Delegates applaud as COP27 president Sameh Shoukry delivers a statement during the closing plenary at the climate summit in Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday, 19 November 2022. Photo: Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters

The big takeaway from COP27? These climate conferences just aren’t working – “It really does beggar belief, that in the course of 27 COPs, there has never been a formal agreement to reduce the world’s fossil fuel use”

By Bill McGuire 20 November 2022 (The Guardian) – In the end, the recent shenanigans at the COP27 meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh at least ended up making modest progress on loss and damage: high-emissions nations agreeing to pay those countries bearing the brunt of climate mayhem that they had little to do with bringing about. But, yet […]

An activist holds a sign showing Earth with a fever and an oral thermometer at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), in Sharm El-Sheikh, 19 November 2022. Photo: Sedat Suna / EPA

The 1.5C climate goal died at COP27, but hope must not – “It is mindboggling that countries did not muster the courage to call for phasing down fossil fuels”

By Damian Carrington 20 November 2022 (The Guardian) – When the history of the climate crisis is written, in whatever world awaits us, COP27 will be seen as the moment when the dream of keeping global heating below 1.5C died. Does that mean giving up? Absolutely not. The 1.5C target is not a threshold beyond which hope […]

Abortion laws by U.S. state in 2022 after the after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health U.S. Supreme Court decision. Graphic: Center for Reproductive Rights

Dr. Katelyn Jetelina: Data on a post-Dobbs world – “In just four short months post-Dobbs, thousands of women’s lives were impacted”

By Katelyn Jetelina, MPH PhD 7 November 2022 (Your Local Epidemiologist) – Last week, five new studies provided a first look into Dobbs v. Jackson’s impact on access to abortion care. This was largely thanks to JAMA Network that published a special issue on this topic. This is the story that data is telling. Shift in location of abortions Just […]

Number of U.S. dollar billionaires in China, 1999-2022. The year 2022 saw the biggest fall in the Hurun China Rich List in the 24 years of its existence. Data: Hurun Research Institute. Graphic: James P. Galasyn

China’s superrich decimated as economic downturn wipes out billions – “This year has seen the biggest fall in the Hurun China Rich List of the last 24 years”

By John Feng 8 November 2022 (Newsweek) – China’s wealthy lost hundreds of billions of dollars in 2022 as the global economic downturn also shook up the country’s typically high-growth industries, according to an annual rich list published on Tuesday. The number of Chinese entrepreneurs worth 5 billion Chinese yuan ($710 million) or more on September 15 […]

Nakeeyat Dramani Sam holds up a placard at an informal stocktaking session during the COP27 climate summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, 18 November 2022. Photo: Mohamed Abd El Ghany / REUTERS

COP27 nears breakthrough on climate finance in scramble for final deal – “We’d rather have no decision than a bad decision”

By Kate Abnett, Shadia Nasralla, and Gloria Dickie 19 November 2022 SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) – Negotiators at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt neared a breakthrough deal on Saturday for a fund to help poor countries being ravaged by the impacts of global warming but remained locked over how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions driving […]

Rows of crosses sit at the mass grave site at the Holy Cross Memorial Garden for victims of super Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban, central Philippines on Sunday, 23 October 2022. About 40 percent of the population of Tacloban was relocated to safer areas after super Typhoon Haiyan wiped out most of the villages, killing thousands when it hit central Philippines in 2013. Photo: Aaron Favila / AP Photo

Climate migration: Filipino families flee amid typhoons – “The warming of the ocean fuels more powerful tropical storms, and rising sea levels increase the impacts”

By Michael Casey, Joeal Calupitan, and Aaron Favila 17 November 2022 TACLOBAN, Philippines (AP) – After Typhoon Haiyan’s towering waves flattened scores of Philippines villages, Jeremy Garing spent days helping with recovery from the historic storm that left more than 7,300 people dead or missing and inflicted billions of dollars in damage. “I keep helping […]

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

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 […]

Mole fraction of atmospheric methane (CH4), 1984-2021. Graphic: WMO

Greenhouse gas levels hit new highs in 2022 – Biggest increase in methane since measurements began – “The continuing rise in concentrations of the main heat-trapping gases, including the record acceleration in methane levels, shows that we are heading in the wrong direction”

GENEVA / NEW YORK, 26 October 2022 (WMO) – In yet another ominous climate change warning, atmospheric levels of the three main greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide all reached new record highs in 2021, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). WMO’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin reported the biggest […]

Deforested area of Amazon rainforest in Brazil, 2006-2021, with large increases shown during the Bolsonaro regime. Data: Brazil National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Graphic: DW

Lula insists “Brazil is back” at UN climate summit

By Stuart Braun 16 November 2022 (DW) – One of the most-watched visitors to the UN climate summit in Egypt this week has been incoming Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — more commonly referred to as Lula. With his successful election campaign having included a promise to arrest record deforestation in the Amazon, Lula carried huge expectations into the yearly climate summit […]

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, Saudi Adel Al-Jubeir, Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Hassan Shoukry, Crown Prince and the Prime Minister of Bahrain Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa and other leaders pose for a family photo during the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, 7 November 2022. Photo: Mohammed Salem / REUTERS

At COP27, climate change framed as battle for survival – “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator”

By William James, Valerie Volcovici, and Simon Jessop 7 November 2022 SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) – World leaders and diplomats framed the fight against global warming as a battle for human survival during opening speeches at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt on Monday, with the head of the United Nations declaring a lack of […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial