Category Archives: Environment

Weather tracker: South Africa flash floods kill six with people still missing

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Catastrophic rains on Christmas Eve led to key infrastructure damage in western parts of country

Catastrophic rains and flash floods in South Africa have led to at least six deaths, with more people still missing. The western parts of the country have experienced extremely unsettled weather over the last few days, with frequent spells of heavy rain.

On Christmas Eve the city of Ladysmith to the north-east of Lesotho experienced flash flooding after a sudden deluge during the evening. Amateur weather stations in the area suggested about 60mm of rain fell within an hour, while in a three-hour period there was about 80mm of rainfall. The average rainfall in Ladysmith for the whole of December is just over 100mm.

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UK students launch Barclays ‘career boycott’ over bank’s climate policies

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Campaign at leading universities such as Oxbridge and UCL warns lender it will miss out on top talent if it finances fossil fuels

Hundreds of students from leading UK universities have launched a “career boycott” of Barclays over its climate policies, warning that the bank will miss out on top talent unless it stops financing fossil fuel companies.

More than 220 students from Barclays’ top recruitment universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, and University College London have sent a letter to the high street lender, saying they will not work for Barclays and raising the alarm over its funding for oil and gas firms including Shell, TotalEnergies, Exxon and BP.

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Storms death toll rises as wild weather continues – as it happened

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Cricket begins

Day two of the Boxing Day Test between Australia and Pakistan has just started in Melbourne. You can follow the latest on our separate live blog here:

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Weather changes causing chaos for UK flora and fauna, says National Trust audit

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National Trust gave long list of species that have suffered in the past year

The disappearance of reliable seasonal patterns is causing chaos for the flora and fauna of the UK, a long-running annual audit of the impact of weather on nature has found.

Extreme weather events, from storms and pounding rain to searing heat and drought are putting huge pressure on animals, plants and the environment, the report from the National Trust says.

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Ski resorts battle for a future as snow declines in climate crisis

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International Ski Federation urged to cut emissions, while activists warn of damage through heavy use of snowmaking

After promising early dumps of snow in some areas of Europe this autumn, the pattern of recent years resumed and rain and sleet took over.

In the ski resorts of Morzine and Les Gets in the French Alps, the heavy rainfall meant that full opening of resorts was delayed until two days before Christmas, leaving the industry and the millions of tourists planning trips to stare at the sky in hope.

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Wild weather continues after stormy night – as it happened

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What’s causing the storms?

Senior meteorologist Angus Hines from the Bureau of Meteorology just spoke to ABC News about the severe thunderstorms hitting the east coast.

[It is] primarily driven by some warm humid air in the low levels of the atmosphere, which is partly contributed to by a ton of warm ocean temperatures off the east coast of Australia providing a lot of that warmth and humidity into the atmosphere.

We also have a big low pressure system higher up which just provides that extra energy and support which allows these thunderstorms do develop and grow, and as you say, they have been causing extensive disruptive weather over the last few days.

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Wild Christmas weather: woman killed, more than 100,000 homes without power after Queensland storms

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Boxing Day weather also predicted to be volatile across NSW, Victoria and Queensland, with more thunderstorms and rain forecast

A woman has died and more than 100,000 homes been left without power as a result of severe thunderstorms in south-east Queensland on Christmas night, with warnings of more bad weather to come on Boxing Day across New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

Intense storms affected all three eastern states on Monday, with more than 1,200 calls for help to state emergency services and Sydney airport recording its wettest Christmas Day on record.

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March of the red crabs: months of preparation for annual mass migration on Christmas Island

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Temporary roadside barriers set up to channel tens of millions of crabs migrating to the coastline

The welcome mat has been rolled out for scores of red crabs as they make their annual coastal dash on Christmas Island.

Each year, the first substantial rain of the wet season triggers tens of millions of adult red crabs to leave their forest homes, in the interior of the island, and march towards the coast to mate and spawn.

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Flooding Hamas tunnels with seawater risks ‘ruining basic life in Gaza’, says expert

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Senior hydrologist warns Israeli plan would constitute one element of the crime of genocide

A potential plan by Israel to flood the Hamas tunnel network with seawater risks “ruining the basic conditions for life in Gaza”, one of the elements of the crime of genocide, a senior hydrologist has told the Guardian.

Environmental experts have warned the strategy – which Israel has yet to commit to – risks causing an ecological catastrophe that will leave Gaza with no drinkable water and devastate what little agriculture is possible in the 141 sq mile territory.

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Keir Starmer considers scaling back Labour’s £28bn green plans

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Insiders fear further watering down of party’s flagship economic policy could leave leader open to charges of ‘flip-flopping’ by Tories

Labour is considering scaling back ambitious plans to borrow £28bn a year to invest in green jobs and industry amid fears the Conservatives will use the policy as a central line of attack in the general election campaign.

The Guardian understands that Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves will discuss the party’s flagship economic policy next month, with senior Labour figures pushing to drop the £28bn commitment entirely while others want to retain key elements of the plan.

