With few exceptions, the news has shied away from showing how the unfolding climate crisis plays a large role in the disaster
Last week, as the Sunset fire was bearing down on her Los Angeles home, Allison Agsten approached a group of television news crews gathering in her neighborhood. Did any of them plan to mention the role of the climate crisis in their reporting?
The question was professional as well as personal for Agsten, who runs a climate journalism center at the University of Southern California and has trained reporters on how to connect the climate crisis to what’s happening in the world. She has lived in her home along Runyon Canyon, near Hollywood, for a decade.
Continue reading...
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
01/16/2025 - 06:00
01/16/2025 - 06:00
Levels of PFAS chemicals found in sludge destined for British land would not be considered safe for allotments
Where are the UK’s ‘forever chemical’ hotspots?
Industry using ‘tobacco playbook’ to fend off ‘forever chemicals’ regulation
The Guardian view: the UK can’t ignore the risks from PFAS
Sewage sludge spread on farmland is contaminating soils, water and potentially the food chain with “forever chemicals”, and whistleblowers from the Environment Agency say the systems in place to prevent such pollution are “not fit for purpose”.
Watershed Investigations and the Guardian obtained samples of treated sewage sludge destined to be spread on land from five different catchments, and found levels of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) forever chemicals that would not be considered safe on allotments, as well as levels of flame-retardant chemicals described by experts as “exceptionally high”.
Continue reading...
01/16/2025 - 02:00
Office for Environmental Protection calls for urgent action after finding government is falling short on most targets
The window to stop the decline of England’s nature is swiftly closing, the environmental watchdog has said, as its latest report finds that the government is falling short on most of its targets to improve the environment.
Some of Labour’s actions, however, including setting up a water commission and writing a new environmental improvement plan, were praised by the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) in its annual review of how the government was meeting the legally binding environment targets.
Continue reading...
01/16/2025 - 01:00
Exclusive: Report by risk experts says previous assessments ignored severe effects of climate crisis
Global economic growth could plummet by 50% between 2070 and 2090 from the catastrophic shocks of climate change unless immediate action by political leaders is taken to decarbonise and restore nature, according to a new report.
The stark warning from risk management experts the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) hugely increases the estimate of risk to global economic wellbeing from climate change impacts such as fires, flooding, droughts, temperature rises and nature breakdown. In a report with scientists at the University of Exeter, published on Thursday, the IFoA, which uses maths and statistics to analyse financial risk for businesses and governments, called for accelerated action by political leaders to tackle the climate crisis.
Continue reading...
01/16/2025 - 00:00
The island’s private drinking water supplies were polluted by use of firefighting foams containing ‘forever chemicals’
Explained: What are PFAS, how toxic are they and how do you become exposed?
Residents of Jersey have been recommended bloodletting to reduce high concentrations of “forever chemicals” in their blood after tests showed some islanders have levels that can lead to health problems.
Private drinking water supplies in Jersey were polluted by the use of firefighting foams containing PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) at the island’s airport, which were manufactured by the US multinational 3M.
Continue reading...
01/15/2025 - 19:16
Democrats criticize Chris Wright’s comments during US Senate confirmation hearing for energy secretary nominee
Donald Trump’s nominee for energy secretary, Chris Wright, is facing criticism for disputing the ties between climate change and more frequent or severe wildfires, the Washington Post reports, a stance that is contrary to scientific consensus.
During Wright’s US Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Democrats, including the California senator Alex Padilla, challenged Wright over past comments, pointing to a LinkedIn post calling wildfire concerns “hype” and dismissing their connection to climate policies.
Continue reading...
01/15/2025 - 17:54
I’ve been writing about climate change for years. I know my graphs won’t change minds, but facts matter
2025 has not started well, and you should be bloody angry.
We are less than five months from the federal election and both major parties’ climate change policies are an amalgam of indolence and lies.
Continue reading...
01/15/2025 - 13:30
Will water soon be a marketable commodity or a priceless public good?
There’s a scene in the film Mad Max: Fury Road where the evil ruler Immortan Joe, gazing down from a cliff upon his parched, emaciated subjects, turns two turbines, and water gushes from three gigantic sluices. The wretched masses surge forward to catch the deluge in their pots and bowls. And as imperiously as he opened the gates, Joe shuts them. “Do not become addicted to water,” he roars. “It will take hold of you.” But, of course, he already has taken hold of them by withholding, essentially, life.
We don’t have to await the dystopian future for the water wars to begin. The struggle over water, between private interests and the public good, the powerful and the weak, is raging now. From Love Canal to Flint, Michigan; Bolivia to Ukraine to Tunisia; budget-cutting, privatization, corporate malfeasance and climate crises are conspiring to create political violence, mass migration, property damage and death.
Continue reading...
01/15/2025 - 12:50
Experts are warning of the risks of spreading invasive and non-native species when moving large volumes of untreated lake, reservoir and river water.
01/15/2025 - 12:41
Climate activists say they were subjected to degrading treatment during questioning in Brescia on Monday
Italy’s interior minister has been urged to open an investigation into police in the northern city of Brescia amid allegations that seven female climate activists were made to take off their underwear and perform squats during questioning.
The activists were among 22 people brought to Brescia’s main police station on Monday morning after officers interrupted a protest held outside the Italian aerospace and defence firm Leonardo’s factory.
Continue reading...
