Satellite view of East Island, Hawaii before (top) and shortly after (bottom) category 5 Hurricane Walaka in October 2018. Source: Maxar Technologies. Graphic: Jiachuan Wu / NBC News

Three islands disappeared in the past year – The same forces put coastlines around the world at risk – “The sooner we start thinking about this, the less painful it’s going to be”

By Denise Chow 9 June 2019 (NBC News) – Anote Tong can remember when Tebunginako, on the central Pacific island nation of Kiribati, was a thriving village. But beginning in the 1970s, the tide started inching closer to the houses in the village. Over the years, as strong winds whipped up monster waves and climate […]

Aerial view of Staten Island with proposed sea wall indicated. Graphic: Vox.png

Video: New York is building a wall to hold back the ocean

10 June 2019 (Vox) – Climate change is leading to increasingly violent storms. Can seawalls hold back floods? Staten Island recently received funding for a nearly 5-mile-long seawall to protect its coast. But the plan raises a lot of questions. We’re living in a dangerously dynamic world: Hurricanes are getting worse, wildfires are rampant in […]

Abnormal high temperatures in Alaska disrupt isolated communities, upset subsistence hunting patterns, and cause deaths – “It’s hard to characterize this anomaly, it’s just pretty darn remarkable for that part of the world”

By Tim Lydon 29 May 2019 (Hakai Magazine) – Alaska in March is supposed to be cold. Along the north and west coasts, the ocean should be frozen farther than the eye can see. In the state’s interior, rivers should be locked in ice so thick that they double as roads for snowmobiles and trucks. […]

Louisiana unveils ambitious plan to help people get out of the way of climate change

By Christopher Flavelle and Mira Rojanasakul 15 May 2019 (Bloomberg) – Gerard Braud has no plans to leave his handsome Creole-style house with its 15-foot-high front porch on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, a short drive from New Orleans. “Peacefulness and tranquility” is how he explains the appeal of living here. Except that thanks […]

Projected change in population density in Ethiopia by 2050 under a pessimistic climate change scenario. As climate change worsens even moderately, it could cause water shortages in Ethiopia severe enough to prompt 1.5 million Ethiopians to migrate by 2050. They’ll most likely move out of the northern highlands and Addis Ababa into the southern highlands and Ahmar Mountains. Addis Ababa lies at the center of Ethiopia’s agricultural region, and lower crop yields will result in movement out of the urban center, which is currently the hub of the country’s economic development. Graphic: The World Bank Groundswell Report

Get ready for tens of millions of climate refugees

By Susan Cosier 24 April 2019 (Technology Review) – In 2006, the British economist Nicholas Stern warned that one of the biggest dangers of climate change would be mass migration. “Climate-related shocks have sparked violent conflict in the past,” he wrote, “and conflict is a serious risk in areas such as West Africa, the Nile […]

Sea level rise could displace millions of people within two generations

By Jonathan Bamber and Michael Oppenheimer 20 May 2019 (The Conversation) – Antarctica is further from civilisation than any other place on Earth. The Greenland ice sheet is closer to home but around one tenth the size of its southern sibling. Together, these two ice masses hold enough frozen water to raise global mean sea […]

Emma Howard Boyd, UK Environment Agency Chair. Photo: Environment Agency

UK Environment Agency Chair says coastal communities may need to relocate due to rising sea levels – “We can’t win a war against water”

9 May 2019 (Environment Agency) – Launching a major, long-term strategy to tackle flooding and coastal change, Environment Agency Chair, Emma Howard Boyd has said ‘we cannot win a war against water’ by building higher flood defences and called for a new approach to ensure communities are resilient to the threat of flooding posed by climate change. […]

From ruined bridges to dirty air, EPA scientists price out the cost of climate change – “The cost of inaction is really high, and the cost of reducing emissions pales in comparison”

By Julia Rosen 8 April 2019 (Los Angeles Times) – By the end of the century, the manifold consequences of unchecked climate change will cost the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars per year, according to a new study by scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency. Those costs will come in multiple forms, including water shortages, […]

Creeping floodwaters threaten Washington’s cherry blossoms – “The infrastructure is breaking down because of the daily flooding”

By Ashraf Khalil 3 April 2019 WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) – Washington’s cherry blossom season has gone well this year, thanks to warm weather that has coincided perfectly with the annual blooming that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each spring. But officials are claiming that Washington’s iconic trees are under a looming threat that requires […]

Canada warming at twice the global rate, government report finds – “Northern Canada has warmed and will continue to warm at more than double the global rate”

1 April 2019 (CBC News) – Canada is, on average, experiencing warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world, with Northern Canada heating up at almost three times the global average, according to a new government report. The study — Canada’s Changing Climate Report (CCCR) — was commissioned by Environment and Climate […]

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