Representatives from 34 states and 7 institutions were given the floor on the day of the summit; all the G-20 governments will be asked to commit to presenting, by 2025, more ambitious economy-wide Nationally Determined Contributions
Delegates attend the U.N. Climate Ambition Summit on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City on September 20, 2023. | Photo Credit: AFP
The Climate Ambition Summit (CAS) in New York, as part of the United Nations General Assembly, that concluded on September 21, was marked by the absence of major economies whose actions significantly influence the future of global emissions.
China, United States and India — who collectively account for about 42% of global greenhouse gas emissions and are the top three emitters in that order — were all absent from the CAS that was designed, according to the U.N., to “showcase leaders who are “movers and doers”… and have credible actions, policies and plans to keep the 1.5°C degree goal of the Paris Agreement alive and deliver climate justice to those on the front lines of the climate crisis.”
People rally in New York against fossil fuels ahead of a climate summit at the United Nations. (Photo: AFP/Leonardo Munoz)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday (Sep 20) told world leaders the climate crisis had “opened the gates to hell” during a summit where leading polluters China and the United States were conspicuously absent.
The talks were partly overshadowed by an announcement from Britain – also not present – that it was rolling back policies that would help it achieve its net-zero goal.
Despite increasing extreme weather events and record-shattering global temperatures, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and fossil fuels remain subsidised to the tune of US$7 trillion annually.
Guterres had billed the “Climate Ambition Summit” as a “no-nonsense” forum, making clear that only leaders who had made concrete plans to achieve net-zero greenhouse emissions would be invited.
In his opening address, he evoked 2023’s “horrendous heat” and “historic fires”, but stressed: “We can still limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees,” referring to the target seen as needed to avoid long-term climate catastrophe.
“Humanity has opened the gates to hell,” Guterres warned.
After receiving more than 100 applications to take part, the UN released a list of 41 speakers which did not include China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan or India.
Several major leaders didn’t bother making the trip to New York for this year’s UN General Assembly, including President Xi Jinping of China and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak from the United Kingdom.
Sunak also chose Wednesday to announce he was adopting a more “pragmatic” approach to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, including pushing back a ban on the sale of cars fully run on fossil fuels and easing energy efficiency targets for rental properties.
The moves come as Sunak’s Conservative Party is trailing in the polls behind the Labour opposition amid a cost-of-living crisis.
US President Joe Biden, who addressed the General Assembly on Tuesday, sent his climate envoy John Kerry to the meeting – although Kerry wasn’t permitted to speak in the high-level segment.
Catherine Abreu, executive director of nonprofit Destination Zero, said it was “perhaps a good-news story that we see Biden not being given a speaking slot at the summit” because the United States is aggressively expanding fossil fuel projects even as it makes historic investments in renewables.
Anger is building among climate activists, particularly younger people, who turned out in tens of thousands last weekend for the “March to End Fossil Fuels” in New York.
In a speech from Downing Street, the prime minister said he would put back a ban on new fossil fuel cars by five years in a major U-turn on a raft of measures.
Rishi Sunak has confirmed he will be easing a series of green policies under a “new approach” designed to protect “hard-pressed British families” from “unacceptable costs”.
Delivering a speech from Downing Street, he said he is still committed to reaching net zero by 2050, but the transition can be done in a “fairer and better way”.
Announcing a raft of U-turns, the prime minister said he would delay a ban on the sale of new diesel and petrol cars by five years and confirmed a weakening of targets to phase out gas boilers.
He also said a “worrying set of proposals” that had emerged during debates on net zero would be scrapped, including:
For the government to interfere in how many passengers you can have in your car
To force you to have seven different bins in your home
To make you change your diet and harm British farmers by taxing meat
To create new taxes to discourage flying or going on holiday
But critics have already pointed out many of the measures above were not planned, and are not the policy of the Labour party – let alone the government.
“Our destiny can be of our own choosing,” Mr Sunak said – while calling for politicians to be “honest” about the costs of green policies on families.
The measures have faced criticism from across the political spectrum as well as from businesses, environmental groups and even former US vice president Al Gore.
Labour accused the prime minister of “dancing to the tune” of net zero-sceptic Tories and said the plans would actually add more costs to households while damaging investor confidence.
Changes on cars and boilers
Explaining the government’s decision to delay the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars – currently due in 2030 – by five years, Mr Sunak said this would give businesses “more time to prepare”.
