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Santos sued by its own shareholder in world-first greenwashing case
Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility alleges Santos’s plan to reach net zero by 2040 is ‘little more than a series of speculations’
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A world-first greenwashing case that seeks to hold oil and gas company Santos accountable for its net zero commitments began in the federal court today, brought by one of its own shareholders, the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR).
The organisation claims Santos did not have a proper basis for saying it had a clear pathway to reduce emissions by 26% to 30% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2040, which constituted misleading or deceptive conduct in breach of Australian corporate and consumer laws.
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Continue reading...Scientists have discovered that Earth’s carbon sinks are not really carbon sinking at the moment | First Dog on the Moon
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Carbon emissions of richest 1% increase hunger, poverty and deaths, says Oxfam
Consumption of world’s wealthiest people also making it increasingly difficult to limit global heating to 1.5C
The high carbon emissions of the world’s richest 1% are worsening hunger, poverty and excess deaths, a report has found.
Owing to luxury yachts, private jets and investments in polluting industries, the consumption of the world’s wealthiest people is also making it increasingly difficult to limit global heating to 1.5C.
Continue reading...Corporations using ‘ineffectual’ carbon offsets are slowing path to ‘real zero’, more than 60 climate scientists say
Pledge signed by scientists from nine countries reflects concerns that offsets generated from forest-related projects may not have reduced emissions
Carbon offsets used by corporations around the world to lower their reportable greenhouse gas emissions are “ineffectual” and “hindering the energy transition”, according to more than 60 leading climate change scientists.
A pledge signed by scientists from nine countries, including the UK, US and Australia, said the “only path that can prevent further escalation of climate impacts” was “real zero” and not “net zero”.
Continue reading...If fossil fuel dependency is a global addiction, climate activists are prophets trying to save us from our stupor | Tim Winton
Legions of young people are getting organised, skilling up, raising their voices and placing their bodies in the path of those who profit from our addiction
Not long before the Nazis murdered him, the Lutheran pastor and resister Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that “the ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children”.
That moral challenge is timeless. But with the climate emergency upon us, it has an unsettling new edge, and with that in mind, I’ve been preoccupied lately by the underappreciated power of solidarity.
Continue reading...Can 70 Moms Save the Endangered North Atlantic Right Whale?
These Museum Exhibits Have To Be Smelled To Be Believed
Campaigners call for steeper cuts to UK greenhouse gas emissions
Climate Change Committee advised Ed Miliband to cut level by 81% but activists want bigger promises
Climate campaigners have urged ministers to make steeper cuts in the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions after the government’s statutory adviser on the climate gave its verdict on new targets.
The Climate Change Committee, which advises the government, has written to Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, to advise cuts of 81% in the UK’s emissions, compared with 1990 levels, by 2035, if emissions from aviation and shipping are excluded.
Continue reading...The week around the world in 20 pictures
Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, a total blackout in Cuba, tributes to Liam Payne and the US election: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists
Continue reading...Why Heat Waves of the Future May Be Even Deadlier Than Feared
‘You don’t want to waste time on climate change’: TV weather’s big problem with the environmental crisis
Lack of time, difficulties with scientific rigour, an uninterested public … television meteorologists open up about why they’re so quiet about the reasons for extreme conditions
Why do TV and radio forecasts rarely contextualise extreme weather events in terms of the climate crisis? After all, the latest data suggests Britain is getting hotter, wetter and stormier. The number of “very hot days” of 30C or more, according to the Met Office’s latest climate report, has trebled over the last few decades. Last year was the second warmest on record since 1884, with only 2022 warmer.
“If you believe, as I do, that climate change is the most fundamental challenge facing humanity,” says Sunil Amrith, history professor at Yale’s School of Environment, and author of the forthcoming book The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Past 500 Years, “any contribution to making its causes and effects more widely known will have a role to play”.
Continue reading...‘They regress’: kids struggle without school and structure after Helene
Families cope as experts say learning disruptions caused by hurricane can set children back for years
When Elizabeth Steere’s two sons were little, the family watched The Wizard of Oz and its famous tornado scene that whips Dorothy through the air.
Steere, who lives in Asheville, North Carolina, assured her kids, now 11 and 13, not to worry. “I remember saying, very glibly, ‘That’s not something you guys have to worry about,’” Steele recalled.
Continue reading...Man who lost home to coastal erosion loses court case against UK government
Kevin Jordan and two other claimants argued the country’s climate adaptation plans were insufficient and unlawful
An East Anglian man who lost his home to coastal erosion has lost his high court challenge against the government’s climate adaptation plans.
Kevin Jordan was one of three claimants who argued the government’s plans for adapting to the existing and predicted impacts of climate change, known as the National Adaptation Programme 3 (NAP3), were insufficient and unlawful.
Continue reading...Many Wells in North Carolina Remain Unsafe After Hurricane Helene
The ‘Greenest Governor’ Fights to Save a Landmark Climate Law
Art Can Fight Climate Change in More Ways Than One
‘We have emotions too’: Climate scientists respond to attacks on objectivity
Researchers criticised and gaslighted after sharing fears with Guardian say acknowledging feelings is critical to their work
Climate scientists who were mocked and gaslighted after speaking up about their fears for the future have said acknowledging strong emotions is vital to their work.
The researchers said these feelings should not be suppressed in an attempt to reach supposed objectivity. Seeing climate experts’ fears and opinions about the climate crisis as irrelevant suggests science is separate from society and ultimately weakens it, they said.
Continue reading...Sliver of cool surface water 2mm deep helps oceans absorb CO2, say scientists
Subtle temperature difference between ‘ocean skin’ and water beneath found to drive more CO2 absorption
A sliver of cool surface water less than 2mm deep helps oceans absorb carbon dioxide, a British-led team of scientists has established after months of voyages across the Atlantic painstakingly measuring gas and temperature levels.
The subtle difference in temperature between the “ocean skin” and the layer of water beneath it creates an interface that leads to more CO2 being taken in, the scientists observed.
Continue reading...‘Pole of Cold’: life in the coldest inhabited village on Earth – photo essay
The Siberian republic of Sakha in the Russian far east is one the coldest inhabited regions in the world. The photojournalist Natalya Saprunova spent almost two months documenting the daily lives of the people in the community of Oymyakon
Oymyakon in north-east Siberia is the coldest permanently inhabited place in the world. The village is located at the “Pole of Cold” on the left bank of the Indigirka River in Sakha, a republic in Russia’s far east, and is connected to other rural localities such as Khara-Tumul and Bereg-Yurdya, Tomtor, Yuchyugey and Aeroport, which gets its name from the local airport. The area sits on the Oymyakon plateau and has about 2,000 inhabitants.
A man rides a snowmobile through Oymyakon.
Continue reading...Weatherwatch: Will new oilfields become stranded assets?
With electric car demand soaring, peak oil may be near – and not a moment too soon for the climate
Oil states and companies such as BP, Shell and ExxonMobil are intent on exploiting new oilfields despite the clear evidence that the world is rapidly cruising through its carbon budget.
However, investors should perhaps note that the International Energy Agency (IEA) is forecasting that peak oil is at hand. In other words, supply will soon outstrip demand, making investment in new oilfields unlikely to be profitable.
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