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Now Playing | The state of water in the world is critical, but the relationship between a man and a fish that are in story is more critical.

Europe's groundwater, once considered abundant, is now facing a critical decline in both quality and quantity due to climate change and industrial overexploitation.Zeynep Sentek, Jelena Prtorić, Sarah Pilz report for Under the Surface.In short:More than 15% of Europe's aquifers are in poor condition, impacting major crop-producing countries like Spain, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.Many countries fail to provide comprehensive data on groundwater status, hindering the assessment of the full extent of the crisis.The EU is criticized for not enforcing stricter water management laws, often succumbing to agricultural and chemical industry pressures.Key quote: “Water is difficult to find and expensive. It is no longer sustainable this way. More and more growers are giving up.” — Bart Trybou, Belgian farmerWhy this matters: Groundwater depletion and contamination threaten food security, public health, and economic stability across Europe. The failure to address this issue could lead to severe shortages and broader environmental crises. Read more: Farming for a small planet.

AI executives are acting like they own the world.

Now Playing | A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity is a feature-length documentary that follows a community in Australia who came together to explore and demonstrate a simpler way to live in response to global crises. Throughout the year the group built tiny houses, planted veggie gardens, practised simple living, and learned how to live in community. This film is the product of hours and hours of footage that I shot during that year-long experiment in simple living.

The past 10 years revealed how government failures at every level could effectively kill a city, turning it into a "ghost town."

The groups, which allow people to talk through their emotions around environmental change, have sprung up across the country, including for therapists.

Vital forest is cleared every day, with major climate effects. Satellites have revolutionized measurement of the problem, but what can we do about it?

Now Playing | "It's really hard being a fire family. Every day it's getting worse." -Brett, wife of Marin County Battalion Chief in California.Every day, Americans who live close to the land and sea face the dangers of climate change—from a firefighter in California, to a beekeeper in Arizona, to a climate refugee losing her home in Florida. The changing climate affects our food systems, water and way of life. These American families are in the trenches sacrificing everything while facing depression, PTSD, and suicide—collateral damage of a crisis unchecked. Award-winning filmmaker, Peter Goetz, captures America's faces and voices, shot in 2020 leading up to the presidential election. Goetz and the Biden campaign made history, producing the first national climate spot to run during a presidential election. But this film dives deeper into the American climate crisis to explore the lives of the people who are sounding the alarm, worried about their grandchildren’s future, asking, "If not us, then who?" This is a story of the resilience, perseverance, and ingenuity of the American people. Ever hopeful, they collectively take on a common enemy. As the young, Navajo solar visionary Brett Issac insists, "We've got to turn this train around before it's too late."

The Park Fire has sent homeowners falling through the state’s shredded safety net.

Culebra Island, located near Puerto Rico, boasts diverse marine ecosystems with extensive coral reefs protected by various reserves. Despite their ecological importance, these reefs face...

New Mexico’s unprotected waters demonstrate how pollution, drought, and the climate crisis converge to harm communities.

The production, promotion, and consumption of sugary beverages have lasting health and environmental consequences. It's time we add them to the climate change conversation.

The rules that govern land are the foundation of our lives.

There can be no victory in a war against nature, says Sunil Amrith in The Burning Earth, a must-read history of our environmental crisis

In Clairton, Pennsylvania, residents face a stark reality of air pollution, revealing deep-seated racial and economic disparities in environmental policy outcomes.Kiley Bense and Victoria St. Martin report for Inside Climate News.In short:Clairton Coke Works, a major coke producer, significantly contributes to the area's air pollution, affecting residents' health.Studies show that air pollution's impact is disproportionately higher in communities of color and low-income areas.The enforcement of the Clean Air Act has not equitably reduced pollution across different demographic groups.Key quote: “ ... racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequities in air pollution exposure persist across the US despite the nationwide downward trend in air pollution indicating inequities in air pollution emissions reductions.”— scientists at Columbia UniversityWhy this matters:Residents of Clairton and surrounding areas have reported a range of health problems, which they attribute to the poor air quality. These issues include increased rates of asthma, especially among children, as well as other respiratory conditions and cardiovascular diseases. The pollution has also raised concerns about long-term effects on the community's overall health. For example, a 2019 study showed that kids in Clairton are experiencing decreased lung function following the Clairton Coke Works fire.

