Most recent 20 articles: Guardian - Climate Change
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Human-caused heating behind extreme droughts in Syria, Iraq and Iran, study finds - Guardian - Climate Change (Nov 08, 2023) |
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Nov 08, 2023 · Millions of people’s lives wrecked by droughts that used to happen once every 250 years but now expected once a decade
Extreme droughts that have wrecked the lives of millions of people in Syria, Iraq and Iran since 2020 would not have happened without human-caused global heating, a study has found.
The climate crisis means such long-lasting and severe droughts are no longer rare, the analysis showed. In the Tigris-Euphrates basin, which covers large parts of Syria and Iraq, droughts of this severity happened about once every 250 years before global heating – now they are expected once a decade.
In Iran, extreme drought occurred once every 80 years in the past but ... Read more ...
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Humanity at ‘code red,’ facing climate emergency, scientists warn - Guardian - Climate Change (Oct 02, 2023) |
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Oct 02, 2023 · Life on planet is in peril, say climate experts, as they call for a rapid and just transition to a sustainable future
Earth’s “vital signs” are worse than at any time in human history, an international team of scientists has warned, meaning life on the planet is in peril.
Their report found that 20 of the 35 planetary vital signs they use to track the climate crisis are at record extremes. As well as greenhouse gas emissions, global temperature and sea level rise, the indicators also include human and livestock population numbers.
Many climate records were broken by enormous margins in 2023, including global air temperature, ocean temperature and Antarctic sea ice ... Read more ...
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Wild spring weather swings hurt New York’s fall apple harvest » Yale Climate Connections - Guardian - Climate Change (Oct 02, 2023) |
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Oct 02, 2023 · National union members urge government to create water strategy to prevent such losses
Potato and cereal crops are likely to have been heavily damaged by the recent devastating floods across the UK, farmers have warned.
Entire fields have been submerged in water after Storm Babet swept across the country, with crops ruined. Extreme weather events are becoming more likely and frequent due to climate breakdown, and have caused food shortages and price increases.
The storms have left at least seven people dead and hundreds more homeless after flash floods followed heavy rain. An estimated 1,250 properties in England have been flooded while about 30,000 properties have ... Read more ...
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Greenhouse gas emissions - Guardian - Climate Change (Jul 01, 2023) |
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Jul 01, 2023 · Crossbench senator’s support is crucial if government is to introduce planned revamp of safeguard mechanism
The independent senator David Pocock has urged the Albanese government to quickly implement all recommendations from a review of Australia’s carbon credit system, given that it wants to introduce a climate policy that relies heavily on offsets.
Pocock’s is a key vote if the government is to introduce a planned revamp of the safeguard mechanism, a scheme that is meant to reduce carbon pollution from 215 big polluting industrial and resources sites.
The Canberra senator said he wanted to see the 16 recommendations of the former chief scientist Prof Ian Chubb’s ... Read more ...
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Industrial heavyweights call for urgent action on cutting Australia’s emissions - Guardian - Climate Change (Jul 01, 2023) |
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Jul 01, 2023 · In joint statement companies say they are 'ready to seize opportunity’ of decarbonisation and call on others to join them
Some of Australia’s biggest heavy industrial companies – including BHP, BlueScope, Rio Tinto and Woodside – say urgent action is needed from governments, investors and business for Australia to cut greenhouse gas emissions in line with its goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C.
A joint statement signed by 17 members of the Australian Industry Energy Transitions Initiative follows their support for a report in February that found they could cut direct emissions in their supply chains by more than 90% by 2050 without relying heavily on carbon offsets. Read more ...
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The time for a climate trigger in Australia has hopefully, finally, belatedly come - Guardian - Climate Change (Jul 01, 2023) |
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Jul 01, 2023 · It could be part of the solution to the impasse over the safeguard mechanism. Even if it isn’t, the logic for it should be irresistible
New Orleans was still awash in the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the then prime minister, John Howard, was in climate doubt and delay mode when Anthony Albanese got to his feet in the Australian parliament to argue for a better way ahead.
Then a mid-ranking opposition frontbencher, the future PM gave a nod to the carnage in Louisiana before running through the “profound risks’’ that Australia would face if greenhouse gas emissions kept rising – a now-familiar list including worsening heatwaves, less rain in the south, more rain in ... Read more ...
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Weather tracker: Shanghai reports record high May temperature of 36.7C - Guardian - Climate Change (Jun 02, 2023) |
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Jun 02, 2023 · Heatwave continues in southern and eastern Asia as temperatures exceed 40C in vast swathes of region
Shanghai in China has reported a record high May temperature of 36.7C, breaking the previous record by 1C. The new high temperature on 29 May comes amid the heatwave affecting southern and eastern Asia since mid-April. Vast swathes of the region have had temperatures exceeding 40C, with parts of Pakistan reaching almost 50C in mid-May.
