Climate change

Climate change is contributing to rising losses from natural disasters, including increased damage to physical assets and disruption to business operations.

Models can also be used to sensitivity test the implemented protection measures against future climate conditions and a comprehensive range of high impact scenarios. When we think about the damage from recent natural disasters, it is important to place climate change in the wider context of what is contributing to rising losses. This includes the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, a global network of business leaders from various industries developing cost-effective solutions to transitioning to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy. Many of the dangerous and costly manifestations of climate change are already here. But for other perils — tornadoes, hurricanes, and other windstorms— the impact is less clear. Climate science is a fast-evolving field of study, and while projections of future environmental outcomes remain uncertain, the need for investments in long-term resilience strategies has never been clearer.

The consensus among scientists is that we are in an era of global heating and extreme weather events, primarily due to the devastating effects of human ...

“[B]y increasing communication from the health system, by promoting healthier lifestyles, we on the one hand promote behavior shifts that determine low-carbon transitions and facilitate those low-carbon transitions. But […] the response to climate change, and commensurate investment, remains inadequate,” it concludes. That alters hydrological cycles and generates other impacts on the climate [and] on our environment that add to the whole combo that we call ‘climate change’.” “One of the most cited examples of how infectious diseases are changing [is] in so-called arthropod-borne diseases. For example, a study that appeared in PNAS in 2019 looked at how efficiently the immune systems of mice reacted to influenza viruses under different temperature conditions. “[Pandemics are] going to happen more and a key driver of this is climate change. “So what happens [as a result] is that, as heat from the Sun reaches the Earth, they act like a blanket, they trap the heat inside the Earth’s atmosphere, and that makes the temperatures go up. “[G]reenhouse gases that have been accumulating in the atmosphere due to human activity are gases like carbon dioxide [and] methane. As climates change animals will change their distribution; they’ll probably group together more allowing viruses to jump more easily between them. So that also is posing limits on […] food productivity,” stressed Dr. Romanello. In our latest installment of the In Conversation podcast, we discuss these aspects at length with two key experts. Why are researchers concerned, and what are the implications for health?

To mark the nation's 52nd Earth Day, Robert Feder, MD, outlines how climate change will exacerbate mental health challenges and the importance of global ...

The first is the direct impact of changes in climate on mental health. Concerns about climate change are now showing up in therapists’ offices.6 Despite accumulating knowledge about how to help with these problems,7 the number of “climate informed” therapists remains low. 7. Feder R. A brief guide to individual therapy for climate-related mental distress. 1. Climate change 2022: Impacts, adaption, and vulnerability. In addition, rising ambient temperatures are associated with higher suicide rates3 and growing emergency room mental health visits.4 The New York Times. Published February 6, 2022. Climate change escalates mental health issues in 2 ways. In addition, there will be a large loss of human habitat through rising sea levels and temperature increases. 6. Barry E. Climate change enters the therapy room. Improved access to mental health services, an increase in the number of mental health providers, and a reduction in the use of fossil fuels will all be necessary to meet this challenge. Approximately 37% of American people currently live in areas that have serious problems with access to mental health care.8 This is likely to get significantly worse in the coming decade as global temperatures warm and climate change creates increasing demand for mental health services. This results in significant psychiatric morbidity with new incidences of posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety, as well as exacerbation of pre-existing mental disorders.

Twitter is banning advertisements that promote climate change denial in an effort to curb the reach of groups seeking to downplay the extent of the ...

Google similarly announced a move to ban advertisements that contradict scientists’ understanding about the existence and causes of climate change. In recent years, tech companies have been introducing new labels and information hubs to elevate accurate information about the environment while taking steps to limit the spread of falsehoods. “We recognize that misleading information about climate change can undermine efforts to protect the planet.”

Zoe Schurman has been an activist since she was 9 years old. Her foray into politics began when she was a campaign volunteer for Sen.

