John Kerry: world leaders must step up to avoid worst impacts of climate crisis

Fiona Harvey

US envoy uses landmark speech in London to make impassioned plea for unified global effort

John Kerry also called on governments to invest in clean energy. Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/EPA

The world still has a chance of staving off the worst impacts of climate breakdown but only if governments step up in the next few months with stronger commitments on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the US envoy for climate change has said.

John Kerry, appointed by Joe Biden to spearhead the US’s international efforts to tackle the crisis, urged all large economies to come forward with new plans to cut emissions before the Cop26 UN climate talks in Glasgow this November.

“The climate crisis is the test of our own times and, while it may be unfolding in slow motion to some, this test is as acute and as existential as any previous one. Time is running out,” he said.

He called Cop26 “a pivotal moment” and 2021 “a decisive year”, as the world must get to grips with the climate crisis and rapidly slash emissions in the 2020s to have a chance of a safe future.

Speaking as floods have devastated parts of Europe and heatwaves and wildfires swept North America, Kerry drew a parallel between the ruins of Europe after the second world war and the ravages of the climate crisis.

“The world order that exists today didn’t just emerge on a whim. It was built by leaders and nations determined to makes sure that never – never – again would we come so close to the edge of the abyss,” he said.

Kerry said his earliest memory, aged four, was of the ruined skeleton of a burned-out building in Europe, where he had been taken by his mother, who fled the Nazis. “That journey has always given me the bedrock confidence that we can solve humanity’s biggest threats together.”

Staying within 1.5C of global heating, the aspirational goal of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, was still possible, he insisted.

“There is still time to put a safer 1.5C future back within reach. But only if every major economy commits to meaningful absolute reductions in emissions by 2030. That is the only way to put the world on a credible track to global net zero by mid-century,” he said.

The Paris agreement targets an upper limit of holding global temperature rises to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels, with an aspirational lower limit of 1.5C.

Kerry made it clear that the Cop26 summit must aim for the lower threshold, and warned that current government pledges on emission cuts would lead to 2.5C or 3C rises.

“We’re already seeing dramatic consequences with 1.2C of warming. To contemplate doubling that is to invite catastrophe,” he said.

Kerry used his landmark speech at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London, with just over 100 days to go before Cop26, to make an impassioned plea for a unified global effort. “We can’t afford a world so divided in its response to climate change when the evidence for compelling action is so strong.”

His words will be seen as partly aimed at China, the world’s biggest emitter and second largest economy, which has yet to submit to the UN a national plan for emissions cuts before 2030.

China had set a long-term goal of net zero emissions by 2060 and has national targets aimed at reducing the amount of carbon procured per unit of GDP. However, Kerry made it clear that absolute cuts in emissions, rather than cuts relative to economic growth, were essential.

But he is likely to also have other countries in his sights. He said the US was working with “allies, partners, competitors and even adversaries all too aware that some things happening today threaten to erase the very progress so many are struggling to advance”.

UN climate summits proceed by consensus so recalcitrant counties can thwart agreement. For Cop26 to be a success, countries such as Russia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia will need to acquiesce at least – Kerry’s remarks will be seen as warning them not to disrupt the process.

He also called on governments to invest in clean energy, holding out the prospect of a clean energy boom worth $4tn a year by 2030, and said new technologies such as hydrogen and carbon capture and storage would also be needed.

The International Energy Agency warned this week that governments were failing to rebuild stronger from the Covid-19 pandemic, with only 2% of economic bailout money going to clean energy. It warned emissions could reach record levels within two years as a result, with disastrous consequences for the climate.

How data could save Earth from climate change

The Amazon rainforest in flames south of Novo Progresso, Brazil. It now emits more CO2 than it absorbs. Photograph: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images

Using a name inspired by Indonesian farmers, Subak will share information and fund hi-tech solutions to fight global heating

As monikers go, Subak may seem an odd choice for a new organisation that aims to accelerate hi-tech efforts to combat the climate crisis. The name is Indonesian, it transpires, and refers to an ancient agricultural system that allows farmers to co-ordinate their efforts when irrigating and growing crops.

“Subak allows farmers to carefully synchronise their use of water and so maximise rice production,” said Bryony Worthington, founder and board member of the new, not-for-profit climate action group. “And that is exactly what we are going to do – with data. By sharing and channelling data, we can maximise our efforts to combat carbon emissions and global warming. Data is going to be the new water, in other words.”

Bryony Worthington and Gi Fernando, who hatched the idea of Subak. Photograph: Supplied

Subak will be officially launched on Monday and will select and fund non-profit groups, working around the world, to combat the climate crisis. Early start-ups already helped by Subak include one group that is assisting UK local authorities to boost electric car use, while another is using accurate weather forecasts to make best use of solar power across Britain and limit fossil fuel burning to generate electricity.

These efforts are being launched after a week of headlines that have highlighted how perilous life on Earth is becoming as global heating grips the planet. Floods in Germany and Belgium left more than 150 dead; scientists revealed that the Brazilian rainforest now emits more carbon dioxide than it absorbs; and fires devastated vast tracts of Californian forests. In each case, scientists warned that rising temperatures – triggered by increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere – are likely to have played a key role in bringing about these catastrophes.

Urgent action is clearly needed, says Lady Worthington, a noted climate activist and lead author of the team which drafted the UK’s 2008 Climate Change Act, legislation that required the UK to reduce its carbon emissions by at least 80% of their 1990 levels. At the time, Worthington was working with Friends of the Earth but was seconded to government to help design the legislation. For her efforts, she was made a peer in 2010.

Floods in Liege, Belgium, on Thursday. Photograph: Bruno Fahy/Belga/AFP/Getty Images

Since then, Worthington has continued in the battle against the climate crisis, and in 2019 she read Harvard academic Shoshana Zuboff’s book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism ,which focuses – disapprovingly – on hi-tech companies’ growing use of personal data to make money.

“It woke me up to the fact a whole new world of digital tools was being deployed to generate profits,” says Worthington. “I realised it would be better if those tools could be used to save the planet – to protect the global commons – and not merely to boost share value.”

Worthington contacted Gi Fernando, a tech entrepreneur, and the pair hatched the idea of Subak, which has since been given funding by the Quadrature Climate Foundation (QCF) that was recently set up by the London investment management company, Quadrature Capital. Its aim is to provide initial funding to help groups establish themselves but also to give expert guidance over legal, management and other issues.

“When you start up a company or group, you are quite alone,” says Fernando. “So if you have a community around you that can offer help – HR, finance, tools – that is incredibly helpful. And then, once that group gets on their feet, they can then start to help other startup entrepreneurs wanting to open new avenues in order to help fight climate change.”

Fernando’s words are echoed by several of the groups that Subak has already helped to set up, such as Open Climate Fix. This aims to reduce carbon emissions by improving weather forecasts to make the best use of solar power plants – whose effectiveness is reduced when the weather is cloudy.

Doyle, a small town in California, was ravaged last week by wildfire for the second time in less than a year. Photograph: Noah Berger/AP

“If we get very good data about forthcoming cloud cover, we will know exactly how much solar-generated electricity can be provided in the UK on a given day,” said Open Climate Fix’s co-founder, Jack Kelly. “That will mean we will not need to generate unnecessary electricity from other sources – in particular fossil fuel sources such as gas – because we have underestimated the solar power we will get that day. That will help to reduce carbon emissions.”

Subak’s provision of engineers and software experts who have turned weather satellite images into cloud cover forecasts was a critical piece of assistance, added Kelly.

A similar tale is told by Richard Allan of New AutoMotive, which is monitoring how electric cars are being taken up in communities across the UK. Factors include vehicle use, sales patterns and favourite types of cars and trucks. That data can be fed to local authorities to ensure charging stations, battery replacement services and other resources are provided to maximise take-up of electric cars.

“Replacing petrol and diesel vehicles with electric versions as quickly as possible is going to be extremely important in reducing carbon emissions,” says Allan. “And data about take-up rates in communities will be vital in achieving that goal.”

