Latest news with #climateCrisis
The Independent
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Greenpeace condemns Equinor-funded computer game aimed at UK schoolchildren
Greenpeace has condemned an Equinor-funded computer game for school children that tells young players renewable energy is 'less reliable'. EnergyTown, aimed at children aged nine to 14, encourages players to build a city that will survive until 2050 by balancing energy, economy, environment and population wellbeing demands. The game shows fossil fuels as part of a clean future energy mix, while players who start the game with a heavy reliance on renewable energy often fail to reach the mid-century milestone. It comes as part of a school education programme launched in October 2023 by Equinor called Wonderverse, with the firm saying it has reached more than 81,400 UK pupils by the following July. The deadline for schools to enter the 2025 nationwide EnergyTown competition is on Friday. The Norwegian oil major, which is seeking to develop the controversial Rosebank oil field in the UK North Sea, has previously denied that the game is part of a lobbying campaign but rather the firm's ambitions to make young people curious about science and technology. Greenpeace has fiercely criticised the game, claiming the fossil fuel company's support for the project is a 'cynical PR ploy'. The PA News Agency has contacted Equinor for comment. Mel Evans, head of Greenpeace UK's climate team, said: 'We know many young children know a lot about the climate crisis and what's driving it. 'If Equinor wants to win young hearts and minds, it should get serious about ditching fossil fuels and shifting to clean energy.' Greenpeace highlighted a Wonderverse webpage that tells players how to improve their scores if their city fails before the mid-century mark. While it says that players should think about phasing out non-renewable energy resources as the game progresses to improve its green score, they are also advised to invest in 'more reliable' fossil fuels, nuclear and hydrogen to power their cities. It notes: 'If you're relying on electricity from renewable energy resources like wind and solar power, you may have less electricity due to these energy resources being less reliable. 'Therefore, your other facilities (such as the businesses and recreational tiles) may struggle to run.' The page later adds: 'You should invest in a more reliable way to generate electricity, such as nuclear, oil, natural gas or hydrogen. 'It is important to consider that this may negatively impact your green score,' it adds. 'You should think about how you can phase out non-renewable energy resources as you progress later in the game.' Last July, the nationwide EnergyTown competition saw 160 children take part and an 11-year-old boy in Walmley Junior School, Birmingham, win the primary school level contest. In a statement at the time, Sue Falch-Lovesey, Equinor's UK Head of Social Value, said the competition 'showed a good level of understanding of the variety of energy sources our cities of the future will need'. Greenpeace highlighted how Birmingham was hit by flash floods a week after the energy firm published the press release on its website. Ms Evans said: 'Thanks to companies like Equinor, these children are living in homes with higher energy bills; living through summers of wildfires and droughts, and winters of increasingly worse flooding. 'The UK government should stop Rosebank, and should instead invest in the wind industry in the regions where workers and communities need to transition.' After the regulator granted approval for Equinor to develop Rosebank in 2023, the Scottish Court of Session ruled the decision as unlawful in January this year. Equinor is expected to reapply for its consent to drill at Rosebank once the Government's revised guidance on emissions produced by burning oil and gas is released. EnergyTown was developed for the Equinor programme by the marketing agency We Are Futures, which has worked for other high-emitting firms like BP.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Deliciously addictive', ‘dripping with suspense': the best Australian books out in June
Science fiction, Pan Macmillan, $34.99 What does it mean to build a new world from the wreckage of a broken one? This question lies at the heart of Jennifer Mills' mesmerising new novel, Salvage, which tracks the fortunes of two estranged sisters: gruff, defensive Jude and spectral Celeste. This is a work of speculative fiction, set in a near-future ravaged by war and climate crisis. To survive the chaos, Jude is convinced she needs to shed her past and avoid attachments. But she's wrong, and the arc of the novel tracks her realisation that building a new world requires care and community. Salvage is a timely and surprisingly optimistic manual for navigating our present polycrisis. – Catriona Menzies-Pike Nonfiction, Simon & Schuster, $36.99 Most self-help books are peppered with personal stories that illustrate their advice. Though the tone is light and chatty, with bullet-point takeaways, that's not what you'll get from The Introvert's Guide to Leaving the House, by frequent the Guardian Australia contributor Jenny Valentish. Instead the book reads like the memoir of a writer who has learned how to help herself. The mirror Valentish holds to readers is not always flattering. She explores tendencies toward grandiosity and the unpleasant impacts inwardness can have on other people. For that reason, her efforts to understand her limited appetite for socialising offer something rare for the self-help genre: genuine insight. – Alyx Gorman Short stories, Simon & Schuster, $32.99 Lucy Nelson's debut collection of stories is centred on women – of a wide range of ages and in many different contexts – who don't have children. Some have chosen their childlessness, others have not. While they differ in the intensity and kinds of emotions this provokes within them, it is never the defining aspect of their lives. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Nelson is interested in models of family and of connection, in bodies and their betrayals and consolations, in the lives that women forge for themselves when faced by the unexpected. These stories are fierce and tender, often quirky and hilarious, and driven by great compassion. – Fiona Wright Fiction, Allen & Unwin, $34.99 Shokoofeh Azar migrated from Iran to Australia a decade ago as a refugee, having been arrested multiple times for her work as a journalist investigating human rights abuses. Her second novel is as vividly imaginative as her first, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree: it opens as a gigantic, mysterious tree suddenly sprouts up in the family home of teenager Shokoofeh, our narrator. No one outside the family seems to be able to see the tree but it brings with it mind-expanding freedoms – just as the Iranian revolution begins and reality grows violent. This novel is packed with ghosts, magical palaces, fortune tellers and folk stories; it could be described as magical realism, though Azar writes with a flair that sets her apart from the South American giants that have dominated the genre. – Sian Cain Fiction, UQP, $34.99 Thomas Vowles' debut is one of the most tense and disturbing novels I've read in a long time. Ash, new to Melbourne, has fallen in love with James, a man he met on Grindr. At a house party he witnesses a violent interaction involving James's new boyfriend, Raf. Ash is desperate to find out the truth about Raf – trouble is, no one believes him, and his unrequited feelings for James might be clouding his judgment and grip on reality. Vowles' background as a screenwriter is evident in the deliciously addictive – and stressful – way the story unfolds, with the narration becoming unreliable, and unhinged as Ash descends into madness. – Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen Poetry, Giramondo, $27 What history forgets, families remember. In her debut collection, Chinese Fish, Grace Yee forged a bridge between the two and announced herself as a poet to watch. In Joss: A History, she continues that potent project – blending family testimony with archival fragments to trace her connection to colonial Bendigo. These are poems of grit and ritual, erasure and persistence, bureaucracy and grace, gold dust and Chinese cemeteries. Here, among the segregated gravestones, Yee captures the cruel, beautiful and ever-messy work of making a place in the world. 'What dreams weather beneath these mounds,' she writes, 'what fierce agitations churn the night.' – Beejay Silcox Science fiction, NewSouth Books, $34.99 Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion This is a really charming and fun reworking of the Dracula story that reimagines the Demeter – the ship that transports Dracula to London in Bram Stoker's novel – as a spaceship, 2,293 days into her voyage transporting humans from Earth to Alpha Centauri. The Demeter is a chatty spacecraft – in fact, she is our narrator, haphazardly trying to keep her passengers from dying at the hands of the ancient vampire who has made his way onboard. If you know the Dracula story, you'll find this enjoyable – there is a distinctly unhinged touch to the humour that I suspect Terry Pratchett fans will like. – SC Fiction, Simon & Schuster, $34.99 The pernicious pleasantries, the boardroom politics, the happy hours and the sad snack drawers: all the grinding machinations of office culture crescendo to a quivering peak in Sinéad Stubbins' very funny, very horrifying novel Stinkbug. An advertising agency gets restructured (likely story); everyone is sent on a work retreat (likely story); it might actually be a cult? (likelier than you think). Like a chunnering conversation with your worst colleague, Stinkbug is claustrophobic. Stubbins faithfully captures the cadences of corporate small talk and dials them up into a nightmarish cacophony of efficiency reports and pitch decks. You'll want to work from home for ever. – Michael Sun Fiction, Text Publishing, $34.99 Gail Jones is a prolific writer – this is her 11th novel – but The Name of the Sister is somewhat of a departure. Fans of her lucid, beautiful prose won't be disappointed, but this is a thriller, set in Sydney and Broken Hill. Familiar themes – identity, the nature of truth and memory – remind us of other books Jones has written (including One Another and Five Bells) but The Name of the Sister is dripping with suspense and intrigue. Driven by complex female characters, this novel is an intellectual page-turner. – Joseph Cummins Fiction, Ultimo, $34.99 When Eva Novak returns to Australia, mysteriously summoned by her long-estranged sister, she is shocked to find Elizabeta dead in her home. The pair haven't spoken for a decade, since the crash that killed Eva's young daughter; Elizabeta was behind the wheel and hadn't strapped Gracie in. Broken by grief and fury, Eva has two weeks to sort through the estate of the woman who killed her daughter – a task she sets to with a detached purposefulness that becomes increasingly devastating under Peričić's taut prose. But as she sifts through the house for all the documents she needs, Eva uncovers a far more complicated picture of what really happened that day – and how trauma can twist memories and recast entire lives. – Steph Harmon Nonfiction, Murdoch Books, $34.99 Nathan Dunne, an Australian journalist, was living in London when he decided to go night swimming in Hampstead Heath. In the cold water he experienced what is known as depersonalisation: a severe dissociative illness that left him unsure about who he was and what was real; a terrifying and debilitating state of having no sense of self: 'In a single moment, a split second, I had been locked away, condemned to wander in a body that was not my own.' This fascinating account charts his recovery, his research into a little-understood condition and his discovery of a whole community of people who have experienced it. – SC Fiction, Hachette Australia, $32.99 Historical novels set among the mid-century upper crust aren't that unusual but choosing an Australian prime minister's wife as a heroine certainly is. Though the novel opens with Harold Holt's disappearance, the 'year' in the title isn't quite accurate: instead Zara reflects on her memories of their entire relationship since 1927, in digestible, dialogue-heavy prose. Although you know from the outset that the story will take a tragic turn, the opening chapters of Kimberley Freeman's novel are fun and foamy. As Zara Holt was a fashion designer, there's a generous helping of very good frocks, too. – AG