“The problem with addressing the issue of climate change and climate justice is that you really want to be able to plant the seed of the conversation,” Montgomery said. Good news is in short supply when it comes to talk of climate change, so much that it can cause people to freeze or become numb and incapable of processing the situation, let alone take action. She began composting and avoiding plastics to reduce waste but focusing on changes in individual behavior — or “personalizing” the crisis, as she put it — can lead one away from community action and policy change. The warnings from scientists are impossible to ignore: Humanity is making the planet uninhabitable for billions as climate change becomes irreversible. This month, the IPCC published the third and final installment of its sixth assessment report. Proponents point out that not all countries suffer the impacts of climate change equally. “It’s about decolonizing the narrative so that there isn’t just one narrative.” “We’ve seen a lot of these national trends playing out in the state,” Bostrom said. “We’ve shifted from wondering whether the climate crisis is real or not, to thinking about how to take action,” Schurman said. Pushes for climate policy by President Joe Biden and Gov. Jay Inslee have drawn the public’s attention but not necessarily participation. “I don’t see a huge increase in urgency.” Projections showed the same residents scoring anywhere between 5% and 20% higher than the national average across the board when it comes to their beliefs on climate change, risk perception and policy support.

Companies use AWS services in creative ways to build local and global innovations designed to address the climate.

Retailers can replace products, change colors and configurations, and swap entire item sets with the click of a button. Climate change is a key ESG issue, and retailers are actively looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprints and reach net-zero emissions targets in the next few years. Creating and selling a product involves a long chain of transactions, with each one contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Hexa is an AWS Partner and 3D commerce and augmented reality (AR) expert. ArcGIS StoryMaps is a story-authoring, web-based application that allows users to share their maps in the context of narrative text and other multimedia content. Although Costa Rica accounts for only 0.03% of the Earth’s surface, it’s home to nearly 6% of the world’s biodiversity. According to The Nature Conservancy, 83.6% of people live in urban areas. Pairing robust EO datasets with modeling leads to more accurate and relevant predictions of how ecosystems behave and might evolve. Climate Next featured The Nature Conservancy’s work to reduce tree disparity in Los Angeles. They built MOIA using AWS services, including Internet of Things (IoT) that powers the vans’ sensors and let MOIA collect data and continually improve performance. One of the greatest counterforces to climate change is nature. The app’s user interface (UI) includes pick-up and overall trip times, stops en route, walking duration needed to complete the journey, and vehicle number.

Across its 17 chapters, it examines climate change mitigation efforts in use (or pledged for use) in everything from agriculture and transport, to energy supply ...

Climate change is a direct result of more than a century of ignored warnings and and unsustainable approaches to using precious resources. Researchers at ETH’s Future Cities Laboratory believe that part of the answer to this is to enable a circular loop within the urban landscape. The authors say that it could “transform cityscapes from their current status as net sources of GHG emissions into large-scale, human-made carbon sinks.” A paper referenced in the report suggests that constructing timber buildings for 2.3 billion urban dwellers (between 2020 and 2050) could store between 0.01 and 0.68 Gt CO2 per year, depending on a number of factors, including the average floor area per capita. This has prompted many to begin a drastic rethink of the materials supply chain, and of the construction, operation, and demolition cycle. A particularly good example of this is the dominance of private cars seen in many urban areas. More than half of the global human population now live in these areas, and that proportion is forecasted to increase to nearly 70% by 2050. The materials most associated with mid- and high-rise urban construction – namely, concrete, steel, aluminum, and glass – all come with significant carbon (and environmental) cost, despite steady improvements in their production efficiency. Smart (and distributed) electric grids are also enabling a more sustainable approach to electricity supply and demand. There is arguably a fourth strategy too – behavioral change – though, this often follows on from the successful implementation of the other three. The huge range of approaches reflects the fact that the causes of climate change are numerous – though, it should be said, we humans are to blame for all of them – and tackling it will take a multi-pronged approach. Across its 17 chapters, it examines climate change mitigation efforts in use (or pledged for use) in everything from agriculture and transport, to energy supply and manufacturing. We are living in a climate crisis, and the time for action is now.