This view is endorsed by Worthington. “Just as a major corporation has lots of different companies under its control, Subak is going to help set up lots of new outfits, each aimed at boosting efforts to control climate change.

“We are going to be the Diageo of climate protection, though we will not be co-ordinating drink production. We will be generating precious data about the climate.”

Climate crisis in numbers

415: The number of parts per million of carbon dioxide that make up the atmosphere. Before the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1700s, the global average amount of carbon dioxide was about 280ppm. Burning fossil fuels has since added a further 135ppm and if global energy demand continues to grow and is met mostly with fossil fuels, that figure could exceed 900ppm by 2100.

3.6mm: The estimated increase each year in sea level, according to measurements of tide gauges and satellite data. This is a result of human-induced warming of the planet. It is projected that the sea level will rise a further 40 to 80cm by 2100, although future ice sheet melt could make these values considerably higher.

43.1 billion: In 2019 that was the number of tons of carbon dioxide from human activities that were emitted into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that absorbs heat and release it gradually over time, like bricks in a fireplace after the fire goes out. Current increases in greenhouse gases have tipped the Earth’s energy budget out of balance, trapping additional heat and raising Earth’s average temperature.

28 trillion: The estimated numbers of tons of ice that our planet has lost between 1994 and 2017. Global warming has a particularly severe impact at higher latitudes and this has been most noticeable in the Arctic. Scientists worry that as ice melts, less solar radiation will be reflected back into space and temperatures will rise even faster. Ice loss will become increasingly severe as a result.

Sources: Royal Society; US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Scientific American

Deadly flooding, heatwaves in Europe, highlight urgency of climate action

UN NEWS

Unsplash/Claudio Schwarz
Floods have affected cities across Europe, including Zurich in Switzerland.

The agency said that countries including Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands had received up to two months’ rain in two days from 14 to 15 July, on ground that was “already near saturation”.

Photos taken at the scene of some of the worst water surges and landslides show huge, gaping holes where earth and buildings had stood until mid-week, after media reports pointed to well over 100 confirmed fatalities in Germany and Belgium on Friday morning, with an unknown number still missing across vast areas.

“We’ve seen images of houses being…swept away, it’s really, really devastating”, said WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis adding that that the disaster had overwhelmed some of the prevention measures put in place by the affected developed countries.

In a statement issued by his Spokesperson, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, said he was saddened by the loss of life and destruction of property. "He extends his condolences and solidarity to the families of the victims and to the Governments and people of the affected countries."

The UN chief said the UN stood ready to contribute to ongoing rescue and assistance efforts, if necessary.

“🌊Floods, 🔥fire 🌡️heat
WMO roundup of the summer of extremes at https://t.co/aQ6iEf4fN7#ClimateChange #ClimateActionNow
Photo of #flooding in #Liege, #Belgium, by @BrunoFahy pic.twitter.com/o65yVKCYRh”

— World Meteorological Organization (@WMO) July 16, 2021

“Europe on the whole is prepared, but you know, when you get extreme events, such as what we’ve seen - two months’ worth of rainfall in two days - it’s very, very difficult to cope,” added Ms. Nullis, before describing scenes of “utter devastation” in Germany’s southwestern Rhineland-Palatinate state, which is bordered by France, Belgium and Luxembourg

Highlighting typical preparedness measures, the WMO official noted In Switzerland’s national meteorological service, MeteoSwiss, had a smartphone application which regularly issued alerts about critical high-water levels.

The highest flood warning is in place at popular tourist and camping locations including lakes Biel, Thun and the Vierwaldstattersee, with alerts also in place for Lake Brienz, the Rhine near Basel, and Lake Zurich.

Dry and hot up north

In contrast to the wet conditions, parts of Scandinavia continue to endure scorching temperatures, while smoke plumes from Siberia have affected air quality across the international dateline in Alaska. Unprecedented heat in western north America has also triggered devastating wildfires in recent weeks.

Among the Scandinavian countries enduring a lasting heatwave, the southern Finnish town of Kouvola Anjala, has seen 27 consecutive days with temperatures above 25C. “This is Finland, you know, it’s not Spain, it’s not north Africa,”, Ms. Nullis emphasised to journalists in Geneva.

“Certainly, when you see the images we’ve seen in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands this week it’s shocking, but under climate change scenarios, we are going to see more extreme events in particular extreme heat,” the WMO official added.

Troubled waters

“Before and after Aerial views of #Altenahr in Germany’s Rhineland-Palatinate state From @wxnbissaka #Flooding #Hochwasser #Germany pic.twitter.com/OZ9EE7pEAt
”

— World Meteorological Organization (@WMO) July 16, 2021

Concerns persist about rising sea temperatures in high northern latitudes, too, Ms. Nullis said, describing the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea at a “record” high, “up to 26.6C on 14 July”, making it the warmest recorded water temperature since records began some 20 years ago.

Echoing a call by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to all countries to do more to avoid a climate catastrophe linked to rising emissions and temperatures, Ms. Nullis urged action, ahead of this year’s UN climate conference, known as COP26, in Glasgow, in November.

Action, now

“We need to step up climate action, we need to step up the level of ambition; we’re not doing nearly enough to stay within the targets of the Paris Agreement (on Climate Change) and keep temperatures below two degrees Celsius, even 1.5C, by the end of this century.”

Climate scientists shocked by scale of floods in Germany

Jonathan Watts

Deluge raises fears human-caused disruption is making extreme weather even worse than predicted

The intensity and scale of the floods in Germany this week have shocked climate scientists, who did not expect records to be broken this much, over such a wide area or this soon.

After the deadly heatwave in the US and Canada, where temperatures rose above 49.6C two weeks ago, the deluge in central Europe has raised fears that human-caused climate disruption is making extreme weather even worse than predicted.

Precipitation records were smashed across a wide area of the Rhine basin on Wednesday, with devastating consequences. At least 58 people have been killed, tens of thousands of homes flooded and power supplies disrupted.

Parts of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia were inundated with 148 litres of rain per sq metre within 48 hours in a part of Germany that usually sees about 80 litres in the whole of July.

The city of Hagen declared a state of emergency after the Volme burst its banks and its waters rose to levels not seen more than four times a century.

The most striking of more than a dozen records was set at the Köln-Stammheim station, which was deluged in 154mm of rain over 24 hours, obliterating the city’s previous daily rainfall high of 95mm.

Climate scientists have long predicted that human emissions would cause more floods, heatwaves, droughts, storms and other forms of extreme weather, but the latest spikes have surpassed many expectations.

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“I am surprised by how far it is above the previous record,” Dieter Gerten, professor of global change climatology and hydrology at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said. “We seem to be not just above normal but in domains we didn’t expect in terms of spatial extent and the speed it developed.”

Gerten, who grew up in a village in the affected area, said it occasionally flooded, but not like this week. Previous summer downpours have been as heavy, but have hit a smaller area, and previous winter storms have not raised rivers to such dangerous levels. “This week’s event is totally untypical for that region. It lasted a long time and affected a wide area,” he said.

Scientists will need more time to assess the extent to which human emissions made this storm more likely, but the record downpour is in keeping with broader global trends.

“With climate change we do expect all hydro-meteorological extremes to become more extreme. What we have seen in Germany is broadly consistent with this trend.” said Carlo Buontempo, the director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

The seven hottest years in recorded history have occurred since 2014, largely as a result of global heating, which is caused by engine exhaust fumes, forest burning and other human activities. Computer models predict this will cause more extreme weather, which means records will be broken with more frequency in more places.

The Americas have been the focus in recent weeks. The Canadian national daily heat record was exceeded by more than 5C two weeks ago, as were several local records in Oregon and Washington. Scientists said these extremes at such latitudes were virtually impossible without human-driven warming. Last weekend, the monitoring station at Death Valley in California registered 54.4C, which could prove to be the highest reliably recorded temperature on Earth.

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California in Los Angeles, said so many records were being set in the US this summer that they no longer made the news: “The extremes that would have been newsworthy a couple of years ago aren’t, because they pale in comparison to the astonishing rises a few weeks ago.” This was happening in other countries too, he said, though with less media attention. “The US is often in the spotlight, but we have also seen extraordinary heat events in northern Europe and Siberia. This is not a localised freak event, it is definitely part of a coherent global pattern.”

