These wildfires tend to burn in more remote areas and grow larger faster, posing a higher risk to public safety and health
The climate crisis will continue making lightning-sparked wildfires more frequent for decades to come, which could produce cascading effects and worsen public safety and public health, experts and new research suggest.
Lightning-caused fires tend to burn in more remote areas and therefore usually grow into larger fires than human-caused fires. That means a trend toward more lightning-caused fires is also probably making wildfires more deadly by producing more wildfire smoke and helping to drive a surge in air quality issues from coast to coast, especially over the past several years.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
09/06/2025 - 07:00
09/05/2025 - 23:00
Flooding in northern India and Pakistan has destroyed homes – and hundreds of thousands of acres of crops
For days, farmers in the Indian state of Punjab watched the pounding monsoon rains fall and the rivers rise with mounting apprehension. By Wednesday, many woke to find their fears realised as the worst floods in more than three decades ravaged their farms and decimated their livelihoods.
Hundreds of thousands of acres of bright green rice paddies – due to be harvested imminently – as well as crops of cotton and sugar cane were left destroyed as they became fully submerged in more than five feet of muddy brown flood waters. The bodies of drowned cattle littered the ground.
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09/05/2025 - 20:35
Beaches from Manly to Narrabeen closed after death of 57-year-old who leaves behind wife and child
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A man has died near Dee Why on Sydney’s northern beaches after being bitten by what is believed to be a large shark, in what police have called “a great tragedy”.
Shortly after 10am on Saturday, New South Wales emergency services were called to Long Reef beach following reports a man had suffered critical injuries.
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09/05/2025 - 12:12
Scientists found that Red Sea corals can endure warming seas but grow much smaller and weaken under long-term heat stress. Though recovery is possible in cooler months, rising global temperatures may outpace their resilience, endangering reefs and the people who depend on them.
09/05/2025 - 11:40
Maureen Gilbert, 83, was discovered drowned in her home after river in Chesterfield overflowed
The son of an 83-year-old woman who died during Storm Babet has called for more money to be invested in protecting homes from flooding.
An inquest at Chesterfield coroner’s court heard on Friday that Maureen Gilbert drowned in her home in Chesterfield after the River Rother overflowed on 21 October 2023 during the storm.
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09/05/2025 - 10:00
‘Fragmented’ policies leading councils to prioritise approval of housebuilding over parks, study finds
Children in cities across England face barriers to playing outside because urban planners are prioritising housebuilding over parks, a study has found.
The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Cities and Health, found that planners were prioritising the approval of new homes ahead of outdoor play spaces due to a combination of policy misalignment, financial constraints and pressures stemming from a lack of housing.
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09/05/2025 - 06:49
Kokichi Akuzawa climbed with 70-year-old daughter to break record for oldest person to make ascent – a second time
Kokichi Akuzawa has become the oldest person to climb to the top of Mount Fuji at the age of 102 – despite almost giving up during his trek.
“I was really tempted to give up halfway through,” Akuzawa said. “Reaching the summit was tough, but my friends encouraged me, and it turned out well. I managed to get through it because so many people supported me.”
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09/05/2025 - 05:20
Temperatures climb above 40C, while a powerful hailstorm in the US lashes Kansas and Oklahoma
A spate of extremely hot weather in British Columbia has broken Canada’s national maximum temperature record for September.
On Tuesday, it reached 40C (104F) in Lytton, matching the previous all-time high. That was only the third time that temperature has been recorded in the country in September.
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09/05/2025 - 04:15
Survey of eight countries finds 82% of people support 30x30 biodiversity target, as progress stalls on protected areas
Much of the world favours protecting 30% of the world’s land and water for nature by 2030, according to new research that has found overwhelming public support for the goal across eight countries on five continents.
Nearly 200 nations agreed in 2022 to set aside 30% of the world’s land and 30% of marine areas for nature. But just 17.6% of the world’s land and 8.6% of the seas are now under global protection, and more than 100 nations are less than halfway to meeting the target, which was established under the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
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09/05/2025 - 02:00
Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia are beautiful tourist destinations, but off their coasts is a darker hidden reality, where overfishing and unregulated catches are rife and fishers face exploitation and loss of income. The freelance photojournalist Nicole Tung spent nine months reporting in south-east Asia and was this week awarded laureate of the 15th edition of the Carmignac Photojournalism Awards
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