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 and accumulate…Continue readingToxic ‘forever chemicals’ detected in commonly used insecticides in US, study finds
Author: Shane White
Human-driven climate change made the droughts that gripped large swaths of Europe, China and North America this year at least 20 times more likely, an international group of scientists has concluded.…Continue reading2022 droughts ‘virtually impossible without climate change’, study finds
Toxic air pollution particles have been found in the lungs, livers and brains of unborn babies, long before they have taken their first breath. Researchers said their “groundbreaking” discovery was “very…Continue readingToxic air pollution particles found in lungs and brains of unborn babies
China needs up to $17 trillion in additional investments for green infrastructure and technology in the power and transport sectors to meet its goal of net-zero emissions by 2060, a World…Continue readingChina needs $17 trillion to meet climate goals
Everybody likes trees. There is no anti-tree lobby. A global push to go beyond conservation of existing forests and start creating new ones goes back to 2011, when many of the…Continue readingPhantom Forests: Why Ambitious Tree Planting Projects Are Failing
Despite decades of social and environmental campaigns aimed at protecting the Amazon, the threats now are greater than they have ever been, thanks to the relentless expansion of activities such as…Continue readingLast stand in the Amazon
As Hurricane Ian barreled toward Florida this week, it did what six other storms did over the past six years as they approached the United States: It intensified, quickly. Since 2017,…Continue readingHow climate change is rapidly fueling super hurricanes
Some of the world’s biggest central banks are unwittingly helping to finance agri-business giants engaged in the destruction of the Brazilian Amazon. The banks buy corporate bonds issued by big companies…Continue readingWorld’s central banks financing destruction of the rainforest
Nearly half of the planet’s bird species are in decline, according to a definitive report that paints the grimmest picture yet of the destruction of avian life. The State of the…Continue readingHalf of world’s bird species in decline as destruction of avian life intensifies
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 the mountains…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 humans using…Continue readingFertilizers cause more than 2% of global emissions
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) have closed financing for a $3.8 billion project to decarbonise ADNOC’s offshore oil and gas extraction operations. The…Continue readingADNOC and TAQA close financing for 3.8 billion dollar decarbonisation of oil and gas extraction
Sprawling coastal cities in South and Southeast Asia are sinking faster than elsewhere in the world, leaving tens of millions of people more vulnerable to rising sea levels. Vietnam’s most-populous urban…Continue readingAsian coastal cities sinking fast
Pine Island Ice Shelf in West Antarctica, which holds back enough ice to raise sea levels by 0.5 meters, could be more vulnerable to complete disintegration than previously thought. A new…Continue readingScientists expose vulnerabilities of critical Antarctic ice shelf
In 2014, Los Angeles cut its annual carbon emissions by 43% and saved $9 million in energy costs by replacing the bulbs in more than half of the city’s street lamps…Continue readingHow an effort to reduce fossil fuel use led to another environmental problem: Light pollution
Colombia lost more than 174,000 hectares of woodland in 2021 — an area 30 times the size of Manhattan — with illegal clearances fuelling the surge. It was the country’s worst…Continue readingColombia’s battle against Amazon deforestation: ‘The jungle is disappearing’
This summer, heat waves struck Europe, North Africa, the U.S. and Asia with temperatures reaching over 40°C in places—breaking many long-standing records. Images from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission show the scale…Continue readingImage: UK heat wave
At least 10 people died and 4 were missing after an extraordinary thunderstorm sparked major flooding in central Italy. Prime Minister Mario Draghi confirmed the toll, while saying it could change,…Continue reading‘Like a waterfall’: deadly Italian storms spark climate debate
France’s TotalEnergies has signed a new investment deal in Qatar’s natural gas production expansion. Speaking alongside TotalEnergies chief executive Patrick Pouyanne on Saturday, Qatar Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi announced the…Continue readingEuropean countries invest in Qatar gas
A humanitarian disaster is unfolding in the Horn of Africa, which is in the grip of its worst drought in at least four decades. More than 20 million people in Somalia,…Continue readingWhy East Africa’s Facing Its Worst Famine in Decades
The waters of the EU are in a “dismal” state, with only a third of fish populations studied in the north-east Atlantic considered to be in good condition, according to more…Continue readingEU slammed over failure to protect marine life from ‘destructive’ fishing
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 to year…Continue readingMegadrought in the American south-west: a climate disaster unseen in 1,200 years
Out of 26 countries, Indonesia accounted for 58.2% of the tropical deforestation directly caused by industrial mining activities. The data covered 26 countries representing 76.7% of the total tropical deforestation observed…Continue readingIndustrial mining in Indonesia accounts for 45% of global tropical deforestation
