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Dragons and Sharks on a Beach Near You: The Story of the Great Lego Spill
5 Takeaways From Our Reporting on Toxic Sludge Fertilizer
‘We don’t want all the fluffy stuff’: Pacific islands push Australia to take strong action on climate
Campaigners say there’s impatience about Australia’s reluctance to stop ‘opening, subsidising and exporting fossil fuels’
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Anthony Albanese had just finished briefing Pacific island leaders on Australia’s bid to host a UN climate summit when one of his counterparts made a pointed intervention.
The president of the Marshall Islands, Hilda Heine, began her speech diplomatically, saying she was “grateful” for the update and hoped the initiative was a “true” partnership with the Pacific.
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Continue reading...Something’s Poisoning America’s Land. Farmers Fear ‘Forever’ Chemicals.
When the Flash Flood Comes With Godlike Velocity, Why Do I Stay and Watch?
A brutal hurricane razed their town. Five years later, they’re still searching for home
Hurricane Dorian ravaged the Bahamas in 2019. Its poorest survivors are being pushed from one shantytown to the next
Shaquille Joseph knew things were profoundly wrong, irreversibly so, when he heard the bubbling.
The noise had no logical origin. It wasn’t the sound of a tidal wave, roaring towards his house, but a steady fizzing, like a pot of water boiling over in the next room. Moments before, Joseph had been ready to fall asleep in his bedroom. But now he got up and went to the window.
Continue reading...I Swore Off Air-Conditioning, and You Can, Too
More August temperature records expected to fall amid warm weather and winds across east coast
Unseasonably strong winds and record-breaking warm weather has been forecast to continue through the weekend
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Winter has ended in Australia with weather records broken across the country – with expectations of August temperature records being broken on the final day of the month.
Amid wild winds in the country’s south, a warm run of weather was expected to continue through the weekend in central and southern Queensland, along with north-eastern New South Wales. Brisbane is expected to see multiple days of over 30C.
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Continue reading...Alarm as Australia records ‘gobsmacking’ hot August temperatures
Heat building up in country’s centre and driving south-east is causing ‘really unusual’ heatwave that is breaking winter records
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Australia’s winter runs from June to August, but swathes of the country have felt like summer the past week with temperatures topping 40C and records tumbling.
“It doesn’t matter how you slice and dice it,” said Dr Linden Ashcroft, a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne. “The temperature records have been gobsmacking.”
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Continue reading...Business Group Sues Texas Officials Over Law That Shields Oil Industry
The week around the world in 20 pictures
The evacuation of Pokrovsk, the Israeli raid in the West Bank, the Paralympic Games in Paris and the Notting Hill carnival: the last seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists
• Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing
Continue reading...Turbine Blades Have Piled Up in Landfills. A Solution May Be Coming.
Silicon Valley Wants to Fight Fires With Fire
Emissions from Australian coal-fired power stations rise as wind and hydro dip
More electricity demand and lower than usual generation from two renewable sources raises questions about climate targets
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Greenhouse gas emissions from Australia’s ageing coal-fired power plants rose slightly in the first half of the year, reversing years of declining pollution from the power section and raising questions about the country’s ability to meet its climate targets.
An increase in electricity consumption across the country and lower than usual wind and hydro output led to an increase in coal generation. It pushed up emissions from the electricity grid between January and June.
Continue reading...‘I panic when I hear rain’: New York’s deadly basement apartments face growing flooding risk
Many of the roughly 100,000 units are illegal and do not conform to codes, making them a hazard for fires and floods
Josh Alba had lived in an illegal basement apartment in Queens, New York, for almost five years. Despite the low ceilings, he savored his chance to afford housing without roommates. But his tenure there ended during Hurricane Ida.
He’d been asleep on his couch as the rain started falling. He only woke up when his cat smacked him in the face, and he noticed water coming in from outside, rising to at least an inch on the floor.
Continue reading...‘Everywhere jam-packed’: mayor of Santorini warns of overtourism crisis
Nikos Zorzos calls for urgent action to halt construction spree he says presents existential threat to Greek island
Santorini, the island so Instagrammable it has become Greece’s most popular destination, will not be able to “save itself” if runaway development – the most tangible effect of overtourism – is not instantly curbed, the mayor has warned.
With more than 3.4 million tourists expected to visit the Cycladic hotspot this year, Nikos Zorzos called for urgent action to stop a construction spree that risks spurring the island’s ruination.
Continue reading...Aquatic life under threat as pollution and warmer waters wreak havoc
Research makes clear that the problem caused by sewage and climate change is more urgent than previously thought
Almost half of all fish species and 10% of mammals rely on rivers and lakes for survival but a combination of climate change and pollution is threatening their existence. Although scientists knew that pollution and warmer water damage life in freshwater they had not realised the combination of the two further hastens the destruction of much aquatic life, especially the diversity of small creatures which fish need for food.
Humans, as happened at the Olympic Games, can choose to avoid endangering themselves by not entering polluted water, but fish in the River Seine in Paris have no options. They are gradually being wiped out by the combination of warmer water and pollution.
Continue reading...‘Next question, please’ and Gaza war: key takeaways from Harris and Walz’s first interview
Democratic nominees talk to CNN’s Dana Bash on Thursday about fracking, the US middle class and ‘weapons of war’
In a primetime spot on CNN Thursday evening, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz sat for their first interview together as the Democratic ticket, taking questions from the anchor Dana Bash on a range of important issues, including their plans for day one if they win the race, the approach to the war in Gaza, and how Joe Biden passed the baton.
With just over two months until voters will head to the polls on 5 November – and even less time before some will mail in their ballots – the Democratic candidates for president and vice-president made good on a promise to speak more candidly about how they will tackle the US’s most pressing problems.
Continue reading...Kamala Harris defends policy stances and shares plan for office in first major interview
In sit-down with CNN’s Dana Bash, vice-president defends shifts on policy issues and her support for Biden
Kamala Harris sat for her first interview as the Democratic presidential nominee with CNN’s Dana Bash alongside her running mate, Tim Walz, on Thursday, and defended her shifts on certain policy issues over the years and her support for Joe Biden.
In the interview, which was taped from Savannah, Georgia, earlier Thursday, the vice-president said her highest priority upon taking office would be to “support and strengthen the middle class” through policies including increasing the child tax credit, curtailing price gouging on everyday goods and increasing access to affordable housing – all policies that she has announced since she started campaigning for the presidency.
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