Climate change

How much do your actions as an individual matter when it comes to climate? The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change from the ...

The scientists nod to the climate strikes that have given voice to youth in more than 180 countries, which help build social trust and citizen-led networks. In a school cafeteria or restaurant, the way a menu or choices are presented can make a difference in how people decide what to eat. Offering households a financial reward for energy efficiency had the biggest effect; after that, providing consumers with more information on their energy usage, and a benchmark to compare it to, also had a measurable medium-sized effect over the short-term period that most of these studies covered. “To those of us who are in that privileged category, we have a huge responsibility to respond and to do all that we can to immediately solve this problem,” Creutzig said. That’s the scale that we can really engage because people can see the broader impact of collective action.” But the science body noted that the pandemic is proof that broad, structural behavioral change can and does happen. The top 10 percent is a broad category that includes more than the jet-fliers and yacht-owners. The pandemic has supported that rapid collective change in behavior is possible. And while hard data and peer-reviewed science show individual actions do matter, ultimately, the world has to think beyond the individual carbon footprint in addressing the climate crisis, including thinking about how individuals can bring about structural change. So the bottom line of the IPCC’s first look at individual action is this: By reexamining the way we live, move around, and eat, the world has the potential to slash up to 70 percent of end-use emissions by 2050. But there are things individuals can do at work and in their communities that will do more to push structural change. In other words, a single person taking well-meaning steps to lessen their footprint doesn’t change the fact that billions of people are living off fossil fuels.

From plastic pollution to biodiversity collapse, extreme weather events and still-rising emissions, there's a dizzying array of subjects to keep up-to-date on.

Start your Independent Premium subscription today. C) Atlanta C) 49.6 C (121.3 F) C) BP B) Amazon Since last Earth Day, climate scientists have released more urgent warnings that humanity is running out of time to meet net-zero targets and avert catastrophe.

Carbon dioxide emissions tend to acidify oceans making aquatic species and marine habitats more vulnerable to declines and damage. This ocean acidification ...

The goal is to adopt proper implementation of global strategies that can ensure marine and coastal protection and the conservation of the global oceans in general. The WMO in particular also collaborates with the Food and Agriculture Organisation to understand the impacts of climate change on marine productivity and fisheries. More than hundred countries across the globe responsible for a majority of these emissions, have made national climate commitments and pledges to curb their impacts on the environment. With the Paris Agreement, the recent COP26 summit in Glasgow among others, we can definitely say that we are off to a good start. While 30% of the land on Earth is classified as areas of particular importance for biodiversity protection, in order to reverse the extinction crisis, there needs to be an additional 20% of land that needs to be conserved. To surmise, greenhouse warming has complex and perhaps, severe impacts on the ocean than on land. Countries have also started developing policies and implementing sustainable practices which can conserve the oceans and protect fisheries and marine habitats. On the other hand, La Niña events have also seen a build-up in recent years, and tend to have complex impacts on weather patterns particularly in the Pacific Ocean. Both El Niño and La Niña events are part of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), where the former brings warming effects while the latter brings significant cooling or changes in winter seasons in the Pacific regions. The cumulative impacts of deforestation, agricultural runoff, overexploitation of marine resources, overfishing and more also weaken marine ecosystems of the world. Oceans are known to absorb most of the solar energy reaching the Earth, and warming of the oceans is generally slower than the atmosphere, resulting in moderate coastal weather with few hot and cold extremes. While oceans tend to influence regional and weather conditions around the world, changes in the climate can also have profound impacts on the oceans. Oceans absorb almost 90% of the extra energy from greenhouse gas effects, and this has resulted in ocean warming at depths of 1,000 metres.

Let's Go Zero – a schools' climate campaign which has more than 1,200 UK schools, colleges and nurseries signed up so far, all sharing the goal to be zero ...