He also said people would still be allowed to buy secondhand diesel and petrol cars after that date and this would align the UK’s approach with countries across Europe, Canada and many US states.
In weakening the plan to phase out gas boilers, Mr Sunak said households would “never” be forced to “rip out their existing boiler and replace it with a heat pump”.
This will only be required when people are due to change their boiler anyway and even then, not until 2035 and exemptions will apply to those who will be bit the hardest “so they never have to switch at all”.
Mr Sunak also announced an increase to the boiler upgrade scheme, saying rather than banning boilers “before people can afford the alternative” the government is going to “support them to make the switch” to heat pumps.
He said: “The boiler upgrade scheme which gives people cash grants to upgrade their boiler will be increased by 50% to seven and a half thousand pounds.
“There are no strings attached. The money will never need to be repaid.”
Landlord efficiency targets scrapped
Mr Sunak has also scrapped plans to force landlords to upgrade the energy efficiency of their properties, saying some property owners would have been forced to “make expensive upgrades” within two years and that would inevitably impact renters.
“You could be looking at a bill of £8,000, and even if you’re only renting, you’re more than likely to see some of that passed on in higher rents,” he said.
The planet’s climate, biodiversity, land, freshwater, nutrient pollution and “novel” chemicals are all out of place, according to a new scientific paper.
Pic: iStock
Earth is exceeding its “safe operating space for humanity” in six of nine key measurements of its health, and two of the remaining three are heading in the wrong direction, a new study has said.
The planet’s climate, biodiversity, land, freshwater, nutrient pollution and “novel” chemicals (human-made compounds like microplastics and nuclear waste) are all off-kilter, according to a group of international scientists.
Only the acidity of the oceans, the health of the air and the ozone layer are within the boundaries considered safe, and both ocean and air pollution are heading in the wrong direction, the study in the journal Science Advances found.
“We are in very bad shape,” said study co-author Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.
“We show in this analysis that the planet is losing resilience and the patient is sick.”
In 2009, Professor Rockstrom and other researchers created nine different broad boundary areas and used scientific measurements to judge Earth’s overall health.
The paper revealed on Wednesday was an update from 2015 and it added a sixth factor to the unsafe category.
Water went from “barely safe” to the “out-of-bounds” category because of worsening river run-off, better measurements and understanding of the problem, Professor Rockstrom said.
These boundaries “determine the fate of the planet”, he said, adding that nine factors have been “scientifically well established” by numerous outside studies.
India hosts G20 Summit in Delhi, adopts New Delhi Leadership Declaration, announces India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor, and inducts African Union as permanent member.
An armed security personnel stands guard near a G20 India summit logo installed along a street in New Delhi on September 6, 2023, ahead of its commencement. (Photo by Tauseef MUSTAFA / AFP) (AFP)
India is hosting the 18th Group of 20 or G20 Summit in national capital Delhi. The G20 leaders saw a productive day 1 on Saturday, 9 September. The important decisions taken on the first day of the G20 Summit included adoption of the New Delhi Leadership Declaration, announcement of a mega India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor and induction of the African Union (AU) as permanent member of the Group of 20.
As the G20 leaders and a 170 guests gather at Bharat Mandapam on the dinner invite by President of India Droupadi Murmu, let’s take a look at what is on agenda for the second day of the G20 Summit.
The G20 Summit began at the Bharat Mandapam on Saturday and will conclude on Sunday.
G20 Summit Day 2 Agenda today (10 September 2023)
8:15 am to 9 am: The leaders and heads of the delegations will arrive at Rajghat in individual motorcades.
9:00 am to 9:20 am: The leaders will then lay a wreath at Mahatma Gandhi’s Samadhi. Also, a live performance of Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite devotional songs.
9:20 am: Leaders and Heads of Delegations will then move to Bharat Mandapam’s Leaders’ Lounge.
9:40 am to 10:15 am: Arrival of leaders and heads of delegation at Bharat Mandapam
10:15am–10:30am: Tree planting ceremony at Bharat Mandapam’s South Plaza
10:30 am–12:30 pm: The third session of the summit, called ‘One Future’, will take place at the venue, followed by the adoption of the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration.
