The Guardian
Little-known pīwauwau rock wren named as New Zealand’s 2022 bird of the year
Rare alpine species captures narrow win over kororā penguin after campaign marked by controversy
The pīwauwau rock wren, a diminutive mountain-dwelling underdog, has come out on top in New Zealand’s annual bird of the year competition after a hard-fought campaign again marked by controversy.
The rare alpine species – which weighs less than 20g, about as much as a MallowPuff biscuit – beat out a number of higher-profile and charismatic competitors.
Continue reading...Global anger at Sunak’s Cop27 snub that raises fears over UK’s climate crisis stance
PM accused of ‘washing his hands’ of leadership on international climate action with decision not to attend talks
Rishi Sunak’s decision to snub the Cop27 UN climate talks, and to keep King Charles from attending, has angered and upset countries around the world, risking the UK’s standing on the world stage and raising concerns over his government’s commitment to tackling the climate crisis.
Several developing countries told the Guardian of their dismay. Carlos Fuller, Belize’s ambassador to the UN, said: “I can understand why the king was asked not to attend – keeping him out of the fray. However, as the principal UK policymaker and the Cop26 president, the PM should have led the summit.
Continue reading...In my house is a Tuvaluan basket, a tiny piece of an island the world cannot fail | Kate Lyons
Each day this week, essay series Before it is lost will feature Pacific writers detailing the climate fight that threatens the survival of their islands
I own a basket I can never throw away.
It is deeply impractical, with a wide base that means it takes up the entire surface area of any coffee table it sits on and a tall, rigid handle that makes storing it on any sort of shelf impossible.
Continue reading...Raising Warragamba Dam probably can’t stop floods. There’s a simpler solution closer to home
Rain is everywhere, like sunshine on solar panels. Why not collect and use it locally, leaving the existing dam for flood mitigation?
Warragamba Dam was built in 1960 to hold water from the Dyarubbin (Nepean-Hawkesbury River) as a water supply for Sydney. It also had some flood-mitigation potential, to hold back water when it wasn’t full.
During droughts when the dam had “too little water”, a desalination plant was built at Botany Bay. Now, when it has “too much water” in floods, there is a push to raise the dam wall to increase its volume. The New South Wales premier has declared he will build it, with or without federal funding.
Continue reading...Rather than an endlessly reheated nuclear debate, politicians should be powered by the evidence | Adam Morton
A renewable-dominated system is comfortably the cheapest form of power generation, according to research
We should be wary of simple declarations about the increasingly rapid transformation of the electricity grid.
The government has been given a sharp reminder of this after leaning too heavily on pre-election modelling that suggested its policies to boost renewable energy could lead to a $275 cut in bills by 2025. You never know when a Vladimir Putin-shaped villain might disrupt international fossil fuel markets, wreck your assumptions and leave you accused of breaking an election pledge.
Continue reading...‘They only had about 30 seconds left’: why cars become death traps in floods
With flooding across the nation, drowning rates are at a 25-year high and driving through floods is a leading cause. So why do people still take the risk?
When the rescue team arrived in Nundah, an inner suburb of Brisbane, on the night of Sunday 27 February 2022, the rain was heavy and power outages had left the city dark. A member of the public had reported seeing a car, with people inside, floating down the road. But when Brad Mitchell – a specialist swift-water rescue technician with Queensland Fire and Rescue Service – scanned the scene, all he could see was a vast black sea flowing where a city street once lay.
After 10 minutes of fruitless searching – wading through chest height water – the team was ready to go and look somewhere else, when a resident yelled from their balcony: “I can see a light!”
Continue reading...Australia’s best photos of the month – October 2022
V8s, floods and avian racing: Guardian Australia looks back at the best photos from October across the country
Continue reading...Greenpeace accused of greenwashing Egypt’s image ahead of Cop27
Criticism of group comes as advocates warn environmentalists should not downplay concerns about Egypt’s human rights record
Greenpeace has been accused by human rights defenders of “greenwashing” the Egyptian government’s image and discouraging other activists from forcefully raising the country’s abysmal human right record ahead of Cop27, the UN climate summit that will be held in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh next week.
Criticism of the global conservation group comes as human rights advocates have warned that environmentalists should not downplay concerns about Egypt’s human rights record out of fear that it could curtail their access to the global summit or that it might take attention away from achieving climate objectives. Advocates argue that meaningful climate action can only be achieved if scientists, activists and journalists are free to pressure governments to transition away from fossil fuels.
Continue reading...Cop27 climate summit: window for avoiding catastrophe is closing fast
The effects of global heating could soon reach a tipping point, but scientists fear that the meeting in Egypt will become bogged down in recriminations
It has been an alarming time for climate scientists. One by one, the grim scenarios they had outlined for the near future have been overtaken by events: extreme storms, droughts, floods and ice-sheet collapses whose sudden appearances have outstripped researchers’ worst predictions. Catastrophic climate change is happening more rapidly and with greater intensity than their grimmest warnings, it transpires.
Examples include this summer’s record high temperature of 40.3C in the UK, a massive jump of 1.6C on the previous hottest day; torrential rains that triggered the most severe flooding in Pakistan’s recent history; and last year’s Hurricane Ida, one of the most destructive storms to have struck the US.
