EUROPE is heating faster than the global average according to new analysis that shows last year was the warmest on record. To mark Earth Day's 50th anniversary, new studies have found that while globally 2019 was the second warmest, in Europe set a new high mark with climate change amplifying heatwaves. And now the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has urged governments to show the same determination to stop climate change as with coronavirus.

We are living in an age of climate crisis, with its resulting fires, floods, warming oceans, ecological breakdown, mass extinctions, epidemics, and political and social unrest, which must make us ask: Are we the first generation to witness the beginning of the end?

The loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic is now very likely before 2050, new research shows, even if the carbon emissions driving the climate crisis are cut rapidly. The result has alarmed scientists but they said slashing greenhouse gases remained vital as this would determine whether Arctic summer ice vanished permanently or could recover over time. If emissions remain very high, there is a risk the Arctic could be ice-free even in the dark, cold winter months, a possibility described as “catastrophic”.

The price of U.S. crude oil collapsed to below zero for the first time on record, falling to negative $37 per barrel and forcing oil producers to pay buyers to take the product off their hands. As The Guardian reported last week, 160 million barrels of oil are being stored in tankers near shipping ports around the world due to the sharpest drop in oil demand in a quarter of a century because of the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting global lockdown.

LONDON: Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell pledged on Thursday (Apr 16) to become carbon neutral by 2050, matching a commitment by rival BP as climate change looms large over the energy sector. "Society's expectations have shifted quickly in the debate around climate change," Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said in a statement. "Shell now needs to go further with our own ambitions, which is why we aim to be a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050 or sooner. Society, and our customers, expect nothing less."

Like COVID-19, water insecurity is set to hit the most vulnerable the hardest.

Federal scientists announced Thursday that 2020 has nearly a 75% chance of being the warmest year on record for the planet Earth. Already, through the first three months of the year, it's the second-warmest on record, trailing only the El Niño fueled year of 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said.

The coronavirus outbreak has provoked a string of unsettling sights, such as the sudden widespread use of masks, shuttered businesses and deserted streets. Another unusual phenomenon is also playing out in the skies – near-empty airplanes flying through the air. Widespread travel restrictions around the world have slashed demand for air travel, with more than eight in 10 flights canceled. But there is a disparity in the US – while the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has reported a 96% slump in passenger volume, to a level not seen since 1954, this hasn’t been matched by the number of flights being scrapped.

Earth's atmosphere, it turns out, is dustier than scientists previously thought. Dust in the upper atmosphere interacts with clouds, oceans and even radiation, or heat, from the sun. It can affect weather, precipitation and even has an impact on climate change. In a new study, scientists from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) found that there is four times as much coarse dust in our planet's atmosphere than has previously be seen in climate models.

Change is coming for every corner of the planet. Explore what your city could feel like 50 years from now.

One of the main arguments against taking action on climate change has always been that it's too expensive. But new research finds just the opposite: We can't afford not to. A study published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature finds that if nations fail to rein in greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently, as agreed upon in the international Paris Agreement, the global economy stands to lose at least $150 trillion to as much as $792 trillion by the end of the century.

Conservative groups aligned with the oil industry hope to block any aid for the solar and wind industries, which have been decimated by the pandemic. In late March, the Texas Public Policy Foundation ran an advertisement warning of a supposed power grab about to take place in Washington. “Some congressional Democrats want to use the coronavirus aid bill to enact their climate change agenda,” reads a sponsored Facebook post from the Austin-based conservative think tank, which has received donations from major fossil fuel companies.

How one Swedish teenager armed with a homemade sign ignited a crusade and became the leader of a movement

The COVID-19 pandemic is such a terrible event that it will definitively make it into the pages of history books. Saying that the virus is a good thing because it has decreased our impact on the planet is not just immoral but also premature, as we’re not yet sure how this outbreak is going to play out from an environmental perspective.

For 500,000 years, the Great Barrier Reef has grown steadily in the cool, clear waters off Australia. But after surviving five glacial periods, the reef’s billions of inhabitants may not survive humanity. On March 26, the Reef endured its third major bleaching event in five years. Many of its corals sustained massive bleaching, even in the southern portion relatively untouched during the previous events, according to the Australian government.

Victorian Energy Upgrades Program (VEU) by the government of Victoria can save your money on upgrading lighting costs, reduce your energy costs and contribute to the environment. By adding electricity-saving LED light bulbs, you save up to 80 percent on your lighting costs. That's up to 16 dollars annually per globe. A national energy-saving target is set by the program which results in a variety of energy-efficient products and services for households and businesses being provided at a subsidized rate.

Opposition to the Green New Deal is often framed as a matter of cost. President Trump’s re-election campaign blasted the “radical” plan, claiming it would “cost trillions of dollars, wreck our economy, and decimate millions of energy jobs.” But science shows that the costs of unchecked global temperature rise are far higher than transitioning to clean energy — which will, in fact, boost the economy. “Everybody thinks, ‘Oh, you have to spend a huge amount of money,’” says Mark Jacobson, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Stanford University. “Well, yeah, there’s an upfront cost, but this is something that pays itself back.”

Carbon dioxide emissions could fall by the largest amount since World War Two this year as the coronavirus outbreak brings economies to a virtual standstill, according to the chair of a network of scientists providing benchmark emissions data.

Former President Obama on Tuesday urged voters to "demand better" of the government after the Trump administration rolled back a key Obama-era fuel standard intended to combat climate change.

Everything feels new, unbelievable, overwhelming. At the same time, it feels as if we’ve walked into an old recurring dream. In a way, we have. We’ve seen it before, on TV and in blockbusters. We knew roughly what it would be like, and somehow this makes the encounter not less strange, but more so.