ExxonMobil has signed an all-stock deal worth $59.5bn to acquire Pioneer Natural Resources, an American publicly listed company focused on upstream operations in the Permian shale basin. The merger…Continue readingExxonMobil signs $60bn all-stock deal to acquire Pioneer Natural Resources
Category: The Anthropocene
Chevron has agreed to acquire rival American publicly listed oil and gas company Hess in an all-stock deal worth $53bn in a move to upgrade and diversify its portfolio.…Continue readingChevron signs $53bn all-stock deal to acquire rival oil and gas firm Hess
Earth’s vital signs have worsened beyond anything humans have yet seen, to the point that life on the planet is imperiled. William Ripple, a distinguished professor in the Oregon…Continue readingClimate report: ‘Uncharted territory’ imperils life on Earth
Accelerated ice melt in west Antarctica is inevitable for the rest of the century no matter how much carbon emissions are cut, research indicates. The implications for sea level…Continue readingRapid ice melt in west Antarctica now inevitable
The ocean floor is shaping up to be the world’s next theater of global resource competition — and China is set to dominate it. The sea is believed to…Continue readingChina is set to dominate the deep sea and its wealth of rare metals
The EU has abandoned a promise to ban all but the most vital of toxic chemicals used in everyday consumer products, leaked documents show. Other legislation to be dropped…Continue readingEU abandons promise to ban toxic chemicals in consumer products
Plastics-related carbon footprints of China’s transportation, Indonesia’s electronics industry and India’s construction sector have increased more than 50-fold since 1995. In 2015, plastics caused 4.5% of global greenhouse gas…Continue readingGrowing environmental footprint of plastics driven by coal combustion
More than 150 species of wild animals across every continent are contaminated with flame retardant chemicals, according to a new map tracking peer-reviewed research worldwide. Polluted wildlife include killer…Continue readingResearch tracking map shows wildlife polluted by flame retardants on massive scale
Parts of Malawi saw a maximum temperature of 43˚C (109˚F), compared with an average of nearly 25˚C (77˚F) for the time of year. The temperatures had dropped by Monday,…Continue readingMalawi swelters in record heat with temperatures nearly 20˚C above average
A crucial meeting on climate “loss and damages” ahead of COP28 ended in failure Saturday, with countries from the global north and south unable to reach an agreement, according…Continue readingClimate ‘loss and damage’ talks end in failure
A withering drought has turned the Amazonian capital of Manaus into a climate dystopia with the second worst air quality in the world and rivers at the lowest levels…Continue readingDrought turns Amazonian capital into climate dystopia
The water level at a major river port in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has hit its lowest point in at least 121 years, as a historic drought upends the lives…Continue readingWater level at Amazon port in Brazil hits lowest point in 121 years amid drought
Antarctic fur seals that were hunted to near extinction have recovered but now face dangerous decline because of a lack of food, new research suggests. The study of fur…Continue readingLack of food is the new threat to Antarctic fur seals
Seatrium Limited announced the successful delivery of the Floating Production Unit (FPU), Whale, for deployment in the Gulf of Mexico, in accordance with the contract secured in November 2019…Continue readingSeatrium delivers floating production unit for Gulf of Mexico project
BP and its partners have shipped the first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the newly constructed third liquefaction train at the Tangguh LNG facility in Indonesia. Safely…Continue readingBP starts commercial operation of expanded Tangguh LNG facility in Indonesia
Australian oil and gas exploration and production company Beach Energy has made a gas discovery at Tarantula Deep-1 well in the Perth Basin, located in Western Australia. “With gas…Continue readingBeach Energy makes new gas discovery at Tarantula Deep 1 well in Perth Basin
Sharjah Electricity, Water, and Gas Authority (SEWA), Sharjah Hamriyah Independent Power (SHIPCO), and GE Vernova began the commercial operations of all three blocks of the 1.8GW Hamriyah Independent Power…Continue readingUAE’s 1.8GW Hamriyah independent power plant starts commercial operations
UAE’s integrated gas processing company ADNOC Gas has entered into a multi-year liquified natural gas (LNG) supply agreement with JERA Global Markets, a subsidiary of Japan’s JERA. The agreement,…Continue readingADNOC Gas signs multi-year LNG supply deal with JERA Global Markets
Commenting on this occasion, His Excellency Minister Al-Kaabi said: “We are delighted to sign these two long-term LNG sale and purchase agreements with Shell that will further enhance our…Continue readingQatarEnergy, Shell sign 27-year LNG supply agreements for up to 3.5mtpa to the Netherlands
