest the climate crisis and was punished. Now he could be deported, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
Cost of environmental damage will be six times higher than price of limiting global heating to 2C, study finds
The law will come into force in national parks within two years and in all of the country’s marine protected areas by 2030
Weak government climate policies violate fundamental human rights, the European court of human rights has ruled
If the anomaly does not stabilise by August, ‘the world will be in uncharted territory’, says climate expert
Environmental pledges are being shredded to please agribusiness and appease extremists. It’s a terrible mistake, says environmental writer Arthur Neslen
World’s fossil-fuel producers on track to nearly quadruple output from newly approved projects by decade’s end, report finds
Dr Sarah Benn has long been concerned about the climate crisis, diligently recycling until she was “blue in the face”. But the rise of the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion in 2019 inspired her and her husband to go further. “We thought: well, if we don’t do it then who else is going to?”
Activist accuses Sweden of being ‘very good at greenwashing’ as group sits outside building’s main entrance. Greta Thunberg has accused Sweden of being “very good at greenwashing” as she staged a protest along with about 50 other activists outside her home country’s parliament.
Dangers of wildfires, extreme weather and other factors outgrowing preparedness, European Environment Agency says
European nations must end the repression and criminalisation of peaceful protest and urgently take action to cut emissions in line with the Paris climate agreement to limit global heating to 1.5C, the UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders has said.
Scientists express concern over health impacts, with another study finding particles in arteries
In Munich I heard both Ukrainians and Alexei Navalny’s widow tell us why Putin must be defeated, says Guardian columnist Timothy Garton Ash
Rapid ocean warming and unusually hot winter days recorded as human-made global heating combines with El Niño
Companies knew for decades recycling was not viable but promoted it regardless, Center for Climate Integrity study finds
Collapse in system of currents that helps regulate global climate would be at such speed that adaptation would be impossible
Exclusive: Meeting took place days after BP reported record profits while households were squeezed by high energy bills
EN
In a world built by plutocrats, the powerful are protected while vengeful laws silence their critics
(02/02) - George MonbiotIn the UK and around the world, those who challenge rich corporations are being hounded and crushed with ever-more inventive penalties, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
Existing production destroys more value than it creates due to medical and environmental costs, researchers say
Grâce à leur prix modique, les nouilles instantanées ont conquis les rues et les troquets africains. Mais ce plat lyophilisé est un produit ultratransformé qui présente des risques pour la santé, avertit “The Guardian”.
Total is 20% higher than thought and may have implications for collapse of globally important north Atlantic ocean currents The Greenland ice cap is losing an average of 30m tonnes of ice an hour due to the climate crisis, a study has revealed, which is 20% more than was previously thought. Some scientists are concerned that this additional source of freshwater pouring into the north Atlantic might mean a collapse of the ocean currents called the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc) is closer to being triggered, with severe consequences for humanity.
New paper claims unless demand for resources is reduced, many other innovations are just a sticking plaster Record heat, record emissions, record fossil fuel consumption. One month out from Cop28, the world is further than ever from reaching its collective climate goals. At the root of all these problems, according to recent research, is the human “behavioural crisis”, a term coined by an interdisciplinary team of scientists.
Exclusive: First months of conflict produced more planet-warming gases than 20 climate-vulnerable nations do in a year, study shows
James Hansen says limit will be passed ‘for all practical purposes’ by May though other experts predict that will happen in 2030s
Ce sigle effrayant, pour “Wounded child, no surviving family”, utilisé par les travailleurs humanitaires reflète la réalité d’un conflit dans lequel 40 % des victimes seraient des mineurs, rappelle “The Guardian”. Et la situation ne peut qu’empirer.
Avec la disparition de son patrimoine matériel, de ses universitaires, de ses artistes et même de ses cimetières, c’est toute une nation, avec sa population, sa culture et son identité propres, qui est en train d’être effacée dans l’enclave palestinienne, écrit la chroniqueuse Nesrine Malik dans ce texte émouvant.
Oil cartel warns ‘pressure may reach a tipping point’ and that ‘politically motivated campaigns put our prosperity’ at risk
Humanity faces ‘devastating domino effects’ including mass displacement and financial ruin as planet warms
‘We need you,’ says Scientist Rebellion, which includes authors of IPCC reports on climate breakdown, as diplomats meet for Cop28
Exclusive: UAE’s Sultan Al Jaber says phase-out of coal, oil and gas would take world ‘back into caves’
World Meteorological Organization says 2023 will be hottest year on record, leaving ‘trail of devastation and despair’
It’s obscene that the super-rich can criminalise protest, while they burn the world’s resources and remain untouched by the law, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
Saudi Arabia is driving a huge global investment plan to create demand for its oil and gas in developing countries, an undercover investigation has revealed. Critics said the plan was designed to get countries “hooked on its harmful products”. Little was known about the oil demand sustainability programme (ODSP) but the investigation obtained detailed information on plans to drive up the use of fossil fuel-powered cars, buses and planes in Africa and elsewhere, as rich countries increasingly switch to clean energy.
Daily atmospheric carbon dioxide data from Hawaiian volcano more than double last decade’s annual average
Global fall averaged 4.2% between 2010 and 2022 but would have been far more if vehicle sizes stayed same
World Meteorological Organization sees ‘no end in sight to the rising trend’, largely driven by fossil fuel burning
When Rishi Sunak granted 27 new North Sea licences this week, he wasn’t thinking about the survival of the living world, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
Exclusive: UK climate campaign group Possible calls for ‘polluter pays’ tax based on vehicle size
UK has led the way, with countries across the continent making mass arrests, passing draconian new laws and labelling activists as eco-terrorists
The renowned US scientist’s new book examines 4bn years of climate history to conclude we are in a ‘fragile moment’ but there is still time to act
Maar liefst 98 procent van de Europeanen leeft in een gebied met een schadelijke luchtkwaliteit. Dat blijkt uit onderzoek in opdracht van de Britse krant The Guardian.
Guardian investigation finds 98% of Europeans breathing highly damaging polluted air linked to 400,000 deaths a year
Human activity has caused species groups to go extinct 35 times faster than they have over the past 500 years
Techniques such as solar radiation management may have unintended consequences, scientists say
First complete ‘scientific health check’ shows most global systems beyond stable range in which modern civilisation emerged
Forecast downturn still ‘nowhere near steep enough’ to limit temperature rise to 1.5C, says watchdog
Study highlights conflict between Washington’s claims of climate leadership and its fossil fuel growth plans
Colombia was the deadliest country and a fifth of the 177 recorded killings took place in the Amazon rainforest, says Global Witness
Extreme weather is ‘smacking us in the face’ with worse to come, but a ‘tiny window’ of hope remains, say leading climate scientists
Heatwaves, wildfires and floods are just the ‘tip of the iceberg’, leading climate scientists say
Cooperation is not only in the best interests of all countries, but is absolutely necessary for the survival of the planet
Link to climate activism is seven times stronger for anger than it is for hope, say Norwegian researchers
Human-caused climate disruption and El Niño push temperature in mountains to 37C
The celebrated science broadcaster and environmental activist says we have to stop elevating the economy and politics over the state of our world
Antarctica’s sea ice levels are plummeting as extreme weather events happen faster than scientists predicted
Exclusive: Long list of ‘sensitive’ topics for petrostate include oil and gas production, emissions and Yemen war crimes
les scientifiques du climat sont horrifiés et exaspérés par les prévisions mondiales. Par 7 experts du Climat - Alors que l’hémisphère nord brûle, les experts ressentent une profonde tristesse – et du ressentiment – en redoutant ce qui attend l’été australien. Le Guardian Australia a demandé à sept éminents climatologues de décrire ce qu’ils ressentent alors qu’une grande partie de l’hémisphère nord est engloutie par des vagues de chaleur torrides et qu’un certain nombre de records climatiques terrestres et océaniques mondiaux sont battus.
A collapse would bring catastrophic climate impacts but scientists disagree over the new analysis
As the northern hemisphere burns, experts feel deep sadness – and resentment – while dreading what lies ahead this Australian summer
After hottest day ever, researchers say global heating may mean future of crop failures on land and ‘silent dying’ in the oceans
le scientifique qui a tiré la sonnette d’alarme sur le climat dans les années 80 annonce le pire pour l’avenir. James Hansen, qui a témoigné devant le Congrès sur le réchauffement de la planète en 1988, affirme que le monde s’approche d’une « nouvelle limite climatique ».
James Hansen, who testified to Congress on global heating in 1988, says world is approaching a ‘new climate frontier’
Energy firms have made record profits by increasing production of oil and gas, far from their promises of rolling back emissions
Climate breakdown and crop losses threaten our survival, but the ultra-rich find ever more creative ways to maintain the status quo, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
Three brush fires burning in rural areas across Riverside county, where 1,000 homes are under evacuation orders
Plutonium spike in Canadian lake sediments marks dawn of new epoch in which humanity dominates planet
Many of those who drowned near Greece last month were escaping environmental crises in Pakistan, says author Fatima Bhutto
EN
The biggest gold rush in history is about to start in the deep sea – leaving devastation in its wake
(07/07) - Guy StandingApplications to mine the seabed in our ocean commons can be made from 9 July, says Guy Standing, author of The Blue Commons
Emmanuel Macron’s government is at least doing the bare minimum to avert the planetary crisis – and putting the UK to shame, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
Countries in debt distress thrown financial lifeline but critics say measures fall short of what is needed
Amazon rainforest and other ecosystems could collapse ‘very soon’, researchers warn
Research allays fears that rapid scaling back of production would hit people’s savings and pensions hard
Taxing world’s wealthiest people could help poorer countries shift economies to low-carbon and recover from climate damage
World Bank says subsidies costing as much as $23m a minute must be repurposed to fight climate crisis...
As climate policy is weakened, extreme weather intensifies and more refugees are driven from their homes – and the cycle of hatred continues, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
La compagnie pétrolière émiratie Adnoc a pu lire des courriels adressés à l'organisation de la COP28 sur le climat, ou en émanant, et a été consultée sur la manière de répondre à des journalistes, affirme le journal britannique The Guardian mercredi.Les Émirats arabes unis ont choisi Sultan al-Jaber, patron du géant pétrolier émirati Adnoc, pour présider la grande conférence de l'ONU sur le climat en fin d'année. Ce choix a été critiqué notamment par des ONG et des parlementaires européens et américains, mais le dirigeant a conservé sa double occupation.
