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Britain has been one of the main contributors to global warming. We look at the new king’s environmental credentials.

The reflectivity of snow and ice at the poles, known as the albedo effect, is one of Earth’s most important cooling mechanisms. But global warming has reduced this reflectivity drastically, setting off a dangerous warming loop: as more Arctic ice and snow melt, the albedo effect decreases, warming the Arctic further, and melting more ice and snow. The volume of Arctic ice has already shrunk 75% In the past 40 years, and scientists predict that the Arctic Ocean will be completely ice-free during the summer months by the end of the century. Subtitled in 23 languages and narrated by Richard Gere, Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops is a series of five short films, featuring twelve leading climate scientists, that explores how human-caused emissions are triggering nature’s own warming loops. We submit the five shorts to your festival (total 57:44) for screening of any or all of the films. The film series had its official launch with the Dalai Lama, Greta Thunberg and world-renowned scientists in a webcast, “The Dalai Lama with Greta Thunberg and Leading Scientists: A Conversation on the Crisis of Climate Feedback Loops. ”While scientists stay up worrying about this most dangerous aspect of climate change, the public has little awareness or understanding of feedback loops. Climate change discussion at all levels of society largely leaves out the most critical dynamic of climate change itself. It is urgent we remedy this. The first film in the series, Introduction (13:09), provides an overview of the feedback loop problem. The four other short films explore important climate feedback mechanisms: Forests (14:10), Permafrost (10:55), Atmosphere (8:45) and Albedo (10:35).Greenhouse gases from fossil fuels, such as carbon dioxide and methane, are warming the planet. This warming is then setting in motion dozens of feedback mechanisms, which then feed upon themselves, as well as interact with each other and spiral further out of control. These processes are rapidly accelerating climate change. An example of a climate feedback loop is the melting of the permafrost. In the Northern Hemisphere, permafrost makes up nearly 25% of the landmass. As heat-trapping emissions warm the Earth, this frozen tundra is melting. As it does, large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane are released, which further warm the planet, melting more permafrost in a self-perpetuating loop. Human activity kicks off these feedback loops, but once set in motion, they become self-sustaining. The danger is that this process reaches a tipping point beyond which it is extremely difficult to recover. This is why it is urgent to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so we can slow, halt and even reverse these feedbacks and cool the planet. Past Presentation

The figures are numbing, the images terrifying. More than 1,100 people have been killed, one-third of the country is under water, millions of acres of crops have been wiped out, and nearly 33 million people in one of the world’s most populous nations have so far been affected. The rains continue, and the numbers are sure to rise. Even in a year of extraordinary heatwaves, droughts and storms in the northern hemisphere, this climate disaster has shocked the world, bringing home the human tragedy that is global heating in a crowded, indebted country where nearly one in four people live in extreme poverty.

This film introduces Evangelical Christians working for action on climate change and the environment. They explain how they became passionate about the environment, their fears about the future of our planet, and how their passion is based on their deep faith and love for creation. They call on all other Evangelicals to join them. Now Playing

A Climate of TRUST is the story of the scientists who developed the scientific prescriptions necessary for climate recovery, the attorney who figured out the legal basis for the right to a healthy atmosphere, and one of OUR CHILDREN'S TRUST's attorneys who is supporting these youth in court. Past Presentation

This film reveals how diverse environmental problems, from climate change to species extinction to ruined ecosystems, are all ultimately rooted in the “growth at all costs” attitude that pervades modern industrial society. Through beautiful and disturbing images and interviews with ecological scholars, spiritual leaders and activists, The Wisdom to Survive argues that the survival of humanity and most living beings on the planet will not come from technology, but from a profound raising of consciousness and deep spiritual transformation of humans who finally realize that we must live differently on planet earth. Now Playing

How wishful thinking hampers the clean-energy revolution

The Eating the Earth column explores the connections between the food we eat and the climate we live in . This much is clear: The Biden administration is committed to climate-smart agriculture. In his very first week in office, President Joe Biden’s sweeping executive order on the climate crisis directed the U.S.…

The nonprofit Environmental Working Group says the government's biggest farmland conservation programs don't prioritize "climate-smart" practices.

The University of Florida is hosting a Hackathon in collaboration with IBM that began Sep. 13 until Nov. 29. Teams will present technology solutions to address one of six environmental challenges, including power consumption and agriculture.

A study of 390 people from psychologist Dr Rachael Sherman shows those who “suffer from this disorder” of not believing climate change are typically older, conservative, and have “lower environmental values”.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a series of climate and clean air bills. Meanwhile, another Democratic senator is joining the opposition to putting Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) permitting reform measures in a stopgap funding push. This is Overnight Energy & Environment, your source for the latest news focused on energy, the environment and beyond....