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 and take…Continue readingWorld heading into ‘uncharted territory of destruction’
The Biden administration on Wednesday reinstated $190 million worth of leases to companies bidding to explore for oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico. The administration sought to stress that…Continue readingU.S. administration awards Gulf of Mexico drilling leases to oil giants
Higher high tides, supercharged by rising sea levels, could flood all or parts of an estimated $34 billion worth of real estate along the nation’s coasts within just 30 years, a…Continue readingRising seas fueled by climate change to swamp $34 billion in US real estate in just 30 years
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 agricultural giant…Continue readingCountries growing 70% of world’s food face ‘extreme’ heat risk by 2045
Smoke from hundreds of wildfires has darkened skies over the Alaskan interior this summer with the state experiencing its fastest start to the fire season on record amid hot and dry…Continue reading‘Nothing left to burn’: Wildfires blaze through the Arctic
The climate crisis has driven the world to the brink of multiple “disastrous” tipping points, according to a major study. It shows five dangerous tipping points may already have been passed…Continue readingWorld on brink of five ‘disastrous’ climate tipping points
Give our country $100bn – or stop lecturing us about making money from fossil fuels. That was the message East Timor President and Nobel Peace Prize winner José Ramos-Horta had for…Continue readingEast Timor’s Ramos-Horta presses Australia on stalled gas fields
Germany is relying on highly polluting coal for almost a third of its electricity, as the impact of government policies and the war in Ukraine leads producers in Europe’s largest economy…Continue readingGermany turns to coal for a third of its electricity
Amid blistering heat waves, brutal drought and widespread wildfires, Europe just notched its hottest summer in recorded history, new data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service shows. It was the second…Continue readingEurope just had its hottest summer on record
The heat wave that’s been gripping California and other parts of the West for 10 days and counting is the most severe ever recorded in September, weather experts have said —…Continue readingNo September on record in the U.S. West has seen a heat wave like this
China recorded its highest temperatures and one of its lowest levels of rainfall in 61 years during a two-month summer heatwave. The average national temperature in August, 22.4˚C, was 1.2˚C higher…Continue readingChina reports ‘most severe’ heatwave and third driest summer on record
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 taken, warns…Continue readingWarming of up to 5°C in this century projected for the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East
The UN describes Iraq as the fifth-most-vulnerable country to climate change. Temperatures have increased by 1.8˚C (3.2˚F) in three decades, well above the global average, and in the summers, the mercury…Continue readingClimate migrants flee Iraq’s parched rural south, but cities offer no refuge
Chad’s heaviest seasonal rainfall in more than 30 years has left parts of the capital N’Djamena navigable only by boat and forced thousands to flee their flooded homes over the past…Continue readingChad’s heaviest rains in 30 years leads to ‘catastrophic’ floods
The rice fields are washed away. The coconut trees and chilli plants, flooded with salt water, are all dead. The farmers’ fish ponds fail, the water so high that the fish…Continue readingThe Indonesians living in flooded villages
Pakistan is experiencing its worst floods this century. At least one-third of the country is under water. Scientists say several factors have contributed to the extreme event, which has displaced some…Continue readingWhy are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year?
Norway’s last remaining coal mine on a geopolitically important Arctic archipelago will stay open. Store Norske, the state-owned mining company, said on Friday it had originally planned to close Mine 7…Continue readingNorway prolongs life of Arctic coal mine
The Queensland government has approved the extension of Carborough Downs coal mine, located 25km east of Moranbah in the Bowen Basin, Australia. The Carborough Downs is an underground metallurgical coal mine,…Continue readingAustralian Queensland government approves extension of coal mine
Major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now inevitable, scientists have found, even if the fossil fuel burning that is driving the climate crisis were to…Continue readingMajor sea-level rise is ‘now inevitable’
Two months of scorching heatwaves and drought plunged China into an energy security crisis. The energy crisis has seen Beijing shift its political discourse and proclaim energy security as a more…Continue readingChina’s energy crisis sees the world’s top emitter investing in more coal
Woodside Energy, Australia’s largest energy producer, on Tuesday capped a string of bumper results by oil, gas and coal producers. The Perth-based company said its net profit after tax rose five-fold…Continue readingHuge profits for fossil-fuel giants Woodside, Whitehaven and Santos
PetroChina Co., Sinopec and Cnooc Ltd. each said they made historic amounts of money in the January-to-June period. PetroChina’s chairman said government stimulus packages are bolstering oil demand, while top refiner…Continue readingChina’s oil giants post record profits on surging fuel prices