Continue reading...Will disruptive action help save the planet? | Rupert Read and Indigo Rumbelow
Nothing’s worked. More diplomatically put: nothing has yet worked at anything like the pace required. Is it any wonder that desperation is growing?
Continue reading...Roadblocks, soup hurling, superglue … Just Stop Oil protests divide activists on direct action
As a month of climate protests ends, environmentalists are split on whether disruption or moderation is best to galvanise change
Not for the first time this month, a protest by climate activists descended into acrimony and the threat of violence today. At midday, close to the Oval cricket ground in south London, a dozen or so Just Stop Oil activists brought weekend traffic to a halt.
Irate motorists dragged protesters aggressively off the road. “Move out the fucking way,” shouted one driver. “[I] swear to God, I’m going to crack some of you in the fucking face.”
Continue reading...The labyrinthine patterns traced by birds on the wing – in pictures
On a hike one day, photographer Xavier Bou, who is based in Barcelona, wondered if the flight paths of birds could be captured on paper. Through research he realised they could – and represented in a single image. Since then he’s recorded the labyrinthine patterns created by birds on the wing, a project published next month as a book called Ornithographies (Lynx Edicions). “We’re at a point in history where conservation is no longer an eccentric hobby,” says Bou. “It is a necessity. I hope Ornithographies encourages people to become aware of the birds around us… just raise your head and – who knows – maybe a beautiful formation of migrating geese will pass by.”
Continue reading...Just Stop Oil activists dragged out of way by motorists at London protests
Videos posted by the group show drivers moving protesters, who keep returning to retake their places
Motorists dragged Just Stop Oil protesters out of the way as activists halted traffic flow across four central London roads on Saturday.
The group said 61 Just Stop Oil supporters stopped traffic on Charing Cross Road, Kensington High Street, Kennington Road and Blackfriars Road, “demanding that the government halts all new oil and gas consents and licences”.
Continue reading...PFAS left dangerous blood compounds in nearly all US study participants
The toxic ‘forever chemicals’ can stay in human blood for years, and are linked to cancers, kidney damage and heart disease
Nearly all participants in a new study looking at exposure to PFAS “forever chemicals” in the US state of North Carolina have multiple dangerous compounds in their blood, and most at levels that researchers say requires medical screening.
The North Carolina State University study, which is among the largest ever conducted, checked about 1,500 blood samples from people living in the Cape Fear River basin over several years. It’s the first study to conclude with researchers using newly developed physicians’ guidelines for PFAS exposure to recommend screening for cancers, kidney damage, heart disease and other health issues linked to the chemicals.
Continue reading...Goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C ‘more fragile’ than ever, says Cop27 chair
Exclusive: in a rare interview, Egyptian minister Sameh Shoukry says global tensions are making talks harder
The goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C is “more fragile” than ever, as world leaders prepare to meet for crucial climate talks, the president-designate of the negotiations has warned.
Sameh Shoukry, the foreign minister of Egypt, who will chair the UN Cop27 climate summit next month, said in a rare interview that forging agreement would be harder than at any other recent climate talks, owing to the “turbulent” global economy and “difficult” geopolitical tensions, stoked by the Ukraine war.
Continue reading...Weather tracker: unseasonable heat in Europe as winter comes early to US
Southern Spain hit 35.2C on Thursday, more than 10 degrees above normal, as heavy snow fell on Utah
A broad area of low pressure has remained west of the British Isles during the past week. South-westerly winds associated with this system have transported air from north-western Africa to western and central Europe.
The result of this advection has been anomalously warm temperatures across large parts of Europe – in particular across France and Spain, where temperatures soared to over 10C above normal. Maximum temperatures widely exceeded 30C in parts of Spain on Thursday, with 35.2C measured at Morón de la Frontera, south-east of Seville.
Continue reading...Climate crisis study finds heatwaves have cost global economy $16tn
Researchers examining data going back to 1990s find global south has borne brunt despite causing least emissions
Heatwaves brought on by human-caused climate breakdown have cost the global economy about $16tn since the 1990s, according to a study.
The research calculates the financial impact of extreme heat on infrastructure, agriculture, productivity, human health and other areas.
Continue reading...The Guardian view on the climate crisis: no end in sight | Editorial
The globally agreed target of 1.5C is on track to be missed. For those working to prevent disaster, the only option is to keep trying
The world is falling into an “abyss of risk”, said Prof Johan Rockström of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. Reports published this week by three UN agencies all point to the failure of governments to make – and keep – sufficient commitments to ensure that global temperatures will not rise by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, which was the target in the 2015 Paris agreement. This is the worst possible news, and arrives just a week before this year’s round of climate talks, Cop27, is due to open in Egypt.
So far human activities have raised the temperature by around 1C on average. If current pledges on emissions are fulfilled, that figure is expected to rise to 2.5C. That would – and probably will – mean destruction on a scale that is hard to imagine, even after what we have already witnessed, most recently with devastating floods in Pakistan but also record-breaking heatwaves and other extreme weather elsewhere.
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