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Category: Climate Change

As California burns, much of America breathes toxic smoke

As California burns, much of America breathes toxic smoke

Inside Climate News reports: Western wildfires pose a much broader threat to human health than to just those forced to evacuate the path of the blazes. Smoke from these fires, which have burned millions of acres in California alone, is choking vast swaths of the country, an analysis of federal satellite imagery by NPR’s California Newsroom and Stanford University’s Environmental Change and Human Outcomes Lab found. The months-long analysis, based on more than 10 years of data collected by the…

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The transformation of Greta Thunberg

The transformation of Greta Thunberg

Simon Hattenstone writes: Three years ago Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg was an unknown 15-year-old terrified that we were destroying the planet and furious that adults were letting it happen. Her fury was particularly directed at those with power. She decided to take unilateral action, and tweeted her plan. “We kids most often don’t do what you tell us to do. We do as you do. And since you grownups don’t give a damn about my future, I won’t either….

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President Xi declares end to Chinese support for new coal power abroad

President Xi declares end to Chinese support for new coal power abroad

Climate Change News reports: China will end its support for new coal power projects overseas, president Xi Jinping told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. For years, China has been the biggest public financer of foreign coal, particularly in rapidly-growing Asian economies, but has slowed down recently. President Xi’s speech was translated as: “China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy and will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad.” The announcement…

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We’re finally catching a break in the climate fight

We’re finally catching a break in the climate fight

Bill McKibben writes: So far in the global warming era, we’ve caught precious few breaks. Certainly not from physics: the temperature has increased at the alarming pace that scientists predicted thirty years ago, and the effects of that warming have increased even faster than expected. (“Faster Than Expected” is probably the right title for a history of climate change so far; if you’re a connoisseur of disaster, there is already a blog by that name). The Arctic is melting decades…

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U.S. and EU pledge 30% cut in methane emissions to limit global heating

U.S. and EU pledge 30% cut in methane emissions to limit global heating

The Guardian reports: The US and the EU made a joint pledge on Friday to cut global methane emissions by almost a third in the next decade, in what climate experts hailed as one of the most significant steps yet towards fulfilling the Paris climate agreement. The pledge came as the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, warned of a “high risk of failure” at the vital UN climate talks, Cop26, set for Glasgow this November. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas,…

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Biden’s climate legislation to be shaped by fossil fuel industry’s favorite senator, Joe Manchin

Biden’s climate legislation to be shaped by fossil fuel industry’s favorite senator, Joe Manchin

The New York Times reports: Joe Manchin, the powerful West Virginia Democrat who chairs the Senate energy panel and earned half a million dollars last year from coal production, is preparing to remake President Biden’s climate legislation in a way that tosses a lifeline to the fossil fuel industry — despite urgent calls from scientists that countries need to quickly pivot away from coal, gas and oil to avoid a climate catastrophe. Mr. Manchin has already emerged as the crucial…

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Exxon helped cause the climate crisis. It’s time they owned up

Exxon helped cause the climate crisis. It’s time they owned up

Mark Hertsgaard writes: Fossil fuel companies bear as much responsibility as governments do for humanity’s climate predicament – and for finding a way out. Our planetary house is on fire, and these companies have literally supplied the fuel. Worse, they lied about it for decades to blunt public awareness and policy reform. There’s no better time for ExxonMobil and other petroleum giants to be held accountable than at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November. The Glasgow summit is…

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Drought puts 2.1 million Kenyans at risk of starvation

Drought puts 2.1 million Kenyans at risk of starvation

The Guardian reports: An estimated 2.1 million Kenyans face starvation due to a drought in half the country, which is affecting harvests. The National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) said people living in 23 counties across the arid north, northeastern and coastal parts of the country will be in “urgent need” of food aid over the next six months, after poor rains between March and May this year. The crisis has been compounded by Covid-19 and previous poor rains, it said,…

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Not a single G20 country is in line with the Paris Agreement on climate, analysis shows

Not a single G20 country is in line with the Paris Agreement on climate, analysis shows