Global public subsidies for fossil fuels almost doubled to $700 billion in 2021. Despite the huge profits of fossil fuel companies, the subsidies soared as governments sought to shield citizens from…Continue readingGlobal fossil fuel subsidies almost doubled in 2021
New Hope Group has received key approval for its New Acland Stage III coal mine project in Queensland, Australia. Queensland Minister for Resources Scott Stewart said that the government has approved…Continue readingNew Hope’s New Acland Stage III coal project receives key approval
Avian flu is a highly pathogenic strain of the H5N1 virus. Since its early detections in poultry and wild birds in the spring of 2021, this new strain has killed more…Continue readingA new strain of avian flu is decimating wild birds. Humans should worry
Flash floods, which have intensified in recent days, have swept away villages, roads, bridges, people, livestock and crops across all four provinces. Pakistan has appealed for international help as soldiers and…Continue readingPakistan declares floods a ‘climate catastrophe’ as death toll tops 1,000
One argument against deep seabed mining is the existence of previously unknown species in the deep sea, including the recently discovered pom-pom-like Biremis spaghetti worm and the delightfully weird rubber squirrel.…Continue readingTwo-year countdown for deep seabed mining
State-owned oil and gas company Indian Oil has unveiled a $25 billion investment plan to achieve net-zero operational emissions by 2046. Indian Oil chairman S M Vaidya said: “IndianOil has been…Continue readingIndian Oil unveils $25 billion investment plan to achieve net zero by 2046
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 of the…Continue readingBrazil records worst day for Amazon fires in 15 years
Unless Australia reduces its energy consumption, a recent study finds it’ll be almost impossible for renewable energy to replace fossil fuels by 2050. This is what’s required to reach our net-zero emissions target.…Continue readingCutting energy consumption key to replacing fossil fuels with renewables
Australian petroleum exploration and production company Woodside Energy and US-based engineering company Bechtel have started construction at the Pluto Train 2 project. Pluto Train 2 is the expansion of a second…Continue readingWoodside, Bechtel start construction at Pluto Train 2 project in Australia
Iraq is known in Arabic as the Land of the Two Rivers, but it has seen water levels on the once mighty Tigris and Euphrates plummet. The Euphrates, which passes through…Continue readingBoiling heat and no water: taps run dry in southern Iraq
A giant, gentle sea creature that belongs to the manatee family is now “functionally extinct” in China with no sightings recorded since 2008, a new study said. The dugong, a strictly…Continue reading‘Charismatic’ dugong sea mammal declared functionally extinct in China
Researchers found that a typical forest fire season now burns 3 million more hectares (7.4 million more acres) than in 2001. Forest fires accounted for a quarter of global tree loss…Continue readingForest fires burn twice as many trees as two decades ago
An international team of researchers looked specifically at 25,000 species, including fish, bacteria, plants and protozoans living in the top 100 meters of the world’s oceans. They found that under the…Continue reading90% of marine species at risk of extinction by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions are not curbed
47% of Europe is undergoing warning conditions, as moisture in the soil dries out and 17% of the region is on a state of alert as vegetation is affected. The current…Continue readingEurope facing its worst drought for 500 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 fallen 46%…Continue readingBumblebee species stressed by climate change
People in large parts of China have been experiencing two months of extreme heat. Hundreds of places have reported temperatures of more than 40°C (104°F), and many records have been broken.…Continue readingHeatwave in China is the most severe ever recorded in the world
The spot price of Australian thermal coal is higher than that of coking coal, an unprecedented situation that highlights just how the global market for the polluting fuel has been upended…Continue readingSpot Australian thermal coal has surged
Forest fires supercharged by climate change are burning twice as much global tree cover as 20 years ago. The equivalent of 16 football pitches are now lost every minute. Wildfires have…Continue readingClimate change driving unprecedented forest fire loss
Despite enviable earnings, shares of Three Gorges Renewables are down 15% this year and trade at 20 times forward earnings, half the level of a year ago. Strict policy mandates to…Continue readingDroughts push China towards coal power
Australian oil and gas company Santos has decided to proceed with the $2.6 billion oil project in Alaska in a bid to further diversify its production portfolio. As the operator of…Continue readingAustralia’s Santos takes Final Investment Decision on $2.6 billion oil project in Alaska
Australian oil and gas company Santos reported a half-year net profit after tax of $A1.66 billion ($US1.167 billion), up 230%. Its underlying profit was $A1.8 billion ($US1.267 billion), up 300%. After…Continue readingSantos profit rises three-fold
A Washington Post analysis has found that today’s climate conditions have caused an estimated 46% of Americans to endure at least 3 consecutive days with a heat index of 100˚F+ (38˚C+),…Continue readingBy mid-century, nearly two-thirds of Americans will experience perilous heat waves
