Category Archives: Climate crisis

Strongest winds in over a decade could bring fire risk to southern California

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Windstorm will affect Los Angeles and Ventura counties beginning Tuesday afternoon and peak early Wednesday

The strongest winds in more than a decade could hit southern California on Tuesday, potentially causing structural damage and bringing extreme fire risk to areas that haven’t seen substantial rain in months.

Beginning Tuesday afternoon, the windstorm will affect Los Angeles and Ventura counties and peak in the early hours of Wednesday, when gusts could reach 80mph (129km/h), the National Weather Service (NWS) said Monday. Isolated gusts could top 100 mph in mountains and foothills.

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Ripe for the picking? Irish wine on the up – but ‘nobody will retire rich’

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Global heating has made conditions more favourable for growing grapes – and finding the right variety is key

Heard the one about Irish wine? Like its English counterpart, it is no longer a joke, with more than a dozen vineyards now producing bottles to emulate those of the terroirs of France, Spain and Italy.

At about €60 (£50) a bottle and produced in small quantities, it is far from a commercial activity, but efforts over the last 10 years have produced what one retailer described as an “arguably very fine” rosé.

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‘A look into the future’: TV drama about Danish climate refugees divides opinion

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Families Like Ours has become national talking point but some scientists say events depicted could not happen

Featuring scenes of huge crowds boarding ferries, protest and desperation as six million Danes become climate refugees and life as they know it rapidly collapses, the new TV series by the Oscar-winning director Thomas Vinterberg is a potential “look into the future”, he says.

Familier som vores (Families Like Ours) – a drama which depicts a flooded Denmark shut down and evacuated – has been viewed nearly 1m times and become a national talking point. At its premiere at the Venice international film festival, it evoked tears, shouts and a standing ovation, with one critic describing it as “grimly prophetic”.

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Embankment of 18th-century canal in Cheshire collapses after flooding

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Engineers assess damage as heavy rains cause first major breach of Bridgewater canal since 1970s

Engineers are assessing the scale of damage to a canal built more than 250 years ago after flood waters caused a dramatic collapse of part of its elevated embankment in Cheshire.

The Bridgewater canal, which was previously used to transport coal but is now a leisure waterway, caved in near Dunham Massey, in the first major breach of the waterway for 54 years.

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Fig and almond trees thriving in UK thanks to fewer frosts, RHS says

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Society to retire plants no longer suited to UK’s changing climate after 14% fewer days of ground frost recorded

Fig and almond trees are thriving in Britain as a result of fewer frosts, the Royal Horticultural Society has said.

The lack of frost, one of the effects of climate breakdown, means plants used to warmer climes have been doing well in RHS gardens. Almond trees from the Mediterranean were planted at Wisley in Surrey several years ago, and without frost this year have fruited well for the first time.

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Former EU environment chief warns against backsliding on climate crisis

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Virginijus Sinkevičius, a former environment commissioner, criticises bloc’s decision to delay deforestation law

A former EU environment commissioner has warned against backsliding on the protection of nature and the battle against the climate crisis after the bloc decided to delay its landmark deforestation law.

Virginijus Sinkevičius, the Lithuanian MEP and a vice-president of the European parliament’s Green group, said he disagreed with the decision to amend the deforestation law in order to give companies a year of extra time to ensure their products are not implicated in the felling of trees.

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All the 1 January changes in Australia: Centrelink increases, import bans and pay rises

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Bigger Austudy and carer allowance payments, higher Medicare safety net thresholds and mandatory corporate reporting on climate also in 1 Jan changes

With the new year comes new policies, laws, taxes and reforms. Here’s everything to know about changes on 1 January, 2025 that could affect you.

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‘Moving to the mountaintops’: rising seas displace tens of thousands in Papua New Guinea

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Gulf province councillor says growing numbers are leaving, in what climate activist describes as a ‘humanitarian crisis’

Two years ago fisher Siri James lived on the southern coast of Papua New Guinea, in a small village near Pariva beach. But as the tides continued to rise, James was forced to move further in from the shore.

“It’s not easy moving inland, I was born and raised by the seas, I am a fisherman. I know the flow of tides and currents, I know when the wind will come strongly and when it will rain – but now I don’t understand why everything is changing,” says James, who is in his early 40s.

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All the 1 January changes coming to Australia in 2025: Centrelink increases, import bans and pay rises

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Bigger Austudy and carer allowance payments, higher Medicare safety net thresholds and mandatory corporate reporting on climate also ahead

With the new year comes new policies, laws, taxes and reforms. Here’s everything to know about changes on 1 January, 2025 that could affect you.

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California residents urged to avoid ocean as high surf pounds coastline

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At least one dead and three missing amid storm that has split wharf, wrecked boat and piled up debris

California residents are being warned to stay off wharves, piers and other waterside structures as 20-30ft waves are expected to batter the northern Pacific coast for the rest of the week.

The National Weather Service advisory comes after a 150ft section of the wharf in Santa Cruz collapsed amid high waves on Monday, and storm debris was blamed for the death of a Santa Cruz county man on a beach in Watsonville.

