Category Archives: Climate crisis

From LED bulbs to living plants: German theatre tackles climate crisis on and off stage

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With tickets doubling as public transport passes and recycled props, Hans Otto Theater is embracing a €3m federal project to make culture climate neutral

A handful of Spanish conquistadors fight through thick undergrowth to emerge in the ivy-clad ruins of a fallen civilisation during a rehearsal of Austrian playwright Thomas Köck’s Your Palaces Are Empty.

Premiered last month at the Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam, south-west of Berlin, the bleak and unforgiving drama probes the wounds of a shattered capitalist world that has exploited its people and the planet’s resources.

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Virgin Australia plane makes emergency landing – as it happened

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Ex-Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann arrives at a Toowoomba court

Bruce Lehrmann arrives at a Toowoomba court for a committal hearing into allegations he raped a woman in 2021.

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Climate 200 names nine new Coalition seats where it hopes to replicate teal wave at next election

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Exclusive: After months of speculation the fundraising giant has identified more electorates where independent campaigns meet its criteria for support

Climate 200, the fundraising giant that bankrolled the teal independent wave at the last election, has thrown its support behind independent campaigns in nine more Coalition-held seats.

After months of speculation, the group said it would support independent campaigns in the Queensland electorates of McPherson, Moncrief, Fisher and Fairfax as well as the New South Wales electorates Cowper and Bradfield, and Casey, Monash and Wannon in Victoria.

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Australia news live: Minns ‘really sorry’ final Vivid drone show cancelled with 20 minutes notice; Malinauskas welcomes ‘exciting’ panda news

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The current pair, Wang Wang and Fu Ni, will return to China this year. Follow the day’s news headlines

Labor ‘continuing to consult’ on Makarrata commission, Albanese says

Anthony Albanese says he will attend Arnhem Land’s Garma festival in August to “talk about a way forward” on Indigenous policy after the defeat of the voice referendum, keeping open the prospect of setting up a Makarrata commission to advance truth and treaty processes.

Treaty process is undergoing at the various states and that’s appropriate. With regard to Makarrata, we’re continuing to consult on those issues. said.

Indigenous leaders, of course, were very disappointed by the referendum result. I’ll attend Garma once again this year and sit down with people and talk about a way forward.

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Germany’s top climate envoy says ‘this is the critical decade’ after Dutton ditches 2030 target

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Representative from Europe’s biggest economy and key player in global climate talks says deep emissions cuts by 2030 ‘essential’ to limit climate heating to 1.5C

Germany’s climate envoy has dismissed claims the Paris agreement is only about reaching net zero emissions by 2050, warning that deep cuts by 2030 are “essential” and scientific evidence shows “this is the critical decade” to act on global heating.

Australia’s opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has refused to commit to a 2030 emissions reduction target prior to the next national election, prompting claims from Labor, the Greens and independents that the Coalition isn’t serious about acting on the climate crisis.

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Australia news live: person ‘likely’ with dementia made call to police before 92-year-old allegedly assaulted by police, Karen Webb says

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Follow the day’s news live

Chalmers asked about findings that jobseekers unable to afford ‘basics of life’

The treasurer Jim Chalmers was up on ABC News Breakfast just earlier, asked about new Anglicare data showing Australians on income support are “structurally unable to afford the basics of life”.

This is the primary motivation for the substantial cost of living relief that we’re providing in the budget. Whether it is the tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer, energy bill relief for every household, help with student debt and cheaper medicines, plus the increases to jobseeker – which were in the budget before last – all of these are important ways that we can not just understand and acknowledge the pressures that people are under, but actually respond to them.

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Swiss lawmakers reject climate ruling in favour of female climate elders

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Co-president of the KlimaSeniorinnen says declaration is betrayal of older women

Swiss politicians have rejected a landmark climate ruling from the European court of human rights, raising fears that other polluting countries may follow suit.

A panel of Strasbourg judges ruled in April that Switzerland had violated the human rights of older women through weak climate policies that leave them more vulnerable to heatwaves. Activists hailed the judgment as a breakthrough because it leaves all members of the Council of Europe exposed to legal challenges for sluggish efforts to clean up carbon-intensive economies.