To keep the climate habitable, most scientists agree that switching to renewable energy alone isn’t enough – Americans also need to change the way they eat. Environmental and public health advocates are pushing a new strategy to help get there: including climate breakdown in the official US dietary guidelines, which shape what goes into billions of meals eaten across the country every year.Every five years, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services jointly publish a new version of the guidelines. They form the basis for the public-facing eating guide MyPlate, formerly MyPyramid, as well as many government-backed meal programs, such as National School Lunch. Historically, these guidelines have narrowly focused on human nutrition, but some are now saying they should be expanded to incorporate climate considerations as well.

"It's really hard being a fire family. Every day it's getting worse." -Brett, wife of Marin County Battalion Chief in California.Every day, Americans who live close to the land and sea face the dangers of climate change—from a firefighter in California, to a beekeeper in Arizona, to a climate refugee losing her home in Florida. The changing climate affects our food systems, water and way of life. These American families are in the trenches sacrificing everything while facing depression, PTSD, and suicide—collateral damage of a crisis unchecked. Award-winning filmmaker, Peter Goetz, captures America's faces and voices, shot in 2020 leading up to the presidential election. Goetz and the Biden campaign made history, producing the first national climate spot to run during a presidential election. But this film dives deeper into the American climate crisis to explore the lives of the people who are sounding the alarm, worried about their grandchildren’s future, asking, "If not us, then who?" This is a story of the resilience, perseverance, and ingenuity of the American people. Ever hopeful, they collectively take on a common enemy. As the young, Navajo solar visionary Brett Issac insists, "We've got to turn this train around before it's too late." Now Playing

Global warming is altering Earth’s weather patterns dramatically. A warmer atmosphere absorbs more water vapor, which in turn traps more heat and warms the planet further in an accelerating feedback loop. Climate change is also disrupting the jet stream, triggering a feedback loop that brings warm air northward, and causes weather patterns to stall in place for longer. Subtitled in 23 languages and narrated by Richard Gere, Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops is a series of five short films, featuring twelve leading climate scientists, that explores how human-caused emissions are triggering nature’s own warming loops. We submit the five shorts to your festival (total 57:44) for screening of any or all of the films. The film series had its official launch with the Dalai Lama, Greta Thunberg and world-renowned scientists in a webcast, “The Dalai Lama with Greta Thunberg and Leading Scientists: A Conversation on the Crisis of Climate Feedback Loops. ”While scientists stay up worrying about this most dangerous aspect of climate change, the public has little awareness or understanding of feedback loops. Climate change discussion at all levels of society largely leaves out the most critical dynamic of climate change itself. It is urgent we remedy this. The first film in the series, Introduction (13:09), provides an overview of the feedback loop problem. The four other short films explore important climate feedback mechanisms: Forests (14:10), Permafrost (10:55), Atmosphere (8:45) and Albedo (10:35).Greenhouse gases from fossil fuels, such as carbon dioxide and methane, are warming the planet. This warming is then setting in motion dozens of feedback mechanisms, which then feed upon themselves, as well as interact with each other and spiral further out of control. These processes are rapidly accelerating climate change. An example of a climate feedback loop is the melting of the permafrost. In the Northern Hemisphere, permafrost makes up nearly 25% of the landmass. As heat-trapping emissions warm the Earth, this frozen tundra is melting. As it does, large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane are released, which further warm the planet, melting more permafrost in a self-perpetuating loop. Human activity kicks off these feedback loops, but once set in motion, they become self-sustaining. The danger is that this process reaches a tipping point beyond which it is extremely difficult to recover. This is why it is urgent to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so we can slow, halt and even reverse these feedbacks and cool the planet. Past Presentation

