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Climate crisis driving exponential rise in most extreme wildfires
Scientists warn of ‘scary’ feedback loop in which fires create more heating, which causes more fires worldwide
The climate crisis is driving an exponential rise in the most extreme wildfires in key regions around the world, research has revealed.
The wildfires can cause catastrophic loss of human life, property and wildlife and cause billions of dollars of damage. Scientists say this is climate change “playing out in front of our eyes”.
Continue reading...Fury road: a forlorn hope that, for once, Australia would choose the hard path on climate | Calla Wahlquist
Sometimes driving down old and familiar country roads conjures up romantic memories. Or, as after Dutton’s nuclear announcement, it just fills you with anger
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There is an element of time travel to driving a road you once knew well. The route along the Olympic Highway, which turns off the Hume Freeway just north of Albury and runs through Wagga Wagga to Cowra and then becomes a series of single-lane roads all the way to Cassilis, is etched into the back of my mind.
We drove it once or twice a year to see my grandparents. I remember when the McDonald’s opened at Cowra – an exciting day for my parents, because Cowra was exactly the halfway point of our drive and an ideal spot for lunch. But it was a devastating day for my sister and me, who had previously been able to wrangle two fast food stops (one at Wagga, before 10.30am to get the breakfast menu, and a second at Wellington for a fried afternoon tea).
Continue reading...Matt Kean criticised by Coalition MPs after Labor appoints him new chair of Climate Change Authority
Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan lead criticism of former NSW treasurer while Labor declares him ‘best for the job’
- Explainer: Who is Matt Kean and what is the Climate Change Authority?
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The former New South Wales Liberal treasurer Matt Kean has faced criticism for taking a new job as the new chair of the Climate Change Authority after he was appointed by the Albanese government on Monday.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, revealed the former NSW Liberal treasurer had been chosen for the “important” role on Monday in a surprise cross-party appointment.
Continue reading...Dilema en Wall Street: ¿ganancias a corto plazo o beneficios climáticos?
‘Time is life’: the Delhi clinic treating the city’s heat stroke victims
Emergency unit opens as much of north India has been battered by relentlessly high temperatures every single day since mid-May
As Dr Amlendu Yadav flicks the switch, the large pipe starts gushing water while he shovels ice into the tub. In two minutes, it is full, ready for the next patient in his newly created emergency heatstroke unit at Ram Manohar Lohia hospital in the Indian capital.
The point, he explains, is speed. Heatstroke patients need to be dunked in the bath the moment they arrive at the hospital if they are to stand a chance of surviving.
Continue reading...Australia politics live: ‘We’ve got sufficient gas’, Plibersek says as energy debate due to dominate parliament winter session
Debate over the Coalition’s announcement of its plan for nuclear power plant sites will heat up. Follow today’s news headlines live
David Pocock also spoke to the ABC about his private member’s bill that would see housing treated as a human right. He said it was needed because:
There’s no overarching national plan and this would legislate that these are the objectives, we want to see housing affordable, we want to reduce homelessness and then it would be up to the government to actually work out – how are we going to do that?
What are the policies that we think will address this?
One of my heroes Desmond Tutu used to say ‘don’t raise your voice, improve your argument’.
It’s pretty tragic the major parties tear the opposition down rather than improving their argument and making their plans stand on their own two feet.
Continue reading...As Heat Wave Bakes New Jersey, Residents Asked to Reduce Water Use
Only 60% of Australians accept climate disruption is human-caused, global poll finds
Exclusive: French survey of 26 countries finds fewer Australians than global average agree that climate change is the greatest health threat facing humanity
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Australians are among the most sceptical around the world that climate disruption is being caused by humans and that the costs of tackling it will be less than that of its impacts, according to polling across 26 countries.
Just 60% of Australians accept that climate disruption is human-caused, a fall of six percentage points from the previous poll 18 months earlier and well behind the global average of 73%, according to the results from French polling company Elabe.
