global warming – Page 43 – Desdemona Despair

Global Human Development Index, 1990-2021. In 2021, the global Human Development Index value had declined two years in a row, erasing the gains of the preceding five years. The periods of the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic are indicated. Graphic: UNDP

September 17, 2022

Human Development Report 2022: For the first time, the Global Human Development Index declined for two years in a row, erasing the gains of the preceding five years – “The world is scrambling to respond to back-to-back crises”

NEW YORK, 8 September 2022 (UNDP) – The world is lurching from crisis to crisis, trapped in a cycle of firefighting and unable to tackle the roots of the troubles that confront us. Without a sharp change of course, we may be heading towards even more deprivations and injustices, warns the United Nations Development Programme […]

Satellite view of Europe in Summer 2021 and Summer 2022. In 2022, drought affected the whole of Europe. Photo: Copernicus EU

September 17, 2022

Satellite view shows Europe drying out in the drought of Summer 2022

By Ed Browne 7 September 2022 (Newsweek) – Scientists have released images of Europe from space that show just how arid the landscape has become as part of what may be the region’s worst drought in 500 years. Europe, like large swathes of the United States, is currently in the grip of extraordinary drought conditions that are […]

The carcasses of goats lie in the sand on the outskirts of Dollow, Somalia, after four failed rainy seasons have driven millions of people to the brink of famine. Photo: Hayden / ZUMA Wire / IMAGO

September 17, 2022

“Pending nightmare” in Somalia with millions at risk of starvation – “Tens of thousands of people will already have died by the time we declare a famine”

By Sertan Sanderson 14 September 2022 (DW) – A humanitarian catastrophe is imminent in Somalia and the Horn of Africa. That’s the joint assessment of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), following months of food security assessments. The number of people in dire […]

The conservation status of the world’s 58,497 tree species in 2022. Graphic: BGCI

September 17, 2022

At least one-third of Earth’s trees face extinction – Scientists issue “warning to humanity” that tree species extinction could bring economic as well as ecosystem crisis

LONDON, 1 September 2022 (BGCI) – Today a new paper by leading scientists and the Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) reveals the severe impact that tree species extinction will have on other species, ecosystems and livelihoods. This comes exactly one year on from the landmark State of the World’s Trees report, which examined global tree species and found that a […]

Residents ride on a wooden boat as they pass submerged houses amid flood water, following rains and floods during the monsoon season in Bajara village, at the banks of Manchar lake, in Sehwan, Pakistan 6 September 2022. Photo: Akhtar Soomro / REUTERS

September 7, 2022

Pakistan looks “like a sea” after floods, PM says, as 18 more die – “You wouldn’t believe the scale of destruction there”

By Syed Raza Hassan and Asif Shahzad 7 September 2022 SEHWAN, Pakistan (Reuters) – Parts of Pakistan seemed “like a sea”, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday, after visiting some of the flood-hit areas that cover as much as a third of the South Asian nation, where 18 more deaths took the toll from […]

The emissions reduction targets publicly disclosed by European companies are now aligned with a 2.4°C decarbonization pathway, or 2.2°C if corporate Scope 3 emissions (value chain) are excluded. Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands — all with targets that support 2.2°C — have the best-performing corporate sectors, inclusive of all value-chain emissions. However, despite this progress, the average temperature ratings for corporates remain well above 1.5°C across all major European economies. Data: CDP data, Oliver Wyman analysis. Graphic: CDP

September 7, 2022

G7 company emissions falling short of global climate goal, study shows – “As we approach COP27, we must get our 1.5°C goal off life support”

By Juliette Portala 6 September 2022 (Reuters) – Companies in the Group of Seven (G7) economies are failing to meet Paris Climate Agreement objectives, non-profit disclosure platform CDP and global management consultancy Oliver Wyman said on Tuesday, based on current corporate pledges to cut emissions. [Missing the Mark: 2022 analysis of global CDP temperature ratings […]

Map of Thwaites Glacier shown in Landsat 8 satellite imagery collected in February 2019. The track of the mission of the autonomous underwater vehicle is shown in orange. Changes in grounding line positions of Thwaites Glacier in the recent past shown by colored lines. Graphic: Alastair Graham / University of South Florida

September 7, 2022

Antarctica “doomsday glacier” could raise global sea levels by 10 feet – “Thwaites is really holding on today by its fingernails”

By Li Cohen 6 September 2022 (CBS News) – The loss of a glacier the size of Florida in Antarctica could wreak havoc on the world as scientists expect it would raise global sea levels up to 10 feet. It’s already melting at a fast rate — and scientists say its collapse may only rapidly […]

Lake Sawa in Iraq, 6 July 2022. The lake is filled with only 5 percent to 10 percent of its initial area. Photo: Laurence Geai / Le Monde

September 5, 2022

Iraq’s fertile valley is dying – Authorities estimate that the Euphrates could dry up as early as 2040

By Hélène Sallon 21 August 2022 (Le Monde) – From the top of the old tourist complex built on the shores of Lake Sawa, in the province of Al-Muthanna in southern Iraq, the desert stretches as far as the eye can see. The buildings have been abandoned since the 2003 US-British invasion. “In the past, […]

People make their way through a flooded area following heavy rains in Karachi, Pakistan on 24 August 2022. Photo: Shahzaib Akber / EPA 24 August 2022.

September 5, 2022

Pakistan struggles to avert danger as floods rise, death toll tops 1,300 – More than 400,000 pregnant women in Sindh province displaced by floods, only 891 have reached relief camps

By Syed Raza Hassan and Asif Shahzad 5 September 2022 ISLAMABAD/KARACHI (Reuters) – Pakistani authorities are struggling to prevent the country’s biggest lake bursting its banks and inundating nearby towns after unprecedented flooding, while the disaster management agency on Monday raised its toll of flood deaths by another 24. Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers […]

Current food security outcomes, Baidoa and Burhakaba Districts in Bay of Somalia, July to September 2022 (left) and projected food security outcomes, Baidoa and Burhakaba Districts in Bay of Somalia, October to December 2022 (right). Famine (IPC Phase 5) is projected to emerge in three areas of Bay Region, Somalia, in late 2022 in the absence of urgent, multisectoral humanitarian assistance. Although levels of acute malnutrition among children and the rate of hunger-related deaths have not yet met the IPC’s technical definition of Famine (IPC Phase 5), those thresholds are expected to be reached during the October to December 2022 projection period based on currently available information that minimal humanitarian food assistance will be delivered in these areas in November and December due to funding constraints. Data: FEWS NET and FSNAU. Graphic: FEWS NET Somalia

September 5, 2022

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator says famine is at the door in Somalia – “The unprecedented failure of four consecutive rainy seasons, decades of conflict, mass displacement, severe economic issues are pushing many people to that brink”

Mogadishu, 5 September 2022 (OCHA) – The Somalia Food Security and Nutrition analysis report shows concrete indications that famine will occur in Baidoa and Burhakaba districts in south-central Somalia between October and December. Full remarks to the press by Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths I have been shocked to my […]