Group’s ongoing peaceful disruption in London is gaining it global attention and new members
On Monday morning a strange sight appeared, edging its way through the buses, taxis and shoppers on Oxford Street in London.
A bright pink boat, named Berta Cáceres after the murdered Honduran environmental activist, was being pulled carefully through the traffic, eventually coming to a halt in the middle of one of London’s busiest thoroughfares.
Continue reading...Swedish 16-year-old, who is taking campaign to parliament, keen to be part of Extinction Rebellion action
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old founder of the school strikes for action against climate change, has said she hopes to join the Extinction Rebellion protests when she visits London next week.
The Swedish activist will also take the campaign to the UK parliament, where she will speak to dozens of MPs including the Green party MP Caroline Lucas, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and the environment secretary, Michael Gove.
Continue reading...High-quality international offsets should be part of any credible policy, industry says
Business groups are defying the Morrison government’s political assault on the use of international permits, arguing a credible climate policy should include access to high-quality international offsets, because they are a key mechanism to help Australia meet its Paris target.
With climate change persisting as a significant campaign flashpoint, the chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, James Pearson, told Guardian Australia international permits were part of the toolkit for mitigating climate change in a cost-effective way.
Continue reading...Nation known for its natural beauty is under pressure with extinctions, polluted rivers and blighted lakes
A report on the state of New Zealand’s environment has painted a bleak picture of catastrophic biodiversity loss, polluted waterways and the destructive rise of the dairy industry and urban sprawl.
Environment Aotearoa is the first major environmental report in four years, and was compiled using data from Statistics New Zealand and the environment ministry.
Continue reading...Financial sector warned it risks losses from extreme weather and its stakes in polluting firms
The global financial system faces an existential threat from climate change and must take urgent steps to reform, the governors of the Bank of England and France’s central bank have warned, writing in the Guardian.
In an article published in the Guardian on Wednesday aimed at the international financial community, Mark Carney, the Bank’s governor, and François Villeroy de Galhau, the governor of the Banque de France, said financial regulators, banks and insurers around the world had to “raise the bar” to avoid catastrophe.
Continue reading...Climate protesters warn they will escalate action after blockading capital’s landmarks
Climate change protesters, who police say have caused “serious disruption” affecting half a million people in London over the past two days, have said they are planning to escalate their protests to disrupt rail and tube lines.
Thousands or people have taken part in the civil disobedience protests, blockading four landmarks in the capital in an attempt to force the government to take action on the escalating climate crisis.
Continue reading...Teenager who started school strike movement urges MEPs to ‘wake up and take action’
The teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has chided EU leaders for holding three emergency summits on Brexit and none on the threat posed by climate change.
In a clarion call to Europe’s political leaders ahead of European parliament elections in May, the founder of the school strike movement said if politicians were serious about tackling climate change they would not spend all their time “talking about taxes or Brexit”.
Continue reading...Climate group occupies major landmarks in campaign that could last several days
Thousands of people have blocked well-known landmarks including Waterloo Bridge in central London, bringing widespread disruption to the capital in a “climate rebellion” that organisers say could last several days.
Parents and their children joined scientists, teachers, long-term environmentalists and other protesters both young and old to occupy major junctions and demand urgent action over the escalating ecological crisis.
Continue reading...First leftist PM in 20 years may find it hard to build consensus amid splits over welfare system
Finland’s Social Democrats will try to form a coalition government after a narrow win in parliamentary elections that saw left-leaning parties make sweeping gains, despite a stronger than expected showing from the far right.
The centre-left SDP, led by Antti Rinne, a 56-year-old former trade union leader, will have 40 MPs in a fragmented 200-seat Eduskunta (parliament) after winning 17.7% of the vote following a campaign attacking the austerity policies of the outgoing centre-right coalition.
Continue reading...With dozens of events next week, many hope arrival of climate punks who’ve swept the UK will be a watershed moment
Bea Ruiz, a veteran progressive coordinator, has been telling scores of first-time climate change protesters they face being harassed and beaten by police next week. Most seem happy with the deal.
“I told a 72-year-old volunteer that he will probably be targeted by police,” said Ruiz, who is based in Eureka, California and is helping organize the first US rollout of Extinction Rebellion, a group founded in the UK that has grabbed attention through disruptive protests leading to mass arrests.
