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Climate Change Comes to the Tetons
Climate-Friendly Meat? Regulators Tighten Scrutiny of Label Buzzwords.
100-Plus Tons of Dead Fish Swamp a Greece Port
Millions swelter as central and eastern US placed under excessive heat watch
Meteorologists predict scorching temperatures for the weekend before weather cools just in time for Labor Day
Millions of Americans will continue to swelter as Labor Day weekend approaches, with much of the country under some kind of excessive heat watch.
The brutal heatwave the US midwest suffered earlier this week has spread to the eastern half of the country, with more than 20 million people under some kind of a heat alert.
Continue reading...The Democratic ticket’s first major interview of the campaign | First Thing
Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz sat down with CNN’s Dana Bash in a pre-recorded interview that airs Thursday night. Plus: peacocks in Scotland
Good morning.
Tonight, the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, will give her first major interview since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee. The pre-recorded interview, which was scheduled after some criticism of Harris’s reluctance to expose herself to media scrutiny, will be with CNN’s Dana Bash and will include Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz.
What should we expect from this interview? This will be a big test of Harris’s credibility after a prolonged honeymoon that has seen her surge ahead of Donald Trump in opinion polls. “This is the first time she is going to take questions,” said David Chalian, CNN’s political director. “Now is the opportunity to hear her ruminate aloud, with Dana asking her about her policy positions, her plans for the future, her plans for the country, in an unscripted setting.”
Are Republicans happy with this setup? Republicans have long called for Harris, who has had a variable performance in past televised one-on-ones, to take questions live from the press. Some are mocking the setup of the interview, accusing Harris of being unwilling to risk a high-profile grilling without the protective presence of Walz.
What do the Arlington officials say happened? Arlington said in a statement that one of its representatives was “verbally abused” and pushed aside after telling two Trump staffers that only cemetery representatives were allowed to take video and photographs in section 60, an area where recent US casualties, mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan, are buried. “Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within army national military cemeteries,” the statement said.
How has the Trump team responded? JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, dismissed the row as media exaggeration over “a little disagreement”. He later accused the media of “acting like Donald Trump filmed a TV commercial at a gravesite”.
Continue reading...Winter’s unseasonal warmth and clear skies are glorious – but a forbidding sign of danger to come | Paul Daley
After the polar blast of a few weeks back, we have opened our eyes to the luminous full bloom of premature spring
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These unseasonal late-winter days of warmth and clear skies, of the sudden necessity of shorts and T-shirts for the morning dog-walk, are at once glorious and somewhat disconcerting.
Spring – the season of renewal, of awakening, of birth and perhaps re-birth – demands to be celebrated. But somehow this year, all of its ridiculously early harbingers feel double-edged for their presaging of the realities of climate change and sea-level rise.
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Continue reading...Canada’s 2023 wildfires released more greenhouse gases than most countries
Had fires been ranked alongside countries they would have been world’s fourth-largest emitter, study finds
Wildfires that swept Canada’s woodlands last year released more greenhouse gases than some of the largest emitting countries, a study found on Wednesday, calling into question national emissions budgets that rely on forests as carbon stores.
At 647 megatonnes, the carbon released in last year’s wildfires exceeded those of seven of the 10 largest national emitters in 2022, including Germany, Japan and Russia, the study published in the journal Nature found.
Continue reading...New Orleans solar panel program turns eateries into hurricane shelters
City-wide initiative gives restaurants free solar panels to ‘support the community’ during storms and power outages
As a restaurant owner in New Orleans, Shaka Gerel is no stranger to hurricanes.
Afrodisiac, the Jamaican Creole fusion food truck he started with his wife Caron, served jerk chicken and crawfish etouffee, rain or shine, for years. When particularly bad storms took out the city’s power, the couple sometimes used their bright purple truck’s generator to offer their neighbors a place to charge their phones or refill on ice.
Continue reading...South Korea’s climate law violates rights of future generations, court rules
Absence of legally binding targets for greenhouse gas reductions from 2031-49 deemed unconstitutional
South Korea’s constitutional court has ruled that part of the country’s climate law does not conform with protecting the constitutional rights of future generations, an outcome local activists are calling a “landmark decision”.
The unanimous verdict concludes four years of legal battles and sets a significant precedent for future climate-related legal actions in the region.
Continue reading...South Korean Court Orders Stronger Steps on Climate Change
UK may unveil tougher emissions targets at Cop29 climate summit
Campaigners hail Labour’s ‘proactive approach’ after series of policy U-turns under Conservatives
The UK government is considering making further commitments on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, likely to be announced at the UN climate summit this year.
It is hoped the plan will help kickstart global ambitions on cutting emissions and encourage other countries to follow suit.
Continue reading...US leads wealthy countries spending billions of public money on unproven ‘climate solutions’
Exclusive: Over $12bn in subsidies awarded for technologies like carbon capture experts call ‘colossal waste of money’
A handful of wealthy polluting countries led by the US are spending billions of dollars of public money on unproven climate solutions technologies that risk further delaying the transition away from fossil fuels, new analysis suggests.
These governments have handed out almost $30bn in subsidies for carbon capture and fossil hydrogen over the past 40 years, with hundreds of billions potentially up for grabs through new incentives, according to a new report by Oil Change International (OCI), a non-profit tracking the cost of fossil fuels.
