Latest news with #cyclone
Al Jazeera
22-07-2025
- General
- Al Jazeera
Photos: World court set to hear Vanuatu's case on climate obligations
When John Warmington first began diving the reefs outside his home in Vanuatu's Havannah Harbour 10 years ago, the coral rose like a sunken forest – tall stands of staghorns branched into yellow antlers, plate corals layered like canopies, and clouds of darting fish wove through the labyrinth. 'We used to know every inch of that reef,' he said. 'It was like a friend.' Now, it is unrecognisable. After Cyclone Pam battered the reef in 2015, sediment from inland rivers smothered the coral beds. Crown-of-thorns starfish swept in and devoured the recovering polyps. Back-to-back cyclones in 2023 crushed what remained. Then, in December 2024, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake shook the seabed. What remains is a coral graveyard – bleached rubble scattered across the seabed, habitats collapsed, and life vanished. 'We have come out of the water in tears,' said Warmington, who has logged thousands of dives on this single reef. 'We just see heartbreak.' A sea turtle nibbles on what remains of the once vibrant reef at Havannah Harbour, off the coast of Efate Island, Vanuatu [Annika Hammerschlag/AP Photo] That heartbreak is becoming more common across this Pacific island nation, where intensifying cyclones, rising seas, and saltwater intrusion are reshaping coastlines and threatening daily life. Since 1993, sea levels around Vanuatu's shores have risen by about 6mm (0.24in) per year – significantly faster than the global average – and in some areas, tectonic activity has doubled that rate. On Wednesday, Vanuatu will have its day in the world's highest court. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will issue an advisory opinion on what legal obligations nations have to address climate change, and what consequences they may face if they do not. The case, led by Vanuatu and backed by more than 130 countries, is seen as a potential turning point in international climate law. The opinion will not be legally binding, but could help shape future efforts to hold major emitters accountable, and secure the funding and action small island nations need to adapt or survive. It comes after decades of frustration for Pacific nations that have watched their homelands disappear. In Tuvalu, where the average elevation is just two metres (6.6ft), more than a third of the population has applied for a climate migration visa to Australia. By 2100, much of the country is projected to be under water at high tide. In Nauru, the government has begun selling passports to wealthy foreigners – offering visa-free access to dozens of countries – in a bid to generate revenue for possible relocation efforts. Vanuatu has already sought opinions from other international courts, and is pushing for the recognition of ecocide – the destruction of the environment – as a crime under the International Criminal Court. Not all of these effects can be attributed solely to climate change, said Christina Shaw, chief executive of the Vanuatu Environmental Science Society. Coastal development, tectonic subsidence, volcanic eruptions, deforestation, and pollution are also contributing to ecosystem decline. Children play on Pele Island [Annika Hammerschlag/AP Photo] 'Vanuatu's environment is quite fragile by its very nature in that it is young with narrow reefs, has small amounts of topsoil, and is impacted regularly by natural disasters,' she said. 'But we do have to think about the other human impacts on our environment as well.' The damage is not limited to homes, gardens, and reefs – it is reaching into places once thought to be untouchable. On the island of Pele, village chief Amos Kalsont sits at his brother's grave as waves lap against broken headstones half-buried in sand. At high tide, both his brother's and father's graves sit just a few arm's lengths from the sea. Some homes and gardens have already been moved inland, and saltwater intrusion has tainted the community's primary drinking water source. Now, the community is considering relocating the entire village – but that would mean leaving the land their grandparents cleared by hand. Many in Vanuatu remain committed to building something stronger and hope the rest of the world will support them. Back in Havannah Harbour, John Warmington still dives the reef he considers part of his family. While much of it has gone, he and his wife Sandy have begun replanting coral fragments in the hope of restoring what remains.