The world’s forests are responsible for removing a quarter of all human carbon emissions from the atmosphere and are essential for cooling the planet. But that fraction is shrinking as the three major forests of the world—tropical, boreal, and temperate—succumb to the effects of climate feedback loops. The resulting tree dieback threatens to tip forests from net carbon absorbers to net carbon emitters, heating rather than cooling the planet. Subtitled in 23 languages and narrated by Richard Gere, Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops is a series of five short films, featuring twelve leading climate scientists, that explores how human-caused emissions are triggering nature’s own warming loops. We submit the five shorts to your festival (total 57:44) for screening of any or all of the films. The film series had its official launch with the Dalai Lama, Greta Thunberg and world-renowned scientists in a webcast, “The Dalai Lama with Greta Thunberg and Leading Scientists: A Conversation on the Crisis of Climate Feedback Loops.” While scientists stay up worrying about this most dangerous aspect of climate change, the public has little awareness or understanding of feedback loops. Climate change discussion at all levels of society largely leaves out the most critical dynamic of climate change itself. It is urgent we remedy this. The first film in the series, Introduction (13:09), provides an overview of the feedback loop problem. The four other short films explore important climate feedback mechanisms: Forests (14:10), Permafrost (10:55), Atmosphere (8:45) and Albedo (10:35).Greenhouse gases from fossil fuels, such as carbon dioxide and methane, are warming the planet. This warming is then setting in motion dozens of feedback mechanisms, which then feed upon themselves, as well as interact with each other and spiral further out of control. These processes are rapidly accelerating climate change. An example of a climate feedback loop is the melting of the permafrost. In the Northern Hemisphere, permafrost makes up nearly 25% of the landmass. As heat-trapping emissions warm the Earth, this frozen tundra is melting. As it does, large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane are released, which further warm the planet, melting more permafrost in a self-perpetuating loop. Human activity kicks off these feedback loops, but once set in motion, they become self-sustaining. The danger is that this process reaches a tipping point beyond which it is extremely difficult to recover. This is why it is urgent to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so we can slow, halt and even reverse these feedbacks and cool the planet. Past Presentation

Permafrost, an icy expanse of frozen ground covering one-quarter of the Northern Hemisphere, is thawing. As it does, microscopic animals are waking up and feeding on the previously frozen carbon stored in plant and animal remains, releasing heat-trapping gases as a byproduct. These gases warm the atmosphere further, melting more permafrost in a dangerous feedback loop. With permafrost containing twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, its thaw could release 150 billion tons of carbon by the end of the century. Subtitled in 23 languages and narrated by Richard Gere, Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops is a series of five short films, featuring twelve leading climate scientists, that explores how human-caused emissions are triggering nature’s own warming loops. We submit the five shorts to your festival (total 57:44) for screening of any or all of the films. The film series had its official launch with the Dalai Lama, Greta Thunberg and world-renowned scientists in a webcast, “The Dalai Lama with Greta Thunberg and Leading Scientists: A Conversation on the Crisis of Climate Feedback Loops. ”While scientists stay up worrying about this most dangerous aspect of climate change, the public has little awareness or understanding of feedback loops. Climate change discussion at all levels of society largely leaves out the most critical dynamic of climate change itself. It is urgent we remedy this. The first film in the series, Introduction (13:09), provides an overview of the feedback loop problem. The four other short films explore important climate feedback mechanisms: Forests (14:10), Permafrost (10:55), Atmosphere (8:45) and Albedo (10:35).Greenhouse gases from fossil fuels, such as carbon dioxide and methane, are warming the planet. This warming is then setting in motion dozens of feedback mechanisms, which then feed upon themselves, as well as interact with each other and spiral further out of control. These processes are rapidly accelerating climate change. An example of a climate feedback loop is the melting of the permafrost. In the Northern Hemisphere, permafrost makes up nearly 25% of the landmass. As heat-trapping emissions warm the Earth, this frozen tundra is melting. As it does, large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane are released, which further warm the planet, melting more permafrost in a self-perpetuating loop. Human activity kicks off these feedback loops, but once set in motion, they become self-sustaining. The danger is that this process reaches a tipping point beyond which it is extremely difficult to recover. This is why it is urgent to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so we can slow, halt and even reverse these feedbacks and cool the planet. Past Presentation

How might King Charles III want history to remember his reign? He could emerge as the climate monarch, building on his fifty-year record of environmental advocacy. To start with he could switch the Royal automobile fleet to EVs and drastically reduce Buckingham palace’s carbon footprint.

Letter from Goldman prize winners aims to block country’s bid to join UN’s human rights council over its jailing of campaignersMore than 50 winners of the world’s most prestigious environmental prize are calling on the UN to reject a bid by Vietnam to join the international organization’s human rights council (UNHRC) amid a crackdown on the country’s climate activists.In a letter sent on Wednesday, 52 past winners of the Goldman prize for environmentalists have urged the UNHRC to vote against the application from Vietnam, where authorities have this year jailed four climate leaders on disputed tax charges. Continue reading...

The electricity industry knew about the dangers of climate change 40 years ago. It denied them anyway.

The Senate on Wednesday voted to ratify a climate treaty limiting the use of highly potent greenhouse gases called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), although the U.S. has already taken steps to comply with the terms of the accord. In a vote of 69-27, the Senate voted to ratify the Kigali Amendment, which calls for phasing down HFCs....