CNN reports: None of the world’s major economies — including the entire G20 — have a climate plan that meets their obligations under the 2015 Paris Agreement, according to an analysis published Wednesday, despite scientists’ warning that deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions are needed now. The watchdog Climate Action Tracker (CAT) analyzed the policies of 36 countries, as well as the 27-nation European Union, and found that all major economies were off track to contain global warming to 1.5…

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Climate change could trigger internal migration of 216 million people says World Bank

Climate change could trigger internal migration of 216 million people says World Bank

Reuters reports: Without immediate action to combat climate change, rising sea levels, water scarcity and declining crop productivity could force 216 million people to migrate within their own countries by 2050, the World Bank said in a new report on Monday. The report, Groundswell 2.0, modeled the impacts of climate change on six regions, concluding that climate migration “hotspots” will emerge as soon as 2030 and intensify by 2050, hitting the poorest parts of the world hardest. Sub-Saharan Africa alone…

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Why most of the world’s oil needs to stay in the ground

Why most of the world’s oil needs to stay in the ground

The Guardian reports: The vast majority of fossil fuel reserves owned today by countries and companies must remain in the ground if the climate crisis is to be ended, an analysis has found. The research found 90% of coal and 60% of oil and gas reserves could not be extracted if there was to be even a 50% chance of keeping global heating below 1.5C, the temperature beyond which the worst climate impacts hit. The scientific study is the first…

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Twenty meat and dairy firms emit more greenhouse gas than Germany, Britain or France

Twenty meat and dairy firms emit more greenhouse gas than Germany, Britain or France

The Guardian reports: Twenty livestock companies are responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than either Germany, Britain or France – and are receiving billions of dollars in financial backing to do so, according to a new report by environmental campaigners. Raising livestock contributes significantly to carbon emissions, with animal agriculture accounting for 14.5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Scientific reports have found that rich countries need huge reductions in meat and dairy consumption to tackle the climate emergency. Stew…

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More than 200 health journals call for urgent action on climate crisis

More than 200 health journals call for urgent action on climate crisis

The Guardian reports: More than 200 health journals worldwide are publishing an editorial calling on leaders to take emergency action on climate change and to protect health. The British Medical Journal said it is the first time so many publications have come together to make the same statement, reflecting the severity of the situation. Doctors for Extinction Rebellion demonstrate in front of the World Health Organization in Geneva earlier this year. The editorial, which is being published before the UN…

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California firefighters ‘stretched to limit’ as devastating blazes become the norm

California firefighters ‘stretched to limit’ as devastating blazes become the norm

The Guardian reports: Before the ravenous Caldor fire laid siege to South Lake Tahoe, California’s top firefighting priority lay just to the north, where the Dixie fire scorched more land than any other single fire in state history. Together, the two behemoths have already blackened more than 1m acres (4,000 sq km) along the Sierra Nevada range. And fire season in the American west is just heating up. The climate crisis has helped create extreme fire emergencies, with huge, rapid-moving…

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Overlapping disasters expose harsh climate reality: The U.S. isn’t ready and it’s only going to get worse

Overlapping disasters expose harsh climate reality: The U.S. isn’t ready and it’s only going to get worse

The New York Times reports: In Louisiana and Mississippi, nearly one million people lack electricity and drinking water after a hurricane obliterated power lines. In California, wildfire menaces Lake Tahoe, forcing tens of thousands to flee. In Tennessee, flash floods killed at least 20; hundreds more perished in a heat wave in the Northwest. And in New York City, 7 inches of rain fell in just hours Wednesday, drowning people in their basements. Disasters cascading across the country this summer…

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While Israelis and Palestinians fight, climate change threatens the land

While Israelis and Palestinians fight, climate change threatens the land

Gershom Gorenberg writes: A century ago, Egyptian explorer Ahmed Hassanein found pictures of animals carved in rock in the depth of the Libyan desert. “There are lions, giraffes, ostriches, and all kinds of gazelles,” he recorded. It was evidence that the surrounding area had once been verdant savanna. A prehistoric shift in climate, from natural causes, had made the land unlivable for beasts and humans. I thought about that desolate place recently as I looked at the pale splotch of…

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