#global-warming

#global-warming

In 1995, when the first conference of the parties (Cop) of the UN's climate change convention met in Berlin, the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration was approximately 360.67 parts per million. The then German chancellor, Helmut Kohl, gave a passionate speech about how greenhouse gases must be reduced to save the planet from overheating. There was a relatively unknown East German woman, the environment minister, Angela Merkel, chairing the conference. She was red hot at keeping order.

The International Energy Agency predicts global demand for oil and gas will rise well beyond 2030, marking a sharp departure from the agency's previous forecasts that demand for oil would peak by 2030. In a new report, the IEA says low gas prices, growing concerns over energy security and a global lack of ambitious climate policies will delay the peak of the fossil fuel era until at least 2050.

According to a White House statement to NPR, no high-level officials will attend COP30 breaking a long-standing tradition. During the previous Trump administration, U.S. delegates participated in the talks. Now, the administration has taken a stronger anti-climate stance, calling efforts to limit global warming a "hoax." "President Trump will not jeopardize our country's economic and national security to pursue vague climate goals that are killing other countries," says White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers.

Back in 2016 an article in the New York Times referred to Iceland as a mosquito-free island paradise. While nearby countries host mosquito populations during warmer times of the year, one of the going theories was that Iceland's propensity for harsh swings between thawing and freezing helped keep the bloodsuckers from getting a foothold. But that same Times piece warned that this skeeter-free status could be in peril.

Last month was the third-hottest September on record, scientists at the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) have revealed. The global average air temperature for the month was 16.11°C (60.99°F), which is 0.66°C (1.18°F) above the 1991-2020 average for September. Worryingly, the new figure is just below the September record-holder from two years ago - a global average air temperature of 16.38°C (61.48°F). Experts point to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions as the cause for last month's conditions, which also saw heavy rainfall and flooding in Europe.

Bees, like people, may cope with rising heat by retreating to cooler environments, such as shade or their nests, to avoid overheating, researchers found.

"Glaciers tend to suppress the volume of eruptions from the volcanoes beneath them," said University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student and lead author Pablo Moreno-Yaeger in a statement. "But as glaciers retreat due to climate change, our findings suggest these volcanoes go on to erupt more frequently and more explosively."

Extreme heat reduces dairy cows' ability to produce milk by 10%. Just one hour of wet-bulb temperature above 26C can reduce a cow's daily milk production by 0.5%. Exposure to high temperatures also has a prolonged effect, with milk production still lower than typical levels up to 10 days after the initial hot day.