Lapland and parts of Siberia also sweltered in record-breaking June heat, and cities in India, Pakistan and Libya have endured unusually high temperatures in recent weeks. Suburbs of Tokyo have been drenched in the heaviest rainfall since measurements began and a usual month’s worth of July rain fell on London in a day. Events that were once in 100 years are becoming commonplace. Freak weather is increasingly normal.

Some experts fear the recent jolts indicate the climate system may have crossed a dangerous threshold. Instead of smoothly rising temperatures and steadily increasing extremes, they are examining whether the trend may be increasingly “nonlinear” or bumpy as a result of knock-on effects from drought or ice melt in the Arctic. This theory is contentious, but recent events have prompted more discussion about this possibility and the reliability of models based on past observations.

“We need to better model nonlinear events,” said Gerten. “We scientists in recent years have been surprised by some events that occurred earlier and were more frequent and more intense than expected.”

Amazon rainforest now emitting more CO2 than it absorbs

Damian Carrington

Cutting emissions more urgent than ever, say scientists, with forest producing more than a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year

The study found fires produced about 1.5bn tonnes of CO2 a year, with forest growth removing 0.5bn tonnes. The 1bn tonnes left in the atmosphere is equivalent to the annual emissions of Japan. Photograph: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images

The Amazon rainforest is now emitting more carbon dioxide than it is able to absorb, scientists have confirmed for the first time.

The emissions amount to a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, according to a study. The giant forest had previously been a carbon sink, absorbing the emissions driving the climate crisis, but is now causing its acceleration, researchers said.

Most of the emissions are caused by fires, many deliberately set to clear land for beef and soy production. But even without fires, hotter temperatures and droughts mean the south-eastern Amazon has become a source of CO2, rather than a sink.

Growing trees and plants have taken up about a quarter of all fossil fuel emissions since 1960, with the Amazon playing a major role as the largest tropical forest. Losing the Amazon’s power to capture CO2 is a stark warning that slashing emissions from fossil fuels is more urgent than ever, scientists said.

The research used small planes to measure CO2 levels up to 4,500m above the forest over the last decade, showing how the whole Amazon is changing. Previous studies indicating the Amazon was becoming a source of CO2 were based on satellite data, which can be hampered by cloud cover, or ground measurements of trees, which can cover only a tiny part of the vast region.

The scientists said the discovery that part of the Amazon was emitting carbon even without fires was particularly worrying. They said it was most likely the result of each year’s deforestation and fires making adjacent forests more susceptible the next year. The trees produce much of the region’s rain, so fewer trees means more severe droughts and heatwaves and more tree deaths and fires.

The government of Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been harshly criticised for encouraging more deforestation, which has surged to a 12-year high, while fires hit their highest level in June since 2007.

Luciana Gatti, at the National Institute for Space Research in Brazil and who led the research, said: “The first very bad news is that forest burning produces around three times more CO2 than the forest absorbs. The second bad news is that the places where deforestation is 30% or more show carbon emissions 10 times higher than where deforestation is lower than 20%.”

Fewer trees meant less rain and higher temperatures, making the dry season even worse for the remaining forest, she said: “We have a very negative loop that makes the forest more susceptible to uncontrolled fires.”

Much of the timber, beef and soy from the Amazon is exported from Brazil. “We need a global agreement to save the Amazon,” Gatti said. Some European nations have said they will block an EU trade deal with Brazil and other countries unless Bolsonaro agrees to do more to tackle Amazonian destruction.

The research, published in the journal Nature, involved taking 600 vertical profiles of CO2 and carbon monoxide, which is produced by the fires, at four sites in the Brazilian Amazon from 2010 to 2018. It found fires produced about 1.5bn tonnes of CO2 a year, with forest growth removing 0.5bn tonnes. The 1bn tonnes left in the atmosphere is equivalent to the annual emissions of Japan, the world’s fifth-biggest polluter.

“This is a truly impressive study,” said Prof Simon Lewis, from University College London. “Flying every two weeks and keeping consistent laboratory measurements for nine years is an amazing feat.”

“The positive feedback, where deforestation and climate change drive a release of carbon from the remaining forest that reinforces additional warming and more carbon loss is what scientists have feared would happen,” he said. “Now we have good evidence this is happening. The south-east Amazon sink-to-source story is yet another stark warning that climate impacts are accelerating.”

Prof Scott Denning, at Colorado State University, said the aerial research campaign was heroic. “In the south-east, the forest is no longer growing faster than it’s dying. This is bad – having the most productive carbon absorber on the planet switch from a sink to a source means we have to eliminate fossil fuels faster than we thought.”

A satellite study published in April found the Brazilian Amazon released nearly 20% more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the past decade than it absorbed. Research that tracked 300,000 trees over 30 years, published in 2020, showed tropical forests were taking up less CO2 than before. Denning said: “They’re complementary studies with radically different methods that come to very similar conclusions.”

“Imagine if we could prohibit fires in the Amazon – it could be a carbon sink,” said Gatti. “But we are doing the opposite – we are accelerating climate change.”

“The worst part is we don’t use science to make decisions,” she said. “People think that converting more land to agriculture will mean more productivity, but in fact we lose productivity because of the negative impact on rain.”

Research published on Friday estimated that Brazil’s soy industry loses $3.5bn a year due to the immediate spike in extreme heat that follows forest destruction.

EU urged to consider impact of new climate mechanism on developing countries

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) comes into force in 2023 as part of new measures to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, including taxes on imports such as oil, coal and gas. 

In tandem with the EU announcement, UNCTAD has published a report examining the potential implications for countries both within and outside the regional bloc. 

“The EU should consider the trade impacts of its carbon adjustment mechanism, an @UNCTAD report warns.While the #CBAM would reduce global #CO2 emissions by just 0.1%, it could cut exports from poor countries by much more. https://t.co/xWpZ8ZXGD4 pic.twitter.com/rlIXYRCH8e”

— UNCTAD (@UNCTAD) July 14, 2021

“Climate and environmental considerations are at the forefront of policy concerns, and trade cannot be the exception. CBAM is one of these options, but its impact on developing countries also needs to be considered,” said Isabelle Durant, the UNCTAD Acting Secretary-General. 

Cutting ‘carbon leakage’ 

Unsplash/Maxim Tolchinskiy

Air pollution from power plants contributes to global warming.

The CBAM will help reduce “carbon leakage”, a term that refers to transferring production to jurisdictions with looser constraints on emissions, the report confirmed.

However, its value in mitigating climate change is limited, as the mechanism would cut only 0.1% of global CO2 emissions. 

"While the mechanism seeks to avoid the leakage of production and CO2 emissions to the EU’s trading partners with less stringent emissions targets, it’s so far unclear how it can support decarbonization in developing countries,” UNCTAD  said. 

“Reducing these emissions effectively will require more efficient production and transport processes.”

Support green production 

UNCTAD also addressed concerns expressed by EU trade partners who believe the CBAM would substantially curtail exports in carbon-intensive sectors such as cement, steel and aluminium. 

Changes may not be as drastic as some fear, the agency said. 

Exports by developing countries would be reduced by 1.4 per cent if the plan is implemented with a tax of $44 per tonne of CO2 emissions, and by 2.4 per cent at $88 per tonne. 

Effects would vary significantly by country, depending on their export structure and carbon production intensity. 

At the $44 per tonne price, developed countries would see their incomes rise by $1.5 billion, while income in developing countries would fall by $5.9 billion, according to the report. 

UNCTAD encouraged the EU to consider using some of the revenue generated by the CBAM to accelerate cleaner production technologies in developing countries. 

“This will be beneficial in terms of greening the economy and fostering a more inclusive trading system,” said Ms. Durant, the agency’s interim chief.

