Potentially toxic “forever chemicals” have been detected in the drinking water sources at 17 of 18 England’s water companies, with 11,853 samples testing positive, something experts say they are…Continue reading‘Forever chemicals’ found in drinking water sources across England
Category: The Anthropocene
Nearly half of the whales and dolphins found in UK waters over the past five years contained harmful concentrations of toxic chemicals banned decades ago, an investigation has found.…Continue readingLevels of toxic PCB chemicals found at 30 times ‘safe’ limits in stranded whales
Spain, the world’s biggest producer of olive oil, suffered a very difficult year in 2022 and drought this year has compounded the problem. In Italy, this year’s olive harvest…Continue readingWinter isn’t coming: climate change hits Greek olive crop
Fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, is a term for fine particulates that are typically the by-product of car exhausts or coal-fired power plants. Their tiny size enables them to…Continue readingAir pollution behind over 250,000 deaths in Europe in 2021: agency
Haiyan was one of the strongest typhoons ever to make landfall. More than 6,300 people were killed as the storm swept across the island of Leyte, flattening homes and…Continue reading10 years after Haiyan, are mangroves protecting Philippine coastal areas?
The number of listed threatened species in Australia’s world heritage northern rainforests has increased by 25% since 2020, as ecologists say they are now clearly observing the long-predicted impacts…Continue readingQueensland’s wet tropics see 25% rise in threatened species in three years as climate change bites
Cyclone Freddy lasted a record 38 days. The storm barrelled 5,000 miles across the Indian Ocean, pummelling Madagascar and Reunion before striking the African mainland. It swirled over southern…Continue readingAfter the Storm, Malawi’s Farmers Face a Precarious Future
Total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2020 were 54.5GtCO2e, and grew to 57.4 in 2022. The emissions gap for 2030 is defined as the differencebetween the estimated total…Continue readingEmissions Gap Report 2023
US industry disposed of at least 60m pounds of PFAS “forever chemical” waste over the last five years, and did so with processes that probably pollute the environment around…Continue readingUS industry disposed of at least 60m pounds of PFAS waste in last five years
Germany’s finance minister, withdrew his party’s support for a crucial agreement between the governing parties to phase out the nation’s coal-burning power plants by 2030. “Until it is clear…Continue readingShifting Political Winds Threaten Progress on Europe’s Green Goals
More than half the seabird species breeding on British and Irish coasts have declined over the last 20 years, according to the most comprehensive census to date. Some species…Continue readingMore than half of UK and Ireland seabirds in decline
Germany’s top court has ruled the government broke the law with a €60bn off-budget fund, throwing Berlin’s plans for financing its energy transition and climate policy into disarray. The…Continue readingGerman top court strikes down €60bn climate funding
All aquatic species in the river mouths flowing into the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean are contaminated with microplastics, with mollusks being the most affected due to their ability…Continue readingAll aquatic species in river mouths are contaminated by microplastics
Extreme drought in northern Italy has doubled over the past two decades, creating a climate that increasingly mirrors that of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. The southern Shabelle…Continue readingExtreme drought in northern Italy mirrors climate in Ethiopia
Fire ravaged Canada in 2023 like no other year, by a stupendous margin. A record 45.7m acres (18.5m hectares) went up in flames, an area about twice the size…Continue readingAfter a record year of wildfires, will Canada ever be the same again?