Let’s Go Zero schools take action to cut their emissions relating to transport, waste, food, water, the school grounds, energy use, procurement and in their teaching, and are supported by a coalition of eight leading sustainability organisations that work in schools. Cutting energy use through insulation and generating their own energy on-site will help reduce high energy bills now in response to today’s energy crisis.” “This strategy is completely lacking in urgency; the government needs to push harder. “We must invest now in a national programme to retrofit the nation’s schools. But providing schools with the means to decarbonise quickly was glaringly absent in the strategy.” Let’s Go Zero, representing over 104,000 teachers and nearly 620,000 pupils and rising rapidly, was invited to input to the strategy.

Climate change is already incorporated into the curricula for geography and science in England as both are compulsory subjects up to the age of 14. But in ...

So I think I would have liked to have been taught about the scale of climate change. Looking back, I wish there'd been a subject that brought together climate change as a holistic issue, and natural history is a great place to start. I remember being taught about the greenhouse gas effect and the hole in the ozone layer. And my school was very proud of its green flag which was given to schools for “promoting long-term, whole-school action for the environment.” I was taught some of the basics in geography class in secondary school. So it would have been good to learn more about eating well and making good choices for the environment. I became veggie when I lived in London because I thought it was best for the environment. That way, they could understand the political and economic structures that are in part to blame for the climate crisis - and how they can change the status quo. Millions of tonnes of garbage is piling up in landfills, yet we still have no idea what happens to it once it’s taken away and what a danger it can still be to us. I think climate change should be taught but I think we need to be careful. Climate justice is a topic that I feel was severely lacking as part of my education. I dropped geography when I was 13 and biology when I was 16 - i.e. the earliest I could drop both subjects.

Cities are responsible for over 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Yet cities can also do a lot to mitigate climate change and help people adapt to its ...

The children pointed out that they lived in cities such as Cape Town (South Africa), Lagos (Nigeria) and Tabarka (Tunisia) where the impacts of climate change are on the rise. But, without robust action and engagement of children at the local sphere of government, the commitments become empty noise. The Climate Change Act (2016) of Kenya is very clear on the obligations of institutions at the city level in relation to climate governance. I argue that cities can do more to protect children from the impacts of climate change. In a recent study, I explored how city-level climate law and policy protects children in the context of climate change. Almost 1 billion children – nearly half of the world’s children – live in countries that are at extremely high risk of climate change impacts.

Comment on the launch of the Department for Education's Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy, including the introduction of a Natural History GCSE.

- The National Education Union stands up for the future of education. "Furthermore, whilst certain subjects are enforced by the existence of the EBacc it is difficult to understand where the opportunities will arise even for Key Stage 4 students. However, we are concerned that the DfE hasn’t taken the opportunity to address wider climate issues for young people at all stages in their education.

Across its 17 chapters, it examines climate change mitigation efforts in use (or pledged for use) in everything from agriculture and transport, to energy supply ...

Climate change is a direct result of more than a century of ignored warnings and and unsustainable approaches to using precious resources. Researchers at ETH’s Future Cities Laboratory believe that part of the answer to this is to enable a circular loop within the urban landscape. The authors say that it could “transform cityscapes from their current status as net sources of GHG emissions into large-scale, human-made carbon sinks.” A paper referenced in the report suggests that constructing timber buildings for 2.3 billion urban dwellers (between 2020 and 2050) could store between 0.01 and 0.68 Gt CO2 per year, depending on a number of factors, including the average floor area per capita. This has prompted many to begin a drastic rethink of the materials supply chain, and of the construction, operation, and demolition cycle. A particularly good example of this is the dominance of private cars seen in many urban areas. More than half of the global human population now live in these areas, and that proportion is forecasted to increase to nearly 70% by 2050. The materials most associated with mid- and high-rise urban construction – namely, concrete, steel, aluminum, and glass – all come with significant carbon (and environmental) cost, despite steady improvements in their production efficiency. Smart (and distributed) electric grids are also enabling a more sustainable approach to electricity supply and demand. There is arguably a fourth strategy too – behavioral change – though, this often follows on from the successful implementation of the other three. The huge range of approaches reflects the fact that the causes of climate change are numerous – though, it should be said, we humans are to blame for all of them – and tackling it will take a multi-pronged approach. Across its 17 chapters, it examines climate change mitigation efforts in use (or pledged for use) in everything from agriculture and transport, to energy supply and manufacturing. We are living in a climate crisis, and the time for action is now.

