Category Archives: Climate change

YouTube ads of 100 top brands fund climate misinformation – study

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Avaaz says firms are unaware commercials being played alongside misleading videos

Some of the biggest companies in the world are funding climate misinformation by advertising on YouTube, according to a study from activist group Avaaz.

The group found that more than 100 brands had adverts running on YouTube videos on the site that were actively promoting climate misinformation. The brands, including Samsung, L’Oreal and Decathlon, were unaware that their adverts were being played before and during the videos.

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Climate emergency: 2019 was second hottest year on record

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Last decade was also hottest yet in 150 years of measurements, say scientists

The year 2019 was the second hottest on record for the planet’s surface, according to latest research. The analyses reveal the scale of the climate crisis: both the past five years and the past decade are the hottest in 150 years.

The succession of records being broken year after year is “the drumbeat of the Anthropocene”, said one scientist, and is bringing increasingly severe storms, floods, droughts and wildfires.

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James Murdoch criticises father’s news outlets for climate crisis denial

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Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Fox cited for ‘frustrating’ coverage of Australian bushfires

Rupert Murdoch’s son has strongly criticised his family’s news outlets for downplaying the impact of the climate crisis, as bushfires continue to burn in Australia.

James Murdoch and his wife, Kathryn, issued a rare joint statement directly criticising his father’s businesses for their “ongoing denial” on the issue, which has been reflected in the family’s newspapers repeatedly casting doubt on the link between the climate emergency and the bushfires.

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‘The dates are drying’: profits shrivel for farmers as the heat rises in Tunisia

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Irrigation systems and oases in the arid south are failing to keep up with the demands of thirsty palm plantations

Mansour Rajeb is wrapping a plastic protective sheet around the branch of a date palm in his oasis near the village of Bchelli, in southern Tunisia. Tying it up, he lingers.

“I’m worried,” he says. “The quality is getting worse. The dates are getting drier.”

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Australia bushfires are harbinger of planet’s future, say scientists

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Apocalyptic scenes give glimpse of what would be normal conditions in 3C world

The bushfires ravaging Australia are a clear sign of what is to come around the world if temperatures are allowed to rise to dangerous levels, according to scientists.

“This is what you can expect to happen … at an average of 3C [above pre-industrial levels],” said Richard Betts, professor of geography at Exeter University. “We are seeing a sign of what would be normal conditions in a 3C world. It tells us what the future world might look like. This really brings home what climate change means.”

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Climate activist turns down Siemens’ offer of seat on energy board

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Protest group leader Luisa Neubauer says she would lose right to criticise the company

The leader of Germany’s Friday for Future climate protests has said she turned down a seat on the board of Siemens’ new energy business amid growing anger over its role in a controversial coal mining project in Australia as she feared she would lose the right to criticise the company.

Luisa Neubauer, 23, the German face of the campaign group inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who has campaigned alongside her, said on Monday the position would jeopardise her independence if she had taken up the offer from its chief executive, Joe Kaeser, made at a meeting in Berlin on Friday.

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Ocean temperatures hit record high as rate of heating accelerates

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Oceans are clearest measure of climate crisis as they absorb 90% of heat trapped by greenhouse gases

The heat in the world’s oceans reached a new record level in 2019, showing “irrefutable and accelerating” heating of the planet.

The world’s oceans are the clearest measure of the climate emergency because they absorb more than 90% of the heat trapped by the greenhouse gases emitted by fossil fuel burning, forest destruction and other human activities.

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New Zealand schools to teach students about climate crisis, activism and ‘eco anxiety’

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Changes to the curriculum will put the country at the forefront of climate crisis education worldwide

Every school in New Zealand will this year have access to materials about the climate crisis written by the country’s leading science agencies – including tools for students to plan their own activism, and to process their feelings of “eco-anxiety” over global heating.

The curriculum will put New Zealand at the forefront of climate change education worldwide; governments in neighbouring Australia and the United Kingdom have both faced criticism for lack of cohesive teaching on the climate crisis. The New Zealand scheme, which will be offered to all schools that teach 11 to 15 year-old students, will not be compulsory, the government said.

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Scott Morrison looks for wriggle room on climate as he detects the whiff of backlash | Sarah Martin

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The prime minister is clearly under pressure as the bushfire crisis lays bare the consequences of a warmer planet

It’s too early to say whether the prime minister, Scott Morrison, is speaking with a forked tongue when he says the government will “evolve” its climate change policy.

What appeared on Sunday to be a shift in rhetoric on the government’s emission reduction targets may be meaningful – or it may yet prove to be deliberately duplicitous.

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Roger Federer responds to climate change criticism from Greta Thunberg

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  • Credit Suisse closely linked with fossil fuel industry
  • #RogerWakeUpNow has been trending on Twitter

Roger Federer has issued a cautiously worded response to mounting criticism, including from climate activist Greta Thunberg, over his sponsorship deal with Credit Suisse.

