Category Archives: Climate change

Climate emergency: Lagarde says ECB must step up action

Posted on by

Bank president indicates she will move bank beyond traditional remit of controlling inflation

Christine Lagarde has said the European Central Bank should do more to help tackle the climate emergency, as she came under pressure from MEPs to step up action against global heating.

In a strong hint that as president she would move the ECB beyond its traditional remit of controlling inflation, Lagarde said the bank would incorporate the climate threat into both its economic forecasts and in its capacity as watchdog of the financial system.

Continue reading...

Middle Earth: the fight to save the Amazon’s soul – video

Posted on by

In the heart of the Amazon rainforest, an alternative climate conference is taking place that brings together youth activists, indigenous leaders, scientists and forest dwellers. In a region known as Middle Earth, they are building a new alliance and demonstrating that the rainforest is central to life on Earth, even though Brazil backed out of hosting this year's official UN climate talks after the election of Jair Bolsonaro as president

Continue reading...

Mosquitoes bring ‘mystery illness’ to the mountain villages of Nepal

Posted on by

Rising temperatures linked to outbreaks of dengue fever high in the Kathmandu Valley, experts say

•Global heating behind record number of cases of the disease

Lilawati Awasthi is used to the risks that come from living in a remote mountainous district in the far west of Nepal. Floods, landslides and treacherous roads are a part of daily life. But this year she faced a new hazard: mosquitoes carrying a mystery illness.

When she began to feel sick in September she was not overly concerned at first. “I thought it was a simple fever, but it wouldn’t go away,” says the 50-year-old. “We went to the hospital and it turned out I was suffering from dengue.”

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson urged to challenge Trump on climate denial

Posted on by

350 experts call on PM to address president’s ‘dangerous’ and ‘irresponsible’ claims

Boris Johnson is being urged by 350 leading climate researchers to robustly challenge Donald Trump on his “dangerous” and “irresponsible” denial of the risks of climate change during the US president’s visit to the UK this week.

Putting the prime minister under more pressure over his stance on global heating, leading academics involved in climate research said he must try to persuade Trump to take strong domestic and international action.

Continue reading...

COP25: Island states want ‘decisive’ climate action to prevent inundation

Posted on by

The impact of rising seas prompts plea ahead of the UN climate change conference that begins on Monday in Madrid

The countries most at risk of deluge from climate chaos have issued an impassioned plea to the industrialised world ahead of crucial negotiations on the Paris agreement that start on Monday in Madrid.

“We see [these talks] as the last opportunity to take decisive action,” Janine Felson, deputy chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) told the Guardian.

Continue reading...

Global heating driving spread of mosquito-borne dengue fever

Posted on by

Record numbers across Asia and Americas infected as rising temperatures extend disease to places once seen as safe

Rising temperatures across Asia and the Americas have contributed to multiple severe outbreaks of dengue fever globally over the past six months, making 2019 the worst year on record for the disease.

In 1970 only nine countries faced severe dengue outbreaks. But the disease, which is spread by mosquitoes that can only survive in warm temperatures, is now seen in more than 100 countries. There are thought to be 390 million infections each year.

Continue reading...

Proposed EU-wide ‘climate law’ would set net-zero carbon target by 2050

Posted on by

Plan is part of ‘green new deal’ but campaigners say it is not enough to tackle climate crisis

The first EU-wide “climate law” would enshrine a legally binding target of reaching net-zero carbon by 2050, and Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions would be halved by 2030, under a set of proposals being discussed by the incoming European commission.

Cars would be subject to new air pollution standards, following the disastrous cheating that allowed diesel pollutants to be masked, and all vehicles may be brought within the EU’s carbon emissions trading scheme, which would affect drivers across the bloc. Three quarters of road transport would have to be moved to rail and inland waterways, and pricing would have to be adjusted to reflect the carbon output of different modes of transport, which is likely to prove controversial.

Continue reading...

Healthy coral sounds lure fish back to abandoned reefs, study finds

Posted on by

With global heating damaging corals worldwide, experts find potential tool in ‘acoustic enrichment’ to recolonise reefs

Playing sounds of a healthy coral reef can attract fish back to reefs that have become degraded and abandoned, researchers have found.

Global heating together with factors such as pollution are causing widespread damage to coral and harming delicate reef ecosystems.

Continue reading...

‘We have to follow up’: European parliament declares climate emergency – video

Posted on by

The European parliament has declared a 'climate and environmental emergency' in a symbolic moment when it promised to urge member states to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and push the climate crisis to the top of the EU’s agenda. 

The parliament voted 429-225 with 19 abstentions to use the term 'emergency'. Ursula von der Leyen, the incoming president of the European commission, declared this week that the EU would lead the fight against 'the existential threat' of the climate crisis

Continue reading...

‘Our house is on fire’: EU parliament declares climate emergency

Posted on by

Bloc warned against making symbolic gestures not backed up by concrete action

The European parliament has declared a global “climate and environmental emergency” as it urged all EU countries to commit to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The vote came as scientists warned that the world may have already crossed a series of climate tipping points, resulting in “a state of planetary emergency”.

Continue reading...

Climate emergency: world ‘may have crossed tipping points’

Posted on by

Warning of ‘existential threat to civilisation’ as impacts lead to cascade of unstoppable events

The world may already have crossed a series of climate tipping points, according to a stark warning from scientists. This risk is “an existential threat to civilisation”, they say, meaning “we are in a state of planetary emergency”.