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Bitcoin is less “digital gold” and more “digital beef,” according to a study that suggests the cryptocurrency has a climate impact greater than that of gold mining and on the level of natural gas extraction or rearing cattle for meat. […]

The Biden administration is ramping up federal climate action after this month’s watershed legislation, but California is showing no signs of surrendering its position leading on the issue. Two months ago, the Biden administration’s efforts to pass a sweeping climate bill seemed doomed to failure, and much of the momentum was relegated to the state...

So let’s figure this out: The Prince of Wales, historically passionate and outspoken about climate change, biodiversity and ocean issues, is supposed to clam up just as he rises to maximum visibility and influence?The King Charles III has been right about climate change for decades. And organic farming. And biodiversity. Here’s what he wrote for Newsweek in April:“The world is on the brink, and we need the mobilizing urgency of a war-like footing if we are to win.”Maybe we should listen a little.But the backlash might be both strong and varied should the new king break with tradition and remain an active voice on climate. British journalist Ella Creamer wrote in Politico: “If Charles continues his activist work, he may stand to forfeit not only approval among the American public — already dented by memory of his 90s affair — but also American interest in the British monarchy as a whole.” Another, less pearl-clutching school of thought is that the king lacks moral authority to judge on climate because he’s a king – a filthy rich, manor-owning, jet-setting king. Emily Atkin’s superb Heated newsletter contains a litany of complaints that, as front man for a historically brutal empire, Charles shouldn’t be looked to as a climate “king.”The jet-setter argument has been thrown in Al Gore’s face every day for the past thirty-plus years. Leading a movement that wishes to drastically reduce carbon footprints in a climate emergency should not require one to travel only by covered wagon or Roman-style trireme. Every once in a while, world leaders gotta lead. A terrible precedent One Renaissance-era monarch set an unforgettable precedent for future rulers. Henry VIII ruled Britain for much the early 16th century, and brought thunderous change to the nation and the throne. He was a bit of a royal boat rocker, ditching the Roman Catholic Church for crimping his style as a royal party animal. After years of alleged debauchery, divorce and worse, Pope Clement VII threatened to excommunicate Henry in 1532, but died before he could follow through. His successor, Pope Paul III, ran Henry out in 1534. In response, Henry VIII began what became the 50-year process of quitting Catholicism and founding the Church of England. It was a strong but imperfect example of a British monarch laying it down. My half-serious point here: If Henry VIII could turn the monarchy upside down for his own libido, Charles can vent a bit on an existential issue. Even the Vatican……and its infallible pontiffs have come around to acknowledging basic science: In 1992 Pope John Paul II conceded the church has been wrong about heliocentrism – the earth really does revolve around the sun.In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI praised Galileo for his contributions to science.Then in 2015 Pope Francis issued the papal encyclical Laudato Si’, which directs catholics to devote words and deeds to protecting the Earth.It’s hard to match the papal timeline to the British monarchy’s since the same monarch has been on the job through seven popes.But maybe heredity’s at play. Charles’s dad, the late Prince Phillip, co-founded and served as president of the World Wildlife Fund International. His son, the new Prince of Wales, is backing The Earthshot Prize, an effort to highlight and support large-scale innovation. Her Royal Highness Elizabeth II will be laid to rest this week, respected and beloved. I doubt Her Majesty will spin in her royal grave if her son continued to pitch in to save the planet. (And if she did, might she be a symbolic, energy-creating turbine? Sorry, too soon?)Peter Dykstra is our weekend editor and columnist and can be reached at pdykstra@ehn.org or @pdykstra.His views do not necessarily represent those of Environmental Health News, The Daily Climate, or publisher Environmental Health Sciences.

Jacksonville residents and local grassroots organizations are working with city officials to take a markedly different approach to managing flood risks.

