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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Ecologists urge people to monitor for platypuses in their area after indications of a ‘severe decline’ in Ipswich
There are fears that platypus populations might have been wiped out by recent floods in greater Brisbane, sparking new calls for the species to be nationally recognised as a threatened.
While the platypus is endangered in South Australia and was listed as vulnerable in Victoria last year, the iconic monotreme is not officially considered threatened in Queensland and New South Wales.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Janildo Oliveira Guajajara had recently taken part in an Amazon assembly organised by murdered Indigenous specialist Bruno Pereira
A rainforest activist from one of Brazil’s leading Indigenous protection groups has been killed just weeks after participating in an Amazon assembly organised by the murdered Indigenous specialist Bruno Pereira.
Janildo Oliveira Guajajara, a member of the Guardiões da Floresta (Forest Guardians) collective, was reportedly shot dead in the early hours of Saturday near the Araribóia Indigenous territory where he lived.
Continue reading...Last two working plants were due to be mothballed, but will be used as emergency reserve into 2023 after Russia cuts off gas
Germany is to temporarily halt the phasing-out of two nuclear power plants in an effort to shore up energy security after Russia cut supplies of gas to Europe’s largest economy.
The economy minister, Robert Habeck, announced on Monday that the power plants, Neckarwestheim in Baden Württemberg and Isar 2 in Bavaria, are to be kept running longer than planned in order to be used as an emergency reserve until the middle of next year.
Continue reading...Lake Manchar on verge of causing more flooding, says local official, as third of country already underwater
Pakistan’s biggest lake is on the verge of bursting its banks after attempts by authorities to drain it in a controlled way failed, a senior local official has warned.
In a last-ditch effort to avoid a catastrophe, officials breached Lake Manchar on Sunday, a move they acknowledged could displace up to 100,000 people from their homes but would also save densely populated areas from floods.
Continue reading...The new PM has not set out plans for reducing energy waste; instead she has talked of more oil and gas
Liz Truss faces a daunting array of environmental crises, from energy supply to sewage spills on British beaches, with little to show that she has the inclination to take them on.
Ben Goldsmith, the chair of the Conservative Environment Network, and a longtime green Tory who was a strong supporter of Boris Johnson, said of the UK’s new prime minister and her defeated rival: “Neither Truss nor Sunak has been known for their passion for nature. Neither has made a name for themselves as an environmental leader.”
Continue reading...Experts and environmentalists say aquifer feeding Doñana national park, a Unesco heritage site, has been overexploited for tourism and to water fruit farms
The largest permanent lake in Spain’s Doñana national park, one of Europe’s biggest and most important wetlands, has shrivelled to a small puddle as years of drought and overexploitation take their toll on the aquifer that feeds the area and sustains millions of migrating birds.
On Monday, experts from Spain’s National Research Council (CSIC) said the Santa Olalla lake, which sits in a Unesco world heritage site, had dried up for the third time in 50 years.
Continue reading...Swathes of rainforest have reached tipping point, research by scientists and Indigenous organisations concludes
Environmental destruction in parts of the Amazon is so complete that swathes of the rainforest have reached tipping point and might never be able to recover, a major study carried out by scientists and Indigenous organisations has found.
“The tipping point is not a future scenario but rather a stage already present in some areas of the region,” the report concludes. “Brazil and Bolivia concentrate 90% of all combined deforestation and degradation. As a result, savannization is already taking place in both countries.”
Continue reading...World is ‘in last minute of the 11th hour to save lives’, says aid chief, amid fears that crisis is worse than 2010 famine, when 250,000 died
Two areas of Somalia are likely to enter a state of famine later this year as the country battles an unrelenting drought and flare-ups of conflict, the UN humanitarian chief has warned.
Martin Griffiths said the latest UN food insecurity analysis had found “concrete indications” that famine would occur in the Baidoa and Burhakaba districts of south-central Somalia between October and December unless aid efforts were significantly stepped up.
Continue reading...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”.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Anthony Albanese insists stage-three tax cuts worth $243bn will go ahead
There has been a lot of talk around the incoming (July 2024) stage-three tax cuts given they will cost the budget $243bn over 10 years (at this point); overwhelmingly benefit men earning over $180,000; and destroy Australia’s progressive tax system (everyone earning between $40,000 and $200,000 will pay the same tax rate).
You make a choice about what you do, your initiatives and the initiatives we are making are positive ones that will make a difference to people, including our childcare policy.
It’s really important that our payments keep up with inflation. That’s why they’re indexed twice a year, and every little bit helps. This indexation will be particularly big this month, because inflation is particularly challenging.
And we know that it won’t solve every problem for everybody, but it’s important that we try and make sure that those payments keep up. That’s what the indexation is about. It will be welcome even as we acknowledge that times will still be tough for a lot of people.
I’ve been really upfront with people before the election, during the election and after the election. I’ve said to you many times over the last six months or so that it would be too expensive to continue that petrol price relief indefinitely. I think Australians understand that we’ve inherited a budget which is heaving with a trillion dollars in Liberal party debt, and that means some difficult decisions including this one.
Continue reading...Conservationists call on government to reconsider project near Darwin after 100-plus birds were spotted in bushland marked for clearing
The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, is being urged to intervene to save a population of endangered Gouldian finches threatened by a defence development in the Northern Territory.
The first stage of clearing has begun to allow a defence housing development in savannah woodlands at Lee Point, in Darwin’s north, having been approved in 2019.
Continue reading...Precariousness of water system remains before services are fully restored after infrastructure failure, Chokwe Antar Lumumba says
The mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, where 150,000 people are still without safe drinking water after an infrastructure failure, said on Sunday residents face a “much longer road ahead” before services are fully restored in the majority Black city.
Speaking to ABC’s This Week, Chokwe Antar Lumumba said there had been improvements, with water pressure restored to a majority of residents.
Continue reading...Up to 100,000 people will be displaced from homes by Lake Manchar after waters reached dangerous levels
Authorities in flood-hit Pakistan have breached the country’s largest freshwater lake, displacing up to 100,000 people from their homes but saving more densely populated areas from gathering flood water, a minister said.
Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in Pakistan’s northern mountains have brought floods that have affected 33 million people and killed at least 1,290, including 453 children. The inundation, blamed on climate breakdown, is still spreading.
Continue reading...Almost 8,000 people have so far signed a petition against the proposal which has been described as a ‘silent cull’
Critics of a proposal to remove more large crocodiles from Queensland’s populated far north coast say the move will result in a “silent cull” and could actually put more people at risk of attack.
The Queensland government said crocodile numbers had been slowly rising and it was conducting modelling to see what impact taking more animals out of the wild would have on the species.
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Continue reading...Unprecedented flooding in the country during monsoon season has left at least 1,265 people dead
Pakistan has appealed to the international community for an “immense humanitarian response” to unprecedented flooding that has left at least 1,265 people dead.
According to initial government estimates, the rain and flooding have caused $10bn (£8.7bn) in damage.
Continue reading...