Climate campaigners have accused Scottish ministers of being “inept” and “short-termist” after they scrapped Scotland’s target to cut carbon emissions by 75% by 2030. Màiri McAllan, the Scottish net…Continue reading‘Reprehensible retreat’: fury as Scottish ministers scrap carbon emissions pledge
Tag: agriculture
The UK faces food shortages and price rises as extreme weather linked to climate breakdown causes low yields on farms locally and abroad. Record rainfall has meant farmers in…Continue readingUK facing food shortages and price rises after extreme weather
Thousands of schools in the Philippines have stopped in-person classes due to unbearable heat. In Indonesia, prolonged dry weather has caused rice prices to soar. In Thailand’s waters, temperatures…Continue readingSchools close and crops wither as ‘historic’ heatwave hits south-east Asia
A searing heatwave that struck west Africa in February was made 4˚C hotter and 10x more likely by human-caused global heating, a study has found. The heat affected millions…Continue readingWest Africa heatwave was supercharged by climate crisis
About 44% of migratory species across the world are in decline while 20% the threat of all-out extinction, according to a new report from the United Nations. About 14%…Continue readingWhy are one-fifth of the world’s migratory species facing extinction?
The temperature was minus 45 degrees F when Uuganaa, a 27-year-old nomad with a wife and two children, woke to the howling winds outside his “ger,” a felt-covered traditional…Continue readingIn Mongolia, a Killer Winter Is Ravaging Herds and a Way of Life
Many traditional Malaysian fishermen have found themselves increasingly affected by the climate crisis, which is changing weather patterns that have long governed when and where they can fish. Such…Continue readingClimate change pushes Malaysia’s coastal fishermen away from the sea
In January, the average temperature hit a record, “exceeding 3.8C (38.8F) above normal for the period 1991-2020,” said Houcine Youaabed, the head of communications for the meteorological department. It…Continue readingMorocco winter breaks heat records
Dozens of koalas have been killed or injured and left for dead during logging of blue gum plantations in South Australia, according to former employees of the harvesting company…Continue readingDozens of koalas allegedly killed or injured during plantation logging on Kangaroo Island
More than 2 million hectares (4.94 million acres) of bushland in Queensland that included large swathes of possible koala habitat has been cleared over a five-year period, new analysis…Continue readingLand clearing: 2 million hectares of Queensland forest destroyed in 5 years
The world generated 2.3 billion tonnes of municipal waste last year and the pile of trash is set to grow another two-thirds by 2050, the UN said Wednesday, warning…Continue readingWorld must act to stem surge of polluting trash, UN warns
Dr Stuart Rowland, a retired principal research scientist who worked for NSW Fisheries for 36 years and remains a mentor to scientists in the agency, says there is a…Continue reading‘The river has been destroyed’: expert says agriculture has overshadowed science in the Murray-Darling Basin
The European Drought Observatory’s map of current droughts in Europe shows the entire Spanish Mediterranean coast in bad shape, with red areas indicating an alert similar to those in…Continue readingWhat will Spain look like when it runs out of water? Barcelona is giving us a glimpse
Located in West Bengal state in eastern India and neighbouring Bangladesh, the Sundarbans forest system is a cluster of low-lying islands and represents the largest mangrove ecosystem in the…Continue readingThe Sundarbans dilemma: Islands swallowed by water, and nowhere else to go
The climate crisis turned the drought that struck the Amazon rainforest in 2023 into a devastating event, a study has found. The drought was the worst recorded in many…Continue readingDevastating drought in Amazon result of climate crisis
Rainfall has been lower than the average in Catalonia for the past three years, with the drought lasting more than twice as long as the previous dry spell of…Continue readingHeavens remain shut over Catalonia as three-year drought persists
Tropical raptor species including the martial eagle, the bateleur and the dark chanting goshawk have vanished from swathes of the African continent over the past 40 years, new analysis…Continue readingBirds of prey in Africa experiencing population collapse
Hundreds of thousands of people rely on the Amazon’s rivers and streams for food, transportation and income. But the historically low water levels have forced residents to reimagine their…Continue reading‘Everything is dead’: How record drought is wreaking havoc on the Amazon
A new investigation by human rights experts appointed by the United Nations has expressed alarm at evidence of pollution from a North Carolina PFAS manufacturing plant, describing it as…Continue readingUN human rights experts express alarm over PFAS pollution in North Carolina
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Meeting the climate goals means we should not only significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also sequester more CO2 in the soil. Research has taught us how to store…Continue readingExperts question whether carbon dioxide storage in farming soils helps the climate
The flooding in Pakistan in August and September 2022 – described by UN secretary general António Guterres as a “monsoon on steroids” – led to the deaths of more…Continue readingA year on, the devastating long-term effects of Pakistan’s floods are revealed
Ongoing droughts and an over-exploitation of land for both agriculture and industry have stoked fears in Spain over the creeping spread of “sterile soil” which could devastate Europe’s kitchen…Continue readingSpain worries over ‘lifeless land’ amid creeping desertification
The Murray Darling Basin Plan is an historic deal between state and federal governments to save Australia’s most important river system. The A$13 billion plan, inked over a decade…Continue readingWith less than a year to go, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is in a dreadful mess
The wetlands system processes about 60 percent of Kolkata’s sewage free of charge, saving the city over $64 million a year. Farms in the wetlands provide about 150 tons…Continue readingThe ‘kidneys of Kolkata’: Indian wetlands under threat
Not far from Latin America’s biggest city, Sao Paulo, a river is covered in a white layer that resembles fresh snow but is in fact a smelly, toxic foam.…Continue readingToxic foam blights river crucial to Brazil’s biggest city
