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Category: Climate Change

Humans are killing helpful insects in hundreds of ways − simple steps can reduce the harm

Humans are killing helpful insects in hundreds of ways − simple steps can reduce the harm

Dragonflies, just like bees and butterflies, face threats that humans can help prevent. Christopher Halsch By Christopher Halsch, Binghamton University, State University of New York and Eliza Grames, Binghamton University, State University of New York Insects are all around us – an ant on the sidewalk, a bee buzzing by, a butterfly floating on the breeze – and they shape the world we experience. They pollinate flowering plants, decompose waste, control pests, and are critical links in food chains. Despite…

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David Attenborough: ‘If we save the ocean, we save ourselves’

David Attenborough: ‘If we save the ocean, we save ourselves’

  Oceanographic reports: “After almost 100 years on the planet, I now understand the most important place on Earth is not on land, but at sea,” says Sir David Attenborough, a man who – having spent his working life documenting the world of natural history – is about to launch what he has called “one of the most important films of his career” on the eve of entering his one hundredth year. Perhaps for the first time in those 100…

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Von der Leyen and Macron launch effort to make Europe a ‘safe haven’ for science

Von der Leyen and Macron launch effort to make Europe a ‘safe haven’ for science

Politico reports: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday slammed U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign against American higher education as she unveiled a half-billion-euro plan to attract foreign researchers. “The role of science in today’s world is questioned. The investment in fundamental, free and open research is questioned. What a gigantic miscalculation,” von der Leyen said. “Science has no passport, no gender, no ethnicity or political party.” Appearing alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at Paris’ storied Sorbonne University…

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Bees, fish and plants show how climate change’s accelerating pace is disrupting nature in two key ways

Bees, fish and plants show how climate change’s accelerating pace is disrupting nature in two key ways

A bee enjoys lunch on a flower in Hillsboro, Ore. HIllsboro Parks & Rec, CC BY-NC-ND By Courtney McGinnis, Quinnipiac University The problem with climate change isn’t just the temperature – it’s also how fast the climate is changing today. Historically, Earth’s climate changes have generally happened over thousands to millions of years. Today, global temperatures are increasing by about 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit (0.2 degrees Celsius) per decade. Imagine a car speeding up. Over time, human activities such as burning…

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Tree-ring records suggest that drought played a role in Roman Britain’s decline

Tree-ring records suggest that drought played a role in Roman Britain’s decline

Molly Glick writes: Roman Britain collapsed into chaos in the spring of 367 A.D.—the rival Picts attacked by land and sea, while the Scotti barged in from the west and Saxons from the south. Anarchy ensued in an event that’s now known as the Barbarian Conspiracy: The invaders captured and murdered senior commanders, and some Roman soldiers may have even joined in. It’s considered a pivotal event in the abandonment of Roman Britain. Historians have surmised some of the potential…

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White House wants NOAA to cancel climate research and promote fossil fuel industry

White House wants NOAA to cancel climate research and promote fossil fuel industry

Politico reports: The Trump administration wants to effectively break up NOAA and end its climate work by abolishing its primary research office and forcing the agency to help boost U.S. fossil fuel production, budget documents show. The move, outlined in a memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget, carries forward President Donald Trump’s broader goals of slashing federal spending, gutting climate research and unleashing U.S. energy production. But it also represents a dramatic shift in NOAA’s mission….

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Climate crisis on track to destroy capitalism, top insurer warns

Climate crisis on track to destroy capitalism, top insurer warns

The Guardian reports: The climate crisis is on track to destroy capitalism, a top insurer has warned, with the vast cost of extreme weather impacts leaving the financial sector unable to operate. The world is fast approaching temperature levels where insurers will no longer be able to offer cover for many climate risks, said Günther Thallinger, on the board of Allianz SE, one of the world’s biggest insurance companies. He said that without insurance, which is already being pulled in…

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Through its assault on climate science, U.S. is ‘now at war with humanity,’ says Michael Mann

Through its assault on climate science, U.S. is ‘now at war with humanity,’ says Michael Mann

E&E News reports: President Donald Trump has long rejected climate science. Now, his administration is grappling with how to assemble a body of federal climate research to show a warming world is benefiting humanity. The claims would be highly misleading and ignore decades of scientific research that shows climate change will have increasingly dire effects. But a federal report downplaying or denying the threat of climate change would become a cornerstone of Trump’s efforts to end or weaken climate regulations…

