Climate

Sudan, South Sudan, Mali, Palestine and Haiti rated at level of highest concern in latest six-monthly analysis

Acute food insecurity is expected to worsen in war-stricken Sudan and nearly two dozen other countries and territories in the next six months, largely as a result of conflict and violence, an analysis by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Programme has found.

The latest edition of the twice-yearly Hunger Hotspots report, published on Thursday, provides early warnings on food crises and situations around the world where food insecurity is likely to worsen, with a focus on the most severe and deteriorating situations of acute hunger.

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The housing affordability crisis in the United States is particularly hard for renters. Nearly half of American renters—and over 56% of Black renter households—spend more than 30% of their income in rent. And throughout the country, our longstanding housing shortage and affordability crisis are coming into closer and closer contact with the climate crisis. The United States is short 7.3 million affordable rental homes for those with the lowest incomes—and this summer’s extreme weather and climate disasters have damaged or destroyed many affordable rental units, making them unavailable. The road ahead for all communities affected by fires, floods, and hurricanes this Danger Season is long.

Reducing the harm of eviction post-disaster

In the days and weeks after a disaster, the priority for all levels of government should be meeting people’s immediate needs and stabilizing communities. Households with the lowest incomes are often faced with the risk of losing housing: not only because of physical damage, but also because their livelihoods may be disrupted, making it impossible to pay rent. Some rental agreements will be cancelled after disasters because of damage to units that renders them uninhabitable. Recognizing that many may have lost their livelihoods and belongings in the disaster, in addition to being physically and mentally traumatized, it’s essential for local governments to issue a moratorium on housing evictions post-disaster. The hearing of eviction claims filed just before or after a disaster should not be considered an essential function of the court system. Given that children—particularly Black children—are the single most at-risk group for eviction, reducing the risk and harm of eviction filings now can sow the seeds for a more equitable recovery in the years ahead. 

As response turns to longer-term recovery, landlords may see financial incentives to evict their tenants. After disasters, landlords may issue rent deals or lower income requirements in an effort to attract tenants to complexes that had to close for repairs. While this gets tenants in the door, eventually deals expire, disaster-associated housing assistance ends, and tenants can’t sustain an unaffordable rent, leading to eviction filings. An examination of eviction filings after Hurricane Harvey found that older, more affordable complexes with a history of flooding were the sites of increased eviction filings. Second, as was observed after the 2023 Maui wildfire, as disasters take units offline, landlords may see an opportunity to evict existing tenants and charge new renters higher rates. 

Aside from immediate housing instability and public health impacts, evictions can affect renters for years to come, hurting their credit and limiting future housing opportunities by placing them on tenant blacklists. 

Every state hit by disaster has the ability to request assistance from the federal government and enact its own emergency plan. As part of their emergency powers, governors may issue temporary moratoriums on evictions, as was done early in the COVID19 pandemic, and as many are urging North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper to do in the wake of Hurricane Helene. When hearings resume, courts must resist the urge to hold “rocket dockets”—hearing a high volume of eviction cases in a short period of time—and uphold their obligation to due process, allowing claims to be raised and evidence to be presented.

Renters disproportionately denied emergency aid and undercounted in long-term recovery

After a disaster, renters and homeowners alike are encouraged to submit applications to the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) for assistance to address what the federal government calls “unmet needs.” Unmet needs are disaster impacts that survivors aren’t able to address on their own, and are particularly challenging for those with the lowest incomes. Renters are more likely to be denied FEMA assistance than homeowners: according to FEMA’s own analysis of its almost five million aid applications from 2014-2018, poor renters were 23% less likely to receive assistance than wealthier homeowner applicants.

Renters and advocates in climate frontline states like Texas and New Jersey have been raising this issue in courts for over a decade. While FEMA has adopted a proposed rule to simplify the application process and reduce barriers to aid, it has yet to adopt changes that explicitly address the concerns of renters. 

