The Guardian
Alexandria: locals adapt to floods as coastal waters inch closer
As cafe owners build defences against winter storms, the government has warned that 13% of Egypt’s coastline is at risk from rising Mediterranean sea levels
“Before we were flooded a couple of years ago, we didn’t imagine the water could reach this level,” said cafe manager Samir Gaber, gesturing at a cluster of tables overlooking the Mediterranean.
Gaber has managed the Latino cafe in Alexandria for six years, during which time the business has had to adapt to increasingly dramatic winter storms. With the storms come the floods, crashing waves engulfing large chunks of the many cafes nestled on the coastline.
Continue reading...Flood disasters more than double across Europe in 35 years
Insurance firm research reveals steep increase in flash floods and says rise is in line with climate change
The number of devastating floods that trigger insurance payouts has more than doubled in Europe since 1980, according to new research by Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurance company.
The firm’s latest data shows there were 30 flood events requiring insurance payouts in Europe last year – up from just 12 in 1980 – and the trend is set to accelerate as warming temperatures drive up atmospheric moisture levels.
Continue reading...Global warning - 24 hours of live climate change coverage
The Guardian is spending the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration talking to people whose lives have been changed by the climate change he questions
Tomorrow, America will inaugurate a president who is openly sceptical of the almost unanimous scientific view that human activity is contributing to global warming.
So today the Guardian is conducting a major digital event to concentrate minds at this pivotal moment: 24 hours of live, uninterrupted coverage of the issue from around the world. Films, data, experts, writing, graphics, the lot.
Continue reading...The 10 species most at risk from climate change
From penguins in Antarctica, to butterflies in Spain, and rodents and coral in the Great Barrier Reef, as the world warms these species are disappearing
Small island species, confined to limited terrain, are always vulnerable, particularly to invasive species, burgeoning human populations, and new diseases. On Hawaii, climate change intersects with these three factors to imperil its unique birds, including six species of honeycreeper.
Continue reading...Carbon countdown clock: how much of the world's carbon budget have we spent?
One way of looking at emissions targets is as a fixed budget amount, or quota. This countdown shows one estimate of how long it will take to reach an amount of greenhouse gas emissions beyond which 2C of warming will be likely
To have a good chance of keeping global warming under 2C, there is only a finite amount of carbon pollution the world can emit – this amount can be thought of as a fixed budget amount, or quota.
Our countdown clock shows one estimate of how long it will take to reach an amount of greenhouse gas emissions beyond which 2C of warming will be likely.
How hot are you on global warming? Try our climate change quiz
What is the impact of livestock on greenhouse gas emissions? And how much does Arctic sea ice loss affect the rise in ocean levels?
Continue reading...Reasons to be cheerful: a full switch to low-carbon energy is in sight
Climate change optimism is justified – a complete transition from carbon to solar and wind power looks practical and affordable within a generation
My first book on climate change was published 10 years ago. I looked at how responsible individuals could choose to run their lives to cut their carbon footprint.
Inevitably minimising your carbon footprint meant making some uncomfortable choices – stopping eating meat, for example, or giving up flying. Hair-shirtism, in short. In 2009, I advised individuals on how they could cut their carbon emissions by 10%.
Continue reading...‘A cat in hell’s chance’ – why we’re losing the battle to keep global warming below 2C
It all seemed so simple in 2008. All we had was financial collapse, a cripplingly high oil price and global crop failures due to extreme weather events. In addition, my climate scientist colleague Dr Viki Johnson and I worked out that we had about 100 months before it would no longer be “likely” that global average surface temperatures could be held below a 2C rise, compared with pre-industrial times.
What’s so special about 2C? The simple answer is that it is a target that could be politically agreed on the international stage. It was first suggested in 1975 by the environmental economist William Nordhaus as an upper threshold beyond which we would arrive at a climate unrecognisable to humans. In 1990, the Stockholm Environment Institute recommended 2C as the maximum that should be tolerated, but noted: “Temperature increases beyond 1C may elicit rapid, unpredictable and non-linear responses that could lead to extensive ecosystem damage.”
Continue reading...Goldcrest combs the gorse for slim pickings
Wolsingham, Weardale This tiny tweezer-billed bundle of feathers probed each nook and cranny in a forest of green skewers
This patch of hawthorn scrub had been laden with scarlet berries until well into December. Then redwing flocks passed through and today its twigs were bare. Apart from a few rosehips, some already shredded by greenfinches, which use their powerful beaks to extract the flinty seeds, the dangling bunches of guelder-rose fruits were the only remaining flecks of scarlet in the landscape.
It is a mystery why birds always leave until last these shiny, succulent, berries. In mild winters some remain untouched until they wither in spring. That’s unlikely this year. The first real test of winter for many birds, especially those that are not seed eaters, may be about to begin.
Continue reading...If you were an elephant …
… the world would be a brighter, smellier, noisier place – and you would be a better, wiser, kinder person. The author of Being a Beast explains all
If you were an elephant living wild in a western city, you’d be confused and disgusted.
You’d have one two-fingered hand swinging from your face – a hand as sensitive as tumescent genitals, but which could smash a wall or pick a cherry. With that hand you’d explore your best friends’ mouths, just for the sake of friendship. With that hand you’d smell water miles away and the flowers at your feet. You’d sift it all, triaging. Category 1: immediate danger. Category 2: potential threat. Category 3: food and water. Category 4: weather forecasts – short and long range. Category 5: pleasure.
