Extreme heatwave may break records in Victoria as firefighters warn of bushfire risk in ‘very dry’ state

The sun rises over the Malle town of Ouyen, Victoria, where the temperature is expected to peak at 49C on Tuesday. Fire danger is extreme across both Victoria and South Australia as the climate crisis increases severe weather events. Photograph: Ellen Smith/The Guardian
 

 

by  Petra Stock and Stephanie Convery

Ouyen and Mildura in northern Victoria forecast to break state’s all-time maximum on Tuesday, as weather warnings issued

 

A day of record-breaking heat looms for Victoria, with temperatures forecast to hit 49C in the Mallee and Melbourne facing its hottest day since Black Saturday 2009.

It was 26.1C as the sun rose on Tuesday over the small Victorian town of Ouyen, the Mallee town of 1,170 people whose forecast high of 49C would break the state’s temperature record of 48.8C set in Hopetoun on Black Saturday in 2009.

The area has not recorded a drop of rainfall all January, and only 13.6mm in December. The fire danger rating on Tuesday was extreme.

Victoria faced both heat and fire emergencies, Country Fire Authority chief officer, Jason Heffernan, said. Tuesday was “not a day for complacency”, he said, urging people to restrict any unnecessary travel.

 

With six major fires burning across the state, the high to extreme fire conditions would increase the risk of fire spread. Authorities were particularly concerned about the Carlisle River fire in the Otways, which may pose a serious threat to homes, properties and lives. A statewide total fire ban was in place.

Fire danger was extreme across much of South Australia, including the eastern Eyre peninsula, mid north, Mount Lofty ranges, Yorke Peninsula, Kangaroo Island, Riverland, Murraylands and across the south-east. Total fire bans were in place for those districts.

Heffernan told the ABC it would be a challenging day for not only firefighters, but for Victorians generally.

Four zones around the Carlisle River fire have been asked to evacuate immediately. Heffernan said the biggest bushfire danger would come in the afternoon on Tuesday.

“We do expect that fire will run today under the conditions, those hot northerly winds, but it’s the change that’s going to come through about 5pm with some really punchy winds, that is likely to do most of the damage and drive that fire further into the Otways,” he said.

“Today is a day not to be complacent. Whilst we are focus on the Walwa and the Carlisle River fire, to be frank, the state is very, very dry. Any fire that takes hold will be a challenge for community.”

He said communities should take care to look after the elderly, young and infirm amid the heatwave.

January and all-time records were expected to tumble in parts of eastern South Australia and across Victoria on Tuesday, with temperatures approaching 50C across inland areas, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Ouyen and Mildura in north-west Victoria were forecast to reach 49C.

Ouyen got close to the record just two weeks ago, peaking at 47.5C on Thursday 8 January. Tuesday is the fifth day in a row that temperatures there will exceed 40C – and another four days over 40C are expected to follow, totalling a possible nine full days of extreme 40C+ temperatures.

The town of Ouyen early on Tuesday morning. Photograph: Ellen Smith/The Guardian

For many in Victoria the heatwave would be difficult to fathom, senior meteorologist Jonathan How said. Anything above 48C was extremely rare for the state.

Maximum temperatures of 45C were forecast for Melbourne, up to 20 degrees above average, and the hottest day for the city since Black Saturday saw temperatures reach 46.4C. Play would continue at the Australian Open, following extreme heat protocols.

On Monday, the heatwave saw Adelaide reach 44.7C just after 5pm, the city’s hottest day since 2019, and as high as 46.5C in the northern suburb of Elizabeth. Ceduna on the Eyre Peninsula hit a scorching 49.5C, the town’s highest temperature recorded in 84 years of data. There was little relief overnight, with Adelaide waking to 35C at 6am.

Victoria’s chief health officer, Dr Caroline McElnay, said prolonged heat, together with high overnight temperatures, posed an increased risk of heat-related illness.

“Heat‑related illness can come on quickly, so it’s important to know the warning signs,” McElnay said.

“The telltale symptoms include heavy sweating, dizziness, nausea, headache, pale or clammy skin, or feeling unusually weak or confused. If someone shows signs of heatstroke, such as very high body temperature, red hot skin, confusion or loss of consciousness, call Triple Zero (000) immediately.”

The City of Melbourne was ready to provide “cool kits” containing cooling towels, water, handheld fans and rehydration solution to vulnerable people.

A cool change was forecast to bring some relief for coastal areas of South Australia and Victoria, reaching Adelaide just after lunch on Tuesday and Melbourne by about 8-9pm in the evening.

But for inland areas across Victoria, SA and New South Wales, the severe-to-extreme heat, with temperatures in the mid-to-high 40s, was expected to persist into next weekend.

Dubbo, NSW also recorded a January record, reaching 46.1C at the airport on Monday. More records could be broken on Wednesday as the heat moved into inland and western NSW and north-east Victoria.

The heat tomorrow “will very much take centre stage across inland parts of New South Wales”, How said.

Australia’s energy market operator said the power grid was prepared with sufficient generation to meet increased demand due to the heat. Network company Powercor urged households to prepare by charging phones and other devices, in case of localised outages due to the bushfires or extreme weather.