South-east Asia has been affected particularly badly, with record high national temperatures in Laos (43.5C), Vietnam (44.2C), and Thailand (45.4C). This is due to low amounts of rainfall over the previous winter resulting in drier soils, ... Read more ...
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'Climate negotiations are inherently abusive’: campaigner Brianna Craft on the struggle smaller countries face - Guardian - Climate Change (Jun 02, 2023) |
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Jun 02, 2023 · In her memoir, the Cop delegate draws parallels with her violent childhood home and the imbalance of power in global summits
When Brianna Craft arrived at her first UN climate conference in 2011, she was 24, optimistic and full of hope, believing that the negotiations were where the crisis would be solved.
More than a decade later, her feelings have changed significantly. “Yes, it is the only thing that exists where the poorest countries have a seat at the table,” she says of the annual “conferences of the parties”, or Cops, “but that does not mean it is a good thing, or a right thing, or a just thing”.
Her memoir, Everything That Rises, charts how she came to this ... Read more ...
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Greenhouse gas emissions - Guardian - Climate Change (Jun 02, 2023) |
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Jun 02, 2023 · The central Asian country has the worst rate of climate-heating 'super-emitter’ events in the world
The US is in negotiations with Turkmenistan over an agreement to plug the central Asian nation’s colossal methane leaks.
Turkmenistan was responsible for 184 “super-emitter” events in which the powerful greenhouse gas was released in 2022, the highest number in the world. One caused climate pollution equivalent to the rate of emissions from 67m cars.
US officials hope that some leaks from Turkmenistan’s oil and gas industry could be halted by the start of the UN’s Cop28 climate summit in late November. Success would represent a major achievement in tackling the ... Read more ...
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China swelters through record temperatures, putting pressure on power grids - Guardian - Climate Change (Jun 02, 2023) |
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Jun 02, 2023 · Record heat in May across parts of the country comes amid a year of rising temperatures and erratic weather in China
Temperatures across China reached or exceeded their records for the month of May, the country’s National Climate Centre has said.
Weather stations at 446 sites registered temperatures that were the same as, or greater than, the highest ever recorded for the month of May, deputy director of the National Climate Centre Gao Rong said at a press briefing on Friday.
On Monday, the Shanghai Meteorology Bureau reported that the city had recorded a temperature of 36.1 degrees Celsius. The previous record for May was 35.7C, which occurred in 2018.
Over ... Read more ...
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Brazilian Amazon at risk of being taken over by mafia, ex-police chief warns - Guardian - Climate Change (Jun 01, 2023) |
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Jun 01, 2023 · Alexandre Saraiva gives alert on organised crime in region ahead of anniversary of killings of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira
The rapid advance of organised crime groups in the Brazilian Amazon risks turning the region into a vast, conflict-stricken hinterland plagued by heavily armed “criminal insurgents”, a former senior federal police chief has warned.
Alexandre Saraiva, who worked in the Amazon from 2011 to 2021, said he feared the growing footprint of drug-trafficking mafias in the region could spawn a situation similar to the decades-long drug conflict in Rio de Janeiro, where the police’s battle with drug gangs and paramilitaries has claimed tens of thousands of ... Read more ...
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Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips were killed in the Amazon: A year later their Indigenous allies risk death to carry on the work - Guardian - Climate Change (Jun 01, 2023) |
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Jun 01, 2023 · Three assassins walked into a bar deep in the Brazilian Amazon one night last October. Beers flowed, tongues loosened and the men were overheard bragging about their latest job. “We’re looking for this Orlando bloke. We’ve come to kill him,” one of the inebriated hitmen is said to have declared, according to a tipoff conveyed to their target.
The Orlando in question was Orlando Possuelo, one of the Indigenous defenders who has been seeking to carry on the work of his colleague Bruno Pereira since Pereira was killed along with the British journalist Dom Phillips near the Javari valley Indigenous territory last June.
The planned killing did not come to pass. Who ordered it ... Read more ...
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Foggy future for Arctic shipping as sea ice melts - Guardian - Climate Change (Jun 01, 2023) |
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Jun 01, 2023 · By 2100 increased fogginess caused by global warming could add days to travel in the region
Rapid warming in the Arctic has opened up faster shipping channels through the fabled Northwest Passage in recent decades, but a study reveals that the reduction in ice is likely to lead to increased levels of fog, potentially removing the benefits of these high-latitude short cuts.
