Tag: climate

Two dead in southwestern Japan after ‘heaviest rain ever’

KURUME, Japan, July 10, 2023 (AFP) – At least two people were killed in torrential rain in southwest Japan on Monday, with fears the toll could rise, as tens of thousands of residents were told to evacuate their homes. Downpours after a week of steady rain have caused rivers to burst their banks and sodden earth to collapse in deadly landslides, including one that killed a 77-year-old woman. The woman’s home was engulfed overnight in […]

Mass fish deaths haunt river on Polish-German border

BRIESKOW-FINKENHEERD, Germany, July 8, 2023 (AFP) – Fisherman Henry Schneider stopped work for several months after a toxic algae bloom hit the Oder river last August, decimating his catch. Schneider, 43, whose family has made its living from the river for over a century, finally took up his activities again in May. But fears of a repeat are growing, as global warming adds to the toxic mix of pollution putting the delicate ecosystem under pressure. […]

Yellen urges ‘direct’ talks, US-China climate collaboration

BEIJING, July 8, 2023 (AFP) – Washington and Beijing should communicate “directly” on concerns about specific economic practices, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Saturday, urging greater cooperation between the world’s two biggest economies despite fraught ties. Yellen is on a four-day trip to Beijing, as the United States seeks to cool tensions and stress areas of collaboration between the two countries. In a meeting Saturday with Vice Premier He Lifeng, she pointed to record […]

El Niño spells trouble for vulnerable Galapagos iguana

By Carlos MANDUJANO Agence France-Presse PUERTO AYORA , Ecuador (AFP) — Unusually warm for this time of year, the waters of the Pacific signal hard times for the reptilian inhabitants of Ecuador’s iconic Galapagos Islands. The balmy temperature is the first symptom of a new cycle of the El Niño weather phenomenon that periodically pronounces a sentence of starvation on the archipelago’s marine iguanas. Experts fear this El Niño could be one of the most […]

Monday world’s hottest day on record, initial measurements show

PARIS, France (AFP) — Monday was the world’s hottest day on record, exceeding an average of 17 degrees Celsius (62.6 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time, according to initial measurements taken on Tuesday by US meteorologists. The average daily air temperature on the planet’s surface on July 3 was logged at 17.01C by an organisation attached to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This measurement surpasses the previous daily record (16.92C) set on […]

UN warns world to prepare for El Nino impact

GENEVA, July 4, 2023 (AFP) – The United Nations on Tuesday warned the world to prepare for the effects of El Nino, saying the weather phenomenon which triggers higher global temperatures is set to persist throughout 2023. El Nino is a naturally occurring climate pattern typically associated with increased heat worldwide, as well as drought in some parts of the world and heavy rains elsewhere. The phenomenon occurs on average every two to seven years, […]

We may be underestimating the climate risk to crops: researchers

PARIS, July 4, 2023 (AFP) – The risks of harvest failures in multiple global breadbaskets have been underestimated, according to a study Tuesday that researchers said should be a “wake up call” about the threat climate change poses to our food systems. Food production is both a key source of planet-warming emissions and highly exposed to the effects of climate change, with climate and crop models used to figure out just what the impacts could […]

Climate change spells ‘terrifying’ future: UN rights chief

GENEVA, July 3, 2023 (AFP) – Climate change threatens to deliver a “truly terrifying” dystopian future of hunger and suffering, the United Nations’ human rights chief warned Monday. Volker Turk slammed world leaders for only thinking of the short term while dealing with the climate crisis. Turk told a UN Human Rights Council debate on the right to food that extreme weather events were wiping out crops, herds and ecosystems, making it impossible for communities […]

Extreme heat kills more than 100 in Mexico: government

MEXICO CITY, June 29, 2023 (AFP) — More than 100 people have died due to extreme heat in Mexico in June, the government said, following a series of heatwaves in the Latin American nation. Scientists say global warming is exacerbating adverse weather, with many countries experiencing record high temperatures. Over 1,000 heat-related emergencies were reported in Mexico between June 12 and 25, of which 104 resulted in deaths, according to health ministry figures released on […]

Football pitch of tropical forest lost every 5 seconds

PARIS, June 27, 2023 (AFP) – Earth lost an area of carbon-absorbing rainforest larger than Switzerland or the Netherlands in 2022, most of it destroyed to make way for cattle and commodity crops, an analysis of satellite data released Tuesday revealed. That is nearly a football pitch of mature tropical trees felled or burned every five seconds, night and day, and 10 percent more than the year before, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI). […]

Tiny Thai school on the climate change front line

By Lisa Martin and Pitcha Dangprasith Agence France-Presse BAN KHUN SAMUT CHIN, Thailand, June 23, 2023 (AFP) – Each morning, four children stand barefoot in a line and proudly sing the national anthem as the Thai flag is raised outside their school, perched on a finger of land surrounded by the sea. They are the last pupils left at the school in Ban Khun Samut Chin, a coastal village less than 10 kilometres (six miles) […]

Beijing issues highest heat alert as north China swelters

BEIJING, June 23, 2023 (AFP) — China issued its highest-level heat alert for northern parts of the country on Friday as the capital baked in temperatures hovering around 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). A day earlier Beijing logged its hottest June day since records began with the mercury edging up to 41.1C, breaking a record set in 1961. The city is accustomed to sweltering summers but temperatures across China have been unusually high in recent […]