G20 Summit Day 1 ( 9 September 2023) Highlights India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor
Plans for an ambitious India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor were unveiled on Saturday. This economic corridor of rail and shipping links aims to bolster trade between India, the Middle East and Europe, a modern-day Spice Route to bind regions that account for about a third of the global economy.
The US signed an agreement with India, Middle Eastern countries and the European Union aimed at connecting them via a network of railways and sea routes.
New Delhi Declaration adopted, call for peace in Ukraine
In a major breakthrough, the G20 adopted the New Delhi Leaders Summit Declaration. Asserting that “today’s era must not be of war”, the New Delhi Declaration of G20 countries on Saturday called on all states to uphold the principles of international law including territorial integrity and sovereignty and said the peaceful resolution of conflicts as well as diplomacy and dialogue are critical.
Notably, the G20 final statement, released a day before the summit formally closes, was less sharply worded over the war than one issued during last year’s meeting in Bali and didn’t mention Russia’s invasion directly.
A new scientific study reveals that Antarctica is warming at nearly twice the rate of the rest of the world, surpassing the predictions of climate change models. Researchers analyzed 78 Antarctic ice cores to reconstruct temperature data spanning 1,000 years. They found that the warming observed across the continent cannot be attributed to natural climate variability alone. The phenomenon, known as polar amplification, was previously observed in the Arctic, and this study provides “direct evidence” that it is also occurring in Antarctica.
What is polar amplification?
Polar amplification is a phenomenon where polar regions experience faster warming than the rest of the planet. The study provides evidence that this phenomenon is occurring in both the Arctic and Antarctica.
Why is West Antarctica considered particularly vulnerable to warming?
In West Antarctica, considered especially vulnerable to warming, the study identified a warming rate twice as high as climate models had projected. Its ice sheet, if collapsed, could contribute significantly to global sea level rise, potentially raising sea levels by several meters.
How does the study’s findings about Antarctica’s warming rate affect future sea level rise projections and the understanding of the continent’s climate?
The findings suggest that current climate models may underestimate the loss of ice in Antarctica, which could have implications for future sea level rise, ocean warming, and marine ecosystems.
What potential consequences are associated with a warming Antarctic?
A warming Antarctic could lead to further losses of sea ice, impacting ocean warming, global ocean circulation, and marine ecosystems. It could also result in the melting of coastal ice shelves that protect glaciers, potentially accelerating glacial retreat and contributing to sea level rise.
The director of IIT Mandi is facing backlash on social media for claiming that recent cloudbursts and landslides in Himachal were due to meat eating.
Laxmidhar Behera
Laxmidhar Behera, director of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mandi, and an expert in computing and robotics is facing a strong backlash on social media for a video that shows him claiming that recent cloudbursts and landslides in Himachal were the result of “meat-eating”.
In the clip, which has gone viral, Behera, addressing a group of students in an auditorium says that to become a good human being, they have to avoid eating meat.
“To become good human being what you have to do?,” he asks and then answers: “No meat eating.” He further exhorts students to repeat the answer.
“Himachal Pradesh will have a significant downfall, if the innocent animals are butchered.”
Behera did not respond to phone calls or text messages seeking comment.
It isn’t known when he made the speech shown in the video.
Geologist and Dean, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Central University of Himachal Pradesh (CUHP), Ambrish Kumar Mahajan said that the recent disasters were result of geological reasons coupled with anthropogenic factors.
A team of scientists at the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology who studied the effect of temperature in altering the virulence of dengue virus (DENV) using mice models has found that environmental temperature can play a key role in enhancing the virulence of DENV.
The factors that drive dengue virus evolution and selection of virulent variants are yet not clear. Dengue being a mosquito-transmitted disease, the ability of the causative virus to grow in the cells of mosquito as well as in humans is a critical factor determining viral virulence. Higher environmental temperature shortens DENV extrinsic incubation period in mosquitoes, increases human transmission, and plays a critical role in outbreak dynamics.
The down feathers on emperor chicks are not waterproof. They must fledge before the ice breaks up
A catastrophic die-off of emperor penguin chicks has been observed in the Antarctic, with up to 10,000 young birds estimated to have been killed.
The sea-ice underneath the chicks melted and broke apart before they could develop the waterproof feathers needed to swim in the ocean.
The birds most likely drowned or froze to death.
The event, in late 2022, occurred in the west of the continent in an area fronting on to the Bellingshausen Sea.
It was recorded by satellites.
