Driver, a 32-year-old man, escaped blaze in the early hours of Saturday unharmed
Two hundred sheep have been killed in a truck fire near a remote town in western New South Wales.
A truck fire broke out on the Mitchell Highway at Girilambone, north of Nyngan and 610km north-west of Sydney, about 12.50am on Saturday.
Continue reading...Hottest summer on record continues, with millions from Phoenix to Los Angeles to Seattle under heat alerts
An intense heatwave across the US west has brought unusually warm temperatures to the region – some of the highest of the season – and broken heat records.
Millions of Americans from Phoenix to Los Angeles to Seattle are under heat alerts. Even before this latest bout of extreme weather, which began on Wednesday and is expected to last through the weekend, summer 2024 was already considered the hottest summer on record.
Continue reading...Authorities in Dutch capital launch ‘Operation plant pot’, saying excessive pot placement threatens accessibility
Residents have reacted with bemusement at plans by authorities in Amsterdam to crack down on what it sees as a plague of messy plant pots.
In an approach named “Operation plant pot” by the local media, the Dutch capital’s central district is limiting residents to two pots with footprints no larger than 50cm by 50cm, made of “sustainable” material and placed against their front wall. Rogue gardens of pots in parking spots and under trees will be confiscated, according to the policy memo.
Continue reading...Cooler temperatures expected to replace record highs in Estonia, while China braces for Super Typhoon Yagi
Since the start of September, swaths of central and eastern Europe have experienced temperatures well above average, with some places up to 10C (50F) above the seasonal norm.
A date temperature record was set in Estonia on Wednesday, where it hit 29.8C in Haapsalu. The September peak in the country is 30.3C, reached on 1 September 1992.
Continue reading...Experts urge Australia not to delay target too long as report by Climate Change Authority identifies six barriers to net zero
The Australian government may delay the announcement of a 2035 climate target until after the February deadline and beyond the next election, in part due to uncertainty about the ramifications of the US presidential election.
Some big emitting countries are lagging in developing their 2035 emissions reduction targets, which under the Paris climate agreement are due before the UN climate summit in Belém, Brazil, in November next year.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Scheme helping people in England connect with nature led to better mental health, report finds
A major scheme helping people in England connect with nature led to big improvements in mental health, a report has found.
The prescribing of activities in nature to tackle mental ill health has benefited thousands of people across England, a government-backed project has shown.
Continue reading...The fresh listings bring the total number of endangered plants, animals and ecosystems to almost 2,250
Twenty more plants and animals, including a type of waratah, have been added to Australia’s list of threatened wildlife, bringing the total number of endangered species and ecosystems to almost 2,250.
The fresh listings come as the government faces a battle to pass legislation for a new national environment watchdog in the Senate, while Labor has also been under pressure from the Greens and Coalition about delays to a broader package of reforms to the country’s environment laws.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...£1.5bn auction awards record funding for new windfarms, solar farms and tidal power projects
Great Britain’s renewable energy auction has secured enough new clean electricity projects to power 11m UK homes after the Labour government made record funding available to suppliers.
The £1.5bn auction will support 131 new projects including windfarms, solar farms and tidal power projects after ministers increased the amount of funding available to seven times the sums offered last year.
Continue reading...Seabirds are in a precarious position as their breeding areas are threatened by climate breakdown and overfishing
Five seabirds have been added to the UK’s conservation red list, meaning they are at dire risk of local extinction.
The government has been urged to act as the arctic tern, Leach’s storm petrel, common gull, great skua and great black-backed gull join other seabird species such as the puffin on the list after severe population declines.
Continue reading...Fourteen hiker deaths reported in the park this season, with total fatalities at almost the annual average of 15
More than one dozen park-goers have died in Grand Canyon national park this summer, with three perishing in just over one week in August, as weather extremes linked to climate change make for increasingly dangerous conditions.
With 14 deaths reported in the park this season, total fatalities have already almost reached the annual average of 15, the Hill reported.
Continue reading...Activists and lawyers in Brazil say unexpected change is ‘a big step backwards’ in the investigation
Indigenous activists and lawyers in Brazil have voiced shock and dismay after the federal police chief leading the investigation into the murders of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips was unexpectedly removed from the case.
Francisco Badenes, an experienced investigator, had been running the inquiry into the 2022 deaths of the Brazilian Indigenous expert and the British journalist since the second half of that year.
