Rising Seas Spark Tobacco-Style Lawsuits in California
Several flood-prone municipalities in California filed first-of-their-kind lawsuits against fossil fuel companies this week as they attempt to recoup the cost of coping with rising seas. The suits point to indisputable climate science and decades of industry efforts to mar that science. Experts likened the legal complaints to those brought against… Read More
Countries With Coral Reefs Must Do More on Climate
Countries with responsibility over world heritage-listed coral reefs should adopt ambitious climate change targets, aiming to cut greenhouse gas emissions to levels that would keep global temperature increases to just 1.5°C, the UN agency responsible for overseeing world heritage sites has said. At a meeting of Unesco’s world heritage committee in… Read More
Rising Temps Could Bring Flight Delays Worldwide
Imagine boarding a summertime flight at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, only to be told that the airline needs a dozen or so passengers to take a later flight because it’s too hot outside for the plane to take off fully loaded. That could become a common scenario at 19 major airports worldwide as extreme heat caused by global warming disrupts … Read More
Arctic Heat Is Becoming More Common and Persistent
The Arctic is a bastion of cold, blustery weather. But in the latest sign of how quickly changes are happening, new research published this week shows that the Arctic has seen more frequent bouts of warm air and longer stretches of mild weather. The new findings show that while warm snaps have occurred even as far as back as the 1890s, a massive… Read More
Warming May Turn Africa’s Arid Sahel Green: Researchers
One of Africa's driest regions - the Sahel - could turn greener if the planet warms more than 2 degrees Celsius and triggers more frequent heavy rainfall, scientists said on Wednesday. The Sahel stretches coast to coast from Mauritania and Mali in the west to Sudan and Eritrea in the east, and skirts the southern edge of the Sahara desert. It is… Read More
Antarctica’s Ice-Free Areas to Increase By 2100
Climate change will cause ice-free areas on Antarctica to increase by up to a quarter by 2100, threatening the diversity of the unique terrestrial plant and animal life that exists there, according to projections from the first study examining the question in detail. If emissions of greenhouse gasses are not reduced, projected warming and changes … Read More
Climate Change Could Disrupt Food ‘Chokepoints’
International trade in food relies on a small number of key ports, straits and roads, which face increasing risks of disruption due to climate change, a report said. Disruptions caused by weather, conflict or politics at one of those so-called "chokepoints" could limit food supplies and push up prices, the study by British think-tank Chatham House… Read More
Sunnier Skies Driving Greenland Surface Melt
In the past two decades, the Greenland Ice Sheet has become the biggest single contributor to rising sea levels, mostly from melt across its vast surface. That surface melt is, in turn, driven mostly by an uptick in clear, sunny summer skies, not just rising air temperatures, a new study finds. What’s causing the decline in cloud cover isn’t yet… Read More