Heat Waves: Air Conditioners and Global Warming

GREEN INTERN

As the planet continues to heat up because of global warming, extreme heat waves have become more frequent and more lethal in parts of the world, causing devastating wildfires, sudden deaths and increased hospitalization. Recently, Canada smashed its all-time temperature record with 49.60C (121.3 0F) in Lytton, British Columbia. Amid this unprecedented heatwave, dozens of Canadians have been reported dead, likewise in Portland and Seattle, where temperatures reached 47 0c (116 F) and 420c (108 F), respectively. There have also been predictions of severe heat waves in Australia for the coming weeks.

In this unprecedented season with record-shattering temperatures, air conditioning has become essential to human survival. Governments in affected regions now have to build more cooling stations to cater for their populations, not to mention the significant increase in the purchase of household air conditioner units. According to available data, the numberof British Columbia homes that own air conditioners have tripled since 2001, from just 10% to 60% in 2017 and still rising.  As we experience this rapid shift towards air conditioning, I think it is critical to spotlight its influence on climate change while also noting the potential impact on the environment, in the case of increased usage. Based on predictions, the use of air conditioners worldwide is expected to multiply fivefolds by 2050.

Although, heating buildings is still a larger overall contributor to climate change than air conditioning because more people use heat for more hours to cook and warm the body during very cold seasons. However, air conditioning heats the planet in very subtle ways that are going to be harder to address.  Because air conditioners cool buildings by moving heat from inside to outside, they are capable of pumping out enough heat to warm a city by a few degrees, which means on sizzling days temperature can become even warmer with air conditioning systems on.

 Aside from the fossil fuel burned to power air conditioners, they are able to produce cool air by utilizing chemical refrigerants which have been proved to be a thousand times more powerful at trapping heat than CO2 - refrigerants such as; Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), and Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). When we get rid of our old air conditioners, most of these chemical refrigerants leak out and evaporate. While only small overall amounts leak out, it warms the earth about 60% extra on top of the CO2 released to run the air conditioners; and as the earth gets a lot warmer, we use more air conditioners which heat the earth even more. It becomes a continuous vicious cycle that only gets worse as developing nations get richer and more people acquire air conditioners.

To avoid immense global impact in the future, we need to use the most efficient air conditioners, guarantee that manufacturers produce air conditioners that use refrigerants with zero ozone layer depletion potential. When we dispose of old air conditioners, the refrigerants must be recycled or destroyed instead of leaving them to leak out and ensure that the electricity that is used to power air conditioners come from a renewable source. We must also limit the use of air conditioners, which I believe can be achieved by using electric fans until it gets too hot; constructing buildings that are naturally cooler - buildings with green roofs that reflect, insulate and evaporates heat; buildings with rooms that have windows in opposite sides, so air can easily flow through; buildings with walls that can trap heat without letting it inside and then releases it at night.

Moving forward, governments need to fund and support innovative technologies on carbon capture. As well as,air conditioners can capture CO2 from the air and convert it to energy to power homes. These technologies already exist, it only require support and funding.

Finally, the earth is warm, and we need air conditioners to survive and stay healthy, but it is important we take note not to kill ourselves while trying to keep cool.

UN sets out Paris-style plan to cut extinction rate by factor of 10

Patrick Greenfield

Ambitious draft goals to halt biodiversity loss revealed, with proposed changes to food production expected to ‘raise eyebrows’

The agreement, to be scrutinised at the Kunming summit, aims to address how to feed the world’s growing population while protecting the environment. Photograph: David Talukdar/REX/Shutterstock

Eliminating plastic pollution, reducing pesticide use by two-thirds, halving the rate of invasive species introduction and eliminating $500bn (£360bn) of harmful environmental government subsidies a year are among the targets in a new draft of a Paris-style UN agreement on biodiversity loss.

The goals set out by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)to help halt and reverse the ecological destruction of Earth by the end of the decade also include protecting at least 30% of the world’s oceans and land and providing a third of climate crisis mitigation through nature by 2030.

The latest draft of the agreement, which follows gruelling virtual scientific and financial negotiations in May and June, will be scrutinised by governments before a key summit in the Chinese city of Kunming, where the final text will be negotiated.

Alongside the 2030 draft targets, new goals for the middle of the century include reducing the current rate of extinctions by 90%, enhancing the integrity of all ecosystems, valuing nature’s contribution to humanity and providing the financial resources to achieve the vision.

The Guardian understands that the summit, scheduled for October, is expected to be delayed for a third time due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is now likely to take place in Kunming in the first half of 2022, pending in-person preparatory negotiations that could happen in Switzerland early next year.

Basile van Havre, co-chair of the CBD working group responsible for drafting the agreement, said the goals were based on the latest science. He added that, if adopted, it could represent a significant shift in global agriculture.

“Change is coming [in food production],” he said. “There will be a lot more of us in 10 years and they will need to be fed so it’s not about decreasing the level of activity. It’s about increasing the output and doing better for nature.

“Cutting nutrient runoff in half, reducing pesticide use by two-thirds and eliminating plastic discharge: those are big. I’m sure they’re going to raise some eyebrows as they present significant change, particularly in the agriculture.”

Last month, Van Havre warned the world was running out of time for an ambitious deal at Kunming, which is part of a multi-decade ambition to live in harmony with nature by 2050.

Scientists have warned that humanity is causing the sixth mass extinction in the planet’s history, driven by overconsumption of resources and overpopulation. One million species are at risk of extinction largely due to human activities, according to the UN’s assessment, threatening the healthy functioning of ecosystems that produce food and water.

The plan includes the goal of protecting 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. Photograph: Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

In the latest set of 21 targets to be negotiated at Kunming, nature-based solutions such as restoring peatlands and adopting regenerative agriculture will contribute at least 10 GtCO2e (gigatonnes of equivalent carbon dioxide) a year to global climate crisis mitigation efforts – around a third of the 32 GtCO2e annual emission reductions needed as identified in the UN Environment Programme emissions gap report 2020 – while ensuring there are no negative impacts on biodiversity.

“We wanted to put [the contribution of nature] into an absolute number. We don’t control what is happening on the climate change agenda but science is telling us this is what we can bring to the issues,” Van Havre said. “The challenge is going to be how we do the carbon accounting.”

Other targets include efforts to restore freshwater and marine habitats, maintain genetic diversity of wild and domesticated species, increase financial flows to developing countries, improve business disclosures on how their activities damage the environment and respect the rights of indigenous communities in biodiversity decision-making.

Prof Sir Robert Watson, who has previously led the UN’s scientific organisations for climate and biodiversity, and has held various senior roles within the UK government, Nasa, the World Bank and the US government, welcomed the draft targets but cautioned that some were unrealistic and difficult to measure. Governments have failed to fully meet targets to stem the destruction of nature for consecutive decades, including the aims for the 2010s, which are known as the Aichi targets.

“Overall, the paper recognises and addresses all of the key issues, as did the 20 Aichi targets. The question is whether governments can set appropriate national targets and regulatory and legislative frameworks to enable the other actors, especially the private sector and financial institutions, to play their part,” Watson said.

“I would have hoped that the paper would have explicitly acknowledged that the issues of biodiversity, climate change and land degradation must be addressed together and the goals, targets and actions of the three conventions should be jointly developed and harmonised.”

The targets and goals must now be negotiated at in-person talks, where they will be updated after feedback from national governments. Once agreed, the final accord will be adopted by the 196 parties to the CBD.

Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the CBD, said: “Urgent policy action globally, regionally and nationally is required to transform economic, social and financial models so that the trends that have exacerbated biodiversity loss will stabilise by 2030 and allow for the recovery of natural ecosystems in the following 20 years, with net improvements by 2050.”

Time running out for countries on climate crisis front line

UN NEWS

© UNICEF/G.M.B. Akash I People wade through water during floods in the Kurigram district of Bangladesh.

Speaking to the first Climate Vulnerable Finance Summit of 48 nations systemically exposed to climate related disasters, António Guterres said they needed reassurance that financial and technical support will be forthcoming.

 “To rebuild trust, developed countries must clarify now, how they will effectively deliver $100 billion dollars in climate finance annually to the developing world, as was promised over a decade ago”, he said.