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Acropolis closed during hottest hours as earliest-ever heatwave of year hits Greece

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Temperatures expected to reach 43C in Athens and across country, prompting school closures and health warnings

The Acropolis, Greece’s most visited tourist site, was closed to the public during the hottest hours of Wednesday as the season’s earliest-ever heatwave swept the country, prompting school closures and health warnings.

The culture ministry had said the Unesco-listed archaeological site in Athens would close from midday to 5pm (09.00 to 14.00 GMT), with temperatures expected to reach 43C (109F) on Wednesday and Thursday.

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Australia’s power and gas companies want Coalition to retain Labor’s 2030 climate target

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Coal and gas-fired power plant owners say interim target an important step to net zero by 2050

The owners of Australian coal and gas-fired power plants have joined the country’s leading business groups in saying the Coalition should keep Labor’s 2030 climate target if it wins the next election.

The Australian Energy Council, which represents electricity companies and gas wholesalers and retailers, the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Industry Group said maintaining an interim target – legislated as a 43% cut compared with 2005 levels – was an important step in getting to net zero emissions by mid-century.

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Australia news live: Dutton suggests Coalition won’t provide 2030 emissions target before election5; Qld state budget announcement today

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Opposition leader says Coalition will ‘make our announcements in relation to our targets in due course’. Follow today’s news headlines live

Murray Watt says the opposition has “started the new climate wars” after Barnaby Joyce and Keith Pitt, two senior Nationals, called for Australia to pull out of the Paris agreement. You can read more on this from Karen Middleton below:

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, Watt said:

We’re back to the same old climate wars in the Coalition. I saw overnight that [Joyce and Pitt] openly called for the Coalition to pull out of the Paris agreement. They’ve spent the last couple of days trying to paper over the cracks in the Coalition, saying that they can withdraw the target without withdrawing from the agreement. Now it’s out there in the open for everyone to see. And you can set your clock by Barnaby Joyce causing new climate wars within the Coalition. It’s seem like we’re back to the bad old days.

We’re on track to get to 42%, which is only 1% short of the 43% target.

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Trump vows to ‘drill, baby, drill’ despite rally attendees wilting in extreme heat

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Supporters hospitalized following rallies in Las Vegas and Phoenix, where temperatures have broken records

Dozens of Donald Trump’s supporters have been requiring medical help at his rallies in the scorching US south-west but it seems lost on him that his plans to reverse climate policies and “drill, baby, drill” for fossil fuels will only worsen extreme weather, campaigners say.

A total of 24 people at a Trump rally in Las Vegas on Sunday required medical attention due to the heat, according to the Clark county fire department, with six taken to hospital for treatment. The hospitalizations come after a further 11 people needed to be admitted to hospital for heat exhaustion as they waited for Trump to speak at a rally in Phoenix on Thursday.

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Barnaby Joyce and Keith Pitt call on Coalition to abandon Paris agreement as Albanese says Dutton ‘all negativity and no plan’

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Former Nationals leader says ‘aspirations have to take a secondary position to the economic reality’ after Peter Dutton said he would oppose government’s targets

Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce and Morrison cabinet colleague Keith Pitt have called for the Coalition to abandon the Paris global climate change agreement and related emissions reduction targets, as the prime minister accused opposition leader Peter Dutton of walking away from climate action.

Dutton has said he would oppose the government’s target of a 43% cut to 2005-level emissions by 2030, telling the Australian newspaper there was “no sense in signing up to targets you don’t have any prospect of achieving”.

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‘We may not have snow’: Australian ski season opens with a whimper

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Mt Buller had the country’s only ski-on chairlift operating on season’s opening day on Saturday – but snow is forecast for the week ahead

It was a grassy start to Australia’s ski season, with one resort trying to remain upbeat “although we may not have snow on the ground” and a few pockets of human-made alternatives to play on elsewhere.

Mt Buller, in Victoria, was blessed with the only ski-on chairlift in the entire country on the opening day of the winter season on Saturday.

