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The Guardian Climate Change


Climate activists ‘did what they did out of sacrifice’, appeal court told
Lawyers invoke philosophies of Hannah Arendt and Henry David Thoreau in bid to have long sentences of 16 protesters quashed
The philosophies of Hannah Arendt and Henry David Thoreau were aired in the court of appeal on Wednesday as 16 climate activists sought to convince England’s most-senior judge to quash their long sentences for disruptive acts of civil disobedience.
The appellants, prosecuted in four separate trials last year, appeared at a mass appeal in London before a panel led by Lady Justice Carr, the Lady Chief Justice, where they argued judges defied decades of precedent by ignoring their conscientious motives.
Continue reading...Weatherwatch: melting permafrost threatens landscapes and lives in Arctic regions
Towns and dams built on the assumption the surrounding ice would never melt are facing disaster
In the early days of the global warming debate there was a lot of optimism from the oil lobby about the upsides of the temperature increase for northern climes. One example, that has come to pass, was that warmer weather would create conditions for a flourishing wine industry in England.
Some scientists, particularly Russian advisors to the Kremlin, saw a strategic advantage in climate change. They calculated that a warmer climate would improve conditions for growing key food crops further north, particularly wheat. This would benefit Siberia. Droughts in the US would cut food production there, further altering the balance of power in Russia’s favour.
Continue reading...In this government's hands, big ideas always end up looking small. Just ask Ed Miliband | Rafael Behr
Labour is constantly torn between its self-image as a party of radical change and its fear of alienating voters with the wrong kind of radicalism
When Keir Starmer became Labour leader he was unpractised in politics. For advice, he naturally turned to someone who had done his job before and with whom he had a good personal rapport: Ed Miliband.
As Starmer grew in confidence he stayed friendly with Miliband, deferential to his status as a veteran of government and appreciative of his sincere enthusiasm for the energy and climate brief. But the new leader was also ruthlessly focused on winning power, and increasingly alert to toxicities in the Labour brand. He was persuaded that the journey to Downing Street could be completed only by jettisoning policy baggage and paying less heed to people associated with past failure.
Continue reading...Green transition should benefit ordinary Londoners, says deputy mayor
Mete Coban, 32, says climate policy will bring ‘social, economic and racial justice’ to deprived communities
Working-class people and those from ethnic minorities will benefit most from a range of environmental policies being implemented in London, the capital’s deputy mayor has said.
Mete Coban, 32, grew up in a council flat in the borough of Hackney and saw for himself the difficulties the lack of green space, poor or overcrowded housing and polluted air can cause.
Continue reading...Australians who get most of their news from social media more likely to believe in climate conspiracy, study finds
Exclusive: Monash University study suggests those who rely more on newspapers and public broadcasters more likely to score highly on ‘civic values’
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Those who believe global heating is a conspiracy get most of their information about news and current events from commercial and social media, according to a study by researchers at Monash University.
The study, led by Prof Mark Andrejevic and Assoc Prof Zala Volcic, found that those who relied on social media as the main source of news scored lower on a measure of “civic values” than people who relied on newspapers and non-commercial media.
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Continue reading...‘Overwhelming’: what happens to 50,000lbs of extra LA wildfire clothing donations?
Businesses like Suay Sew Shop are trying to salvage piles of damaged textiles – and warn of the dangers of climate impact and overconsumption
At Suay Sew Shop in Los Angeles’s arts district, mounds of clothes are piled high in a warehouse. The T-shirts, socks, jackets and denim are surplus donations from the LA wildfires that community groups across the city were unable to distribute because they had too much already, or because the items were dirty, damaged or poorly made.
Instead of letting the clothes go to a landfill, where they can cause a host of environmental problems, Suay has rescued 50,000lbs of textiles so they can be cleaned, sorted and upcycled by professional designers and sewers. Since LA currently has no permanent textile recycling or collection, it’s up to groups like Suay to save as many textiles as possible before they get dumped or exported.
Continue reading...Spanish fishers in Galicia report ‘catastrophic’ collapse in shellfish stocks
Climate crisis and pollution reported as possible reasons for dramatic fall in numbers of cockles, clams and mussels
A “catastrophic” collapse in shellfish numbers is being reported by Spanish fishers in Galicia, with some stocks falling by as much as 90% in the space of a few years.
Galicia is Europe’s principal source of shellfish and, after China, the world’s biggest producer of mussels, which are farmed in the estuaries.
Continue reading...Rachel Reeves tells MPs of plans to go ‘further and faster’ in pursuit of growth
Chancellor reassures Labour colleagues that climate concerns go ‘hand in hand’ with economic ambitions
Rachel Reeves has told MPs the government needs to go “further and faster” to increase economic growth, as Downing Street sought to reassure people concerned about the environment that net zero and increasing output go “hand in hand”.
