Corte inédito de energia reforça urgência em investir em baterias, diz setor. Brazil.

Pela primeira vez, operador do sistema elétrico determinou suspensão de usinas de menor porte

Para setor, risco de colapso tende a crescer sem medidas estruturais para armazenar energia

By Nicola Pamplona 

Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

O plano emergencial de corte de energia acionado no domingo (7) pelo ONS (Operador Nacional do Sistema Elétrico) foi considerado bem-sucedido pelo mercado, mas é visto como um paliativo diante da perspectiva de crescimento da geração de eletricidade no país.

Associações do setor defendem agilidade na criação de incentivos para o armazenamento de energia, que poderia guardar o excedente produzido em horários de maior insolação para uso no início da noite, quando há mais consumo elétrico.

Para estas organizações, são necessários incentivos econômicos para a priorização de baterias, como tarifas conforme a oferta de energia elétrica do dia.

A capacidade instalada de micro e minigeração distribuída (MMGD), os painéis instalados sobre telhados ou em pequenas fazendas solares, já supera 44 GW (gigawatts), o equivalente a quase 20% de toda a capacidade de geração de energia no país.

Este tipo de produção é somado com o que é gerado em usinas pelo Brasil, de diversos tamanhos. O aumento na oferta, especialmente em horários do dia com demanda baixa, pode causar sobrecarga no sistema de transmissão e levar a um colapso na distribuição de energia elétrica no país.

Temendo crise na distribuição elétrica no domingo, dia de baixo consumo de energia, a ONS determinou a supressão de 1 GW (gigawatt), o suficiente para abastecer cerca de 500.000 residências. O operador determinou, pela primeira vez, a suspensão em geradoras de menor porte após cortar nas grandes usinas, prática recorrente. Mesmo assim, o risco de colapso se manteve.

Entre as grandes usinas renováveis no Nordeste, região que concentra os grandes parques eólicos e sofre mais com os cortes por excesso de geração solar no país, a ONS chegou a cortar no domingo um máximo de 11 GW de geração. No sábado (6), a restrição de produção foi ainda maior, de 15 GW.

Os cortes do domingo foram feitos entre 10h e 14h de domingo, limitados a usinas com capacidade superior a 5 MW (megawatts) de potência, o que exclui painéis solares sobre residências e pequenas fazendas que vendem energia solar em sistema de condomínio.

"Dizem que quando você chega no fundo do poço, tem que parar de cavar. E a gente continua cavando, continua incentivando a instalação de MMGD", diz o ex-diretor-geral do ONS, Luiz Carlos Ciocchi. "Se a demanda não aumentar e continuamos nessa toada, a situação só tende a piorar".

O setor de MMGD defende incentivos à instalação de baterias para armazenar o excedente de energia durante o dia e substituir térmicas no início da noite, quando a demanda cresce e as gerações solar e eólica são menores.

A ideia seria criar tarifas conforme a oferta de energia: mais baratas quando há excesso e mais caras quando o país precisa de térmicas. Assim, pequenos geradores teriam incentivo econômico para armazenar a própria energia para os horários de pico.

"Pode ser dado sinal de preço para que o consumidor comece a pensar na hipótese de colocar baterias à disposição do sistema", diz o vice-presidente da ABGD (Associação Brasileira de Geração Distribuída), Christino Áureo.

A possibilidade de suspender a operação de usinas de menor porte foi autorizada pela Aneel (Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica) em 2025, diante de alertas do ONS sobre riscos à segurança do sistema elétrico brasileiro.

O excesso de energia quase provocou colapso no sistema no dia dos pais do ano passado. Em dezembro, o operador divulgou documento de planejamento em que via risco crescente de colapso já em 2026, em função da falta de flexibilidade para reduzir a geração controlável em momentos de elevada geração solar e menor demanda por energia.

O governo já anunciou a realização de um leilão de armazenamento de energia, mas esses grandes blocos resolveriam apenas o excedente das usinas de grande porte, sem solucionar o problema da geração distribuída, mais difícil de ser controlada, dizem executivos.

"Em outras partes do mundo se deu essa sinalização adequada de tarifas e o mercado reagiu muito rapidamente", concorda o presidente da Apine (Associação dos Produtores Independentes de Energia), Rui Altieri. Uma mudança dependeria apenas de regulamentação da Aneel.

Procurada por WhatsApp por volta das 11h, a assessoria do ONS não havia respondido ao pedido de entrevista até a publicação deste texto.
 

In the lowest place on Earth, a sea is rapidly dying — and no one can agree how to save it

 The western shore of the Dead Sea, a hyper-salty body of water which is rapidly shrinking.