Continue reading...China's Xi Jinping says Paris climate deal must not be allowed to fail
President says ‘we only have one homeland’ in a coded warning to Donald Trump not to dismantle the agreement
The world must not allow the Paris climate deal to be “derailed” or continue to inflict irreparable damage on the environment, Chinese president Xi Jinping has said, amid fears the rise of Donald Trump could strike a body blow to the fight against global warming.
Trump, who will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States on Friday, has threatened to pull out of the historic Paris agreement and dismissed climate change as a Chinese “hoax” and “expensive… bullshit”.
Continue reading...Church of England groups praise fracking as a way to cut carbon emissions
The stance is outraging Christian environmentalists, but the church says there are caveats to its support
The fracking industry has praised the Church of England (CoE) after two groups at the church tentatively backed the controversial technology as a way to help the UK cut carbon emissions.
Shale gas was a “potentially useful element” in switching to a low-carbon economy as it was cleaner than coal, so long as it did not harm renewable energy’s expansion, a church briefing paper said.
Continue reading...Make America great again by embracing green tech, Trump urged
Fulfilling pledge to boost fossil fuels will mean US misses out on huge market for clean energy, experts say
Leading climate change experts have urged Donald Trump not to turn his back on the biggest global challenge facing mankind, arguing that he can make America great again – and the world safer – by standing up to global warming and embracing the trillion-dollar green tech revolution.
As new data showed that 2016 was the hottest year on record, scientists, government advisers and people closely involved with global climate talks said it would be self-defeating for Trump to pull the US out of the global Paris climate change deal as he has threatened.
Continue reading...Decline in EU workers hits UK agriculture, Lords inquiry told
National Farmers Union labour survey highlights sharp decline in availability of seasonal EU workers following Brexit vote
British agriculture has already been hit by a sharp decline in EU migrants willing to undertake seasonal work since the Brexit vote, a House of Lords inquiry has been told.
The evidence of “a dramatic change in the availability of EU labour” in the last six months comes as the government’s chief adviser on migration warned that post-Brexit curbs on low-skilled EU migration to Britain would only provide a “modest” boost to wages and employment for British workers.
Continue reading...Over half of world's wild primate species face extinction, report reveals
Researchers warn of approaching ‘major extinction event’ if action is not taken to protect around 300 species, including gorillas, chimps, lemurs and lorises
More than half of the world’s apes, monkeys, lemurs and lorises are now threatened with extinction as agriculture and industrial activities destroy forest habitats and the animals’ populations are hit by hunting and trade.
In the most bleak assessment of primates to date, conservationists found that 60% of the wild species are on course to die out, with three quarters already in steady decline. The report casts doubt on the future of about 300 primate species, including gorillas, chimps, gibbons, marmosets, tarsiers, lemurs and lorises.
Standing Rock activists clash with police – video
Amateur footage shot on Monday shows Standing Rock activists clashing with police and the National Guard, as demonstrations continue over the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. Activists live streamed some of their encounters with police, which at times turned violent
Continue reading...2016 hottest year ever recorded – and scientists say human activity to blame
• Final data confirms record-breaking temperatures for third year in a row
• Earth has not been this warm for 115,000 years
2016 was the hottest year on record, setting a new high for the third year in a row, with scientists firmly putting the blame on human activities that drive climate change.
The final data for 2016 was released on Wednesday by the three key agencies – the UK Met Office and Nasa and Noaa in the US – and showed 16 of the 17 hottest years on record have been this century.
Continue reading...Echoes of Bodmin's mining boom
Sharp Tor, Bodmin Moor Turf hummocks mask mine workings beside the old railway, which weaves between flowering gorse
On the eastern edge of the moor, granite sleepers mark part of the Kilmar railway, used in the second half of the 19th century by trucks carrying moorstone destined for the port of Looe via the Liskeard and Caradon railway. Turfy hummocks mask mine workings beside the way, which weaves between flowering gorse bushes and hawthorn trees draped in bearded lichen. Blue sky reflects in puddles and frost crystals sparkle in cold hollows.
Dumps of wasted stone interspersed with tall conifers tower above the track as it passes beneath disused Cheesewring quarry; ahead, above sunlit sheep pastures, Sharp Tor is fringed with orange bracken.
EU proposes to halve food waste in Europe by 2030
The initiative, which would apply to the UK if passed, would wipe out 44m tonnes of food waste every year
People are being urged to support calls by a major pan-European group to halve ‘farm to fork’ food waste in Europe by 2030, on the eve of a landmark vote later this month.
The European parliament’s environment committee will vote on new regulations on 24 January, which are set to shape the next 15 years of EU food waste policy and have the potential to be the most ambitious, legally binding target on food waste in the world.
Continue reading...Neither Trump nor Turnbull can turn back the tide on renewables
The argument for renewable energy is now a purely economic one – and the move away from coal will only pick up speed
The inauguration of President Trump this Saturday (Australian time) marks a radical change in the world as we know it. It ushers in the beginning of four years where progressive issues as far reaching as race equality, women’s health, nuclear and foreign policy, and of course climate change will be under sustained attack.
Less than a year after the world agreed a historic climate pact in Paris, the US – the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas polluter – elected a man who wants to revive the glory days of coal, oil and gas.
Continue reading...