The Landfall of a Flood-Disturbance: The Refugees of Sindh and their Families & Their Supporting Families
Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of the world’s planet-warming emissions, yet it is the eighth most vulnerable nation to the climate crisis, according to the Global Climate Risk Index.
The altered river has caused land to dry out and make it too salty to farm. People flock to cities when this happens. Because there is little housing for them there (and often, they are treated with contempt), they end up in spots no one else wants. Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, one of Pakistan’s foremost climate experts, recently explained what those who are displaced face. “In their own areas, they at least have social capital,” he said, “in new areas they become marginalized. There is no security net in terms of money and backup.”
It has been devastating, in these past weeks, to grapple with the displacement of my own family and that of my neighbors from the floods. Many now live in tents or in the open along roads. Some, like my mother and siblings, are squatting with family members in the nearest city, Qambar, where conditions are cramped and unsanitary. When will they be able to return to Sabu Buriro — and when they get back, what will they find?
The flood caused 90 percent of the crop in Sindh to be ruined. My brother is a farmer, and he tells me that there is no chance the waters will recede in time to plant this year’s wheat crop, which must happen in October. My family and others in the village have lost cattle to the water-borne illnesses that are ripping through our herds. Cattle are our most important source of nutrition. We need to sell or give away our bank accounts if there is a health emergency, for example, or if we need to sacrifice in the annual festival of religious sacrifice, erstwhile.
Climate Change in Egypt: Implications for Climate Research in the Middle East and Africa if High-Income Countries Accept the “Loss and Damage” Principle
The Egyptian hosts of the COP27 climate conference are warning the leaders of wealthy nations that there can be no “backsliding” on commitments made at COP26 in Glasgow, UK, last year.
Negotiators from nearly 200 countries agreed at the UN climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to set up a new fund for “loss and damage,” meant to help vulnerable countries cope with climate disasters. It was the first time that wealthy countries and groups including the US and the EU agreed to create such a fund.
The head of Cairo’s Egyptian Academy of Scientific Research and Technology says that scientists from climate-vulnerable nations will be urging delegates at the COP conference to increase research funding. Countries, he says, need to conduct more of their own climate studies — especially in the Middle East and North Africa, which already experience low rainfall and arid conditions. The Arab world accounts for just 1.2% of published climate studies, according to an analysis1 published at the end of 2019.
In 2015, Egypt estimated that it needs to set aside $73 billion for projects to help the country mitigate climate change and adapt its infrastructure. But this number has now more than tripled to $246 billion, says environment minister Yasmine Fouad. “Most climate actions we have implemented have been from the national budget, which adds more burden and competes with our basic needs that have to be fulfilled.”
The issue of loss and damage was included on the agenda of the summit for the first time.
However, the LMIC cause was boosted when the phrase “losses and damages” featured in the latest report on climate impacts, adaptation and vulnerability from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published in February. Christopher Trisos, an environmental scientist at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and a lead author of the report’s chapter on climate impacts in Africa, says: “There is stronger evidence than ever that Africa has already experienced loss and damage that is attributable to human-induced climate change.”
Ian Mitchell, a researcher with think tank the Center for Global Development in London, warned of possible unintended consequences if agreement on loss and damage becomes a deal-breaker at the meeting. Loss-and-damage finance would not be new money if high-income countries agreed to the principle and accepted it in their humanitarian-aid spending.
Adil Najam, who studies international climate diplomacy at Boston University in Massachusetts, thinks it is unlikely that these issues will be resolved in Egypt, and says that the politics will probably get messy. Loss- and damage finance can no longer be avoided by the high-income countries given the severity of climate impacts in vulnerable countries.
This year’sCOP in Africa has been changed by organizing it, says Fouad. “We are expecting more attention towards issues that are crucial and meaningful to us Africans and relevant to most developing countries, such as food security, desertification, natural disasters and water scarcity. The opportunity for more African youth, non-governmental and civil-society organizations to be heard is present in this COP.
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — “Cooperate or perish,” the United Nations chief told dozens of leaders gathered Monday for international climate talks, warning them that the world is “on a highway to climate hell” and urging the two biggest polluting countries, China and the United States, to work together to avert it.