Dr Peter Fretwell, from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), said the wipeout was a harbinger of things to come.
More than 90% of emperor penguin colonies are predicted to be all but extinct by the end of the century, as the continent’s seasonal sea-ice withers in an ever-warming world.
“Emperors depend on sea-ice for their breeding cycle; it’s the stable platform they use to bring up their young. But if that ice is not as extensive as it should be or breaks up faster, these birds are in trouble,” he told BBC News.
“There is hope: we can cut our carbon emissions that are causing the warming. But if we don’t we will drive these iconic, beautiful birds to the verge of extinction.”
Dr Fretwell and colleagues report the die-off in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
The scientists tracked five colonies in the Bellingshausen Sea sector – at Rothschild Island, Verdi Inlet, Smyley Island, Bryan Peninsula and Pfrogner Point.
Using the EU’s Sentinel-2 satellites, they were able to observe the penguins’ activity from the excrement, or guano, they left on the white sea-ice.
This brown staining is visible even from space.
Adult birds jump out on to the sea-ice around March as the Southern Hemisphere winter approaches. They court, copulate, lay eggs, brood those eggs, and then feed their nestlings through the following months until it’s time for the young to make their own way in the world.
Rescue workers remove the debris as a search operation continues in the aftermath of a landslide following torrential rain in Shimla in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, India, August 17, 2023. Credit: Reuters Photo
Climate change has a big role to play in the devastating monsoon fury – flash flooding and landslides – in the northern Indian Himalayan states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
According to experts, weather conditions might have been favourable for heavy rains, but climate change has a definite role in the increasing intensity.
The flash flooding and landslides have caused millions of rupees worth of damage and killed several people across the two states.
The rise in extreme weather events is unprecedented, and they have been multiplying rapidly – and the monsoon 2023 is an apt reflection of what climate change impacts would do to the Himalayas if global warming goes unchecked, according to a paper collated by Climate Trends.
The atmosphere, land and oceans are all warming at a faster rate. The warmer it becomes, the more moisture the atmosphere can hold. This has led to more water being evaporated from the Earth’s surface. This increases the holding capacity of the air, which results in more droplets and heavier rainfall, sometimes in a shorter space of time and over a smaller area, the paper points out.
“The Shivalik range is the youngest and most fragile part of the Himalayas as they are made up of debris. Rocks are made up of sandstone and shale rock, which is the weakest form of any rock, and they cannot withstand heavy rains as their composition is of clay minerals.
Wildfire in Lahaina, Maui kills at least six, destroys buildings, and forces residents to flee. Governor declares state of emergency.
Smoke and flames rise in Lahaina, Maui County, Hawaii, U.S., August 8, 2023 in this still image from video obtained from social media.(Twitter/KanekoaTheGreat)
A huge wildfire ravaged the town of Lahaina in Maui, Hawaii, on Wednesday, August 9, 2023, killing at least six people and injuring many more.
The fire, which was likely sparked by human activity, spread rapidly in the windy and dry conditions, reaching the historic center of the town, which is a popular tourist spot with shops and restaurants.
The wildfire destroyed hundreds of buildings, some of which dated back to the 1700s. It also forced some residents to flee into the ocean to avoid the flames and smoke.
Crank up the volume and hear the chilling cries of these terrified individuals desperately escaping the raging #Maui wildfires.🔥
The county mayor, Richard Bissen Jr., said he was still trying to find out how and where the six people died. He said he was in “search and rescue mode” and that the death toll could rise.
Governor Josh Green also said he expected some loss of life as a result of the fire. Many people were hurt by burns or smoke inhalation and taken to hospitals in Maui or Oahu.
A regional director for Hawaii Life Flight said six patients were flown to Oahu on Tuesday night, three of them in critical condition.
A firefighter was also hospitalized with smoke inhalation but was stable.
The fire was worsened by the strong winds from Hurricane Dora, which was passing about 500 miles south of Hawaii but brought gusts of up to 60 mph to the island.
Eight Amazon nations called on industrialized countries to do more to help preserve the world’s largest rainforest as they met at a major summit in Brazil to chart a common course on how to combat climate change.
The leaders of South American nations that are home to the Amazon, meeting at a two-day summit in the city of Belem that ends Wednesday, said the task of stopping the destruction of the rainforest can’t fall to just a few when the crisis has been caused by so many.
