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Shell accused of strategy risking catastrophic climate change

Shell accused of strategy risking catastrophic climate change
Royal Dutch Shell has been accused of pursuing a strategy that would lead to potentially catastrophic climate change after an internal document acknowledged a global temperature rise of 4C, twice the level considered safe for the planet. A paper used for guiding future business planning at the Anglo-Dutch multinational assumes that carbon dioxide emissions will fail to limit temperature increases to 2C, the internationally agreed threshold to prevent widespread flooding, famine and desertification. Instead, the New Lens Scenarios document refers to a forecast by the independent International Energy Agency (IEA) that points to a temperature rise of up to 4C in the short term, rising later to 6C. The revelations come ahead of the annual general meeting of Shell shareholders in the Netherlands on Tuesday, where the group has accepted a shareholder resolution demanding more transparency about the group’s impact on climate change. Related:  climate change

The real story behind Shell's climate change rhetoric | Environment A man of Ben van Beurden’s power and reputation for blunt speaking is capable of silencing a ballroom packed with his boisterous peers. When the chief executive of Shell rose to address an industry gathering in a London hotel, a respectful hush descended. Van Beurden, 57, rose from a modest background in the Netherlands to the top of a cut-throat, politically fraught sector that rarely finds itself out of the public firing line. Warning the room that the industry had a credibility problem, that it was “aloof” when it came to issues like climate change, he said: “You cannot talk credibly about lowering emissions globally if, for example, you are slow to acknowledge climate change, if you undermine calls for an effective carbon price, and if you always descend into the ‘jobs versus environment’ argument in the public debate.” That speech was a far cry from the usual backslapping fare at the annual event and it put some noses out of joint.

Antarctic Ice Shelf Is A Few Years From Disintegration: NASA By Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The last intact section of one of Antarctica's mammoth ice shelves is weakening fast and will likely disintegrate completely in the next few years, contributing further to rising sea levels, according to a NASA study released on Thursday. The research focused on a remnant of the so-called Larsen B Ice Shelf, which has existed for at least 10,000 years but partially collapsed in 2002. What is left covers about 625 square miles (1,600 square km), about half the size of Rhode Island. Antarctica has dozens of ice shelves - massive, glacier-fed floating platforms of ice that hang over the sea at the edge of the continent's coast line. The largest is roughly the size of France. Larsen B is located in the Antarctic Peninsula, which extends toward the southern tip of South America and is one of two principal areas of the continent where scientists have documented the thinning of such ice formations. The U.N.

Climate change is far from the only cause of a rapid rise disasters | Doug McNeall | Environment A recent World Meteorological Organisation report described the frightening increase in weather and climate related disasters that occurred over the last four decades. Floods became more frequent and costly, hurricanes caused more damage. Drought killed hundreds of thousands and blighted the lives of millions, and heat waves emerged as a new threat. A casual reader of the resulting Guardian story might be forgiven for thinking that the rapid rise in disasters was due solely to climate change, but it had as much to do with a rapidly changing human world as it did changes in the weather. What’s more, ignoring the contribution of changes in human systems could hamper efforts to blunt the worst impacts of climate change. Climate change's future impact on us will depend on three things. Since 1970, the global population has nearly doubled. There is no one-to-one mapping between changes in the climate, and changes in climate impact.

Climate change: Big lifestyle changes are the only answer Image copyright PA Media The UK government must tell the public small, easy changes will not be enough to tackle climate change, warn experts. Researchers from Imperial College London say we must eat less meat and dairy, swap cars for bikes, take fewer flights, and ditch gas boilers at home. The report, seen by BBC Panorama, has been prepared for the Committee on Climate Change, which advises ministers how to cut the UK's carbon footprint. It says an upheaval in our lifestyles is the only way to meet targets. The government has passed a law obliging the country to cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. It is "going further and faster than any other developed nation to protect the planet for future generations", a government spokesperson told BBC Panorama. But the new report warns major shifts in policy across huge areas of government activity are needed to keep the public onside. "Every bit of policy now needs to be refreshed," he warned in an interview with BBC Panorama. Diet Home heating

New G7 Report Highlights Climate Change and Fragility as a Foreign Policy Priority At the close of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Lübeck today, ministers announced a stronger collective commitment to tackling climate-related risks in states experiencing situations of fragility. “Climate change is among the most serious challenges facing our world,” the ministers’ final communiqué declared. “It poses a threat to the environment, global security, and economic prosperity. It has the potential to reverse the progress that has been made in the past decades in tackling global poverty. Without adequate mitigation and adaptation efforts, the impacts of rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns heighten the risk of instability and conflict. The G7 are responsible for almost two thirds of global development funding In preparation, an independent consultancy working on behalf of the G7 looked into the relationship between climate change and fragile and conflict-affected states. Stronger Cooperation Needed 7 Compound Risks Photo Credit: Johnson Space Center/NASA.

Thawing permafrost turns Arctic from carbon sink into carbon emitter, study finds The Arctic is home to vast swathes of permafrost which lock in large amounts of carbon and stop it from being emitted into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming. However, new research shows that a warming climate means permafrost is thawing so quickly the region is now a source – as opposed to a sink – of emissions. In summer, vegetation absorbs carbon dioxide, but this is dwarfed by the amount released during winter. We’ll tell you what’s true. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras. Scientists estimate 1.7 million metric tons of carbon is released annually by permafrost between October through to April. This is almost twice as high as previous estimates and far exceeds the 1 million metric tonnes of carbon sucked up during the growing season. “We’ve known for a while that thawed soils release carbon dioxide during the summer, but we really didn’t realise how much carbon dioxide is being emitted during the snow-covered winter months.”

