by Marlowe HOOD Agence Presse France PARIS, France (AFP) — Of the many things that keep climate scientists awake at night, tipping points may be the scariest. To start with, these thresholds for deep, sometimes catastrophic change in the complex web of Earth’s natural forces, caused by man-made global warming, are largely invisible. You can’t see them on the horizon, and could easily cross one without noticing. Also, there is no turning back — at […]
Tag: climate
Sundance to ‘engage and provoke’ with focus on climate
by Frankie TAGGART Agence France-Presse The Sundance Film Festival opens in Utah Thursday, promising to set the agenda for independent cinema and starting the 2018 Oscars buzz a month before this year’s statuettes are awarded. The annual gathering, founded in 1985 by iconic screen outlaw Robert Redford, turns the lens on 118 independent features, as Hollywood descends on the ski resort of Park City for the 33rd edition. “From the passion and chaos of creativity, […]
Solar panels repay their energy ‘debt’: study
by Mariëtte Le Roux PARIS, France (AFP) — The climate-friendly electricity generated by solar panels in the past 40 years has all but cancelled out the polluting energy used to produce them, a study said Tuesday. Indeed, by some calculations, the so-called “break-even point” between dirty energy input and clean output may already have arrived, researchers in the Netherlands reported. “We show strong downward trends of environmental impact” of solar panel production, the team wrote […]
DiCaprio issues climate action call in new documentary
London, United Kingdom (AFP) — by Maureen COFFLARD Leonardo DiCaprio has issued an impassioned call for immediate action on climate change in “Before the Flood”, a documentary film making its European premiere in London on Saturday. The Hollywood megastar, who won this year’s best actor Oscar for his role in “The Revenant”, takes viewers around the world to meet experts and politicians in order to reveal the scale of the problem, its effects and the […]
UN’s Ban makes final appeal for action on Syria, climate
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) – by Carole LANDRY UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon used his farewell address to the General Assembly on Tuesday to urge world leaders to end the war in Syria and bring the Paris climate deal into force this year. With just three months to go before he steps down as UN chief, Ban also made a final plea to end the “madness” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and gave world leaders advice on […]
How to cope in a heat wave
EUROPE (AFP) — Advice for elderly people, children and adults for avoiding heatstroke and dehydration as parts of Europe face a heatwave.
After warming fast, part of Antarctica gets a chill – study
REUTERS — The Antarctic Peninsula, among the fastest warming places on Earth last century, has since cooled due to natural swings in the local climate, scientists said on Wednesday (July 20), adding that the respite from the thaw is likely to be brief. Rapid warming until the late 1990s on the peninsula, which snakes up towards South America, triggered the break-up of ancient ice shelves, which are vast expanses of ice floating on the sea […]
Trudeau to host Obama, Pena Nieto for North Americas summit
by Michel COMTE OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canada, Mexico and the United States will look to dovetail their climate and other policies into a continental strategy when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hosts Barack Obama and Enrique Pena Nieto on Wednesday. But Britain’s shocking vote to quit the European Union has also abruptly shoved itself onto the agenda of the summit, which the countries tend to hold once a year. Trudeau and Obama had both called […]
“COP21: The Road to Paris Starts in Manila” brings civil society at the forefront for the climate
Two months before countries all over the world gather in Paris to conclude a landmark agreement to curb global warming, France is taking an initiative to highlight the role of civil society in climate negotiations in the Philippines and abroad through a Climate Week in Manila. France, as the host of the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) this December, is responsible for […]





