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Insurance industry prices warming into Hurricane Harvey cost

Because US infrastructure is not built to withstand climate change the cost of the disaster will be relatively high

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was “the first taste of a bitter cup that will be proffered to us over and over again,” according to former US vice president Al Gore at the time.

Since then, Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and now Hurricane Harvey have borne out this prediction. The latest storm may turn out to be less fatal than Katrina, which killed more than 1,800 people but in economic terms it may be as bad. Hurricane Katrina cost about $160bn (£124bn) in economic losses in today’s terms, accounting for the last decade’s inflation, while Sandy wrought about $70bn in damage.

Related: A timeline of the billion-dollar weather disasters in the US over the past decade

Weather catastrophes are now six times more frequent than in 1950

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2017 could see the most billion-dollar weather disasters in US history

Hurricane Harvey will be the 10th such event this year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but the agency tracking changes in climate faces severe budget cuts under Donald Trump

Even before Hurricane Harvey began to form, out in the north Atlantic, federal climate experts signalled that 2017 was going to be a bad year for weather and climate catastrophes in America. According to scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), there had already been nine climate and weather-related events that caused more than $1bn of damage.

Related: A timeline of the billion-dollar weather disasters in the US over the past decade

Many households lack flood insurance and are at risk of losing everything. We are seeing this on an unprecedented scale

Related: Harvey shines a spotlight on a high-risk area of chemical plants in Texas

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Global warming doubles growth rates of Antarctic seabed's marine fauna – study

Experiment in the Bellingshuan Sea reveals temperature rise has more alarming implications for biodiversity in polar waters than previously thought

Marine life on the Antarctic seabed is likely to be far more affected by global warming than previously thought, say scientists who have conducted the most sophisticated study to date of heating impacts in the species-rich environment.

Growth rates of some fauna doubled – including colonising moss animals and undersea worms – following a 1C increase in temperature, making them more dominant, pushing out other species and reducing overall levels of biodiversity, according to the study published on Thursday in Current Biology.

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The Trump administration wants to bail out failed contrarian climate scientists | John Abraham

A climate “red team” is just a polite way to describe bailing out scientific losers

Climate contrarians, like Trump’s EPA administrator Scott Pruitt and Energy Secretary Rick Perry, don’t understand how scientific research works. They are basically asking for a government handout to scientists to do what scientists are should already be doing. They are also requesting handouts for scientists who have been less successful in research and publications – a move antithetical to the survival of the fitness approach that has formed the scientific community for decades.

The helping handout would be through a proposed exercise called a “red team/blue team” effort. It is a proposal that would reportedly find groups of scientists on both “sides” of the climate issue (whatever that means), and have them try to poke holes in each others’ positions. I will explain why this is a handout but first let’s talk about the plan and how it interferes with the scientific process.

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Coalition watering down Finkel review climate ambitions, leaked document reveals

Exclusive: Draft implementation plan lacks electricity emissions trajectory, Paris agreement alignment and low-income subsidies

The climate ambitions of the Finkel review appear to be being watered down by the government as it is implemented, according to a draft Coag Energy Council implementation strategy obtained by the Guardian.

The draft implementation plan removes a key recommendation for an agreed emissions trajectory for the electricity system, alignment with the Paris agreement and subsidised solar and batteries for low-income houses.

Related: How Australia's climate policies came to be poisoned by pragmatism

Related: 13 ways Frydenberg sold 'climate policy' to coal-loving MPs

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Volcanic eruptions triggered global warming 56m years ago, study reveals

Scientists say one of the most rapid periods of warming in Earth’s history was due to gradual release of CO2, warning current levels of emissions were even higher

A dramatic period of global warming 56 million years ago that saw temperatures climb by up to five degrees and triggered extinctions of marine organisms was down to volcanic eruptions, researchers have revealed, in a study they say offers insights into the scale and possible impact of global warming today.

One of the most rapid periods of warming in Earth’s history, the Palaeocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), occurred as Greenland pulled away from Europe.

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Why less coverage of floods in South Asia? | Letters

Are American lives simply worth more, wonder Lynne Edwards, Peter Williams, and Susan Howe. Plus letters from Bob Pike and Sheila Rigby

While I have the greatest sympathy for those who have lost friends, family, pets or property in the Texas floods (Report, 30 August), I am disgusted at the relative number of column inches and amounts of airtime devoted to its coverage. During precisely the same period huge areas of Bangladesh, Nepal and India are suffering an even greater catastrophe, with 1,200 plus lives lost and millions made homeless. Let’s get some balance here. America is a rich country and will cope, despite inept leadership. Or are we saying that American lives are worth more?.Susan HoweRoss on Wye, Herefordshire

• The contrast between the coverage of floods in Texas and floods in South Asia is stark. Live updating of trivia as well as important events from Houston; the odd report from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and elsewhere. There are probably many more people of South Asian heritage in this country than American. The implicit message is that they, and their relatives, are far less important than a pet in Houston. I don’t want Texas coverage reduced, but please take more notice of the rest of the world.Lynne EdwardsNew Quay, Ceredigion

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States powering ahead on climate targets despite federal inaction, report shows

After being criticised by Canberra, South Australia is leading the race, with ACT and Tasmania close behind, says Climate Council

Australian states and territories are powering ahead, developing policies that will meet the federal government’s internationally agreed greenhouse gas emission targets, with South Australia, the ACT and Tasmania leading the race.

Despite being chastised by the federal government for unilateral action, South Australia is leading the race, with the ACT and Tasmania not far behind, according to a report by the Climate Council.

Related: Malcolm Turnbull says South Australia blackout a wake-up call on renewables

Related: Port Augusta solar thermal plant to power South Australian government

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Conservative groups shrug off link between tropical storm Harvey and climate change

Myron Ebell, who headed the EPA’s transition team when Trump became president, said the last decade has been a period of ‘low hurricane activity’

Tropical storm Harvey – live updates

Conservative groups with close links to the Trump administration have sought to ridicule the link between climate change and events such as tropical storm Harvey, amid warnings from scientists that storms are being exacerbated by warming temperatures.

Harvey, which smashed into the Texas coast on Friday, rapidly developed into a Category 4 hurricane and has drenched parts of Houston with around 50in of rain in less than a week, more than the city typically receives in a year. So much rain fell that the National Weather Service had to add new colours to its maps.

Is there a link between the storm and climate change?

Related: Want to help those impacted by tropical storm Harvey? Here's how

Related: Climate change and Harvey: your questions answered

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Tourists doubting value of trip to Great Barrier Reef, dive operator tells inquiry

‘Last-chance tourism’ spurs on other visitors but there has been lull in bookings after coral bleaching, senators told

Overseas tourists have begun to doubt the value of a trip to the ailing Great Barrier Reef and it is getting increasingly difficult to “show people what they expect to see”, a dive operator has told a federal Senate inquiry.

A Port Douglas operator, John Edmondson, said “last-chance tourism” was spurring on other visitors but there had been a “weird” lull in bookings this year after back-to-back mass bleaching events made dead coral an unavoidable sight on reef visits.

Related: Great Barrier Reef tourism: caught between commerce and conservation alarm

Related: Tourism industry funds research trip to most damaged part of Great Barrier Reef

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