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Sea level rise will cause ‘catastrophic inland migration', scientists warn
Sea level rise will become unmanageable at just 1.5C of global heating and lead to 'catastrophic inland migration', the scientists behind a new study have warned. This scenario may unfold even if the average level of heating over the last decade of 1.2C continues into the future. The loss of ice from the giant Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets has quadrupled since the 1990s due to the climate crisis and is now the principal driver of sea level rise. The international target to keep global temperature rise below 1.5C is already almost out of reach. But the new analysis found that even if fossil fuel emissions were rapidly slashed to meet it, sea levels would be rising by 1cm a year by the end of the century, faster than the speed at which nations could build coastal defences. The world is on track for 2.5C-2.9C of global heating, which would almost certainly be beyond tipping points for the collapse of the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets. The melting of those ice sheets would lead to a 'really dire' 12 metres of sea level rise. Today, about 230 million people live within 1 metre above current sea level, and 1 billion live within 10 metres above sea level. Even just 20cm of sea level rise by 2050 would lead to global flood damages of at least $1tn a year for the world's 136 largest coastal cities and huge impacts on people's lives and livelihoods. However, the scientists emphasised that every fraction of a degree of global heating avoided by climate action still matters, because it slows sea level rise and gives more time to prepare, reducing human suffering. Related: The century of climate migration: why we need to plan for the great upheaval Sea level rise is the biggest long-term impact of the climate crisis, and research in recent years has shown it is occurring far faster than previously estimated. The 1.5C limit was seen as a way to avoid the worst consequences of global heating, but the new research shows this is not the case for sea level rise. The researchers said the 'safe limit' temperature for ice sheets was hard to estimate but was likely to be 1C or lower. Sea level rise of at least 1-2 metres was now inevitable, the scientists said. In the UK, just 1 metre of sea level rise would see large parts of the Fens and Humberside below sea level. 'What we mean by safe limit is one which allows some level of adaptation, rather than catastrophic inland migration and forced migration, and the safe limit is roughly 1cm a year of sea level rise,' said Prof Jonathan Bamber of the University of Bristol in the UK. 'If you get to that, then it becomes extremely challenging for any kind of adaptation, and you're going to see massive land migration on scales that we've never witnessed in modern civilisation.' Developing countries such as Bangladesh would fare far worse than rich ones with experience of holding back the waves, such as the Netherlands, he said. Durham University's Prof Chris Stokes, lead author of the study, said: 'We're starting to see some of the worst-case scenarios play out almost in front of us. At current warming of 1.2C, sea level rise is accelerating at rates that, if they continue, would become almost unmanageable before the end of this century, [which is] within the lifetime of our young people.' The average global temperature rise hit 1.5C for the first time in 2024. But the international target is measured as the average over 20 years, so is not considered to have been broken yet. Related: Greenland losing 30m tonnes of ice an hour, study reveals The new study, published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, combined data from studies of warm periods up to 3m years ago; observations of ice melting and sea level rise in recent decades; and climate models. It concluded: 'Continued mass loss from ice sheets poses an existential threat to the world's coastal populations.' Prof Andrea Dutton of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was part of the study team, said: 'Evidence recovered from past warm periods suggests that several metres of sea level rise – or more – can be expected when global mean temperature reaches 1.5C or higher.' At the end of the last ice age, about 15,000 years ago, the sea level was rising at 10 times the rate today, driven by self-reinforcing feedbacks that may have been triggered by only a small increase in temperature. The last time CO2 levels in the atmosphere were as high as today, about 3m years ago, sea level rise was 10-20 metres higher. Even if humanity can bring the planet back to its preindustrial temperature by removing CO2 from the atmosphere, it will still take hundreds to thousands of years for the ice sheets to recover, the researchers said. That means land lost to sea level rise will remain lost for a long time, perhaps until the Earth enters the next ice age. Belize moved its capital inland in 1970 after a devastating hurricane, but its largest city is still on the coast and will be inundated with only 1 metre of sea level rise, Carlos Fuller, Belize's longtime climate negotiator, said: 'Findings such as these only sharpen the need to remain within the 1.5C Paris agreement limit, or as close as possible, so we can return to lower temperatures and protect our coastal cities.'
Skift
27-05-2025
- Business
- Skift
Announcing GreenShift, a New Podcast About Climate Change and Travel
The podcast where solutions-based journalism cuts through industry spin to spotlight real progress in travel sustainability. Skift has launched a new climate podcast, GreenShift, a show exploring how the global travel industry is responding to the climate crisis. Hosted by Darin Graham, climate reporter at Skift, GreenShift will feature straightforward conversations with leaders across travel and tourism. The podcast dives into the sector's biggest climate challenges, highlights emerging solutions, and reports on the breakthrough technologies that could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Listen to the First Episode Recent studies suggest travel is responsible for roughly 9% of global emissions and that share is only expected to grow and travel and tourism is widely seen as the fastest-growing sector in terms of greenhouse gas output. The first season of GreenShift includes interviews with executives from Radisson Hotel Group, Delta Air Lines, Sabre, Travelyst, and more. Each episode unpacks a different climate issue facing the industry, from greener jet fuel, hotel energy efficiency and the direct impacts of more frequent extreme weather. It asks what's working, what's not, and what still needs to happen. Climate regulations are evolving fast, with governments and industry bodies introducing ambitious net-zero targets. Aviation, for example, has committed to reaching net zero by 2050. That means slashing emissions as close to zero as possible and offsetting what's left. But how realistic are these timelines? And are companies actually making progress? GreenShift is here to find out. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Skift's in-depth reporting on climate issues is made possible through the financial support of Intrepid Travel. This backing allows Skift to bring you high-quality journalism on one of the most important topics facing our planet today. Intrepid is not involved in any decisions made by Skift's editorial team.
The Independent
23-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Climate change fuelling spread of deadly fungal infections, study warns
The climate crisis is rapidly expanding the global reach of life-threatening fungal infections, with rising temperatures enabling dangerous species to thrive in new regions, according to a new study. Two major fungal pathogens – Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus flavus – are set to spread faster across new parts of Europe and other regions as warming continues, researchers warn. The findings raise fresh concerns about the growing health burden posed by fungal diseases, which remain understudied compared to other infectious threats. Using climate modelling, researchers from the University of Manchester found that A fumigatus, which causes aspergillosis, a severe and often fatal lung infection, could expand its geographical range by 77 per cent by 2100 under high-emission scenarios. The shift would potentially expose an additional nine million people across Europe to the fungus. Meanwhile, A flavus, which infects crops and produces carcinogenic aflatoxins, is projected to spread over 16 per cent more land globally. Its spread threatens both human health and food security, particularly in regions already vulnerable to climate stress. 'Changes in environmental factors, such as humidity and extreme weather events, will change habitats and drive fungal adaptation and spread,' Dr Norman van Rhijn, one of the authors of the study, said. The findings come amid growing concern that fungal infections – long neglected by global health policy – could spark a major public health crisis in coming decades. Unlike bacterial infections, fungi are harder to treat and resistant to many existing drugs. Despite the threat, less than 10 per cent of the world's estimated fungal species have been described. In 2022, the World Health Organisation listed fungal pathogens among its top priority threats for the first time. Despite this, fungal research remains underfunded. In response to the growing risks, the Wellcome Trust has announced over £50 million in funding for fungal disease research over the next year. 'We have already seen the emergence of the fungus Candida auris due to rising temperatures, but, until now, we had little information of how other fungi might respond to this change in the environment,' said Dr van Rhijn. 'Fungi are relatively under researched compared to viruses and parasites, but these maps show that fungal pathogens will likely impact most areas of the world in the future. Raising awareness and developing effective interventions for fungal pathogens will be essential to mitigate the consequences of this.' Experts warn that the spread of fungal infections may also be accelerated by extreme weather events such as storms, droughts and wildfires, all of which can disturb spores and create ideal conditions for fungal proliferation. While the study found that warmer climates could drive fungal spread across new parts of Europe, some parts of Africa may become too hot for certain fungi to survive. However, researchers warned that fungi's resilience, large genomes, and rapid adaptability make them capable of evolving in response to new conditions. Antifungal resistance is also increasing, driven in part by the widespread use of fungicides in agriculture. Many infections have high mortality rates, and existing antifungal treatments are limited due to toxicity and the biological similarity between fungi and humans. 'Fungal pathogens pose a serious threat to human health by causing infections and disrupting food systems. Climate change will make these risks worse,' Viv Goosens, research manager at Wellcome, said. 'To address these challenges, we must fill important research gaps. By using models and maps to track the spread of fungi, we can better direct resources and prepare for the future.'