Can you solve drought by piping water across the country? Is the weather becoming more extreme than scientists predicted? What kind of trees are best to plant ...

NASA scientists, among others, have calculated that any cooling effect would be overwhelmed by the warming effect of all the greenhouse gases we have pumped, and continue to pump, into the atmosphere. The reality is not that clear cut: If the presence of those cryptominers disincentivizes oil and gas companies from piping away that gas to be used elsewhere, any savings effect is blunted. That keeps the number of batteries, and the weight, down. To measure temperatures at the sea’s surface, for instance, the most common method before about 1940 was to toss a bucket overboard a ship, haul it back up with a rope and read the temperature of the water inside. Some researchers put the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave in that category, and are working to figure out whether they need to re-evaluate some of their assumptions. How can we possibly have reliable measures of global temperatures from back then, keeping in mind that oceans cover about 70 percent of the globe and that a large majority of land has never been populated by humans to any significant degree? Given “unexpected” extreme events like the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave and extreme heat in Antarctica that appear to shock scientists, it’s difficult for me to trust the I.P.C.C.’s framing that we haven’t run out of time. The idea of taking water from one community and giving it to another has some basis in American history. And some 2,500 chemical sites are in areas at risk of flooding, which could cause those chemicals to leach into the groundwater. And research “suggests these disruptions to the vortex are happening more often in connection with a rapidly warming, melting Arctic, which we know is a clear symptom of climate change,” said Jennifer A. Francis, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center. Where the extreme cold occurs depends on the nature of the disruption to the polar vortex. The connection between climate change and extreme cold weather involves the polar jet stream in the Northern Hemisphere, strong winds that blow around the globe from west to east at an altitude of 5 to 9 miles.

Twitter announced a new policy on Earth Day: it now bans ads pushing climate denial. The company says conversations about sustainability and climate change ...

Google told The Verge at the time that it reviewed the content and decided to take “appropriate enforcement actions.” Facebook has also come under fire for failing to label climate misinformation despite its policy on flagging such content. Talk about “sustainability” on the platform has grown by over 150 percent since 2021, Twitter says. Twitter also said that it will soon share more details about how it plans to “add reliable, authoritative context” about climate change on its platform.

In Africa, the climate crisis is threatening the livelihoods of millions and the availability of food and water. In recent years the continent has seen economic ...

He said the funds come with conditions and restrictions that make it difficult for the nations to use them in ways they would prioritize. Fredrick Owino works with 16 African countries on how best to increase and preserve forests as one of the ways to mitigate global climate change. In recent years the continent has seen economic and population growth that has led to environmental degradation while suffering extreme climatic events such as floods, heatwaves and drought.

As the effects of the earth's changing climate have become more pronounced over the past few years, with natural disasters such as wildfires, hurricanes, ...

Cities of the Northeast and Northwest could see their populations rise by roughly ten percent as Americans flee overly hot, flooded, or otherwise dangerous regions. In fact, the global south is the predominant host of all categories of forcibly displaced people worldwide, be they refugees or climate migrants: roughly 85% of refugees are displaced from and hosted within global south settings. Importantly, however, the report noted that most climate migration will take place within a country’s own borders rather than internationally.

Andrew Kanes and a team of other researchers highlighted how growing populations of Needle Ants could disrupt the environment in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Mount Kilimanjaro, Sermersooq, Great Barrier Reef, Harz Forests featured in the doodle.

