Global Pulse

分类： environment

  • Swiss glaciers suffer ‘disastrous’ year of ice loss, threatening water supplies

    Swiss glaciers suffer ‘disastrous’ year of ice loss, threatening water supplies

    A newly released scientific report from Glacier Monitoring Switzerland has delivered a stark warning about the accelerating impacts of human-caused climate change, revealing that Swiss glaciers suffered one of the most severe annual ice losses on record in 2026, driven by a string of intense summer heatwaves across the European Alps.

    Researchers estimate that approximately 5.5% of all remaining glacier ice across Switzerland has vanished over the past 12 months — a rate more than double the threshold glaciologists once considered “extreme” for a single year of melt. Dr. Matthias Huss, director of Glacier Monitoring Switzerland and lead author of the report, described the scale of loss as simply “disastrous.”

    The rapid melt was fueled by a perfect storm of unfavorable conditions that left glaciers exposed to extreme solar heating. The region entered the summer season already vulnerable, after an unusually mild winter left far less snow cover than the historical average. When early, intense heatwaves hit in May and June, the sparse remaining snow melted away rapidly, uncovering the darker glacier ice beneath. Unlike bright, reflective fresh snow that bounces solar energy back into space, bare ice absorbs far more heat, creating a feedback loop that accelerates melting even as subsequent heatwaves move through the region.

    Even more alarming is the observation of total snow loss at the highest-altitude measurement sites, some as elevated as 3,500 meters above sea level. Traditionally, these high elevations remain covered in year-round snow, which gradually compacts into new ice to replenish ice that melts at lower, warmer altitudes — a natural balancing process that sustains glaciers over time. This year, researchers recorded up to four meters of ice loss even at these highest points, with no surviving summer snow to build new glacial mass. “Snow is like glacier food,” Huss explained. Without annual snow accumulation, glaciers cannot replace lost ice, and will inevitably shrink to nothing over time.

    Glaciologists have long expected Alpine glaciers to retreat amid global warming driven by fossil fuel emissions, but the unprecedented speed of the 2026 melt has shocked even seasoned researchers. “Ten years ago, I wouldn’t have thought that it’s possible to lose glaciers so quickly,” said Dr. Fabien Maussion, a glaciologist at the University of Bristol who was not involved in the new report. While he called the summer’s melt “extremely distressing,” Maussion added that the outcome aligns with longstanding climate model projections.

    The rapid ice loss carries serious long-term risks for Swiss communities and infrastructure, beyond the loss of iconic alpine landscapes. Scientists warn that continued glacier retreat will eventually threaten reliable water supplies for agricultural irrigation, hydropower generation and inland water transport. Over the 2026 summer, between July and September, melting Swiss glaciers released an estimated 2.2 trillion liters of meltwater, which helped ease short-term water shortages across the region during the heatwave. But Huss emphasized that this abundant water is a finite resource drawn from ice that accumulated over centuries or decades. “Every drop of water that runs off during these heatwaves is kind of old water that’s been stocked in the glacier ice centuries or decades ago,” he said. “It’s helping us [now] but it’s unsustainable, so we won’t have it at [our] disposal in the next heatwave.”

    Already, low water levels in the Rhine River this summer set new records, disrupting commercial shipping routes and driving up transport costs across the region. Glacier melt also increases geological risk: long-term thinning of glaciers and thawing of frozen alpine ground raises the likelihood of bedrock instability, which can trigger catastrophic landslides and flash flooding — a risk that was realized in a deadly event in Nepal this past August, when a combined collapse of glacial ice and bedrock caused widespread damage.

    Multiple Alpine glaciers, including eastern Switzerland’s Plattalva, have already disappeared completely, and researchers confirm that current global temperatures are already too warm to save many smaller Alpine glaciers from vanishing in coming decades. However, the scientific team stressed that urgent, deep cuts to global carbon emissions can still preserve the majority of the world’s remaining glacier ice, particularly in the Himalayas and polar regions that hold most of the planet’s total ice volume. “There we still can make a big difference with protecting the climate,” Huss said. “If these ice masses can be saved or stabilised, we can limit the rise of global sea levels… which could affect billions of people living along the coast.”

  • Botswana condemned for slaughtering elephants for independence celebrations

    Botswana condemned for slaughtering elephants for independence celebrations

    As Botswana marks its diamond jubilee of independence from British colonial rule on Wednesday, a government decision to license the killing of 23 elephants for celebratory community feasting has ignited fierce backlash from conservationists, local leaders, and social media users across the southern African nation – a country that hosts the world’s largest wild elephant population, numbering more than 130,000.

    Documents obtained by local media confirm the Environment and Tourism Ministry issued official permits authorizing the hunt of 23 elephants alongside other wild game, explicitly framing the cull as being for “complimentary celebratory purposes.” The meat is intended to be distributed as part of traditional Independence Day feasts held across eight districts nationwide. As of Wednesday morning, the full number of elephants already killed had not been confirmed, but local media has already published visual evidence from multiple regions showing crowds of residents gathering around elephant carcasses to divide and collect portions of meat.

