data_id
int64 1
1.12M
| id
stringlengths 32
138
| date
timestamp[s] | source
stringlengths 2
24
| title
stringlengths 12
203
| content
stringlengths 32
65.4k
⌀ | author
stringlengths 2
242
⌀ | url
stringlengths 27
244
| published
stringlengths 14
32
| published_utc
int64 1.55B
1.58B
| collection_utc
int64 1.57B
1.58B
| category_level_1
stringclasses 17
values | category_level_2
stringlengths 3
42
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
74,876 | breitbart--2019-10-31--Academics Demand Sabbaticals to Save World from Climate Change | 2019-10-31T00:00:00 | breitbart | Academics Demand Sabbaticals to Save World from Climate Change | More than 1000 British professors have signed a letter requesting more time off from teaching so they can tackle climate change and “save all life on our planet.” “Humanity stands at the brink of a precipice. If we do not urgently address climate breakdown and the ecological crisis, the very future of life on earth is in question,” begins the open letter published this week by the Times Higher Education magazine and addressed to vice-chancellors, Universities UK and UK Research and Innovation. Some of the signers hail from the nation’s leading institutions, including Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and Bristol universities, as well as the London School of Economics and Imperial College London. The academics note that they are particularly well suited to the task of saving the world from global warming, given their expertise and prestige among the common people. “Universities are the bastions of wisdom and knowledge that are urgently needed to combat the climate crisis,” they insist. “Now is the time to increase our efforts.” Occasionally straying into hyperbole and remarkably unscientific language, the letter asserts that “the crisis is at our doorstep” and that humanity now faces “an even greater challenge” than going to the moon in the 1960s. “We ask you to support scientists, academics and students to help address the climate emergency through a series of new programmes, fellowships, sabbaticals and voluntary placements to help the critical efforts needed to save all life on our planet,” the letter pleads. To back up their request, the academics assert that the “impacts of climate change are being felt more rapidly than predicted, with Himalayan glaciers melting twice as fast as expected and the Arctic warming to a full 4°C above average.” Moreover, thawing permafrost soil “is releasing unprecedented amounts of methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,” they insist, and “2018 was the world’s fourth hottest year on record.” Not only that, “climate crisis-related disasters are happening at a rate of one a week,” they assert, and “the risk we face is that impacts may soon run away from us with changes too swift and unpredictable to mitigate.” Earlier this month, another group of academics published an essay urging institutions of higher learning to encourage climate scientists to cry in order to relieve some of the stress associated with climate trauma. “Academic institutes must allow environmental scientists to grieve well and thus emerge stronger from traumatic experiences to discover new insights about our rapidly changing world,” wrote a team of British researchers in the journal Science. “When you spend your life studying places like the Great Barrier Reef or the Arctic ice caps, and then watch them bleach into rubble fields or melt into the sea, it hits you really hard,” they stated. In requesting space for climate scientists, the authors compare them to those who work in disaster relief and the military. “In these fields, well defined organizational structures and active strategies exist for employees to anticipate and manage their emotional distress,” they declare. As Breitbart News reported last month, a growing number of children in the UK are being treated for an overwhelming terror of “environmental doom” as climate alarmists spread fears of an impending climate disaster. “Protests by groups such as Extinction Rebellion, the recent fires in the Amazon and apocalyptic warnings by the teenage activist Greta Thunberg have prompted a ‘tsunami’ of young people seeking help,” the Telegraph’s science correspondent reported. “A lot of parents are coming into therapy asking for help with the children and it has escalated a lot this summer,” said psychotherapist Caroline Hickman of the Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA), referring to the newly coined psychological phenomenon of “eco-anxiety.” | Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D. | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/O6zP7lLgTd4/ | Thu, 31 Oct 2019 08:06:23 +0000 | 1,572,523,583 | 1,572,535,617 | environment | climate change |
83,808 | cbsnews--2019-05-20--Michael Bennet introduces climate change plan | 2019-05-20T00:00:00 | cbsnews | Michael Bennet introduces climate change plan | Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet unveiled the first policy of his presidential campaign Monday, a plan to address climate change. He promised that not only would his plan fight the effects of global warming, but it would also boost the economy. His plan was announced just after a weekend spent campaigning in Iowa, touring farms and areas affected by extreme flooding that some have blamed on climate change. "We need bold action and enduring solutions," Bennet said in a press release. "Our plan will drive economic growth for the 21st century and create millions of high-paying jobs." The plan is broken into five "principles" which contain plans to fight climate change through a mix of individual and corporate incentives, government reforms, and executive actions. His proposal includes an implementation timeline, too, that would begin on his first day in office as president. Last October, a report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted that the world has twelve years to reverse the effects of climate change. Working off that timeline, Bennet proposed multiple policies that would take effect on or by 2030, including a "Climate Challenge" to states to "compete for federal infrastructure funding" by addressing climate threats and reducing emissions. The senator also plans to commit to conserve 30 percent of American's lands and seas by 2030. Bennet would also require power providers to provide zero-emission energy plans to businesses and households. His so-called "Climate X Option" would, Bennet believes, empower Americans to more easily adopt clean energy practices. If elected, he also says he'd call a global climate summit of world leaders within the first 100 days of his presidency. And he's proposing the creation of a "Climate Bank," a trust that would hold $10 trillion to be used by the private sector for "innovation and infrastructure that creates new markets for American businesses not just at home, but also around the world." Bennet said that to institute his policies, he will work with Congress. However, if Congress cannot come together, he would use executive actions to authorize the Clean Air Act and other climate statutes. "This crisis is too important for us to wait any longer," he said. Other 2020 Democratic candidates have introduced policies after spending time in Iowa. An aide to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders previously told CBS News that his agriculture policy came out of discussions with Iowans. Earlier this month, former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke amended his climate change policy after meeting with people impacted by historic flooding and holding climate change roundtables in Iowa, according to a campaign aide. On a call with reporters, Bennet said that flooding in rural Iowa has waterlogged land, making it difficult for farmers to preserve topsoil. Several Democratic strategists and officials have told CBS News that policy proposals following campaign swings are key ways for candidates to show voters they're listening to concerns. | null | http://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-bennet-introduces-climate-change-plan-the-first-policy-rollout-of-his-campaign/ | 2019-05-20 23:52:27+00:00 | 1,558,410,747 | 1,567,540,411 | environment | climate change |
86,357 | cbsnews--2019-11-05--Can farmers sow their way out of climate change? | 2019-11-05T00:00:00 | cbsnews | Can farmers sow their way out of climate change? | Nine percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are caused by agriculture. Those emissions are changing the earth's climate and amplifying savage weather conditions that have been taking a heavy toll on the nation's farmers over the past few years. They've been battling historically wet conditions over the past year, including massive floods last spring. As a result, over 19 million acres of land were left unplanted in the U.S. in 2019. And that cost farmers an estimated $7 billion dollars in lost revenue, says Chad Hart, an Associate Professor of Economics at Iowa State University. Recently, climate activists have begun a campaign to urge farmers to help reverse the warming trend. They say that farmers and ranchers have the capacity cut emissions produced by agricultural activity dramatically and could even offset them to make U.S. agriculture carbon neutral. "I have a lot of confidence that if we invite farmers into this problem...they're going to innovate around it and figure it out," Matt Russell, a farmer and Executive Director of Iowa Interfaith Power & Light, a group that advocates for faith-based solutions to climate change. Russell is quick to acknowledge that cost is a factor for farmers. "Part of that invitation is when you do this you get rewarded, like by being paid," he said. The principle is simple, according to Russell: incentivize farmers and ranchers to reduce their carbon emission production and they'll see improved water quality and better soil health while capturing more carbon from the atmosphere. In practice, though, it's still not an easy choice for farmers. Russell makes the case that more farmers need to embrace practices like extended crop rotation, conservation tillage, which means farmers would rarely or never till soil, and keeping the soil covered with winter and perennial crops. He also says other agricultural methods would also have to be adopted, including putting livestock back on the land, practicing more rotational grazing, and generating green energy on farms. Fighting global warming is a powerful incentive, but farmers are likely to need a financial boost, too, to make this a viable option for them. If farmers and ranchers fully embrace these practices and control emissions from nitrogen fertilizer application, American agriculture could become carbon neutral within 10 years, says Emily Heaton, an associate professor in Iowa State University's Agronomy Department. She concedes these changes would require big shifts for the nation's farmers. Soil is the largest terrestrial source of carbon and holds more of it than anything besides the oceans, according to the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. When farmers and ranchers grow crops and protect their soil, they can help take carbon out of the atmosphere through photosynthesis, a process known as carbon farming. "By changing how farmers grow the crops they currently grow, we can reduce the amount that agriculture contributes to climate change," Heaton said. That includes using some of that recently removed carbon energy instead of fossil fuel energy and making some changes to crops that are grown. Twenty million acres of cover crops — approximately five percent of U.S. cropland — can soak up enough carbon dioxide equivalent to offset emissions from 12.8 million passenger vehicles, according to the Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education program and the EPA. For many farmers in Iowa, commodity crops are soybeans or corn. The cover crops that Russell and Heaton talk about are those that have positive environmental impacts, such as cereal rye or oats. A big reason for farmers' reluctance to plant cover crops as part of their seasonal rotations is the cost, Russell said, even though they have benefit for farmers over time. The seed can cost about $30 per acre, and then it takes time and labor to plant it. If it's a crop like cereal rye, it won't die by the time farmers have to plant their commodity crops again. So, it'll cost the farmers again to kill the crop in the spring, since it's not being planted to be sold. Waiting for it to mature to harvest would mean they wouldn't be able to plant their commodity crops, which isn't an option. Ray Gaesser farms 5,400 acres of corn and soybeans in Corning, Iowa. For the past 10 years, he's been planting about half of those acres with cover crops in between growing seasons. He says the practice has made his soil healthier and increased his crop yield. Gaesser believes that more farmers are ready to be engaged in environmental practices to improve their carbon footprint, and more are doing things like planting cover crops. But, he says that many do not "because they can't see a return on that investment." "They need to be able to see that they can do these practices and still feed their family," Gaesser said. "That's the bottom line. It's about making a living." There are some federal programs, including the USDA's Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), that pay farmers for environmental and conservation services. However, the bulk of incentives, such as subsidies, crop insurance and emergency payments for lost crops, push farmers to grow as many commodity crops, like corn and soybeans, as possible, Russell says. "Right now, the economics are that if I want to do high level conservation on my farm, I am bearing a lot of the risk," he said. Shifting away from that incentive structure could have huge environmental impacts, said Heaton. She says land that only grows annual commodity crops leaves the soil bare for several months and causes it to absorb less carbon dioxide than it could. Planting cover crops and more perennial crops, which don't have to be replanted every year, can turn soil into a carbon sponge. "Right now, agriculture is a net emitter of greenhouse gases," Heaton said. "We will require a change in the kind of crops we grow if we really want to be carbon-negative." There are two main issues from getting more farmers involved in environmental practices, according to Heaton. There needs to be greater institutional infrastructure, like providing insurance for carbon farming crops, increasing cover crop seed availability and making sure more farmers understand how to do environmental practices. The other issue is removing economic barriers. Russell has worked on getting farmers involved in combating climate change for several years, but it was only after he started holding conversations with farmers in church basements last year, he says the idea began to take off and presidential candidates latched on. Nearly all of the Democratic presidential candidates have included farmers and ranchers as key players in their climate plans. Their proposals include increasing money for the CSP, expanding crop insurance programs, letting farmers participate in carbon markets, paying farmers directly for improving soil health and providing funding for farmers to improve carbon sequestration. The idea is likely to resonate in the Iowa Democratic caucuses, where climate change is one of the top issues. Seventy-one percent of registered Iowa Democratic voters said climate change was "very important" in the latest CBS News Battleground Tracker poll, second only to healthcare. Russell has worked with nearly every campaign on the issue. He has also hosted candidates on his farm including Senator Kamala Harris and former Representative Beto O'Rourke, who before he ended his presidential bid last week often made references to paying farmers to fight climate change on the trail. Joe Biden's climate plan strives to ensure the American "agricultural sector is the first in the world to achieve net-zero emissions." Elizabeth Warren says farmers need to be paid for proven practices to help "decarbonize the agricultural sector." Bernie Sanders says incentives need to be directed at "conservation not over-production." Pete Buttigieg says farmers can be "leaders...in the fight against climate change by paying them to capture carbon." | null | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/can-farmers-sow-their-way-out-of-climate-change/ | Tue, 05 Nov 2019 11:08:40 +0000 | 1,572,970,120 | 1,572,959,282 | environment | climate change |
112,092 | cnsnews--2019-04-23--Are We Really Destroying our Environment with Climate Change | 2019-04-23T00:00:00 | cnsnews | Are We Really Destroying our Environment with Climate Change? | Many people believe humans are making choices that will usher in climate doomsday. Politicians say we have less than two decades to save our planet. School children protest deterioration of our planet’s climate. Environmental lobbies warn of dire consequences if we keep using coal, oil, and natural gas. But are these claims true? How much does the consensus reflect reality? Most importantly, what can we do to help future generations enjoy a healthy environment? The clarion call to save the environment is a good one. We need to be aware of changes in our ecosystems, especially from global phenomena like climate change. If the world needs saving from doomsday, then it is imperative that we revamp our way of doing life. Our energy infrastructure, our choice of transportation, our way of using natural resources, and even our daily dietary habits need to undergo significant changes if those changes will really save our environment. But is there really an imminent threat to the planet? It’s true that we have damaged our environment in a variety of ways over the past two centuries. Yet economic progress has actually enabled many countries to tackle pollution and heal the environment. This has been documented in developed countries. It is explained by the “environmental Kuznet’s curve,” a bell-shaped curve that illustrates how pollution rises early in economic development, peaks, and then declines as the country becomes better equipped (economically and technologically) to curb it. Today, most people in developed countries enjoy clean air, clean water, and clean land. Developing countries, still in early stages of economic development, suffer from polluted air, water, and land. Yet the prospect of their rising out of poverty promises that they, too, have clean, healthful environments ahead of them. But while most pollution is local, climate change is global in cause and effect. It is the number one obsession of our media, which now ties every little weather phenomenon to man-made global warming. So is climate change a serious problem created by the industrial era? A few people deny that there has been any global warming or that it is caused by humans, but only a few. Call them deniers, if you must. Many think global temperature has risen drastically, even dangerously. They blame the warming on carbon dioxide emissions from burning coal and other fossil fuels. Call them alarmists. A third group of people are known as climate realists or skeptics. Unlike deniers, they don’t question the existence of warming but wonder about its magnitude. They’re also open to the possibility of natural causes for it. Contrary to claims that “97 percent of climate scientists” are in the alarmist camp, most actually fall into this third category. And the greater consensus among paleoclimatologists—who study climate over long periods of time—is that recent warming is not unique. In fact, paleoclimatology reveals that the world underwent similar warm periods during the 1st and 10th centuries A.D. These two periods are known as the Roman Warm Period and the Medieval Warm Period. If the current warming is similar to these periods, in which humanity thrived, why be alarmed? The answer lies in how the modern warm period is being sold to us. Alarmists conveniently ignore the previous two warm periods, avoid mentioning when the Modern Warm Period began, and exclusively focus on temperature changes since about 1850. As a result, a graph of global temperature appears steep and dangerous. There’s even a name for it: the hockey stick graph (long stable temperature followed by a sudden rise). But that was debunked. The previous two warm periods occurred without significant carbon dioxide emissions from human activities. This suggests that humans played no role in them. They also reveal that global temperature increased and then dropped without any intervention. One such severe drop was the famous Little Ice Age of the 17th century, which froze the River Thames. The 18th century brought a steep increase in global temperature, long before industrialization brought carbon dioxide emissions high enough to have a measurable effect on it. And global temperature has continued to rise. Hence we call the period from the 18th century to now the Modern Warm Period. So, yes there is warming! But when did it begin? Before we even began to emit huge quantities of carbon dioxide. Have the emissions from fossil fuels contributed to the rise in temperatures? Yes, probably. But how much? Not enough to be dangerous to human, animal, and plant life. Temperature measurements from the past two decades pose a serious problem to the claim that human carbon dioxide emissions contributed heavily to the Modern Warm Period. The previously steady warming seems to have stalled despite an exponential increase in carbon dioxide emissions. Satellite measurements of lower atmosphere temperature indicate that there has been no significant warming for the past 19 years. This absence of significant warming is evident from the dramatic divergence of computer climate model forecasts from real-world temperature data. This is acknowledged by staunch alarmists like Dr. Michael Mann and skeptics like Dr. John Christy. At the same time, while our carbon dioxide emissions have not contributed much warming, they have helped plant growth. This is documented scientifically and can be observed in the simple practice of greenhouse farming, in which farmers maintain high levels of carbon dioxide inside greenhouses to enhance plant growth. If climate is stable, why do we hear about polar bears dying off and walruses supposedly committing suicide because of global warming? Polar bear populations have actually grown in the past two decades. And there is no scientific evidence to show that Netflix’s infamous walrus “suicide” was due to climate change. Despite the coordinated call from celebrities, school children, politicians with vested interests, and even academicians, real-world temperatures have not shown any serious deviation from their two-centuries-long gradual warming phase. In fact, we might be headed into a period of cooling. Scientists studying the sun have forecasted that the next two solar cycles will be the coolest in recent history. They could even make global temperature plunge lower than the 17th century Little Ice Age freeze. Are we destroying our environment with carbon dioxide emissions? No. What will the future hold? Only time will tell, but we have no evidence to prove a warming apocalypse. Vijay Jayaraj (M.Sc., Environmental Science, University of East Anglia, England), Contributor for the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, lives in Chennai, India. | Vijay Jayaraj | https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/vijay-jayaraj/are-we-really-destroying-our-environment-climate-change | 2019-04-23 14:59:45+00:00 | 1,556,045,985 | 1,567,541,999 | environment | climate change |
162,186 | eveningstandard--2019-01-30--Greta Thunberg 5 things we can learn about climate change from a 16-year-old schoolgirl | 2019-01-30T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | Greta Thunberg: 5 things we can learn about climate change from a 16-year-old schoolgirl | Powerful world leaders who suited up and flocked to Davos to meet for the World Economic Forum were given a dressing-down by a 16-year-old pupil last week. Greta Thunberg, an environmental activist from Sweden, declared “our house is on fire” during an impassioned and sobering speech about climate change. And she has caused quite a stir around the world with her scathing attacks on the very people she was addressing. But who is this determined teenager, and why should we be listening to her? Greta Thunberg first made headlines in August 2018 when she started a school strike to picket outside the Swedish parliament (Rikstag) to raise awareness of global warming. In fact, Greta missed about three weeks of school, and did not return until after the Swedish general election on September 9. Her demands were simple – that politicians reduced carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. Since her first strike, she has become famous for her activism, and has even been invited to give her own TED talk. In December 2018, the schoolgirl addressed the COP24 United Nations climate change summit and offered scathing words to the leaders she was addressing – accusing them of leaving the burden of climate change with future generations. Although well-travelled, Greta refuses to fly, and travelled for 32 hours by train to get to Davos where she made her now viral speech to world leaders. During her Davos speech, Greta said: “Yes, we are failing, but there is still time to turn everything around. We can still fix this. "We still have everything in our own hands. But unless we recognise the overall failures of our current systems, we most probably don’t stand a chance.” Greta has always been open about her Asperger’s syndrome, which she believes helps her commit to her cause and see things more simply. Speaking to The New Yorker, Greta said: “I see the world a bit different, from another perspective. “I have a special interest. It’s very common that people on the autism spectrum have a special interest.” Her outlook on climate change became clear in her speech at Davos, when she said: “You say nothing in life is black or white. But that is a lie. A very dangerous lie. Either we prevent 1.5C of warming or we don’t.” Speaking to the BBC during her first school strike in September, Greta said she hoped her efforts would attract media attention. The activist added she wanted people to “open their eyes, see the crisis and treat it like a crisis, and do something about it.” When Greta first went on strike outside the Swedish parliament, she was moved on by police because protests on the premises are not allowed. She later found another spot nearby to continue her protest but received further complaints. Speaking to the BBC, she said she would probably be called to a hearing about her protesting, but added “I’m not bothered about it.” During her speech to world leaders at the UN summit in December, she also accused them of “behaving like children.” Words spoken by the climate activist herself at the UN summit in December prove that every little change one person makes will help protect our environment. Since her strike action gained global attention, Greta has inspired students around the world to follow suit, in the School Strike 4 Climate Action. In November, thousands of students halfway around the world in Australia took the day off school to attend protests calling on the government to take action on climate change. | Jessica Taylor | https://www.standard.co.uk/futurelondon/cleanair/greta-thunberg-davos-air-pollution-climate-change-a4053121.html | 2019-01-30 14:13:00+00:00 | 1,548,875,580 | 1,567,550,219 | environment | climate change |
172,278 | eveningstandard--2019-04-18--Climate Change The Facts The shocking reality of climate change makes for grim but essential viewi | 2019-04-18T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | Climate Change, The Facts: The shocking reality of climate change makes for grim but essential viewing | Sir David Attenborough - who will be 93 next month - is the presenter we trust more than any other. He has long lamented the impact of human life on the natural world, including the threat posed by rising populations, warning us that we are imperilling the planet’s future. He used to be quite sceptical about climate change, though, he has admitted, he changed his mind when he heard a lecture on the subject in 2004. Since then he has made many campaigning programmes including The Truth about Climate Change in 2006 and How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth? in 2009, as well as raising environmental issues in his wildlife documentaries. Yet the environmental activist George Monbiot has still charged him with dangerously playing down the disaster we face. In an article last year headlined “Attenborough has betrayed the living world he loves”, Monbiot argued that wildlife film-making of the kind he champions presents us with an increasingly false picture of the world. “It has created an impression of security and abundance even in places afflicted by ecological collapse. The cameras reassure us that there are vast tracts of wilderness in which wildlife continues to thrive. They cultivate complacency, not action.” Climate Change — The Facts could have been devised to answer that charge. It is a grim account of just how severe a threat global warming now poses, composed mainly of footage of recent weather catastrophes intercut with analysis from expert talking heads. Attenborough narrates, mainly in voiceover but also speaking to camera, from a single site, an English field on a windy spring day. Be warned, this is no ooh-aah wildlife jolly then. It is a thoroughly lowering and unsparing exposition of the plight we now find ourselves in. “What happens now and in these next few years will profoundly affect the next few thousand years,” Attenborough says with that ever precise diction. “What can be done to avert disaster and ensure the survival of our civilisations — and the natural world upon which we depend?” he asks. The contention here is that not only can the facts about climate change no longer be doubted but that it is now happening so fast that “for the first time in history, people can actually see climate change” in the extreme weather events we’ve been experiencing. We are shown floods and raging wildfires, forests being logged and glaciers melting, and in one particularly upsetting sequence, thousands of flying foxes killed by the record-breaking heatwaves in Australia last year. The difficulty this programme confronts is not in making its case that temperatures are already rising catastrophically but in avoiding creating such despair that we think there is nothing we can do and turn away. So Attenborough repeatedly assures us that we are not powerless and “what happens next is up to us all”. People fend off urgency about climate change by relegating the worry to the supposedly unknown, still apparently distant future, as they do in contemplating their own deaths perhaps. The programme closes with a section introducing the extraordinary 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg, who has made such an impact in less than a year. “I thought that nothing was happening and no one was doing anything, so then I have to do something,” she says. “When I grow older I want to be able to look back and say I did what I could back then.” She says we still have time too, “but that short period of time isn’t going to last for long”. Watching Climate Change - The Facts may just be the best use you can make of your time this evening. | David Sexton | https://www.standard.co.uk/stayingin/tvfilm/climate-change-the-facts-the-shocking-reality-of-climate-change-makes-for-grim-but-essential-viewing-a4121771.html | 2019-04-18 15:24:58+00:00 | 1,555,615,498 | 1,567,542,529 | environment | climate change |
182,554 | eveningstandard--2019-08-21--Climate change fears gripping Britain Poll reveals 85 are worried about warming - the highest figu | 2019-08-21T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | Climate change fears gripping Britain: Poll reveals 85% are worried about warming - the highest figure on record | Fears in Britain about climate change have hit a record high, an exclusive poll for the Evening Standard reveals today. The Ipsos MORI survey showed 85 per cent of adults are now concerned about global warming, the highest figure since the pollster started asking the question in 2005. It comes at a time when concern for the natural world is being propelled by freakish weather and after the hottest July ever around the globe. In Britain, a record temperature of 38.7C was set on July 25 at Cambridge Botanic Gardens . In contrast, the downpours that followed are set to make August the wettest ever , according to the Met Office. The proportion of people who are “very concerned” about climate change has jumped to a record 52 per cent, up from just 18 per cent five years ago. More than half of women, 55 per cent, now express such deep alarm, compared with 48 per cent of men. Nearly three-quarters of Britons believe the country is already feeling the effects of climate change — up from 61 per cent in 2017, 55 per cent in 2014 and 41 per cent in 2010. When asked about the recent hot weather, just over a quarter thought it was mainly caused by climate change due to human activity, 15 per cent said it was mainly down to natural weather processes, and 57 per cent believed that both factors were to blame. One year ago Swedish activist Greta Thunberg started the School Strike for Climate movement, which called on children to walk out of classes in protest at government inaction on the issue. Last week the 16-year-old set off on a zero-carbon yacht from Plymouth to New York, where she will address world leaders at a climate change summit. In London, there have been a series of demonstrations by environmental group Extinction Rebellion, amid rising public demand for action. Britain is already committed under the 2008 Climate Change Act to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. Just weeks before she quit as prime minister, Theresa May unveiled plans to cut these climate-damaging emissions to “net zero” within the same timescale. However, 55 per cent of Britons believe the Government should aim to bring greenhouse gas emissions to net zero more quickly, a belief held by 63 per cent of adults aged 18-34, as well as 70 per cent of Labour supporters, and 69 per cent of Liberal Democrat backers. Antonia Dickman, head of environment research at Ipsos MORI, said: “In 2005-6 we saw a peak in concern about the environment, reflecting the prominence of media reporting around, for example, Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, the Kyoto Protocol coming into effect and the Stern Report. “But climate fatigue appeared to set in, particularly in the aftermath of the economic crash. “Recently, though, concern has been creeping up again, after events such as Extinction Rebellion, the school strikes for climate, and climate emergencies being declared by local authorities.” Ipsos MORI interviewed 1,007 adults by phone between July 26 and 30. Data are weighted. | NIcholas Cecil | https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/climate-change-fears-gripping-britain-poll-reveals-85-are-worried-about-warming-the-highest-figure-a4218251.html | 2019-08-21 09:48:00+00:00 | 1,566,395,280 | 1,567,533,825 | environment | climate change |
182,681 | eveningstandard--2019-08-22--Climate change has to be an issue we can grasp not the stuff of horror films | 2019-08-22T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | Climate change has to be an issue we can grasp, not the stuff of horror films | Unveiling a plaque to the demise of the Okjokull glacier, the first to expire in 200 years, Iceland’s prime minister Katrin Jakobsdóttir declared: “We know what’s happening, and what needs to be done. Help us keep the ice in Iceland.” By the day now, in this hottest and rainiest of summers, we receive news of close and distant ecological and climate calamity; weird weather, flooded farmlands, creaking dams, arctic tundra fires, melting icecaps, a burning Amazon and trillions of tonnes of polar ice released into warming oceans. This month the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported on land management and climate change, and suggested that 27 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions come from farming and food production. According to some reports, the ice in Greenland is melting in a manner not expected for 70 years. Others suggest the disappearance of great inland glaciers, like the “Ok” in Iceland, are more serious than the crisis of the ocean ice. Arctic ice is going but so is Antarctic ice — concern is rising about the West (Antarctic) Shelf, the largest of all in the region. Climate change and global warming cannot be kept off the agenda but they are yet to take centre stage in planning and policy and in serious media discussion. Each major development reported by the media is followed by silence. One day we were regaled by all channels that the IPCC land use and food report meant we should all have to become vegan — though it said nothing of the sort. And the following day, nothing. There seems to be an outbreak of Chicken Licken syndrome — in the folk tale, Licken covered his bets by yelling: “The sky’s falling in,” after being hit on the head by an acorn. Today we would call it “cognitive dissonance” — adopting inappropriate and outmoded reactions to new threats. That is where we are on climate change — largely, it’s discussions about discussions. The subject is on the agenda in major forums, from the upcoming G7 in Biarritz to a special summit in Rio on the 2015 Paris Agreement. It features on the G20 programme, and later this year yet another UN panel, the Global Risk and Governance Commission, is set to be launched in South Asia. The UK Government’s quite sensible 25-Year Environment Plan, launched by Theresa May in the dying days of her premiership, proposes yet another national panel of oversight for climate change and its consequences. The debate is bedevilled by complexity, time, an absence of practicality in implementation and communication. The denial lobby persists that nothing permanent is happening — as many believed the Earth to be flat, long after Columbus, Magellan and Drake. “The whole subject is complex, and very diverse,” a former Government adviser on water stress explains. “We were projecting much of this 30 years ago but turning it into practical policy is difficult. There are so many vested interests.” Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, adds: “What was the distant future is now the present.” Ice melts and ocean rises are accelerating; they throw into doubt the aim of the Paris Agreement that average temperature rises can be held to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for this century. The process is not linear but one of sudden shocks. Across central England, a month’s rainfall crashed down in a few hours this summer. Northern Europe was hit by a month’s drought, with temperatures above 40°C, driving starving mice to destroy dykes in Holland. Climate change is toxic for most forms of democratic politics. Counter-measures, from resilience practices and insurance requirements to emission restrictions on cars and domestic heating, and even the need for compulsory movement orders from areas that are prone to flooding, have become vote losers. It’s particularly bad news in Australia, where the terms of the last six prime ministers have been damaged by climate change, carbon taxes and the wiles of the coal lobby. Scott Morrison, the incumbent, is no exception. His promotion of the Carmichael mine in Queensland, to fuel a coal-fired electricity generation plant in India, may have helped win him the last election but it has got him into hot water with allies across the Pacific region. Ironically, the electricity from the Adani power station is destined for Bangladesh, one of the most vulnerable to ocean rises driven by carbon emissions. Bangladesh is now working with Dutch consultants on a flood protection system for 2100. It is based on the Delta Works Scheme, underscoring Dutch expertise in the analysis, engineering and mitigation of coastal erosion and flood plain management. The scheme was drawn up after the Dutch storms of 1953, which breached the major sea dykes, flooding a 10th of all farmland and drowning around 2,000 people. “The Dutch have had to adapt,” says Jaap Flikweert, leading flood risk adviser in the UK for Royal HaskoningDHV, currently banking millions of tonnes of sand to protect the Bacton Gas Terminal and neighbouring communities in Norfolk. “Decision-making has to be inclusive, involving adaptation, mitigation and preparedness to move if need be — and not be based on compensation. Legally it’s not possible now but we need to consider moving in this direction.” Flikweert highlights the inclusive community approach to climate change and flood risk in Newcastle, Norwich and Bristol. “Resilience is inverse to risk,” he warns. “You have to make things work in practice — it can’t all be waffle.” People have to believe they can do something. Robert Hall, of the consultancy Resilience First, believes small businesses, above all, need to grasp the problem. “It’s an extra cost against something they can’t see, but it should be worked through insurance. Multinationals do seem to understand, and are doing a lot of work on climate change resilience.” The biggest gap is in the media agenda, perhaps. We have to put the issues in graphic and graspable terms — not the stuff of Hammer Horror movies. Being Dutch and born in a country that’s 27 per cent below sea level, Flikweert states the basics. “If the Dutch don’t sort it out, they know they’ll have to move to Germany in a couple of generations’ time.” | ROBERT FOX | https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/climate-change-has-to-be-an-issue-we-can-grasp-not-the-stuff-of-horror-films-a4219181.html | 2019-08-22 09:49:43+00:00 | 1,566,481,783 | 1,567,533,698 | environment | climate change |