Fossil fuel emissions from human activity are driving up Earth’s temperature—yet something else is at work. The warming has set in motion nature’s own feedback loops which are raising temperatures even higher. The urgent question is: Are we approaching a point of no return, leading to an uninhabitable Earth, or do we have the vision and will to slow, halt, and reverse them? Subtitled in 23 languages and narrated by Richard Gere, Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops is a series of five short films, featuring twelve leading climate scientists, that explores how human-caused emissions are triggering nature’s own warming loops. We submit the five shorts to your festival (total 57:44) for screening of any or all of the films. The film series had its official launch with the Dalai Lama, Greta Thunberg and world-renowned scientists in a webcast, “The Dalai Lama with Greta Thunberg and Leading Scientists: A Conversation on the Crisis of Climate Feedback Loops. ”While scientists stay up worrying about this most dangerous aspect of climate change, the public has little awareness or understanding of feedback loops. Climate change discussion at all levels of society largely leaves out the most critical dynamic of climate change itself. It is urgent we remedy this. The first film in the series, Introduction (13:09), provides an overview of the feedback loop problem. The four other short films explore important climate feedback mechanisms: Forests (14:10), Permafrost (10:55), Atmosphere (8:45) and Albedo (10:35).Greenhouse gases from fossil fuels, such as carbon dioxide and methane, are warming the planet. This warming is then setting in motion dozens of feedback mechanisms, which then feed upon themselves, as well as interact with each other and spiral further out of control. These processes are rapidly accelerating climate change. An example of a climate feedback loop is the melting of the permafrost. In the Northern Hemisphere, permafrost makes up nearly 25% of the landmass. As heat-trapping emissions warm the Earth, this frozen tundra is melting. As it does, large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane are released, which further warm the planet, melting more permafrost in a self-perpetuating loop. Human activity kicks off these feedback loops, but once set in motion, they become self-sustaining. The danger is that this process reaches a tipping point beyond which it is extremely difficult to recover. This is why it is urgent to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so we can slow, halt and even reverse these feedbacks and cool the planet. Past Presentation

Utilities knew about climate change as early as the 1960s and misled the public in order to continue turning a profit.

The National Association of Evangelicals has unveiled a sweeping report on global climate change, laying out what its authors call the “biblical basis” for environmental activism to help spur fellow evangelicals to address the planetary crisis.

Nearly two dozen Republican state treasurers around the country are working to thwart climate action on state and federal levels, fighting regulations that would make clear the economic risks posed by a warming world, lobbying against climate-minded nominees to key federal posts and using the tax dollars they control to punish companies that want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Over the past year, treasurers in nearly half the United States have been coordinating tactics and talking points, meeting in private and cheering each other in public as part of a well-funded campaign to protect the fossil fuel companies that bolster their local economies.

