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Italy’s Marmolada glacier could disappear by 2040, experts say
Rising temperatures causing largest glacier in Dolomites to lose 7-10cm of depth a day, according to scientists
The Marmolada glacier, the largest and most symbolic of the Dolomites, could melt completely by 2040 owing to rising average temperatures, experts have said.
Italian scientists who are monitoring glaciers and the impact of climate emergency, and who took part in a campaign launched by environmentalist group Legambiente, the international commission for the protection of the Alps (Cipra), with the scientific partnership of the Italian Glacier Committee, said on Monday the Marmolada was losing between 7 and 10cm of depth a day.
Continue reading...Hurricane warnings in effect as US Gulf coast braces for Tropical Storm Francine
Storm expected to make landfall in Louisiana on Tuesday evening and bring heavy rainfall to Mississippi and Texas
Communities along the US’s Gulf coast are bracing for possible impact as Tropical Storm Francine is expected to become a hurricane later in the day on Tuesday and make landfall in Louisiana the following morning.
The storm has been moving northward, the National Hurricane Center said, and is expected to be just offshore the coasts of north-eastern Mexico and southern Texas by Tuesday evening.
Continue reading...Where Trump and Harris Stand on the Issues, From Abortion to Immigration
G20 countries turning backs on fossil fuel pledge, say campaigners
Promise to ‘transition away from fossil fuels’ made at Cop28 climate talks has been left out of draft resolutions
Campaigners have claimed some of the world’s largest economies are turning their backs on a pledge made last year to transition away from fossil fuels.
Ministers from the G20 group of developed and developing countries, including the US, UK, China and India, will meet in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday to discuss the global approach to the climate crisis.
Continue reading...We examined anti-protest laws across the west. Britain stood out, and not in a good way | Linda Lakhdhir
Under the Tories, non-violent climate protesters were jailed for up to five years – and there is little sign that Labour will change tack
- Linda Lakhdhir is the legal director of Climate Rights International
In December 2023 when Stephen Gingell was sentenced to six months in prison for slow marching for half an hour on the Holloway Road in north London, the sentence was considered shocking. Unfortunately, it is far from the exception. In fact, my organisation, Climate Rights International, has spent the past eight months looking into restrictions on climate protests among western democracies and has found that the UK – mostly under the Conservatives – has introduced some of the harshest anti-protest legislation in recent years.
You may remember Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker, who were sentenced to multi-year prison sentences in April 2023 for climbing the cables of the Queen Elizabeth II bridge to object to new oil, gas and coal projects. The three-year sentence imposed on Trowland was, at the time, the longest ever for a climate protest in the UK. But, it has since been surpassed. In July, in a case that made international headlines, five fossil-fuel protesters were sentenced to four- and five-year sentences after participating in a Zoom call about staging climate protests on the M25.
Linda Lakhdhir is the legal director of Climate Rights International
Continue reading...‘Two incredible extreme events’: Antarctic sea ice on cusp of record winter low for second year running
Last year Antartica’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.
Continue reading...Rich countries silencing climate protest while preaching about rights elsewhere, says study
Report says governments in global north increasingly using draconian measures while criticising similar tactics in global south
Wealthy, democratic countries in the global north are using harsh, vague and punitive measures to crack down on climate protests at the same time as criticising similar draconian tactics by authorities in the global south, according to a report.
A Climate Rights International report exposes the increasingly heavy-handed treatment of climate activists in Australia, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and the US.
Record prison sentences for non violent protest in several countries including the UK, Germany and the US.
Preemptive arrests and detention for those suspected of planning peaceful protests.
Draconian new laws passed to make the vast majority of peaceful protest illegal.
Measures to stop juries hearing about people’s motivation for taking part in protests during court cases, which critics say fundamentally undermines the right to a fair trial.
Continue reading...The Trade-Off for Mountain Tranquillity in California? Increasing Fire Risk.
Will Australia’s iconic landmarks be destroyed by climate change? | First Dog on the Moon
I’m sorry but your Big Prawn has climate-induced shell rot
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7 Takeaways From the Seemingly Endless Fire Season
Pacific islands submit court proposal for recognition of ecocide as a crime
Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa want international criminal court to class environmental destruction as crime alongside genocide
Three developing countries have taken the first steps towards transforming the world’s response to climate breakdown and environmental destruction by making ecocide a punishable criminal offence.
