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‘We are crying for rain’: Suriname’s villages go hungry as drought bites
After the worst rains in decades, rivers are drying up and crops failing, leaving people in the interior without clean water or healthcare, and cutting transport links
John Adjako lets out a deep sigh when his thoughts turn to his income as a boatman. It has been dwindling for the past few months during the drought in the Upper Suriname region where he lives and where his boat is one of the dozens moored each day at the Atjoni jetty.
December generally sees a surge of local passengers and tourists heading to the interior of Suriname, a country on the north-east coast of South America, where the Amazon meets the Atlantic Ocean.
Continue reading...Nobel prize winners call for urgent ‘moonshot’ effort to avert global hunger catastrophe
More than 150 Nobel and World Food prize laureates sign open letter calling for immediate ramping up of food production
More than 150 Nobel and World Food prize laureates have signed an open letter calling for “moonshot” efforts to ramp up food production before an impending world hunger catastrophe.
The coalition of some of the world’s greatest living thinkers called for urgent action to prioritise research and technology to solve the “tragic mismatch of global food supply and demand”.
Continue reading...LA fires forecast to be costliest blaze in US history with estimate of over $200bn in losses
Fires have killed at least 24, displaced thousands, destroyed over 12,000 structures as winds predicted until Wednesday
Fire crews are trying to get the upper hand on blazes that are tearing through Los Angeles before expected high wind gusts threaten their progress. The fires, which may become the most expensive in US history, have killed at least 24 people, displaced thousands, destroyed more than 12,000 structures and have 100,000 people under evacuation orders.
Sustained winds of up to 40mph (64km/h) and gusts in the mountains reaching 65mph (105km/h) are predicted through Wednesday, forecasters said. Winds picked up on Monday and were expected to strengthen on Tuesday, fire behavior analyst Dennis Burns said.
Continue reading...Dangerous winds expected to amplify California wildfires as death toll hits 24
Warning of ‘particularly dangerous situation’ with gusts expected as LA fire chief says: ‘We are not in the clear yet’
Firefighters battling the disastrous wildfires around Los Angeles were prepared for a return of dangerous winds that could again stoke the flames as the death toll in the tragedy has hit at least 24.
Fierce gusts known as Santa Ana winds have been largely blamed for turning the wildfires into devastating infernos that leveled huge tranches of neighborhoods around America’s second-largest city, which has also been hit by drought.
Continue reading...US House speaker supports conditional California aid; officials pre-deploy firefighters as LA braces for ‘explosive fire growth’ – live
Mike Johnson criticizes California state and local officials; Gavin Newsom says ‘hundreds of firefighting assets are currently prepositioned across Southern California’
Weather forecasters are predicting that the dry season in Los Angeles is likely to get worse in the coming weeks and that the drought which intensified last week across southern California will continue to worsen into March.
Meteorologist Eric Holthaus has written for the Guardian and says the rain forecast for the next three weeks in Los Angeles means the city’s record-dry start to its rainy season will keep getting worse.
This year’s rainy season is running at just 2% of normal for Los Angeles, which has only seen 0.16in of rain so far.
Weather models increasingly indicate that southern California will receive no rain at all during the rest of January, and potentially no rain during the first week or two of February as well.
Continue reading...Supreme Court Clears a Path for Lawsuits Against Oil Companies to Proceed
No One Should Be Scoring Political Points Over a Fire
Oil Tycoon Harold Hamm Throwing an Inauguration Day Party
Are Smart Thermostats Worth the Money?
What is happening in Los Angeles is our future | Francine Prose
The news from California is clear, but we don’t want to see it. It’s too confounding, big, complex. But we can sense the danger
When I send anxious texts to friends in Los Angeles – friends who have been evacuated or who are waiting to leave , friends escaping a fire zone, wondering if their life’s work has been destroyed, worrying about the smoke’s effect on an asthmatic child – I always begin with the same three words:are you OK?
But a continent away, watching photos and videos of a city I love being incinerated, overcome by waves of terror, grief and mourning, I have other questions.
Continue reading...‘Have some guts’: Sarah Hanson-Young challenges Labor to keep its environmental promises
Greens senator sees climate crisis and environment as the ‘elephant in the room’ for 2025 election
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The Greens are demanding Labor put a moratorium on the destruction of koala habitat and overcome political opponents and mining interests to implement its full suite of promised environment protection laws, in an early attempt to position nature as a federal election issue.
“What we need is the government, the Labor party, to be tougher and to have some guts to stand up and stare them down,” says the party’s environment spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young.
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Continue reading...UK faces broccoli and cauliflower shortage this spring
Growers blame weather challenges in UK and Europe, which Met Office says will become more frequent with climate breakdown
Broccoli, cauliflower and other brassicas may be in short supply this spring as the mild autumn and winter has caused the crops to come up early, growers have said.
Any shortages will prolong the so-called “hungry gap”, which runs from April to early June, when very few crops grown in the UK are ready to eat.
Continue reading...New year, new anxious thoughts. How is your 2025 going? | Jess Harwood
Global events can feel bigger and more intractable than ever, but there’s still hope
Continue reading...LA wildfires: death toll rises to 24 as winds threaten further destruction
More than 1,800 structures destroyed as Eaton and Palisades fires still less than 30% contained
The death toll from the Eaton and Palisades fires that have consumed large swathes of Los Angeles county – and are still less than 30% contained – has risen to 24, according to medical examiners.
The county of Los Angeles medical examiner published a list of fatalities without giving details of any identities. Eight of the dead were found in the Palisades fire zone, and 16 in the Eaton fire zone, the document said.
Continue reading...As the world burns, young Australians are feeling disbelief – and looking for answers | Anjali Sharma
My generation feels trapped in a political system not built for us. Why wouldn’t we be disillusioned?
I’m scrolling on TikTok after work when I get a text that would have sent 12-year-old Anjali into a spiral, a frenzy of extreme climate anxiety. The text is from a friend letting me know that it’s official – 2024 is the hottest year on record. Not just that, it’s the first year to exceed 1.5C of warming over preindustrial levels.
The news comes as my entire feed is flooded with images of an inferno of flames ripping through neighbourhoods in LA, in winter.
Continue reading...LA fires could test Getty Center’s claim of being safest place to store artwork
Getty team says no current plans to move prominent pieces from center deemed ‘marvel of anti-fire engineering’
It houses some of the richest treasures of the art world, such as Vincent van Gogh’s Irises, a popular Rembrandt and a priceless collection of paintings, portraits and other works spanning more than seven centuries.
To protect them, the Getty Center in Los Angeles was built in 1997 as “a marvel of anti-fire engineering”, complete with fire-resistant stone and concrete, protected steel, and set in well-irrigated landscaping.
Continue reading...The Dream of California Is Up in Smoke
The Old World Is Breaking Down. A New One Is Breaking Through.
Chris Riddell on Donald Trump pouring oil on to the climate crisis as Los Angeles burns – cartoon
The president-elect is obsessed with drilling for fossil fuels, not to mention taking control of Canada and Greenland and renaming the Gulf of Mexico
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