When World Bank head David Malpass delivered a classic climate denier’s answer this week at Climate Week in New York—hedging on a direct question about whether fossil fuels are warming the planet—many immediately called for his removal. But meanwhile, an equally scandalous sound bite the same day by someone else has somehow flown under the radar. At a New York Times event on Tuesday, part of the week-long climate gatherings coinciding with the UN General Assembly, environmental lawyer and veteran climate negotiator Farhana Yamin, present in the audience, asked U.S. climate envoy John Kerry about whether his government intends to direct money toward “loss and damage” from climate change, i.e. helping vulnerable countries rebuild when climate-fueled disasters hit. For years, the U.S. has stymied efforts to establish a concrete financing facility for loss and damage. Most recently, at COP 26 in Glasgow, the U.S. pushed to squash language that would set up such a mechanism, replacing it with a “dialogue” to explore funding options. “What will you be doing to step up and actually put money into loss and damage? And what will you be doing to stop the inaction on legal and political and institutional wrangling which the U.S. is at the heart of, I have to say,” asked Yamin, who has been a lead author on IPCC reports, and played a key role in negotiating the Paris Agreement, worked as an advisor to the Marshall Islands in negotiating the text on loss and damage. “You can remove all of that and establish the facility on loss and damage at COP27, which is the will of the vast majority of developing countries,” Yamin said. “And all I can say is you’re bringing a lot to the table and I really applaud that. But the most important thing the U.S. can bring right now is honesty to COP 27,” being held later this fall in Egypt. A visibly annoyed Kerry responded: “In all honesty the most important thing that we can do is stop, mitigate enough that we prevent loss and damage. And the next most important thing we can do is help people adapt to the damage that’s already there. And we have a limited, you know we’re not—you tell me the government in the world that has trillions of dollars, cause that’s what it costs.”“I’m not going to take a—feeling guilty,” Kerry added. “There’s plenty of time to be arguing, pointing fingers, doing whatever. But the money we need right now needs to go to adaptation. It needs to go to building resilience. It needs to go to the technology that’s gonna save the planet.”This was a pretty striking answer given recent headlines: Roughly a third of Pakistan has been underwater in the last month after catastrophic and climate-fueled flooding caused well over $10 billion worth of damages. At least 1,300 people have been killed, and 35 million displaced. Flooding in South Africa this spring claimed 45 lives. “I would have wanted a little bit more empathy, and there was none.”“I would have wanted a little bit more empathy, and there was none,” Yamin told me by phone Thursday morning. Despite a long pattern of what she described as American diplomats’ “absolute utter obstruction” on loss and damage, she was still surprised by how combative Kerry’s response was. “It was quite aggressive and quite all over the place,” she said.Yamin immigrated from Pakistan to the U.K. as a child, and pointed in our call not just to the floods and extreme heat in Pakistan but also to recent heat waves in Britain, where she still lives. “Loss and damage is really not something you can deny anymore,” she said. “This isn’t any longer about trying to prevent something in 100 or 50 years’ time. Twenty years ago we were still saying let’s do more mitigation and adaptation. Right now we have to do all three.”Kerry’s argument that money should be spent on mitigation and adaptation rather than loss and damage glosses over the fact that mitigation and adaptation already have dedicated financing mechanisms at the U.N. level, however inadequate. And that wasn’t the only part of his answer that might be construed as misleading. Take his gesture at the “trillions” that would be needed for loss and damage, and insistence that no country possesses such sums.The bare numbers are as follows: By 2030 the need for loss and damage financing is projected to reach between $300 and $700 billion per year, and as much as $1.2 trillion by 2060, according to the Civil Society Equity Review. Those calling for loss and damage funds have never suggested a single country should pay up. But if they were to demand it, then it’s worth noting that the U.S. does in fact have this money. The U.S. military budget is $1.77 trillion, including $36.5 billion for Space Force.  Kerry adding, unprompted, that he refuses to feel “guilty” is also telling. Part of why rich countries have fought any mention of loss and damage at international climate negotiations, as I previously reported from COP26, has to do with fear that discussion of loss and damage would put wealthy countries on the hook for their outsized historical emissions. The U.S. has long tried to paper over language on this very issue contained in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change—the notion of “common but differentiated responsibility.”“There’s one thing that we don’t accept and won’t accept in this agreement and that is the notion that there should be liability and compensation for loss and damage,” top Obama-era negotiator Todd Stern told reporters in Paris  in 2015. “That’s a line that we can’t cross. And I think in that regard we are in the exact same place, my guess is, with virtually all if not all developed countries.”Yamin said she was glad to hear Kerry acknowledge that loss and damage would cost a lot. But “right now the poorest countries are picking up the trillions of dollars of bills,” she noted, while the U.S. is “doing nothing. It’s scandalous, actually.”On Tuesday, Kerry also said loss and damage financing was politically impossible. “You can’t just set up a facility in 6 weeks. Let’s be serious about this. We gotta talk about how we’re going to do it. How are you going to measure it? How do you allocate? What do you allocate? Where’s the money coming from?,” he said. “You think this Republican Congress where we couldn’t get one vote for this legislation is going to step up and do loss and damage? Good luck! So, I’m in the zone of reality.”There have been numerous of proposals, though, to fund loss and damage internationally without relying on Congressional approval here. “People [outside the US] understand the U.S. political system just as well as you guys do because our fate is tied up with it half the time,” Yamin said. This week, U.N chief António Guterres expressed support for imposing a windfall tax on fossil fuel companies to fund loss and damage. Others have suggested that the IMF—a body in which the U.S. enjoys outsized power—issue another round of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) by way of meeting climate finance needs, and that the U.S. redistribute the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of SDRs currently sitting on its books. Experts have also suggested debt for climate swaps, which would provide debt relief for poorer countries in exchange for their investments into climate mitigation, adaptation and recovery.  COP27 begins in just a little over six weeks. Yamin still hopes for the U.S. to play a more positive role on loss and damage. The same day Kerry spouted off, Denmark became the first wealthy nation to pledge money to loss and damage. The least the U.S. could do, however, would be to allow loss and damage conversations to take place and move forward instead of aggressively silencing them like Kerry tried to on Tuesday, and U.S. negotiators have historically at UN climate talks. “Our countries are up to our ears in debt. Our leaders are not even able to speak up because they’re depending on the next tranche of bailouts,” Yamin said, referring to poorer countries fear of creditor retaliation if they speak up about inequity. “The degree of insensitivity—it’s disrespectful frankly…I’m being told I don’t understand reality. Whose reality are you pretending not to understand right now?”

Matthew Sinclair wrote book tackling ‘burgeoning climate change industry’Global heating could bring benefits, according to one of Liz Truss’s new advisers.As onlookers seek to read the environmental signals being sent by Truss’s new appointments, there has been particular interest in the ideas of Matthew Sinclair, who published Let Them Eat Carbon in 2011. Continue reading...

