The climate crisis has disappeared from the news.Yet it continues to cause death and destruction

The weekly round-up on the climate crisis and data on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

Death and devastation.Heavy rains in southern Brazil they provoked massive floods and landslides in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil.More than half of the state's 497 cities were affected by the storms, with roads and bridges destroyed in several areas.The storms also caused landslides and the collapse of a hydroelectric dam near the town of Bento Gonçalves, killing 30 people.Authorities said a second dam in the area was also at risk of collapsing due to rising water levels.

“It is the fourth environmental disaster of this type in a year, after the floods of July, September and November 2023.Flooding across the state has surpassed that recorded during the historic deluge of 1941,” remember AP.The Guaiba River, which runs through the city of 1.4 million inhabitants, he reached the record level of 5.3 meters.

“Residents of several cities and towns have been left completely cut off from the world, without electricity or telephone access, while others have been forced to abandon their livestock,” reports Al Jazeera. 

In total, more than 80 people have died, over a hundred are missing and a million have no access to drinking water, reports The Guardian.The governor of the state, Eduardo Leite, spoke of the "worst climate disaster our state has ever faced".In southern Brazil was declared the “state of emergency”.

“The devastation of Rio Grande do Sul is the consequence of the failures of the global community to respond to climate change,” commented to the Washington Post President Lula who asked senior officials of Congress and the judiciary for a new approach to climate-induced disasters.“We must stop chasing disasters.We must start preparing for what can happen with disasters,” said Lula who instructed the Environment Minister, Marina Silva, to start drawing up a national plan to prevent “climate disasters” and instructed the lieutenant for the Marina Silva environment to begin formulating a strategy.In his interview with Washington Post, Lula also highlighted the “historic debt” of poorer countries, which “have historically emitted few greenhouse gases and are suffering from pollution from richer nations.”

The issue of climate justice has become increasingly disruptive in recent years with the most indebted and most vulnerable countries asking for new financing disbursement mechanisms, massive funds and a review of the international loan mechanism which end up crushing those who are forced further into debt to rebuild after climate disasters.

Floods in Kenya they killed more than 200 people and forced another 160 thousand to be displaced.And President Ruto warned that "we have not yet seen the end" of the rains which are expected to increase "in duration and intensity for the rest of this month and perhaps beyond".Ruto added that “the current unprecedented flood crisis is a direct consequence of our failure to protect the environment, which has led to the painful effects of climate change we are witnessing today.Our country is destined to remain in this cyclical crisis for a long time, unless and until we address the existential threat of climate change.”

East Asia instead he is in prey to a brutal heat wave.The thermometers reached 48°C.Around 48,000 state schools in the Philippines were closed last week, while at least 30 people died of heatstroke in Thailand.An article by Radio Free Asia he estimated that in Myanmar 40 people die every day due to the heat.In Cambodia, high temperatures contributed to a military base explosion that killed 20 soldiers last weekend, reports The Times. In Vietnam, drought is endangering the coffee harvest while the drying of the reservoir in Dong Nai province has caused the death of hundreds of thousands of fish.In India, the Uttarakhand health department, he issued a heat wave warning across the state.In the meantime, AP reports that Pakistan recorded its wettest April since 1961, with more than double the usual rainfall.

Unfortunately, observe journalist Ferdinando Cotugno in a post on Instagram, the climate emergency has disappeared from the news and from the hierarchy of our current concerns because extreme meteorological events are affecting areas far from our sight and attention.In Italy, at most we complained about the sudden cold in April after a week of summer heat and there was a tendency to belittle it the impact of the climate crisis, even if how he explained on TG Leonardo, climate scientist Antonello Pasini certainly has something to do with climate change.

Flood in Emilia-Romagna:the causes and interventions made so far, and what to do to mitigate the risk and address climate change

Yet, a year ago, just in these weeks, Italy was hit by floods in Romagna.“An event effectively removed from national memory.The problem continues to be only those who keep it, those who still have mud in the fields and have not yet received any support", writes Cotugno.“We have buried the dead without repairing the living, and we have not learned the most important part of that lesson (and those that came before, and after):this crisis happens even when we don't look at it, it affects us even when it doesn't affect us, even when the wrong number came out thousands of kilometers away from us."

