All posts tagged: Climate crisis

UN chief calls for action to stem ‘extreme heat epidemic’ | United Nations News

UN chief calls for action to stem ‘extreme heat epidemic’ | United Nations News

Published by Sam

Antonio Guterres urges countries to shift away from fossil fuels to tackle the climate crisis driving extreme heat. The head of the United Nations has called on countries to take action to address the effects of “crippling heat”, as the world experiences record-high temperatures that have put vulnerable communities at risk. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Antonio Guterres said billions of people around the globe are experiencing “an extreme heat epidemic” fuelled by climate change. “Extreme heat is increasingly tearing through economies, widening inequalities, undermining the Sustainable Development Goals, and killing people,” the UN secretary-general said. “We know what is driving it: fossil fuel-charged, human-induced climate change. And we know it’s going to get worse; extreme heat is the new abnormal.” Guterres’s warning comes a day after the European Union’s climate monitor said the world had experienced its hottest day on record this week. The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Wednesday that the global average surface air temperature on July 22 rose to 17.15 degrees Celsius (62.9 degrees Fahrenheit) – or 0.06 degrees …

George Monbiot on the record jail terms given to Just Stop Oil activists – podcast | Science

George Monbiot on the record jail terms given to Just Stop Oil activists – podcast | Science

Published by skeptic

Last week, five supporters of the Just Stop Oil climate campaign who conspired to cause gridlock on London’s orbital motorway were sentenced to lengthy jail terms by a judge who told them they had ‘crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic’. Columnist and campaigner George Monbiot tells Ian Sample why the sentences are so significant, how they fit into a crackdown on protest in the UK in recent years, and what impact they could have on future climate activism in the UK How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know Source link

‘Groundbreaking’: How children in Hawaii won landmark climate case | Climate News

‘Groundbreaking’: How children in Hawaii won landmark climate case | Climate News

Published by Sam

EXPLAINER A group of children and young activists has won a constitutional case forcing a government department to curb emissions from the transport sector in Hawaii. In an historic settlement of a climate change lawsuit brought by 13 children and young activists in 2022, the Hawaiian department of transport agreed on Thursday to decarbonise its transport sector with a goal of reaching zero emissions by 2045. Hawaii was already aiming for carbon neutrality by 2045, which means balancing the carbon emitted into the atmosphere by capturing or offsetting it. But this settlement forces the department to go further by halting carbon emissions altogether. The settlement has been hailed as groundbreaking. “[This] is the world’s first youth-led constitutional climate case addressing climate pollution from the transportation sector,” said Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organisation, after the settlement was announced. Hearings for the case were due to begin on Monday next week, but will no longer go ahead. What was the Hawaii climate lawsuit about? A group of children and young people filed the lawsuit, Navahine v …

What are the main UK parties promising on climate and is it enough? – podcast | Science

What are the main UK parties promising on climate and is it enough? – podcast | Science

Published by skeptic

Last week more than 400 scientists signed an open letter to political parties urging ambitious action on the environment to prevent making Britain and the world ‘more dangerous and insecure’. Now that the main parties’ manifestos have all been released, Ian Sample is joined by the global environment editor, Jon Watts, and the biodiversity reporter, Phoebe Weston, to find out what the manifestos have to say about nature and climate, and whether anyone is promising the level of action scientists are asking for How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know Source link

Are cold and wet UK summers here to stay? – podcast | Science

Are cold and wet UK summers here to stay? – podcast | Science

Published by skeptic

Here in the UK talking about the weather is already a national pastime, but this month the water-cooler weather chat has ramped up a notch as rain, grey skies and biting temperatures have put summer firmly on hold. Ian Sample talks to Matt Patterson, a postdoctoral research scientist in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading, to find out what’s causing the chilly weather, whether it’s really as unusual as it seems, and whether any sun is on the horizon for the UK How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know Source link

Tripling clean electricity by 2030 achievable: International Energy Agency | Climate Crisis News

Tripling clean electricity by 2030 achievable: International Energy Agency | Climate Crisis News

