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Category: Climate Change

The great underappreciated driver of climate change: household food waste

The great underappreciated driver of climate change: household food waste

Alexandra Frost writes: Tens of millions of tons of food that leaves farms in the United States is wasted. Much of that waste happens at the industrial level, during harvesting, handling, storage, and processing, but a staggering amount of food gets wasted at home, scraped into the garbage can at the end of a meal or tossed after too long in the crisper drawer. According to a 2020 Penn State University study, almost a third of the food that American…

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A shadowy corner of international law is threatening climate action, UN expert warns

A shadowy corner of international law is threatening climate action, UN expert warns

Inside Climate News reports: Soon after Italy approved a ban on offshore oil drilling, in 2015, the country received some alarming news: A British oil company that had been planning to drill was suing the government, seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation. The company, called Rockhopper, brought its claim not in Italian courts but through a system of international arbitration that allows foreign investors to sue governments. Last year, the company won the case along with an order…

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Why is Britain retreating from global leadership on climate action?

Why is Britain retreating from global leadership on climate action?

Fred Pearce writes: In 1988, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher became the first world leader to take a stand on fighting climate change. Last month, exactly a quarter-century later, her successor Rishi Sunak tore up a cross-party consensus on the issue that had survived the intervening eight general elections and replaced it with a populist assault on what had been his own government’s environmental policies. Thatcher, who trained as a chemist before entering politics, took her stand at a packed…

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Lloyd’s of London warns extreme weather could incur $5tr of economic losses over five years

Lloyd’s of London warns extreme weather could incur $5tr of economic losses over five years

BusinessGreen reports: Extreme weather events could result in around $5tr of economic losses over five years as crops fail and water and food shortages escalate, insurer Lloyd’s of London has warned. A new data tool released by the insurance giant this week models the global economic impact of a “hypothetical but plausible increase” in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, leading to a series of food and water shocks over a five year period. The analysis predicts that…

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Exxon, Apple and other corporate giants will have to disclose all their emissions under California’s new climate laws – that will have a global impact

Exxon, Apple and other corporate giants will have to disclose all their emissions under California’s new climate laws – that will have a global impact

Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s Los Angeles refinery, California’s largest producer of gasoline. David McNew/Getty Images By Lily Hsueh, Arizona State University Many of the world’s largest public and private companies will soon be required to track and report almost all of their greenhouse gas emissions if they do business in California – including emissions from their supply chains, business travel, employees’ commutes and the way customers use their products. That means oil and gas companies like Chevron will likely have to…

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The oil industry has taken over the GOP but nature is intervening, says Al Gore

The oil industry has taken over the GOP but nature is intervening, says Al Gore

David Remnick interviews Al Gore: Gore: [I]t now seems obvious to almost everyone that the severity of the crisis has reached a new level of intensity. Climate-related extreme events have become so common and so dangerous that people who wanted to dismiss it are now waking up to the reality that we’re facing. And, of course, the underlying substance is shocking. We’re still using the sky as an open sewer for the heat-trapping, gaseous pollution that we spew into it…

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Pope Francis lambasts climate change skeptics and ‘irresponsible’ Western lifestyles

Pope Francis lambasts climate change skeptics and ‘irresponsible’ Western lifestyles

CNN reports: Pope Francis has made his strongest statement yet on the accelerating climate crisis, pinning blame on big industries and world leaders as well as “irresponsible” Western lifestyles, in a blistering statement on Wednesday. “Our responses have not been adequate, while the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point,” the pontiff wrote in a 7,000 word encyclical called Laudate Deum (“Praise God”). “Some effects of the climate crisis are already irreversible, at…

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September shattered global heat record — and by a record margin

September shattered global heat record — and by a record margin

The Washington Post reports: Early analyses show global warmth surged far above previous records in September — even further than what scientists said seemed like astonishing increases in July and August. The planet’s average temperature shattered the previous September record by more than half a degree Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit), which is the largest monthly margin ever observed. Temperatures around the world last month were at levels closer to normal for July according to separate data analyses by European and…

