Welcome to The Independent's climate newsletter, a weekly digest of climate crisis impacts around the world and the progress being made to tackle them. Thanks for reading - LB |
Top, clockwise: Wildfire smoke rises over houses in Nova Scotia, Canada (Reuters/Eric Martyn); Filipino fishermen on a boat maneuver on rough seas next to a half submerged ship in Manila Bay after Typhoon Mawar (EPA); Sultan al-Jaber, oil executive and president of Cop28 climate summit (KARIM SAHIB/AFP via Getty Images) |
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Climate crisis The UN climate summit Cop28, taking place later this year in the United Arab Emirates, is already proving controversial after dozens of lawmakers in Europe and the United States called for the removal of Sultan Al Jaber, the oil executive selected as the conference president. An open letter, signed by 133 members of the US Congress and European Parliament, urged US president Joe Biden, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and UN secretary general António Guterres to engage in diplomatic efforts for the withdrawal of Al Jaber, CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. Climate activists and scientists have also slammed the conflict of interest posed by the appointment, arguing it undermines the integrity of the conference.
- Typhoon Mawar, the strongest cyclone ever recorded in the month of May in the northern hemisphere, battered large parts of Asia this week. In the Philippines, climate activists said the country is in "a constant state of climate emergency" and demanded reparations for vulnerable nations from the fossil fuel companies producing emissions that are driving these storms to greater intensities. The Philippines is considered the world's most exposed country to tropical cyclones.
- Planet Earth "is really quite sick right now" and has pushed past seven out of eight scientifically-established safety limits, according to a study from international scientist group Earth Commission. It found that Earth is in "the danger zone," not just for an overheating planet that's losing its natural areas, but for the well-being of people living on it. The study examined climate, air pollution, phosphorus and nitrogen contamination of water from fertilizer overuse, groundwater supplies, fresh surface water, the unbuilt natural environment and the overall natural and human-built environment. Only air pollution wasn't quite at the danger point globally. The study found "hotspots" of problem areas throughout Eastern Europe, South Asia, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, parts of Africa and much of Brazil, Mexico, China and some of the US West — much of it from climate change. About two-thirds of Earth don't meet the criteria for freshwater safety, scientists said as an example. (Associated Press)
- Firefighters are being drafted in to help fight huge wildfires tearing across the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. More than 16,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, largely in the suburbs around the provincial capital Halifax. Fire officials had hoped this week for a break in the dry, windy weather but that's not forecast to happen until Friday night at the earliest. An estimated 200 structures, including 151 homes, have been destroyed. No deaths or injuries have been reported but "it's the site of a tragedy," the deputy fire chief said.
Climate progress - Delta Airlines is being sued for damages in civil court over claims that it inaccurately billed itself as the world's "first carbon-neutral airline". The complaint, filed in California, alleges that Delta relied on carbon offsets that were largely bogus. Polluting companies around the world buy so-called carbon credits to cancel out their emissions with projects that promise to absorb CO2 out of the air or prevent pollution. But they've been under the spotlight in recent months with claims their benefits are exaggerated.
- New Bedford, Massachusetts, a city that exported whale oil for lamps in the early 1800s, aspires to light the world again, in a different relationship with the sea. Wind turbine tower sections were delivered from Portugal this week and once assembled out on the water this summer, it will become the US's first commercial-scale offshore wind farm. "There's this sort of poetic coming-about for New Bedford as a center of energy," Mayor Jon Mitchell said. (AP )
A Dutch apartment block is being turned into a living forest with 300 trees and 10,000 plants over the next year. "Wonderwoods" in the city of Utrecht is being created by award-winning Italian architect Stefano Boeri, the mastermind behind a growing number of urban reforestation projects from Italy to France, Switzerland, Albania, Cairo and Dubai. (Euronews)
A hospital in an ancient town in southern India which suffered frequent blackouts due to the country's overloaded electrical grid has found relief in the form of renewable energy. The Government Maternity Hospital is Raichur installed rooftop solar panels a year ago so that it could depend on constant electricity that keeps the lights on, patients and staff comfortable and vaccines and medicines safely refrigerated. (AP)
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