River Madeira’s waters have fallen to their lowest level since the 1960s and the skies overhead have filled with smoke from wildfires that are raging across Brazil. Vast, desert-like expanses of…Continue readingBrazil’s ‘Paradise’ on fire: ‘The forest is burning. Animals are burning. Everything’s burning’
Tag: impact
Tidal action on the underside of the Thwaites Glacier in the Antarctic will “inexorably” accelerate melting this century, according to new research by British and American scientists. The researchers warn the…Continue reading‘Doomsday’ glacier set to melt faster and swell seas as world heats up
Colombian authorities said Sunday they were fighting forest fires across seven departments, as a scorching drought fanned blazes across Latin America. From Ecuador to Brazil, many Latin American nations are gripped…Continue readingColombia battles fires as drought fuels Latin American flames
More than 16 million people in the US were under heat alerts on Friday, according to the National Weather Service, mostly clustered in the southern tips of Nevada, Arizona and California.…Continue readingGrim new death records amid brutal heat plaguing south-west US
Millions of people in my country, Malawi, face unprecedented existential crises driven by climate breakdown. The frequency of extreme weather events and the massive impact they have on communities have left…Continue readingPeople must understand: we in Malawi are paying for the climate crisis with our lives
Flooding caused travel disruption, closed schools and submerged homes in central and southern England on Monday after more than a month’s worth of rain fell in 24 hours in some areas.…Continue readingFlooding causes chaos after month’s rain falls in a day in parts of England
The Czech Republic sat at the centre of a storm that has killed two dozen people across central Europe and prompted the EU to promise €10bn in aid to flood-stricken countries.…Continue reading‘We’re getting rid of everything’: floods destroy homes and lives in Czech Republic
The report by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) details nine factors that are crucial for regulating the planet’s ability to sustain life. In six of these areas, the…Continue readingWorld’s oceans near critical acidification level
Microplastics are widespread, accumulating in the remotest parts of our planet. There is evidence of their toxic effects at every level of biological organization, from tiny insects at the bottom of…Continue readingScientists reviewed 7,000 studies on microplastics. Their alarming conclusion puts humanity on notice.
Since taking office in 2022, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has spent about half a trillion dollars to address persistent flooding from extreme weather in the Philippines. But despite the significant spending,…Continue readingBattered by typhoons: Why aren’t Philippine flood control projects working?
Brazil is burning. From the Amazon rainforest to the Pantanal wetlands, flames have consumed millions of hectares of forest and farmland in recent weeks. Nearly two-thirds of Latin America’s biggest country…Continue readingWhat we know about the fire ‘pandemic’ plaguing Brazil
Two people are missing and about 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes after devastating floods and landslides hit the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, prompting accusations that Giorgia Meloni’s…Continue readingTwo missing and 1,000 evacuated as Storm Boris devastates northern Italy
More than 3,600 chemicals used in food packaging or preparation have been detected in human bodies, some of which are hazardous to health, while little is known about others, a study…Continue readingMore than 3,600 food packaging chemicals found in human bodies
A national “butterfly emergency” has been declared by Butterfly Conservation after the lowest Big Butterfly Count since records began. An average of just seven butterflies per 15-minute count were recorded by…Continue reading‘Butterfly emergency’ declared as UK summer count hits record low
More than five times the average rainfall for the whole of September has fallen in five days on swathes of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, triggering devastating…Continue readingFloods in Poland and wildfires in Portugal show reality of climate breakdown, says EU
Fossil fuel companies pumped at least $5.6bn (£4.2bn) of sponsorship money into motorsports, football, golf and even snow sports in an effort to “buy social licence to operate”, according to a…Continue readingFossil fuel companies sponsor $5.6bn in global ‘sportswashing’ deals
The world is spending at least $2.6tn (£2tn) a year on subsidies that drive global heating and destroy nature, according to new analysis. Governments continue to provide billions of dollars in…Continue readingGlobal spending on subsidies that harm environment rises to $2.6tn
South America is experiencing its worst forest fire season in nearly two decades, with millions of acres burning across several countries. The blazes come amid the region’s worst drought on record,…Continue readingNo one should be surprised that South America is burning