The Independent
22-07-2025
- General
- The Independent
From dying reefs to flooded graves, Vanuatu is leading a global climate case
When John Warmington first began diving the reefs outside his home in Vanuatu's Havannah Harbor a decade ago, the coral rose like a sunken forest — tall stands of staghorns branched into yellow antlers, plate corals layered like canopies, and clouds of darting fish wove through the labyrinth. 'We used to know every inch of that reef,' he said. 'It was like a friend.' Now, it's unrecognizable. After Cyclone Pam battered the reef in 2015, sediment from inland rivers smothered the coral beds. Crown-of-thorns starfish swept in and devoured the recovering polyps. Back-to-back cyclones in 2023 crushed what was left. Then, in December 2024, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake shook the seabed. What remains is a coral graveyard — bleached rubble scattered across the seafloor, habitats collapsed, life vanished. 'We've come out of the water in tears,' said Warmington, who has logged thousands of dives on this single reef. 'We just see heartbreak.' That heartbreak is becoming more common across this Pacific island nation, where intensifying cyclones, rising seas and saltwater intrusion are reshaping coastlines and threatening daily life. Since 1993, sea levels around Vanuatu's shores have risen by about 6 millimeters (.24 inches) per year — significantly faster than the global average — and in some areas, tectonic activity has doubled that rate. International court to opine on nations' obligations to address climate change On Wednesday, Vanuatu will get its day in the world's highest court. The International Court of Justice will issue an advisory opinion on what legal obligations nations have to address climate change and what consequences they may face if they don't. The case, led by Vanuatu and backed by more than 130 countries, is seen as a potential turning point in international climate law. 'Seeing large, polluting countries just continue business as usual and not take the climate crisis seriously can get really sad and disappointing,' said 16-year-old climate activist Vepaiamele Trief. 'If they rule in our favor, that could change everything.' The opinion won't be legally binding, but could help shape future efforts to hold major emitters accountable and secure the funding and action small island nations need to adapt or survive. It comes after decades of frustration for Pacific nations who've watched their homelands disappear. In Tuvalu, where the average elevation is just 2 meters (6.6 feet), more than a third of the population has applied for a climate migration visa to Australia. By 2100, much of the country is projected to be under water at high tide. In Nauru, the government has begun selling passports to wealthy foreigners — offering visa-free access to dozens of countries — in a bid to generate revenue for possible relocation efforts. 'The agreements being made at an international level between states are not moving fast enough,' said Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu's minister for climate change. 'They're definitely not being met according to what the science tells us needs to happen.' Vanuatu has already sought opinions from other international courts and is pushing for the recognition of ecocide — the destruction of the environment — as a crime under the International Criminal Court. 'We have to keep fighting till the last bit,' Regenvanu said. How climate change is decimating Vanuatu For children in Vanuatu, climate change isn't a theory — it's a classroom, or the lack of one. At Sainte Jeanne D'Arc school on Efate Island, elementary school teacher Noellina Tavi has spent two of the last three years teaching her students in tents — first after the 2023 cyclones and again following the 2025 earthquake. With a shortage of emergency tents, her class was combined with another. Students fidget and lose focus. 'It's too crowded,' Tavi said. 'We can't work peacefully.' When it rains, the tents turn cold and muddy. Tavi often sends students home so they don't get sick. Anytime a storm approaches, the tents must be dismantled, the furniture carried to shelter and the children sent home. 'That disrupts their education for a whole week,' she said. In rural areas, extreme weather hits something even more basic: food security. On Nguna Island, farmer Kaltang Laban has watched cyclones wipe out the banana, cassava and taro crops that feed his community. 'After a cyclone, we would have nothing for months,' he said. Now, with support from Save the Children, Laban and other farmers are storing preserved fruits and vegetables in a facility beside their gardens. 'But not every community has this,' he said. More than 70% of Vanuatu's population lives in rural areas and depends on small-scale farming. In 2025, USAID cut funding for a rainwater harvesting initiative designed to improve water access at cyclone evacuation centers in one of the country's most remote, drought-prone provinces, said Vomboe Shem, climate lead for Save the Children Vanuatu. The materials had already been shipped and distributed, but the project was halted. 'These disasters are happening over and over again,' Shem said. 'It's pushing our communities to their limits.' Not all of these impacts can be pinned solely on climate change, said Christina Shaw, CEO of the Vanuatu Environmental Science Society. Coastal development, tectonic sinking, volcanic eruptions, deforestation and pollution are also contributing to ecosystem decline. 'Vanuatu's environment is quite fragile by its inherent nature in that it's young with narrow reefs, has small amounts of topsoil and is insulted regularly by natural disasters,' she said. 'But we do have to think about the other human impacts on our environment as well.' The damage isn't limited to homes, gardens and reefs — it's reaching into places once thought to be untouchable. On the island of Pele, village chief Amos Kalsont sits at his brother's grave as waves lap against broken headstones half-buried in sand. At high tide, both his brother's and father's graves sit just a few arm's lengths from the sea. Some homes and gardens have already been moved inland, and saltwater intrusion has tainted the community's primary drinking water source. Now, the community is considering relocating the entire village — but that would mean leaving the land their grandparents cleared by hand. 'The sea is catching up and we don't know what else to do,' Kalsont said. 'It's not fair that we have to face the consequences when we didn't contribute to this in the first place.' Many in Vanuatu remain committed to building something stronger and hope the rest of the world will support them. 'This is our future, and it's particularly our children's future, our grandchildren's future,' said Regenvanu. 'We just have to keep pushing for the best one we can.' Back in Havannah Harbor, John Warmington still dives the reef he considers part of his family. While much of it is gone, he and his wife Sandy have begun replanting coral fragments in hopes of restoring what's left. 'Our friend is still here,' he said. ' Life is coming back.' ___ Follow Annika Hammerschlag on Instagram @ahammergram. ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
Scoop
20-07-2025
- Climate
- Scoop
Hawke's Bay Shares Cyclone Silt, Slash Lessons With Flood-hit Tasman
The head of the silt removal programme after Cyclone Gabrielle is drawing 'eerie' similarities with Nelson Tasman floods. The head of the $228 million silt removal programme after Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawke's Bay is drawing 'eerie' similarities with Nelson Tasman region, as the flood-hit areas look ahead to their own recovery. Communities across the top of the South Island were facing millions of dollars worth of damage to roading infrastructure, farmland and properties, following the two recent floods that struck the area within a two week period, from late June. Riverside properties in Tasman were grappling with woody debris, silt and waste strewn across their properties. Cyclone Gabrielle smashed Aotearoa in February 2023 with a force of heavy rain which caused flooding damaging infrastructure, properties and land on the North Island's East Coast. Twelve people died during the natural disaster. Large amounts of silt, forestry slash and waste were swept across the whenua, prompting councils across Hawke's Bay to set up an immediate regional taskforce to deal with the material. Taskforce lead Darren de Klerk said watching the news, there were similar scenes in Tasman as there were in Hawke's Bay and Tairāwhiti following the cyclone. 'It's quite an eerie similarity, I think when you look at some of the woody debris and some of the silt and mixed product that we had to deal with,' he said. 'Obviously, productive land is another similarity in the fact that a lot of the highly productive horticulture and viticulture land has been infected.' De Klerk said after an emergency, the early stages of recovery were usually shrouded in uncertainty. 'In the early days, anyone dealing with this will find it quite overwhelming,' he said. 'Firstly, it's just understanding the level of involvement that either Civil Defence or the council has in this recovery.' De Klerk said it broke Hawke's Bay up into six zones, triaged properties by severity, and then mapped out sorting and disposal sites, in efforts to 'chomp the elephant' one bit at a time. Since its beginning, the team moved more than 2.5 million cubic metres of silt across more than 1100 properties, returning around 7000 hectares of land to productivity. It cleared one million cubic metres of woody debris across the coastline and rivers, and sorted through 12,500 broken orchard and vineyard posts. He said in Hawke's Bay, councils had to 'take a leap' to support their communities, before the first round of government funding was announced several months after the event, in May 2023. 'Essentially, you don't have a rule book,' he said. 'From a community point of view, I can guarantee you the people behind the scenes are working as absolutely as hard as they possibly can to find solutions.' He said it was working with Tasman officials to share insights and avoid 're-inventing the wheel'. 'One of the biggest probably learning is just how you manage your contractor army,' de Klerk said. 'Having a standby list of contractors available, so you're not having to work through the procurement and contracting of suppliers in the heat of the recovery phase. 'My thoughts are with them and they'll be trying their absolute best.' De Klerk said the work must be methodical, and open communication with locals was vital. He was now working for the Hastings District Council on its ongoing water and roading infrastructure cyclone recovery.