State Farm will almost entirely stop issuing new policies in California – with climate-exacerbated wildfires and bad public policy a large reason why
Ice-free summers inevitable even with sharp emissions cuts and likely to result in more extreme heatwaves and floods
Going beyond climate disruption, the report by the Earth Commission group of scientists presents disturbing evidence that our planet faces growing crises of water availability, nutrient loading, ecosystem maintenance and aerosol pollution. These pose threats to the stability of life-support systems and worsen social equality.
Recycled and reused food contact plastics are “vectors for spreading chemicals of concern” because they accumulate and release hundreds of dangerous toxins like styrene, benzene, bisphenol, heavy metals, formaldehyde and phthalates, new research finds.
Hundreds of students and graduates vow not to work for ‘climate wreckers that insure those responsible for the climate crisis’
World is on track for 2.7C and ‘phenomenal’ human suffering, scientists warn. Up to 1 billion people could choose to migrate to cooler places, the scientists said, although those areas remaining within the climate niche would still experience more frequent heatwaves and droughts. However, urgent action to lower carbon emissions and keep global temperature rise to 1.5C would cut the number of people pushed outside the climate niche by 80%, to 400 million.
Record sea surface temperatures suggest the Earth is headed for ‘uncharted territory’ in terms of sea level rise, coastal flooding and extreme weather
Abusive, often violent tweets denying the climate emergency have become a barrage since Elon Musk acquired the platform, say UK experts
Chemicals yield profit of about $4bn a year for the world’s biggest PFAS manufacturers, Sweden-based NGO found
Higher rates slow the renewable energy transition and shield oil and gas producers from competition by low-carbon producers
Fourth year in a row in which number of people facing food crises increased substantially
The 21-year-old Iraqi, who lived by a smoke-choked oilfield, died of cancer. His message must be heard, says journalist Jess Kelly
Un rapport de référence appelle à une révision de la gestion mondiale des ressources en eau et de son gaspillage. Source : The Guardian, Fiona HarveyTraduit par les lecteurs du site Les-Crises Le m…
Recent leaks from oil sands tailings ponds have contaminated water, sowing mistrust among local First Nations people
How to Blow Up a Pipeline makes a case for sabotage, but hope remains that we can build rather than destroy, says campaigner Natasha Walter
Andreas Malm says he has no hope in ‘dominant classes’, and urges more radical approach to climate activism.
Pools and well-watered gardens at least as damaging as climate emergency or population growth
Those with higher levels of PFAS in their blood had 40% lower chance of conceiving within a year of trying
Campaigners say Rosebank, with a potential yield of 500m barrels, would seriously undermine legal commitment to net zero
UK tops all league tables for highly polluting form of travel, with a flight taking off every six minutes last year
Population likely to peak sooner and lower than expected with beneficial results – but environment is priority
An investigation by conservationists has found evidence that deep-seabed mining of rare minerals could cause “extensive and irreversible” damage to the planet.The report, to be published on Monday by the international wildlife charity Fauna & Flora, adds to the growing controversy that surrounds proposals to sweep the ocean floor of rare minerals that include cobalt, manganese and nickel. Mining companies want to exploit these deposits – which are crucial to the alternative energy sector – because land supplies are running low, they say.
I cannot support laws that defend those who destroy the planet, and criminalise those who try to protect it, says Jolyon Maugham KC
Pie-in-the-sky fantasies of carbon capture and geoengineering are a way for decision-makers to delay taking real action
Six KCs among more than 120 mostly English lawyers to sign pledge not to act for fossil fuel interests
Avian flu has decimated the marine creatures on the country’s Pacific coastline and scientists fear it could be jumping from mammal to mammal
Since 1992, the IPCC has highlighted rising greenhouse gases, marking their ‘widespread and unprecedented’ impacts by 2014
IPCC report says only swift and drastic action can avert irrevocable damage to world
Misguided policies are hurting the poorest in society; our focus should be on reducing inequality not increasing GDP
Research finds waste flushed down toilets and sent to sewage plants probably responsible for significant source of water pollution
The excessive use of phosphorus is depleting reserves vital to global food production, while also adding to the climate crisis
An unprecedented rise in plastic pollution has been uncovered by scientists, who have calculated that more than 170tn plastic particles are afloat in the oceans. They have called for a reduction in the production of plastics, warning that “cleanup is futile” if they continue to be pumped into the environment at the current rate.
Vast releases of gas, along with future ‘methane bombs’, represent huge threat – but curbing emissions would rapidly reduce global heating
With the continent holding enough ice to raise sea levels by many metres if it was to melt, polar scientists are scrambling for answers
Popularity of sport utility vehicles driving higher oil demand and climate crisis, say experts
Guardian analysis of data in light of Ohio train derailment shows accidental releases are happening consistently
The steady destruction of wildlife can suddenly tip over into total ecosystem collapse, scientists studying the greatest mass extinction in Earth’s history have found. Many scientists think the huge current losses of biodiversity are the start of a new mass extinction. But the new research shows total ecosystem collapse is “inevitable”, if the losses are not reversed, the scientists said.
Former UN secretary general calls for rich countries to honour promises made to the developing world after years of failure
Last year, 3 million were displaced in the US. Millions more will follow – and neither they, the government or the housing market are ready
Major mapping project reveals PFAS have been found at high levels at thousands of sites
It’s not ‘the whole truth and nothing but the truth’ if campaigners cannot explain their motivations to a jury, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
Past governments blamed the growing of coca – the base component of cocaine – for clearcutting, but a recent study shows otherwise
A train derailed and flooded a town with cancer-causing chemicals. But something larger, and more troubling, is at work.
The world is at risk of descending into a climate “doom loop”, a thinktank report has warned. It said simply coping with the escalating impacts of the climate crisis could draw resources and focus away from the efforts to slash carbon emissions, making the situation even worse.
An increase in the pace at which sea levels are rising threatens “a mass exodus of entire populations on a biblical scale”, the UN secretary general has warned. The climate crisis is causing sea levels to rise faster than for 3,000 years, bringing a “torrent of trouble” to almost a billion people, from London to Los Angeles and Bangkok to Buenos Aires, António Guterres said on Tuesday. Some nations could cease to exist, drowned under the waves, he said.
Canadian author and professor of climate justice cautiously hails loss and damage agreements at Cop27. " I think the most important thing is to just find other people. Trying to think through this by yourself is a recipe for feeling like a failure and getting dispirited very, very quickly. The benefit of being part of a broader movement is knowing that some people are doing some things, and other people are doing other things, and nobody has to do everything."
Black Mountains College in Wales aims to prepare students for life during a planetary emergency. The college is this year offering a radical new degree course designed to prepare students for a career in times of climate breakdown, and build a generation with the innovative skills and ideas required to tackle the crisis.
Claimants ClientEarth say the oil company’s plan puts the company at financial risk as the world transitions to clean energy, The directors of oil major Shell are being personally sued over their climate strategy, which the claimants say is inadequate to meet climate targets and puts the company at risk as the world switches to clean energy.
We are a species that is superb at killing, says veteran oceanographer, who calls for us to stop treating fish like crops and give them the respect they deserve
The fallout when the industry fails to act is still smaller than the rewards for pumping out more pollution
Examination of trees alive at the time shows three years of severe drought that may have caused crop failures and famine
Wind, water and solar energy is cheap, effective and green. We don’t need experimental or risky energy sources to save our planet
Dozens of people have been imprisoned, as changes in the law are used to curb protest. Is it part of a turn towards a more authoritarian state?
Une étude relayée par le quotidien “The Guardian” fait le lien entre concentration de particules fines et capacité à prendre des décisions stratégiques. Pour les joueurs d’échecs, plus la qualité de l’air est mauvaise, plus le risque de faire des erreurs augmente.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund threatens to vote against boards on firms it holds investments with over lax climate and social targets
Letters: I risked prison to stand up against an system that will lead to ecological and societal collapse – we must look for alternative economic models, writes Zoe Cohen
Researchers found that exceeding the 2C increase has a 50% chance of happening by mid-century
Three “super-tipping points” for climate action could trigger a cascade of decarbonisation across the global economy, according to a report. Relatively small policy interventions on electric cars, plant-based alternatives to meat and green fertilisers would lead to unstoppable growth in those sectors, the experts said. But the boost this would give to battery and hydrogen production would mean crucial knock-on benefits for other sectors including energy storage and aviation.
Several US states say news that Exxon scientists predicted global heating accurately strengthens their lawsuits against company
More than 40% of land vertebrates will be threatened by extreme heat by the end of the century under a high emissions scenario, with freak temperatures once regarded as rare likely to become the norm, new research warns. Reptiles, birds, amphibians and mammals are being exposed to extreme heat events of increasing frequency, duration and intensity, as a result of human-driven global heating. This poses a substantial threat to the planet’s biodiversity, a new study warns. Under a high emissions scenario of 4.4C warming, 41% of land vertebrates will experience extreme thermal events by 2099, according to the paper, published in Nature.
Investigation into Verra carbon standard finds most are ‘phantom credits’ and may worsen global heating
Carbon offsets can help achieve emissions goals, some experts argue, while others say they are actively dangerous
Carbon credits and offsets do not have a great record but the funds they raise are a vital part in fight against deforestation
It beggars belief that the UN thought it a good idea to allow an authoritarian petro-state to host the already compromised summit, says Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of climate hazards
The oil giant Exxon privately “predicted global warming correctly and skilfully” only to then spend decades publicly rubbishing such science in order to protect its core business, new research has found.
Group says forcing polluters to store carbon dioxide underground is needed to help world reach net zero
Humanity is now a ‘geological superpower’ and declaring a new epoch is critical to tackling its impact, scientists say
Over the past 12 months, courts from Indonesia to Australia have made groundbreaking rulings that blocked polluting power plants and denounced the human rights violations of the climate crisis. But 2023 could be even more important, with hearings and judgments across the world poised to throw light on the worst perpetrators, give victims a voice and force recalcitrant governments and companies into
People in developing countries are feeling increasingly angry and “victimised” by the climate crisis, the US climate envoy John Kerry has warned, and rich countries must respond urgently. “I’ve been chronicling the increased frustration and anger of island states and vulnerable countries and small African nations and others around the world that feel victimised by the fact that they are a minuscule component of emissions,” he said. “And yet [they are] paying a very high price. Seventeen of the 20 most affected countries in the world, by the climate crisis, are in Africa, and yet 48 sub-Saharan countries total 0.55% of all emissions.”
The climate protest group Extinction Rebellion is shifting tactics from disruptions such as smashing windows and glueing themselves to public places in 2023, it has announced. A new year resolution to “prioritise attendance over arrest and relationships over roadblocks”, was spelled out in a 1 January statement titled “We quit”, which said “constantly evolving tactics is a necessary approach”.
