Most recent 30 articles: |
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| Guardian,Guardian - Energy,Guardian - Climate Change |
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New evidence says gas exports damage the climate even more than coal. It’s time Australia took serious action | Adam Morton - Guardian (Oct 01, 2024) |
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Oct 01, 2024 · A US study estimates the total climate pollution from LNG was 33% greater than that from coal over a 20-year period. This should have major ramifications for emissions policy
The claim that Australian gas exports are “clean” and needed to drive the transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions has become an article of faith for significant parts of the country’s industry, media and political classes – often repeated, only occasionally challenged.
It has buttressed a massive expansion of the liquified natural gas (LNG) industry in the north of the continent over the past decade, with major new developments in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern ... Read more ...
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At least 66 killed and 69 missing as flooding and landslides hit Nepal - Guardian (Sep 02, 2024) |
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Sep 02, 2024 · Officials expect death toll to rise as flood waters inundate Kathmandu after highest rainfall since 1970
Flooding and landslides caused by continuous rainfall have killed at least 101 people in Nepal while 64 people are missing, officials have said. Rain began pouring down on Friday night and continued into Saturday, with low-lying neighbourhoods in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, inundated by surging floodwaters.
“The death toll has reached 101, and 64 people are missing,” police spokesperson Dan Bahadur Karki told AFP early on Sunday.
“There is likely to be an increase in the death toll as our search and rescue mission proceeds in the affected areas,” he ... Read more ...
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‘Two incredible extreme events’: Antarctic sea ice on cusp of record winter low for second year running - Guardian (Sep 01, 2024) |
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Sep 01, 2024 · Last year Antarctica’s sea ice was 1.6m sq km below average – the size of Britain, France, Germany and Spain combined. This week it had even less than that
Sea ice surrounding Antarctica is on the cusp of reaching a record winter low for a second year running, continuing an “outrageous” fall in the amount of Southern Ocean that is freezing over.
The Antarctic region underwent an abrupt transformation in 2023 as the sea ice cover surrounding the continent crashed for six months straight. In winter, it covered about 1.6m sq km less than the long-term average – an area roughly the size of Britain, France, Germany and Spain combined.
Scientists at the Australian ... Read more ...
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Elite US universities rake in millions from big oil donations, research finds - Guardian (Sep 01, 2024) |
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Sep 01, 2024 · Student-led analyses raise concerns of conflict of interest at six universities, including Princeton, Columbia and Cornell
Prestigious US universities are raking in millions of dollars from fossil fuel interests, raising concerns about conflicts of interest. And one university even appears to have owned a petroleum company from which it has earned millions of dollars, according to a spate of new reports produced by student organizers.
The six analyses, released Wednesday, focus on American University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Princeton University, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and University of California, San Diego. They were written by campus ... Read more ...
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Global heating is making El Niño and La Niña forecasts less reliable, BoM says - Guardian (Sep 01, 2024) |
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Sep 01, 2024 · Exclusive: Meteorologists say climate change and the amount of heat being added to the oceans make predictions based on the past less reliable
The Bureau of Meteorology is shifting the way it communicates about climate phenomena such as El Niño and La Niña, because global heating is making predictions based on the past less reliable.
This week the bureau kept the country on a “La Niña watch” and said if the climate system in the Pacific does develop, it’s likely to be short-lived and weak.
Historically, La Niña events – where warmer waters gather to the north of Australia – have been associated with cooler and wetter conditions from across north-western Australia ... Read more ...
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Technology helping solar farms counter growing hailstone threat - Guardian (Sep 01, 2024) |
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Sep 01, 2024 · With storms becoming more frequent due to the climate crisis, insurers are forcing operators to respond
One of the least considered hazards of climate change is the increasing frequency of hailstorms and the size and the impact of the pieces of ice they produce. This, in turn, threatens one of the most promising solutions to the climate crisis: solar farms.
In the last year, the number of hailstorms in Europe exceeded 10,000 and the size of large hailstones reported from Italy and Germany increased to 10cm (4in) – enough to dent a car, smash greenhouses and break a solar panel. The frequency of storms and the size of the hail is increasing.
In Texas, where ... Read more ...