Saudi Aramco posted the biggest quarterly adjusted profit of any listed company globally driven by high crude prices and production. Revenue climbed 80% to $150 billion and free cash flow, which…Continue readingSaudi Aramco posts biggest quarterly profit of any listed company
The reputed home of the biblical Garden of Eden, Iraq’s swamplands have been battered by 3 years of drought and low rainfall, as well as reduced water flows along rivers and…Continue readingIraq’s Garden of Eden now ‘like a desert’
The world’s biggest ice sheet could cause “several meters” of sea-level rise over centuries if the global temperature rises more than 2°C, according to a British study. Researchers at Durham University…Continue readingWorld’s biggest ice sheet could cause massive sea rise without action
Blazes that have torched tens of thousands of hectares of forest in France, Spain and Portugal have made 2022 a record year for wildfire activity in southwestern Europe. France had in…Continue reading2022 sets record fire activity in southwest Europe
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 just one…Continue readingDrought tightens its grip on Morocco
As Antarctica’s slow rivers of ice hit the sea, they float, forming ice shelves. These shelves extend the glaciers into the ocean until they calve into icebergs. But they also play…Continue readingIce shelves hold back Antarctica’s glaciers from adding to sea levels, but they’re crumbling
The Albanese government will continue to support new fossil fuel projects so long as they “stack up” from an economic and environmental perspective, the federal resources minister says. Madeleine King, in…Continue readingAustralian Federal Government to back new fossil fuel projects that ‘stack up’ economically and environmentally
Forests from the Arctic to the Amazon are transforming at a “shocking” rate due to the climate crisis, with trees advancing into previously barren tundra in the north while dying off…Continue readingGlobal heating has caused ‘shocking’ changes in forests across the Americas
Europe’s most severe drought in decades is hitting homes, factories, farmers and freight across the continent, as experts warn drier winters and searing summers fuelled by global heating mean water shortages…Continue reading‘The new normal’: how Europe is being hit by a climate-driven drought crisis
In recent years, Wall Street firms have tried to talk up their commitment to the environment and social justice. Now they are singing a different tune. Large US banks such as…Continue readingUS banks tout fossil fuel credentials
Temperatures have soared up to nearly 50˚C (122˚F) in Baghdad almost daily, and in the southern city of Basra, temperatures have come close to 53˚C (127˚F) – dangerously high in a…Continue readingHeatwaves scorch Iraq as protracted political crisis grinds on
Wildfires have depleted almost all of the carbon credits set aside in reserve by forestry projects in the US to protect against the risk of trees being damaged over 100 years,…Continue readingWildfires destroy almost all forest carbon offsets in 100-year reserve
Nearly every sea turtle born on the beaches of Florida in the past four years has been female. The spike in female baby turtles comes as a result of intense heatwaves…Continue readingGlobal heating means almost every sea turtle in Florida now born female
The eastern two thirds of Antarctica is covered by an ice sheet so large that if it melted the sea would rise by 52 meters (170 feet). An estimated 1 billion…Continue readingTroubling new research about East Antarctica
Rainwater everywhere on the planet is unsafe to drink due to levels of toxic chemicals known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances). PFAS were initially found in packaging, shampoo or makeup…Continue readingRainwater unsafe to drink due to chemicals
To understand why it is proving so hard to break up with coal, we worked with an international team of around 35 researchers to investigate the political economy drivers of its…Continue readingMany countries continue to invest in coal
The hippopotamus is one of the world’s heaviest land animals; males can weigh as much as 1,800kg, and they are often found in large groups. The animals are especially vulnerable to…Continue readingCall for hippos to join list of world’s most endangered animals
Portugal recorded its hottest July on record. The average temperature was 25.1˚C (77.3 ˚F), it said. That was almost 3˚C higher than the expected July average. The heat worsened Portugal’s drought,…Continue readingPortugal sets new July heat record, worsening severe drought
Coal – France, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands have all announced plans to reactivate old coal power plants. But nowhere are the plans as extensive as in Germany, which is allowing…Continue readingGermany increases reliance on coal and oil
Global heating could become “catastrophic” for humanity if temperature rises are worse than many predict or cause cascades of events we have yet to consider, or indeed both. The world needs…Continue readingClimate change: Potential to end humanity is ‘dangerously underexplored’ say experts
Extreme weather events linked to climate change caused about $65 billion in total losses in the first half of 2022, roughly half of which hit uninsured assets, according to data compiled…Continue readingExtreme weather caused $65 billion in losses in first half of 2022
At least nine people have died and seven were missing in and around the South Korean capital, Seoul, after the city was lashed by the heaviest rains in more than 100…Continue readingSevere flood damage in South Korea’s Seoul after record rains