Tag Archives: floods

Youth Lead Global Strike Demanding ‘Climate Justice Now’

“We are many people and youths who want to express our frustration over what decision-makers are doing right now: They don’t care about our future and aren’t doing anything to stop the climate crisis,” one young activist said.

By Olivia Rosane. Published 4-19-2024 by Common Dreams

*Climate strikers march in Stockholm, Sweden, on April 19, 2024. (Photo: Albin Haglund via Greta Thunberg/X)*

Ahead of Earth Day, young people around the world are participating in a global strike on Friday to demand “climate justice now.”

In Sweden, Greta Thunberg joined hundreds of other demonstrators for a march in Stockholm; in Kenya, participants demanded that their government join the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty; and in the U.S., youth activists are kicking off more than 200 Earth Day protests directed at pressing President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency.

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Record 50 Million Children Now Displaced as Wars, Climate Crisis Rage

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“When children lose their homes, they lose almost everything: their access to healthcare, education, food, and safety,” one advocate said.

By Olivia Rosane. Published 2-20-2024 by Common Dreams

*Children in the area of Shangil Tobaya, Sudan. Photo: United Nations Photo/flickr/CC*

The 10 biggest global crises—including Israel’s war on Gaza—forced more than 10 million children to flee their homes in 2023.

That figure likely puts the total number of displaced children at more than 50 million, a new record, Save the Children said in an analysis published Tuesday. The number of children displaced worldwide has also more than doubled from around 20.6 million in 2010. While the number of displaced people overall reached a record 114 million in October 2023, children are being pushed from their homes at an even faster rate than adults and face unique vulnerabilities.

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‘Baby Steps’ Will Not Avert Climate Catastrophe, UN Warns

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The United Nations assessment coincided with the release of “the world’s most comprehensive roadmap of how to close the global gap in climate action across sectors.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 11-14-2023 by Common Dreams

A resident holds a sign asking passing drivers to slow down to reduce wakes that exacerbate flooding in a suburb of Houston, Texas, in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection photo by Glenn Fawcett)

“The world is failing to get a grip on the climate crisis.”

That’s how United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres began his Tuesday remarks about a new U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) report on nationally determined contributions (NDCs), or countries’ plans to meet the goals of the Paris agreement, including its 1.5°C temperature target.

The UNFCCC analysis “provides yet more evidence that the world remains massively off track to limiting global warming to 1.5°C and avoiding the worst of climate catastrophe,” said Guterres. “As the report shows, global ambition stagnated over the past year and national climate plans are strikingly misaligned with the science.”

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‘We Knew This Was Coming’: Deadly Himalayan Dam Burst Was Predicted by Scientists

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The climate crisis is melting ice in the Himalayas, threatening to overflow glacial lakes as the Indian government rushes to build new dams.

By Olivia Rosane. Published 10-6-2023 by Common Dreams

*The Chungthang Dam on 10-4-2023. Photo: @shubhamtorres09/X*

Authorities raised the death toll to 42 on Friday after a glacial lake overwhelmed a dam in the Indian Himalayas earlier this week, in one of the worst disasters in the area in nearly half a century.

The dam breach on Wednesday, which was caused in part by extreme rainfall, had long been predicted by scientists and environmental advocates due both to the climate crisis and inadequate regulations.

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Panama Canal drought: Rolling ecological crisis is raising prices everywhere

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Climate change and El Niño are causing global shortages of everything from Barbie dolls to natural gas

By James Meadway. Published 9-21-2023 by openDemocracy

The Agua Clara (Clear Water) Locks at the Atlantic (Caribbean Sea) end of the canal. Photo: Dan Lundberg/flickr/CC

It’s been another summer of extreme weather and the relentless drumbeat of climate change syncopating with the warm-water Pacific Ocean cycle of El Niño has reverberated across the globe.

Floods in the Balkans and North Africa have killed thousands, wildfires have raged across much of the Mediterranean, India’s rice crop has been hit by drought and Canada’s wheat harvests by floods. Meanwhile, in Central America, the driest weather in decades is menacing one of the most important transport arteries on earth.

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‘People Didn’t Listen’: Complete Loss of Arctic Summer Sea Ice Now Inevitable, Warn Scientists

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“As scientists, we’ve been warning about the loss of Arctic summer sea ice for decades,” said one researcher.

By Julia Conley. Published 6-6-2023 by Common Dreams

The last bit of rotted sea ice melts on the shore of Cape Krusenstern in early June. Photo: Western Arctic National Parklands/flickr/CC

Scientists on Tuesday warned that the planet is rapidly headed toward the consequences of the climate crisis that they have been warning about for decades as researchers published a new study showing that a complete loss of Arctic sea ice in the summer months is now unavoidable.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released in 2021 alarmed many with its warnings that if high or even intermediate planet-heating fossil fuel emissions continued, the Arctic would be ice-free by the 2040s—but its authors implored policymakers to focus on their finding that the region would retain its summer ice if decisive action was taken to limit an increase in global temperature rises to 2°C or less.

