Headlines from a Warming World
The Hottest Summer on Record, the Greta Impact and Octopuses
NASA Announces Summer 2023 Hottest on Record
NASA confirmed that this summer was the hottest summer since 1880. This continues a long-term trend of rising temperatures caused by human activities. Natural El Niño events in the Pacific pump extra warmth into the global atmosphere and often correlate with the warmest years on record.
Exceptional heat swept across much of the world, exacerbating deadly wildfires in Canada and Hawaii, and searing heatwaves in Europe, Japan, Latin America, and the US, while likely contributing to severe rainfall in Italy, Greece, and Central Europe.
Climate In the Courts
In one of the biggest climate legal cases to date, six young people aged 11 to 24 will go to the European Court of Human Rights to see if 32 European nations will reduce their emissions quickly. The group claims that the lack of adequate action is a breach of human rights. The claimants decided to take action after the wildfires that ravaged the Leiria region of Portugal in 2017, which killed 66 people and destroyed 20,000 hectares of forest.
In a similar case, Luisa Neubauer and other young environmental activists, backed by Fridays for Future, Greenpeace, and Germany’s Friends of the Earth (BUND), took the German government to court in 2021 and won. The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ruled on April 29, 2021, that the German government’s climate protection measures were insufficient to protect future generations and ordered the government to strengthen its Climate Protection Act, passed in 2019, and to ensure it met 2030 greenhouse gas reduction goals more immediately.
Climate lawsuits are becoming an increasingly popular and powerful tool for climate change activists. They are using legal action as a means of holding governments and corporations accountable for their role in contributing to climate change.
Climate In the Courts No. 2 Make Polluters Pay
California is leading the way!
The state of California has filed a lawsuit against several major oil companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp, Shell PLC, and Chevron Corp, alleging that they have downplayed the risks associated with fossil fuels and caused significant damage. The lawsuit claims that these companies have deceived the public by minimizing the risks posed by fossil fuels. The state of California seeks to hold these companies accountable for the alleged damages caused by their actions.
Let’s hope other governments follow suit.
Mediterranean: climate change made rainfall heavier but human factors turned extreme weather into a humanitarian disaster
According to a study by World Weather Attribution, global heating made the levels of rainfall in the Mediterranean region more likely. The study found that for the large region, including Greece and parts of Bulgaria and Türkiye, human-induced climate change made an event as extreme as the one observed up to 10 times more likely and up to 40% more intense. An event as extreme as the one observed over Libya has become up to 50 times more likely and up to 50% more intense compared to a 1.2 C cooler climate.
The Mediterranean region is considered a hotspot for climate-change-fueled hazards. In both Greece and Libya, the floods caused significant damage and loss of life. The flooding caused substantial damage and fatalities in both Greece and Libya. The failure of two dams built in the 1970s during the recent floods in Derna, Libya, was primarily caused by the lack of maintenance, which resulted in thousands of fatalities.
The amount of rain that fell in Libya was "far outside that of previously recorded events".
Increasing resilience to all types of extreme weather is crucial for saving lives in the future. It's essential to address both climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies to minimize the impact of extreme weather events.
One Person Can Change the World
Almost one-third of Swiss adults made greener choices because of climate activist Greta Thunberg. A survey of more than 1,200 adults in Switzerland found that most people felt positively towards Thunberg and her Fridays for Future movement, and they were the ones most influenced by her: almost half of them reported making changes, such as taking the bus and cycling. And a handful of people made changes because of the campaign, even though they were not keen on it.
Thunberg’s activism has inspired many young people around the world to take action on climate change. Regardless of one’s opinion on Thunberg’s activism, it is clear that she has made a significant impact on the global conversation around climate change. Her message has resonated with millions of people around the world, and her efforts have helped to raise awareness about the urgent need to address climate change.
And something different: The super-intelligent Octopus.
If you've been following me on Mastodon, you know my admiration for cephalopods (octopuses and squids).
These eight-limbed beings are highly intelligent creatures. They are capable of using tools, solving problems, and even playing when bored. They possess an impressive ability to adapt to new environments and learn from their experiences, showcasing their high level of cognitive flexibility. Additionally, their complex behaviours, such as camouflage and mimicry, demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of their surroundings and the ability to strategize in response to different situations. This remarkable intelligence is not only a result of genetic similarities with humans but also of the evolutionary pressures that have shaped their survival instincts over millions of years.
Now The US National Institutes of Health has proposed new guidelines for work with cephalopods because of growing evidence that the animals perceive pain and have advanced cognitive abilities.
The first step to help these remarkable creatures is to stop eating them. And then stop octopus farming. Factory farming would cause immense suffering to these fascinating creatures. The proposed first octopus farm would cram a MILLION of these smart and sensitive creatures into tiny tanks before painfully freezing them to death. We can stop it. Discuss it with others on your networks. Sign and share this petition.