Cyril Theophilos, CNN

 

By

Laura Paddison

 

 

The Dead Sea — 

The motorboat cut through the aquamarine water of the Dead Sea, past dazzling-white formations forged from salt crystals. Jake Ben Zaken, the boat captain, pointed to a patch of darker water nearby indicating a sinkhole beneath the seabed. These are both signs of an unfolding ecological disaster, he said.

The Dead Sea sits where Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian land meet and is a place of extremes. It’s the lowest point on the planet, around 1,400 feet below sea level. It’s also one of the world’s saltiest water bodies, nearly 10 times saltier than the ocean, which makes the water so dense people can float effortlessly on its surface.

But this unique body of water is dying. Every year it recedes around 4 feet, as the impacts of human activities and climate change take a heavy toll. Over the past five decades, its surface area has shrunk by roughly a third. As the water retreats, it’s forging a new landscape of sinkholes and salt-encrusted shorelines that is both strikingly beautiful and a haunting reminder that the Dead Sea’s future hangs in the balance. 

Jake Ben Zaken runs boat tours on the Dead Sea and has a front row seat to the rapid changes.

Laura Paddison/CNN

 

 

Ben Zaken, who runs the company Salty Landscapes from Mitzpe Shalem, a settlement in the West Bank, has been taking people out onto the Dead Sea for more than 12 years. It’s given him a front row seat to the alarming changes.

His boat tours used to start from Mineral Beach, just to the south of Mitzpe Shalem, but he was forced to move when sinkholes closed it in 2015. His current location is safe for now, but the landscape is shifting fast. “Every year we get about seven and a half meters of new shoreline,” Ben Zaken said. 

 

There are multiple plans to save the Dead Sea, but the years tick by and little happens as costs, fraught regional politics and a lack of political urgency stymie action, experts told CNN. Unless something is done, the world risks losing a unique ecosystem, they warned.

“It is a treasure,” said Peleg Gottdiener of EcoPeace Middle East, an organization of Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian environmentalists. “There’s nothing like the Dead Sea.” 

 

The Dead Sea’s demise is human-caused.

 

This landlocked swath of salty water is technically a lake. Water enters from the Jordan River, which starts on the Syria-Lebanon border, flows through the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel, then continues its journey south toward the Dead Sea, with Jordan on one side and Israel and the occupied West Bank on the other.

Over the decades, the Jordan River, and its main tributary the Yarmouk, have shrunk as they’ve been dammed and diverted by Israel, Syria and Jordan to quench the thirst of people, crops and livestock. The river used to transport 1.3 billion cubic meters of water to the Dead Sea; that has fallen to roughly 100 million cubic meters.

The mineral extraction industry is the other major driver of decline.

In the late 1970s, the Dead Sea split into two basins, now separated by a strip of dry land. The deeper northern basin, where Ben Zaken operates his boat tours, is the natural remnant of the sea. The southern basin is artificially maintained, made up of a series of industrial evaporation pools. 

 

Companies on the Israeli and Jordanian sides — the Dead Sea Works and the Arab Potash Company — pump water from the northern basin into the pools. The water evaporates in the sun leaving behind a mineral-rich brine, from which companies extract minerals including potash and magnesium for fertilizers and other industrial uses.

There’s another force at work too: climate change. Droughts are becoming fiercer and more prolonged, and rainfall is rarer. Even without river diversions and industry, there’s evidence climate change impacts would cause the Dead Sea to shrink, albeit far more slowly, said Yael Kiro, a geochemist at the Weizmann Institute of Science, who studies the Dead Sea. 

 As it shrinks, the Dead Sea is changing. It’s becoming even saltier. Since the 1980s, concentrations of salt in the water have become too high to remain dissolved, said professor Nadav Lensky, director of the Dead Sea Observatory at the Geological Survey of Israel.

 This causes the salt to form solid crystals, which drift like snow down to the sea floor, creating natural salt sculptures. Most crystals accumulate as salt layers forming intricate structures that can take many shapes, influenced by water temperature and currents. Some look like chimneys, others like domes or mushrooms. 

Salt crystals on the shore of the Dead Sea. Laura Paddison/CNN

 

Salt sculptures take many shapes. Laura Paddison/CNN 

 

 

The retreating water is also changing the landscape in a more dangerous way.

At an entrance to Ein Gedi, a once-popular Dead Sea beach resort now permanently closed, a big yellow sign reads “no entry for pedestrians.” It’s soon clear why. The road toward the shore has been carved up by huge, circular sinkholes. 

 To get closer to the water means picking your way past the sinkholes and over fallen palm trees. A restaurant, changing rooms and gas station all stand abandoned nearer the shoreline. A set of broken steps leads down to a beach now so far away it’s impossible to see. The resort has an eerie, almost apocalyptic feel. 

