Category Archives: Climate crisis

‘Missing half the equation’: scientists criticise Australia over approach to fossil fuels

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Prof Lesley Hughes and others says there is ‘cognitive dissonance’ between Labor’s stated commitment to the climate crisis and its policies

The Australian government is “missing half the equation” in acting on the climate crisis by backing a shift to renewable energy but having no plan to get out of fossil fuels, according to an author of a new scientific review.

Prof Lesley Hughes is a leading climate change scientist and member of the independent Climate Council and government advisory body the Climate Change Authority. Hughes said there is a “cognitive dissonance” between Labor’s stated commitment to addressing the problem and the pace at which it is moving.

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Global heating made Greece and Libya floods more likely, study says

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Report says climate change made rainfall heavier but human factors turned extreme weather into humanitarian disaster

Carbon pollution led to heavier rains and stronger floods in Greece and Libya this month but other human factors were responsible for “turning the extreme weather into a humanitarian disaster”, scientists have said.

Global heating made the levels of rainfall that devastated the Mediterranean in early September up to 50 times more likely in Libya and up to 10 times more likely in Greece, according to a study from World Weather Attribution that used established methods but had not yet been peer-reviewed.

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Climate action must respond to extreme weather driving health crisis, says WHO

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Melting ice caps and rising sea levels are urgent but people care more about the floods, wildfires and droughts that are here now, New York summit hears

Floods, wildfires, drought and the onslaught of extreme weather are driving a global health crisis that must be put at the centre of climate action, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

“The climate crisis is a health crisis; it drives extreme weather and is taking lives around the world,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO, said. “Melting ice caps and rising sea levels are, of course, crucial issues, but for most people they are distant threats in both time and place. The threats of our changing climate are right here and right now.”

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European governments shrinking railways in favour of road-building, report finds

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Rail networks in most countries have been starved of funding while motorways lengthen, study shows

European governments have “systematically” shrunk their railways and starved them of funding while pouring money into expanding their road network, a report has found.

The length of motorways in Europe grew 60% between 1995 and 2020 while railways shrank 6.5%, according to research from the German thinktanks Wuppertal Institute and T3 Transportation. For every €1 governments spent building railways, they spent €1.6 building roads.

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Climate activists block Federal Reserve bank, calling for end to fossil fuel funding

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Action came as world leaders begin arriving in New York for the UN general assembly and after Sunday’s march to end fossil fuels

One day after the largest climate march since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, hundreds of climate activists blockaded the Federal Reserve Bank in New York to call for an end to funding for coal, oil and gas, with police making scores of arrests.

“Fossil fuel companies … wouldn’t be able to operate without money, and that money is coming primarily from Wall Street,” Alicé Nascimento, environmental campaigns director at New York Communities for Change, said hours before she was arrested.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tells climate marchers to be ‘too big and too radical to ignore’ – live

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Demonstration falls days before the United Nations climate ambition summit, at which Joe Biden is expected to be a no-show

Actor and climate activist Susan Sarandon opened her speech by congratulating the students of New York University on the news of their university divesting from fossil fuels after years of pressure, as the Guardian first reported last week.

Addressing the crowd, she said, “You guys give me hope,” adding: “What we have to do is take responsibility and press those that are at the top to finally step up.”

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Key ‘Bidenomics’ architect calls for spending ‘race to the top’ on green tech

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Biden adviser Heather Boushey urges UK and Europe to increase climate friendly investment to reboot growth

Governments around the world must drastically increase public investment in green technologies to combat global heating and drive sustainable economic growth, a top adviser to President Joe Biden has said.

Heather Boushey, a member of the White House council of economic advisers, said countries including the UK needed to ramp up green investment to reboot economic growth, boost energy security, and protect against future inflation shocks.

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AOC to headline rally at New York climate march ahead of UN summit

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March on Sunday will cap a week of more than 650 global actions and is expected to be the largest US climate march in five years

A climate protest and rally headlined by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday are expected to bring thousands of activists to the streets of New York.

Under the banner March to End Fossil Fuels, protesters will push the Biden administration to take bold steps to phase out fossil fuels. The demonstration will fall days before the United Nations Climate Ambition Summit, which the UN secretary general, António Guterres, has described as a “no nonsense” conference meant to highlight new climate commitments.

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‘Towns were erased’: Libyan reporters on the ‘horrifying, harrowing’ aftermath of floods

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Journalists who reported on last week’s catastrophic storm say the country’s bloody political tussle has contributed to the collapse of services

Early last week, Mohamed Eljabo travelled to the eastern provinces of Libya, passing through Derna, Al Bayda and Sousa, and what he saw he describes as “shock beyond comprehension”.

“I have visited these cities before and I know them well,” he says. “I expected to find these cities when I made the journey from Tripoli. I expected to see the neighbourhoods and towns. But these were gone. Erased. It was horrifying.”

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Opposition leader accused of being ‘chief propagandist’ – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

All eyes will be on the high court from about 10am, when it hands down its decision on whether Qantas illegally sacked its ground staff three years ago. The TWU brought the case and Qantas has appealed it all the way to the high court.

You can read some of the previous reporting here:

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‘Disastrous beyond comprehension’: 10,000 missing after Libya floods

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Neighbourhoods washed away in port city of Derna, where two dams burst, with many bodies swept out to sea

The situation in Derna, the Libyan port city where two dams burst over the weekend, has been described as “disastrous beyond comprehension”, as the Red Cross and local officials said at least 10,000 people were missing after the devastating floods.