It was Australia’s second major heatwave for January, and came off the back of one early in January, which analysts said was made five times more likely due to global heating.

The climate crisis has increased the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, including heatwaves and bushfires.

Hotter-than-average days and nights were expected to continue until April for much of the country, according to the latest long-range forecast. Sea surface temperatures would remain warmer than average globally, including around Australia.

– with additional reporting by Nick Visser

As Winter Warms, Olympic Athletes, Organizers Hunt for Elusive Snow. Future games will need to be held at higher altitudes, and spread over multiple venues in order to adapt to a changing climate, new research suggests.

Gus Schumacher, a member of the U.S. cross-country skiing team, left, competing in Planica, Slovenia, in March 2023.Credit...Maja Hitij/Getty Images

 

Two weeks less snow on average recorded in mountain areas since 1982

 

 By Eric Niiler

 

As an elite cross-country skier who grew up in Alaska, Gus Schumacher is used to training and racing in biting cold and driving snowstorms. But in recent years, Mr. Schumacher, who is preparing to compete in several events at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics next month in Italy, has been skiing through wet, mushy snow surrounded by barren hillsides.

“It’s entirely man-made snow and kind of brown on the sides,” Mr. Schumacher said about some of his recent competitions. “It’s not the nicest way to ski.”

After a warm and dry early winter in the Italian Alps, local officials now say this year’s outdoor venues have enough machine-made snow to last for the 19 days of competition.

But Olympic organizers say holding a winter sports extravaganza every four years is becoming less certain, and will require more flexibility to pull off, thanks to a warming planet.

 

“By the middle of the century, we will probably have around 10 to 12 countries to have a cold enough climate to host Olympic snow sports,” said Karl Stoss, chairman of the International Olympic Committee’s Future Host Commission, which decides which cities get the games.

By 2050, of the 93 cities deemed suitable to handle the logistics of holding both the Olympics and Paralympics, just four would be able to host the events without snow-making, according to a study published Wednesday. Those cities are Niseko, Japan; Terskol, Russia; and Val d’Isère and Courchevel in France.

“Climate change is altering the geography of where the Winter Olympics and Paralympics can be held,” said Daniel Scott, an author of the study in the journal Current Issues in Tourism and professor of geography and environmental management at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. “We see a shrinking and contraction of climate reliable locations.”

Athletes who compete in the Paralympics, which is held a few weeks later at the same location, are the most affected by a warming climate, according to the new study. That’s because warmer temperatures affect the snow surface and can create more difficult and potentially unsafe conditions for the four outdoor Paralympic events: downhill skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing and biathlon.

Since 1992, any city wanting to host the Winter Olympics must also bid to host the Paralympic Games. That schedule requires a longer window of cold temperatures, lasting from early February to mid-March

“Because there is a one-bid, one-city partnership, it basically means you are only as climate resilient as you are for the Paralympics,” Dr. Scott said.

A snow cannon fired artificial snow toward the site of Olympic snowboard and freestyle skiing events in Livigno, Italy, this month.Credit...Yara Nardi/Yara Nardi, via Reuters

 

 

Across the entire southern Alpine region, the average depth of winter snowfall has declined by more than 25 percent since 1980, according to a 2024 study of a century of snowfall records published in the International Journal of Climatology.

Lack of snow forced cancellation of seven of the first eight World Cup downhill skiing and snowboard competitions during the 2022-23 season, followed by 26 World Cup events in the 2023-24 season, according to the new study by Dr. Scott and colleagues.

Some coaches and athletes attribute higher crash and injury rates to warm temperatures and poor snow conditions at the 2014 Sochi Games in Russia. A 2022 survey of winter athletes and coaches from 20 countries found 90 percent worried that climate change was negatively affecting their sport.

Previous Winter Olympic venues such as Grenoble, France; Chamonix, France; Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany; and Sochi, Russia, would not be suitable as future host cities by 2050, according to a previous study by Dr. Scott. Projected snowfall would not be enough to make up for daily melting, and the finish line of the downhill ski run at each venue would not freeze overnight, making it unsafe, the study found.

A second group of previous host cities — Vancouver, Canada; Palisades Tahoe, Calif; Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina; and Oslo — would be “climatically risky.”

In their new findings, Dr. Scott and colleagues found that the 2030 winter games scheduled for several cities in the French Alps should have reliable conditions for both the Olympics and Paralympics. But for the following Games, scheduled for Salt Lake City, the risk of marginal snowfall and snow surface conditions is higher for the later Paralympics

The ski resorts of Park City and Deer Valley, Utah, which will host several events at the 2034 games, opened several weeks late last month and have experienced one of the worst early-season snowfalls in over 30 years. The entire Rocky Mountain region had its warmest year in 2025 since record-keeping began in 1895, while Utah eclipsed its 20th century average by 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Because of increasing global temperatures, I.O.C. officials are considering shifting events a month earlier, starting the Olympics in January and the Paralympics in February, according to Mr. Stoss.

Organizers are also discussing the possibility of having the two competitions at the same time in different locations to increase the likelihood of cold weather for all competitors.