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The Hague becomes world’s first city to pass law banning fossil fuel-related ads - Guardian (Sep 01, 2024) |
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Sep 01, 2024 · Legislation makes it illegal to advertise fossil fuel products and services with a high carbon footprint
The Hague has become the first city in the world to pass a law banning advertisements promoting fossil fuel products and climate-busting services.
Legislation passed on Thursday spells the end of publicly and privately funded advertising for petrol and diesel, aviation and cruise ships in the streets of the Dutch city, including on billboards and bus shelters. It takes effect from the start of next year.
It is the first time a city has banned high-carbon advertising through local legislation. The decision follows a call by the UN chief, António Guterres, earlier ... Read more ...
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‘Massive disinformation campaign’ is slowing global transition to green energy - Guardian (Aug 08, 2024) |
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Aug 08, 2024 · UN says a global 'backlash’ against climate action is being stoked by fossil fuel companies
Fossil fuel companies are running “a massive mis- and disinformation campaign” so that countries will slow down the adoption of renewable energy and the speed with which they “transition away” from a carbon-intensive economy, the UN has said.
Selwin Hart, the assistant secretary general of the UN, said that talk of a global “backlash” against climate action was being stoked by the fossil fuel industry, in an effort to persuade world leaders to delay emissions-cutting policies. The perception among many political observers of a rejection of climate policies was a result of this ... Read more ...
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Repeating climate denial claims makes them seem more credible, Australian-led study finds - Guardian (Aug 07, 2024) |
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Aug 07, 2024 · Even those who are concerned about climate crisis were influenced by false claims, showing how 'insidious’ repetition is, researcher says
Repeating false and sceptical claims about climate science makes them seem more credible – including to people who accept the science and are alarmed by the climate crisis – new research has found.
The study’s lead author, Mary Jiang, from the Australian National University, said: “The findings show how powerful and insidious repetition is and how it can influence people’s assessment of truth.”
The paper is among the first to test the effect of statements about the climate crisis. The findings highlight the dangers of repeating ... Read more ...
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‘I turned into a solar nerd’: money and fun were the unexpected benefits of installing panels - Guardian (Aug 07, 2024) |
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Aug 07, 2024 · Our former environment correspondent had solar panels installed in 2010 and later added a heat pump. He’s totted up the energy generated and cash saved over the years
An abiding memory of a day in August 2010, the first time my solar panels were connected to the grid, was of the builders downing tools and watching the electricity meter whiz round backwards.
It was a sunny day and they were supposed to be finishing the plastering and insulation, but the novel sight of the old-style electricity meter in reverse was too entertaining.
For the previous few months we had been refurbishing my new home, a 1930s bungalow, with some of the many “green” improvements that I ... Read more ...
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Climate change deniers make up nearly a quarter of US Congress - Guardian (Aug 05, 2024) |
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Aug 05, 2024 · Climate denialists – 23 in Senate and 100 in House – are all Republicans and make US an outlier internationally
US politics is an outlier bastion of climate denial with nearly one in four members of Congress dismissing the reality of climate change, even as alarm has grown among the American public over dangerous global heating, an analysis has found.
A total of 123 elected federal representatives – 100 in the House of Representatives and 23 US senators – deny the existence of human-caused climate change, all of them Republicans, according to a recent study of statements made by current members.
“It’s definitely concerning,” said Kat So, campaign manager for energy ... Read more ...
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‘A crisis entirely of humanity’s making’: UN chief issues climate SOS on trip to Pacific - Guardian (Aug 02, 2024) |
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Aug 02, 2024 · António Guterres calls for a 'massive’ increase in finance and support for the countries most vulnerable to rising sea levels
Pacific island nations are in “grave danger” from rising sea levels and the world must “answer the SOS before it is too late”, the UN chief has warned during a visit to Tonga.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, urged the world to “look to the Pacific and listen to the science” as he released two new reports on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum, the region’s most important annual political gathering.
Sea-surface temperatures in the south-west Pacific have risen three times faster than the global average since 1980, according ... Read more ...