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UK weather: Storm Darragh to bring 80mph gusts as amber wind warning issued

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Fourth named storm of the season follows concern over lack of flooding warnings for Storm Bert last week

An amber warning for wind has been issued for large parts of the UK, with power cuts and flying debris possible amid the arrival of the fourth named storm of the season.

Storm Darragh is expected to bring gusts of up to 80mph and heavy rain late on Friday and into Saturday.

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How climate risks are driving up insurance premiums around the US – visualized

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‘Tight correlation’ between premium rises and counties deemed most at risk from climate crisis, experts say

Concern over the climate crisis may evaporate in the White House from January, but its financial costs are now starkly apparent to Americans in the form of soaring home insurance premiums – with those in the riskiest areas for floods, storms and wildfires suffering the steepest rises of all.

A mounting toll of severe hurricanes, floods, fires and other extreme events has caused average premiums to leap since 2020, with parts of the US most prone to disasters bearing the brunt. A climate crisis is starting to stir an insurance crisis.

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Australia news live: Gallagher says she expects Pocock to trump her in ACT Senate race; more ball-shaped ‘debris’ on Sydney beach

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Follow today’s news live

Detectives investigating four separate incidents of children being approached by drivers in white vans in Melbourne

Victoria police detectives are investigating four separate incidents in Melbourne in the last month of children being approached by drivers in white vans.

People like Mr Rogan prey on people’s vulnerabilities: they prey on fear, they prey on anxiety, they prey on all of the elements that contribute to uncertainty in society.

They entrepreneur fantasy outcomes and conspiracy outcomes as being a normal part of social narrative – I personally find it deeply repulsive.

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On the Grenadian island of Carriacou, even the dead are now climate victims

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As ICJ hears landmark climate case, Grenada’s PM says vulnerable nations expect a long, hard fight for aid

It’s a macabre picture: tombs, headstones and wreaths, lovingly selected by family members, floating into the oblivion of the ocean, and with them the remains of loved ones uprooted from their final resting place. Some are dragged back to land, washed up on beaches on the Grenadian island of Carriacou, transforming the beautiful Caribbean shoreline into a chaotic graveyard.

This disturbing reality, says Grenada’s prime minister, Dickon Mitchell, is a poignant example of the gravity of the climate crisis and its impact on his country.

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Australia news live: Allan defends Victoria after it’s named worst state for business; Burke to meet Indonesian minister over Bali Nine

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The Victorian premier has defended the state’s business credentials saying there’s key data missing from the Business Council of Australia’s report. Follow today’s news headlines live

Weather check shows mixed conditions forecast across Australian cities

It’s a mixed, if warm, bag in capital cities today, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting storms in Melbourne, sunny skies in Brisbane and Adelaide and showers across all other major cities.

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Ad campaign comparing Peter Dutton to Donald Trump sees Climate 200’s donations surge by $380,000

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Organisation asked supporters if they ‘want to feel different on our election night’ in an ad with half of Trump’s face and half of Dutton’s

Climate 200 has reported a surge in first-time donors in November off the back of a donation-matching campaign comparing the Coalition and Peter Dutton to the politics of Donald Trump.

The funding aggregator claims to have raised $377,000 from 3,900 donations including 1,373 people who donated to it for the first time, the biggest wave of first-time supporters since it was launched in 2021.

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Greenland split over benefits of tourism as territory opens to the world

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Direct flights from the US to Nuuk expected to double next year but there are concerns about the expected influx

The capital’s new airport has been opened, two more are in the making, and expectations are high: the Americans are coming to Greenland.

On Thursday, the first ever international flight into Nuuk, the most populous settlement on the autonomous Danish territory, landed to cheers on the ground and in the cabin of Air Greenland flight GL781 where passengers were served miniature bottles of Nicolas Feuillatte champagne.

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Top UN court to begin hearings on landmark climate change case

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ICJ to hear submissions from more than 100 groups in Pacific-led campaign to provide an advisory opinion on states’ obligations for climate harm

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is due to begin hearings in a landmark climate change case on Monday, examining what countries worldwide are legally required to do to combat climate change and help vulnerable nations fight its devastating impact.

After years of lobbying by island nations, the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ last year for an opinion on “the obligations of States in respect of climate change.”

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New powder that captures carbon could be ‘quantum leap’ for industry

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A ‘covalent organic framework’ can be used to capture carbon to store it or convert it for industrial use

An innocuous yellow powder, created in a lab, could be a new way to combat the climate crisis by absorbing carbon from the air.

Just half a pound of the stuff may remove as much carbon dioxide as a tree can, according to early tests. Once the carbon is absorbed by the powder, it can be released into safe storage or be used in industrial processes, like carbonizing drinks.

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Mysterious mass elephant die-off ‘probably caused by toxic water’

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Satellite data analysis suggests climate-induced algal blooms could be behind hundreds of deaths in Botswana that sparked flurry of theories in 2020

More than 350 elephants that died in mysterious circumstances probably drank toxic water, according to a new paper that warns of an “alarming trend” in climate-induced poisoning.

The deaths in Botswana’s Okavango delta were described by scientists as a “conservation disaster”. Elephants of all ages were seen walking in circles before collapsing and dying. Carcasses were first spotted in north-eastern Botswana in May and June 2020, with many theories circulating about the cause of death, including cyanide poisoning or an unknown disease.

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