193,339 | eveningstandard--2019-12-18--Boris Johnson must now meet climate change pledges, says Tory peer Lord Deben | 2019-12-18T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | Boris Johnson must now meet climate change pledges, says Tory peer Lord Deben | Boris Johnson was today urged to “get on with it” and meet Tory commitments on climate change amid more signs of a warming planet with Australia baking in its hottest day on record. Lord Deben, chairman of the UK’s Committee on Climate Change which advises the Government, said it was not on track to meet its goals to combat global warming despite putting into law that the country would reach “net zero” harmful emissions by 2050. “The world is changing and if we do not fight climate change over these next 10 years we will reach a tipping point when human beings will not be able to change the climate back to a level which makes living on this earth tolerable,” he told Radio 4’s Today. “If the Government is going to fulfil its party manifesto, it has to get on with it at once.” The manifesto says the UK has cut carbon emissions by more than any similar developed country, is the world leader in offshore wind and commits £9.2 billion for energy efficiency of homes, schools and hospitals. But it does not give a date for phasing out new petrol and diesel cars. With the COP26 climate change summit taking place in Glasgow next year, Tory peer Lord Deben made clear that Mr Johnson’s leadership on global warming would come under scrutiny Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said that yesterday was the country’s hottest day on record, with a national average temperature of 40.9C, exceeding the previous record of 40.3C in 2013. Oodnadatta, in the south of Australia, is forecast to hit highs of 47C today, making it one of the hottest places on earth. The country has been ravaged by fires for weeks with authorities in New South Wales saying there are currently 100 fires. Blazes have killed six people, destroyed more than 680 homes and burned huge swathes of bushland. In England, official figures last week showed 113,348 deaths registered between July and September — 2,247 more than the five-year average. They also revealed a peak in the number of deaths per day on July 25, the hottest day of the year. A spokesman for the Government said: “We will provide the policies needed to ensure we are on track to hit our world-leading climate targets and demonstrate our global leadership in advance of the crucial COP26 talks in Glasgow next year.” | NIcholas Cecil | https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-climate-change-pledges-lord-deben-a4316546.html | Wed, 18 Dec 2019 11:15:07 GMT | 1,576,685,707 | 1,576,672,128 | environment | climate change |
195,553 | foreignpolicy--2019-01-04--Brazil Was a Global Leader on Climate Change Now Its a Threat | 2019-01-04T00:00:00 | foreignpolicy | Brazil Was a Global Leader on Climate Change. Now It’s a Threat. | Brazil Was a Global Leader on Climate Change. Now It’s a Threat. This coming November, delegates from nearly every country had been scheduled to gather in Brazil to discuss climate change at the 25th United Nations Conference of the Parties. When the meeting was planned, Brazil seemed a logical choice to host it. Not anymore. Brazil depends more on renewable energy sources (including biofuels) than any of the world’s other large energy consumers. And between 2005 and 2012, it also ran a successful campaign to reduce deforestation by about 80 percent. But the election of Jair Bolsonaro as Brazil’s president has thrown the country’s status as an environmental beacon into doubt. In November 2018, Brazil withdrew its offer to host the climate conference, citing the government transition process and budgetary constraints. Bolsonaro, who took office Jan. 1, clearly believes that economic development is at odds with environmental protection and that considerations about the planet should not be allowed to inhibit industry, particularly Brazil’s huge agricultural sector. During the campaign Bolsonaro earned the support of Brazil’s agribusiness lobby, the ruralistas, which make up one of the country’s most powerful congressional blocs. While corporate campaign donations are illegal in Brazil, many wealthy ruralistas are able to self-fund their campaigns and get elected; as a result, they have become a powerful force in Congress, and Bolsonaro needs their backing. The newly inaugurated president has grumbled that environmental policy is “suffocating” the economy. He has threatened to withdraw Brazil from the Paris agreement on climate change (although he recanted after an international backlash). His environment minister, Ricardo Salles, is a former legal director of the Brazilian Rural Society, an agricultural group, and was fined this past December for changing plans for an environmentally protected area to benefit businesses in the state of São Paulo when he was head of an environmental agency there. Bolsonaro has also promised to remove some protections for the Amazon rainforest, including by rolling back indigenous reserves, such as Raposa Serra do Sol—he has advocated for agriculture and mining exploration there and said the area is too large for its inhabitants. In one of his first acts as president he shifted the power to regulate and create indigenous reserves—which account for about 13 percent of Brazil’s territory, including vast swaths of rainforest—from the National Indian Foundation agency to the agriculture ministry. On the plus side, Bolsonaro does advocate expanding wind and solar energy and reducing dependence on coal and oil for power generation, but he has offered few details on how he plans to do so. He also supports ethanol incentives, popular with Brazil’s sugar cane lobby, but has expressed no plans to support other forms of clean transport. Brazil already has one of the cleanest electricity portfolios in the world. Throughout 2018, about 65 percent of its electricity supply came from large hydropower projects, and more than 15 percent came from wind, solar, and biomass. Interest in large-scale hydropower development is waning, as most remaining potential projects are located in environmentally sensitive or indigenous areas. Meanwhile, auctions for wind and solar projects have generated bids to produce renewable power at some of the lowest prices in the world and attracted $6 billion of investment in 2017. Even if large-scale hydropower development has reached a point of diminishing returns, there is still progress to be made on other renewable sources. For now, wind power accounts for nearly 8 percent of electricity supply. Solar makes up just 0.5 percent but is growing at an impressive clip. Bolsonaro’s campaign website proposed speeding up environmental licensing for small-scale hydroelectric plants and developing a local industry to produce, install, and maintain solar panels in the country’s impoverished northeast, which is home to abundant solar and wind resources. However, the new president himself has scarcely addressed the issue in public remarks, and it’s unclear that renewable energy will be a priority for his government. Meanwhile, as the largest car market in Latin America—it accounts for over half the region’s vehicle sales—Brazil also needs to build on advances in reducing transport sector emissions. It is already the world’s second-largest biofuels producer, and it has the largest market of flex-fuel vehicles, which can run on pure ethanol. The RenovaBio program, launched by the government in 2017, aims to reduce the carbon intensity of gasoline by 10 percent by 2028. The program will do this by introducing carbon savings credits that incentivize fuel distributors to blend their products with more biofuels. The aim is to gradually increase the share of biofuels in Brazil’s total fuel supply from 20 percent to nearly 30 percent. Since the election last October, Bolsonaro has expressed his support for Brazil’s biofuels sector, a stance consistent with his close ties to agricultural interests. Thus biofuels are one point where agricultural and environmental interests converge, a political opportunity that Bolsonaro could seize. The country also has a nascent but promising electric vehicles market. Electric vehicles improve local air quality and, when charged with renewable electricity, produce zero emissions—something biofuel cars cannot achieve. São Paulo and nearby Campinas have been regional leaders in launching public fleets of electric buses, which are estimated to be less expensive over their lifetime than conventional buses because of lower fuel and maintenance costs. There is potential for a new local industry, too. For now, few electric vehicles are made in Brazil. But in 2015, the Chinese car and bus manufacturer BYD opened its first Latin American factory in Campinas to make buses, and the company is expected to begin manufacturing electric vehicle battery cells in Amazonas state using locally sourced lithium by the end of the year. This development demonstrates how promoting clean transport policies can also create jobs and boost economic development, something that may well appeal to Bolsonaro. But the most important contribution Brazil can make to global climate health is reducing deforestation. But the most important contribution Brazil can make to global climate health is reducing deforestation. Under the Paris climate agreement, Brazil committed to eliminating illegal deforestation in the Amazon and reforesting 12 million hectares by 2030. The country’s efforts in this respect matter on a global scale: The Amazon is estimated to contain 10 percent of the world’s biomass, absorbing and storing massive amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide. In 2015, 46 percent of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions resulted from land use change, such as deforestation and increase in croplands, and the huge decline in Brazil’s emissions between 2005 and 2012 owed mostly to a reduction in deforestation. This suggests that progress is possible, but the rise in deforestation since 2012 means Brazil has to do more. Unfortunately, Bolsonaro has actively undermined forest protection efforts, foreshadowing dire results. Policies to promote renewable power, clean transport, and conservation have made Brazil a global climate role model in recent decades, but Bolsonaro represents a serious threat to this progress and could lead to the tragic loss of a major world economy from the coalition fighting climate change. Between now and 2027, the country’s power capacity is projected to grow by more than 30 percent, and renewables will account for only 71 percent of this growth. In other words, clean energy will not even keep pace with demand, much less increase as a share of power in the energy mix. Electricity regulators must oversee the upgrading of the grid to integrate more intermittent renewable energy sources like wind and solar and increase incentives for small-scale generation, such as rooftop solar panels. Tax exemptions, currently offered for solar panels and the like in more than 20 states, should be expanded. In the transport sector, the expansion of biofuels should not come through clearing protected land for sugar cane production, but rather through land productivity gains, for example through more efficient and sustainable use of fertilizer. And although electric car battery prices continue to fall, the price of electric cars is still prohibitive for most Brazilians. New incentives (and an end to fuel subsidies, which, unfortunately, has proven highly unpopular in the very recent past) will be required to encourage their uptake. Finally, Brazil must expand protected areas and safeguard existing ones, including indigenous reserves, from encroachment. It should improve deforestation monitoring and better enforce the forest code while also strengthening this set of regulations with more severe penalties. The country could explore an emissions trading scheme, something that is being tested by more than 30 major Brazilian companies. Such a scheme could allow for companies to offset carbon emissions with reforestation, which has a low average cost relative to other mitigation efforts. Although these policies run counter to many of Bolsonaro’s plans, they are critical to fighting global warming and would even yield economic benefits for Brazil. In addition to preserving biodiversity and combating climate change, deforestation abatement has economic benefits, even for the agricultural industry that supports Bolsonaro. Precipitation regulation provided by the Amazon, through water absorbed through trees’ roots that later evaporates from their leaves, adds between $1 billion and $3 billion of value each year through increased rainfall and agricultural productivity, according to estimates. If Bolsonaro makes good on his promises regarding renewable energy and biofuels, he could wind up helping the environment in some ways. But his government must still address other issues such as halting deforestation, a measure that is critical to environmental protection but not detrimental to the economy. Bolsonaro has expressed a desire to promote local industry and investment; now that he is at the helm, he must recognize that he has ample opportunity to promote policies that will benefit both the economy and the environment. | Lisa Viscidi and Nate Graham | https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/01/04/brazil-was-a-global-leader-on-climate-change-now-its-a-threat/ | 2019-01-04 20:14:28+00:00 | 1,546,650,868 | 1,567,554,009 | environment | climate change |
214,206 | france24--2019-01-25--The Swedish teen holding world leaders accountable for climate change | 2019-01-25T00:00:00 | france24 | The Swedish teen holding world leaders accountable for climate change | It all began with a school strike in August, 2018. Since then, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg has taken the world by storm with her frank calls for action on climate change. This week, she told the world’s financial elite in Davos: “I want you to panic.” While the majority of the delegates attending this year’s edition of the World Economic Forum made it to Davos by plane – 1,500 of them in private jets – Swedish teenager and environment activist Thunberg travelled by train – a journey that took her, and her father, a total of 32 hours. “You have to practise what you preach, otherwise people won’t take you seriously,” she told reporters in what, along with her braids and flawless English, has become her hallmark matter-of-fact manner upon her arrival in the small Alps town on Wednesday. Since arriving in Davos, where the cream of the world’s financial, political and social elite gather each year to shape global, regional and industrial agendas, Thunberg has wasted no time in putting her message out. She started by setting up camp with the activists at the “Arctic Basecamp Davos” where she spent her first night sleeping in freezing -18 degrees Celsius temperatures. On Thursday, she immediately stole the show at a lunch discussion panel attended by hotshots including U2 frontman Bono, conservationist Jane Goodall and former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, by bluntly telling the audience that they were to blame for the world’s climate crisis. “Some people say that the climate crisis is something that we have all created, but that is not true. Because if everyone is guilty then no one is to blame, and someone is to blame. Some people, some companies, and some decision-makers in particular, have known exactly what priceless values they have been sacrificing to continue to make unimaginable amounts of money. And I think that many of you here today belong to that group of people,” she said in her impromptu speech, delivered without a moment’s hesitation. Her crusade against greedy, climate-sacrificing moneymakers continued on Friday when she attended another panel. “Adults keep saying: ‘We owe it to the young people to give them hope.’ But I don’t want your hope, I don’t want you to be hopeful, I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if our house was on fire. Because it is.” Thunberg first shot into the international spotlight five months ago, when she planted herself in front of the Swedish parliament and staged a one-woman school strike (although she was often joined by other students, teachers and passers-by) to protest again the political inaction on climate change. The strike came after a particularly bizarre summer in Sweden climate-wise, in which the Nordic nation witnessed rampant wildfires in the wake of multiple heatwaves. Thunberg, who had initially planned to strike until the country’s parliamentary election on September 9, then decided to continue her strike action every Friday to demand that Sweden cuts its carbon emissions as per the Paris Agreement. Thousands of students across the world have since joined Thunberg in her calls to fight global warming through strike action, and in December, TIME magazine named her one of the most influential teenagers of 2018. In December, Thunberg was invited to speak at the COP24 climate meeting in Katowice, in Poland. And she gave it to them straight: "You only speak of a green eternal economic growth because you are too scared of being unpopular. You only talk about moving forward with the same bad ideas that got us into this mess, even when the only sensible thing to do is pull the emergency brake. You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave to us children," she told the world leaders gathered. But Thunberg’s road to climate activism has not been easy. In a recent TEDx talk in Stockholm, she described how she became aware of the dangers of climate change at a very early age, and how this knowledge made her depressed. “When I was about 8 years old, I first heard about something called climate change or global warming. Apparently that was something humans had created by our way of living,” she said. “I remember thinking that it was very strange that humans […] could be capable of changing the earth’s climate. Because if we were, and it was really happening, we wouldn’t be talking about anything else. […] But no one ever talked about it. If burning fossil fuels was so bad that it threatened our very existence, how could we just continue like before? Why were there no restrictions? Why wasn’t it made illegal? To me, that did not add up. It was too unreal,” she recounted. At the age of 11, she stopped eating, and talking, and was eventually diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Selective Mutism. “For those of us who are on the spectrum, almost everything is black or white,” she said, explaining why she never feels the need to sugarcoat her messages. “If the emissions have to stop then we must stop the emissions. To me, that’s black or white. There are no grey areas when it comes to survival. Either we go on as a civilisation or we don’t. We have to change.” In 2013, Thunberg brought her internal struggle out into the world. Her mother, renowned Swedish opera singer Malena Ernman was returning from a job in Tokyo, to where she had travelled by plane, when Thunberg finally snapped. “It’s like you’ve killed 80 people!” she said, referring to the greenhouse gases emitted from her mother’s plane trip. The outburst resulted in Ernman ending her international career due to the necessary flight travel, and the whole family converting to a more sustainable lifestyle, including a vegetarian diet. Svante Thunberg, the teenager’s father and a famous Swedish actor, told French daily Ouest-France on the sidelines of the Katowice conference that his daughter’s reaction had come like “an electric shock”. “We stopped working like crazy. We were part of the problem and we hadn’t even realised it,” he said. As for his daughter’s wider climate cause battle, Thunberg in August told Swedish news agency TT that it was all her own doing. “We have never told her what to say. It’s her own words, her own brain and her own will,” noting that they, as her parents, might understand her concerns about climate change, but can’t fully support her skipping school. Again, Thunberg, gave her own explanation to that in her TEDx talk: “Some people say that I should be in school instead. Some people say that I should study to become a climate scientist so that I can ‘solve the climate crisis’. But the climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions. All we have to do is wake up and change. […] If a few children can get headlines all over the world by just not coming to school for a few weeks, imagine what we could do all together if we wanted to.” | Louise NORDSTROM | https://www.france24.com/en/20190125-swedish-teenager-greta-thunberg-hold-world-leaders-accountable-climate-change | 2019-01-25 21:49:55+00:00 | 1,548,470,995 | 1,567,550,944 | environment | climate change |
214,798 | france24--2019-03-15--Climate change forces Mongolias herders to move to the city | 2019-03-15T00:00:00 | france24 | Climate change forces Mongolia's herders to move to the city | In Mongolia, nomadic herders are seen as the proud heirs of Genghis Khan and are nicknamed "the emperors of the plains". But in recent years, global warming has had dramatic consequences for their way of life. The "dzuds" in particular - harsh winters, which follow scorching summers - have done terrible damage. In the steppes, weakened by the cold and lack of food, animals die out one after the other. Nomads have seen their herds of livestock decimated - already a meagre source of income. Last winter, 700,000 animals were killed by the snow and freezing cold. Another one million perished the year before. This climate phenomenon known as "dzud" is not new, but in the past few years it’s become more frequent and more intense. Mongolia’s climatologists and authorities are worried. In order to avoid these extreme conditions, more and more herders are dismantling their yurts and abandoning the vast grasslands of the steppes to settle in the capital, Ulaanbaatar. But in the city, living conditions are tough. The nomads have to deal with poverty, as well as shortages of water and electricity. Lack of space is also a major issue. Ulaanbaatar was created to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people at most. Today, it counts more than 1.5 million residents – that’s half the country's population. | Antoine VÉDEILHÉ | https://www.france24.com/en/20190315-reporters-video-mongolia-climate-change-forces-nomads-herders-move-city-capital-ulaanbaatar | 2019-03-15 13:52:20+00:00 | 1,552,672,340 | 1,567,546,180 | environment | climate change |
215,968 | france24--2019-06-27--Japan welcomes G20 leaders for summit centred on climate change | 2019-06-27T00:00:00 | france24 | Japan welcomes G20 leaders for summit centred on climate change | David Mareuil / POOL, AFP | France's President Emmanuel Macron (centre L) talks with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (centre R) during a welcoming ceremony prior to the Japan-France summit at Abe's official residence in Tokyo on June 26, 2019. G20 host Japan hopes world leaders will endorse a deal on marine plastic waste and find common ground on climate change, but its own environmental record is under increasing scrutiny. Activists say Japan has fallen behind on reducing plastic consumption and is caving to US pressure to water down language on climate change to achieve a unanimous statement on the issue. Japan, chair of this week's Group of 20 meeting in Osaka, has already secured agreement from environment ministers on a marine plastic waste deal that will be endorsed this week. The deal commits G20 members to reducing plastic waste but includes few details on how that will be achieved, proposing only voluntary steps and yearly progress reports. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said last month the issue would be "one of the most important themes of the G20", adding that Japan "hopes to play a leadership role". But while campaigners say the agreement -- the first on the issue bringing together rich and developing nations -- is a "first step", they argue it should be more ambitious. "Legally binding international rules with clear timelines and goals" are needed, Yukihiro Misawa, plastic policy manager of environmental group WWF Japan, told AFP. Experts welcomed part of the agreement that calls for research to better understand where plastic is coming from and how to tackle it. "Scientific knowledge should be the foundation of an international deal, so that's good," professor Atsuhiko Isobe of Kyushu University's Centre for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research told AFP. The agreement comes as campaigners criticise Japan for moving too slowly on reducing plastic consumption, particularly as the country produces more plastic waste per capita than any nation apart from the United States. Japan touts an enviable waste management system, and 86 percent of its plastic waste is recycled. But much of that "recycling" involves simply incinerating plastic, often to produce energy, a process that generates carbon dioxide and contributes to climate change. Japan exports around 10 percent of its plastic waste for recycling overseas. But research by environmentalists shows the waste can end up in the ocean or being burned improperly, emitting harmful pollutants. Last month, Japan announced a new strategy to reduce plastic waste, including plans to eventually require retailers to charge for plastic bags, but that still leaves it far behind nations that have simply banned plastic bags and other single-use plastic outright. "What is expected of Japan is to behave as a role model," said Isobe. Japan also faces growing scrutiny on climate change issues because of its continued use of coal. It is one of nearly 200 nations that signed the Paris climate agreement, which commits signatories to efforts to cap global warming at "well below" two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit). But earlier this month, it said it would continue to rely on coal-burning power plants and set its target date for carbon-neutral status after 2050. Greenpeace said that showed Japan was "not truly serious about mitigating climate change". And Tokyo will likely face additional pressure over the climate change portion of the G20 final communique. A document described as a draft of the communique's climate language, seen by AFP, omits any reference to reducing use of fossil fuels and removes wording in previous G20 statements describing the Paris deal as "irreversible". At last year's G20, that phrase was included but not endorsed by the United States, which added wording reiterating "its decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement". The draft document, which could change substantially before adoption, suggests an attempt to find neutral language that Washington can endorse, but activists said it would dilute international efforts. "The draft statement reflects how very weak is Japan's willingness to fight against climate change and this risks undermining global efforts," said Kimiko Hirata, director of Kiko Network Japan, an environmental group. "For this G20, members have to show strong leadership by committing to ambitious actions," she told AFP. And France's President Emmanuel Macron has already said he will not sign any statement that does not include ambitious climate language, calling the issue a "red line". | NEWS WIRES | https://www.france24.com/en/20190627-japan-g20-leaders-summit-climate-change-paris-accord-plastic-waste | 2019-06-27 04:30:19+00:00 | 1,561,624,219 | 1,567,537,931 | environment | climate change |
216,959 | france24--2019-09-18--Teen activist Greta Thunberg tells US lawmakers to try harder on climate change | 2019-09-18T00:00:00 | france24 | Teen activist Greta Thunberg tells US lawmakers to try harder on climate change | Mark Wilson, Getty Images, AFP | Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate change activist from Sweden, attends a Senate Climate Change Task Force meeting on Capitol Hill, on September 17, 2019 in Washington, DC. Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg offered a blunt message to Congress on Tuesday as she brought her campaign for urgent action on climate change to the U.S. Capitol. "I know you're trying," she told Democratic senators at an invitation-only forum, "but just not hard enough. Sorry." Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey thanked the 16-year-old activist for her advice and her activism, which has gained worldwide attention by inspiring a series of protests and school strikes, including one set for Friday. Thunberg and other young activists bring "moral clarity" to the fight against global warming, Markey said. "We hear you," he told her, vowing that lawmakers "will redouble our efforts to make sure that we inject this issue into the politics of this building and this country because time is running out." Markey and other lawmakers hailed Thunberg as a "superpower," noting that her activism has drawn a passionate following of children essentially challenging their elders to take action. "Save your praise," Thunberg replied. "We don't want it," she added, especially if officials intend to talk about climate change "without doing anything about it." Thunberg was in Washington ahead of a global strike planned for Friday. Activists are calling for immediate action from the world's governments to halt global warming, reduce fossil fuel consumption and avert environmental catastrophe. Instead of listening to her and other teenagers, lawmakers should invite scientists to the Capitol to listen to their expertise on ways to slow a rise in global temperatures, Thunberg said. "This is not about us. This is not about youth activism," she said. "We don't want to be heard. We want the science to be heard." Despite Thunberg's request, lawmakers bombarded her and other youth activists with praise, saying they had sparked a global movement that is already being felt in the 2020 presidential campaign and in the halls of Congress, where lawmakers are debating proposals such as the Green New Deal. Markey is a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, which would shift the U.S. economy away from fossil fuels such as oil and coal and replace them with renewable sources such as wind and solar power. "We need your leadership," he told Thunberg and other activists. "It's creating a new X-factor" to boost efforts to fight climate change. Last month, Thunberg crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a solar-powered boat, landing in New York City on Aug. 28. She's in Washington for several days of rallies and lobbying efforts ahead of Friday's global climate strike. Thunberg will testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday and address the U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York next week. | NEWS WIRES | https://www.france24.com/en/20190918-teen-activist-greta-thunberg-tells-usa-lawmakers-try-harder-climate-change | 2019-09-18 01:23:44+00:00 | 1,568,784,224 | 1,569,329,993 | environment | climate change |
217,723 | france24--2019-12-02--Debate blazes in Australia over climate change role in bushfire crisis | 2019-12-02T00:00:00 | france24 | Debate blazes in Australia over climate change role in bushfire crisis | Australia last month raised the fire danger alert to "catastrophic" for the first time ever, as devastating bushfires tore through the states of New South Wales and Queensland. The crisis has killed at least six people, destroyed more than 600 homes and scorched more than two million hectares of land. As scores of blazes continue to burn, a fierce debate has erupted over whether the extreme weather is linked to global warming. Scott Morrison's conservative coalition government has dismissed climate concerns. Meanwhile, scientists and former fire chiefs have warned Australians to brace themselves for what could be the most dangerous fire season yet. To watch this report by Sydney correspondents Richelle Harrison Plesse and Gregory Plesse from Australia, click on the video player above. | Richelle HARRISON PLESSE | https://www.france24.com/en/20191202-australia-climate-change-bushfire-crisis-fire-global-warming-blaze-scott-morrison-conservative-new-south-wales-queensland | Mon, 02 Dec 2019 12:33:28 GMT | 1,575,308,008 | 1,575,311,606 | environment | climate change |
219,215 | freedombunker--2019-01-22--Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Calls Climate Change Our World War II | 2019-01-22T00:00:00 | freedombunker | Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Calls Climate Change ‘Our World War II’ | Speaking at an event held yesterday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.) explained why she believes younger Americans are in favor of radical action when it comes to combating climate change: She continued: "This is our World War II." Ocasio-Cortez's 12-years-til-the-Apocalypse timeline is likely inspired by a United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released last fall which argued that unless carbon-based fuels were completely abandoned by 2030, global temperatures would increase more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels agreed upon in the Paris Climate Agreement. That report doesn't say the world will end if temperatures increase more than that, but it does estimate damage to global GDP (more on that in a moment). Here's an interesting fact about World War II: We did in fact pay for it directly and in all sorts of ways, including rationing of goods, near-complete federal control of the economy and resources, massive tax hikes, and the sale of war bonds. To a degree that will surprise many, the US funded its World War II effort largely by raising taxes and tapping into Americans' personal savings. Both of those avenues are nowhere near as promising today as they were in 1941. Current tax burdens are now much higher than they were before the War, so raising taxes today would be much more difficult. The "Victory Tax" of 1942 sharply raised income tax rates and allowed, for the first time in our nation's history, taxes to be withheld directly from paychecks. The hikes were originally intended to be temporary but have, of course, far outlasted their purpose. It would be unlikely that Americans would accept higher taxes today to fund a real war, let alone a pretend one. That leaves savings, which was the War's primary source of funding. During the War, Americans purchased approximately $186 billion worth of war bonds, accounting for nearly three quarters of total federal spending from 1941-1945. Today, we don't have the savings to pay for our current spending, let alone any significant expansions. In 1944, writes Cecil Bohannon for the Mercatus Center, government spending accounted for a record-high 55 percent of GDP. All of which might help explain why Ocasio-Cortez consistently shies away from talking about the cost of her big-ticket plans. Discussing her calls for Medicare-for-All, forgiveness of student debt, free college for all, and a federal jobs guarantee—a package estimated to cost $40 trillion over 10 years—Ocasio-Cortez brushed aside any serious discussion of costs in a recent interview with CNN's Jake Tapper and refused to explain where the money would come from. Last fall, in an interview with Jorge Ramos, she said: When it comes to paying for her "Green New Deal," which would include government-financed projects to speed up and enforce the transition to renewable energy (though not nuclear) along with tag-along favorites such as a universal basic income, she is equally vague. The draft text of her legislation includes a section answering the question "How will government pay for these investments?": Quartz, which is sympathetic to Ocasio-Cortez's agenda, notes that "Green Party leader Jill Stein estimated that her version of the Green New Deal, which is less ambitious than the one presented by Ocasio-Cortez, would cost $700 billion to $1 trillion annually." Ocasio-Cortez is hardly alone in not even pretending to care about paying for her favored plans. In the 21st century, both Republican and Democratic majorities have at various points hidden the costs of their spending and both parties are dedicated to endless borrowing to cover any year's expenses (call it "Government by Groupon"). Mounting debt is surely one of the factors in our generally slower-than-usual economic growth and the worst parts of the bill are still ahead of us. If Ocasio-Cortez waves away questions of how to pay for her plans to avert the end of the world, she is also exaggerating the threat posed by the effects of climate change. Climate change is not World War II and we should resist and refute the analogy, with its strong implication not simply of massive increases in government spending and taxes but the regimentation of all aspects of day-to-day life. As Ronald Bailey wrote last fall when the IPCC report came out, fears about the impact of sea-level rises, increases in extinctions and extreme weather events, and more have generally been overstated. So have the economic benefits of keeping global warming below 2°C: So what, according the IPCC report, will it cost to transition from fossil fuels to wind and solar? "Global model pathways limiting global warming to 1.5°C are projected to involve the annual average investment needs in the energy system of around $2.4 trillion [in 2010 U.S. dollars] between 2016 and 2035 representing about 2.5% of the world GDP," states the report. For comparison, the International Energy Agency recently observed that "total energy investment worldwide in 2016 was just over $1.7 trillion, accounting for 2.2 percent of global GDP." Of that, only $297 billion was spent on renewable energy sources. So how much economic damage will pursuing the IPCC's fast transition to a no-carbon energy system spare us? The report asserts that if no policies aimed specifically at reducing carbon dioxide emissions are adopted, then average global temperature is projected to rise by 3.66°C by 2100, resulting in global GDP loss of 2.6 percent from what it would otherwise have been. Comparatively speaking, in the 2°C and 1.5°C scenarios, global GDP would only be reduced by 0.5 percent or 0.3 percent respectively. Concretely, the global GDP of $80 trillion, growing at 3 percent annually, would rise to $903 trillion by 2100. A 2.6 percent reduction means that it would only be $880 trillion by 2100. A 0.3 percent decrease implies a loss of $2.7 trillion resulting in a global GDP of $900 trillion. Note that the IPCC is recommending that the world spend between now and 2035 more than $45 trillion in order to endow $2.7 trillion more in annual income on people living three generations hence. Assuming the worst case loss of 2.6 percent of GDP in world with a population of 10 billion that would mean that they would have to scrape by on an average income of just $88,000 per year (the average global GDP per capita now is $10,500.) Bailey further notes that since the Paris accords are voluntary, it's unlikely any signatory will stand by them in the face of economic adversity. Catastrophic climate change is possible and can be hedged against without cratering the economy or refusing to name the cost of one's preferred path forward. | Ed Krayewski | http://freedombunker.com/2019/01/22/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-calls-climate-change-our-world-war-ii/ | 2019-01-22 19:50:00+00:00 | 1,548,204,600 | 1,567,551,296 | environment | climate change |