Snow-making at ski resorts is common in North America, but has faced opposition by some environmental and conservation groups in Europe who say it drains local water supplies and can damage sensitive ecosystems.

As competitors and coaches prepare for the upcoming Olympics, the reality of warmer winters is beginning to sink in. Chris Hecker, a wax technician for the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team, said natural snow is becoming a rarity at elite races. His job is to wax the base of cross-country skis taking into account increasingly variable snow conditions.

“I always prefer artificial snow because it’s fast,” Mr. Hecker said. “That being said, natural snow always makes the surrounding scenes look a lot nicer when you’re skiing.”

Face to Face With the Thwaites Glacier. Less than a day after arriving at the ice, we are already up close and personal with the fastest-melting glacier in Antarctica.

The sun came out to greet the icebreaker Araon’s arrival at the site of scientific interest at the Thwaites Glacier on Thursday.CreditCredit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

 

 By Raymond Zhong

Reporting from the icebreaker Araon in the Amundsen Sea

  

Yesterday, we arrived at the Thwaites Glacier. This morning, we are surrounded by it.

The end of the glacier that sits on the ocean is formed of two long tongues of ice, with a narrow channel of water between them.

We sailed down this channel overnight and, by breakfast, made it to the end. Now we are enveloped on three sides in Thwaites’s icy embrace.

Sources: MarineTraffic; U.S. National Ice Center. By Mira Rojanasakul and William B. Davis/The New York Times
 

 The Araon’s captain, Kim Gwang-heon, was nervous about sailing here. Satellite imagery showed the passage strewed with sea ice. Once the ship started down the channel, the winds could have blown the ice in our direction, blocking our way back out. But Won Sang Lee, the expedition’s chief scientist, was determined to try.

 The end of the channel is as close as the ship can get to the spot on Thwaites where the scientists hope to drill through the ice later this month. Anchoring nearby would let the researchers fly their gear to the site with the fewest trips by helicopter between the ship and the glacier. That will help their complex, monthlong operation start as soon as possible. And so, thanks to Captain Kim’s expert sailing, we find ourselves close enough to the glacier’s immense face to have a staring contest.

 

The sun is warm. The sea is calm. Even the penguins are having a good morning. Small groups of them leaped and romped in the waters around the ship.

As far as Dr. Lee can tell, we might be the first humans to reach these waters. The seabed is unmapped by modern sonar, suggesting no other ship has sailed here. “The past four years it’s been almost covered by sea ice,” Dr. Lee said.

The lack of ice is a great help to research trips like this one, but it is also a sign of how quickly the Antarctic climate is shifting. The annual maximum sea ice cover around the continent has plumbed new lows in recent years.

 “It’s really changing rapidly, this region,” Dr. Lee said. “It’s really good for science, but not good for human beings.”

Surrounded by Thwaites ice. Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

 

 Raymond Zhong reports on climate and environmental issues for The Times.

O Mundo degelando, e os países preocupados com Terras raras. A 🌏 já é rara...

O Boeing 757 de Trump com seu filho, Donald Jr, chega à capital da Groenlândia, Nuuk, no começo de 2025 - Emil Stach/Ritzau Scanpix - 7.jan.2025/AFP

by  Igor Gielow

 

 

Entenda por que Trump quer a Groenlândia; veja infográfico

 

• Riquezas minerais, rotas comerciais e posição militar estratégica orientam investida de americano contra ilha da Dinamarca
• Aquisição já foi tentada por Washington, que tem uma base importante na ilha, e ação militar acabaria com a Otan

  

Obsessão antiga de Donald Trump retomada após a captura do ditador Nicolás Maduro em Caracas, a Groenlândia tem uma trinca de fatores principais a orientar a investida do presidente americano sobre o local, um território autônomo da Dinamarca.

O primeiro motivo são as riquezas minerais que teoricamente poderão ser acessadas com a aceleração do aquecimento global negado por Trump, que afeta cada vez mais a camada que no inverno chega a 3 km de gelo e cobre todo o interior da maior ilha não continental do planeta.

 

No papel, isso significa a possibilidade de extração de petróleo e gás, mas principalmente de minerais do subsolo groenlandês. Entre os elementos presentes se destacam as famosas terras raras, motivo de cobiça global e outra fixação de Trump —afinal, a sua rival China controla a maior parte das reservas globais.

Esses elementos são vitais para a indústria de alta tecnologia, com amplas aplicações militares. E em dois campos da Groenlândia há 66% das reservas não chinesas das chamadas terras raras pesadas, as mais importantes para essas aplicações.

Além disso, há os já citados hidrocarbonetos, lítio fundamental para baterias, grafite, níquel, cobre e minerais críticos. Tal exploração não é, contudo, garantida: cientistas alertam que o derretimento tornará o solo instável e propenso a desmoronamentos.

Já o gelo do mar, que retrocedeu em torno da ilha em 30% nos últimos 40 anos, leva à segunda razão econômica e geopolítica: o controle potencial de rotas marítimas em caso de conflito.

 

Passam perto da Groenlândia caminhos que o aquecimento abre mais a cada ano: em 2036, o oceano Ártico só deverá ser intransponível no inverno junto à costa nordeste da ilha, com o resto sendo aberto por quebra-gelos: só a Rússia tem uma frota de seis gigantes com propulsão nuclear.

