Earth’s warmest March is 10th straight record month, NOAA and NASA find

Monthly global surface air temperature anomalies (°C) relative to 1850–1900 from January 1940 to March 2024, plotted as time series for each year. 2024 is shown with a thick yellow line, 2023 with a thick red line, and all other years with thin lines shaded according to the decade, from blue (1940s) to brick red (2020s). Data source: ERA5. Graphic: C3S / ECMWF

April 27, 2024

Earth’s warmest March is 10th straight record month, NOAA and NASA find

By Jonathan Erdman 12 April 2024 (Weather.com) – March was Earth’s warmest on record, according to data from three separate agencies, the latest month in a stretch of heat records since the planet’s hottest year in 2023. Another month, another record In a report released Friday, NOAA found March’s globally average temperature was 2.43 degrees Fahrenheit above […]

Map showing notable economic loss events due to natural and climate disasters in 2023. Global economic losses in 2023 were higher than the 21st century average. Economic losses from global natural disasters in 2023 are estimated at $380 billion, above long-term and short-term averages, after adjusting historical losses to today’s values using the U.S. Consumer Price Index. All continents recorded remarkable natural disaster events in 2023 and multiple countries faced the most significant disasters in their modern histories. The global map shows event and peril patterns that contributed to the overall economic losses in 2023. The largest loss driver was earthquake, yet this was largely caused by a handful of events, notably the earthquake sequence in Turkey and Syria. Severe convective storms came second, with the largest individual losses concentrated in the United States and Europe. Graphic: Aon

February 19, 2024

Aon: Number of billion-dollar disasters in 2023 highest on record – Severe convective storms were the most damaging peril for insurers

LONDON, 23 January 2024 (Aon) – Aon plc, a leading global professional services firm, today published its 2024 Climate and Catastrophe Insight report, which identifies global natural disaster and climate trends to help make better decisions to manage volatility and enhance global resilience. The report reveals that the 398 global natural disaster events caused a $380 billion (2022: $355 billion) […]

Smoke rises from a warehouse fire, owned by French recycling group SNAM, which houses lithium batteries in Viviez, north of Toulouse, France, 17 February 2024 in this image obtained from social media. Photo: Adeba / REUTERS

February 19, 2024

Fire at French lithium battery recycling plant under control after two days – 900 metric tons of lithium batteries may have burned

By Geert De Clercq and Ingrid Melander 19 February 2024 PARIS (Reuters) – A fire at a battery recycling plant in southern France is under control, though burning, the local firefighters service said on Monday, two days after the blaze began. The fire broke out in a warehouse containing 900 metric tons of lithium batteries […]

In a victory for climate scientists, jurors in Professor Michael E. Mann’s defamation case against Rand Simberg and Mark Steyn awarded Mann $1 million in punitive damages for defamatory comments made in 2012. Prof. Mann’s lawyer called attacks on the scientist “vile”. Photo: Julian Meehan / Flickr

February 9, 2024

Jury awards climate scientist Michael Mann $1 million in defamation lawsuit – “I hope people think twice before they lie and defame scientists”

By Suman Naishadham 8 February 2024 WASHINGTON (AP) – A jury on Thursday awarded $1 million to climate scientist Michael Mann who sued a pair of conservative writers 12 years ago after they compared his depictions of global warming to a convicted child molester. Mann, a professor of climate science at the University of Pennsylvania, […]

Michael Mann is a professor of earth and environmental science at the University of Pennsylvania. He’s suing a right-wing author and a policy analyst for defamation. Photo: Slaven Vlasic / Getty Images for HBO

February 8, 2024

A famous climate scientist is in court with big stakes for attacks on science – “Young people, looking at future careers, looking at how scientists are attacked are going to say, ‘Well, why do I want to go into this profession?’”

By Julia Simon 6 February 2024 (NPR) – In a D.C. courtroom, a trial is wrapping up this week with big stakes for climate science. One of the world’s most prominent climate scientists is suing a right-wing author and a policy analyst for defamation. The case comes at a time when attacks on scientists are […]

Aerial view of an illegal gold mine surrounding Yanomami Indigenous huts in Yanomami Indigenous land, Brazil, 10 January 2024. Photo: Ueslei Marcelino / REUTERS

January 27, 2024

Gold miners bring fresh wave of suffering to Brazil’s Yanomami – “This is war because people are dying. Hundreds of Yanomami have died in the humanitarian crisis, and they are Brazilians too.”

By Ueslei Marcelino and Anthony Boadle 18 January 2024 (Reuters) – Brazil is losing the upper hand in its battle to save the Yanomami Indigenous people, who are dying from flu, malaria, and malnutrition brought into their vast, isolated Amazon rainforest reservation by resurgent illegal miners. A year after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva […]

Global mean surface temperature difference compared with 1850-1900 average, 1850-2023. Six different data sets are shown. The 2023 annual average global temperature was 1.45 ± 0.12 °C above pre-industrial levels. Graphic: WMO

January 27, 2024

WMO confirms that 2023 smashed global temperature record – “Humanity’s actions are scorching the earth. 2023 was a mere preview of the catastrophic future that awaits if we don’t act now.”

12 January 2024 (WMO) – The annual average global temperature approached 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels – symbolic because the Paris Agreement on climate change aims to limit the long-term temperature increase (averaged over decades rather than an individual year like 2023) to no more than 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Six leading international datasets used for […]

Overview of the Congress Center ahead of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, 7 December 2023. Photo: Denis Balibouse / REUTERS

January 12, 2024

Davos 2024: Extreme weather and misinformation top global risks – “The widespread use of misinformation and disinformation, and tools to disseminate it, may undermine the legitimacy of newly elected governments”

By Victoria Waldersee 11 January 2024 (Reuters) – Risk specialists see extreme weather and misinformation as most likely to trigger a global crisis in the next couple of years, a World Economic Forum (WEF) survey released on Wednesday said. While extreme weather was identified as the bigger risk in 2024, misinformation and disinformation came second […]

Azerbaijan’s Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babayev speaks during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 11 December 2023. Photo: Thomas Mukoya / REUTERS

January 7, 2024

Azerbaijan names former oil exec to lead COP29 climate talks – “With another petrostate hosting the climate conference, our concerns multiply”

By Sibi Arasu 5 January 2024 (AP) – Azerbaijan’s ecology minister has been named to lead the United Nations’ annual climate talks later this year, prompting concern from some climate activists over his former ties to the state oil company in a major oil-producing nation. Mukhtar Babayev’s appointment was announced on X by the United […]

Former British energy minister Chris Skidmore is seen outside Downing Street in London, Britain on 21 May 2019. Photo: Hannah Mckay / REUTERS

January 7, 2024

UK Conservative lawmaker quits, criticizes government’s climate plans – “I can no longer condone nor continue to support a government that is committed to a course of a action that I know is wrong and will cause future harm”

By Alistair Smout 5 January 2024 LONDON (Reuters) – A former British energy minister on Friday said he would quit the ruling Conservatives and stand down as a lawmaker over the government climate record, rebuking plans to allow more North Sea oil and gas licencing. Chris Skidmore’s resignation will trigger a by-election to replace him […]

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Category: governance