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Tornadoes, mass outages and deaths: what to know about Hurricane Milton’s impact

The Guardian Climate Change - October 10, 2024 - 12:52

Tempest brought up to 10ft of storm surge and left millions at risk from flooding after hitting Florida on Wednesday

Hurricane Milton has killed at least nine people and left extensive property damage across Florida, hitting some areas previously affected by Hurricane Helene last month.

Here are the key takeaways from what we know about its impact and what experts are saying about a hurricane that it had been feared could be one of the worst in the state’s history.

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Categories: Climate

Harvest in England the second worst on record because of wet weather

The Guardian Climate Change - October 10, 2024 - 08:55

Wheat haul in England estimated to be down by 21%, with Britain’s wine producers also hit hard

England has suffered its second worst harvest on record – with fears growing for next year – after heavy rain last winter hit production of key crops including wheat and oats.

The cold, damp weather, stretching from last autumn through this spring and early summer, has hit the rapidly developing UK wine industry particularly hard, with producers saying harvests are down by between 75% and a third, depending on the region.

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Categories: Climate

Hellish heat and primal fear: Croatian firefighters on frontline of climate crisis

The Guardian Climate Change - October 10, 2024 - 07:19

Firefighters are stoic about the risks they face but say climate change has affected every part of the job

A short drive and a world away from the tourist-thronged old town of Split, past retirees clambering out of cruise ships and bachelor parties stumbling into beachside bars, Ivan Sanader studied a smouldering hillside that stank of smoke.

The night before, he had fought a fire that charred the slope and threatened to engulf a roadside restaurant. Now, the commander of a mobile firefighter centre in Croatia was issuing orders to stop it flaring back up.

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Categories: Climate

NW Natural Added to Oregon Suit Over Climate Change

NYT Global Warming Climate Change - October 10, 2024 - 05:05
The Oregon lawsuit alleges that the utility knew of the dangers of burning fossil fuels and misled its customers.
Categories: Climate

‘I think, boy, I’m a part of all this’: how local heroes reforested Rio’s green heart

The Guardian Climate Change - October 10, 2024 - 04:00

A restoration project to revitalise the Atlantic forest is making the city a much more liveable place in the face of increasingly frequent heatwaves

From his vantage point at the top of the hill where he grew up, Luiz Alberto Nunes dos Santos gazes down at the city below. White apartment blocks are nestled among mountains covered with luxuriant vegetation. The statue of Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf Mountain appear through gaps in the trees. The sea is just about visible in the distance.

Rio de Janeiro’s striking blend of urban infrastructure and tropical jungle, cradled between granite peaks and the sea, earned the city Unesco world heritage status in 2012. Yet few people realise that the verdant forests cloaking Rio’s dramatic hills are largely the result of human intervention.

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Categories: Climate

Hurricane Milton: nearly 3 million without power in Florida as category 3 storm makes landfall

The Guardian Climate Change - October 10, 2024 - 03:46

Powerful cyclone slams into coast, bringing deadly storm surge to Sarasota, Tampa, St Petersburg and Fort Myers

A weakening but still tremendously powerful Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida’s west coast on Wednesday night as a category 3, leaving more than 2 million homes without power, while bringing “catastrophic” winds likely to cause significant property damage.

The cyclone, described earlier in the day by Joe Biden as “the storm of the century”, made landfall near Sarasota, Florida, just after 8:30pm ET, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said. The storm was bringing deadly storm surge to much of Florida’s Gulf coast, including densely populated areas such as Tampa, St Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.

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Categories: Climate

Covering All the Corners of a Warming World

NYT Global Warming Climate Change - October 10, 2024 - 03:00
Travel is an opportunity. It’s an economic driver. But it also contributes to global warming. So a Travel editor went back to school to explore the moral dilemma it poses.
Categories: Climate

Collapsing wildlife populations near ‘points of no return’, report warns

The Guardian Climate Change - October 10, 2024 - 02:26

As average population falls reach 95% in some regions, experts call for urgent action but insist ‘nature can recover’

Global wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 73% in 50 years, a new scientific assessment has found, as humans continue to push ecosystems to the brink of collapse.

Latin America and the Caribbean recorded the steepest average declines in recorded wildlife populations, with a 95% fall, according to the WWF and the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) biennial Living Planet report. They were followed by Africa with 76%, and Asia and the Pacific at 60%. Europe and North America recorded comparatively lower falls of 35% and 39% respectively since 1970.

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Categories: Climate

En las altas montañas de Alaska, por fin se revela el secreto de un glaciar

NYT Global Warming Climate Change - October 10, 2024 - 00:30
Un famoso explorador estaba seguro de que el hielo ocultaba algo profundo. Noventa años después, los científicos han presentado las pruebas más contundentes hasta ahora de que tenía razón.
Categories: Climate

On the climate crisis, housing and more, politicians avoid clarity because it demands action | Greg Jericho

The Guardian Climate Change - October 9, 2024 - 22:50

Our leaders may prefer complexity because it means they can defer taking action – but doing something about emissions reduction or slow wage growth is actually not that complex

After spending any time analysing policy you quickly realise that politicians expend a supreme level of effort to avoid doing the obvious, and instead they do complex things that neither solve a problem nor appease their opponents.

For politicians, the problem with clarity is that it demands action. Complexity provides safety because action can more easily be avoided. And so the obvious and clear are painted as “extreme”, while the complex is regarded as “mature”.

