A new record set so soon after the previous record of 17.5C in March 2015 is a sign warming in Antarctica is happening much faster than global average
Antarctica has logged its hottest temperature on record, with an Argentinian research station thermometer reading 18.3C, beating the previous record by 0.8C.
The reading, taken at Esperanza on the northern tip of the continent’s peninsula, beats Antarctica’s previous record of 17.5C, set in March 2015.
Continue reading...Gradual phaseout will begin in March as part of government plan to outlaw all single-use bags by 2021
Tunisia has announced plans to stop its supermarkets and pharmacies from using single-use plastic bags from next month before phasing them out completely in 2021.
Plastic pollution has been a growing problem in the north African country in recent years, along with the challenges presented by its ancient industrial plants and barely managed household waste.
Continue reading...Populations disappearing in areas where temperatures are getting hotter, scientists say
Bumblebees are in drastic decline across Europe and North America owing to hotter and more frequent extremes in temperatures, scientists say.
A study suggests the likelihood of a bumblebee population surviving in any given place has declined by 30% in the course of a single human generation. The researchers say the rates of decline appear to be “consistent with a mass extinction”.
Continue reading...Officials claim there are no tigers in Goa. But the poisoning of a mother and three cubs has forced the issue into the open
As a child living in the Vagheri hills at the foot of the Western Ghats, Rajendra Kerkar would often hear the majestic roar of tigers echo across the mountains. It was never greeted with fear by the villagers in this remote corner of northern Goa; the name Vagheri translates as “home of the tigers” and coexistence with India’s national animal was part of their way of life.
Yet according to state authorities, these tigers do not exist; or if they do, they are just passing through. Unlike other states in India, where the presence of tigers has been celebrated, embraced and in many cases exploited for tourism, Goa’s tigers have instead been subjected to a strange charade, whereby their existence has repeatedly been denied or covered up by those in government.
Continue reading...Watchdog reveals huge sum ploughed into ‘world’s dirtiest fossil fuels’ despite climate vow
UK taxpayer funds totalling $750m (£577m) have been invested in new fossil fuel projects in developing African countries despite the government’s public commitment to tackling the climate crisis, according to an international watchdog.
Global Witness found that a London-based investment group raised $1bn from the UK government over 16 years and spent three-quarters of this supporting oil and gas projects in some of Africa’s poorest countries.
Continue reading...Federal court of appeals in a 3-0 decision rejected four challenges from First Nations to government’s approval of the project
Canada’s federal court of appeal has dismissed legal objections to the contentious Trans Mountain pipeline expansion that would nearly triple the flow of oil from the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific coast.
In a 3-0 decision, the court rejected four challenges from First Nations in British Columbia to the federal government’s approval of the project.
Continue reading...PM reaffirms 2050 net-zero pledge but provides few details on how it will be achieved
Boris Johnson has set out his vision for forging a new global consensus on the climate crisis promising “we will crack it”, though providing few details on how his government intends to do so.
The prime minister has brought forward the UK’s phaseout of diesel and petrol vehicles by five years to 2035, and hastened the phaseout of coal-fired power by a year to 2024. He reaffirmed the UK’s pledge to switch to a net-zero emissions economy by 2050, and urged other nations – without naming any – to do the same.
Continue reading...The popular HBO series about the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster has led to a surge in tourists to the site and nearby town of Pripyat
Continue reading...Victorian environment minister ‘appalled’ by allegations and her department is investigating
Investigators at the scene of a “koala massacre” at a cleared gum tree plantation in Victoria say the number of animals killed is likely to rise above 40 as they make their way through 10 kilometres of felled timber.
A major incident response has been set up at the site, on private land near Cape Bridgewater, with koalas being treated by vets for starvation and broken bones.
Continue reading...Firms may cut prices on plug-in electric hybrids to escape new EU emissions fines
Carmakers are bracing for a hybrid electric car price war this year as they try to avoid steep EU fines for carbon dioxide emissions.
Related: 2020 set to be year of the electric car, say industry analysts
Continue reading...Thirty tortoises partially descended from extinct species found, including one of same species as famed individual
Conservationists working around the largest volcano on the Galápagos Islands say they have found 30 giant tortoises partially descended from two extinct species, including that of the famed Lonesome George.
The Galápagos national park and Galápagos Conservancy said one young female had a direct line of descent from the Chelonoidis abingdonii species of Pinta island. The last of those tortoises was Lonesome George, who died in June 2012 and was believed to be more than 100 years old.