    Leading the charge of criticism is the Gaborone-based Elephant Protection Society, whose leadership warns the precedent of state-sanctioned elephant slaughter for public celebrations risks unraveling decades of conservation progress across the country. Society chairman Oaitse Nawa told the BBC that elephants already face widespread disruption to their social structures, as repeated human incursion and harassment displace herds across their historic range. Nawa added that allowing elephant killing for state-sponsored feasting risks normalizing the practice, creating a loophole that could embolden illegal poaching operations by signaling that elephant slaughter is acceptable when backed by government authority.

    Beyond conservation concerns, the plan has drawn public scrutiny over public health risks tied to an ongoing outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the region, with many local social media users questioning the safety of distributing unprocessed wild game meat to the public. Even community leaders in wildlife-rich areas have pushed back against the decision: Tshenatshe Monwela, a respected elder from the north-western tourism hub of Maun, told local reporters that the government should have allocated buffalo rather than elephants for the celebrations. Monwela emphasized that elephants hold unique cultural significance for many Batswana communities and play an irreplaceable role in the country’s ecosystems, arguing that the government should have honored Botswana’s legacy as a global leader in wildlife conservation when selecting animals for the anniversary feasts.

    Distribution of the meat has also faced criticism for poor organization. In Chobe District – a northern region bordering Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe that holds some of the country’s highest elephant densities – local Member of Parliament Simasiku Mapulanga raised alarm after residents shared photos of crowds scrambling for meat directly from an elephant carcass at a local school. Mapulanga noted that the unstructured system left vulnerable groups including elderly residents, pregnant people, and people with disabilities at a disadvantage, while also creating severe public health risks. In a public Facebook post accompanied by photos of the chaotic distribution, Mapulanga called on organizers and government leaders to restructure future distributions by processing meat into standardized 5kg or 10kg packages to ensure fairness, dignity, and basic hygiene. “For the sake of dignity, fairness and public hygiene, we respectfully call on the hunter and the relevant leadership to ensure that future distributions are properly organised,” Mapulanga wrote.

    This controversial cull has reignited a long-simmering, deeply polarizing debate across Botswana over the management of the country’s massive elephant population. For decades, rural communities living alongside elephant herds have repeatedly raised complaints about wildlife conflict, noting that elephants regularly destroy crops, damage critical infrastructure, and even kill local residents as human settlements expand into historic elephant migration routes.

    Successive Botswana governments have defended regulated, quota-based elephant hunting as a balanced solution to this tension: officials argue that carefully managed culls help control population growth, reduce harmful human-wildlife conflict, and generate critical revenue that is reinvested in local community development and broader conservation efforts. The country has shifted its hunting policy repeatedly over the past decade: a full ban on trophy hunting was implemented in 2014 under former President Ian Khama, but the ban was lifted five years later by then-President Mokgweetsi Masisi. Current President Duma Boko, who defeated Masisi in 2024 general elections, has continued to allow regulated hunting.

    Last year, Environment and Tourism Minister Wynter Mmolotsi told parliament that special licensed elephant hunting quotas generated 15.6 million pula (approximately $1.1 million USD) in 2025, with all funds directed toward community and conservation projects in elephant-range areas. While elephant meat from legal hunts is distributed to local communities in wildlife-rich regions of Botswana, it is not a regular staple for most Batswana, and the country maintains strict regulations requiring proof that any elephant meat in circulation comes from a licensed, legal hunt.

    Despite the government’s justifications, conservation organizations continue to raise questions about the long-term sustainability of increased hunting quotas. Supporters of the country’s current hunting policy, however, push back against international criticism, arguing that outside commentators often ignore the heavy daily costs that rural Batswana bear from living alongside the world’s largest concentration of wild elephants, as human and elephant ranges increasingly overlap.

  • Mexico’s Pacific coast braces for Hurricane Polo

    Mexico’s Pacific coast braces for Hurricane Polo

    As Category 3 Hurricane Polo barrels toward Mexico’s northern Pacific coastline, communities across Baja California Sur have been forced into emergency preparations, with authorities closing beaches, shutting down schools, and deploying military resources ahead of the storm’s expected landfall Monday night or early Tuesday.

    The National Hurricane Center (NHC), based in the United States, reports the storm carries maximum sustained winds of approximately 115 miles per hour (185 kilometers per hour). Forecasts show the hurricane is on track to pass directly over Baja California Sur, a region renowned for its popular tourist resorts, particularly the high-profile destination of Los Cabos. Polo has been fueled by unusually warm ocean temperatures linked to the El Niño climate pattern, moving gradually toward the Mexican coastline over recent days.

    Meteorologists have issued multiple warnings about the potentially catastrophic impacts of the storm. Beyond strong winds, the NHC forecasts intense rainfall that could trigger life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, particularly in the region’s mountainous and steep-terrain areas. The storm is also expected to bring a dangerous storm surge, combined with large, destructive waves that threaten coastal infrastructure and beachfront communities. Lifeguards across Baja California Sur have already raised red warning flags to alert vacationers of the extremely hazardous sea conditions, and local officials in Cabo San Lucas have closed access to all public beaches. Cabo San Lucas, famous for its millennia-old natural rock arch shaped by centuries of wind erosion and tidal activity, is a major hub for sport fishing and whale watching tours; many local businesses, including waterfront restaurants, have already closed their doors in anticipation of the storm’s arrival.