219,885 | freedombunker--2019-02-21--Its Time to Panic Over Climate Change Asserts New York Times Op-Ed | 2019-02-21T00:00:00 | freedombunker | It’s ‘Time to Panic’ Over Climate Change, Asserts New York Times Op-Ed | Unabated man-made climate change would likely pose problems, many significant, for humanity during the course of this century. But is it "time to panic" about it, as David Wallace-Wells writes in a recent New York Times op-ed? "The age of climate panic is here," declares the author of the forthcoming The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming. Although he thinks it's not nearly enough, Wallace-Wells suggests that the newly proposed Green New Deal is "what the beginning of a solution looks like." To support his call for panic, Wallace-Wells cites the so-called Doomsday report, which the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued last fall. That special report aimed to analyze the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. It projected that if no policies aimed specifically at reducing carbon dioxide emissions are adopted, average global temperature will rise by 3.66°C by 2100, resulting in a global GDP loss of 2.6 percent from what it would otherwise have been. (In the 2°C and 1.5°C scenarios, global GDP would be reduced by 0.5 percent or 0.3 percent, respectively.) The global GDP currently stands at about $80 trillion. Growing at 3 percent annually, it would rise to $903 trillion by 2100. A 2.6 percent reduction means that it would only be $880 trillion by 2100. A 0.3 percent decrease implies a global GDP of $900 trillion. The IPCC report recommends that the world spend more than $45 trillion between now and 2035 in order to endow $2.7 trillion more in annual income on people living three generations hence. Assuming the worst-case loss of 2.6 percent, that would mean that a world with a population of 10 billion would have to scrape by on an average income of just $88,000 per year. (The average global GDP per capita now is $10,500.) Meanwhile, the worst-case scenario laid out in the appropriate chapter of the federal government's Fourth National Climate Assessment indicates that Americans living in 2090 would be about $500 billion poorer than they would have been without climate change. Citing the even more dire projections of outside researchers, the assessment suggested that at 10°F of warming, the U.S. economy would be about 10 percent smaller than it would otherwise have been. For context, consider that today's $20 trillion GDP, growing at a 3 percent rate, would rise to $226 trillion by 2100. Pondering both worst-case climate scenarios, GDP would instead rise to either $225.5 billion or $203 trillion. Americans living at the end of this century would be about 10 times richer on average than we are now, albeit in a much warmer world. These numbers, derived from integrated assessment models that combine econometric and climate projections for the next eight decades, need to be eyed with enormous skepticism. Nevertheless, neither suggests that climate change will make the earth uninhabitable by the end of this century. An intriguing sidebar to Wallace-Wells' op-ed helpfully provides three examples that aim to illustrate what happes when environmentalist rhetoric succeded in ratcheting up fear. These cases of panic promotion "marked turning points on major environmental issues and inspired change." The moments? Silent Spring, Love Canal, and Three Mile Island. The "inspired change" stemming from these cases has not, shall we say, been wholly beneficial. "Fear can mobilize, even change the world. When Rachel Carson published her landmark anti-pesticide polemic Silent Spring, Life magazine said she had 'overstated her case,' and The Saturday Evening Post dismissed the book as 'alarmist,'" Wallace-Wells writes. "But it almost single-handedly led to a nationwide ban on DDT." He's quite right about the DDT ban, but as history has now shown that Life's assessment was largely correct. In Silent Spring, Carson described the choice humanity faced as a fork in the road to the future. "The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress at great speed, but at its end lies disaster," she declared. "The other fork of the road—the one 'less traveled by'—offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of our earth." As Wallace-Wells' op-ed amply shows, this kind of apocalyptic rhetoric is now standard fare in environmental policy debates. Carson was correct that the popular pesticide DDT disrupted reproduction in some raptor species and that some insect pests were developing resistance to it, making it less useful for protecting crops and preventing insect-borne infections in people. But Carson's most worrying claim was that exposure to trace amounts of synthetic chemicals like DDT would set off a cancer epidemic. For a time, cancer incidence rates did indeed rise, but largely as a result of an increase of Americans living past age 65 and the residual effects of extensive tobacco use and hormone replacement therapy. The most recent American Cancer Society report on cancer trends finds that U.S. cancer incidence and death rates have fallen to a 25-year low. Nevertheless, hypercautious Environmental Protection Agency regulations aiming to protect consumers from supposed cancer risks posed by slight exposures to synthetic chemicals continue to multipy. Whether the benefits outweigh the costs of EPA regulation is an ongoing controversy. What about Love Canal? In 1978, residents of that neighborhood outside Buffalo, New York, found that their homes had been built on top of an area where a chemical company had sequestered and sealed tons of toxic wastes in an abandoned canal. The company, under threat of eminent domain, had sold the land for $1 to the local school board warning that it should never be developed. The chemicals began leaking out only after local and state agencies willfully breached the dump site's clay seal as part of a development scheme. Obviously, none of us wants toxic chemicals leaking into our basements, so it was entirely reasonable for the residents to react with alarm when that happened to them. A local Environmental Protection Agency administrator declared this "one of the most appalling environmental tragedies in American history." Happily, it turned out not to be such an "appalling environmental tragedy" after all, at least with respect to the former residents' health. The New York State Health Department tracked about 6,000 former residents. In its last report issued in 2009, the agency found that their "overall mortality rates were similar to those of New York State and Niagara County." More specifically, the final report noted, "For cancer incidence, the results of the external comparisons indicated that the total number of cancers observed among Love Canal residents was within the range expected for New York State and Niagara County." The report also found that "rates of preterm and small-for-gestational age (SGA) births among [emergency area] women were similar to those in New York State and Niagara County, and the rates of low (LBW) and very low (VLBW) birth weight tended to be lower." The department did report a slight change in the sex ratio of births, favoring girls over boys. "The nightmare led to the creation of the federal Superfund program to clean up Love Canal and other toxic waste dumps around the country," the Times sidebar notes. Like many policies driven by panic, this has proven less than optimal. The Superfund program has pleased neither environmentalists nor industry. The litigation that it sparks both boosts costs and slows cleanups. One 1999 study estimated that Superfund remediation would on average avert less than 0.1 case of cancer per site, and that the cost per cancer case averted is more than $100 million. The third moment of panic that supposedly led to progress was the partial meltdown in 1979 of a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. "Thousands fled the area around the plant," notes the Times sidebar, "and though very little radiation escaped, the accident hurt the industry and raised public apprehension about nuclear power." Indeed it did. The accident did release a very small amount of radionuclides into the environment. These consisted of radioactive isotopes of the noble gases krypton and xenon and a bit of iodine, all of which have half-lives measured in days. Whatever amount did escape decayed into background undetectability within a few weeks. The Pennsylvania Health Department monitored the health of a cohort of nearly 60,000 local residents between 1982 and 1995. Its final report, released in 2011, found "no evidence of an increased risk for all malignant neoplasms." A more recent study using very subtle molecular techniques reports that a slight increase in thyroid cancer rates among former residents might be attributed to the radiation exposures. Although the U.S. nuclear power industry was already pulling back, due largely to increasing regulatory pressure, the Three Mile Island accident basically ended the construction of new nuclear power plants in the U.S. for the next three decades. In the 1960s, the Atomic Energy Commission had anticipated that more than 1,000 nuclear reactors would generating electricity in the United States by the year 2000. By now that number would have replaced all coal and natural gas power generation, and U.S. carbon dioxide emissions would be 34 percent lower than they are currently The Australian economist Peter Lang calculates that nuclear power would have outcompeted most fossil fuel generation at one-tenth of nuclear's current cost. Folks concerned about global warming—and I include myself among them—may reasonably conclude that the panic over nuclear power did not result in overall environmental progress. Wallace-Wells ends by asking, "What creates more sense of urgency than fear?" Nothing. But as those three examples of past panic suggest, fear doesn't produce clear thinking either. It thus may actually hinder rather than help environmental progress. | Ed Krayewski | http://freedombunker.com/2019/02/21/its-time-to-panic-over-climate-change-asserts-new-york-times-op-ed/ | 2019-02-21 18:25:00+00:00 | 1,550,791,500 | 1,567,547,733 | environment | climate change |
221,396 | freedombunker--2019-05-31--How to Talk to Children about Climate Change | 2019-05-31T00:00:00 | freedombunker | How to Talk to Children about Climate Change | We smile at seeing those young faces waving placards out in the rain, urging action on the problem of climate change. But our smile is tinged with frustration, with the feeling that the youngsters live in another dimension and that we don’t know how to reach them intellectually. The natural impulse is to want to explain how crushingly complicated this issue is. First, we point out, there is the uncertainty about the connection between human-released CO2 and storms, floods and fires, and all the other bad things that might happen. Then we want to explain that cutting down on CO2 is not easy, that everyone will have to make great sacrifices. One has to weigh the different possible benefits that might come from stopping (or slowing) global warming against the costs of trying to counter it. This cost-benefit analysis involves a bundle of economic and moral questions. (For a good overview of the complexities of the climate change issue, read former NASA scientist Roy W. Spencer’s 2008 book Climate Confusion.) For example, would saving butterfly X from extinction (assuming we could guarantee it) counterbalance the harm done to the working poor by taking $1,000 a year from each of them in a carbon tax? And so on. However, I think this impulse to debate the complexities of the issue is misguided. The activists do not base their position on reasoning and calculations. The Climate Kids don’t come to their demonstrations pushing wheelbarrows full of cost-benefit analyses. Most of them don’t even know what cost-benefit analysis is. More importantly, they don’t think they need to know about it. Once it decides to act, they believe, government has all the expertise needed to make the correct calculations and the ability to craft policies that solve the problem without significantly hurting anybody—well, anybody except the very rich. This is because, in their way of looking at the world, it is not their responsibility to fix society’s problems. That task belongs to a higher power, to government. Their mission is simply to beseech this higher power to act. Once it decides to act, they believe, government has all the expertise needed to make the correct calculations and the ability to craft policies that solve the problem without significantly hurting anybody—well, anybody except the very rich. We should not be all that surprised by their deep, instinctive trust of government. It is a social predisposition, one that affects all of us to some degree. The belief in government’s wisdom and power is imparted to children very early in life as an article of faith, like the belief in Santa Claus. As children grow up, they begin to notice that government has flaws and that political leaders are not as wise as originally supposed. As a result, their faith in government declines somewhat, so that by age 30, as traditional wisdom has it, most people grow somewhat skeptical about government’s ability to cure the world’s problems. But not everyone, and especially not today’s climate activists. Faced with a staggeringly complex cost-benefit analysis that has most of us (older) folks scratching our heads, they are brimming with certainty that catastrophe is coming, and government can fix whatever is wrong. We were given a telling illustration of this simplistic faith earlier this year when 29-year-old US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez presented her “Green New Deal” proposal. This House resolution mentions dozens of dangers and problems that she believes to be connected with climate change, from mass migrations, wildfires, and the loss of coral reefs to declining life expectancy, wage stagnation, and the racial wealth divide. How are these all problems to be solved? Ms. Ocasio-Cortez does not propose any specific law or regulation. She does not advocate, let’s say, a 16 percent carbon tax and assure us that, according to her calculations, this measure will save 61 percent of the coral reefs, and prevent 53 percent of wildfires while reducing the income of the poor by only 8.2 percent. Like the schoolchildren demonstrating in the street, she leaves the task of figuring out the specific answers to a higher power. Indeed, her resolution begins with this appeal to the higher power: “It is the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal.” Thus runs the thoughtless faith in government, a faith so deep that even an activist who literally is the government herself looks to “government” to solve problems she can’t begin to analyze. We need to urge our young idealists to remember that government is not a god with magical powers to fix any problem we notice but an imperfect agency composed of fallible human beings. If in coming years we hope to curb the naive governmental interventions that bring so much ruin to the world, we need to address this belief in the efficacy of government. We need to urge our young idealists to remember that government is not a god with magical powers to fix any problem we notice but an imperfect agency composed of fallible human beings. One way to begin this conversation is to pose this question: “Given what you know about the people who have been in charge of government, is it reasonable to expect, in the future, a high level of rationality and responsibility from government?” | Sean McBride | http://freedombunker.com/2019/05/31/how-to-talk-to-children-about-climate-change/ | 2019-05-31 15:01:00+00:00 | 1,559,329,260 | 1,567,539,509 | environment | climate change |
223,775 | freedombunker--2019-12-03--‘What They Haven’t Told You About Climate Change’ – According to the Co-Founder of Greenpeace | 2019-12-03T00:00:00 | freedombunker | ‘What They Haven’t Told You About Climate Change’ – According to the Co-Founder of Greenpeace | Mainstream media outlets and political organizations have been predicting doom and gloom, what seems to be end of the world type of scenarios when they bring up the topic of global warming and climate change. This type of perception is something humanity has been experiencing for decades, just take a look at this press release from 1989, which explained how United Nations officials predicted that entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth if the global warming trend was not reversed by the year 2000, it’s just one of many examples. Furthermore, anybody who seems to question the official narrative of this issue that’s constantly pushed by mainstream media is made out to be a fool, and ridicule shortly ensues. Climate scientists have been ridiculed for even sharing their research and opinions suggesting that a doom and gloom scenario is not real, and that the issue of climate change is quite complex, and that man’s CO2 output is not playing the role that most have been made to believe it plays. Based on my research, there are many academics, researchers and environmental activists who are not buying the official narrative that’s been dished out by politicians for a very long time now. We are told that the majority of climate scientists agree, but that doesn’t seem to be the case as, again, there are many who are emphasizing that C02 is not really a dominant factor, and that there are a myriad of other considerations when it comes to the climate of Earth one must consider. Why are they doing this? Clearly, the ‘science is not settled.’ We Need To Clean Up Our Planet, Big Time Our planet is no doubt in need of great environmental care. Species extinction, deforestation and pollution are at an all time high. The air quality on planet Earth is embarrassing, and our planet needs a big time clean up/restoration attempt. All of these are not due to CO2, but rather due to industry, the dumping of toxic waste, pesticides, and much more. These are what we should be focusing on, not a carbon tax. What’s even more frustrating is that it’s not a matter of finding solutions, they’re already there, it’s a matter of overcoming elitist agendas, human greed and ego. It seems that a carbon tax is simply being used to put more profit into the hands of the global elite. Imagine if we spent as much time coming up with ways to clean up our oceans, develop new energy technology, stoping deforestation and animal agriculture, passing laws that make packaging without biodegradable substances illegal, and much more rather than simply focusing on C02. A lot more would get done. I go more in depth on C02 and why I believe it should not be the main focus when it comes to environmental awareness. Again, just to reiterate, we are big time environmental activists, but we simply feel the important issues are not given as much attention as the intention behind C02 reduction is not to benefit the planet, but to benefit rich people who really have no concern for our planet. Below is a video of Dr. Patrick Moore explaining some of his thoughts on the phenomenon. Dr. Patrick Moore has been a leader in the international environmental field for over 30 years. He is a founding member of Greenpeace and served for nine years as President of Greenpeace Canada and seven years as a Director of Greenpeace International. As the leader of many campaigns Dr. Moore was a driving force shaping policy and direction while Greenpeace became the world’s largest environmental activist organization. People like Patrick are often criticized by the mainstream media. As I do with everyone else, I suggest you listen to what is being said, look it up, and focus on the information instead of character assassination attempts. That being said, Moore also claimed that Glyphosate was completely safe and not harmful to humans. This is something we completely disagree with, he also seems to be a supporter of Genetically Modified Foods, something we do not support either. In fact, it was surprising to me to look into what he’s said about these two topics, and quite a head scratcher. In fact, we wrote about his ,what now clearly appear to be false/misinformed, comments on Glyphosate when he made them. You can read that article here. We clearly do not agree with Moore on many topics, like the ones listed above, but that doesn’t mean he is working for corporations, or is completely misinformed. There is a division of opinion on a myriad of topics today, and again, it’s best to look at what’s being said and fact checking it ourselves instead of simply reverting to character assassination. When we looked and examined his comments on Glyphosate and GMO foods, we found them to be false. When we look at his comments regarding climate change, we find them to be valid or at least worthy of consideration. We completely disregard judgement and simply examine the claims being made, something we encourage more people to do. One thing is for certain, our right to explore and examine information openly and freely should not be taken away and censored. I took a lot of information that I compiled in a recent article I wrote regarding Greta Thunberg, titled Greta Thunberg Wants You To Be Scared & Big Business Will Make A Killing off It, and pasted it below. But I didn’t go into Greta, who seems to be a good hearted young activist who really cares about the planet. If you want to go more in-depth, I suggest you read the article linked above as the information below is already in it, and a little more. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a natural and beneficial constituent of the atmosphere. By volume percentage, 99% of dry air is nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%). Most of the rest is argon (0.93%), with carbon dioxide amounting to only 0.04%, but slowly increasing. Even smaller amounts of other gases, neon, helium, methane etc., make up the remainder. Atmospheric CO2 is a key to life on earth, this is because plants use sunlight to combine CO2 molecules from the air with H2O molecules to make carbohydrates (for example, sugar) and other organic compounds. In the process, oxygen molecules (O2) are released to the atmosphere. At CO2 levels less than 150 ppm (parts per million), most plants stop growing. Over most of the history of multicellular life on earth, CO2 levels have been three or four times higher than present levels. Current CO2 levels of 400 ppm are still much less than optimum for most plant growth. Air also contains water vapor (H2O), from as much as 7% in the humid tropics to less than 1% on a cold winter day. Human exhaled breath typically contains 4% to 5% CO2 and about 6% H2O.Water vapor, The climate is changing, and it has been changing for a very long time. In fact, the climate has always been changing, and there are a myriad of factors that influence climate change like solar activity and much more. If you’re not educated on climate science, it’s easy to adopt the “doomsday” perspective that’s often dished out by mainstream media. However, when you look at what actual climate scientists are saying, it doesn’t seem like anyone on either side agrees with the media’s “climate hysteria” narrative. The main argument among those who ascribe to the hysteria perspective is that CO2 levels are the highest they’ve ever been since we started to record them, currently sitting at approximately 415 parts per million (ppm). It’s not like climate scientists disagree on the idea that C02 causes some warming of our atmosphere, that seems to be a fact that’s firmly established in scientific literature. But what’s never mentioned is the fact that CO2 levels have been significantly higher than what they are now; in fact, CO2 levels have been in the thousands of ppm and Earth’s temperature has been much warmer than it is now. The idea that human CO2 emissions are responsible for shifts and changes in climate is not scientifically valid, yet policy initiatives that do nothing for our environment are being produced and put forward, putting large sums of money in the pockets of some very powerful people. CO2 causing a temperature increase is the backbone of the global warming argument, but does CO2 even cause the temperature to increase, or does an increase in temperature cause a rise in C02? William Happer, American physicist and the Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics, Emeritus, at Princeton University, is one of what seems to be thousands of academics to go unheard by the mainstream media who shares the same perspective: He also pointed out the major ice ages in Earth’s past when C02 levels were also extremely high, much higher than they are now, and did so to show how the correlation between C02 and temperature is “not all that good.” In their paper on the Vostok Ice Core, Petit et al (1999), they show how CO2 lags temperature during the onset of glaciations by several thousands of years, but offer no explanation. They also observe that CH4 and CO2 are not perfectly aligned with each other, but offer no explanation. The significance is that temperature may influence C02 amounts. At the onset of glaciations, temperature drops to glacial values before CO2 begins to fall, suggesting that CO2 has little influence on temperature modulation at these times as well. Since 1999, this theory has been discussed in numerous scientific papers, but not one shred of evidence exists to confirm that a CO2 increase causes ‘extreme warming.’ Another quote stressing this point: A number of times, Lindzen and many others have been quite outspoken regarding the conclusions of this document that are drawn by politicians, not scientists. There will be more on that later in the article. According to Dr. Leslie Woodcock, emeritus professor at the University of Manchester (UK) School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, is a former NASA scientist: In the IPCC documents, we can see how tenuous the link between climate change and CO2 emissions are, specifically in their findings titled ‘Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis.’ Here was one of their recommendations: If we go back to the 1995 2nd Assessment Report of the UN IPCC, we can see how much the agenda overshadowed and muted the actual science. The scientists included these three statements in the draft: • “None of the studies cited above has shown clear evidence that we can attribute the observed (climate) changes to the specific cause of increases in greenhouse gases.” • “No study to date has positively attributed all or part (of observed climate change) to anthropogenic (i.e. man-made) causes.” • “Any claims of positive detection of significant climate change are likely to remain controversial until uncertainties in the natural variability of the climate system are reduced.” The “Summary” and conclusion statement of the IPCC report was written by politicians, not scientists. The rules force the ‘scientists’ to change their reports to match the politicians’ final ‘Summary.’ Those three statements by ‘scientists’ above were replaced with this: In 1988, NASA scientist James Hansen told the US Senate that the summer’s warmth reflected increased carbon dioxide levels. Even Science magazine reported that the climatologists were skeptical. The ‘Green New Deal (The Sunrise Movement) is already being adopted in the US, 104 members of Congress, and three of the four frontrunners for the Democratic nomination next year have endorsed it. The legislation promises to cut carbon emissions to zero by 2050 and gives the government large amounts of control over healthcare, wealth redistribution, transport, food production and housing. This movement has it’s roots in the financial elite, a bunch of neoliberal think-tanks and financiers. This isn’t about the planet, it’s about money, period. Climate change is no different than using ‘the war on terror’ to create patriotism and to drive the population into accepting measures that hurt them, not benefit them. These ‘fear’ narratives are completely fake. We saw the same thing with Al-Qaeda: In the 1980s, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund became the sole authority of the global warming agenda. The fund boasts of being one of the first major global activists by citing its strong advocacy for both the 1988 formation of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the 1992 creation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. You can access the full report here. It was published by the Energy & Environmental Legal Institute in 2016. What About The Other Side of The Coin? A 2013 study in Environmental Research Letters claimed that 97% of climate scientists agreed with the ‘humans changing the climate’ narrative in 12,000 academic papers that contained the words “global warming” or “global climate change” from 1991 to 2011. Not long ago, that paper hit 1m downloads, making it the most accessed paper ever among the 80+ journals published by the Institute of Physics (as Lindzen mentions above, many of these papers are being published by scientists outside of climate physics), according to the authors. A recent article that presents more scientific studies was published in the Guardian, titled ‘No Doubt Left About Scientific Consensus on Global Warming, say experts.’ But is this true? Do “97 percent of scientists” really agree as is so often promoted by the mainstream media? This is a deep topic and there are many points to make. Here’s a great video by Alex Epstein, founder of the Center for Industrial Progress for Prager University, explaining the 97 percent myth and where it came from. Obviously, there is an ongoing debate surrounding climate change, and many people still think something fishy is going on here. It’s similar to the vaccines argument, or a host of other issues that never receive any attention from the mainstream media. Instead of presenting the concerns of scientists from the other side, or the side often labelled ‘skeptics,’ these scientists are often heavily ridiculed by mainstream media. A great example is this dialogue, which is quite old now, between Lindzen and Bill Nye. It’s not hard to see that Nye has no idea what he is talking about, and he’s simply being used because, at that time, he had a large following. The reason why so many people are unaware of the arguments made by climate ‘skeptics’ is because their points are never presented by mainstream media in the same way the other side’s are. The media controls the minds of the masses, but thankfully this is changing. We are not denying climate change, we are simply presenting the evidence showing that climate change has been happening for a long time, and that human CO2 output doesn’t seem to play a significant role at all, and that this is simply being used for profit, control, and to take more ‘power’ away from the people and put it into the hands of politicians and the global financial elite. This is not about the planet. We here at CE care deeply about our planet and creating harmony on it. Since we were founded in 2009, we’ve been creating massive amounts of awareness regarding clean energy technologies and the harmful industries polluting and destroying our planet. The issue is not with finding solutions, we already have those for the most part, the issue is with the systems we have that prevent these solutions from ever seeing the light of day. In fact, we have been heavily involved with multiple clean energy projects and assisting them in coming into fruition. Opposing the ‘doom and gloom’ global warming narrative does not mean we do not care for our environment; in fact, it’s quite the opposite. We feel that politicians meeting every single year for the past few decades have done absolutely nothing to clean up our planet, and instead have been coming up with ways to simply make money off of green technology that cuts CO2 emissions. If the people in power, with all of their resources, really wanted to change the planet, it would have happened by now. While our focus is on CO2, not nearly enough attention and resources are going into re-planting our planet, cleaning up our fresh water lakes and oceans, and changing our manufacturing habits to cause less waste and less pollution. If anything, this should be our main focus, especially when it’s not really clear that C02 is an issue. Environmental and species protection should be our first priority, but it’s not. I believe this green revolution is a distraction and, in many ways, further harms our environment by taking our focus off of what’s really important and putting it on something that is not impacting our planet in a negative way. The post ‘What They Haven’t Told You About Climate Change’ – According to the Co-Founder of Greenpeace appeared first on LewRockwell. | No Author | http://freedombunker.com/2019/12/02/what-they-havent-told-you-about-climate-change-according-to-the-co-founder-of-greenpeace/ | Tue, 03 Dec 2019 04:01:00 +0000 | 1,575,363,660 | 1,575,376,844 | environment | climate change |
227,670 | globalresearch--2019-01-29--A Revision of Future Climate Change Trends | 2019-01-29T00:00:00 | globalresearch | A Revision of Future Climate Change Trends | As the Earth continues to heat, paleoclimate evidence suggests transient reversals will result in accentuating the temperature polarities, leading to increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events. Pleistocene paleoclimate records indicate interglacial temperature peaks have been are consistently succeeded by transient stadial freeze events, such as the Younger Dryas and the 8.5 kyr-old Laurentide ice melt, attributed to cold ice melt water flow from the polar ice sheets into the North Atlantic Ocean. The paleoclimate evidence raises questions regarding the mostly linear to curved future climate model trajectories proposed for the 21st century and beyond, not marked by tipping points. However, early stages of a stadial event are manifest by a weakening of the North Atlantic overturning circulation and the build-up of a large pool of cold water south and east of Greenland and along the fringes of Western Antarctica. Comparisons with climates of the early Holocene Warm Period and the Eemian interglacial when global temperatures were about +1oC higher than late Holocene levels. The probability of a future stadial event bears major implications for modern and future climate change trends, including transient cooling of continental regions fringing the Atlantic Ocean, an increase in temperature polarities between polar and tropical zones across the globe, and thereby an increase in storminess, which need to be taken into account in planning global warming adaptation efforts. Reports of the International Panel of Climate Change (IPCC[1]), based on thousands of peer reviewed science papers and reports, offer a confident documentation of past and present processes in the atmosphere[2], including future model projections (Figure 1). When it comes to estimates of future ice melt and sea level change rates, however, these models contain a number of significant departures from observations based on the paleoclimate evidence, from current observations and from likely future projections. This includes departures in terms of climate change feedbacks from land and water, ice melt rates, temperature trajectories, sea level rise rates, methane release rates, the role of fires, and observed onset of transient stadial (freeze) events[3]. Early stages of stadial event/s are manifest by the build-up of a large pool of cold water in the North Atlantic Ocean south of Greenland and along the fringes of the Antarctic continent (Figure 2). Figure 1.Time series of global annual mean surface air temperature anomalies relative to 1986–2005 from CMIP5 (Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project) concentration-driven experiments. Projections are shown for each RCP for the multi model mean (solid lines) and the 5–95% range (±1.64 standard deviation) across the distribution of individual models (shading).[4] Hansen et al. (2016) (Figure 2) used paleoclimate data and modern observations to estimate the effects of ice melt water from Greenland and Antarctica, showing cold low-density meltwater tend to cap increasingly warm subsurface ocean water, affecting an increase ice shelf melting, accelerating ice sheet mass loss (Figure 3) and slowing of deep water formation (Figure 4). Ice mass loss would raise sea level by several meters in an exponential rather than linear response, with doubling time of ice loss of 10, 20 or 40 years yielding multi-meter sea level rise in about 50, 100 or 200 years. Linear to curved temperature trends portrayed by the IPCC to the year 2300 (Figure 1) are rare in the Pleistocene paleo-climate record, which abrupt include warming and cooling variations during both glacial (Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles; Ganopolski and Rahmstorf 2001[5]; Camille and Born, 2019[6]) and interglacial (Cortese et al. 2007[7]) periods. Hansen et al.’s (2016) model includes sharp drops in temperature, reflecting stadial freezing events in the Atlantic Ocean and the sub-Antarctic Ocean and their surrounds, reaching -2oC over several decades (Figure 5). Figure 2. 2055-2100 surface-air temperature to +1.19oC above 1880-1920 (AIB model modified forcing, ice melt to 1 meter) (Hansen et al. 2016)[8] Figure 3.Greenland and Antarctic ice mass change. GRACE data are extension of Velicogna et al. (2014)[9]gravity data. MBM (mass budget method) data are from Rignot et al. (2011)[10].Red curves are gravity data for Greenland and Antarctica only; small Arctic ice caps and ice shelf melt add to freshwater input.[11] Figure 4. AMOC (Sverdrup[12]) at 28◦ N in simulations (i.e., including freshwater injection of 720 Gt year−1 in 2011 around Antarctica, increasing with a 10-year doubling time, and half that amount around Greenland). (b) SST (◦C) in the North Atlantic region (44–60◦ N, 10–50◦ W). Temperature and sea level rise relations during the Eemian interglacial[13]about 115-130 kyr ago, when temperatures were about +1oC or higher than during the late stage of the Holocene, and sea levels were +6 to +9 m higher than at present, offer an analogy for present developments. During the Eemian overall cooling of the North Atlantic Ocean and parts of the West Antarctic fringe ocean due to ice melt led to increased temperature polarities and to storminess[14], underpinning the danger of global temperature rise to +1.5oC. Accelerating ice melt and nonlinear sea level rise would reach several meters over a timescale of 50–150 years (Hansen et al. 2016) Figure 5.Global surface-air temperature to the year 2300 in the North Atlantic and Southern Oceans, including stadial freeze events as a function of Greenland and Antarctic ice melt doubling time Portents of collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Ocean Circulation (AMOC) The development of large cold water pools south and east of Greenland (Rahmstorf et al. 2015[15]) and at the fringe of West Antarctica (Figures 1 and 5) signify early stages in the development of a stadial, consistent with the decline in the Atlantic Meridional Ocean Circulation (AMOC) (Figure 4). These projections differ markedly from linear model trends (Figure 1). IPCC models mainly assume long term ice melt[16], stating “For the 21st century, we expect that surface mass balance changes will dominate the volume response of both ice sheets (Greenland and Antarctica). A key question is whether ice-dynamical mechanisms could operate which would enhance ice discharge sufficiently to have an appreciable additional effect on sea level rise”[17]The IPCC conclusion is difficult to reconcile with studies by Rignot et al. (2011) reporting that in 2006 the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets experienced a combined mass loss of 475 ± 158 Gt/yr, equivalent to 1.3 ± 0.4 mm/yr sea level rise.”[18]. For the Antarctic ice sheet the IEMB team (2017) states the sheet lost 2,720 ± 1,390 billion tonnes of ice between 1992 and 2017, which corresponds to an increase in mean sea level of 7.6 ± 3.9 millimeter[19] A non-linear climate warming trend, including stadial freeze events, bears significant implications for planning future adaptation efforts, including preparations for transient deep freeze events in parts of Western Europe and eastern North America, for periods lasting several decades (Figure 5) and coastal defenses against enhanced storminess arising from increased temperature contrasts between the cooled regions and warm tropical latitudes. Climate model projections for the 21stto 23rdcenturies need to take paleoclimate evidence more fully into account, including the transient stadial effects of ice melt water flow into the oceans and amplifying feedbacks of global warming from land and oceans. Radiative forcing[20], increasing with concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases and rising by about 0.04 Watt/m2/year over the last 50 years[21], totaled by more than 2 Watt/m2, equivalent to ~3.0°C (~1.5°C per W/m2)[22]. The rise of mean global temperatures to date by 0.9°C since 1880[23]therefore represents lag effect, pointing to potential temperature rise by approximately two degrees Celsius. A further rise in global temperatures would be enhanced by amplifying feedbacks from land and oceans, including exposure of water surfaces following sea ice melting, reduction of CO concentration in water, release of methane and fires. Climate change trajectories would be highly irregular as a result of stadial events affected by flow of ice melt water into the oceans. Whereas similar temperature fluctuations and stadial events occurred during past interglacial periods (Cortese et al. 2007[24]; Figure 6), when temperature fluctuations were close to ~1oC, further rises in temperature in future would enhance the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, entering uncharted territory unlike any recorded during the Pleistocene, rendering large parts of the continents uninhabitable. Figure 6. A. Evolution of sea surface temperatures in 5 glacial-interglacial transitions recorded in ODP 1089 at the sub-Antarctic Atlantic Ocean. Lower grey lines – δ18O measured on Cibicidoides plankton; Black lines – sea surface temperature. Marine isotope stage numbers are indicated on top of diagrams. Note the stadial temperature drop events following interglacial peak temperatures, analogous to the Younger Dryas preceding the onset of the Holocene (Cortese et al. 2007[25]).B. Mean temperatures for the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. Note to readers: please click the share buttons above. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. Dr Andrew Glikson, Earth and Paleo-climate science, Australia National University (ANU) School of Anthropology and Archaeology, ANU Planetary Science Institute, ANU Climate Change Institute, Honorary Associate Professor, Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence, University of Queensland. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research. [12] Sverdrup:Unit of flow – 1 Sv equal to 1,000,000 cubic metres per second [20] Radiative forcing – the difference between incoming radiation and radiation reflected back to space | Dr. Andrew Glikson | https://www.globalresearch.ca/a-revision-of-future-climate-change-trends/5666786 | 2019-01-29 04:35:39+00:00 | 1,548,754,539 | 1,567,550,349 | environment | climate change |
232,672 | greenwichtime--2019-10-10--Audubon study: Climate change to destabilize hundreds of bird populations | 2019-10-10T00:00:00 | greenwichtime | Audubon study: Climate change to destabilize hundreds of bird populations | After a report went viral in September that North America has lost nearly 2 million birds, new data released Thursday from the society finds that these numbers will only increase if no action is taken to reduce the human activity impacting climate change. The effects of climate change threaten extinction for hundreds of birds in North America, according to the study, “Survival by Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink.” But if people and policy makers take steps to mitigate the effects of climate change to keep down global temperatures, about 76 percent of these at-risk birds could be saved, the report states. “The lack of bird song in the 1950s alerted us to the dangers of the pesticide DDT,” Corrie Folsom-O’Keefe, director of bird conservation for Audubon Connecticut said. “Now birds are forewarning us of the impacts of climate change, from increased storm frequency and intensity to sea level rise.” Bringing together 140 million observations from bird-lovers and biologists over the last five years, Audubon scientists studied 604 North American bird species and how their habitat range would change geographically based on different warming patterns. Birds were determined vulnerable if the amount of habitat they would lose, due to rising sea levels, deforestation, urbanization, heavy rains and/or increased fires, would be greater than the habitat they would gain by flying and settling elsewhere. Audubon also launched a zip code-based Audubon’s Birds and Climate Visualizer, which people can use to see how the birds in their area could be impacted. “Audubon’s new report emphasizes that climate change is local, it is personal, and it will require visionary and fast-moving action to achieve a more favorable future for birds and people,” Tavares said. The scientists behind “Survival by Degrees” based their calculations on three models put forth by the 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for 1.5, 2 and 3 degrees Celsius of global warming. An increase of 1.5 degrees represents action taken to reduce the warming, while 3 degrees represents a conservative estimate of how much the Earth would warm if no action is taken, said Ana Paula Tavares, executive director of Audubon Connecticut. In Connecticut specifically, species that are most threatened by a combination of climate change and climate-related threats under 3 degrees C of warming include the Brown Thrasher, Eastern Towhee, Scarlet Tanager, Wood Thrush and Saltmarsh Sparrow. Seventy-one species total are climate-vulnerable in summer under this scenario. At the highest warming scenario of 3 degrees C, 305 bird species face three or more climate-related impacts. In 2014, Audubon published its first Birds and Climate Change Report. The study showed that more than half of the bird species in North America could lose at least half of their current ranges by 2080 due to rising temperatures. Audubon’s new findings are more expanded, and more precise: Where the closest users could zoom in on the first interactive impact map was to 10 square kilometers, users can now drill down to one square kilometer — literally down to people’s neighborhoods and backyards, Tavares said. With Audubon New York, Audubon Connecticut is working to conserve 200,000 acres of northeastern forest, 5,000 acres of salt marsh and 5,000 acres of beach and island habitat, Tavares said. “We invite everyone to join us in this effort,” she said. “We need conservation champions to act and inspire to others to act now and act boldly. There is great hope for the future if we act now.” Conserving forested land will help sequester carbon emissions, control flooding and protect watersheds, she said. In Connecticut, the society is training foresters in bird-friendly forest management, so they can work with private landowners, who own the large majority of the state’s forested areas, Folsom-O’Keefe said. To scale this effort up, the society is working on training and endorsing foresters so that they can engage larger audiences than the society’s staff could do alone, she said. Additionally, the society is developing a forest-bird certification program that will work with large organizations, Folsom-O’Keefe said. Landowners and organizations can apply to be certified for having bird-friendly practices that meet certain requirements for being beneficial to birds and their habitats. Audubon Connecticut also is urging state lawmakers to developing legislation to support coastal communities, which will be the first to feel the impacts of climate change, and to support the development of wind and solar energy sources. | By Jo Kroeker | https://www.greenwichtime.com/local/article/Audubon-study-Climate-change-to-destabilize-14510114.php | Thu, 10 Oct 2019 23:00:00 UT | 1,570,762,800 | 1,570,841,945 | environment | climate change |
