Category Archives: Climate crisis

Heat deaths in Europe may triple by end of the century, study finds

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Countries in south most at risk, with rise likely to outstrip fall in cold-related deaths if global heating hits 3C or 4C

Heat deaths in Europe could triple by the end of the century, with the numbers rising disproportionately in southern European countries such as Italy, Greece and Spain, a study has found.

Cold kills more people than heat in Europe, and some have argued that climate change will benefit society by reducing those deaths. But the study, published in the Lancet Public Health, found that the death toll would respond slowly to warming weather and may even rise through people growing older and more vulnerable to dangerous temperatures.

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Climate crisis fuelled storm that sank yacht in Sicily, say experts

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Record sea temperatures in the Mediterranean contributed to waterspout that hit Bayesian

Record temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea this summer contributed to the freak storm that sank a superyacht off the coast of Sicily, with similar extreme events expected to increase in frequency and intensity as the climate crisis tightens its grip, Italian scientists have said.

One person is confirmed to have died and rescuers are searching for six missing people, including the British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, after the 56-metre Bayesian capsized in the early hours of Monday.

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London City airport expansion given green light by ministers

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Climate campaigners criticise decision to allow capacity to increase from 6.5m to 9m passengers a year

Ministers have approved London City airport’s application to expand, in a decision that has disappointed climate campaigners.

The airport submitted a proposal to increase capacity from 6.5 million to 9 million passengers a year by putting on more weekend and early morning flights. Local campaigners and Newham council opposed the move, arguing the air and noise pollution would affect people living nearby and that it could potentially increase carbon emissions.

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North Carolina beach house collapses dramatically into sea

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National Park Service says collapse is seventh in Rodanthe in four years and warns of dangerous debris on beach

The home on a beach of North Carolina’s Outer Banks leaned against the surf before the pilings below it sagged, then gave way, toppling the entire structure into the sea.

A beachgoer posted video of the collapse on Instagram on 16 August. “A Rodanthe NC house was consumed by the ocean right in front of me!” the caption read.

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Hurricane Ernesto pummels Bermuda with 35ft waves and high winds

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Category 1 hurricane described as ‘rare event’ in area as officials warn of severe flooding and storm surges

Hurricane Ernesto walloped Bermuda with winds reaching 85mph (137km/h) and waves exceeding 35ft (10.5 metres) offshore from the small British territory in the Atlantic Ocean, as it made landfall early on Saturday – with officials warning of potentially fatal flooding and storm surges.

The storm arrived as a category 1 hurricane after traveling over the archipelago overnight, a trajectory described as a “rare event” by the Weather Channel. It is uncommon for the eye of tropical cyclones to pass directly over these islands, per the network.

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London City airport: 54% of journeys take under six hours by train, data shows

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Exclusive: Most popular routes can be reached quickly by train, as government mulls expansion proposal

More than half of the journeys taken from London City airport last year can be reached in six hours or less by train, data reveals.

The Labour government is preparing to make the final call on the airport’s application to significantly increase its passenger numbers. The airport wants to increase capacity from 6.5 million to 9 million passengers a year by putting on more weekend and early morning flights.

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Chair of Nuclear for Australia denies that calling CO2 ‘plant food’ means he is a climate denier

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Dr Adi Paterson’s statements are apparently at odds with the group’s official position, which says nuclear is needed to tackle the climate crisis

The chair of a leading Australian nuclear advocacy group has called concerns that carbon dioxide emissions are driving a climate crisis an “irrational fear of a trace gas which is plant food” and has rejected links between worsening extreme weather and global heating.

Several statements from Dr Adi Paterson, reviewed by the Guardian, appear at odds with statements from the group he chairs, Nuclear for Australia, which is hosting a petition saying nuclear is needed to tackle an “energy and climate crisis”.

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‘The new reality’: Athens wildfire victims vow to adapt and stay put

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People say they are determined and that prevention will be key to mitigating the effects of the climate crisis

“I used to talk to them every day.” Dimitris Petrou takes in the creatures that were once his fluffy chicks but now look like coals. The buckled cage with its carbonised birds is part of the cataclysmic scenery left behind by the fire that bore down on Athens after raging across the Attica plains consuming everything in its path.

