Category Archives: Climate crisis

Extreme hunger soaring in world’s climate hotspots, says Oxfam

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Charity says 19 million people facing starvation in report highlighting link with extreme weather

Extreme hunger is closely linked to the climate crisis, with many areas of the world most affected by extreme weather experiencing severe food shortages, research has shown.

The development charity Oxfam examined 10 of the world’s worst climate hotspots, afflicted by drought, floods, severe storms and other extreme weather, and found their rates of extreme hunger had more than doubled in the past six years.

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Pakistan floods ‘made up to 50% worse by global heating’

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Study says climate crisis likely to have significantly increased rainfall and made future floods more likely

The intense rainfall that has caused devastating floods across Pakistan was made worse by global heating, which has also made future floods more likely, scientists have found.

Climate change could have increased the most intense rainfall over a short period in the worst affected areas by about 50%, according to a study by an international team of climate scientists.

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Campaigners call for climate crisis global day of action during Cop27

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Groups urge action during the talks in Egypt to demand climate justice for Africa and the global south

Civil society groups around the world are calling for a global day of action on the climate catastrophe, to urge governments to cut greenhouse gas emissions and shift to a low-carbon economy.

The day of action will take place on Saturday 12 November, at the mid-point of the Cop27 UN climate talks, which run from 6 to 18 November in Sharm el-Sheikh, hosted by the Egyptian government.

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Patagonia’s billionaire owner gives away company to fight climate crisis

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Founder Yvon Chouinard announced that all the company’s profits will go into saving the planet

Setting a new example in environmental corporate leadership, the billionaire owner of Patagonia is giving the entire company away to fight the Earth’s climate devastation, he announced on Wednesday.

Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, who turned his passion for rock climbing into one of the world’s most successful sportswear brands, is giving the entire company to a uniquely structured trust and nonprofit, designed to pump all of the company’s profits into saving the planet.

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BoM forecasts wetter-than-average summer for eastern states – as it happened

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Hearing that house prices are going down but looking around and seeing they are still astronomical?

Grogs explains why – yup, house prices are falling, but they are coming from eye-watering heights.

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Australia is funding just one-tenth of its fair share of global climate action, study finds

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Wealthy high-polluting countries to face growing calls from poorer nations to help cover cost of extreme weather and sea level rises

Australia is being urged to increase its investment in climate action, with a new report estimating the country is funding just one-tenth of its fair share globally.

The study being released by Oxfam and ActionAid Australia on Thursday calls on Australia to immediately increase its climate finance commitments to $3bn ahead of the UN climate meeting Cop27 to be held in Egypt in November.

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UN chief views ‘unimaginable’ damage in visit to Pakistan’s flood-hit areas

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António Guterres calls for ‘massive financial support’ in wake of disaster that has killed at least 1,391 people

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has visited several areas of Pakistan ravaged by floods, as he rounded off a two-day trip aimed at raising awareness of the disaster.

Record monsoon rains and glacier melt in the country’s northern mountains have triggered floods that have killed at least 1,391 people, sweeping away houses, roads, railway tracks, bridges, livestock and crops.

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UN chief appeals for ‘massive’ help as flood-hit Pakistan puts losses at $30bn

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Countries most responsible for climate crisis must ‘end war with nature’, says António Guterres

The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, has said the world owes impoverished Pakistan “massive” help in recovering from the summer’s devastating floods because the country bears less blame than many others for the climate crisis.

Months of heavy monsoon rains and flooding have killed 1,391 people and affected 33 million while half a million people have become homeless. Planeloads of aid from the United States, the United Arab Emirates and other countries have begun arriving, but Guterres said there is more to be done to help a country which contributes less than 1% of global emissions.

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‘A new way of life’: the Marxist, post-capitalist, green manifesto captivating Japan

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Kohei Saito’s book Capital in the Anthropocene has become an unlikely hit among young people and is about to be translated into English

The climate crisis will spiral out of control unless the world applies “emergency brakes” to capitalism and devises a “new way of living”, according to a Japanese academic whose book on Marxism and the environment has become a surprise bestseller.

The message from Kohei Saito, an associate professor at Tokyo University, is simple: capitalism’s demand for unlimited profits is destroying the planet and only “degrowth” can repair the damage by slowing down social production and sharing wealth.

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‘A revolution is coming’: Pakistani artist says floods must be catalyst for change

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Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, grandson of Pakistan’s hanged reforming prime minister, saw devastation and desperation after recent floods

A Pakistani artist whose work centres on the Indus River delta, its wildlife and the climate crisis has told of his return to his home village and seeing the devastation its swollen waters had brought.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who is named after his grandfather, the former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, said he met people fearful for what the future may bring and heard the sound of houses collapsing into the water.

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NSW becomes first state to treat carbon dioxide as pollutant to ensure industries cut emissions

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Environment Protection Authority’s climate policy plans to reclassify greenhouse gas and offer incentives to transition from fossil fuels

New South Wales will be the first state in Australia to start treating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as pollutants, which will eventually require polluters to develop plans to cut emissions.