A landslide and mega-tsunami in Greenland in September 2023, triggered by the climate crisis, caused the entire Earth to vibrate for nine days, a scientific investigation has found. The seismic event…Continue readingEntire Earth vibrated for nine days after climate-triggered mega-tsunami
Across Yemen in recent weeks, nearly 100 people have died in floods. And more than 560,000 people across the country have been affected since late July. Yemen’s central highlands, Red Sea…Continue reading‘Staggering’ destruction in Yemen after deadly flash flooding
Parts of Central and West Africa have seen heavy flooding over an unusually intense rainy season, unleashing a humanitarian crisis in which hundreds have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.…Continue readingFloods hit millions in West and Central Africa
The 11th Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research conference was held in Pucón, Chile August 19-23, 2024. Fifteen-hundred academics, researchers, and scientists specializing in Antarctica met to share cutting-edge research. Reports at…Continue readingAntarctica’s Deep Vulnerability Exposed at 11th Scientific Conference
A new study from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering researchers, along with researchers from the Institute de Physique du Globe de Paris at the University of Paris Cité, has found…Continue readingDeserts’ biggest threat? Flooding
Plastic pollution is a major problem in Nigeria. Recent research identified the country as a plastic pollution hotspot, second to India. India emits 9.3 million tons of plastic into the environment…Continue readingNigeria is the world’s second biggest plastic polluter
Microplastic particles turned up in the vast majority of waste samples taken from Hong Kong wildlife in a Greenpeace study, the group said Monday, suggesting that animals still ingest plastics even…Continue readingGreenpeace sounds alarm on microplastics ingested by Hong Kong wildlife
The world creates 57 million tons of plastic pollution every year and spreads it from the deepest oceans to the highest mountaintop to the inside of people’s bodies, according to a…Continue readingHumans are pumping out 57 million tons of plastic pollution a year
The 2024 northern summer saw the highest global temperatures on record, beating 2023’s high and making this year likely Earth’s hottest ever recorded. The data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service…Continue readingJune-August 2024 were hottest ever recorded: EU monitor
South Korea experienced its highest average summertime temperature since such records began half a century ago, nearly two degrees higher than the historic average. From June to August, the average temperature…Continue readingSouth Korea sees highest average summer temperature on record
At this time of year, as the sun rises over Antarctica, a “hole” opens up in Earth’s ozone layer. But the hole will continue to open each year for at least…Continue readingThe ozone hole above Antarctica will keep opening up each spring for decades to come: Why that still matters
Passenger traffic at European airports reached pre-Covid levels in the first half of this year, according to industry data, driven by a rise in leisure and family travel. “Flight shame is…Continue reading‘Flight shame is dead’: concern grows over climate impact of tourism boom
Phoenix, Arizona, saw its 100th straight day of 100˚F (37.8˚C) heat this week. The hottest large city in the United States broke its previous record of 76 consecutive 100˚F days set…Continue readingPhoenix, Arizona, hits its 100th consecutive day of 100˚F (37.8˚C) weather
Twenty more plants and animals, including a type of waratah, have been added to Australia’s list of threatened wildlife. One ecological community – the King Island scrub complex ecological community –…Continue reading‘A symbol of our nation’: waratah among 20 more species added to Australia’s threatened wildlife list
Bureau of Meteorology data showed average temperatures across the nation in August were 3.03˚C above the long-term average, easily beating the previous 2.56˚C record set in 2009. The 2024 winter also…Continue readingAustralia sweats through hottest August on record with temperatures 3˚C above average
The Durango Fire Protection District was repeatedly denied insurance coverage for the construction of its new downtown firehouse earlier this year because of the wildfire risk. “We literally are a fire…Continue readingColorado’s wildfire risk is so high a fire department struggled to find insurance to build a new firehouse
A climate assessment report published in November 2022 by the Centre for Science and Environment, a public-interest research and advocacy organization based in New Delhi, analysed the first nine months of…Continue readingThe climate disaster strikes: what the data say