    Regional and federal authorities have implemented a wide range of preventive measures to protect residents and visitors. The Baja California Sur regional government ordered all schools to remain closed on Monday as a safety precaution. Governor Víctor Manuel Castro Cosío announced that temporary emergency shelters have been set up across the state to accommodate residents who need to evacuate high-risk areas. At the federal level, Mexican authorities have deployed thousands of army and navy personnel, along with specialized heavy machinery, to support evacuation efforts, emergency response, and post-storm recovery.

    On Sunday, as news of the approaching storm spread, local residents rushed to grocery and hardware stores to stock up on essential supplies, including drinking water, non-perishable food, and emergency equipment, as communities braced for what could be one of the most significant hurricanes to impact the region in recent years.

  • Nor’easter storm brings coastal flooding, as New York and New Jersey declare emergency

    Nor’easter storm brings coastal flooding, as New York and New Jersey declare emergency

    A powerful nor’easter is bearing down on tens of millions of residents across the northeastern United States this weekend, leaving a trail of early disruption that includes coastal flooding, widespread power cuts, travel gridlock, and a wave of canceled major public events.

    The U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) has warned that the storm will reach its peak intensity on Saturday, bringing a hazardous combination of dangerous coastal flooding, unsafe beach conditions, high-speed winds, and heavy downpours to heavily populated areas stretching from New York City to Boston. Forecasts indicate precipitation and gusty winds will extend across a 900-mile stretch of the East Coast, from Virginia all the way north to Maine.

    In response to the rapidly unfolding severe weather, state officials have declared states of emergency in both New York and New Jersey. New Jersey, in particular, is already grappling with early coastal inundation in multiple low-lying shore communities, where Saturday morning already found residential streets and local homes submerged in floodwater in Surf City and Manasquan. Forecasters added that this weekend’s coinciding full moon will exacerbate high tide levels, worsening the coastal flooding threat for at-risk areas.

    The NWS issued an urgent alert for coastal communities, advising residents to “prepare immediately for significant inundation in low-lying areas near the shore, including roads underwater and impacts to homes and businesses.” In New York City, officials warned that wind gusts could reach up to 55 miles per hour (88 kilometers per hour) through the end of the weekend, raising risks of downed trees, snapped power lines, and extended power outages. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged caution in a public video address to residents, saying, “Don’t travel if you don’t have to. Do not drive or walk through floodwater.”

    The storm has already forced widespread cancellation of major scheduled events across the region. Ed Sheeran’s highly anticipated concert at Boston’s Gillette Stadium was scrapped for public safety, venue officials confirmed. Other called-off events include the Global Citizen Festival in New York City’s Central Park, which was set to feature headlining performances from Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, and John Legend. Major league sports schedules have also been upended: the Boston Red Sox moved their scheduled weekend series game against the Chicago Cubs from Sunday afternoon to next Friday, while a professional MLS match between Red Bull New York and St. Louis City SC was also canceled.

    As of Saturday morning, the storm had already knocked out power to nearly 150,000 households across the affected region, according to outage tracking site PowerOutage.us. Air travel has also been severely disrupted: the Federal Aviation Administration has urged all passengers to confirm their flight status with carriers before heading to airports, and flight tracking service FlightAware reported that more than 1,100 domestic flights have already been delayed, with another 400 flights completely grounded ahead of the storm’s peak.

  • The treasured ‘eternal snow’ on this tropical island is about to disappear forever

    The treasured ‘eternal snow’ on this tropical island is about to disappear forever

    Tucked just a few hundred kilometers south of the equator on Indonesia’s Papua island, the Sudirman Range has held an extraordinary natural and cultural legacy for hundreds of years. Unlike most low-latitude regions, its highest peaks were capped by permanent snow and ice, earning the title of “eternal snow” that stood the test of centuries. Today, that legacy is on the brink of erasing entirely: only tiny scattered patches of snow remain around Puncak Jaya, the range’s highest peak also known as Carstensz Pyramid, and climate scientists project these last remnants will vanish completely within the next one to two years.

    A century ago, all four major peaks of the 190-mile Sudirman Range supported year-round snow and glacial ice. At their peak in the 19th century, the region’s glaciers covered approximately 1,900 hectares (nearly 4,700 acres). Today, that cover has shrunk to just 16 hectares (around 40 acres), with nearly the entire glacial system disappearing within a single human lifetime. The loss carries profound implications for both scientific research and Indigenous cultural heritage, touching on the global impacts of anthropogenic climate change that are reshaping even the most remote corners of the planet.

