environment

The weekly round-up on the climate crisis and data on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. For the first time since 2007, Google said it is no longer a carbon neutral company.In the last one environmental report, the technology giant has marked a turnaround in its climate strategy, essentially for two reasons:the development of the artificial intelligence sector, highly energy intensive, That it cost to Google a 48% increase in emissions (+13% only between 2022 and 2023);the decision to abandon the practice of purchasing carbon credits to offset the emissions produced. To maintain the goal of climate neutrality by 2030, Google has decided to change its strategy and focus "on accelerating a series of solutions and partnerships for carbon emissions".This is an important turning point because it is the first time that a large company has renounced the compensation of emissions produced through the acquisition of carbon credits. Carbon offsetting is the di...

The weekly round-up on the climate crisis and data on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. A “silent killer”.This is how doctors defined heat waves because they claim many more victims than most people realize.And they have impacts on bodies and mental health. According to the United Nations, 2.4 billion people worldwide are under threat by “increasingly severe heat waves, caused largely by a fossil fuel-induced climate crisis.” A study recently published on Nature Medicine found that in 2023 – the warmest year on record although scientists they predict that 2024 will soon take its place – heat waves, worsened by carbon dioxide pollution, have killed almost 50 thousand people in Europe.And the death rate would have been 80% higher if people had not adapted to rising temperatures over the past two decades.This means that efforts to adapt societies to heat waves are effective, explains to Guardian Elisa Gallo, environmental epid...

Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier got its nickname the “Doomsday Glacier” for its potential to flood coastlines around the world if it collapsed. It is already contributing about 4% of annual sea-level rise as it loses ice, and one theory suggests the glacier could soon begin to collapse into the ocean like a row of dominoes. But is that kind of rapid collapse really as likely as feared? A new study of Thwaites Glacier’s susceptibility to what’s known as marine ice cliff instability offers some hope. But the findings don’t mean Thwaites is stable. Polar scientist Mathieu Morlighem, who led the study, explains the results. Why is the Thwaites Glacier so important? Thwaites Glacier drains a huge area of Antarctica’s ice sheet – about 74,000 square miles (192,000 square kilometers), an expanse bigger than Florida. If a snowflake falls within that drainage system, it will eventually end up as part of an iceberg in the ocean off Thwaites....

Human-wildlife overlap is projected to increase across more than half of all lands around the globe by 2070. The main driver of these changes is human population growth. This is the central finding of our newly published study in the journal Science Advances. Our research suggests that as human population increases, humans and animals will share increasingly crowded landscapes. For example, as more people move into forests and agricultural regions, human-wildlife overlap will increase sharply. It also will increase in urban areas as people move to cities in search of jobs and opportunities. Animals are also moving, mainly in response to climate change, which is shifting their ranges. Across most areas, species richness – the number of unique species present – will decrease as animals follow their preferred climates. But because human population growth is increasing, there still will be more human-wildlife overlap across most lands. We also found areas where human-...

With the Olympic torch extinguished in Paris, all eyes are turning to Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympics. The host city has promised that the next Summer Games will be “car-free.” For people who know Los Angeles, this seems overly optimistic. The car remains king in LA, despite growing public transit options. When LA hosted the Games in 1932, it had an extensive public transportation system, with buses and an extensive network of electric streetcars. Today, the trolleys are long gone; riders say city buses don’t come on schedule, and bus stops are dirty. What happened? This question fascinates me because I am a business professor who studies why society abandons and then sometimes returns to certain technologies, such as vinyl records, landline phones and metal coins. The demise of electric streetcars in Los Angeles and attempts to bring them back today vividly demonstrate the costs and challenges of such revivals. The 2028 Olympi...