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Climate
It was all eco: Coldplay beats emissions target for world tour – via kinetic dancefloors and trains
Band announces their carbon footprint after two years of touring is 59% lower than what was generated on their previous tour, thanks to some creative solutions
Coldplay has announced that they have reduced their touring carbon footprint by 59% compared with their previous world tour – via some creative methods that include kinetic dancefloors that allow dancing fans to generate electricity, recyclable LED wristbands and the band travelling by train.
On Monday the British band announced that they were “happy to report that direct CO2e emissions from the first two years of this tour are 59% less than our previous stadium tour (2016-17), on a show-by-show comparison”.
Continue reading...The warring conmen at the heart of a €5bn carbon trading scam
Emissions trading was supposed to save the planet. But fraudsters quickly learned how to rip the system off, making themselves spectacularly rich. Then some of the major players started turning on each other
• A longer version of this piece first appeared in The Atavist
A good scammer sees opportunity everywhere, including in their own downfall. In 2006, the police showed up at Gustav Daphne’s house in Beverly Hills. They had come once before, when a neighbour complained about his trash. Daphne happened to be swimming in his pool at the time, and because he is French, he came to the front door in a tiny little bathing suit. The police were appalled; they gave him a reprimand about storing his garbage more tidily and scurried away.
This time was different. The cops came straight into the house. There were a dozen of them, wearing bulletproof vests. They took him outside in handcuffs and put him in a car. Maybe he was paranoid, having built a multimillion-dollar empire on fraud and deceit, nurturing connections with international criminal rings, but at first he thought he was being kidnapped. When he saw the jail, he was relieved.
Continue reading...Improving energy supply in Pakistan could save 175,000 lives, says Unicef
As a heatwave sweeps the country increasing demand for power, a new report says a more resilient network could also contribute $300m to the economy
A study by the UN children’s agency has found that developing resilient energy systems to keep the power on in health facilities in Pakistan could prevent more than 175,000 deaths in the country by 2030.
The study comes as Pakistan is experiencing a blistering heatwave that has overstretched an already poor healthcare system. Last week, temperatures in various parts of the country reached highs of 49C (120F), causing a huge demand for power.
Continue reading...Botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer: ‘The clock is ticking but the world will teach us what we need to do’ – podcast
For a long time, western science and Indigenous knowledge have been seen as distinct ways of learning about the world. But as we plunge the planet deeper into environmental crises, it is becoming clear that it is time to pay attention to both. Bridging that gap has been the driving force behind the career of the botanist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer. She tells Madeleine Finlay what we can learn from the most ancient plants on Earth, why we need to cultivate gratitude for the natural world and what western science can learn from Indigenous knowledge
Continue reading...Global rich must pay more to tackle climate crisis, says architect of Paris deal
Laurence Tubiana, one of experts behind 2015 agreement, calls for taxes or charges on consumption
Rich individuals in all countries must pay more to tackle the climate crisis, whether through taxes or charges on consumption, one of the architects of the Paris agreement has said.
There is a growing consensus on the need for some kind of global wealth tax, with Brazil, which will host the Cop climate summit next year, an enthusiastic supporter.
Continue reading...What’s behind the global orange juice supply crisis and will Australians be affected? | Imran Ali
A bad forecast for the fruit harvest in Brazil could have knock-on effects on the price of Aussie breakfast beverages and beyond
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Oranges – and all the things we can make from them – are big business. But the industry is facing a severe crisis.
About 50m tonnes of oranges are grown each year, 34% of them in Brazil. Brazil is also the world’s biggest exporter of orange juice by far, producing about 70% of global supply.
Continue reading...EVs Are Suddenly Becoming Affordable
Brazil’s Deadly Flooding Made Twice as Likely by Global Warming, Study Finds
Devastating Brazil floods made twice as likely by burning of fossil fuels and trees
Scientists say calamities on same scale as disaster that has killed 169 will become more common if emissions not cut
The unusually intense, prolonged and extensive flooding that has devastated southern Brazil was made at least twice as likely by human burning of fossil fuels and trees, a study has shown.
