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by Marlowe Hood Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Even if humanity slashes greenhouse gas emissions in line with Paris climate treaty goals, the planet could overwhelm such efforts and irretrievably tip into a hellish ‘hothouse’ state, top scientists warned Monday. Under such a scenario, Earth’s average temperature would stabilize 4 or 5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, rather than the 1.5 C to 2 C (2.7 or 3.6 Fahrenheit) cap called for […]
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — The planet’s largest colony of king penguins has declined by nearly 90 percent in three decades, alarmed researchers said Monday. The last time scientists set foot on France’s remote Ile aux Cochons — roughly halfway between the tip of Africa and Antarctica — the island was blanketed by two million of the flightless birds, which stand about a meter (three feet) tall. But recent satellite […]
by Kerry Sheridan © Agence France-Presse SARASOTA, United States (AFP) — Along sun-splashed shorelines in the US state of Florida, home prices are on the rise, developers are busy building new complexes, and listings just blocks from the beach describe homes that are “not in a flood zone,” meaning no flood insurance is required. But experts warn that ignoring sea level rise won’t prevent a looming economic crisis caused by water-logged homes that will someday […]
by Marlowe Hood © Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — How quickly humanity draws down the greenhouse gases driving global warming will determine whether sea levels rise half-a-metre or six times that, even if Paris climate pact goals are fully met, researchers reported Tuesday in a study. “The trajectory of emissions in the next few decades will shape our coastlines in the centuries to come,” lead author Matthias Mengel, a scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate […]
by Kerry SHERIDAN Agence France Presse MIAMI, United States (AFP) — A rapidly warming Arctic, where temperatures are rising twice as fast as the rest of the planet, is the “new normal,” and the melting ice is triggering environmental changes that will affect the whole world, warned a global scientific report Tuesday. The Arctic is going through “an unprecedented transition in human history,” that will accelerate sea level rise and boost the frequency of extreme […]
by Marlowe Hood Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — The UN’s forecast for global warming is about 15 percent too low, which means end-of-century temperatures could be 0.5 degrees Celsius higher than currently predicted, said a study released Wednesday. The prediction makes the already daunting challenge of capping global warming at “well under” 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) — the cornerstone goal of the 196-nation Paris Agreement — all the more difficult, the […]
by Mariette le Roux and Marlowe Hood Agence France Presse BONN, Germany (AFP) — Negotiations to bolster the climate-saving Paris Agreement, crafted over two decades, closed in Bonn Saturday, deflated but not derailed by Donald Trump’s rejection of the treaty and defense of fossil fuels. The US President’s decision to yank the United States from the hard-fought global pact cast a long shadow over the talks, which ran deep into overtime. Negotiations were marked by […]
by Mariette le Roux and Marlowe Hood Agence France Presse BONN, Germany — World leaders shared the spotlight with a 12-year-old Pacific islander on Wednesday to drive home a plea for urgent climate action despite the Trump administration’s rejection of a planet rescue plan. UN chief Antonio Guterres, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel led the diplomatic push in Bonn, but it was a small boy with a big smile who got the message […]
by Marlowe Hood Agence France-Presse BONN, Germany (AFP) — Injecting billions of reflective particles into the stratosphere could help cool an overheating planet, but would also alter the intensity of tropical storms, researchers said Tuesday. Depending on the hemisphere in which such aerosols are released, hurricanes in the North Atlantic would become weaker or stronger, they reported in Nature Communications. Moreover, efforts to engineer lower global temperatures could induce severe drought in northern Africa’s Sahel, a region […]
by Marlowe Hood Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — The failure of wealthy nations to deliver on short-term climate commitments could hinder the rollout of a landmark treaty, a bloc of 134 developing countries, including India and China, warned Thursday at UN negotiations in Bonn. The diplomatic spat has underscored the difficulty of reaching a consensus at the 196-nation talks. “If we do not respect decisions that we have made, then how can we build trust among the […]
by Marlowe Hood Agence France Presse BONN, Germany (AFP) — 2017 is on track to be the hottest year on record except for two warmed by El Nino phenomena, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization said Monday. Even if the cyclical weather events — which bump up global temperatures every three to seven years — are included, this year will still be one of the three warmest ever, the WMO said as it issued its […]
by Ben Simon Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has hit a new high, the UN said Monday, warning that drastic action is needed to achieve targets set by the Paris climate agreement. “Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surged at a record-breaking speed in 2016 to the highest level in 800,000 years,” the World Meteorological Organization said. “Globally averaged concentrations of CO2 reached […]