The leaders of nations who are hurt by climate change will dominate Monday, and not the ones who have created the problem. It will be mostly African nations and small island nations and other vulnerable nations that will be telling their stories.
The president of Egypt wanted to know if it was high time to put an end to the suffering. Climate change will not stop until we intervene. We must use every second we have, as our time here is limited.
He called for an end to the Russia-Ukraine war but El-Sisi was not as fiery as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
He called for a new pact between rich and poor countries to make deeper cuts in emissions with financial help and phasing out of coal in rich nations by 2030 and elsewhere by 2040. He called on the United States and China — the two biggest economies — to especially work together on climate, something they used to do until the last few years.
Most of the leaders are meeting Monday and Tuesday, just as the United States has a potentially policy-shifting midterm election. The leaders of the world’s 20 wealthiest nations are gathering in Indonesia weeks later for a special summit.
Leaders of China and India — both among the biggest emitters — appear to be skipping the climate talks, although underlings are here negotiating. President Biden is coming a few days later than most of the other presidents and prime ministers are going to.
While it’s impressive that so many leaders are coming to the summit, “my expectations for ambitious climate targets in these two days are very low,” said NewClimate Institute’ scientist Niklas Hohne. The invasion of Ukranian by Putin caused energy and food crises which took away from climate action.
“We always want more” leaders, United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell said in a Sunday news conference. I believe there’s enough leadership for us to have a very productive outcome.
The negotiations include speeches by the leaders, along with innovative roundtable discussions that will generate some very powerful insights.
Climate Change: From Africa to South Africa, from the Oceans to the Seas: Why South Africa is the least responsible for climate change?
Mohammed Adow of Power Shift Africa said that the historical culprits of climate change are not showing up. “Africa is the least responsible, the most vulnerable to the issue of climate change and it is a continent that is stepping up and providing leadership.”
Nigeria’s Environment Minister Mohammed Abdullahi called for wealthy nations to show “positive and affirmative” commitments to help countries hardest hit by climate change. “Our priority is to be aggressive when it comes to climate funding to mitigate the challenges of loss and damage,” he said.
“We can’t discount the impact of a single continent that has over a billion people in it’s vicinity, and that has some of the most severe impacts,” Waskow said. “It’s pretty clear that Africa will be at risk in a very severe way.”
Leaders come “to share the progress they’ve made at home and to accelerate action,” Purvis said. In this case, with the passage of the first major climate legislation and $375 billion in spending, Biden has a lot to share, he said.
From a small island in Polynesia to the white-sand beaches of Florida, the planet experienced a dizzying number of climate and extreme weather disasters in 2022.
Blistering summer heat broke records in drought-stricken China, threatening lives and food production. At the mouth of the historically low Mississippi River in the US, sea level rise and a lack of precipitation clashed with each other. In South Africa, the rise in precipitation caused deadly floods and was twice as likely to occur.
The Italian Volcano Eruption of January 12, 2011: The Rhine River, the Rhine, Tongatapu, and the Italy-Po River
Scientists in the US successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction that generated more energy than it used – a huge step in the decades-long quest to replace fossil fuels with an infinite source of clean energy.
The volcano that erupted in January sent waves around the world. The blast itself was so loud it was heard in Alaska – roughly 6,000 miles away. The western coast of the main island of Tongatapu was badly damaged by a heavy ash cloud as the afternoon sky turned black.
The eruption was so large that it was able to fill about 58,000 swimming pools, according to scientists. The massive plume of water vapor will likely contribute to more global warming at ground-level for the next several years, NASA scientists reported.
It was the worst dry part of Italy in more than 70 years. The River Po hit a records low due to the lack of snow in the Alps and a dry winter. The drought impacted millions of people who rely on the Po for their livelihood, and roughly 30% of the country’s food, which is produced along the river.
The Rhine River dropped to very low levels in some areas as it was fed by winter snow and spring rains in the Alps. Transport costs spiked as the cargo ships began carrying lighter loads after months of little rain.
