UN Warns of Rise in Climate Disasters Over Past 20 Years
"There has been a 'staggering' rise in natural disasters over the past 20 years and the climate crisis is to blame, the United Nations said Monday."
Source: CNN, 10/13/2020
International
Time To Flip the Ocean Script — From Victim to Solution
The narrative around the ocean should become a more hopeful one, argues former NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco. As evidence at the Society of Environmental Journalists’ recent virtual conference, Lubchenco cites a top-level international analysis that suggests the ocean can play a positive role in everything from reducing climate change to securing the future of food. Find out more.
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“Diary of a Young Naturalist”
With the heart of a naturalist, the head of a scientist and the weary bones of someone watching the destruction of the natural world, a prize-winning writer shares insights into the environment … and into a mind shaped by autism. That writer, by the way, is just 16 years old. BookShelf’s Melody Kemp reviews “Diary of a Young Naturalist.”
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Mario Molina, Nobel Laureate Who Showed Threat To Ozone Layer, Dies At 77
"Mario Molina, who shared a Nobel Prize in chemistry for demonstrating the threat to the ozone layer posed by CFCs, chemical compounds often found in refrigerants and hair sprays and whose use was later curtailed by a landmark international accord, died Oct. 7 at his home in Mexico City. He was 77."
Source: Washington Post, 10/09/2020
Emissions of Nitrous Oxide, a Climate Super-Pollutant, Are Rising Fast
"Emissions of nitrous oxide, a climate super-pollutant hundreds of times more potent than carbon dioxide, are rising faster than previously thought—at a rate that not only threatens international targets to limit global warming, but is consistent with a worst-case trajectory for climate change, a new study suggests."
Source: InsideClimate News, 10/08/2020
"14 Million Tonnes Of Microplastics On Sea Floor: Australian Study"
"The world's sea floor is littered with an estimated 14 million tonnes of microplastics, broken down from the masses of rubbish entering the oceans every year, according to Australia's national science agency."
Source: Phys.org, 10/07/2020
"Height of Fashion? Clothes Mountains Build Up As Recycling Breaks Down"
"Clothes recycling is the pressure-release valve of fast fashion, and it’s breaking under COVID-19 curbs. The multi-billion-dollar trade in second-hand clothing helps prevent the global fashion industry’s growing pile of waste going straight to landfill, while keeping wardrobes clear for next season’s designs."
Source: Reuters, 10/06/2020
Climate-Unfriendly Coal May Be Losing Ground in U.S., But Not Worldwide
When it comes to climate change, coal’s carbon emissions mean trouble. But as Backgrounder explains, if the once-powerful coal industry is on the decline in the United States, the fuel’s still finding favor worldwide. And that’s bad news for the Paris climate accord’s hopes of gaining control of runaway warming. The story behind the “exaggerated death” of coal.
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Plant Trackers Help Mark Coal’s Decline
Keeping tabs on the increasingly frequent closing of U.S. coal-fired electric power plants is an important way to follow developments on the larger climate change beat. The latest Reporter’s Toolbox points to several mapping databases that help make the job far easier — whether watching the industry in the United States or abroad.
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"'Dramatic' Global Rise In Laws Defending Rights Of Nature"
"WASHINGTON - From Bolivia to New Zealand, rivers and ecosystems in at least 14 countries have won the legal right to exist and flourish, as a new way of safeguarding nature gains steam, U.S. environmental groups said on Thursday.
Rights of nature laws, allowing residents to sue over harm on behalf of lakes and reefs, have seen 'a dramatic increase' in the last dozen years, said the Earth Law Center, International Rivers and the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice.
Source: Thomson Reuters Fdn., 10/01/2020
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