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GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Hurricane Ida, which slammed into the US Gulf Coast at the weekend, could become the costliest weather disaster on record, the UN said Wednesday, hailing though that prevention measures had dramatically limited casualties. Louisiana and Mississippi are still taking stock of the disaster inflicted by the powerful Category 4 storm that hit exactly 16 years after Hurricane Katrina made landfall and devastated the area. Ida is known to have killed […]
by Nina LARSON Agence France Presse Weather-related disasters have skyrocketed over the past half-century, causing far more damage even as better warning systems have meant fewer deaths, the UN said Wednesday. A report from the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) examined mortality and economic losses from weather, climate and water extremes between 1970 and 2019. It found that such disasters have increased fivefold during that period, driven largely by a warming planet, and warned […]
by Ben Simon JERUSALEM, Undefined (AFP) — As scientific warnings of dire climate change-induced drought grow, many in Israel and Jordan cast worried eyes at the river running between them and the critical but limited resources they share. This month the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change showed unequivocally that the climate is changing faster than previously feared, heaping pressure on finite water supplies even as demands grow greater than ever before. But experts say […]
by Daxia ROJAS NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) — Hurricane Ida battered southern Louisiana Sunday, 16 years to the day after deadly Hurricane Katrina devastated the southern US city of New Orleans. Ida slammed into the Louisiana coast as a Category 4 storm, and was downgraded to a Category 3 by evening — the same strength Katrina was when it came ashore in 2005. “Ida is a dangerous category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane […]
by Daxia ROJAS NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) — Chester Lastie clearly recalls Hurricane Katrina, which devastated his neighborhood in eastern New Orleans, 16 years ago to the day. The memories are made all the more vivid by the gusts of wind from Hurricane Ida currently battering his white house. “We were sitting in the yard about 11:00 when the levees broke” on August 29, 2005, he tells AFP. He quickly jumped in his truck […]
Hurricane Ida was upgraded to a Category Four storm, the US National Hurricane Center said Sunday, staying on course to hit New Orleans with sustained winds of 130 miles per hour (209 kilometers per hour). Sunday, when Ida is due to make landfall, marks 16 years since Katrina, the devastating hurricane that flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, left 1,800 people dead, and caused billions of dollars in damage. “Major Hurricane Ida continues to strengthen… […]
by Patrick GALEY PARIS, France (AFP) — Up to 95 percent of Earth’s ocean surface will have changed by the end of the century unless humanity reins in its carbon emissions, according to research published Thursday. Ocean surface climates, defined by surface water temperature, acidity and the concentration of the mineral aragonite — which many marine animals use to form bones and shell — support the vast majority of sea life. The world’s seas have […]
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) — Rain fell at the highest point on Greenland’s ice sheet — possibly for the first time — in an event Danish scientists on Monday said was most likely driven by climate change. The rain was observed for several hours on August 14 at a measuring post more than 3,000 metres (9,800 feet) up on the sheet, the US Snow and Ice Data Center reported. For rain to fall, temperatures must be […]
by Patrick GALEY PARIS, France (AFP) — Climate change made the deadly floods that devastated parts of Germany and Belgium last month up to nine times more likely, according to an international study published Tuesday. At least 190 people lost their lives in severe floods that pummelled western Germany in mid-July, and at least 38 people perished after extreme rainfall in Belgium’s southern Wallonia region. Using the growing speciality of attribution science, climate experts are […]
The Taliban now hold the keys to an untouched trillion-dollar trove of minerals including some that could power the world’s transition to renewable energies, but Afghanistan has long struggled to tap its vast deposits. The Taliban are already in a financial bind since they returned to power 20 years after their ouster, as major aid donors halted their support for Afghanistan. Endless wars and poor infrastructure have prevented the country from getting its hands on […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — A huge reservoir that supplies water to tens of millions of people in the Western United States is at such low levels that populations it feeds must reduce their useage next year, the government said Monday. A chronic drought has left huge swathes of the country parched, as man-made climate change forces shifts in the pattern of rainfall. That has left Lake Mead, the largest US artifical reservoir which […]
Japan braced for further downpours on Sunday as rescuers sifted through flood and landslide damage after record rain that left at least three dead. Residents returned to check on their mud-covered homes in the southwest, where nearly two million people were advised to urgently seek shelter Saturday as rivers overflowed. “So many logs tumbled down and crashed into this area” from nearby mountains, an elderly resident of Kanzaki in Saga prefecture told public broadcaster NHK. […]
