Tag: climate

January was Australia’s hottest month ever: govt

  SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia suffered its hottest month ever in January, when widespread heatwaves exacerbated an already devastating drought, fuelled bushfires and contributed to mass fish deaths, officials reported Friday. The government’s Bureau of Meteorology said the mean temperature across the vast continent in January exceeded 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time in recorded history. “We saw heatwave conditions affect large parts of the country through most of the […]

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Climate change pushing killer whales to migrate north

by Olivier MORIN with Gael BRANCHEREAU in Stockholm Agence France-Presse NORWAY (AFP) — Paying no attention to nearby divers, a killer whale and her calf hunting for food frolic in a snowy Norwegian fjord. Their favorite meal, herring, abounds, but climate change means both predator and prey must increasingly migrate further north. The clear and calm waters of Reisafjorden, in Norway’s Far North, have in recent years become the winter playground of the Scandinavian country’s killer […]

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‘Radical rethink’ needed to tackle obesity, hunger, climate: report

by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — To defeat the intertwined pandemics of obesity, hunger and climate change, governments must curb the political influence of major corporations, said a major report Monday calling for a ‘global treaty’ similar to one for tobacco control. Bu this will not happen unless ordinary citizens demand a “radical rethink” of the relationship between policymakers and business, nearly four dozen experts from The Lancet Commission on Obesity […]

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Tiny killer threatens giant clam, aquatic emblem of the Med

by Claudine RENAUD Agence France-Presse Villefranche-sur-Mer, France (AFP) — With wing-shaped shells lined with iridescent mother-of-pearl and producing the fibers of rare and delicate sea silk, the noble pen shell clam is one of the most emblematic species in the Mediterranean and a bellwether for marine environmental health. But the giant mollusk, the world’s second biggest, is under mortal threat from a parasite that has ravaged populations since it was identified along Spanish coasts in 2016. Scientists […]

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Greenland ice melts four times faster in a decade: study

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) — Greenland’s melting ice, which causes sea levels to rise, disappeared four times faster in 2013 than in 2003 and is noticeable across the Arctic island, not just on glaciers, researchers warned on Tuesday. “While 111 cubic kilometers of ice disappeared per year in 2003, 10 years later this figure had almost quadrupled to 428 cubic kilometers,” the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) Space Lab said in a statement. Its researchers contributed […]

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Human diet causing ‘catastrophic’ damage to planet: study

by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — The way humanity produces and eats food must radically change to avoid millions of deaths and “catastrophic” damage to the planet, according to a landmark study published Thursday. The key to both goals is a dramatic shift in the global diet — roughly half as much sugar and red meat, and twice as many vegetables, fruits and nuts, a consortium of three dozen researchers concluded […]

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Fixing the environment: when solutions become problems

by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — In a world where climate change, air and water pollution, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, ozone depletion, and other environmental problems overlap, a fix in one arena can cause trouble in another. Here are a few examples of what might be called Earth’s “zero-sum” dilemma in the 21st century. Water vs. ocean pollution A study released Monday shows for the first time that more than 16,000 […]

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World’s oceans are heating up at a quickening pace: study

TAMPA, United States (AFP) — The world’s oceans are heating up at an accelerating pace as global warming threatens a diverse range of marine life and a major food supply for the planet, researchers said Thursday. The findings in the US journal Science, led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, debunk previous reports that suggested a so-called pause in global warming in recent years. The latest technology shows no such hiatus ever existed, raising new […]

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Energy-related carbon emissions rose in US in 2018: study

PARIS, France (AFP) — Carbon dioxide emissions significantly increased in the United States in 2018, according to a study released Tuesday by research firm Rhodium Group. Analysts estimate that energy-related CO2 emissions grew 3.4 percent from 2017 to 2018, which would be the largest increase in the United States since 2010. The estimate was based on US government energy statistics and other public and private data on oil consumption and power generation for the first […]

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Climate change takes toll on French oyster farmers

by Elia VAISSIERE Agence France Presse CANCALE, France (AFP) — Gulping down oysters has long been a favourite New Year’s Eve ritual for the French, but as winters get warmer and summers get drier many growers worry there will soon be fewer of the prized mollusks to go around. “Twenty years ago, we’d be shivering in the warehouse while preparing the holiday orders. Today it’s 15 degrees (60 Fahrenheit),” says Brittany oysterman Mathieu Le Moal, […]

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Permafrost thaw threatens 70 percent of Arctic infrastructure: study

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A warming climate is thawing permafrost and up to 70 percent of infrastructure in the Arctic region is at risk, including key oil and gas fields, a new study said Wednesday. Researchers used detailed information on infrastructure across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost zone to model with unprecedented detail just how many buildings, roads, railways and other construction could be at risk by 2050. “The magnitude of the threat was in a […]

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Fighting climate change in the shadow of Mount Everest

by Paavan MATHEMA Agence France Presse NEPAL (AFP) — Formed in the shadow of Mount Everest, the turquoise depths of Nepal’s Imja glacial lake would be a breathtaking miracle of nature to behold — were they not a portent of catastrophic floods. Scientists warn that as climate change causes Himalayan glaciers to melt at an alarming rate, lakes like Imja could swell further and eventually collapse, triggering a terrifying deluge in Nepal, an impoverished nation […]

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