The southwest monsoon contributes 74.9 per cent to the annual rainfall in India and irrigates over half of India’s agricultural land. Selected comments may also be used in the ‘Letters’ section of the Down To Earth print edition. “Quantitatively, the monsoon seasonal (June to September) rainfall is likely to be 99 per cent of the LPA with a model error of ± 5 per cent. It noted that currently, the southwest monsoon is passing through a ‘dry epoch’ which started in the decade of 1971-80. You can further help us by making a donation. Google, which records over 8 billion searches every day, has dedicated its daily doodle to Earth Day several times since the feature was rolled out in 1998. We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Scientists have attributed the loss to global warming as well as change in land-use, mostly deforestation. Rising temperatures and severe drought are responsible for this loss of green cover. The images were gathered from The Ocean Agency, an international non-profit that works on marine conservation. You can further help us by making a donation. We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us.

Get all of the latest Environment news from NationalWorld. Providing fresh perspective online for news across the UK.

In comparison to the time between 1750 and 1800, pre-industrial levels of CO2 in the atmosphere were 278 ppm, implying that humans are halfway to doubling the quantity of CO2 in the atmosphere. According to a 2018 study published in The Lancet, rising temperatures, along with an increase in the number of people living in cities and an ageing population, have resulted in a rise in heat-related mortality. This may seem obvious, but with so much focus on the effects climate change has on habitats and the vast array of species that inhabit them, it can be easy to forget the immediate impact on human life it has too. As experts continue to warn us of accelerating climate change and the irreversible effects it will have on our planet, it’s sometimes easy to feel powerless in the face of it all. That’s approximately 1,000 times the natural rate; by the middle of the century, 30 to 50% of all species on the planet will have vanished. This year’s theme is “Invest In Our Planet”, encouraging individuals, businesses and governments to invest in technologies and practices that can benefit the Earth.

Climate change can feel confusing, big and scary. Trust us: We get it. Just take a deep breath, and let it back out again (it will be full of carbon dioxide ...

To mark the occasion, here's a look at what recent Pew Research Center surveys have found about Americans' views on climate change and renewable energy sources.

A smaller share (36%) says collective action globally will likely be enough to avoid the worst impacts from climate change, while another 10% say they don’t view climate change impacts as a problem. About six-in-ten liberal Democrats (63%) say the U.S. should phase out fossil fuels completely, compared with 36% who prefer the country use a mix of fossil fuels and renewables. Around six-in-ten U.S. adults (59%) say the U.S. does not have this responsibility, while 39% say it does. About a quarter of Americans (24%) say the burning of fossil fuels and other human activity contributes not too much or not at all to climate change. About a quarter of Americans (24%) oppose this. Larger shares of Republicans say human activity contributes some to climate change (39%) or that it contributes not too much or not at all (44%). Among moderate and conservative Democrats, by comparison, 37% support the U.S. phasing out fossil fuels completely, compared with 61% who prefer a mix of fossil fuels and renewables. In the GOP, for example, a third of conservative Republicans and GOP leaners favor the U.S. taking steps to become carbon neutral, while 64% oppose it. The vast majority of Democrats (90%) favor the U.S. taking steps to become carbon neutral by 2050. A large majority of Democrats say human activity contributes a great deal to climate change (71%), while just 17% of Republicans say the same. Three-quarters of Americans say that human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels, contributes to climate change at least some, with 46% saying it contributes a great deal, a separate January 2022 Center survey found. About four-in-ten U.S. adults (42%) say that dealing with climate change should be a top priority for President Joe Biden and Congress to address this year, according to a Center survey conducted in January 2022.

For Earth Day 2022, we highlight the immense impact trees can have in the continuing fight against climate change - from planting to mapping them.

“It’s time to put nature on the balance sheet,” says founder and CEO Marco Albani. As well as greening city centres, PopUp Forest aims to mobilize civic support for the creation of urban wild spaces through education and community engagement. All the profits go to the investor and three new trees are planted for every one that is cut down. When the tree is no longer able to capture carbon it is felled and the timber sold. But on this year’s Earth Day, it’s important to remember that nature is not only the victim of rising temperatures, it also has a critical role to play in tackling climate change. Based on IPCC data, NASA says that 950 million hectares of new forests will be needed to help arrest climate change.