The members of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, or ACTO, are hoping a united front will give them a major voice in global talks.
“The forest unites us. It is time to look at the heart of our continent and consolidate, once and for all, our Amazon identity,” said Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The calls from the presidents of nations including Brazil, Colombia and Bolivia came as leaders aim to fuel much-needed economic development in their regions while preventing the Amazon’s ongoing demise “from reaching a point of no return,” according to a joint declaration issued at the end of the day. Some scientists say that when 20% to 25% of the forest is destroyed, rainfall will dramatically decline, transforming more than half of the rainforest to tropical savannah, with immense biodiversity loss.
The summit reinforces Lula’s strategy to leverage global concern for the Amazon’s preservation. Emboldened by a 42% drop in deforestation during his first seven months in office, he has sought international financial support for forest protection.
The Amazon stretches across an area twice the size of India. Two-thirds of it lie in Brazil, with seven other countries and one territory share the remaining third. Governments have historically viewed it as an area to be colonized and exploited, with little regard for sustainability or the rights of its Indigenous peoples.
All the countries at the summit have ratified the Paris climate accord, which requires signatories to set targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But cross-border cooperation has historically been scant, undermined by low trust, ideological differences and the lack of government presence.
Aside from a general consensus on the need for shared global responsibility, members of ACTO — convening for only the fourth time in the organization’s existence — demonstrated Tuesday they aren’t fully aligned on key issues. This week marks the first meeting of the 45-year-old organization in 14 years.
Forest protection commitments have been uneven previously, and appeared to remain so at the summit. The “Belem Declaration,” the gathering’s official proclamation issued Tuesday, didn’t include shared commitments to zero deforestation by 2030. Brazil and Colombia have already made those commitments. Lula has said he hopes the document will be a shared call to arms at the COP 28 climate conference in November.
A key topic dividing the nations on Tuesday was oil. Notably, leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro called for an end to oil exploration in the Amazon — an allusion to the ambivalent approach of Brazil and other oil-producing nations in the region — and said that governments must forge a path toward “decarbonized prosperity.”
“A jungle that extracts oil — is it possible to maintain a political line at that level? Bet on death and destroying life?” Petro said. He also spoke about finding ways to reforest pastures and plantations, which cover much of Brazil’s heartland for cattle ranching and growing soy.
Lula, who has presented himself as an environmental leader on the international stage, has refrained from taking a definitive stance on oil, citing the decision as a technical matter. Meanwhile, Brazil’s state-run Petrobras company has been seeking to explore for oil near the mouth of the Amazon River.
There is a danger Antarctica “stops acting as a refrigerant for the planet, and it starts acting as a radiator”, one of the scientists involved has warned.
Aerial view of Larsen Inlet glacier, Weddell Sea, Antarctica. (Sergio Pitamitz / VWPics via AP Images)
“Tumbling” records in Antarctica must be taken more seriously because of their “cascading” global impacts, a group of scientists asked by the Foreign Office to investigate the “unprecedented” changes has warned today.
After enormous icebergs up to a quarter the size of Wales appeared to break off with “increasing frequency”, the Foreign Office commissioned the review, which has confirmed extreme events there are happening more often and are more intense.
Jane Rumble, head of polar regions at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, said: “What happens in Antarctica does not stay in Antarctica.
“It has global consequences and therefore it’s important to raise awareness of what Antarctica is going through.”
Professor Martin Siegert, glaciologist at the University of Exeter, said they were extremely worried about “the increasing intensity and frequency of extreme events and the cascading influences that they have in other areas”.
Ocean surface temperature reached 20.96C on July 30, according to the ERA5 database, while the previous record was 20.95C in March 2016, a spokeswoman told AFP.
Globally, the average ocean temperature has been besting seasonal heat records. (Representational)
The world’s oceans set a new temperature record this week, raising concerns about knock-on effects on the planet’s climate, marine life and coastal communities.
The temperature of the oceans’ surface rose to 20.96 degrees Celsius (69.7 Fahrenheit) on Friday, according to European Union climate observatory data.
The previous record was 20.95C in March 2016, a spokeswoman for the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service told AFP.
The samples tested excluded polar regions.
Oceans have absorbed 90 percent of the excess heat produced by human activity since the dawn of the industrial age, according to scientists.