Moscou há anos tem a iniciativa de usar as rotas, estabelecendo o contato entre São Petersburgo e a costa oeste da China. O Canadá, por sua vez, sempre lutou para operar uma rota semelhante de seu lado do polo Norte.

Já a Ponte Ártica, que ligaria rapidamente Rússia e EUA, por ora está morta por motivos políticos, enquanto a Rota Transpolar, por convenientes águas internacionais, ainda não é navegável de forma constante.

Por fim, mas não menos importante, há a questão estratégica. Desde o fim da Segunda Guerra Mundial, quando tentou comprar pela primeira vez a Groenlândia que ocupou de 1941 a 1945 para evitar que os nazistas que tomaram a Dinamarca chegassem perto dos EUA, Washington dá atenção especial ao local.

 

A mítica Base Aérea de Thule, hoje Base Espacial de Pituffik, no noroeste da ilha, sedia radares e controla satélites vitais para a proteção da América do Norte contra ataques nucleares. O Ártico, afinal, é o caminho mais curto entre silos terrestres russos e chineses e seus alvos nos EUA.

Hoje a instalação tem 150 militares e civis, alguns groenlandeses. No ano passado, sua comandante foi demitida após criticar a política americana para a região logo depois de uma visita do vice de Trump, J. D. Vance, ao local.

Por óbvio, Trump só fala nessa última questão para enfatizar a importância de controlar a ilha. Diz que ela está exposta a ataques de adversários, ignorando não só os 85% de locais que rejeitam mudar de governante. Ele também esquece da presença americana e do fato de que a Dinamarca, cujo reino é integrado pelo território de 57 mil pessoas, é parte da Otan.

A aliança militar do Ocidente foi criada pelos EUA em 1949 para conter a expansão soviética na Europa. Trump nunca escondeu seu desprezo pela entidade, que na gestão atual reagiu ao mesmo tempo elevando seus gastos militares e adulando o americano.

 

Derretimento do gelo na Groenlândia pode elevar em 25 cm o nível dos oceanos

                       

Hoje com 32 membros, alguns rivais entre si, a Otan nunca viu um de seus integrantes atacar diretamente o outro. Isso daria um curto-circuito no seu papel fulcral, o de defesa mútua em caso de agressão.

A Dinamarca, de todo modo, com seus 15,4 mil soldados, nada poderia fazer contra os 1,3 milhão de militares dos EUA, noves fora seus armamentos.

Na ilha, Copenhague até tenta mostrar serviço. Após as primeiras declarações de Trump no ano passado sobre sua vontade de ter o território, reforçou sua presença com 7 dos 12 barcos-patrulha que tem com uma fragata, além de anunciar o posicionamento de caças F-16 e helicópteros no local.

Na prática, claro, isso é insuficiente. Mas na hipótese de um ataque russo, os EUA e aliados europeus estariam ali do lado para intervir. Por isso a primeira-ministra dinamarquesa, Mette Frederiksen, não exagera ao dizer que uma ação contra a Groenlândia iria acabar com a Otan.

Hidrelétricas da Amazônia podem perder até 40% de força de geração nos próximos anos

 

Trecho de vazão reduzida do rio Xingu sofre com redução de água devido à barragem de Belo Monte, no Pará - Lalo de Almeida 20.set.22/Folhapress 

 

by  André Borges

 

 

 

Brasília

O protagonismo da geração hidrelétrica está em xeque. Grande parte das usinas da Amazônia poderá sofrer reduções drásticas em seu potencial de geração de energia elétrica, com perdas projetadas entre 30% e 40% nas próximas décadas, devido aos impactos das mudanças climáticas.

A conclusão faz parte de um novo estudo da ANA (Agência Nacional de Águas e Saneamento Básico) sobre as projeções climáticas para o regime de chuvas, vazões de rios e a segurança hídrica no Brasil nas próximas décadas. A redução projetada considera um horizonte de quatro décadas, até 2065.

Caso os investimentos em novos projetos continuem baseados apenas em dados históricos, especialistas alertam que o país pode ver uma onda de usinas incapazes de produzir a energia esperada, resultando em aumento de custo para o consumidor e dependência de termelétricas fósseis.

 

Segundo o relatório "Impacto da Mudança Climática nos Recursos Hídricos do Brasil", a queda na produção seria uma consequência de mudanças que podem ocorrer no padrão de fluxo natural das águas por causa do aquecimento global.

Ao observar o comportamento já verificado das vazões médias dos rios no período de 1950 a 2014, o documento projeta o desempenho no futuro próximo, até 2065, e para tempos mais distantes, num horizonte até 2100. O resultado aponta que a região Norte é a com maior risco de ser afetada.

Enquanto Sul, Sudeste e Centro-Oeste tendem a registrar diminuições de até 10% na geração hidrelétrica, a Amazônia pode enfrentar perdas maiores devido à redução de vazões, afetando usinas de grande porte já instaladas e os empreendimentos planejados para os próximos anos.

"Considerando que a geração de energia seja diretamente relacionada à vazão média afluente, as regiões Sul, Sudeste e Centro-Oeste mostram reduções de 0(zero)-10%, enquanto a região Norte apresenta as projeções mais pessimistas, com alterações de 30-40%", afirma o estudo.

 

"Dentre os empreendimentos existentes, os maiores impactos se concentram nas usinas com maior potência instalada, a maioria delas localizada na bacia Amazônica", continua o documento.

O estudo da Agência Nacional de Águas aponta que, se nada for ajustado, a expansão hidrelétrica brasileira corre o risco de ser planejada com base em um cenário climático que não existirá mais.

Nas últimas duas décadas, o país apostou na Amazônia como a última grande fronteira hídrica para ampliar sua capacidade hidrelétrica, com a construção de usinas como Belo Monte, no rio Xingu, e Santo Antônio e Jirau, no rio Madeira.

Ocorre que, segundo o documento, essas usinas foram projetadas levando em conta séries históricas de vazões que já não representam mais o padrão futuro dos rios. Com o prolongamento das estações secas e a antecipação da perda de umidade no solo, fenômenos já observados anualmente no Xingu e no sul do Amazonas, o ciclo de água na região está vivendo uma fase de mudança estrutural.

 

No rio Amazonas, houve um aumento na ocorrência de cheias e secas extremas nas últimas décadas. Se considerado o período dos últimos 125 anos, nota-se que, entre as dez maiores cheias ocorridas na região, sete se deram nos últimos 16 anos, a partir de 2009.

No caso das secas, entre os 10 menores níveis observados, 5 ocorreram nos últimos 28 anos. Em 2023 e 2024 a região registrou duas secas seguidas sem precedentes, com níveis de água muito abaixo do que já havia sido observado no passado.

A ANA sustenta que incorporar cenários climáticos futuros ao planejamento de longo prazo não é apenas uma recomendação técnica, mas uma necessidade para evitar perdas financeiras e insegurança energética.

O Brasil possui hoje 216 gigawatts de potência de energia elétrica, com mais de 24 mil usinas em operação comercial, segundo a Aneel (Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica). Metade dessa geração vem da força dos rios, com 50,5% atrelada a usinas hidrelétricas de todos os portes.

O estudo reforça que os efeitos não se limitam à geração elétrica. A redução de vazões também vai afetar a irrigação, o abastecimento urbano e a biodiversidade, caso o planejamento dessas áreas não passe a incorporar as projeções climáticas.

 

Os resultados indicam que as mudanças climáticas na hidrologia deverão mexer com a segurança hídrica em boa parte do Brasil, enquanto outras regiões devem sofrer com o aumento de enxurradas e alagamentos urbanos, como se viu no Rio Grande do Sul em 2024.

Do lado do poder público, a falta de recursos financeiros tem comprometido o enfrentamento do problema, afirma a ANA. "A sustentabilidade política das políticas hídricas e climáticas segue ameaçada por cortes orçamentários, descontinuidade institucional e ausência de uma política de Estado que una água e clima de forma duradoura", diz a agência no documento.

A ANA afirma que uma eventual mudança de postura "exige blindagem orçamentária, maior participação social e inovação normativa, de modo a reconhecer a incerteza como ponto de partida para garantir segurança hídrica em cenários climáticos cada vez mais instáveis".

‘Ghost resorts’: as hundreds of ski slopes lie abandoned, will nature reclaim the Alps? With the snow line edging higher, 186 French ski resorts have shut, while global heating threatens dozens more.

 

The skeletal remains of a once-busy ski lift in Céüze 2000, in France’s Hautes-Alpes department. The resort, which had welcomed skiers for 85 years, never reopened after March 2018 as smaller snowfalls in successive seasons made it unviable. Photograph: Thomas Valentin/The Guardian

 by Phoebe Weston in Céüze

When Céüze 2000 ski resort closed at the end of the season in 2018, the workers assumed they would be back the following winter. Maps of the pistes were left stacked beside a stapler; the staff rota pinned to the wall.

Six years on, a yellowing newspaper dated 8 March 2018 sits folded on its side, as if someone has just flicked through it during a quiet spell. A half-drunk bottle of water remains on the table.

The Céüze 2000 resort when snow was plentiful.

 

 

The Céüze resort in the southern French Alps had been open for 85 years and was one of the oldest in the country. Today, it is one of scores of ski resorts abandoned across France – part of a new landscape of “ghost stations”.

More than 186 have been permanently closed already, raising questions about how we leave mountains – among the last wild spaces in Europe – once the lifts stop running.

 

As global heating pushes the snow line higher across the Alps, thousands of structures are being left to rot – some of them breaking down and contaminating the surrounding earth, driving debate about what should happen to the remnants of old ways of life – and whether to let nature reclaim the mountains.

Snowfall at Céüze started becoming unreliable in the 1990s. To be financially viable, the resort needed to be open for at least three months. In that last winter, it only managed a month and a half. For the two years before that it had not been able to operate at all.

Opening the resort each season cost the local authority as much as €450,000 (£390,000). As the season got shorter, the numbers no longer added up. To avoid a spiral of debt, the decision was made to close.

The resort closed permanently during the 2020 winter due to a lack of snow. Photograph: Thomas Valentin/The Guardian

“It was costing us more to keep it open than to keep it closed for the season,” says Michel Ricou-Charles, president of the local Buëch‑Dévoluy community council, which oversees the site. Even under the most optimistic projections, the future looked bleak. “We looked into using artificial snow, but realised that would delay the inevitable,” he says.

It was seven years before the trucks and helicopters came in to begin removing the pylons. Still, the local community grieved for the small, family-oriented resort, which was host to generations of memories. As demolitions began, they came to take nuts, bolts and washers as mementoes of what they had lost.

Degrading wild terrain

In France, there are today 113 ski lifts totalling nearly 40 miles (63km) in length that have been abandoned, nearly three-quarters of them in protected areas. It is not just ski infrastructure. The Mountain Wilderness association estimates that there are more than 3,000 abandoned structures dotted around French mountains, slowly degrading Europe’s richest wild terrain. This includes military, industrial and forestry waste, such as old cables, bits of barbed wire, fencing and old machinery.

There are 113 abandoned ski lifts in France, nearly three-quarters of which are in protected areas. Photograph: Thomas Valentin/The Guardian

Céüze ski resort is fast becoming one of these pollutants. The little wooden cabin at the bottom of the first button lift is shedding insulation. Ropes once used to mark out the piste hang in tatters and bits of plastic are falling off a pylon. The old sheds at each end of the ski lifts often still contain transformers, asbestos, motor oils and greases. Over time, these substances seep into the soil and water.

Corrosion and rust from metal structures left over from the second world war, such as anti-tank rails and metal spikes, have led to changes in plant species in the surrounding area, potentially offering a vision of what could happen if pylons are left to rust over the coming decades.

 

“In Latin, we say memento mori – remember that you are mortal. Don’t think that you are making eternal things; they will end up becoming obsolete,” says Nicolas Masson, from Mountain Wilderness, which is campaigning for old ski infrastructure to be dismantled to make space for nature. “When you make them, ask yourself the question: what will remain?”

Some believe the resorts should remain memorialised landscapes, honouring generations of people who lived and skied here; others believe they should be returned to wild landscapes with their disintegrating machinery removed.

Ecologist Nicolas Masson is part of a campaign to dismantle old ski infrastructure. Photograph: Thomas Valentin/The Guardian

 

  

Nature’s recovery

Céüze’s deconstruction started on 4 November 2025, a month before the ski season would once have kicked off. The resort’s ski lifts were airlifted out using a helicopter to minimise environmental disturbance and compression of the earth.

French law requires ski lifts to be removed and dismantled if they are no longer in use. The law only applies to ski lifts built after 2017, however. Most last for 30 years, so no lifts would be considered obsolete until at least 2047. The process is also expensive: dismantling Céüze will cost €123,000. This means most abandoned ski infrastructure is left to disintegrate in situ. What is happening in Céüze is rare.

With pylons cleared and the resort already closed for seven years, early signs of ecological recovery are already visible. A red haze floats over the white snow: winter berries of the dog rose are sprouting where the piste is no longer mown.

Berries can be see on dog rose shrubs which are starting to flourish now the piste is no longer cleared for skiers. Photograph: Thomas Valentin/The Guardian

 

The berries are important winter food for birds such as the rare red-billed chough, and their thorny stems are used for nest-building come spring. In the summer, orchids and yellow gentians bloom over these hillsides. The hills surrounding the site are classed as Natura 2000, meaning they are home to Europe’s rarest and most protected wildlife.

The trees are coming back too. “I don’t know if it would take 10, 20 or 50 years, but this is becoming a forest,” says Masson.

 

Wild boar and roe deer living in these forests will benefit from quieter winters. Birds such as grouse shelter from severe cold in winter by digging into the snow, and prefer deep powdery snow – just like skiers. The species is endangered in all the mountain ranges of France.

The dismantling of Céüze comes at a time when many spaces for nature are shrinking. Pierre-Alexandre Métral, a geographer at the University of Grenoble Alpes, who studies abandoned ski resorts, says: “There is a lot of debate about the nature of this dismantling – is it just removing mechanical stuff, or are we attempting to put mountains back into a kind of original state?”

Ecological recovery can be filled with surprises, he says, noting that the maintenance of pistes can be beneficial to some alpine flowers. “If we let nature come back spontaneously – in a wild, uncontrolled way – there are also risks that some invasive species that tend to be stronger could colonise faster,” says Métral.

The hills around the former resort are home to some of Europe’s rarest and most protected wildlife. Photograph: Thomas Valentin/The Guardian

There is scant research in this area, but studies from the Valcotos ski resort closure in Madrid’s Sierra de Guadarrama in 1999 show it led to significant recovery of native vegetation and cleaner waterways, while reducing soil erosion.

“These are laboratories of what the mountain could be like in the future with new closures,” says Métral.

On the brink

The question of what to do with these places will play out across Europe’s mountains, and around the world. Skiing is disappearing from many alpine landscapes. “Many lower ones are already closed,” says Masson. “A fraction of a degree changes everything in the mountain environment. It’s the difference between having snow and no snow.”