The UN chief said that to get the “world back on its feet”, restore cooperation between governments and recover from the pandemic in a climate resilient way, the most vulnerable countries had to be properly supported.

Risk of calamity

Mr. Guterres asked for a clear plan to reach established climate finance goals by 2025, something he promised to emphasize to the G20 finance ministers at their upcoming meeting this week.

He added that the development finance institutions play a big role supporting countries in the short-term, and they will either facilitate low carbon, climate-resilient recovery, or it will entrench them in high carbon, business-as-usual, fossil fuel-intensive investments. “We cannot let this happen”, he said.

The Secretary-General reminded that the climate impacts we are seeing today - currently at 1.2 degrees above pre-industrial levels - give the world a glimpse of what lies ahead: prolonged droughts, extreme and intensified weather events and ‘horrific flooding’.

“Science has long warned that we need to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees. Beyond that, we risk calamity... Limiting global temperature rise is a matter of survival for climate vulnerable countries”, he emphasized.

“Our climate is changing and weather becoming more extreme - heat, floods and drought.
We need to invest in weather, hydrological and climate services to adapt.
Leaders of the Alliance for #Hydromet Development on why we must step up #ClimateActionhttps://t.co/ysqE3nbhK4 pic.twitter.com/lymCwrThuq”

— World Meteorological Organization (@WMO) July 8, 2021

More adaptation

The UN chief highlighted that only 21% of the climate finance goes towards adaptation and resilience, and there should be a balanced allocation for both adaptation and mitigation.

Current adaptation costs for developing countries are $70 billion dollars a year, and this could rise to as much as $300 billion dollars a year by 2030, he warned.

“I am calling for 50 percent of climate finance globally from developed countries and multilateral development banks to be allocated to adaptation and resilience in developing countries. And we must make access to climate finance easier and faster”.

Invest to save thousands of lives: WMO report

UNICEF/Sokhin I A 16-year-old child swims in the flooded area of Aberao village in Kiribati. The Pacific island is one of the countries worst affected by sea-level rise.

The UN chief also welcomed on Thursday a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) which reveals that an estimated 23,000 lives per year could be saved – with potential benefits of at least $162 billion per year – through improving weather forecasts, early warning systems, and climate information, known as hydromet.

In a video message to mark the publication of the first Hydromet Gap Report,, the Secretary-General said that these services were essential for building resilience in the face of climate change.

Mr. Guterres called once more for a breakthrough on adaptation and resilience in 2021, with significant increases in the volume and predictability of adaptation finance.

He noted that Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries where large gaps remain in basic weather data, would benefit the most.

“These affect the quality of forecasts everywhere, particularly in the critical weeks and days when anticipatory actions are most needed”, he said.

According to WMO, investments in multi-hazard early warning systems create benefits worth at least ten times their costs and are vital to building resilience to extreme weather.

Currently, only 40 percent of countries have effective warning systems in place. 

Heat waves caused warmest June ever in North America

Josh Marcus
Heat waves caused warmest June ever in North America

Temperatures set records in North America, Europe, the Arctic, and across the globe

A man cools off from the soaring temperatures

(AFP via Getty Images)

Last month was the warmest June ever on record for North America, and one of the hottest ever globally, according to newly released data, the latest manifestation of the intensifying climate crisis that sent deadly heat waves across the Pacific Northwest.

The record highs have temporarily subsided over parts of the Northwest, but forecasters are warning that the region could be in for yet another heat wave by as soon as the weekend.

The new figures, from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, were the result of “billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world,” authorities said.

The findings come after a hellish month of heat across North America.

The small town of Lytton, British Columbia, broke Canada’s all-time temperature record three days straight with a high of 121 degrees before burning down in a wildfire, while readings in US cities like Portland and Seattle also shattered records.The heat strained governments across the region, as the most vulnerable—the poor, the unhoused, those without air conditions—baked in unseasonably early and unprecedentedly high heat.

The record temperatures were particularly disastrous for unhoused people, as The Independent reported, who’ve been battered with wildfires and the coronavirus over the last year.

“Last summer and fall we had the horrific wildfires,” said Scott Kerman, executive director of Blanchet House, which offers free meals, housing, and other services in Portland, Oregon.

“The smoke was unbearable. Then you get into the winter. Now we just went through an unprecedented heat wave. It was really a matter of life or death just to keep people hydrated.”

For many, the heat served as a reminder of the anomalous new normal of the climate crisis.

“I’m sure that people will – including public entities – start to build in cooling requirements and investments where that can be done,” Washington governor Jay Inslee said on Tuesday, but “there’s not enough chilling stations in the world to stop this problem if you don’t attack it at its source, which is climate change.”

“Temperatures,” he added, “are just the tip of the melting iceberg.”

It was also the second-warmest June on record, according to the figures, as well as the fourth warmest June ever in Arctic Siberia and across the whole globe.

Global Banks to Launch Voluntary Carbon Offset Market Platform

Susanna Twidale

Global Banks to Launch Voluntary Carbon Offset Market Platform

FILE PHOTO: A branch of NatWest Bank is seen in the City of London February 8, 2011. REUTERS/Chris Helgren REUTERS

LONDON (Reuters) - Four global banks will next month launch a pilot platform for buying and selling voluntary carbon credits, they said on Wednesday, the latest sign of growing interest from the financial community in the burgeoning carbon offset market.

A private sector task force on scaling up the voluntary carbon market said earlier this year the market will need to grow 15-fold to meet goals set under the Paris climate agreement and could be worth $5-$50 billion by 2030.

Britain’s NatWest Group, Canada’s Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Australia’s National Australia Bank and Brazil’s Itaú Unibanco said their Project Carbon initiative would help create a more liquid market for carbon offsets and help clients to manage risks associated with climate costs.

"Climate change is one of the most important challenges of our time. We’re helping our business and personal banking customers to understand and reduce their carbon footprints through partnerships like Project Carbon," said Alison Rose, chief executive officer of NatWest Group.

The platform will enable buyers to fully trace which projects the carbon credits have come from and act as a record of ownership of the credits, the banks said in a joint statement.

It will also look at how blockchain technology can be used to trade credits and help to make the market more accessible to customers.

"The team is keen to invite like-minded institutions to join the cohort to help deliver a shared service platform that the group believes will be fundamental to the scaling of the Voluntary Carbon Market," the banks said.

(Reporting By Susanna Twidale; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Copyright 2021 Thomson Reuters.

U.S. announces millions in funding for projects focused on wave energy tech

Anmar Frangoul

U.S. announces millions in funding for projects focused on wave energy tech

It’s the latest attempt to encourage innovation within a sector that has a very small footprint compared to other types of renewable energy.

The development of wave energy technologies is not exclusive to the United States. Europe, for instance, is also home to a fledgling sector.

Scott Heaney | iStock | Getty Images

The U.S. Department of Energy has announced that as much as $27 million in federal funding will be provided for research and development projects focused on wave energy.

In the latest attempt to encourage innovation within a sector that has a very small footprint compared to other types of renewable energy, the DOE said Tuesday the funding would aim to “advance wave energy technologies toward commercial viability.”

Selected projects will undertake their research at the PacWave South facility, which is located off the coast of Oregon.

Construction of PacWave South — which has received grants from the DOE and the State of Oregon, among others — began last month and it’s hoped the site will be operational in 2023.

Breaking things down, the funding will be divided into three separate pots: As much as $15 million will be set aside for the testing of wave energy convertor tech; up to $7 million will go to wave energy research and development; and a maximum of $5 million will be assigned to the advancement of wave energy converter designs for PacWave. Full applications for the funding are due in October, the DOE said.

In a statement issued alongside the DOE’s announcement, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm said: “With wave energy, we have the opportunity to add more renewable power to the grid and deploy more sustainable energy to hard to reach communities.”

While the money will be welcomed in some quarters, preliminary figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show that a lot work will be needed if the country is to move away from fossil fuels in any significant way.

According to the EIA, natural gas and coal’s shares of utility-scale electricity generation in 2020 were 40.3% and 19.3%, respectively. By contrast, the total share for renewable sources came to 19.8%.