    For the scientific community, Papua’s tropical glaciers are one-of-a-kind natural archives. Isolated by thousands of kilometers from any other glacial systems, they are the only remaining tropical ice formations between the Andes Mountains in South America and the Himalayas in Asia. Ice cores drilled from Puncak Jaya’s slopes preserve layered records of thousands of years of climate history, allowing researchers to reconstruct past atmospheric conditions and trace long-term shifts in the tropical Pacific and Western Pacific Warm Pool — the planet’s warmest ocean bodies, which play a critical role in regulating global weather patterns. Yet this irreplaceable scientific archive is vanishing before researchers can fully extract and analyze its data, says Marie Šabacká, a Czech glacier ecologist who traveled to Puncak Jaya in March 2025 as part of an effort to document the remaining ice before it is gone.

    Šabacká emphasizes that the melting of Papua’s glaciers is driven by the same human-caused climate warming that is triggering glacial retreat across the globe. Burning of fossil fuels — coal, oil, and natural gas — has steadily raised global atmospheric temperatures, pushing the freezing line higher and higher up mountain slopes. As a result, most precipitation in the region now falls as rain rather than snow, even at altitudes that once saw consistent year-round snow accumulation. Natural climate cycles such as El Niño can accelerate the melting process, while local conditions including cloud cover, annual snowfall variation, and mountain topography shape the exact pace of retreat. Because Papua’s glaciers sit so close to the equator, they can only survive within an extremely narrow range of climatic conditions at very high altitudes. Even a small temperature increase or shift from snow to rain is enough to push the system past the point of no return, Šabacká explains.

    Beyond its scientific value, the Sudirman Range is the spiritual heartland for multiple Indigenous Papuan communities that have lived alongside its ice-capped peaks for generations. For the Amungme people, the range is called Nemangkawi, or the “White Arrow,” a symbol of honesty, purity, and moral integrity that has anchored cultural traditions for centuries. “Parents and grandparents prayed their children would have hearts like the White Arrow, never straying from the proper path,” explains Elfrida Natkime, a young Amungme community member. For the Moni people, the peak is known as Mbainggela, and traditional belief holds that their ancestors watch over the sacred mountain. Adolfina Kum, an Amungme environmental activist, compares the loss of the ice-capped peak to the destruction of a site central to a major world religion. “How would Muslims feel if Mecca were destroyed? How would Catholics feel if Rome or the Vatican were destroyed?” she asks. “For the Amungme people, that is what it feels like when Nemangkawi is destroyed.”

    For many Indigenous Papuans, the disappearance of the glaciers is not an isolated environmental change, but part of a decades-long transformation of their ancestral lands driven by extractive industry. The region is home to the Grasberg mine, operated by Freeport and one of the world’s largest gold and copper mining operations. The discovery of massive mineral deposits in the 20th century triggered large-scale industrial development that reshaped the landscape: entire mountain faces have been excavated, new roads and industrial infrastructure have cut through valleys, and expanding mining operations have displaced many Indigenous families from their traditional lands. While community members acknowledge the development has brought tangible benefits including jobs, improved access to education, and new economic opportunities, it has also come at the cost of widespread environmental degradation and long-running social conflict. “Every time I see the mountains, I feel amazed, but I also feel sadness,” Natkime says. “Since the company came, I have seen the exploitation. But the development has also provided a livelihood for many people.”

    As the final fragments of ice melt, both scientists and local communities are racing to document what remains of the glacial system before it disappears forever. Klaus Thymann, a Danish researcher leading the climate documentation initiative Project Pressure, has worked with a team to create detailed 3D maps of the remaining ice using drone surveying. His data confirms that between the early 2000s and 2025, the glaciated area of the Sudirman Range has receded by 95%. “There’s almost no ice left. Those are the facts,” Thymann says. He notes that glaciers are uniquely powerful messengers for climate change, because the disappearance of ice that was called “eternal” for centuries cuts through abstract data to drive home the reality of a warming planet. For Indigenous communities, the loss reaches far deeper than environmental change: it erodes the cultural foundation that has sustained their people for generations. Adolfina Kum compares the destruction of sacred landscapes to pulling a tree up by its roots: “Once the roots are removed, the tree loses its foundation.”

  • Watch: How toxic smog from wildfires is making Indonesians sick

    Watch: How toxic smog from wildfires is making Indonesians sick

    Indonesia is currently grappling with a public health emergency sparked by toxic smog drifting from raging seasonal wildfires, new data shows. Since the start of August, nearly 175,000 people across the archipelago have developed respiratory illnesses linked directly to exposure to the hazardous air pollution.

    The annual wildfire crisis, which is often amplified by dry El Niño weather conditions and uncontrolled land clearing for agricultural expansion, has sent plumes of fine particulate matter and toxic chemicals billowing across populated regions of the country. Unlike regular air pollution, wildfire smog carries a concentrated mix of carcinogens and irritants that penetrate deep into the lungs and bloodstream, worsening pre-existing conditions and triggering acute illness even among otherwise healthy people.

    Local health authorities have deployed mobile clinics to hard-hit areas to treat affected residents, but ongoing poor air quality continues to drive new cases daily. The crisis has also renewed calls for more coordinated national and regional action to address the root causes of recurrent wildfires, as climate change continues to exacerbate dry conditions that turn land clearing accidents into out-of-control blazes.

