A giant iceberg, more than 20 times the size of Manhattan, just split off from Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf. This dramatic breakup came after a significant crack formed on the shelf in November 2020, and it continued to grow.
The so-called “North Rift” crack is the third significant chasm to actively tear across the Brunt Ice Shelf in the last decade, and so scientists with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) were absolutely expecting the split. Read More
Women in rural areas suffer substantially greater economic losses from the impacts of climate breakdown than men in developing countries, research has shown, and the gap is likely to widen further.
According to data released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), households headed by women in rural areas lost about 8% more of their income to heat stress than male-headed households, and their reduction in income when floods struck was about 3% greater than the loss to men.
The difference, taken across the world’s low, and middle-income countries, adds up to about an extra $37bn lost to women from heat stress and $16bn from floods each year. Read More
The torrents of water coming from the sky are having ripple effects on the cliffs that hold up some of California’s most expensive real estate. In the first two months of the year, nearly 18 inches of rain has fallen in the southern California area, about 8 inches above normal to date, and more is on the way in the weeks ahead.
In wealthy coastal cities such as San Clemente and Dana Point, homeowners watch hour by hour as multi-million-dollar houses on cliffs dangle above landslides brought on by the storms.
The Los Angeles Times estimates that $150bn in California property might be affected by coastal flooding and erosion by 2100 – meaning a hefty price tag that the state will likely protect through stabilizing insurance premiums and paying for the cost of rebuilding following disasters. Read More
California was hit by a powerful blizzard at the weekend that affected the Sierra Nevada mountain range. A blizzard is a combination of dry, powdery snow alongside strong winds; it can also contain lightning. Under its most intense bursts, the blizzard that struck California produced up to 152mm (6in) of snow an hour and 190mph (306km/h) gusts.
Warnings for extreme avalanches were put in place across the greater Tahoe region until that afternoon, and people were advised to remain indoors. Read More
The plastic pollution crisis is so severe that it is now at par with the climate crisis. It shows no sign of slowing down, with plastic pollution expected to double by 2030. Over the next two decades, the amount of plastic in the ocean could reach 600 million tons, the same weight as 3 million blue whales.
But the plastics industry wants to assure the public that it has a solution. Recycling; which works for materials like paper, glass, and aluminium—is not making a meaningful dent in plastic pollution. Only 5 to 6% of U.S. plastics are actually recycled annually, and less than 10 per cent of plastic waste is recycled globally. The other 350 million tons of plastic waste generated each year ends up in landfills, incinerators, ecosystems, and bodies. One study estimates that each person ingests up to one credit card worth of plastic each week.
The plastics industry has known for decades that recycling doesn’t work. A new report from the Center for Climate Integrity details the deception, showing that the plastics industry has privately admitted in internal communication since the 1960s that the process is not effective.