The Great Barrier Reef will continue to deteriorate, largely due to climate change, and the window to secure its future is rapidly closing. That is the sobering conclusion of a major…Continue reading‘Humanity is failing’: Official report warns our chance to save the Great Barrier Reef is fast closing
PFAS is a group of human-made chemicals used to resist heat, water, grease and stains, which are known as ‘forever chemicals’ as they don’t break down. Lead researcher and Ph.D. candidate…Continue readingPFOS chemical pollution in platypuses
The time has come to accept that climate policy has failed, and that the 2015 landmark Paris agreement is dead. We let it die by pretending that we could both continue…Continue readingThe overshoot myth: you can’t keep burning fossil fuels and expect scientists of the future to get us back to 1.5°C
According to the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the number of days with temperatures reaching 35 degrees Celsius in the world’s largest capital cities has surged by 52 percent…Continue readingSeoul residents sweating with record ‘tropical nights’ weather
Under a federal government scheme, people and businesses can undertake projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions or store carbon, in exchange for financial rewards known as carbon credits. The government has…Continue readingIndustry push to earn carbon credits from Australia’s native forests would be a blow for nature and the climate
A massive wildfire blazed its way into Athens’ northeastern suburbs on Monday as hundreds of firefighters battled to contain it, forcing thousands of residents to flee their homes and sparking a…Continue readingAthens suburbs on fire as Greece calls on EU for help
Greece on Sunday was battling a spate of wildfires which have forced the evacuation of hundreds of people, as experts warn of more extreme weather conditions to come next week. Firefighters…Continue readingGreece wildfires force hundreds to evacuate
The Brazilian government wants to develop the upper 435 miles (700km) of the Paraguay River into the Paraguay-Paraná hidrovia (waterway). In 2022 and 2023, preliminary licences were issued for the construction…Continue readingPantanal waterway project would destroy a ‘paradise on Earth’, scientists warn
Hot weather inflamed by carbon pollution killed nearly 50,000 people in Europe last year, with the continent warming at a much faster rate than other parts of the world. Heatwaves have…Continue readingHeat aggravated by carbon pollution killed 50,000 in Europe last year
The wildfire has already destroyed a third of the popular tourist town of Jasper — and officials say the flames could stay ablaze for months. The wildfire in Alberta, Canada, broke…Continue readingJasper National Park’s largest wildfire in a century destroys a third of Canadian town — and could continue for months
Seasonal change in the north is rapid and, for local people, summer marks a brief reprieve from months of bitter cold. But a heatwave that is currently hovering over the community…Continue reading‘It’s devastating’: summer in Canada’s Arctic region brings severe heatwaves
The Great Barrier Reef is under critical pressure, with warming sea temperatures and mass coral bleaching events threatening to destroy the remarkable ecology, biodiversity, and beauty of the world’s largest coral…Continue readingNew 400-year temperature record shows Great Barrier Reef is facing catastrophic damage, researchers warn
Less than half of stunned or injured birds survive a collision with a window, research has found, pushing up estimates that more than 1 billion birds may die each year from…Continue readingDeath toll for birds hitting buildings may be over 1 billion a year in US
A world where global mean surface temperature has increased 3°C will be characterized by widespread and intense heat stress, extreme weather events, ruptured and unproductive marine and terrestrial ecosystems, broken food…Continue readingEarth at risk: An urgent call to end the age of destruction and forge a just & sustainable future
A beach in north-east Scotland is eroding rapidly owing to climate change, leaving a town at risk of flooding and its centuries-old golf links crumbling into the sea. The Dynamic Coast…Continue reading‘This is climate change’: Scottish beach eroding by 7 metres a year
Halfway through the peak flood season, China has already experienced the highest number of significant floods since record keeping began in 1998, and the hottest July since 1961, authorities said on…Continue readingChina sees highest number of significant floods since records began
Butterfly numbers are the lowest on record in the UK. Butterfly Conservation, which runs the Big Butterfly Count, sounded the alarm after this year’s count revealed the worst numbers since it…Continue reading‘Warning sign to us all’ as UK butterfly numbers hit record low
The punishing heat experienced around the Mediterranean in July would have been “virtually impossible” in a world without global warming, a group of climate scientists said Wednesday. A deadly heat wave…Continue readingMediterranean heat wave ‘virtually impossible’ without climate change: Scientists
