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☆ Deadly Landslides in India Made Worse by Climate Change, Study Finds
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-13 | by ( Austyn Gaffney | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A sudden burst of rainfall on July 30 caused a cascade of landslides that buried hundreds of people in the mountainous Kerala region of southern India. That downpour was 10 percent heavier because of human-caused climate change, according to a study by World Weather Attribution, a group of scientists who quantify how climate change can influence extreme weather. Nearly six inches, or 150 millimeters, of rain fell on soils already highly saturated from two months of monsoon and marked the third highest single-day rain event on record for India. “The increase in climate-change-driven rainfall found in this study is likely to increase the number of landslides that could be triggered in the future.”In a state that is highly prone to landslides, the Wayanad district is considered the riskiest part. As of Tuesday, at least 231 people had died and 100 remained missing.

Persons: ”, Maja Vahlberg Organizations: India, Climate Locations: Kerala, India, Wayanad

☆ Heat Contributed to 47,000 Deaths in Europe Last Year, but Relief Programs Helped
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-12 | by ( Austyn Gaffney | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

More than 47,000 Europeans died from heat-related causes during 2023, the world’s hottest year on record, a new report in Nature Medicine has found. But the number could have been much higher. Without heat adaptation measures over the past two decades, the death toll for Europeans experiencing the same temperatures at the start of the 21st century could have been 80 percent higher, according to the new study. For people over 80 years old, the toll could have doubled. Some of the measures include advances in health care, more widespread air-conditioning, and improved public information that kept people indoors and hydrated amid extreme temperatures.

Organizations: Nature Locations: Nature Medicine

☆ A Canadian Wildfire Grew So Intense It Made Its Own Weather
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-26 | by ( Austyn Gaffney | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Officials said on Thursday they feared as much as half the town of Jasper, Alberta, had been destroyed by wildfires so intense they generated their own weather. “It’s a sad day here because Jasper is such a gorgeous place,” said Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland fire at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, on Thursday. The town is the gateway to Jasper National Park, a crown jewel of the Canadian parks system. At least 25,000 residents and tourists were evacuated from their homes before firefighters and emergency personnel also had to flee toxic smoke. The mayor called the destruction “almost beyond comprehension.”That fire was worsened by a pyrocumulonimbus, or a fire-generated thunderstorm, according to Dr. Flannigan.

Persons: Jasper, ”, Mike Flannigan, Flannigan Organizations: Thompson Rivers University, Jasper National Locations: Jasper , Alberta, British Columbia, Jasper, Canadian

☆ Where Do Harris’s Potential Running Mates Stand on Climate?
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-24 | by ( Austyn Gaffney | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Vice President Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, has a long history as a climate-minded politician. During her time as vice president, she helped broker the largest climate deal in U.S. history, the $370 billion Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Now, the choice of running mate could help bolster her climate and energy agenda, or moderate her stance for voters in swing states. Josh Shapiro, Governor of PennsylvaniaOn Monday, Gov. As a candidate, he set goals to generate 30 percent of the state’s energy from renewables by 2030, a nearly 10-fold increase, and to stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by 2050.

Persons: Kamala Harris, polluters, Josh Shapiro, Biden’s, Shapiro’s Organizations: Democratic, Green Locations: U.S, Pennsylvania

☆ E.P.A. Announces $4.3 Billion in Funding for 25 Climate Projects
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-22 | by ( Austyn Gaffney | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Environmental Protection Agency is set to announce $4.3 billion in funding on Monday afternoon for 25 new projects proposed by states, tribes, local governments and territories to tackle climate change. The funding could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 971 million metric tons by 2050, or roughly the emissions of five million homes over 25 years, according to the agency. Among the jurisdictions that will get funding, Nebraska will receive $307 million to reduce agricultural waste and enhance energy efficiency in homes and buildings. Pennsylvania will get $396 million to reduce industrial pollution and create about 6,000 jobs,. Ms. Baird said the funds could reduce Lincoln’s greenhouse gas emissions by 77 percent by 2050.

Persons: ”, Leirion Gaylor Baird, Ms, Baird Organizations: Environmental Protection Agency, Lincoln, Nebraska Locations: Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Lincoln, Neb, Southern California, Michigan, Alaska

“This outage is historic in scale,” Mikko Hypponen, a research specialist at the software company WithSecure and a cybercrime adviser to Europol, told DealBook. It issued a software update that is causing Microsoft systems, including its Azure cloud service, to crash or not function properly. Long queues of airline passengers could be seen at airports around the world, with some resorting to manual check-in. In France, the television networks TF1 and Canal+ told the public on X that they could not go on the air on Friday morning. The incident points to how reliant the global economy is on a handful of major tech companies to run vital infrastructure.

Persons: ” Mikko Hypponen, Europol, DealBook, George Kurtz, CrowdStrike, ” Organizations: Microsoft, United, Delta, Airlines, Air France, KLM, Japan Airlines, TF1, Sky Locations: Europe, Asia, France

☆ For These Nearly Extinct Crocodiles, Life Found a Way
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-17 | by ( Austyn Gaffney | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Eggs the size of oranges cracking alongside hatchlings mewling and chirping like a choir of baby birds. The birth of 60 Siamese crocodiles in the wild last month was all very Jurassic Park. The hatchlings were the largest population born this century, representing two decades of conservation efforts. While the babies slipped and waddled through their trio of nests, their marble-like eyes blinked upon a bright new world for a species once nearly as extinct as the dinosaurs. “The fact that we’ve been able to help these crocodiles recover and see this landmark breeding event, it’s very significant.”

