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Climate crisis deepens with 2024 ‘certain’ to be hottest year on record
Average global temperature in November was 1.62C above preindustrial levels, bringing average for the year to 1.60C
This year is now almost certain to be the hottest year on record, data shows. It will also be the first to have an average temperature of more than 1.5C above preindustrial levels, marking a further escalation of the climate crisis.
Data for November from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) found the average global surface temperature for the month was 1.62C above the level before the mass burning of fossil fuels drove up global heating. With data for 11 months of 2024 now available, scientists said the average for the year is expected to be 1.60C, exceeding the record set in 2023 of 1.48C.
Continue reading...Climate Activists Need to Radically Change Their Approach Under Trump
Female footballers have shown us how – let’s build a sport free of fossil fuel deals | David Wheeler
Male players must step up and add their voice to the campaign to stop our sport being sold out to the big polluters causing climate change
At the Cop29 climate conference last month Sofie Junge Pedersen and Katie Rood again called for Fifa to drop its sponsorship deal with the Saudi Arabian state oil company Aramco. They were among more than 130 female players who signed an open letter in October that described the partnership as a “middle finger to women’s football” that will do real damage to people and our planet.
After the letter was published, I spoke out in support of their initiative. I hoped other professional male players would join me. The women were widely applauded for speaking out but their male counterparts have not followed suit. On Wednesday, Fifa is poised to confirm Saudi Arabia as the host of the 2034 men’s World Cup.
Continue reading...How A Princeton Professor’s Home Renovation Project Is Fighting Climate Change
Fannie and Freddie, the Big Mortgage Backers, Face Climate Risks
Athens Revives Hadrian’s Aqueduct to Help With Water Crunch
En México, las olas de calor matan incluso a los adultos jóvenes
The week around the world in 20 pictures
Syrian insurgents take Aleppo, protests in Georgia, martial law in Seoul and the reopening of Notre Dame in Paris: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists
Continue reading...In Mexico, Heat Waves Are Even Killing Younger Adults
Younger people at greater risk of heat-related deaths this century – study
New research estimates a 32% increase in deaths of people under 35 if greenhouse gases not radically cut
Extreme heat fueled by the climate crisis is often viewed as primarily a problem for vulnerable segments of the population, such as elderly people. But it is people aged under 35 that are set to suffer the brunt of heat-related deaths as temperatures climb, new research has suggested.
While older people are susceptible to heatwaves, they currently make up the bulk of cold-related deaths. As the world heats up, it will be younger people that will suffer disproportionately as the mortality burden shifts, with the new study estimating a 32% increase in deaths of people under 35 years old this century from heat if greenhouse gases emissions aren’t radically cut.
Continue reading...Canada Moves to Protect Arctic From Threats by Russia and China
A $400 Billion Clean Energy Program Is Racing to Get Money Out the Door
The 2024 Nature Conservancy Oceania Photo Contest winners – in pictures
Here are some of the standout images from the 2024 Nature Conservancy Oceania Photo Contest.
The 2024 contest saw close to 2,000 entries from photographers in Australia, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea
Continue reading...Call for greener planning rules after M&S London redevelopment given go-ahead
Campaigners want rethink of national policy because of ‘wasteful knock-it-down-and-start-again approach’
Campaigners are calling for planning rules to consider the environmental implications of knocking down buildings after a controversial redevelopment of Marks & Spencer’s historic store on London’s Oxford Street was given the green light by the government.
Save Britain’s Heritage said national policy should consider the embedded carbon linked to a site when considering its future and prioritise reuse of historic buildings amid the climate crisis alongside issues such as preserving important architecture.
Continue reading...Despite 2024’s ‘greenlash’, the fight against climate breakdown can still be won. Here’s how
The overwhelming majority of Europeans support climate action, but they must be compensated for its costs in tangible ways
This year was not an easy time to be Green. Green parties took a beating in June’s European elections, with their seat count plummeting from 71 to 53. In national elections they haven’t fared much better. The Green party was nearly wiped out in last week’s general election in Ireland, losing all but one of its seats after having been part of a coalition government.
At the same time, climate-sceptic parties framing environmental policies as elitist and unfair have surged across the continent. In Germany, for instance, the far-right AfD owes some of its electoral success to its rallying cry against an emerging “eco-dictatorship”.
Björn Bremer is an assistant professor of political science at Central European University and a John F Kennedy Memorial fellow at Harvard University. Jane Gingrich is a professor of social policy at the University of Oxford. Hanna Schwander is a professor of political sociology and social policy at the Humboldt University of Berlin. They are all co-conveners of the Progressive Politics Research Network, whose findings are published here
Continue reading...What is the real toll of natural and climate disasters? Science has staggering new answers | Devi Sridhar
New research challenges us to look beyond the event to the devastating long-term impacts. Governments must take note
The devastation of hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis or tornadoes is often conveyed by how many people have been injured or killed. And based on this, we assess “how bad was it really?” For example, the recent hurricane season in the Atlantic has cost nearly 300 lives in the US and the Caribbean, with Helene killing at least 228 people. These deaths are usually due to flooding of houses and resultant drownings, injuries caused by the destruction of buildings or loss of emergency medical care.
But new research challenges us to see these disasters as broader events that have lasting effects for decades after they hit – whether from stress, financial hardship, pollution or long-term disease. A new paper in Nature magazine develops a methodology to estimate the overall effect of individual tropical cyclones (ie hurricanes and tropical storms) on all causes of mortality across all populations within the US. The authors analysed how mortality rates within a state changed for 20 years after the state was hit by a natural disaster, and took mortality data from 1950 to 2015 to form a longer-term picture.
Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh
Continue reading...What Know About a Landmark Court Case
Canada man who ‘leapt on’ polar bear that attacked wife recovers in hospital
Couple discovered animal in their driveway in northern Ontario, where climate crisis can change bear behaviour
A man who “leapt on” a polar bear to protect his wife in a northern First Nations community in Canada is expected to fully recover from the severe injuries he sustained in the attack.
But experts caution that changing environmental conditions will lead to a shift in where and when polar bears are spotted, increasing the risk of surprise encounters.
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