Climate

Researchers say urgent action needed to inform people about risks of heatwave temperatures and adapt homes

The number of UK homes overheating in summer quadrupled to 80% over the past decade, according to a study, with experts calling the situation a crisis.

Heat already kills thousands of people each year in the UK and the toll will rise as the climate crisis intensifies. Urgent action is needed both to inform people on how to cope with high temperatures and to adapt homes, which are largely designed to keep heat in during the winter, the researchers said.

Continue reading...

Cuts to disaster agency and deregulation of fossil fuels, plus rise of water-guzzling datacentres, highlighted in new report

The Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to the federal climate disaster agency – and the full-throttle deregulation of fossil fuels and water-guzzling datacentres – could prove catastrophic for America’s endangered rivers, threatening the food, water and livelihoods of millions of people, according to a new report.

American Rivers’ annual most-endangered rivers list lays bare a myriad of human-made threats including floods, drought and other extreme weather events driven by the climate crisis, as well as industrial pollution and poor river management – all of which Trump’s regulatory rollbacks will almost inevitably make worse.

Continue reading...

Exclusive: Power outages in major cities would help build opposition to climate policies, Colin Boyce tells podcast

• Election 2025 live updates: Australia federal election campaign
• Polls tracker; election guide; full federal election coverage
• Anywhere but Canberra; interactive electorates guide
• Listen to the first episode of our new narrative podcast series: Gina
• Get our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcast

The Coalition MP Colin Boyce says he believes the way to turn voters against renewable energy is to “let Rome burn for a while” and allow power blackouts to occur in major cities.

Guardian Australia reported on Wednesday that Boyce had described blackouts as a “big political opportunity” at a meeting of climate science deniers in late 2023.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Exclusive: Absence of world’s biggest clean energy producer will be welcomed by US pushing oil and gas exports

China is to snub a major UK summit on energy security next week, the Guardian has learned, amid a growing row over the country’s involvement in UK infrastructure projects.

The US will send a senior White House official to the 60-country summit, to be co-hosted with the International Energy Agency. Leading oil and gas companies are also invited, along with big technology businesses, and petrostates including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Continue reading...

Fast fashion retailers rely heavily on shipping by air. The president’s tariffs could change that.

Esta nota fue publicada originalmente en EFE Verde.

Es un disparate que con la temporada de huracanes a la vuelta de la esquina y con el alza en la frecuencia de desastres climáticos de gran magnitud, el gobierno del presidente Trump haya ordenado al Servicio Nacional de Meteorología (NWS por sus siglas en inglés) suspender la traducción de sus alertas meteorológicas al español y otros idiomas. Sumado a la reciente orden ejecutiva que declara el inglés como idioma oficial de Estados Unidos (y que de paso deroga una orden ejecutiva del año 2000 para impulsar el acceso a servicios gubernamentales para personas que no dominan el inglés), se le cierra el acceso a información vital a millones de personas en los Estados Unidos cuyo idioma principal no es el inglés.

Esta decisión–por una supuesta falta de presupuesto–no es un mero ajuste administrativo: es una movida cruel y peligrosa que pone en riesgo la vida de millones de hispanohablantes y otras comunidades en Estados Unidos cuyo idioma principal no es el inglés. ¿Cómo puede una familia prepararse ante un tornado, un huracán, un incendio forestal o una ola de calor si no entiende lo que dice una alerta?

Decisiones discriminatorias

Desde mis años como estudiante de geografía en Arizona hasta mi trabajo actual como científico social en la Unión de Científicos Conscientes, he estudiado cómo los peligros ambientales y las decisiones racistas y discriminatorias en materia de política pública afectan de forma desigual a comunidades de bajo ingreso y, en particular a las y los Latinos y a las personas de raza negra. Las acciones recientes para debilitar al NWS y suspender su servicio de traducciones forman parte de una tendencia alarmante: el abandono de los principios de equidad, transparencia y servicio público en favor de intereses económicos y políticos particulares.

El NWS ha sido, desde sus orígenes en 1849, un bastión de la seguridad pública. Sus pronósticos, alertas y datos meteorológicos son financiados con dinero público y tienen un propósito claro: salvar vidas. Sin embargo, el permitir el lapso del contrato con LILT (la empresa privada encargada de traducir las alertas al español, chino, francés, vietnamita y samoano) pone en riesgo esa misión, especialmente en estados y territorios como Arizona, Texas, Florida, California y Puerto Rico, donde millones de personas hablan español como su primer idioma.

Justicia ambiental

Esta suspensión no es un asunto menor. La capacidad de recibir una alerta por calor extremo, entender una advertencia de tornado o una orden de desalojo ante un huracán o inundación repentina puede depender, literalmente, del idioma en que se emite la información.

No se trata de una exageración. Es una cuestión de justicia ambiental y climática, tanto como de equidad en la preparación ante desastres. La eliminación del contrato de traducción ignora el impacto real sobre las comunidades que ya enfrentan barreras estructurales como bajos ingresos, discriminación y acceso limitado a servicios de emergencia y recuperación luego de un desastre.

Estas decisiones reflejan un patrón preocupante del desmantelamiento del NWS, en línea con presiones de ciertos sectores para privatizar el servicio y restringir el acceso libre y público a los datos meteorológicos. Peor aún, existe el riesgo de que esta información–generada con fondos públicos–acabe en manos privadas y nos pongan a pagar por segunda vez por un servicio por el cual ya pagamos con nuestros impuestos. Esto ampliaría una brecha ya existente: quienes pueden pagar por datos precisos estarían mejor preparados, mientras que el resto de nosotros quedaría desprotegido.