A sinkkhole on the road to Ein Gedi, a now-closed beach resort on the western shore of the Dead Sea in Israel. Cyril Theophilos, CNN

The sinkholes that closed Ein Gedi, and other Dead Sea beaches, are a direct result of the water’s retreat, Kiro said. Rapidly dropping water levels allow freshwater to seep into the ground, dissolving the ancient layers of salt and creating underground cavities. When these grow too large, the ground above eventually collapses, causing sinkholes to open up suddenly and without warning.

There are now more than 6,000 sinkholes around the Dead Sea and they threaten businesses and residents as well as tourism, which, on the Israeli side, is now almost exclusively in the industrial southern basin. Few tourists will likely realize that they’re bathing in an artificial evaporation pond. 

A visitor to the DMZ Medical Spa in southern Israel floats in the evaporation ponds of the Dead Sea. Bill Weir/CNN

 

The need to halt the Dead Sea’s decline is urgent, but there is no simple solution.

One idea is to find a new source of water to replenish it. In 2013 Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the idea of pumping water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. 

 

The plan involved constructing a desalination plant on the Jordanian coast to produce freshwater and building a pipeline, more than 100 miles long, to bring the salty brine created during desalination to the Dead Sea.

Some environmental experts are concerned that adding water with a different chemical composition could cause algae blooms or the formation of white gypsum crystals in the Dead Sea. 

 Hazim El-Naser, chairman of the Middle East Water Forum and former Jordanian water minister, said extensive environmental studies have shown up to 600 million cubic meters of seawater could be added “without any problems.” For now, however, the project has stalled due to its multibillion-dollar price tag and the increasing difficulty of forging regional cooperation. 

 Another idea is to restore the Jordan River by reducing diversion and releasing more water into it — potentially using treated wastewater. But some experts warn the water will simply be removed before it reaches the Dead Sea, such is the need in this parched region. It’s “impossible to take (water) from the people unless you provide an alternative,” El-Naser said.

A dead palm tree lies across the road in Ein Gedi, which used to be a popular beach resort on the Dead Sea. Laura Paddison/CNN

Broken steps lead down to the shoreline at Ein Gedi. Laura Paddison/CNN

 

Others want to target industry. Abdelrahman Tamimi, the general director of the Palestinian Hydrology Group, said companies should stop pumping water to extract minerals. Others say the solution isn’t completely stopping industry — which supports jobs and tax revenues — but cutting its water use.

The Dead Sea Works has extracted minerals from the Dead Sea under a concession agreement since 1961. This comes to an end in 2030, and the draft of the new agreement does include fees for water use.

 

If people are making money from the Dead Sea’s water, “take some of that money and turn it back to water to make sure that we have the Dead Sea forever,” said Meirav Abadi, legal counsel for the Israel Union for Environmental Defense.

ICL Group, which owns Dead Sea Works, did not respond to CNN’s request for comment but says on its website it withdraws a net total of 160 million cubic meters of water a year from the Dead Sea and that it is “innovating to develop sustainable water management strategies.” 

The western shore of the Dead Sea. Cyril Theopilus, CNN

 EcoPeace’s Gottdeiner said a big hurdle to any solution is that ultimately “there’s no sense of urgency” at a political level. He and other experts believe it’s probably impossible to restore the Dead Sea to the level it was a few decades ago; the focus instead should be on stabilizing its decline.

 

Israel’s Ministry of Environmental Protection rejected claims of a lack of urgency. “The ongoing decline of the Dead Sea is a serious environmental issue of national and regional importance,” a spokesperson said, adding “the Ministry continues to advance policy and planning efforts to address the issue.”

For now, those with homes and businesses along its shores must live with uncertainty.

Ben Zaken of Salty Landscapes knows he’s on borrowed time. Every time he shows up at the beach where he starts his boat tours, he scans the sand to see if a sinkhole has appeared. It would put him out of business immediately, he said, and there’s no insurance that will cover what now seems like an inevitability.

Change here doesn’t happen slowly, he said, “it’s a rapid-paced disaster.”

Zeena Saifi and Jeremy Diamond contributed to this report

Como as águas mais quentes influenciam desde o sumiço das ostras à chegada precoce de baleias no Brazil

by Ana Menezes

 Pesquisadores apontam que o aumento da temperatura do mar já altera a migração de baleias, ameaça cultivos de ostras e impacta a pesca e o litoral catarinense

 

 O mar de Santa Catarina está mudando — e os impactos já começam a aparecer na economia, na biodiversidade e até em símbolos culturais do Estado, como as baleias-francas e as ostras cultivadas em Florianópolis.

 

Nos últimos anos, pesquisadores vêm observando o aumento gradual da temperatura das águas do Atlântico Sul e mudanças importantes no comportamento dos ecossistemas marinhos. Em Santa Catarina, especialistas alertam que os efeitos das mudanças climáticas já atingem a pesca, a maricultura, o turismo, a erosão costeira e os ciclos migratórios de espécies marinhas.

