Climate

Attorney and non-profit founder Julia Olson calls appeals court ruling on lawsuit filed by 21 young people ‘tragic and unjust’

A federal appeals court on Wednesday evening granted the Biden administration’s request to strike down a landmark federal youth climate case, outraging climate advocates.

“This is a tragic and unjust ruling,” said Julia Olson, attorney and founder of Our Children’s Trust, the non-profit law firm that brought the suit.

Continue reading...

Cattle ranches have ruled the Amazon for decades. Now, new companies are selling something else: the ability of trees to lock away planet-warming carbon.

Tactics to convince people to buy less aren’t working. A quirky new documentary by Patagonia takes a different approach.

Shifting atmospheric circulation patterns have placed US state in frontline of climate crisis

Changing weather patterns might not have been foremost in Bob Dylan’s mind when he wrote The Times They Are A-Changin’, but his lyrics seem apt now. Rising greenhouse gases are altering the world’s weather patterns and new research demonstrates how increased emissions have shifted atmospheric circulation patterns, resulting in more frequent extreme weather events around the world.

California in North America has ended up being at the frontline of the climate crisis in recent years, lurching between extreme drought and excessive rain. To understand what might have triggered these extremes, researchers modelled the interplay between the three major drivers of the weather in this region and the impact that greenhouse warming has had on these drivers.

Continue reading...

Amsterdam is home to 45,000 sq metres of ‘blue-green’ roofs, which absorb rainwater and allow it to be used by building residents to water plants and flush toilets

You might visit Amsterdam for its canals, and who could blame you, really. But the truly interesting waterways aren’t under your feet – they’re above your head.

Beautiful green roofs have popped up all over the world: specially selected plants growing on structures designed to manage the extra weight of biomass. Amsterdam has taken that one step further with blue-green roofs, specially designed to capture rainwater. One project, the resilience network of smart, innovative, climate-adaptive rooftops (Resilio), has covered more than 9,000 sq metres (100,000 sq ft) of Amsterdam’s roofs, including 8,000 sq metres on social housing complexes. Citywide, the blue-green roof coverage is even bigger, estimated at more than 45,000 sq metres.

Continue reading...

Use of enclosed combustors leaves regulators heavily reliant on oil and gas companies’ own flaring data

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.

Continue reading...

Un equipo de científicos ha concluido que el bajo nivel del agua que bloqueó el tráfico de mercancías está más relacionado con el ciclo climático natural que con el calentamiento provocado por la humanidad.

US Senate hearing reviewed report showing sector’s shift from climate denial to ‘deception, disinformation and doublespeak’

The fossil fuel industry spent decades sowing doubt about the dangers of burning oil and gas, experts and Democratic lawmakers testified on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

The Senate budget committee held a hearing to review a report published on Tuesday with the House oversight and accountability committee that they said demonstrates the sector’s shift from explicit climate denial to a more sophisticated strategy of “deception, disinformation and doublespeak”.

Continue reading...

The heavy rains that have pounded East Africa for weeks, killing hundreds, have now spilled into the Masai Mara, one of Africa’s greatest wildlife national reserves.

Comparing 30,000 years of human history, researchers found that surviving famine, war or climate change helps groups recover more quickly from future shocks.

Durante una década, un empresario adinerado y un grupo de activistas sostuvieron un enfrentamiento que terminó con el intercambio de 63 millones de dólares.

The low water levels that choked cargo traffic were more closely tied to the natural climate cycle than to human-caused warming, a team of scientists has concluded.

Final submissions begin in racial discrimination case brought by Mehreen Faruqi against Hanson. Follow the today’s news live

• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

As we flagged earlier, the treasurer Jim Chalmers will today announce foreign investment changes, with approvals to be made quicker and greater scrutiny to be placed on potential risks.

You can read all the details on this from Peter Hannam below:

Right now, we treat investments from right around the world more or less the same. We want to streamline it for the less-risky investments so we can devote much more time and energy and resources to screening the sorts of investments that we’re seeing in critical industries – like critical minerals, critical infrastructure, critical data, and the like.

This is all about strengthening the foreign investment framework to make sure that investment is in the national interest. We want to maximise the right kind of investment, but we want to minimise risk and that’s what these changes I’ll announce today are all about.

Continue reading...

Producers of biofuels like ethanol, which could help create a new generation of jet fuel, would have to overhaul their practices to receive tax credits.

The Biden administration is tightening efficiency rules for water heaters, stoves and other appliances, and conservative politicians are dialing up their criticisms.

Agreement gives leeway to countries heavily reliant on coal and allows power plants fitted with carbon-capture technology

Ministers from the G7 countries agreed on Tuesday to end the use of unabated coal power plants by 2035 – but left the door open for those heavily reliant on coal to breach the deadline.

After two days of talks in Turin, Italy, they published a pledge to “phase out existing unabated coal power generation in our energy systems during the first half of 2030s” to curb the rise in global greenhouse gas emissions.

Continue reading...

A decade-long battle between a wealthy industrialist and a band of activists led to a surprising $63 million transaction.

Scientists stunned by scale of destruction after summer of storm surges, cyclones and floods

Beneath the turquoise waters off Heron Island lies a huge, brain-shaped Porites coral that, in health, would be a rude shade of purplish-brown. Today that coral outcrop, or bommie, shines snow white.

Prof Terry Hughes, a coral bleaching expert at James Cook University, estimates this living boulder is at least 300 years old.

Continue reading...

The environmental data scientist Hannah Ritchie argues that climate technology is increasingly catching up to the world’s enormous need for clean energy.

An effort to protect 30 percent of land and waters would count some commercial fishing zones as conserved areas.