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The Guardian Climate Change

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Latest Climate crisis news, comment and analysis from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice
Updated: 2 hours 17 min ago

Greece orders evacuations near Athens as wildfires rage – Europe live

August 12, 2024 - 06:22

Unprecedented summer temperatures after the warmest winter ever have turned terrain into a tinderbox, environmentalists say

AFP reports from Penteli:

Thick smoke from burning trees filled a small square in Penteli where local resident Mariana Papathanasi said they could only pray that their houses would be saved.

“There is still a strong fire. Some houses were burned after midnight and we are trying to protect our local restaurant,” the 49-year-old supermarket employee told AFP.

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Categories: Climate

Firefighters battle wildfires on the edge of Athens – video

August 12, 2024 - 04:26

Firefighters have been tackling a fast-moving wildfire outside Athens that caused residents to flee their homes as the blaze continued to spread through the night. The fire, fuelled by rising temperatures and windy weather, burned down trees, houses and cars. More than 400 firefighters were deployed as flames quickly reached Varnavas, a village 22 miles (35km) north of the capital. At least 10 areas have been evacuated so far

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Categories: Climate

‘Losing Noah’s Ark’: Brazil’s plan to turn the Pantanal into waterway threatens world’s biggest wetland

August 12, 2024 - 02:00

Hidrovia project to dredge Paraguay River and build ports may destroy vast biodiversity and refuge of jaguars, giant otters and armadillos – and an age-old riverine way of life

As the evening sky turns violet, the animals of the Pantanal gather near the water. Capybaras swim in tight formation, roseate spoonbills add smudges of pink to the riverbanks, the rumble of a jaguar pulsates from the forest.

This tropical wetland is the largest on Earth, stretching across Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia, and playing host to some of the greatest gatherings of animals anywhere.

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Categories: Climate

Climate crisis helped drive payouts to seven-year high, say insurers

August 12, 2024 - 01:00

Weather-related claims hit £144m in second quarter of 2024 and total payouts rose by 5% to £1.4bn

Britain’s largest insurance firms have warned that the climate crisis has contributed to driving up insurance payouts to the highest level in seven years, after a sharp rise in damage to households and businesses from weather events.

Figures from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) show that the amount paid out in the three months to the end of June hit £1.4bn, a 5% increase on the first quarter of the year and the highest figure of any quarter since it started collecting the data in 2017.

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Categories: Climate

Australian fossil fuel exports ranked second only to Russia for climate damage with ‘no plan’ for reduction

August 11, 2024 - 21:17

Coal and gas exports expected to remain roughly at current level until at least 2035 with 4.5% of emissions linked to Australia, report finds

Australia’s coal and gas exports cause more climate damage than those from any other country bar Russia, according to a new study that argues the country is undermining a global agreement to transition away from fossil fuels.

The analysis, commissioned by the University of New South Wales’ Australian Human Rights Institute, found Australia was the third biggest fossil fuel exporter on an energy basis in 2021, trailing only Russia and the US.

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Categories: Climate

Startling genome discovery in butterfly project reveals impact of climate change in Europe

August 11, 2024 - 05:00

Project to study all 11,000 species of butterflies and moths finds ‘two species in the act of being created from one’

The chalkhill blue has some surprising claims to fame. For a start, it is one of the UK’s most beautiful butterflies, as can be seen as they flutter above the grasslands of southern England in summer.

Then there is their close and unusual relationship with ants. Caterpillars of Lysandra coridon – found across Europe – exude a type of honeydew that is milked by ants and provides them with energy. In return, they are given protection in cells below ground especially created for them by the ants. Chalkhill blues thrive as a result, though their numbers are now coming under threat.

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Categories: Climate

July was California’s hottest month in history

August 10, 2024 - 07:00

Some areas see days of temperatures over 100F, drying plants and fueling wildfires as extreme heat creates deadly conditions

California experienced its hottest month on record in July as grueling heat baked the American west for weeks on end.

