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Global warning: live from the climate-change frontline as Trump becomes president
With climate sceptics moving into the White House, the Guardian will spend the next 24 hours focusing on climate change happening right now, and what we can all do to help protect the planet
9.18am GMT
Before we move on to Europe and the UK, this is a neat piece of work from my colleague Nick Evershed, the Guardian’s head of data and interactives in Australia. It shows how much carbon we are emitting right now – and how much we have “left to burn” if we want to keep global warming within the 2C band considered crucial by scientists to prevent serious damage to the planet.
Nick’s calculated that in just the 24 hour lifespan of this blog, the world will pump out more than 112m tons. Hard to visualise? Well let’s let the doomsday clock do the work:
9.08am GMT
So in summary, we’ve been focussed on Africa over the past hour:
Continue reading...BBC Breakfast presenters meet 'Orangu-cam'
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...Australian solar farm capital intensity halves, due to smarter, cheaper plants
Melbourne trams to run on sunshine as state launches 75MW large scale solar tender
AGL’s new 200MW Silverton wind farm to cost just $65/MWh
Investors profit from industries of the future as cleantechs beat main index
REC launches new 295Wp TwinPeak 2 Series solar module
Turnbull Government is wrong to pretend we can burn our way to climate safety
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