The chancellor has unnerved some Labour MPs and green campaigners with her increasingly punchy rhetoric about growth being a priority over preventing climate change, as she strives to improve the UK’s anaemic forecasts and drive up living standards.
Continue reading...The Guardian view on Labour’s climate plans: they should be central to the party’s purpose | Editorial
An economic shift raises alarming questions about government vision, priorities and commitment to transformative policies
To hear Labour’s economic message, one might wonder if Downing Street has developed an unlikely admiration for Liz Truss. Given its focus on growth through cutting planning regulations, reducing welfare budgets and removing dissenting bureaucrats, some believe Labour is in danger of echoing not just the spirit but the substance of Ms Truss’s brief, ill-fated tenure. For a party that rose to power criticising the Tory right’s ideological misadventures, this shift in tone is striking.
Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves may see Labour’s sinking poll ratings as reason to align with their opponents, adopting policies – like curbing legal challenges to planning decisions – few rightwingers would contest. In a speech later this week, Ms Reeves plans to give the go-ahead for a third runway at Heathrow, a divisive choice even within Labour that has earned support from the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch.
Continue reading...UK politics: Miliband tells MPs UK needs to ‘speed up, not slow down’ in net zero drive – as it happened
Energy secretary insists there is ‘no contradiction between net zero and economic growth’ in hearing at Commons committee
The hearing has stopped for a short break. Heather Hallett, the chair, tells Badenoch that her evidence will be finished by lunchtime.
Keith is now asking Badenoch about the fourth report produced by the Race Disparity Unit. It was produced in December 2021.
Relevant health departments and agencies should review and action existing requests for health data, and undertake an independent strategic review of the dissemination of healthcare data and the publication of statistics and analysis.
Government is not necessarily great at delivering these systems. They tend to be big boondoggles for the private sector, but there are private sector companies that can deliver this. There need to be caveats around that.
Continue reading...UK weather: major incident declared in Somerset as storms bring flooding
More than 100 people evacuated from their homes as Storm Herminia hits Britain after Éowyn
A major incident has been declared in Somerset after more than 100 people were evacuated from their homes because of flooding, while roads were blocked, trains delayed or cancelled and schools closed, as stormy weather once again battered parts of the UK.
Rest centres were set up for people forced to leave their homes in three Somerset towns – Chard, Ilminster and Somerton – with some residents reporting levels of flooding not seen for years. Highways teams dealt with almost 50 incidents.
Continue reading...Dangerous temperatures could kill 50% more Europeans by 2100, study finds
Net increase of 80,000 deaths a year projected in hottest scenario, with milder winters failing to redress balance
Dangerous temperatures could kill 50% more people in Europe by the end of the century, a study has found, with the lives lost to stronger heat projected to outnumber those saved from milder cold.
The researchers estimated an extra 8,000 people would die each year as a result of “suboptimal temperatures” even under the most optimistic scenario for cutting planet-heating pollution. The hottest plausible scenario they considered showed a net increase of 80,000 temperature-related deaths a year.
Continue reading...Bristol may become first English council to collect black bins every four weeks
Green-led authority consulting on changes it says could save £2m and encourage recycling – critics fear it will increase fly-tipping
Bristol city council could become the first local authority in England to collect black rubbish bins only once every four weeks.
The Green-led council says that switching from a two- to four-weekly collection would save it more than £2m a year and help reverse a dip in recycling rates.
Continue reading...Monday briefing: What if the climate crisis makes disaster insurance unaffordable?
In today’s newsletter: The Los Angeles wildfires highlighted the immense challenges faced by the insurance industry amid the escalating risks of the climate crisis. Are there any potential solutions for homeowners?
Good morning. If the Los Angeles wildfires are bracing evidence of the general threat posed by the climate crisis, they have also brought home a specific problem: how can you make the insurance system work when the risks are so high?
That is not a question limited to California, or to the United States: the insurance industry has rated the climate crisis as the biggest threat to its future four years in a row, a very concrete riposte to those politicians who continue to question the reality of global heating. It is impossible to know whether a specific weather event like storm Éowyn in the UK has been caused by climate change – but we know that they, and the damage they leave in their wake, are only going to get more frequent.
Israel-Gaza war | Donald Trump’s proposal that large numbers of Palestinians should leave Gaza to “just clean out” the whole strip has been rejected by US allies in the region. Trump’s intervention came as a deal was reached to allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza and release a civilian hostage who Israel said should have been freed already.