Poblaciones tradicionalmente desatendidas

La equidad no es un concepto abstracto. El propio exdirector del NWS, Ken Graham, fue muy claro al afirmar que el servicio de traducción “mejorará la equidad de nuestro servicio para las poblaciones tradicionalmente desatendidas y vulnerables que tienen un dominio limitado del inglés”. Esta visión es esencial, y su abandono es, francamente, aborrecible.

La ciencia del clima y la meteorología no reconocen fronteras ni idiomas; en cambio, las decisiones humanas sí. Y cuando esas decisiones priorizan la eficiencia económica sobre la salud y vida de la gente, las consecuencias caen más fuertemente entre quienes tienen menos voz y representación.

Sabemos que el cambio climático está intensificando los eventos meteorológicos extremos. Comunicar de manera clara, accesible y multilingüe es hoy más urgente que nunca para proteger nuestras vidas, nuestros hogares, nuestras escuelas y lugares de trabajo. El acceso equitativo y libre de costo a la información meteorológica no debe ser optativo: es tanto un derecho como necesidad pública. Después de todo, los contribuyentes en Estados Unidos ya han pagado por éste servicio público y tienen derecho al mismo.

El gobierno federal debe rectificar esta decisión cuanto antes y buscar soluciones sostenibles para garantizar que todos, sin importar el idioma que hablen, tengan acceso a la información que necesitan para estar a salvo del sin número de eventos meteorológicos extremos que nos acechan.

Energy watchdog cuts forecast for growth in demand by a third, and says a trade war could mean it falls further

The world will use less crude oil than expected this year due the “substantial risks” posed by Donald Trump’s trade tariffs to the global economy, according to the global energy watchdog.

The International Energy Agency slashed its forecasts for global oil demand growth by a third for the year ahead, and warned that it could make further downward revisions depending on whether a trade war develops.

Continue reading...

Parts of the state record their lowest rainfall on record, with devastating impacts on freshwater fish, butterflies, bees and even some hardy trees

• Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here

Usually hardy trees and shrubs are dying, waterways have turned to dust and ecologists fear local freshwater fish extinctions could be coming as historic dry conditions grip parts of South Australia.

Large swathes of the state – including the Adelaide Plains, the Fleurieu, Yorke and Eyre peninsulas and upper south-east – have seen the lowest rainfall on record in the 14 months since February 2024, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter

Continue reading...

The White House has pulled federal webpages tracking climate and environmental justice data

• US politics live – latest updates

Green groups have sued the Trump administration over the removal of government webpages containing federal climate and environmental justice data that they described as “tantamount to theft”.

In the first weeks of its second term, the Trump administration pulled federal websites tracking shifts in the climate, pollution and extreme weather impacts on low-income communities, and identifying pieces of infrastructure that are extremely vulnerable to climate disasters.

Continue reading...

Climate experts say such storms are becoming more frequent and severe in the country. This was its worst of the year so far.

A severe sandstorm swept central and southern Iraq, reducing visibility, halting flights and causing respiratory problems for thousands, according to officials. Experts say such storms are worsening as drought and desertification increase, driven by climate change.

With extreme weather and Trump’s looming trade war, US farmers are reeling and resigned to needing another bailout

Farmers across the United States say they could face financial ruin – unless there is a huge taxpayer funded bail out to compensate for losses generated by Donald Trump’s sweeping cuts and chaotic tariffs.

Small- and medium-sized farms were already struggling amid worsening climate shocks and volatile commodities markets, on top of being squeezed by large corporations that dominate the supply chain.

Continue reading...

As part of Trump’s administrations ‘efficiency’ drive, staff running decades old program for energy assistance laid off

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), is facing new demands to release almost $400m allocated by Congress to help low-income US families keep the air conditioning on this summer.

The funds are under threat after the staff running a decades old program were fired – as part of the Trump administration’s so-called ‘efficiency’ drive.

Continue reading...

Las multitudes de turistas con destino a la Antártida han traído prosperidad a Ushuaia, la ciudad más meridional de Argentina, pero el auge también está poniendo presión sobre la población local y afectando al medio ambiente

“What’s Left,” by Malcolm Harris, arrives at a particularly difficult time to consider anything beyond our immediate turmoil.

“Ocean,” now on view on the coast of Denmark, fuses past with present, and art with science to raise urgent questions about our relationship with the sea.

Crowds of tourists bound for Antarctica have brought prosperity to Argentina’s southernmost city, but the boom is also squeezing locals and stressing the environment.

European State of the Climate report ‘lays bare’ impact of fossil fuels on continent during its hottest 12 months on record

The home-wrecking storms and floods that swept Europe last year affected 413,000 people, a report has found, as fossil fuel pollution forced the continent to suffer through its hottest year on record.

Dramatic scenes of cars piled up on inundated streets and bridges being ripped away by raging torrents were seen around the continent in 2024, with “high” floods on 30% of the European river network and 12% crossing the “severe” flood threshold, according to the European State of the Climate report.

Continue reading...

Hotter seas supercharge storms and destroy critical ecosystems such as kelp forests and coral reefs

The climate crisis has tripled the length of ocean heatwaves, a study has found, supercharging deadly storms and destroying critical ecosystems such as kelp forests and coral reefs.

Half of the marine heatwaves since 2000 would not have happened without global heating, which is caused by burning fossil fuels. The heatwaves have not only become more frequent but also more intense: 1C warmer on average, but much hotter in some places, the scientists said.

Continue reading...

In letters to multiple agencies, the focus is on how job reductions at E.P.A., Interior and other agencies would hurt President Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda.