Exclusive: Climate cost of war is more than than the combined 2023 emissions of Costa Rica and Estonia, study finds
How the US became the biggest military emitter and stopped everyone finding out
Revealed: Nato rearmament could increase emissions by 200m tonnes a year
The carbon footprint of the first 15 months of Israel’s war on Gaza will be greater than the annual planet-warming emissions of a hundred individual countries, exacerbating the global climate emergency on top of the huge civilian death toll, new research reveals.
A study shared exclusively with the Guardian found the long-term climate cost of destroying, clearing and rebuilding Gaza could top 31m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e). This is more than the combined 2023 annual greenhouse gases emitted by Costa Rica and Estonia, yet there is no obligation for states to report military emissions to the UN climate body.
Over 99% of the almost 1.89m tCO2e estimated to have been generated between the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack and the temporary ceasefire in January 2025 is attributed to Israel’s aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza.
Almost 30% of greenhouse gases generated in that period came from the US sending 50,000 tonnes of weapons and other military supplies to Israel, mostly on cargo planes and ships from stockpiles in Europe. Another 20% is attributed to Israeli aircraft reconnaissance and bombing missions, tanks and fuel from other military vehicles, as well as CO2 generated by manufacturing and exploding the bombs and artillery.
Solar had generated as much as a quarter of Gaza’s electricity, representing one of the world’s highest shares, but most panels, and the territory’s only power plant, have been damaged or destroyed. Gaza’s limited access to electricity now mostly relies on diesel-guzzling generators that emitted just over 130,000 tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, or 7% of the total conflict emissions.
More than 40% of the total emissions were generated by the estimated 70,000 aid trucks Israel allowed into the Gaza Strip – which the UN has condemned as grossly insufficient to meet the basic humanitarian needs of 2.2m displaced and starving Palestinians.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
05/30/2025 - 00:00
05/30/2025 - 00:00
Lauren Mason decided to take action after witnessing huge amounts of camping gear abandoned at festivals
When Lauren Mason volunteered to help with the cleanup at a festival two years ago, she had no idea it would change the course of her life. She’d heard about the tents being dumped and left behind. Her mother, she says, is “an amazing seamstress”, so Mason thought she might be able to use some of the material to make clothes.
“I originally went to clean up with the idea to make my own jacket. But that’s when I realised the problem was bigger than we thought.”
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05/29/2025 - 22:27
Industrial pollution has degraded the rock art and will continue to do so until emissions at Murujuga are reduced to zero, experts argue
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On Thursday, the new environment minister, Murray Watt, approved an extension for the North West Shelf liquefied natural gas project. The gas plant at Karratha, Western Australia, will run until 2070.
This expansion – and the pollution it will release – has led to a recommendation by the International Council on Monuments and Sites to defer Unesco’s decision on the world heritage listing of the nearby Murujuga rock art.
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05/29/2025 - 15:18
Exclusive: Trade unions and human rights organisations fear environment and human rights being pushed aside
The UK is on the brink of signing a £1.6bn trade agreement with Gulf states, amid warnings from rights groups that the deal makes no concrete provisions on human rights, modern slavery or the environment.
The deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council – which includes the countries Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – is within touching distance, making it a fourth trading agreement by Keir Starmer after pacts were struck with the US, India and the EU.
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05/29/2025 - 14:20
Misti Leon argues fossil fuel companies’ climate negligence caused her mother’s death during a heatwave
A woman has brought the first-ever wrongful death lawsuit against big oil, claiming fossil fuel companies’ climate negligence caused her mother’s death during a major heatwave.
Juliana Leon died of hyperthermia in Seattle at age 65 during the 2021 Pacific north-west heat dome – an event that killed nearly 200 people, and which meteorologists say would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused global warming.
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05/29/2025 - 12:25
Two weeks before the spending review, the housing ombudsman has issued an important warning about a deepening crisis and growing human misery
The most obvious social housing problem in Britain is the lack of it. The failure to build enough homes to keep up with need, and replace those sold off under the right-to-buy scheme, has adversely affected millions of lives. In parts of England, the wait for family-size homes has reached 100 years, with long waiting lists also in Scotland and Wales. Charities rightly call this a national scandal.
While the slowdown dates back decades, the 60% cut in the affordable housing budget in 2010 made the situation far worse. The resulting shortages mean millions of people are stuck in privately rented accommodation with no prospect of buying their own. Hundreds of thousands of others are officially homeless, and trapped in overcrowded temporary flats and rooms.
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05/29/2025 - 11:52
Up to 500,000 more plug-in hybrids could be sold because of government flexibility on the zero-emission mandate
The UK government’s weakening of vehicle sales rules in April could result in fewer electric cars on British roads and higher carbon emissions, according to its official climate adviser.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) said flexibilities announced by Keir Starmer last month for the government’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate could lead to more plug-in hybrids being sold “at the expense of some EV sales, which would lead to a further reduction in emissions savings”.
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05/29/2025 - 11:49
The 8-0 ruling overturns lower court’s decision that halted the project intended to transport crude oil
The US supreme court on Thursday backed a multibillion-dollar oil railroad expansion in Utah, endorsing a scaled-back interpretation of a key environmental law that could pave the way for faster fossil fuel expansion.
In a unanimous ruling, the supreme court justices overturned a lower court’s decision that had halted the fossil fuel project on the grounds that an environmental impact assessment by a federal agency had been too limited in scope.
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05/29/2025 - 09:00
Former army and navy leaders urge government to think beyond military capability in advance of key defence review
Former military leaders are urging the UK government to widen its definition of national security to include climate, food and energy measures in advance of a planned multibillion-pound boost in defence spending.
Earlier this year Keir Starmer announced the biggest increase in defence spending in the UK since the end of the cold war, with the budget rising to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 – three years earlier than planned – and an ambition to reach 3%.
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05/29/2025 - 08:23
Hosepipe ban could follow, says Environment Agency, after England had driest February-April period on record
A drought has been declared in north-west England as reservoir levels dwindle.
Hosepipe bans could follow, the Environment Agency said, though this is a matter for water companies, which have been directed to follow their drought plans.
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