A crushing drought in Sicily has withered fields of grain, deprived livestock of pasture land and fanned a spate of wildfires, causing damage already estimated at 2.7 billion euros this year.…Continue readingDrought in Sicily threatens grain fields, animal herds
Thunderstorms and torrential rain brought another wave of violent floods Tuesday that caved in roads, crushed vehicles, pushed homes off their foundations and led to dramatic boat rescues in north-eastern Vermont,…Continue reading‘Apocalyptic’ floods in Vermont destroy homes as two dozen rescued by boat
Last week, a strong typhoon left a trail of destruction across the Philippines, Taiwan and China. Super Typhoon Gaemi began as a tropical storm but intensified rapidly, leaving at least 65…Continue readingManila is reeling after a super typhoon—we must prepare fast-growing megacities for worsening disasters
Nickel has upended life on the Indonesian islands of Sulawesi, Halmahera and Obi. Over a decade the region has gone from modest ore exporter to the world’s foremost refiner of the…Continue readingCheap coal, cheap workers, Chinese money: Indonesia’s nickel success comes at a price
With thousands of species at risk of extinction, scientists have devised a radical plan: a vault filled with preserved samples of our planet’s most important and at-risk creatures located on the…Continue readingScientists propose lunar biorepository as ‘backup’ for life on Earth
A James Cook University report has revealed severe damage in about 80% of mangroves along the Great Barrier Reef, from Cairns to Gladstone. JCU TropWATER researcher Professor Norm Duke said mangroves…Continue readingSurveys reveal vast mangrove damage along Great Barrier Reef
For the 2.3 million people who call this valley home, the dangerous elements are harder to ignore. When temperatures climb, shadeless streets are hot enough to cause second-degree burns in seconds.…Continue readingLife at 115˚F (46˚C): a sweltering summer pushes Las Vegas to the brink
A fast-moving wildfire has hit the town of Jasper in the Canadian Rockies, causing “significant” losses as firefighters work to hold back the flames. Located about 370km (230 miles) west of…Continue reading‘Our worst nightmare’: Raging wildfire hits western Canada town of Jasper
Central China’s Henan Province has become ground zero for an ongoing deluge of rain that has hit the area stretching from Sichuan Basin to Huanghuai region, with multiple parts of the…Continue readingRecord-breaking rainfalls hit cities in C.China’s Henan
Flash floods in northern and southwest China have killed at least 20 people and left dozens missing, state media said Saturday, after a week of deadly downpours across the country. Several…Continue readingFlash floods across China kill at least 20, dozens missing
Deforestation at one of Indonesia’s largest nickel processing hubs is threatening an Indigenous group that is among the country’s last uncontacted tribes, rights groups allege. Deforestation is a longstanding problem in…Continue readingNickel hub ‘apocalyptic’ for uncontacted Indonesia tribe, say NGOs
Kevin Jordan thought he would spend his retirement listening to the sound of the sea at his home on the Norfolk coast in eastern England. But his dream collapsed in November…Continue readingUK village fights to turn back tide of climate change
The demise of the Key Largo tree cactus is the first recorded case of sea level rise driving a local species to extinction in the United States. Tree cactus is a…Continue readingEulogy for a cactus
Conservation groups across England are seeing more malnourished bats, as wildlife experts warn the washout summer is driving down the insects, butterflies and moths they feed on. Groups across Cambridgeshire, Norfolk,…Continue readingWhere are all the bats? – alarm as numbers fall in England
Unrelenting heat is blanketing swathes of southern and eastern Europe, with dozens of cities on red alert as scorching temperatures fuel wildfires, strain power grids, and make daily life unbearable. Greece,…Continue reading‘It’s unbearable’: heat waves scorch southern and eastern Europe
Canada is currently battling 575 active fires with more than 400 considered out of control. Around 9,000 people have been evacuated in northeastern Canada because of raging wildfires. Residents of the…Continue reading9,000 evacuated in northeast Canada due to wildfires
“A likely harbinger of a hyperactive season” was how CSU researchers characterized Beryl, which set numerous records on the way to its Texas landfall, including the earliest category 5 hurricane, strongest…Continue readingAfter Hurricane Beryl’s destruction, climate scientists fear for what’s next
Las Vegas set a new record on Wednesday as it marked a fifth consecutive day over 115˚F (46˚C). The brutal milestone marks yet another record for the Nevada desert city this…Continue readingLas Vegas sets record for number of days over 115˚F amid its ‘most extreme heatwave in history’