The state’s average temperature for the month was 81.7F (27.6C), according to the National Centers for Environmental Information, but some areas endured days of temperatures greater than 100F (about 38C). Several cities broke temperature records during a heatwave in early July – Palm Springs hit 124F on 5 July, while Redding in the state’s far north saw a high of 119F on 6 July.

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Categories: Climate

The week around the world in 20 pictures

August 9, 2024 - 16:27

Riots in the UK, Israeli bombardment in Gaza, wildfires in California and Noah Lyles winning the 100m at the Paris Olympics: the last 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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Categories: Climate

Excess memes and ‘reply all’ emails are bad for climate, researcher warns

August 9, 2024 - 07:47

Most data stored on power-hungry servers is used once then never looked at again

When “I can has cheezburger?” became one of the first internet memes to blow our minds, it’s unlikely that anyone worried about how much energy it would use up.

But research has now found that the vast majority of data stored in the cloud is “dark data”, meaning it is used once then never visited again. That means that all the memes and jokes and films that we love to share with friends and family – from “All your base are belong to us”, through Ryan Gosling saying “Hey Girl”, to Tim Walz with a piglet – are out there somewhere, sitting in a datacentre, using up energy. By 2030, the National Grid anticipates that datacentres will account for just under 6% of the UK’s total electricity consumption, so tackling junk data is an important part of tackling the climate crisis.

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Categories: Climate

‘Every building sits on a thermal asset’: how networked geothermal power could change cities

August 9, 2024 - 02:00

The ground is humming with geothermal energy that could heat or cool our homes – and now the big US utilities are starting to take note

Along with earthworms, rocks, and the occasional skeleton, there is a massive battery right under your feet. Unlike a flammable lithium ion battery, though, this one is perfectly stable, free to use, and ripe for sustainable exploitation: the Earth itself.

While temperatures above ground fluctuate throughout the year, the ground stays a stable temperature, meaning that it is humming with geothermal energy that engineers can exploit. “Every building sits on a thermal asset,” said Cameron Best, director of business development at Brightcore Energy in New York, which deploys geothermal systems. “I really don’t think there’s any more efficient or better way to heat and cool our homes.”

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Categories: Climate

Biomass power station produced four times emissions of UK coal plant, says report

August 9, 2024 - 01:00

Drax received £22bn in subsidies despite being UK’s largest emitter in 2023, though company rejects ‘flawed’ research

The Drax power station was responsible for four times more carbon emissions than the UK’s last remaining coal-fired plant last year, despite taking more than £0.5bn in clean-energy subsidies in 2023, according to a report.

The North Yorkshire power plant, which burns wood pellets imported from North America to generate electricity, was revealed as Britain’s single largest carbon emitter in 2023 by a report from the climate thinktank Ember.

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Categories: Climate

July ends 13-month streak of global heat records, but experts warn against relief

August 8, 2024 - 14:38

Climate scientists say that the world is continuing to warm, despite brief respite in record breaking temperatures

Earth’s string of 13 straight months with a new average heat record came to an end this past July as the natural El Niño climate pattern ebbed, the European climate agency Copernicus announced on Wednesday.

But July 2024’s average heat just missed surpassing last year’s July, and scientists said the end of the record-breaking streak changes nothing about the threat posed by the climate crisis.

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The Guardian view on wind energy and the UK: Labour plays catch-up | Editorial

August 8, 2024 - 13:40

The new government has made a fast start in mobilising Britain’s most obvious natural asset, but big challenges remain

In its pomp during the 1970s, Ardersier port near Inverness was a behemoth of Scottish industry. During the North Sea oil and gas boom, thousands worked on one of the largest rig construction sites in the world. Disused since 2001, the port is making a triumphant comeback, to be reconfigured as a giant hub for the turbines that will harness wind power off the Scottish coast. If Sir Keir Starmer’s government is to achieve its goal of fully decarbonising electricity by 2030, this huge investment project in the Highlands will need to be matched by similar ambition elsewhere.

Wind energy is fundamental to meeting Britain’s net zero commitments, generating growth and reducing energy costs. But under Rishi Sunak, the sector suffered a lost year in 2023, when the government failed to award a single offshore wind contract. In July, the Climate Change Committee estimated that by 2030, the number of annual offshore and onshore wind installations needed to at least triple and double, respectively.