Continue reading...Tens of thousands of young people in Britain and abroad are demonstrating for climate action in the latest wave of strikes
We will be closing the live blog shortly, so thanks to all those who contributed.
Organiser Cyrus Jarvis, 16, a year 11 student from London Academy school in Barnet, North London, reflected on the march, saying:
The police tried to frighten us with arrests but we just moved on. We are really sorry for anyone who did have issues because of us, but unfortunately this is what we have to do to get our point across to the government. If we don’t cause disruption they don’t listen to us and they haven’t listened to us in the past.”
Continue reading...The ads use Facebook functionality to target users with an interest in particular car brands, including Toyota Hilux utes
Toyota has said that it was not consulted on a Liberal party campaign that uses targeted Facebook ads to falsely claim Bill Shorten wants to tax popular car brands including the Toyota Hilux and other utility vehicles.
“Toyota Australia were not consulted on the use of the HiLux in government materials.”
Continue reading...Next generation must keep their own carbon levels at a fraction of their grandparents’ in order to prevent catastrophe
Children born today will have to live their lives with drastically smaller carbon footprints than their grandparents if climate change is to be controlled.
Fast, deep cuts in global emissions from energy, transport and food are needed to keep temperature rises in check and an analysis has shown this means the new generation will have lifetime carbon budgets almost 90% lower than someone born in 1950.
Continue reading...If emissions continue to rise at current rate, ice will have all but disappeared from Europe’s Alpine valleys by end of century
Two-thirds of the ice in the glaciers of the Alps is doomed to melt by the end of the century as climate change forces up temperatures, a study has found.
Half of the ice in the mountain chain’s 4,000 glaciers will be gone by 2050 due to global warming already baked in by past emissions, the research shows. After that, even if carbon emissions have plummeted to zero, two-thirds of the ice will still have melted by 2100.
Continue reading...Restoration of forests and coasts can tackle ‘existential crises’ but is being overlooked
• Read the letter from campaigners
• George Monbiot: the natural world can help save us from climate catastrophe
The restoration of natural forests and coasts can simultaneously tackle climate change and the annihilation of wildlife but is being worryingly overlooked, an international group of campaigners have said.
Animal populations have fallen by 60% since 1970, suggesting a sixth mass extinction of life on Earth is under way, and it is very likely that carbon dioxide will have to be removed from the atmosphere to avoid the worst impacts of global warming. Trees and plants suck carbon dioxide from the air as they grow and also provide vital habitat for animals.
Continue reading...When scantily clad Extinction Rebellion protestors took to parliament on Monday, they joined a long line of semi-naked activists
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any messier in the House of Commons, protesters from Extinction Rebellion fetched up in the public gallery on Monday, took off their clothes and superglued themselves to the glass panels. Rumours abounded that they had done so by the buttocks, but in fact it was just their hands. Still, it sounds a bit like that description of resentment: it’s like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die. Whoever it was that ended up getting sprayed with WD40 and taken away by the police, it wasn’t Michael Gove. This manner of nude protest has a fine pedigree, on the following issues.
Continue reading...Trudeau cited international commitments to fight global warning as premiers to say they would challenge the measure
Canada has imposed a landmark carbon tax on four provinces which had defied Ottawa’s push to combat climate change, prompting unhappy premiers to say they would challenge the measure.
Related: How to make a carbon tax popular? Give the proceeds to the people
Continue reading...Cities worldwide take part in WWF event to call for global action on climate change
Cities around the world were marking Earth Hour on Saturday by turning off lights at 8:30pm local time in a call for global action on climate change.
Continue reading...Study finds that places where people have never had the diseases could see bad outbreaks if they aren’t prepared
Half a billion more people could be at risk from mosquito-transmitted diseases within 30 years as a result of the warming climate, according to a new study.
Canada and parts of northern Europe could be newly exposed to the threat. People there could come into contact with yellow fever, Zika, dengue and chikungunya, as well as other emerging diseases.
Continue reading...Ad campaigns hide investment in a huge expansion of oil and gas extraction, says InfluenceMap
The largest five stock market listed oil and gas companies spend nearly $200m (£153m) a year lobbying to delay, control or block policies to tackle climate change, according to a new report.
Chevron, BP and ExxonMobil were the main companies leading the field in direct lobbying to push against a climate policy to tackle global warming, the report said.
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