The development of wave energy technologies is not exclusive to the United States. Europe, for instance, is also home to a fledgling sector, with a number of companies now working on a wide variety of systems.

In one example of how wave energy firms are progressing, last month saw a firm called Mocean Energy announce that its Blue X wave machine — which is 20-meters long and weighs 38 metric tons — had started testing at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, an archipelago located north of mainland Scotland.

Back in March, it was announced that some £7.5 million ($10.37 million) of public funding would be used to support the development of eight wave energy projects led by U.K. universities.

While there may be excitement in some quarters regarding the potential of marine energy, it has a way to go in order to catch up with other renewable technologies such as solar and wind.

Figures from Ocean Energy Europe show that only 260 kW of tidal stream capacity was added in Europe last year, while just 200 kW of wave energy was installed.

In comparison, 2020 saw 14.7 gigawatts of wind energy capacity installed in Europe, according to industry body WindEurope.

Japan: UN chief praises work of emergency responders in wake of deadly landslide

UN NEWS

The UN chief on Monday extended his condolences to the families of those who died in a landslide, which struck the Japanese coastal city of Atami in Shizuoka Prefecture, over the weekend.

“@antonioguterres is saddened by reports of loss of life & destruction caused by a mudslide in Japan. He extends his deep condolences to the families of the victims, commends the work of the emergency responders & wishes a speedy recovery to those injured. https://t.co/dj2nXjTMp3”

— UN Spokesperson (@UN_Spokesperson) July 5, 2021

According to news reports, at least four have been declared dead, with around 80 still missing, when record high levels of rain fell across the region, triggering the landslide in the residential area.

The resort town of around 36,000, famous for its hot springs, is near Mount Fuji, some two hours southwest of Tokyo. Officials have reportedly warned that more heavy rains are forecast this week, keeping the area on high alert.

Saddened

In a statement released by his Spokesperson, Secretary-General António Guterres said he was saddened by the reported loss of life and destruction caused.

“He extends his deep condolences to the families of the victims, the Government and people of Japan. He commends the work of the emergency responders and wishes a speedy recovery to those who are injured.

“The United Nations stands in solidarity with the Government and people of Japan”, the statement concluded.

Rescues

Around 1,500 rescue workers were reportedly searching the site of the disaster on Monday, and authorities said that an elderly couple were among 23 people rescued so far.

Atami saw more rainfall in the first three days of July, than it normally sees in the whole month, and has not been alone in suffering the impact of the heavy rains across Japan. Dozens of other cities and towns close to the capital have also recorded record levels.

The country has experienced a rise in floods in recent years, attributed to the effects of global warming, which has seen average rainfall increase.

Australia drops to bottom of UN climate action ladder

Maggie Coggan

Australia has ranked last on climate action out of nearly 200 countries, the latest report on progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals finds. 

The report, released by the UN-backed Sustainable Development Goals Solutions Network (SDSN), placed Australia below 193 United Nations member countries including Brunei, Qatar, and Norway.  

A database provided alongside the report shows Australia scored just 10 out of 100 points  for the “climate action” goal which tracks fossil fuel emissions use, emissions associated with imports and exports, and progress towards implementing a price on carbon. 

The report also highlighted the nation’s failure to commit to net zero emissions by 2050.   

“More than 30 countries have included climate neutrality by 2050 (or 2060) in laws, proposed legislation, or a national policy document,” the report said.  

“These include all G20 countries except Australia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. Brazil and China committed to climate neutrality by 2060.” 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has instead signalled Australia wants to achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible and “preferably” by 2050.

When it came to clean energy, the country was cited as having “major challenges” but recorded a moderate improvement over the past 12 months.

Pandemic stalls global progress 

Australia did score strongly in the areas of economic growth, education, and clean water and sanitation however, placing 35th overall. This is up from 37th in 2020, and 38th in 2019. 

But the report noted that this was the first time since the creation of the SDGs in 2015 that there had been a global reversal in progress towards the goals, predominantly due to the pandemic. 

Jeffrey D. Sachs, president of the SDSN and first author of the report, said that the pandemic had created “not only a global health emergency but also a sustainable development crisis”.

“To restore SDG progress, developing countries need a significant increase in fiscal space, through global tax reform and expanded financing by the multilateral development banks,” Sachs said. 

“Fiscal outlays should support the six key SDG transformations: quality education for all, universal health coverage, clean energy and industry, sustainable agriculture and land use, sustainable urban infrastructure, and universal access to digital technologies.”

Monash University professor John Thwaites, who is chair of SDSN for Australia, told Pro Bono News previously that the country’s speedy COVID-19 response offered a way forward. 

“[Our initial COVID] response demonstrates that when we follow the science and commit to action, we can perform very well,” Thwaites said. 

“We should learn the lessons from our good COVID response and apply the same approach to the other big challenges we face like climate change and broader environmental issues.”

See the full report here. 

Death toll in Florida condo collapse rises to 28 as lightning forces another pause in the search

Annie Nova

Rescuers have removed more than 4 million pounds of concrete in the search for survivors of the Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside, Florida.

Family members hold vigil for the missing victims of Surfside condo collapse in Surfside, Florida, United States, on June 29, 2021.
Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

A 28th victim of the Surfside, Florida, partial condo collapse has been recovered, officials said Monday. However, lightning and tropical weather conditions forced the search-and-rescue team to pause efforts once again.

After the new death toll, 117 people are still missing since part of the condo collapsed on June 24.

The search operation proceeded for most of the day Monday, after the rest of building was demolished in a controlled explosion Sunday night. Rescue teams have already removed more than 4 million pounds of concrete from the site.

“We are on day 12 and obviously, the longer we go, the harder it is” to find survivors, said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, earlier Monday.

Officials on Saturday had paused the search-and-rescue operations before razing the rest of the partially-collapsed condo due to concerns about approaching Tropical Storm Elsa’s potential threat to the rest of the building.

Federal forecasters said gusts of high winds and heavy rain are still possible in the Miami area but the city is expected to escape the brunt of the storm, which is forecast to move northward on Monday and to the West of Florida’s Gulf Coast. 

Officials said Monday night that they hope to be able to return to searching on Tuesday, after the storm passes.

Earlier, local authorities told residents in the surrounding area to shelter in place as well as close all windows, doors and air intakes. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said the shelter-in-place order lifts two hours after the demolition is complete. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, during a news briefing early Saturday, said the state will pay for all costs of the demolition.

Then and now: Arctic sea-ice feeling the heat

Mark Kinver

Source: National Snow and Ice Data Center I BBC

In our monthly feature, Then and Now, we reveal some of the ways that planet Earth has been changing against the backdrop of a warming world. The shrinking sea-ice in the Arctic is not only a sign of climate change, it is causing the planet to warm more quickly. This is because more sunlight is being absorbed by the darker ocean, rather than being reflected back into space.

Arctic sea-ice plays an important role in controlling the planet's temperature, and any problem with this natural thermostat is a cause for concern.

Figures from the US space agency (Nasa) suggest the loss of the minimum Arctic sea-ice extent is in the region of 13.1% per decade, based on the 1981 to 2010 average.

A major report on climate change in 2007 linked the growing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, caused by human activity, with declining sea-ice extent in the region.

The disappearance of the sea-ice in a warming world also contributes to rising average surface temperatures. The sea-ice is estimated to reflect 80% of sunlight back into space, meaning it does not warm the surface.

But when the sea-ice has melted, the darker ocean surface is exposed, which absorbs about 90% of the sunlight hitting it. This results in warming of the region.

This phenomenon is known as the Albedo effect, and it occurs because light surfaces reflect more heat than dark surfaces.

Vanishing point

Data suggests that the extent of Arctic sea-ice is shrinking by 13% each decade as the world warms I ANGELIKA RENNER

The freezing and thawing of the ocean in the Arctic is a seasonal occurrence, with the freezing peaking in March and the melting reaching its maximum in September.

However, data from on-the-ground observations and from satellites tell us that the extent of sea-ice in the Arctic polar region is declining as the planet warms.

