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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...

The weekly round-up on the climate crisis and data on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Fuel taxes, building incentives, energy efficiency regulations.We often hear experts, politicians, representatives of the industrial sector and citizens discussing which political and economic solutions are most advantageous and effective in combating global warming and in applying the so-called ecological transition. An action that has become almost an imperative since, almost 35 years ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its first report in which it found that human activities were causing a substantial increase in carbon dioxide concentrations ( CO₂) and other gases in the atmosphere, resulting in warming of the planet's temperatures.Since then there have been many United Nations Climate Conferences, governments and public awareness of the effects of the climate crisis and the need for decisive action has increased, and countries around...

A historic agreement and equally disappointing.COP28, the United Nations Climate Conference in Dubai, agrees with the climate movements:the climate crisis is the fossil fuel crisis.But the countries that signed the agreement do not follow through with this admission.A historic agreement, because for the first time fossil fuels are indicated as the main cause of the climate crisis;disappointing and devastating for the commitments made, or rather not made.With winners and losers. COP28:the transition begins, but with many concessions to the fossil fuel industry He wins the oil and gas industry who rejoices because there is no clear obligation to "abandon fossil fuels" and there are many loopholes in order to continue to exist;they win the United States and China, the world's two largest emitters that can continue to produce oil and build coal plants;wins Sultan Al Jaber, the president of COP28 and of the state oil company of the United Arab Emirates, which obtained an agreem...

“COP28:governments speak, the earth sinks."It is the slogan used by Extinction Rebellion on December 9, when activists staged a nonviolent protest action coordinated in five cities.Arrests immediately followed: 28, specifically, on charges of interruption of public service, private violence, unauthorized demonstration and spillage of dangerous substances.Five people were served with a 4-year expulsion order - which includes not being able to return to the municipality from which they are removed - and another three with a 48-hour urban warning - an administrative sanction with a removal order.The group's press office was also stopped and then accused. It is only the latest act of a progressive trend towards criminalization of dissent which we have been witnessing in recent years, and which is affecting climate activists in particular.Criminalization also happens when it comes to nonviolent protests, and it was the same in this case:yes, because what the newspapers defined as "envir...