Climate

‘It was striking that the White House memo included toilets and shower heads as a presidential priority,’ said one expert

From crusading against showers he feels don’t sufficiently wash his hair to reversing protections for a small fish he calls “worthless”, Donald Trump’s personal fixations have helped shape his first environmental priorities as US president.

While withdrawing the US from the Paris climate accords and declaring an “energy emergency” were among Trump’s most noteworthy executive orders on his first day in office, both were further down a list of priorities put out by the White House than measures to improve “consumer choice in vehicles, shower heads, toilets, washing machines, lightbulbs and dishwashers”.

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A través de una ráfaga de órdenes, el nuevo presidente comenzó rápidamente a conducir al país en una dirección diferente en muchas cuestiones polémicas.

Through a flurry of orders, the new president quickly began driving the country in a different direction on many contentious issues.

Top political appointees are already at the E.P.A. preparing to erase the agency’s climate rules and pollution controls. Many of them have tried it before.

A gripping play in London’s West End tells how agreement of the first climate protocol in 1997 was a triumph, as scientists share new warnings about the scale of the crisis

As material for a West End show, the backroom machinations of an international climate conference sound unpromising.

Pedantry, boredom and delegates fighting over the wording of treaty clauses do not sound like the stuff of high drama. Nevertheless, Kyoto, a Royal Shakespeare Company production by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson now playing at Soho Place in London, has been widely praised by critics and rapturously received at its opening this month.

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Speech calling for unity against ‘populist right’ interrupted by two women opposed to Drax power plant subsidies

Wes Streeting was heckled by climate protesters during a speech calling on progressives to stand up to the “populist right”.

Two women shouted at the health secretary as he addressed the Fabian Society, urging the centre-left to take on the “miserablist, declinist vision” being offered by figures such as the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage.

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I was one of a group of Just Stop Oil activists given the longest-ever UK sentences for peaceful protest after blocking a motorway. Six months into my incarceration, this is what I have learned

Locked in a tiny metal box in a prison transport van rattling its way to HMP Bronzefield, in Middlesex, I felt at peace. I was on trial with four other Just Stop Oil protesters over the group’s non-violent direct action on the M25 motorway in 2022. The judge had told the jury to ignore evidence of the climate emergency, and we were not allowed to talk in depth about the climate breakdown when defending our actions. But we do not have the time to pretend the existential threat we face is not real. My sense of peace came from having an opportunity to speak out about the crisis during our trial.

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Arizona capital, made drier and hotter by climate crisis, edges towards longest streak without recorded rain

The US city of Phoenix is close to breaking another extreme weather record, this time the longest stretch without rain as drought conditions worsen across Arizona.

As of Saturday, there had been no recorded rainfall in America’s fifth largest city for 154 consecutive days – the second longest dry spell on record as the climate crisis collides with natural weather patterns.

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In California’s fire-stoked debate over how aggressively to manage both nature and urban sprawl, Australia can share both empathy and insight.

After a tour of areas damaged by the California wildfires, the president sparred with local leaders and blamed them for a wide variety of issues affecting the disaster response.

On President Trump’s first day in office, he pulled out of the Paris Agreement, a pact among nearly all nations to fight climate change. Reporting from Davos, Switzerland, David Gelles, a climate journalist for The New York Times, explains what this decision means for the rest of the world.

Trump’s inauguration, fires in California, the hostage release in Israel and Storm Éowyn: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

• Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing

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In just 100 hours, the returned president has already revealed his goal and exposed the weakness of those who might challenge him

It’s hard to see in a blizzard. When so much is coming at you, one thing after another, it becomes impossible to discern anything but a blur. You become disoriented and lose your balance. If that was the aim of Donald Trump’s first 100 hours in office, it’s definitely working.

The bombardment of executive orders, decisions and declarations has been unrelenting, a shock-and-awe display of presidential action that has left its targets reeling. Consider what Trump has done this week alone.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

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Gigantic wall of ice moves slowly from Antarctica on potential collision course with wildlife breeding ground

The world’s largest iceberg – a behemoth more than twice the size of London – is drifting toward a remote island where scientists say it could run aground and threaten penguins and seals.

The gigantic wall of ice is moving slowly from Antarctica on a potential collision course with South Georgia, a crucial wildlife breeding ground.

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“I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems,” the president said. Federal emergency managers from both parties have made the same argument.

Ministers avoid internal party row by promising potential rebels they will have input into environmental legislation

Ministers have seen off a bill that would have made the UK’s climate and environment targets legally binding, after promising Labour backbenchers that they would have input into environmental legislation.

The deal avoids an internal row over the bill, which was introduced by the Liberal Democrat MP Roz Savage but had support from dozens of Labour MPs.

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A London council is introducing electric buggies to cut emissions on its roads, but are they a practical solution?

“Is that thing road legal?” scoffs the driver of a white van as I complete a careful loop of Hammersmith roundabout, to the sound of loud guffaws from his front-seat passenger.

I assure him it is, though honestly, you can see his point. The Yo-Go – a bright yellow electric buggy with two seats, one gear and no side panels – does not look entirely at home on one of the capital’s most notoriously congested junctions, squeezed between buses, delivery vans and construction lorries many times its size.

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Forecast rain will aid firefighting efforts in Los Angeles but could cause mudslides and toxic ash runoff

Southern California was preparing for some long-awaited rain this weekend, bringing some respite after enormous wildfires have raged for weeks, but with the potential to cause mudslides, flooding and toxic ash runoff.

Rain is forecast for much of Los Angeles from Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service said. It said there was a “5-10%” chance of significant debris in burn scars, but officials have begun preparations for potential debris flows.

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From Europe to Africa and South America, countries reaffirm commitment to tackle crisis

World leaders, senior ministers and key figures in climate diplomacy have, one by one, reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris agreement this week, in response to the order by Donald Trump to withdraw the US from the pact.

The prospect of the world keeping temperatures to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, as the treaty calls for, was damaged by the incoming US president’s move. Hopes of meeting the target were already fast receding, and last year was the first to consistently breach the 1.5C limit, but the goal will be measured over years or even decades and stringent cuts to emissions now could still make a difference.

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There are 206 coal-burning power plants left in the United States, which supply about 16 percent of the country’s energy. Experts say burning more doesn’t make financial sense.