237,173 | hitandrun--2019-12-01--Climate Change: How Lucky Do You Feel? | 2019-12-01T00:00:00 | hitandrun | Climate Change: How Lucky Do You Feel? | "The age of climate panic is here," declared David Wallace-Wells, author of The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming (Tim Duggan Books), in a February 2019 New York Times op-ed. He's certainly right about the panic. University of Cumbria Professor of Sustainability Leadership Jem Bendell predicts that man-made climate change will result in a "collapse in society" in about 10 years. Novelist Jonathan Franzen has warned that it will soon produce "massive crop failures, apocalyptic fires, imploding economies, epic flooding, hundreds of millions of refugees fleeing regions made uninhabitable by extreme heat or permanent drought." Are they right? My first article in Reason related to global warming appeared in 1992. It was a report on the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was negotiated. By signing the treaty, I noted, the "United States is officially buying into the notion that 'global warming' is a serious environmental problem" even as "more and more scientific evidence accumulates showing that the threat of global warming is overblown." But in subsequent decades, as I continued to cover the science and policy of global warming, I began slowly—too slowly for some—to change my mind. In 2006, I wrote that "I now believe that balance of evidence shows that global warming could well be a significant problem." I have spent the last several months revisiting the question, trying to figure out if the current level of "climate panic" is scientifically justified. The earth is indeed warming. Climate researchers uncontroversially agree that the average global surface temperature has increased by about 1 degree Celsius since the 19th century. About half of that increase has occurred during the last 30 years. As the planet has warmed, mountain glaciers around the world have been shrinking, Arctic sea ice has been declining, rainstorms have become somewhat fiercer, the area affected by extreme droughts has been expanding, the amount of heat being absorbed by the world's oceans has been increasing, and the global sea level has been rising. Past those points of scientific consensus, intense disputes begin straightaway. Researchers disagree about how much of the warming can be attributed to increases in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. They clash over which temperature records are more accurate with respect to how fast the earth is warming. They debate whether or not the sea level is rising at an accelerated rate that threatens to inundate many of the world's biggest cities. And they argue about whether the predictions generated by complicated climate computer models can be trusted enough to guide policy. I have unhappily concluded, based on the balance of the evidence, that climate change is proceeding faster and is worse than I had earlier judged it to be. There are still big scientific uncertainties, such as just how sensitive the global climate is to a given increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. And the proper public policy remains far from clear. Still, most of the evidence points toward a significantly warmer world by the end of the century—probably more than 2 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial level. Such a temperature increase will definitely have substantial impacts on human beings. (For a more detailed review of current climate science, visit reason.com/climatedata.) Man-made climate change is a global open-access commons problem. Since no one owns the atmosphere, no one has the incentive to expend effort protecting it from plundering. The "tragedy of the commons" occurs because every individual has an incentive to use the unowned resource before someone else does. The result is overconsumption, underinvestment, and ultimately depletion of the resource. This is happening around the world as many fisheries are declining, tropical forests shrinking, water shortages spreading, and rivers and airsheds growing more polluted. In this case, the resource being depleted is a (more or less) stable global climate. It's time for market-oriented folks to recognize these facts and figure out the best way to handle them. If we don't offer solutions to the public, the only ones on the table will be those proposed by people who misunderstand economic principles or are unfriendly to market capitalism. In an October Yale Climate Connections podcast, the Case Western Reserve University law professor (and Volokh Conspiracy blogger) Jonathan Adler explained it well. "A lot of the expected and predictable consequences of climate change are things that we recognize to be violations of property rights and have recognized as violations of property rights for centuries," he said. "If we accept that climate change is a problem, [and] if we accept that it's causing the sorts of rights violations that libertarians normally think justify government intervention, that should shift our discussion from whether there's a case for government intervention to what type of intervention and how do we maximize the likelihood that that intervention produces the sorts of results that we're trying to get." There are three ways to handle overexploitation in an open-access commons: privatize it, regulate it, or ignore it. All of those choices are inherently political decisions. "The science" does not tell us what must be done. Most economists generally think of climate change resulting from the emission of greenhouse gases as a "negative externality." These occur when production and/or consumption of a good or service imposes uncompensated costs on third parties. Nobelist Ronald Coase showed years ago that when there are well-defined property rights and minimal transaction costs, the party creating an externality and the party affected by the externality can negotiate with each other to bring about the socially optimal market quantity—in this case, a mutually agreeable level of emissions that takes into consideration the environmental harm being done without stopping economic growth and development. In addition, Coase found, it does not matter who holds the property rights, as long as someone does. In the case of carbon dioxide emissions, the lack of assigned property rights in the atmosphere forestalls the sort of market transactions that balance costs with benefits. The price an individual pays for electricity for his home or gasoline for his car includes the monetary costs to extract, refine, and transport those fossil fuels—but it does not include the environmental costs of burning them. In a functioning market, users are obliged to internalize (i.e., pay for) the environmental costs they impose on others. Europe's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) represents a kind of atmospheric privatization effort. Under the ETS, private companies are allocated tradable permits authorizing them to emit a ton of carbon dioxide for each allowance. Companies that can be productive while emitting less carbon sell their extra permits to other firms that find it more costly to make emissions cuts. The aim of the ETS is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, so the number of permits declines over time. Recent research suggests, however, that the ETS has so far been only modestly effective at encouraging emissions reductions. It seems European political authorities allocated so many permits that prices have remained too low to prompt much cutting by emitters. Another way to try to put a price on the external costs of carbon dioxide emissions is to impose a carbon tax. In January 2019, nearly 3,600 economists endorsed the "Economists' Statement on Carbon Dividends," which explicitly supported such a plan. "A carbon tax will send a powerful price signal that harnesses the invisible hand of the marketplace to steer economic actors towards a low-carbon future," the group declared. It "will encourage technological innovation and large-scale infrastructure development" while accelerating the spread "of carbon-efficient goods and services." A huge plus for a carbon tax is that it would replace the current host of onerous and more costly top-down regulations and subsidies aimed at reducing emissions. Moreover, the revenue from the tax could "be returned directly to U.S. citizens," the economists wrote, "through equal lump-sum rebates. The majority of American families would benefit by receiving more in 'carbon dividends' than they pay in increased energy prices." Under the carbon dividend proposal, the tax would increase predictably over time. But economist Robert Litterman, the former head of risk management at Goldman Sachs, argues that the possibility of very unhappy surprises occurring as climate change proceeds over the course of the century constitutes an "undiversifiable risk" that should command a high risk premium. Consequently, Litterman's analysis suggests that an initially high (but revenue-neutral) carbon tax that declines as climate uncertainties are resolved would a better way to mitigate climate risk. In February 2019, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.) introduced a resolution urging Congress to adopt the Green New Deal (GND), a sweeping plan to totally remake the American economy to address the climate crisis. The GND sets the goal of "meeting 100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources" by 2030. Three of the leading Democratic candidates for president—Sens. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.), and Kamala Harris (D–Calif.)—have endorsed the GND resolution, and each has proposed spending trillions of dollars over the next 10 years to implement comprehensive proposals addressing the problem of climate change. These include such steps as "dramatically expanding and upgrading renewable power sources," building "'smart' power grids," overhauling the U.S. transportation system by subsidizing electric-powered vehicles and public transit systems, and "upgrading all existing buildings in the United States and building new buildings to achieve maximum energy efficiency." One obvious problem with the GND is its assertion, without evidence, that tackling climate change requires, among other things, guaranteeing every American a job with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations, retirement security, and the right to unionize, plus access to high-quality health care and affordable housing. But the effectiveness of even the climate-related aspects of the GND is dubious. For example, in a 2017 study, Swiss researchers calculated that a carbon tax rebated to taxpayers would cut the same amount of carbon dioxide emissions at about one-fifth the cost of the sort of top-down, command-and-control regulations and subsidies envisaged by the GND. A more defensible suggestion would involve government support for new technologies that reduce emissions. "The paramount goal of climate policy should be to make the unsubsidized cost of clean energy cheaper than fossil fuels so that all countries deploy clean energy because it makes economic sense," the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation argued in a 2014 report. Instead of rushing to deploy current expensive and inefficient low-carbon energy production methods, the ITIF researchers recommended that governments spend $70 billion annually on research and development seeking technological breakthroughs aimed at achieving dramatic cost reductions for nuclear power, carbon capture, fuel cells, smart grid technologies, electric vehicles, solar photovoltaics, wind power, and other forms of energy efficiency. A downside of such a tech-push strategy is that energy breakthroughs are often unpredictable and governments don't have a great track record of seeing into the future. They also may not materialize fast enough to ameliorate the problems caused by climate change. The basic premise of most climate agreements is that to prevent temperatures from increasing to possibly dangerous levels, all the countries of the world would have to agree to—and then abide by—a plan to dramatically cut their emissions. But this is probably both politically and economically unachievable. According to the nonprofit Climate Analytics group, if all countries meet all of their current pledges under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the average global temperature in the year 2100 would still increase by 3 degrees Celsius. In October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued Global Warming of 1.5 °C, a document that has come to be known as the Doomsday Report. It found that the world would have to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 40 to 50 percent by 2030 and entirely eliminate such emissions by 2050 in order to keep the global average temperature from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100. What would be gained by making such steep immediate cuts in emissions? Citing the results of integrated assessment models that combine climate and econometric data, the report noted, "Under the no-policy baseline scenario, temperature rises by 3.66°C by 2100, resulting in a global gross domestic product (GDP) loss of 2.6%." Meanwhile, under a 1.5 degree scenario, GDP would be reduced by 0.3 percent, and under a 2 degree scenario it would be reduced by 0.5 percent. Different models come up with different estimates, and the IPCC noted that 3.66 degrees of warming could possibly reduce global GDP by anywhere from 0.5 percent to 8.2 percent. In other words, if humanity does nothing whatsoever to abate greenhouse gas emissions, the worst-case scenario is that global GDP in 2100 would be 8.2 percent lower than it would otherwise be. Let's make those GDP numbers concrete. Assuming no climate change and a global real growth rate of 3 percent per year for the next 81 years, today's $80 trillion economy would grow to just under $880 trillion by 2100. World population is expected to peak at around 9 billion, so divvying up the total suggests that global average income would come to about $98,000 per person. Today, in comparison, that number is just $11,300. Under the worst-case scenario, global GDP would be $810 trillion, and average income would be $90,000 per person. Folks two generations from now will be about eight times richer, giving them more wealth and better technologies with which to cope with the problems stemming from a much warmer planet. Of course, any calculation projecting economic and climate outcomes nearly a century hence needs to be taken with a vat of salt. We can't be sure exactly what will happen—but there is a case for letting global warming run its course and letting markets figure out how to respond. Continued economic growth and technological progress would surely help future generations to handle many—even most—of the problems caused by climate change. At the same time, the speed and severity at which the earth now appears to be warming make the wait-and-see approach increasingly risky. Will climate change be apocalyptic? Probably not, but the possibility is not zero. So just how lucky do you feel? Frankly, after reviewing the scientific evidence, I'm not feeling nearly as lucky as I once did. For more detailed climate change and temperature trend analysis, please visit reason.com/climatedata. | Ronald Bailey ([email protected]) | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reason/HitandRun/~3/R6WNjOc-sY4/ | 2019-12-01T11:00:02Z | 1,575,216,002 | 1,575,310,527 | environment | climate change |
312,912 | mercurynews--2019-04-22--How climate change widens gap between haves and have-nots | 2019-04-22T00:00:00 | mercurynews | How climate change widens gap between haves and have-nots | Climate change is widening the world’s gap between the haves and have-nots, worsening economic inequality between rich and poor countries, according to a new analysis by Stanford scientists. The difference between the economic output of the world’s cool wealthy nations and hot struggling nations is 25 percent larger today than it would have been without global warming, according to researchers Noah Diffenbaugh and Marshall Burke. “Our results show that most of the poorest countries on Earth are considerably poorer than they would have been without global warming,” said climate scientist Diffenbaugh. “At the same time, the majority of rich countries are richer than they would have been.” Much of the debate over climate change focuses on future risks of flooding and other disasters. But this analysis, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows the price that many countries have already paid. Previous work found that during warm years, northern nations like Norway, Sweden and Iceland get an economic boost, while tropical and subtropical nations like India, Nigeria and Brazil suffer from slowed productivity. The new study takes a much broader and longer look at the impact of climate change. Although economic inequality between countries has decreased in recent decades, the gap would have narrowed faster without the problem, according to the research, Agriculture explains much of the difference. In cool regions, warming lengthens the growing season and allows a greater diversity of crop species. In warm regions, heat reduces yield of commodity crops like corn, soybeans and wheat. But there are other contributors. Cool nations need to spend less money on energy to stay warm, while warm nations spend more money to stay cool. “Labor productivity declines when temperatures are high, “said Diffenbaugh. “There’s a decline in cognitive performance, as proven by student performance on standardized tests. There’s greater interpersonal conflict.” The research combines two approaches: A statistical analysis of the impact of temperature fluctuations on economic growth and 20 climate models created by research centers around the world and used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which advises the world’s governments under the auspices of the United Nations. The team calculated that what each country’s economic output might have been had temperatures not warmed. For any particular nation, the annual impact is small, said Diffenbaugh. “But it is like a retirement account,’ he said. “Small differences in what’s contributed 30, 40 or 50 years ago compounds, and creates a big differences in what is available when you retire.” For instance, India’s GDP — the aggregate value of the economy’s goods and services – is about 30 percent lower today than it would have been if there hadn’t been global warming, they found. While the biggest emitters enjoy on average about 10 percent higher per capita GDP today than they would have in a world without warming, the lowest emitters have been dragged down by about 25 percent. Such a drag “is on par with the decline in economic output seen in the U.S. during the Great Depression,” said Burke, Stanford assistant professor of Earth system science. “It’s a huge loss compared to where these countries would have been otherwise,” he said. | Lisa M. Krieger | https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/04/22/how-climate-change-widens-gap-between-haves-and-have-nots/ | 2019-04-22 19:50:39+00:00 | 1,555,977,039 | 1,567,542,136 | environment | climate change |
334,175 | naturalnews--2019-01-19--Climate change on Earth is significantly impacted by solar activity profound new study confirms | 2019-01-19T00:00:00 | naturalnews | Climate change on Earth is "significantly" impacted by solar activity, profound new study confirms | (Natural News) Fluctuations in the sun’s activity may hold clues to the tangible changes in the planet Earth’s climate, Swiss scientists found. Research funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation indicated that human-induced global warming may show a slight decline over the next few decades as the Sun’s current activity is expected to eventually dwindle. This decrease in solar activity may result in a minute decline in the planet Earth’s temperature, the researchers added. A team of researchers from the Physical Meteorological Observatory Davos (PMOD), the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, ETH Zurich, and the University of Bern have developed a calculation model to quantify certain effects that the Sun’s activity will contribute to the planet’s temperature change in the next century. According to the researchers, the calculation model indicated that following a high solar activity in the 1950s, the planet’s temperature is expected to drop by up to 0.5 decrees Celsius once the Sun’s activities dwindle to a minimum. PMOD director and project lead Werner Schmutz said such temperature decrease would be significant, but will otherwise do little to taper off the human-induced global warming.“We could win valuable time if solar activity declines and slows the pace of global warming a little. This will be no more than borrowed time since the next minimum will inevitably be followed by a maximum,” said Schmutz. A team of experts took a closer look on the effects of solar activity on the planet’s past climate. In order to come up with an efficient climate effect model, PMOD researchers have calculated the Sun’s radiative forcing, accounting electromagnetic and particle radiation in the process. Researchers at ETH Zurich then studied the effects of radioactive forcing on the planet’s atmosphere. On the other hand, researchers at the University of Bern examined the interaction between the atmosphere and the ocean. Get CLEAN FOOD and help support our mission to keep you informed: The Health Ranger Store lab verifies everything we sell with accredited testing for heavy metals, microbiology and food safety. Certified organic facility, ISO-accredited on-site laboratory, no GMOs or synthetic ingredients. The world's #1 source of lab-verified clean foods and superfoods for nutritional healing. 600+ products available. Explore now. The research team then inferred a greater radiation fluctuation striking the planet. Their assumption was more intense compared with previous models. According to Schmutz, examining other effects such as a volcanic eruptions prove to be less conclusive and that using the current model “is the only way that we can understand the natural fluctuations in our climate over the last few millennia.” The Sun’s activity over the following years remains to be observed. However, Schmutz pointed out that useful data have only been made available in the past few decades, and that the said studies do not indicate a current fluctuation in solar activity. “To that extent, our latest results are still a hypothesis. But since we have been observing a consistently strong phase since 1950, it is highly likely that we will experience another low point in 50 to 100 years’ time. It could be every bit as intense as the Maunder Minimum, which brought particularly cold weather during the 17th century,” said Schmutz. In 2011, a team of more than 100 experts in solar physics, geomagnetism, climate modelling or atmospheric chemistry collaborated to determine the effects of solar activity on the planet’s climate. The team assessed current climate models and identified certain mechanisms where variations in solar activity affected climate variability per region. the researchers did not identify certain solar activities that may trigger global warming. However, the team was able to determine how solar activities impact certain regions in the planet. For example, the study revealed that variations in ultraviolet radiation may spur changes in the stratosphere near the equator and across the polar regions. Research data also showed that solar winds impact the planet’s global electric field, which in turn affects aerosol formation and subsequent rainfall. | Russel Davis | http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-01-19-climate-change-on-earth-is-significantly-impacted-by-solar-activity.html | 2019-01-19 05:43:37+00:00 | 1,547,894,617 | 1,567,551,737 | environment | climate change |
368,648 | newyorkpost--2019-01-16--Climate change is causing waves to get bigger and more powerful | 2019-01-16T00:00:00 | newyorkpost | Climate change is causing waves to get bigger and more powerful | Surf’s up — but not in a good way. A new study theorizes that as climate change continues to disrupt the oceans around the world, waves are becoming stronger and more powerful. “The upper-ocean warming, a consequence of anthropogenic global warming, is changing the global wave climate, making waves stronger,” the study’s abstract, published in the scientific journal Nature, reads. “This identifies wave power as a potentially valuable climate change indicator.” The study found that waves have increased in strength by 0.41 percent per year since 1948. It also found that there are “long-term correlations” with sea surface temperatures, in the most energetic region in the globe, defined as the tropical Atlantic, while adding that “wave power in high south latitudes” was also concerning. Borja Reguero, Iñigo Losada and Fernando Méndez were the authors on the study. In a statement accompanying the study, Losada said that wave power is a good indicator of global warming. “This study shows that the global wave power can be a potentially valuable indicator of global warming, similarly to carbon dioxide concentration, the global sea level rise, or the global surface atmospheric temperature,” Losada said in the statement. The 0.41 percent increase is an average, with some other parts of the world experiencing significantly stronger waves, including the Southern Ocean. “Our results show 2 [percent] increases per year in many regions of the Southern Ocean (Fig. 6, south of 40 degrees South), for an average 0.58 percent per year across the basin,” the researchers wrote in the study. Understanding the impact of ocean waves is important because not only do they determine where people build infrastructure, such as ports, harbors or levees, but they also provide a level of intelligence where to put other types of coastal defenses. Méndez said the effects of climate change are likely to be felt more at the coast than inland, citing the results of the study. “Our results indicate that risk analysis neglecting the changes in wave power and having sea level rise as the only driver may underestimate the consequences of climate change and result in insufficient or maladaptation,” he said. Earlier this month, a separate study shed light on how much energy that has been put into the Earth’s oceans over the past 150 years — the equivalent of an atomic bomb explosion every second for 150 years. | Fox News | https://nypost.com/2019/01/16/climate-change-is-causing-waves-to-get-bigger-and-more-powerful/ | 2019-01-16 16:16:14+00:00 | 1,547,673,374 | 1,567,552,261 | environment | climate change |
398,719 | osce--2019-05-23--In visit to Arctic region OSCE PA leadership explores local and global impact of climate change | 2019-05-23T00:00:00 | osce | In visit to Arctic region, OSCE PA leadership explores local and global impact of climate change | LONGYEARBYEN, 23 May 2019 – The concrete impact of global warming and the changing nature of the Arctic region are the focus of an OSCE PA visit hosted by the Norwegian parliament this week. In Svalbard, one of the world’s northernmost inhabited areas, OSCE parliamentarians explored new local realities in the High North and considered how climate change poses security risks for the entire OSCE region. The PA delegation included President George Tsereteli (Georgia), Second Committee Chair Nilza de Sena (Portugal) and Rapporteur Elona Gjebrea Hoxha (Albania), and Secretary General Roberto Montella (Italy). It was joined north of the Arctic Circle by the Delegation of Norway to the OSCE PA. In a series of seminars and field visits in Tromsø and Svalbard, Members were sensitized to the severe disruptions to the Arctic environment caused by a rise of temperatures in the region. “The Arctic is warming up twice as fast any other region in the world, and in just one generation we have been able to note critical alterations to the local fauna and flora. Here in Svalbard, we can clearly observe how Arctic livelihoods are being impacted,” said Norwegian Head of Delegation Siv Mossleth. OSCE parliamentarians also discussed ways to mitigate and adapt to climate change in the High North with local authorities. “This visit is important for us to better understand the concerns emerging from Norway and other Arctic countries, and we can find inspiration in their close co-operation to promote sustainable development and protect biodiversity,” said President George Tsereteli. “As a forum of 57 countries covering the Northern Hemisphere, the OSCE PA is ideally suited to encourage discussions on these new threats and to promote a deeper involvement of parliamentarians in the fight against climate change.” The visit illustrated the importance of monitoring variations in the Arctic ecosystem, and of understanding the ripple effect of changes in the Arctic climate. “The Svalbard archipelago is one of the most sensitive areas to global warming, and the tangible impact on the Arctic environment and ecosystem we witness here causes disruptions at a larger scale in the rest of the world,” said the Chair of the OSCE PA’s economic and environmental committee, Nilza de Sena. “While few live in the Arctic region, the risks associated with climate-related disasters have become a reality for more and more people on the globe. This compels us to act with urgency to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change.” Throughout the visit, participants were briefed on Arctic exploration, satellite observation, and other environmental research efforts undertaken to understand climate change and its impact on the Arctic region. Experts and scientists underlined the urgency to curb global greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit the effects of climate change. “Even if drastic measures are taken, it will still take time for the climate to stabilize. But real action is necessary to prevent a complete shift,” said Second Committee Rapporteur Elona Gjebrea Hoxha. “It is therefore crucial to increase the awareness of parliamentarians all across the OSCE region and respond to this challenge before it is too late.” The visit will inform debates of the OSCE PA’s General Committee on Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment at the upcoming Luxembourg Annual Session (4-8 July 2019). The PA’s flagship event will be held this year under the theme “Advancing Sustainable Development to Promote Security: The Role of Parliaments.” “It is important to closely engage parliamentarians to address the effects of climate change,” said Secretary General Roberto Montella. “I expect the discussions we have had this week will reinforce the Parliamentary Assembly’s engagement on Arctic issues, and we stand ready to support greater international co-operation and dialogue to respond to security, economic and environmental concerns in the High North and beyond.” The visit continues tomorrow in Oslo, where President Tsereteli and his delegation will hold talks with Storting President Tone Trøen, Minister for Climate and Environment Ola Elvestuen, and Foreign Affairs State Secretary Marianne Hagen. | SSharma | https://www.osce.org/parliamentary-assembly/420599 | 2019-05-23 11:35:46+00:00 | 1,558,625,746 | 1,567,540,213 | environment | climate change |
427,405 | prepareforchange--2019-09-15--NASA Climate Change Caused by Changes in Earths Solar Orbit and Axial Tilt Not Man-Made Causes | 2019-09-15T00:00:00 | prepareforchange | NASA: “Climate Change” Caused by Changes in Earth’s Solar Orbit and Axial Tilt (Not Man-Made Causes) | For more than 60 years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has known that the changes occurring to planetary weather patterns are completely natural and normal. But the space agency, for whatever reason, has chosen to let the man-made global warming hoax persist and spread, to the detriment of human freedom. It was the year 1958, to be precise, when NASA first observed that changes in the solar orbit of the earth, along with alterations to the earth’s axial tilt, are both responsible for what climate scientists today have dubbed as “warming” (or “cooling,” depending on their agenda). In the year 2000, NASA did publish information on its Earth Observatory website about the Milankovitch Climate Theory, revealing that the planet is, in fact, changing due to extraneous factors that have absolutely nothing to do with human activity. This information has yet to go mainstream, some 19 years later, which is why [people with shady agendas] have now begun to claim that we really only have 18 months left before the planet dies from an excess of carbon dioxide (CO2). The truth, however, is much more along the lines of what Serbian astrophysicist Milutin Milankovitch, after whom the Milankovitch Climate Theory is named, proposed about how the seasonal and latitudinal variations of solar radiation that hit the earth in different ways, and at different times, have the greatest impact on earth’s changing climate patterns. The below two images (by Robert Simmon, NASA GSFC) help to illustrate this, with the first showing earth at a nearly zero orbit, and the second showing earth at a 0.07 orbit. This orbital change is depicted by the eccentric, oval shape in the second image, which has been intentionally exaggerated for the purpose of showing the massive change in distance that occurs between the earth and the sun, depending on whether it is at perihelion or aphelion. The eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit changes slowly over time from nearly zero to 0.07. As the orbit gets more eccentric (oval) the difference between the distance from the Sun to the Earth at perihelion (closest approach) and aphelion (furthest away) becomes greater and greater. Note that the Sun is not at the center of the Earth’s orbital ellipse, rather it is at one of focal points. Note: The eccentricty of the orbit shown in the lower image is a highly exaggerated 0.5. Even the maximum eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit — 0.07 — it would be impossible to show at the resolution of a web page. Even so, at the current eccentricity of .017, the Earth is 5 million kilometers closer to Sun at perihelion than at aphelion. (Images by Robert Simmon, NASA GSFC) “Even the maximum eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit – 0.07 – it would be impossible to show at the resolution of a web page,” notes the Hal Turner Radio Show. “Even so, at the current eccentricity of .017, the Earth is 5 million kilometers closer to Sun at perihelion than at aphelion.” The biggest factor affecting earth’s climate is the SUN As for earth’s obliquity, or its change in axial tilt, the below two images (Robert Simmon, NASA GSFC) show the degree to which the earth can shift on both its axis and its rotational orientation. At the higher tilts, earth’s seasons become much more extreme, while at lower tilts they become much more mild. A similar situation exists for earth’s rotational axis, which depending on which hemisphere is pointed at the sun during perihelion, can greatly impact the seasonal extremes between the two hemispheres. Left: The change in the tilt of the Earth’s axis (obliquity) effects the magnitude of seasonal change. At higher tilts the seasons are more extreme, and at lower tilts they are milder. The current axial tilt is 23.5°. Image by Robert Simmon, NASA GSFC) Right: Precession — the change in orientation of the Earth’s rotational axis [this can be seen more clearly in an animation (small (290 kB QuickTime) or large (1.2 MB QuickTime))] — alters the orientation of the Earth with respect to perihelion and aphelion. If a hemisphere is pointed towards the sun at perihelion, that hemisphere will be pointing away at aphelion, and the difference in seasons will be more extreme. This seasonal effect is reversed for the opposite hemisphere. Currently, northern summer occurs near aphelion. (Image by Robert Simmon, NASA GSFC Based on these different variables, Milankovitch was able to come up with a comprehensive mathematical model that is able to compute surface temperatures on earth going way back in time, and the conclusion is simple: Earth’s climate has always been changing, and is in a constant state of flux due to no fault of our own as human beings. When Milankovitch first put forward his model, it went ignored for nearly half a century. Then, in 1976, a study published in the journal Science confirmed that Milankovitch’s theory is, in fact, accurate, and that it does correspond to various periods of climate change that have occurred throughout history. In 1982, six years after this study was published, the National Research Council of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences adopted Milankovitch’s theory as truth, declaring that: “… orbital variations remain the most thoroughly examined mechanism of climatic change on time scales of tens of thousands of years and are by far the clearest case of a direct effect of changing insolation on the lower atmosphere of Earth.” If we had to sum the whole thing up in one simple phrase, it would be this: The biggest factor influencing weather and climate patterns on earth is the sun, period. Depending on the earth’s position to the sun at any given time, climate conditions are going to vary dramatically, and even create drastic abnormalities that defy everything that humans thought they knew about how the earth worked. Disclaimer: We at Prepare for Change (PFC) bring you information that is not offered by the mainstream news, and therefore may seem controversial. The opinions, views, statements, and/or information we present are not necessarily promoted, endorsed, espoused, or agreed to by Prepare for Change, its leadership Council, members, those who work with PFC, or those who read its content. However, they are hopefully provocative. Please use discernment! Use logical thinking, your own intuition and your own connection with Source, Spirit and Natural Laws to help you determine what is true and what is not. By sharing information and seeding dialogue, it is our goal to raise consciousness and awareness of higher truths to free us from enslavement of the matrix in this material realm. | Edward Morgan | https://prepareforchange.net/2019/09/15/nasa-climate-change-caused-by-changes-in-earths-solar-orbit-and-axial-tilt-not-man-made-causes/ | 2019-09-15 16:58:14+00:00 | 1,568,581,094 | 1,569,330,283 | environment | climate change |
540,445 | sputnik--2019-08-08--Climate Change May Kill Off Californias Famous Joshua Trees By 2100 | 2019-08-08T00:00:00 | sputnik | Climate Change May Kill Off California’s Famous Joshua Trees By 2100 | In the study, researchers obtained data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of the United Nations, to evaluate the effects of global warming on the namesake plants of the Joshua Tree National Park in southern California. Using statistical models and field measurements to forecast emissions scenarios, researchers determined that Joshua trees, a species of the agave family, would be almost completely eliminated by the end of the century in the “business-as-usual” scenario, where no actions are taken to curb climate change. Under an optimistic scenario involving “high and moderate mitigation,” the trees’ distribution would still decrease by around 80% by 2100. “We have a range of scenarios,” Lynn Sweet, a UC Riverside plant ecologist and the lead author of the study, told the Los Angeles Times. “If there’s global action on climate change, we might preserve [the] habitat. And if not, we might see it disappear.” In fact, by the end of the century, “it could look like a forest of dead trees and no new trees,” Sweet noted, or “it could look like just a few trees hanging on. We’re not really sure.” The study concludes that regional and global strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions are imperative, including measures to sustain refugia, areas that support populations of species that were formerly more widespread. “This also underscores the need to protect areas predicted to support refugia from multiple management threats. Rather than an ominous prediction of extinction, climate refugia provide land stewards with targets for focusing protective management, giving desert biodiversity places to weather the future,” the study’s abstract concludes. | null | https://sputniknews.com/environment/201908091076508067-climate-change-may-kill-off-californias-famous-joshua-trees-by-2100/ | 2019-08-08 22:20:27+00:00 | 1,565,317,227 | 1,567,534,609 | environment | climate change |
544,895 | sputnik--2019-09-25--Climate Change Threatening Oceans Rapidly Destroying Ecosystems - UN Report | 2019-09-25T00:00:00 | sputnik | Climate Change Threatening Oceans, ‘Rapidly’ Destroying Ecosystems - UN Report | The Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate released Wednesday by the IPCC reveals that oceans are getting warmer and more acidic due to increased absorption of carbon dioxide, and their concentration of oxygen is lowering. In fact, the report states that the rate of ocean warming has more than doubled since 1993, with marine heatwaves becoming more intense and doubling in frequency since 1982. With the loss of oxygen in the oceans, coral and marine ecosystems are in severe danger. Global warming has also resulted in “widespread shrinking of the cryosphere, with mass loss from ice sheets and snow cover.” According to the US National Oceanic Service, the cryosphere is defined as the “frozen part of the Earth system.” Ice and snow on land, including ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, are considered parts of the cryosphere. The report also notes that ice loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets has contributed to the increasing sea-level rise, and sea levels will increase by 1.1 meters by 2100 if emissions continue at their current rate. Without dramatic decreases in greenhouse gas emissions, the frequency of hurricanes and flash flooding will continue to grow, the report warns. “This report should erase any doubts about the peril that climate change poses for the health of the ocean and, as a consequence, for human well-being," John Tanzer of the World Wildlife Fund's global oceans program is quoted as saying by USA Today. "From coral reefs and mangroves to fish populations and coastal habitats, climate change and human pressures are rapidly destroying the natural capital that supports the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people around the world." The report was compiled by more than 100 scientists from 30 countries around the world and comes just days after 16-year-old Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg criticized world leaders at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York for not taking action to curb greenhouse gas emissions. In her passionate address to UN delegates, a tearful and visibly shaking Thunberg accused world leaders of having “stolen [her] dreams and [her] childhood.” "For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away?" Thunberg said in her address. | null | https://sputniknews.com/environment/201909251076890765-climate-change-threatening-oceans-rapidly-destroying-ecosystems---un-report/ | 2019-09-25 19:00:36+00:00 | 1,569,452,436 | 1,570,222,275 | environment | climate change |
686,332 | theguardianuk--2019-01-21--What can we do right now about climate change | 2019-01-21T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | What can we do, right now, about climate change? | Calamitous weather events and warnings from scientists that the planet is warming faster than previously believed are causing alarm. Global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, describes the shifts needed to keep global warming to a maximum of 1.5C. Plus: David Conn on how football and gambling have become inseparable A series of extreme weather events in 2018 again highlighted the urgency of making the social and political changes needed to keep the increase in global warming to a maximum of 1.5C (2.7F). In September this year, the UN will convene a dedicated climate summit where agreement will be sought for ambitious and far-reaching policies. Joining India Rakusen today is the Guardian’s global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, to discuss the extent of the political change required if the world has any chance at all of keeping within the 1.5C upper limit on warming. He also explores some of the most effective ways individuals can join the battle against global warming: a vital, existential issue often drowned out by other news events. Also today, the Guardian’s David Conn examines new research on the extent of the gambling industry’s hold over professional football in the UK – and its often dire consequences. | Presented by India Rakusen with Jonathan Watts and David Conn; produced by Joshua Kelly, Mythili Rao, David Waters, Ammar Kalia and Ivor Manley; executive producers Phil Maynard and Nicole Jackson | https://www.theguardian.com/environment/audio/2019/jan/21/what-can-we-do-right-now-about-climate-change | 2019-01-21 03:00:01+00:00 | 1,548,057,601 | 1,567,551,544 | environment | climate change |
695,315 | theguardianuk--2019-04-01--Insects have no place to hide from climate change study warns | 2019-04-01T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Insects have ‘no place to hide’ from climate change, study warns | Insects have “no place to hide” from climate change, scientists have said after analysing 50 years’ worth of UK data. The study found that woodlands, whose shade was expected to protect species from warming temperatures, are just as affected by climate change as open grasslands. The research examined records of the first springtime flights of butterflies, moths and aphids and the first eggs of birds between 1965 and 2012. As average temperatures have risen, aphids are now emerging a month earlier, and birds are laying eggs a week earlier. The scientists said this could mean animals were becoming “out of sync” with their prey, with potentially serious ramifications for ecosystems. Researchers are increasingly concerned about dramatic drops in populations of insects, which underpin much of nature. In February it was said that these falls could lead to a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, and in March there was further evidence of widespread loss of pollinating insects in recent decades in Britain. Other studies, from Germany and Puerto Rico, have shown falling numbers in the last 25 to 35 years. Another showed butterflies in the Netherlands had declined by at least 84% over the last 130 years. James Bell, at Rothamsted Research institute, who led the woodlands research, said: “Under global warming you would expect woodlands to have some protection for insects, a buffer against change. But we didn’t see that. It is the major surprise and is disturbing. There is really no place to hide against the effects of global warming if you are an insect in the UK.” Another surprise was that insects and birds living in farmland are emerging later in the spring, not earlier as expected. “We can only assume this is to do with other, non-climate factors,” Bell said. The loss of wild areas and changing crop types could be among the factors, he said, along with declining food availability leading to delayed breeding. James Pearce-Higgins, of the British Trust for Ornithology, said: “Birds are at the top of many food chains and are sensitive to the impacts of climate change on the availability of their insect prey.” A separate new study found that populations of birds that rely on insects for food fell by 13% across Europe between 1990 and 2015, and by 28% in Denmark, which the scientists used as a national case study. The omnivorous birds assessed did not show a decline. The UK research, published in the journal Global Change Biology, found that the shift to earlier emergence or egg-laying varied considerably according to the type of habitat and how far north the species lives. Aphids breed very rapidly and can adapt to changing temperatures quickly. Their first flight is now an average of 30 days earlier than 50 years ago. Birds, butterflies and moths are appearing one to two weeks earlier. Bell said the changing timings were affecting farming, with aphids arriving earlier but potato crops being planted later due to wetter winters. This combination meant the aphids, which transmit viruses, were attacking much younger plants. “Plants are just like babies, with very poorly developed immune systems, so when a virus is transmitted into a young potato plant it has a much greater effect,” he said. Jon Pickup, of the Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture division of the Scottish government, said: “As pests, it remains a concern that aphid migrations are getting earlier at a dramatic rate and this piece of work shows us that signal across the UK very clearly.” Bell said timing mismatches were also affecting wildlife. “For example, the leafing date of the oak tree determines when the caterpillars will appear, and that determines when blue tits that feed on caterpillars lay their first egg,” he said. “If they become desynchronised, it has cascading effects through the food chain, leading to fewer eggs, and this has been seen.” During February’s exceptionally warm weather there were sightings of rooks nesting, ladybirds mating and dozens of migratory swallows arriving along the south-west coast, all more than a month ahead of schedule. | Damian Carrington Environment editor | https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/01/insects-have-no-place-to-hide-from-climate-change-study-warns | 2019-04-01 16:07:44+00:00 | 1,554,149,264 | 1,567,544,497 | environment | climate change |
745,126 | theindependent--2019-02-04--Climate change will cause a third of ice in Himalayas and Hindu Kush to thaw this century scientist | 2019-02-04T00:00:00 | theindependent | Climate change will cause a third of ice in Himalayas and Hindu Kush to thaw this century, scientists warn | At least a third of the ice in the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush will thaw this century as temperatures rise, disrupting river flows vital for growing crops from China to India, scientists have said. Vast glaciers make the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region - home to the world's highest peaks, including Mount Everest and K2 - a "third pole" behind Antarctica and the Arctic region. Philippus Wester, of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), who led the report, said: "This is the climate crisis you haven't heard of. "Global warming is on track to transform the frigid, glacier-covered mountain peaks of the HKH cutting across eight countries to bare rocks in a little less than a century." The report, by 210 authors, said more than a third of the ice in the region will melt by 2100 even if governments take tough action to limit global warming under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Two-thirds of the ice could also vanish if governments fail to rein in greenhouse gas emissions this century. "To me, this is the biggest worrying thing,” Mr Wester told Reuters at an event to launch the report in Kathmandu. Glaciers have thinned and retreated across most parts of the region since the 1970s. Ice in the HKH region would push up sea levels by 1.5 metres if it all melted, Eklabya Sharma, deputy director general of ICIMOD, told Reuters. The study said the thaw will disrupt rivers including the Yangtze, Mekong, Indus and Ganges, where farmers rely on glacier melt water in the dry season. About 250 million people live in the mountains and 1.65 billion people in river valleys below. Changes in river flows could also harm hydropower production and cause more erosion and landslides in the mountains. But more research is needed to gauge exactly how glaciers affect distant crops, said Wouter Buytaert of Imperial College in London, who was not involved in the study. "While glacier meltwater propagates downstream, it mixes with water from other sources such as direct rainfall, wetlands, and groundwater, up to a point where the impact of glacier melting may become negligible," he said. The authors said people living in small island states were often viewed as the most vulnerable to climate change because of rising sea levels. "It's not just occupants of the world's islands that are suffering," said Dasho Rinzin Dorji, an ICIMOD board member from Bhutan. He said in a statement mountain regions were also extremely vulnerable as "climate hotspots". | Gopal Sharma | http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-himalayas-hindu-kush-ice-thaw-melt-paris-agreement-a8762701.html | 2019-02-04 17:31:45+00:00 | 1,549,319,505 | 1,567,549,656 | environment | climate change |
766,542 | theindependent--2019-07-23--Climate change is increasing hurricanes tropical storms and floods scientists confirm | 2019-07-23T00:00:00 | theindependent | Climate change is increasing hurricanes, tropical storms and floods, scientists confirm | Climate change is increasing hurricanes, tropical storms and floods, according to a new study that looked at 120 years of data for the latest research to confirm a link between human activity and the dramatic rise of extreme weather events. Increased temperatures not only make heatwaves more extreme and wildfires more likely, they also tamper with weather patterns, making storms more intense. As part of the study, scientists looked at three storms in North Carolina from the past 20 years – hurricanes Floyd, Matthew and Florence. They found the probability of them occurring randomly in such a short period of time is just two per cent. “North Carolina has one of the highest impact zones of tropical cyclones in the world, and we have these carefully kept records that shows us that the last 20 years of precipitation events have been off the charts,” said Professor Hans Paerl, lead author of the study published in the journal Scientific Reports. The scientists analysed records of tropical cyclone landfalls and rainfall associated with Costal North Carolina storms since 1898. They found that six out of the seven largest hurricanes, tropical storms and floods occurred in the last 20 years. This frequency is probably caused by “increased moisture carrying capacity of tropical cyclones due to the warming climate”, the study said. As well as more storms, North Carolina has also experienced unprecedented levels of rainfall since the late 1990s. In the long term it has also seen an increase in rainfall from tropical storms over the past 120 years. This is increasingly problematic as the state is now home to more than 10.3 million people and climate change is already having a devastating impact on people’s lives. “The price we’re paying is that we’re having to cope with increasing levels of catastrophic flooding,” said Professor Paerl, from the University of North Carolina’s Institute of Marine Sciences. “Coastal watersheds are having to absorb more rain. Let’s go back to Hurricane Floyd in 1999, which flooded half of the coastal plain of North Carolina. Then, we had Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Just recently we had Hurricane Florence in 2018. These events are causing a huge amount of human suffering, economic and ecological damage.” Increased rainfall results in more runoff into coastal waters and estuaries. This results in organic matter and nutrient losses from soil erosion which results in damaging algal blooms. “We are in part responsible for what’s going on in the context of fossil fuel combustion emissions that are leading to global warming,” Prof Paerl said. “The ocean is a huge reservoir that is absorbing heat and seeing more evaporation. With more evaporation comes more rainfall.” At the end of last year, research found that extreme weather events cost the world billions of pounds in the previous 12 months. The report by Christian Aid identified 10 of the most expensive natural disasters that struck in 2018, all of which cost at least $1bn (£790m) each. The costs established for these events are likely to be underestimates, as they often only included insured losses and did not take into account long-term costs to productivity. | Phoebe Weston | https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-hurricanes-tropical-storms-floods-global-warming-a9017021.html | 2019-07-23 14:16:00+00:00 | 1,563,905,760 | 1,567,536,045 | environment | climate change |
767,337 | theindependent--2019-07-29--Hundreds of reindeer starve to death on Arctic islands aposdue to climate changeapos | 2019-07-29T00:00:00 | theindependent | Hundreds of reindeer starve to death on Arctic islands 'due to climate change' | More than 200 reindeer have died of starvation on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, with scientists blaming their deaths on climate change. The wild deer carcasses were found on the Arctic islands this summer by researchers from the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI), which said it had never logged so many deaths at once in 40 years of monitoring the animals' population level. “It’s scary to find so many dead animals,” project leader Ashild Onvik Pedersen told state broadcaster NRK. “This is an example of how climate change affects nature. It is just sad.” Svalbard’s capital Longyearbyen, the northernmost town on earth, is thought to be warming quicker than any other settlement on the planet, climate scientists warned earlier this year. The milder temperatures in the region led to unusually heavy rainfall in December, leaving a thick layer of ice when the precipitation froze. This meant the reindeer could not dig through the hardened tundra to reach the vegetation they graze on in their usual pastures, the NPI said. Svalbard’s reindeer have been observed eating seaweed and kelp when food is scarce, but these are less nutritious and cause them stomach problems. A relatively high number of calves born last year increased the death toll, as the youngest and weakest are often the first to die in harsh conditions. “Some of the mortality is natural because there were so many calves last year. But the large number we see now is due to heavy rain, which is due to global warming,” said Ms Onvik Pedersen. A team of three scientists spent 10 weeks investigating population of the Svalbard reindeer earlier this year. Researchers warned the decline of reindeer would cause unwanted plant species, currently kept in check by the animals’ grazing, to spread across Arctic ecosystems in Europe, Asia and North America. Arctic reindeer and caribou populations have declined 56 per cent in the last two decades, a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said last year. The report said food security was partly to blame for was partly to blame for falling herd numbers, while warmer summers also could also put the animals at greater risk of diseases spread by flies and parasites. The average temperature in Longyearbyen has risen by 3.7C since 1900, more than three times the global average increase of about 1C. In 2016, the entrance to the town’s “Doomsday” seed vault – which stores specimens of almost all the world’s seeds – was flooded following heavy rainfall. | Chris Baynes | https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/reindeer-arctic-climate-change-die-starvation-norway-a9026071.html | 2019-07-29 20:19:08+00:00 | 1,564,445,948 | 1,567,535,439 | environment | climate change |
776,206 | theindependent--2019-11-19--How climate change is killing Japan's salmon trade one melted ice cap at a time | 2019-11-19T00:00:00 | theindependent | How climate change is killing Japan's salmon trade one melted ice cap at a time | Lined up along the side of their boat, the fishermen haul a huge, heavy net up from swelling waves. At first, a few small jellyfish emerges, then a piece of plastic. Then net, and more net. Finally, all the way at the bottom: a small thrashing mass of silvery salmon. It’s just after dawn at the height of the autumn fishing season, but something is wrong. “When are the fish coming?” boat captain Teruhiko Miura asks himself. The salmon catch is collapsing off Japan‘s northern coast, plummeting by about 70 per cent in the past 15 years. The disappearance of the fish coincides with another striking development: the loss of a unique blanket of sea ice that dips far below the Arctic to reach this shore. The twin impacts – less ice, fewer salmon – are the products of rapid warming in the Sea of Okhotsk, wedged between Siberia and Japan. The area has warmed in some places by as much as 3C since preindustrial times, making it one of the fastest-warming spots in the world, according to data from the nonprofit organisation Berkeley Earth. That increase far outstrips the global average and exceeds the limit policymakers set in Paris in 2015 when they aimed to keep Earth’s average temperature rise “well below” 2C. The rising temperatures are starting to shut down the single most dynamic sea ice factory on Earth. The intensity of ice generation in the northwestern Sea of Okhotsk exceeds that of any single place in the Arctic Ocean or Antarctica, and the sea ice reaches a lower latitude than anywhere else on the planet. Its decline has a cascade of consequences well beyond Japan as climate dominoes begin to fall. When sea ice forms here, it expels huge amounts of salt into the frigid water below the surface, creating some of the densest ocean water on Earth. That water then sinks and travels east, carrying oxygen, iron and other key nutrients out into the northern Pacific Ocean, where marine life depends on it. As the ice retreats, that nutrient-rich current is weakening, endangering the biological health of the vast northern Pacific – one of the most startling, and least discussed, effects of climate change so far observed. “We call the Sea of Okhotsk the heart of the North Pacific,” says Kay Ohshima, a polar oceanographer at the Institute of Low Temperature Science at Hokkaido University. “But the Sea of Okhotsk is significantly warming, three times faster than the global mean. “That causes the power of the heart to weaken.” The cascade starts more than a thousand miles away in a uniquely frigid area of Siberia known as the “Cold Pole”, where the coldest temperature ever recorded in the Northern hemisphere (-67.7C) was measured in 1933. The Cold Pole, too, is warming rapidly, by about 2.7C since preindustrial times in the village of Oymyakon. That means the bitter north wind that blows down onto the Sea of Okhotsk is also warming. The warmer wind inhibits the formation of sea ice. Across the Sea of Okhotsk, ice cover during the peak months of February and March has shrunk by nearly 30 per cent in the past four decades, a vanishing of about 130,000 square miles of ice, an area larger than Arizona. Masanori Ito, 67, senior executive director at the Okhotsk Sightseeing Federation, recalls how, during his childhood, the ice would drift down from the sea’s northern reaches – a thick, white carpet descending on Abashiri, a city on the northeastern shore of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost prefecture. “The drift ice used to arrive with a force, pushed and pushed from behind, from far out at sea,” he says. It would pile up upon itself, forming “mountains over 10 meters high”. Today, those mountains are long gone, and the coast of Hokkaido is hemmed in by ice for fewer than 25 days a year on average, says Arctic scientist Shuhei Takahashi, who runs the Okhotsk Sea Ice Museum of Hokkaido in Mombetsu. A century ago, the coast typically had ice for more than 50 days each winter, Takahashi says; based on current trends, the drift ice could disappear entirely by the end of this century. Meanwhile, the ice itself is also changing. Those who know it well say it sounds different, less intense, no longer an indomitable winter colossus. “Years ago, our nose hair froze and stuck out. And our eyelashes would get moist and go all white,” says Shigeru Yamai, 66, captain of the icebreaker Garinko II. “When we walked on the ice, we heard squeaking sounds. The sound today is different. It hardly gets that severe anymore.” For fisherman Nobuo Sugimura, 63, the changing climate is evident in his steadily diminishing catch. At home after a fishing trip on Miura’s vessel the Hokushin Maru, Sugimura brings out his logbooks and diaries, pulling records for his most recent catch in late September and for the same period seven years ago. In 2012, Sugimura’s records show he and fellow crew members brought in between 21 and 52 metric tons of fish per day. This year, the catch one day was a meagre six tons. “We had a bad time 30 or 40 years ago, and this reminds me of that,” he says. “But that only lasted a year or two, not this long.” In the nation that invented sushi, there is no region better known for its seafood than Hokkaido. And there is no fish more synonymous with Hokkaido, more central to its culture, than the salmon. The relationship stretches back as long as humans have lived here. The indigenous Ainu people had 133 words for salmon and used its skin to make boots. The fish and its orange roe are critical ingredients in Hokkaido’s famous seafood sashimi rice bowl, savoured by foodie tourists across this gourmet nation. The image of a bear clamping a salmon between its powerful jaws is an iconic symbol of Hokkaido, reproduced on T-shirts and in wood carvings on sale in almost every souvenir shop. Though Hokkaido’s salmon hatcheries are working harder than ever, releasing a billion juvenile fish into the island’s rivers every spring, the number of returning chum salmon has declined sharply, from 68 million fish in 2003 to just 28 million in 2018. Nationwide, Japan’s annual chum salmon catch has also fallen from 258,000 metric tons in 2003, when a sharp decline began, to 80,000 last year, according to the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission. Salmon are highly sensitive to changes in water temperature. As they swim into the Sea of Okhotsk at the start of their long migration across the Pacific, the warmer waters act as a force field, pushing them off their ancient track. Compelled to travel faster and farther to reach cooler northern waters, the young salmon use up stores of energy when they can least afford it. If they delay their departure date, they won’t survive at all. Masahide Kaeriyama, an emeritus professor in the Arctic Research Center at Hokkaido University, says Japanese salmon migrate up what he calls a “ladder” of suitable temperatures. For more than a decade, he has been predicting that climate change would cut Hokkaido’s salmon catch in half. Now, he says global warming is happening even faster than he expected. “As the optimal temperature moves away from Hokkaido, the ladder of migration is being taken away,” he adds. Japan’s loss has been Russia’s gain. Waters near the Siberian coast – once too cold for salmon – are now in the optimum range for the fish. Even as Japan’s catch began to decline in 2003, Russia’s chum salmon quadrupled to a record high of nearly 144,000 metric tons in 2015. The same phenomenon is happening around the world, as warmer waters cause key species to seek cooler habitats closer to the poles. The lobster population off the northeast coast in the United States is seeing a similar disruption. If the Hokkaido salmon survive the first leg of their journey, they move into the Bering Sea, and then on to the Gulf of Alaska for their second winter. By the age of four or five, they return to Japan, to the very same river where they hatched. The smaller number of returning fish is keenly felt on Hokkaido’s Shiretoko Peninsula, home to the largest concentration of brown bears in the world. Each fall, as the salmon amass offshore, the bears are waiting, splashing in the streams at the mouth of every river. Here, the iconic image of a bear catching a salmon comes to life. Salmon nourish the bears, and the bears’ leftovers discarded in the forest nourish birds, insects and plants, creating “one of the richest integrated ecosystems in the world”, according to Unesco, the educational, scientific and cultural agency of the United Nations. Unesco made Shiretoko National Park a World Heritage Site in 2005. But as the drift ice recedes and the salmon catch shrinks, Unesco worries that the park’s unique ecosystem will be irrevocably damaged. “Japanese people see salmon as a source of food,” Kaeriyama says. “But salmon is, in fact, the very foundation of the ecosystem where we live.” The link between sea ice and prosperity is not lost on the towns and cities of northern Hokkaido and the Shiretoko Peninsula, where the ice drives a vital tourism industry. In the spring, as the ice melts and sunlight hits the water, the sea blooms with phytoplankton, the anchor of marine life and the base of the ocean’s food web. That makes the Sea of Okhotsk a spectacularly bountiful stretch of water, home to whales and dolphins, sea lions and seals, scallop and crabs, and hundreds of species of fish. Its shores provide homes to many migratory and sea birds, from the largest owl in the world – the endangered Blakiston’s fish owl – to the heavy Steller’s sea eagle. In Abashiri alone, about 110,000 people, nearly half of them foreigners, took sightseeing cruises last year across the vast expanse of sea ice. On the eastern side of the peninsula, tourist boats set out from the town of Rausu every winter to gaze at eagles perched on the ice and seals bobbing through it, and in the spring, summer and fall to watch humpback, sperm and killer whales splash through the waves. Meanwhile, key nutrients, especially iron, flow into the Sea of Okhotsk from Russia’s Amur river. Undersea currents carry those nutrients into the north Pacific, forming an intermediate layer of water roughly 600-2,600 feet below the surface. Eventually, the water rises back up, bringing the iron that is vital for phytoplankton with it. The Okhotsk sea ice decline jeopardises that giant convection current. Ohshima, his fellow scientists from Hokkaido University and other institutions in Japan have documented a marked warming in the north Pacific’s intermediate layer, much more rapid than the general warming of the ocean – a sign that less cold, dense water is being formed in the Sea of Okhotsk. Scientists have also documented growing zones in the north Pacific, at depths of about 1,300 and 2,300 feet, where ocean oxygen levels are in fast decline. In other words, the “heart of the Pacific” is indeed weakening. The scientists don’t know all of the consequences yet, but they’re worried because of the irreplaceable contribution of the Sea of Okhotsk to a much larger region. Back on Hokkaido, the falling salmon catch is triggering cascading economic impacts. Last year, salmon processors paid high prices for dwindling supplies of Japanese chum salmon, only to find that consumers weren’t prepared to pay more. Japanese salmon was soon displaced by cheaper imports from places such as Norway, Chile, Russia and Alaska. Tetsuya Shinya, head of the Abashiri Fisheries Cooperative, says he is reluctantly considering something once unthinkable: raising salmon on fish farms. “It’s still not the right time to do it,” he says. “Even so, I feel we are getting into a pretty tough time.” Wild salmon tend to be hardier and more resistant to changing temperatures than salmon reared in the more-controlled environment of a hatchery. One solution is a campaign to reduce Hokkaido’s dependence on salmon hatcheries by encouraging more wild salmon to return to the island’s rivers. Scientists and volunteers are clearing rivers along the Shiretoko Peninsula, where anything from silt to concrete dams can prevent wild salmon from returning to spawn. Among the volunteers is Yuto Sugimura, 32, the son of the fisherman whose records document the salmon’s startling decline. Yuto says he never used to think much about climate change beyond what he saw on the news. But as he dives into the sea to set salmon nets, he doesn’t need any records to tell him the temperature is rising. “I’ve been going under the water for 15 years, but these days it feels quite lukewarm,” he says. “Until you feel it on your skin or experience it in reality, you don’t talk about [climate change]. Today, with the changes in the water, I am beginning to feel it on my skin, and I am beginning to think about it.” | Chris Mooney, Simon Denyer | https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/salmon-japan-climate-change-ice-melting-global-warming-a9204636.html | Tue, 19 Nov 2019 17:07:31 GMT | 1,574,201,251 | 1,574,470,294 | environment | climate change |
777,010 | theindependent--2019-11-25--Climate change: Greenhouse gas levels hit record high 'with no sign of slowdown', UN warns | 2019-11-25T00:00:00 | theindependent | Climate change: Greenhouse gas levels hit record high 'with no sign of slowdown', UN warns | Levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases have reached another record high, “with no sign of a slowdown, let alone a decline”, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has warned. Despite pledges made under the Paris Agreement to combat climate change, concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide all surged by higher amounts in 2018 than average for the past decade. Levels of CO2 – the main gas driving global warming – reached new highs of 407.8 parts per million (ppm) in 2018, up from 405.5ppm the previous year, a report by the UN body shows. This concentration is now 47 per cent higher than before the Industrial Revolution began in 1760, when CO2 levels were around 280ppm. “We need to translate the commitments into action and increase the level of ambition for the sake of the future welfare of mankind,” said WMO secretary general Petteri Taalas. The last time Earth experienced comparable concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was three to five million years ago, when temperatures were 2C to 3C warmer and sea levels were 10-20 metres higher than today, Mr Taalas said. Human activity is increasing greenhouse gas emissions, which are driving up these gases’ concentration in the atmosphere, where they have a warming effect on the Earth’s climate. Since 1990, there has been a 43 per cent increase in this warming effect by long-lived greenhouse gases, the report said. According to the report, CO2 contributes towards 66 per cent of this warming effect, with methane at 17 per cent, and nitrous oxide at six per cent. The report focuses on concentration levels – which represent what remains in the atmosphere after a complex system of interactions between the atmosphere, land, trees and oceans. Trees and oceans each absorb roughly a quarter of the total emissions, but this effect is already slowing down in the latter as they grow increasingly warmer. In addition, global greenhouse gas emissions rose again in 2018 at the fastest rate in seven years, according to a preliminary report by the Global Carbon Project. The resultant heating of the planet is driving impacts such as melting glaciers and sea level rise, more extreme droughts, heatwaves and storms, also posing a threat to food security, water supplies and wildlife. If our current emissions trends continue unchecked, many researchers predict mass displacement on an unprecedented scale. Large swathes of North Africa and the Middle East would likely become uninhabitable due to scorching heat and drought, with sea level rises affecting many of the world’s most populous cities. The WMO warned that despite agreements made under the Paris Agreement, global emissions are not estimated to peak by 2030, let alone by the 2020 date that scientists have said is necessary to curb dangerous climate change. “The findings ... point us in a clear direction – in this critical period, the world must deliver concrete, stepped-up action on emissions,” said the UN Environment Programme’s executive director Inger Andersen. “We face a stark choice: set in motion the radical transformations we need now, or face the consequences of a planet radically altered by climate change.” | Andy Gregory | https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-greenhouse-gas-record-high-un-paris-agreement-a9217256.html | Mon, 25 Nov 2019 16:53:00 GMT | 1,574,718,780 | 1,574,728,253 | environment | climate change |
782,839 | theirishtimes--2019-01-04--Dramatic weather events of 2018 show climate change becoming more evident | 2019-01-04T00:00:00 | theirishtimes | Dramatic weather events of 2018 show climate change ‘becoming more evident’ | Dramatic weather events in Ireland and elsewhere that marked last year shows “the fingerprint of climate change is becoming more evident”, the former head of forecasting at Met Éireann has said. Gerald Fleming, who retired from the national meteorological service last year, said the one degree rise in the global mean temperature “increases the chance of extreme events” occurring. Mr Fleming pointed to the two “once in 30- to 40-year type events” that took place in Ireland in 2018 – the heavy snowfall in March and the unusually hot summer – as examples. Reporting on last year’s weather, his former employers in Met Éireann said that above-average temperatures, sunshine and widespread snow in March dominated the year, along with mild and unsettled weather in December. “The interesting thing is that the averages don’t tell the story,” says Fleming, “The southeast of the country, for example, had a very dry summer but was wet towards the end of the year, which balanced out the averages.” Heatwaves from late June through to early July saw Shannon Airport recording 32 degrees on June 28th, the highest June temperature recorded in the State since 1976. However, average temperatures were only slightly up. The unusually warm summer was offset by colder months in February, March, September and October. The lowest temperature recorded was -7 degrees on March 1st in Cork Airport during Storm Emma. Storms such as Eleanor in January, Ali in September and Callum in October brought high winds, with the highest gust recorded at Knock airport, Co Mayo, on January 2nd at 156 km/h. Despite the public’s concentration on storms during 2018, Mr Fleming said the year was not actually all that unusual, bar the fact that Ali’s arrival in September brought significant bad weather “earlier than normal”. Despite the storms, it was a year of sunshine, too. Casement Aerodrome on the outskirts of Dublin had its sunniest year since 1964, while Malin Head in Donegal saw 16.5 hours on June 28th – its highest daily total since 1955. Two-thirds of Met Éireann’s weather stations experienced a drier than average year, particularly between May and October. However, January, February and the last two months of the year were wetter than normal. December’s figures saw higher than usual temperatures, strong winds and heavy rainfall in some areas. Mean air temperatures everywhere were above long-term averages (LTA) for the month. Mean temperatures ranged from 6.6 degrees (2.2 degrees above its LTA) at Knock airport to to 10.1 degrees (2.1 degrees above its LTA) at Sherkin Island, Co Cork, in December. In October, a report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a stark warning that there are only 12 years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5 degrees. | null | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/dramatic-weather-events-of-2018-show-climate-change-becoming-more-evident-1.3747979 | 2019-01-04 19:18:00+00:00 | 1,546,647,480 | 1,567,553,972 | environment | climate change |
788,634 | theirishtimes--2019-08-08--Climate change report main points | 2019-08-08T00:00:00 | theirishtimes | Climate change report: main points | – Rising temperatures due to human activity, notably the burning of fossil fuels, combined with land abuses are putting global food supplies at risk; – Tackling rising emissions from land is not on its own enough to curb climate disruption as greenhouse gases must be slashed from all sectors to keep global warming well below 2 degrees and preferably 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels; – Global warming will increasingly lead to extremes such as drought, heatwaves and wildfires and threaten food security – reducing yields, pushing up food prices and disrupting supply chains; – Sustainable farming, changing diets to eat less meat, replanting forests and protecting habitats, such as peatlands and mangroves, can cut emissions and deliver other benefits such as securing food supplies; – Land is under immense pressures, with around 70 per cent of the world’s ice-free land affected by human activity – while global heating is driving more problems such as turning land to desert, and soil erosion; – How people use land is fuelling global warming – notably intensive activities such as growing crops, raising livestock and cutting down forests, which accounted for almost a quarter of greenhouse gases between 2006 and 2017; – Balanced diets, consuming plant-based foods such as grains, beans and lentils, nuts, fruits and vegetables and animal-based food produced in sustainable systems with low greenhouse gas emissions can help curb climate change and benefit health; – 13 per cent of carbon dioxide emitted between 2007 and 2016 was caused by human abuses of land, mostly from cutting down forests; – Land also accounted for 44 per cent of methane emissions, with livestock such as cattle and expansion of rice paddies driving rising levels of the greenhouse gases, and 82 per cent of nitrous oxide emissions arising from fertilisers for crops and from livestock; – 25 to 30 per cent of all food produced is lost or wasted, contributing even more greenhouse gases; – Sustainable food production, improved forest management, protecting soils, conserving habitats and restoring land, reducing deforestation and food loss and waste can all tackle climate change, help wildlife and boost livelihoods; – Conserving peatlands, wetlands, grasslands, mangroves and forests can have an immediate impact in capturing carbon; – Planting monocultures of trees or crops for bioenergy on a large scale in an unsustainable way will have negative impacts, and may lead to insufficient land to grow food. | null | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/climate-change-report-main-points-1.3980547 | 2019-08-08 11:13:10+00:00 | 1,565,277,190 | 1,567,534,597 | environment | climate change |
788,648 | theirishtimes--2019-08-08--Scientists call for immediate action on UN climate change report | 2019-08-08T00:00:00 | theirishtimes | Scientists call for immediate action on UN climate change report | The latest report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was broadly welcomed by scientists across the globe as a framework to transform land use and increase food security. Although the report stopped short of explicitly advocating going meat-free, it calls for big changes to farming and eating habits to limit the impact of population growth and changing consumption patterns on already over-exploited land and water resources. “This is a perfect storm,” said Prof Dave Reay of the University of Edinburgh, who was an expert reviewer for the report. “Limited land, an expanding human population, and all wrapped in a suffocating blanket of climate emergency. Earth has never felt smaller, its natural ecosystems never under such direct threat.” Dr Oyinlola Oyebode, associate professor in public health at the University of Warwick, said the IPCC verdict fits with growing evidence of the multiple benefits that could accrue if people shift their diet towards plant-based alternatives to meat. These benefits included reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and releasing land which could then be reclaimed as habitat for animal and plant species. “In addition, though, there are benefits to human health.” Jonathan Baillie, chief scientist for the National Geographic Society, said the IPCC report was another important wake-up call to find a more sustainable path. “This is a global problem, which requires action by all sectors of society – countries, companies and communities – to solve.” Oxfam’s senior climate policy advisor Aditi Sen said land management was central to the fight against the climate crisis and hunger. Industrial agriculture, deforestation and increasing weather shocks were destroying the land needed for food, while the world’s poorest were hit hardest. “Politicians must aim for zero hunger as well as zero emissions. They must reject false solutions that divert land away from growing food and into producing crops and trees for energy and carbon capture.” IPCC representative Prof Jim Skea of Imperial College London said land was already struggling and climate change was adding to its burden. Almost three-quarters of ice-free land was now directly affected by human activity, the report says. “There are certain kinds of diets that have a lower carbon footprint and put less pressure on land,” he said. Large-scale tree-planting and bioenergy production are important tools to limit global warming, but could threaten food security, according to the IPCC. In late-running negotiations on how to summarise the latest science for policymakers, representatives of forest nations stressed that with sustainable management, these conflicts could be minimised. “Land already in use could feed the world in a changing climate and provide biomass for renewable energy, but early, far-reaching action across several areas is required,” said Hans-Otto Pörtner, one of the other scientists coordinating the report. “Also for the conservation and restoration of ecosystems and biodiversity.” | null | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/scientists-call-for-immediate-action-on-un-climate-change-report-1.3981138 | 2019-08-08 20:10:08+00:00 | 1,565,309,408 | 1,567,534,597 | environment | climate change |
789,416 | theirishtimes--2019-09-25--Oceans report makes Irish action on climate change more urgent experts say | 2019-09-25T00:00:00 | theirishtimes | Oceans report makes Irish action on climate change more urgent, experts say | Ireland may escape the devastation of increased superstorms and tsunamis predicted to occur due to increased global warming, but it faces major sea level rise and increased flooding risk, according to Irish experts. Responding to the latest report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Prof Peter Thorne of Maynooth University said even if greenhouse gas concentrations are stabilised oceans and the cryosphere (where ice covers the Earth’s surface) will continue to change “for many centuries to millennia thereafter”. “Without aggressive mitigation efforts we are committing to multi-metre sea-level rises, while ocean acidification, stratification and deoxygenation are huge issues which will lead to less diverse and productive global oceans,” said Prof Thorne, Ireland’s most senior climate scientist within the IPCC. In areas relying upon mountain glaciers for water supply there are potential issues in future, he added. “The wildcard of permafrost melt and greenhouse gas releases remains poorly understood. However, what is clear is that the stored gas trapped by ice is huge – more than twice our cumulative emissions to date. So there is a real risk here.” The report adds urgency to the need to undertake aggressive mitigation to reduce emissions, he said. The sea-level projections meant “we need to rethink our adaptation planning and responses in coastal communities. It is doubtful that areas of Dublin, Galway and Cork could be protected from multi-metre sea-level rise which we may – by our collective actions – commit to in our emissions over coming decades”. Green Party MEP Grace O’Sullivan said the report confirms irreversible damage is already being done to marine environments and ice sheets. “In Ireland, we will see a worsening in coastal and inland flooding, increasing numbers of extreme storms, fodder shortages and accelerated land-loss.” There was every indication this would get worse if urgent and massive change was not immediately implemented, she added. “The report rings every alarm bell and tells us that unless such steps are taken, we will be a world in deep crisis, with water – that most basic necessity for survival – set to be at the centre of a collapsing life-system. There will be a continuing rise in climate disruption and climate emergencies.” Dr Donal Mullan of Queen’s University Belfast School of Natural and Built Environment said Ireland – along with the rest of the planet – has received a bailout from oceans up to now. “They have been protecting us from devastating excess heat by absorbing over 90 per cent of the extra heat generated by global warming. But with any bailout comes payback.” Absorbing that excess heat has made the oceans “much warmer, less salty and more acidic. All of this will bring about devastating payback that will impact most on coastal ecosystems and people living in small island states and low-lying cities”. The consequences would also be felt in Ireland, where over 40 per cent of the population live within 5 km of the coast. Sea levels are projected to rise potentially as high as 1.1 metres owing to a combination of water expanding with heat, ice loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and melting glaciers. | null | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/oceans-report-makes-irish-action-on-climate-change-more-urgent-experts-say-1.4030081 | 2019-09-25 14:31:04+00:00 | 1,569,436,264 | 1,570,222,256 | environment | climate change |
790,543 | theirishtimes--2019-11-21--‘Global community’ has accepted reality of climate change – scientist | 2019-11-21T00:00:00 | theirishtimes | ‘Global community’ has accepted reality of climate change – scientist | After decades of denial, the “global community” has accepted the reality of human-induced climate change and the imperative of tackling it, climate scientist Dame Julia Slingo has said. So is the science done and dusted, and all we need now are technological solutions and getting on with implementing the landmark Paris Agreement? Wrong, wrong and wrong, she replies. “The work of the climate scientist is far from over as the science continues to evolve. Our knowledge and understanding of how the climate system works and how it’s going to change continues to depend on answering fundamental scientific questions.” Moreover, the role of climate science is greater than ever before, as we face immense challenges in mitigating global warming (by reducing carbon emissions), how to adapt to a disruptive climate, “and how to make ourselves more resilient to weather and climate hazards”– notably, more frequent extreme events. Speaking before delivering an EPA climate lecture in Dublin, Dame Slingo cites big advances in the past decade but the one limiting factor is glaring; lack of adequate supercomputer capacity to do number crunching on staggering vast amounts of data using climate models that chart likely scenarios where the world’s climate is increasingly disrupted. She has served as chief scientist at the UK Met office, worked at the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts, a leading developer of models to predict future climate scenarios, the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research and Reading University. Her influence is indicated by the impact of a letter she – with scientific peers – wrote to former British prime minister Theresa May, calling on the UK to declare unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency and to enshrine it in law. The UK was the first national parliament to do so; others followed including Ireland. Revoking legislation is never easy, she adds, especially when it would run against the tide of public opinion. Those unanswered questions include: “Where does all the heat go? Where does all the carbon in the atmosphere go? Where does all the water go?” The water issue, especially in the form of rising sea levels, will become more acute in coming decades in coming decades, she predicts. Meanwhile global society will have to take hard decisions based on understanding the extent to which people are exposed to extreme events; dangerous “tipping points” and “feedback effects” separate to warming that determine the future climate state. Fortunately, she notes, climate scientists have been considering such questions. Their answers combined with actions taken by global society will determine whether it’s possible to keep global heating to with 1.5 to 2 degrees. Overcoming the limitations of current tools to observe the Earth requires big co-operation “to build up capacity”. That means met services and academics “must share not duplicate” their work, and for it all to be underpinned by international collaboration. The political response is a vital cog, but she believes climate science is not fully understood by some within that circle, though the UK is in a better position because of its structure for innovative research and robust climate governance, setting it on the right course. She has no fears that global leadership will be diluted by Brexit. The challenge in the “adaptation-mitigation response” is to overcome the view that the task is overwhelming. This, she believes, is a blockage on progress, which is all down to communication. On a positive note, public understanding of climate change “is in an unbelievable place now . . . Acceptance is overwhelming. That social tipping point was reached in the past year or two.” It contrasts with push back from sceptics a decade ago when “climategate” raged, which was “so, so difficult”. The deniers in the climate science field “have pretty well evaporated”; though the arguments have shifted to a different realm – indicated by lines such as, “it’s not as bad as we make it out to be” or the economic implications of radical action are too great. Looking at the pace of climate change and risks even in today’s world, “it’s not acceptable to claim it’s not that big a deal”, she says. As for persuading people to act rather than be despondent, Dame Slingo urges people to understand the issues – “the facts and how to interpret them”. Everyone can make a difference, especially in influencing politicians, through their investments, their businesses and their communities caring about their environment and embracing the principles of Earth stewardship. On an individual basis, reducing carbon footprint and changing purchasing habits make a difference – this combined with embracing energy efficiency “can take you a long way to [achieving] the Paris goals”. | null | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/global-community-has-accepted-reality-of-climate-change-scientist-1.4091343 | Thu, 21 Nov 2019 23:03:49 +0000 | 1,574,395,429 | 1,574,382,440 | environment | climate change |
803,230 | themanchestereveningnews--2019-07-22--Rochdale has declared a climate change emergency - bosses say the effects are being felt in the town | 2019-07-22T00:00:00 | themanchestereveningnews | Rochdale has declared a climate change emergency - bosses say the effects are being felt in the town | Town hall chiefs have committed to making the borough carbon-neutral by 2038 - 12 years earlier than the target set by the government. Councillors voted almost unanimously in favour of a motion, which binds the authority to Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s green ambitions for the conurbation. In an impassioned speech, Lib Dem leader Coun Andy Kelly called on colleagues to recognise the urgency of the situation. Presenting his motion, he said: “Climate change is real, whether we like it or not. “We are in a state of emergency - sea levels are rising, temperatures are rising across the globe, pollution is the highest it has ever been.” He added that while climate change may be a global issue, its effects were already being felt much closer to home. “It affects us locally with air quality, with the flooding issues we see time and again in this borough and it’s certainly going to affect our children and grandchildren - and those children not yet born,” he said. “For future generations, if we don’t do something about this now, we are poisoning future generations and shortening their lives.” The Lib Dem chief said that by declaring a climate emergency the council would give itself a platform to develop green policies. “Declaring a climate change emergency gives us a chance to promote the elimination of single use plastics, to invest in a better transport system, to reinvest in planting trees, improving air quality, biodiversity and improving the natural heritage of the borough," he added. “Every new house we can ensure is of the greenest standard, some very practical things we can get behind as a council; ensuring every new house has electric car points. “All these things we can do, not just to reduce pollution but ensure a long term sustainability for the borough.” In a final rallying call, he added: “Councillors, it’s not too late to change things with climate change, but it’s getting very, very late in the day.” Labour, whose amendment set the target date at 2038 for both the borough and council achieving carbon neutrality, backed the motion. Coun Wendy Cocks said: “We owe it to our citizens who may suffer from extreme weather, food shortages and other climate related dangers. And owe it to our young people who are concerned about their future.” Warning that ‘the clock is ticking’ she added: “We have perhaps 10 or 12 years, our own experience, with the Boxing Day floods and other events will continue to be more frequent without action. We in Rochdale must move quickly for the benefit of all the community, our children’s future and the survival of the whole planet.” Tory leader Coun Ashley Dearnley said his party was ‘absolutely committed to ensure that this time, for the first time our generation will leave a better planet for the next generation to come and to safeguard for the future’. He also said the motion’s call to set up a working group to tackle the issue was ‘really important’ and called for every council report to be made relevant to the issue of climate change. “At times when it’s been necessary to do that, this council has always done the right thing to ensure that we improve how the council works to the benefit of everyone that lives here," he said. There is no single definition but it involves the recognition that urgent action is needed if global warming is to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C. A UN report warns that the risk of catastrophic climate change - including extreme heat, drought and flooding - would significantly increase if temperatures rise beyond this point. It says we could have just 11 years left to limit a climate change catastrophe. The UK government declared a climate change emergency in May - a move Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn described as ‘a huge step forward’ It was one of the key demands of campaign group Extinction Rebellion - however, it does not compel the government to take any specific action. Scotland declared a climate emergency in April - and targets are being set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2045. The idea of a local area declaring a climate emergency was first put forward by Bristol councillor Carla Denyer and the motion was passed by the city council in November. Since then dozens of authorities across the country have declared a climate emergency - with many setting a target of being carbon neutral by 2030. Scotland declared a climate emergency in April - targets are being set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2045 Greenhouse gases are released through the burning of fossil fuels to produce energy, whether for industry, homes or transportation. For an area or organisation to call itself carbon neutral it will have to remove the same amount of carbon dioxide from the environment as it releases into it. | [email protected] (Nick Statham) | https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/rochdale-declared-climate-change-emergency-16626999 | 2019-07-22 13:51:42+00:00 | 1,563,817,902 | 1,567,536,165 | environment | climate change |
810,778 | themoscowtimes--2019-11-15--How Does a Powerful Russian Lobby Plan to Halt Climate Change? With Coal, Oil and Gas | 2019-11-15T00:00:00 | themoscowtimes | How Does a Powerful Russian Lobby Plan to Halt Climate Change? With Coal, Oil and Gas | Fear of extinction as a result of runaway climate change has shocked the world into scrambling to reduce carbon emissions and develop green technologies before it’s too late. Russia’s most powerful business lobby, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), has a different take on the crisis. “We have to maximize our sales of gas, oil and coal as much as we can without stopping while there is still a buyer for it, and use that money to stimulate innovations in new technologies so we can keep up with other economies,” David Iakobachvili, the chairman of RSPP’s corporate social responsibility and sustainable development committee, told The Moscow Times. “We have to think about what we will leave behind for our kids,” he added. “Cultures that didn’t think about this, well, they’re gone now.” In 2015, 195 countries signed on to the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels to fight climate change. Russia, the world’s fourth-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, was one of them. But because the Paris accord takes 1990 as its baseline for reducing emissions to 70% by 2030, Russia has already met its requirements, because the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 triggered one of the biggest economic contractions in recent history. In September, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev finally ratified the deal just as Russia’s Natural Resources and Environment Ministry released a report warning that the country is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. According to the ministry, if unchecked, this will result in epidemics, drought and famine, among other disasters. It will also, according to Russian government estimates, cost the country $2.3 billion per year. To signal its commitment to fighting climate change nonetheless, the Russian government has tasked the Economic Development Ministry with drafting legislation to accompany the Paris Agreement. In its original form, the draft legislation included quotas on carbon emissions at Russia’s largest companies, a new national carbon trading system and penalties for the biggest polluters. That was before RSPP stepped in. At a March hearing at the State Duma, the group warned that the proposals would force companies to abandon investment plans. It also argued that increased energy prices and inflation would “negatively affect the well-being of ordinary people.” Last month, the Kommersant business daily reported that the proposed measures have since been scrapped, and that the legislation, which is now at the final stages before being passed, will only include a climate audit. ‘Naive to take our money’ RSPP’s headquarters sits on a bend on the banks of the Moscow River just east of the Kremlin. The stately building is a former almshouse, built in the late 19th century at the behest of a wealthy philanthropist to provide accommodation for impoverished women from the merchant classes. Today, it houses representatives from the companies that form the backbone of the Russian economy, most of them in the business of carbon and the targets of the Economic Development Ministry’s proposed measures. Skim through the list of committee members and you’ll find some of Russia’s most well-known oligarchs. In an interview in his office this week, RSPP’s vice president for corporate relations Alexander Varvarin at times grew heated defending the group’s lobbying against the proposed climate regulations for its members. “We are well aware that certain new systems for tracking carbon footprints can be introduced,” he said, referring to taxes that European countries are considering implementing on imports like oil and gas. “We are closely following what other countries are doing, and for now, these risks haven’t been realized.” “It would be naive to take our money and decide how to solve our problems for us,” he added, noting the plans to fine companies and a suggested tax on carbon that was also reportedly axed from the proposed legislation. “Do you really think that we do not understand all of our risks?” In arguing that there was no current need for additional regulation, Varvarin pointed out that Russia has already fulfilled its Paris agreement requireents. Critics argue that signing the accord with the knowledge that there is no obligation to change behavior is a cynical strategy that allows Russia to be seen as doing something about climate change without actually doing anything substantive. “It’s good of course to talk about moving to renewable sources of energy,” Varvarin continued. “But then let’s count how much that will cost, its effect on inflation for our companies, how much we will have to increase the price of our products, and how much utility prices will go up for people.” In its consultations with Russian officials, RSPP has not shied away from hammering home its view that ordinary people will suffer under green legislation. “All of our big companies bankroll Russian regions — not just with our taxes, but with donations for infrastructure. We are talking about billions,” said one RSPP member who helped lobby against the Economic Development Ministry’s proposals and who asked to remain anonymous. “What we showed was that there would be huge holes in local budgets if these measures were passed.” Leading experts on sustainable development, however, argue that, even putting aside the immediate need for climate change mitigation, Russia’s leading businesses will only be shooting themselves in the foot further down the road if they do not try to move away from carbon-heavy industries — now. “I do fear that over a 20-year horizon, Russia faces an existential shock,” said Charles Robertson, global chief economist at Renaissance Bank. “It’s like the Saudi oil minister said in the 1970s: ‘The Stone Age didn't end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil.’” Not only will these companies be hurting themselves as the global economy shifts to renewable energy sources, said Sergei Bobylev, an economics professor at Moscow State University specializing in sustainable development, but also the regions and ordinary people they claim to be protecting in the short-term. “Russian authorities and businesses are short-sighted,” Bobylev said. “Our economy is based on companies like Lukoil, Gazprom, Rosneft and so on. And the prognosis for them isn’t looking very good.” “Costs may very well go up at first, but if we don’t implement these carbon regulations and these companies suffer, poor people will lose even more down the line,” he added. | null | https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/11/15/how-does-a-powerful-russian-lobby-plan-to-halt-climate-change-with-coal-oil-and-gas-a68173 | Fri, 15 Nov 2019 10:09:00 +0100 | 1,573,830,540 | 1,573,864,946 | environment | climate change |
966,449 | thesun--2019-06-19--Sled dogs walk on water instead of 4ft thick sea ice in Greenland as climate change brings dramatic | 2019-06-19T00:00:00 | thesun | Sled dogs walk on water instead of 4ft thick sea ice in Greenland as climate change brings dramatic thaw | A PACK of Huskies appeared to be walking on water as they pulled a sled across melted ice in Greenland - showing the dramatic effects of climate change. The startling image was captured by Steffen Olsen, a climate scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) following a bout of unusually warm weather. Steffen and his team were collecting equipment from a weather station in the Inglefield Fjord area and as they stepped on the 4ft thick ice, water began to pool on the surface. He took to Twitter to share the bleak image he took on June 13. Steffen wrote: "Communities in Greenland rely on the sea ice for transport, hunting and fishing. Extreme events, here flooding of ice by abrupt onset of surface melt call for an increased predictive capacity in the Arctic." Because the sea ice is so compact with almost no cracks, the image gives the impression that the dogs are running on water. Due to the extreme heat, Greenland is estimated to have lost the equivilent of two billion tonnes of ice. The temperatures were around 22C above normal the day before. But this year climate change experts say that the melt has begun early. Speaking to the BBC, William Colgan, senior researcher at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland said: "It's very unusual to have this much melt so early in the season. "It takes very rare conditions but they are becoming increasingly common." In 2012 Greenland saw record-breaking ice sheet loss and it was down to two factors, which is what has happened this year. One is high pressure lodged over Greenland and the other is low cloud cover and snowfall - meaning solar radiation can strike the sheet surface. William pointed the finger at global warming, explaining: "What climate change is doing is increasingly loading the dice to set up weather conditions that can tip the ice sheets into these mass loss events." "You're losing something like 250 billion tonnes of ice a year on average. A huge mass is being transferred from the land into the oceans." We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368 . You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours. | Felix Allen | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9326263/sled-dogs-walk-on-water/ | 2019-06-19 00:01:15+00:00 | 1,560,916,875 | 1,567,538,730 | environment | climate change |
1,012,167 | thetelegraph--2019-08-02--Climate change may have added nearly three degrees to British heatwave say scientists | 2019-08-02T00:00:00 | thetelegraph | Climate change may have added nearly three degrees to British heatwave, say scientists | Climate change may have added nearly three degrees to the British heatwave, scientists have calculated as July looks set to be declared the hottest ever month worldwide since records began. The World Weather Attribution Group (WWA) said that the mini-heatwave in Britain which saw temperatures reach 101F (38.7F) for the first time last week was made twice as likely by man-made global warming. Researchers used long term temperature observations and climate models to look at how the weather would have unfolded with or without the human influence on the climate. The researchers say the intensity of the heatwave was increased by between 1.5 and 3C across Europe and between 1.5 and 2.5C in Britain. “Every European heatwave we and others have analysed was found to be made much more likely and more intense due to human-induced climate change, so it was not surprising that climate change played a role,” said Dr Friederike Otto, acting director of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford and member of WWA. “But how much more likely the heatwave is depends very strongly on the event definition: location, season, intensity and duration. “This July 2019 heatwave was so extreme over continental Western Europe that the observed magnitudes would have been extremely unlikely without climate change.” | Sarah Knapton | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2019/08/02/climate-change-may-have-added-nearly-three-degrees-british-heatwave/ | 2019-08-02 13:46:36+00:00 | 1,564,767,996 | 1,567,535,019 | environment | climate change |
1,040,299 | theweekuk--2019-03-21--How climate change could crash the global insurance sector | 2019-03-21T00:00:00 | theweekuk | How climate change could crash the global insurance sector | Climate change could make insurance unaffordable for ordinary people leading to wide-ranging social issues, the world’s largest reinsurance firm has warned. Citing £18bn of losses from the recent Californian wildfires, Ernst Rauch, Munich Re’s chief climatologist, told The Guardian costs could soon be widely felt, with premium rises already under discussion with clients holding asset concentrations in vulnerable parts of the state. “If the risk from wildfires, flooding, storms or hail is increasing then the only sustainable option we have is to adjust our risk prices accordingly. In the long run it might become a social issue,” he said, warning that “affordability is so critical [because] some people on low and average incomes in some regions will no longer be able to buy insurance.” “What makes the insurance industry's relationship with climate change so unique is the fact that the industry is built on the concept of managing risk,” says The Ecologist, and “with climate change set to be one of the greatest risks of them all, insurers stand to be impacted in significant and far-reaching ways.” Analysing decades worth of data, Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurance company, concluded the spike in wildfires, and hence insurance claims, was “broadly consistent with climate change”. It is the first time an insurer has linked wildfires to climate change, and the repercussions across the entire sector could be huge. The UK insurance industry is the largest in Europe and the third largest in the world. The industry manages total investments that equate to 25% of the UK’s net worth, “making it pivotal to our economy”, says the Ecologist. This “may also influence several court cases testing the liability of fossil fuel companies for the effects of global warming”, The Guardian says. In the US, for example, numerous cities and one state — Rhode Island — are suing the oil industry over the impact of fossil fuel emissions. “The litigation is likely to run for some years, and it is not yet clear whether it will be decided in state or federal courts”, says the Financial Times, “but if the 38 oil companies being sued lose, they are very likely to claim some or all of their costs back on their insurance policies.” Neil Beresford, partner at law firm Clyde & Co, predicts “the insurance industry’s exposure could go up to tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars.” This could easily see firms increase their premiums, the knock-on effect of which could pose a threat to social order warns Nicolas Jeanmart, the head of personal insurance, general insurance and macroeconomics at Insurance Europe, which speaks for 34 national insurance associations. “The sector is concerned that continuing global increases in temperature could make it increasingly difficult to offer the affordable financial protection that people deserve, and that modern society requires to function properly,” he said. | Elliott | https://www.theweek.co.uk/100350/how-climate-change-could-crash-the-global-insurance-sector | 2019-03-21 16:57:38+00:00 | 1,553,201,858 | 1,567,545,327 | environment | climate change |
1,044,712 | thinkprogress--2019-04-22--Climate change is already exacerbating global economic inequality | 2019-04-22T00:00:00 | thinkprogress | Climate change is already exacerbating global economic inequality | Global economic inequality has been “exacerbated” by climate change since the 1960s, according to a new study published Monday. Cooler countries have experienced stronger economic growth as temperatures have risen while economic growth in hotter countries has been slowed by global warming. According to a Stanford University study published in the peer-reviewed journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the gap between countries with the highest economic output per person versus those with the lowest is 25% larger than it would have been without climate change. “By impacting poor countries so robustly, global warming has exerted a drag on long-term improvements on economic inequality,” Noah Diffenbaugh, study author and Stanford climate scientist, told ThinkProgress. And in most cases, the countries most impacted have historically contributed the least to global greenhouse gas emissions, Diffenbaugh added. Researchers combined data on how annual temperatures impact 165 nations’ gross domestic product (GDP) with more than 20 different climate change scenarios. This allowed them to determine how much climate change has hurt or helped economies — including analyzing what economic output may have been in the absence of climate change. They found that between 1961 and 2010, the wealth per person in the world’s poorest countries decreased between 17% to 30% as a result of rising greenhouse gas emissions. The five countries most affected were Sudan, India, Nigeria, Indonesia, and Brazil; climate change caused the per capita GDP in these countries to drop 25 to 36%. Meanwhile, the per capita GDP of Norway, Sweden, and Canada increased 25 to 34%. As a press release accompanying the study notes, while “economic inequality between countries has decreased in recent decades, the research suggests the gap would have narrowed faster without global warming.” The UK and France also saw a 9.5% and 8.5% increase in their economies as a result of warmer global temperatures, while the world’s three largest economies were minimally impacted: the United States took a small 0.2% hit in growth, Japan dropped by 1.1%, and China’s growth decreased by 1.4%. This suggests these major economies may have temperatures well-suited to economic growth but that could change as the world warms. The study supports wider scientific findings regarding the impact of warmer temperatures on production. “[There are a] number of pathways by which the building blocks of economic activity are influenced by temperature,” Diffenbaugh said. Higher temperatures impact agricultural production, especially crops like corn, soy, and wheat. Labor productivity also declines with higher temperatures, as does cognitive performance. Meanwhile, interpersonal conflicts increase. “The historical data clearly show that crops are more productive, people are healthier and we are more productive at work when temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold,” study co-author Marshall Burke, an assistant Earth system science professor at Stanford, said in a statement. “This means that in cold countries, a little bit of warming can help. The opposite is true in places that are already hot.” In order to account for uncertainty in the data, the researchers ran 20,000 different versions of what each country’s economic growth could look like without climate change. “For most countries, whether global warming has helped or hurt economic growth is pretty certain,” said Burke, adding that there’s “essentially no uncertainty” that economies in tropical countries have been “harmed.” As the study concludes, it’s been widely noted that wealthy countries have benefited disproportionately from the activities that have caused climate change, while poor countries suffer disproportionately the impacts. “Our results show that, in addition to the direct benefits of fossil fuel use, many wealthy countries have likely been made even more wealthy by the resulting global warming,” the authors wrote. “Likewise, not only have poor countries not shared in the full benefits of energy consumption, but many have already been made poorer (in relative terms) by the energy consumption of wealthy countries.” | Kyla Mandel | https://thinkprogress.org/climate-change-is-already-exacerbating-global-economic-inequality-ad2c18714a3f/ | 2019-04-22 19:03:05+00:00 | 1,555,974,185 | 1,567,542,176 | environment | climate change |
1,045,517 | thinkprogress--2019-08-18--Only you know if we did it Scientists write dire letter to the future about climate change | 2019-08-18T00:00:00 | thinkprogress | ‘Only you know if we did it’: Scientists write dire letter to the future about climate change | Scientists are gathering in Iceland Sunday to memorialize Okjökull — the country’s first glacier to be destroyed by global warming. Okjökull, nicknamed Ok, lost its status as a glacier 2014. The monument being unveiled at the “funeral” is inscribed with an ominous warning, titled “A letter to the future.” “Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier,” it states in English and Icelandic. “In the next 200 years, all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and know what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.” Only future generations will “know if we did it” — if we melted all of the glaciers, raised sea level tens of feet, destroyed all of our coastal cities, and ruined our livable climate. But the truth is that human-caused global warming is disintegrating Arctic glaciers and the great ice sheets at such a rapid and accelerating pace that we will all know within a decade whether humanity has acted fast enough to avert catastrophe. As the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported in December, “Arctic air temperatures for the past five years (2014-18) have exceeded all previous records since 1900.” And 2019 is on track to be the hottest year yet. NOAA’s report makes clear we’re in an all-but irreversible Arctic death spiral — which is driving more extreme weather in this country, faster sea level rise everywhere, and more rapid disintegration of the carbon-rich permafrost, which in turn causes even faster global warming. Prof. Cymene Howe of Rice, told the UK Guardian last month that the plaque “would be the first to a glacier lost to climate change anywhere in the world.” She said that an Icelandic colleague told her: “Memorials are not for the dead; they are for the living.” | Joe Romm | https://thinkprogress.org/scientists-hold-funeral-for-first-icelandic-glacier-killed-by-global-warming-5df0d504809b/ | 2019-08-18 15:21:34+00:00 | 1,566,156,094 | 1,567,534,067 | environment | climate change |
1,068,346 | upi--2019-12-05--Early climate change models were pretty accurate, study finds | 2019-12-05T00:00:00 | upi | Early climate change models were pretty accurate, study finds | Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Early climate models get a bad wrap for being imprecise, but new research suggests they were surprisingly accurate. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NASA reviewed 17 climate models described in scientific papers over the last several decades. The earliest were developed in the 1970s, while the most recent were created in late 2000s. Of the 17 models, analysis showed 14 were very accurate in predicting the average global temperature in the years following their publication. Scientists published their review this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. "The real message is that the warming we have experienced is pretty much exactly what climate models predicted it would be as much as 30 years ago," lead study author Zeke Hausfather, a doctoral student in UC Berkeley's Energy and Resources Group, said in a news release. "This really gives us more confidence that today's models are getting things largely right as well." Scientists looked at each model's prediction for the Earth's average temperature based on greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, and compared the predictions to actual global temperatures recorded at similar greenhouse gas levels. In effect, the study's authors looked at how well models simulated the relationship between emissions and temperature increases, not at how well models predicted changes in global emissions. "We did not focus on how well their crystal ball predicted future emissions of greenhouse gases, because that is a question for economists and energy modelers, not climate scientists," Hausfather said. "It is impossible to know exactly what human emissions will be in the future. Physics we can understand, it is a deterministic system; future emissions depend on human systems, which are not necessarily deterministic." One of the first models to draw attention to the problem of global warming, developed by James Hansen of NASA in 1988, overestimated methane emissions and underestimated the impact of the Montreal Protocol treaty, which banned chlorofluorocarbons. As a result, the model predicted inflated temperature increases. But when researchers accounted for these missteps and looked only at the model's understanding of the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions and temperature increases -- the physics of global warming -- they found Hansen's work was quite accurate. "If you account for these and look at the relationship in his model between temperature and radiative forcing, which is CO2 and other greenhouse gases, he gets it pretty much dead on," Hausfather said. "So the physics of his model was right. The relationship between how much CO2 there is in the atmosphere and how much warming you get, was right. He just got the future emissions wrong." When scientists plugged real-world greenhouse gas levels into most of the surveyed models, they spit out temperatures close to what weather stations actually recorded. Climate models continue to improve, but the accuracy of most models is judged on their ability to predict -- or replicate -- past climate scenarios. The latest is one of the first to take a shorter look back to see how climate models predicted the future of global warming. The study's authors suggest their work can help climate modelers continue to improve their model's predictive powers. "Climate models are a really important way for us to understand how the climate could change in the future, and now that we have taken a detailed look at how well past climate models have held up in terms of their projections, we are far more confident that our current generation of models are getting it right," Hausfather said. | null | https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2019/12/05/Early-climate-change-models-were-pretty-accurate-study-finds/9171575560694/ | Thu, 05 Dec 2019 16:20:31 -0500 | 1,575,580,831 | 1,575,594,767 | environment | climate change |
1,090,963 | vox--2019-06-28--Climate change got just 15 minutes out of 4 hours of Democratic debates | 2019-06-28T00:00:00 | vox | Climate change got just 15 minutes out of 4 hours of Democratic debates | The first two Democratic presidential debates for the 2020 election this week devoted more attention to climate change than in all the 2016 debates combined. But the climate crisis got just 15 minutes across four hours of airtime. And it wasn’t time particularly well spent: The questions were muddled, the discussion was shallow, and most viewers probably didn’t come away better informed. All of this helps to make activists’ case for why the Democratic National Committee should hold a separate climate change debate. Groups like the Sunrise Movement and Greenpeace have been calling for one and were disappointed with this week’s performances. “This is not how you behave in an emergency,” Greenpeace USA Climate Campaign Director Janet Redman said in a statement. “Despite the candidates’ acknowledgement of the existential threat that climate change represents to humanity, we heard next to nothing over two days about how they would actually address this monumental challenge.” DNC Chair Tom Perez has declared that the party does not want to host an event centered on the issue and that candidates who create their own climate debates would be barred from other DNC debates. (A climate change “forum” or a “town hall” would be allowed.) His argument is that a climate change debate would show unnecessary prejudice toward the issue and end up favoring the candidates like Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who has built his entire campaign around climate. “If we change our guidelines at the request of one candidate who has made climate change their campaign’s signature issue, how do we say no to the numerous other requests we’ve had?” wrote Perez on Medium earlier this month. However, the debates ended up revealing several reasons why holding a separate climate debate makes sense: With more than two dozen Democrats running for the White House, it’s hard to tell them apart. This is especially true on climate change, a complex problem that needs sophisticated, thoughtful solutions. We got a hint of what some of the candidates would do, and how they differ, during the debates. But despite having published several long, thorough policy proposals on fighting climate change, Inslee barely had more than a couple minutes to discuss his ideas. On Thursday, we learned about how California Sen. Kamala Harris’s visits to communities affected by wildfires exacerbated by climate change in her home state drove her to support the Green New Deal. It would have been nice to more from her on how she intends to both reduce emissions and mitigate the impacts of global warming. South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg said he wants to use the money raised from a carbon tax and distribute it back to people as a progressive dividend, an idea to address economic inequality and reduce emissions. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders frankly talked about how advancing an adequate climate agenda would require a political upheaval generated by millions of voters focused on averting dangerous levels of warming. This is an issue where many of the candidates have a wealth of interesting proposals that could be parsed in greater depth — and debated. Yet in a standard debate format, where upwards of six issues must be discussed, the candidates will never have an opportunity to do it. The Democratic debates also revealed that the moderators had allotted only a narrow window to ask about climate. And some of those precious opportunities to ask questions were squandered. On Wednesday, moderator Rachel Maddow posed an awkward question of whether a candidate’s plan would “save Miami.” But it’s a question that almost impossible to answer given that the city that’s already regularly battered by extreme weather and faces frequent flooding from rising seas. Significant damage from climate change has already been done, much more is still to come, and most of it is irreversible. In Miami, it’s now a race to adapt or retreat. Moderator Chuck Todd turned a question about climate change policy into one about winning over people opposed to big government. Todd also started to pose an interesting question about whether the government should continue to rebuild homes damaged in climate-related disasters, but it came out muddled, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro barely had time to answer: There was also at times a stark contract in how the moderators handled climate compared to other issues, like how they parsed all the fine distinctions among the candidates in Medicare-for-all and the role of private insurance. So far, 15 Democratic candidates have said that they support holding a climate change debate, including frontrunners like Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Outside the DNC headquarters in Washington, DC, activists from the Sunrise Movement have been calling for a climate change debate for nearly three days. Democratic primary voters routinely rank climate change among their top concerns. Clearly, huge parts of the Democratic base are energized and mobilized around the issue. But climate change rarely receives a substantive prime-time policy discussion, so voters don’t often hear about it on television. A debate asking presidential hopefuls to walk through how they plan to cope with a warming world would be a public service and help educate voters who may not realize just how much a warming world will impact agriculture, the economy, health, and national security. | Umair Irfan | https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/28/18906968/democratic-debate-2019-climate-change | 2019-06-28 05:00:00+00:00 | 1,561,712,400 | 1,567,537,793 | environment | climate change |
483,326 | skynewspolitics--2019-06-27--May Seeing melting glaciers on walks prompted climate push | 2019-06-27T00:00:00 | skynewspolitics | May: Seeing melting glaciers on walks prompted climate push | Theresa May: Seeing melting glaciers on nature walks prompted her climate push Theresa May: Seeing melting glaciers on nature walks prompted her climate push Theresa May walks in a forest with her husband Philip at the start of a summer holiday in the Alps in Switzerland Theresa May has said seeing melting glaciers while on her walking holidays played a part in her push for the UK to be carbon neutral by 2050. She was speaking on her way to the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, where she will ask other countries to act. It came as UK's new aim to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 became law on Thursday, making it the first major economy to set such a target. All this week, Sky News has been setting out why the climate crisis is among the biggest challenges faced today by the human race. The prime minister told reporters on the plane to Japan the retreat of a glacier on one of her walking routes in Switzerland had illustrated the need for action. She said writing the UK's net zero commitment into law was an "important contribution to make sure we're not contributing to climate change in future". Mrs May and her husband Philip are keen ramblers, and she said the couple had been struck by the impact of climate change on their holidays. She said: "Just as a small example of why this is important, as you know, Philip and I go walking, not just in Wales but also in Switzerland, and there's a particular place we go to where over the last decade you see the glacier retreating quickly. "This has brought home to me the issue of climate change. "But the G20 represents 80% of emissions, so actually it's not just what the UK does, it's about what we can do together. "So I'm going to be taking a message to the other leaders of them... following on the UK's lead and acting on this issue." :: A New Climate is a special series of podcasts from Sky News Daily. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Spotify, Spreaker It is the last G20 summit for Mrs May, who will leave Downing Street next month when a new Tory leader is installed. Britain's move to net-zero carbon will require huge changes such as more renewable electricity generation, the phasing out of petrol and diesel cars and the cutting of beef and lamb consumption by 20%. Energy and clean growth minister Chris Skidmore, who signed the legislation into law after it passed through the Commons and the Lords, said: "The UK kick-started the Industrial Revolution, which was responsible for economic growth across the globe but also for increasing emissions. "Today we're leading the world yet again in becoming the first major economy to pass new laws to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050." The net target replaces a previous goal to cut the country's emissions by 80% compared with 1990 levels by 2050, a target campaigners said did not go far enough. Groups like Extinction Rebellion have been demanding much tougher action, saying it would be the only way to meet pledges made under the 2015 Paris climate agreement to try to limit a rise in global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Temperatures have already risen about one degree Celsius since pre-industrial times. Scientists are worried further increases could place the world at a tipping point, beyond which parts of the planet could become uninhabitable and rising seas could drown many coastal towns and cities. | null | http://news.sky.com/story/theresa-may-says-seeing-melting-glaciers-on-walks-prompted-her-climate-push-11749906 | 2019-06-27 09:28:00+00:00 | 1,561,642,080 | 1,567,537,848 | environment | climate change |
752,411 | theindependent--2019-03-21--Mount Everest Dead bodies appearing due to melting glaciers | 2019-03-21T00:00:00 | theindependent | Mount Everest: Dead bodies appearing due to melting glaciers | Global warming has contributed to greater numbers of bodies of dead climbers emerging from thinning snow and ice on Mount Everest in recent years, authorities have said. Since it was first conquered by Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953 more than 4,800 people have successfully scaled the world’s tallest mountain. Almost 300 people have died during the attempt. Removing bodies from the mountain is difficult and very expensive, so the vast majority of those who have died while trying to reach the summit remain on the mountain. Around two-thirds of the corpses are currently believed to be buried beneath ice and snow. But Ang Tshering Sherpa, the former president of Nepal Mountaineering Association said that "the ice sheet and glaciers are fast melting and the dead bodies that remained buried all these years are now becoming exposed". He told the BBC this was "because of global warming." He said: “We have brought down dead bodies of some mountaineers who died in recent years, but the old ones that remained buried are now coming out." This was backed up by a government officer who worked in the region, who said: “I myself have retrieved around 10 dead bodies in recent years from different locations on Everest and clearly more and more of them are emerging now.” Several studies have indicated the Himalayas are in the grip of considerable loss of ice from glaciers and the trend is forecast to accelerate. A report this year, by 210 authors, warned more than a third of the ice in the region will melt by 2100 even if governments take tough action to limit global warming under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Bodies are occasionally exposed by the shifting glaciers, rather than ice loss due to temperature rises and climbers are usually prepared to spot the occasional dead body when they are on the mountain. | Harry Cockburn | https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/mount-everest-dead-bodes-glacier-melt-a8834351.html | 2019-03-21 19:55:08+00:00 | 1,553,212,508 | 1,567,545,343 | environment | climate change |
761,843 | theindependent--2019-06-03--Everest aposRecord numberapos of bodies appear as melting glaciers means aposfinding bones is | 2019-06-03T00:00:00 | theindependent | Everest: 'Record number' of bodies appear as melting glaciers means 'finding bones is the new normal' | A few years ago, Kami Rita Sherpa, a veteran climber and guide, met with a gruesome sight at Mount Everest Base Camp. Human bones poked from the ground, smooth and ice-crusted. It was not a fluke. Subsequent seasons yielded more remains — a skull, fingers, parts of legs. Guides increasingly believe that their findings fit into a broader development on the world’s highest mountain: a hotter climate has been unearthing climbers who never made it home. “Snow is melting and bodies are surfacing,” said Mr Sherpa, who has summited Everest 24 times, a world record. “Finding bones has become the new normal for us.” In the past few seasons, climbers say they have seen more bodies lying on the icy slopes of Everest than ever before. Both the climbers and the Nepalese government believe this is a grim result of global warming, which is rapidly melting the mountain’s glaciers and in the process exposing bones, old boots and full corpses from doomed missions decades ago. The Nepalese government is struggling with what to do. More than 100 bodies may be lying on Everest, and there is an open debate about whether to remove them or leave them be. Some climbers believe that fallen comrades have become a part of the mountain and should remain so. A number of the bodies are remarkably preserved: sun-bleached parkas outline faces frozen into the colour of charcoal. Gelje Sherpa, a guide and six-time summiteer, said that when he first climbed Everest in 2008 he found three bodies. During a recent season, he saw at least twice that number. “They often haunt me,” he said. Over the past six decades, about 300 climbers have died during Everest expeditions, mostly as the results of storms, falls or altitude sickness. This season has been one of the deadliest, with at least 11 fatalities, some of them partly attributable to an excess of climbers on the mountain. The Nepalese government said Wednesday that to avoid traffic jams and unruly behaviour at the summit, it was considering changing the rules on who could climb the mountain. Ang Tshering Sherpa, the former president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, estimated that the bodies of at least a third of all who have died on Everest remain there. Some of them are in pieces, pulled apart by avalanches, he said. It is very dangerous to remove remains from the top of the mountain. A frozen body can weigh more than 300 pounds. To carry that extra weight over deep crevasses with precipitous drops and erratic weather would put even more climbers in life-threatening binds. Still, some families have insisted on recovering the bodies of their loved ones, which entails a separate mission that can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Generally, the bodies of climbers who die above 21,000 feet are left in place. “On the mountain, everything is weighed against the risk of death,” Ang Tshering Sherpa said. “It is better to bring down the bodies if possible. But climbers should always give first priority to safety. Dead bodies can claim their lives.” The emerging bodies are part of a bigger change on the mountain. In the past decade, climate change has quickly reshaped the whole Himalayan region. The snow line on Everest is higher than it was just a few years ago. Areas once coated in dense ice are now exposed. Climbers are trading ice axes for rock pitons, spikes that are hammered into cracks on the mountain wall. In 2016, Nepal’s army drained a lake near Everest after rapid glacial melting threatened to cause a catastrophic flood downstream. This year, a study found that the size of ponds on top of glaciers across the Everest region — which can both signal melting and accelerate it — had greatly increased in the past three years, far outpacing the rate of change from the first decade and a half of the 2000s. Kami Rita Sherpa worried that scaling Everest, which sits near a major glacier and straddles the border between Nepal and Tibet, was becoming more complex — a troubling development as the mountain continues to be commercialised and to attract inexperienced climbers. “It will be harder to summit in the coming days if the ice continues to melt,” he said. The forecast looks grim. In a study on high-altitude warming released in February, scientists warned that even if the world’s most ambitious climate change targets are met, a third of Himalayan glaciers will melt by the end of the century. If global warming and greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current rates, the number could jump to two-thirds, according to the report, the Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment. The report touches on elevation-dependent warming. It is well known that temperature changes from greenhouse gases are amplified at higher latitudes, such as in the Arctic. But there is growing evidence that warming rates are also greater at higher elevations. In October, a landmark report from the United Nations’ scientific panel on climate change found that if greenhouse gas emissions continued at the current rate, the atmosphere would warm by as much as 1.5C above preindustrial levels by 2040. Under the same scenario in the Himalayas, that figure could reach 2.1C, the Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment found. Dandu Raj Ghimire, the director general of Nepal’s department of tourism management, which oversees mountain expeditions, said the emergence of bodies indicated how the region had already changed. After Sherpas reported finding several bodies last year, Mr Ghimire’s office started looking for ways to safely remove them. Ahead of this year’s spring climbing season, which typically stretches to the end of May, Nepal’s tourism ministry asked expedition operators to compile lists of deceased mountaineers who were left on Everest and other peaks. This year, volunteers have collected more than 20,000 pounds of trash — plastic bottles, old ropes, tents, food tins — from Everest. The exercise was also billed as an opportunity to remove bodies. In April, four more unidentified people were found on the mountain. Mr Ghimire said that the remains had been moved to Kathmandu for autopsies. If they cannot be identified, the police will cremate them. “We will absolutely bring down all objects that have emerged from the ice,” he said. Their work is unlikely to extend to the upper reaches of Everest, where summertime temperatures routinely dip below zero degrees Fahrenheit (nearly -18C) and oxygen levels are a third of those at sea level. At that altitude, some bodies have become sobering markers. For years, an American woman who died while descending was a fixture near the summit, until a climber wrapped her body in a flag and moved it out of sight in the 2000s. The body was commonly called “Sleeping Beauty”. At 27,900 feet above sea level, people have also trudged past “Green Boots”, a body curled under a limestone rock and named for the climber’s neon-coloured footwear. The body is thought to be that of an Indian mountaineer who died in 1996 during the blizzard that inspired the best-selling book Into Thin Air. For many climbers, the bodies are a jarring reminder of the mountain’s perils. Vibeke Andrea Sefland, a Norwegian climber, said that during her 2017 expedition she had passed four bodies, including a friend’s. “It for sure affects me,” she said. “It is very intense when you meet them for the first time, when your headlamp catches them. I always halt and give them a little prayer.” | Kai Schultz, Bhadra Sharma | https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/mount-everest-deaths-bodies-glaciers-melting-ice-global-warming-nepal-a8941406.html | 2019-06-03 08:30:15+00:00 | 1,559,565,015 | 1,567,539,222 | environment | climate change |
387,862 | npr--2019-11-21--'Maybe It Will Destroy Everything': Pakistan's Melting Glaciers Cause Alarm | 2019-11-21T00:00:00 | npr | 'Maybe It Will Destroy Everything': Pakistan's Melting Glaciers Cause Alarm | 'Maybe It Will Destroy Everything': Pakistan's Melting Glaciers Cause Alarm For generations, farmers in the Harchi Valley in Pakistan's highlands enjoyed a close relationship with the glacier that snakes between two mountain peaks. It watered their fields, orchards and grazing lands. Following local tradition, it has a name — Ultar — and a gender — male, because it is black owing to the debris that covers it (female glaciers are white, residents say). Now, their relationship is unraveling as pollution and global warming cause the Ultar glacier to melt and form unstable lakes that could burst their icy banks at any moment. Already this summer, much of Harchi's lands were destroyed in glacial floods. Shamim Banno, a 55-year-old farmer, was working her potato fields when a flood rushed by. Tremors jiggled the ground. Car-sized boulders tumbled down the nearby waterfall and smashed into the river below. The water rose, and she clung to a tree, shouting for her son, who was recording the flood on his smartphone, mesmerized. "If I try to shout like that again, my teeth would fly out," she giggled on a recent day, covering her mouth, which contained about four teeth. The flood "was different from anything we'd seen before," she said. "I thought it was the end of the world." That summer was already troubling, said Banno. The handmade wood-and-rope bridge that links Harchi's terraced slopes was washed away four times in surging glacial melt. One bridge, she said, should have lasted more than a decade. Banno, who is illiterate and had not heard of climate change, said the bridge's fate scared the farmers. They began coming out in the mornings, "just looking, just watching the river," she said. Pakistan's far north is an idyll of turquoise rivers coursing beneath slate mountains, with villages and orchards clinging to the steep slopes of the Himalayas, the Hindu Kush and the Karakoram ranges that crisscross this territory. They hold more than 7,000 glaciers, which have long supplied water to the hundreds of thousands of people who live among them. But they are melting at an accelerated pace, compared with nearly 50 years ago, when monitoring began. Some are shrinking. More than 3,000 glaciers have formed unstable lakes. At least 30 are at risk of bursting, which can trigger ice avalanches and flash floods that bring down water, debris and boulders. The situation is only expected to worsen because temperatures in mountainous areas are rising faster than the global average. And "if we stick to the present emission trends, we'll lose two-thirds of our glaciers," said David Molden, director general of the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development, who recently authored a 627-page study about the mountain ranges. Even if warming is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, as called for by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its landmark 2018 report, the mountains will lose more than a third of their ice, largely held in glaciers, Molden said. "The direction is pretty clear on where we are going, and that's the alarming news." The impact will reverberate downstream because glacial melt feeds the Indus River basin, Pakistan's main water source for over 200 million people as it courses toward the Arabian Sea. "By 2050, you'll get less and less water," Molden said. Pakistan can do little to halt global greenhouse gas emissions, to which it contributes less than 1%, said Federal Minister for Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam. "We need the world to wake up," he said, "and shift their political lethargy on climate change and start taking action." But regional factors are also accelerating glacier melt, including toxic smog that chokes South Asia through the winter. It is largely caused by vehicle emissions, farmers burning their crop stubble and brick kilns that emit dirty black smoke. Air pollution leaves dark soot on glaciers around the world. Molden said governments are not acting to prevent this. "If they stopped all air pollution, you'd see the impacts tomorrow," he said. So in ways big and small, hundreds of thousands of residents are scrambling to adjust. In the Harchi Valley, workers contracted by the local government are planning for the next glacial floods. They are building a road to give vehicles access to the river to remove large debris, like boulders. By the river, they have built stone walls to stop future surges from washing away their land. Down a valley on a recent day, government-contracted workers raced to dismantle a wood-and-rope bridge that was being nosed by a surging, 9-mile-long glacier called Shishper. Authorities want to save infrastructure, like this bridge, said supervisor Ali Ahmad Jan. But they have to work quickly, he said, gesturing to the creaking, black, bloblike glacier. Residents of the nearby hamlet of Gulmit are waiting for U.N. funding to build a dam to block a glacier that lurked over their village's 31 homes. The United Nations is running a $37 million program to help residents adjust. Community leader Shawkat Ali, 53, said the glacier used to water the community's fields but now it threatens to wash them away. He spoke in Gulmit's communal hall, where residents were celebrating a wedding. Women and men sat on a rug-strewn floor, passing around tea and candies. And another glacier they once relied on — called Passu — is shrinking. A local scientist, Sitara Parveen, assistant professor of geography at Fatima Jinnah Girls Degree College, who studies glacial melt and its local impact, recently led NPR to that glacier. It lies, as if within a giant bowl, between two mountains. And that bowl, once full, is emptying out. Parveen pointed to where the glacier appeared to have peaks, like whipped cream, suggesting it was melting and cracking. "My children used to play there," she said. Now it is too dangerous. Farther up the mountains, villagers are grafting new glaciers to replace the dried-up ones, said Rashid, a Gulmit resident who only has one name. Rashid, a U.N. employee who helps administer the development project, said villagers are using an indigenous technique he called "the mating process." "You must have male and female glaciers," he said. (He said those efforts were not among those supported by the U.N. so far.) Rashid said residents mix the material from both glaciers, add other bulking material like debris, cement and salt, and then plant the baby glacier in shaded mountainsides, where it attracts more moisture. "It grows within five years," he said. Molden and Parveen said there is no evidence that the process works. But it shows residents are desperate, said Parveen. Banno, the farmer, said they live in fear of the land that once nurtured them and the seasons they once relied on. "The land will warm, and the water will come," she said of the upcoming summer. "Maybe it will destroy everything again. Maybe it will take my life." | Diaa Hadid | https://www.npr.org/2019/11/21/779412377/maybe-it-will-destroy-everything-pakistan-s-melting-glaciers-cause-alarm?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news | Thu, 21 Nov 2019 09:35:00 -0500 | 1,574,346,900 | 1,574,381,754 | environment | climate change |
829,239 | therightscoop--2019-08-28--Ocasio-Cortez warns that Climate Change could cause ancient diseases to ESCAPE from melting glaciers | 2019-08-28T00:00:00 | therightscoop | Ocasio-Cortez warns that Climate Change could cause ancient diseases to ESCAPE from melting glaciers [VIDEO] | Ocasio-Cortez just loves to talk about Climate Change to her Instagram viewers. Her latest argument against Climate Change is that it could release ancient diseases from melting glaciers…or something: Here’s a transcript from the Daily Caller in case you prefer to read it: “Things that were frozen for thousands of years, and that they’re going to get into our water, and that humans could contract them, and they’re going to be diseases that are thousands of years old that have vectors that we are not prepared for, that we have never seen. Um…and so that’s a concern…Even if there are no diseases frozen at all in these glaciers, you have diseases that are spread by mosquitoes, and now mosquitoes are starting to fly further north that carry diseases like malaria, and a whole slew of other things.” I’m honestly not sure how diseases can be frozen in glaciers, but then I’m not a brilliant scientist like AOC. Oh wait… But she adds the caveat that even if there are no ancient diseases frozen in glaciers, that mosquitos are moving north because Climate Change and they will kill us all with malaria! Let’s go ahead and make this an open thread. Enjoy! | The Right Scoop | https://therightscoop.com/ocasio-cortez-warns-that-climate-change-could-cause-ancient-diseases-to-escape-from-melting-glaciers-video/ | 2019-08-28 22:18:47+00:00 | 1,567,045,127 | 1,567,543,606 | environment | climate change |
160,740 | eveningstandard--2019-01-22--Greenlandaposs ice melting faster than scientists previously thought study finds | 2019-01-22T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | Greenland's ice melting faster than scientists previously thought, study finds | Greenland is melting faster than scientists previously thought with its ice being lost nearly four times more quickly than in 2003, a study has found. The findings suggest the ice sheet has reached “tipping point”, with the lead author of the study claiming humanity may have passed the point of no return in the fight against climate change. Researchers have warned of rising sea levels caused by the melting glaciers. The findings could have dire implications for coastal cities in the US, including New York and Miami, as well as island nations that are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels, the study said. “The only thing we can do is adapt,” Michael Bevis, professor of geodynamics and lead author of The Ohio State University's study, said. “It’s too late for there to be no effect. "This is going to cause additional sea level rise. We are watching the ice sheet hit a tipping point.” Scientists concerned about sea level rise have long focused on Greenland’s southeast and northwest regions, where large glaciers stream iceberg-sized chunks of ice into the Atlantic Ocean. But the new study found that the largest sustained ice loss from early 2003 to mid-2013 came from Greenland’s southwest region, which is mostly devoid of large glaciers. That melting, which Mr Bevis and his co-authors believe is largely caused by global warming, means that in the southwestern part of Greenland, growing rivers of water are streaming into the ocean during summer. Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study determined that southwest Greenland, previously not considered a serious threat, will likely become a major future contributor to sea level rise. “We knew we had one big problem with increasing rates of ice discharge by some large outlet glaciers,” Mr Bevis said. “But now we recognize a second serious problem - increasingly, large amounts of ice mass are going to leave as meltwater, as rivers that flow into the sea. And there is no turning back.” Patterns found by scientists revealed ice was being lost at nearly four times the rate that prevailed in 2003, with the biggest acceleration in southwest Greenland. The natural weather phenomenon North Atlantic Oscillation, which brings warmed air to west Greenland, was building on man-made climate change to cause “unprecedented levels of melting and runoff”, Mr Bevis said. The North Atlantic Oscillation is a natural cycle that causes ice to melt under normal circumstances. However, when combined with man-made global warming the effects are supercharged. “These oscillations have been happening forever,” Mr Bevis added. “So why only now are they causing this massive melt? It’s because the atmosphere is, at its baseline, warmer. The transient warming driven by the North Atlantic Oscillation was riding on top of more sustained, global warming.” Mr Bevis said these new findings show that scientists need to be watching the island’s snowpack and ice fields more closely, especially in and near southwest Greenland. “We’re going to see faster and faster sea level rise for the foreseeable future,” he said. “Once you hit that tipping point, the only question is: How severe does it get?” | Katy Clifton | https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/greenlands-ice-melting-faster-than-scientists-previously-thought-study-finds-a4045396.html | 2019-01-22 13:18:00+00:00 | 1,548,181,080 | 1,567,551,332 | environment | climate change |
344,394 | newsbusters--2019-09-16--Roker Thrilled By NBCs Climate Unit Hypes Crisis in Greenland | 2019-09-16T00:00:00 | newsbusters | Roker ‘Thrilled’ By NBC’s Climate Unit, Hypes ‘Crisis’ in Greenland | Launching NBC’s Climate in Crisis on Monday’s Today show, as part of the network’s new climate unit, weatherman Al Roker talked about how “thrilled” he was to head up the effort to push environmental activism and touted a recent trip to Greenland as proof of the “crisis” and “ground zero for climate change.” “We are back with our special series, Climate in Crisis, as NBC News launches a new climate unit dedicated to covering the global environment,” co-host Craig Melvin announced in the 7:30 a.m. ET half hour while introducing the segment. Fellow co-host Hoda Kotb chimed in by alluding to a new Washington Post poll pushing the cause: “Yeah, just this morning, a new poll shows Americans increasingly see climate change as a crisis and want the government to do more to tackle that problem.” She noted that Roker “recently went to Greenland” and “had a real eye-opening visit there.” The headline on screen blared: “Trouble at the Top of the World; Al Goes to Greenland For Firsthand Look at Climate Crisis.” In the taped piece that followed, Roker proclaimed: “Greenland, a massive island at the top of the world, and one of the most remote places on Earth. This breathtaking landscape is ground zero for climate change, where the Arctic is warming twice as fast as anywhere else on the planet.” The music playing in the background during his narration made it sound like a trailer for an action movie. Talking to Josh Willis, the principal investigator NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland project, Roker breathlessly asked: “We have clear signs of climate change where we are flying right now?” Willis replied: “Absolutely. We can see, especially in Greenland, the impact of warming through the retreat of the glacier.” Following the story, Kotb applauded the certainty of such conclusions: “Listening to those scientists say, like, it’s so obvious that it’s happening. I think it’s just interesting that sometimes when we’re here, we think, oh, that’s happening somewhere far away, but it’s so obvious to those scientists, a no-brainer.” Promoting the report again on 3rd Hour Today at 9:00 a.m. ET, Roker’s fellow NBC weather forecaster Dylan Dreyer gushed: “NBC News recently launched a brand new climate unit to bring you stories about the environment, and as you probably know, it’s something I’m passionate about, it’s something, Al, you’re passionate about.” Roker fondly recalled how the effort was launched: After replaying the story, Melvin cheered: “I’m glad we started this climate unit. Good job.” Fellow co-host Sheinelle Jones agreed: “Yeah, it’s a good conversation to have.” Last week, the 3rd Hour Today crew similarly hailed the new Climate in Crisis series and praised Roker for his “legacy” of “fighting climate change.” They also touted a new fawning profile in People magazine celebrating Roker and the push by NBC to make the liberal environmentalist agenda a top priority. Here are excerpts of the September 16 Climate in Crisis coverage: CRAIG MELVIN: We are back with our special series, Climate in Crisis, as NBC News launches a new climate unit dedicated to covering the global environment. HODA KOTB: Yeah, just this morning, a new poll shows Americans increasingly see climate change as a crisis and want the government to do more to tackle that problem. And, Al, you recently went to Greenland, you had a real eye-opening visit there? AL ROKER: I mean, we really did, guys. Greenland is experiencing another record melt this year, on the heels of a record heat wave that just hit in July. More than 400 billion tons of water have gone flooding off the ice sheet and into the ocean. That’s enough to cover the entire state of Florida. It’s an event that scientists warn could be happening again, and soon. [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Trouble at the Top of the World; Al Goes to Greenland For Firsthand Look at Climate Crisis] Greenland, a massive island at the top of the world, and one of the most remote places on Earth. This breathtaking landscape is ground zero for climate change, where the Arctic is warming twice as fast as anywhere else on the planet. I traveled here to better understand what all these changes mean for us back home. Why should they care about what happens up here in Greenland? DAVID HOLLAND: For us, Greenland is a bit of a canary in the coal mine. ROKER: New York University professor David Holland, invited me on board his ice breaker turned research vessel to see how his team is studying the rapidly melting glaciers. ROKER: Next, we take to the skies, with NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland mission, better known by the acronym, OMG. JOSH WILLIS [NASA OCEANS MELTING GREENLAND PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR]: Greenland has enough ice to raise sea levels globally by 25 feet, which is an enormous amount. If that much sea level rise happened today, hundreds of millions of people around the world would be affected. ROKER: We have clear signs of climate change where we are flying right now? WILLIS: Absolutely. We can see, especially in Greenland, the impact of warming through the retreat of the glacier. KOTB: Listening to those scientists say, like, it’s so obvious that it’s happening, I think it’s just interesting that sometimes when we’re here, we think, oh, that’s happening somewhere far away, but it’s so obvious to those scientists, a no-brainer. ROKER: Yeah, and in fact, tomorrow on our Climate in Crisis series, we’re going to take a look at how some of our treasured landmarks and tourist destinations right here in the United States are being threatened by those rising waters. DYLAN DREYER: So let’s switch gears to something that affects all of us, the climate. NBC News recently launched a brand new climate unit to bring you stories about the environment, and as you probably know, it’s something I'm passionate about, it’s something, Al, you’re passionate about. And you were in Greenland not that long ago, and we always said we can’t wait to hear what the story is. And finally you brought the story to us today. ROKER: Yeah, I’ve been thrilled. Because our president of news, Noah Oppenheim, came to us about a month ago and said, “We’d like to create this climate unit, would you head it?” Jumped on board immediately. And Greenland is really one of those front lines of this crisis. ROKER: As we continued on, I got to witness climate change right in front of my eyes. That’s a chunk of the glacier breaking off. NICO SEGRETO: Yeah, it makes big echo with the mountains, like a theater. CRAIG MELVIN: What did it sound like? DREYER: Right there when it happened? ROKER: It’s like thunder. The loudest thunder you have ever heard. And to watch this, and to see literally this change happening before your eyes, Nico had put a pile of rocks where the glacier had been a week before, and it already retreated, within a week, of about 20 feet. So. ROKER: We’ve got more on the climate series. Check out NBCNews.com/climate. ROKER: Thank you. And Dylan is part of the climate unit also ROKER: You’ll be able – we’re going to send you back out once you come back from maternity leave. | Kyle Drennen | https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/kyle-drennen/2019/09/16/roker-thrilled-nbcs-climate-unit-hypes-crisis-greenland | 2019-09-16 22:15:00+00:00 | 1,568,686,500 | 1,569,330,261 | environment | climate change |
664,225 | thedenverpost--2019-08-21--Earths future is being written in fast-melting Greenland | 2019-08-21T00:00:00 | thedenverpost | Earth’s future is being written in fast-melting Greenland | HELHEIM GLACIER, Greenland — This is where Earth’s refrigerator door is left open, where glaciers dwindle and seas begin to rise. New York University air and ocean scientist David Holland, who is tracking what’s happening in Greenland from both above and below, calls it “the end of the planet.” He is referring to geography more than the future. Yet in many ways this place is where the planet’s warmer and watery future is being written. It is so warm here, just inside the Arctic Circle, that on an August day, coats are left on the ground and Holland and colleagues work on the watery melting ice without gloves. In one of the closest towns, Kulusuk, the morning temperature reached a shirtsleeve 52 degrees Fahrenheit. The ice Holland is standing on is thousands of years old. It will be gone within a year or two, adding yet more water to rising seas worldwide. Summer this year is hitting Greenland hard with record-shattering heat and extreme melt. By the end of the summer, about 440 billion tons of ice — maybe more — will have melted or calved off Greenland’s giant ice sheet, scientists estimate. That’s enough water to flood Pennsylvania or the country of Greece about a foot deep. In just the five days from July 31 to Aug. 3, more than 58 billion tons melted from the surface. That’s over 40 billion tons more than the average for this time of year. And that 58 billion tons doesn’t even count the huge calving events or the warm water eating away at the glaciers from below, which may be a huge factor. And one of the places hit hardest this hot Greenland summer is here on the southeastern edge of the giant frozen island: Helheim, one of Greenland’s fastest-retreating glaciers, has shrunk about 6 miles since scientists came here in 2005. Several scientists, such as NASA oceanographer Josh Willis, who is also in Greenland, studying melting ice from above, said what’s happening is a combination of man-made climate change and natural but weird weather patterns. Glaciers here do shrink in the summer and grow in the winter, but nothing like this year. Summit Station, a research camp nearly 2 miles high and far north, warmed to above freezing twice this year for a record total of 16.5 hours. Before this year, that station was above zero for only 6.5 hours in 2012, once in 1889 and also in the Middle Ages. This year is coming near but not quite passing the extreme summer of 2012 — Greenland’s worst year in modern history for melting, scientists report. “If you look at climate model projections, we can expect to see larger areas of the ice sheet experiencing melt for longer durations of the year and greater mass loss going forward,” said University of Georgia ice scientist Tom Mote. “There’s every reason to believe that years that look like this will become more common.” A NASA satellite found that Greenland’s ice sheet lost about 255 billion metric tons of ice a year between 2003 and 2016, with the loss rate generally getting worse over that period. Nearly all of the 28 Greenland glaciers that Danish climate scientist Ruth Mottram measured are retreating, especially Helheim. At Helheim, the ice, snow and water seem to go on and on, sandwiched by bare dirt mountains that now show no signs of ice but get covered in the winter. The only thing that gives a sense of scale is the helicopter carrying Holland and his team. It’s dwarfed by the landscape, an almost imperceptible red speck against the ice cliffs where Helheim stops and its remnants begin. Those ice cliffs are somewhere between 225 feet and 328 feet high. Just next to them are Helheim’s remnants — sea ice, snow and icebergs — forming a mostly white expanse, with a mishmash of shapes and textures. Frequently water pools amid that white, glimmering a near-fluorescent blue that resembles windshield wiper fluid or Kool-Aid. As pilot Martin Norregaard tries to land his helicopter on the broken-up part of what used to be glacier — a mush called a melange — he looks for ice specked with dirt, a sign that it’s firm enough for the chopper to set down on. Pure white ice could conceal a deep crevasse that leads to a cold and deadly plunge. Holland and team climb out to install radar and GPS to track the ice movement and help explain why salty, warm, once-tropical water attacking the glacier’s “underbelly” has been bubbling to the surface “It takes a really long time to grow an ice sheet, thousands and thousands of years, but they can be broken up or destroyed quite rapidly,” Holland said. Holland, like NASA’s Willis, suspects that warm, salty water that comes in part from the Gulf Stream in North America is playing a bigger role than previously thought in melting Greenland’s ice. And if that’s the case, that’s probably bad news for the planet, because it means faster and more melting and higher sea level rise. Willis said that by the year 2100, Greenland alone could cause 3 or 4 feet of sea level rise. So it’s crucial to know how much of a role the air above and the water below play. “What we want for this is an ice sheet forecast,” Holland said. In this remote landscape, sound travels easily for miles. Every several minutes there’s a faint rumbling that sounds like thunder, but it’s not. It’s ice cracking. In tiny Kulusuk, about a 40-minute helicopter ride away, Mugu Utuaq says the winter that used to last as much as 10 months when he was a boy can now be as short as five months. That matters to him because as the fourth-ranked dogsledder in Greenland, he has 23 dogs and needs to race them. They can’t race in the summer, but they still have to eat. So Utuaq and friends go whale hunting with rifles in small boats. If they succeed, which this day they didn’t, the dogs can eat whale. “People are getting rid of their dogs because there’s no season,” said Yewlin, who goes by one name. He used to run a sled dog team for tourists at a hotel in neighboring Tasiilaq, but they no longer can do that. Yes, the melting glaciers, less ice and warmer weather are noticeable and much different from his childhood, said Kulusuk Mayor Justus Paulsen, 58. Sure, it means more fuel is needed for boats to get around, but that’s OK, he said. “We like it because we like to have a summer,” Paulsen said. But Holland looks out at Helheim glacier from his base camp and sees the bigger picture. And it’s not good, he said. Not for here. Not for Earth as a whole. “It’s kind of nice to have a planet with glaciers around,” Holland said. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | Seth Borenstein | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/08/21/greenland-glacier-climate-change/ | 2019-08-21 12:00:45+00:00 | 1,566,403,245 | 1,567,533,795 | environment | climate change |
