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Goal to limit warming to 1.5C to avoid the worst impacts of climate change was seen as unreachable, but updated research suggests it could be met if strong action is taken
The highly ambitious aim of limiting global warming to less than 1.5C remains in reach, a new scientific analysis shows.
The 1.5C target was set as an aspiration by the global Paris climate change deal in 2015 to limit the damage wreaked by extreme weather and sea level rise.
Related: 'Spectacular' drop in renewable energy costs leads to record global boost
Continue reading...An international alliance must create a plan for these fragile African states to prevent catastrophe in a region already buckling under the strain
Refugees fleeing conflict have already sent shockwaves through the political systems of Europe. But unless we take urgent action now and help the countries of the Sahel, we will face the prospect of millions more refugees in the time to come.
A coordinated and comprehensive plan to partner these nations and help them to avoid catastrophe is essential for them and for us. It should be devised by an alliance between Europe, the US and Arab allies in the Gulf.
Related: One meal a day: the Lake Chad crisis in pictures
Continue reading...For centuries, humans have championed the democratic political system. But can it facilitate the radical change needed to stop the potentially annihilating effects of climate change?
Although individual action to protect the environment – consuming less, recycling more, reducing one’s carbon footprint – might be a contribution if enough people did it, the battle to minimise human-induced climate change has to be a worldwide endeavour among cooperating states. The outcome of the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference was one of the most optimistic and encouraging steps hitherto achieved in that battle – that is, until Donald Trump said he intended to withdraw the US, the biggest climate polluter in history, from the agreement. The Paris agreement and President Trump’s decision illustrate the two ends of the spectrum of effort and concern. Our planet cannot be protected from a warming atmosphere – with melting ice caps, rising sea levels, droughts, floods, famines and migrations of desperate populations – without vigorous joint effort by the world’s states.
Continue reading...Climate models have an even better track record than the weather models that saved lives in Texas and Florida
The impacts of hurricanes Harvey and Irma were blunted because we saw them coming. Weather models accurately predicted the hurricane paths and anticipated their extreme intensities days in advance. This allowed millions of Floridians to evacuate the state, sparing countless lives.
Some contrarians have tried to downplay the rising costs of landfalling hurricanes by claiming they’re only more expensive because there are now more people living along the coasts with more expensive stuff vulnerable to hurricane damages. However, those arguments fail to account for our ability to predict hurricane tracks earlier and more accurately by using better and better scientific models. We’re able to prepare for hurricanes much better today than in the past because we have more warning.
[Hansen’s] model predicted that global temperature between 1988 and 1997 would rise by 0.45°C (Figure 1). Figure 2 compares this to the observed temperature changes from three independent sources. Ground-based temperatures from the IPCC show a rise of 0.11°C, or more than four times less than Hansen predicted.
Continue reading...The Sphinx is the closest Britain comes to having a glacier. It has disappeared just six times in the last 300 years, but this year it is almost gone. Murdo MacLeod joins snow expert Iain Cameron to study the state of Scotland’s permanent snow
“It’s a very sorry sight,” says Iain Cameron. It is late August and we are standing in front of Scotland’s very own Sphinx. It never had claws, paws, nor a mysterious countenance, but if it once had they would have melted away, just as the rest is about to do. “Grim,” says Cameron with gravel in his tone. “It’s pretty much in its death throes.”
Even lichens and mosses struggle to get a toehold, leaving the granite pink in colour compared to the darker cliffs
Continue reading...Secretary of state Rex Tillerson and national security adviser HR McMaster both indicated the US is open to negotiations on staying in the accord
Senior Trump administration officials on Sunday signalled a further softening of America’s resolve to leave the Paris climate accord, amid signs that the issue will be discussed at the United Nations general assembly in New York this week.
Secretary of state Rex Tillerson and national security adviser HR McMaster both indicated that the US is open to negotiations on staying in the landmark international agreement to limit mankind’s role in global warming.
Related: White House denies US is planning to remain in Paris climate accord
Related: How to offset Trump's climate science ignorance – plant 10bn trees
Continue reading...Mail on Sunday criticised by Ipso for article claiming global warming data had been exaggerated to win Paris climate change agreement
Claims in the Mail on Sunday that global warming data had been exaggerated in order to secure the Paris climate change agreement have been criticised by the UK’s press regulator.
The Independent Press Standards Organisation censured the newspaper for publishing a story in early February that was flawed in key aspects. The news story suggested that data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), one of the world’s gold-standard sources of weather and climate research, had been treated in such a way as to suggest greater warming than had really occurred.
The expert community must continue to fight back against the deluge of propaganda from climate change deniers
Continue reading...Joss Hanbury, master of the Quorn hunt, says foxhounds have “been bred for generations to hunt live prey”, giving this as a reason why hunts keep killing foxes, implying that it’s just one of those unfortunate things that can’t be helped (News).
If someone’s bull terriers savaged a bull, it would be no good the owner pleading that the breed had been bred for bull-baiting and therefore there wasn’t much he could do to stop them. He would be prosecuted and the dogs might well be destroyed. But hunts take out packs of 30-plus dogs that they state are uncontrollable and take them to coverts almost certain to contain foxes. So foxes get chased and killed and the hunts pretend they thought the hounds were on a non-existent “trail”.
Continue reading...Trump administration dismisses claim by EU official that US has offered to re-engage with the deal
The White House has denied reports that it planned to stay in the Paris climate agreement, saying its position on leaving was unchanged, and that it would only stay in if it got more “favourable” terms.
The Trump administration was forced to make a statement on Saturday after reports emerged as ministers from more than 30 countries held talks in Montreal this weekend preparing for the upcoming United Nations climate summit in November.
Related: The Florida Keys are the canaries in the climate-change coalmine | Joanna Guthrie
Our position on the Paris agreement has not changed. @POTUS has been clear, US withdrawing unless we get pro-America terms.
Continue reading...Party raises concerns over nuclear costs as Vince Cable says record low wind power prices should lead to ‘radical reappraisal’
New nuclear power stations may not be the best option for keeping Britain’s lights on and meeting the country’s carbon targets, the Liberal Democrats have said.
The party said there were legitimate concerns over nuclear’s cost and the risks it would not be delivered on time, just days after windfarms secured state support far more cheaply than the Hinkley Point C atomic power station.
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