The confirmed death toll has exceeded 5,300, Mohammed Abu-Lamousha, a spokesperson for the administration that controls the east of Libya told a state-run news agency late on Tuesday. Tariq al-Kharraz, another representative of the eastern government, said that entire neighbourhoods had been washed away, with many bodies swept out to sea.

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Climate crisis: Africa is talking but is the west listening?

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Africa’s largest meeting on the crisis finished last week amid arguments over ‘false solutions’ and unfulfilled promises. But will the lofty ideals presented translate into better lives for Africans?

More than a dozen African leaders stood outside Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi last Wednesday to review what had been billed as the continent’s largest meeting on the climate crisis.

Earlier that morning, the Nairobi Declaration had been adopted as a blueprint to guide the continent in future negotiations with the west in global forums such as the G20 meeting; the UN general assembly; the annual meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund; and Cop28.

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Greek PM under attack over handling of Storm Daniel disaster response

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Kyriakos Mitsotakis faces biggest crisis yet as residents ask where money for ‘immediate’ flood relief has gone

The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is facing his biggest crisis yet as – less than a week after rainstorms left vast tracts of the country’s heartlands under water – his government has come under attack for its handling of the disaster that left 15 dead.

Health experts have described conditions in the flood-stricken Thessaly region – one of Greece’s richest agricultural areas – as ripe for the spread of infectious diseases after a summer of unprecedented heat-induced forest fires.

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UK’s net zero ambitions at risk after ‘disastrous’ offshore wind auction

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Industry figures and the TUC warn of missed carbon reduction targets and lost jobs unless government boosts green investment

Fears are growing that existing offshore wind projects could be shelved, after industry insiders warned that “disastrous” handling by the government had created a big shortfall in future renewable energy.

Ministers revealed last week that no additional offshore windfarms will go ahead in the UK after the latest government auction. No bids were made in the auction, after the government ignored warnings that offshore schemes were no longer economically viable under the current system.

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Barnaby Joyce-backed push to strike net zero emissions target from Nationals policy fails

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Amended motion calls on party to ‘take a practical approach to lowering carbon emissions as a substantive move to nuclear power is made’

A Barnaby Joyce-backed push to strip net zero from the Nationals’ policy platform has effectively been defeated as the former leader’s shadow cabinet position is brought into question.

Joyce backed a motion to strip net zero emissions by 2050 from the party platform at its national conference in Canberra on Saturday.

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Rishi Sunak tells G20: UK will resist ‘hair shirt’ policies on net zero pledge

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The prime minister suggested to the summit that he wanted to limit the impact of green measures on British consumers

Read more: Rishi who? Sunak slips down pecking order in scramble to court India

Rishi Sunak has said he will resist “hair shirt” policies designed to reduce carbon emissions and achieve Britain’s net zero pledge, amid an intensifying Tory row over the party’s commitment to tackling the climate crisis.

Tensions have been growing within the party all summer over its green policies, with some cabinet figures and the right of the party calling for a rethink on measures such as the phasing out of gas boilers and the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. The prime minister has also backed “maxing out” oil and gas reserves.

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Hundreds of people rescued from flooded villages in Greece

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Officials say many people are still trapped in central areas of the country hit by Storm Daniel

Firefighters backed by the army have rescued hundreds of people from villages in central Greece cut off by floods that have claimed at least 10 lives.

“More than 2,850 people have been rescued since the beginning of the bad weather,” Yannis Artopios, a fire department spokesperson told the broadcaster Mega on Saturday.

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NHS website records 552% surge in heat exhaustion queries

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Figures from NHS England reveal people seeking heat-related health advice as temperatures surpass 32C

Hot weather has led to a 552% increase in people seeking heat exhaustion advice from the NHS website this week, figures show.

There were 32,130 visits to the health advice page on heat exhaustion and heatstroke from Sunday to Thursday this week, according to figures released by NHS England, which runs the NHS website.

Consume plenty of cold drinks, especially when exercising.

Take cool baths or showers.

Wear light-coloured, loose clothing.

Sprinkle water over skin or clothes.

Avoid the sun between 11am and 3pm.

Avoid excess alcohol.

Avoid extreme exercise.

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Rescue efforts stepped up after deadly floods in central Greece

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Greek PM tours crisis-hit area amid fears death toll could rise as water levels continue to rise in some places

Helicopters and lifeboats have been deployed to rescue hundreds of villagers stranded by flood waters in central Greece after rainstorms left at least 10 people dead.

Touring the crisis-hit area of Thessaly, 185 miles north of Athens, Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, vowed to do “whatever is humanly possibly” to assist residents in areas deluged by torrential rain that also hit neighbouring Bulgaria and Turkey. A total of 22 people have died across the three countries since Tuesday.

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Deadly humid heatwaves to spread rapidly as climate warms – study

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Small rise in global temperatures would affect hundreds of millions of people and could cause a sharp rise in deaths

Life-threatening periods of high heat and humidity will spread rapidly across the world with only a small increase in global temperatures, a study has found, which could cause a sharp acceleration in the number of deaths resulting from the climate crisis.

The extremes, which can be fatal to healthy people within six hours, could affect hundreds of millions of people unused to such conditions. As a result, heat deaths could rise quickly unless serious efforts to prepare populations were undertaken urgently, the researcher said.

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