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Are the climate wars really over, or has a new era of greenwashing just begun? | Joëlle Gergis
In a new Quarterly Essay, Joëlle Gergis says that while Rome wasn’t built in a day, the Albanese government’s lack of action on climate change does not reflect the urgency of the crisis
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Although the 2022 federal election ushered in a new era of progressive politics in Australia, as Labor’s first term in power has progressed many people are now wondering if the political deadlock on our nation’s climate policy has really been broken.
Although some good ground has been made, the federal government’s actions still don’t reflect the urgency of the planetary-scale crisis we are in. Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions are rising and enormous fossil fuel projects continue to be approved to meet domestic and international demand.
Continue reading...My Climate View: online tool allows Australian farmers to project changes out to 2070
Program developed by the CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology allows farmers to better understand the risks of the climate crisis, study found
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In 30 years, Vicki Mayne’s Queensland beef property will receive 30 more days of heatwaves a year.
“That pushes us to 163 days of the year,” she said.
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Continue reading...‘It’s all we have’: young climate activists on the state of politics around the world
With elections affecting half the world’s population this year, campaigners offer their views on the chances of real change
This year elections are taking place across the globe, covering almost half of the world’s population. It is also likely to be, yet again, the hottest year recorded as the climate crisis intensifies. The Guardian asked young climate activists around the world what they want from the elections and whether politics is working in the fight to halt global heating.
Continue reading...Climate deniers like DeSantis hurt most vulnerable communities, scientists say
On first day of predicted intense Atlantic hurricane season, Nature Conservancy urges action and warns against misinformation
Misinformation spread by climate deniers such as Florida’s extremist Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, increases the “vulnerability” of communities in the path of severe weather events, scientists are warning.
The message comes on Saturday, the first day of what experts fear could be one of the most intense and dangerous Atlantic hurricane seasons on record, threatening a summer of natural disasters across the US.
Continue reading...Sensor error means New Delhi heatwave record overstated by 3C
Meteorologists found 52.9C reading to be false, though new record does appear to have been set
A record temperature registered this week for the Indian capital of 52.9C (127.22F) was too high by 3C, the Indian government has said.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had investigated Wednesday’s reading by the weather station at Mungeshpur, a densely packed corner of New Delhi, “and found a 3C sensor error”, the earth sciences minister, Kiren Rijiju, said.
Continue reading...Oil and Gas Companies Are Trying to Rig the Marketplace
Vermont to Require Fossil-Fuel Companies to Pay for Climate Damage
California lake so green with algae it’s visible from space, says Nasa
Bright hue of Clear Lake, state’s largest freshwater basin, may have been caused by cyanobacteria and other phytoplankton
California’s largest freshwater lake has turned bright green due to algae blooms so intense they are visible from space, Nasa has announced, sharing satellite images from mid-May.
The photographs showed that “bright green swirls were visible across most of the lake’s area”, the space agency said, and may have been caused by cyanobacteria, commonly known as blue-green algae, as well as other kinds of phytoplankton.
Continue reading...The week around the world in 20 pictures
War in Gaza, Donald Trump in New York, voting in South Africa and an eruption in Iceland: the last seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists
• Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing
Continue reading...‘Game-changing’: Vermont becomes first state to require big oil to pay for climate damages
Climate Superfund Act compels oil companies to pay potentially billions of dollars for climate impacts caused by their emissions
Vermont has become the first state to enact a law holding oil firms financially responsible for climate damages, after the Republican governor, Phil Scott, allowed it to pass without his signature late on Thursday.
Modeled after the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program, the Climate Superfund Act directs the state to charge major fossil fuel companies potentially billions of dollars to pay for climate impacts to which their emissions have contributed. It is expected to face legal challenges from the industry.
Continue reading...India and Pakistan Heat Wave Is a Matter of Survival for Laborers
Greece Is Betting Big on Liquefied Natural Gas From the U.S.
Texas sees snowploughs in May as ‘DVD-sized’ hailstones strike state
Western Texas briefly looked like a ‘winter wonderland’ amid dramatic temperature drop and hailstorm
Just as people start bringing out their shorts for the start of summer, one Texas town had to reach for something rarely seen in late May: a snowplough.
Parts of the state saw a dramatic 50F temperature drop on Wednesday thanks to a giant dump of hail, some “DVD-sized”. The storm made western Texas look, briefly, like a winter wonderland.
Continue reading...Activists hold three-day protest in EU election run-up as green agenda slips
Campaign groups in 127 cities demand urgent climate action amid fears of far-right gains
Activists across Europe are holding three days of protests to protect democracy and cut pollution as they struggle to push green issues back up the agenda before the European elections next week.
Last year was the hottest on record, and the urgency of the climate crisis is pressing. However, polls are predicting wins for far-right parties seeking to scrap green rules, and there have been significant recent rollbacks of environment policy. The fate of a proposed law to restore nature – the subject of fierce attacks even from centre-right parties that had championed the green deal – still appears to be hanging in the balance.
Continue reading...In Colorado, an Ambitious New Highway Policy Is Not Building Them
India’s ‘sinking island’ looks to election for survival – in pictures
For many on Ghoramara, the general election is about the climate crisis and survival. The island, 150km south of Kolkata and named the ‘sinking island’ by the media, has lost nearly half its area to soil erosion in the past two decades and could disappear if a solution is not found.
As voters across India cast their ballots on issues ranging from the cost of living to jobs and religion, politicians trying to win votes in Ghoramara need to put the climate crisis to the fore as the island’s dwindling population fight to save their homes from the sea amid rising water levels and increasingly fierce storms
Continue reading...The Right Kind of Tipping Point
No need for countries to issue new oil, gas or coal licences, study finds
Researchers say world has enough fossil fuel projects planned to meet demand forecasts to 2050 if net zero is reached
The world has enough fossil fuel projects planned to meet global energy demand forecasts to 2050 and governments should stop issuing new oil, gas and coal licences, according to a large study aimed at political leaders.
If governments deliver the changes promised in order to keep the world from breaching its climate targets no new fossil fuel projects will be needed, researchers at University College London and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) said on Thursday.
Continue reading...‘Unliveable’: Delhi’s residents struggle to cope in record-breaking heat
Temperatures of more than 45C have left population of 29 million exhausted – but the poorest suffer most
As the water tanker drove into a crowded Delhi neighbourhood, a ruckus erupted. Dozens of residents ran frantically behind it, brandishing buckets, bottles and hoses, and jumped on top of it to get even a drip of what was stored inside. Temperatures that day had soared to 49C (120F), the hottest day on record – and in many places across India’s vast capital, home to more than 29 million people, water had run out.
Every morning, Tripti, a social health worker who lives in the impoverished enclave of Vivekanand Camp, is among those who has to stand under the blazing sun with buckets and pots, waiting desperately for the water tanker to arrive.
Continue reading...‘Termination shock’: cut in ship pollution sparked global heating spurt
Sudden cut in pollution in 2020 meant less shade from sun and was ‘substantial’ factor in record surface temperatures in 2023, study finds
The slashing of pollution from shipping in 2020 led to a big “termination shock” that is estimated have pushed the rate of global heating to double the long-term average, according to research.
Until 2020, global shipping used dirty, high-sulphur fuels that produced air pollution. The pollution particles blocked sunlight and helped form more clouds, thereby curbing global heating. But new regulations at the start of 2020 slashed the sulphur content of fuels by more than 80%.
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