Continue reading...In the 90s, an inspirational teacher and his students uncovered corruption and illegal dumping in their backyard. Nearly 30 years on, is Middletown still at risk?
In the summer of 1991, Middletown high school, roughly 70 miles north of Manhattan in New York’s verdant Orange County, acquired a handful of video cameras. The goal was to train the school’s teenage students in film-making and media production, using local subjects as a starting point – perhaps a documentary about the city’s sports teams or an amateur talkshow. Instead, under the tutelage of Middletown high’s popular English teacher, Fred Isseks, a rowdy and diverse group of teenagers organised themselves into an investigative journalism unit.
Officially, Isseks’ class was open only to the school’s oldest students, aged 16 to 18 – but, unofficially, it welcomed everyone. Kids not even enrolled in the course joined Isseks’ students in shooting short films. The teenagers alternated between grungy early-90s flannel and choker necklaces and awkward attempts at business attire as they honed their reporting skills. They invited local representatives into the school’s new media studio for a political debate, and covered topics such as the city’s curfew for teens. One former student joked to me that the class became a surreal mix of “rap videos and corrupt politicians”.
Continue reading...A Mexican environmental activist who fought to protect the wintering grounds of the monarch butterfly has been found dead in the western state of Michoacán, two weeks after he disappeared.
Homero Gómez González, a former logger who managed El Rosario butterfly reserve, vanished on 13 January. His body was found floating in a well on Wednesday, reportedly showing signs of torture.
Continue reading...Agriculture and forestry union says up to 90% of saplings they have looked at so far have died
Up to 90% of the millions of saplings planted in Turkey as part of a record-breaking mass planting project may have died after just a few months, according to the country’s agriculture and forestry trade union.
On 11 November last year, which the government declared National Forestation Day, 11 million trees were planted by volunteers in more than 2,000 sites across the country, including by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the parliament Speaker, Mustafa Şentop.
Continue reading...Climate activist also applied to register name of climate movement Fridays for Future
The climate activist Greta Thunberg has said she has applied to register her name and that of the Fridays For Future movement she founded in 2018, which has gone global and catapulted her to international fame.
The move would allow legal action against persons or companies trying to use her name which are not in line with her values or that of her movement, she said.
Continue reading...Exclusive: attempts to tackle crisis fail because gender issues are not addressed, report finds
Climate breakdown and the global crisis of environmental degradation are increasing violence against women and girls, while gender-based exploitation is in turn hampering our ability to tackle the crises, a major report has concluded.
Attempts to repair environmental degradation and adapt to climate breakdown, particularly in poorer countries, are failing, and resources are being wasted because they do not take gender inequality and the effects on women and girls into account.
Continue reading...Move follows efforts to reduce carbon footprint and increase reporting on climate crisis
The Guardian will no longer accept advertising from oil and gas companies, becoming the first major global news organisation to institute an outright ban on taking money from companies that extract fossil fuels.
The move, which follows efforts to reduce the company’s carbon footprint and increase reporting on the climate emergency, was announced on Wednesday and will be implemented with immediate effect. The ban will apply to any business primarily involved in extracting fossil fuels, including many of the world’s largest polluters.
Continue reading...Climate emergency is fuelling drought, food poverty and disaster in the global south but humanitarian crises under-reported
The African continent is a “blind spot” for coverage of the humanitarian crises that are being fuelled by the climate emergency, according to a new analysis [pdf].
Madagascar’s chronic food crisis, where 2.6 million people were affected by drought in 2019, came top of the list of 10 of the most under-reported crises last year, Care International’s annual survey found.
Continue reading...Country was among first to declare climate emergency but health and housing take priority at ballot box
Ireland had seemed poised for its first climate-centric general election, with concern about carbon emissions and species extinction expected to shape the battle for votes on 8 February.
Last year, after all, Ireland became only the second country in the world to declare a climate and biodiversity emergency. “Great news from Ireland!! Who is next?” Greta Thunberg tweeted at the time.
Continue reading...Minister disappointed that New South Wales did not submit Murray-Darling basin resource plans
The federal government is withholding millions of dollars from the New South Wales government for failing to complete water resource plans for the Murray-Darling basin.
In a letter to the state’s water minister, Melinda Pavey, the federal water resources minister, David Littleproud, raised concerns the 20 plans had not been submitted.
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