The Guardian Climate Change

Exclusive: researchers say defence spending boosts across world will worsen climate crisis which in turn will cause more conflict

A global military buildup poses an existential threat to climate goals, according to researchers who say the rearmament planned by Nato alone could increase greenhouse gas emissions by almost 200m tonnes a year.

With the world embroiled in the highest number of armed conflicts since the second world war, countries have embarked on military spending sprees, collectively totalling a record $2.46tn in 2023.

BoM prediction follows much wetter than average autumn for northern and eastern Australia, and much drier one for south

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Australia’s winter will be warmer and wetter this year, with higher than average day and night temperatures, and above-average rainfall likely in central and interior parts of the country.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s long-range forecast said parts of the tropical north, south-east and south-west could expect typical winter rainfall, including coastal areas of New South Wales affected by the May floods, and parts of South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania where there have been prolonged dry conditions.

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There are more than 130 active wildfires across the country, half of which are considered out of control

More than 17,000 people in Canada’s western Manitoba province were being evacuated on Wednesday as the region experienced its worst start to the wildfire season in years.

“The Manitoba government has declared a province-wide state of emergency due to the wildfire situation,” Manitoba’s premier, Wab Kinew, told a news conference. “This is the largest evacuation Manitoba will have seen in most people’s living memory.”

A huge section of a glacier in the Swiss Alps has broken off, causing a deluge of ice, mud and rock to bury most of a village evacuated earlier this month due to the risk of a rockslide. Footage showed a vast plain of mud and soil covering the village after the Birch Glacier partially collapsed. A river that runs through the village was also inundated, along with the wooded sides of the surrounding valley

• Swiss village almost entirely destroyed after collapse of glacier buries it in mud

One person missing and Blatten devastated after huge cloud of ice and rubble inundates evacuated town

A huge section of a glacier in the Swiss Alps has broken off, causing a deluge of ice, mud and rock to bury most of a village evacuated earlier this month due to the risk of a rockslide.

Drone footage broadcast by Swiss national broadcaster SRF showed a vast plain of mud and soil completely covering part of the village of Blatten, the river running through it and the wooded sides of the surrounding valley.

Tax expected to generate nearly $100m annually, to be used for projects such as replacing sand on eroding beaches

Hawaii’s governor signed legislation that boosts a tax imposed on hotel room and vacation rental stays in order to raise money to address the consequences of the climate crisis.

It’s the first time in a government in the US imposes such levy to help cope with a warming planet.

Exclusive: André Corrêa do Lago says ‘answers have to come from the economy’ as climate policies trigger populist-fuelled backlash

The world is facing a new form of climate denial – not the dismissal of climate science, but a concerted attack on the idea that the economy can be reorganised to fight the crisis, the president of global climate talks has warned.

André Corrêa do Lago, the veteran Brazilian diplomat who will direct this year’s UN summit, Cop30, believes his biggest job will be to counter the attempt from some vested interests to prevent climate policies aimed at shifting the global economy to a low-carbon footing.

Court rejects argument that man’s home is at risk from glacial flood but sets precedent that polluters may be held liable for costs

A German court has rejected a climate case brought by a Peruvian farmer against the German energy company RWE, but set a potentially important precedent on polluters’ liability for their carbon emissions.

The upper regional court in Hamm confirmed that companies could be held liable for climate damages in civil proceedings but rejected the argument by the farmer and mountain guide Saúl Luciano Lliuya that his home was at direct risk of being washed away by a glacial flood.

Regenerative agriculture has growth potential for the offsets market, but scientists question its green credentials

On a blustery spring day, Thomas Gent is walking through a field of winter wheat on his family’s farm, which straddles the Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire border. Some of the green shoots reach his knees, while the ground between the plants is covered with clover.

Sinking a spade into the soil, Gent grins as he points to the freshly dug clod of earth on the blade. “Look at the root structure,” he says. “It rained 20mm last night. The water has drained down because the soil structure is in the right format.”

Data also shows small but ‘shocking’ likelihood of year 2C hotter than preindustrial era before 2030

There is an 80% chance that global temperatures will break at least one annual heat record in the next five years, raising the risk of extreme droughts, floods and forest fires, a new report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has shown.

For the first time, the data also indicated a small likelihood that before 2030, the world could experience a year that is 2C hotter than the preindustrial era, a possibility scientists described as “shocking”.

Band of water where marine life can survive has reduced in more than a fifth of global ocean between 2003 and 2022

Great swathes of the planet’s oceans have become darker in the past two decades, according to researchers who fear the trend will have a severe impact on marine life around the world.

Satellite data and numerical modelling revealed that more than a fifth of the global ocean darkened between 2003 and 2022, reducing the band of water that life reliant on sunlight and moonlight can thrive in.