When scientists examined pellets from recycled plastic collected in 13 countries they found hundreds of toxic chemicals, including pesticides and pharmaceuticals. The results are published in a study led…Continue readingScientists find hundreds of toxic chemicals in recycled plastics
The UK government presented the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill to Parliament with the aim of enhancing the country’s economy, ensuring energy security, and facilitating the transition to a net-zero…Continue readingUK Government tables Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill in parliament
UK-based mining company Anglo American has secured mining lease approval for the expansion of its Lake Lindsay coal mine in Australia. The mining lease for the coal mine expansion…Continue readingAnglo American gets mining lease for Lake Lindsay coal mine expansion
Excelerate Energy, a US-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) company, and Bangladesh Oil, Gas & Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla), a government-owned national gas company of Bangladesh, have entered into a long-term…Continue readingExcelerate Energy signs 15-year LNG supply deal with Petrobangla
Populations of the hazel dormouse, perhaps the most elusive native British mammal, have plummeted by 70% this century. The nocturnal, tree-dwelling animals are now extinct in 20 counties in…Continue readingHazel dormice becoming endangered in UK amid 70% decline
Greenland’s thousands of peripheral glaciers have entered a new and widespread state of rapid retreat, a Northwestern University and University of Copenhagen study has found. To piece together the…Continue readingStudy finds Greenland’s glacier retreat rate has doubled over past two decades
According to a new paper by scientists from a dozen institutions, the world’s average temperature will surpass 1.5°C above preindustrial times within the next several years—much faster than most…Continue readingWorld temperatures will blow past Paris goals this decade
The world’s fossil fuel producers are planning expansions that would blow the planet’s carbon budget twice over, a UN report has found. Experts called the plans “insanity” which “throw…Continue reading‘Insanity’: petrostates planning huge expansion of fossil fuels
UK forests are heading for “catastrophic ecosystem collapse” within the next 50 years due to multiple threats including disease, extreme weather and wildfires, researchers have warned, with trees dying…Continue readingUK forests face catastrophic ecosystem collapse within 50 years
Extreme droughts that have wrecked the lives of millions of people in Syria, Iraq and Iran since 2020 would not have happened without human-caused global heating, a study has…Continue readingHuman-caused heating behind extreme droughts in Syria, Iraq and Iran
EnBW has awarded two orders to GE Vernova for the supply of H-class natural gas-fired combined cycle power generation equipment for two combined heat and power (CHP) power stations…Continue readingEnBW awards orders to GE Vernova for two CHP power stations in Germany
British oil and gas company BP, together with its partners Neptune Energy and JAPEX, has started production from the Seagull oil and gas field in the UK North Sea.…Continue readingBP, Neptune, JAPEX start production from Seagull field in UK North Sea
Saudi Aramco’s net profits surpassed analyst expectations as it revealed the impact of deeper production cuts this summer after the kingdom moved to prop up the oil price. The…Continue readingSaudi Aramco profits exceed expectations on back of buoyed oil price
October, November and December are usually a period of transition. By now, the dry season would normally have peaked, and rivers and aquifers would start to replenish. But the…Continue reading‘Everything is parched’: Amazon struggles with drought amid deforestation
Unprecedented in Greece in its intensity, the Dadia fire has been classed by the European Commission as the largest ever recorded in the EU. Burning for three weeks, the…Continue readingDesolation in Greece’s Dadia park after Europe’s biggest fire
Elkhorn corals are already considered “functionally extinct” in the upper Keys, and other elkhorn and staghorn populations in the Florida Reef are following suit, according to Liv Williamson, an…Continue readingCoral researchers see ‘mass mortality’ amid Florida Reef bleaching crisis
An unprecedented rise in ocean temperatures off the coast of Florida early in the summer made headlines as it caused countless dead fish to wash ashore. But the impact…Continue readingResearchers report mass bleaching of coral reefs in warming Florida oceans: ‘Like a forest without trees’
Santa Cruz del Islote, part of the San Bernardo archipelago, a few miles off Colombia’s Caribbean coast, is typical of many of the world’s low-lying coastal regions now at…Continue reading‘All we can do now is run away’: is time up for the sinking Colombian islands of San Bernardo?
