Category Archives: Climate crisis

UK ‘built for climate that no longer exists’ and needs urgent changes to survive global heating, report warns

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Landmark report calls for widespread air conditioning and says UK temperatures forecast to exceed 40C by 2050

British homes will need air conditioning to survive predicted levels of global heating, the government’s climate advisers have warned in a report, as measures such as drawing curtains, opening windows and growing trees for shade are not likely to be enough.

Air conditioning should be installed in all care homes and hospitals within the next 10 years, and in all schools within 25 years, according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which published a major report on adapting to the impacts of global heating on Wednesday.

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‘Foolish’ CSIRO job cuts will mean Australia unable to provide climate projections to global reports, scientists warn

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Exclusive: Science agency is planning to sack a third of the team working on the national climate model, sources say

Job cuts at the national science agency mean Australia will no longer be able to submit climate projections to form part of global reports and will have significantly reduced ability to forecast future damage to the country, leading researchers have warned.

Multiple sources told Guardian Australia that CSIRO planned to sack a third of the team working on the national climate model that provides projections relied on by governments, councils, industry and farmers as they plan for the future.

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Experts sound alarm as North America’s bees start swarm season unusually early

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After record losses last year, beekeepers report a warm winter has led to bees ‘waking up earlier’ this year

After a series of record-breaking US heatwaves, the 2026 bee swarm season in North America has started 17 days earlier than last year, pushing beekeepers to adapt to a rapidly shifting season while raising new questions about how honeybees are responding to the climate crisis.

According to a new report published by Swarmed, a tracking network of more than 10,000 beekeepers, focused on safe and ethical honeybee relocation, this year’s unusually early swarm season follows several years of record colony declines worldwide.

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Maldives diver dies in operation to recover bodies of Italians from cave

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Mohamed Mahudhee suffered decompression sickness after searching for scuba divers in Vaavu Atoll and died in hospital

A Maldivian military diver has died during a high-risk operation to recover the bodies of four of the Italian scuba divers who drowned while exploring a deep underwater cave in the Maldives.

The diver suffered underwater decompression sickness after searching for the bodies of the Italians who, according to Italy’s foreign ministry, had “apparently died while attempting to explore caves at a depth of 50 metres (164ft)”.

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Watchdog groups urge Senate to investigate Samuel Alito over oil stock conflicts

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Groups say supreme court justice, who owns oil stocks, may be violating ethics codes by participating in certain cases

The supreme court justice Samuel Alito, who owns stock in oil companies, may be violating court ethics codes by participating in certain cases that could benefit big oil, government watchdog groups say.

In a Thursday letter, a coalition of watchdog organizations called on the Senate judiciary committee to investigate Alito, the sole supreme court justice with holdings in energy companies.

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Gullah Geechee people set out to keep their family land. Unclear titles and surging taxes are pushing them out

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Property disputes, predatory developers and surging sea levels are putting the historic Black community at risk

On Arthur Champen’s half-acre property in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, a thicket of southern live oaks, palmettos and pine trees muffle the roar of cars on nearby highway 278. His haint blue house, lightened by the sun, sits on stilts to protect it from flooding that comes with the high tide. During the spring, it is common for the marshland adjacent to his land to turn into a muddy soup. “Other than the cars,” Champen, 81, said, “you hear how peaceful it is?”

About a decade ago, Champen’s family nearly lost the grassy marshland next door that their family bought several generations ago.

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Airline emissions in Europe top pre-Covid levels despite pledge to decarbonise

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Promises to cut emissions and use more fuel-efficient planes fail to stop rise, with Ryanair’s carbon footprint 50% up on 2019

Emissions from flying in Europe have now passed pre-pandemic levels, with Ryanair’s carbon footprint 50% higher than in 2019, research has shown.

Total aviation emissions continue to increase despite industry pledges to decarbonise and the introduction of more fuel-efficient planes, driven by the massive expansion of low-cost carriers.

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Alaska’s 2025 mega tsunami highlights risk to cruise lines as glaciers retreat

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Researchers say 481-metre wave in fjord was triggered by rockslide linked to climate crisis

A mega tsunami in Alaska last year in a fjord visited by cruise ships is a stark warning of the risks of coastal rockslides and glacier retreat fueled by the climate crisis, a new study warns.

Scientists recorded the world’s second-tallest tsunami after it struck the Tracy Arm fjord in south-east Alaska last August after a massive rockslide around the toe of a glacier. The tsunami reached 481 metres (1,578ft) in height; by comparison the Eiffel Tower is 330 metres (1082ft).

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Fema employees who criticized Trump cuts reinstated after months on leave

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Workers wrote ‘Katrina declaration’, warning that funding cuts made US dangerously unprepared for natural disasters

Fourteen employees with the US Federal Emergency Management Agency returned to work this week, after spending eight months on administrative leave for signing a public letter criticising the Trump administration.

The so-called “Katrina declaration”, sent last August to members of Congress and a federal council formed to help determine Fema’s future, was written as a rebuke from the workers about the dangerous erosion in US capacity to prepare for and respond to natural disasters.

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Australia’s south-east set for drier and hotter winter as BoM forecasts potential El Niño

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Queensland and NSW set for lower than usual rainfall in May, June and July, while temperatures in most of the country likely to be higher than normal

Large parts of south-east Australia look set for drier and hotter conditions over the next three months as a potential El Niño weather phenomenon takes shape in the Pacific Ocean.