When news broke last week that U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin III had at long last agreed to support a sweeping climate bill — and that it would include $369 billion to support clean energy and environmental justice initiatives but would also require continued oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters — I found myself wondering: What would Jerry Brown think? Brown is considered a global leader in the climate fight. As California governor, he signed a 100% clean energy law and served as an unofficial climate ambassadorabroad. He faced criticism for doing little to limit Golden State oil production, but he was still miles ahead of most high-profile politicians. He’s continued working on climate since leaving office in 2019, chairing the California-China Climate Institute and serving as executive chair of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Senate Democrats’ climate bill includes $3 billion in loans and grants for electric transmission projects—money that, in addition to tax incentives for electricity generators, would break down a significant barrier to a large-scale clean energy rollout, advocates said. The Inflation Reduction Act (H.R. 5376) that senators passed Sunday would authorize the Energy Department to issue $2 billion in loans to support new and upgraded electric transmission lines that are deemed part of national corridors. The department would have $760 million in grants to siting authorities—namely state governments—to aid developers in navigating the review and approval processes. An additional $100 million is dedicated to offshore wind transmission. Transmission projects have been stalled by regulatory delays, hindering renewable projects waiting to connect their power to the grid. “It’s great to see really every aspect of transmission siting and permitting being addressed in the IRA,” said Christina Hayes, executive director of Americans for a Clean Energy Grid.

Environmental damage of producing cryptocurrency averages 35% of its market value over past five yearsBitcoin is less “digital gold” and more “digital beef”, according to a study that suggests the cryptocurrency has a climate impact greater than that of gold mining and on the level of natural gas extraction or rearing cattle for meat.The research from the University of New Mexico, published in the journal Scientific Reports, assessed the climate cost of various commodities as a portion of their overall market cap. Continue reading...

Initial comments by British Prime Minister Liz Truss's conservative government have raised concerns about her climate policy in a country which is increasingly feeling the effects of global warming but is going through an unprecedented energy crisis.

Green New Deal Rising says Starmer’s green policies prove its proposals and pressure on MPs bore fruitYouth climate activists have claimed a checklist of environmental policies proposed this week by Keir Starmer and his shadow cabinet is proof organising and movement pressure can still sway Labour.At a Labour conference under the banner of “a fairer, greener Britain”, Starmer on Tuesday announced a “green prosperity plan”, aimed at “tackling the climate head on, and using it to create the jobs, the industries and the opportunities of the future”. Continue reading...

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. America’s electric utilities were aware as early as the 1960s that the burning of fossil fuels was warming the planet, but, two decades later, worked hand in hand with oil and gas companies to “promote doubt around climate change for […]

With a long record of environmental campaigning as the Prince of Wales, how will King Charles III’s accession to the throne translate to public policies?

The United States has put the most heat-trapping gases into the air, burning more inexpensive dirty fuels than any other country. But the nearly $375 billion in climate incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act are designed to make the already plummeting costs of renewable energy substantially lower at home, on the highways and in the factory. Together these could help shrink U.S. carbon emissions by about two-fifths by 2030 and should chop emissions from electricity by as much as 80%. Experts say it isn’t enough, but it’s a big start.

When King Charles III assumed the throne, some were quick to point out his environmental bona fides. But the new monarch’s beliefs are messy.

Chair Richard Glick has spent the past two years pushing the adoption of policies he advocated as a minority voice on the commission.

This story was originally published by Slate‘s Future Tense partnership and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. On Monday, Danish officials broadcast a warning to ships navigating its nearby waters: There was a massive leak from Nord Stream 2, the Russian-owned pipeline built to transfer natural gas from the former Soviet Union to Germany through […]

Is Liz Truss' new government still committed to dramatic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050?

Nearly two dozen Republican state treasurers around the country are working to thwart climate action on state and federal levels, fighting regulations that would make clear the economic risks posed by a warming world, lobbying against climate-minded nominees to key federal posts and using the tax dollars they control to punish companies that want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

New initiatives have been added to California’s draft scoping plan, including climate-friendly homes, offshore wind and cleaner airplane fuels.

King Charles III has decided not to attend the international climate change summit in Egypt next month, fueling speculation that the new monarch will have to rein in his environmental activism now that he has ascended the throne.

Shifts in the geographical range of species are one of the most common ecological indications of climate change, according to the study. Warming and precipitation changes, for instance, were associated with range expansion of vectors such as mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, birds and several mammals, which then were implicated in outbreaks by viruses, bacteria, animals and protozoans, including dengue, chikungunya, plague, Lyme disease, West Nile virus, Zika, trypanosomiasis, echinococcosis and malaria. The researchers found 1,006 unique pathways in which climatic hazards, via different transmission types, resulted in cases of pathogenic diseases.

