Map showing Biodiversity Intactness Index for the year 2020 at 0.25° resolution. The global average is 77 percent. Data: Natural History Museum, 2022. Graphic: WWF / ZSL

WWF’s Living Planet Report 2022 reveals devastating 69 percent average drop in wildlife populations since 1970 – “We have cut away the very foundation of life and the situation continues to worsen”

TORONTO, 12 October 2022 (WWF-Canada) – Monitored wildlife populations — mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish — have seen a devastating 69 per cent drop on average since 1970 according to WWF’s Living Planet Report (LPR) 2022. The report highlights the stark outlook of the state of nature and urgently warns governments, businesses and the public to take […]

A child in a refugee camp carries water in Somalia, 2022. Somalia faces widespread famine after four failed rainy seasons, with a fifth season underway that likely will fail too, along with the sixth early in 2023. Photo: Fazel / UNICEF

UNICEF: Heatwaves to impact almost every child on earth by 2050 – “The climate crisis is a child rights crisis, and it is already taking a devastating toll on children’s lives and futures”

25 October 2022 (UN News) – Heatwaves have become an unavoidable health hazard for many nations, but new data indicates that they are set to affect virtually every child on earth by 2050, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, warned on Tuesday. Today, at least half a billion youngsters are already exposed to a high number of heatwaves, placing them on […]

Plastic Waste in Canggu Beach, Bali. A tourist walks along a beach covered in piles of debris and plastic waste in Canggu, Bali, Indonesia, 12 December 2021. Photo: Made Nagi / Greenpeace

Plastic recycling is a dead-end street: year after year, plastic recycling declines even as plastic waste increases

WASHINGTON, D.C., 24 October 2022 (Greenpeace USA) – Most plastic simply cannot be recycled, a new Greenpeace USA report concludes. Circular Claims Fall Flat Again, released today, finds that U.S. households generated an estimated 51 million tons of plastic waste in 2021, only 2.4 million tons of which was recycled.  The report also finds that no […]

A satellite image shows a flooded road in Brewarrina, Australia, 15 October 2022. Photo: Maxar Technologies / REUTERS

Australia flood crisis enters third week as heavy rains lash east – Sydney records wettest year since 1858 – “The damage is horrific and extensive”

By Lewis Jackson and Renju Jose; editing by Kenneth Maxwell 24 October 2022 SYDNEY (Reuters) – Already-flooded towns across Australia’s east were on high alert on Monday after a weekend of heavy rains, with authorities warning a wild weather system could persist until later this week and trigger renewed riverbank bursts. Thousands of homes and […]

A satellite image shows gas from the Nord Stream pipeline bubbling up in the water following incidents in the Baltic Sea, in this handout picture released 29 September 2022. Roscosmos / REUTERS

Nord Stream rupture may mark biggest single methane release ever recorded, U.N. says – “This is the most wasteful way to generate emissions”

By Richard Valdmanis; editing by Frances Kerry and Howard Goller 30 September 2022 (Reuters) – The ruptures on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline system under the Baltic Sea have led to what is likely the biggest single release of climate-damaging methane ever recorded, the United Nations Environment Programme said on Friday. A huge plume […]

Smoke rises from a forest fire in the Transamazonica highway region, in the municipality of Labrea, Amazonas state, Brazil, 17 September 2022. Despite the smoke clogging the air of entire Amazon cities, state elections have largely ignored environmental issues. Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro is seeking a second four-year term against leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who ruled Brazil between 2003 and 2010. Photo: Edmar Barros / AP Photo

Worst Brazil forest fires in a decade, yet election silence – “Your administration is the one that has set biomes, forests, and my Pantanal wetlands on fire. Your administration favored miners and loggers and protected them. You, in this regard, were the worst president in Brazil’s history.”

By Fabiano Maisonnave 1 October 2022 RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – September has come and gone, marking another painful milestone for the world’s largest rainforest. It’s the worst month for fire in the Amazon in over a decade. Satellite sensors detected over 42,000 fires in 30 days according to Brazil’s national space institute. It is […]

Water levels are low at San Luis Reservoir, which stores irrigation water for San Joaquin Valley farms, in Gustine, California, 14 September 2022. As climate change brings hotter temperatures and more severe droughts, cities and states around the world are facing water shortages as lakes and rivers dry up. Photo: AP Photo / Terry Chea

California wells run dry as drought depletes groundwater – “Most residents have had their wells for many years and all of a sudden the water stops flowing”

By Terry Chea 4 October 2022 FAIRMEAD, California (AP) – As California’s drought deepens, Elaine Moore’s family is running out of an increasingly precious resource: water. The Central Valley almond growers had two wells go dry this summer. Two of her adult children are now getting water from a new well the family drilled after […]

New Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari (center), is pictured during a group photo in front of the Parliament in Stockholm, on 18 October 2022. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand / AFP

Sweden’s climate policy is in turmoil – Far-right government puts Environment Ministry under Ministry of Energy and Industry – “Historic decision that will have devastating consequences for climate issues”

By Anne-Françoise Hivert 22 October 2022 MALMÖ, Sweden (Le Monde) – It is quite a symbol: For the first time since 1987, Sweden has no proper Environment Ministry. Romina Pourmokhtari, 26, the youngest member of the government presented by the conservative Ulf Kristersson on Tuesday, October 18, has been appointed minister for climate and the […]

Aerial view of flooding in South Sudan following fourth year of historic rainfall, 18 October 2022. Photo: UNHCR

Devastation in South Sudan following fourth consecutive year of historic floods – Two-thirds of country experiencing flooding – More than 900,000 people directly impacted

21 October 2022 (UNHCR) – UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is urging international support for humanitarian efforts in South Sudan in the face of record-breaking rains and floods for a fourth consecutive year, and the threat of worse to come as the climate crisis accelerates. Two-thirds of the country is currently experiencing flooding. Over 900,000 […]

Aerial view of people arriving at a displacement camp in southern Somalia in late September 2022. Photo: Jerome Delay / AP Photo

Prolonged drought brings famine, death, and fear to Somalia – “We’d grieve, stop for a while, pray. We’d bury them beside the road.”

By Cara Anna 5 October 2022 DOLLOW, Somalia (AP) – A man in a donkey cart comes wheeling through the dust, carrying two small, silent boys. The sky is overcast. It could rain. It won’t. It hasn’t for a very long time. Mohamed Ahmed Diriye is 60 years old, and he’s completing the grimmest journey […]

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