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In Karachi, hot weather is normal … but 44C feels like you’re going to die
As a doctor in a big city hospital I am part of a privileged class with air con and water. But millions have neither
Karachi’s heat hits you like a wall when you wake up in the morning. When you are up and getting changed, and the humidity hits you in the chest, you realise it’s going to be really hot today. But it’s another day, so you grab your bag and go to work.
Related: Nowhere is safe, say scientists as extreme heat causes chaos in US and Canada
Continue reading...How the Twitter tide of plastic lost at sea has come to define our age | Tim Adams
An artist’s images of tiny toys and figurines dumped in the ocean highlight the wasteful ways we have to change
Social media was made for projects like Tracey Williams’s #LegoLostatSea, which anecdotally charts the plastic that has been dumped in the ocean in the past 70 years. Williams began her mission after becoming obsessed with the container of 4.8m Lego pieces that spilled from a cargo ship 20 miles off Land’s End in 1997, and which continue to be washed up on Cornwall’s beaches every day. The fact that many of those Lego sets had a nautical theme – mini plastic octupuses and divers’ flippers are common finds – makes them a perfect metaphor for the 8m tonnes of plastic that end up in the oceans each year. At current rates, there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050. A special report in the journal Science last week launched a campaign for governments to commit to phase out “virgin” plastic production in the next 20 years. Even if that happens, our age will be known for centuries to come for its detritus: the Happy Meal figurines and plastic bottles and Lego snorkellers that come and go on every tide.
Continue reading...Critically endangered antelope saiga makes comeback
Biodiversity loss could wreck the global financial system – and it’s only a matter of time | Geoff Summerhayes and Laura Waterford
The world’s biodiversity is declining faster than at any other time in human history, and an estimated 1 million species are at risk of extinction
Corporate Australia is familiar with the concept that climate change presents a financial risk to the global economy, but more recently biodiversity loss has emerged as an equally important risk.
In fact, climate change and biodiversity loss are now often referred to as the “twin crises” facing the global financial system and awareness of the role the financial sector plays in this is rising swiftly.
Continue reading...CP Daily: Friday July 2, 2021
ANALYSIS: UK carbon prices about to trigger intervention mechanism, but will lawmakers act?
Then and now: Arctic sea-ice feeling the heat
GCF board clashes over adaptation projects, keeps vow to fund them
Speculative CCA holdings eclipse 100 mln as additions slow
Euro Markets: EUAs hold above €58 to keep record in sight
Colombia’s carbon tax scheme undermined by questionable REDD credits, probe finds
US Carbon Pricing and LCFS Roundup for week ending July 2, 2021
Canadian inferno: northern heat exceeds worst-case climate models
Scientists fear heat domes in North America and Siberia indicate a new dimension to the global crisis
If you were drawing up a list of possible locations for hell on Earth, the small mountain village of Lytton in Canada would probably not have entered your mind until this week.
Few people outside British Columbia had heard of this community of 250 people. Those that had were more likely to think of it as bucolic. Nestled by a confluence of rivers in the forested foothills of the Lillooet and Botanie mountain ranges, the municipal website boasts: “Lytton is the ideal location for nature lovers to connect with incredible natural beauty and fresh air freedom.”
Continue reading...NZ Market: NZUs extend highs yet again as post-auction demand persists
CN Markets: CCER volumes soar to new high, but policy uncertainty creates headaches for traders
Trading house Mercuria launches new environmental products team led by oil major veterans
Private sector faces growing threat of climate-related litigation -report
COMMENT: We need to talk about the EU’s carbon market
The week in wildlife – in pictures
The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a newborn baby gorilla, a rare giant muntjac and a harpy eagle
Continue reading...Red squirrels and pine martens could lose protection in UK review, say experts
Adders and slow worms also among species possibly affected by changes that could help property developers
Legal protections for wildlife and plants in the UK are set for a review that could result in some important species losing their entitlement to special status, ecology experts have told the Guardian.
Adders, slow worms, water voles, mountain hares, pine martens and red squirrels are among the species experts have warned could be affected, after unexpected changes to the government’s review process that will raise the bar on how rare and under threat an animal needs to be to gain legal safeguards.
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