Continue reading...Thousands of Michigan Residents Weather Days Without Power During Heat Wave
US official warns against dropping 2030 climate targets after Dutton refuses to commit to 43% emissions cut
Exclusive: State department official urges politicians to do ‘the right thing’, citing ‘collective responsibility’
A senior US official has urged Australia and other countries not to back away from their 2030 climate commitments, insisting that “we all have a collective responsibility for the planet we live in”.
The message from Australia’s top security ally contrasts with rhetoric from the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, who claimed on Saturday the Labor government was “appeasing the international climate lobby” and “global climate activists”.
Continue reading...'More birds, more trees': thousands march for nature in London – video
Thousands of people marched through central London to urge political leaders to take more decisive action in tackling the UK’s wildlife crisis. For the first time, mainstream organisations including the National Trust and the RSPB stood beside hunt saboteurs and direct action activists in the Restore Nature Now march, as campaigners called on the next government to take 'bold' steps to tackle the biodiversity crisis
Restore Nature Now: thousands to march in London calling for urgent action
Thousands march in London to urge leaders to tackle wildlife crisis
Thousands march in London to urge leaders to tackle wildlife crisis
Protest features 350 environmental groups demanding more robust action on UK wildlife loss
Thousands of people marched through central London to urge political leaders to take more decisive action in tackling the UK’s wildlife crisis.
The protest on Saturday culminated in a rally outside Parliament Square with speeches from prominent figures including the naturalists Chris Packham and Steve Backshall, and poetry readings and performances from Billy Bragg and Feargal Sharkey.
Continue reading...‘Multiple disasters all in one day’: New Mexico’s brutal week of fire and flood
Burning slopes are now battered by golf ball-sized hail and 8in of rain, creating a grim mix of extreme weather events
It’s been a harrowing week of fire and flood in New Mexico. Just days after a pair of fast-moving fires roared across drought-stricken landscapes and into communities, a tropical storm swirled north, unleashing downpours and golf ball-sized hail over scorched slopes that had only just burned.
As the dueling dangers of two weather extremes converged, charred debris flowed into neighborhoods, crews were temporarily evacuated from the firefight as emergency officials pivoted from fire support to flood rescues, and strong winds swept up dried soils to create one of the largest dust storms the state has ever seen.
Continue reading...Hawaii Settles With Young Plaintiffs in Climate Case
Oil Projects Must Consider Full Climate Impact, Top U.K. Court Rules
Tras un huracán, unos monos belicosos se volvieron más amables
Los pesticidas son el sospechoso principal del declive de las mariposas
The week around the world in 20 pictures
War in Gaza, Putin in Pyongyang, wildfires in California and nude solstice swimming in Hobart: the last seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists
Continue reading...Heat Waves: Workers May Die. Here’s How to Save Them.
Our incredible win could change the future of oil and gas in the UK | Sarah Finch
Thanks to the tireless work of campaigners in Surrey, fossil-fuel development must now take into account ‘downstream’ emissions
- Sarah Finch is a climate campaigner and a member of the Weald Action Group
This week I found out what it feels like to go beyond your wildest dreams. A case I fronted won at the supreme court, with potentially huge positive impacts for the climate. For almost five years, I had been mounting a legal challenge to fossil-fuel production at Horse Hill in the Surrey countryside. A group of residents, activists and lawyers had been pursuing a routine legal review of a council planning decision that had given an oil company the green light to drill four new oil wells and produce oil for 20 years.
The supreme court ruling means it will now be much harder for new fossil-fuel projects to go ahead as their full climate impact will need to be factored in from the start. Our challenge centred on the fact that the oil produced by the Horse Hill site would inevitably be burned, throwing carbon into the atmosphere and heating the planet. We expected it to be a routine legal procedure lasting six months. But as the case came together, its wider significance for the climate and the fossil-fuel industry at large became clearer, and months turned into years as it worked its way through the courts.
Sarah Finch is a climate campaigner and a member of the Weald Action Group
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