Wildfires raging across Canada, made more intense by global warming, have released more planet-warming carbon dioxide in the first six months of 2023 than in any full year on record, EU scientists said Tuesday.. Globally, forests play a crucial role in curbing global warming by absorbing and stocking excess CO2 -- emitted mainly from burning fossil fuels -- that is overheating the planet.
Spain's record-breaking heat of summer 2022 caused more than 350 deaths from heatstroke and dehydration and was a decisive factor in a 20.5 percent increase in mortality, official figures showed Tuesday.. "Among the causes of deaths directly related to the heat were heatstroke (122 cases compared with 47 in 2019) and dehydration (233 cases compared to 109)," it said.
A dangerous and prolonged heat wave blanketed large parts of the southern United States on Tuesday, buckling highways and forcing people into air-conditioned shelters as temperatures soared past 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 Celsius).. Climate change is causing increasingly frequent and intense heat waves in major cities across the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Twenty-six Ugandans on Tuesday sued French oil giant TotalEnergies in Paris for reparations over alleged human rights violations at its massive megaprojects in the country, as climate protesters targeted its UK headquarters.. EACOP was also the target Tuesday of London climate campaigners who sprayed paint on the facade and lobby of TotalEnergies' UK headquarters in the Canary Wharf financial district.
The maiden flight of Spain's Miura 1 rocket, twice suspended in recent weeks, has now been delayed until September over fears its launch could start a wildfire, its developer said Tuesday. . After talks with the National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA), "PLD Space... has postponed the launch of Miura 1 until next September," it said in a statement.
Climate change campaigners targeted the UK headquarters of oil giant TotalEnergies with paint Tuesday, protesting the French firm's alleged human rights violations in the construction of a contentious oil pipeline in Uganda. . Also on Tuesday in France, a group of Ugandan citizens and aid groups, joined by French aid organisations, filed a lawsuit in a Paris court against TotalEnergies for damages over the alleged human rights violations.
John Goodenough, who shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing the lithium-ion battery that revolutionized modern life, has died at the age of 100, the University of Texas announced.. Goodenough became the oldest person to win a Nobel Prize when at the age of 97 he shared the 2019 chemistry award with Britain's Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino of Japan for the invention of the lithium-ion battery.
Earth lost an area of carbon-absorbing rainforest larger than Switzerland or the Netherlands in 2022, most of it destroyed to make way for cattle and commodity crops, an analysis of satellite data released Tuesday revealed.. The rest of the world combined accounted for just under 15 percent of forest lost in 2022. mh/fb
The warnings are coming from all angles: artificial intelligence poses an existential risk to humanity and must be shackled before it is too late.. However, the group has warned that giving machines the power to make decisions on life and death is an existential risk.
Heart-wrenching images of revered elephants and cattle eating plastic in Sri Lanka have prompted politicians to toughen pollution laws, but sceptical conservationists warn past bans were repeatedly ignored.. After an estimated 20 elephant deaths and countless other wild animals perishing due to single-use plastics in the past decade, officials say a law banning many such items is expected to come into force within weeks.