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Flood surge in Sudan bursts dam, destroying villages and killing dozens - Guardian (Aug 02, 2024) |
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Aug 02, 2024 · One report says 150-200 people missing after heavy rain led to Arbaat dam giving way in area already hit by civil war
Surging waters have burst through a dam in eastern Sudan, wiping out at least 20 villages and leaving at least 30 people dead but probably many more, the UN has said, devastating a region already reeling from months of civil war.
Torrential rains caused floods that on Sunday overwhelmed the Arbaat dam, which is 25 miles (40km) north of Port Sudan, the de facto national capital and base for the government, diplomats, aid agencies and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
“The area is unrecognisable,” Omar Eissa Haroun, head of the water ... Read more ...
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‘Nobody ever saw anything like this before’: how methane emissions are pushing the Amazon towards environmental catastrophe - Guardian (Aug 01, 2024) |
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Aug 01, 2024 · As the world heats up, methane released from thawing permafrost and warming tropical wetlands is intensifying climate breakdown. But curbing it is achievable
Controlling methane provides our best, and perhaps only, lever for shaving peak global temperatures over the next few decades. This is because it’s cleansed from the air naturally only a decade or so after release. Therefore if we could eliminate all methane emissions from human activities, methane’s concentration would quickly return to pre-industrial levels. Essentially, humans have released in excess of 3bn tonnes of methane into the atmosphere in the past 20 years. Quashing those emissions within a decade or two would ... Read more ...
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‘We should have better answers by now’: climate scientists baffled by unexpected pace of heating - Guardian (Aug 01, 2024) |
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Aug 01, 2024 · The leap in temperatures over the past 13 months has exceeded the global heating forecasts – is this just a blip or a systemic shift?
In a remarkably candid essay in the journal Nature this March, one of the world’s top climate scientists posited the alarming possibility that global heating may be moving beyond the ability of experts to predict what happens next.
“The 2023 temperature anomaly has come out of the blue, revealing an unprecedented knowledge gap perhaps for the first time since about 40 years ago, when satellite data began offering modellers an unparalleled, real-time view of Earth’s climate system,” wrote Gavin Schmidt, a British scientist and the director ... Read more ...
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Climate activists in frame for £1m costs of protest bans run up by UK’s biggest law firm - Guardian (Aug 01, 2024) |
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Aug 01, 2024 · DLA Piper seeking to recover costs in relation to injunctions it secured for National Highways and HS2, records show
Britain’s biggest law firm has sought more than £1m from climate protesters to cover the cost of court orders banning them from protesting, an investigation has found.
The multibillion-pound City law firm DLA Piper has been trying to recover costs from activists for work done on behalf of National Highways Limited (NHL) and HS2 Ltd – both public bodies – obtaining injunctions banning protests on their sites.
Courts have so far ordered activists to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to NHL and HS2 to reimburse them for DLA Piper’s ... Read more ...
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How does today’s extreme heat compare with Earth’s past climate? - Guardian (Aug 01, 2024) |
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Aug 01, 2024 · Viewed through a long enough lens, our climate can seem unremarkable – but for humans it is unprecedented
Climate records are tumbling at a galloping pace. The world has just experienced its hottest ever single day on record, amid a string of record-breaking months that followed the planet’s hottest recorded year. But how does this cascade of new highs in the era of modern record-keeping compare with the Earth’s deeper history?
Those who piece together what past climates were like in eras before thermometers and satellites – a practice known as palaeoclimatology – find that today’s temperatures are, when narrowly viewed, unremarkable. For example, the Eocene, an epoch ... Read more ...
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As record heat risks bleaching 73% of the world’s coral reefs, scientists ask ‘what do we do now?’ - Guardian (Jul 03, 2024) |
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Jul 03, 2024 · A vast array of solutions are being worked on but experts urge a 'fundamental rethink’ as temperatures are forecast to climb even higher in coming decades
After 18 months of record-breaking ocean temperatures, the planet’s reefs are in the middle of the most widespread heat-stress event on record.
Across the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, latest figures from the US government’s Coral Reef Watch, shared with the Guardian, show 73% of the world’s corals have been hit with enough heat for them to begin bleaching.
Beginning in February 2023, this is the fourth global mass bleaching event – the second in 10 years, and the most widespread on record.
After ... Read more ...