Em 2026, as primeiras baleias-francas chegaram ao litoral catarinense ainda em maio, antecipando novamente a temporada migratória. No mesmo cenário de mudanças no oceano, produtores de ostras enfrentaram perdas expressivas durante o verão devido à mortalidade dos animais provocada por altas temperaturas da água.

 

Pesquisadores apontam que os fenômenos ainda estão em estudo, mas que o aquecimento dos oceanos já provoca alterações perceptíveis na costa catarinense.

O que causou a morte das ostras?

 

Oceano absorve o calor do planeta

A oceanógrafa física e climatologista da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), Regina Rodrigues, explica que os oceanos absorvem cerca de 90% do excesso de calor gerado pelas atividades humanas.

Segundo ela, estudos com dados de satélite analisados desde 1982 mostram uma tendência contínua de aquecimento no Atlântico Sul, incluindo o litoral de Santa Catarina.

— Estamos vendo cada vez mais períodos em que a temperatura do mar fica muito acima do normal — afirma.

 A pesquisadora explica que o aquecimento global atua junto de mudanças atmosféricas regionais. Entre elas, estão os chamados bloqueios atmosféricos, que reduzem a passagem de frentes frias, deixam o inverno mais seco e aumentam a incidência solar sobre o oceano.

 

— Santa Catarina está entrando mais no clima do Sudeste. Esses bloqueios, que antes eram mais comuns lá, estão se expandindo para o Sul — diz.

Fenômenos como o El Niño podem potencializar esse cenário, já que favorece a formação desses bloqueios atmosféricos e altera os padrões de chuva e temperatura no Sul do Brasil, conforme a pesquisadora.

Procurada pela reportagem, a Defesa Civil de Santa Catarina informou que não é possível afirmar uma relação direta entre o El Niño e o aquecimento das águas na costa catarinense.

Baleias-francas chegam mais cedo ao litoral

Os reflexos dessas mudanças também podem ser percebidos na migração das baleias-francas. A diretora de pesquisa do ProFRANCA, Karina Groch, explica que a chegada antecipada das baleias ao litoral catarinense ainda é estudada, mas que há forte relação entre alimentação, condições oceânicas e comportamento migratório.

 

As baleias-francas vêm para Santa Catarina principalmente para reprodução. As fêmeas chegam grávidas para dar à luz em águas mais abrigadas e permanecem na região até que os filhotes consigam retornar às áreas de alimentação próximas à Antártica.

Segundo Karina, a principal hipótese para a chegada antecipada desses animais envolve a disponibilidade de krill — pequeno crustáceo que serve de alimento para as baleias e depende do gelo antártico para se reproduzir.

— Quando está mais quente, há menos gelo e consequentemente menos krill. Isso influencia toda a cadeia alimentar — explica.

 Pesquisas do ProFRANCA indicam que alterações climáticas na Antártica podem gerar reflexos na população de baleias que chega ao Brasil até seis anos depois. A hipótese é que a espécie mais bem nutrida consegue completar antes o período de alimentação, iniciando a migração mais cedo.

 

— Tudo indica que o momento da chegada delas está relacionado à disponibilidade de alimento e às condições oceânicas — afirma Karina.

Ela ressalta, porém, que ainda são necessários anos de monitoramento para confirmar tendências e entender se a antecipação da temporada está diretamente ligada às mudanças climáticas ou a fenômenos específicos, como o El Niño.

 

Veja fotos das primeiras baleias-francas de 2026 no RS

Ostras sofrem com calor extremo

Enquanto as baleias antecipam a chegada, a maricultura catarinense enfrenta outro desafio: a mortalidade em massa de ostras provocada pelas altas temperaturas da água.

 

Santa Catarina é o maior produtor do marisco do Brasil, especialmente da espécie Magallana gigas, cultivada principalmente em Florianópolis. Mas a espécie, originária do Pacífico, é adaptada a águas mais frias.

Segundo o professor Rafael Diego da Rosa, do Centro de Ciências Biológicas da UFSC e coordenador do Laboratório de Biotecnologia e Saúde Marinha (LaBIOMARIS), o calor extremo registrado no verão provocou perdas expressivas na produção. No início do ano, produtores de ostras de Florianópolis enfrentam uma das maiores crises já registradas na maricultura local. A mortalidade em massa causada pelo aumento da temperatura da água do mar chegou a até 90% da produção, um índice considerado sem precedentes pelo setor.

O professor explica que o aumento da temperatura da água provoca estresse fisiológico nos animais e pode deixá-los mais suscetíveis à ação de vírus, bactérias e outros microrganismos.

