Tag: climate

Record sea surface heat sparks fears of warming surge

PARIS, May 4, 2023 (AFP) – With sea surface temperatures swelling to new highs in recent weeks, scientists warn that humanity’s carbon pollution has the potential to turn oceans into a global warming “time bomb”. Oceans absorb most of the heat caused by planet-warming gases, causing heatwaves that harm aquatic life, altering weather patterns and disrupting crucial planet-regulating systems. While sea surface temperatures normally recede relatively quickly from annual peaks, this year they stayed high, […]

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US climate activists smear paint on Degas sculpture enclosure

WASHINGTON, April 27, 2023 (AFP) – Climate activists attacked a famous Degas sculpture in a Washington museum Thursday, smearing its Plexiglas enclosure with paint. The French artist’s wax sculpture of ‘La petite danseuse de quatorze ans’ was attacked with stripes of red and black paint, the National Gallery of Art reported. The incident was one of the first of its kind in North America. The gallery said in a statement to AFP that the work […]

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Global warming made Horn of Africa drought possible: report

by Delphine PAYSANT / Benjamin LEGENDRE Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — A devastating drought that has struck the Horn of Africa could not have occurred without global warming, according to a new report released Thursday from an international team of climate scientists. “Human-caused climate change has made agricultural drought in the Horn of Africa about 100 times more likely,” said a summary of the report by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group. “The ongoing […]

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Thousands rally outside UK parliament in biodiversity protest

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Thousands of protesters descended on Britain’s parliament Saturday as part of a four-day campaign designed to “highlight the environmental failures” of government. Environmental group Extinction Rebellion (XR) kicked off the event on Friday, promising less disruption and more inclusion than the blockades that became its trademark. The group says thousands of people protested outside government departments in London on Friday “to highlight the environmental and social failures across them all,” […]

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UN reports ‘off the charts’ melting of glaciers

by Robin MILLARD The world’s glaciers melted at dramatic speed last year and saving them is effectively a lost cause, the United Nations reported Friday, as climate change indicators once again hit record highs. The last eight years have been the warmest ever recorded, while concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide hit new peaks, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization said. “Antarctic sea ice fell to its lowest extent on record and the melting […]

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Fast-warming Europe risks more summer droughts: monitor

by Roland LLOYD PARRY Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — A fierce drought melted glaciers during Europe’s hottest recorded summer last year, a phenomenon that could repeat as the continent warms at nearly twice the global rate, the EU’s climate observatory said Thursday. Two-thirds of Europe’s rivers fell below average levels and five cubic kilometres (two cubic miles) of ice disappeared from Alpine glaciers, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said in its yearly update. […]

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‘Hotter and hotter’: Swathes of Asia sweat in heatwave

Bangkok, Thailand | AFP | Wednesday 4/19/2023 Sweltering under a blistering sun, people across South and Southeast Asia have been taking cover beneath any shelter they can find as they pray for cooling rains with record temperatures hitting the region. Bangladesh saw its highest temperature for almost 60 years in the past week, while in India at least 13 people died from heatstroke along with two in Thailand, according to local media. “It’s hotter and […]

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Heatstroke kills 11 at India awards event

New Delhi, India | AFP | Monday 4/17/2023 Eleven people died of heatstroke in India after an estimated one million spectators waited for hours in the sun at a government-sponsored awards ceremony, officials said on Monday. Around 20 people were hospitalised and 300 felt ill at the event near the western city of Mumbai on Sunday, when temperatures hit close to 38 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) with high levels of humidity, local media reported. Senior […]

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‘Big sponge’: new CO2 tech taps oceans to tackle global warming

by Romain FONSEGRIVES Agence France-Presse SAN PEDRO, United States (AFP) — Floating in the port of Los Angeles, a strange-looking barge covered with pipes and tanks contains a concept that scientists hope to make waves: a new way to use the ocean as a vast carbon dioxide sponge to tackle global warming. Scientists from University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) have been working for two years on SeaChange — an ambitious project that could one […]

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IMF chief urges world to avoid a ‘second Cold War’

by Daniel AVIS Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Countries must do more to avert the costly consequences of growing global trade fragmentation and help avert a “second Cold War,” the International Monetary Fund’s managing director said Thursday. “I am among those who know what are the consequences of a Cold War: it is loss of talent and contribution to the world,” Kristalina Georgieva said during a press conference at the official start of […]

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‘Flash drought’ frequency increasing due to climate change: study

by Lucie AUBOURG Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Dry-spells known as flash droughts, with a surprisingly rapid onset and often devastating impact, are becoming more frequent as human activity warms the planet, according to a study published Thursday. Though droughts are generally thought of as long-term phenomena, some can occur quite suddenly, in a matter of weeks, when the conditions are right. Global warming is a recipe for increasing those special conditions around […]

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How Japan’s big plans for a ‘hydrogen society’ fell flat

by Etienne BALMER Agence France-Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — It was once touted as a miracle solution to Japan’s energy problems: creating a “hydrogen society” by sharply ramping up use of the fuel for vehicles, industry and housing. But the country’s plan to expand its hydrogen market and slash greenhouse emissions has suffered delays and criticism over the fuel’s green credentials. As G7 climate ministers meet this weekend in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo, […]

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