The harm caused by FEMA denials can reverberate for years. Data from successful FEMA applications are used by state and local governments to inform long-term recovery, including the development of new housing.

As recovery from this Danger Season’s disasters continues, local, federal, and state governments must design their response with renters in mind if they want to build long-term resilience and more equitable futures for millions of Americans. We must address the affordable housing crisis for renters through specific policies and investments to encourage building more rental units for the lowest-income families, and ensuring that they are both built to robust standards and located in areas that are more climate-resilient.

We also need a much more proactive, well-funded approach to climate resilience across the nation that goes well beyond post-disaster response and recovery. And we’ve got to make steep cuts in global heat-trapping emissions to limit how much worse fossil-fueled climate disasters get.

Parts of north-east and Great Lakes regions to surpass 80F as thunderstorms predicted from Indianapolis to Louisiana

Do the undead sweat? If they do, this year’s Halloween could be a taxing time for them across parts of the north-east and Great Lakes regions of the US, where temperatures are set to soar above 80F (27C) in some areas.

On Thursday, CNN reported that nearly 50 daily high temperature records may fall, with temperatures rising more than 20F above normal.

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At least 95 people have been killed as more rain is forecast for the flood-hit region of Valencia

• Death toll expected to rise amid anger over preparedness
• People in Spain: have you been affected by flooding?

Experts have been giving their reaction to yesterday’s disaster - sounding a warning about our preparedness and ability to cope.

Extreme weather events are becoming more intense, are lasting longer and are occurring more frequently as a result of human-induced climate change, scientists say.

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Victims say ‘water was already here’ by the time warning was issued, as military prepares to start searching worst-hit areas

• Spain floods – latest updates

Rescue workers in Spain are searching for more victims after deadly floods, as questions are raised about how one of the world’s most developed nations failed to respond adequately to such an extreme storm.

Torrential rains that began at the start of the week led to flooding that has left at least 95 people dead, the deadliest such disaster in the western European country since 1973.

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Set up to conserve traditional seeds, the Genetic Resources Research Institute is now helping smallholders diversify with crops resilient to the rapid changes in climate

On a winding road in the densely forested Kikuyu highlands of south-central Kenya lies a nondescript government building: the Genetic Resources Research Institute. Opened in 1988, during the country’s “green revolution”, this little-known national gene bank was set up to hold and conserve seeds from the traditional crops that were in danger of disappearing as farmers and agricultural industry moved to higher-yield varieties.

For decades, it has collaborated with researchers studying crop genetics and others working to develop improved varieties. But as the climate crisis worsens food insecurity, the repository of about 50,000 seed and crop collections could become a lifeline for farmers.

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Fears raised that biodiversity summit not addressing countries’ failure to meet a single target to stem destruction of natural world

Governments risk another decade of failure on biodiversity loss, due to the slow implementation of an international agreement to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems, experts have warned.

Less than two years ago, the world reached a historic agreement at the Cop15 summit in Montreal to stop the human-caused destruction of life on our planet. The deal included targets to protect 30% of the planet for nature by the end of the decade (30x30), reform $500bn (then £410bn) of environmentally damaging subsidies, and begin restoring 30% of the planet’s degraded ecosystems.

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More than half a million people were killed in 10 disasters that climate change worsened, according to a new report.

Al menos 95 personas han muerto tras el aguacero, luego de que en algunas zonas cayera el equivalente a más de un mes de lluvias en menos de 24 horas.

Dozens of people were killed after the downpour, which some residents said was the worst they had ever witnessed.

Residents describe impact of floods and downpours – with some places hit with a year’s worth of rain in just eight hours

• Spanish flash floods – live updates

The gratitude that greeted Tuesday’s dawn downpours was short-lived in Utiel. When the longed-for rains finally reached the town in the drought-stricken eastern Spanish region of Valencia, they were merciless in their abundance.