This excess heat continues to accumulate as greenhouse gases — mainly from burning oil, gas and coal — continue to accumulate in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Globally, the average ocean temperature has been besting seasonal heat records on a regular basis since April.
“The ocean heatwave is an immediate threat to some marine life,” said Piers Forster of the International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds.
“We are already seeing coral bleaching in Florida as a direct result and I expect more impacts will surface.”
The overheating of the oceans is predicted to have other effects on marine plant and animal life too, including on the migration of certain species and the spread of invasive species.
This could threaten fish stocks and thus undermine food security in certain parts of the globe.
Warmer oceans are also less capable of absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2), reinforcing the vicious cycle of global warming.
And higher temperatures are likely to come, since the El Nino phenomenon, which tends to warm waters up, has only just begun.
Scientists expect the worst effects of the current El Nino to be felt at the end of 2023 and continue into subsequent years.
Like bath water
“While there are certainly short-term factors, the main long-term cause is without a doubt the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere caused by human activity, primarily by the burning of fossil fuels,” said Rowan Sutton, director of climate research at the University of Reading.
The latest figures follow a string of record highs around the world.
On Monday, temperatures of 38.3C — as hot as a jacuzzi — were recorded off the Florida coast, which could be a world record high for a point measurement if the figure is confirmed.
Last week, the surface waters of the North Atlantic rose to a record-high average temperature of 24.9C, according to provisional data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The North Atlantic usually only reaches its peak temperature in September
Since March, the month when the North Atlantic begins to warm up after winter, temperatures have been higher than in previous years and the gap with past records has continued to widen in recent weeks.
Between 1993 and 2010, humans extracted and moved so much of our planet’s groundwater that it contributed to the migration of Earth’s poles.
Just the contribution of groundwater redistribution resulted in a polar shift of 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) towards the east, according to a new analysis led by geophysicist Ki-Weon Seo of Seoul National University in South Korea.
These findings allowed scientists to confirm that previous estimates of groundwater depletion caused by human activity are equivalent to a total sea level rise of 6 millimeters during that time.
Researchers conducted this work to better understand the phenomenon of polar motion and the contribution made by changes in Earth’s water distribution. In 2016, scientists made a breakthrough in figuring out why Earth’s rotational poles wander: the distribution of terrestrial water storage.
Now Seo and his colleagues have determined how much humans moving groundwater around has contributed to that wander.
Agriculture uses about 70 percent of the groundwater pumped for human use globally. (Vicki Smith/Moment/Getty Images)
“Earth’s rotational pole actually changes a lot,” Seo says. “Our study shows that among climate-related causes, the redistribution of groundwater actually has the largest impact on the drift of the rotational pole.”
It makes sense when you think about it. Earth spins about its rotational axis a lot like a spinning top. When the distribution mass around that axis changes and becomes uneven, the axis shifts to compensate.
Climate change has a big effect on this. As the frozen parts of the world melt, such as glaciers and ice sheets, the distribution of water over Earth’s surface changes, and the poles – the ends of the rotational axis – move around.
This effect became prominent in the early 1990s, and much work has been done to determine the role water redistribution plays in it. But the impact of groundwater extraction alone had not been isolated.
Based on climate models, scientists estimated in 2010 that humans had pumped around 2,150 gigatons of groundwater between 1993 and 2010, around 6 millimeters of sea level rise, but this was difficult to confirm observationally.
Seo and his colleagues tackled the problem using observational data of polar motion and modeling. First, they modeled polar motion only considering the contribution of ice melt from glaciers, ice sheets, and sea ice. Then, they added different levels of groundwater extraction to their models.
This took them closer to the observed motion, but the model only became a match when they used the 2,150 gigaton estimate.
The estimate provided the exact contribution of groundwater extraction. With no inclusion of groundwater contribution, the model was off by 78.48 centimeters.
Between 1993 and 2010, groundwater extraction pushed Earth’s poles at a rate of 4.36 centimeters per year. (It’s probably still exerting an influence, but the team’s work is only based on data up to 2010.)
“I’m very glad to find the unexplained cause of the rotation pole drift,” Seo says. “On the other hand, as a resident of Earth and a father, I’m concerned and surprised to see that pumping groundwater is another source of sea-level rise.”
However, the findings could help mitigate further polar motion. The biggest effect is felt when groundwater is extracted from mid-latitudes. The researchers found that most of the groundwater extraction between 1993 and 2010 occurred at mid-latitudes, primarily from North America and the North of India.