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‘It feels very fun and freeing’: US sees ebike boom after years of false starts

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Sales surge as cities and states look to cut pollution from cars and improve options for Americans to get around

After several years of false starts, electric bikes are finally entering the American mainstream, amid booming sales of a multiplying number of models on offer and as more states offer incentives for people to ditch their cars and shift to two, motor-assisted, wheels.

This year could be considered “the year of the ebike”, according to John MacArthur, a transport researcher at Portland State University. Ebike sales in the United States leaped by 269% between 2019 and 2022, with the market size expected to have grown further in 2023, to be worth $2.59bn.

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Sales of electric vehicles surge as fast-charging sites double across Australia in a year

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EVs made up just 2% of new car sales in May 2022, but now 8.3% of new car sales in 2023 are battery powered

The climate change minister, Chris Bowen, has welcomed a boom in electric vehicle sales, revealing the number of fast-charging sites has nearly doubled in the last year.

National strategies on electric vehicles are expected to more than double the number of charger stations again within three years, as the federal government seeks to incentivise the use of cleaner cars. New fuel efficiency standards, expected to be outlined in early 2024, are likely to further discourage the sale of higher-emitting vehicles, making electric cars more attractive.

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Weather tracker: Nor’easter drenches US south-east coast

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Up to 127mm of rain falls on Florida and gusty winds and flash flooding hit parts of Georgia and South Carolina

Last weekend, a low-pressure system that had developed over the Gulf of Mexico tracked north-east across the Florida peninsula. Lashings of heavy rain and strong winds were brought to Florida during the early hours of Sunday morning, dumping up to 127mm (5in) of rain on the state in its passing.

The low-pressure system, termed a “nor’easter”, continued to track north-east, strengthening and bringing gusty winds and flash flooding to the coastal parts of the south-east US, including Georgia and South Carolina.

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Queensland to ban new oil and gas drilling in Lake Eyre basin rivers and floodplains

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Steven Miles has delivered on two of the environment movement’s most pressing concerns within a week of being sworn-in as premier

The Queensland government will ban new oil and gas developments in the Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre basin’s rivers and floodplains – belatedly delivering on a nine-year-old election commitment to reinstate protections for the state’s pristine channel country.

The state’s premier, Steven Miles, will on Friday announce new environmental regulations for the basin, which is among the world’s last unaltered river systems.

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Rainwater tank testing near NSW’s Cadia gold mine finds unsafe levels of mercury

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Further testing should be done to reduce the risk of local tank water being contaminated by mercury, expert says

An independent study of rainwater tanks near the Cadia goldmine in central west New South Wales has detected unsafe levels of mercury in some residents’ drinking water, nine months after widespread water testing conducted by NSW Health found no unsafe results.

The results come from an independent testing program conducted by Dr Ian Wright through the Cadia Community Sustainability Network (CCSN), which took water samples from kitchen taps and the top and bottom of rainwater tanks at 42 properties near the mine, between August and November 2023.

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Pakistan uses artificial rain in attempt to cut pollution levels

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Cloud seeding improves air quality in city of Lahore but experts say practice is not a sustainable solution

Artificial rain has been used in an attempt to lower pollution levels in Lahore, Pakistan.

The capital city of the eastern province of Punjab, near the Indian border, has some of the worst air quality in the world and has become extremely polluted because of a growing population of more than 13 million people.

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Australia news live: only 54.3% of Virgin flights and 66.3% of Qantas flights on time last month, transport minister says

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‘Very disappointing results, it is no wonder that so many Australians remain fed up with our major airlines,’ Catherine King says. Follow today’s news updates live

‘Very, very clear’ renewables are the cheapest form of energy, Bowen says

Renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy, including its storage and transmission costs, the energy minister told ABC RN.

Its conclusions this year are unimpeachable and very, very clear.

The cheapest form of energy is renewable energy, even including the costs that go with renewable energy around storage and transmission.

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Solar and on-shore wind provide cheapest electricity and nuclear most expensive, CSIRO analysis shows

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Estimates show small modular nuclear reactors would provide most expensive power and will not be available until 2030

Electricity generated by solar and on-shore wind is the cheapest in Australia, even after the significant expense of integrating them into the power grid is factored in, according to new analysis from the CSIRO.

Estimates of costs to build small modular nuclear reactors – a technology supported by the Coalition but not expected to be commercially available until at least 2030 – have risen dramatically and would provide the most expensive power, according to the draft GenCost report.

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Wolf hunting could return to western Europe under EU plan

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Commission’s proposal to downgrade animal’s ‘strictly protected’ status not based on scientific evidence, say conservationists

Wolves could be hunted again across western Europe after the European Commission proposed to reduce their protection, in what lawyers said was an ominous move against effective environmental laws.

The commission has proposed that EU member states downgrade the wolf’s status under the Berne convention from “strictly protected” to “protected” after two decades in which the species has returned to many countries from which it has been extinct for decades, including Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark.

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Would you drink toilet water? California approves wastewater for human consumption

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Regulators approve rules to let agencies recycle wastewater into drinking water for homes, schools and businesses

When a toilet is flushed in California, the water can end up in a lot of places: an ice-skating rink in Ontario, ski slopes around Lake Tahoe, farmland in the central valley.

And – coming soon – kitchen faucets.

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