One of the worst methane leaks ever recorded took place last year at a remote well in Kazakhstan, new analysis shared with BBC Verify has shown. It is estimated that 127,000 tonnes of the gas escaped when a blowout started a fire that raged for over six months. 

Methane is much more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Buzachi Neft, the company that owns the well, denies a "substantial amount" of methane was leaked. 

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency's Greenhouse Gas Equivalency Calculator, the environmental impact of such a leak is comparable to that of driving more than 717,000 petrol cars for a year. 

"The magnitude and the duration of the leak is frankly unusual," said Manfredi Caltagirone, head of the UN's International Methane Emissions Observatory. "It is extremely big."

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68166298

You might think that the pandemic has forced us to rethink our shopping habits and become more environmentally conscious, buying less from fast fashion brands and moving to a slower pace of consumption. Think again. 

Fast fashion juggernaut Boohoo’s profits have soared during the last year. Meanwhile, despite the collapse of Philip Green’s Arcadia Group, Asos has now acquired half of the shopping empire (including Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge). The other half, comprising Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton, was bought by none other than Boohoo, which also recently purchased Debenhams.

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/sustainable-living/fast-fashion-sustainable-worst-fabrics-b1855935.html

A young Indonesian Indigenous leader makes bold plans to protect her village from Borneo’s wildfires.

A new fire season crackles to life in Kalimantan as 29-year-old Emmanuela Shinta monitors the air quality and distributes face masks to thousands of villagers expecting the worst. But she knows it is not enough.

Each year, the region is prone to deadly fires caused by deforestation, trapping Borneo in a permanent state of ecological crisis. The fires of 2015 were so formidable, the haze could be seen from outer space.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/witness/2024/2/5/fire-beneath-her-battling-wildfires-in-indonesian-borneo

Forest fires have destroyed more than 17,000 hectares (42,008) in Colombia since November, authorities have said, as the country faces its hottest January in decades.

More than 340 fires have been recorded during that period, spurred by prolonged drought, record heat and the El Nino weather phenomenon, Environment Minister Susana Muhamad said on Friday, adding that 26 fires were still blazing.

One of the fires is burning about 900 metres (2,953) from Bogota’s eastern El Paraiso neighbourhood.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2024/1/27/wildfires-rage-near-colombias-capital-as-temperatures-soar

Climate change, and not El Nino, was the primary driver of the unprecedented drought last year in the Amazon rainforest that caused rivers to dry up, required deliveries of essential supplies to river communities and resulted in the deaths of endangered dolphins, scientists have said.

A report released on Wednesday by World Weather Attribution, an international network of scientists, showed that human-induced global warming was draining waterways in the world’s largest rainforest, killing hundreds of endangered dolphins and isolating millions of people who rely on the region’s waterways for food, transport and income.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/25/global-warming-drove-record-amazon-rainforest-drought-study-finds

Researchers have confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year on record. The European Union's Copernicus climate change service looked at global temperature records going back to 1850. And scientists warn this year could be even hotter. 

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft5S8RcQ2qI

At least 33 people have been killed in a landslide brought on by heavy rains in northwestern Colombia, officials have said.

“I deeply regret the death of 33 people in this tragedy, mostly children, according to preliminary reports from the territory,” Vice President Francia Marquez wrote on the social media platform X on Saturday.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/13/dozens-killed-in-colombia-landslide-including-children

In northeast Colombia, police guard warehouses stacked high with confiscated timber with a noble new destiny: transformation into homes for bees beleaguered by pesticides and climate change.

The illegally harvested wood is used in northern Colombia’s Santander department for its “Timber Returns Home” initiative, which has been building hives since 2021 to house the little pollinators so critical to human survival.

So far, the project has seen about 200 cubic meters (7,060 cubic feet) of wood transformed into 1,000 bee hives, with another 10,000 planned for the next phase, according to the Santander environmental authority.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2024/1/2/photos-in-colombia-illegally-felled-timber-repurposed-to-help-bees

Malaysia is just one country that has been facing its own set of climate issues. In recent years it’s faced an unprecedented rise in temperatures causing heat islands to devastating floods, like the ones in 2021, displacing thousands as homes submerged under water.

Although the Southeast Asian state was once criticised for its contribution to global warming, caused by deforestation on land used for palm oil cultivation and more recently for its use of coal-fuelled power stations – it’s also been at the forefront of climate mitigation.

But its new minister for natural resources and environmental sustainability, Nik Nazmi, has said more needs to be done. Since taking the helm of his country’s climate change measures last year, he’s already said no more new palm oil plantations and coal plants.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/26/will-raising-fuel-and-power-bills-make-malaysians-go-solar

Israel is struggling to fill the gap left by foreign workers who fled due to the conflict.

Food security has been at the heart of Israel’s economic policy for decades. But Israeli farmers are now worried the war on Gaza could turn their fields into barren land.

Growers cannot reach their crops in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip, which is known as “Israel’s vegetable patch”. And there is an acute shortage of Palestinian and foreign workers.

With a lack of pickers, fruits and vegetables are left to rot where they grew.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/counting-the-cost/2023/12/9/can-israels-agricultural-sector-recover-after-the-war-on-gaza

The world is still off track to limit global warming to the crucial 1.5-degree threshold, despite pollution-slashing pledges made by dozens of countries at UN-backed climate talks in Dubai, an analysis by the International Energy Agency published Sunday shows. 

The results show that the commitments would slash greenhouse gas emissions by 4 gigatons — less than one-third of what is now required to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above temperatures before industrialization. Science shows that life on Earth will struggle to adapt beyond that point. 

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/10/climate/cop28-iea-warning-doha-intl/index.html

Île d’Ambre, Mauritius – It is said to be the place where the last dodo was sighted. Yet, today, Île d’Ambre, an islet off the northeastern coast of Mauritius fringed by bright green mangroves, stands as a symbol, not of extinction, but of survival.

As guide Patrick Haberland explains, vast swaths of mangroves were destroyed right up to the mid-90s, ripped up for firewood or to clear the way for boat routes and hotel construction projects.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/12/6/we-are-resilient-mauritius-slowly-consolidates-ecotourism-gains

The death toll from flash flooding caused by torrential rains in Somalia has risen to 50, with nearly 700,000 people driven from their homes, according to a government official.

With more heavy rains starting on Tuesday, the plight of people in the country is expected to worsen, he said.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/21/somalia-floods-kill-50-people-nearly-700000-displaced-disaster-agency

Japanese scientists have found between 6.7 and 13.9 pieces of microplastic in each litre of cloud water tested.

In a new study led by Hiroshi Okochi, Professor at Waseda University, a group of Japanese researchers has explored the path of airborne microplastics (AMPs) as they circulate in the biosphere.

When microplastics reach the upper atmosphere and are exposed to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight, they degrade, contributing to greenhouse gasses, Okochi said.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/28/japanese-scientists-find-microplastics-are-present-in-clouds