Alberta has declared a state of emergency after wildfires spread across the western Canadian province, driving nearly 25,000 people from their homes.
Faced with more than 100 wildfires, Alberta’s Premier Danielle Smith called the situation “unprecedented”.
Residents of Edson, a town of more than 8,000, were told to leave immediately.
Ms Smith said a hot, dry spring had created “so much kindling” and some 122,000 hectares (301,000 acres) had burned so far.
Many of the fires are burning out of control, fanned by strong winds.
The worst-hit areas include Drayton Valley, about 140km (87 miles) west of the provincial capital Edmonton, and Fox Lake, some 550km north of the city, where 20 homes were consumed by fire.
Pedestrians walk past the front of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. headquarters office in Tokyo on Thursday, June 23rd, 2005. Photo by Haruyoshi Yamaguchi / Bloomberg via Getty Images
Mitsubishi wants to be the world’s biggest dealer of carbon removal credits. Keep in mind that the company has its hand in many of the most polluting industries out there — from producing cars to natural gas, coal, petrochemicals and plastics. And carbon credits have become a popular way for corporations to keep on polluting while claiming to fight climate change.
This week, the company announced a joint venture to set up what it says is the world’s biggest portfolio of carbon removal credits. The credits represent tons of carbon dioxide taken out of the atmosphere through a range of still contentious tactics for dealing with climate change.
The new venture, called NextGen, establishes a new marketplace for carbon offset credits. Mitsubishi and its partner on the venture, a project developer called South Pole, plan to connect other companies with carbon removal projects so that they can purchase credits to offset some of their greenhouse gas emissions. The plan is similar to an initiative launched by Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and McKinsey last year.
NextGen secured commitments from companies to purchase roughly 200,000 metric tons worth of carbon removal credits. That’s only equivalent to canceling out the pollution from a single coal power plant for half a year. But as a nascent market, those 200,000 metric tons already represent a quarter of these kinds of carbon removal purchases to date.
It’s also a huge investment — likely in the tens of millions of dollars — in emerging technologies that are still prohibitively expensive. Mitsubishi says it’s targeting an average price of $200 per ton, but the going rate for credits can be three times that or more. Buyers that have signed on so far include Boston Consulting Group, banking companies UBS and LGT, insurance giant Swiss RE, and shipping giant Mitsui O.S.K. Lines.
So far, they’re buying credits from three different kinds of projects, and each of them has been controversial. Occidental Petroleum leads one project, a plant it’s building in Texas that filters CO2 out of the ambient air. The company has already used that project to sell what it calls “net-zero oil.” To make net-zero oil, Occidental shoots the captured carbon into an oil field to push out hard-to-reach reserves.
The aftermath of an avalanche at the Armancette glacier on Sunday
At least four people have died in an avalanche in the French Alps, the country’s interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, has said.
It happened at the Armancette glacier near Mont Blanc in south-eastern France around midday on Sunday local time.
The local deputy mayor has confirmed that two of the dead were mountain guides.
Several injured people have been taken to hospital, and two people are still missing.
Jean-Luc Mattel, deputy mayor of the nearby Contamines-Montjoie village, said the avalanche was caused by a slab of snow detaching from the top of the mountain.
Search and rescue dogs and mountain-rescue teams worked all day to try to reach those who were caught, who are all thought to have been backcountry skiing.
The search for two missing people is expected to resume on Monday.
Mr Mattel said the risk level on Sunday morning was “reasonable” and the guides, both of them locals, were highly experienced.
“Today, we are mourning, and there is great sadness among all of us mountaineers, friends of Les Contamines, those who died are people we knew, and all our thoughts go out to their families,” he said.
Mr Darmanin and French President Emmanuel Macron have also expressed their sympathy.
Before the incident, a nearby ski resort called Les Contamines-Montjoie posted a video on social media showing a huge wall of snow moving down from the Dômes de Miage, which the glacier is a part of.
It is not clear if the video shows the avalanche in which the people died.
One eyewitness told France Television that she was hiking just in front of the Armancette glacier when she saw the avalanche happening and took out her phone to film it.
“I had put the phone in front of me but then I was looking with my eyes more than in the lens and suddenly there was a huge, huge, huge cloud that came down to the bottom, it split into two,” she said.