The 72-year-old retiree and his wife, Frosso, though red-eyed and fatigued, are “somehow still going” but are profoundly shocked.

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German climate activists stop air traffic after breaking into four airport sites

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Police arrest Letzte Generation protesters who cut holes in fences and glued themselves to asphalt

Climate activists have broken into four German airport sites, briefly bringing air traffic to a halt at two of those before police made arrests.

Protesters from Letzte Generation – Germany’s equivalent to Just Stop Oil – gained access on Thursday to airfields in areas near the takeoff and landing strips of Cologne-Bonn, Nuremberg, Berlin Brandenburg and Stuttgart airports at dawn. Air traffic was suspended for a short time at Nuremberg and Cologne-Bonn due to police operations.

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Half a billion children live in areas with twice as many very hot days as in 1960s

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Unicef analysis also finds children in eight countries spend more than half the year in temperatures above 35C

Almost half a billion children are growing up in parts of the world where there are at least twice the number of extremely hot days every year compared with six decades ago, analysis by Unicef has found.

The analysis by the UN’s children’s agency examined for the first time data on changes in children’s exposure to extreme heat over the past 60 years.

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Greece takes stock of wildfires that raged through Athens suburbs

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Opposition and media turn on government as firefighters work to contain ‘scattered hotspots’

Greek authorities are continuing to battle scattered fires on the outskirts of Athens as officials take stock of the damage wreaked by a disaster that forced mass evacuations and killed at least one person.

On Tuesday, the third day of one of the worst wildfires in living memory, firefighters were helped by a drop in winds as they sought to contain the remnants of an inferno that had reached the capital’s northern suburbs and decimated homes and businesses.

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Greek minister says wildfires reduced to ‘scattered hotspots’ – as it happened

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Greece’s opposition wasted little time Tuesday lambasting prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ centre right government for what has been described as a lacklustre response to the inferno.

Stefanos Kasselakis, who heads the main opposition Syriza party, said that he had only witnessed three water-bombing aircraft in action – and not the 35 that officials had cited – when he visited the operational headquarters of the civil protection ministry.

I will say yet again that from the eruption of the fire on Sunday the time that it took to respond by air was five minutes and with fire engines seven minutes.

The reality is this: that despite the speed of the operational response – the new dogma that in combination with the technical support of drones has been enforced with the hundreds of fires confronted this summer – when extreme conditions prevail the problem becomes insurmountable.

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Tuesday briefing: How Copenhagen is helping tourists go green

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In today’s newsletter: As visitors overwhelm Venice, Barcelona and other famous cities, a model rewarding travellers for being more responsible could inspire other municipalities

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Good morning. Today we’re taking a little trip to Copenhagen to explore a new pilot initiative designed to reward tourists for “climate-friendly actions”. The CopenPay scheme has been designed to encourage visitors to act a bit more responsibly and think about their impact on the environment during trips to the Danish capital.

In return for small environmental actions – like cycling to attractions or fishing litter out of the canals – visitors have been rewarded with small gifts such as free ice-cream and museum tours.

Climate crisis | 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, research has found. Heat-related mortality was highest in Greece, with 393 deaths per million people.

Ukraine | Ukrainian forces have captured 1,000 sq km (386 square miles) of Russia’s bordering Kursk region, Kyiv’s top commander has claimed, as Vladimir Putin vowed a “worthy response” to the attack. 121,000 people have fled the region since the incursion began.

UK news | A shop security guard has described how he overpowered a knifeman as he stabbed an 11-year-old girl and her mother, 34, in a “horrific” and apparently random attack in London’s busy Leicester Square in front of shocked workers and tourists.

UK news | A “series of errors and misjudgments” in Valdo Calocane’s mental health care led to him being discharged, despite repeatedly not taking medication and showing signs of aggression, months before he killed three people in Nottingham, a report says. The Care Quality Commission warned of “systemic issues with community mental health care”.

