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Climate
Just 57 companies linked to 80% of greenhouse gas emissions since 2016
Analysis reveals many big producers increased output of fossil fuels and related emissions in seven years after Paris climate deal
A mere 57 oil, gas, coal and cement producers are directly linked to 80% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since the 2016 Paris climate agreement, a study has shown.
This powerful cohort of state-controlled corporations and shareholder-owned multinationals are the leading drivers of the climate crisis, according to the Carbon Majors Database, which is compiled by world-renowned researchers.
Continue reading...Boom in mining for renewable energy minerals threatens Africa’s great apes
Researchers applaud move away from fossil fuels but say more must be done to mitigate effects on endangered species
Up to a third of Africa’s great apes are threatened by a boom in mining projects for minerals required for the renewable energy transition, new research shows.
An estimated 180,000 gorillas, bonobos and chimpanzees are at risk due to an increase in demand for critical minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt, a study has found. Many of those minerals are required for clean energy technologies such as wind turbines and electric cars. Researchers say the boom in demand is driving destruction of tropical rainforests which are critical habitats for Africa’s great apes.
Continue reading...I’m a Doctor. Dengue Fever Took Even Me by Surprise on Vacation.
A big week for climate policy in Australia: what happened and what to make of it | Adam Morton
While Toyota falls in line on vehicle emission standards, an expert takes a dim view of ‘solar sunshot’ and the carbon offsets that aren’t
The news cycle moves fast. There was a cascade of climate news as the country slowed down for Easter last week.
Here’s some of what you might have seen, what you might have missed, and a look at what it means.
Continue reading...Butterfly study finds sharpest fall on record for small tortoiseshell in England
Rate of decline in 2023 thought to be linked to climate breakdown as UK-wide survey shows mixed picture across 58 species
The small tortoiseshell butterfly has suffered its worst year on record in England, and has declined by 82% across the UK since 1976, according to the annual scientific count of butterfly populations.
The sharp decline in numbers of the once-common garden butterfly has puzzled scientists, but it is thought to be linked to climate breakdown. It had its worst year on record in England, its second worst in Wales and its joint-fifth worst in Scotland in 2023 but did well in Northern Ireland, logging its second-best year.
Continue reading...The life and death of Rosa Reichel: the brilliant girl who was swept away
She was just 15 and her friends couldn’t save her from the rising waters. For her family and everyone in this flooded region of Belgium, nothing will ever be the same again
It was not a river. It was scarcely a stream. The Ruisseau des Quartes, Marcourt, Belgium. An unlovely and unremarkable tributary of the Ourthe, itself a tributary of the mighty Meuse, which thunders from France through Belgium and the Netherlands and on to the chilly oblivion of the North Sea. It was barely 2 metres wide, boggy in places, just 5cm deep in others. The parents dropping off their children at the United World Colleges summer camp on 10 July 2021 hopped over it as they lugged bags to the dormitories.
Fourteen-year-old Benjamin Van Bunderen Robberechts was nervous on the drive down. He would have to take a Covid test on arrival and he worried it would be positive. Belgium was beginning to relax restrictions and Benjamin was desperate to socialise with other teenagers. But the test was negative; soon, Benjamin was dropping off his things in his dorm and meeting his other campmates. And there was Rosa.
Continue reading...To Slow Global Warming, Scientists Test Solar Geoengineering
‘Average is awesome’: California pleased with result of critical snowpack survey
After years of swinging extremes, state snowpack is at rare average of 110%, setting up good water savings account for year ahead
On Tuesday morning California officials trekked into the mountains to share some exciting and unusual news: the state’s snowpack measurement is just about average. Across the state, the snowpack came in at roughly 110% – a measurement that is exceedingly rare in a changing climate.
The fourth survey of the year, conducted at the beginning of April, is considered one of the most crucial. It serves as an indicator for how the state’s water supply will fare through the drier, warmer seasons ahead. The snowpack acts as a water savings account for the state, supplying roughly 30% of California’s water and slowly refilling reservoirs, pumping rivers and streams and wetting soils during the dry, warm seasons as it melts. April typically marks the shift out of the precipitation season, which is why this snowpack measurement carries so much weight.
Continue reading...How to make polluters pay
Is It a Blizzard? A Nor’easter? And What’s the Difference?
Australia’s soil to become net carbon emitter and threat to climate goals, report says
Modelling points to ‘huge’ soil emissions in interior rangelands, which are more sensitive to a warming climate
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Intensifying extreme heat and drought due to climate change will make Australia’s soil a net emitter of carbon dioxide, impeding the country from reaching its climate goals, new analysis has found.
Soil carbon sequestration has been identified as a way to help Australia meet its greenhouse gas emission reduction targets of 43% by 2030 and net zero by 2050.
Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter
Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter
Join the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the community
Continue reading...US aiming to ‘crack the code’ on deploying geothermal energy at scale
Recent $74m investment made alongside assessment that 10% of electricity could be generated by geothermal by 2050
A limitless supply of heat exists beneath our feet within the Earth’s crust, but harnessing it at scale has proved challenging. Now, a combination of new techniques, government support and the pressing need to secure continuous clean power in an era of climate crisis means that geothermal energy is finally having its moment in the US.
Until recently, geothermal has only been viable where the Earth’s inner heat simmers near the surface, such as at hot springs or geysers where hot water or steam can be easily drawn to drive turbines and generate electricity.
Continue reading...The case for paying ranchers to raise trees instead of cattle | Patrick Brown and Michael Eisen
Reducing cattle populations and restoring native ecoystems is our best chance to tackle global heating. Here’s one way to do it
There is a simple, cost-effective and scientifically sound way to turn back the clock on global warming and reverse the catastrophic collapse of biodiversity: pay ranchers to raise trees instead of cattle.
By mass, the world’s 1.7 billion cows are the dominant animal species on Earth, far outweighing the human population, and outweighing all the wild terrestrial mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians left on Earth by more than 15-fold. More than a third of Earth’s land is used to feed livestock.
Continue reading...Why Is There So Much Plastic Food Packaging?
5-Star Bird Houses for Picky but Precious Guests: Nesting Swiftlets
‘If it was to go it would be awful’: climate crisis threatens historic north-east golf club
Saving Alnmouth from rising seas and coastal erosion complicated by links course being on private land
For most golfers, the most damage a furious wind can do is to your handicap – and, if you are really unfortunate, your car windshield.
But visitors to Alnmouth village golf club in Northumberland have to contend with the prospect of storms and rising sea levels consigning the oldest nine-hole links course in the country to history.
Continue reading...‘Headaches, organ damage and even death’: how salty water is putting Bangladesh’s pregnant women at risk
As rising sea levels and extreme weather contaminate drinking water sources, doctors are seeing alarming numbers of women with serious health problems including pre-eclampsia
- Photographs by Farzana Hossen
In the small, crowded ward of the Upazila Health Complex in Dacope, new and expecting mothers lie exhausted beneath fans that spin noisily above their heads. There are no dividers in the maternity room shared by more than 20 women, so visiting husbands are ushered out by nurses when someone needs attending to.
Sapriya Rai, 23, has pre-eclampsia and is being monitored at the Upazila Health Complex
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