Europe – Page 11 – Desdemona Despair

The body of a dolphin washed up on a beach in a nature reserve in the Odesa region of Ukraine, one of thousands killed in 2022 during Russia’s war on Ukraine. Photo: Ivan Rusev / RFE/RL

December 4, 2022

Tens of thousands of dead dolphins among environmental casualties of Ukraine war – “When the Black Sea was being bombed, we could feel it too”

By Stuart Greer 3 December 2022 (RFE/RL) – A Ukrainian marine biologist estimates that at least 50,000 Black Sea dolphins have been killed as a result of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Ivan Rusev says he’s shocked by the number of dolphin carcasses that have washed up on the shores of his nature reserve in […]

U.S. President Joe Biden departs after speaking at the COP27 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, 11 November 2022, at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Photo: Alex Brandon / AP Photo

November 20, 2022

COP27 ends in tears and frustration – Reactions from participants – “The world will not thank us”

By Camilla Hodgson 20 November 2022 Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt (Financial Times) – Choking back his emotions, Tuvalu finance minister Seve Paeniu held up a photo of five youth delegates from his country and expressed his “deep regret and disappointment” that COP27 had been a “missed opportunity”. More than 80 countries had supported a proposal to […]

Landsat images from 21 February 2000 (left) and 27 July 2019 (right) illustrating glacier retreat on top of Mount Kilimanjaro (United Republic of Tanzania). Photo: U.S. Geological Survey

November 19, 2022

Kilimanjaro’s and Africa’s last glaciers to go by 2050, says UN – “What is quite unprecedented in the historical record is how quickly this is happening”

By Patrick Hughes 3 November 2022 (BBC News) – Glaciers across the globe – including the last ones in Africa – will be unavoidably lost by 2050 due to climate change, the UN says in a report [UNESCO finds that some iconic World Heritage glaciers will disappear by 2050 –Des]. Glaciers in a third of […]

Components of the global carbon budget and their uncertainties, 1960-2021 and projected to 2022. Components are presented individually for (a) fossil CO2 and cement carbonation emissions (EFOS), (b) growth rate in atmospheric CO2 concentration (GATM), (c) emissions from land-use change (ELUC), (d) the land CO2 sink (SLAND), (e) the ocean CO2 sink (SOCEAN), and (f) the budget imbalance that is not accounted for by the other terms. Positive values of SLAND and SOCEAN represent a flux from the atmosphere to land or the ocean. All data are in GtC yr−1 with the uncertainty bounds representing ±1 standard deviation in shaded colour. Data sources are as in Fig. 3. The red dots indicate our projections for the year 2022, and the red error bars the uncertainty in the projections. Graphic: Friedlingstein, et al., 2022 / Earth System Science Data

November 19, 2022

Global Carbon Budget 2022: Global carbon emissions in 2022 remain at record levels – No sign of decrease in global CO2 emissions – “This year we see yet another rise in global fossil CO2 emissions, when we need a rapid decline”

11 November 2022 (Global Carbon Project) – Global carbon emissions in 2022 remain at record levels – with no sign of the decrease that is urgently needed to limit warming to 1.5°C, according to the Global Carbon Project science team (Global Carbon Budget 2022). If current emissions levels persist, there is now a 50% chance […]

Smoke rises form chimneys of a steel plant in Ostrava, Czech Republic, Friday, 11 November 2022. High energy prices linked to Russia’s war on Ukraine have paved the way for coal’s comeback, endangering climate goals and threatening health from increased pollution. Photo: AP Photo / Petr David Josek

November 19, 2022

High energy prices lead to coal revival in Czech Republic – “The short-term effect is quite obvious: the air pollution will be worse because of the higher coal consumption”

By Karel Janicek 18 November 2022 OSTRAVA, Czech Republic (AP) – In this part of northeastern Czech Republic, huge piles of coal are stacked up ready to sell to eager buyers and smoke belches from coal-fired plants that are ramping up instead of winding down. Ostrava has been working for decades to end its legacy […]

Near-surface temperature differences relative to the 1981–2010 average for 2022 to September. The map shows the median anomaly calculated from six data sets: HadCRUT5, ERA5, JRA-55, GISTEMP, NOAAGlobalTemp, and Berkeley Earth. Graphic: WMO