While climate change is already applying pressure on world insect populations, scientists have found that combined with intensive agricultural, ...

The findings of this study also demonstrate the importance of having large and diverse natural habitats adjacent to agricultural land to ensure insects are not dependent on a single seasonal crop species. “In areas with high-intensity agriculture, there is usually a low diversity of plants. Tropical areas in particular saw the biggest declines in insect biodiversity linked to land use and climate change.

Earth Day 2022 Google Doodle: Throughout the day, the doodle images will change to represent different locations of the earth and the impact of global ...

Several events and campaigns are being held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection. Earth Day is an international event celebrated around the world to pledge support for environmental protection. Each image will remain on the homepage for several hours at a time.

Can you solve drought by piping water across the country? Is the weather becoming more extreme than scientists predicted? What kind of trees are best to plant ...

NASA scientists, among others, have calculated that any cooling effect would be overwhelmed by the warming effect of all the greenhouse gases we have pumped, and continue to pump, into the atmosphere. The reality is not that clear cut: If the presence of those cryptominers disincentivizes oil and gas companies from piping away that gas to be used elsewhere, any savings effect is blunted. That keeps the number of batteries, and the weight, down. To measure temperatures at the sea’s surface, for instance, the most common method before about 1940 was to toss a bucket overboard a ship, haul it back up with a rope and read the temperature of the water inside. Some researchers put the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave in that category, and are working to figure out whether they need to re-evaluate some of their assumptions. How can we possibly have reliable measures of global temperatures from back then, keeping in mind that oceans cover about 70 percent of the globe and that a large majority of land has never been populated by humans to any significant degree? Given “unexpected” extreme events like the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave and extreme heat in Antarctica that appear to shock scientists, it’s difficult for me to trust the I.P.C.C.’s framing that we haven’t run out of time. The idea of taking water from one community and giving it to another has some basis in American history. And some 2,500 chemical sites are in areas at risk of flooding, which could cause those chemicals to leach into the groundwater. And research “suggests these disruptions to the vortex are happening more often in connection with a rapidly warming, melting Arctic, which we know is a clear symptom of climate change,” said Jennifer A. Francis, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center. Where the extreme cold occurs depends on the nature of the disruption to the polar vortex. The connection between climate change and extreme cold weather involves the polar jet stream in the Northern Hemisphere, strong winds that blow around the globe from west to east at an altitude of 5 to 9 miles.

Earth Day this year is based on the theme "invest in our planet" amid strong signs from the planet as wildfires, intense floods, and changing climate ...

The major economies of the world, including the US, are yet to deliver on their commitments towards a $100 billion per year climate fund. US Climate envoy John Kerry had said that President Joe Biden is committed to increasing U.S. funding to developing countries to help with climate change. Earth Day this year is based on the theme "invest in our planet" amid strong signs from the planet as wildfires, intense floods, and changing climate threaten its survival.

Prof. Dana Fisher examines how — and whether — ordinary people can make an impact on the global problem through activism.

