Switzerland – Page 2 – Desdemona Despair

The area of forest fires recorded in 2022 for 11 European countries and the Mediterranean basin, compared with the average from 2006 to 2021. Data are current to 21 July 2022. Data: European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). Graphic: Le Monde

July 21, 2022

Wildfires in Europe have never been as large as in the summer of 2022 – In France and Spain, summer fires are nearly six times larger than average

By Pierre Breteau 21 July 2022 (Le Monde) – From Gironde to Brittany, France is burning as drought and exceptional heat rage. The entire European Union (EU) is also suffering from extreme weather conditions. And most of the EU 27 Member States have already suffered from fires that have destroyed areas of forest that are far greater […]

Total greenhouse gas emissions from China and OECD nations, 1990-2019. In 2019, China’s GHG emissions passed the 14 gigaton threshold for the first time, reaching 14,093 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent (MMt CO2e). This represents a more than tripling of 1990 levels, and a 25 percent increase over the past decade. As a result, China’s share of the 2019 global emissions total of 52 gigatons rose to 27 percent. Data: Rhodium Group / UNFCCC. Graphic: Rhodium Group

July 8, 2021

China’s greenhouse gas emissions exceeded the developed world for the first time in 2019

By Kate Larsen, Hannah Pitt, Mikhail Grant, and Trevor Houser 6 May 2021 (Rhodium Group) – Each year Rhodium Group provides the most up-to-date global and country-level greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions estimates through the ClimateDeck (a partnership with Breakthrough Energy). In addition to our preliminary US and China GHG estimates for 2020, Rhodium provides annual estimates of economy-wide emissions—including all […]

Distribution of major tax cuts for the rich across OECD nations, 1965-2015. This figure visualizes the resulting binary variable that picks out years in which taxes on the rich were reduced substantially. In total, we identify 30 country-year observations where taxes on the rich were significantly reduced. Governments enacted major tax reforms in all countries in our sample and across the whole observation period. Many countries implemented major tax cuts for the rich in the late 1980s. Furthermore, the identification of tax cuts is also in line with previous studies that have focused on income tax progressivity (Rubolino and Waldenström, 2020) or on overall tax progressivity single specific countries (Saez and Zucman, 2019). For instance, echoing these authors’ findings, we find two major reforms that reduced taxes on the rich in the US: 1982 (First Reagan Tax Cut) and 1986/1987 (Second Reagan Tax Cut). Graphic: Hope and Limberg, 2020 / LSE

December 25, 2020

Tax breaks for the rich don’t boost the economy – “Our research shows that the economic case for keeping taxes on the rich low is weak”

16 December 2020 (LSE) – Major reforms reducing taxes on the rich lead to higher income inequality but do not have any significant effect on economic growth or unemployment, according to new research by LSE and King’s College London. Researchers say governments seeking to restore public finances following the COVID-19 crisis should therefore not be […]

Rhone Glacier and Trient Glacier in Switzerland before and after melt caused by global warming. Photo: ReutersRhone Glacier and Trient Glacier in Switzerland before and after melt caused by global warming. Photo: Reuters

December 2, 2019

New photos vs old: comparisons show dramatic Swiss glacier retreat – “We have never seen such a fast rate of glacial decline since the measurements have started”

By Denis Balibouse 25 November 2019 THE FURKA PASS, Switzerland (Reuters) – On the hairpin bend of a Swiss mountain pass, a Victorian-era hotel built for tourists to admire the Rhone Glacier has been abandoned now that the ice has retreated nearly 2 km (1.2 miles) uphill. Where mighty glaciers once spilled into Swiss valleys […]

A mourner, dressed in black, stands in the Swiss Alps where the Pizol glacier once existed. The “funeral march” was held on 22 September 2019 to mark the disappearance of the Pizol glacier. Photo: Fabrice Coffrini

October 15, 2019

Swiss glacier volume reduced by 10 per cent in only five years – More than 500 small glaciers have vanished – Over the past 12 months, two percent of total Swiss glacier volume lost

15 October 2019 (Swiss Academy of Sciences) – During the summer heatwaves of 2019, glacier melt rates reached record levels. This led to another year of major losses of ice volume, as reported by the Cryospheric Commission of the Swiss Academy of Sciences. Switzerland’s glaciers have thus shrunk by 10 per cent over the past […]