River flooding to affect 40M people annually by 2030 WRI flood map for Indonesia 20.7 million people are affected by river flooding each year, and the number is expected to more than double by 2030 as population growth, urban expansion, and climate change will increasingly put people at risk. This according to the World Resources Institute (WRI), who recently released the Aqueduct Global Flood Analyzer, an online tool to help public, private, and corporate entities understand flooding potential and develop risk reduction and mitigation strategies. 56% of people at risk of being impacted by river flooding live in just three countries: India, Bangladesh, and China. These combined with the next 12 largest impacted populations—in Vietnam, Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Brazil, Thailand, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, and Cambodia—account for 80% of the people at risk world-wide. According to WRI, an average of $96 billion in global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is exposed to river flooding each year.

Why you should go animal-free: 18 arguments for eating meat debunked | Environment Whether you are concerned about your health, the environment or animal welfare, scientific evidence is piling up that meat-free diets are best. Millions of people in wealthy nations are already cutting back on animal products. Of course livestock farmers and meat lovers are unsurprisingly fighting back and it can get confusing. Are avocados really worse than beef? What about bee-massacring almond production? The coronavirus pandemic has added another ingredient to that mix. Food is also a vital part of our culture, while the affordability of food is an issue of social justice. First, the over-consumption of meat is causing an epidemic of disease, with about $285bn spent every year around the world treating illness caused by eating red meat alone. So what about all those arguments in favour of meat-eating and against vegan diets? Meaty mattersClaim: Grass-fed beef is low carbon This is true only when compared to intensively-reared beef linked to forest destruction. There’s more. It’s not.

Vanuatu's president blames climate change for extreme weather The president of Vanuatu says climate change is contributing to more extreme weather conditions and cyclone seasons, after cyclone Pam ripped through the island nation. The damage from the category five storm to the island nation has been extensive, and is still being assessed as aid workers scrambled to get to affected areas on Monday morning. The official death toll remains at six, with many more injured, and is expected to rise as communication begins to be restored. Vanuatu’s president, Baldwin Lonsdale, spoke at a United Nations world conference in Sendai, Japan, on Monday, and said the storm was a major setback for the people, virtually wiping out Vanuatu’s development. “This is a very devastating cyclone … I term it a monster that has hit Vanuatu,” he said. “It is a setback for the government and for the people of Vanuatu … All the development that has taken place has been wiped out.” He said the cyclone seasons that the nation had experienced were directly linked to climate change.

The rich are killing the planet | Chartable Hi, this is Simon, I am a software engineer at Datawrapper. For this week’s edition of the weekly chart, I took a look at carbon dioxide emissions around the world. The climate crisis is driven by consumption. The more we spend, the more we contribute to global warming. But the truth is much more inconvenient. Different ways to look at the emission curve Two weeks ago, my colleague Gregor made a series of charts that visualize the world’s ever-increasing carbon dioxide emissions: The only chart we should be looking at. The following area chart is taken directly from Gregor’s post. As Gregor pointed out, this partly because western countries have “outsourced” their industrial production to China. This line chart shows emissions per person, while Gregor’s original area chart shows total emissions across regions. Chart choices: Log or linear scales? The scatter plot illustrates the world’s extreme inequality in terms of financial wealth and its correlation with CO2 emissions. 1.

Extreme Rain May Flood 54 Million People by 2030 River flooding could affect 54 million people worldwide in 2030 as more extreme rainfall and the rapid expansion of cities double exposure to inundation, according to a new analysis. Currently, 21 million people are affected annually by floods. The project by several research organizations in the Netherlands and the World Resources Institute developed the first public tool that shows the estimated flood risk in most countries and how it's expected to rise over the next 25 years. The project, called the Aqueduct Global Flood Analyzer, also features a global map showing the encroaching reach of rivers as temperatures rise and land is developed. The economic impacts are growing even faster than the increase in flood victims, researchers say. "We found that today, river flooding affects about $96 billion U.S. dollars in GDP each year on average," said Tianyi Luo, a research analyst with WRI. The tool is meant to be a resource for organizations that finance and plan adaptation efforts.

Rapidly Rising Sea Levels To Endanger NYC By 2050, So Say Goodbye To Queens - NYU Local Imagine for a moment that it’s 2050. Those of us who are currently students at NYU will be reaching the end of middle age by then. We will be wise, with satisfying careers behind us and a complete and utter lack of social security services ahead. The entirety of downtown Manhattan will have been re-purposed into NYU superblocks, and the portions of the city that remain will be….underwater? Well, not exactly. Now flash back to 2012. Over the next several decades, the new map shows us dramatically rising flood danger zones in areas of several boroughs. While the flood danger zones could creep up several feet in some areas in the next decades, is that really anything to worry about? So, given this information, what can we actually expect life to be like in 2050? [Image 1 via Lydia Epp Schmidt, image 2 via]

WA will need twice as many firefighters in 2030 to cope with climate change – report | Australia news Western Australia will need twice as many firefighters in 2030 to cope with increased bushfire risks caused by climate change, a report by the Climate Council has found. The Heat Is On report, released on Tuesday, said south-western WA, one of the most fire-prone areas in the world, was on track to have twice as many days of severe fire danger per year by 2090, “if global carbon emissions are not reduced”. “To stabilise the climate and eventually halt the rising trend of extreme heat, carbon emissions need to be cut rapidly and deeply,” the report said. “Most of the world’s known reserves of coal, oil and gas will need to be left in the ground, including over 90% of Australia’s coal reserves.” WA has had more than 1,000 reported bushfire incidents since 1 January. On Tuesday afternoon an out-of-control bushfire at Casuarina, 40km south of Perth, was declared a threat to lives and homes by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (Dfes). “That’s going to be a tough place to live.”

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