Storms that dropped possibly dozens of tornadoes killed at least 26 people in small towns and big cities across the South and Midwest, tearing a path through the Arkansas capital, collapsing the roof of a packed concert venue in Illinois and stunning people throughout the region Saturday with the damage’s scope.
Confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least eight states destroyed homes and businesses, splintered trees and laid waste to neighborhoods across a broad swath of the country. The dead included at least nine in one Tennessee county, four in the small town of Wynne, Arkansas, three in Sullivan, Indiana, and four in Illinois.
Other deaths from the storms that hit Friday night into Saturday were reported in Alabama and Mississippi, along with one near Little Rock, Arkansas, where city officials said more than 2,600 buildings were in a tornado’s path.
Residents of Wynne, a community of about 8,000 people 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Memphis, Tennessee, woke Saturday to find the high school’s roof shredded and its windows blown out. Huge trees lay on the ground, their stumps reduced to nubs. Broken walls, windows and roofs pocked homes and businesses.
Debris lay scattered inside the shells of homes and on lawns: clothing, insulation, toys, splintered furniture, a pickup truck with its windows shattered.
Ashley Macmillan said she, her husband and their children huddled with their dogs in a small bathroom as a tornado passed, “praying and saying goodbye to each other, because we thought we were dead.” A falling tree seriously damaged their home, but they were unhurt.
“We could feel the house shaking, we could hear loud noises, dishes rattling. And then it just got calm,” she said.
Recovery was already underway, with workers using chainsaws and bulldozers to clear the area and utility crews restoring power.
Nine people died in Tennessee’s McNairy County, east of Memphis, according to Patrick Sheehan, director the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
“The majority of the damage has been done to homes and residential areas,” said David Leckner, the mayor of Adamsville.
Gov. Bill Lee drove to the county Saturday to tour the destruction and comfort residents. He said the storm capped the “worst” week of his time as governor, coming days after a school shooting in Nashville that killed six people including a family friend whose funeral he and his wife, Maria, attended earlier in the day.
“It’s terrible what has happened in this community, this county, this state,” Lee said. “But it looks like your community has done what Tennessean communities do, and that is rally and respond.”
Jeffrey Day said he called his daughter after seeing on the news that their community of Adamsville was being hit. Huddled in a closet with her 2-year-old son as the storm passed over, she answered the phone screaming.
“She kept asking me, ‘What do I do, daddy?’” Day said, tearing up. “I didn’t know what to say.”
After the storm passed, his daughter crawled out of her destroyed home and over barbed wire and drove to nearby family. On Saturday evening, baby clothes were still strewn about the site.
In Memphis, police spokesman Christopher Williams said via email late Saturday that there were three deaths believed to be weather-related: two children and an adult who died when a tree fell on a house.
Tennessee officials warned that the same weather conditions from Friday night are expected to return Tuesday.
In Belvidere, Illinois, part of the roof of the Apollo Theatre collapsed as about 260 people were attending a heavy metal concert. A 50-year-old man was pulled from the rubble.
“I sat with him and I held his hand and I was (telling him), ‘It’s going to be OK.’ I didn’t really know much else what to do,” concertgoer Gabrielle Lewellyn told WTVO-TV.
The man was dead by the time emergency workers arrived. Officials said 40 others were hurt, including two with life-threatening injuries.
Crews cleaned up around the Apollo on Saturday, with forklifts pulling away loose bricks. Business owners picked up glass shards and covered shattered windows.
Earth Hour 2023: Lights turned off at landmark sites in various Indian cities |
India joined the global ‘Earth Hour’ event on Saturday between 8:30 to 9:30 pm. Lights at public places and some temples in various cities including Mumbai, Kolkata and tDelhi were turned off.
The event is observed annually in order to raise awareness about energy conservation.
Delhi
Lights at Rashtrapati Bhawan and also the famous Akshardham temple in the National Capital were turned off in support of nature and the planet during this hour.
Similarly, in Mumbai, videos emerged from the famous Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus with lights being switched off for an hour to mark Earth Hour.
In Kolkata also, the lights of the iconic Howrah bridge were turned off to mark the annual event observed globally to promote awareness about climate change.
Watch video here:
#WATCH | 'Earth Hour' being observed in Kolkata as lights at the iconic Howrah bridge are turned off to conserve energy pic.twitter.com/dSn3HY5CuO