“I don't think reducing the use of fossil fuels measures up to the nature of the crisis.And we have a crisis."Because the agreement on coal at the G7 in Turin is not enough

Energy ministers of the G7 countries They have reached last week in Turin an agreement for the closure of coal-fired power plants by 2035.It is the first time that the group of seven countries has made an explicit reference to phasing out coal.However, the G7 does not include the world's largest coal consumers, China and India, which last year they got the greater production capacity.The Italian Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, was beaming and commented:“This is the first time a path and target has been set for coal.”

The agreement scores undoubtedly a step forward towards decarbonisation;gives a roadmap for the adoption of policies, actions and national plans for the reduction of emissions (NDCs) between 9 and 12 months before COP30 which will be held at the end of 2025 in Brazil [for Italy the version is awaited final of his contribution through the National Integrated Plan for Energy and Climate (PNIEC) in June 2024];recognizes that the king technology in the transport sector is electric and the need to invest trillions of dollars to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

However, the final communiqué of the meeting still leaves some flexibility to countries that are heavily dependent on coal and a certain margin with respect to the 2035 deadline in coherence "with the limitation of the increase in global temperatures to within 1.5°C compared to levels pre-industrial".The clause - which allows states to extend the timescales for decarbonisation of their energy sectors in line with their paths towards a zero-emission economy - was inserted in particular "to grant margin of maneuver to Germany and Japan [countries for such as coal constitutes 27% and 32% of the energy mix respectively]”, as they report some sources to Reuters.

You don't even move away from the gas.The final text in fact grants the possibility of continuing to invest in gas despite the latest United Nations climate conference last year an agreement had been reached to abandon all fossil fuels by 2050.

We have given ourselves this flexibility so as not to be exposed in the event of a new unexpected conflict such as the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, noted Pichetto Fratin.This is an orientation which is not decisive and which actually continues to expose us to the consequences of possible wars and binds us to countries that are often autocratic.As we already observed following the start of the conflict in Ukraine, the main way to avoid the impacts of wars on our energy systems is precisely independence from gas and fossil fuels.But there is little to be surprised about.The umbrella of the word "decarbonisation" is so broad and ambiguous that it can be used indiscriminately by those who hope for an energy transition to renewables and so-called clean energy and by those who instead want to establish themselves as a Mediterranean gas hub.Precisely that region among the most vulnerable (hotspots) to climate change.

However, explains to the Financial Times, Luca Bergamaschi, director and co-founder of the Italian climate think tank ECCO, the "real litmus test for the credibility of the G7 is the planning of the transition from gas to renewable energy".This means reducing public support for new investments in gas “after two years of record industry profits and without any evidence that Europe needs new infrastructure for its energy security”.

Scientific experts and climate change think tanks have endorsed the move away from coal, but have criticized the timescales outlined in the Turin agreement.

“I don't think reducing the use of fossil fuels measures up to the nature of the crisis.And we have a crisis", he has declared Sir David King, former UK chief scientific advisor and founder of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group, an independent body of scientists.

“It is incredible that gas was not mentioned [in the G7 ministerial agreement],” he adds to Climate Home News Jane Ellis, climate policy manager at Climate Analytics.“This is absolutely the wrong direction to go, both economically and climate-wise.”

2023 was the warmest year on record both on land and at sea, and each of the last 11 months he recorded record temperatures.The global average for the twelve months to March was 1.58°C above the pre-industrial average for the period 1850-1900.This goes beyond the threshold established in the 2015 Paris Agreement, which provides for a long-term increase of no more than 1.5°C, measured over more than a decade, if we are to avoid potentially irreversible effects.

Rwanda and Peru propose a pact to reduce plastic production by 40% in 15 years

A pact to reduce plastic production by 40% between 2025 and 2040. It's the proposal presented by Rwanda and Peru to United Nations talks in Ottawa, Canada.“A global plastic reduction target is in line with our safe circular economy goals and the legally binding Paris Agreement to increase efforts to limit global temperature rise to 1.5%. °C compared to the pre-industrial era,” the proposal reads.