Scientists are to pick a location that sums up the current Anthropocene epoch when Homo sapiens made its mark
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‘Battle for the nation’s soul’: Norway faces debate about gas and oil wealth | Norway | The Guardian
(01/01) - Philip OltermannRussia’s war in Ukraine has earned Norway billions – and caused controversy. Thanks to oil and gas reserves in the waters off its coast, Norway is not only extremely rich but getting richer still. Already the World Bank’s seventh wealthiest country by GDP per capita at the start of this year, the resource-rich Scandinavian country’s profits have ballooned to record levels over the last 12 months, as prices on the energy markets tripled due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Norway replaced bellicose Moscow as Europe’s largest supplier of gas.
Overall, however, the climate crisis is bleaker than it has ever been. In October, a slew of reports laid bare how close the planet had neared to irreversible climate breakdown, with one UN study stating there was “no credible pathway in place to 1.5C”, the internationally agreed limit for global heating, and that progress on cutting carbon emissions was “woefully inadequate”.
Most expensive storm cost $100bn while deadliest floods killed 1,700 and displaced 7 million, report finds
The world’s reliance on hi-tech capitalist solutions to the climate and ecological crises is perpetuating racism, the outgoing UN racism rapporteur has warned. Green solutions including electric cars, renewable energy and the rewilding of vast tracts of land are being implemented at the expense of racially and ethnically marginalised groups and Indigenous peoples, Tendayi Achiume told the Guardian in an interview.
The number of insects splattered on vehicle number plates in Britain fell by 64% between 2004 and 2022, according to a survey. Each summer citizen scientists record the number of insect splats on their number plates on an app after a journey. The latest Bugs Matter report, produced by Kent Wildlife Trust and Buglife, found another drop in 2022 compared with 2021, with the long-term decrease jumping by five percentage points.
More than two decades on from the protocol, country shows enthusiasm for nuclear restarts over renewables
It’s not just indifference. It’s an active, and deadly, cavalier attitude towards the lives of others: an example other nations follow
A climate protester who blocked a lane of traffic on Sydney Harbour Bridge has been sentenced to 15 months in prison with a non-parole period of eight months, with human rights advocates labelling the punishment “disproportionate”.
Fossil fuels, fisheries and farming: the world’s most destructive industries are protected – and subsidised – by governments
We know that the easiest way for a politician to secure power is to appease those who already possess it, those whose power transcends elections: the oil barons, the media barons, the corporations and financial markets. We know that this power appoints the worst possible people at the worst possible time. We know how, as elderly billionaires seek to grab ever more of the life that slips from them, they create a death cult....
All students at the University of Barcelona will have to take a mandatory course on the climate crisis after the establishment agreed to meet the demands of activists conducting a sit-in occupation. The announcement came after a seven-day occupation by a group from the anti-fossil fuel organisation End Fossil Barcelona.
In his Cop27 speech this week, our will-he-go, won’t-he-go prime minister said that stopping the planet dangerously overheating was still within our grasp, leaving many wondering just what planet he was on. According to Rishi Sunak, last year’s Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow was all about keeping alive the possibility of preventing the global average temperature rise since the Industrial Revolution from climbing above 1.5C. That is “alive”, as in connected to a drip, in a coma and suffering cardiac arrest every few hours.
Rich countries must urgently develop a plan to assist countries suffering the ravages of extreme weather, as failure to take early action on the climate crisis has left them increasingly vulnerable, developing nations have said. The V20 – made up of the 20 vulnerable countries facing the worst impacts of the climate crisis, and least able to cope with them – set out its proposals on Monday for how rich countries should pay for the “loss and damage” caused by the climate crisis.
António Guterres is heading to Cop27 for what is likely to be another blistering attack on complacency and foot-dragging
António Guterres says gap between developed world and poorer countries is biggest issue facing Cop27 talks
Africa is the continent most vulnerable to the climate crisis, but with the right support at Cop27 it can build a stronger, greener future
From the seemingly inexorable increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to the rapid growth in green energy
Vast carbon store may be close to point where it could flip from absorbing CO2 to releasing it, research shows. The Congo peatlands are a huge carbon “timebomb” that could be triggered by the climate crisis, research has shown.
A dramatic increase in funding for climate adaptation is needed to save millions of lives from “climate carnage”, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said. Climate adaptation includes preparing defences against rising floods, shelters against intensifying cyclones and emergency plans to protect people during worsening heatwaves and droughts. Guterres said only a small fraction of the required finance was given by rich nations to protect vulnerable people.
Materials put into domestic compost are failing to disintegrate after six months – the only solution is to use less. Most plastics marketed as “home compostable” don’t actually work, with as much as 60% failing to disintegrate after six months, according to research.
The sediments preserved in these cliffs in Devon were laid down in the early Triassic period, just after the greatest mass extinction in the history of multicellular life that brought the Permian period to an end 252m years ago. Around 90% of species died, and fish and four-footed animals were more or less exterminated between 30 degrees north of the equator and 40 degrees south.
Methane emissions in the UK could be cut by more than 40% by 2030 with a raft of inexpensive policies, according to an environmental thinktank. The government has pledged to cut emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas that has more than 80 times the global heating power of CO2, by at least 30% by 2030. The move was trumpeted by Boris Johnson when he was prime minister after the UK joined more than 100 other countries to make the pledge at Cop26 in Glasgow.
Filter-feeding whales are consuming millions of particles of microplastic pollution a day, according to a study, making them the largest consumers of plastic waste on the planet. The central estimate for blue whales was 10m pieces a day, meaning more than 1bn pieces could be ingested over a three- to four-month feeding season. The weight of plastic consumed over the season was estimated at between 230kg and 4 tonnes.
“The Guardian” alerte sur une dégradation du climat “catastrophique”, alors même que deux sociétés énergétiques européennes enregistrent des bénéfices records. Un constat qui pousse le quotidien britannique à se demander : est-il encore possible de faire machine arrière ?
Failure to cut carbon emissions means ‘rapid transformation of societies’ is only option to limit impacts, report says
Joint committee on national security strategy criticises ‘severe dereliction of duty’ by ministers as threat grows
Key UN reports published in last two days warn urgent and collective action needed – as oil firms report astronomical profits The climate crisis has reached a “really bleak moment”, one of the world’s leading climate scientists has said, after a slew of major reports laid bare how close the planet is to catastrophe.
Scientists warn world ‘is heading in wrong direction’ amid rise in nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and methane.Atmospheric levels of all three greenhouse gases have reached record highs, according to a study by the World Meteorological Organization, which scientists say means the world is “heading in the wrong direction”.
As part of a major reform of the EU’s anti-pollution legislation, the European Commission said it planned to tighten air quality standards, including on one of the most dangerous pollutants, fine particulate matter. Water standards are also going to be stricter, with 25 substances added to a control list, such as the category of PFAS (also known as “forever chemicals”), the substance Bisphenol A, pesticides including glyphosate, and antibiotics.
The EU is on track to break a promise to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030 made due to a “policy vacuum” on livestock emissions, a report has warned.Most of Europe’s methane emissions come from agriculture – particularly livestock – but the EU has avoided using policy levers such as its €387bn common agricultural policy to directly tackle the problem
A large majority of the UK public supports nonviolent direct action to protect the environment, according to an opinion poll. People also strongly backed solar power on farmland and opposed fracking. The poll indicates the unpopularity of a recent swathe of government policies, with more than twice as many people saying they trusted Labour to protect the environment as said they trusted the Conservatives.
The destruction of global forests slowed in 2021 but the vital climate goal of ending deforestation by 2030 will still be missed without urgent action, according to an assessment. The area razed in 2021 fell by 6.3% after progress in some countries, notably Indonesia. But almost 7m hectares were lost and the destruction of the most carbon- and biodiversity-rich tropical rainforests fell by only 3%. The CO2 emissions resulting from the lost trees were equivalent to the emissions of the entire European Union plus Japan.
Industry groups representing some of the world’s largest companies are “opposed to almost all major biodiversity-relevant policies” and are lobbying to block them, according to a new report. Researchers found that 89% of engagement by leading industry associations in Europe and the US is designed to delay, dilute and block progress on tackling the biodiversity crisis, which scientists say is as serious as the climate emergency.
Denmark ‘gets ball rolling’ at UN ahead of protests as poor nations call for greater collective commitment. Youth groups in Africa are preparing to embark on a series of climate demonstrations on Friday to highlight the problem of “loss and damage” to poor countries blighted by climate breakdown, as only one rich country has so far stepped up with funding for the problem.
New coal power projects are becoming “effectively uninsurable” outside China because so many insurance companies have ruled out support for them, a report has found. Recent commitments to stop underwriting coal by prominent US insurers AIG and Travelers have brought the number of coal insurance exit policies to 41, according to the latest industry scorecard by the climate campaign Insure Our Future.
Concerns about climate change shrank across the world last year, with fewer than half of those questioned in a new survey believing it posed a “very serious threat” to their countries over the next 20 years.
The amount of heat accumulating in the ocean is accelerating and penetrating ever deeper, with widespread effects on extreme weather events and marine life, according to a new scientific review.
Some two dozen climate liability suits have been making their way through the courts since 2015, bolstered by media investigations and attribution studies that are able to accurately pinpoint the precise contribution climate change has made to the damages inflicted by extreme weather events. A 2021 study in the journal Nature, for example, found that just over $8bn (£7bn) of the $62.7bn (£55.3bn) in damages caused by Superstorm Sandy across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, is attributable to sea-level rise caused by climate change.
Lost nets, lines and hooks trap wildlife for years as they float in the ocean, sink to the bottom or are washed ashore
Governments may say they’re doing all they can to halt the climate crisis. Don’t fall for it – then we might still have time to turn things around ‘Stop setting things on fire’: nine great ideas to save the planet Greta Thunberg Greta Thunberg Sat 8 Oct 2022 09.00 BST Maybe it is the name that is the problem. Climate change. It doesn’t sound that bad. The word “change” resonates quite pleasantly in our restless world. No matter how fortunate we are, there is always room for the appealing possibility of improvement. Then there is the “climate” part. Again, it does not sound so bad. If you live in many of the high-emitting nations of the global north, the idea of a “changing climate” could well be interpreted as the very opposite of scary and dangerous. A changing world. A warming planet. What’s not to like?
I became a climate activist 16 years ago. Back then, not many people cared about climate change. The eye rolls were audible. Media coverage was scarce, and what little there was glibly included “both sides”. It was frustrating and tragic to see such a clear and present danger and to know that it was still mostly avoidable, yet ignored by society.