Approached by motorboat across the Caribbean Sea, Gardí Sugdub, or Crab Island, first appears on the horizon as a densely packed cluster of tin-roofed huts, punctuated by the odd…Continue readingMeet the first climate refugees from the Americas to flee rising seas
Heat waves have always been part of summer, but the familiar short periods of oppressive conditions have grown into weeks to months of sweltering heat. Research has shown that…Continue readingHere are the places that could become too hot for humans due to climate change
Authorities in Pakistan ordered schoolchildren in the smog-smothered city of Lahore to wear masks during lessons starting Thursday, an effort to protect against hazardous levels of polluted air. The…Continue readingStudents ordered to wear masks in smog-hit Lahore
Straight line winds result when rain and hail at high altitudes evaporate and cool the ambient air, which then plummets and, at the surface, spawns intense winds that rush…Continue readingDamaging thunderstorm winds rising in central US: Research finds five-fold increase
According to a new paper in Oxford Open Climate Change, the strategies humanity must pursue to reduce climate change will have to include more than reducing greenhouse gases. This…Continue readingResearchers argue that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is not enough to combat climate change
Standing amid a terrain of rugged red craters that looks like something from Mars, Brazilian farmer Ubiratan Lemos Abade extends his arms, pointing to two possible futures for this…Continue readingIn Brazil town turning to desert, farmers fight to hang on
In the wake of the destructive Hurricane Otis, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment in the history of weather forecasting. The hurricane roared ashore with 165mph (266kph) winds…Continue readingExtreme weather is outpacing even the worst-case scenarios of our forecasting models
China’s weather office has said “foggy and hazy” conditions are prevalent in the capital Beijing, the megacity of Tianjin, and parts of the provinces of Hebei, Shandong and Hubei,…Continue readingChina’s smog problem
Denmark’s Ørsted has cancelled two big offshore windfarm projects in the US at a cost of more than £3bn amid surging costs facing the global wind industry. Shares in…Continue readingØrsted cancels two US offshore windfarm projects at £3.3bn cost
Israel’s Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure has awarded 12 licences to six companies to explore natural gas off the Mediterranean coast to enhance competition and diversify suppliers. “The winning…Continue readingIsrael awards 12 offshore gas exploration licences to six companies
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the world Monday to “stop the madness” of climate change as he visited Himalayan regions struggling from rapidly melting glaciers to witness the devastating…Continue readingUN chief urges world to ‘stop the madness’ of climate change
More than 4,000 of England’s vital flood defences are so damaged they are almost useless, including hundreds in areas battered by Storm Babet. An analysis of Environment Agency data…Continue readingMore than 4,000 English flood defences ‘almost useless’
The remaining budget for a reliable chance (83%) of not exceeding 1.5˚C global warming has been expended – After making all these changes, our best (50%) RCB estimate starting…Continue readingRemaining Carbon Budget
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has assumed Nordhaus is to be trusted. The integrated assessment models used at the IPCC are based on Nordhausian visions of adaptation to…Continue readingWhen Idiot Savants Do Climate Economics
From the Great Lakes in the north to Louisiana in the south, the majestic Mississippi is a shadow of its former self. For the second straight year, water levels…Continue readingThe mighty Mississippi, America’s water highway, is dangerously low
Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) celebrated with its partners, local officials and supporters the successful completion of the CPV Three Rivers Energy Center (CPV Three Rivers) in Grundy County, IL.…Continue readingCompetitive Power Ventures completes 1.25GW Three Rivers natural gas-fired plant
Global destruction of forests increased by 4% last year, compared to 2021, according to a new report. A total of 6.6 million hectares of forests were lost in 2022—an…Continue readingDestruction of forests gathered pace in 2022, despite global promises
Siemens Energy is in talks with the German government to secure billions of euros of guarantees for long-term projects after warning that losses at its troubled wind turbine business…Continue readingSiemens Energy seeks government guarantees as wind crisis deepens
The Interconnected Disaster Risks Report identifies thresholds it calls “risk tipping points,” defined as “the moment at which a given socioecological system is no longer able to buffer risks…Continue readingUN report warns of catastrophic risks to Earth systems
Hyundai Engineering & Construction and Hyundai Engineering have inked a $2.4bn contract with Aramco for the construction of a gas processing plant for the Jafurah gas project phase two…Continue readingHyundai affiliates sign $2.4bn contract for Jafurah gas project phase two
Affiliates of QatarEnergy and Eni signed a long-term LNG sale and purchase agreement (SPA) for the supply of up to one million tons per annum (MTPA) of LNG from…Continue readingQatarEnergy, ENI sign 27-year LNG supply agreement for up to 1MTPA to Italy
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
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