Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!
You are here
Feed aggregator
‘A significant disaster’: extreme floods risk conservation efforts in outback Queensland
Wildlife sanctuary manager Josh McAllister was stranded for three days with six tins of tuna, a bag of Doritos and a salad roll – but he was more worried about the bettongs
When heavy monsoonal rain was forecast in north Queensland at the beginning of February, Josh McAllister and his family headed to Townsville to stock up on supplies.
As the rain came down, his partner and children did the bolt to home on Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s (AWC) Mount Zero-Taravale wildlife sanctuary, 80km to the north-west, taking with them the groceries. McAllister stayed in town to complete a few jobs.
Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter
Continue reading...UK must consider food and climate part of national security, say top ex-military figures
Former army and navy leaders urge government to think beyond military capability in advance of key defence review
Former military leaders are urging the UK government to widen its definition of national security to include climate, food and energy measures in advance of a planned multibillion-pound boost in defence spending.
Earlier this year Keir Starmer announced the biggest increase in defence spending in the UK since the end of the cold war, with the budget rising to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 – three years earlier than planned – and an ambition to reach 3%.
Continue reading...Trump’s new ‘gold standard’ rule will destroy American science as we know it | Colette Delawalla
The new executive order allows political appointees to undermine research they oppose, paving the way for state-controlled science
Science is under siege.
On Friday evening, the White House released an executive order called Restoring Gold Standard Science. At face value, this order promises a commitment to federally funded research that is “transparent, rigorous, and impactful” and policy that is informed by “the most credible, reliable, and impartial scientific evidence available”. But hidden beneath the scientific rhetoric is a plan that would destroy scientific independence in the US by giving political appointees the latitude to dismiss entire bodies of research and punish researchers who fail to fall in line with the current administration’s objectives. In other words: this is Fool’s-Gold Standard Science.
Colette Delawalla is a PhD candidate at Emory University and executive director of Stand Up for Science. Victor Ambros is a 2024 Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine at the Chan Medical School, University of Massachusetts. Carl Bergstrom is professor of biology at the University of Washington. Carol Greider is a 2009 Nobel laureate in medicine and distinguished professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Michael Mann is the presidential distinguished professor of earth and environmental science and director of the Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania. Brian Nosek is executive director of the Center for Open Science and professor of psychology at the University of Virginia
Continue reading...‘Flooding could end southern Appalachia’: the scientists on an urgent mission to save lives
Geologists race to collect perishable data as Kentucky residents ‘scared to death’ over floods amid Trump cuts
The abandoned homes and razed lots along the meandering Troublesome Creek in rural eastern Kentucky is a constant reminder of the 2022 catastrophic floods that killed dozens of people and displaced thousands more.
Among the hardest hit was Fisty, a tiny community where eight homes, two shops and nine people including a woman who uses a wheelchair, her husband and two children, were swept away by the rising creek. Some residents dismissed cellphone alerts of potential flooding due to mistrust and warning fatigue, while for others it was already too late to escape. Landslides trapped the survivors and the deceased for several days.
Continue reading...Nato rearmament could increase emissions by 200m tonnes a year, study finds
Exclusive: researchers say defence spending boosts across world will worsen climate crisis which in turn will cause more conflict
A global military buildup poses an existential threat to climate goals, according to researchers who say the rearmament planned by Nato alone could increase greenhouse gas emissions by almost 200m tonnes a year.
With the world embroiled in the highest number of armed conflicts since the second world war, countries have embarked on military spending sprees, collectively totalling a record $2.46tn in 2023.
Continue reading...Will Charleston’s Climate Lawsuit Survive the Week?
Warm winter forecast for Australia as SA and Victoria face unseasonal fire risk
BoM prediction follows much wetter than average autumn for northern and eastern Australia, and much drier one for south
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Australia’s winter will be warmer and wetter this year, with higher than average day and night temperatures, and above-average rainfall likely in central and interior parts of the country.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s long-range forecast said parts of the tropical north, south-east and south-west could expect typical winter rainfall, including coastal areas of New South Wales affected by the May floods, and parts of South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania where there have been prolonged dry conditions.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Canada wildfires: thousands in Manitoba ordered to evacuate as state of emergency declared
There are more than 130 active wildfires across the country, half of which are considered out of control
More than 17,000 people in Canada’s western Manitoba province were being evacuated on Wednesday as the region experienced its worst start to the wildfire season in years.