    The public health impact extends beyond immediate respiratory issues, with researchers warning that long-term exposure to this level of toxic smog can lead to chronic cardiovascular problems, impaired child development and increased mortality risk for vulnerable groups including the elderly and immunocompromised.

  • More than 170,000 respiratory cases recorded in haze-choked Indonesia

    More than 170,000 respiratory cases recorded in haze-choked Indonesia

    Indonesia is facing one of its worst wildfire crises in recent history, as blazes stoked by the extreme dry conditions of a “Godzilla” El Nino have swept across the archipelago for weeks, triggering a nationwide public health emergency and spreading toxic haze across Southeast Asia.

    Indonesia’s Ministry of Health confirmed that as of recent reports, more than 175,000 people across the country have developed respiratory illnesses since August, with cases ranging from mild coughs and bronchitis to severe pneumonia. Alarmingly, over 40,000 of these confirmed cases involve toddlers, who are particularly vulnerable to the damaging effects of air pollution.

    The unchecked blazes have sent thick plumes of toxic smoke across large swathes of Indonesia, as well as neighboring Malaysia, Singapore, and even parts of the Philippines. Air quality indices across affected regions have repeatedly plunged into the “unhealthy” range, forcing public health advisories and disrupting daily life for millions.

    Authorities have deployed over 54,000 personnel and dozens of aircraft to conduct water bombing operations on the hardest-hit islands of Borneo and Sumatra. However, extinguishing the fires has proven an uphill battle, due to the vast area impacted and the challenging conditions of burning peatlands, which smolder deep underground and reignite easily. “From the air to the ground, all forces continue to move,” Indonesia’s Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya stated on Monday. “Everything is being done to extinguish the fires, reduce the impact of the smoke, and, most importantly, protect the public from the threat of forest and land fires.”

    Wildfires are a recurring annual hazard during Indonesia’s dry season, which typically runs from July to October. But this year, the extreme weather event dubbed “Godzilla” El Nino has created unprecedentedly arid conditions that have supercharged the spread of fires. As of Wednesday, independent forest monitoring group Nusantara Atlas has detected approximately 734,000 fire hotspots across the country — a 30% increase from 2019, one of Indonesia’s most severe wildfire seasons on record. Since the start of the year, at least 895,657 hectares of land have burned — an area nearly six times the size of Greater London.

    The disaster has already upended daily life across much of Indonesia, with widespread school closures and a sharp surge in hospital admissions for smoke-related illness. Health ministry data shows that the number of reported respiratory illness cases more than doubled between September 1 and September 9, jumping from 50,891 to 113,336.

    Beyond human health impacts, the wildfires have also taken a devastating toll on regional wildlife, including the critically endangered Bornean orangutan. Late last month, an Indonesian wildlife foundation released footage showing an orangutan writhing on the ground in a West Kalimantan palm oil plantation — one of the worst-affected regions. Rescued by a local farmer, the great ape received emergency treatment for smoke-induced hypoxia, but ultimately succumbed to its injuries.

    The ongoing crisis has sparked legal action against Indonesian authorities: last week, indigenous and civil society groups in West Kalimantan filed a class-action lawsuit against the national and local governments, accusing them of deliberate negligence for failing to prevent and properly address the wildfires. “This is a disaster that occurs every year. This recurring pattern proves our view that the defendants knew about the potential haze disaster and the risks of disaster from forest and land fires,” the group’s lawyer Glorio Sanen said in a statement.

    In an effort to curb the blazes and alleviate the drought conditions fueling them, Indonesia has conducted multiple rounds of cloud-seeding operations, some in partnership with the Japan Self-Defense Forces, which deployed personnel to Borneo earlier this month to assist with firefighting. Cloud seeding works by introducing particles like salt crystals or silver iodide into existing clouds to encourage precipitation, though meteorologists remain divided on how effective the technique is for large-scale wildfire response.

    Malaysia’s Sarawak state, one of the worst-hit areas outside Indonesia, also launched a five-day cloud-seeding operation earlier this month. Beyond tackling haze, the effort was intended to boost declining water levels at regional hydropower dams ahead of a forecasted severe dry spell in October. “October might be hotter and drier,” Sarawak’s Deputy Premier Douglas Uggah Embas told reporters. “We want to increase the water levels as much as possible while we still can.”

    As of publication, the haze continues to spread across Southeast Asia, with Singapore issuing daily haze advisories and Philippine officials urging residents to limit outdoor exposure until air quality improves.

  • ‘Extremely dangerous’ Hurricane Polo intensifies to rare category 5 storm

    ‘Extremely dangerous’ Hurricane Polo intensifies to rare category 5 storm

    In the eastern Pacific off Mexico’s southwestern coast, a rapidly intensifying storm has emerged as one of the most powerful Pacific hurricanes of 2026, amplified by the strongest El Niño climate event ever recorded. Hurricane Polo, which has climbed to the highest Category 5 ranking on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, registered sustained wind speeds nearing 180 miles per hour (285 kilometers per hour) with even more powerful gusts, according to direct measurements collected Tuesday by a U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Hurricane Hunter research aircraft that flew directly into the storm’s eye.

