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Physicist MV Ramana on the problem with nuclear power
Nuclear is costly, risky and slow, Ramana says. Why then, he asks in his new book, do governments still champion it?
You would be forgiven for thinking that the debate on nuclear power is pretty much settled. Sure, there are still some naysayers, but most reasonable people have come to realise that in an age of climate crisis, we need low-carbon nuclear energy – alongside wind and solar power – to help us transition away from fossil fuels. In 2016, 400 reactors were operating across 31 countries, with one estimate suggesting roughly the same number in operation in mid-2023, accounting for 9.2% of global commercial gross electricity generation. But what if this optimism were in fact wrong, and nuclear power can never live up to its promise? That is the argument the physicist MV Ramana makes in his new book. He says nuclear is costly, dangerous and takes too long to scale up. Nuclear, the work’s title reads, is not the solution.
This wasn’t the book Ramana, a professor at the University of British Columbia, planned to write. The problems with nuclear are so “obvious”, he wagered, they do not need to be spelled out. But with the guidance of his editor, he realised his mistake. Even in the contemporary environmental movement, which emerged alongside the anti-war and anti-nuclear movements, there are converts. Prominent environmentalists, understandably desperate about the climate crisis, believe it is rational and reasonable to support nuclear power as part of our energy mix.
Nuclear is Not the Solution: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change by MV Ramana is out now
Continue reading...Two Years After Deadly Floods Hit Pakistan, It’s Happening Again
Fire services warn of likely early start to Australia’s bushfire season
Three states and the Northern Territory face an increased risk of bushfire this spring, according to fire authorities and the BoM
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Large parts of Queensland and the Northern Territory, the south-west of Victoria and south-east corner of South Australia face an increased risk of bushfires this spring.
An official assessment from fire authorities and the Bureau of Meteorology, co-ordinated by the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities (AFAC) and released on Wednesday morning, points to a likely early start to the fire season in Victoria.
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Continue reading...‘Typhoons have prevented me going to school’: The children behind South Korea’s landmark climate win
Hannah Kim, eight, and Jeah Han, 12, are part of a group of activists that won a four-year fight to tackle climate inaction. For them, it is just the beginning
Hannah Kim, eight, was just starting primary school when she joined the “baby climate litigation” to force South Korea’s government to protect the rights of future generations against the dangers of the climate crisis.
Now, with high school still some way off, she is toasting success after winning her part in a four-year legal battle that has set a significant precedent for climate-related legal action in Asia.
Continue reading...Por qué los destinos más populares de Europa ya no quieren más turistas
Let’s be honest: Australia’s claim to have cut climate pollution isn’t as good as it seems | Adam Morton
Take renewable energy out of the equation and there isn’t much else expected to reduce fossil fuel use this side of 2030
Australia has a problem with greenhouse gas emissions – a bigger problem than the political debate concedes.
Late last week, as Australians endured record August warmth and global heating-fuelled extreme rain, the federal government released data that suggest heat-trapping gases across most of the economy are currently headed in the wrong direction or yet to budge much from historic highs.
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Continue reading...Climate Plans for Aging US Must Focus on Higher Risks to Older Adults
It’s hard to keep up with the latest stories on extreme heat. 2023 was the world’s hottest year—a record that is likely to be broken by 2024. And just last month, NASA recorded the hottest day on record ever on July 22, the latest in a 13-month stretch of consecutive record-setting weather. These events are part of an upward march in extreme heat in the US that has turned summer into a veritable danger season. And what gets lost as we confront these record-breaking conditions is the reality that heat—like many other effects of climate change—has a disproportionate impact on older adults. But the good news is that when we center our heat response and broader climate resilience efforts in reducing the impacts to older adults, we also create safer communities for all.
Unique risksThe toll that climate change is taking on older adults is evident in the fatality rates recorded from an array of climate-fueled disasters:
- In July 2024, older adults accounted for 75% of the fatalities resulting from power outages following Hurricane Beryl in Texas. The deaths occurred in the days and sometimes weeks after the storm during which people were unable to cool their homes and power in-home medical equipment.