Campaigners say protesters arrested for blocking roads getting ‘lost in prison system’ while on remand. Speaking from inside the jail, he said: “The only good thing about my situation is that it seems to give an extra platform for my views. I spend most afternoons writing speeches and they have been read out all over the world – Italy, Sweden, Canada.”
A beauty company has appointed a director to represent nature on its board, giving the natural world a legal say in its business strategy. Faith In Nature, which sells soap and haircare products, as well as household cleaners and shampoo for dogs, says it is the first company in the world to give nature a formal vote on corporate decisions that might affect it
Billboards hijacked across Europe to highlight role of airline emissions in climate crisis
Healthy teenagers are more prone to irregular heartbeats after breathing in fine particulate air pollution, according to the first major study of its impact on otherwise healthy young individuals. The findings have raised concern among researchers because heart arrhythmias, which can increase the risk of heart disease and sudden cardiac death, appear to be triggered even when air pollution is within common air quality limits.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and almost 200 other health associations have made an unprecedented call for a global fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. A call to action published on Wednesday, urges governments to agree a legally binding plan to phase out fossil fuel exploration and production, similar to the framework convention on tobacco, which was negotiated under the WHO’s auspices in 2003. “The modern addiction to fossil fuels is not just an act of environmental vandalism. From the health perspective, it is an act of self-sabotage,” said the WHO president, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Governments and businesses failing to change fast enough, says United in Science report, as weather gets increasingly extreme. Despite intensifying warnings in recent years, governments and businesses have not been changing fast enough, according to the United in Science report published on Tuesday. The consequences are already being seen in increasingly extreme weather around the world, and we are in danger of provoking “tipping points” in the climate system that will mean more rapid and in some cases irreversible shifts.
Giant ice sheets, ocean currents and permafrost regions may already have passed point of irreversible change
"Les calottes glaciaires géantes, les courants océaniques et les régions de pergélisol pourraient avoir déjà franchi le point de basculement irréversible. Selon une importante étude, la crise climatique a conduit le monde au bord de plusieurs points de basculement "désastreux". Elle montre que cinq points de basculement dangereux ont peut-être déjà été franchis en raison du réchauffement planétaire de 1,1 °C causé par l'humanité à ce jour.
Group says ‘climate disaster’ vehicles targeted in nine countries including the UK, France and Canada
As those most responsible for the crisis recede into history, our energy is better spent responding to the world we have created
Tech billionaires are buying up luxurious bunkers and hiring military security to survive a societal collapse they helped create, but like everything they do, it has unintended consequences
Carbon capture and storage schemes, a key plank of many governments’ net zero plans, “is not a climate solution”, the author of a major new report on the technology has said. Researchers for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) found underperforming carbon capture projects considerably outnumbered successful ones by large margins.
In An Inconvenient Apocalypse, authors Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen style themselves as heralds of some very bad news: societal collapse on a global scale is inevitable, and those who manage to survive the mass death and crumbling of the world as we know it will have to live in drastically transformed circumstances. According to Jackson and Jensen, there’s no averting this collapse – electric cars aren’t going to save us, and neither are global climate accords. The current way of things is doomed, and it’s up to us to prepare as best we can to ensure as soft a landing as possible when the inevitable apocalypse arrives.
Global public subsidies for fossil fuels almost doubled to $700bn in 2021, analysis has shown, representing a “roadblock” to tackling the climate crisis. Despite the huge profits of fossil fuel companies, the subsidies soared as governments sought to shield citizens from surging energy prices as the global economy rebounded from the Covid-19 pandemic.
US and UK financial institutions have been among the leading investors in Russian “carbon bomb” fossil fuel projects, according to a new database of holdings from recent years.
While more extreme threats are unlikely to be realised, sticking to the precautionary principle is just plain common sense. A middle of the road route would be to no one’s advantage – so, as for most situations wherein the risk is hard to quantify, there is only one sensible way forward: to hope for the best, while preparing for the worst.
A great upheaval is coming. Climate-driven movement of people is adding to a massive migration already under way to the world’s cities. The number of migrants has doubled globally over the past decade, and the issue of what to do about rapidly increasing populations of displaced people will only become greater and more urgent. To survive climate breakdown will require a planned and deliberate migration of a kind humanity has never before undertaken.
An estimated 4.5tn tobacco filters are littered each year and many end up in oceans with deadly consequences
Pet cats kill songbirds by the million, as well as rodents and other wildlife. But how much of a threat do they really pose, and should they be kept indoors? Expert opinion is divided
As the world remembers Hiroshima, it must also recommit to the increasingly fragile non-proliferation treaty. The alternative is unthinkable
Two of the UK’s leading hospitals have had to cancel operations, postpone appointments and divert seriously ill patients to other centres for the past three weeks after their computers crashed at the height of last month’s heatwave.
At his remote woodland home, Ben Green is trying to stay positive about a collapse of the food supply
Germany’s Rhine, one of Europe’s key waterways, is just days away from being closed to commercial traffic because of very low levels caused by drought, authorities and industry have warned. Crucially, the impending crisis could lead energy companies to cut their output, one of the country’s biggest gas companies has said.
A new database of extreme weather studies makes clear how far policymaking is lagging behind the reality of climate chaos
Thames Head is now more than 2 miles downstream as forecasters warn of further high temperatures to come
A coal-fired power plant that had been mothballed has become the first of its kind to be put back on to the network in Germany, as debate rages over how Europe’s largest economy will cope without Russian gas. The facility in Lower Saxony, which is owned by the Czech energy company EGH, has received emergency permission to run until April in an attempt to boost energy production.
Scientists say there are ample reasons to suspect global heating could lead to catastrophe. The risk of global societal collapse or human extinction has been “dangerously underexplored”, climate scientists have warned in an analysis. They call such a catastrophe the “climate endgame”. Though it had a small chance of occurring, given the uncertainties in future emissions and the climate system, cataclysmic scenarios could not be ruled out, they said.
Scientists think we need to pay attention to a measure of heat and humidity – and it’s edging closer to the limits of human survivability
Blistering heatwaves are just the start. We must accept how bad things are before can we head off global catastrophe, according to a leading UK scientist.
Energy prices are rocketing, inflation is soaring and millions are being starved of grain. Surely Johnson knew this would happen?
School and university students all over the world are planning to take school strikes one step further and occupy our campuses to demand the end of the fossil economy. Taking a lesson from student activists in the 1960s, the climate justice movement’s youth will shut down business as usual. Not because we don’t like learning, but because what we’ve learned already makes it clear that, without a dramatic break from this system, we cannot ensure a livable planet for our presents and futures.
It’s not too late to avert the climate crisis from becoming even more deadly – but the window is closing
Report says global south has been ‘used as place to dump waste’ and that people of colour are suffering disproportionately
Joe Biden is under pressure to declare a national climate emergency as temperatures soar across the US and Europe. Facing political gridlock in Washington, the president could make such an announcement – which would unlock federal resources to address the crisis – as soon as this week, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
Residents of an Indonesian island threatened by rising sea levels have begun legal action against the cement producer Holcim. The claim for compensation, filed in Switzerland by three men and one woman, is understood to be the first major climate damages lawsuit against a cement company.
Climate scientists have expressed shock at the UK’s smashed temperature record, with the heat soaring above 40C for the first time ever on Tuesday. Researchers are also increasingly concerned that extreme heatwaves in Europe are occurring more rapidly than models had suggested, indicating that the climate crisis on the European continent may be even worse than feared. Temperature records are usually broken by fractions of a degree, but the 40.2C recorded at Heathrow is 1.5C higher than the previous record of 38.7C recorded in 2019 in Cambridge.
Chief meteorologist says extreme temperatures ‘entirely consistent’ with human-induced climate crisis
Can we talk about it now? I mean the subject most of the media and most of the political class has been avoiding for so long. You know, the only subject that ultimately counts – the survival of life on Earth. Everyone knows, however carefully they avoid the topic, that, beside it, all the topics filling the front pages and obsessing the pundits are dust. Even the Times editors still publishing columns denying climate science know it. Even the candidates for the Tory leadership, ignoring or downplaying the issue, know it. Never has a silence been so loud or so resonant.
He has weaponised food, energy and refugees, spreading economic and political pain across the continent. Sanctions don’t work, a land for peace deal would be a disaster. Only the military route remains
Most people think Brexit has gone badly, a UK survey finds, and Johnson has left behind a mess of problems for a new PM
Europe is in danger of highly damaging “very, very strong conflict and strife” this winter over high energy prices, and should make short-term return to fossil fuels to head off the threat of civil unrest, the vice-president of the European Commission has warned. Frans Timmermans, the second most senior official in the EU, said the threat of unrest this winter, a deliberate outcome of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, must take precedence over the climate crisis.
Greenhouse gas has undergone rapid acceleration and scientists say it may be due to atmospheric changes
The US supreme court is helping to destroy our climate. But it was a much smaller decision, closer to home, that was the final straw for me
In 2005, I was the lead counsel on behalf of the US in one of the biggest corporate accountability legal actions ever filed. That trial proved that the tobacco industry knew it was selling and marketing a harmful product, that it had funded denial of public health science, and had used deceptive advertising and PR to protect assets instead of protecting consumers.
In Madrid, the organisation showed a great sense of purpose. But beware a divided Europe and a US still tired of paying for the continent’s security
In a major environmental case, the court has made clear that it would rather represent the interests of corporations and the super-rich than the needs and desires of the vast majority of Americans – or people on Earth
The EPA ruling means it may now be mathematically impossible through available avenues for the US to achieve its greenhouse gas emissions goal
It may sound like Marxism, but the proposal aimed at taming prices and cutting Putin’s funds came from the G7
President Zelenskiy and Ukraine want it finished by winter, but Russia still holds the balance of power
There’s a simple way to unite everyone behind climate justice – and it’s within our power
In March, the north and south poles had record temperatures. In May in Delhi, it hit 49C. Last week in Madrid, 40C. Experts say the worst effects of the climate emergency cannot be avoided if emissions continue to rise
António Guterres compares climate inaction to tobacco firms dismissing links between smoking and cancer
As the climate movement hits another impasse, activists Luisa Neubauer and Kumi Naidoo explain why we need to mobilise many more people from all walks of life
Drought blighting country’s longest waterway continues as economic hub battles climate crisis
Atlanta wants to build a police training facility in a forested area amid community opposition
Years before the climate crisis was part of national discourse, this memo to the president predicted catastrophe
Climatenomics lays out how ‘supply chain disruptions’ has become a euphemism for the effects of climate change
An investor’s rant gives an insight into the City’s short-termist view of the environment crisis
Models indicate that there could be between 25 and 30 extreme events a year by mid-century
An alarming trend shows average temperatures have increased by at least 2F since 1970, with even higher spikes in the west and south-west
Governments not listening to people with disabilities despite them being at high risk, say researchers
Heatwaves becoming more frequent and are beginning earlier, according to Spanish meteorological office
Researchers call for recognition of latest online strategies used to derail climate action
Three former UN climate heads say gap between government promises and actions will change environment irreversibly
Vegetated areas above the treeline in the Alps have increased by 77% since 1984, the study says. While retreating glaciers have symbolised the speed of global heating in the Alpine region, researchers described the increases in plant biomass as an “absolutely massive” change.
