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Scientists Predict Most Extensive Coral Bleaching Event on Record
Global heating pushes coral reefs towards worst planet-wide mass bleaching on record
The percentage of reef areas experiencing bleaching-level heat stress is increasing by about 1% a week, scientists say
Global heating has pushed the world’s coral reefs to a fourth planet-wide mass bleaching event that is on track to be the most extensive on record, US government scientists have confirmed.
Some 54% of ocean waters containing coral reefs have experienced heat stress high enough to cause bleaching, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch said.
Continue reading...‘Grownup’ leaders are pushing us towards catastrophe, says former US climate chief
Paris agreement negotiator Todd Stern attacks premiers who say that decarbonisation programmes are unrealistic and should be slowed down
Political leaders who present themselves as “grownups” while slowing the pace of climate action are pushing the world towards deeper catastrophe, a former US climate chief has warned.
“We are slowed down by those who think of themselves as grownups and believe decarbonisation at the speed the climate community calls for is unrealistic,” said Todd Stern, who served as a special envoy for climate change under Barack Obama, and helped negotiate the 2015 Paris agreement.
Continue reading...What Are Heat Pumps, and How Do They Work?
Jail for holding a placard? Protest over the climate crisis is being brutally suppressed | Natasha Walter
The legal repression of activism has been fast and frightening, yet it won’t make protesters disappear and only sows division
Years ago, when Dr Sarah Benn recognised the scale of the climate crisis, she made sure that she was doing all the right things. She recycled, she went vegan, she stopped flying, she voted Green, she signed petitions. It was because she didn’t see real change happening, despite doing all those things, that she then went further. She glued her hand to a building. She sat down in front of an oil terminal. And she stood on a grass verge with a handwritten sign, saying, “Stop New Oil”.
Benn’s story will be pretty familiar to anyone with a passing interest in the current wave of climate protest. This wave grew out of deep frustration with existing avenues for change. And it did feel, for a time, as if these protests might be a catalyst for the wider shift that so many people recognised was urgently needed. The marches and sit-downs sparked so much sympathy and curiosity, even with politicians from Michael Gove to Dawn Butler. I remember walking along a street on an Extinction Rebellion march in 2019 and people were cheering from their windows. A big part of all the early protests was outreach, with protesters talking to people on the streets, in communities and workplaces, and finding eager responses.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk
Continue reading...Rope-entangled right whale spotted off coast of New England
The marine mammals are increasingly endangered as warmer waters push them into ship traffic and fishing gear
A North Atlantic right whale has been spotted entangled in rope off New England, worsening an already devastating year for the vanishing animals, federal authorities said.
Right whales number less than 360 and are vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with ships. The entangled whale was seen on Wednesday about 50 miles (80km) south of Rhode Island’s Block Island, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said.
Continue reading...La nueva realidad mundial del dengue exige encontrar una mejor vacuna
Strasbourg court’s Swiss climate ruling could have global impact, say experts
Decision by European court of human rights around vulnerability of older women to heatwaves marks significant shift
A landmark legal ruling at the European court of human rights could open the floodgates for a slew of new court cases around the world, experts have said.
The Strasbourg-based court said earlier this week that Switzerland’s failure to do enough to cut its national greenhouse gas emissions was a clear violation of the human rights of a group of more than 2,000 older Swiss women. The women argued successfully that their rights to privacy and family life were being breached because they were particularly vulnerable to the health impacts of heatwaves.
Continue reading...‘Climate-Controlled’ Sausage? Courts Crack Down on ‘Greenwashing’
Shell says it ‘lobbies for energy transition’ during climate ruling appeal
Company is fighting Dutch court ruling that says it must emit 45% less CO2 by 2030 than in 2019
Shell has argued that it “lobbies for, not against, the energy transition” on the final day of its appeal against an important climate ruling.
The fossil fuel company is fighting the decision of a Dutch court in 2021 that forces it to pump 45% less planet-heating CO2 into the atmosphere by 2030 than it did in 2019. In court on Friday, Shell argued the ruling is ineffective, onerous and does not fit into the existing legal system.
Continue reading...Royalties for Drilling on Public Lands to Increase
The week around the world in 20 pictures
War in Gaza, destruction in Ukraine, protests in Naples and a total eclipse of the sun: 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...What to Know About the Rate Increases for Drilling on Public Lands
‘It’s a sun trap’: climate crisis brings boomtime for British wine
UK vineyards are thriving as far north as Yorkshire and Scotland as investors cash in on tax breaks and hotter summers
“We’ve never had frost here,” says Adrian Pike, gesturing across rows of vines just starting to show signs of tiny buds in the weak Kent spring sunshine.
Westwell vineyard is on the site of a former monastery and sits close to the Pilgrims’ Way on the North Downs, the historic route to Canterbury that runs along the top of the hill behind the vineyard.
Continue reading...Dinosaur data: can the bones of the deep past help predict extinctions of the future?
Millions of years ago, animals adapted to become warm-blooded amid huge climactic changes. Now scientists hope these clues from the past could help us understand what lies ahead
In Chicago’s Field Museum, behind a series of access-controlled doors, are about 1,500 dinosaur fossil specimens. The palaeobiologist Jasmina Wiemann walks straight past the bleached leg bones – some as big as her – neither does she glance at the fully intact spinal cord, stained red by iron oxides filling the spaces where there was once organic material. She only has eyes for the deep chocolate-brown fossils: these are the ones containing preserved organic matter – bones that offer unprecedented insights into creatures that went extinct millions of years ago.
Wiemann is part of the burgeoning field of conservation palaeobiology, where researchers are looking to the deep past to predict future extinction vulnerability. At a time when humans could be about to witness a sixth mass extinction, studying fossil records is particularly useful for understanding how the natural world responded to problems before we arrived: how life on Earth reacted to environmental change over time, how species adapted to planet-scale temperature changes, or what to expect when ocean geochemical cycles change.
Continue reading...Tory candidate for London mayor has Trumpian attitude to climate, says Khan
London mayor expected to criticise Susan Hall in speech launching solar panels on school roofs
Sadiq Khan will accuse his Conservative rival in the race to be London’s next mayor of being “Trumpian” over the climate crisis, as he announces plans for solar panels on schools.
Khan is expected to acknowledge resistance to his expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) in a speech on Friday but insist that he still intends to “go further”.
Continue reading...Weatherwatch: how reducing air pollution adds to climate crisis
Aerosols produced by pollution cool the planet; the crusade for clean air is removing this protection
Curbs on the amount of greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere are just one of the ways that politicians are reacting to the scientific evidence that we are damaging our health and our planet. An even greater threat to human life in the short term has been air pollution in the form of particulate matter from the burning of fossil fuels, agriculture and many industrial processes.
Clean air has become a crusade everywhere from Beijing to London, to save lives and improve economic output. At the same time as damaging lungs and hearts, the aerosols produced by pollution increase cloud formation, change rainfall patterns and reflect sunlight back into space, thus cooling the planet.
Continue reading...Biden Administration Said to Expand Two California National Monuments
Biden Administration Said to Expand Two California National Monuments
Labour may fail to grab target seats as young voters turn away over Gaza and climate
Party figures say decision to tack to right on issues such as immigration could also diminish predicted landslide
Labour risks losing in a number of its target seats as previously loyal progressive voters turn away from the party, senior party figures and polling experts have warned.
Experts said Keir Starmer’s party could struggle to win as many as a dozen of its key targets, and could even lose two of the seats it now holds, as a result of alienating some Muslims and younger progressive voters angered by its stance on Gaza and the climate crisis.
Continue reading...