Continue reading...‘Like doomsday’: why have salmon deserted Norway’s rivers – and will they ever return?
North Atlantic populations are at a historic low, and this year 33 of the country’s rivers were closed during the fishing season as salmon farming and the climate crisis threaten the fish’s future
“What is Norway without the fjords and the mountains?” asks Ann-Britt Bogen from her candlelit kitchen, the wild Gaula River flowing by outside the window, the hillside covered by low-lying cloud. For centuries, the river, which runs 153km (95 miles) from the mountains near the Swedish border to Trondheim fjord, has attracted salmon – and fishers – year after year.
But this spring the salmon, particularly the medium and larger-sized fish, did not come back from the ocean, raising such alarm over the collapse of the salmon population that the river, along with dozens of others in central and southern Norway, was abruptly closed for the first time.
Continue reading...How Exxon chases billions in US subsidies for a ‘climate solution’ that helps it drill more oil
Climate experts raise red flags as oil giant spends millions lobbying while touting ‘underperforming’ carbon capture
When the oil giant ExxonMobil sponsored an event at the re-energizing Democratic national convention (DNC) in Chicago last week, it was disrupted by climate activists outraged that big oil was invited on to an influential political platform. “Exxon lies, people die,” protesters shouted before being evicted.
The event included a “fireside chat” with Vijay Swarup, the company’s senior climate strategy and technology director. Swarup is a 30-year Exxon veteran who headed the company’s research and development team for just under a decade, and oversaw initiatives on biofuels, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen.
Continue reading...Hundreds of thousands of dead fish blanket Greece tourist port after flooding – video
Greek authorities have started collecting hundreds of thousands of dead fish that poured into a tourist port in the central coastal city of Volos this week after being displaced from their usual freshwater habitats during flooding last year. 'It spans kilometres,' a city council member, Stelios Limnios, told Reuters. 'It’s not just along the coast, but also in the centre of the Pagasetic Gulf,' he said, referring to the waters off Volos, where the coast is lined with holiday homes. There have been warnings that the rotting fish could create an environmental disaster for other species in the area
Continue reading...‘Immoral and unacceptable’: Tuvalu calls on Australia to set urgent deadline to end fossil fuels
A day after agreement was ratified at the Pacific Island Forum, the country’s climate minister says ‘root cause of climate change’ must be addressed
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Tuvalu’s climate minister has declared that “opening, subsidising and exporting fossil fuels is immoral and unacceptable”, just a day after Australia ratified a climate and security deal with the low-lying Pacific nation.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, welcomed the agreement with Tuvalu on Wednesday, saying Pacific island countries were “fully aware of the commitment that we have to climate action” but gas would continue to play a role.
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Continue reading...‘Hyper-violent’ Typhoon Gaemi was made fiercer by climate crisis, say scientists
Researchers warn Asia will become an increasingly dangerous place to live until fossil fuels are replaced
The “hyper-violent” Typhoon Gaemi was made fiercer and more likely to strike by the climate crisis, scientists have found. They said “Asia will become an increasingly dangerous place to live until fossil fuels are replaced”.
The typhoon hit the Philippines, Taiwan and Hunan province in China in late July, with floods and landslides destroying homes, killing at least 100 people and affecting millions. Winds reaching 145mph (233 km/h) sank two large ships, while floods in Manila were as deep as a one-storey building.
Continue reading...Greece tourist port flooded with hundreds of thousands of dead fish
Authorities in Volos say affected area spans kilometres and could cause environmental disaster for other species
Greek authorities have started collecting hundreds of thousands of dead fish that poured into a tourist port in the central city of Volos this week after being displaced from their usual freshwater habitats during flooding last year.
The floating carcasses created a silvery blanket across the port and a stench that alarmed residents and authorities who raced to scoop them up before the odour reached nearby restaurants and hotels.
Continue reading...Canada’s Wildfires Were a Top Global Emitter Last Year, Study Says
‘Profit is being prioritised over climate action’ – British fashion is falling behind on sustainability
A new report claims that fewer than 4% of London fashion week designers have published emissions reduction targets, compared with 44% of all UK companies. Why is the industry so slow to reform?
In just over a fortnight, some of the UK’s biggest fashion brands will showcase their new collections at London fashion week. Organised by the British Fashion Council (BFC), it’s always an exciting moment, bringing together some of the country’s top creative talent. But it also highlights entrenched problems in fashion. Only 3.4% of BFC members have published public targets to reduce their emissions aligned with the Paris Agreement, according to a new report by ethical fashion not-for-profit Collective Fashion Justice.
The BFC is a body of organisations from the industry who are responsible for overseeing, supporting and advising on the key issues facing the British designer industry, with members including publishing houses, high street brands and retail destinations, including household names like Yoox, Net-a-Porter and Savile Row. Of these members, only five brands – Burberry, Mulberry, Margaret Howell, Rixo and Kyle Ho – have published science-based targets aligned with the Paris agreement, which would, according to CFJ, “make them effective targets worth working towards”. By stark contrast, 44% of all UK companies have a structured plan to reduce their carbon footprint and climate impact, according to recent data from the Climate Ready Index.
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