 

Research suggests that with 2C (3.6F) of global heating, more than half of existing resorts risk having too little snow. Higher altitude resorts are vulnerable to the loss of permafrost, threatening pylons that have been drilled into it. Some resorts, such as St-Honoré 1500, were abandoned before construction was even completed. Even bigger resorts, which typically have funds to invest in new pistes and artificial snow, are struggling to survive.

For some, the loss of Céüze feels premature. Richard Klein,who lives in Roche des Arnauds, near Céüze, feels the ski resort could – and should – have been saved. “It’s a wonderful place to learn to ski – it’s the best. I think it’s really stupid they closed it,” he says. “There were always loads of people.” Klein believes the local authority should have begun using artificial snow, adding: “Now it’s too late.”

 

Yet life has not disappeared from Céüze. In October 2025, the resort’s Hotel Galliard is being sold to a developer looking to open it for events, according to Ricou-Charles. A property developer has bought the children’s holiday residence, and a carpenter has moved into the building where the old ticket office was. The rooms used as a holiday camp for children have cracks appearing down the side, but might open again in the future.

“Céüze will continue to live, despite the loss of the resort,” says Ricou-Charles. “We are not mourning Céüze because it is not dead.”

On winter weekends dozens of cars still gather in the car park, with people enjoying quieter activities on the hillside, such as walking, snow-shoeing, cross-country skiing and sledging.

A poster from the resort’s 80th anniversary celebrations. Photograph: Thomas Valentin/The Guardian

Masson does not like the term “ghost resort” because it suggests total abandonment when what is happening in his area is more complicated. “People continue to come,” he says. “We don’t need large machines to make mountains attractive.”

What happens at Céüze is a glimpse into a future that faces dozens of other small resorts, and mountain landscapes, across Europe. “What is our heritage that we will want to keep,” asks Masson. “And what is just a ruin we want to dismantle? That is a question we have to ask every time, and it requires some reflection.”

Glaciers to reach peak rate of extinction in the Alps in eight years

Alpinists train on the Mer de Glace in France. Like nearly all of Europe's glaciers, it is melting fast. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

by  Damian Carrington Environment editor

 Climate crisis forecast to wipe out thousands of glaciers a year globally, threatening water supplies and cultural heritage

 Glaciers in the European Alps are likely to reach their peak rate of extinction in only eight years, according to a study, with more than 100 due to melt away permanently by 2033. Glaciers in the western US and Canada are forecast to reach their peak year of loss less than a decade later, with more than 800 disappearing each year by then.

 

The melting of glaciers driven by human-caused global heating is one of the clearest signs of the climate crisis. Communities around the world have already held funeral ceremonies for lost glaciers, and a Global Glacier Casualty List records the names and histories of those that have vanished.

About 200,000 glaciers remain worldwide, with about 750 disappearing each year. However, the research indicates this pace will accelerate rapidly as emissions from burning fossil fuels continue to be released into the atmosphere.

Current climate action plans from governments are forecast to push global temperatures to about 2.7C above preindustrial levels, supercharging extreme weather. Under this scenario, glacier losses would peak at about 3,000 a year in 2040 and plateau at that rate until 2060. By the end of the century, 80% of today’s glaciers will have gone.

By contrast, rapid cuts to carbon emissions to keep global temperature rise to 1.5C would cap annual losses at about 2,000 a year in 2040, after which the rate would decline.

 

Glacier collapses, burying evacuated Swiss village in mud and rocks – video

 Previous studies have focused on the volume of ice lost, given its contribution to rising sea levels that threaten coastal towns and cities. Individual glaciers, however, are also important as water sources and tourist attractions for many communities, and often have spiritual significance for local people. This prompted the researchers to analyse the number of glaciers disappearing.

 

Matthias Huss, a senior scientist at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and a member of the study team, said: “As glaciologists, we do not only model the disappearance of glaciers globally, but we are very directly concerned with this loss of glaciers in our daily work.”

As the director of the Swiss glacier monitoring network, Huss recently declared four extinct, the latest in an estimated 1,000 lost in the country over the past three decades.

Huss also spoke at a funeral ceremony for the Pizol glacier in 2019. “More than 250 people climbed up to this glacier to say goodbye. It was very impressive.”

Such funerals have also taken place in Iceland, Nepal and elsewhere. “People climb up to these vanishing glaciers to say goodbye for themselves, but also to send out a strong signal to the public to tell them it matters to us.”

The Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere in New Zealand is experiencing substantial ice loss. Photograph: Jon Bower New Zealand/Alamy

Many glaciers hold spiritual significance, for example Māori culture regard them as ancestors. The Māori political leader Nā Lisa Tumahai visited the melting Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere in 2022 and told the Global Glacier Casualty List: “This mighty glacier, a presence once so physically commanding, is shrinking into oblivion. [It] has been subdued, humiliated by the actions of humans.

“To see this retreating giant is to understand impermanence, to understand the real and terrible results of industrialisation, of climate change.”

The new study, published in Nature Climate Change, analysed more than 200,000 glaciers from a database of outlines derived from satellite images. The researchers used three global glacier models to assess their fate under different heating scenarios.