The climate crisis demands swift and decisive action — like bolstering public transportation. The post Is Public Transit A Bulwark Against the Climate Crisis? appeared first on The Revelator.

Studies reveal that natural soundscapes are diminishing due to loss of species and ecosystem degradation.Phoebe Weston reports for The Guardian.In short: Ecoacoustics research indicates a global reduction in the natural sounds of ecosystems due to declining species diversity and abundance.Declines in the diversity and intensity of natural sounds have been documented across North America and Europe over the past 25 years.Experts emphasize that sounds like bird calls and insect hums are vanishing, warning of "acoustic fossils" if protective measures are not taken.Key quote: "The changes are profound. And they are happening everywhere." — Bernie Krause, U.S. soundscape recordistWhy this matters: The disappearance of natural sounds not only signifies a loss of biodiversity but also marks a concerning trend in environmental health, affecting global ecosystems and human wellbeing. Read more: The health of wildlife is inseparable from our own.

Europe grapples with escalating plastic pollution, driven by petrochemical imports from Texas. A recent report by Amnesty International shows how some of these imported petrochemical products are linked to environmental racism, and calls for more stringent rules to restrict the proliferation of polluting plastics. Alysha Khambay writes in euobserver.In short:European shores are increasingly littered with plastic pellets, causing environmental emergencies and threats to marine life.Petrochemicals linked to human rights abuses in Texas are contaminating Europe's plastic supply, with European companies implicated.New EU rules and a potential UN plastics treaty aim to tackle the entire lifecycle of plastics, highlighting the need for global accountability in the industry.Key quote: "Combined with a tough new UN plastics treaty, the new EU directive could help turn the tide against plastics in Europe – which can’t come soon enough for the continent’s beaches, bottle-blighted rivers, and all those communities suffering at the hands of the plastics and fossil fuel industries." — Alysha Khambay, report author and researcher at Amnesty InternationalWhy this matters: The involvement of European companies in harmful practices abroad punctuates the urgency for stringent international regulations to safeguard health outcomes and mitigate widespread environmental damage. Read more: Texas has more chemical emergencies than any other state and they’re disproportionately affecting Latino communities.Learn more about the UN plastics treaty talks happening in Ottawa this week.

Gen Z has been heralded as being more invested in environmental issues. But a discussion with 'green' youths suggests the plastic habit may be hard to break.

New regulations, and satellites like MethaneSat, very likely will not cut methane emissions. Natural gas industry economics will instead continue delaying their needed reduction

Curbing the carbon footprint of what we eat won’t require an agricultural revolution. It's already happening in farms and ranches across the country.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report on their 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). The report includes data on a wide range of health-related behaviors of high school students in the United States, and breaks down these behaviors across different demographics. The results underscore the fact that we’re […]

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Early into his new book, The Blue Plate: A Food Lover’s Guide to Climate Chaos, ecologist Mark Easter poses a playful, but loaded, question: “How could a morning piece of toast or a plate of dinner pasta be such a world-altering culprit?” This, […]

A dire study reveals that Mexico City's metro system is sinking rapidly due to subsidence, posing risks to its infrastructure and passenger safety.Matt Simon reports for Wired.In short:Subsidence, caused by the compaction of land due to groundwater extraction, is sinking Mexico City at rates of up to 20 inches per year.The uneven sinking poses threats to infrastructure, with nearly half of the elevated segments of the Metro experiencing differential subsidence.Flooding, electrical system disruptions, and increased rail slopes are among the potential dangers.Key quote:“Trains can get derailed very easily if there is a slight change in the leveling of the railways.” — Manoochehr Shirzaei, environmental security expert at Virginia Tech.Why this matters:As cities face subsidence due to over-extraction of groundwater and global sea levels continue their inexorable rise, infrastructure risks and public safety concerns amplify. Can we adapt to climate change in ways that solve other problems too?