Technology | Labour MPs have begun quitting X in alarm over the platform’s direction, with one saying Elon Musk had turned it into “a megaphone for foreign adversaries and far-right fringe groups”. Meanwhile, Donald Trump gave a rambling interview to Musk on the platform that was marred with technical issues initially preventing many users from watching the conversation.

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Greece orders evacuations near Athens as wildfires rage – Europe live

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An army of volunteers have also rushed to help extinguish raging blazes north east of Athens

AFP reports from Penteli:

Thick smoke from burning trees filled a small square in Penteli where local resident Mariana Papathanasi said they could only pray that their houses would be saved.

“There is still a strong fire. Some houses were burned after midnight and we are trying to protect our local restaurant,” the 49-year-old supermarket employee told AFP.

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Startling genome discovery in butterfly project reveals impact of climate change in Europe

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Project to study all 11,000 species of butterflies and moths finds ‘two species in the act of being created from one’

The chalkhill blue has some surprising claims to fame. For a start, it is one of the UK’s most beautiful butterflies, as can be seen as they flutter above the grasslands of southern England in summer.

Then there is their close and unusual relationship with ants. Caterpillars of Lysandra coridon – found across Europe – exude a type of honeydew that is milked by ants and provides them with energy. In return, they are given protection in cells below ground especially created for them by the ants. Chalkhill blues thrive as a result, though their numbers are now coming under threat.

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Wildfires in Brazil’s Pantanal wetland fuelled ‘by climate disruption’

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Devastation in Brazil wetlands was made at least four times more likely by fossil fuel use and deforestation, scientists say

The devastating wildfires that tore through the world’s biggest tropical wetland, Brazil’s Pantanal, in June were made at least four times more likely and 40% more intense by human-caused climate disruption, a study has found.

Charred corpses of monkeys, caimans and snakes have been left in the aftermath of the blaze, which burned 440,000 hectares (1.1m acres) and is thought to have killed millions of animals and countless more plants, insects and fungi.

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Investors push Glencore to scrap spin-off of heavily polluting coal division

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More than 95% of investors urged commodities firm to keep highly profitable fossil fuel arm to help maximise shareholder cash

Glencore has scrapped plans to spin off its coal business after shareholders urged the commodities company to hold on to the highly profitable but heavily polluting division.

The FTSE 100 company said that an overwhelming majority of its shareholders favoured retaining the coal business over its plan to list the division as a separate company on the New York stock exchange.

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UK failing to monitor apparently falling wasp populations, expert warns

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Gardeners and pest controllers say wasps, important predators and pollinators, appear to be in sharp decline

The UK is not doing enough to track wasp populations as numbers appear to plummet, a leading expert has warned.

While there were national monitoring schemes for some invertebrates, including bees and butterflies, there was no such programme in place for wasps, said Dr Gavin Broad, principal curator of wasps at the Natural History Museum.

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Weather and a changing world — not large corporations — behind downturn in Australia’s live music scene, inquiry hears

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Outgoing CEO of promoters’ body says inquiry has produced no evidence that companies have engaged in anticompetitive behaviour

Many of Australia’s live music business models are “broken and unsustainable”, a parliamentary inquiry into the crisis-hit sector heard on Tuesday.

But overseas-based companies such as Live Nation and TEG, the large tour promotion multinationals that have come under criticism during the inquiry, are not the problem, the industry’s peak body said.

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‘It made me cry’: photos taken 15 years apart show melting Swiss glaciers

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Married couple from Bristol attract awe and abuse on X with photos that show ‘staggering’ changes in the Alps

A tourist has posted “staggering” photos of himself and his wife at the same spot in the Swiss Alps almost exactly 15 years apart, in a pair of photos that highlight the speed with which global heating is melting glaciers.

Duncan Porter, a software developer from Bristol, posted photos that were taken in the same spot at the Rhône glacier in August 2009 and August 2024. The white ice that filled the background has shrunk to reveal grey rock. A once-small pool at the bottom, out of sight in the original, has turned into a vast green lake.

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