At the same time, we have this history of stewardship of the land and the idea of how to give back to the land and give back to other people is built into the Jewish tradition. To take a stand as Jews is important in terms of representation and also important when we think about movement-building. I grew up in a mildly Conservative to Reform family so we were very much like a standard kind of progressive northeastern Jewish American family. In and of itself, getting arrested is relatively resource-intensive, and it doesn’t have a positive effect on mitigating climate change. Some activist groups might be less excited about the kind of work that I want to do because it will tell a better picture, but it may also redirect tactics in ways that may not get too much media attention. I was brought in as what’s called a contributing author, which is the lowest level of author and we’re frequently brought in when a chapter’s authors recognize that something’s missing and needs to be added. People power like that can take advantage of what constituents, say American Jews, already care about, and use them to pressure these economic interests to make sure they follow through on their commitments. One of the things I have been doing is with the folks trying to build the Civilian Climate Corps. When people do service work to try to help the environment, how do we measure what that means? There are a small number of studies that have tried to do that. Climate change is a process that is changing the physical world, but it’s having a huge impact on society, affecting migration, refugees, and so forth. The Arctic has warmed twice as fast as the rest of the world since 1988. Her insights might not make some activists in the climate movement happy.

Earth Day is recognised across the planet as a chance to raise awareness of the environmental crisis we all face.

“Now is the time for the unstoppable courage to preserve and protect our health, our families, our livelihoods.” “This is the moment to change it all – the business climate, the political climate, and how we take action on climate,” the Earth Day website states. The theme of Earth Day 2022 is “Invest in Our Planet”.

Get all of the latest Environment news from NationalWorld. Providing fresh perspective online for news across the UK.

In comparison to the time between 1750 and 1800, pre-industrial levels of CO2 in the atmosphere were 278 ppm, implying that humans are halfway to doubling the quantity of CO2 in the atmosphere. According to a 2018 study published in The Lancet, rising temperatures, along with an increase in the number of people living in cities and an ageing population, have resulted in a rise in heat-related mortality. This may seem obvious, but with so much focus on the effects climate change has on habitats and the vast array of species that inhabit them, it can be easy to forget the immediate impact on human life it has too. As experts continue to warn us of accelerating climate change and the irreversible effects it will have on our planet, it’s sometimes easy to feel powerless in the face of it all. That’s approximately 1,000 times the natural rate; by the middle of the century, 30 to 50% of all species on the planet will have vanished. This year’s theme is “Invest In Our Planet”, encouraging individuals, businesses and governments to invest in technologies and practices that can benefit the Earth.

Time-lapse satellite images show glacial retreat at Mount Kilimanjaro, Great Barrier Reef coral bleaching, deforestation in Germany and Greenland glacial ...

The company used 15.5 terawatt hours of electricity in 2020, mostly to power its data centres. What has been a boon for archaeologists is also a symptom of the catastrophic threat caused by climate change. They show glacial retreat at the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania between December 1986 and 2020 and glacial melt in Sermersooq, Greenland, between December 2000 and 2020.

President Joe Biden's ambitions to finally put the U.S. on the path to confront climate change are crashing into an election-year scramble to lower gas ...

Last month, Biden announced he would release 1 million barrels of oil a day from the country’s strategic reserve, one of several steps to cut gas prices soon. And as the White House tries to starve Moscow of the funds it needs to wage its war in Ukraine, Biden is pushing countries to stop buying Russian oil and gas. They pointed out that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland had used her discretion to significantly cut the amount of land being offered and raise the royalty rate companies must pay. The White House recently greenlighted exporting more U.S. gas to Europe, a step that requires building costly new export terminals that are likely to stay in use for years — even if the current crisis ends. Biden’s newfound focus on lowering gas prices in the near term has opened up rare divisions between his administration and environmental groups, who largely cheered his efforts in his first year to recommit the U.S. on climate change. But the spending proposal died, taking more than half a billion dollars in climate funding with it, denying Democrats what would have been their biggest legislative achievement to run on ahead of the midterms. But there have been no signs of serious, advanced negotiations — including with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a must-have vote — and time is quickly running out before the campaign season makes legislating in Congress nearly impossible. Yet some energy analysts have questioned that logic, arguing that building mammoth new solar and wind farms is not a viable solution to bring down energy costs immediately. “The problem they have is the energy reality we face just doesn’t square with the quick transition that they would like to sell. But that means increasing global production of gasoline, just when Biden is trying to wean the U.S. off fossil fuels. Yet this week, Biden reinstated rules requiring big infrastructure projects to undergo complex reviews for environmental and climate effects before they can get started, a step that could cause significant delays. “It’ll ensure we’re no longer reliant on petrostate autocrats,” Sittenfeld said.