Meg O’Neill tells energy industry conference that individual consumers’ role in driving emissions is ‘missing’ in conversations about fossil fuels

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The boss of Australian gas giant Woodside, Meg O’Neill, has attacked young people who take an ideological stand against fossil fuels, suggesting they are hypocrites for ordering cheap online consumer goods “without any sort of recognition of the energy and carbon impact of their actions”.

O’Neill was speaking during the gas industry’s annual conference in Brisbane, where the resources minister, Madeleine King, said the government was working to enhance exploration for gas while improving the approvals process for companies.

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Environment minister Murray Watt is due to make a decision on whether to extend the controversial North West Shelf development in coming days

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• Reliable energy or ‘carbon bomb’? What’s at stake in the battle over Australia’s North West Shelf

Unless something remarkable – the federal court, perhaps – intervenes, the Albanese government will this week make a decision that could have ramifications for greenhouse gas emissions and Indigenous heritage that last for decades – or longer. It relates to the future of the North West Shelf, one of the world’s largest liquified natural gas (LNG) projects.

Most discussion about it assumes that it is a done deal – that the environment minister, Murray Watt, will give the green light to an application by Woodside Energy to extend the life of the gas export processing facility on the Burrup peninsula in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

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Exclusive: Disaster Relief Australia pushes for funding deal as it positions itself as alternative to ADF in aftermath of floods, fires and cyclones

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The veteran-led organisation on the frontline of disaster recovery wants federal government support to help establish a 10,000-strong volunteer army.

Disaster Relief Australia (DRA) is pushing for a new funding deal to secure its future and grow its force, as it positions itself as an alternative to the Australian defence force in the aftermath of major floods, fires and cyclones.

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Warmer waters near Devon and Cornwall are creating a cephalopod-based ‘financial bonus’ for the fishing industry

Octopuses have long captivated humans with their alien-like appearance and bizarre anatomy.

This spring, the cephalopods have been baffling, delighting and enraging fishers in English waters as an unprecedented marine heatwave has led to a surge in their numbers.

Brutal heat and drought expected to blanket country from Nevada to Florida as experts worry climate cuts will burn

This year’s summer months promise to be among the hottest on record across the United States, continuing a worsening trend of extreme weather, and amid concern over the impacts of Trump administration cuts to key agencies.

The extreme heat could be widespread and unrelenting: only far northern Alaska may escape unusually warm temperatures from June through August, according to the latest seasonal forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).

Monday comments to Sky News raise doubts about looming cooperation agreement with the Liberals

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The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, says his party’s support for a policy of net zero emissions by 2050 is up for review, contradicting his deputy and raising doubts about the looming cooperation agreement with the Liberals.

After days of turmoil within the Coalition, Littleproud told Sky News he was relaxed about speculation his leadership could come under challenge from former leader Michael McCormack, denying there was division within the Nationals.

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Stark warnings about threatened coastal areas should prompt fresh efforts to protect those most at risk

In his classic study of the 17th-century Dutch golden age, The Embarrassment of Riches, the art historian Simon Schama showed how the biblical story of Noah’s ark resonated in a culture where catastrophic floods were an ever-present threat. The history of the Netherlands includes multiple instances of storms breaching dikes, leading to disastrous losses of life and land. These traumatic episodes were reflected in the country’s art and literature, as well as its engineering.

In countries where floods are less of a danger, memories tend to be more localised: a mark on a wall showing how high waters rose when a town’s river flooded; a seaside garden such as the one in Felixstowe, Suffolk, to commemorate the night in 1953 when 41 people lost their lives there.

It is undoubtedly clear that continuing to burn or export fossil fuels will increase climate change and the risk of extreme weather

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As New South Wales once again faces heavy rainfall and flooding, the Victorian towns of Euroa and Violet Town will enter stage 2 water restrictions next Wednesday. How is the climate crisis affecting these contrasting extremes?

The weather pattern bringing heavy rainfall to NSW is a common wet-weather scenario for the coast. A high-pressure system in the Tasman Sea has stalled, and the anticlockwise air flow around the high is pushing moist air from the ocean over land. At the same time, about three kilometres above the surface, a low-pressure system is lifting the moist ocean air up. As moist air rises, it forms clouds, storms, and finally rain.

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Mike Berners-Lee tells Hay festival audience to make spread of political deceit more socially embarrassing

People should confront their family members who read news from “nefarious” sources, suggests the environmentalist Mike Berners-Lee.

“Challenge your friends and family and colleagues who are getting their information from sources that have got nefarious roots or a track record of being careless – or worse – with the truth, because we need to make this sort of thing socially embarrassing to be involved in,” said Berners-Lee, the brother of the World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee.