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Prime ministers of Australia and Iceland discuss effects on their countries even as some shy away in face of war and inflation
World political leaders are descending on New York for the UN general assembly and some of them are putting the climate crisis on the agenda as they spoke on Monday at the start of the city’s annual Climate Week.
This year’s Climate Week – which runs alongside UNGA – comes after months of extreme heat in large parts of the world including Europe and the US, wildfires in Africa, flash flooding in Asia and a record-breaking El Niño.
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Scientists found unequal impact of the climate crisis would not be reversed even if implicit goal of the 2015 Paris agreement is achieved
The unequal impact of the climate crisis on the world’s poorest people, including those in tropical areas, has been highlighted by new research that finds they will be among the last to feel the benefits if global greenhouse gas emissions are cut to net zero.
Temperatures have risen more significantly in tropical areas relative to their historic range than at higher latitudes, including in wealthier countries in Europe and North America.
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EVs with 90,000 to 120,000 miles on the clock are more likely to pass MOTs than petrol models of the same age
Motorists buying a secondhand car with a lot of miles on the clock are likely to find an electric vehicle (EV) ultimately more reliable than a petrol vehicle, according to a study.
An analysis of 47.4m MOT tests found that after cars were driven 90,000 to 120,000 miles, EVs were about 25% less likely to fail than petrol models of the same age (based on a failure rate of 16.5% versus 22.1%).
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Photographers from all over the world entered more than 24,000 images into the world’s largest bird photography competition, with an image of a northern gannet bursting through the ocean’s surface taking the grand prize
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Forestry England invites people to help it create a record of when and how the season arrives across the country
The reds and golds of autumn leaves may be beginning to appear, but exactly when the season arrives is not always as predictable as the calendar might suggest.
Now, Forestry England is asking people to help track the changing colours of forests to create a record of when and how autumn arrives across the country.
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A teenager struggling with climate anxiety searches for hope in an unexpected place – writing letters to imprisoned activists. Max, 14, is on a quest to understand the human stories behind direct action and why so many climate protesters have spent time in prison. As replies begin to arrive, a dialogue bridging generations unfolds and connection transforms despair into purpose. When Max writes to the judge presiding over a high-profile trial, he is surprised to hear the letter referred to in the judge’s closing remarks
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The Argiope bruennichi, spotted in Cheshire for first time, part of worrying trend that could threaten native species
She is an unlikely harbinger of the climate emergency: a venomous black and yellow spider who spins mysterious patterns in her webs and eats her mates for breakfast.
Native to mainland Europe, north Africa and Asia, the Argiope bruennichi – commonly known as a wasp spider – is rarely seen in the north and west of Britain. But a fully grown female has been spotted in Cheshire for the first time by conservationists from Chester zoo, who stumbled across the large, brightly striped arachnid in a rewilded field.
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New study finds subsidence caused by groundwater extraction can take place as far as 20km from site of mine
The impact of opencast mining goes far beyond the edge of the pit. Studies of an opencast coalmine in western Germany show that opencast mining triggered extensive subsidence in the surrounding area and re-activated dormant geological faults.
Underground mines are often associated with ground subsidence, but less is known about the risks associated with opencast mines. Researchers from the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, Germany, studied satellite data and geological field measurements from the area around the opencast Rhenish coalfields, between Aachen and Cologne.
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New rice varieties give hope that farmers can overcome the climate emergency and a warmer future that threatens harvests
When schoolchildren in Shiroishi were enlisted to plant rice seedlings in June, Shinto priests blessed the land and asked the deities for a bountiful crop. Judging by the fields behind farmer Haruki Kawasaki, their prayers have been answered.
The 63-year-old is preparing to harvest this year’s crop of hinatamaru, a variety of rice whose plump grains have thrived despite exposure to another hot and dry summer, conditions that typically punish rice yields.
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The risk to El Chaltén in Argentina has been known for years but recent findings and the Nepal disaster have brought planning for the worst-case scenario into sharp focus
The images from Nepal stopped Daniela Schmidt in her tracks. A geologist at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina, she watched the deadly flash floods on 26 August tear through everything in their path, people running for their lives as the water and debris swept over the landscape.
“I had never seen anything like it,” she says. “This was one of the most catastrophic events on a global scale related to these glacial floods.”
The aftermath of the Nepal floods in Nuwakot district, 26 August. Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock
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