NZ Herald
19-07-2025
- General
- NZ Herald
Pōrangahau's Birch Hill Station: ‘Amy's Forest' protected by QEII covenant and fencing
A chance visit to Birch Hill Station, by Mark Mitchell from Hawke's Bay Regional Council, led him to discover a block of bush that he believed needed to be preserved. Collaborating with QEII National Trust and the regional council, Ben and Libby started to get the project under way. Ben said that after three wet summers and a cyclone, the deer fencing around the 24ha native forest block had now been completed. He said the 2m-high fence will keep out wild deer and allow the forest to regenerate in the coming years. 'Systematic predator control has been carried out to reduce the numbers of rats, possums and other predators, like cats, stoats and ferrets. 'This will allow the native birdlife to flourish.' Fletcher Tosswill (left), Libby Tosswill, with arms around Jack Tosswill, team member Max Lyver and Alex Tosswill at Birch Hill Station. Photo / Ben Tosswill Predator control will need to be ongoing, but Ben said the aim was for Amy's Forest to become an island sanctuary where birds and other fauna could proliferate and spread to other areas. Peka peka (New Zealand short-tailed bat) have also been found to use Amy's Forest as a roost. Eventually, Ben and Libby aim to create a walking track in this native block, so it can be made available for visitors to appreciate how precious our native bush is. Birch Hill Station in Pōrangahau, Central Hawkes Bay, is home to Amy's Forest. Photo / Ben Tosswill Eradicating the remaining wild deer that were inside the fence after it was completed has been a major job. Professional hunters with specially trained hunting dogs, drones with thermal cameras and game cameras were employed for this task. It took a month to complete before it was 100% certain there were no more deer left. Amy's Forest has been protected in perpetuity by a QEII National Trust covenant, meaning it will always remain in its natural state. Photo / Ben Tosswill Wild red deer (an introduced species) are prolific in Central Hawke's Bay and throughout New Zealand, posing a major threat to native forests as they browse seedlings and prevent regeneration. Amy's Forest has been protected in perpetuity by a QEII National Trust covenant, meaning it will always remain in its natural state. Ben and Libby are advocates for enriching the land and, in turn, enriching people. Significant work has gone into protecting waterways and wetlands on their farm, and they also run a glamping site that enables visitors to enjoy a taste of country life and appreciate how farmers care for the environment and their stock. 'Amy's Forest is a special place for our family, and, in Amy's memory, it will be enjoyed by generations to come,' Ben said.
Daily Mail
15-07-2025
- Climate
- Daily Mail
Odds increase for tropical storm forming off the Florida coast
The odds of a major rainstorm turning into a cyclone off the Florida coast have just quadrupled, hurricane forecasters warned Tuesday. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) updated its outlook for the system, raising the chances of cyclone formation from 10 percent to 40 percent in the next 48 hours. The weather service added that potentially devastating storm surges of up to three feet could be seen in New Orleans by Wednesday night. 'Regardless of classification, the storm will bring heavy rainfall and flash flooding to Louisiana and the central Gulf Coast,' the AccuWeather team wrote in an urgent alert Tuesday morning.
