Global

Dealing with Environmental Policy, Economics and Law, Climatology and Climate Change, Earth and Environmental Sciences, the volume has been published by Cambridge University Press. Edited by Cynthia Rosenzweig, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Columbia University, New York; William D. Solecki, Hunter College, City University of New York; Patricia Romero-Lankao, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado; Shagun Mehrotra, New School University, New York; Shobhakar…

Investing in climate mitigation Dr. Charles Donovan, Director of the Centre for Climate Finance and Investment at Imperial College Business School, said: "Our work demonstrates that climate change is not only imposing economic and social costs on developing countries, but it is also amplifying existing risks that are already priced in fixed income markets. These impacts will grow. "The good news is that investments in…

Read content here: https://www.star2.com/living/2018/06/29/climate-change-china-drones/ Source: Star 2 | 29 June 2018

Families from eight nations joined their ranks on Thursday when they collectively sued the European Union over the impact of rising temperatures on their livelihoods. Currently, the EU accounts for about 9% of global CO2 emissions. Taking into account accumulated emissions since 1850, that share rises to a quarter, second only to the United States (27%). Globally, there are at least 1,000 active legal cases…

“The National Climate Assessment that includes NASA and it includes the Department of Energy, and it includes NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), has clearly stated that it is extremely likely… that human activity is the dominant cause of global warming, and I have no reason to doubt the science that comes from that,” Jim Bridenstine said at a Senate hearing. He was answering…

These are the main findings of a publication titled, “Global Report on Food Crises,” released by the Food Security Information Network (FSIN). The report states that conflict and climate change-related disasters were the main drivers of acute food insecurity in 18 countries where 74 million people need urgent assistance to prevent famine. New or intensified conflict has deteriorated food security in Myanmar, north-east Nigeria, the…

He also added, “By attracting more interest we hope to gain even more involvement with everyone in regard to the biodiversity. This aligns with our objective for the next three years, which is to achieve Aichi Biodiversity Target 1; that people are aware of the values of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve and use it sustainably by 2020.” Having started as…

“Tropical reef systems are transitioning to a new era in which the interval between recurrent bouts of coral bleaching is too short for a full recovery of mature assemblages,” they write. “The median return time between pairs of severe bleaching events has diminished steadily since 1980 and is now only 6 years. As global warming has progressed, tropical sea surface temperatures are warmer now during…

“I had the opportunity to come here over a 15-year period, and even within a human’s lifetime, you can already see the changes brought about by climate change,” the director of the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH), Marcelo Leppe, told AFP. Observers can now see “rocks that we weren’t seeing five or 10 years ago, and that is direct evidence of the shrinking of these glaciers…

Per capita data from ref. 2 In response, the science of cities is evolving. Urban planners and decision-makers need evidence to help them manage risks and develop strategies for climate mitigation and adaptation. Scientists are increasingly thinking of cities as complex systems and working more closely with communities. New concepts are emerging, such as smart cities. Yet the scope and applicability of urban research is…

The activists also delivered a letter to Shell demanding they own up to their responsibility for contributions to the climate crisis and show up at the first hearing taking place in March. The hearings are part of a world-first investigation led by the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines into how climate-related human rights harms are fuelled by their business of extracting and marketing…

An agricultural system that combines trees with crops and livestock on the same plot of land, agroforestry is especially popular in developing countries because it allows small shareholder farmers -- who have little land available to them -- to maximize their resources. They can plant vegetable and grain crops around trees that produce fruit, nuts, and wood for cooking fires, and the trees provide shade…

Cleared trees in a forest located in the concession of Karya Makmur Abadi, Borneo, which is being developed for a palm oil plantation (Picture: Getty Images) So what is it, and how is it so destructive? The oil palm tree, originally from Western Africa, flourishes wherever there is heat and lots of rainfall – meaning that rainforests in Africa, Asia, North America and South…

The past annual rate of sea level rise -- about three millimeters (0.1 inches) per year -- may more than triple to 10millimetresper year by 2100, said the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer-reviewed US journal. The findings are "roughly in agreement with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report (AR5) model projections," said the…

Do you recall the 2009 and 2012 Nadi or Western Division floods when Nadi, Ba and Rakiraki were under so much water boats were seen where cars, buses and trucks usually ran? We have made this far without much adverse conditions for our nation as would be expected in a La Nina phase of the cycle but let us hope for the best in the…

In 1991, when Mount Pinatubo erupted, 20 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide was propelled into the stratosphere. In the two years that followed, the global average temperate fell by half a degree. The cooling effect of the eruption is something scientists theorize could be replicated by planes regularly spreading sulphate aerosol. Spread high enough, the tiny particles absorb and reflect sunlight back into space for…

Global emissions of greenhouse gases amounted to the equivalent of some 30 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year — excluding those from deforestation and land use. Worried about its accumulation, the scientists and policymakers called on the world to cut CO² emissions by a fifth. That didn’t happen, of course. By 1997, when climate diplomats from the world’s leading nations gathered to negotiate a…

Researchers and environmentalists have been sounding the alarm about the 4.8 to 12.7 million metric tons of plastic that lands in the oceans every year. Still, says Douglas Rader, chief oceans scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund and one of the study’s co-leaders, the strong connection between coral disease and plastic was extremely surprising. “This is striking, particularly in the context of all the other…

The technology, known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), comes in many variations. But the core idea is burning trees or other plants for energy while pulling in the resulting carbon dioxide and storing it below ground. When the plants grow back again, they would pull more carbon dioxide from the air, resulting in a net removal of the greenhouse gas from the…