Tipping points are reached when particular impacts of global heating become unstoppable, such as the runaway loss of ice sheets or forests. In the past, extreme heating of 5C was thought necessary to pass tipping points, but the latest evidence suggests this could happen between 1C and 2C.

Continue reading...

Labor condemns ‘disgraceful’ Westpac as Hartzer stands down – politics live

Posted on by

Westpac chief executive’s resignation draws little sympathy on all sides of politics. All the day’s events, live

And here is another indication of where question time is headed:

Last week, a bank broke money laundering laws 23 million times.

But instead of going after them, the Liberals are going after unions – trying to take away their right to exist.

This Government hates working people. We'll fight them every step of the way. pic.twitter.com/9vMhFquk4W

A group of north Queensland dairy farmers are on their way to Canberra to express their frustrations at what is happening within their industry.

That’s at the same time the Nationals are trying to get ahead of Pauline Hanson, who may have come late to the issues, but certainly has been running full steam ahead since becoming aware of it.

David Littleproud, the drought minister, some time ago said he fixed the supermarket [milk price] problem. He said he thumped his chest, waved his fists at them, and demanded they put their milk prices up.

Well, we know that solution lasted about five minutes.

Continue reading...

Jeremy Clarkson finally recognises climate crisis during Asia trip

Posted on by

Grand Tour host says impact of global heating on lake bed in Cambodia was ‘genuinely alarming’

Jeremy Clarkson has made what could be the biggest reversal of his 30-year career. The anti-environmental columnist has, for the first time, accepted the existence of global heating after seeing the impact for himself.

Clarkson’s epiphany came as he and his Grand Tour co-stars ran into difficulty while filming a 500-mile boat race from Siem Reap in Cambodia to Vung Tau in Vietnam.

Continue reading...

Harvard and Yale students disrupt football game for fossil fuel protest

Posted on by

Students began campaigning in 2012 for both universities to stop investing in oil and gas companies that contribute to climate crisis

Students and alumni from Harvard and Yale disrupted the annual football game between the two elite universities on Saturday, occupying the field in New Haven, Connecticut, at half-time and demanding the colleges divest from investment in fossil fuels.

More than 200 protesters stalled the high-profile game for around an hour, many chanting: “Hey Hey! Ho Ho! Fossil fuels have got to go!” The protest was briefly booed by some in a crowd of 44,989 and discussed widely on social media.

Continue reading...

Jeremy Corbyn urges public to vote for ‘manifesto of hope’

Posted on by

‘Investment blitz’ promised as experts taken aback by scale of Labour’s tax and spend plans

Jeremy Corbyn has urged the public to vote for his “manifesto of hope” as he unveiled plans for the most dramatic increase in tax and spending in more than half a century if Labour wins power next month’s general election.

In an upbeat launch event at Birmingham City University, the Labour leader said he welcomed the hostility of the billionaires, bad bosses and dodgy landlords who would lose out from his policies.

Continue reading...

Rupert Murdoch says ‘there are no climate change deniers around’ News Corp

Posted on by

Murdoch was responding to a question at AGM about time given to ‘climate deniers’ by News Corp outlets in Australia

News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch has said “there are no climate change deniers around I can assure you” after he was asked at the corporation’s AGM why his company gives them “so much airtime” in Australia.

Murdoch was speaking in New York on Wednesday when he received a question from a proxy for Australian activist shareholder Stephen Mayne.

Continue reading...

Global heating supercharging Indian Ocean climate system

Posted on by

Indian Ocean dipole events, linked to bushfires and floods, are becoming stronger and more frequent, scientists say

Global heating is “supercharging” an increasingly dangerous climate mechanism in the Indian Ocean that has played a role in disasters this year including bushfires in Australia and floods in Africa.

Scientists and humanitarian officials say this year’s record Indian Ocean dipole, as the phenomenon is known, threatens to reappear more regularly and in a more extreme form as sea surface temperatures rise.

Continue reading...

Scientists and climate advisers condemn Tory environmental record

Posted on by

Party under pressure on climate crisis as Corbyn says Johnson can not be trusted

The Conservative party’s record on tackling the climate crisis was condemned by leading scientists and former government advisers on Sunday, as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn warned that the forthcoming election was the last chance to halt the escalating emergency.

Experts accused the Conservatives of copying rightwing politicians in the US by deliberately weakening environmental protections. Meanwhile, new analysis by Labour reveals that environmental policies put forward since 2017 and opposed by the Tories would have led to emissions reductions of over 70m tonnes a year by 2030 – more than the annual emissions of Portugal.

Continue reading...

Pacific seals at risk as Arctic ice melt lets deadly disease spread from Atlantic

Posted on by

Study finds seal and sea otter populations in Alaska hit by killer infection that migrated from North Atlantic

A potentially deadly disease affecting marine mammals, including seals and sea otters, has been passed from the North Atlantic Ocean to the northern Pacific thanks to the melting of the Arctic sea ice.

Experts have long been concerned that sea ice melting in the northern oceans, caused by global climate heating, could allow previously geographically limited diseases to be transmitted between the two oceans.

Continue reading...

Venice council flooded moments after rejecting climate crisis plan

Posted on by

Rightwing parties reject proposals as lagoon city faces worst flooding in 53 years

Veneto’s regional council rejected a plan to combat climate change minutes before its offices on the Grand Canal, in Venice, were flooded, it has emerged as the city continues to battle high water levels.

Venice has been hit by recurrent flooding since Tuesday, with 70% of the lagoon city engulfed on Friday morning as the acqua alta, or high water, level reached 1.54 metres amid heavy downpours.

Continue reading...