A profile of Australia’s energy system has been published on this site.Continue readingEnergy System of Australia
For the past couple of decades, tens of thousands of people living in rural Sri Lanka have been devastated by kidney failure due to unclear causes, also known as…Continue readingRoundup herbicide ingredient connected to epidemic levels of chronic kidney disease
ExxonMobil is buying itsoil and gas rival Pioneer Natural Resources in a $59.5 billion megadeal. The latest ExxonMobil deal creates a shale-drilling behemoth in the U.S. Permian Basin, where…Continue readingExxonMobil doubles down on fossil fuels with $59.5 billion Pioneer deal
TotalEnergies has signed a 27-year agreement with Qatar to secure liquefied natural gas, extending France’s commitment to fossil fuels beyond 2050 in one of the longest ever LNG supply…Continue readingFrance’s Total signs 27-year LNG deal with Qatar
The deadly heat in central South America over the past two months was made 100 times more likely by human emissions that disrupted the climate, scientists have shown. Temperatures…Continue readingHuman emissions made deadly South American heat 100 times more likely
If global temperatures increase by 2°C above pre-industrial levels, the 2.2 billion residents of Pakistan and India’s Indus River Valley, the one billion people living in eastern China and…Continue readingClimate-driven extreme heat may make parts of Earth too hot for humans
The air was dry and warm and the skies over Dushanbe were gray without a hint of sun during another recent toxic sand storm that enveloped the capital of…Continue readingToxic storms blamed on climate change cloud Tajikistan
US carmaker Ford, Brazil’s Vale, China’s Tsingshan and Hong Kong’s Jardine Matheson are invested in Indonesian nickel projects responsible for the clearance of large swaths of some of the…Continue readingNickel miners linked to devastation of Indonesian forests
Bill Gates is emphatic: “I don’t plant trees,” he declared recently, wading into a debate about whether mass tree planting is really much use in fighting climate change. The…Continue readingIs planting trees to combat climate change ‘complete nonsense’?
At least 1,000 birds died from colliding into a single building in Chicago on Thursday, 5 October, as they migrated south to their wintering grounds. Volunteers are still recovering…Continue readingAt least 1,000 birds died from colliding with one Chicago building in one day
Afro-Siberian red knots migrate from the Arctic to winter in Africa, where they recover from the arduous journey. But warming in Siberia is causing physical changes in the birds…Continue readingClimate Change Is Pushing These Migratory Birds to the Brink
As the ice melts, the hunters in the village of Ittoqqortoormiit—home to one of the last Inuit hunting communities—worry where they will get water. On a headland of barren…Continue readingGreenland’s Inuit falling through thin ice of climate change
Tropical coral reefs could end up being one of the first victims of climate change. The marine diversity hotspots are threatened and declining as a result of global warming,…Continue readingGrowth of coral reefs likely cannot keep pace with rising sea level
North Dhaka is particularly vulnerable to the urban heat-island effect due to its densely populated city centre, with some urban hotspots more than 10˚C (18˚F) higher than the surrounding…Continue reading‘Only the rich can bear this heat’: how Dhaka is battling extreme weather
The carcasses of 120 river dolphins have been found floating in a tributary of the Amazon River in Brazil over the last week in circumstances that experts suspect were…Continue readingDeaths of 120 Amazon dolphins linked to severe drought, high temperatures
When scientists started pouring over data to assess Canada’s fire season this year, they struggled to find the right superlatives. “Never before seen,” was thrown around, as was “exceptional…Continue readingCanada left battered by ‘never before seen’ wildfire season
The Netherlands halted extraction from Europe’s biggest gas field on Sunday, which was resulting in earthquakes that have shaken local residents for decades and threaten to persist. Authorities are…Continue readingNetherlands halts extraction from Europe’s biggest gas field
Experts predict there will be fewer than 100 individuals of the species by 2031 as the rate of decline in population grows faster. This month, the environment minister, Tanya…Continue reading‘Watching extinction in real time’: conservationists losing hope for Australia’s swift parrot if logging continues
New York City and its adjoining areas have been brought to a standstill after a bout of torrential downpours triggered flash flooding, disrupting subway service, inundating ground-level apartments and…Continue readingFlash flooding inundates New York City
There is “no contradiction” between Brazil’s plans to step up oil and gas exploration, including in waters off the Amazon rainforest, and its aspiration to lead the world’s transition…Continue readingBrazil minister says oil and green ambitions are not contradictory
