The head of Scotland’s nature conservation agency has warned the country faces an “apocalyse” of flooded towns, dead forests and polluted rivers unless urgent action is taken to cut CO2 emissions. Francesca Osowska, chief executive of Scottish Natural Heritage, said the world had barely a decade to shift to a low carbon economy before the effects of global heating were irreversible and catastrophic. She said there were very clear threats facing Scotland, and by implication the rest of the UK, unless radical action was taken by 2030.
Edie 3rd June 2019 read more »
Richard Dixon: Ignoring the science won’t protect Donald Trump from climate change. Donald Trump’s denial of climate change reached new heights last week, with the White House banning the long-term climate projections that tell us what the future might hold, at the same time as Alaska is experiencing record heat. Trump has been rolling back environmental laws, he began the process of pulling the US out of the Paris climate agreement and he refused to sign a communiqué on the Arctic unless all mentions of climate change were removed. Now any government work looking at the future climate can only go out to 2040, rather than the current practice of looking out to the end of the century or even further. Meanwhile, in the real world, there are impacts from climate change all around the planet, from typhoons to floods to droughts to record heatwaves. In Trump’s US there are record high spring temperatures in Alaska, with temperatures in March averaging 11C above normal. People have died as snowmobiles and trucks have fallen through ice on rivers that would have supported them in previous years. There are already at least three villages that need to be relocated soon, before they succumb to erosion. And rising sea temperatures mean that the fish many communities traditionally rely upon are present only in ever decreasing numbers.
Scotsman 4th June 2019 read more »
Three quarters of the UK population believe climate change is the biggest crisis facing humanity today – but many are ‘confused’ about how they can help. A study of 2,000 adults found human behaviour is considered to have had a bigger effect on the environment than deforestation and fossil fuels. More than one third believe over-population has had an impact, with 40 per cent not having more than three children as a result. One in 10 would avoid having kids altogether. But 52 per cent are confused about how they can help with the issue of climate change, with four in five believing the nation needs more education. And half consider this lack of knowledge to be one of the barriers to dealing with climate change, along with an unwillingness to change and a lack of investment in renewable energy.
The i News 3rd June 2019 read more »
Be ready for climate hazard in a new form – the compound heat waves that hit you, leave you, and come back again. As the world warms, say US scientists, the risk of economically devastating, physically debilitating and potentially lethal extremes of heat will multiply, and in unexpected ways. Researchers picture a world in which the most vulnerable – those already ill or elderly, housed in substandard buildings in crowded cities – are laid low and gasping by several days of extreme heat. Even if the temperatures drop a little, the buildings in which they live will still “store” heat to intolerable levels.
Climate News Network 3rd June 2019 read more »