Por conta disso, pesquisadores da UFSC, em parceria com instituições do Brasil, França e Chile, criaram uma rede internacional de pesquisa para investigar os fenômenos de mortalidade das ostras e a relação deles com as mudanças climáticas.

 

— Queremos entender se o que está matando as ostras é um fator ambiental, infeccioso ou uma combinação dos dois — diz Rafael.

“Ostras verdes” e novas florações

Outro fenômeno recente chamou atenção de pesquisadores e produtores: o

aparecimento

das chamadas “ostras verdes” em cultivos do Sul da Ilha.

O fenômeno ocorre quando uma microalga azul-esverdeada é filtrada pelos moluscos e pigmenta as brânquias dos animais. A mesma ocorrência já é conhecida na França, onde as ostras verdes são consideradas uma iguaria gastronômica.

Ostras esverdeadas despertaram curiosidade de produtores no Sul da Ilha (Foto: LaBIOMARIS, Divulgação)

Segundo Rafael, o evento já havia sido registrado em Santa Catarina há mais de 10 anos, mas voltou a aparecer recentemente. Pesquisadores agora tentam identificar se a microalga encontrada em Florianópolis é a mesma presente na Europa e quais fatores ambientais favoreceram a floração.

Embora essa microalga específica não apresente riscos à saúde humana, o pesquisador alerta que mudanças climáticas podem aumentar a frequência de florações de outras espécies tóxicas.

— Algumas microalgas produzem toxinas que podem inviabilizar cultivos e representar riscos para o consumo humano — explica.

Tropicalização da costa e impactos na pesca

O aquecimento do oceano também altera o comportamento de diversas espécies marinhas. Segundo Regina Rodrigues, da UFSC, pesquisadores já observam um

processo

chamado de “tropicalização” da costa catarinense: espécies típicas de águas mais quentes começam a migrar para o Sul, enquanto espécies tradicionais da pesca local podem se deslocar para águas mais frias, próximas ao Rio Grande do Sul, Uruguai e Argentina.

A mudança ameaça diretamente atividades econômicas ligadas à pesca artesanal.

— Já houve anos em que a tainha praticamente não apareceu em Santa Catarina, mas os pescadores relataram grandes cardumes mais ao sul — afirma Regina.

O NSC Total ouviu pescadores que relataram à reportagem que não sentiram diferença nos cardumes. Pelo contrário, a safra da tainha de 2026 já entrou para a história na Praia de Cima, na Pinheira, em Palhoça, por exemplo.

Em apenas um mês, o número de peixes capturados praticamente igualou todo o volume registrado ao longo da temporada de 2025. Somente em maio, foram pescadas cerca de 92.986 tainhas, segundo levantamento do grupo Informações da Pesca (IDP), de Florianópolis.

O resultado surpreendeu até os pescadores mais experientes do litoral catarinense. A expectativa inicial era de uma boa safra, mas a quantidade de cardumes que chegou às praias ficou muito acima do esperado.

 

— A Praia de Cima surpreendeu esse ano e ainda tem muita tainha chegando. Pelas informações das

embarcações

que trabalham no alto-mar, ainda existem muitos cardumes no litoral do Rio Grande do Sul subindo para Santa Catarina — afirma Marcelo Alcioni, do IDP.

Segundo Marcelo, as condições climáticas têm sido determinantes para o fenômeno. Isso porque o vento sul mais fraco estaria favorecendo a permanência dos peixes na costa catarinense por mais tempo.

— O vento sul não está sendo muito forte, então a tainha vai viajando devagarzinho e entrando nas praias. Se tivesse vento sul forte, como elas chegaram cedo, provavelmente já teriam passado por Santa Catarina rumo ao Paraná e São Paulo — explica ele.

A expectativa dos pescadores é de que os próximos dias possam registrar novos grandes lanços nas praias da região. Para Marcelo, o auge da safra ainda pode estar por vir.

 

Mais ressacas e erosão costeira

Por outro lado, os efeitos das mudanças climáticas também avançam sobre as cidades costeiras. Com temperaturas mais elevadas, aumenta a energia das tempestades, dos ventos e das ressacas, intensificando processos de erosão em praias catarinenses. Regiões como Armação, Campeche e Morro das Pedras, em Florianópolis, já convivem com episódios frequentes de avanço do mar.

Regina Rodrigues também faz um alerta sobre a ocupação urbana desordenada no litoral catarinense.

— Dunas, vegetação costeira e manguezais funcionam como proteção natural contra ressacas e erosão. Quando destruímos essas áreas, aumentamos nossa vulnerabilidade climática — afirma.