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Categories: Climate

Wildfires in Brazil’s Pantanal wetland fuelled ‘by climate disruption’

August 8, 2024 - 11:27

Devastation in Brazil wetlands was made at least four times more likely by fossil fuel use and deforestation, scientists say

The devastating wildfires that tore through the world’s biggest tropical wetland, Brazil’s Pantanal, in June were made at least four times more likely and 40% more intense by human-caused climate disruption, a study has found.

Charred corpses of monkeys, caimans and snakes have been left in the aftermath of the blaze, which burned 440,000 hectares (1.1m acres) and is thought to have killed millions of animals and countless more plants, insects and fungi.

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Categories: Climate

‘It shouldn’t be a bucket list place’: these people went to Antarctica. They hope you don’t

August 8, 2024 - 11:00

As Antarctic tourism grows, so does the environmental impact. Now scientists and artists who work on the continent hope to encourage us to admire from afar

“If Antarctica were music, it would be Mozart,” the Australian broadcaster Andrew Denton once wrote, after one of his many (at least seven) trips to the continent. “Art, and it would be Michelangelo. Literature, and it would be Shakespeare. And yet it is something even greater; the only place on earth that is still as it should be. May we never tame it.”

And yet it is not as it should be: last year, Antarctic sea ice cover dropped for six months straight.

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Categories: Climate

‘Massive disinformation campaign’ is slowing global transition to green energy

August 8, 2024 - 08:29

UN says a global ‘backlash’ against climate action is being stoked by fossil fuel companies

Fossil fuel companies are running “a massive mis- and disinformation campaign” so that countries will slow down the adoption of renewable energy and the speed with which they “transition away” from a carbon-intensive economy, the UN has said.

Selwin Hart, the assistant secretary general of the UN, said that talk of a global “backlash” against climate action was being stoked by the fossil fuel industry, in an effort to persuade world leaders to delay emissions-cutting policies. The perception among many political observers of a rejection of climate policies was a result of this campaign, rather than reflecting the reality of what people think, he added.

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Categories: Climate

For Maui wildfire survivors who moved to Las Vegas, another climate disaster awaits: extreme heat

August 8, 2024 - 06:55

A year after the fire some try to rebuild life in the city known as the ‘ninth Hawaiian island’ – as temperatures top 117F

Remedios Ramos moved into her newly built, sand-colored Las Vegas home during a blistering week in July, when temperatures topped 117F. Inside her air-conditioned living room, a shiny grandfather clock, its price tag still attached, chimed every half hour. “I like it here,” Ramos said, glancing around at her pristine surroundings: brand new reclining chairs, a glossy dining set, a television still in its box.

“But,” she sighed, scrunching her face, “I like it better back home, in Hawaii.”

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Categories: Climate

‘It’s devastating’: summer in Canada’s Arctic region brings severe heatwaves

August 8, 2024 - 05:30

Temperatures in Canada – and especially the Arctic – are climbing faster than the global average, with highs of 33C

The arrival of August in the Arctic typically hints that autumn, with its dwindling daylight and cold weather, will soon return.

But on a recent afternoon, Sandy Gordon and her four children plunged into the silty waters of the Canada’s Mackenzie River, escaping a searing heatwave that has descended on the town of Inuvik.

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Categories: Climate

What’s 2024’s most popular sport? | Fiona Katauskas

August 7, 2024 - 22:16

And it’s not even in the Olympics!

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Categories: Climate

Repeating climate denial claims makes them seem more credible, Australian-led study finds

August 7, 2024 - 14:00

Even those who are concerned about climate crisis were influenced by false claims, showing how ‘insidious’ repetition is, researcher says

Repeating false and sceptical claims about climate science makes them seem more credible – including to people who accept the science and are alarmed by the climate crisis – new research has found.

The study’s lead author, Mary Jiang, from the Australian National University, said: “The findings show how powerful and insidious repetition is and how it can influence people’s assessment of truth.”

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Categories: Climate