“The Manitoba government has declared a province-wide state of emergency due to the wildfire situation,” Manitoba’s premier, Wab Kinew, told a news conference. “This is the largest evacuation Manitoba will have seen in most people’s living memory.”
Continue reading...Glacier collapses, burying evacuated Swiss village in mud and rocks – video
A huge section of a glacier in the Swiss Alps has broken off, causing a deluge of ice, mud and rock to bury most of a village evacuated earlier this month due to the risk of a rockslide. Footage showed a vast plain of mud and soil covering the village after the Birch Glacier partially collapsed. A river that runs through the village was also inundated, along with the wooded sides of the surrounding valley
Continue reading...Jerome Ringo, Outspoken Advocate for Environmental Justice, Dies at 70
La demanda climática de un peruano es desestimada en Alemania, pero abre la puerta a futuros casos
Swiss village almost entirely destroyed after collapse of glacier buries it in mud
One person missing and Blatten devastated after huge cloud of ice and rubble inundates evacuated town
A huge section of a glacier in the Swiss Alps has broken off, causing a deluge of ice, mud and rock to bury most of a village evacuated earlier this month due to the risk of a rockslide.
Drone footage broadcast by Swiss national broadcaster SRF showed a vast plain of mud and soil completely covering part of the village of Blatten, the river running through it and the wooded sides of the surrounding valley.
Continue reading...German Court Dismisses Climate Lawsuit Against RWE
Hawaii will tax vacation stays and use money to help counter climate crisis
Tax expected to generate nearly $100m annually, to be used for projects such as replacing sand on eroding beaches
Hawaii’s governor signed legislation that boosts a tax imposed on hotel room and vacation rental stays in order to raise money to address the consequences of the climate crisis.
It’s the first time in a government in the US imposes such levy to help cope with a warming planet.
Continue reading...World faces new danger of ‘economic denial’ in climate fight, Cop30 head says
Exclusive: André Corrêa do Lago says ‘answers have to come from the economy’ as climate policies trigger populist-fuelled backlash
The world is facing a new form of climate denial – not the dismissal of climate science, but a concerted attack on the idea that the economy can be reorganised to fight the crisis, the president of global climate talks has warned.
André Corrêa do Lago, the veteran Brazilian diplomat who will direct this year’s UN summit, Cop30, believes his biggest job will be to counter the attempt from some vested interests to prevent climate policies aimed at shifting the global economy to a low-carbon footing.
Continue reading...German court dismisses Peruvian farmer’s climate lawsuit against RWE
Court rejects argument that man’s home is at risk from glacial flood but sets precedent that polluters may be held liable for costs
A German court has rejected a climate case brought by a Peruvian farmer against the German energy company RWE, but set a potentially important precedent on polluters’ liability for their carbon emissions.
The upper regional court in Hamm confirmed that companies could be held liable for climate damages in civil proceedings but rejected the argument by the farmer and mountain guide Saúl Luciano Lliuya that his home was at direct risk of being washed away by a glacial flood.
Continue reading...The Crumbling of Bedrock Environmental Policy: We Need to Protect NEPA
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is among the foundational environmental protection laws in the United States, and it is under unprecedented attack from the Trump Administration.
Scientific rigor, transparency, Environmental Justice, and deliberation are fundamental to good government and can only be achieved through a robust NEPA process. As the current administration moves to gut the law, at the behest of extractive industries seeking to maximize profits, Congress and the US public must come to its defense.
A simple premise: productive harmonyDespite rhetoric from the oil, gas, and mining industries, NEPA is not complicated. The original statute stands for two basic propositions:
- Before a federal agency funds or permits something with significant environmental impacts, it should consider alternatives, including no action at all; and
- Before the agency makes the final decision, it should invite input from the people who will have to live with the consequences.