Heathrow | Rachel Reeves has given her heaviest hint yet that she will back a third runway at Heathrow airport, arguing that she is willing to make difficult decisions while pursuing economic growth. Campaigners have warned that the move would be a severe setback for the UK’s climate commitments.
Southport attack | Prevent’s assessment of the danger posed by Axel Rudakubana followed policy at the time, an official review will find – but it will criticise the scheme for rejecting extra help to tackle his interest in violence. The review of the way three referrals were handled before Rudakubana committed an atrocity in Southport is due to be published this week.
AI | Ministers have shut down or dropped at least half a dozen artificial intelligence prototypes intended for the welfare system, the Guardian has learned, in a sign of the headwinds facing Keir Starmer’s effort to increase government efficiency.
Belarus | Alexander Lukashenko is set to win a seventh five-year term as Belarusian president with 87.6% of the vote in Sunday’s election, according to an exit poll. The US and the EU said in the run-up to the election that it could not be free or fair because independent media are banned and all leading opposition figures have been jailed or forced to flee abroad.
Continue reading...The framing of the shrew: California students photograph mammal never caught on film
Three young scientists set traps to capture and film species of special concern in move that can help conserve the shrew
In a 7,000ft-high marshy spot in the cold, rugged eastern Sierra mountains, two groups of mammals scurried around at night. One was going about their normal nocturnal routine of hunting worms. The other was hoping for a glimpse of an elusive creature: the Mount Lyell shrew, the only known California mammal never photographed alive.
The three young student scientists faced a tight timeline. They baited 150 pitfall traps – small cups dug into the earth to catch wandering creatures – with cat food and mealworms and monitored them across a 600ft area, checking each trap every two hours for any signs of their goal. They slept no more than two hours at a time. Shrews have such a fast metabolism that they die in traps quickly, one of the reasons this species had never been photographed or studied live.
Continue reading...From showers to tiny fish to windmills, Trump’s climate policies are driven by fixations
‘It was striking that the White House memo included toilets and shower heads as a presidential priority,’ said one expert
From crusading against showers he feels don’t sufficiently wash his hair to reversing protections for a small fish he calls “worthless”, Donald Trump’s personal fixations have helped shape his first environmental priorities as US president.
While withdrawing the US from the Paris climate accords and declaring an “energy emergency” were among Trump’s most noteworthy executive orders on his first day in office, both were further down a list of priorities put out by the White House than measures to improve “consumer choice in vehicles, shower heads, toilets, washing machines, lightbulbs and dishwashers”.
Continue reading...The Kyoto climate treaty is hailed on stage but reality tells a different story
A gripping play in London’s West End tells how agreement of the first climate protocol in 1997 was a triumph, as scientists share new warnings about the scale of the crisis
As material for a West End show, the backroom machinations of an international climate conference sound unpromising.
Pedantry, boredom and delegates fighting over the wording of treaty clauses do not sound like the stuff of high drama. Nevertheless, Kyoto, a Royal Shakespeare Company production by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson now playing at Soho Place in London, has been widely praised by critics and rapturously received at its opening this month.
Continue reading...Wes Streeting heckled by climate protesters at Fabian Society address
Speech calling for unity against ‘populist right’ interrupted by two women opposed to Drax power plant subsidies
Wes Streeting was heckled by climate protesters during a speech calling on progressives to stand up to the “populist right”.
Two women shouted at the health secretary as he addressed the Fabian Society, urging the centre-left to take on the “miserablist, declinist vision” being offered by figures such as the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage.
Continue reading...I was jailed for four years for a non-violent climate protest – this is my prison diary
I was one of a group of Just Stop Oil activists given the longest-ever UK sentences for peaceful protest after blocking a motorway. Six months into my incarceration, this is what I have learned
Locked in a tiny metal box in a prison transport van rattling its way to HMP Bronzefield, in Middlesex, I felt at peace. I was on trial with four other Just Stop Oil protesters over the group’s non-violent direct action on the M25 motorway in 2022. The judge had told the jury to ignore evidence of the climate emergency, and we were not allowed to talk in depth about the climate breakdown when defending our actions. But we do not have the time to pretend the existential threat we face is not real. My sense of peace came from having an opportunity to speak out about the crisis during our trial.
Continue reading...Phoenix nears dry spell record as drought conditions worsen
Arizona capital, made drier and hotter by climate crisis, edges towards longest streak without recorded rain
The US city of Phoenix is close to breaking another extreme weather record, this time the longest stretch without rain as drought conditions worsen across Arizona.
As of Saturday, there had been no recorded rainfall in America’s fifth largest city for 154 consecutive days – the second longest dry spell on record as the climate crisis collides with natural weather patterns.
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