Hottest May day for nearly 80 years as parts of UK hit heatwave threshold. Highest temperatures of 2026 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland as Kew Gardens in London reaches 32.3C

 

The sun rising over London, seen from Richmond Park, on Sunday. Photograph: Brook Mitchell/AFP/Getty

 by Hayden Vernon and Nadeem Badshah

England, Wales and Northern Ireland recorded their highest temperatures of 2026 on Sunday, which was also the UK’s hottest May day for at least 79 years.

Kew Gardens in west London recorded 32.3C (90.1F), Cardiff 27.4C and Armagh 23.4C.

Scotland reached 23.5C in Edinburgh, just 0.1C below the record of 23.6C set in Aboyne on 1 May.

The first area of the UK to hit the heatwave threshold was Santon Downham in Suffolk, which reached the criteria of recording temperatures of more than 27C for three consecutive days at 11.30am on Sunday.

The other areas officially in heatwave conditions are Heathrow, Kew Gardens and Northolt in London, Benson in Oxfordshire, Brooms Barn in Suffolk, and High Beach and Writtle in Essex.

Temperatures could rise again on Monday, with possible highs of between 33C and 34C.

The climate crisis is increasing the likelihood of extreme heat. Large parts of western Europe are experiencing similar peaks, and the French national weather agency, Météo-France, said periods of exceptional heat are to be expected “more and more often and more and more prematurely, and to be more and more intense”.

Margate beach was packed with sunbathers as temperatures climbed over the bank holiday weekend. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe/Reuters

A Met Office spokesperson said: “Breaking the 32.8C May record is around three times more likely now in our current climate than it would have been in natural climate conditions before the Industrial Revolution.

 

“What was around a one-in-100-year event is now around a one-in-33-year event.”

The Met Office sets the criteria for a heatwave, which vary by region. In London and its surrounding counties, a heatwave is defined by temperatures reaching or exceeding 28C on three consecutive days.

For many other areas of England and south-east Wales, the threshold is 26C or 27C. For the rest of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England it is 25C.

 

UK heatwave thresholds

Heatwave conditions are met when daily maximum temperatures meet or exceed the local heatwave temperature threshold for at least three consecutive days

 

Saturday was the UK’s first 30C day of the year, the earliest date that temperature has been reached since 1952.

Sunbathers flocked to beaches across the UK, and Lord’s cricket ground relaxed its strict dress code for its members’ pavilion. The Marylebone Cricket Club usually requires spectators there to wear lounge suits or tailored jackets and ties.

 There were also drinks breaks at the League One playoff final between Bolton Wanderers and Stockport County at Wembley and during the Premier League games as the top-flight football season concluded.

A dog cools off at water fountains in Battersea Park, south-west London. Photograph: James Manning/PA

People living in three villages in Kent experienced no water or low pressure for a second day. The affected areas were Charing, Challock and Molash near Ashford, where people first reported supply problems on Saturday evening.

South East Water apologised and said the issue had been resolved overnight, but that supply problems had resumed on Sunday as a result of pumping station issues.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) issued amber heat alerts on Friday morning for the East Midlands, the West Midlands, the east of England, London and the south-east.

Swimmers at Charlton Lido in south-east London. Photograph: Yann Tessier/Reuters

The alerts will remain in place until 5pm on Wednesday, meaning “an increase in risk to health for individuals aged over 65 years or those with pre-existing health conditions, including respiratory and cardiovascular diseases”, according to the UKHSA website.

There were also pleas for caution around open bodies of water such as lakes and quarries to reduce the risk of drowning.

According to 2024 data from the National Water Safety Forum, 61% of accidental water-related fatalities occurred in inland waterways, including rivers, canals, lakes, reservoirs and quarries. May that year had the largest number of deaths at 28.

The data also suggests many such deaths occur among people who are not intending to enter the water.

Prof Mike Tipton, the chair of the forum and an expert in water safety and cold water shock, said: “We encourage people to think before entering the water, and if they decide to go in, go to a supervised location, enter the water slowly to reduce the cold shock response and keep breathing under control.

“If people get into trouble, they should ‘float to live’ – roll on to back, tilt head back to keep airways out of the water, do as little sculling arm and leg exercise as necessary to stay afloat until breathing is back under control.”

Tipton also advised against entering the water to rescue someone struggling because doing so often leads to two people in trouble. People should call the emergency services, tell the person in the water to float and throw them a flotation aid if possible, he said.

Last night police were searching for a boy, 15, who had not been seen since going into a lake in Lincoln. Emergency services were called to Swanholme Lakes in the afternoon after reports the boy had got into difficulty in the water.