As this occurs, the albedo (or reflectivity) is reduced, because the dark ocean waters absorb more heat than the lighter sea-ice. This in turn causes the land and oceans to warm even more.

Ultimately, scientists fear, the increasing amount of ground being exposed in regions traditionally covered with snow will trigger a "tipping point". This is where the warming of the atmosphere reaches a point where human interventions will no longer be able to halt it.

Smaller and warmer world

Another impact of the decreasing density of ice in the northern polar region is the opening of the Northwest Passage. This trading route links the North Atlantic Ocean with the North Pacific Ocean.

Since the 19th Century, there has been clamour to find a navigable route through frozen Arctic waters between Greenland and Canada's Arctic islands.

It has long been a deadly pursuit for mariners who braved the frozen seascape. However, some experts estimate that the route will become commercially viable in the near future as the sea-ice retreats in the summer months.

For some, it is going to revolutionise the global shipping sector. For others, it is a disaster waiting to happen.

Environmental groups fear a growing volume of shipping traffic through the pristine Arctic waters will damage slow-growing, long-lived marine ecosystems.

They particularly fear a ship encountering a mishap in the remote polar waters, resulting in a potentially devastating pollution incident.

Lack of food

Evidence suggests that the thinning sea-ice is affecting wildlife, including top-of-the-food-chain predators such as polar bears. The ice is not strong enough to support the animals' weight, forcing them to embark on energy-sapping swims and making it more difficult to catch prey.

As well as causing starvation, it is also reportedly resulting in bears coming into human settlements looking for food.

Studies show that polar bears are struggling to hunt on the melting sea-ice during summer months

Another concern among scientists is that melting sea-ice is affecting a major ocean current in the Arctic - the Beaufort Gyre.

Freshwater is less dense than salty seawater. The researchers said a sudden influx of freshwater from the Arctic Ocean into the northern Atlantic Ocean could alter the strength of the current.

This is because the force pushing water down the eastern coast of continental North America will be reduced, resulting in a smaller volume of warmer tropic waters from equatorial regions being displaced towards western Europe.

Models suggest the reduction in warmer waters heading towards western Europe will result in lower temperatures in the region. This, in turn, would also affect weather patterns in the global climate system.

Nowhere is safe, say scientists as extreme heat causes chaos in US and Canada

Matthew Taylor and Leyland Cecco

Governments urged to ramp up efforts to tackle climate emergency as temperature records smashed

People rest at the Oregon Convention Center cooling station in Portland. On the US west coast, Seattle and Portland have registered consecutive days of exceptional heat. Photograph: Kathryn Elsesser/AFP/Getty Images

Climate scientists have said nowhere is safe from the kind of extreme heat events that have hit the western US and Canada in recent days and urged governments to dramatically ramp up their efforts to tackle the escalating climate emergency.

The devastating “heat dome” has caused temperatures to rise to almost 50C in Canada and has been linked to hundreds of deaths, melted power lines, buckled roads and wildfires.

Experts say that as the climate crisis pushes global temperatures higher, all societies – from northern Siberia to Europe, Asia to Australia – must prepare for more extreme weather events.

Sir David King, the former UK chief scientific adviser, said: “Nowhere is safe … who would have predicted a temperature of 48/49C in British Columbia?”

King, who along with other leading scientists set up the Climate Crisis Advisory Group earlier this month, said scientists had been warning about extreme weather events for decades and now time was running out to take action.

“The risks have been understood and known for so long and we have not acted, now we have a very narrow timeline for us to manage the problem,” he said.

In Canada experts have been shocked by the rise in temperature, which on Tuesday hit 49.6C (121.1F) in the town of Lytton, British Columbia, smashing the national record for the third day in a row.

On the US west coast, Seattle and Portland have registered consecutive days of exceptional heat. Local authorities said they were investigating about a dozen deaths in Washington and Oregon that could be attributed to the scorching temperatures.

Michael E Mann, professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University and author of The New Climate War, said as the planet warmed up such dangerous weather events would become more common.

“We should take this very seriously … You warm up the planet, you’re going to see an increased incidence of heat extremes.”

Mann said the climate was being destabilised in part by the dramatic warming of the Arctic and said existing climate models were failing to capture the scale of what was happening.

“Climate models are actually underestimating the impact that climate change is having on events like the unprecedented heatwave we are witnessing out west right now,” he added.

On Wednesday the US president, Joe Biden, blamed the climate crisis for the heatwave in the western US and Canada which officials said had already broken 103 heat records across British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon and Northwest Territories.

The US National Weather Service said the peak in the region was 42.2 C on Tuesday in Spokane, Washington, another local record. About 9,300 homes lost power and the local utility Avista Utilities said planned blackouts would be needed, affecting more than 200,000 people.

In British Columbia (BC) at least 486 sudden deaths were reported over five days during the heatwave. The chief coroner said typically there would have been about 165 sudden deaths, suggesting more than 300 deaths could be attributed to the heat.

“While it is too early to say with certainty how many of these deaths are heat related, it is believed likely that the significant increase in deaths reported is attributable to the extreme weather BC has experienced and continues to impact many parts of our province,” Lisa Lapointe said in a statement.

Lapointe said the figures were preliminary and would increase as coroners in communities across the province entered other death reports into the agency’s system.

“Our thoughts are with people who have lost loved ones,” said Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, warning the blistering temperatures in a region of the country ill-prepared for such heat was a reminder of the need to address the climate crisis.

Police sergeant Steve Addison said: “I’ve been a police officer for 15 years and I’ve never experienced the volume of sudden deaths that have come in such a short period of time.”

Many of those who died over the five-day period were elderly people who lived alone and were found in residences that were hot and not well ventilated.

“People can be overcome by the effects of extreme heat quickly and may not be aware of the danger,” Lapointe said.

Scientists said that the scale of the heatwave in the US and Canada should serve as a “wake-up call” to policymakers, politicians and communities around the world, especially in the buildup to the crucial UN Cop26 climate summit to be hosted by the UK in November.

“The risk of heatwaves is increasing across the globe sufficiently rapidly that it is now bringing unprecedented weather and conditions to people and societies that have not seen it before,” said Prof Peter Stott from the Met Office. “Climate change is taking weather out of the envelope that societies have long experienced.”

Prof Simon Lewis of University College London described the situation as “scary” and warned that extreme heat events could have huge impacts on everything from food prices to power supplies.

“Everywhere is going to have to think about how to deal with these new conditions and the extremes that come along with the new climate that we are creating. That means everyone needs plans.”

He said it was crucial governments and policymakers heeded the warning signs and dramatically ramped up plans to halt fossil fuel emissions and prepare societies to deal with more extreme weather events.

“This is a warning in two senses,” said Lewis. “We have to get emissions down to zero fast to cut off the new extreme heatwaves, and we have to adapt to the new climate conditions we are creating.”

Unprecedented, unbelievable, unsettling: what the heatwave feels like in Seattle

Justin Shaw

The city with the best summers in the nation just hit 108F (42.2C) degrees.

The Salvation Army’s Shanton Alcaraz gives bottled water to resident Eddy Norby, and invites him to a nearby cooling center during a heat wave in Seattle, Washington, on 27 June 2021. Photograph: Karen Ducey/Reuters

As a lifelong Seattle-area resident and so-called geriatric millennial, I can attest to the fact that, until recently, Seattle summers truly were second to none in the comfortability department. Highs in the 70s? Check. Bluebird skies after morning clouds? Check. Pleasant sea breezes in the evening to take the edge off the day’s warmth? Check.

And 100 degrees? Virtually unheard of. In 1994, the summer after I finished third grade, the temperature in Seattle briefly reached the century mark on a hot July afternoon, catching forecasters off guard and sending local media outlets scrambling to unearth when – if ever – such a feat had occurred in the past. The answer? In the previous 90 years of record-keeping, it had happened just once before, in the summer of 1941. So, Seattle shrugged and moved on. And for the next 15 years, our summertime weather by and large stayed the same: cool mornings under a deck of clouds, and sunny afternoons under room-temperature skies.