Strong climate action could wipe $756bn from individuals’ pension funds and other investments in rich countries
Soaring temperatures in subcontinent, which have caused widespread suffering, would be extraordinarily rare without global heating
The Bank of England governor warned last week of ‘apocalyptic’ food price rises. Yet war in Ukraine, climate change and inflation are already taking their toll all over the world. Apocalypse is an alarming idea, commonly taken to denote catastrophic destruction foreshadowing the end of the world. But in the original Greek, apokálypsis means a revelation or an uncovering. One vernacular definition is “to take the lid off something”.
Humankind is revealed as simultaneously insignificant and utterly dominant in the grand scheme of life on Earth by a groundbreaking new assessment of all life on the planet. The world’s 7.6 billion people represent just 0.01% of all living things, according to the study. Yet since the dawn of civilisation, humanity has caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of plants, while livestock kept by humans abounds.
The cost of decommissioning the UK’s seven ageing nuclear power stations has nearly doubled to £23.5bn and is likely to rise further, the public accounts committee has said. The soaring costs of safely decommissioning the advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGRs), including Dungeness B, Hunterston B and Hinkley B, are being loaded on to the taxpayer, their report said.
For the past few years, scientists have been frantically sounding an alarm that governments refuse to hear: the global food system is beginning to look like the global financial system in the run-up to 2008.
Exclusive: Nearly half existing facilities will need to close prematurely to limit heating to 1.5C, scientists say
The world’s leading energy economist has warned against investing in large new oil and gas developments, which would have little impact on the current energy crisis and soaring fuel prices but spell devastation to the planet.
Planned drilling projects across US land and waters will release 140bn metric tons of planet-heating gases if fully realised, an analysis shared with the Guardian has found. The study, to be published in the Energy Policy journal this month, found emissions from these oil and gas “carbon bomb” projects were four times larger than all of the planet-heating gases expelled globally each year, placing the world on track for disastrous climate change.
Oil and gas majors are planning scores of vast projects that threaten to shatter the 1.5C climate goal. If governments do not act, these firms will continue to cash in as the world burns
Countries should move from coal to renewable energy without shifting to gas as a “transition” fuel to save money, as high gas prices and market volatility have made the fossil fuel an expensive option, analysis has found. Natural gas has long been touted as a “transition” fuel for economies dependent on coal for their power needs, as it has lower carbon dioxide emissions than coal but requires similar centralised infrastructure, and gas-fired power stations take only a couple of years to build. Earlier this year, before Russia invaded Ukraine, the European Commission angered green campaigners by including gas as a “bridge” to clean energy in its guidebook for green investment.
PFAS-tainted sewage sludge is used as fertilizer in fields and report finds that about 20m acres of cropland could be contaminated
Climate analysts are astounded by such a high reading during the rainy season, and is the third monthly record this year
The war in Ukraine is laying bare a generational divide over what lessons Germany should draw from its own history of waging bloody conflicts, as some of the country’s leading artists and intellectuals line up in favour of or against supplying Kyiv with weapons in a series of open letters.
April temperatures at unprecedented levels have led to critical water and electricity shortages
Russia has nearly doubled its revenues from selling fossil fuels to the EU during the two months of war in Ukraine, benefiting from soaring prices even as volumes have been reduced.
Many are still missing after this month’s floods. Extreme weather is becoming more frequent, and it can be devastating
For the first time the world is in a position to limit global heating to under 2C, according to the first in-depth analysis of the net zero pledges made by nations at the UN Cop26 climate summit in December.
UV filters absorbed by Posidonia oceanica may have damaging effects on ecosystems, scientists warn
Protesters from Just Stop Oil may be breaking the law and yet still be morally right in the face of future disaster
Today’s oceans are a tumult of engine roar, artificial sonar and seismic blasts that make it impossible for marine creatures to hunt or communicate. We could make it stop, so why don’t we?
As climate crisis allows new maritime routes to be used, sooty shipping emissions accelerates ice melt and risk to ecosystems
Only the boldest leadership can unite the EU against the delusional tyrant in Moscow. The German chancellor has the chance to provide it
Germany is bracing for supplies to be cut by Moscow in retaliation for sanctions or as part of an energy embargo
Strong measures by Europe could quickly deprive Russia of oil and gas income worth billions, experts say
Armed conflict between the world’s two superpowers, while not yet inevitable, has become a real possibility. The 2020s will be the decade of living dangerously
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), made up of the world’s leading climate scientists, has now published all three sections of its landmark comprehensive review of climate science.
It is vital Moscow understands that escalation will not be risk-free, and expects a proportionate response
New data suggests forests help keep the Earth at least half of a degree cooler, protecting us from the effects of climate crisis
Environmentalists once saw abstraction as the biggest obstacle to climate action. How, they wondered, could one focus the public on the distant future? Today, we confront the opposite problem, with the very immediacy of the crisis generating a strange paralysis. When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that global heating made extreme flooding more common, its new report at the end of February spurred relatively little discussion – in part because of the water covering swathes of Queensland and New South Wales. As tinnies plucked desperate residents from the deluge, who could give due weight to the warning from Prof Brendan Mackey, one of the IPPC authors, that the science clearly projected “an increase of heavy rainfall events?”
Inflation is a disease that disproportionately afflicts the poor. Even before Vladimir Putin unleashed his brutal war on Ukraine, whose byproducts include soaring energy and food prices, inflation was already over 7.5% in the US and above 5% in Europe and the UK. Calls for its taming are, therefore, fully justified – and the interest rate rise in the US, with the same expected in the UK, comes as no surprise. That said, we know from history that the cure for inflation tends to devastate the poor even more. The new wrinkle we face today is that the supposed solutions threaten not only to deal another cruel blow to the disadvantaged but, ominously, to snuff out the desperately needed green transition.
The Ukrainian crisis has revived an old debate: how to effectively sanction a state like Russia? Let’s say it straight away: it is time to imagine a new type of sanction focused on the oligarchs who have prospered thanks to the regime in question. This will require the establishment of an international financial register, which will not be to the liking of western fortunes, whose interests are much more closely linked to those of the Russian and Chinese oligarchs than is sometimes claimed. However, it is at this price that western countries will succeed in winning the political and moral battle against the autocracies and in demonstrating to the world that the resounding speeches on democracy and justice are not simply empty words.
Minister warns an immediate stop to supplies could hurt Germany’s population more than Putin
A Russian former foreign minister has joined a call for all sides in the Ukrainian war to return to diplomacy and so reduce “the dramatically elevated risk” of a nuclear conflict. The appeal co-authored by Prof Igor Ivanov, now the president of the Russian International Affairs Council, may be a sign that some in the Russian foreign policy establishment believe that pursuing a purely military solution in Ukraine is a strategic mistake.
The west’s earlier inaction has exacted a heavy price and now attempts to overcompensate are dangerous
There are two likely paths: continued escalation, potentially across the nuclear threshold, or a bitter peace imposed on a defeated Ukraine
If the Russians are ever to withdraw, then a diplomatic agreement on the terms of withdrawal will be necessary. So what should the demands be?
Russia’s growing isolation has strengthened the ‘siloviki’ who surround the president
As head of state-owned oil firm Rosneft, oligarch commands central place in the economy
Russia’s military offensive against Ukraine is an act of aggression that will make already worrisome tensions between Nato and Moscow even more dangerous. The west’s new cold war with Russia has turned hot. Vladimir Putin bears primary responsibility for this latest development, but Nato’s arrogant, tone‐deaf policy toward Russia over the past quarter‐century deserves a large share as well. Analysts committed to a US foreign policy of realism and restraint have warned for more than a quarter‐century that continuing to expand the most powerful military alliance in history toward another major power would not end well. The war in Ukraine provides definitive confirmation that it did not.
On Sunday, Vladimir Putin ordered his nuclear deterrent forces to be placed on a “special regime of combat duty”. The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has now clarified what this meant: the increased manpower devoted to Russia’s strategic nuclear triad: land-based strategic nuclear rocket forces, sea-based nuclear deterrents in the northern and Pacific fleets and its fleet of long-range strategic bomber aircraft that can carry nuclear weapons.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, ambushed his own party and coalition partners when he announced a historic 180-degree policy turn on defence spending and exporting lethal weapons, but for now he seems to be riding a wave of broad public support.
The inventor of the Brics acronym says sanctions against Russia have exposed nations’ dependence on the western economic system
Less than a week into the war, it seems increasingly likely that Vladimir Putin is heading towards a historic defeat. He may win all the battles but still lose the war. Putin’s dream of rebuilding the Russian empire has always rested on the lie that Ukraine isn’t a real nation, that Ukrainians aren’t a real people, and that the inhabitants of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv yearn for Moscow’s rule. That’s a complete lie – Ukraine is a nation with more than a thousand years of history, and Kyiv was already a major metropolis when Moscow was not even a village. But the Russian despot has told his lie so many times that he apparently believes it himself.
The frightful noise of gunfire, bombing and children’s screams in the cities of Ukraine reverberates across Europe. The full-scale Russian invasion launched last week is an unprovoked, heinous crime perpetrated against Ukraine’s citizens, their sovereign democratic state and all the free peoples of the world. The 24th of February is a day that will live in infamy. It will not be forgiven. It will surely never be forgotten.
Why do we always make the same mistake? Oh, that’s only trouble in the Balkans, we say – and then an assassination in Sarajevo sparks the first world war. Oh, Adolf Hitler’s threat to Czechoslovakia is “a quarrel in a faraway country, between people of whom we know nothing” – and then we find ourselves in the second world war. Oh, Joseph Stalin’s takeover of distant Poland after 1945 is none of our business – and soon enough we have the cold war. Now we have done it again, not waking up until it is too late to the full implications of Vladimir Putin’s seizure of Crimea in 2014. And so, on Thursday 24 February 2022, we stand here again, clothed in nothing but the shreds of our lost illusions.
