Residents face tough choices on whether to shelter in place or flee – ‘There’s risks associated with each’, experts say
Hurricane Beryl was unusual in many ways before it struck Texas on 8 July – it sped up more than 35mph in a 24-hour period twice, and it became the first category 5 storm to form as early as it did in the hurricane season. And as the world increasingly warms because of the burning of fossil fuels, research suggests that storms like Hurricane Beryl will become more common – concerning coastal residents who will have less time to evacuate.
While residents are more likely to leave when directed to do so by their local government, emergency managers are shying away from enacting community-wide mandatory evacuations because of how much time they take to put in place.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/27/2024 - 07:00
07/27/2024 - 06:00
The state’s wildfires have already torched more than 1m acres. Experts say heat, dry conditions and lightning are to blame
Oregon’s wildfire season is off to an explosive start with more than 1m acres charred in less than a month, as experts warn that extreme heat and unusual lightning strikes are creating “catastrophic conditions” for fires to ignite and spread.
The state is currently home to the largest wildfire burning in the US. By Friday afternoon, the Durkee fire had burned nearly 290,000 acres (117,000 hectares) and was only 20% contained. The fire had forced evacuations, shut down a major interstate highway and even produced its own weather system.
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07/27/2024 - 06:00
Wind turbines are among changes being considered by heir to the Duchy of Cornwall estate to tackle the climate crisis
His father thinks windfarms are a blot on the landscape, once saying he feared Britain would end up like Denmark “knee deep in these damn things”. But now Prince William is considering overturning their effective ban on royal land.
The Prince of Wales has ordered a major review of renewable energy on his 130,000-acre Duchy of Cornwall estate, which is expected to change the face of his hereditary property empire stretching across 20 counties in England.
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07/26/2024 - 23:00
Public health adviser says higher temperatures caused by climate crisis pose danger for visitors not used to them
The climate emergency poses a “real risk” to Spain’s traditional mass tourist model as rising temperatures and more frequent heatwaves hit the country’s most popular coastal destinations, a senior public health adviser has warned.
Héctor Tejero, the head of health and climate change at Spain’s health ministry, said the increasingly apparent physical impacts of the climate emergency had already led the ministry to begin talks with the British embassy on how best to educate “vulnerable” tourists about coping with the heat.
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07/26/2024 - 11:14
Energy secretary seeks to reestablish UK as a global leader on the climate crisis with meeting of Cop presidents
Labour will honour a pledge of £11.6bn in overseas aid for the climate crisis, the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, told an unusual meeting of Cop presidents past and present on Friday, as he sought to re-establish the UK at the heart of international climate discussions.
As the Labour government prepares for this year’s climate-emergency summit in November, Miliband hosted Mukhtar Babayev, the Azerbaijan government minister who will lead Cop29, and Ana Toni, the top official on the climate for Brazil, which will host Cop30 in the Amazonian city of Belem in 2025 in a meeting to discuss what steps are needed to make a success of the next two UN climate Cops, as the “conferences of the parties” under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change are known.
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07/26/2024 - 11:00
More than 120,000 heat-related ER visits were tracked in 2023, as people struggle in record-breaking temperatures
In his 40 years in the emergency room, David Sklar can think of three moments in his career when he was terrified.
“One of them was when the Aids epidemic hit, the second was Covid, and now there’s this,” the Phoenix physician said, referring to his city’s unrelenting heat. Last month was the city’s hottest June on record, with temperatures averaging 97F (36C), and scientists say Phoenix is on track to experience its hottest summer on record this year.
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07/26/2024 - 10:46
Danielle Smith and her government’s refusal to combat global heating is said to have made blazes more intense
When Danielle Smith, premier of Alberta, began her grim update about the wildfire damage to Jasper, the famed mountain resort in the Canadian Rockies, her voice slipped and she held back tears.
Hours earlier, a fast-moving wildfire tore through the community, incinerating homes, businesses and historic buildings. She praised the “true heroism” of fire crews who had rushed in to save Jasper, only to be pulled back when confronted by a 400ft wall of flames. She spoke about the profound meaning and “magic” of the national park.
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07/26/2024 - 10:01
‘There will never be mining’ at Northern Territory site, Albanese says as area becomes part of Kakadu national park
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It’s the decades-long fight over uranium mining that pitted Indigenous owners against the resources industry.
Now it seems the war is over, with the Australian government moving to expand the Kakadu national park to protect the Jabiluka site from mining for ever.
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07/26/2024 - 09:00
Many companies such as Chipotle and McDonald’s are seeing profits jump as they continue raising prices, an analysis finds
As inflation shot to its peak around mid-2022, Chipotle’s prices also rose, pushing up what customers paid for burritos and bowls by as much as several dollars. Since then, the fast casual restaurant’s costs have broadly fallen. Prices have not.
Chipotle’s decision to maintain high prices helped boost profits 110% in recent years, while its executives boasted to investors that they raised prices higher than inflationary costs.
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07/26/2024 - 08:05
Planet’s largest blanket bog is first peatland to be designated by Unesco after 40-year campaign
The Flow Country, a vast and unspoiled blanket bog that carpets the far north of Scotland, has been made a world heritage site by Unesco.
The planet’s largest blanket bog, the Flow Country covers about 1,500 sq miles of Caithness and Sutherland, and is the first peatland in the world to be designated by Unesco, after a 40-year campaign by environmentalists.
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