Meanwhile in the US, extreme drought spread into the central states and gauges along the Mississippi River and its tributaries plummeted. Barge traffic moved in fits and starts as officials dredged the river. The Mississippi River dropped so low that the Army Corps of Engineers was forced to build a 1,500-foot-wide levee to prevent Gulf-of-Mexico saltwater from pushing upstream.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/28/world/top-climate-weather-stories-2022/index.html
The First Hurricanes to Make Landfall in the U.S. Coast During the November November Storm: Biden’s Climate, Energy, and Tax Agenda
After more than a year of negotiations, Democrats in late July reached an agreement on President Joe Biden’s long-stalled climate, energy and tax agenda – capping a year of agonizing negotiations that failed multiple times.
The bill was delayed by Sen. Joe Manchin. The White House and Biden administration officials tried to get the senator to support the bill, but he refused to do so.
An analysis shows that the measures in the bill will reduce carbon emissions in the US by 40% by 2030, which would put Biden on his way to achieving his goal of cutting emissions by half.
Hurricane Nicole was the first hurricane to hit anywhere in the US during the month of November in nearly 40 years. The rare, late-season storm also marked the first time that a hurricane made landfall on Florida’s east coast in November.
Nicole was a category 1 storm, with a wind field that spanned more than 500 miles, and high tides that caused a catastrophic storm surge. Homes and buildings collapsed into the ocean in Volusia County, with authorities scrambling to issue evacuation warnings.
The climate and energy program can’t solve the crisis if we aren’t able to rapidly and equitably transition to clean energy and away from fossil fuels.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/28/world/top-climate-weather-stories-2022/index.html
History of the Gardiner, Montana, Flooding and Emergency Emergency Services: 1998-2002 Top Climate Weather Events in the United Kingdom and Central Europe
In the summer of 1998, the town of Gardiner, Montana, was damaged when rapidly melting snow washed out roads and bridges in the park. Authorities had to rescue more than 100 people from the floods.
There were several thousand-year rain events in the year. A 1,000-year rainfall event is one that is so intense it’s only seen on average once every 1,000 years – under normal circumstances. Extreme precipitation is becoming more common as the climate crisis progresses. Warmer air can hold more moisture, which loads the dice in favor of historic rainfall.
The Dallas area got an entire summer’s worth of rain in just 24 hours in August, prompting more than 350 high water rescues.
Europe experienced its hottest summer on record in 2022, by a wide margin. While the heat kicked off early in France, Portugal and Spain, with the countries reaching record-warmth in May, the most significant heat came in mid-July, spreading across the UK and central Europe.
The UK topped 40 degrees Celsius for the first time in recorded history. Stephen Belcher, the UK Met Office’s chief scientist, said this would have been “virtually impossible” in an “undisrupted climate.”
One London fire official stated that the 40-degree day of June 20th was an “unprecedented day in the history of the London Fire brigade.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/28/world/top-climate-weather-stories-2022/index.html
Analytical study of Hurricane Ian, the most intense hurricane on record in Southwest Florida, and the worst category astrophysical event ever recorded in the Philippines
Western states use the Colorado River as their primary source of water and electricity, and have beenstruggling with reality over the past few years. The river, which serves 40 million people in seven western states and Mexico, is rapidly draining because of decades of use.
With the water levels in Lake Powell falling rapidly, the drinking water supply and power generation in the area have been threatened. In late July, Lake Mead – the country’s largest reservoir – bottomed out and has only rebounded a few feet off record lows. Human remains from the 1970s and a sunken vessel from World War II were revealed by its rapid plunging levels.
The federal government implemented its first-ever mandatory water cuts this year for states that draw from the Colorado River, and those cuts will be even deeper starting in January 2023.
The secretary general of the United Nations said that the Pakistan people were facing a monsoon on steroids because of the climate crisis. The hard-hit provinces of Pakistan and Iran received more than half the average amount of rain.
Hurricane Ian’s size and intensity allowed it to produce a storm surge that was the highest ever recorded in Southwest Florida. Ian drowned more than 100 people. It’s likely to be one of the most expensive hurricanes on record in the US.
The storm first struck Cuba before undergoing rapid intensification from a tropical storm to a category 3 hurricane in just 24 hours – something scientists told CNN is part of a trend for the most dangerous storms. That same week, Super Typhoon Noru in the Philippines grew from the equivalent of a category 1 hurricane to a category 5 overnight as residents around Manila slept, catching officials and residents unaware and unable to prepare.