Continue reading...State-owned company halts initiative after warnings over opening up ‘right to roam’ laws to large numbers of visitors
A Norwegian tourism campaign aimed at promoting the country as a destination for outdoor activities has been suspended after warnings that opening up the country’s “right to roam” laws to mass tourism could lead to environmental destruction.
Allemannsretten – which gives Norwegians the legal right to camp, swim, ski and walk freely in nature, regardless of who the landowner is – provides the basis of friluftslivet (outdoor life), seen as foundational to the mountainous country’s culture.
Continue reading...Heat building up in country’s centre and driving south-east is causing ‘really unusual’ heatwave that is breaking winter records
Australia’s winter runs from June to August, but swathes of the country have felt like summer the past week with temperatures topping 40C and records tumbling.
“It doesn’t matter how you slice and dice it,” said Dr Linden Ashcroft, a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne. “The temperature records have been gobsmacking.”
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Severe gusts and heavy rain leave dozens injured and more than 250,000 homes without power
Typhoon Shanshan has killed at least three people and injured about 40 as it barrels through Japan, with more than 250,000 homes left without power.
At the time of writing, 24-hour rainfall totals have reached 300-400mm across swaths of Miyazaki, in the Kyushu region. Up to 630mm of rain has been recorded at one site near Shiiba after about 500mm fell since midnight on Thursday.
Continue reading...Had fires been ranked alongside countries they would have been world’s fourth-largest emitter, study finds
Wildfires that swept Canada’s woodlands last year released more greenhouse gases than some of the largest emitting countries, a study found on Wednesday, calling into question national emissions budgets that rely on forests as carbon stores.
At 647 megatonnes, the carbon released in last year’s wildfires exceeded those of seven of the 10 largest national emitters in 2022, including Germany, Japan and Russia, the study published in the journal Nature found.
Continue reading...Absence of legally binding targets for greenhouse gas reductions from 2031-49 deemed unconstitutional
South Korea’s constitutional court has ruled that part of the country’s climate law does not conform with protecting the constitutional rights of future generations, an outcome local activists are calling a “landmark decision”.
The unanimous verdict concludes four years of legal battles and sets a significant precedent for future climate-related legal actions in the region.
Continue reading...A day after agreement was ratified at the Pacific Island Forum, the country’s climate minister says ‘root cause of climate change’ must be addressed
Tuvalu’s climate minister has declared that “opening, subsidising and exporting fossil fuels is immoral and unacceptable”, just a day after Australia ratified a climate and security deal with the low-lying Pacific nation.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, welcomed the agreement with Tuvalu on Wednesday, saying Pacific island countries were “fully aware of the commitment that we have to climate action” but gas would continue to play a role.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Research for South Western Railway finds passengers who listened to natural soundscapes reported 35% reduction in stress levels
At the end of summer even adults suffer that “back to school” feeling as they resume stressful commutes on packed trains. But instead of listening to a podcast or music, opting for a nature soundtrack of birdsong or waterfalls could be the key to a “zen” commute, according to a study.
The research, undertaken by South Western Railway (SWR) on one of its trains and analysed by Charles Spence, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, measured the impact of listening to nature soundscapes on passengers’ stress levels and relaxation.
Continue reading...Researchers warn Asia will become an increasingly dangerous place to live until fossil fuels are replaced
The “hyper-violent” Typhoon Gaemi was made fiercer and more likely to strike by the climate crisis, scientists have found. They said “Asia will become an increasingly dangerous place to live until fossil fuels are replaced”.
The typhoon hit the Philippines, Taiwan and Hunan province in China in late July, with floods and landslides destroying homes, killing at least 100 people and affecting millions. Winds reaching 145mph (233 km/h) sank two large ships, while floods in Manila were as deep as a one-storey building.
Continue reading...Glaciologist says ‘he’s totally fine’ after video of rapper tasting water goes viral and viewers warn of contamination
Chris “Ludacris” Bridges sparked concern from some social media followers when he knelt on an Alaska glacier, dipped an empty water bottle into a blue, pristine pool of water and drank it.
Video of the rapper-turned-actor tasting the glacial water and proclaiming: “Oh my God!” got millions of views on TikTok and Instagram. Some viewers expressed concern that he was endangering his life by drinking the untreated water, warning it might be contaminated with the parasite giardia.
Continue reading...