- In December 2023, atmospheric rivers hovered over Ventura County, California, flooding nearly 500 homes largely occupied by low-income households, undocumented people, and older adults. The relatively small size of the event failed to trigger traditional FEMA disaster relief, and many older residents lack the savings to rebuild or the willingness to take on a loan that may result in the loss of their largest remaining asset.
- A year ago, older adults represented 73% of the fatalities in the Lahain’a wildfires, in large part because they live with mobility challenges because of advanced age or disability, or the economic vulnerability that comes with living on a fixed income with little or no retirement savings.
Heat may be the topic that captures our attention this summer—and deservedly so. For older adults, hotter weather poses unique risks because older bodies are less able to regulate heat. They may also have pre-existing health conditions or take medications that make them more vulnerable to rising temperatures. That helps to explain why 80% of the 12,000 heat-related deaths each year in the US are among people over 60.
Higher costsBut a hotter planet threatens older adults in other ways, too. More hot days also mean greater demand for cooling, which in turn leads to higher utility bills that people of limited incomes can rarely afford. Already, low-income people pay 8% of their income on utilities—2.5 times more than the national average. For the 15% of older adults who live near or below the poverty line, this remains an untenable expense.
More extreme weather also means more frequent and deadly hurricanes, and increased flooding— and therefore higher insurance premiums as the insurance market adjusts to our new climate realities. Together, the rising cost of utilities, insurance, and rent or mortgage means that older adults are more housing cost-burdened than ever before. Today, more than half of all older renters pay more than one-third of their income on housing, as do more than one-quarter of older homeowners.
The effects of climate change on older adults are rarely made a centerpiece of climate resilience planning—despite the fact that people over 65 years of age are the fastest-growing demographic in the US. By 2030, older adults will outnumber children for the first time ever, a demographic shift that Newsweek described as a “population time bomb,” and one that will coincide with the growing risks of climate change.
Few communities consider the needs of older adults when planning for climate disasters if they plan for these disasters at all. While some communities and states have committed to becoming more “age-friendly” in an effort to create places where people of all ages can thrive, not nearly enough consider the climate-related impacts on housing, transportation, and connectedness that will shape how or if older adults can safely age in place.
Plan for an aging USIt’s not too late to get ahead of this challenge. Communities must learn from our recent experience of how climate change differently impacts older adults, and commit to climate resilience planning that centers their needs. When local and state leaders embrace solutions that work for older adults—like incentives to make homes more energy-efficient to reduce utility costs, and public transit systems that work better for non-drivers in times of emergency—benefits accrue to all.
It all begins by getting to know who the older adults are in your community and what they need. That means looking well beyond the two percent of older adults who live in nursing homes and assisted living, and identifying the housing, transportation, communication, and service needs of the 98% who live in the community, often alone. Invite older adults—and those who represent them, like Area Agencies on Aging—to be a part of climate resilience planning. Leverage resources such as those offered by AARP and FEMA on the topic of disaster resilience for older adults to start a broader conversation on climate risks to older adults, and how those risks can be mitigated—before, during, and after disasters. There are two things that we can be sure of: our hottest days are yet to come, and we (as individuals and as a nation) will continue to age. Let’s take action now to address the ways in which those two trends intersect.
A Heat Pump Can Cut Your Emissions. But Read This Before You Switch.
Re-emergence of Greece’s sunken village shows extent of rainfall crisis
Heatwaves and lack of rainfall have led to receding water levels in the Mornos reservoir, which submerged Kallio in the 1970s
No place is more indicative of plummeting rainfall levels in Greece than the Mornos reservoir. And no settlement is more indicative of how serious this year’s drought has been than Kallio, a village submerged by the artificial lake in the late 1970s.
Nearly five decades after Kallio was deliberately flooded as part of the construction of a dam to ensure water supply for Athens, people living nearby have watched in disbelief as reserves have receded to the point that the village has reappeared.