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After COP27, all signs point to world blowing past the 1.5 degrees global warming limit – here’s what we can still do about it

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*Young activists have been pushing to keep a 1.5-Celsius limit, knowing their future is at stake.*
*AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty*

Peter Schlosser, Arizona State University

The world could still, theoretically, meet its goal of keeping global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius, a level many scientists consider a dangerous threshold. Realistically, that’s unlikely to happen.

Part of the problem was evident at COP27, the United Nations climate conference in Egypt.

While nations’ climate negotiators were successfully fighting to “keep 1.5 alive” as the global goal in the official agreement, reached Nov. 20, 2022, some of their countries were negotiating new fossil fuel deals, driven in part by the global energy crisis. Any expansion of fossil fuels – the primary driver of climate change – makes keeping warming under 1.5 C (2.7 Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial times much harder. Continue reading →

Climate Crisis Pushing Up to 1 in 6 US Tree Species Toward Extinction: Study

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“Understanding the current state of trees within the U.S. is imperative to protecting those species, their habitats, and the countless communities they support.”

By Julia Conley Published 8-23-2022 by Common Dreams

Black ash trees are among the tree species identified in a new study showing that up to one in six tree species are being pushed toward extinction. Photo: Eli Sagor/flickr/CC

New research published Tuesday reveals both how chronically under-studied tree populations are in the U.S. and how the lack of resources devoted to trees has pushed as much as 16% of all tree species toward the threat of extinction.

After five years of study, a coalition of scientists from Botanic Gardens Conservation International, NatureServe, the U.S. Botanic Garden, and other groups revealed that as many as one in six U.S. tree species are in danger of becoming extinct due largely to disease and invasive insects—both of which have been quietly made more devastating to trees in recent years by the climate crisis. Continue reading →

UN Chief: IPCC Report a ‘Damning Indictment of Failed Climate Leadership’

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“The facts are undeniable. This abdication of leadership is criminal,” said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

By Jake Johnson. Published 2-28-2022 by Common Dreams

The Holy Fire At Lake Elsinore, California August 9, 2018 Photo: slworking2/flickr/CC

A landmark scientific report published Monday warns that the human-caused climate crisis is driving a “dangerous and widespread disruption in nature” and impacting billions of lives across the globe, emergencies that can only be redressed by immediate and sweeping action that world leaders have thus far failed to take.

The product of years of collaborative research by scientists from around the world, the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report “emphasizes the urgency of immediate and more ambitious action to address climate risks,” said Hoesung Lee, chair of the IPCC. Continue reading →

234 scientists read 14,000+ research papers to write the IPCC climate report – here’s what you need to know and why it’s a big deal

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*With wildfires, droughts and extreme storms in many parts of the world, climate warnings are starting to feel personal.*
*Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images*

Stephanie Spera, University of Richmond

Hundreds of scientists from around the world just finalized a new report assessing the state of the global climate. It’s a big deal. The report is used by governments and industries everywhere to understand the threats ahead.

So who are these scientists, and what goes into this important assessment?

Get ready for some acronyms. We’re going to take a closer look at how the IPCC report is made and some of the terms you’ll be hearing with the report’s release on Aug. 9, 2021. Continue reading →

Occupy World Writes

The Movement Continues – Globally

Tag Archives: floods

Record 50 Million Children Now Displaced as Wars, Climate Crisis Rage

“When children lose their homes, they lose almost everything: their access to healthcare, education, food, and safety,” one advocate said.

‘Baby Steps’ Will Not Avert Climate Catastrophe, UN Warns

The United Nations assessment coincided with the release of “the world’s most comprehensive roadmap of how to close the global gap in climate action across sectors.”

‘We Knew This Was Coming’: Deadly Himalayan Dam Burst Was Predicted by Scientists

The climate crisis is melting ice in the Himalayas, threatening to overflow glacial lakes as the Indian government rushes to build new dams.

Panama Canal drought: Rolling ecological crisis is raising prices everywhere

Climate change and El Niño are causing global shortages of everything from Barbie dolls to natural gas

‘People Didn’t Listen’: Complete Loss of Arctic Summer Sea Ice Now Inevitable, Warn Scientists

“As scientists, we’ve been warning about the loss of Arctic summer sea ice for decades,” said one researcher.

After COP27, all signs point to world blowing past the 1.5 degrees global warming limit – here’s what we can still do about it

Climate Crisis Pushing Up to 1 in 6 US Tree Species Toward Extinction: Study

“Understanding the current state of trees within the U.S. is imperative to protecting those species, their habitats, and the countless communities they support.”

234 scientists read 14,000+ research papers to write the IPCC climate report – here’s what you need to know and why it’s a big deal