The great climate silence: we are on the edge of the abyss but we ignore it | Clive Hamilton
We continue to plan for the future as if climate scientists don’t exist. The greatest tragedy, Clive Hamilton writes, is the absence of a sense of tragedy After 200,000 years of modern humans on a 4.5 billion-year-old Earth, we have arrived at new point in history: the Anthropocene. The change has come upon us with […]
Oil company Santos admits business plan is based on 4C temperature rise
Chairman Peter Coates says company’s plan is ‘consistent with good value’, but experts call it ‘a breathtaking failure to come to grips with a world in transition’ The oil and gas company Santos has admitted its business plans are based on a climate change scenario of a 4C rise n global temperatures, at odds with […]
This butterfly needs a break
Challenged by climate change, our most secretive butterfly could soon be getting a helping hand if a new campaign takes off Recent very butterfly-unfriendly icy winds remind me of an insect that endures horrendous weather every summer. The mountain ringlet is our only montane butterfly, meaning that you have to climb a mountain – or […]
Government faces class action on air pollution in landmark case
Exclusive: Legal challenge on behalf of asthma sufferers could see ministers pay out compensation for failure to clean up illegal levels of pollution Lawyers are preparing to mount an unprecedented class action against the government over its repeated failures to clean up illegal levels of air pollution from diesel traffic. The legal challenge on behalf […]
Dick Potts obituary
Ecologist and conservationist who helped save the threatened grey partridge Dick Potts, who has died aged 77, did more to bridge the gap between conservationists, farmers and the game shooting fraternity than any other figure. He combined his training as a scientist, his background as a farmer’s son and his passion for birds to help […]
Red alert: Kofi Annan on the photos that capture our choking planet
From a masked Tokyo commuter in a crush to the plastic particles killing our oceans, the former UN secretary-general hails the photographers shortlisted for tonight’s space-themed Prix Pictet prize We are running out of space. Fly over Africa at night and you will see mile after mile of fires burning red in the dark as […]
Beijing hit by new air pollution crisis as huge sandstorm blows in
Dozens of flights are reported cancelled and residents urged to stay indoors to avoid breathing in dangerous particles A putrid, nicotine-shaded mist loomed over Beijing on Thursday after a massive sandstorm slammed into the Chinese capital bringing the latest “airpocalypse” to this smog-choked city. Dozens of flights were reportedly cancelled at Beijing’s airport, the world’s […]
Global warming scientists learn lessons from the pause that never was | Planet Oz
New study finds there never was an unexpected lull in climate change but says the science community needs to communicate better People don’t talk about how global warming has stopped, paused or slowed down all that much any more – three consecutive hottest years on record will tend to do that to a flaky meme. […]
Man arrested at airport with snakes, frogs and lizards in backpack
Russian en route from Brazil detained in Amsterdam after reptiles and cockroaches found in buckets in luggage Customs officials have arrested a Russian man at Amsterdam’s international airport after dozens of poisonous snakes and frogs were found hidden in his luggage. The man, who was en route to Russia, was detained on a stopover at […]
New York Times wants to offer diverse opinions. But on climate, facts are facts | Jane Martinson
Facts, truth and opinion, always at the heart of journalism, are now the cause of an existential crisis over why it exists Right after the election of Donald Trump, a man widely considered a fake and a fool by many of its writers, the New York Times issued an extraordinary statement promising to “strive always […]