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America’s Flooding Problem
North Carolina farms face depleted, toxic soil after historic Helene flooding
In the mountainous area near Asheville, affected growers must now replenish water-logged and often tainted land
Hurricane Helene took much from western North Carolina where I live, farm and raise my family. The stories are harrowing: houses obliterated by landslides, whole families washed away, corpses revealed as the waters receded.
Suddenly, there’s deep climate trauma here, in a place where we mistakenly thought hurricanes happened to Floridians and coastal communities, not us. Helene stole our sense of security: we now side-eye trees, which crushed homes, power lines, cars and people. And the rain, the farmer’s frequent wish, turned our rivers maniacal.
Continue reading...Miliband faces crunch decision on speed of greenhouse gas cuts
Energy secretary prepares new pledge for big UK carbon cuts in next decade amid potential cabinet division
Ed Miliband is facing his first key test on Labour’s ambitions for global climate leadership, with a crucial decision looming on how far and how fast to cut the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The energy secretary is preparing a new international pledge for the UK to cut carbon sharply in the next decade, but could face opposition within the cabinet.
Continue reading...Meteorologists could be climate change heroes by relaying its urgency to the public
Weathercasters are positioned to help viewers connect short-term extreme events – like hurricanes – with the climate crisis
Some have called Hurricanes Helene and Milton an October surprise. Yet such disasters are now dispiritingly predictable. In their wake, pundits have asked whether and how the storms – which happened to hit some key swing states – could impact a presidential election shaping up to be decided by razor-thin margins.
There’s practical concerns, like whether some affected voters will physically be able to cast their ballots. And then there’s a political question: Will the fact that the climate crisis, which is exacerbated these hurricanes, raise the importance of that issue? Or will that be counterbalanced by those who have become convinced the government engineered these disasters to suppress electoral power?
Continue reading...Russia’s Warming Arctic Is a Climate Threat. War Has Shut Scientists Out of It.
The Quest to Save Koshihikari Rice From the Effects of Climate Change
A Radical Approach to Flooding in the UK: Give Land Back to the Sea
En Colombia, la protección internacional de la biodiversidad está en el foco
A Major Push to Protect Nature Is Happening Now
From drones to genomics, science can help fight extinction: that work must begin at Cop16 | Angela McLean
As nations meet in Colombia to confront species and ecosystem loss, the onus is on the global north to put science and collaboration at the heart of the issue
- Angela McLean is chief scientific adviser to the UK government
Biodiversity, the incredible variety of life on Earth, is the backbone of the ecosystems that allow life on this planet to flourish. From the rich soil that nurtures our food and stores our carbon, to the green spaces that improve our mental health, biodiversity is an unsung hero upon which our societies and economies thrive.
Despite the clear benefits of – and moral arguments for – protecting nature, human activities are accelerating biodiversity loss at unprecedented rates. We are destroying habitats, overexploiting natural resources and introducing invasive species, which put plant and animal species at risk of extinction. Human-induced climate change is intensifying biodiversity loss and altering ecosystems, reducing their ability to provide natural climate solutions. Right now, in South America, devastating drought and fires – exacerbated by climate change – are destroying millions of acres of forest habitats.
Continue reading...Smoke pollution from wildfires may be killing an extra 12,000 people a year, new research suggests
Global heating particularly increasing risk of death from smoke inhalation in Australia, South America, Europe and parts of Asia
Global heating is causing more of the planet to be burned from wildfires and probably killing an extra 12,000 people a year from breathing in smoke, according to new research.
Global heating was particularly increasing the risk of death from wildfire smoke in Australia, South America, Europe and the boreal forests of Asia, one modelling study found.
Continue reading...Scientists Are Mapping Landslide Risk in Alaska. Some Homeowners Don’t Want to Know.
Why the Oil and Gas Industry Is So Afraid of Kamala Harris
‘I’m not voting for either’: fracking’s return stirs fury in Pennsylvania town whose water turned toxic
The small town of Dimock saw its water become brown, undrinkable, even flammable – and its residents are still feeling the effects
Fracking has burst back on to the national stage in the US presidential election contest for the must-win swing state of Pennsylvania. But for one town in this state that saw its water become mud-brown, undrinkable and even flammable 15 years ago, the specter of fracking never went away.
Residents in Dimock, a rural town of around 1,200 people in north-east Pennsylvania, have been locked in a lengthy battle to remediate their water supply that was ruined in 2009 after the drilling of dozens of wells to access a hotspot called the “Saudi Arabia of gas” found deep underneath their homes.
Continue reading...Humanity is on the verge of ‘shattering Earth’s natural limits’, say experts in biodiversity warning
As the Cop16 conference begins, scientists and academics say human activity has pushed the world into a danger zone
Humanity is “on the precipice” of shattering Earth’s limits, and will suffer huge costs if we fail to act on biodiversity loss, experts warn. This week, world leaders meet in Cali, Colombia, for the Cop16 UN biodiversity conference to discuss action on the global crisis. As they prepare for negotiations, scientists and experts around the world have warned that the stakes are high, and there is “no time to waste”.
“We are already locked in for significant damage, and we’re heading in a direction that will see more,” says Tom Oliver, professor of applied ecology at the University of Reading. “I really worry that negative changes could be very rapid.”
Continue reading...Degrowth has an image problem it desperately needs to overcome | Larry Elliott
We need to deal with the climate effects of global capitalism the way we deal with inflation – by applying the brakes
The impact of the climate crisis is evident everywhere. Finance ministers meet in Washington DC this week for the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund in the wake of two devastating hurricanes in the US within a month. Parts of the Sahara have been flooded for the first time in half a century.
Scientists attribute the growing number of extreme weather events to a planet that continues to get hotter as the result of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases linked to human activity. Global temperature records are being broken with every year that passes and the idea that this can continue indefinitely is a fantasy.
Continue reading...Cop16: Colombia prepares to host ‘decisive’ summit on biodiversity
Experts say UN event will be critical for world’s declining wildlife population as host nation pushes for inclusivity
World leaders, environmental activists and prominent researchers have begun to arrive in Cali, Colombia, for a biodiversity summit that experts say will be decisive for the fate of the world’s rapidly declining wildlife populations.
The host nation is also hoping that the summit, which formally opens on Sunday evening, will be the most inclusive in history.
Continue reading...UK facing calls at Commonwealth summit to pay billons for role in climate crisis
Slavery also on agenda at meeting of government heads, which King Charles will attend for first time as monarch
Britain faces growing calls at this week’s Commonwealth summit to pay billions of pounds in reparations to poorer countries for causing climate change as well as slavery.
The leaders of some of the nations at most risk from the effects of climate change plan to use the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa to lobby for reparative justice from the UK and other wealthy countries that are among the biggest polluters.
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