Persons: ”, Pablo Sinovas, we’ve Organizations: Fauna Locations: Southeast Asia, Cambodia

☆ ‘More Heat, More Often’: Temperature Records Keep Breaking
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-11 | by ( Austyn Gaffney | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

June was the Earth’s 13th consecutive month to break a global heat record. It beat the record set last year for the hottest June on record, according to data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service of the European Union. “We need to be preparing for more heat, more often. That’s the reality.”More than half the U.S. population — almost 175 million people — faced extreme heat on July 4, and the impacts of this new normal continued to broil the country this week. In the Western United States, a heat dome fed wildfires, and in Houston, the country’s fourth-largest city, excessive heat threatened lives.

Persons: “, ”, Katherine Idziorek, —, Hurricane Beryl Organizations: European Union, University of North, Hurricane Locations: University of North Carolina, Charlotte, United States, Houston, Texas

☆ ‘A Roller Coaster in a Carwash’: Why Scientists Are Flying Into Hurricane Beryl
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-03 | by ( Austyn Gaffney | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Hurricane Beryl, which devastated islands in Grenada on Tuesday and is now heading toward Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, has broken records as the earliest hurricane ever to reach Category 4 and Category 5 intensity in the Atlantic Basin. Wind speeds of at least 160 miles per hour were recorded on Monday. “There are so many superlatives to describe Hurricane Beryl given the time of year, the location and the strength,” said Jonathan Zawislak, a meteorologist and flight director for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Dr. Zawislak is a hurricane hunter, the title held by about 30 to 40 scientists, data crunchers and pilots based in Lakeland, Fla., who fly into hurricanes on three airplanes nicknamed Gonzo, Kermit and Miss Piggy. Both Kermit and Miss Piggy are equipped with Doppler radar on their bellies and tails that scientists use to create 3-D images of the storm.

Persons: Beryl, ”, Jonathan Zawislak, Zawislak, Kermit, Miss Piggy Organizations: National Oceanic, Atmospheric Administration Locations: Grenada, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Lakeland, Fla

☆ Extreme Wildfires Have Doubled in 2 Decades, Study Finds
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-24 | by ( Austyn Gaffney | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The hottest year on record, 2023, was also the most extreme for wildfires, according to new research. Both the frequency and intensity of extreme wildfires have more than doubled in the last two decades, the study found. And when the ecological, social and economic consequences of wildfires were accounted for, six of the last seven years were the most “energetically intense.”“That we’ve detected such a big increase over such a short period of time makes the findings even more shocking,” said Calum Cunningham, a postdoctoral researcher in pyrogeography at the University of Tasmania and lead author of the study published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. “We’re seeing the manifestations of a warming and drying climate before our very eyes in these extreme fires.”

Persons: ”, Calum Cunningham Organizations: University of Tasmania Locations: pyrogeography

☆ A Global Push Fixed the Ozone Hole. Satellites Could Threaten It.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-24 | by ( Austyn Gaffney | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Low-Earth orbit, a layer of superhighway that wraps around Earth’s thermosphere some 200 to 600 miles above our heads, is newly congested. Yet no one knows how the vast increase in satellites orbiting Earth will affect the atmosphere, and therefore life down below. With the rush to send up more and more satellites, a new study proposes that the hole in the ozone layer, a problem scientists thought they had solved decades ago, could make a comeback. Ever since Sputnik, the first man-made space satellite, was launched in 1957, scientists have thought that when satellites re-enter our atmosphere at the end of their lives, their vaporization has little impact. But new satellites — much more advanced, but also smaller, cheaper and more disposable than previous satellites — have a turnover that resembles fast fashion, said the lead author of the study, José Pedro Ferreira, a doctoral candidate in astronautical engineering at the University of Southern California.

Persons: “, ” Martin Ross, José Pedro Ferreira Organizations: Aerospace Corporation, University of Southern Locations: University of Southern California

☆ El Niño Is Over. What Does That Mean for Summer?
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-14 | by ( Austyn Gaffney | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

El Niño, the natural climate pattern linked to warmer conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean, has ended, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced on Thursday. The counterpart pattern known as La Niña, defined by cooler equatorial sea surface temperatures, is expected to develop soon. A strong El Niño has cycled through the atmosphere since last June, leading to a wetter than normal winter, especially in the Southeast and in California, where a mind-boggling 51 atmospheric rivers dumped rain and snow. That’s because, while El Niño conditions can rip apart storms that develop in the Atlantic Basin, hurricanes and tropical cyclones are more likely to form under La Niña. Calm conditions produced by La Niña combined with warm ocean temperatures will intensify the activity likely to occur during hurricane season.

Persons: El Niño, La Niña Organizations: National Oceanic, Atmospheric Administration, La Locations: California, El

☆ Missing a Global Climate Target Could Spell Disaster for These Polar Bears
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-13 | by ( Austyn Gaffney | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Polar bears in the Southern Hudson Bay could go extinct as early as the 2030s because the sea ice that helps them hunt for food is thinning, a new study suggests. “We’ve known that the loss of Arctic sea ice would spell disaster for polar bears, so this might be the first subpopulation that disappears,” said Julienne Stroeve, the lead author of the study, which was published Thursday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. Last month, the eastern half of Hudson Bay, home to the world’s most-studied polar bears, went ice free a month earlier than usual. Polar bears are used to an ice-free season of about four months when they rely on fat reserves until ice reforms and they can hunt blubber-rich seals from the floes. But the presence of sea ice doesn’t guarantee the bears will be able to hunt; it needs to be thick enough to support them.

Persons: “, ”, Julienne Stroeve Organizations: Environment Locations: Hudson Bay

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