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The end is nigh. For insects, bats, protest, the planet… | Stewart Lee - Guardian (Jul 02, 2024) |
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Jul 02, 2024 · Our response to global heating and the decimation of animal species is to marginalise the Green party and lock up protesters
Signs and wonders. Omens of black portent. Part of an American looney’s ear has been shot off by another American looney. The proposed presidency of the earless looney had been endorsed by Atomic Kitten’s Kerry Katona. A computer went wrong and everything in the world stopped working everywhere. On Tuesday it was reported that Chris Packham regretted having once ridden an elephant. Last Sunday was the hottest day ever. A lioness hath whelped in the streets. Graves have yawn’d and yielded up their dead. Suella Braverman sat in for James O’Brien on LBC and ... Read more ...
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Climate crisis is making days longer, study finds - Guardian (Jul 01, 2024) |
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Jul 01, 2024 · Melting of ice is slowing planet’s rotation and could disrupt internet traffic, financial transactions and GPS
The climate crisis is causing the length of each day to get longer, analysis shows, as the mass melting of polar ice reshapes the planet.
The phenomenon is a striking demonstration of how humanity’s actions are transforming the Earth, scientists said, rivalling natural processes that have existed for billions of years.
The change in the length of the day is on the scale of milliseconds but this is enough to potentially disrupt internet traffic, financial transactions and GPS navigation, all of which rely on precise timekeeping.
The length of the ... Read more ...
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Supreme court ruling delays climate litigation big oil has sought to thwart - Guardian (Jun 09, 2024) |
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Jun 09, 2024 · Groups linked to billionaire Leonard Leo, who seems to have ties to Chevron, are pressing the court to intervene in lawsuits that could cost billions
Far-right fossil fuel allies have launched a stunning and unprecedented campaign pressuring the supreme court to shield fossil fuel companies from litigation that could cost them billions of dollars.
Some of the groups behind the campaign have ties to Leonard Leo, the architect of the rightwing takeover of the supreme court who helped select Trump’s supreme court nominees. Leo also appears to have ties to Chevron, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
“He’s really crafted the supreme court,” said Lisa Graves, ... Read more ...
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‘Slap in the face’: outrage after New York governor halts congestion pricing - Guardian (Jun 06, 2024) |
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Jun 06, 2024 · Climate advocates say Hochul missed crucial opportunity to follow cities around the world in reducing gas emissions
An 11th-hour decision to halt a plan to charge a fee for cars entering the heart of New York City has provoked outrage from environmental advocates and Democratic lawmakers, potentially scuppering hopes of congestion pricing taking hold in any US city in the near future.
New York City was, on 30 June, primed to be the first American city to toll drivers in its traffic-clogged centre, with cars entering Manhattan south of 60th Street set to be charged $15 a day in a plan heralded as a landmark moment in tackling air pollution, helping curb carbon emissions ... Read more ...
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Climate crisis driving exponential rise in most extreme wildfires - Guardian (Jun 02, 2024) |
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Jun 02, 2024 · Scientists warn of 'scary’ feedback loop in which fires create more heating, which causes more fires worldwide
The climate crisis is driving an exponential rise in the most extreme wildfires in key regions around the world, research has revealed.
The wildfires can cause catastrophic loss of human life, property and wildlife and cause billions of dollars of damage. Scientists say this is climate change “playing out in front of our eyes”.
The analysis of satellite data showed the number of extreme fires had risen by more than 10 times in the past 20 years in temperate conifer forests, such as in the western US and Mediterranean. It has increased by seven times in the ... Read more ...
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Climate engineering off US coast could increase heatwaves in Europe, study finds - Guardian (Jun 02, 2024) |
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Jun 02, 2024 · Scientists call for regulation to stop regional use of marine cloud brightening having negative impact elsewhere
A geoengineering technique designed to reduce high temperatures in California could inadvertently intensify heatwaves in Europe, according to a study that models the unintended consequences of regional tinkering with a changing climate.
The paper shows that targeted interventions to lower temperature in one area for one season might bring temporary benefits to some populations, but this has to be set against potentially negative side-effects in other parts of the world and shifting degrees of effectiveness over time.
The authors of the study said the ... Read more ...