Published by Sam

A global goal to triple the production of electricity from clean sources such as solar and wind power by 2030 is “ambitious but achievable”, says the world’s leading independent energy analyst. Nearly 200 countries, including the world’s biggest polluters, pledged themselves to that goal in Dubai last December under the auspices of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. That and an accompanying pledge to double energy efficiency in the next six years are designed to keep the world’s average temperature no higher than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial times. UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell hailed the agreement as “the beginning of the end” of the fossil fuel era. In a new report out on Tuesday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says while official commitments cover only 12 percent of the goal at the moment, their domestic ambitions go further, covering 70 percent of the goal and putting them within reach of it. Half the newly installed renewable energy capacity would come in the form of solar panels, …

Botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer: ‘The clock is ticking but the world will teach us what we need to do’ – podcast | Science

Botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer: ‘The clock is ticking but the world will teach us what we need to do’ – podcast | Science

Published by skeptic

For a long time, western science and Indigenous knowledge have been seen as distinct ways of learning about the world. But as we plunge the planet deeper into environmental crises, it is becoming clear that it is time to pay attention to both. Bridging that gap has been the driving force behind the career of the botanist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer. She tells Madeleine Finlay what we can learn from the most ancient plants on Earth, why we need to cultivate gratitude for the natural world and what western science can learn from Indigenous knowledge How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know Source link

Why are South Korean babies and children suing their government? | Climate Crisis News

Why are South Korean babies and children suing their government? | Climate Crisis News

Published by Sam

As a 20-week-old embryo, Choi Hee-woo became one of the world’s youngest-ever plaintiffs by joining a landmark climate lawsuit against South Korea. In late May, South Korea’s Constitutional Court held a final hearing of the first case in East Asia to challenge national climate policies. Now 18 months old, Hee-woo and more than 60 other children await a verdict that is expected later this year. So what did their case challenge, and where does South Korea stand with its climate action? What is the children’s climate case in South Korea? South Korea’s Constitutional Court heard landmark cases alleging that the government is failing to protect people in the country from the harms of climate change. Four similar climate cases filed between 2020 and 2023 were combined in February for procedural reasons. The first hearing of the joint case was held in April, while the second and last one was on May 21. The petition involving Hee-woo was called “Woodpecker vs South Korea”, after his nickname in the womb. It was filed by about 200 people, …

India’s ‘sinking island’ looks to election for survival – in pictures | World news

India’s ‘sinking island’ looks to election for survival – in pictures | World news

Published by skeptic

For many on Ghoramara, the general election is about the climate crisis and survival. The island, 150km south of Kolkata and named the ‘sinking island’ by the media, has lost nearly half its area to soil erosion in the past two decades and could disappear if a solution is not found. As voters across India cast their ballots on issues ranging from the cost of living to jobs and religion, politicians trying to win votes in Ghoramara need to put the climate crisis to the fore as the island’s dwindling population fight to save their homes from the sea amid rising water levels and increasingly fierce storms Source link

Clean energy on the cusp of rolling back fossil fuels: Report | Climate Crisis News

Clean energy on the cusp of rolling back fossil fuels: Report | Climate Crisis News

Published by Sam

Renewable energy will this year shrink fossil fuels’ reigning share of the global electricity market for the first time. That is the key finding of Ember, a leading energy think tank based in London, which on Wednesday published its first comprehensive Global Electricity Review analysing data from 215 countries. Thanks to the galloping pace of new solar and wind capacity, renewables have been claiming almost all growth in electricity demand for five years, leaving fossil fuels stagnant. But this year, said Ember, they will also roll back fossil fuels’ market share by 2 percent – the beginning of a decade-long process of knocking them out of electricity production altogether in three dozen developed economies. Renewables expanded by an average of 3.5 percent a year during the past decade, compared with an annual 1.5 percent in the previous decade, as prices for photovoltaic panels and wind turbines climbed down and their productivity soared. Ember found that the world already produced a record 30 percent of its electricity from carbon-free sources last year. Several additional factors suggest …