Experts fear for health of corals and other marine life as about 1m sq km of ocean experience prolonged elevated temperatures
A marine heatwave has broken out along more than 2,000km of the Queensland coast, raising concerns for the health of corals on the Great Barrier Reef and other ocean life.
Satellite data managed by the US National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) shows the heatwave started to emerge at the end of June.
Continue reading...Gavin Schmidt of Goddard Institute for Space Studies warns of likelihood of new high as heatwave bakes large parts of planet
July will likely be Earth’s hottest month in hundreds if not thousands of years, Gavin Schmidt, the director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told reporters on Thursday, as a persistent heatwave baked swaths of the US south.
Schmidt made the announcement during a meeting at Nasa’s Washington headquarters that convened agency climate experts and other leaders, including Nasa administrator Bill Nelson and chief scientist and senior climate adviser Kate Calvin.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: How countries have responded to record-breaking temperatures – and what it will take to change minds and policy
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Good morning.
When the temperature in Sicily is approaching 50C, you know something is wrong.
New Zealand | Two people died and six people were injured after a shooting at a building site in Auckland city centre, hours before the Women’s World Cup is due to start. The gunman was also dead. New Zealand’s PM, Chris Hipkins, said the World Cup would proceed as planned.
Politics | Almost 200,000 families living under Labour-run councils are affected by the two-child benefit cap, a Guardian analysis has revealed. Keir Starmer’s decision not to scrap the policy if Labour wins power has led to attacks from anti-poverty campaigners and disquiet from senior figures in the party.
Health | MPs have urged the government to introduce restrictions on the packaging and marketing of disposable vapes to tackle the “alarming trend” of children using these addictive products. The health and social care committee said there should be restrictions on how e-cigarettes are sold, in line with those applied to tobacco products.
Slavery | Caribbean countries are considering approaching the UN’s international court of justice for a legal opinion on demanding compensation from 10 European countries over slavery, as the fight for reparative justice is stepped up. Ralph Gonsalves, the current leader of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, said he is also looking for an apology from the British government and expressed disappointment in Rishi Sunak’s lack of engagement in the matter.
Strikes | A strike by train staff in the RMT union will severely affect rail services across Britain in the next week. About 20,000 RMT members at 14 train operators will strike for 24 hours on Thursday and again on Saturday, coinciding with the end of a week-long overtime ban by train drivers in the Aslef union. The 10 days of transport disruption will coincide with the peak summer holiday getaway weekend.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed. To read our latest news on the extreme weather gripping the world, click the links below
Here are some more images from the wires of the wildfires that swept through forestland and towns north-west of Athens for a second day. The fires forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 children close to a Greek seaside resort.
Tourists flocked to China’s scenic Flaming Mountains to experience searing high temperatures amid punishing heatwaves that have scorched much of the northern hemisphere.
Continue reading...Wind output reached record levels in June in the national electricity market, the Australian Energy Regulator said
Eastern Australia’s wholesale power prices increased in the June quarter, although they remained well below the level reached during the energy crisis a year earlier, the Australian Energy Regulator has said.
New South Wales posted the highest spot pricing with an average of $148 a megawatt-hour, up from just over $100/MWh during the first three months of the year. During last winter’s energy squeeze, prices averaged about $320/MWh.
Continue reading...Package includes projects to extract minerals, electrify bus fleets and help protect Amazon rainforest
EU leaders in Brussels have announced €45bn (£39bn) in investments to Latin America and the Caribbean, some of which will speed the shift to clean energy, but made little headway thawing a frozen trade deal that critics say will further degrade the Amazon rainforest.
The EU-Celac summit, the first of its kind since 2015, aimed to bring the EU closer to Latin American and Caribbean countries. Disagreements over how to refer to the war in Ukraine in the final text soured negotiations.
Continue reading...At least 97% of the blood samples contained a type of PFAS known as PFOS, associated with multiple serious health problems
California researchers have found new evidence that several chemicals used in plastic production and a wide array of other industrial applications are commonly present in the blood of pregnant women, creating increased health risks for mothers and their babies.
The researchers said their findings add to a growing body of evidence showing that many chemicals people are routinely exposed to are leading to subtle but harmful changes in health. The work should be a “wake-up call” to policymakers, they said.
This story is co-published with the New Lede, a journalism project of the Environmental Working Group
Continue reading...Lords committee calls for creation of advisory groups to tackle the pollutants, which may increase risk of heart disease and premature death
Light and noise are “neglected pollutants” that are causing significant harm to human health and can cause premature deaths, a group of peers have said.
The science and technology committee of the House of Lords has called on ministers to do more to tackle these pollutants, which it claims are “poorly understood and poorly regulated”.
Continue reading...Flying boats dispatched as state of emergency called in Loutraki, with firefighters battling fast-moving blaze
The EU has weighed in with help to combat wildfires in Greece, dispatching four Canadair water bombers as the battle to douse blazes that have raged around Athens intensified.