Western leaders have spent the past 20 years trying to guess what Vladimir Putin “really wants”. Very often, it’s enough just to read his words, very carefully. Because usually he means exactly what he says. And in the case of his early morning television address announcing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, his words and hints about his intentions were truly terrifying.
We must do what we can to contain Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. But we also need to be clear-eyed about it, and face the costs. Economics can’t be separated from politics, and neither can be separated from history. Here are eight sobering realities:
Un rapport des Nations unies dévoilé mercredi 23 février indique une trajectoire inquiétante concernant l’augmentation des feux de forêt. À l’horizon 2030, les “incendies extrêmes” augmenteront de 14 %, puis de 30 % en 2050, et jusqu’à 50 % à la fin du siècle. La manière de les affronter devra changer radicalement.
Accusations of greenwashing against major oil companies that claim to be in transition to clean energy are well-founded, according to the most comprehensive study to date.
Every one of us now has a duty to do something, if not for ourselves then for the survival of future generations
Commission’s move widely criticised as undermining efforts to keep global heating below 1.5C
La fin de la récré arrive et l'ensemble des marchés pourrait s'effondrer.
Wealthy companies are using the facade of ‘nature-based solutions’ to enact a great carbon land grab
Concentration record de gaz à effet de serre au niveau mondial, étés les plus chauds jamais enregistrés, événements extrêmes, les données climatiques de 2021 publiées par le programme européen d’observation de la Terre ont de quoi inquiéter.
The Stockholm University study highlights the chemicals’ mobility, which has been found in penguin eggs and polar bears
Les chercheurs ont analysé plus de 200 millions de gènes présents dans des échantillons d’ADN prélevés dans l’environnement et ont découvert 30 000 enzymes différentes capables de dégrader dix types de plastique différents.
Cracks and fissures stoke fears of breakup that could lead to half-metre rise in global sea levels – or more
Warmer winters are happening across the globe, and can be drivers of catastrophic weather events and profound changes
Wood smoke is a more important carcinogen than vehicle fumes, finds Athens analysis
The only indigenous people left in Europe are struggling to keep their way of life as the Arctic warms up
In January of 2019, Chase Lochmiller and Cully Cavness, recently reunited prep school pals from Denver, drove out to the snow-covered plains of Wyoming to bring a piece of tech culture to the American heartland. Trembling in -20F (-29C) temperatures, they wired up a prototype of their brainchild: a machine that harnesses the “waste gas” from oil rigs to power mining for cryptocurrency.
Programme to tackle pollution crisis caused by an overload of manure faces fierce opposition from farmers
Like humanity, wildlife knows no boundaries. Stopping people moving also carves up habitats, driving species to extinction
New research sees two-thirds of mollusc types only found living by hydrothermal vents added to IUCN’s red list of endangered species
Study finds natural regrowth yields better results than human plantings and offers hope for climate recovery
Aujourd’hui, la neige tombe plus souvent que la pluie en Arctique. Mais tout pourrait changer trente ans plus tôt que prévu dans les modélisations précédentes du réchauffement climatique. Avec des conséquences inquiétantes pour l’équilibre planétaire.
Mis au point en 2020 par une équipe américaine à partir de cellules d’embryons de grenouilles, les xénobots viennent de franchir une étape supplémentaire : l’autoréplication. Une forme de reproduction encore jamais observée chez les animaux ni les plantes.
Quelque 290 gigawatts de capacités nouvelles auront été installés en 2021, affirme l’Agence internationale de l’énergie. L’éolien et le solaire devraient fournir 95 % de la croissance de la production mondiale d’électricité d’ici à la fin 2026.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has declared a La Niña weather event is under way, with modelling predicting it “will persist until the late southern hemisphere summer or early autumn 2022”.
It may take bees multiple generations to recover from being exposed to insecticides even just once, research shows. A new research, published in PNAS, shows that even a single exposure to insecticides in a bee’s first year of life affects offspring production, and since the effects of the pesticides are cumulative, this results in an overall decrease in population
After almost six years of negotiations over the tangle of convoluted rules required to integrate the world’s burgeoning carbon markets – which were first put forward in article 6 of the 2015 Paris climate agreement – negotiators announced they had agreed a common set of tools. These would allow carbon markets to operate globally, and unleash trillions of dollars of green investments through so-called carbon offset programmes.
If someone has planted a time bomb in your home, you are entitled to dismantle it. The same applies to our planet
Intensive agriculture’s insatiable thirst for water is turning wetland to wasteland, draining rivers and polluting groundwater
Now it’s a straight fight for survival. The Glasgow Climate Pact, for all its restrained and diplomatic language, looks like a suicide pact. After so many squandered years of denial, distraction and delay, it’s too late for incremental change.
Le deuxième projet d’accord publié ce vendredi matin à Glasgow assouplit la demande faite aux pays d’accélérer l’élimination progressive du charbon et des énergies fossiles.
One policy unites the left, from Joe Biden to John McDonnell. Trouble is, it’s foggy, technocratic and top-down
Politician says droughts and climate-induced famine in the country are a result of the behaviours of rich nations
Exclusive: Greta Thunberg among young people filing legal suit for climate crisis to be declared a global level 3 emergency
Pandering to the rich has got us into this mess. The correlation between wealth and polluting behaviour could not be clearer
Net zero is popular among polluters for good reason – it’s toothless compared to emissions restrictions and a carbon tax
Five times in the last 500m years, more than three-fourths of marine animal species perished in mass extinctions. Each of these events is associated with a major disruption of Earth’s carbon cycle. How such catastrophes occur remains mysterious. But recent research increasingly points to the possibility that the Earth system – that is, life and the environment – may experience a cascade of disruptions when stressed beyond a tipping point.
If Cop26 were to be staged, it would be as a political drama in two long acts. Act one would see the leaders of wealthy countries such as Britain, the US and Australia smiling broadly as they strut the Glasgow stage with their friends, wring their hands and manage the world’s expectations. Act two would see them knifing each other offstage and kicking poor countries hard before running away.
Le nombre de personnes souffrant de stress dû aux chaleurs extrêmes sera multiplié par 15 si la planète se réchauffe de 2 °C, estime une étude britannique.
Temperature rises will top 2.4C by the end of this century, based on the short-term goals countries have set out, according to research published in Glasgow on Tuesday. That would far exceed the 2C upper limit the Paris accord said the world needed to stay “well below”, and the much safer 1.5C limit aimed for at the Cop26 talks.
Sustainable food systems are a cornerstone to cutting emissions but have been largely absent from the agenda in Glasgow. Farming is a complex issue on the journey to net zero, as it is both a source and sink for emissions. About 20% of global emissions come from agriculture and land use, and this rises to more than 25% for the food system as a whole, which includes processing, packaging and transport.
With a disregard for people’s lives, countries from the UK to Poland are toughening up, as if in preparation for climate displacement
At Cop26 the wealthy countries cast themselves as saviours, yet their efforts are hopelessly inadequate and will prolong the injustice. the story of the past 500 years can be crudely summarised as follows. A handful of European nations, which had mastered both the art of violence and advanced seafaring technology, used these faculties to invade other territories and seize their land, labour and resources.
“blue carbon” (the sequestration and storage of carbon by ocean ecosystems) is gaining attention in the race towards net zero. And the “big three” stores of blue carbon – mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass – are suddenly urgent new areas of conservation.
Le gouvernement irlandais s’est engagé dans l’accord sur la baisse des émissions de méthane signé à la COP26 et doit annoncer des objectifs au sujet des gaz à effet de serre secteur par secteur, qui font craindre aux éleveurs bovins une réduction du cheptel national.
Covid-19 may well have been one attempt by the Earth to protect itself. Gaia will try harder next time with something even nastier
Pledges to plant trees fall from politicians’ lips like leaves in the autumn, especially during elections and climate summits. Yet ambitious government planting targets are likely to be missed because there are not enough trees or people to plant them, leading forestry figures have warned.
There is a myth about human beings that withstands all evidence. It’s that we always put our survival first. This is true of other species. When confronted by an impending threat, such as winter, they invest great resources into avoiding or withstanding it: migrating or hibernating, for example. Humans are a different matter.
To successfully emerge from Covid into a fairer, greener future we need to recognise nature as an essential piece of the puzzle
Jamais, depuis vingt ans, le contexte n’a été aussi favorable à la lutte contre le changement climatique, assure le climatologue Michael E. Mann.
Many economic assessments of the climate crisis “grossly undervalue the lives of young people and future generations”, Prof Nicholas Stern warned on Tuesday, before the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow.
Dans une tribune publiée par The Guardian, la jeune militante pour le climat dresse un état des lieux alarmant de la situation environnementale. Elle exprime son vœu qu’un “chef” mène le combat climatique au niveau mondial.
Chronic kidney disease linked to heat stress could become a major health epidemic for millions of workers around the world as global temperatures increase over the coming decades, doctors have warned.
Country hopes to ensure effects of climate crisis are always considered in business, investment, lending and insurance decisions
The astonishing story of how the US entered the second world war should be on everyone’s minds as Cop26 approaches
The scientific consensus that humans are altering the climate has passed 99.9%, according to research that strengthens the case for global action at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow.
At least eight types of bird flu, all of which can kill humans, are circulating around the world’s factory farms – and they could be worse than Covid-19
A former police officer who is now a prominent climate crisis campaigner has accused the Metropolitan police of attempting to recruit him to spy on Extinction Rebellion.
The enormous, unprecedented pain and turmoil caused by the climate crisis is often discussed alongside what can seem like surprisingly small temperature increases – 1.5C or 2C hotter than it was in the era just before the car replaced the horse and cart.
Human rights council also appoints special rapporteur to monitor impact of climate crisis on rights
Since 1988, humans have destroyed an area of rainforest roughly the size of Texas and New Mexico combined
The fossil fuel industry benefits from subsidies of $11m every minute, according to analysis by the International Monetary Fund.
The case for cutting meat consumption is so compelling that you would think politicians would be less shy about making it. Yet while campaigners warn with increasing urgency that global livestock production is accelerating climate breakdown and causing devastating damage to nature and human health, governments remain reluctant to tackle meat-eating.
La commission de l’industrie du Parlement européen a voté la prolongation des subventions aux gazoducs, pour autoriser notamment le mélange à l’hydrogène. Une mauvaise nouvelle pour les défenseurs du climat.
Greta Thunberg has excoriated global leaders over their promises to address the climate emergency, dismissing them as “blah, blah, blah”.
Vital United Nations climate talks, billed as one of the last chances to stave off climate breakdown, will not produce the breakthrough needed to fulfil the aspiration of the Paris agreement, key players in the talks have conceded.