November 7, 2022

State of the Global Climate 2022: Sea level rise accelerates, European glacier melt shatters records, extreme weather causes devastation – “What climate scientists have warned about for decades is upon us”

By Seth Borenstein 6 November 2022 SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) – Earth’s warming weather and rising seas are getting worse and doing so faster than before, the World Meteorological Organization warned Sunday in a somber note as world leaders started gathering for international climate negotiations. [Eight warmest years on record witness upsurge in climate change impacts –Des] […]

Projections of GHG emissions under different scenarios to 2050 and indications of emissions gap and global warming implications over this century (medians only). Looking beyond 2030, this figure projects global GHG emissions out to 2050 under different scenarios and indicates the associated global warming implications over this century. The figure illustrates the substantial increase in the emissions gap for 2050 if climate efforts implied by current policies and NDC scenarios are continued without further strengthening. Implementation of net-zero targets by around mid-century would significantly reduce these gaps, but even then, gaps with the 1.5°C scenarios would remain. Graphic: UNEP

November 1, 2022

UN: Inadequate progress on climate action makes rapid transformation of societies only option – “It is a tall, and some would say impossible, order to reform the global economy and almost halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, but we must try”

NAIROBI, 27 October 2022 – As intensifying climate impacts across the globe hammer home the message that greenhouse gas emissions must fall rapidly, a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report finds that the international community is still falling far short of the Paris goals, with no credible pathway to 1.5°C in place. However, the Emissions Gap Report […]

Projected changes in surface temperatures in the Alps, 2021-2050. The Alpine region experiences a higher temperature rise than peri-Alpine areas or at least that the temperature changes start earlier. Large parts of Bavaria, Lombardy and other regions depend on ecosystem services provided by the Alps. Decreasing quantities of water and a reduced reliability of supply will become major issues in the coming decades. This affects not only the drinking water supply but also agriculture, energy production, and industrial cooling demand. Graphic: FAU

October 29, 2022

Water woes loom in the Alps amid climate change – “Reduced quantities of water and limited reliability of water supply will be a major issue in the coming decades”

By Jamey Keaten 27 October 2022 BRIG, Switzerland (AP) – A battle is brewing around Europe’s rooftop over the planet’s most precious resource. The crystal-clear waters issuing from the Alps could become increasingly contested as the effects of climate change and glacier melt become more apparent. Italy wants them for crop irrigation in the spring […]

Quarterly profits of five major oil companies in the West, 2018-2022 in billions of U.S. dollars. Data for Shell, BP, Chevron, Exxon, and Total Energies are shown. In Q3 2022, global energy giants including Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) and Chevron Corp (CVX.N) posted another round of huge quarterly profits, benefiting from surging natural gas and fuel prices that have boosted inflation around the world and led to fresh calls to further tax the sector. Four of the five largest global oil companies have now reported results, combining for nearly $50 billion in net income, lifted by tight global markets and disruption following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Graphic: Reuters

October 29, 2022

Oil giants’ massive profits revive calls for windfall taxes – “The Russian war in Ukraine has changed the energy markets, reduced energy availability and increased prices”

By Sabrina Valle and Ron Bousso 28 October 2022 (Reuters) – Global energy giants including Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) and Chevron Corp (CVX.N) posted another round of huge quarterly profits, benefiting from surging natural gas and fuel prices that have boosted inflation around the world and led to fresh calls to further tax the sector. Four of the five […]

Map showing Biodiversity Intactness Index for the year 2020 at 0.25° resolution. The global average is 77 percent. Data: Natural History Museum, 2022. Graphic: WWF / ZSL

October 27, 2022

WWF’s Living Planet Report 2022 reveals devastating 69 percent average drop in wildlife populations since 1970 – “We have cut away the very foundation of life and the situation continues to worsen”

TORONTO, 12 October 2022 (WWF-Canada) – Monitored wildlife populations — mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish — have seen a devastating 69 per cent drop on average since 1970 according to WWF’s Living Planet Report (LPR) 2022. The report highlights the stark outlook of the state of nature and urgently warns governments, businesses and the public to take […]