Mount Kilimanjaro, Sermersooq, Great Barrier Reef, Harz Forests featured in the doodle.

The southwest monsoon contributes 74.9 per cent to the annual rainfall in India and irrigates over half of India’s agricultural land. Selected comments may also be used in the ‘Letters’ section of the Down To Earth print edition. “Quantitatively, the monsoon seasonal (June to September) rainfall is likely to be 99 per cent of the LPA with a model error of ± 5 per cent. It noted that currently, the southwest monsoon is passing through a ‘dry epoch’ which started in the decade of 1971-80. You can further help us by making a donation. Google, which records over 8 billion searches every day, has dedicated its daily doodle to Earth Day several times since the feature was rolled out in 1998. We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Scientists have attributed the loss to global warming as well as change in land-use, mostly deforestation. Rising temperatures and severe drought are responsible for this loss of green cover. The images were gathered from The Ocean Agency, an international non-profit that works on marine conservation. You can further help us by making a donation. We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us.

The Earth's average temperature has increased by more than 1C during the 20th and 21st century.

Global climate change has already had observable effects on the environment. “Earth’s climate record, preserved in tree rings, ice cores, and coral reefs, shows that the global average temperature is stable over long periods of time. The Met Office defines a heatwave as at least three consecutive days of temperatures above a certain level. The threshold for a heatwave is 25ºC for most of the country. In March, the Met Office changed the definition of a heatwave to reflect how climate change is already affecting the UK. Climate change is already having a significant effect on our planet, and the importance of taking action is highlighted on Earth Day.

The four featured time-lapse animations shows the retreating glacier on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, drought impacts on the Harz Forests in Germany, coral ...

Within the next 25 years, the entire ice could be gone as a result of climate change. The image database will be updated every year. According to an official statement, "using real time-lapse imagery from Google Earth Timelapse and other sources, the Doodle shows the impact of climate change across four different locales around our planet.

A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions an individual, organisation, event or product has produced. Greenhouse gases are contribute ...

Our carbon footprint is calculated by summing up the emissions from all activities - from what you eat, to what setting you wash your clothes with. Everything we buy and use has a carbon footprint. You can help by picking up rubbish and dividing it into recyclables and trash. Each year there’s a theme to Earth Day and this year’s is ‘Invest In Our Planet’. And now is the time to preserve and protect our planet. The theme warns that we haven’t got long left to reduce the impacts of climate change.

Climate change impacts the most vulnerable first and worst and that's why Oxfam is making sure that climate action is central to our fight against ...

3. Black and Indigenous people face the worst impacts of climate change, which causes heat waves, storms, and other disasters. For example, due to the effects of climate change an estimated 13 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia have been displaced in search of water and pasture, just in the first quarter of 2022, despite having done little to cause the climate crisis. It is time that our elected officials give it the urgency, attention, and investment that is necessary.

The time lapses show how climate changes is affecting the whole world, from Greenland to the Great Barrier Reef.

Google Doodle said: “Today’s annual Earth Day Doodle addresses one of the most pressing topics of our time: climate change. The theme of Earth Day 2022 is “Invest in Our Planet” and the organisation will host the Earth Day Climate Action Summit, where its leaders will share solutions that will help deliver the greenhouse gas reductions needed by 2030 to meet the Paris Agreement. “Using real time-lapse imagery from Google Earth Timelapse and other sources, the Doodle shows the impact of climate change across four different locales around our planet.”