    The NOAA National Hurricane Center, based in Miami, has labeled Polo an “extremely dangerous” system, noting that its explosive strengthening over a 24-hour period was “truly remarkable.” The storm is the third Category 5 hurricane to form in the eastern Pacific this hurricane season, drawing its massive energy from unusually warm ocean surface waters supercharged by the ongoing El Niño. Data collected from monitoring stations confirms the current El Niño has already broken historical temperature records: on September 19, daily average sea surface temperatures in the key central-eastern Pacific El Niño monitoring region hit 3.05 degrees Celsius above the long-term average, surpassing the previous record of 3.02 degrees set during the intense 2015 El Niño event. While some longer-term El Niño measurements have not yet hit record highs, climate scientists expect that to change as the event is not forecast to reach its peak until the end of 2026.

    El Niño is a naturally recurring climate pattern that develops every two to seven years, persisting for roughly 12 months. The cycle forms when typical east-to-west trade winds across the Pacific weaken or reverse direction, allowing warm water that normally accumulates in the western Pacific to spread eastward across the basin. This shift pushes large volumes of heat from the ocean into the atmosphere, raising global average temperatures and reshaping weather systems worldwide. A well-documented impact of warmer Pacific waters during El Niño is an increased frequency of rapidly intensifying hurricanes, as warm surface water acts as fuel for storm systems, allowing them to gain strength much faster than they would in cooler conditions.

    Although current forecasts predict that Polo will follow a northwestward path parallel to Mexico’s southwestern coast and will not make a direct landfall, the slow-moving storm still poses severe threats to coastal communities, NOAA officials warn. As the system drifts along the shore, it will push heavy, prolonged rainfall onto coastal areas, with accumulated totals expected to reach up to six inches (15 centimeters) across most at-risk regions, and as much as eight inches in isolated spots. This intense rainfall creates a high risk of deadly flash flooding and catastrophic mudslides in vulnerable inland areas. In addition to flood risks, Polo is generating large ocean swells that will create life-threatening surf and rip current conditions along Mexican Pacific beaches for the next several days.

    Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed on Tuesday that current projections do not show a direct landfall, but urged residents across at-risk regions to remain alert and follow guidance from emergency officials. She specifically highlighted the coastal states of Jalisco, Colima, and Michoacan as facing the highest risks from the storm. Data from the Hurricane Hunter mission also indicates that the conditions remain ideal for further strengthening: extremely warm ocean waters and low wind shear have created what NOAA calls a “very conducive” environment for Polo to maintain its Category 5 strength over the next several days. Mexican emergency authorities have already deployed National Guard personnel to coastal areas to prepare for potential response operations as the storm approaches.

  • India is producing more green energy – but wasting a lot of it

    India is producing more green energy – but wasting a lot of it

    In a landmark breakthrough for global clean energy transition, India has announced that renewable energy now accounts for 54% of its total 552 gigawatts (GW) of installed power capacity — a target reached five years ahead of its original 2030 deadline. This achievement marks a dramatic turning point for a nation long labeled as dependent on coal, signaling how rapidly emerging economies can scale up non-fossil fuel power.

    The turning point was highlighted on a hot July afternoon this year, when renewable sources collectively met more than half of India’s peak national electricity demand for just the second time in the country’s history; the first occurrence took place during the same summer period in 2025. While this record only held for a short window, industry leaders frame it as a transformative milestone that redefines the role of clean energy in India’s power landscape.

    “Renewable energy is no longer a marginal source sitting at the edge of the power system,” explained Sumant Sinha, CEO of ReNew Power, one of India’s largest Nasdaq-listed clean energy firms, in an interview with the BBC. A decade ago, India’s total installed renewable capacity stood at barely 4GW. Today, that figure has surged to 300GW, a more than 70-fold expansion that underscores the speed of the country’s clean energy push.

    Even with this historic progress, coal still generates around 70% of India’s annual electricity output on average, due to coal plants’ higher capacity factors and ability to operate around the clock, unlike intermittent solar and wind generation. Still, the milestone confirms that India’s decades-long transition to clean energy has reached an irreversible inflection point, experts say.

    Despite this remarkable growth, three interconnected challenges threaten to derail India’s ambitious 2030 target of 500GW of non-fossil electricity: strained transmission infrastructure, underdeveloped energy storage capacity, and persistent financing gaps that plague the entire sector.

    The most pressing issue is the severe mismatch between the speed of renewable generation build-out and the expansion of the nation’s transmission grid. Development of new generation capacity has drastically outpaced upgrades to transmission lines, a problem that policymakers and analysts call the most critical operational risk to India’s climate goals.

    According to global energy think tank Ember, transmission constraints were responsible for nearly two-thirds of all renewable energy curtailment — the practice of turning off working renewable plants when the grid cannot absorb their output — in the first quarter of 2026, totaling 300 gigawatt-hours of wasted clean energy. The root of the problem lies in the vastly different timelines for building generation versus transmission infrastructure, Sinha explained.