Section 101 of the statute states the aim of the law even more simply: “to create and maintain conditions under which [people] and nature can exist in productive harmony.”
And yet, the idea that potential impacts on people in surrounding communities should be considered before any significant federal action is taken was novel when NEPA was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1970. Much of US history is marked by unbridled resource extraction and rampant pollution from industrial development, with little or no consideration of the consequences to our air, land, and water.
And if the idea of environmental protection was new, the concepts of government transparency and public input were downright radical. NEPA stands for the proposition that even the most powerful federal agency should have to at least consider the views of average members of the US public before charging ahead.
After complying with NEPA’s requirements, however, that agency can still charge right ahead. The statute dictates a process, not an outcome, and the federal government can decide not to abide by the most environmentally conscious alternative.
As the Supreme Court explained in 1989, “NEPA merely prohibits uninformed–rather than unwise–agency action.”
The NEPA process is intended to take place concurrently with all other aspects of planning and implementation of a project. If project proponents go back to the drawing board a few times, or experience funding delays, or run afoul of the Clean Water Act or Endangered Species Act, that all takes place during the “NEPA process.”
This parallel structure has been manipulated by NEPA critics, who are eager to use anecdotal evidence to erroneously blame NEPA for project delays of years or even decades. Most experts agree that, given the various exemptions adopted over the years, size of the federal regulatory docket, and federal agency’s organized strategies to evade the statute, the allegations that NEPA stifles progress are overblown.
The state of playWatching NEPA implementation recently has been like watching tennis. The Obama Administration sought to expand NEPA consideration of greenhouse gas emissions, among other changes, but then the first Trump Administration sought to truncate application of the law. The Biden Administration reversed the Trump guidance, but then Congress narrowed the statute somewhat in the 2023. The Biden Administration then worked to implement the changes, along with some improvements to the regulations. Central to efforts to update NEPA by the Obama and Biden Administrations was the seemingly obvious idea that a process designed to assess environmental impacts should account for pollution that would worsen climate change.
Most recently, under the guise of an “energy emergency,” the Trump Administration has sought to repeal existing NEPA regulations and guidance, leaving individual departments and agencies to develop their own requirements for complying with the statute. In March, UCS joined 250 organizations in a comment letter on this action. As the letter made clear, “NEPA’s foundational premise is that full governmental transparency must be coupled with robust public participation to ensure federal agencies fully inform the public, and that agencies, in turn, are fully informed by the public, of a proposed project’s social and environmental costs and benefits.”
Secretary Burgum announced in April that the Interior Department would cap the review period for certain energy leasing applications, including those for oil, gas, coal, and uranium, at less than one month. Apparently, the first project to be fast-tracked will be the reopening of a uranium mine in Utah closed in 1984. Agriculture Secretary Rollins has announced similar plans to truncate NEPA review for federal timber sales. Uranium mining and clear-cutting national forests are exactly the kinds of activities that may provide short-term windfalls to private companies, while leaving local communities with devastating long-term impacts. Projects like these require more deliberation, not less.
“Red tape” is a red herringOne good way to watch tennis is to keep your eye on the ball. “Cutting red tape” or “streamlining” usually means cutting corners and cutting the public out. Deliberation and public participation are central to the NEPA process and any change to the statue or its implementation designed to “speed things up” often come at the expense of these fundamental goals.
NEPA was considered progressive in 1970, but its authors could not have known just how visionary the law really was. There is no better planning tool for coordinating a federal response to the climate crisis, or redressing decades of environmental racism, than NEPA. The goal of productive harmony between people and nature still seems both worthy and remote, particularly as millions of people suffer through yet another climate-fueled Danger Season.
The Trump Administration plan to destroy NEPA is dangerously wrong. Federal agencies need better funding, staffing, and training to engage in NEPA work more effectively; new short-cuts, time-limits, exemptions, or statutes of limitations are not in the public interest.
All infrastructure and energy development in the US since 1970 has occurred pursuant to NEPA. The law is not a barrier to development; it is a shield against reckless and unjust federal action. The only entities who benefit from undermining NEPA are special interests who reap a short-term windfall when federal agencies leap before they look. The only reason to curtail NEPA would be to let those windfalls happen.