Estudo aponta avanço da vegetação e do degelo na Antártica; cientista alerta para efeitos no Brasil. O Dia da Antártica é celebrado nesta segunda-feira (1º).

Área considerada livre de gelo na Antártica — Foto: MapBiomas-Antártica

Por Kellen Barreto

Pesquisa do MapBiomas diz que 107 mil hectares do continente estão sem gelo. Situação pode afetar agricultura na América do Sul. Dia da Antártica é celebrado nesta segunda.

Um estudo inédito do MapBiomas revela que 107 mil hectares da Antártica estão atualmente sem gelo, o equivalente a 1% do continente com presença de vegetação.

🧊O número pode parecer pequeno, mas é significativo em um continente, o mais isolado do planeta Terra, que historicamente permanece congelado.

O fenômeno tem intrigado pesquisadores. A Antártica – conhecida pelo gelo predominante em quase toda sua paisagem – está ficando mais verde.

🌿Musgos, liquens e algas estão ocupando áreas que antes permaneciam congeladas. E, segundo cientistas, isso é mais um sinal de que as mudanças climáticas estão avançando rapidamente.

🗺️O levantamento analisou imagens de satélite entre 2017 e 2025 e é o primeiro a detalhar, em escala continental, como essas áreas estão mudando. 

 

Para identificar zonas sem gelo e mapear a vegetação, além de dados de satélite Sentinel-2, a equipe utilizou algoritmos e um índice que detecta atividade de fotossíntese.

🔎O Dia da Antártica é celebrado nesta segunda-feira (1º), data em que é comemorado o 66º aniversário da assinatura do Tratado da Antártica.

Aquecimento global e o avanço da vegetação

Presença de vegetação no continente antártico tem avançado e preocupa especialistas — Foto: MapBioma-Antártica 

 

Segundo a cientista Eliana Fonseca, coordenadora do estudo, a expansão da vegetação está diretamente ligada ao aquecimento global.

“As temperaturas mais elevadas fazem com que o gelo e a neve derretam mais rapidamente, deixando maior disponibilidade de água líquida já no início do verão”, disse.

"Com o solo exposto por mais tempo, a vegetação se expande para áreas onde antes não conseguia se estabelecer", acrescentou Eliana.

Segundo a pesquisadora, embora este seja o primeiro mapeamento abrangente, estudos regionais já apontavam um “esverdeamento” na área, especialmente nas ilhas mais próximas à Península Antártica.

“Nas ilhas Shetland do Sul, estamos vendo mudanças rápidas e intensas por causa do aumento das temperaturas”, declarou Eliana. "Regiões que recebiam precipitação de neve agora registram cada vez mais chuva líquida", emendou a especialista.

A pesquisadora alerta que esse processo nas ilhas da Antártica deve se intensificar nos próximos anos, apesar do continente ser grande e homogêneo. Algo que já ocorre na Groenlândia, no hemisfério norte.

A vegetação nessas localidades inóspitas, com número mínimo de espécies de plantas, funciona como um termômetro ambiental, segundo a especialista.

"Quando vemos a vegetação aumentar, significa que as condições ambientais estão mudando – e rápido", afirmou Eliana.

Efeitos já são sentidos no hemisfério sul

As transformações da Antártica não ficam restritas ao continente. O lugar é um "regulador climático global" e impacta principalmente o hemisfério sul.

“As diferenças de temperatura entre a Antártica e as regiões próximas movem energia da Linha do Equador para os polos. Esses fluxos geram as frentes frias que regulam temperaturas e padrões de chuva em boa parte do hemisfério sul", afirmou Eliana Fonsca.

 

Segundo a pesquisadora, isso se reflete na frequência menor de frentes frias no Brasil e na América do Sul, o que afeta os regimes de chuva e a agricultura.

O derretimento do gelo marinho e as águas menos frias no Oceano Austral também influenciam a cadeia alimentar da região. A base da alimentação de baleias, por exemplo, depende de água fria e da presença de gelo.

“Já temos relatos da diminuição da produção de krill [um crustáceo consumido por baleias]”, alerta a pesquisadora do MapBiomas.

Por que mapear a Antártica é tão difícil?

Aquecimento global tem relação com degelo na Antártica, segundo pesquisadora — Foto: MapBiomas-Antártica

 

A Antártica ainda é um desafio à capacidade dos satélites. O fenômeno do sol da meia-noite – quando o sol permanece visível por 24 horas no verão – cria sombras longas que dificultam a análise das imagens.

Por décadas, muitos mapas eram feitos manualmente, com pesquisadores, literalmente, desenhando onde a vegetação aparecia.

O novo levantamento do MapBiomas só foi possível graças a técnicas mais precisas de georreferenciamento e o avanço da computação em nuvem.

Continente dedicado à ciência

Com 1,366 bilhão de hectares, o continente antártico é regido pelo Tratado da Antártica, assinado em 1959, do qual fazem parte 58 países.

O acordo estabelece o continente e o Oceano Austral como uma área voltada à ciência, à cooperação internacional e à preservação ambiental.