Cyclone Alfred formed in the Coral Sea towards the end of February when sea surface temperatures were almost 1C hotter than usual
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When and where is Cyclone Alfred likely to hit?
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Tropical Cyclone Alfred is due to hit south-east Queensland about 1am on Friday morning, bringing the risk of destructive winds, extreme flooding and storm surges to millions of people around Brisbane, the Gold Coast and northern New South Wales.
After last year was recorded as the hottest on record around the world, and the hottest for Australia’s oceans, what role could the climate crisis be playing in Tropical Cyclone Alfred and its impacts?
When and where is Cyclone Alfred likely to hit?
How to prepare for a cyclone
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
03/05/2025 - 09:00
03/05/2025 - 07:04
He is surrounded by people who have grandiose plans and dreams beyond our planet. Vengeful nihilism is a big part of the Maga project
In thinking about the war being waged against life on Earth by Donald Trump, Elon Musk and their minions, I keep bumping into a horrible suspicion. Could it be that this is not just about delivering the world to oligarchs and corporations – not just about wringing as much profit from living systems as they can? Could it be that they want to see the destruction of the habitable planet?
We know that Trump’s overriding purpose is power. We have seen that no amount of power appears to satisfy his craving. So let’s consider power’s ultimate destination. It is to become not only an emperor, but the last of the emperors: to close the chapter on civilisation. It is to scratch your name indelibly upon a geological epoch. Look on my works, ye vermin, and despair.
George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist
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03/05/2025 - 07:00
Study on cancer data in US agricultural heartland finds children more at risk than if exposed to just one pesticide
Exposure to multiple pesticides significantly increases the risk of childhood cancers compared to exposures to just one pesticide, first-of-its-kind research finds, raising new fears that children are more at risk to the substances’ harmful effects than previously thought.
The study’s authors say they are the first to look at the link between exposures to multiple widely used pesticides and the most common childhood cancers. Most research considers pesticides’ toxicity on an individual basis, and the substances are regulated as if exposures occur in isolation from one another.
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03/05/2025 - 06:00
Another day, another health scare. I’m struggling to know which dangers I should take seriously
If you want to stir up online controversy, wooden spoons are the perfect tool with which to do so. Every few years, influencers go viral with warnings about how the wooden spoons in your kitchen are covered in disgusting gunk and if you don’t boil them immediately you will poison yourself and everyone you love.
In 2023, for example, a woman called Lulaboo Jenkins posted a TikTok video of her boiling spoons. Millions of people watched the water turn brown and it triggered a deep-cleaning craze. The Guardian’s Tim Dowling had a go, detailing the results in an article that prompted more than 1,000 comments. Who knew spoons could inspire such a feverish response? (Well, Jenkins, I suppose.)
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03/05/2025 - 05:00
Guardian analysis finds fossil-fuel and mining firms have won $92bn of public money from states, with a growing number of cases backed by financial speculators
Read more: Fearing toxic waste, Greenland ended uranium mining. Now, they could be forced to restart - or pay $11bn
Financial speculators are investing in a growing number of lawsuits against governments over environmental laws and other regulations that affect profits, often generating lucrative awards, the Guardian has found.
For a long time, litigation finance thrived primarily in the realm of car crashes and employment claims. “Had an accident that wasn’t your fault?” was the industry’s billboard catchphrase, offering to finance lawsuits in exchange for a cut of any payout.
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03/05/2025 - 01:00
The plant multiplies quickly, is rich in vitamins, and eaten across Asia. Why isn’t it on supermarket shelves?
In the summer sun, duckweed (Wolffia globosa) can be a menace. It grows so fast it covers a pond in a few days, blocking out the light for the life below. But it is this ability to multiply and its high nutritional value that has made it a potentially valuable food.
Although commonly eaten in Asia, where varieties of duckweed are also known as water lentils or watermeal, it has taken nearly 10 years for scientists to convince the European Food Safety Authority that it is a vegetable that is safe to eat.
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03/05/2025 - 01:00
Curator of Design Museum show says ‘human-centric’ approach to design needs overhaul amid climate crisis
Designers need to “fundamentally rethink our relationship with the natural world”, according to the curator of a new exhibition which argues the needs of nature and animals should be considered when creating homes, buildings and products.
Justin McGuirk, the curator of the upcoming More Than Human exhibition at the Design Museum in London, said our current “human-centric” approach to design needs to be radically overhauled as the world adapts to the climate crisis.
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03/05/2025 - 00:01
Researchers say data strengthens case for holding firms to account for their contribution to climate crisis
Half of the world’s climate-heating carbon emissions come from the fossil fuels produced by just 36 companies, analysis has revealed.
The researchers said the 2023 data strengthened the case for holding fossil fuel companies to account for their contribution to global heating. Previous versions of the annual report have been used in legal cases against companies and investors.
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03/05/2025 - 00:00
The island is being sued by a mining company over its decision, and faces paying nine times its annual budget in damages if it loses
Revealed: how Wall Street is making millions betting against green laws
From the iceberg-filled bay, the mountains above the town of Narsaq, in south-west Greenland, appear unremarkable. In the September warmth, clumps of grass cling to the smooth, grey peaks shaped over centuries by an enormous ice cap that lurks behind the fjords on the horizon.
Brightly coloured homes are scattered around the shoreline below, home to a community of just over 1,300 people. Were it not for a mining outhouse on the edge of town, there would be little indication of the potential riches in the rock.
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03/04/2025 - 23:16
Scientists are studying whether the grounded A23a iceberg might help stir nutrients and make food more available for penguins and seals
The world’s biggest iceberg appears to have run aground roughly 70km (43 miles) from a remote Antarctic island, potentially sparing the crucial wildlife haven from being hit, a research organisation said Tuesday.
The colossal iceberg A23a – which measures roughly 3,300 sq km and weighs nearly 1tn tonnes – has been drifting north from Antarctica towards South Georgia island since 2020.
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