Much of Queensland and New South Wales are forecast to have lower than usual rainfall in May, June and July, with almost the entire country likely to experience hotter than average maximum temperatures.

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Officials hugely underestimated impact of AI datacentres on UK carbon emissions

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Revised figures increase fears about how the energy-intensive sites could worsen the climate emergency

The UK government vastly underestimated the climate impact of artificial intelligence, it has emerged, after officials raised their estimate of carbon emissions from the technology by a factor of more than 100.

According to new data quietly published this week, energy use by AI datacentres in the UK could cause the emission of up to 123m tonnes of carbon dioxide (MtCO₂) – about as much as generated by 2.7 million people – over the next 10 years.

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Tokyo workers encouraged to wear shorts to cut energy costs and keep cool

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Officials hope more casual attire for public servants will save electricity during Iran war as summer heat approaches

Public servants working for the Tokyo metropolitan government are being encouraged to swap their suits for shorts this summer to combat sweltering heat and rising energy costs caused by the US-Israel war on Iran.

Inspired by Japan’s Cool Biz energy-saving initiative, Tokyo officials hope the measure will cut dependence on air conditioning.

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Heatwaves, floods and wildfires pose rising threat to democracy, report finds

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Research shows natural hazards linked to climate crisis disrupted 23 elections in 18 countries in 2024

Democracy is under mounting threat from the climate crisis, with new analysis documenting how elections are increasingly shaped not only by political forces but also by floods, wildfires and extreme weather.

At least 94 elections and referendums across 52 countries have been disrupted by climate-related impacts over the last two decades, researchers found.

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Australia’s coalmine emissions are increasing. Is this how a major policy to cut climate pollution is meant to work?

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The Albanese government overhauled policy and promised significant pollution cuts – but carbon offsets are still being used as an excuse

Is this how a national scheme to cut climate pollution is supposed to work?

Australian government data released this week shows emissions from Australian coalmines increased last financial year. About 80% of the coalmines pumped more into the atmosphere than their government-imposed limit.

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Bitten by snakes 200 times – on purpose: US man’s quest to help deliver new antivenom

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Tim Friede put his ‘ass on the line’ to help stop snakebite deaths – whose numbers appear to be rising amid the climate crisis

As we overheat and degrade our planet, more people are set to come into contact, sometimes fatally, with venomous snakes. One man hopes to provide an unusual solution to this, after subjecting himself to 200 intentional snakebites to his body.

For nearly 20 years, Tim Friede, 58, allowed some of the most lethal snakes in the world to bite him so he could build up an immunity that could one day be developed into a universal antivenom.

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World held hostage by reliance on fossil fuels, Christiana Figueres warns – and climate health impacts are ‘mother of all injustices’

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Exclusive: Former UN climate chief to co-chair Lancet Commission examining how sea-level rise is reshaping health, wellbeing and inequality

Countries are being “held hostage” by their reliance on fossil fuels, a former UN climate chief has warned, describing the health impacts of climate change as “the mother of all injustices”.

Christiana Figueres, an international climate negotiator who helped deliver the Paris agreement signed in 2016, made the comments as she was announced on Wednesday as co-chair of a Lancet Commission examining how sea-level rise is reshaping health, wellbeing and inequality.

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Using AI to speed up Australia’s environmental approvals risks ‘robodebt-style’ failures, scientists say

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Conservationists say move could push species closer to extinction and clearer environmental rules are needed instead

Conservationists and scientists have warned a mining lobby proposal to use artificial intelligence to speed up national environmental approvals could generate “robodebt-style” failures, putting threatened species at further risk.

The Minerals Council of Australia has asked the government to spend $13m to trial the use of AI to help companies prepare applications and help the federal government make decisions.

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Australia’s superb fairywren could be extinct within decades due to climate crisis, researchers say

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Scientists tracked bird population in Canberra’s botanic gardens and found climate impacts starting to affect them

A common and well-loved bird of bush and garden could go extinct within 30-40 years due to the weather impacts of climate change, researchers say.

Data derived from nearly 30 years of weekly observations tracked the lives of superb fairy wrens in Canberra’s botanic gardens, noting the changing weather’s impacts on them.

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Australia urged to swap diesel for electric buses as fuel costs soar

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Electric buses are just 1% of the Australian fleet compared with 80% in urban China, a quarter in the Netherlands and 12% in the UK

As diesel climbs past $3 a litre amid fuel security concerns, transport advocates are calling for the rollout of electric buses across Australia to be prioritised.

In Australia, just 1% of buses are electric, compared with 80% of the urban fleet in China, a quarter in the Netherlands and 12% in the UK.

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5m tonnes of CO2 emitted in just 14 days of US war on Iran, analysis finds

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Exclusive: War in the Middle East is draining the global carbon budget faster than 84 countries combined

The US-Israel war on Iran is a disaster for the climate, according to an analysis that finds it is draining the global carbon budget faster than 84 countries combined.

As warplanes, drones and missiles kill thousands of people, level infrastructure and turn the Middle East into a gigantic environmental sacrifice zone, the first analysis of the climate cost has found the conflict led to 5m tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in its first 14 days.

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