The marshlands have shrunk from 20,000 square kilometers (7,700 square miles) in the early 1990s to 4,000 (1,500 square miles) by latest estimates—choked by dams on the great rivers…Continue readingIraq’s marshes are dying, and a civilization with them
Agricultural pesticides leach far from their original sources into the world’s waterways, according to new research which finds pesticides exceed safe levels in 13,000km of rivers globally. Analysing 92…Continue readingPesticides from farming leach into world’s waterways at rate of 710 tonnes a year, UN research shows
Soaring greenhouse gases, ubiquitous microplastics, pervasive “forever chemicals”, the global upheaval of animals, even old mobile phones and chicken bones—all have been put forward as evidence that the world…Continue readingSigns of the human era, from nuclear fallout to microplastics
At least 50 people, including eight children, have been killed by floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains that have lashed Pakistan since last month, officials said Friday. The…Continue readingAt least 50 dead in Pakistan monsoon floods
Seven out of eight US kale samples recently tested for toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” contained high levels of the compounds. The testing looked at conventional and organic kale bought…Continue readingNew report finds most US kale samples contain ‘disturbing’ levels of ‘forever chemicals’
Experts say the drought in the central U.S. is the worst since at least 2012, and in some areas, is drawing comparisons to the 1988 drought that devastated corn,…Continue readingCentral US is now getting worst of the drought. Corn crops are stressed, rivers are running low
France is being badly hit by climate change, is not prepared for its effects and is failing to sufficiently reduce its emissions, an independent climate body warned. The record…Continue readingFrance badly hit by climate change and ill-prepared
The French government is to shut down a climate protest group over a series of recent demonstrations citing risks to public safety, as the environmental activists called the decision…Continue readingFrance to shut down climate protest group citing public safety risks
After a series of heatwaves, including a record high in May, and an unprecedented drought, rivers and reservoirs in northern Vietnam are running dry, pulling locals who survive off…Continue reading‘There is nothing for me’: Vietnam drought dries up income
Trillions of dollars of subsidies for fossil fuels, farming and fishing are causing “environmental havoc”, according to the World Bank, severely harming people and the planet. The “toxic” subsidies…Continue readingVast fossil fuel and farming subsidies causing ‘environmental havoc’
Already, the Beijing office of Greenpeace is sounding the alarm. In the first three months of 2023, provincial governments in China approved more new coal-fired electricity generation than they…Continue readingChina ramps up coal power while pushing for renewables
More than 800m trees have been cut down in the Amazon rainforest in just six years to feed the world’s appetite for Brazilian beef, according to a new investigation,…Continue readingMore than 800m Amazon trees felled in six years to meet beef demand
Seventeen species that were once commonly found in pastures and meadows across 22 countries, including the small copper, common blue and meadow brown, declined by 36% on average between…Continue readingEurope’s grassland butterfly population down more than a third in 10 years
50 researchers, 40 years, 28 countries, 550 million fewer birds.Continue readingIntensive farming is biggest cause of bird decline in Europe, study says
“At the moment,” writes Warren Hern, “we are the most misnamed species on the planet: Homo sapiens sapiens—’wise, wise man.’ Not.” Hern, 84, physician and adjunct professor of anthropology…Continue readingHumanity devouring itself and the planet
Earth’s wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 69% in just under 50 years, according to a leading scientific assessment, as humans continue to clear forests, consume beyond…Continue readingAlmost 70% of animal populations wiped out since 1970, report reveals
Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are a class of about 12,000 chemicals typically used to make thousands of products water-, stain- and heat-resistant. They do not naturally break down…Continue readingToxic ‘forever chemicals’ detected in commonly used insecticides in US, study finds
It was the river that is said to have watered the biblical Garden of Eden and helped give birth to civilisation itself. The Tigris’s course through Iraq begins in…Continue readingCradle of civilisation dying
Synthetic nitrogen fertilizers account for 2.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, new research shows. Unlike organic fertilizers, which come from plant or animal material, synthetic fertilizers are made by…Continue readingFertilizers cause more than 2% of global emissions
Caption for figure above: Grid-cell specific rankings of 22-yr negative soil moisture anomalies (drought rank) in 2000–2021 compared to the driest 22-yr period in each previous drought event back…Continue readingMegadrought in the American south-west: a climate disaster unseen in 1,200 years
The world’s chances of avoiding the worst ravages of climate breakdown are diminishing rapidly, as we enter “uncharted territory of destruction” through our failure to cut greenhouse gas emissions…Continue readingWorld heading into ‘uncharted territory of destruction’
The latest assessment by risk company Verisk Maplecroft brings those two threats together to calculate that heat stress already poses an “extreme risk” to agriculture in 20 countries, including…Continue readingCountries growing 70% of world’s food face ‘extreme’ heat risk by 2045
Unprecedented and societally disruptive extreme weather events, including heat waves, droughts, dust storms and torrential rains, will soon become a reality unless immediate, ambitious, and transboundary climate action is…Continue readingWarming of up to 5°C in this century projected for the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East
The number of forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon hit a nearly 15-year high this week, according to official figures that provided the latest warning on the advancing destruction…Continue readingBrazil records worst day for Amazon fires in 15 years
Bumblebee populations have dropped throughout the United States and Europe as Earth has heated up. Research from 2020 found that the number of areas populated by the insects had…Continue readingBumblebee species stressed by climate change
No longer having access to potable running water, the villagers of Ouled Essi Masseoud rely solely on sporadic supplies in public fountains and from private wells. “The fountains work…Continue readingDrought tightens its grip on Morocco