Environment

The world’s fossil fuel producers are planning expansions that would blow the planet’s carbon budget twice over, a UN report has found. Experts called the plans “insanity” which “throw humanity’s future into question”.

The energy plans of the petrostates contradicted their climate policies and pledges, the report said. The plans would lead to 460% more coal production, 83% more gas, and 29% more oil in 2030 than it was possible to burn if global temperature rise was to be kept to the internationally agreed 1.5C. The plans would also produce 69% more fossil fuels than is compatible with the riskier 2C target.

The countries responsible for the largest carbon emissions from planned fossil fuel production are India (coal), Saudi Arabia (oil) and Russia (coal, oil and gas). The US and Canada are also planning to be major oil producers, as is the United Arab Emirates. The UAE is hosting the crucial UN climate summit Cop28, which starts on 30 November.

The planet is on track to heat up at a much faster rate than scientists have predicted, meaning a key global warming threshold could be breached this decade, according to a new study co-authored by James Hansen — the scientist credited with being the first to sound the alarm on the climate crisis.

IPCC report says only swift and drastic action can avert irrevocable damage to world

From the foot of Mount Everest, António Guterres warned of floods, droughts and landslides if 1.5C global heating is breached.

Human discourse around trees both shapes and is shaped by our education, beliefs, experience and relationships with trees. Simply put, how we speak about trees matters.

Ten years ago, I appreciated trees alongside concern for the health of our planet, but did not consider the ways we speak about trees or their profound intricacies. Then, through an unexpected turn in my research, I became more aware of trees’ relationships, sentience, intelligence and interconnections with their environments as home and community.

As we near the anniversary of last year’s UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Montréal, it is apparent that our collective tree discourse needs to fundamentally shift in order to reconnect with the integrity, interconnectivity and protection of all ecosystems called for in the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Such a shift and lasting change means we must not talk about trees, but with trees.

Once home to 250-year-old maritime pines, roaring machines now cut, prune and remove numerous pest-infested trunks.

Secrecy and lax oversight mean illegal loggers and miners in Amazon can park billions in real estate and other assets

Glaciers in East Antarctica will lose more ice in the future than previously thought, scientists reported Friday, in an alarming feedback loop where glacier meltwater is triggering even more ice loss as the planet warms.

Was reading new package, they removed plastics and now they brag about it.

I have issues in my life because of that. As a consumer I have to watch about my carbon footprint and recycle plastics, can even get fined if I don't.

So why would I praise them if they could do it long time ago and see how much plastic they produced each year.

I never asked to use plastics