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UK parties ignoring food shortage risks, say farming and retail bodies - Guardian (Jun 02, 2024) |
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Jun 02, 2024 · NFU and the BRC write to Tories, Labour and Lib Dems over lack of focus on food security in campaigns
Farmers and supermarkets have accused the main political parties of ignoring the risk of severe food shortages in Britain, calling the issue a “worrying blind spot” in their general election campaigns.
The UK’s main farming and food and drink bodies have joined forces to voice their frustration at the lack of focus on food security by politicians as the attempt to gain votes, despite the headwinds faced by producers.
A letter signed by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) to leaders of the Conservative, Labour and the Liberal ... Read more ...
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At least 14 pilgrims die during hajj pilgrimage amid soaring temperatures - Guardian (Jun 01, 2024) |
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Jun 01, 2024 · Jordanians died in Saudi Arabia after suffering heatstroke, said officials, with temperatures reaching 47C in Mecca
At least 14 Jordanian pilgrims have died while on the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as temperatures soar in the kingdom.
Jordan’s foreign ministry said “14 Jordanian pilgrims died and 17 others were missing” during the performance of hajj rituals. It said its nationals had died “after suffering sun stroke due to the extreme heatwave” and that it had coordinated with Saudi authorities to bury the dead in Saudi Arabia, or transfer them to Jordan.
The Iranian Red Crescent chief, Pir Hossein Kolivand, said “five Iranian pilgrims have lost their lives so ... Read more ...
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Record-breaking increase in CO2 levels in world’s atmosphere - Guardian (May 09, 2024) |
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May 09, 2024 · Experts issue warning after finding global average concentration in March was 4.7ppm higher than same period last year
The largest ever recorded leap in the amount of carbon dioxide laden in the world’s atmosphere has just occurred, according to researchers who monitor the relentless accumulation of the primary gas that is heating the planet.
The global average concentration of carbon dioxide in March this year was 4.7 parts per million (or ppm) higher than it it was in March last year, which is a record-breaking increase in CO2 levels over a 12-month period.
The increase has been spurred, scientists say, by the periodic El Niño climate event, which has now waned, ... Read more ...
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Third pilot of household hydrogen heating shelved by UK government - Guardian - Energy (May 09, 2024) |
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May 09, 2024 · Move suggests homes will rely on electricity for low-carbon heating well into the future
A third pilot project to test the use of hydrogen heating in homes has been shelved by the UK government in the clearest sign to date that households will rely on electricity for low-carbon heating in the coming decades.
The government said it would shelve plans to develop a “hydrogen town” to test whether hydrogen could help to heat homes at scale before taking a final decision after 2026.
The decision comes after the government abandoned plans for two smaller “hydrogen village” trials – in Redcar, on Teesside, and at a village near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire – after months of ... Read more ...
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I understand climate scientists’ despair – but stubborn optimism may be our only hope - Guardian - Energy (May 09, 2024) |
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May 09, 2024 · Fighting spirit helped us achieve the Paris accords in 2015 – and we need it now the world is on course to overshoot 1.5C
'Hopeless and broken’: why the world’s top climate scientists are in despair
Christiana Figueres was the head of the UN climate change convention from 2010 to 2016
“Hopeless and broken”: that is how a top scientist interviewed by the Guardian described feeling as she and hundreds of other climate experts shared harrowing predictions of the future of the planet this week.
I resonate with her feelings of despair. Even as the former head of the UN climate change convention that achieved the Paris agreement in 2015, I, like many, can succumb ... Read more ...
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Trump promised to scrap climate laws if US oil bosses donated $1bn – report - Guardian - Energy (May 09, 2024) |
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May 09, 2024 · Donald Trump dangled a brazen “deal” in front of some of the top US oil bosses last month, proposing that they give him $1bn for his White House re-election campaign and vowing that once back in office he would instantly tear up Joe Biden’s environmental regulations and prevent any new ones, according to a bombshell new report.
According to the Washington Post, the former US president made his jaw-dropping pitch, which the paper described as “remarkably blunt and transactional”, at a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago home and club.
In front of more than 20 executives, including from Chevron, Exxon and Occidental Petroleum, he promised to increase oil drilling in the Gulf of ... Read more ...
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