Israeli tech company aiming to cool the Earth with masses of tiny particles

 

A sun halo appears in the sky over northern Israel, May 2, 2026. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

by  By ToI Staff

 

Stardust Solutions wants to combat global warming by releasing millions of tons of particles to reflect small amounts of sunlight, NYT reports, but critics warn of dangers in playing with weather

 

An Israeli tech company has revealed the content of tiny particles it hopes will one day be used to combat global warming by scattering millions of tons of them into the atmosphere to reflect away sunlight, the New York Times reported Thursday.

Stardust Solutions had previously kept the makeup of its geoengineering particles a closely-guarded secret, protected with nondisclosure agreements.

As it turns out, they are made from amorphous silica, which is a food additive, and calcium carbonate, which is in eggshells and limestone.

 

The company, which is led by former figures from Israel’s nuclear program, on Thursday began publishing research papers on its product.

The idea is to disperse the particles at high altitude where they would reflect sunlight, cooling down the Earth.

“This is a very powerful tool that will be ready for testing very soon, and we want policymakers to start thinking seriously, ‘What will it take in practice?’” chief executive, Yanai Yedvab, told the Times.

So far, the company has only tested the particles in the laboratory and says it would not test them outdoors unless it were in partnership with a government to lay down the rules and limits of the test, according to the report.

Screen capture from video of Yanai Yedvab, chief executive of Stardust Solutions, April 2026. (YouTube)

Founded in 2023, Stardust Solutions has pulled in $75 million in funding from investors and has applied for a patent. Registered as a US company with an Israeli subsidiary, it has a lab in Ness Ziona, south of Tel Aviv.

The company has two types of particles it is working on. The first could reflect up to one percent of the sunlight, while the second, still in the testing phase, could reflect more than that.

Stardust executives estimate that a starting project to begin cooling the atmosphere could cost around $10 billion. It would require some 10 million tons of particles dispersed over several years, aiming to cool the atmosphere by 1.5 degrees Celsius.

It says the particles are biodegradable, not harmful to people or animals, and would not build up in the soil or oceans.

However, the idea of meddling with the world’s weather faces pushback.

More than 600 scientists and academics have called for an international ban on such projects, while Tennessee and Florida have already banned geoengineering.

Critics cite concerns of unintended consequences and that artificially cooling the planet might lessen calls for countries and industries to cut back emissions that are causing climate change. However, in recent years, as global temperatures have gone up, many researchers and some environmentalists have been more open to studying solar geoengineering methods, the report said.

 

Prakash Kashwan, a professor of environmental studies at Brandeis University, has warned that solar geoengineering could alter weather patterns, impacting food production and economies.

He highlighted those who live in South Asia, East Africa, and Latin America, where annual monsoons are vital for crops.

“There’s this social risk for at least two billion people that is directly connected to the lack of scientific understanding about how interfering with the global temperature thermostat is going to interfere with the monsoon formation,” he told the Times. “We don’t have a solution for those kinds of risks.”

Lasers in the sky: hi-tech missions track record snowpack loss in US west. Data from missions showing critically low snowpack on mountains across the west raises alarm among experts

A Lidar scan of snow on a mountain. Photograph: Airborne Snow Observatories

by  Ben Tracy of Climate Central

  

High above the jagged peaks of California’s Sierra Nevada, the view from the cockpit is breathtaking. At first glance, the mountains appear draped in a pristine white blanket. But as the flight crew gears up for a high-stakes mission, the sensors onboard this specialized aircraft prove that looks can be deceiving.

“This is a distinct dry year,” says Tom Painter, CEO of Airborne Snow Observatories.

Painter, who developed this technology at Nasa, isn’t relying on a visual inspection. His plane uses Lidar, or rapid pulses of laser light, to calculate snow depth with surgical precision. “The Lidar sprays out about 800,000 pulses per second,” he explains. The result is a 3D map of snow depth accurate to within 3cm. The technology also helps determine how much water is stored in the snowpack.

In the US west, where mountain ranges act as “frozen reservoirs”, state water managers rely on this data as a survival guide. It helps them plan for exactly how much water will eventually reach the faucets of millions of people and the critical farm fields that feed the nation.

 This year, the data is sounding an alarm.

 

 The national drought picture is increasingly grim. According to the latest US Drought Monitor, more than 60% of the lower 48 states are now gripped by drought. It’s the most widespread spring dry spell since the monitor began in 2000. While the south-east is now battling “summer-sized” wildfires in Georgia and Florida, the west is facing a different kind of crisis: a snow drought-fueled water shortage.

 

A record-warm winter followed by a blistering March heatwave, both fuelled by heat-trapping pollution, has decimated the western snowpack. According to Climate Central, the total water stored in the western snowpack this winter hit its lowest level on record right when it should have been hitting its annual peak.

“In March the spigot shut off and it shut off across the entire western US,” Painter says. “Loss of snowpack like we’ve never seen. It’s not in the record at all. So this is unprecedented.”