Continue reading...John Podesta, Biden’s Top Climate Negotiator, to Visit China
The bitter future of chocolate? How drought and a youth exodus threaten Mexico’s prized cocoa
As prices soar, farmers are facing the worst harvests in decades, while traditional production methods passed down for generations are being lost
Edilberto Morales has been farming cocoa, the key ingredient in chocolate, in the Lacadon jungle in southern Mexico for decades. Typically, he harvests about 1,000kg of cocoa pods a year, but only produced half that last year, due to drought. It was one of the worst harvests of his lifetime.
“Climate change has affected us a lot,” says Morales, from the town of Maravilla Tenejapa in Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala. “The lack of rain directly affects the solidification of the flower. Without rain, cocoa pods do not develop in seasons of intense heat. On this plot, we used to harvest 1,000kg a year on average; the most drastic change was the last harvest in 2024 when we harvested 500kg.”
Continue reading...UK’s methane hotspots include landfills and last coalmine
Greenpeace urges Labour to ‘fulfil international obligations’ as critics question accuracy of official data
The UK’s worst methane hotspots include the last coalmine, livestock farm clusters, landfills, power plants and North Sea oil and gas wells, according to an analysis.
The process has also thrown up serious doubts over the UK’s ability to calculate its methane emissions.
Continue reading...Japan swelters through hottest summer while parts of China log warmest August on record
Climate scientists have already predicted that 2024 will be the hottest year ever
Japan has recorded its hottest summer on record after a sweltering three months marked by thousands of instances of “extreme heat”, with meteorologists warning that unseasonably high temperatures will continue through the autumn.
The average temperature in June, July and August was 1.76C higher than the average recorded between 1991 and 2020, the Japan meteorological agency said, according to Kyodo news agency.
Continue reading...Arctic tern and common gull join red list of UK species in crisis
Seabirds are in a precarious position as their breeding areas are threatened by climate breakdown and overfishing
Five seabirds have been added to the UK’s conservation red list, meaning they are at dire risk of local extinction.
The government has been urged to act as the arctic tern, Leach’s storm petrel, common gull, great skua and great black-backed gull join other seabird species such as the puffin on the list after severe population declines.
Continue reading...Hiker deaths in Grand Canyon rise amid extreme weather linked to climate crisis
Fourteen hiker deaths reported in the park this season, with total fatalities at almost the annual average of 15
More than one dozen park-goers have died in Grand Canyon national park this summer, with three perishing in just over one week in August, as weather extremes linked to climate change make for increasingly dangerous conditions.
With 14 deaths reported in the park this season, total fatalities have already almost reached the annual average of 15, the Hill reported.
Continue reading...Climate Change Can Cause Bridges to ‘Fall Apart Like Tinkertoys,’ Experts Say
A Frenzied Summer Leads to a Tourism Backlash in Europe
Record Rainfall Spoils Crops in China, Rattling Leaders
Australia sweats through hottest August on record with temperatures 3C above average
The 2024 winter was the second hottest on record since weather data collection began in 1910
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Australia recorded its hottest August on record, with the national temperature 3C above average, as September kicked off with total fire bans in parts of New South Wales on Monday.
Bureau of Meteorology data showed average temperatures across the nation in August were 3.03C above the long-term average, easily beating the previous 2.56C record set in 2009.
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Continue reading...It’s time to give up on ‘normal’ weather: Australia’s climate is entering a different phase | David Bowman for the Conversation
August was a month of extremes, from unseasonal heat to damaging winds. We have no choice but to adapt to the instability – and fire risk – brought by climate change
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Heavy winds struck south-east Australia over the weekend as a series of cold fronts moved across the continent. It followed a high fire danger in Sydney and other parts of New South Wales last week, and a fire in south-west Sydney that threatened homes.
The severe weather rounds out a weird winter across Australia. The nation’s hottest ever winter temperature was recorded when Yampi Sound in Western Australia reached 41.6C on Tuesday. Elsewhere across Australia, winter temperatures have been way above average.
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