As sea ice melts, more of the underlying warmer water comes into contact with cold air, increasing the chances of water vapour condensing into fog.
Xianyao Chen from the Ocean University of China and colleagues plugged historical fog data into climate models to assess how much the fogginess along ... Read more ...
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Fossil fuel divestment - Guardian - Climate Change (May 31, 2023) |
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May 31, 2023 · Exclusive: Report claims Australia’s shareholdings in development banks has made it responsible for investing $828m in fossil fuel projects over five years
Australia’s shareholdings in three international banks – including the World Bank – has seen it responsible for investing $828m in fossil fuel projects between 2016 and 2021, according to a research report.
The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank have collectively pumped $32.85bn into fossil fuel projects – almost entirely linked to oil and gas production or power generation – over the same period, the report says.
Jubilee Australia and ActionAid, which compiled ... Read more ...
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Greenhouse gas emissions - Guardian - Climate Change (May 31, 2023) |
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May 31, 2023 · Inventory shows Australia has burned through 27% of emissions budget under Paris climate accord in 25% of allotted time
Australia’s carbon emissions edged lower in 2022 with reductions from the electricity sector partly countered by increases in pollution from transport and agriculture.
The country’s emissions last year totalled 463.9m tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent (Mt CO2-e), down 0.4% or 2m tonnes from the previous year. Preliminary estimates for the year to 31 March 2023 indicated emissions totalled 464Mt CO2-e, or 0.2% lower on a rolling 12-month tally, the national greenhouse gas inventory shows.
Between June 2005 and the end of 2022, carbon pollution ... Read more ...
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US Government borrowing - Guardian - Climate Change (May 09, 2023) |
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May 09, 2023 · Republicans are determined to link any increase in the ceiling with cuts to Biden’s signature climate legislation
Amid warnings about looming fiscal catastrophe, the GOP is attempting to use Biden’s climate agenda as a bargaining chip over raising the debt ceiling – even if it could hurt Republican voters.
Late last month, House Republicans narrowly passed speaker Kevin McCarthy’s proposal to raise the government’s debt ceiling in exchange for sweeping cuts to federal spending.
Known as the Limit, Save, Grow Act, the proposal – which is unlikely to progress through the Democrat-majority Senate and which the president says he would veto – would eliminateBiden’s ... Read more ...
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'Mind-boggling’ methane emissions from Turkmenistan revealed - Guardian - Climate Change (May 09, 2023) |
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May 09, 2023 · Leaks of potent greenhouse gas could be easily fixed, say experts, and would rapidly reduce global heating
Methane leaks alone from Turkmenistan’s two main fossil fuel fields caused more global heating in 2022 than the entire carbon emissions of the UK, satellite data has revealed.
Emissions of the potent greenhouse gas from the oil- and gas-rich country are “mind-boggling”, and an “infuriating” problem that should be easy to fix, experts have told the Guardian.
The data produced by Kayrros for the Guardian found that the western fossil fuel field in Turkmenistan, on the Caspian coast, leaked 2.6m tonnes of methane in 2022. The eastern field emitted 1.8m tonnes. ... Read more ...
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Country diary: The first swift of the year, as if conjured - Guardian - Climate Change (May 09, 2023) |
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May 09, 2023 · West Norwood, south London: These birds can transport you back 50 million years. A summer without the sight of them is unthinkable
It doesn’t look bad, considering it’s been dead for 50 million years. “It”, of course, is a fossil. Specifically, the remains of a bird called Eocypselus rowei, from the Green River Formation in Wyoming. It’s a good fossil, clearly recognisable as a bird, with head, tangled skeleton, spindly legs and the blurred wing outline all clearly visible.
I think of it often. Because Eocypselus rowei is the most recent common ancestor of hummingbirds and swifts. And that makes it something special. Thought of it is summoned by the bird that has just ... Read more ...
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Drone footage shows Spanish reservoirs dry amid hottest April on record – video - Guardian - Climate Change (May 09, 2023) |
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May 09, 2023 · Spain is facing one of its worst droughts in recent history, which is becoming increasingly visible through drone footage.
Last month was the driest April in five decades and the warmest on record since 1961, according to the state agency Aemet. This has caused reservoirs and wetlands across the country to be affected, with many looking much emptier than they did the same time last year.
In northern Catalonia, the Rialb, Baells and La Llosa del Cavall reservoirs are now below 25% of their capacity, with the Rialb reservoir particularly badly affected, showing cracked ground and only holding 5.69% of its capacity
Spain braced for record April temperature of 39C as ... Read more ...
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