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Trump is reversing all U.S. efforts to tackle climate change

Trump is reversing all U.S. efforts to tackle climate change

The New York Times reports: In a few short weeks, President Trump has severely damaged the government’s ability to fight climate change, upending American environmental policy with moves that could have lasting implications for the country, and the planet. With a flurry of actions that have stretched the limits of presidential power, Mr. Trump has gutted federal climate efforts, rolled back regulations aimed at limiting pollution and given a major boost to the fossil fuel industry. He is abandoning efforts…

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Why the oil industry supports carbon capture

Why the oil industry supports carbon capture

Zoë Schlanger writes: The Trump administration is fully engaged in a drive to eliminate virtually any government activity or mention related to climate change—with a few notable exceptions. Take, for example, a single tax credit in Joe Biden’s signature climate law that may have the best chance of survival out of any climate-coded policy. A provision in the Inflation Reduction Act, known as 45Q, enlarged a tax credit for any company willing to capture carbon dioxide. A version of this…

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DOGE staffers enter NOAA headquarters and incite reports of cuts and threats

DOGE staffers enter NOAA headquarters and incite reports of cuts and threats

The Guardian reports: Staffers with Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) reportedly entered the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in Silver Spring, Maryland, and the Department of Commerce in Washington DC today, inciting concerns of downsizing at the agency. “They apparently just sort of walked past security and said: ‘Get out of my way,’ and they’re looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies,” said Andrew Rosenberg, a former Noaa…

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How climate change could upend the American dream

How climate change could upend the American dream

By Abrahm Lustgarten This story was originally published by ProPublica Houses in the Altadena and Pacific Palisades neighborhoods were still ablaze when talk turned to the cost of the Los Angeles firestorms and who would pay for it. Now it appears that the total damage and economic loss could be more than $250 billion. This, after a year in which hurricanes Milton and Helene and other extreme weather events had already exacted tens of billions of dollars in American disaster…

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Trump eliminates help for Black and Latino communities hit harder by pollution

Trump eliminates help for Black and Latino communities hit harder by pollution

The Associated Press reports: For four years, the Environmental Protection Agency made environmental justice one of its biggest priorities, working to improve health conditions in heavily-polluted communities often made up largely of Black, Latino and low-income Americans. Now that short-lived era is over. President Donald Trump in his first week eliminated a team of White House advisors whose job it was to ensure the entire federal government helped communities located near heavy industry, ports and roadways. Trump eliminated the “Justice40”…

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Catastrophic tipping point in Greenland: crystal blue lakes turn brown, belch out carbon dioxide

Catastrophic tipping point in Greenland: crystal blue lakes turn brown, belch out carbon dioxide

Live Science reports: Thousands of Greenland’s crystal-clear blue lakes have turned a murky brown thanks to global warming — and the worst part is that they’ve started emitting carbon dioxide. Record heat and rain in 2022 pushed the lakes of West Greenland past a tipping point, so rather than absorbing carbon dioxide (CO₂), they began to emit it into the atmosphere, according to a new study. The changes began in fall, which is normally a snowy time for Greenland. However,…

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The changing climate of the Little Ice Age forced radical thinkers to reconsider humanity’s place in the universe

The changing climate of the Little Ice Age forced radical thinkers to reconsider humanity’s place in the universe

Timothy Grieve-Carlson writes: The sky in the northern hemisphere had been darkened, the winters unusually harsh, and the summers barely arriving for decades when the German Lutheran author Johann Arndt published his Four Books on True Christianity in 1610. Arndt warned his readers that: when the sky burns like this, and the sun turns blood-red, it is telling us: Behold, one day I will perish in fire. In this way, all the elements speak to us, announcing our wickedness and…

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Increasing climate losses threaten the insurance industry and financial stability

Increasing climate losses threaten the insurance industry and financial stability

Ilan Noy writes: The impact of climate change on insurance markets has been systematically underestimated, with profound implications for financial stability and the sustainability of the risk-sharing services insurance provides. In my research on the economic impacts of climate change and other disasters, I’ve observed a persistent pattern: insurers treat climate change primarily as a future risk while failing to recognise how it has been transforming the risk landscape for some time now. This misunderstanding is now coming home to…

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