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At least 60 people have lost their lives in northern China due to severe flooding and landslides triggered by record-breaking rainfall, making it one of the most deadly weather disasters to strike the region in recent years. The tragedy has primarily affected Beijing and the neighboring Hebei province, with several areas submerged and communities devastated. In Beijing alone, 44 deaths have been confirmed, including 31 elderly residents who perished when floodwaters struck a care facility in the Miyun district. The region recorded rainfall peaking at 573.5 mm nearly equivalent to the city's annual average rainfall of 600 mm overwhelming infrastructure and prompting emergency evacuations. Deputy Mayor Xia Linmao said nine people remain missing, while search and rescue operations conti...

Three people including a teenage boy died in northwest Pakistan after the roof of their home collapsed during heavy rainfall, officials said Thursday. The tragic incident occurred late Wednesday night in Sarai Naurang tehsil of Lakki Marwat district, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Authorities confirmed that relentless rain had weakened the structure, leading to the collapse. Local residents rushed to help joining rescue teams in pulling the victims from the debris. Despite their efforts, all three individuals succumbed to their injuries. The region has been experiencing unusually intense rainfall, with officials warning that current downpours have already exceeded last year’s levels for the same period. Disaster management authorities had issued alerts ahead of time, caution...

In response to a string of devastating natural disasters, the Himachal Pradesh government is turning to scientific institutions like IIT Mandi, IIT Roorkee, and ISRO to help decode the causes and develop preventive strategies. The move comes in the wake of a deadly cloudburst in Mandi district that claimed three lives and left dozens missing or feared dead. Public Works Minister Vikramaditya Singh, who visited the flood-ravaged areas of Mandi on Monday night alongside local MLA Anil Sharma and Mayor Virendra Bhatt Sharma, said that the state is witnessing an alarming frequency of disasters 21 deaths in Mandi alone this monsoon, with 17 linked to cloudbursts and 27 people still unaccounted for. “These recurring tragedies demand expert intervention,” Singh said, emphasizing the governm...

Gujarat has rolled out a large-scale plantation campaign, planting over 7.6 lakh saplings under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model to enhance green cover across the state. Spearheaded by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, the initiative aligns with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam” movement and aims to bolster climate resilience through tree cover expansion. Launched by the State Forest Department, the drive targets roadside stretches, coastal highways, and unused public land, creating what officials describe as a “green corridor” for ecological balance and long-term sustainability. The campaign also supports Gujarat’s pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A major boost to the effort came with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in Gandhinag...

Evacuations ordered in Chile, Ecuador and Peru as tsunami waves hit coastlines; U.S. and Japan scale down warnings. A powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck near Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on July 30, setting off tsunami alerts across the Pacific and prompting evacuations in parts of South America. The quake among the six strongest ever recorded, was centered just 78 miles from the regional capital Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Violent shaking shook the city with Kamchatka’s governor calling it the most intense in decades. Soon after the tremor, 19-foot tsunami waves surged into the port town of Severo-Kurilsk, sweeping away shipping containers, boats, and infrastructure. Remarkably, even as buildings trembled, doctors at a local cancer center continued surgery, later earning praise ...

Ethiopia is fast-tracking its transition to a climate-resilient green economy, unveiling bold policies and massive infrastructure projects in response to intensifying climate threats. As the country grapples with floods, droughts, and erratic rainfall, authorities are doubling down on renewable energy, sustainable farming, and climate finance advocacy. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), set for completion in September 2025, will be Africa’s largest hydroelectric project with a 5,000 MW capacity. Already supplying over 2,300 MW, GERD is the centerpiece of Ethiopia plan to meet all its power needs through renewables primarily hydropower, wind, and geothermal. Facing rising economic risks climate-related losses could hit 5% of GDP by the 2040s Ethiopia is implementing a $6 bill...

In a worrying climate signal global gas flaring surged to its highest level since 2007 releasing an estimated 389 million tonnes of CO₂-equivalent emissions in 2024. The new data, published in the World Bank Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report, reveals a sharp uptick in both carbon dioxide and unburnt methane pollution from oil extraction activities worldwide. Of the total emissions, 46 million tonnes came from unburnt methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than CO₂. The total volume of gas flared reached 151 billion cubic metres (bcm) a 3 bcm jump from 2023 wasting gas equal to nearly the entire annual consumption of the African continent. The rise poses a major threat to the Zero Routine Flaring by 2030 goal set by the World Bank and United Nations. Achieving this target will now ...

In a bold conservation push, the New Zealand government has announced a $10 million investment over three years to control invasive weeds threatening the country world-famous natural landscapes and $3.4 billion conservation tourism sector. Unveiled by Conservation Minister Tama Potaka and Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard, the initiative aims to safeguard biodiversity boost rural livelihoods, and secure the future of nature-based tourism by targeting some of the country most ecologically sensitive and visited areas. Weeds on the Rise, Ecosystems at Risk Invasive species like wilding pines marram grass, spartina, and pampas grass are expanding rapidly, disrupting native ecosystems, degrading farmland, and even endangering icons like Aoraki/Mount Cook and Stewart Island. Wilding p...

Madhya Pradesh is reeling under intense monsoon fury as incessant rainfall over the past three days has triggered flooding and structural collapses across Guna, Shivpuri, Ashoknagar, and Gwalior. At least four people have died, while over 250 residents have been rescued in swift joint operations by the Indian Army, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). In Guna district, two people died due to wall collapses, while nearly 150 stranded residents were rescued from Fatehgarh and Bamori areas. Guna SP Ankit Soni confirmed the activation of a control room and full coordination between police and civil authorities. Collector Kishore Kumar Kanyal described the situation as critical, with multiple areas submerged and rescue efforts continuing round th...

A sweeping expansion of oil exploration in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has triggered alarm across the global environmental community. With 52 new oil blocks auctioned in 2025 bringing the total to 55 over 53% of the country's land and inland waters are now covered by oil licenses, according to a damning new report from Earth Insight and local civil society groups. This aggressive move threatens 124 million hectares of ecologically sensitive land, including the Cuvette Centrale peatlands, one of the planet’s largest carbon sinks. These peatlands hold 30 gigatons of carbon, equivalent to 20 years of U.S. fossil fuel emissions, and their disturbance could release vast amounts of CO₂ and methane, accelerating climate change irreversibly. “These peatlands take thousands of ...