Conflagrations whipped by gale-force winds left a trail of devastation, decimating pine forests, destroying homes and forcing thousands to flee as flames tore through terrain turned tinder dry by extreme heat.
Continue reading...Arizona state capital suffering from longest heatwave in 50 years; Italian hospitals see rise in urgent cases due to hot weather
More comments now ahead of that meeting between US climate envoy John Kerry and top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi, as the pair meet as part of climate talks between the two countries responsible for the highest carbon emissions – emissions that are driving the climate crisis currently causing record global temperatures, heatwaves and floods.
“President Biden is very committed to stability in the US-China relationship and also to achieve efforts together that can make significant difference to the world,” Kerry says.
Continue reading...World’s biggest olive producer, Spain, on course for second bad harvest in a row, raising fears of gaps on shelves and even higher prices
The olive oil industry is “in crisis”, with the heatwave in southern Europe threatening to inflict the second bad harvest in a row and gaps on shelves this autumn.
After a spring heatwave affected flowering in Spain, which produces about half the global olive crop, the harvest was forecast to be only 28% up on last year, which was the worst in almost a decade.
Continue reading...Reporting of climate crisis has been lousy for years, experts say, in a country where rightwing press has been dominant
Italy is sweltering in abnormally high temperatures, but its media appear to be more interested in how the extreme heat is being reported in the foreign press than delving deeply into the effects in a country deemed to be among the most vulnerable in Europe to the climate crisis.
Over the weekend, several outlets picked up on reports on Italy’s heatwave in leading foreign news websites – including the Guardian, the Times and the BBC. They were particularly fascinated by a headline in the Times calling Rome – where temperatures are forecast to reach highs of 43C on Tuesday – the “Infernal City”, a play on the nickname “Eternal City”. So much so that it was still a talking point come Monday.
Continue reading...Officials issue air quality advisories across US and with nearly 900 forest fires – many of them ‘out of control’ – burning to the north
As they did last month, wildfires in Canada are again expected to spread increased air pollution to the US this week, as millions in the country are under air quality advisories.
About 70 million people could be under air quality alerts as wildfire smoke from western Canada spreads to parts of the northern US and as far south as Alabama, CNN reported.
Continue reading...‘Radically different’ partnership aims to construct more than a million solar panels to power electrolysers
A unique partnership between three traditional owner groups and a major clean energy investor is promising to establish a $3bn green hydrogen project in the far north of Western Australia.
In what could be one of Australia’s biggest clean energy projects, more than a million solar panels will power electrolysers to produce 50,000 tonnes of green hydrogen a year.
Continue reading...John Kerry arrives in Beijing as temperature hits 52.2C in Xinjiang – where authorities tell workers and students to stay at home
A remote township in China’s western Xinjiang region has set a nationwide temperature record of 52.2C, as the US climate envoy, John Kerry, held meetings with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, in Beijing.
The temperature was reached on Sunday at Sanbao township in the Turpan Depression, the China Meteorological Administration said in a statement. It broke a previous record of 50.6C, set in July 2017, the CMA said.
Continue reading...Man in Houston died in house without air conditioning; mercury in parts of Italy is close to hitting 45C as wildfires ravage Greece and Spain
South Korean president blames botched responses for rising death toll
South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol has blamed authorities’ failure to follow disaster response rules as the death toll from days of torrential rain grew to 39, including a dozen people found dead in a submerged underpass.
Continue reading...Analysts call on government to make pumps mandatory for all new homes and scale up grants for installation in existing properties
The UK is lagging far behind France and other EU countries in installing heat pumps, research has shown, with less than a tenth of the number of installations despite having similar markets.
Only 55,000 heat pumps were sold in the UK last year, compared with more than 620,000 in France. Twenty other European countries also had higher installation rates than the UK.
Continue reading...But Dale Vince’s Ecojet plane will run on kerosene-based fuel in 2024 to enable quick start to project
The green energy tycoon Dale Vince is planning to launch Britain’s first electric airline in a move designed to prove polluting industries can decarbonise.
Ecojet, styled as a “flag carrier for green Britain”, will launch early next year with a 19-seater plane travelling on a route between Edinburgh and Southampton.
Continue reading...South-west and parts of the west hardest hit amid warnings to ‘take heat seriously’ as Phoenix temperature to rise to 118F Sunday
More than 100 million people, around a third of Americans, were under extreme heat advisories this weekend and that record-breaking heat was expected to continue into the new week.
There were advisories from coast to coast, with the south-west and parts of the west hard hit and officials warning that conditions could get worse in Arizona, California and Nevada.
Continue reading...Dedication of the 3-mile loop to Winston Walker comes after a push to make national parks more inclusive
As a nature loving little girl, Jessica Newton never understood why the faces on information boards in the state and national parks she visited looked nothing like her.
“My parents would take me to these places and the platforms would tell you about a trail, or a person, but I’d never see anyone that looks remotely close to my color,” she said.
Continue reading...