From turning CO2 into rock to capturing the breath of office workers, a growing number of companies think the answer is yes
Despite all the analogies for this possibly terminal emergency, it is unlike anything that has come before
So far, all the preparation work we have done has been beating around the bush – not much that is substantial is happening yet. The homework has been done very well, but only on the issues that are not very substantive for this Cop, such as technical issues to do with the Paris agreement. We need to discuss now the issues which are most substantive: ambition, and climate finance.
The world’s coral reef cover has halved since the 1950s, ravaged by global heating, overfishing, pollution and habitat destruction, according to an analysis of thousands of reef surveys. From the 1,430-mile (2,300km) Great Barrier Reef in Australia to the Saya de Malha Bank in the Indian Ocean, coral reefs and the diversity of fish species they support are in steep decline, a trend that is projected to continue as the planet continues to heat in the 21st century.
A Devon project to provide housing and community facilities has had the ground sold from under it
Operators say the Orca plant can suck 4,000 tonnes of CO2 out of the air every year and inject it deep into the ground to be mineralised
If there’s one thing we know about climate breakdown, it’s that it will not be linear, smooth or gradual. Just as one continental plate might push beneath another in sudden fits and starts, causing periodic earthquakes and tsunamis, our atmospheric systems will absorb the stress for a while, then suddenly shift. Yet, everywhere, the programmes designed to avert it are linear, smooth and gradual.
After the highest Dutch administrative court found in 2019 that the government was breaking EU law by not doing enough to reduce excess nitrogen in vulnerable natural areas, the country has been battling what it is calling a “nitrogen crisis”.Now civil servants have drawn up proposals which include slashing livestock numbers by 30%, one of the most radical plans of its kind in Europe.
The research found 90% of coal and 60% of oil and gas reserves could not be extracted if there was to be even a 50% chance of keeping global heating below 1.5C, the temperature beyond which the worst climate impacts hit.
Twenty livestock companies are responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than either Germany, Britain or France – and are receiving billions of dollars in financial backing to do so, according to a new report by environmental campaigners. Raising livestock contributes significantly to carbon emissions, with animal agriculture accounting for 14.5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Wild relatives of some of the world’s most important crops, including potatoes, avocados and vanilla, are threatened with extinction, according to a study. Vanilla, an orchid native to South and Central America, is facing the highest risk of extinction, with all eight wild species found in the region listed as endangered or critically endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list of threatened plants and animals.
Europe’s 25 largest banks are still failing to present comprehensive plans that address both the climate crisis and biodiversity loss, putting their sustainability pledges in doubt, campaigners have warned.
Researchers examined the economic cost of the climate crisis and found it would cut about 37% from global GDP this century, more than twice the drop experienced in the Great Depression. For every tonne of carbon dioxide emitted, the global economy would be $3,000 worse off by the end of the century, they estimated.
“Once you learn how damaged the world’s ecosystems are, it’s not really something you can unsee,” says Rachel Larrivee, 23, a sustainability consultant based in Boston. “To me, there’s no point in pursuing a career – or life for that matter – in any other area.”
Vaccine maker Seqirus wrote to GPs warning of delays from ‘unforeseen road freight challenges’ The letter did not explain whether the delays were related to the continuing shortage of lorry drivers that has led to supermarkets running out of certain goods and fast food outlets having to close as they are unable to serve signature dishes. The British Medical Association warned that the delay in delivery would have a major impact. It comes on top of a severe shortage of blood sample bottles, which last week led NHS England to order GPs and hospitals to cut back dramatically the number of blood tests they carry out, which has forced doctors to ration which patients have their blood taken.
The climate emergency is exploding in various parts of the world this week, but climate silence inexcusably continues to rein in much of the United States media.
‘Eco-friendly’ lights found to be worse than sodium ones – but both contribute to insect decline, says study
Extinction Rebellion protesters have blocked one of Covent Garden’s busiest junctions on the first day of the group’s latest wave of protests targeting London.
Hundreds of thousands of trees have died after costly real estate projects thwarted attempts to halt desertification.
Drawing people into cities could cut emissions and combat housing crises. But even progressives are hard to convince
CFC chemicals once used in refrigerators would have driven 2.5C of extra warming by 2100 if they had not been outlawed, researchers claim
As scorching temperatures spread, the search for ways to protect against heat stress is becoming ever more urgent
Increase means country will slip back from goal of cutting emissions by 40% from 1990 levels
The IPCC is unequivocal: we must take urgent action to curb global heating and prevent catastrophe. Will our policymakers and the Cop26 conference be up to the task?
Climate change is a nightmare, and this summer’s floods, fires and extreme heat, from China to Siberia to British Columbia, are reminders that the problem is rapidly growing worse. Yet the striking thing about the IPCC report released earlier this month is not the bad news, which is not really news at all for those who have followed the science closely. It’s the clarity about possibilities, which I found hopeful.
Global greenhouse gas emissions must peak in the next four years, coal and gas-fired power plants must close in the next decade and lifestyle and behavioural changes will be needed to avoid climate breakdown, according to the leaked draft of a report from the world’s leading authority on climate science.
The sixth assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is no ordinary publication. Its 4,000 pages were written by hundreds of independent scientists from 66 countries.
Global heating above 1.5C will be “catastrophic” for Pacific island nations and could lead to the loss of entire countries due to sea level rise within the century, experts have warned.
The world’s political leaders must heed the dramatic warning that climate scientists have delivered
Climate scientists have detected warning signs of the collapse of the Gulf Stream, one of the planet’s main potential tipping points. The research found “an almost complete loss of stability over the last century” of the currents that researchers call the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The currents are already at their slowest point in at least 1,600 years, but the new analysis shows they may be nearing a shutdown.
Greenland’s vast ice sheet is undergoing a surge in melting, with the amount of ice vanishing in a single day this week enough to cover the whole of Florida in two inches of water, researchers have found.
L'analyse s'appuie sur plusieurs rapports de santé publique et conclut que pour 4.434 tonnes de CO2 rejetées dans l'atmosphère, une personne mourra prématurément dans le monde, en raison de la hausse des températures. Cette quantité de CO2 équivaut aux émissions que produisent actuellement 3,5 Américains dans leur vie.
The lifestyles of around three average Americans will create enough planet-heating emissions to kill one person, and the emissions from a single coal-fired power plant are likely to result in more than 900 deaths, according to the first analysis to calculate the mortal cost of carbon emissions.
Study citing ‘perilous state’ of industrial civilisation ranks temperate islands top for resilience. New Zealand, Iceland, the UK, Tasmania and Ireland are the places best suited to survive a global collapse of society, according to a study.
A new conservation tool could help put thousands of threatened animal and plant species on the road to recovery, allowing creatures such as the Sumatran rhino and the California condor to flourish once again.
Salmon in the Columbia River were exposed to unlivable water temperatures that caused them to break out in angry red lesions and white fungus in the wake of the Pacific north-west’s record-shattering heatwave, according to a conservation group that has documented the disturbing sight.
Herrington, a Dutch sustainability researcher and adviser to the Club of Rome, has made headlines in recent days after she authored a report that appeared to show a controversial 1970s study predicting the collapse of civilization was – apparently – right on time. Coming amid a cascade of alarming environmental events, Herrington’s work predicted the collapse could come around 2040 if current trends held.
Insects have declined by 75% in the past 50 years – and the consequences may soon be catastrophic. Biologist Dave Goulson reveals the vital services they perform
Around the world, activists are pushing to protect their rivers by giving them legal personhood. Is this just symbolism, or can it drive lasting environmental change?
Beware summer! The season we used to anticipate as the lightest, brightest, balmiest time of the year now comes with a health warning.
The politics of this new, extreme individualism will make collective responses to social crises impossible
The politics of this new, extreme individualism will make collective responses to social crises impossible, writes Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty
Une impressionnante vague de chaleur dans l’une des régions les plus froides du monde a déclenché des incendies dans la forêt russe. Générant une épaisse fumée toxique, ils menacent la ville sibérienne de Iakoutsk d’une “airpocalypse”, rapporte The Guardian.
It was a slogan that cut to the chase: “Everybody is talking about Germany. We talk about the weather.”
One rocket launch produces up to 300 tons of carbon dioxide into the upper atmosphere where it can remain for years
The Global Alliance for a Green New Deal is inviting politicians from legislatures in all countries to work together on policies that would deliver a just transition to a green economy ahead of Cop26 UN climate talks in Glasgow this November.
Everyone from small farms to McDonald’s is getting involved in regenerative agriculture. Could it point the way to a better future for farming?
Many of the world’s plastic containers and bottles are contaminated with toxic PFAS, and new data suggests that it’s probably leaching into food, drinks, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, cleaning products and other items at potentially high levels.
More than 1 billion marine animals along Canada’s Pacific coast are likely to have died from last week’s record heatwave, experts warn, highlighting the vulnerability of ecosystems unaccustomed to extreme temperatures.
Environment minister has 28 days to appeal historic ruling that carbon emissions from coalmine should not cause young people ‘personal injury or death’
Nearly 700 million people worldwide live in low coastal zones vulnerable to sea-level rise and coastal storms. That number could reach a billion by 2050. [..] In response, humans that can move will move...
On the first day of summer, I woke up to the acrid smell of hot tar. Even before my sleepy brain could name the source, my body tensed with anxiety: wildfire season was underway. Given the deepening drought and record-setting heat across most of the American west, this year’s fire season is widely predicted to be among the worst in recent memory – which is saying something, because last year’s was grotesque.
The effects of ‘weird weather’ were already being felt in the 1960s, but scientists linking fossil fuels with climate change were dismissed as prophets of doom
Climate scientists have said nowhere is safe from the kind of extreme heat events that have hit the western US and Canada in recent days and urged governments to dramatically ramp up their efforts to tackle the escalating climate emergency.
Fossil fuel companies lied for decades about climate change, and humanity is paying the price. Shouldn’t those lies be central to the public narrative?
After a century of wielding extraordinary economic and political power, America’s petroleum giants face a reckoning for driving the greatest existential threat of our lifetimes. An unprecedented wave of lawsuits, filed by cities and states across the US, aim to hold the oil and gas industry to account for the environmental devastation caused by fossil fuels – and covering up what they knew along the way.
The shocking collapse of a 12-storey building in the Miami area last week has raised questions as to the role played by the climate crisis, and whether the severe vulnerability of south Florida to the rising seas may lead to the destabilization of further buildings in the future.
