News & Updates Archives - Page 3 of 18

Current policies will bring ‘catastrophic’ climate breakdown, warn former UN leaders

The policies currently in place to tackle the climate crisis around the world will lead to “catastrophic” climate breakdown, as governments have failed to take the actions needed to fulfil their promises, three former UN climate leaders have warned.

There is a stark gap between what governments have promised to do to protect the climate, and the measures and policies needed to achieve the targets. At the Cop26 summit last November, countries agreed to bring forward plans to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – the limit of safety, according to scientists. They have so far submitted pledges that would limit temperatures to under 2C.

But the policies and measures passed and implemented by governments would lead to far greater temperature rises, of at least 2.7C, well beyond the threshold of relative safety, and potentially as much as 3.6C. That would have “catastrophic” impacts, in the form of extreme weather, sea-level rises and irreversible changes to the global climate.

Plastic Recycling Doesn’t Work and Will Never Work

May 30, 2022 Economy / News & Updates / Plastics / Recycling

Americans support recycling. We do too. But although some materials can be effectively recycled and safely made from recycled content, plastics cannot. Plastic recycling does not work and will never work. The United States in 2021 had a dismal recycling rate of about 5 percent for post-consumer plastic waste, down from a high of 9.5 percent in 2014, when the U.S. exported millions of tons of plastic waste to China and counted it as recycled—even though much of it wasn’t.

Recycling in general can be an effective way to reclaim natural material resources. The U.S.’s high recycling rate of paper, 68 percent, proves this point. The problem with recycling plastic lies not with the concept or process but with the material itself.

First Canadian rare earth mine starts shipping concentrate from N.W.T.

May 23, 2022 Energy / Environment / International / News & Updates / Renewable Energy / Resource Management

Canada has begun supplying the world with minerals critical to a greener economy with the country’s first rare earth mine delivering concentrated ore.

“Canada and its allies are gaining independence from the rare earth supply chain from China,” said David Connelly of Cheetah Resources, which owns the Nechalacho Mine southeast of Yellowknife.

Rare earths are a series of exotically named elements such as ytterbium, lanthanum and gadolinium. They are crucial to computers, LED displays, wind turbines, electric cars and many other products essential to a low-carbon world.

More difficult than expected for glaciers to recover from climate warming

May 9, 2022 Climate Change / Future Costs / International / News & Updates / Science & Society / Time for Action is Now

ce shelves are floating extensions of glaciers. If Greenland’s second largest ice shelf breaks up, it may not recover unless Earth’s future climate cools considerably. This is the result of a new study, published in Nature Communications.
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“Even if Earth’s climate stopped warming, it would be difficult to rebuild this ice shelf once it has fallen apart,” says Henning Åkesson, who led the study at Stockholm University.

“If Petermann’s ice shelf is lost, we would have to go ‘back in time’ towards a cooler climate reminiscent of the period before the industrial revolution to regrow Petermann,” Åkesson says.

Treaties protecting fossil fuel investors could jeopardize global efforts to save the climate, and cost billions

May 9, 2022 Climate Change / CO2 Emissions / Economy / Energy / Environment / Failed Policies / Fossil Fuels / International / News & Updates / Social Justice / Special Interests

Fossil fuel companies have access to an obscure legal tool that could jeopardize worldwide efforts to protect the climate, and they’re starting to use it. The result could cost countries that press ahead with those efforts billions of dollars.

The treaties allow investors to sue governments for compensation in a process called investor-state dispute settlement, or ISDS. In short, investors could use ISDS clauses to demand compensation in response to government actions to limit fossil fuels, such as canceling pipelines and denying drilling permits. For example, TC Energy, a Canadian company, is currently seeking more than US$15 billion over U.S. President Joe Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

The secret world beneath our feet is mind-blowing – and the key to our planet’s future

May 7, 2022 Ecology / Environment / Future Costs / International / News & Updates / Resource Management / Science & Society / Soil / Sustainability / Time for Action is Now

Beneath our feet is an ecosystem so astonishing that it tests the limits of our imagination. It’s as diverse as a rainforest or a coral reef. We depend on it for 99% of our food, yet we scarcely know it. Soil.
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We face what could be the greatest predicament humankind has ever encountered: feeding the world without devouring the planet. Already, farming is the world’s greatest cause of habitat destruction, the greatest cause of the global loss of wildlife and the greatest cause of the global extinction crisis. It’s responsible for about 80% of the deforestation that’s happened this century. Of 28,000 species known to be at imminent risk of extinction, 24,000 are threatened by farming. Only 29% of the weight of birds on Earth consists of wild species: the rest is poultry. Just 4% of the world’s mammals, by weight, are wild; humans account for 36%, and livestock for the remaining 60%.

Unless something changes, all this is likely to get worse – much worse. In principle, there is plenty of food, even for a rising population. But roughly half the calories farmers grow are now fed to livestock, and the demand for animal products is rising fast. Without a radical change in the way we eat, by 2050 the world will need to grow around 50% more grain. How could we do it without wiping out much of the rest of life on Earth?

U.S. plastic recycling rate drops to close to 5% – report

May 4, 2022 Failed Policies / Greenwashing / News & Updates / Plastics / Recycling

WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) – The rate of plastic waste recycling in the United States fell to between 5%-6% in 2021 as some countries stopped accepting U.S. waste exports and as plastic waste generation surged to new highs, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Alarmstufe Orange durch schwere Sandstürme im Irak

May 3, 2022 Climate Change / Environment / International / News & Updates

Sandstürme sind im Irak keine Seltenheit. Vor allem im Sommer kommt es im Wüstengebiet zu starken Nordwestwinden, die über die Auen der Flüsse Tigris und Euphrat wehen. Die Staubpartikel verschlechtern die Luftqualität deutlich.

Aufgrund von Dürre, Wüstenbildung und abnehmenden Niederschlägen könnten solche Phänomene immer häufiger auftreten, erklärte laut »Guardian« Amer al-Jabri vom irakischen Wetteramt. Im November hatte die Weltbank gewarnt, dass die Wasserressourcen im Irak aufgrund des Klimawandels bis 2050 um 20 Prozent zurückgehen könnten.