Climate

We live in dark, depressing and – frankly – terrifying times. Will technology push us over the edge or help us exit our many crises?

Today we live in an era defined by crisis. Indeed, we are facing multiple overlapping threats at once: from accelerating climate breakdown to the rise of authoritarianism across the world, we are in a situation that the historian Adam Tooze calls “polycrisis”. It is no wonder that hope is scarce, pessimism is high and despair is pervasive. As one meme that captures the grim, morbid mood of our age reads: “My retirement plan is civilisational collapse.”

But not everyone shares this gloomy outlook. On the extreme other end of public sentiment sit Silicon Valley billionaires: they are some of the most optimistic people on earth. Of course, it’s easy to be optimistic when you are sitting on enough money to sway national politics. And yet, the source of their optimism isn’t simply money. It is also a deep-seated faith in unfettered technological advances.

Continue reading...

If we are to take seriously the threats of drought, climate change and water security, we should not reduce this place to a warring of two — or even many — sides.

Every fabric has an environmental cost. Here’s how to make informed choices.

Campaigners say funding halt is a ‘staggering blow’ to vulnerable nations and to efforts to keep heating below 1.5C

Donald Trump’s withdrawal of US overseas aid will almost decimate global climate finance from the developed world, data shows, with potentially devastating impacts on vulnerable nations.

The US was responsible last year for about $8 in every $100 that flowed from the rich world to developing countries, to help them cut greenhouse gas emissions and cope with the impacts of extreme weather, according to data from the analyst organisation Carbon Brief.

Continue reading...

Damage to trees in western North Carolina from Hurricane Helene was ‘extraordinary and humbling’ but urban areas face particular problems

The city of Asheville and its surrounding areas have been left vulnerable to floods, fires and extreme heat after Hurricane Helene uprooted thousands of trees that provided shade and protection from storms.

Helene was catastrophic for the region’s trees – in part due to the heavy precursor rainstorm that pounded southern Appalachia for two days straight, drenching the soil before Helene hit, bringing yet more heavy rain and 60-100mph winds.

Continue reading...

The utility that serves New York City and Westchester County has filed a request to raise its rates to help pay for the shift to cleaner energy, sparking dismay among residents.

Experience has taught many residents in flood-prone areas around Lismore and northern New South Wales the value of leaving early

• Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred LIVE: latest news and updates
• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Valerie Thompson is heading home to Brunswick Heads in an hour. The 52-year-old lives in a low-lying area just north of Byron Bay and was among those who got out early before Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

The idea that the climate crisis may generate a cyclone that ploughs into south-east Queensland was already a “nightmare scenario” for the country’s insurance industry – the same companies that wanted to charge Thompson $30,000 a year to insure her home. If they were taking it seriously, why shouldn’t she?

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

In a lawsuit, Climate United claims the E.P.A. is illegally withholding funds that have become a target of the Trump administration.

Together with recent firings and resignations, the new cuts could hamper the National Weather Service’s ability to produce lifesaving forecasts, scientists say.

Tougher laws said to be inspiring clandestine attacks on the ‘property and machinery’ of the fossil fuel economy

It was raining and the sparkling lights of the City of London shone back from the cold, wet pavement as two young men made their way through streets deserted save for a few police and private security. In the sleeping heart of the global financial system, they felt eyes on them from the city’s network of surveillance cameras, but hoped their disguise of high-vis vests and hoods hiding their faces would conceal them.

Reaching Lime Street, they stopped by a maintenance hole and looked around to make sure no one was watching. One took off the cover, located a bundle of black cables and started hacking away. Hours later, an email was circulated to news desks: “Internet cut off to hundreds of insurers in climate-motivated sabotage.”

Continue reading...

Guardian Australia reporters, editors and contributors reflect on their experiences of wind, rain and power outages from ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred

• Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred LIVE: latest news and updates
• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

At 9am it’s still gusting like a bastard in our corner of Surfers Paradise. The street is still OK, but there’s a fair bit of debris, and branches are still coming down during the more violent squalls. Quite deceptive really: one minute you think things have died down, and next minute another mini gale howls through.

Continue reading...

Trump pulls out of Cop28 loss and damage deal that recognises harms done by richer, polluting economies to vulnerable nations

The Trump administration has withdrawn the US from a global agreement under which the developed nations most responsible for the climate crisis pledged to partly compensate developing countries for irreversible harms caused by global heating.

The loss and damage fund was agreed at the Cop28 UN climate summit in late 2023 – a hard-won victory after years of diplomatic and grassroots advocacy by developing nations that bear the brunt of the climate crisis despite having contributed the least to greenhouse gas emissions. The fund signalled a commitment by developed, polluting countries to provide financial support for some of the irreversible economic and noneconomic losses from sea level rise, desertification, drought and floods already happening.

Continue reading...

Chris Wright’s remarks were welcomed at a time when countries across the region have felt whipsawed by cuts to longstanding African energy initiatives.

Council of Europe says Swiss government failing to respect human rights court’s ruling on emissions

• Europe live – latest updates

The Swiss government has been told it must do more to show that its national climate plans are ambitious enough to comply with a landmark legal ruling.

The Council of Europe’s committee of ministers, in a meeting this week, decided that Switzerland was not doing enough to respect a decision last year by the European court of human rights that it must do more to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and rejected the government’s plea to close the case.

Continue reading...

Years of war and food insecurity in the region made the extreme heat especially dangerous.

Experts warn that cooling breaks and later kickoff times may be needed to cope with scorching temperatures when North America hosts the tournament

Over the course of a playing career that wound through Spain, Mexico and the sunbaked fields of Major League Soccer’s summers, American midfielder Tab Ramos was never hotter than at the 1994 World Cup in the United States.

The day before the United States men’s national team opened its tournament against Switzerland in the Pontiac Silverdome, it had been 99F (37C) in Michigan. By the 11.30am kickoff on matchday, the temperature reached 90F (32C) again. Worse still, the Silverdome was an NFL stadium designed for winter – to keep heat in, rather than out. The first World Cup match played indoors was conducted in a dome without air conditioning. On the field, the temperature reached 106F (41C). The grass laid over the artificial turf had been watered so eagerly that, with the sun beating down on the stadium’s fabric roof, the air turned soupy with humidity.

Continue reading...

Tarcila Rivera-Zea, a member of the Quechua community in Peru, has spent decades pushing for Native peoples to be heard.

As an oceanographer, I’m excited about the prospect of getting ocean, ice and climate data from a region where few observations have been collected

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

As I write, Australia’s national icebreaker, RSV Nuyina, is steaming south-west from Hobart, heading to Antarctica on its first dedicated marine science voyage.

Onboard are more than 60 scientists and technicians, many on their first research cruise, gingerly gaining their sea legs as the ship navigates multimetre swells and swirling Southern Ocean lows.

Continue reading...

Populations are falling in the United States, a new study has found. Look up what’s happening in your area.

As the administration fires rangers and other workers, an internal memo is directing the National Park Service not to publicize visitors numbers.