California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued ExxonMobil on Monday, accusing the oil and gas giant of knowingly contributing to “one of the most devastating global environmental crises of our time” while misleading the public about recycling as a solution. The much-anticipated lawsuit is the first in which a state has gone after a big plastics […]

A new study led by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney suggests that the future environmental impact of PFAS may be underestimated. Per-and...

After repeated violations, the state has stepped in -- but the problems are a reminder that safe water is not available to all Americans

Thanks to a federal judge, residents of Jackson will have a say in how the city resolves its yearslong water crisis.

Greed, corruption, land exploitation, and water shortages… these may sound like themes from Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, but the residents of Dominical will tell you that these issues are a reality in their own backyard. This situation is indicative of a larger trend in Costa Rica, where developers openly flaunt environmental laws with little to no […] The post Dominical’s Water Crisis: The Shocking Truth Behind the Illegal Development Project appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

As global temperatures rise, so do the challenges for abortion access and women's health services

The historic North Carolina city was touted as a climate ‘haven’ – a reputation deadly Hurricane Helene left in ruinsNestled in the bucolic Blue Ridge mountains of western North Carolina and far from any coast, Asheville was touted as a climate “haven” from extreme weather. Now the historic city has been devastated and cut off by Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic floodwaters, in a stunning display of the climate crisis’s unlimited reach in the United States.Helene, which crunched into the western Florida coast as a category 4 hurricane on Thursday, brought darkly familiar carnage to a stretch of that state that has experienced three such storms in the past 13 months, flattening coastal homes and tossing boats inland. Continue reading...

First-of-its-kind suit comes as climate experts claim that fossil fuel producers are deceiving public about plasticsCalifornia has filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against ExxonMobil for allegedly deceiving the public about the plastic pollution crisis, the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, announced on Monday.The announcement comes amid increasing public concern about the plastic sector’s environmental and climate impact. Continue reading...

The increasing incidence of climate change-induced heat spikes, wildfires and life-threatening flash floods is engulfing pregnant and postpartum individuals in a wave of eco-anxiety and depression. "The mom is kind of guiding the ship," Jennifer Barkin, an expert on maternal mental health, told The Hill. "You're already worried about — are your kids eating enough...

The lack of affordable housing in California's urban centers may be fueling increased development in adjacent wildlands — exacerbating the impacts of climate change, researchers fear. For the past several decades, the Golden State has made the biggest mark nationwide on the so-called "wildland-urban interface," according to a new perspective paper, published on Monday in...

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In the summer of 2022, heavy rainfall damaged a water treatment plant in the city of Jackson, Mississippi, precipitating a high-profile public health crisis. The Republican Governor Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency, as thousands of residents were told to boil […]

Increase of 1C in average annual temperature connected to more than 6% rise in physical and sexual domestic violenceAs deadly heatwaves sweep through cities in India, China, the US and Europe amid the climate crisis, new research has found that rising temperatures are associated with a substantial rise in domestic violence against women.A study published in JAMA Psychiatry on Wednesday found a 1C increase in average annual temperature was connected to a rise of more than 6.3% in incidents of physical and sexual domestic violence across three south Asian countries. Continue reading...

A new report surfaces a trail of red flags that the EPA didn’t raise.

The Earth Commission says hope lies in sustainable lifestyles, a radical transformation of global politics and fair distribution of resourcesAll of humanity could share a prosperous, equitable future but the space for development is rapidly shrinking under pressure from a wealthy minority of ultra-consumers, a groundbreaking study has shown.Growing environmental degradation and climate instability have pushed the Earth beyond a series of safe planetary boundaries, say the authors from the Earth Commission, but it still remains possible to carve out a “safe and just space” that would enable everyone to thrive. Continue reading...