Global plastic production rose from 2 million tonnes in 1950 to 348 million tonnes in 2017, and the plastic production industry is expected to double its capacity by 2040.Every year around 11 million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans and by 2040 marine pollution from plastic waste could triple, reports The Guardian.

The plastics industry is now responsible for 5% of global carbon emissions but, according to one study of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, “by 2050, plastic production could constitute 21-31% of the global carbon emissions budget needed to limit global warming to 1.5 C”.

The proposal from Peru and Rwanda provides for mandatory reporting at the national level of the production, imports and exports of primary plastic polymers. In 2022 The 175 countries participating in the United Nations talks in Nairobi agreed that a treaty to reduce plastic waste must address the entire life cycle of plastic and set themselves the goal of reaching a legally binding international agreement by 2024.

Second Reuters, if the proposal is signed at the end of the year, could be “the most significant agreement on climate-changing emissions and environmental protection since the 2015 Paris Agreement”.

To achieve this, the industry lobby must be overcome, explains in an editorial on Guardian Steve Fletcher, Professor of Ocean Politics and Economics at the University of Portsmouth, UK.And the outcome of the fourth of the five negotiations was rather disappointing, according to many analysts and environmental activists.The talks they ended, in fact, without a final agreement on the proposal from Rwanda and Peru and without strong commitments on the reduction of plastic production and on financing mechanisms.

“We are now at the fourth of five scheduled plastics negotiations and the prospect of agreeing the final text of the treaty by the end of 2024 looks increasingly ambitious,” notes Fletcher.“The need to tackle plastic pollution head-on is urgent because it contributes to the three major global environmental crises of our time:the climate crisis, the loss of biodiversity and chronic pollution”.But, he adds, “any mandatory cut to primary polymer production would challenge very powerful forces.Countries whose economies depend on fossil fuels and petrochemical industries reject the idea of ​​production cuts and are lobbying hard against a binding production reduction target in the treaty, either by openly opposing or by prolonging negotiations.”

At the Ottawa talks they were present 196 lobbyists from the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries, 37% more than the 143 lobbyists registered at the third meeting, according to an analysis of the provisional list of participants released by the Center for International Environmental Law.

US Commission:“Private emails from big oil companies show they knew they were spreading misinformation about the climate crisis”

US Democrats they discovered that big oil companies have recognized their efforts to downplay the dangers of burning fossil fuels.

“For decades, the fossil fuel industry has known about the economic and climate damage of its products, but has deceived the American public to continue raking in more than $600 billion a year in subsidies, raking in profits from record".This is what emerges from a series of internal emails from major oil companies presented by US Democrats to the House Oversight Committee.THE documents They are part of an investigation launched in 2021 by the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, which then stalled when Republicans took control of the House in 2022.

“Evidence uncovered by Democrats on the Oversight Committee shows that big oil companies have waged campaigns to confuse and deceive the public,” he has declared Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland and member of the commission.“The joint report demonstrates that big oil companies continue to hide the facts about their business model and obscure the real dangers of fossil fuels.”

The documents, summarized in a Commission report, come from major oil companies Exxon, Shell, BP and Chevron, as well as the lobbying organizations American Petroleum Institute (API) and the US Chamber of Commerce.They date back to November 30, 2015, a few weeks earlier of the signing of the Paris climate agreement.

The new revelations are based on the 2015 report by Inside Climate News he was born in Los Angeles Times, who found that Exxon had been aware of the dangers of the climate crisis for decades but hid them from the public.At the time, Exxon publicly rejected the journalists' findings, calling them "inaccurate and deliberately misleading."Under questioning by the House Oversight Committee in 2021, Exxon CEO Darren Woods he had declared that he “did not agree that there was an inconsistency” between what Exxon was telling the public and what Exxon scientists felt privately.