Antarctica has likely broken a new record for the lowest annual maximum amount of sea ice around the continent, beating the previous low by a million square kilometres. The…Continue readingAntarctic sea ice shrinks to lowest annual maximum level on record
As many as eight in 10 brown bear cubs born this year in a remote part of northern Japan have died amid a shortage of salmon, with experts blaming…Continue readingBrown bear cubs in Japan die of starvation amid salmon shortage
The vast swaths of pine, spruce and larch forest that blanket much of Canada have been prized for generations. Not only do they provide a home to hundreds of…Continue readingWildfires turn Canada’s vast forests from carbon sink into super-emitter
When 6PPD, which occurs in tire dust, is exposed to ground-level ozone, it’s transformed into multiple other chemicals, including 6PPD-quinone, or 6PPD-q. The compound is acutely toxic to four…Continue readingRoad Hazard: Evidence Mounts on Toxic Pollution from Tires
Rankings of countries’ carbon production and emissions shown in a set of charts.Continue readingCarbon Rankings
The flash flood that has killed thousands of people in Libya this week followed a “medicane”, a rare but destructive weather phenomenon that scientists believe will intensify in a…Continue readingMedicanes: rare, ‘supercharging’ Mediterranean storms
Australian oil and gas company Woodside Energy announced that its Shenzi North project has commenced production in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico. Discovered in 2002, the Shenzi platform…Continue readingWoodside announces start of production at Shenzi North project
Sea ice insulates the ocean, reflects heat, drives currents, supports ecosystems and protects ice shelves. It also has an annual seasonal cycle—some of the ice melts, then freezes again.…Continue readingDevastatingly low Antarctic sea ice may be the ‘new abnormal,’ study warns
Half of Britain’s 10 largest fish populations are in a “deeply troubling state”, having been either overfished or depleted to a critically low size, according to a new report.…Continue readingBritain’s fish populations are in a ‘deeply troubling state’
Earth’s life support systems have been so damaged that the planet is “well outside the safe operating space for humanity”, scientists have warned. Their assessment found that six out…Continue readingEarth ‘well outside safe operating space for humanity’
After the northern summer of extreme heat and disastrous fires, we’ve seen more exceptional autumn weather over Europe with record-breaking heat in the UK. Meanwhile, record-breaking rain and intense…Continue readingFaster disaster: Climate change fuels ‘flash droughts’, intense downpours and storms
Most coastal communities will encounter 100-year floods annually by the end of the century, even under a moderate scenario where carbon dioxide emissions peak by 2040, a new study…Continue readingCentury’s end may bring annual 100-year floods
Urgewald, a campaign group that tracks global fossil fuel finance, found that the World Bank supplied about $3.7bn (£2.95bn) in trade finance in 2022 that was likely to have…Continue readingWorld Bank spent billions of dollars backing fossil fuels in 2022
Our research shows almost everywhere in Australia is now in a different fire climate than it was just 20 years ago, with falling relative humidity a key factor. Previous…Continue readingFire climate regimes around Australia shifted abruptly 20 years ago, and falling humidity may explain why
An Indigenous Sami activist has set up camp outside the Norwegian parliament to protest against wind turbines built on land traditionally used by Sami reindeer herders. In October 2021,…Continue readingSami activist protests in front of Norwegian parliament over wind turbines
Between January and August, the United States was struck by a record-breaking 23 weather and climate disasters where losses exceeded $1 billion in each case. The tally for 2023…Continue readingUS hit by record number of billion-dollar disasters so far this year
Storm Daniel, which wrought devastation across the Mediterranean in the past week, killed 15 people in central Greece where it dumped more rain than previously recorded before sweeping across…Continue readingMediterranean’s devastating Storm Daniel may be harbinger of storms to come
Floods, wildfires and a deadly train collision this year have raised questions about the competence of state authorities and central government.Continue readingAfter slew of disasters, Greeks wonder what is happening to their democracy
Flash floods were triggered by rainfall from the arrival of Storm Daniel on Monday September 4 which also affected Turkey and Bulgaria. The following day, in the village of…Continue readingGreece’s record rainfall and flash floods: Across the Mediterranean, the weather is becoming more dangerous
A profile of the energy system of China has been published on this site.Continue readingThe Energy System of China
No new offshore windfarms will go ahead in the UK after the latest government auction, in what critics have called the biggest clean energy policy failure in almost a…Continue reading‘Biggest clean energy disaster in years’: UK auction secures no offshore windfarms