Experts say scientific advances are making it easier to attribute the damages of climate breakdown to companies’ activities. Businesses could soon be facing a fresh wave of legal action holding them to account for their greenhouse gas emissions, owing to advances in climate science, experts have warned.
Officials prepare to elevate streets despite financial shortfalls, amid recognition that not every home can be save. Long famed for its spectacular fishing, sprawling coral reefs and literary residents such as Ernest Hemingway, the Florida Keys is now acknowledging a previously unthinkable reality: it faces being overwhelmed by the rising seas and not every home can be saved.
Around the world, dozens of ingenious projects are trying to ‘trick’ the ocean into absorbing more CO2. But critics warn of unforeseen consequences
Climate scientists are increasingly concerned that global heating will trigger tipping points in Earth’s natural systems, which will lead to widespread and possibly irrevocable disaster, unless action is taken urgently. The impacts are likely to be much closer than most people realise, a a draft report from the world’s leading climate scientists suggests, and will fundamentally reshape life in the coming decades even if greenhouse gas emissions are brought under some control.
Legal experts from across the globe have drawn up a “historic” definition of ecocide, intended to be adopted by the international criminal court to prosecute the most egregious offences against the environment. The draft law, defines ecocide as “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts”.
Large-scale environmental destruction affects the future of all life on our planet. Criminalising it would finally hold decision-makers to account
Tens of thousands of African elephants are under threat from plans for a massive new oilfield in one of the continent’s last great wildernesses, experts have warned.
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High greenhouse gas emitters should pay for carbon they produce, says IMF | Greenhouse gas emissions
(18/06) - Fiona HarveyCompanies with high greenhouse gas emissions should be subject to a carbon price of $75 a tonne of carbon dioxide, the International Monetary Fund has said, as a way of reaching the goals of the Paris climate agreement. A carbon floor price would mean that companies, including energy generators and heavy industries, would have to pay for the carbon they produce. At present, many countries and regions have their own carbon pricing systems, but there is no globally agreed carbon price.
Emissions rose to 419 parts per million in May, the highest such measurement in the 63 years that the data has been recorded
Failing, heavily subsidized private oil companies enjoy the profits of oil extraction while the rest of us pay in tax dollars, human rights abuses, and an unlivable climate. Oil and gas companies are a political structure: they possess private, authoritarian dominion over the pace and volume of oil and gas production, and thus of important determinants of global emissions. These emissions and their consequences do not respect any sort of public/private distinction, nor borders, nor the rights to clean air or clean water.
The root cause of pandemics – the destruction of nature – is being ignored, scientists have warned. The focus of world leaders on responding to future outbreaks overlooks the far cheaper and more effective strategy of stopping the spillover of disease from animals to humans in the first place, they have said. The razing of forests and hunting of wildlife is increasingly bringing animals and the microbes they harbour into contact with people and livestock. About 70% of new infectious diseases have come from animals, including Covid-19, Sars, bird flu, Ebola and HIV.
Soils provide 95% of all food but are damaged by industrial, farming, mining and urban pollution. Soils are also the largest active store of carbon, after the oceans, and therefore crucial in fighting the climate crisis. But the report said industrial pollution, mining, farming and poor waste management are poisoning soils, with the “polluter pays” principle absent in many countries.
Analysis shows significant risk of cascading events even at 2C of heating, with severe long-term effects. The new research examined the interactions between ice sheets in West Antarctica, Greenland, the warm Atlantic Gulf Stream and the Amazon rainforest. The scientists carried out 3m computer simulations and found domino effects in a third of them, even when temperature rises were below 2C, the upper limit of the Paris agreement.
Analysis shows significant risk of cascading events even at 2C of heating, with severe long-term effects. Ice sheets and ocean currents at risk of climate tipping points can destabilise each other as the world heats up, leading to a domino effect with severe consequences for humanity, according to a risk analysis. Tipping points occur when global heating pushes temperatures beyond a critical threshold, leading to accelerated and irreversible impacts.
The world must rewild and restore an area the size of China to meet commitments on nature and the climate, says the UN, and the revival of ecosystems must be met with all the ambition of the space race. Existing conservation efforts are insufficient to prevent widespread biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, the global body has warned at the launch of the decade on ecosystem restoration, an urgent call for the large-scale revival of nature in farmlands, forests and other ecosystems.
We asked the world’s press to commit to treating climate change as the emergency that scientists say it is. Their response was dispiriting
En dépit des déclarations sur l’écologie et les énergies vertes, les pays du G7 ont dépensé plus d’argent dans les secteurs de l’aviation et de l’automobile depuis le début de la pandémie.
The climate crisis is causing a widespread fall in oxygen levels in lakes across the world, suffocating wildlife and threatening drinking water supplies. Falling levels of oxygen in oceans had already been identified, but new research shows that the decline in lakes has been between three and nine times faster in the past 40 years. Scientists found oxygen levels had fallen by 19% in deep waters and 5% at the surface.
Governments must close gap between net zero rhetoric and reality, says International Energy Agency head
Fried crickets on the school menu, milk made from fly larvae and mealworm bolognese for dinner? These are the environmentally friendly meals we can look forward to. Bon appetit!
Fossil fuels, cattle and rotting waste produce greenhouse gas responsible for 30% of global heating
Lucrative pay and share options have created an incentive for oil company executives to resist climate action, according to a study that casts doubt on recent net-zero commitments by BP and Shell. Compensation packages for CEOs, often in excess of $10m (£7.2m), are linked to continued extraction of fossil fuels, exploration of new fields and the promotion of strong market demand through advertising, lobbying and government subsidies, the report says.
Three out of every four board members at seven major US banks (77%) have current or past ties to climate-conflicted companies or organizations – from oil and gas corporations to trade groups that lobby against reducing climate pollution, according to a first-of-its-kind review by climate influence analysts for DeSmog. and they continue to invest deeply in fossil fuel projects.
The author and eminent climate scientist on the deniers’ new tactics and why positive change feels closer than it has done in 20 years
Energy watchdog’s Fatih Birol says shift away from coal in key regions needs to be made a global priority
Un nouveau rapport qui donne à réfléchir affirme que le monde ne saisit pas l’ampleur des menaces que constituent la perte de biodiversité et la crise climatique. La planète est confrontée à un « avenir épouvantable d’extinction de masse, de déclin sanitaire et de bouleversements climatiques », qui menacent la survie de l’humanité en raison de l’ignorance et de l’inaction, selon un groupe international de scientifiques. Ces derniers avertissent que les gens n’ont toujours pas saisi l’urgence des crises de la biodiversité et du climat.
Letter: Scientists and academics including Prof Gesa Weyhenmeyer and Prof Will Steffen argue that we must discuss the threat of societal disruption in order to prepare for it
On Thursday night the Danish government voted in favour of the plans to cancel the country’s next North Sea oil and gas licensing round, 80 years after it first began exploring its hydrocarbon reserves. Denmark’s 55 existing oil and gas platforms, scattered across 20 oil and gas fields, will be allowed to continue extracting fossil fuels but the milestone decision to end the hunt for new reserves in the ageing basin will guarantee an end to Denmark’s fossil fuel production.
Water shortages are now affecting more than 3 billion people around the world, as the amount of fresh water available for each person has plunged by a fifth over two decades, data has shown. About 1.5 billion people are suffering severe water scarcity or even drought, as a combination of climate breakdown, rising demand and poor management has made agriculture increasingly difficult across swathes of the globe.
The methane emissions leaking from the world’s coalmines could be stoking the global climate crisis at the same rate as the shipping and aviation industries combined.Coalmines are belching millions of tonnes of methane into the atmosphere unchecked, because policymakers have overlooked the rising climate threat, according to new research.
Rising consumption by the affluent has a far greater environmental impact than the birth rate in poorer nations
Analysis shows 500 species on brink of extinction – as many as were lost over previous century
The spread of electrical lighting is blocking out the stars and threatens the health of many species … including humans. Now our national parks plan to take back the night
Light pollution is a significant but overlooked driver of the rapid decline of insect populations, according to the most comprehensive review of the scientific evidence to date.Artificial light at night can affect every aspect of insects’ lives, the researchers said, from luring moths to their deaths around bulbs, to spotlighting insect prey for rats and toads, to obscuring the mating signals of fireflies.
A short glossary of the changes we’ve made to the Guardian’s style guide, for use by our journalists and editors when writing about the environment
Industry funds ‘grassroots’ resistance to tougher rules while touting green credentials, study shows
For decades fossil fuel majors tried to fight the consensus – just as big tobacco once disputed that smoking kills.
Just 20 companies are responsible for 35% of carbon emissions yet they continue to ignore calls for change
A Guardian report from 11 countries tracks how US waste makes its way across the world – and overwhelms the poorest nations
Advocates of the Green New Deal say there is great urgency in dealing with the climate crisis and highlight the scale and scope of what is required to combat it. We can afford it, with the right fiscal policies and collective will. But more importantly, we must afford it. The climate emergency is our third world war. Our lives and civilization as we know it are at stake, just as they were in the second world war.
What kind of economic system is most conducive to human wellbeing? That question has come to define the current era, because, after 40 years of neoliberalism in the United States and other advanced economies, we know what doesn’t work.
The United States and Saudi Arabia have hamstrung global efforts to scrutinise climate geoengineering in order to benefit their fossil fuel industries, according to multiple sources at the United Nations environment assembly, taking place this week in Nairobi.
After water, concrete is the most widely used substance on Earth. If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world with up to 2.8bn tonnes, surpassed only by China and the US. The material is the foundation of modern development. Concrete is how we try to tame nature...
The IPCC report sets out the world’s current knowledge of the impacts of 1.5C of warming and clearly shows the dangers of breaching such a limit. However, many scientists are increasingly worried about factors about which we know much less. These “known unknowns” of climate change are tipping points, or feedback mechanisms within the climate system – thresholds that, if passed, could send the Earth into a spiral of runaway climate change.
Groundbreaking assessment of all life on Earth reveals humanity’s surprisingly tiny part in it as well as our disproportionate impact
Light pollution conceals true darkness from 80% of Europe and North America. What do we lose when we can no longer see the stars?
Report is the first to examine the impact of artificial night-lighting on the seasonal behaviour of plants on a national scale
The scientist who has borne the full brunt of attacks by climate change deniers, including death threats and accusations of misappropriating funds, is set to hit back.
The scientist who has borne the full brunt of attacks by climate change deniers, including death threats and accusations of misappropriating funds, is set to hit back.
This exposé of the coterie of rightwing scientists hell-bent on destroying the cause of environmentalism is outstanding
We must tackle the environmental nightmare of 4x4s by taxing them off the road, says George Monbiot.