Once upon a time, environmentalists’ favorite villains always kept a pet green cause in their back pockets. James G. Watt, Ronald Reagan’s pious, libertarian Interior Secretary, sought to lease every square inch of American coastline whether or not it bore potential for oil and gas. He also suggested that if environmental regulation could not be overcome with the ballot box, then the “cartridge box” awaited. But even Watt tipped his political hat to environmental values, endorsing a halt to global commercial whaling during a 1991 whale watch excursion. Years later, Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe was well on his way to establishing himself as the alpha dog of congressional climate deniers. But in 2004, he became champion of the endangered Kemp Ridley sea turtles, co-sponsoring a measure to protect their nesting grounds along the Gulf Coast. But now, when the most basic environmental questions have turned brutally partisan, things have shifted. Conservatives no longer feel they need to put up a green show to keep appearances, according to the scores of the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), a half-century-old, non-partisan organization that tracks the behavior of congressional committees or individual congresspersons. LCV bases its rating on key environmental votes in the House and Senate. What it shows is alarming. That was then...I looked at the 1990 Congress as a random year. Two senators and 23 House members rated a zero LCV score that year. Republican senators averaged 32%; Democrats, 65%. In the House, LCV gave the GOP a 40% average; the Dems scored 68% on average. This is now...Well, the zeroes actually haven’t grown by a lot: 33 House members and, in fact, none in the Senate. But, virtually every single Republican House and Senate member today is under 30%. Prominent among those with a 0% LCV score are several reps. whose outspoken-ness has raised eyebrows, like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Paul Gosar of Arizona, and Lauren Boebert of Colorado. Why this mattersTo me it’s horrifying to see things coming to a head as they are this summer and America’s two political parties more polarized than ever. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a senator with presidential dreams, is pulling a 5%, with his state barely five feet above rising seas. Presidential rival Ted Cruz, R-Texas, whose state has been ravaged by heat, drought and storms, is at 3%. Higher scorers like Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., at 30% are ending their careers, voluntarily or otherwise.Hellacious wildfires and biblical downpours ought to be climate’s heralds, but these folks simply aren’t paying attention. Peter Dykstra is our weekend editor and columnist and can be reached at pdykstra@ehn.org or @pdykstra. His views do not necessarily represent those of Environmental Health News, The Daily Climate, or publisher Environmental Health Sciences.

The film shows the island of Rab and its peculiarities in two completely different climatic characteristics. The first part of the film shows the beauty of the landscape nature and the Mediterranean climate of the island in the period from April to October. The second part of the film shows the island from November to March. In these months, the Mediterranean climate changes into a completely different climate and shows its other face, i.e. the island of Rab then changes into a different beauty. It is up to the guests to experience the island in those months and feel the way of life on the island in those conditions and not just in the summer months. Past Presentation

House Democrats released documents that raise questions about climate commitments made by major oil firms, while the Biden administration is pursuing offshore wind in deeper waters. This is Overnight Energy & Environment, your source for the latest news focused on energy, the environment and beyond. For The Hill, I'm Rachel Frazin. Someone forward you...

The larger lesson is that modern climate policy is a complex endeavor that calls for large, interdisciplinary teams — which is not historically how the economics field has operated. “You can only do so much by writing things down on a single sheet of paper from your office at Yale,” said Dr. Kopp, of Rutgers. “That’s not how science gets done. That’s how a lot of economics gets done. But you run into limits.”

“Instead of ‘going public,’ you could say we’re ‘going purpose.’

“Fifteen years ago, before the cost of renewable energy plummeted, carbon capture seemed like a good idea. We should know: When we launched a start-up 14 years ago — the first privately funded company to make use of the technology in the United States — the idea was that the technology could compete as a way to produce carbon-free electricity by capturing the carbon dioxide emissions emitted by power plants and burying them. But now it’s clear that we were wrong, and that every dollar invested in renewable energy — instead of C.C.S. power — will eliminate far more carbon emissions.”

Termites are about to experience a significant global expansion in their prime habitat, thanks to climate change. Here’s what that means for deadwood.

Described as a “landmark bill,” the Massachusetts climate legislation notably includes a provision — the first of its kind for the state — that would allow 10 municipalities to legally ban fossil fuel infrastructure in new and major construction projects. With this policy, certain cities and towns in Massachusetts could soon join others across the country that have taken similar steps to change local building codes to block the use of fossil fuels, particularly natural gas — meaning many people who want gas stoves or furnaces are likely out of luck in these places.