The negotiations continue with plenty of disagreement about the way forward, as we approach the halfway mark in Baku, Azerbaijan
Meanwhile extreme weather events continue to batter different regions of the world. Carmela Fonbuena has written for the Guardian about the repeated typhoons which have been hitting the Philippines, one after another.
Usagi is the fifth major storm to hit the Philippines in just three weeks, with a sixth forecast for this weekend. At least 160 people have been killed and nine million displaced, while the unusual frequency has left people already struggling with the aftermath of previous heavy rains and flooding little time to prepare for the next strike.
Typhoon Yinxing tore off a quarter of Diana Moraleda’s tiled roof in Tuguegaro City in northern Philippines last week. The gaping hole was still there when Typhoon Toraji brought rains over the weekend and when Typhoon Usagi made landfall late on Thursday.
“It’s difficult because many houses were devastated by [Yinxing]. The carpenters themselves are still fixing their own homes. It’s hard to find workers,” Moraleda said.
Raffy Magno and his family lost nearly everything they owned when flood waters reached the second storey of their home in Bicol’s Naga City. Miraculously, their refrigerator sprang back to life once dried, but everything else, including appliances, furniture, clothing, and important documents, was destroyed.
“It was the shock of our lives. While we are so used to typhoons, even to floods, we never really expected the extent of the damage,” Magno said.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/15/2024 - 01:48
11/14/2024 - 21:53
Primary schools ordered to cease in-person classes as air pollution deteriorates to dangerous levels in Indian capital
India’s capital Delhi has ordered all primary schools to cease in-person classes until further notice due to worsening pollution in the sprawling megacity, while over 100 miles away the smog was so thick it obscured the Taj Mahal monument.
Delhi and the surrounding metropolitan area, home to more than 30 million people, consistently tops world rankings for air pollution in winter which is estimated to reduce life expectancy for the capital’s residents by up to seven years.
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11/14/2024 - 21:24
Baby spiders collected from egg sacs via Australian Reptile Park’s yearly callout are vital to creating lifesaving antivenom
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Hunting for potentially deadly, silky spider burrows in the back yard may not be on every Sydneysiders’ bucket list.
But that’s the request of the Australian Reptile Park (ARP) as breeding season begins for funnel-webs, encouraging residents to search shoes, piles of laundry, pools and garden debris for spiders and their egg sacs.
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11/14/2024 - 19:01
Future UN conferences should only be held in countries that show support for climate action, urge influential group
Over 1,700 coal, oil and gas lobbyists granted access to Cop29, says report
Future UN climate summits should be held only in countries that can show clear support for climate action and have stricter rules on fossil fuel lobbying, according to a group of influential climate policy experts.
The group includes former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, the former president of Ireland Mary Robinson, the former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and the prominent climate scientist Johan Rockström.
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11/14/2024 - 19:01
Fossil fuel-linked lobbyists outnumber delegations of almost every country at climate talks in Baku, analysis finds
Cop summits ‘no longer fit for purpose’, say leading climate policy experts
At least 1,773 coal, oil, and gas lobbyists have been granted access to the United Nations climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan, a new report has found, raising concerns about the planet-heating industry’s influence on the negotiations.
Those lobbyists outnumber the delegations of almost every country at the conference, the analysis from the Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition shows, with the only exceptions being this year’s host country, Azerbaijan, next year’s host Brazil, and Turkey.
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11/14/2024 - 13:02
Fifty years of change on iconic limestone pavements has revealed mixed fortunes for one of the most distinctive landscapes in the UK. The findings, which reveal large changes since the 1970s, are from the first national assessment in half a century of plants and vegetation in Britain's rare and iconic limestone pavements.
11/14/2024 - 12:58
Changing how land-use subsidies are implemented would give UK taxpayers better value for money and improve chances of meeting environmental targets such as Net Zero.
11/14/2024 - 12:57
Thanks to the consistent and focused efforts of researchers and conservationists to save, then reintroduce, mountain yellow-legged frogs to lakes in Yosemite National Park, their populations are again thriving.
11/14/2024 - 12:04
When infestations affect Notting Hill billionaires, it reminds you that it’s the little winged bastards who truly own this city
While reading of the case of the super-rich couple suing the previous owners of their west London mansion over its moth infestation, one particularly detail prompted warm memories. Iya Patarkatsishvili and Yevhen Hunyak had to tip away glasses of wine after discovering moths floating in them, Hunyak told the court. Ah yes, I thought, I too have found a moth taking a little dip in my tipple, though I’ll admit that I simply fished him out rather than waste a glass. Worse, mine only contained Tesco’s finest wine, as opposed to, you know, the world’s.
Moths, it seems, pay no attention to social class. Whether you are a lowly renter in a poky flat, such as I, or the daughter of a Georgian billionaire; if you live in London, they are coming for you. Moths, like mice in the tube, are simply a fact of living in this city, so commonplace as to be almost unremarkable. Even when waging daily battle against them, you sort of forget about them; their soft fluttering wings are a kind of inaudible mood music, until someone who has recently moved here says, “What’s with all the moths?”, and you remember the bastards that truly own this city.
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist and author
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11/14/2024 - 12:04
Police reveal ages and genders of the 216 people who died in Valencia, along with eight other victims elsewhere in Spain
Almost half of the 216 people known to have died in the catastrophic floods that hit the eastern Spanish region of Valencia at the end of October were 70 or above, according to a police analysis.
Figures from the data integration centre set up after the disaster show that 131 of the victims were male, 85 were female and 104 were aged over 70, including 15 aged over 90.
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