On average, “the background extinction rate” will bump off about one species, per million species, per year. But what we’re seeing now is a bit more extreme. “If we look at…Continue readingLiving in a ‘mass extinction’
The Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland and one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, is on fire. Huge stretches of land resemble the aftermath of a battle, with thick green…Continue readingDevastation as world’s biggest wetland burns: ‘those that cannot run don’t stand a chance’
The research, published in Nature Communications, found that icefield-wide, rates of glacier area shrinkage were five times faster from 2015–2019 relative to 1948–1979. Additionally, 100% of glaciers mapped in 2019 have…Continue readingMelting of Alaskan glaciers accelerating faster than previously thought, research suggests
Flash flooding and landslides swept away cars and houses, with at least one person known to have died, alongside widespread damage to transport infrastructure. Unsettled conditions persisted around the Alpine region…Continue readingHeavy rain in Switzerland and Italy causes flooding
A new and worrying way that large ice sheets can melt has been characterized by scientists for the first time. The research focuses on how relatively warm seawater can lap at…Continue readingNew tipping point discovered beneath the Antarctic ice sheet
A combined team of Earth scientists and climate specialists at the University of California San Diego and the National Center for Atmospheric Research has found via modeling that geoengineering projects such…Continue readingMarine cloud brightening models show unexpected consequences of geoengineering
At least 97% of corals on a reef in the Great Barrier Reef’s north died during one of the worst coral bleaching events the world’s biggest reef system has ever seen,…Continue reading‘Most of it was dead’: scientists discover one of Great Barrier Reef’s worst coral bleaching events
The frequency and intensity of extreme wildfires has more than doubled worldwide over the past two decades as human activity has warmed the planet. The intensity of the 20 most extreme…Continue readingExtreme wildfires doubled over past two decades: Study
Constraining the relationship between temperature and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (pCO2) is essential to model near-future climate. Here, we reconstruct pCO2 values over the past 15 million years (Myr), providing…Continue readingContinuous sterane and phytane δ13C record reveals a substantial pCO2 decline since the mid-Miocene
Regional authorities in Brazil on Monday declared a state of emergency as the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetlands, faces “out of control fires,” according to a decree. The surge of…Continue reading‘Out of control fires’ in Brazil wetlands spark state of emergency
Nearly 2,000 children under five are dying every day from air pollution, which has overtaken poor sanitation and a lack of clean water to become the second biggest health risk factor…Continue readingAlmost 2,000 children die every day from air pollution, report finds
Pesticide Action Network says some modern pesticides are 10,000 times more toxic than DDT, a notoriously noxious chemical that was banned for its impact on human health and the environment. And…Continue reading‘I have seen the decline’: pesticides linked to falling UK insect numbers
Local sea level has risen about a foot in the last 80 years, with 8 inches of that total in the last 30 years, the Herald reported in May. The second…Continue readingRemember they said Miami would be under water? A preview of the future
Government scientists say rising seas driven by climate change are drowning Bangladesh’s densely populated coast at one of the fastest global rates, and at least a million people on the coast…Continue readingSea swamps Bangladesh at one of world’s fastest rates
In recent years, concerns have been raised over earthworm populations, which have fallen by a third in the past 25 years. A citizen science project that monitors flying insects in the…Continue readingWildlife experts urge action on pesticides as UK insect populations plummet
May 2024 was the warmest May on the books, marking a full year of record-high monthly temperatures, NASA scientists found. Average global temperatures for the past 12 months hit record highs…Continue readingNASA analysis confirms a year of monthly temperature records
Exposure to extreme weather events can make people more aware of environmental changes; however, it remains unclear how such events influence politicians’ behaviour. Combining supervised learning algorithms on over 260,000 press…Continue readingExtreme weather events do not increase political parties’ environmental attention
An 80% reduction in sulfur dioxide shipping emissions observed in early 2020 could be associated with substantial atmospheric warming over some ocean regions, according to a modeling study published in Communications…Continue readingReduced sulfur content in shipping fuel associated with increased maritime atmospheric warming