The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) on Thursday launched an eight-week consultation period for its draft climate change policy and related action plan. It marks the first step to require that polluters are on a trajectory towards net zero emissions by 2050.

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Tory MP begins ‘net zero tour’ of UK to highlight benefits of action

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Chris Skidmore urges new PM to ignore ‘tiny vocal minority in Westminster’ arguing against climate target

Top green Conservative Chris Skidmore is to embark on a net zero tour to show that “normal people are getting on with” decarbonisation, and urge the new prime minister to ignore the “Westminster bubble” that is pouring scorn on the climate target.

Skidmore, a former energy minister, will on Thursday visit green schemes across north-west England, including a home insulation demonstration in Salford and a peat restoration project in Oldham.

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China reports ‘most severe’ heatwave and third driest summer on record

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Average temperature in August was 1.2C higher than norm, which caused widespread drought

China recorded its highest temperatures and one of its lowest levels of rainfall in 61 years during a two-month summer heatwave that caused forest fires, damaged crops and hit power supplies, the national meteorological agency said.

The average national temperature in August, 22.4C, was 1.2C higher than the seasonal norm, while average rainfall fell 23% to 82mm, the third lowest since records began in 1961, according to Xiao Chan, the vice-director of China’s national meteorological administration.

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Cost of living and climate are higher global priorities than Ukraine, poll finds

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But there remains strong support in many countries for Russian military withdrawal from Ukraine, survey finds

The cost of living is ranked by most voters globally as a more important issue than liberating Ukraine from Russian occupation, but there is still strong support for a Russian military withdrawal, according to a survey showing global preoccupations.

Majorities in 16 of the 22 largest countries believe Russia should leave the territory it has occupied in Ukraine, the survey shows. The polling in 22 countries of more than 21,000 citizens also underlines the extent to which the global south is less engaged with the war in Ukraine than Europeans.

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Dutch city becomes world’s first to ban meat adverts in public

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Haarlem’s move is part of efforts to cut consumption after meat was found to contribute to climate crisis

A Dutch city will become the first in the world to ban meat adverts from public spaces in an effort to reduce consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Haarlem, which lies to the west of Amsterdam and has a population of about 160,000, will enact the prohibition from 2024 after meat was added to a list of products deemed to contribute to the climate crisis.

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US farmers face plague of pests as global heating raises soil temperatures

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Milder winters could threaten crop yields as plant-eating insects spread northwards and become more voracious, researchers say

Agricultural pests that devour key food crops are advancing northwards in the US and becoming more widespread as the climate hots up, new research warns.

The corn earworm (Helicoverpa zea) is considered to be among the most common farm pests in the US, ravaging crops such as maize, cotton, soya and other vegetables. It spends winter underground and is not known to survive in states beyond a latitude of 40 degrees north (which runs from northern California through the midwest to New Jersey), but that is changing as soils warm and it spreads to new areas, according to research led by North Carolina State University.

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Australia politics live: RBA interest rates decision due; climate bill to pass Senate with Pocock amendments

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Labor’s signature climate change legislation will pass the Senate with some minor changes

Delayed rate pain

While the interest rate increases are hitting those already on variable rates, those who are on fixed rates which are about to expire are going to feel a lot of pain, when their repayments jump to include the cumulative increase all at once.

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Flash flood watch under way for 80m in eastern US as heatwaves broil west

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Western Georgia sees ‘one-in-1,000-year rainfall event’ as homes and businesses flood

More than 80 million people in the eastern US were under flash flood watches late on Monday, marking still more extreme weather in a country reeling from record heatwaves in some regions, as the US increasingly feels the effects of the climate crisis.

In Georgia, the threat of torrential downpours became a reality Sunday afternoon, spurring a flash flood emergency in western portions of the state, CNN reported.

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Anthony Albanese promises resources sector ‘orderly’ reduction in emissions

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Labor is under pressure on climate policy from Greens who propose ban on high-carbon projects

Anthony Albanese has promised to work with the resources sector to “reduce emissions in a predictable and orderly way” as Labor comes under increased pressure from the Greens to ban emissions intensive projects.

Albanese made the comment to the minerals industry parliamentary dinner on Monday, suggesting the “cooperation and dialogue” Labor achieved at the two-day jobs and skills summit “should be the rule” not a “48-hour exception”.

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Heatwave in North America threatens to break global September temperature record

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Temperatures nearing record of 52.2C set in Mecca, California, in 1950


Western areas of North America are continuing to suffer a significant heatwave that is threatening to break the highest global September temperature record. The global record in September is 52.2C (126F), in 1950 in Mecca, California. On 1 September this year, temperatures at Furnace Creek in Death Valley reached a scorching 51.3C (124.4F), less than a degree off the all-time record.

In the following days, several Canadian provinces’ September records were broken, including Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia. On 2 September Lytton in British Columbia reached 39.6C (103F), only 0.4C off the September record for all of Canada. Records in many other cities also fell on 2 and 3 September. The remainder of this week will stay anomalously hot, about 10C above average, with a continued threat of records falling but the heat is expected to move away eastwards later this week.

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