In a submission to the international criminal court on Monday, they propose a change in the rules to recognise “ecocide” as a crime alongside genocide and war crimes.
Continue reading...Warm fronts to Y-fronts: Chinese city hit by underwear storm
Chongqing authorities say cloud seeding to break heatwave did not cause winds that sent laundry flying
It was the talk of the town. After the authorities sought to break a long-running heatwave in Chongqing by using cloud-seeding missiles to artificially bring rain, the Chinese megacity was blasted by an unusual weather event – an underwear storm.
Termed “the 9/2 Chongqing underwear crisis”, an unexpected windstorm on Monday brought gusts of up to 76mph (122km/h), scattering people’s laundry from balconies on the city’s high-rises. Douyin, China’s sister app to TikTok, was filled with videos of pants and bras flying through the skies, landing in the street and snagging on trees.
Continue reading...Sharks deserting coral reefs as oceans heat up, study shows
Climate crisis is driving key predators from their homes and threatening an already embattled ecosystem
Sharks are deserting their coral reef homes as the climate crisis continues to heat up the oceans, scientists have discovered.
This is likely to harm the sharks, which are already endangered, and their absence could have serious consequences for the reefs, which are also struggling. The reef sharks are a key part of the highly diverse and delicate ecosystem, which could become dangerously unbalanced without them.
Continue reading...Most US voters say plastics industry should be held responsible for recycling claims – report
Even a majority of Republicans support efforts to hold manufacturers accountable for allegedly deceptive claims
Concern about the fossil fuel and plastics industries’ alleged deception about recycling is growing, with new polling showing a majority of American voters, including 54% of Republicans, support legal efforts to hold the sectors accountable.
The industries have faced increasing scrutiny for their role in the global plastics pollution crisis, including an ongoing California investigation and dozens of suits filed over the last decade against consumer brands that sell plastics.
Continue reading...A Britain proud of its present and realistic about its past is taking shape: with the angry right trailing behind | Nesrine Malik
Research shows a public less nationalistic, less ideological, with its own sense of national pride – and a media and political class out of sync
Once again the gap between politics and media, on one hand, and the general public, on the other, continues to be revealed in its scale. Survey after survey bring us the news that things are changing. That the British public is becoming more progressive in attitude towards refugees and asylum seekers, immigration, unions and industrial action, net zero targets and, most recently, British history.
The National Centre for Social Research’s British social attitudes survey shows a country that has become less nationalistic and jingoistic and, most sharply, less “proud” or “very proud” of British history. Along with that, there were also declines in pride in Britain’s democracy, its political influence and its economic achievements. The only two spheres where pride remained constant and high were sport, and art and literature.
Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...Almost 68% of Australia’s tourism sites at major risk if climate crisis continues, report says
Uluru, the Daintree and Bondi beach among iconic Australian locations that could be impacted if planet hits even 2C of warming by 2050
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South Australia’s wine regions shrouded in bushfire smoke, the Daintree rainforest cut off by flooding and tourists marooned at major airports because of violent storms. This snapshot is the potential chaotic future for Australia’s tourism industry, a new report has warned.
At least half of 178 tourism assets around the country – from national parks to city attractions and airports – are already facing major climate risks, the analysis showed. And as the heat rises, so do the disruptions. Many of the country’s 620,000 tourism jobs will be under threat, according to the report from insurance group Zurich and economic analysts Mandala.
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Continue reading...Raising Kids in the Shadow of Doom
Kuwait Turns to Power Cuts as Climate Change Strains Its Grid
Mr. Greedy, an African Penguin With 230 Descendants, Dies at 33
Tropical depression, a type of cyclone, may form in Gulf of Mexico next week
The system by Saturday had been dousing Texas and Louisiana with heavy rains for days
A tropical depression may form next week in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the National Hurricane Center.
In a forecast on Saturday afternoon, the NHC said that an area of low pressure had formed over the Bay of Campeche in the southern area of the Gulf of Mexico. It had been producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms.
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