Climate change

As reported by Lusa, the environmental association released the results of the new report prepared within the scope of the European project “LIFE Together 1.5” in partnership with Zero. The study showed that adopting a new trajectory compatible with the Paris Agreement, which includes not allowing global warming to exceed 1.5ºC, could save the European Union approximately €1 billion by 2030, the equivalent of around four times the Portuguese GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The same study referred to “a dangerous gap between this initiative and the trajectory in which public policies are placing the EU”, stressing this should be at the center of the political debate in this year’s European elections. Zero and its partner organisations consider protecting “citizens and the planet from the devastating impacts of climate change is not just a moral duty, but a pragmatic choice”. The report quantified th...

Even as human-caused climate change threatens the environment, nature continues to inspire our technological advancement. “The solutions that are provided by nature have evolved for billions of years and tested repeatedly every day since the beginning of time,” said Evripidis Gkanias, a University of Edinburgh researcher. Gkanias has a special interest in how nature can educate artificial intelligence. “Human creativity might be fascinating, but it cannot reach nature’s robustness—and engineers know that,” he told AFP. From compasses mimicking insect eyes to forest fire-fighting robots that behave like vines, here’s a selection of this year’s nature-based technology. Insect compass Some insects—such as ants and bees—navigate visually based on the intensity and polarization of sunlight, thus using the sun’s position as a reference point. Researchers replicated their eye structure to construct a...

Governments must start to distinguish between the good subsidies they need to fight the climate crisis and the bad ones that are increasing greenhouse gas emissions, the world’s trade chief has said. Subsidies and other incentives to burn fossil fuels and encourage poor agricultural practices, amounting to about $1.7tn a year, are distorting world trade and hampering the fight against climate breakdown, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the director general of the World Trade Organization, told the Guardian. “Can you imagine if we said, we are going to repurpose those subsidies into other friendly subsidies, like for research and innovation?” she said. “I don’t mind that kind of subsidy.” She gave the example of clean cooking stoves in the developing world. Instead of subsidising fossil fuels, governments could subsidise clean stoves that use solar power or electricity instead of burning wood. “These kinds of sub...

In the ever-shifting landscape of Washington politics, a noteworthy narrative is unfolding—one that hinges on the interplay between climate change, national security, and fiscal responsibility. At the heart of this story is the Pentagon and its efforts to integrate climate risk management into its strategic framework. At Taxpayers for Common Sense, we’ve documented the growing costs of climate change to taxpayers and national security, so we know how important it is for the Pentagon to reckon with these risks. Unfortunately, Congress is still wedded to a more traditional approach—willful, if not so blissful, ignorance.  The debate centers around the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council’s proposal, a common sense rule change requiring major Pentagon suppliers to report their greenhouse gas emissions and set emissions reduction targets. It’s not just environmental bookkeeping; it’s about understanding...

Record-setting rainfall this past week sent Puget Sound’s rivers and streams over their banks, flooding homes in Snohomish County, closing roads and triggering mudslides. The atmospheric river was another blunt reminder of the dangers floodwaters pose to human-made infrastructure, including the culverts that guide waterways underneath the region’s roads. At least one creek’s surge outside Port Orchard overwhelmed a three-foot-wide metal culvert beneath Sunnyslope Road, washing out the road above it. Repairs will take months, closing the thoroughfare indefinitely. Culverts, the artificial pipes that squeeze once-meandering streams through a bottleneck of concrete or metal, exact an ecological toll on species like salmon. But they’re also an increasing liability in an era of climate change. Washington’s transportation network must become more resilient to such flooding in a time of diminished snowpack, heavy rainfall...