The record disaster has led to 169 deaths, ruined homes and wrecked harvests, and was worsened by deforestation, investment cuts and human incompetence.
Continue reading...A Climate Scientist Is Voted President of an Oil Country. Now What?
Hot summer may bring 8% rise in utility costs for many people across the US
US families ‘could be having to sacrifice other aspects of their lives in order to just maintain power’, researcher says
Many people in the US can expect to see an 8% rise in their utility costs this summer, according to a new report. Soaring electricity bills put low-income households at risk from extreme heat, the report noted.
Last year was the Earth’s hottest one on record. In the US alone, about 11,000 people are estimated to have died of heat exposure.
Continue reading...May and spring were warmest on record in UK, Met Office says
Season’s high temperatures come despite wettest spring since 1986 and the sixth wettest on record
The UK had its warmest May and spring on record, despite the wet, dull conditions for many parts of the country, provisional Met Office figures show.
The average temperature in May was 13.1C (55.6F), beating the previous record in 2008 by a full 1C, making it the warmest May in records dating back to 1884.
Continue reading...Floods Break Dams and Submerge Highways in Southern Germany
Chainsaws for all! I live on a rural island where we share all our tools
- Read more from My DIY climate hack, a new series on everyday people’s creative solutions to the climate crisis
Neil Wiesblott, 69, swapped bustling Los Angeles for a quiet island off the coast of Seattle more than 30 years ago and never looked back. Among Vashon Island’s many charming features, perhaps its most beloved is a vast “tool library” that lends out more than a thousand items to residents for DIY projects and home improvements – from saws to ladders to power washers.
Established nearly a decade ago, the library is believed to be the largest rural tool library in the US. These libraries have been around since the 1940s but have taken on new relevance in an age of mass production and hyper-consumption. With an estimated 80 such libraries across the country, the Vashon tool library where Neil volunteers is part of a growing movement that’s helping people live more sustainably while fostering a sense of community.
Continue reading...Storms, Blackouts and Extreme Heat Can Mean Catastrophe
Top Democrats launch inquiry into Trump’s brazen $1bn pitch to oil execs
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse calls audacious request ‘definition of corruption’ amid investigation into Mar-a-Lago meeting in April
Donald Trump’s brazen pitch to 20 fossil-fuel heads for $1bn to aid his presidential campaign in return for promises of lucrative tax and regulatory favors is the “definition of corruption”, a top Democrat investigating the issue has said.
“It certainly meets the definition of corruption as the founding fathers would have used the term,” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said in an interview about Trump’s audacious $1bn request for big checks to top fossil-fuel executives that took place in April at his Mar-a-Lago club.
Continue reading...Abnormally Dry Canada Taps U.S. Energy, Reversing Usual Flow
UK election debates must make climate crisis a key issue, say green groups
Campaigners have written to broadcasters expressing concern that climate is not a more prominent discussion topic
The climate crisis must be discussed as a key priority in the TV debates between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, say green groups.
A number of NGOs have written to the TV networks expected to host the live debates, the first of which is on Tuesday at 9pm on ITV.
Continue reading...Debt payments by countries most vulnerable to climate crisis soar
Exclusive: level at highest in more than 30 years, say campaigners, who want ‘rapid and effective’ relief scheme
Debt payments by the 50 countries most vulnerable to the climate crisis have doubled since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and now stand at their highest level in more than three decades, campaigners have warned.
The Debt Justice charity said countries at the highest risk of being affected by global heating were paying 15.5% of government revenues to external creditors – up from less than 8% before Covid-19 and 4% at their lowest recent point in 2010.
Continue reading...Simon Armitage: Poets can fight climate crisis by making us spellbound by nature
Writer tells Hay festival about his new book, Blossomise, and his hopes to inspire people to preserve the natural world
Poets can help fight climate breakdown by making us “spellbound, full of wonder and beguiled” by nature, the poet laureate has said.
Simon Armitage, who pledged to dedicate his writing and thinking to environmental issues when he was appointed poet laureate in 2019, has written a new book of poems called Blossomise, which he hopes will remind readers of the beauty of nature.
Continue reading...