But, reading internal communications, Exxon was well aware that it was running a double track of communication."It is true that Inside Climate News originally accused us of working against science, but ultimately changed his accusation to 'working against policies to stop climate change,'" reads one emails from 2016 by Alan Jeffers, then spokesman for Exxon.“I'm fine with it either way, since they were both true at one time or another.”

In recent years, big oil companies have largely stopped explicitly denying that climate change is real and human-caused, moving instead to a more sophisticated strategy of “deception, misinformation and ambiguity,” the report reads.As he had discoveredinvestigation by Sharon Kelly on Guardian, in the 1990s the oil company Mobil he had paid academic researchers, university departments and pressure groups to look after their own interests, to pollute the public debate on environmental safety issues and influence political decisions on energy and environmental issues.

How the United States is preparing to deal with heat waves

To face the scorching heat of the summer the United States they thought to a new federal tool that could help people predict potentially dangerous heat up to a week in advance and implement strategies to mitigate it. It's called HeatRisk and is part of a series of strategies governments and scientists are working on to address the climate change-fueled heat crisis affecting the world.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), there were nearly 120,000 emergency room visits for heat-related illnesses last year in the United States.Over 90% of these visits occurred between May and September, during the summer more calda never registered in the country.It is difficult to accurately quantify the number of people who die due to heat because this factor it is not often reported on death certificates, but the Environmental Protection Agency estimates there are more than 1,300 heat-related deaths each year, and that's just in the United States.

HeatRisk it is an interactive dashboard which will allow citizens to enter their zip code to find out a week in advance about possible heat threats for the following week, indicated in different colors depending on the level of risk.

At the lowest level, green areas pose little to no risk, while magenta marks the highest threat, indicating "a rare level of heat" that could last for days.With each color code, the index offers advice for cities and individuals to respond to the heat, such as canceling outdoor activities or reducing time spent in the sun, with additional recommendations for those most at risk, including pregnant women, children with asthma and those with underlying heart conditions.

The tool uses historical context to determine unusual heat levels in the United States.Its predictions take into account temperature and humidity, which can exacerbate heat stress reducing a person's capabilities to cool down by sweating.In 2013, a prototype of HeatRisk has been tested by California schools and is still in use today.

In a separate project, NOAA and the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development they are collaborating with CAPA Strategies, a Portland, Oregon-based company, to map the country's "heat islands," or urban areas that experience higher temperatures than surrounding communities.Several factors they feed this phenomenon, including the heat-absorbing materials with which cities are built and the high use of machinery.

On April 16, NOAA he announced the 14 U.S. cities that will be mapped for the initiative's eighth year, including Charlotte, North Carolina, and Pierce County, Washington, as well as four international projects in Mexico, Bangladesh, Kenya and Brazil.In each community, citizens will help collect data by using heat sensors on their cars to record the temperature, humidity, time and location of volunteers every second, NOAA reported.

Scientists are also increasing their efforts to investigate the impacts of heat on public health, with a particular focus on communities of color, which face higher risks of heat-related mortality and illnesses.

In a series of investigations published in September, the Washington Post analyzed the multiple impacts of heat on the human body.According to the articles of Washington Post, By 2050, five billion people will be exposed to at least one month of dangerous extreme heat when outdoors in the sun.The worst impacts are likely to be seen in countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, especially in those areas that do not have consistent access to medical care and heat-resistant infrastructure, such as air conditioning and cooling centers.

Across the United States, low-income neighborhoods are facing similar issues of heat inequality.Several towns are working to address this justice problem by planting more trees to create shaded areas, but the critical issues there are still many.And some trees cannot survive the scorching temperatures brought by climate change, reporta Grist. 

“We are opening more areas with services for homeless people, more cooling centers open more time during the day,” he has declared David Hondula, head of the urban heat office in Phoenix, one of the cities where the highest temperatures are recorded in summer.“For cities in the Southwest, the heat is not episodic,” explains Hondula.“It's not like a hurricane that comes in, does massive structural damage, and goes away in a day or two.Heat is a chronic danger.It lasts all summer and beyond.”

Preview image:Al Jazeera video frame via YouTube