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Climate change and habitat loss push amphibians closer to extinction

Climate change and habitat loss push amphibians closer to extinction

NPR reports: When JJ Apodaca was starting graduate school for biology in 2004, a first-of-its-kind study had just been released assessing the status of the world’s least understood vertebrates. The first Global Amphibian Assessment, which looked at more than 5,700 species of frogs, toads, salamanders, newts and other amphibians became “pretty much the guiding light of my career,” said Apodaca, who now heads the nonprofit group Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy. Nineteen years later, a second global assessment of the world’s…

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Energy consumption ‘to dramatically increase’ because of AI

Energy consumption ‘to dramatically increase’ because of AI

Yahoo Finance reports: Artificial intelligence is expected to have the most impact on practically everything since the advent of the internet. Wall Street sure thinks so. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is up 26% year to date thanks to the frenzy over AI-related stocks. But AI’s big breakout comes at a cost: much more energy. Take for example OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT. Research done at the University of Washington shows that hundreds of millions of queries on ChatGPT can cost around 1 gigawatt-hour…

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A revelation about trees is messing with climate calculations

A revelation about trees is messing with climate calculations

Wired reports: Every year between September and December, Lubna Dada makes clouds. Dada, an atmospheric scientist, convenes with dozens of her colleagues to run experiments in a 7,000-gallon stainless steel chamber at CERN in Switzerland. “It’s like science camp,” says Dada, who studies how natural emissions react with ozone to create aerosols that affect the climate. Clouds are the largest source of uncertainty in climate predictions. Depending on location, cloud cover can reflect sunlight away from land and ocean that would otherwise absorb its…

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Climate change made Libya flooding up to 50 times more likely, 50% more intense

Climate change made Libya flooding up to 50 times more likely, 50% more intense

Jessica Corbett writes: International scientists announced Tuesday, September 19, that an event like the extreme rain that led to deadly flooding in Libya earlier this month “has become up to 50 times more likely and up to 50% more intense compared to a 1.2°C cooler climate,” or the preindustrial world. Those were among the findings of a World Weather Attribution analysis of torrential rainfall in several countries across the Mediterranean during the first two weeks of September, conducted by researchers…

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Thinking long-term: Why we should bring back redwood forests

Thinking long-term: Why we should bring back redwood forests

John Reid writes: Lyndon Johnson signed the bill that established the Redwood National Park in California 55 years ago. It was a long time coming, with proposals blocked in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s by an industry that was beavering through the most valuable timberlands on the planet. When the National Park Service recommended a park again in 1964, bipartisan support in the Senate, a nod from President Johnson and, I believe, the trees’ own power to inspire eventually got…

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Antarctica just hit a record low in sea ice — by a lot

Antarctica just hit a record low in sea ice — by a lot

The Washington Post reports: Sea ice levels around Antarctica just registered a record low — and by a wide margin — as winter comes to a close, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). This significant milestone adds worry that Antarctic sea ice may be entering a state of decline brought on by climate change. Sign up for the Climate Coach newsletter and get advice for life on our changing planet, in your inbox every Tuesday and…

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Techno-fixes to climate change aren’t living up to the hype

Techno-fixes to climate change aren’t living up to the hype

The Verge reports: An updated road map for combating climate change pours cold water on the idea that unproven technologies can play a major role in averting disaster. Today, the International Energy Agency (IEA) updated its road map for the energy sector to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It doubles down on the need to swiftly switch to renewable energy while minimizing the use of technologies that are still largely in demonstration and prototype phase today, including carbon…

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Giant fracking is threatening America’s fragile aquifers

Giant fracking is threatening America’s fragile aquifers

The New York Times reports: Along a parched stretch of La Salle County, Texas, workers last year dug some 700 feet deep into the ground, seeking freshwater. Millions of gallons of it. The water wouldn’t supply homes or irrigate farms. It was being used by the petroleum giant BP to frack for fossil fuels. The water would be mixed with sand and toxic chemicals and pumped right back underground — forcing oil and gas from the bedrock. It was a…

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