The numbers back him up: the statewide snowpack in California stood at a mere 18% of average on 1 April and has declined ever since.

Standing by a rushing stream outside Reno, Nevada, Tom Albright, the state’s deputy state climatologist, says spring runoff from snowmelt in the mountains is two months ahead of schedule. “We wish we could tell it to stay put a little longer,” Albright says.

The danger of an early melt is twofold. First, once that snow is gone, the landscape begins to dry out months ahead of schedule which can fuel wildfires. Second, major reservoirs on the Colorado River that are already critically low, will not be replenished due to the lack of snowpack. “What happens when we don’t have the snowpack is we lose what water there was early and then we’re left with this really long dry season,” Albright says. When asked what concerns him most about the coming months, his answer is immediate: “Fire. Particularly because we have such a broad area that’s affected.”

For decades, the water systems of the west were built on the assumption that the snow would stay in the mountains until the heat of mid-summer. The climate crisis is rewriting that playbook.

While this year’s drought is anomalous when looking at the historical record, experts warn it is a preview of the coming decades.

“As we look forward this year will become less and less unusual and may become not unusual at all at some point in the future,” Albright warns.

Airline emissions in Europe top pre-Covid levels despite pledge to decarbonise. Promises to cut emissions and use more fuel-efficient planes fail to stop rise, with Ryanair’s carbon footprint 50% up on 2019

 

The T&E thinktank says that although the EU and the UK have tried to manage environmental costs via the emissions trading system, the scheme does not price in most of the sector’s pollution, as it only includes flights entirely within Europe. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA

 by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent

 

Emissions from flying in Europe have now passed pre-pandemic levels, with Ryanair’s carbon footprint 50% higher than in 2019, research has shown.

Total aviation emissions continue to increase despite industry pledges to decarbonise and the introduction of more fuel-efficient planes, driven by the massive expansion of low-cost carriers.

According to analysis by thinktank Transport & Environment (T&E), Ryanair’s CO₂ emissions alone in 2025 reached 16.6 megatonnes (Mt) of CO₂ – around the same amount as the total annual emissions of a small European country such as Croatia. The airline carried just over 200 million passengers in 2025, compared with 140 million in 2019.

The entire European aviation sector emitted 195Mt of CO₂ in departing flights last year, a 2% increase on levels before Covid paused international travel.

 

Although the EU and the UK have tried to manage some of the environmental costs through the emissions trading system (ETS), T&E said the system does not price in most of the sector’s pollution, as it only includes flights entirely within Europe.

That means long-haul flights on legacy carriers’ aircraft, which burn more fuel, are outside its scope. Airlines operating predominantly within Europe pay more under the system – Ryanair pays an average of €50 (£36) a tonne of carbon, while Lufthansa pays about €20. London-New York traffic alone generated nearly 1.4Mt of CO₂ in 2025, but is not drawn into the ETS.

T&E wants the carbon market extended to all departing flights to raise more public revenue and accelerate aviation’s slow decarbonisation. Such a move, it said, could quadruple the €4.1bn raised for EU states by 2030, and fund production of sustainable aviation fuel and measures to avoid contrails, the plumes of cloud formed by planes in certain conditions that could exacerbate global heating.

While the aviation industry has been lobbying to suspend or weaken ETS and other taxes and regulatory requirements on flying during the Middle East crisis, the report found that the carbon market costs were negligible compared with fuel volatility. Jet fuel prices that have roughly doubled from pre-Iran war levels add €90 a passenger on long-haul flights, compared with just €3 from following the sustainable aviation fuels mandate.

“Ticket prices are rising because of Europe’s reliance on fossil fuels, not because of the climate measures intended to steer the sector away from them,” Giacomo Miele, author of the T&E analysis, said.

“Aviation emissions hitting a new high is a clear signal that the industry has no intention of cleaning up its act. It is time to stop subsidising fossil fuel dependency and start investing in the future of a sustainable aviation sector.”

 

A spokesperson for Ryanair said its greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) were rising as it was Europe’s fastest-growing airline, adding: “All of this growth takes place at lower fares but on new fuel-efficient aircraft, so our GHG per passenger are falling. Ryanair’s growth is also displacing air travel on less-efficient legacy airlines whose GHG per passenger is much higher than Ryanair’s.”

Ryanair said the ETS emissions figures were “completely discredited” since they excluded flights operated by airlines who were “indefensibly exempted from their fair share of enviro taxes by Europe’s discriminatory ETS system, which taxes only intra-EU flights while it exempts all flights including the most polluting long-haul flights”.

Ryanair says that when all flights are included it ranks behind Lufthansa, Air France/KLM and British Airways owner IAG for total emissions, while having the lowest CO₂ emissions a head of the big European airlines, of about 64g a passenger kilometre.