Indian Ocean Dipole spells flood danger for East Africa
Hundreds of thousands of people in East Africa are affected by heavy rains and floods linked to record-breaking temperature changes in the Indian Ocean. As a result, higher evaporation off the African coastline is being dumped inland as rainfall: a simplified description of 2019’s positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) episode.
The IPCC’s Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere – What it means for Africa’s coastal cities
For African coastal cities, sea level rise and increasing storm frequency and intensity pose serious threat. West, Central, East and Mediterranean coastal zones in Africa are very low-lying. Within these low-lying coastal zones are many of Africa’s largest cities: Dakar, Abidjan, Accra, Lagos, Dar es Salaam, Alexandria, Tripoli, and Cape Town.
Our Unequal Earth: how environmental injustice divides the world
Five luminaries explain the concept of ‘environmental justice’ and reveal why, alongside the climate crisis, it is one of the most pressing issues of our time…
Miami Beach declares a climate emergency. Youth activists want other cities to do it too.
Miami Beach is one of more than 1,100 jurisdictions in 20 counties that have declared a climate emergency, including New York City, the United Kingdom, and even Pope Francis. The long-simmering conversation about a climate emergency exploded in 2018 after an October United Nations report said that humanity needed to halve carbon emissions by 2030 to avoid even more dramatic changes by the end of the century.
September 2019 tied as hottest on record for planet
The globe continued to simmer in exceptional warmth, as September 2019 tied with 2015 as the hottest September in NOAA’s 140-year temperature record. The month also capped off another warm year so far, with the globe experiencing its second-warmest January through September (YTD) ever recorded.
Melting ice redraws the World map and starts a power struggle
The Arctic is emerging as a potential geopolitical flashpoint for the U.S., Russia and China as shipping routes get unblocked.
Peruvian Glaciers Have Shrunk By 30 Percent Since 2000
Nearly 30 percent of Peru’s glaciers have melted away since 2000. Overall, the country lost nearly 8 gigatons of ice from 2000 to 2016, with 170 glaciers — covering an area equivalent to 80,000 soccer fields — disappearing entirely.
Human rights are at threat from climate change, but can also provide solutions
Climate change is here, and it is impeding the fulfilment of our rights. The right to life is universally recognized as a fundamental human right, yet, every year, 150,000 premature deaths are being linked to the climate crisis—a number set to increase due to the impacts of the climate crisis.
Simple changes in intensity of weather events ‘could be lethal’
Faced with extreme weather events and unprecedented environmental change, animals and plants are scrambling to catch up, with mixed results. A new model helps to predict the types of changes that could drive a given species to extinction.