“People were very happy at first because they’d been praying for rain as their lands needed water,” said Remedios, who owns a bar in Utiel. “But by 12 o’clock, this storm had really hit and we were all pretty terrified.”

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The Pennsylvania plant, site of the worst U.S. nuclear energy accident, is at the forefront of efforts to expand nuclear capacity to meet rising electricity demand.

A report by BoM and CSIRO checks ‘vital signs of Australia’s climate’ – and shows temperature trends will only worsen

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“It is a wicked problem,” says Dr Karl Braganza at the Bureau of Meteorology, after running through Australia’s latest State of the Climate report.

The effects of rising heat on land and in the oceans, coupled with rising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, are changing Australia’s climate rapidly and “flowing through to how our society, economy and other things operate”.

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Trump has suggested he would dismantle the Inflation Reduction Act, which has reshaped America’s energy landscape. It won’t be easy.

A 2022 law gave wildland firefighters with ‘presumptive cancer coverage’, but the list of ailments left out a range of cancers affecting women

Riva Duncan was overjoyed when Congress in 2022 approved better support for federal wildland firefighters during their cancer battles. As a retired fire officer of the US Forest Service (USFS), Duncan had spent years fighting for the friends and colleagues who disproportionately fell ill.

The 2022 law gave firefighters so-called “presumptive cancer coverage” – meaning they were eligible for workers compensation and the process to receive federal financial support for disability and death was streamlined. Finally, she thought, firefighters wouldn’t have to prove cancer and other illnesses, including lung and heart diseases, had derived from their hazardous and carcinogenic work to receive needed funds.

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Climate activist Nyombi Morris became outspoken about LGBTQ+ rights after his sister was outed as a lesbian and expelled from school. Last year, Uganda passed a new law that imposes up to 20 years in prison for 'recruitment, promotion and funding' of same-sex 'activities', and life imprisonment or the death penalty for certain same-sex acts. After Morris received an anonymous call threatening to rape and arrest him if he did not stop 'promoting homosexuality', the 26-year-old went into hiding for a few weeks and then, with the help of the Uganda-based human rights group Defend Defenders, fled to Denmark where he has applied for asylum.

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Already targeted for opposing the EACOP oil pipeline, claims that he was gay forced Nyombi Morris to flee

When an anonymous caller threatened to rape and arrest Nyombi Morris if he did not stop “promoting homosexuality”, he knew he had to flee Uganda. The 26-year-old climate activist, who had become outspoken about LGBTQ+ rights after his sister was revealed as a lesbian and expelled from school last year, has faced a fierce backlash for his advocacy.

And things only got worse after his environmental non-profit organisation, Earth Volunteers, began collaborating with LGBTQ+ groups to support young people who identified as gay and were at risk of persecution.

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Widespread in England, it joins other species to have expanded range in recent years due to climate change

It may have been a fairly awful summer for butterflies but Scotland continues to enjoy some pleasant lepidopteran surprises, thanks to global heating.

Its list of resident species increased by one this year when the gatekeeper, never officially recorded north of the border in the past century, was spotted in several locations. Meanwhile, the elusive white-letter hairstreak, which was only recorded for the first time close to the River Tweed in 2017, has now been found in Dundee, more than 60 miles farther north.

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As of 29 October, the iconic mountain was still without snow, marking the longest period since records began 130 years ago

Japan’s Mount Fuji remained snowless on Tuesday, marking the latest date that its slopes have been bare since records began 130 years ago, the country’s weather agency said.

The volcano’s snowcap begins forming on 2 October on average, and last year snow was first detected there on 5 October.

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Several people have died, an official said, and at least seven people are missing after torrential rain caused flash floods in southern and eastern Spain, shutting roads and high-speed train connections. Raging flood waters swept through the town of Letur in the east, pushing cars through the streets. State weather agency AEMET declared a red alert in the Valencia region and the second-highest level of alert in parts of Andalusia.

• Dead bodies found after torrential rain brings flash flooding to Spain

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