    “Generation projects can be constructed in 18-24 months… Transmission can take much longer because they involve right-of-way, land acquisition, approvals and coordination across many agencies,” Sinha said. “It is an execution issue that becomes more important as the system gets larger.”

    Vibhuti Garg, an energy analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, added that poor long-term planning has exacerbated the strain. When India was adding just 10-15GW of new renewable capacity annually, the existing grid was able to absorb the new supply. But last year, India added a record 51GW of new renewable capacity, far outstripping what the aging transmission network can handle. The concentration of most new renewable projects in the northwestern states of Gujarat and Rajasthan has further strained the system, making it harder to move surplus clean power to high-demand regions across the country.

    A common proposed fix for this mismatch is building large-scale battery storage systems at renewable energy hubs, which would store excess power for later use instead of curtailing it. But storage deployment has stalled in India, held back by spiking battery prices, raw material shortages linked to ongoing conflict in the Middle East, and a depreciation of the Indian rupee that has driven up financing costs for domestic companies. As a result, dozens of planned storage projects have been canceled or put on hold, Garg said.

    Financing constraints extend far beyond storage projects, affecting the entire Indian renewable sector. While developed nations have abundant access to low-cost global capital for green transition, Indian clean energy firms have consistently struggled to secure affordable financing, even as the country has emerged as a global leader in renewable scaling. Government economic data shows that roughly 83% of all climate mitigation financing in India currently comes from domestic sources.

    India will need an estimated $400-500 billion in total investment to hit its 2030 500GW non-fossil target. While the Paris Agreement committed developed nations to provide $100 billion annually in climate finance to developing countries by 2025, that pledge has yet to be fulfilled. Sinha noted that emerging and developing economies outside of China receive only around 15% of global clean energy investment, despite being home to roughly two-thirds of the world’s population.

    Sinha emphasized that India does not require developed nations to fund its entire energy transition, but called for targeted support in the form of lower-interest loans, risk guarantees, and currency risk protection to encourage greater private sector investment in the sector.

    Experts warn that addressing these gaps is critical not just for India, but for the entire world’s fight against climate change. India is the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and its electricity demand is growing faster than any major emerging economy, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 7% in recent years. Demand is expected to accelerate even further as new energy-intensive industries such as data centers and semiconductor manufacturing expand across the country. The International Energy Agency projects that India’s total electricity demand will rise by 80% by 2035, the fastest increase of any major emerging economy.

    Even with current challenges, the IEA has credited India’s rapid renewable expansion as a key factor that helped slow global emissions growth in 2026, even as energy-related carbon emissions rose in advanced economies at the fastest rate since the 1990s. How successfully India navigates its current hurdles and delivers on its clean energy targets will have an outsize impact on whether the world can meet its global climate goals, analysts say.

  • Spain battles climate change on several fronts

    Spain battles climate change on several fronts

    High in the Gredos Mountains, just a few hours west of Madrid, Juan Ángel Izquierdo’s cattle graze quietly on a small, sunlit meadow, the only sound the soft clinking of bells around their necks. The peace of this scene, however, is shattered by a grim, visible reminder of disaster: charred, blackened trunks of pine and oak trees stretch as far as the eye can see, the lingering mark of the largest wildfire ever recorded in Spanish history. For Izquierdo, whose family has tended livestock and farmed this land for two centuries, the fire that swept through the region in late July was an event unlike any he had ever experienced.

    The blaze merged with two smaller nearby wildfires to consume nearly 80,000 hectares of land – an area roughly equal to 200,000 acres. By the time the flames were extinguished, more than two-thirds of Izquierdo’s property had burned to ash. Twelve of his 85 cows were killed, and eight additional injured animals had to be euthanized. Worse still, the entire stock of hay he had harvested to feed his herd through the winter was destroyed, leaving the farmer facing an uncertain future. Like many of his peers across the country, Izquierdo has watched seasonal conditions shift drastically in recent years, and growing anxiety has become a constant part of rural life. “For us farmers, summers are getting more and more worrying every year,” he explained. “They are hotter, we get less rain, the wet season ends earlier, and autumn starts much later. Those conditions are just a tinderbox waiting for a fire.” Even when there are no active blazes nearby, the fear never fully fades: “If you don’t think about it, you can feel okay, but as soon as a fire starts in a neighboring village, you start asking: are we next?”

    Izquierdo’s struggle is just one example of the far-reaching damage climate change is inflicting on Spain. Wildfires, droughts, extreme heat, and catastrophic flash flooding have become increasingly common across the country in recent years, leaving thousands of livelihoods damaged or destroyed and threatening the stability of Spain’s most important economic sectors. A new analysis from the international research collective World Weather Attribution confirms that the record-breaking extreme conditions that fueled the 2025 wildfire season across Spain and Portugal are now 40 times more likely to occur than they were before anthropogenic climate change warmed the planet. Ernesto Rodríguez Camino, president of the Spanish Meteorology Association, emphasized that human activity is at the root of the growing crisis: “The main reason we are seeing more frequent and more intense wildfires is the rising concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, driven primarily by the widespread burning of fossil fuels.”

    Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, leader of the country’s Socialist government, has framed the ongoing environmental emergency as an existential threat, noting that Spain sits on the front lines of the global climate crisis. “The climate emergency kills,” Sánchez said during a July visit to the southern province of Almería, where a separate wildfire claimed the lives of 15 people. Data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) underscores the severity of this year’s wildfire season: roughly 300,000 hectares of Spanish land have burned so far in 2026, accounting for nearly half of all burned area across the entire European Union. Over the past four decades, annual wildfire damage has exceeded 200,000 hectares just eight times – and three of those events have occurred since 2022.

    Beyond the immediate human and ecological cost, the damage to Spain’s critical agri-food sector has been staggering. By mid-August, farming insurance group Agroseguro estimated that roughly 16,000 hectares of crops had been destroyed by wildfires, delivering a major blow to an industry that contributes 9% of Spain’s total GDP. Regional authorities in Castilla y León, the area hardest hit by this year’s massive Gredos wildfire, have launched a compensation program offering between €5,500 and €25,000 to individual farmers based on their total losses. But for Izquierdo, the payout will barely make a dent: he estimates it will cover less than half of what he has lost.

    Climate change is now also threatening Spain’s most economically important industry: tourism. For decades, the country’s reliably warm, sunny weather has been one of its biggest draws, turning Mediterranean coastal resorts and the Balearic and Canary Islands into global tourist hotspots and driving decades of steady economic growth. This year, Spain is on track to welcome nearly 100 million international visitors, retaining its position as the second most visited country in the world, behind only France. But growing numbers of travelers are now being deterred by extreme heat that makes summer travel uncomfortable and even dangerous. A recent study from researchers at Madrid’s Rey Juan Carlos University confirmed that repeated heatwaves are acting as a major deterrent for potential visitors. “When a heatwave hits, we see a clear drop in overnight stays at the destinations we studied, and there is also a decline in arrivals from some of Spain’s largest tourist markets,” said María Dolores Sánchez, an economist and co-author of the study. With tourism accounting for 13% of Spain’s total GDP, Sánchez noted that the trend could have serious long-term consequences for the country’s economic competitiveness.

    Toledo, a medieval inland city famous for its historic architecture and cultural heritage, has already experienced this shift firsthand. This summer, Spain recorded 61 straight days of heatwave conditions that stretched into early September, and Toledo repeatedly saw temperatures climb above 40°C. “It is really difficult to lead walking tours in that kind of heat,” said Diego Esteban, a tour guide with local operator Visit Toledo. “Everyone who works in tourism, and all local residents, have to adapt to these new conditions.” Esteban now builds frequent water breaks and shaded stops into all his summer itineraries, but he says more public infrastructure – from shaded rest areas to public drinking fountains – is needed to accommodate visitors. The extreme heat has already reshaped the local tourist calendar, with far more visitors now choosing to visit during the cooler spring and autumn months rather than summer. Warmer summers have also spurred the rise of the “coolcation” trend among domestic travelers, who are increasingly choosing cooler northern Spanish regions for their holidays instead of the hotter southern and coastal destinations that have long been popular.

    Wildfires and extreme heat are not the only climate-related disasters Spain has faced in recent years. After three straight years of below-average rainfall, the northeastern region of Catalonia was forced to implement strict water use restrictions in 2024, including a 25% cut in water allocations for industry and an 80% cut for agricultural production. While heavy rainfall in the months that followed lifted the restrictions, the drought still caused major damage to the regional economy. The deadliest climate event in recent Spanish history came in October 2024, when catastrophic flash floods hit the eastern Valencian region, killing 237 people. Spanish climate research group Climatoc-Lab described the disaster as a clear example of how global warming is altering global hydrological cycles and increasing the risk of extreme rainfall events. The Valencia Chamber of Commerce estimated the floods caused €4.5 billion in direct damage, with thousands of businesses impacted – some completely washed away, and others facing months of recovery before they could reopen. “It was a disaster on every level,” said Laura Llácer Álvarez, manager of the Fepeval industrial park federation in Valencia. “We lost hundreds of lives, and the damage to businesses, workers, and ordinary people was incalculable.”

    Experts note that Spain’s unique geography, topography, and location leave it unusually vulnerable to the impacts of rising global temperatures. In 2024, independent environmental organization Germanwatch ranked Spain as the 20th most climate-vulnerable country in the world, placed just behind Nigeria and Mali on its global Climate Risk Index. Despite these grim challenges, some economic analysts see potential opportunities in the transition to a low-carbon economy. Julián Cubero, head of climate change economics at leading Spanish think tank BBVA Research, acknowledged that rising heat already acts as a drag on economic output: “We all work less effectively when it is extremely hot,” he explained. But Cubero added that a deliberate transition to a greener economy can create new, higher-productivity jobs for Spanish workers. “The key takeaway is that if we fail to act, economic growth will slow down,” he said. “But if we manage the transition correctly, it can become a major opportunity for the country.”