Breaking Waves: Ocean News

10bn tonnes must be captured from the air every year to limit global heating to 1.7C, says Johan Rockström Cop30: click here for full Guardian coverage of the climate talks in Brazil Removing carbon from the atmosphere will be necessary to avoid catastrophic tipping points, one of the world’s leading scientists has warned, as even in the best-case scenario the world will heat by about 1.7C. Johan Rockström of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who is one of the chief scientific advisers to the UN and the Cop30 presidency, said 10bn tonnes of carbon dioxide needed to be removed from the air every year even to limit global heating to 1.7C (3.1F) above preindustrial levels. Continue reading...

Armed forces and settlers used bombs, dogs, poison and machinery to attack people and infrastructure at key sites Israeli armed forces and settlers have attacked Palestinian water sources more than 250 times in the past five years, amounting to the most sustained assault on civilian water supplies in recent years, new research reveals. Bombs, dogs, poison and heavy machinery were among the weapons used to attack Palestinians and their infrastructure at drinking water, irrigation and sanitation sites in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip on at least 90 occasions between January 2024 and mid-2025, according to the Pacific Institute, a California-based nonpartisan thinktank tracking water conflicts. Continue reading...

The public stoush is really about whether the party will drop the charade or maintain it while shuffling some words Want to get this in your inbox when it publishes? Sign up for the Clear Air Australia newsletter here The best thing that can be said about the Coalition’s internal brawl over whether to abandon its support for reaching net zero emissions by 2050 is that it has some honesty in it. Not much honesty, but if you look closely you may see some light breaking through. The federal Liberals and Nationals have never supported the idea of reaching net zero by 2050. Some individual MPs have but not the parties. We know this because they have not backed a policy to help meet it since Scott Morrison adopted the target in 2021 to try to deflect rising pressure at home and abroad. Continue reading...

How do you plan for an event whose timing is unknown? For residents of Tofino on Vancouver Island the threat is distant but signs of preparedness are everywhere Justin Goss was in the shower when he first heard the piercing wail of a nearby tsunami early-warning siren. Still dripping wet, he threw on clothes, grabbed his dog and rushed to the truck. The pair made it 3 metres and no further. “The whole parking lot across the street was jammed up. It was complete gridlock within three minutes,” he says. “I thought, ‘Oh shit, this is not good.’” Continue reading...