It’s not the first study on microplastics in Antarctica that researchers from the University of Basel and the Alfred-Wegener Institute (AWI) have conducted. However, data...

Illnesses such as dengue and malaria to reach unaffected parts of northern Europe, America, Asia and Australia, conference to hearMosquito-borne diseases are spreading across the globe, and particularly in Europe, due to climate breakdown, an expert has said.The insects spread illnesses such as malaria and dengue fever, the prevalences of which have hugely increased over the past 80 years as global heating has given them the warmer, more humid conditions they thrive in. Continue reading...

Mississippi’s state health department did not adequately enforce the Safe Drinking Water Act in Jackson, contributing to the 2022 crisis that left 150,000 residents without drinking water, according to a report released Tuesday by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Inspector General. The OIG found that annual inspections by the Mississippi State Department of...

Writer tells Hay Festival about his new book, Blossomise, and how to inspire people to preserve the natural worldPoets can help fight climate breakdown by making us “spellbound, full of wonder and beguiled” by nature, the poet laureate has said.Simon Armitage, who pledged to dedicate his writing and thinking to environmental issues when he was appointed poet laureate in 2019, has written a new book of poems called Blossomise, which he hopes will remind readers of the beauty of nature. Continue reading...

High court hears case brought by claimants who say rights have been breached as result of adaptation planIn December, council officials ordered Kevin Jordan to leave his home, warning him it was at risk of falling into the sea at any moment.On Tuesday he had his day in court, accusing the government of failing to do enough to adapt to the changes the UK is facing as a result of climate breakdown. Continue reading...

Twisters is the latest in a long line of movies that fail to address the environmental emergency – experts say it’s a missed opportunityA rodeo crowd waves cowboy hats as a man rides a bucking horse. Then comes a shower of leaves, a chorus of mobile phone rings and a wail of klaxons. Horses run wild and cars collide. One vehicle is whipped into the air by what a weatherman calls a once-in-a-generation tornado outbreak.This is a scene from Twisters, starring Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones, in which rivals come together to try to predict and possibly tame ferocious storms in central Oklahoma. A sequel to the hit disaster movie Twister from 1996, it is a Hollywood summer blockbuster designed to entertain – but also a lost opportunity to raise awareness of the climate crisis. Continue reading...

It means 2024 will also likely become the warmest humanity has measured, according to European climate service Copernicus.

U.S. House representatives from Southern California on Monday called for a federal state of emergency declaration, with hopes of bringing urgent relief to a region coping with toxic, transboundary air pollution. Democrats Juan Vargas, Sara Jacobs, Mike Levin and Scott Peters pressed for urgent action "in light of new findings that alarming levels of noxious...

Southern California's border-adjacent communities are pushing for emergency assistance from regional and state agencies as they contend with a cross-border sewage crisis that is poisoning the air they breathe. The writers, led by Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, pushed for immediate action to cope with dangerous air pollution impacting area communities, in a Sunday letter...

Tanya Plibersek says two new agencies will be established but a commitment to rewrite national environment laws has been pushed backGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastThe Albanese government has further delayed a commitment to rewrite Australia’s failing national environment laws.The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, said the government would introduce legislation in coming weeks to create two previously announced bodies – an environment protection agency and a second organisation called Environment Information Australia, which will provide public data on ecosystems, plants and animals.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Continue reading...

The cost of environmental damage will be six times higher than the price of limiting global heating to 2C, study findsAverage incomes will fall by almost a fifth within the next 26 years as a result of the climate crisis, according to a new study that shows the costs of damage are six times higher than the price of limiting global heating to 2C.Rising temperatures, heavier rainfall and more frequent and intense extreme weather are projected to cause $38tn (£30tn) of destruction each year by mid-century, shows the research published in the journal Nature, which is the most comprehensive analysis of its type ever undertaken. Continue reading...

