climate change – Page 83 – Desdemona Despair

A cargo ship transits the Panama Canal on 21 April 2019 on its way to the Atlantic Ocean, while tree trunks that used to be submerged are exposed due to the low water levels of Gatún lake, Panama. An intense drought related to this year’s El Niño phenomenon has precipitously lowered the level of Panama’s Gatún Lake, forcing the country’s Canal Authority to impose draft limits this week on ships moving through the waterway’s recently expanded locks. Photo: Arnulfo Franco / AP Photo

January 4, 2020

Water shortages dog Panama Canal, 20 years after its transfer – “It really has been the driest dry season we’ve had in the history of the canal”

31 December 2019 (DW) – The Panama Canal’s handover from the United States 20 years ago has been marked in Panama amid water supply worries. Managers say less rainfall due to climate change has depleted the inter-ocean conduit’s Gatun Lake. President Laurentino Cortizo hoisted a giant Panamanian flag outside Canal headquarters Tuesday as its operators […]

A kangaroo rushes past a burning house on 31 December 2019 in Conjola, on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia. Photo: Matthew Abbott / The New York Times / Redux / Eyevine

January 3, 2020

Australia authorities plead for last-ditch evacuation, with terrible fire conditions ahead

By Ben Smee 3 January 2020 (The Guardian) – Australian authorities have made a final plea for people to flee bushfire-affected areas in three states before the onset of extreme conditions so dangerous that firefighters may be unable to defend entire towns. On Friday, authorities in New South Wales urged people still in a 14,000 […]

Global primary energy consumption by region, 2010-2050. Data: U.S. Energy Information Administration International Energy Outlook 2019 reference case. Graphic: EIA

January 3, 2020

EIA projects nearly 50 percent increase in world energy usage by 2050, led by growth in Asia – Carbon dioxide emissions to grow from all three fossil fuel sources

3 January 2020 (EIA) – In its newly released International Energy Outlook 2019 (IEO2019) Reference case, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that world energy consumption will grow by nearly 50 percent between 2018 and 2050. Most of this growth comes from countries that are not in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and […]

Aerial view of smoke rising from a bushfire burning at East Gippsland, Victoria, 2 January 2020. Photo: EPA / BBC News

January 2, 2020

Tens of thousands stranded while attempting to flee Australia fires – Cashless economy collapses as ATMs fail, supermarket looted – “We have no capacity to contain these fires”

By Ben Smee and Luke Henriques-Gomes 2 January 2020 (The Guardian) – Tens of thousands of people remained stranded on Thursday evening while attempting to flee bushfire-ravaged areas of the south-east Australian coast – having earlier been urged to leave before the return of extreme and dangerous weather conditions. The mass evacuation of communities in […]

Youths pull out an ox stuck in muddy waters in the drying Mabwematema dam in Zimbabwe on 25 December 2019. Photo: Zinyange Auntony / AFP / Getty Images

January 1, 2020

The 2010s were a lost decade for climate. We can’t afford a repeat, scientists warn.

By Sarah Kaplan 31 December 2019 (The Washington Post) – At the start of the last decade, Kallan Benson was 5 years old, her favorite story was “The Secret Garden,” and Earth was in the midst of its warmest year on record. Benson had heard about climate change (her mother is an environmental scientist), but she […]

Marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. When asked about abrupt clikmate change, she says that we’re witnessing an exciting “feminist climate renaissance”. Photo: Violetta Markelou / Huffington Post

January 1, 2020

We spoke to five climate experts about what gives them hope – “I have a tenuous relationship with hope these days, but I am certainly bolstered by the fact that we already have all the solutions we need”

By Kyla Mandel 26 December 2019 (Huffington Post) – This year comes to a close after an onslaught of bleak and terrifying revelations about the state of our planet. Glaciers are melting, species are dying, forests are burning and climate tipping points ― thresholds which, if breached, will usher in uncontrollable warming ― are about […]

One woman shared this picture of her young son wearing a mask and life jacket as the family fled on to a boat to escape the bushfires at Mallacoota, Victoria, Australia on 30 December 2019. Photo: ABC News (Australia)

December 31, 2019

Raging wildfires trap 4,000 at Australian town’s waterfront – Military deployed to help rescue effort – “It should have been daylight but it was black like midnight and we could hear the fire roaring”

By Tristan Lavalette 31 December 2019 PERTH, Australia (AP) – Wildfires burning across Australia’s two most populous states Tuesday trapped residents of a seaside town in apocalyptic conditions and killed at least two people while more property along the country’s east coast fell victim to a devastating fire season. About 4,000 residents in the southeastern […]

This before-and-after image shows satellite images of Lake Kariba, on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, in December 2018 and December 2019. The lake has dropped to critically low levels. Photo: NASA Earth Observatory

December 31, 2019

Drought threatens millions in Southern Africa – “This year’s drought is unprecedented, causing food shortages on a scale we have never seen here before”

By Michael Carlowicz 17 December 2019 (NASA) – Southern Africa is suffering through its worst drought in several decades and perhaps a century. Diminished and late rainfall, combined with long-term increases in temperatures, have jeopardized the food security and energy supplies of millions of people in the region, most acutely in Zambia and Zimbabwe. According […]

Extreme weather events across the world caused more than $100 billion worth of damage in 2019. The most financially costly disasters were wildfires in California, which caused $25 billion in damage, followed by Typhoon Hagibis in Japan ($15 billion) and floods in the American mid-west ($12.5 billion) and China ($12 billion). The events with the greatest loss of life were floods in Northern India which killed 1,900 and Cyclone Idai which killed 1,300. Data: Christian Aid. Graphic: The Guardian

December 31, 2019

15 climate disasters of 2019 that cost more than $1 billion – “It is no wonder youth around the world are taking to the streets to demand that we write a different story towards a better future”

27 December 2019 (Christian Aid) – Extreme weather, driven by climate change, hit every populated continent in 2019, killing, injuring and displacing millions and causing billions of dollars of economic damage, according to a new report by Christian Aid. […] Counting the Cost 2019: a year of climate breakdown identifies 15 of the most destructive droughts, […]

This is all the snow there is in Moscow on 28 December 2019. The snow was trucked in and is being guarded in the Red Square. Photo: mariksa_10 / Instagram

December 31, 2019

Moscow resorts to fake snow in warmest December since 1886 – “It’s not normal at all”

By Andrew Roth 29 December 2019 MOSCOW (The Guardian) – Moscow has been so warm this December that the government has resorted to sending trucks filled with artificial snow to decorate a new year display in the city centre. Videos of the delivery for a snowboarding hill went viral as observers noted the irony of […]