Plus: Climate shocks in the Mekong Delta
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Welcome to The Independent's weekly round-up on the climate crisis, and the solutions to tackle it. Thanks for reading - LB | |
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Nguyen Thi Thuy, who sells steamed buns on a floating market, paddles her boat in Can Tho, Vietnam. Climate impacts are causing increased migration from the Mekong Delta to cities (AP/Jae C. Hong) |
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*This week, I've been immersed in the world of wildland firefighting and look forward to bringing you a new series of features later this month. Until then, here is a round-up of some of this week's top stories:
The UK government has committed to building new gas power stations beyond 2030 to avoid what ministers claim is a "genuine prospect of blackouts".
The government said the need for continued, unabated, gas generation - as a back-up to ensure energy security and reduce costs - had been recognised by the independent Climate Change Committee. Despite the fossil fuel buildout, Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho said the UK was on track to cut emissions to zero overall by mid-century. Opponents said that "the UK is going backwards on energy security because of the government fumbling its latest auction for British offshore wind farms, failing on its home insulation schemes, and dithering on heat pumps".
In southern Vietnam's Mekong Delta, the climate crisis is accelerating migration to bigger cities or abroad. The region is vulnerable to more violent storms and wild swings from floods to drought conditions, making farming more difficult, and worsening inequities such as access to clean water, health care and education. (Associated Press)
The US oil and gas industry is creating three times the amount of the potent heat-trapping gas methane as the government thinks, causing $9.3bn in yearly climate damage, a new study calculates. However, because more than half of these methane emissions are coming from a tiny number of oil and gas sites, 1% or less, this means the problem is both worse than the government thought but also fairly fixable, said the lead author of a study in the journal Nature. (AP)
Tropical Storm Filipo has made landfall in Mozambique leaving at least two people dead and thousands more displaced. Strong winds and heavy rain slammed the Inhambane and Gaza provinces, damaging roads and at least 510 homes. Officials estimated that more than half a million people will be impacted. Last year, Cyclone Freddy ravaged parts of Malawi and Mozambique, compounding a humanitarian crisis. Oxfam warned that millions of people have nothing left to eat but wild roots after losing their crops due to repeated extreme weather.
Europe is facing growing climate risks and is unprepared for them, the European Environment Agency said in its first-ever risk assessment for the bloc. Europe is prone to more frequent weather extremes including increasing wildfires, drought, more unusual rainfall patterns and flooding. The report identifies 36 major threats to the continent, including energy and food security, ecosystems, infrastructure, water resources, financial stability, and health. The report comes as the European Commission announced that it is suing Greece for failing to update its flood management plans, months after catastrophic rains ruined a significant chunk of the country's crop yield.
Children living in Australia's suburbs are twice as likely to have asthma as those living in major cities, according to a new study. Researchers found that city residents were more affluent than those in suburban areas meaning the latter had more social and economic disadvantages, explaining at least half of the asthma prevalence.
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Throw all the sand down you want. Mother nature decides how long it will protect your homes. It's only going to get worse. Not sure what the solution is but sand is merely a bandaid on a wound that needs multiple stitches. |
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Life in the climate crisis |
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