The Red Sea’s Coral Reefs Defy the Climate-Change Odds – New York Times

Temple, Red Sea (Andrew K CC BY-NC 2.0 via Flickr).

…(T)he wildly colorful coral reefs in the waters outside the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh, where the annual United Nations climate conference is taking place, are an anomaly: They can tolerate the heat, and perhaps even thrive in it, making them some of the only reefs in the world that have a chance of surviving climate change…

A deal on loss and damage, but a blow to 1.5C – what will be Cop27’s legacy? – the Guardian

At COP27 Closing Plenary, 19 November 2022 (by Kiara Worth, UNFCCC COP27, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 via Flickr).

Developed countries as a bloc are still in the top five emitters, taking historical responsibility into account, but individually they are eclipsed by rapidly growing emerging economies, such as China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and other petrostates, according to Paul Bledsoe, a former Clinton White House climate adviser…
“This Cop was something of a failure, because it completely let the world’s biggest emitter, China, off the hook,” he said. “Global emissions can’t fall until China’s emissions fall. This is the key to climate protection.”

‘No safe place’: Kiribati seeks donors to raise islands from encroaching seas – the Guardian

A view of mangrove shoots planted by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and others on Tarawa, an atoll in the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, 2011(by Eskinder Debebe, UN Photo CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 via Flickr).

Pacific state needs billions for its ambitious plan – its president demands wealthy nations act to help now

Developing countries vulnerable to the worst ravages of global heating have spent the past week at United Nations climate talks urging more support from wealthy nations. The Pacific state of Kiribati has a very specific and unusual demand – that its islands be physically raised up to escape the encroaching seas…

How to Pay for Climate Justice When Polluters Have All the Money – the New Yorker

COP27 Closing Plenary Session 19 November 2022 (by Kiara Worth UN ClimateChange CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 via Flickr).

You can imagine the tension—the anger—that comes from watching your part of the world dry up or flood, knowing that the countries whose pollution caused your problems also have enough dollars to repair the damage…COP27 is one more reminder, however, that justice only proceeds, fitfully, through politics. Rebalancing the world’s wealth, even a little, is the trickiest of political tasks. Yet our chances for a livable world may depend on it.

Here’s Where the U.S. Is Testing a New Response to Rising Seas – the New York Times

Shoalwater Bay in Tokeland, Washington USA © 2013 Deepika Shrestha Ross

As climate change gets worse, tribes like Shoalwater Bay are being squeezed between existential threats and brutal financial arithmetic. Consigned to marginal land more than a century ago by the United States government, some tribes are now trying to relocate to areas better protected from extreme weather yet lack the money to pay for that move.

California tribes will manage, protect state coastal areas – AP News

Ocean with flowers - Salt Point State Park, CA (by Alyosha Efros CC BY-NC 2.0 via Flickr).

Five California tribes will reclaim their right to manage coastal land significant to their history under a first-in-the-nation program backed with $3.6 million in state money. Valentin Lopez, chair of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band … said climate change has forced governments with a history of exploiting Indigenous lands to acknowledge tribes’ deep-rooted knowledge of protecting ecosystems.“We’re in the crisis mode,” he said.