Dozens of the children of Flint, Michigan's lead-contaminated water crisis have turned their trauma into advocacy 10 years after it began

No longer covered in ice, Andean rocks signal the world’s glaciers are melting far faster than predicted. Tropical glaciers have reached their smallest size in...

A new national report says America's rivers are in crisis.

Green Finance Institute report said further pollution could cut 12% off GDP by 2030sThe destruction of nature over the rest of the decade could trigger a bigger economic slump in Britain than those caused by the 2008 global financial crisis and the Covid pandemic, experts have warned.Sounding the alarm over the rising financial cost from pollution, damage to water systems, soil erosion, and threats from disease, the report by the Green Finance Institute warned that further breakdown in the UK’s natural environment could lead to a 12% loss of gross domestic product (GDP) by the 2030s. Continue reading...

British Medical Association says decision to take Dr Sarah Benn off medical register for five months ‘sends worrying message’Doctors groups are calling for urgent consideration of the rules for medical professionals who take peaceful direct action on the climate crisis, which they say is the “greatest threat to global health”, after a GP was suspended from the register for non-violent protest.Dr Sarah Benn, a GP from Birmingham, was taken off the medical register for five months on Tuesday, by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS), the disciplinary arm of the General Medical Council (GMC), over her climate protests. Continue reading...

Retracing Darwin’s journey through South America, I had an ominous premonition about environmental crisis

Government will also overhaul state laws after Guardian Australia uncovered serious problems with biodiversity offsets schemeGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastThe New South Wales government says the state’s biodiversity is in crisis and must be put on a path to recovery to reverse the decline of beloved species and ecosystems.The environment minister, Penny Sharpe, has released the government’s “first steps” in responding to a major review of the state’s nature laws, saying “we cannot ignore the truth: biodiversity in NSW is in crisis”.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundupIntroducing legislation next year to enshrine a new state nature strategy with conservation and restoration targets;Amending laws this year to reform the state’s offsets scheme;Developing maps that identify current and future areas of high biodiversity value to give “clear guidance” on where environmental impacts should be avoided;Reviewing other pieces of legislation that affect biodiversity to improve outcomes for the environment. Continue reading...

The accelerating shift toward clean energy technologies means global greenhouse gas emissions may fall in 2024

Botanical gardens lost 400 trees during 2022 drought, prompting research into potential loss in coming decadesMore than half of the tree species at Kew’s Royal Botanical Gardens are at risk of death because of climate breakdown, a study by the public body has found.Founded in 1840, Kew Gardens says it houses the largest botanical collection in the world. During the drought of 2022, the botanical gardens in south-west London lost 400 of its trees. Scientists at Kew decided they should map and chronicle the climate risk to the trees to see how many could feasibly be lost to the changing weather in the coming decades. Continue reading...

Cape Town, which beat a water crisis in 2018, holds lessons for cities grappling with an El Niño-fueled drought.

The legal repression of activism has been fast and frightening, yet it won’t make protesters disappear and only sows divisionYears ago, when Dr Sarah Benn recognised the scale of the climate crisis, she made sure that she was doing all the right things. She recycled, she went vegan, she stopped flying, she voted Green, she signed petitions. It was because she didn’t see real change happening, despite doing all those things, that she then went further. She glued her hand to a building. She sat down in front of an oil terminal. And she stood on a grass verge with a handwritten sign, saying, “Stop New Oil”.Benn’s story will be pretty familiar to anyone with a passing interest in the current wave of climate protest. This wave grew out of deep frustration with existing avenues for change. And it did feel, for a time, as if these protests might be a catalyst for the wider shift that so many people recognised was urgently needed. The marches and sit-downs sparked so much sympathy and curiosity, even with politicians from Michael Gove to Dawn Butler. I remember walking along a street on an Extinction Rebellion march in 2019 and people were cheering from their windows. A big part of all the early protests was outreach, with protesters talking to people on the streets, in communities and workplaces, and finding eager responses. Continue reading...