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Peter Dutton accused of trying to ‘rip up’ Australia’s commitment to Paris climate agreement

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Opposition leader reportedly told News Corp he would oppose the legislated 2030 emissions target – a 43% cut compared with 2005 levels – at the next election

Peter Dutton has been accused of planning to break Australia’s commitment to the landmark Paris climate agreement after he said he would reject the country’s 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target.

The opposition leader reportedly told the Weekend Australian that he would oppose the legislated 2030 emissions target – a 43% cut compared with 2005 levels – at the next election but remain committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

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More intense, frequent tropical cyclones may devastate seabird colonies – study

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Up to 90% ‘lost in the blink of an eye’, say scientists studying Cyclone Ilsa’s effect on birds on Western Australian island

Increased tropical cyclones due to global heating could lead to dramatic declines in seabird populations, according to a new study.

Scientists found that after Cyclone Ilsa – a category-5 tropical cyclone – hit Bedout Island in Western Australia in April 2023, several seabird populations experienced a collapse of 80-90% due to the storm at the internationally important breeding site.

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Nine independent MPs and Greens back UN call for Australia to ban fossil fuel advertising

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‘The industry is rapidly strangling our planet,’ says Andrew Wilkie, who joins Allegra Spender, Sophie Scamps, Zali Steggall and Monique Ryan in call for ban

At least nine independent MPs and the Greens have backed the UN secretary general’s call for the Australian government to ban fossil fuel advertising and for media companies to stop accepting money to promote coal, oil and gas companies.

Many described fossil fuel advertising as greenwashing that damaged the climate, the environment and people’s health, and compared its use to steps taken by “big tobacco” before cigarette advertising was banned in 1992.

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Phoenix turns to ice-filled body bags to treat heatstroke as US south-west bakes

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Technique known as cold-water immersion adopted by Phoenix hospitals after county saw 645 heat-related deaths last year

The season’s first heatwave is already baking the south-west with triple-digit temperatures as firefighters in Phoenix – America’s hottest big city – employ new tactics in hopes of saving more lives in a county that saw 645 heat-related deaths last year.

Starting this season, the Phoenix fire department is immersing heatstroke victims in ice on the way to area hospitals. The medical technique, known as cold-water immersion, is familiar to marathon runners and military service members and has also recently been adopted by Phoenix hospitals as a go-to protocol, according to fire captain John Prato.

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‘Godfathers of climate chaos’: UN chief urges global fossil-fuel advertising ban

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António Guterres warns of ‘climate crunch time’ and announces dire new scientific warnings of global heating

Fossil-fuel companies are the “godfathers of climate chaos” and should be banned in every country from advertising akin to restrictions on big tobacco, the secretary general of the United Nations has said while delivering dire new scientific warnings of global heating.

In a major speech in New York on Wednesday, António Guterres called on news and tech media to stop enabling “planetary destruction” by taking fossil-fuel advertising money while warning the world faces “climate crunch time” in its faltering attempts to stem the crisis.

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As global heating cuts Australia’s snowfall ski season may go downhill, report warns

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‘The webcams do not lie,’ says Annalisa Koeman, whose family has been operating a mountain lodge for decades

Bookings have been slow ahead of the ski season at the mountain lodge in Thredbo that Annalisa Koeman’s parents built in the 1960s and have run ever since.

Last ski season started with some good snow falls “but it went downhill from there. It was a disastrous end. The ski lifts closed two weeks early,” says Koeman, managing supervisor at Kasees Apartments and Mountain Lodge.

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Improving energy supply in Pakistan could save 175,000 lives, says Unicef

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As a heatwave sweeps the country increasing demand for power, a new report says a more resilient network could also contribute $300m to the economy

A study by the UN children’s agency has found that developing resilient energy systems to keep the power on in health facilities in Pakistan could prevent more than 175,000 deaths in the country by 2030.

The study comes as Pakistan is experiencing a blistering heatwave that has overstretched an already poor healthcare system. Last week, temperatures in various parts of the country reached highs of 49C (120F), causing a huge demand for power.

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