A dozen Swiss activists appeared in court on Tuesday after refusing to pay a fine for playing tennis inside branches of Credit Suisse bank in November 2018, in a stunt intended to underscore Federer’s relationship with the Swiss financial giant, which is closely linked with the fossil fuel industry.

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Disinformation and lies are spreading faster than Australia’s bushfires

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Social media claims of an arson epidemic and obstructive environmentalists have infected mainstream reporting of the bushfire crisis

Lies have spread faster than grassfire during Australia’s unprecedented national emergency.

They’ve ranged from the exaggerated to the outrageous.

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Australia bushfires live: NSW and Victoria survey damage as fires merge to form new ‘megablaze’ – latest updates

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This liveblog is now closed

We will leave our coverage of the ongoing bushfire crisis here for the night. A mercifully quiet day on firegrounds across the country.

Here is where things stand:

We have a bit more information about the man who was burned while defending his property near Tumbarumba in New South Wales yesterday.

The man was an RFS volunteer, but he was not engaged in RFS work yesterday. Instead, Guardian Australia understands, he was driving a quad bike around his own property defending against spot fires when he received burns to his leg.

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Pacific nations need much more than Scott Morrison’s thanks to survive

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Governments from across the Pacific have offered support for bushfire relief but are in a tight spot with Australia over the climate crisis

When Scott Morrison thanked governments of the world for their assistance with Australia’s bushfire crisis, he particularly singled out “the loving response from our Pacific family”.

Across the Pacific region – a collection of developing and least developed nations that are themselves almost uniquely at risk from climate-induced catastrophes – the response to the Australian bushfires has been immediate and generous, but it also reveals something of the problematic fraternity that Australia has with the rest of the region.

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Blazes flare amid extreme conditions in Australia – as it happened

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This blog is now closed. Our live coverage will continue tomorrow morning

We are wrapping up the live blog now, but we will be back at 7am AEDT for the latest on the fires.

As of 9pm, this is what we know.

There’s now what media (but not RFS) refer to as a megablaze in the Kosciuszko national park with three fires at emergency level in that area of southern NSW, just near the Victorian border.

There’s also concern that a fire at watch-and-act level in Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains could worsen around midnight once the southerly reaches there. People in the Wentworth Falls and Leura areas are being advised to stay alert.

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Australia bushfires: towns face anxious wait as strong winds drive fires

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Alpine areas of Victoria and NSW among those most under threat, while climate protesters take to the streets in major cities

Thousands of climate protesters flooded the streets of Australian state capitals on Friday night as fire authorities warned of another dangerous night ahead in four states.

Firefighters in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia continued to battle fires, with gusty winds expected to create hazardous firefighting conditions late into the night.

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Grass growing around Mount Everest as global heating intensifies

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Impact of increase in shrubs and grasses not yet known but scientists say it could increase flooding in the region

Shrubs and grasses are springing up around Mount Everest and across the Himalayas, one of the most rapidly heating regions of the planet.

Related: 1.9 billion people at risk from mountain water shortages, study shows

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White House unveils plan for major projects to bypass environmental review

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Plan would help Trump administration advance projects held up over global heating concerns such as the Keystone XL oil pipeline

The Trump administration on Thursday unveiled a plan to speed permitting for major infrastructure projects such as oil pipelines, including dropping consideration of their potential impact on the climate crisis.

The plan, released by the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), would help the administration advance big energy projects such as the Keystone XL oil pipeline that had been tied up over concerns about their effect on global heating.

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Viking runestone may allude to extreme winter, study says

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Ninth-century Rök stone may deal with fear of cold climate crisis in Scandinavia

One of the world’s most famous runestones is now believed to have been erected by Vikings fearing a repeat of a previous cold climate crisis in Scandinavia, a study has concluded.

The Rök stone, raised in the ninth century near Lake Vättern in south central Sweden, bears the longest runic inscription in the world, with more than 700 runes covering its five sides.

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Bernie Sanders’ economic adviser says Australia’s bushfires are a climate change ‘wake-up call’

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Stephanie Kelton says Australia could ‘absolutely’ benefit from a program similar to the Green New Deal

Australia’s unprecedented bushfires are a wake-up call to the world about the importance of tackling climate change, Bernie Sanders’ economic adviser said, and the country should consider implementing a green new deal to transition to a low carbon economy.

Stephanie Kelton said Australia could benefit from an ambitious program of spending, similar to the one proposed by Sanders and others that aims to transform the US economy and help keep global heating below 1.5C.

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One year to save the planet: a simple guide to fighting the climate crisis in 2020

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Veganism might help and it’s always good to avoid flying. But the answer to Earth’s emergency must involve political, collective action – and there are countless ways to get active

The impact of the climate crisis is all too visible. Bushfires have killed more than 20 people in south-eastern Australia and forced thousands more to flee their homes. Floods and storms have left hundreds dead and many more destitute in Argentina, Uruguay, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi. And in the UK, record temperatures were seen last summer and this winter.

Last year, people across the world took to the streets to demand goverments act to slash greenhouse gas emissions. Did you watch and wonder what you could do to help the global climate movement?

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