Then came the summer of 2009. Near the end of July, the mercury spent two days hovering in the mid-90s, taunting Seattleites with the potential for triple-digit heat before making good on its promise and soaring to 103 on day three. As a city, we were stunned. 103 degrees? How was our proudly un-air-conditioned town supposed to sleep? How could we cool off at night if there was no marine air to open our windows to?

Fortunately, the temperature fell each day after that, with highs dipping below 70F (21C) by the first week of August. Even more fortunately, we told ourselves, we’d just endured a once-in-a-lifetime heat wave, the likes of which we’d never see again. This was Seattle, after all.

And then came June 2021. As I write this, sunset is an hour away and it’s still 100F (38C). And it was over 100 yesterday and the day before, too. And just like that, Seattle has done in the span of three days what it previously took 125 years to accomplish: logging three 100-degree days. It’s unprecedented. It’s unbelievable. And it’s unsettling.

Neighborhood streets, which normally would be filled with the sounds of children laughing and playing, have become ghost towns. Parks are deserted. Trailheads are empty. All across the city, a stifling heat blankets the air, interspersed with the low drumming of over-worked fans and the occasional creaky air conditioner (if you’re among the 44% of Seattleites who happen to own one). Stepping outside feels like stepping into a sauna. A 10-minute stroll feels like a 20-minute run. And for pete’s sake, this is day three of the 100s. Did Seattle become Sacramento overnight?

The heat wave gripping our part of the country has gone from significant to sickening. When a city like Seattle, nestled up against the cool waters of Puget Sound, bakes in triple-digit heat for three days in a row, it’s not a good sign. When a city ringed by evergreen trees and lakes galore sizzles like the desert south-west, it’s disconcerting. It’s alarming. If Seattle, America’s capital of comfortable summers, can swelter more than Atlanta, Washington and New York (Seattle’s new high of 108F, or 42C, now tops the hottest temperatures ever observed in each of these cities), what does this mean for the rest of the nation? Will 110s soon invade the eastern seaboard? Will 120s become commonplace in Los Angeles?

The obvious answer, of course, is that we don’t really know. Yes, we have state-of-the-art weather models and fancy algorithms that can spit out various temperature projections for cities across the globe as the Earth continues to warm, and I have no doubt that many of them are, unfortunately, frighteningly realistic. But these same models didn’t tell those of us tucked away in the north-western corner of the country that we’d endure three days of triple-digit heat in June when we’d never done so before. They didn’t predict Seattle would flirt with 110 degrees, let alone top 100 back-to-back-to-back, in a place where warm weather typically never surfaces until after the Fourth of July.

RIP, Seattle summers. It was fun while it lasted.

Deaths Spike as Heat Wave Broils Canada and the Pacific Northwest

Vjosa Isai, Dan Bilefsky and Shawn Hubler

Hyperthermia claimed nearly a dozen lives in one day in one Washington county. A small town in British Columbia set Canada’s heat record at just over 121 degrees Fahrenheit.

Trying to get some relief in the shade during the heat wave this week in Vancouver, British Columbia.Credit...Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters

Hundreds of deaths in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon have been linked to a heat wave that has roasted the Pacific Northwest for days and broken Canadian heat records, sending hundreds of thousands of people scrambling for relief.

Lisa Lapointe, British Columbia’s chief coroner, said 486 deaths had been reported there between Friday and Wednesday afternoon — a period in which about 165 deaths would normally be documented. Deaths were expected to increase, she said.

“While it is too early to say with certainty how many of these deaths are heat related, it is believed likely that the significant increase in deaths reported is attributable to the extreme weather B.C. has experienced,” she said.

Oregon’s state medical examiner’s office on Wednesday attributed at least 63 deaths in five days to the punishing heat in that state, including 45 in Multnomah County, which includes Portland — where temperatures have reached a record 116 degrees Fahrenheit.

In Washington, officials reported nearly a dozen lives lost to hyperthermia on Wednesday alone in King County, which includes Seattle; two heat-related deaths were reported there the day before.

In Snohomish County, Wash., at least three people died this week from heatstroke, according to the medical examiner’s office, which added that investigations are pending into at least two more suspected heat-related deaths.

“This was a true health crisis that has underscored how deadly an extreme heat wave can be, especially to otherwise vulnerable people,” Dr. Jennifer Vines, the Multnomah County health officer, said in a statement. “I know many county residents were looking out for each other and am deeply saddened by this initial death toll.”

This year a study found that 37 percent of heat-related deaths could be linked to climate change. Global warming has raised baseline temperatures by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit on average since 1900, experts say.

“Climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity and duration of heat waves,” said Kristie Ebi, a professor in the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the University of Washington. “When you look at this heat wave, it is so far outside the range of normal.”

In Canada, John Horgan, the premier of British Columbia, said on Tuesday that “the big lesson coming out of the past number of days is that the climate crisis is not a fiction.”

The heat wave in Canada has presented an additional public health concern even as authorities are still grappling with the challenge of the coronavirus and Canadians are just beginning to enjoy some of the pleasures of summer as restrictions ease.

On Tuesday, for the third consecutive day, British Columbia shattered its previous extreme heat record; the temperature in Lytton, a small town in the province, climbed to just over 121 degrees.

Such is the heat that some Vancouverites have fried eggs on their terraces. Others have traded in their sweltering homes for air-conditioned hotels or moved their home offices to shady places in their gardens.

The sizzling temperatures have also imperiled the crops of farmers in British Columbia, wilting lettuce and searing raspberries.

Capturing the national mood, Lyle Torgerson posted a video on Twitter on Sunday showing a bear and two cubs taking a dip in his backyard pool in Coquitlam, British Columbia. “The heat is unbearable, but if you take a quick dip you’ll survive,” he told The New York Times in a message on Instagram.

The Vancouver Police Department has dispatched dozens of additional officers to help deal with the situation, it said in a statement. While police usually attend to three to four sudden deaths a day, on average, the department said it has responded to more than 98 such calls since Friday, with 53 of those on Tuesday.

It also said two-thirds of the victims are aged 70 and older.

“We’ve never seen anything like this, and it breaks our hearts,” Sergeant Steve Addison said in a statement on Tuesday, noting that the extreme heat appears to be a contributing factor to most of the cases.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Surrey, a municipality in metropolitan Vancouver, said in an email that it had responded to 35 sudden deaths in a 24-hour period.

The wildfire service of British Columbia was also coping with effects of the heat wave, grappling with overheated helicopter engines as it tried to contain severe wildfires. One had spread over about 5,700 acres as of Tuesday night, at Sparks Lake, about five hours northeast of Vancouver.

Before this week’s record-breaking heat, the last time Canada saw the mercury rise to similar heights was on July 5, 1937, when the temperature hit 113 degrees in rural Saskatchewan.

Experts warn of ‘alarming loss’ of biodiversity in Tropics

La Prensa Latina

The Amazonian rainforest lost 2.3 million hectares last year, a conservationist group warned on Monday, highlighting the plight of the world’s Tropics, which are home to 80% of all the species in the world.

This “alarming” loss speeds up climate change, the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project said on the eve of the International Day of the Tropics.

Despite the huge biodiversity found in the Earth’s tropical regions, many of its species are endangered due to climate change, deforestation and logging, making it the area with the highest rate of biodiversity loss on the planet.

The Tropics, which span the center of the globe between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer, are home to rich areas of the natural world in countries like Brazil, Panama, Colombia, Thailand, Lagos, Indonesia and Malaysia among others.

Among the most characteristic areas of the tropical region are the mangroves, a unique ecosystem formed by trees or shrubs that grow in saltwater and live semi-submerged in the intertidal zone of the tropical or subtropical coasts.

Mangroves are highly sensitive to variations in environmental conditions, which makes climate change their main threat.

These ecosystems are “adapted to very special conditions of salinity, water level, substrate and climate, which are being altered, affecting the functioning of the mangroves very negatively,” Diana Colomina, the Forest Coordinator of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), told Efe.

They play “a fundamental role” in the fight against climate change, as they are capable of absorbing up to five times more carbon dioxide than terrestrial forests, she added. EFE