climate change – Page 94 – Desdemona Despair

The top 20 companies that have contributed to 480 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent since 1965. At the top is Saudi Aramco, followed by Chevron, Gazprom, and Exxon Mobil. Data: Richard Heede / Climate Accountability Institute. Graphic: The Guardian

October 9, 2019

Revealed: the 20 firms behind a third of all carbon emissions – “The great tragedy of the climate crisis is that seven and a half billion people must pay the price so that a couple of dozen polluting interests can continue to make record profits”

By Matthew Taylor and Jonathan Watts 9 October 2019 (The Guardian) – The Guardian today reveals the 20 fossil fuel companies whose relentless exploitation of the world’s oil, gas and coal reserves can be directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern era. New data from world-renowned researchers [Climate […]

An expedition aboard the “Academic Mstislav Keldysh” discovered a 50-square-foot patch of bubbling methane in the East Siberian Sea Photo: Shirshov Institute of Oceanology

October 9, 2019

Russian scientists find giant methane fountains in Arctic Ocean – “This is the most powerful seep I have ever been able to observe”

By Alec Luhn 8 October 2019 MOSCOW (The Telegraph) – Russian scientists in the Arctic Ocean said they have discovered the most powerful methane gas fountain ever recorded, highlighting the danger of this greenhouse gas accelerating climate change or causing an oil or gas spill as it erupts from thawing permafrost. A research expedition from […]

Aerial view of houses inundated by monsoon floodwaters in Prayagraj, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on 28 September 2019. Photo: Rajesh Kumar Singh

October 7, 2019

Photo gallery: Flooding in India during heaviest monsoon rainfall in 25 years

By Niha Masih 1 October 2019 NEW DELHI – People using rafts on roads, waterlogged hospitals and shops, food packets being airdropped — this is what life has been like in the northern Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh after heavy rains led to large-scale flooding. India received the heaviest monsoon rainfall in 25 years, […]

The sun shines orange through through smoke from wildfires in Bolivia in September 2019. Photo: Adolfo Lino / Mongabay

October 7, 2019

Fires still being set in blazing Bolivia – Up to 18 million wild animals killed, including 500 rare jaguars – “Bolivia needs to rethink its agricultural strategy, as the future of its immeasurable biodiversity is at stake”

By Claire Wordley 1 October 2019 (Mongabay) – Despite over six weeks of firefighting, the infernos destroying Bolivia’s forests continue to spread. 5.3 million hectares (about 13.1 million acres) — an area larger than the whole of Costa Rica — have been destroyed, and about 40 percent of that area was forest. A perfect storm of factors — from […]

$Screenshot from drone video of a fracked gas well blowout at wells operated by GEP Haynesville, LLC, in Red River Parish, Louisiana, on 1 October 2019. According to Patrick Courreges with LDNR, the well heads have been initially capped and the flow redirected through piping to flare pits to contain the produced water and keep the heat away from the wellheads where workers are trying to kill the wells at surface. Photo: Phin Percy Jr.$

October 5, 2019

Already burning for five weeks, fracked gas blowout in Louisiana could last two more months

By Julie Dermansky 4 October 2019 (DeSmog) – For the fifth week since the blowout began, a large flare is still burning at the site of GEP Haynesville, LLC’s blown out fracked gas wells in northwestern Louisiana. The blowout occurred on 30 August 2019, shortly after the company began a frack job, igniting two adjacent wells. A state official estimated […]

Map showing the coefficient of variation of precipitation (CVP) and its historical and projected changes in the continental United States. (A and B) Historical (1981–2010) CVP from PRISM for the cool and warm seasons, respectively. The bounding box in (A) indicates the Southwest region used for subsequent regional analyses. (C and D) PRISM-estimated historical change in CVP (∆CVPhistorical) from the early 20th century (1901–1930) to the late 20th/early 21st century (1981–2010) for the cool and warm seasons. Graphic: Dannenberg, et al., 2019 / Science Advances

October 3, 2019

Extreme rainfall variability driving tree growth reductions in western U.S. – “Key Southwest tree species may be at risk as precipitation extremes intensify”

By Rosemary Brandt 2 October 2019 (UA News) – As the Earth’s temperature warms, its hydrological cycle kicks into overdrive – wet years get wetter, and dry years get drier. According to a new University of Arizona-led study, these increased rainfall extremes could have dire consequences for the semi-arid forests of the western U.S. “In […]

Girls in Durban South Africa march in the Global Climate Strike, 20 September 2019. Photo: Rajesh Jantilal / AFP / Getty Images

October 3, 2019

Bad ancestors: does the climate crisis violate the rights of those yet to be born?

By Astra Taylor 1 October 2019 (The Guardian) – What if climate breakdown is a violation of the rights of those yet to be born? Finally, this urgent question seems to be getting the attention it deserves. Last month an astonishing 7 million people from nearly 200 countries took to the streets as part of […]

Aerial view of damaged mangroves from a 2019 monitoring trip in the Gulf of Carpentaria. A cascade of impacts including rising sea levels, heatwaves and back-to-back tropical cyclones has created 400km of dead and badly damaged mangroves in the Gulf of Carpentaria. A cascade of impacts including rising sea levels, heatwaves and back-to-back tropical cyclones has created 400km of dead and badly damaged mangroves in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Photo: Norman Duke

October 3, 2019

Shocked scientists find 400 km of dead and damaged mangroves in Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria – “We are getting these compounding effects that we just didn’t expect”

By Graham Readfearn 3 October 2019 (The Guardian) – A cascade of impacts including rising sea levels, heatwaves and back-to-back tropical cyclones has created 400 kilometers [249 miles] of dead and badly damaged mangroves in the Gulf of Carpentaria, a scientific monitoring trip has discovered. Prof Norman Duke, of James Cook University, spent 10 days […]

Greg Wood, a Fairfax County, Virginia firefighter supporting USAID, sits in the dining tent of the camp set up on the tarmac at the Marsh Harbour Airport on 25 September 2019. The outfit has been on the ground since the hurricane, providing support to the Bahamian government. Photo: Andrew West / The USA Today Network-Florida

October 2, 2019

Bahamas struggles to right itself a month after Category 5 Hurricane Dorian brutalized islands – “Our very existence as a country of many low-lying islands and over 2,400 cays is under grave threat”

By Amy Bennett Williams 1 October 2019 NASSAU, Bahamas (Fort Myers News-Press) – Stooped and heavily laden, Keri Pierre trudged slowly uphill under blazing Bahamian sunshine. She was running out of time. As the days of her free temporary stay at Paradise Island’s Sunrise Beach Club dwindled, Pierre mounted an increasingly frantic search through Nassau for […]

The distribution of threatened tree species, Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable (CR, EN, and VU), in Europe. Data: European Red List of trees 2019. Graphic: IUCN

October 1, 2019

More than half of Europe’s endemic trees face extinction – “This report shows how dire the situation is for many overlooked, undervalued species that form the backbone of Europe’s ecosystems”

GLAND, Switzerland, 27 September 2019 (IUCN) – Over half (58 percent) of Europe’s endemic trees are threatened with extinction, according to assessments of the state of the continent’s biodiversity published today by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The introduction of invasive species, unsustainable logging and urban development are key threats causing the […]