Trump Administration Slashes NOAA, FEMA, Making 2025 Hurricane Season More Dangerous
This post was co-authored by Dr. Marc Alessi.
Here we are once again, on the cusp of the Atlantic hurricane season, which starts on June 1. That’s when we start regularly (maybe obsessively?) checking the National Hurricane Center (NHC) website for daily updates on the likelihood of tropical storm formation. This year, we’re bracing for what’s expected to be an active season made doubly dangerous by the Trump Administration’s cuts to agencies like the National Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—the parent agency of the National Weather Service (NWS) and the NHC.
On May 22, NOAA released its outlook, forecasting with 70% confidence an above-average hurricane season, with 13 to 19 named storms—6 to 10 of which could become hurricanes, with 3 to 5 of those being major (Category 3-5).
That was in line with Colorado State University’s 2025 hurricane season forecast, which called for another above-average season with 17 named storms, of which 7 are likely to become hurricanes—4 of them major. Usually the first forecast out, Colorado State also releases multiple updates throughout the season as well as a wrap-up analysis.
These forecasts may look less daunting than the ones for 2024, which was predicted to be a significantly above-average hurricane season, more active than 2025. Those forecasts were right: 2024 ended up as one of the costliest hurricane seasons on record, with Hurricanes Milton (a category 3 at landfall) and Helene (a category 4 at landfall) causing the most damage in the continental US. Hurricane Helene was also one of the deadliest hurricanes since 1950. While 2024 hopefully shouldn’t be as severe as the 2025 hurricane season, the fact remains that an above-average season is expected, and it only takes one severe landfalling hurricane for the costs and harms to people to be significant.
Why an above-average season?There are several factors that guide hurricane forecasters when they make their seasonal outlooks, two of which are mainly responsible for this year’s expected above-average hurricane season:
- Sea surface temperature (SST): this is really what the name says—the temperature of the water on the ocean surface. Currently, SSTs are above normal across the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and most of the Atlantic Ocean where hurricanes typically form. And there’s a clear climate change signal: according to Climate Central’s Climate Shift Index, these warm ocean temperatures are 30x more likely due to fossil fuel-caused climate change. Why does the temperature of the ocean surface matter for hurricanes? For hurricanes to form, SSTs must be at least 30 degrees C (86 degrees F). These warm waters act as fuel for hurricanes. If a tropical storm develops over warmer-than-usual waters, the tropical storm has more fuel to work with to strengthen into a hurricane. Therefore, warmer waters are a strong predictor of how many hurricanes we might see during hurricane season, which is why both forecasts stress this variable as one of their main reasons for an above-average season.
- The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO): Currently, we’re in a neutral phase of ENSO, meaning neither El Niño nor La Niña is occurring, and according to the May forecast from the Climate Prediction Center, this neutral phase is likely to continue through the hurricane season. This is another reason for an above-average season. ENSO is a natural 5-to-7-year oscillation, or cycle, of ocean temperature in the eastern Pacific Ocean. During a La Niña, the ocean temperatures are cooler in this region, and during an El Niño, they are warmer. The latter is linked to increased vertical wind shear (the change in wind speed with height) over the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, which breaks down tropical cyclone formation, leading to fewer hurricanes developing. La Niña does not have this characteristic, and because of this, La Niña years usually tend to have more hurricanes. So what’s happening this hurricane season? An El Niño, which would be a better scenario for fewer hurricane formations, is unlikely to develop; hence the above-average season.
Last year was a hurricane season for the record books. Hurricane Beryl was the earliest Category 5 hurricane in Atlantic recorded history, and Hurricanes Milton and Helene both underwent periods of rapid intensification, defined as a strengthening of winds of at least 35 mph in a 24-hour period, thanks in large part to SSTs being 2°C warmer than usual. These rapid intensification rates experienced by Helene and Milton are part of a larger trend in the Atlantic Ocean: hurricanes have increasingly undergone periods of rapid intensification since 1982 as a result of warmer waters due to fossil-fuel caused climate change. When these warmer waters are near the shore, hurricanes can intensify quickly just before landfall, creating an added layer of danger and preparedness needs.
Luckily, there is a silver lining to this. In 2024, the NHC had an incredibly accurate year forecasting the worst the season had to offer. The NHC predicted that both Milton and Helene would undergo periods of rapid intensification well in advance, which provided ample warning time to residents in Florida where the storms eventually made landfall. In fact, Helene was predicted to undergo rapid intensification when it was just a tropical disturbance, not even a fully formed tropical storm!
And the forecast for Milton was even more impressive: the very first advisory issued by the NHC for Milton predicted it would make landfall in Florida only 12 miles away from its actual landing spot! That was an incredibly accurate forecast made days in advance. But our ability to forecast storms this accurately is threatened by the Trump administration actions to slash federal agencies.
Above-average concerns added to an above-average seasonThis year, we enter hurricane season with heightened risks because of the Trump administration’s actions against NOAA and FEMA that have already undermined preparedness and could severely harm disaster response. And this certainly raises concerns.
Forecasts and warnings are an essential part of hurricane awareness. The NHC has historically monitored the Atlantic in a variety of ways in order to identify possible tropical storm formation, evolution, and ultimately hurricane development and trajectory.
In addition, resources such as hurricane hunter airplanes are key to identifying what is going on inside a hurricane, getting information on speed, strength, and other data, which then allows the NHC to issue a better forecast. The NHC also has an incredible lineup of weather and hurricane models and resources that have been perfected over the years by NOAA research laboratories, the same ones that are facing cuts from the Trump administration. If cuts to NOAA (and the NHC) continue, they are likely to diminish forecast accuracy and confidence, and communities at risk of an approaching hurricane may lack the resources to properly prepare and respond.
We also know that preparedness is key during hurricane season. That includes planned emergency responses such as evacuation plans, shelter, supplies, rescue and recovery. In the past, communities could count on the federal government and FEMA to come through after a hurricane (or any other disaster) hit.
Our colleague Shana Udvardy has been tracking the Trump administration’s attacks on FEMA and the potential consequences to people of its downsizing through cuts to the agency’s staff, programs and mission. According to her, the proposed shift of the burden of disaster response from the federal government to state and local government will create significant risk and harm for communities in the path of and reeling from disasters. Instead of making cuts, she says, the administration should strengthen FEMA.
Trump administration’s actions raise risks of bad outcomesCuts to NOAA and FEMA hinder our country’s ability to properly and safely respond to hurricane threats and other disasters. With climate change leading to stronger and more destructive hurricanes with intensifying wind and rainfall, and a higher likelihood of hurricanes making landfall along certain areas of the US coast, we can only hope that, if a hurricane makes landfall, communities on the storm path will be prepared and receive the assistance they need to get back on their feet.
Congress must work to counteract the Trump administration actions, ensuring NOAA and the NHC are fully funded and staffed so that hurricane experts at the NHC continue issuing lifesaving forecasts. Congress must also ensure a fully funded and staffed FEMA is ready to respond to any hurricane landfall this season.
Can trade in soil carbon credits help farmers – and the climate?
Regenerative agriculture has growth potential for the offsets market, but scientists question its green credentials
On a blustery spring day, Thomas Gent is walking through a field of winter wheat on his family’s farm, which straddles the Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire border. Some of the green shoots reach his knees, while the ground between the plants is covered with clover.
Sinking a spade into the soil, Gent grins as he points to the freshly dug clod of earth on the blade. “Look at the root structure,” he says. “It rained 20mm last night. The water has drained down because the soil structure is in the right format.”
Continue reading...Global temperatures could break heat record in next five years
Data also shows small but ‘shocking’ likelihood of year 2C hotter than preindustrial era before 2030
There is an 80% chance that global temperatures will break at least one annual heat record in the next five years, raising the risk of extreme droughts, floods and forest fires, a new report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has shown.
For the first time, the data also indicated a small likelihood that before 2030, the world could experience a year that is 2C hotter than the preindustrial era, a possibility scientists described as “shocking”.
Continue reading...