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Categories: Climate

Latest WWF Wildlife Survey Points to ‘Alarming’ Declines

NYT Global Warming Climate Change - October 9, 2024 - 19:01
The results from an important ongoing assessment look grim. But the survey is often misunderstood.
Categories: Climate

A Filmmaker Focuses on Climate and Democracy

NYT Global Warming Climate Change - October 9, 2024 - 16:29
In his next documentary, Michael P. Nash takes on A.I. and how it might be used to address environmental issues.
Categories: Climate

Some Floridians choose to stay despite warnings of life risk: ‘We have faith in the Lord’

The Guardian Climate Change - October 9, 2024 - 16:22

As Hurricane Milton approaches many cities were largely deserted but some people decided to shelter in place

Most left when they were told to. But some chose to stay, even though officials warned Hurricane Milton would turn their homes into coffins.

Along Florida’s Gulf coast, where millions of people were urged to get out of harm’s way, cities were largely deserted on Wednesday afternoon as time ran out to evacuate. Those who remained were advised to shelter in place as best they could. Others who fled spoke of their dread at what, if anything, they would return to once the storm had passed.

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Categories: Climate

‘Florida isn’t safe’: Ron DeSantis is unfit for hurricane response, activists say

The Guardian Climate Change - October 9, 2024 - 13:53

Advocates believe governor is unfit for emergency planning due to policies that fuel the crisis worsening storms

Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, is back in the spotlight as he briefs residents on the arrival of Hurricane Milton, amid warnings it could be one of the most powerful storms to ever hit the state.

DeSantis, who dropped his presidential campaign in January, is as governor responsible for implementing Florida’s emergency plan by coordinating agencies, marshaling resources and urging residents to follow evacuation orders.

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Categories: Climate

Mi pesadilla con el virus del Nilo Occidental

NYT Global Warming Climate Change - October 9, 2024 - 12:33
A medida que el cambio climático facilita la proliferación de mosquitos en muchos lugares, la enfermedad del virus del Nilo Occidental se perfila como una de las mayores amenazas de salud.
Categories: Climate

MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa Region Braces for Milton Flooding

NYT Global Warming Climate Change - October 9, 2024 - 12:20
MacDill Air Force Base, south of Tampa, was swamped by Helene’s storm surge, and may see worse flooding from Milton.
Categories: Climate

Our dystopian climate isn’t just about fires and floods. It’s about society fracturing | Bill McKibben

The Guardian Climate Change - October 9, 2024 - 10:51

Climate disasters risk pulling society apart. To survive we need solidarity – and only one ticket in the US election offers that

Even as the good people of Florida’s west coast pulled the soggy mattresses from Helene out to the curb, Milton appeared on the horizon this week – a double blast of destruction from the Gulf of Mexico that’s a reminder that physics takes no time off, not even in the weeks before a crucial election. My sense is that those storms will help turn the voting on 5 November into a climate election of sorts, even if – as is likely – neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump spend much time in the next 25 days talking about CO2 or solar power.

That’s because these storms show not only the power of global heating (Helene’s record rains, and Milton’s almost unprecedented intensification, were reminders of what it means to have extremely hot ocean temperatures). More, they show what we’re going to need to survive the now inevitable train of such disasters. Which is solidarity. Which is something only one ticket offers.

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Categories: Climate

Andrew Forrest says net zero is ‘fantasy’ so his goal is ‘real zero’. What does he mean – and can he achieve it? | Temperature Check

The Guardian Climate Change - October 9, 2024 - 09:48

The mining tycoon says his iron ore business will stop using fossil fuels by the end of the decade without carbon offsets or carbon capture and storage

About $45tn of global business revenue is covered by corporate “net zero emissions” pledges but the iron ore billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest thinks the whole net zero thing is “fantasy”.

“Now is the time to walk away from net zero 2050, that hasn’t been anything really but a con to maintain fossil fuels,” Forrest said last week.

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Categories: Climate

US emergency crews struggle as climate crisis fuels ‘unprecedented’ competing disasters

The Guardian Climate Change - October 9, 2024 - 07:00

Resources are stretched thin as the south-east grapples with hurricanes and the west swelters in high temperatures

It’s been a brutal week in weather-related disasters across the US. Large parts of the south-east are still grappling with the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, and another potentially catastrophic storm is barreling towards Florida. At the same time, much of the west has been sweltering amid scorching temperatures, which have elevated fire risks and fueled extreme fire behavior.

Hurricanes and fires aren’t abnormal in early autumn. But the climate crisis has turned up the dial and created more opportunities for catastrophes to overlap, ultimately adding strain on relief resources, emergency response, and those who have been impacted by the dangerous and destructive events.

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Categories: Climate

Anger at UK’s ‘bonkers’ plan to reach net zero by importing fuel from North Korea

The Guardian Climate Change - October 9, 2024 - 05:37

Government criticised over list of potential countries for sourcing biomass, which also includes Afghanistan

A plan by the British government to burn biomass imported from countries including North Korea and Afghanistan has been described as “bonkers”, with critics saying it undermines the credibility of the UK’s climate strategy.

A bioenergy resource model, published in late summer, calculates that only a big expansion in the import of energy crops and wood from a surprising list of nations would satisfy the UK’s plan to meet net zero.

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Categories: Climate