As climate change bakes the planet, dozens of nations including the U.S. and many local governments are putting a price tag on greenhouse gas emissions that ...

The expansion of carbon pricing into Pennsylvania remains tenuous. An upcoming lease sale in Wyoming, for example, could result in future emissions of 34 million tons (31 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide. On the day Biden took office, he set up an interagency group that revived the Obama estimate and promised a revised figure incorporating previously overlooked consequences of climate change. The lower number included only domestic climate impacts and not global damages. The bipartisan proposal died amid arguments over cost and whether climate change was even occurring. Carbon pricing reflects how much companies are willing to pay today for a limited amount of emission credits offered at auction. A more lax policy would give you a lower carbon price.” They want the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the administration after lower courts in Louisiana and Missouri split on the issue. By contrast, emissions were most recently valued at $13.50 per ton at auction under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in the Northeast, which Pennsylvania is joining. Without a nationwide cap and trade program, environmentalists and some economists want the government to be more aggressive in using the social cost of carbon to overhaul government energy policy. It joins 11 states where coal, oil and natural gas power plants must buy credits for every ton of carbon dioxide they emit. The social cost of carbon attempts to capture the value of all climate damage, centuries into the future.

As the world struggles to avert climate change, vegetation may help deliver the decarbonisation needed, and China arguably has a head start thanks to a ...

The Earth's average temperature has increased by more than 1C during the 20th and 21st century.

Global climate change has already had observable effects on the environment. “Earth’s climate record, preserved in tree rings, ice cores, and coral reefs, shows that the global average temperature is stable over long periods of time. The Met Office defines a heatwave as at least three consecutive days of temperatures above a certain level. The threshold for a heatwave is 25ºC for most of the country. In March, the Met Office changed the definition of a heatwave to reflect how climate change is already affecting the UK. Climate change is already having a significant effect on our planet, and the importance of taking action is highlighted on Earth Day.

As multiple reports have warned, the planet is rapidly warming. 2021 was one of the hottest years on record. In the US, annual wildfires out West have grown so ...

The public generally recognizes that action on climate change must be a collective effort, calling on government, business and individuals. In some cases, the rationale for not taking action on climate change is structural. The time to act on climate change is now. Demographics and location matter when it comes to concern – Democrats are most concerned, while people living in the parts of the country hardest hit by drought, fire, tornadoes and hurricanes are more likely to see it as a major problem. Americans are increasingly concerned about climate change and are morelikely to acknowledgeit is caused by human activity. It’s a time to appreciate the ground on which we stand and the skies above us.

Twitter's announcement on Earth Day came as it tries to fend off an unwanted takeover bid by billionaire Elon Musk. PHOTO: AFP. Updated. 29 sec ago.

Mr Musk advocates a hands-off approach to policing content, a thorny matter particularly in high-profile cases such as that of former United States president Donald Trump, who was banned after the assault on the Capitol by his supporters as they sought to overturn the US election result last year. "We believe that climate denialism shouldn't be monetised on Twitter, and that misrepresentative ads shouldn't detract from important conversations about the climate crisis." Twitter's announcement on Earth Day came as it tries to fend off an unwanted takeover bid by billionaire Elon Musk, who has said he thinks people should be able to say pretty much whatever they want on the platform.

I mean, this kind of feels like it should already be the case, but today, marking Earth Day 2022, Twitter has announced that it will now ban all ads which ...

Pinterest announced a full ban on climate change misinformation, in posts and ads, earlier this month, while back in October, Google announced that it would prohibit ads and monetization of YouTube videos that deny climate change. Denial is the default stance for some, because taking personal action requires personal effort, and it’s easier to point to heavy emitters, like big corporations and industries, and dismiss your own action as useless. In the coming months, we’ll have more to share on our work to add reliable, authoritative context to the climate conversations happening on Twitter.”