684,989 | theguardianuk--2019-01-14--Growing pains how the climate crisis is changing British gardens | 2019-01-14T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Growing pains: how the climate crisis is changing British gardens | On a dank day in January, a small slice of Walsall is blooming. Marie and Tony Newton’s back garden is filled with summery colour: miniature mauve cyclamens, frilly red camellias, graceful hellebores, seasonal snowdrops and the bright green sheaths of bulbs promising more flowers to come. A few winters back, their first daffodil bloomed on Boxing Day. “It’s basically chaotic,” says Tony of the new climatic normal. “It’s non-stop flowers from now on. Winters are milder on average and there’s every opportunity to have a riot of lovely flowers from December right through till spring.” Deadly floods in Bangladesh, devastating wildfires in California, melting glaciers in Greenland, coral bleaching in the oceans – this is climate change in action. Highlighting far more benign changes in Britain, long blessed with a moderate climate, may appear trivial or downright insensitive. Our gentle extremes – the beast from the east, or summer 2018 being England’s hottest ever – are far from drastic. But they still pose challenges, and there is more change coming. Britain’s 27 million gardeners could be the canaries in our coalmine. How are gardeners experiencing climate change in Britain and how is it transforming our gardens? And can adapting our gardening styles mitigate the negative impacts of climate change? Marie and Tony couldn’t see their garden when they first viewed the house in 1982 because it was covered by a snowdrift. In the years since, as their south-facing quarter-acre evolved from a children’s play-space to a “four-seasons garden” with an all-year-round rainbow of flowers, shrubs and trees, they have witnessed the Midlands climate become steadily milder. Autumn frosts are much later, if they strike at all, and September is a summer month now. Their begonias continue until October. “That would never have happened in the past; we’d barely get through September without air frosts,” says Tony. “Although it’s warming up, you’ve got to plan for the extremes. We’re still going to get very severe winters and it will wipe out many gardeners’ new species.” They know about this only too well. Their garden features a jungle area of bamboo, palm trees, a banana tree and the stumps of several Tasmanian tree ferns. These ferns survived the winter of 2009, the coldest for 30 years, but a run of -15C nights and sub-zero days the following December killed them off. “It’s a mortgage to replace them,” grimaces Marie. Climate change is encouraging many gardeners to buy exotic plants but “we still need truly hardy varieties,” says Tony. Their banana is wrapped in black cloth over winter. He ensures that whenever they add a shrub to the 3,000 in their garden it can survive at -15C. Marie and Tony’s garden fared better during last summer’s drought. Their clay soils retain moisture, which helps, but they didn’t lose a single plant to the weather, despite being on holiday for two weeks. This may be because they are obsessive mulchers. Mulch is material added to the surface of the soil to increase organic matter and repress weeds. The Newtons have added 108 cubic metres of tree bark to their soil over the years; each year they also compost all their garden leaves and cuttings, reapplying this to their soil. This organic matter has steadily improved soil quality and, crucially, helps it retain moisture. When Liam Shoesmith, deputy parks manager of Truro city council, saw how dry 2018 summer’s long-term forecast looked, he suggested the city’s gardeners should plant succulents and cacti for their Britain in Bloom competition entry. “It was a bit of a joke really,” he says. But the community group that organises Truro’s displays took his advice. In what the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) described as the “toughest year for community gardening in 54 years”, Truro’s blend of exotic, drought-tolerant plants, including palms and Mediterranean herbs, serviced by a solar-powered rainwater-harvesting system, thrived. And Truro won the Britain in Bloom competition for the first time. Shoesmith is currently dispatching his team to mow parkland grass: milder winters mean Truro’s grass grows all year round. He began gardening as a boy in the 1980s. “It’s definitely milder and wetter,” he says. “The difficult thing we have with the climate is the more changeable weather. Last winter was probably one of the wettest on record here and then we went into one of the driest summers. The capricious nature of the weather is very hard to anticipate and work with.” We don’t think of mild winters as extreme weather events, but December 2015 was the most anomalous month ever recorded, 5.1C above average, and the warmest in the Met Office’s central England temperature dataset, which stretches back to 1659. Shoesmith notices how pollinating insects, such as solitary bees, often emerge during these mild midwinters. If there are no flowers, and no nectar, they will perish. “Climate change is a big issue and as gardeners we can all do our bit to help by planting the garden so it’s flowering throughout the year,” he says. “We all want that anyway.” Wildlife-friendly gardening focuses on native flowers, but Shoesmith argues we have long had non-native plants – particularly in milder Cornwall – and many exotic species are just as attractive to pollinators. In general, Britain’s 400,000 garden plant species provide genetic diversity, enabling more selection and breeding to adapt to future extremes. But Shoesmith also has a motto – “don’t go silly buying too much frilly” – because certain varieties of exotic flowers with lots of petals lose their nectar-holding sexual organs and so become useless for pollinators. Daisies, aconites, crocus, hellebores are good for winter-waking bees. Allotment holders are also adapting to the increasingly capricious climate. Mandy Barber has turned to growing perennial produce on her plot in Ashburton, Devon. “Annual vegetables needed a lot more watering and it was touch and go whether they would make it last summer, but perennial vegetables have a lot more resilience to temperature changes,” she says. Barber is experimenting with crops including Taunton Deane kale; poireau perpétuel, a perennial leek; and Hablitzia tamnoides, or Caucasian spinach, which is grown in Scandinavia and can survive -25C. “The Hablitzia tamnoides plants go on for decades, they are like a rampant triffid, but you get a crop between February and June every year and the leaves are a bit like baby spinach,” says Barber. She also propagates and sells these perennials. Every gardener I speak to agrees that milder winters are enabling more pests to survive and encouraging new pest species. Allan Trigg has been growing vegetables for more than 40 years and has an allotment in Chelmsford, Essex. “This is my little patch of England,” he smiles. Fewer frosts means his fellow allotment holders plant out runner beans, sweetcorn and potatoes earlier. With an extended growing season, Trigg can grow more, and second crops, although last year he grew less because he was spending so much time watering his vegetables. The dry weather produced lower yields of crops such as potatoes. After 2017, his potatoes lasted him and his wife through to February; this winter, they were eaten by November. And allium leaf miner and leek moth are a growing problem. “I used to grow loads of leeks but now I don’t bother,” he says. He pulls one up to show the damage below ground. “We never used to have this trouble years ago.” In Walsall the Newtons are accepting of their growing losses to pests such as the lily beetle and the lace bug. “It went absolutely berserk after the hot summer,” says Tony. “I thought it was going to kill all the plants in the garden.” Barber is beset by voles (which survive the milder winters), while in Cornwall, Shoesmith has noticed the spread of fuchsia gall mite along the hedges. “It had the opportunity to come to Britain for decades, but only arrived this century because of the milder winters,” he says. “We don’t have the same amount of frosts now and so we get many more fungal problems.” These observations precisely match the more scientific language of Gardening in a Changing Climate, a 2017 RHS report that outlines the challenges – milder winters, more unpredictable extremes and more pests – posed by climate change. But the RHS also asks how gardeners might help save the planet. The way we garden is still sometimes part of the problem – using precious water in pursuit of a perfect lawn during a drought springs to mind – but it can be part of the solution. Gardeners can reduce carbon dioxide emissions, mitigate pollution and flooding, and help increase their neighbourhood’s resilience. “Water use in gardens is going to be a major issue in the future,” says Alistair Griffith, director of science at the RHS. London is forecast to require 100m litres a day more than it can supply in 2020, with this deficit rising to 400m litres a day by 2040. The use of energy-intensive mains water on gardens is still socially acceptable and Britain lags behind more water-stressed countries where grey-water recycling is commonplace. But hosepipe bans could become perpetual for some regions in coming decades. Apart from using only rainwater – even a small balcony can catch and store rainwater with a mini-reservoir – Griffith recommends gardeners provide “as much greenery as possible”. He suggests planting hedges instead of fencing and planting trees. Trees not only dispel pollution but can alleviate flash flooding and provide shade for a home during heatwaves. Perhaps the most overlooked way gardening can benefit the climate is via the soil: adding organic matter (mulch from home-composting, not peat) can create a soil that stores more carbon and retains more water, also making gardens more resilient in flood and droughts. Griffith’s final practical suggestion for climate-friendly gardening is to make everything permeable. Unfortunately, paving gardens for parking continues (in 2015, the RHS found that the number of paved, plant-free front gardens had tripled in 10 years from 1.5m to 4.6m). Even car park gardens can be permeable and planted with trees and shrubs around the edge. But, according to Griffith, people resist, citing a lack of time and a nervousness about failing at gardening. “Gardening is always trial and error,” he says. “Give it a go.” Gardening won’t stop climate change, but it could make our local communities more resilient when faced with extreme floods, heat – and mild weather. In troubled times, it is also a fundamentally optimistic gesture. | Patrick Barkham | https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jan/14/growing-pains-how-the-climate-crisis-is-changing-british-gardens | 2019-01-14 11:00:00+00:00 | 1,547,481,600 | 1,567,552,581 | environment | climate change |
688,451 | theguardianuk--2019-02-04--A third of Himalayan ice cap doomed finds shocking report | 2019-02-04T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | A third of Himalayan ice cap doomed, finds 'shocking' report | At least a third of the huge ice fields in Asia’s towering mountain chain are doomed to melt due to climate change, according to a landmark report, with serious consequences for almost 2 billion people. Even if carbon emissions are dramatically and rapidly cut and succeed in limiting global warming to 1.5C, 36% of the glaciers along in the Hindu Kush and Himalaya range will have gone by 2100. If emissions are not cut, the loss soars to two-thirds, the report found. The glaciers are a critical water store for the 250 million people who live in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) region, and 1.65 billion people rely on the great rivers that flow from the peaks into India, Pakistan, China and other nations. “This is the climate crisis you haven’t heard of,” said Philippus Wester of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (Icimod), who led the report. “In the best of possible worlds, if we get really ambitious [in tackling climate change], even then we will lose one-third of the glaciers and be in trouble. That for us was the shocking finding.” Wester said that, despite being far more populous, the HKH region had received less attention than other places, such as low-lying island states and the Arctic, that are also highly vulnerable to global warming. Prof Jemma Wadham, at the University of Bristol, said: “This is a landmark piece of work focused on a region that is a hotspot for climate change impacts.” The new report, requested by the eight nations the mountains span, is intended to change that. More than 200 scientists worked on the report over five years, with another 125 experts peer reviewing their work. Until recently the impact of climate change on the ice in the HKH region was uncertain, said Wester. “But we really do know enough now to take action, and action is urgently needed,” he added. The HKH region runs from Afghanistan to Myanmar and is the planet’s “third pole”, harbouring more ice than anywhere outside Arctic and Antarctica. Limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels requires cutting emissions to zero by 2050. This is felt to be extremely optimistic by many but still sees a third of the ice lost, according to the report. If the global rise is 2C, half of the glaciers are projected to melt away by 2100. Since the 1970s, about 15% of the ice in the HKH region has disappeared as temperatures have risen. But the HKH range is 3,500km long and the impact of warming is variable. Some glaciers in Afghanistan and Pakistan are stable and a few are even gaining ice, most probably due to increased cloud cover that shields the sun and changed winds that bring more snow. But even these will start melting with future warming, Wester said. The melting glaciers will increase river flows through to 2050 to 2060, he said, pushing up the risk of high-altitude lakes bursting their banks and engulfing communities. But from the 2060s, river flows will go into decline. The Indus and central Asian rivers will be most affected. “Those areas will be hard hit,” said Wester. Lower flows will cut the power from the hydrodams that generate much of the region’s electricity. But the most serious impact will be on farmers in the foothills and downstream. They rely on predictable water supplies to grow the crops that feed the nations in the mountains’ shadows. But the changes to spring melting already appear to be causing the pre-monsoon river flow to fall just when farmers are planting their crops. Worse, said Wester, the monsoon is also becoming more erratic and prone to extreme downpours. “One-in-100 year floods are starting to happen every 50 years,” he said. The new report highlights how vulnerable many mountain people are, with one-third living on less than $1.90 a day and far away from help if climate disaster strikes. Political tensions between neighbouring nations such as India and Pakistan could add to the difficulties. “There are rocky times ahead for the region. Because many of the disasters and sudden changes will play out across country borders, conflict among the region’s countries could easily flare up,” said Eklabya Sharma, the deputy director general of Icimod. Hamish Pritchard, a glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey and not part of the report, said it is “a substantial piece of work” that takes due note of the uncertainties resulting from the limited snowfall and ice measurements in the high mountains. He said glaciers currently provide an essential buffering role as their meltwater flows into the rivers during the summer, which is when water is in greatest demand downstream and periodic droughts have the deadliest impacts on populations. “Take the ice away and those people are exposed to serious water stress and the consequences of that are local, regional and potentially global, in terms of conflict and migration,” he said. | Damian Carrington Environment editor | https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/04/a-third-of-himalayan-ice-cap-doomed-finds-shocking-report | 2019-02-04 11:45:27+00:00 | 1,549,298,727 | 1,567,549,697 | environment | climate change |
9,516 | aljazeera--2019-02-08--Keeping Aztec farming traditions alive in Mexico | 2019-02-08T00:00:00 | aljazeera | Keeping Aztec farming traditions alive in Mexico | Xochimilco, Mexico City - Pedro Capultitla remembers when he was a child, running through his family's black pastures, a string in hand and a kite gliding above. Canals, canoes and native flora surrounded the ancient patch of farmland. Soft beneath his feet, the fields felt like home. Three decades later, Capultitla stood on the canal-edge of his family's chinampa, a man-made island formed for crop growing. Chinampas date back to pre-Hispanic times in Mexico City's Xochimilco neighbourhood. Xochimilco sits some 25km south of the city centre today, but it was once the agricultural hub of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. As butterflies flitted among rows of kale, 36-year-old Capultitla pinched off a leaf of kale and flipped it to reveal a small cluster of yellow butterfly eggs. Pointing to them, he exuded pride as he explained that they indicate the farm's abstention from pesticide use. Following in his family's footsteps, Capultitla has taken on the tradition of farming atop the last remaining portion of what was once the enormous Lake of Texcoco, where the Aztecs built their capital city. Like a time capsule from the Aztec period, the gardens rest in the district of Xochimilco. But the tradition is gradually eroding under the weight of the market, tourism and climate change. The introduction of new agricultural technology, excessive groundwater extraction and abandonment of lands threaten the chinampa system, according to UNESCO. As a boy, Capultitla never imagined he would eventually return to the fields to make a living. His brother left for the city, as have the descendants of thousands of other chinampa farmers over the last 20 years. "My dad told me, 'Go and try to work for companies to see how they treat you there with a schedule of when to enter and when you have to leave. Here you can be your own boss and have your own schedule,'" Capultitla said. He has been farming on his family's chinampas for the past 25 years but took a major step this year to expand his fields. "Our family is very well known for the chinampas," he said, explaining that he feels "very good" about keeping the tradition alive. Capultitla's grandfather owned and farmed five chinampas but, in more recent years, his father scaled back the family plots to one small island owing to his diabetes. Earlier this year, Capultitla decided to bring back to life three of those plots with the help of another farmer. Capultitla estimates that he is just one of some 100 chinampa farmers who continue to practise traditional farming methods, as compared with 15 years ago, when there were still around 2,000 farms on the islands. Completely organic, Capultitla's farm thrives due to the nutrient-rich soil dug up from the canal and added to each chinampa, preventing erosion and fertilising the land. The plots can produce seven harvests a year, providing traditional pre-Hispanic produce such as beans, lettuce, cilantro, quintoniles, chard, tomatoes, amaranth, flowers and radishes. The chinampas once provided for the 1.5 million Aztecs in Tenochtitlan. They built their capital city on an island around the year 1300 and, at the time, the only answer to providing the enormous population with sustenance was to build man-made plots of farmland atop the lake. The chinampas can only be reached by boat, and most of the wooden boats are motorless, powered by hand with long poles stuck into the mud-bottomed canal to propel them forward. The art of building the land masses was never codified in text or studied in school. Rather, the knowledge has been orally passed down from generation to generation. Capultitla's constitutes the sixth generation of his family to continue the practice. "The technique is passed from generation to generation. There is not a book that contains this information," said Laura Villagrán Vázquez, a biologist who studies and specialises in the chinampas. "It is very important to maintain this knowledge." Building chinampas starts with filling an area with mud from the bottom of the lake and organic matter until the new farmland rises above water level. Then, the chinaperos plant huejotes or Bondpland willows along the edges of the land to create a barrier. Known for holding water and resisting rot, the trees' roots burrow deep into the earth and anchor the chinampa to land. Each time Capultitla prepares to plant new seeds, he removes mud from the bottom of the channel and creates a bed of mud next to the canal. He then cuts that mud into small squares. The following day, he makes holes in each square with his fingers and places a seed in each hole to germinate for three to four days. After that, he prepares the land further inland and transplants the crops. In a single chinampa, he can fit between 3,000 and 10,000 plants, depending on the season and size of the plants. Capultitla's favourite parts of the process are harvesting and eating his own produce. "I like to compare it with the Central de Abasto," he said, referring to the city's enormous central market. "The flavour [of the produce] from other places is sour, and here the flavour of the products is sweet." In past decades, city-dwellers had thought chinampas produce was dirty and tainted by bacteria, largely owing to its origins in the muddied waters, said Villagran Vazquez, who helps farmers prepare their products for commercial use. But Villagran Vazquez had the waters tested in a lab and found that the bacteria levels in the canal paled in comparison to drinking water in cities. "I had to explain to people that the water is not contaminated," she said. In recent years, new initiatives began, aiming at connecting the farmers to restaurants and consumers. One such project, Yolcan, was founded in 2011 and has since supplied produce to some of the most renowned restaurants in Mexico City, such as Pujol, Maximo Bistrot and Quintonil. Xochimilco accounts for nine percent of Mexico City and contains 18km of canals. Only around three percent of the remaining chinampas are used for traditional farming, while others are now used for cattle grazing and even used by football teams that travel to and from practice by boat. The area, microscopic on a global scale, contains two percent of the world biodiversity and 11 percent of the national biodiversity, according to Villagran Vazquez. Although this sprawling pre-Hispanic site has gained international notoriety by being named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, tourists and locals alike are more likely to know the district for its popular parties in colourful boats that cruise along the canals with mariachi bands on board. Ninelth Sandoval runs the Mexico Underground tour company, which aims to highlight traditional Mexican cultural experiences for tourists. Along with her partner, she has shifted the focus of their tours to chinampas instead of parties. "We are now again starting to feel proud as Mexicans," Sandoval said. "People used to feel ashamed of our roots. It is very important to remember the ways of our ancestors." For his part, Capultitla hopes to pass on to his 12-year-old son a sense of pride in preserving their 1,000-year-old traditions. The boy has already shown interest in farming with his father and studies agriculture in school. "I will let him make his decision like my father did for me," Capultitla concluded. | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/keeping-aztec-farming-traditions-alive-mexico-190206152451859.html | 2019-02-08 20:18:44+00:00 | 1,549,675,124 | 1,567,549,217 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
44,621 | bbcuk--2019-11-05--Bonfire Night: Are these traditions fizzling out? | 2019-11-05T00:00:00 | bbcuk | Bonfire Night: Are these traditions fizzling out? | Bonfire Night has long been a loud and colourful celebration of the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot. But while we remember the 5th of November have some of its traditions been forgotten? Generations of families have fashioned Guy Fawkes dummies to burn atop bonfires. Children would stuff old clothes with newspaper and wheelbarrow their effigy around asking for money to buy fireworks. But blogger Sally Bunkham from Brighton said the tradition was not one she wanted to pass on to her daughters Daisy, five and Ruby, aged four. "I don't think you get as many Guys because of the violent aspect of burning an effigy," she said. "Personally, I'd rather not impose that tradition on my kids. "But in Lewes they go mad for it and it gets quite political. Last year they burned a giant effigy of Boris Johnson," she said. Justine Roberts, founder of Mumsnet, said the general consensus among the website's users was that Penny for the Guy had all but been forgotten. "It's not that children don't get excited, go out in the dark and ask strangers for gifts; it's just that now, they do that on Halloween," she said. But in Cocking in West Sussex there is a burning desire to keep the Guy tradition alive. Villagers held their first Guy building competition ahead of a Bonfire Night to raise money for the Blue Bell Community Hub. "A number of entries were displayed throughout the village during the week leading up to the bonfire and fireworks party," said Chris Malec. "When our daughter in the US saw our Guy on WhatsApp she recognised her shirt and wanted it back so on the morning of the bonfire it had a change of clothes." For some, childhood memories of Bonfire Night conjure up a smoky back garden spectacular centred around a selection box of fireworks and a packet of sparklers. But each year, petitions are launched calling to ban sales of fireworks to the public over concerns about safety, noise and distress to pets. Sainsbury's became the first major supermarket to stop selling fireworks but would not reveal why. Far fewer people are injured at organised events than at smaller family or private parties, according to RoSPA. Ms Bunkham said social media made her think twice about setting off fireworks in her back garden. "You get to see a lot of posts about frightened animals crying and quivering in a corner or children burning their fingers on sparklers," she said. Bonfire Night got a very mixed reaction from parents and pet owners on Mumsnet, said Ms Roberts. "Some users have never got over public information films showing people being injured by Catherine Wheels and as a result think organised displays are the best option. "Others say the day wouldn't be the same without setting fire to a few incendiaries in their own back gardens." Karl Mitchell-Sheed is director of Illusion Fireworks, which won the British Fireworks Championships 2018. "I put on the biggest pyromusical firework display in the South at Abingdon Airfield and I still love nothing more than getting a selection box and letting them off in the back garden," he said. "There is that nostalgia about it - it's personal. But back gardens aren't as big as they used to be and people like going to an organised event for the spectacular show, the music and the atmosphere." Ms Roberts said discussion among Mumsnet users concluded "household bonfires are vanishingly rare". But Mr Mitchell-Sheed, a member of the Institute of Explosives Engineers, said nine out of 10 of the organised fireworks displays he puts on have roaring bonfires. "But some have lasers and one recently had a projection of a bonfire," he said. "But saying that, more often than not, if they've had lasers the following year the bonfires are back." In Cocking, chat among the villagers during the lead up to the bonfire revealed an incredible piece of trivia, said Mr Malec. "Guy Fawkes was briefly employed by Cowdray, a major land owner in the area, as a footman," he said. "The 2nd Viscount Cowdray was briefly imprisoned for complicity in the Gunpowder Plot after staying away from Parliament on 5 November 1605 following a warning." Bonfire celebrations are not complete without something tasty to tuck into and across the UK the traditional fayre was once Bonfire Toffee. Some regions have their own delicacies, like Parkin especially enjoyed in Yorkshire and Lancashire or grey peas and bacon in the Black Country. "In Yorkshire, Parkin is as much a part of Bonfire Night as sparklers or toffee apples," said Lisa Bennison from Betty's Cafe Tearooms food and drink team. "It's a real warm, cosy cake, deliciously sticky and with a fiery ginger kick. Like bonfires themselves, the tradition of eating Parkin here at this time of year is much older than the Gunpowder Plot. "The origins are unclear - they could be pagan or linked to All Saints' Day - but for centuries it's been enjoyed at the start of November, usually on Parkin Sunday." • Why is Bonfire Night such a big deal in Sussex? She said the first mention of Parkin by name could be found in court records from 1728, where one Anne Whittaker was accused of stealing oatmeal to make it. Cookery historian, professor Roland Rotherham, said Parkin and Bonfire Toffee were popular many centuries ago because they were easy to make and kept for a long time. "Grey peas and bacon is classic late Autumn food," he said. "A type of this dish was known during Iron Age times." So why have these traditional treats made way for burger vans? Ms Bennison said: "Possibly it is to do with the fact that is made from very traditional ingredients including black treacle - it sounds odd but it tastes delicious." Prof Rotherham said: "The changing tastes are down, I'm afraid, to the steady 'Americanisation' of our diet. That and the desire for fast and easy produce." | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-50250252 | Tue, 05 Nov 2019 02:14:26 GMT | 1,572,938,066 | 1,572,960,102 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
95,573 | chicagotribune--2019-11-21--This year’s Chicago Christmas tree is from a front yard in Elgin, and carries more than a century of | 2019-11-21T00:00:00 | chicagotribune | This year’s Chicago Christmas tree is from a front yard in Elgin, and carries more than a century of curious traditions | Then again, even this first tree (itself embellished with other trees) became a reminder of how closely melancholy and celebration were being joined at the holidays. The tree was donated by a business partner of Captain Herman Scheunemann, who made his name by ferrying Christmas trees across Lake Michigan, to sell on Chicago docks. A year earlier, while transporting a shipment from Michigan, to arrive just in time for the holidays, Scheunemann and 15 crew members aboard the schooner Rouse Simmons were lost in a storm. It’s an often-told local tale, and far from the only sad one: Against the backdrop of the Chicago Christmas tree, the city mourned the Our Lady of Angels fire that killed 92 school children and three nuns before Christmas in 1958; in 1951, just four days before Christmas, 119 miners were killed in an explosion in southern Illinois; in 1976, Mayor Richard J. Daley, whose namesake plaza displayed the tree, died five days before Christmas; and Mayor Carter H. Harrison Jr. , who lit the first tree, died himself on Christmas Day 1953. | Christopher Borrelli | http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ent-city-christmas-tree-20191121-dcpkfpy2rfawrgrczwytrp5tui-story.html | Thu, 21 Nov 2019 03:00:59 PST | 1,574,323,259 | 1,574,337,764 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
172,399 | eveningstandard--2019-04-18--Royal birth traditions through history from drinking aposcaudleapos to audiences of 200 | 2019-04-18T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | Royal birth traditions through history, from drinking 'caudle' to audiences of 200 | Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's due date approaches, with the couple reportedly planning to break with (recent) royal tradition and opt for a home birth. Though the Royal Family has some pretty eccentric royal birth traditions which still stand today, the process will be a far more private affair than the births royal women of old were subjected to. Here's how royal births used to happen. Thank god for modern medicine. According to The Tudor Society, royal midwives had to be highly experienced (no surprises there), but before the birth they also had to take an oath that they would not steal away the umbilical cord or placenta afterwards. The Royal Family weren't concerned this would be a gory souvenir, but feared instead that the remains would be used in witchcraft. In the Medieval and Tudor periods, when noblewomen and royals gave birth they were ushered into a private room which men weren’t allowed to enter. According The Tudor Society, the rooms were designed to “recreate the womb” and were “warm, dark and quiet”. A single window would have been left open but otherwise as much light as possible would have been blocked, with many hanging tapestries over the window. According to The Loop, the room would sometimes have “a lower, false ceiling”. In the past the birth of a new Royal Family member could have major political ramifications, with a new heir dictating the course of the country’s future. With this in mind, in certain periods royal births would be a very public spectacle. According to The Raven Report, French Queen Marie Antoinette had to give birth in front of 200 courtiers: "The exact moment of a royal birth was so important, the obstetrician yelled out 'The Queen is going to give birth!' —at which point hundreds of courtiers poured into the darkened room. The rush of people promised to be so extreme, the king had ordered the enormous tapestries around her bed be secured with cords, so they wouldn’t accidentally be pulled down by the frenzied crowd. The scene was so overpowering and chaotic, it is said Marie Antoinette fainted from the heat while onlookers continued to scramble up the furniture to get a better look at what was happening." The Loop features a report by a witness who wrote about the birth of Marie Antoinette’s first child, "The etiquette allowing all persons indiscriminately to enter at the moment of the delivery of a queen was observed with such exaggeration that when the obstetrician said aloud, ‘The Queen is going to give birth!’, the persons who poured into the chamber were so numerous that the rush nearly killed the Queen." Antoinette isn’t the only royal to suffer the same treatment, as Mary of Modena (the wife of King James II) was reportedly subjected to the same treatment in 1688. More recently, the British home secretary was also expected to be present at the birth of a child - a tradition scrapped by Queen Elizabeth II when she gave birth to Prince Charles. During the Renaissance period, a woman was often surrounded by images of children before and after her wedding in the hope that it would encourage her to dream a son into being. As the V&A website website explains, a woman’s imagination was “thought to be instrumental in determining such characteristics as the sex and the looks of the unborn child”. Accordingly, women were surrounded with “beautiful images of children, and especially with images of baby boys” - especially of Christ and Madonna. The Loop also notes that any hanging tapestries couldn’t have images of animals on them, just in case they encouraged nightmarish visions which could “lead to a deformed child”. The V&A cites a warning by Martin Luther, who once told the story of “a woman who gave birth to a mouse after one surprised her during her pregnancy”. The V&A adds, “As a result, the doctors and the writers of bestiaries (encyclopaedias of animals, both real and fictional) warned women not to look at or think of beasts at certain times.” During the Regency period in England many women opted to drink something called 'caudle.' According to author Diane Morris, caudle was a ”warm drink made by mixing a thin gruel of oatmeal with wine or ale, spices, and sugar”. Dr Edmund Chapman, a physician of the time, shared advice for women following childbirth, writing, “The woman is to drink freely of white-wine caudle and chicken-broth; the latter of which is more necessary after a great loss of blood. If she continues to have an immoderate discharge, her caudle is to be made with red-wine, instead of a white.” According to The History Collection, new mothers in 15th and 16th century England were viewed as “unclean” after giving birth. In the case of the royals, queens and princesses were expected to undergo a “cleansing” which saw them lie in bed separated from their newborn child for a few weeks. The duration of time depended on the gender of the child, so “at least two weeks for the birth of a girl, double this for a boy”. Once she was deemed well enough, she would then be blessed by a priest. Queen Victoria of England was one of many royals to undergo the ritual, and according to The History collection she was also “blessed and purified by a priest after the births of all four of her children”. In Hawaii, the ali’i (Hawaiian royalty) gave birth at a religious location called the Kukaniloko Birthing Stones, a spot where “the life force of the land was strong” and birthing mothers could see the landscape for miles. Women would rest against a stone called the Kukaniloko to give birth, surrounded by rows of rocks which represented Oahu chiefs. The birth would be witnessed by a number of tribal chiefs who would then tell their communities about the birth. According to Ozy, women were expected to hold up their thighs in accordance with a set of rules called the Liloe kapu. According to a study by the University of Michigan, the legend went, “if any one came in confident trust and lay properly upon the supports, the child would be born with honour. It would be called a chief divine; a burning fire” According to Ancient Origins though royals were expected to give birth at Kukaniloko, a few were banned from doing so. Only royals who had “not engaged in human sacrifices” and had “unblemished genealogy” were allowed to give birth at the site. | Megan C. Hills | https://www.standard.co.uk/insider/alist/royal-birth-traditions-history-british-royals-a4115511.html | 2019-04-18 11:04:01+00:00 | 1,555,599,841 | 1,567,542,530 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
174,229 | eveningstandard--2019-05-06--Royal baby births the unusual traditions attached to the arrival of royal newborns | 2019-05-06T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | Royal baby births: the unusual traditions attached to the arrival of royal newborns | The Duchess of Sussex has given birth to a baby boy. The birth of a Royal baby is a national event and cause for national celebration. Naturally, there is a strict protocol attached to how the announcement is made, who gets to know first and how the public are eventually informed. Such protocol includes letting the monarch know before anyone else and displaying bulletins outside Buckingham Palace, telling out the news to the world at large. But over the years, a number of such traditions have been relaxed. And we might imagine this has come as somewhat of a relief for royal mothers - what with such such customs formerly including the Home Secretary being present at births... Here we look back at some of the long-standing traditions of royal arrivals, those that remain in place and others which have - thankfully - fallen by the wayside... Public officials had to be present at royal births Believe it or not, witnesses once had to be present at the birth of every Royal baby to verify its regal legitimacy. This tradition stemmed from the fanfare surrounding the pregnancy of Queen Mary Beatrice (Mary of Modena), wife of King James II, and the subsequent birth of James Francis Edward in 1688. Dubbed the 'Warming Pan Scandal', numerous rumours emerged during the time of Queen Mary's pregnancy and her son's arrival - the first that the Queen wasn't even pregnant and the second, that her child had been born dead and an impostor baby had been smuggled into her bedchamber in a warming pan to take its place. 42 officials were believed to have witnessed the birth to verify that James Francis Edward was indeed the legal issue of Mary and James II. Since then, it has been customary for public figures to be present at royal births, and from 1894, Queen Victoria declared it to be the role of the serving Home Secretary. So, will Sajid David be heading to the Duchess of Sussex's bedside today? No! The practice was stopped in 1948 prior to the birth of Prince Charles. A great relief for both Royals and Home Secs alike, no doubt. They have access to the country's best medical care and with privacy a prime concern, it should come as no surprise to learn that royal babies used to be born at home. The Queen was born at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair - in the house of her maternal grandparents - and Prince Charles, at Buckingham Palace. When it came to his own children, however, Prince Charles and his wife, Princess Diana, broke with tradition and decided to have both their children, Princes William and Harry, in hospital. Prince William was therefore the first future king to be born in a hospital; the private Lindo Wing of St. Mary's, Paddington was the chosen establishment. Since then it has remained the favoured location for royal births, with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and the newest Prince Cambridge all delivered there. Meghan Markle broke with tradition and gave birth at home at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor. The monarch is the first to be informed Once baby Sussex was born The Queen would have been informed before the news was made public. Senior members of the Royal Family and, of course, Meghan's family would have been told at the same (or similar) time. Traditionally, news of royal births was announced through a written statement which was attached to the railings of Buckingham Palace. The Cambridges broke with this tradition at the birth of Prince George, however, making the big announcement via the rather less regal form of Twitter. The announcement of their third child was made through an 'email' sent to the press, and a celebratory Tweet released by @KensingtonRoyal. Meghan and Harry announced the birth of their first child on Instagram. Gun salutes take place around London and the UK Gun salutes take place across London and the UK to mark royal births. The number of rounds fired in such gun salutes depend on both the occasion and location of the guns. For the birth of Prince George, for instance, the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery delivered a 41-gun salute in Green Park (the normal royal salute of 21 rounds, with an extra 20 rounds fired because it took place in a Royal Park). A 62-gun salute also took place at the Tower of London - the average 21-gun royal salute, plus 20 rounds as the Tower is a Royal Palace, and 21 other rounds because it was in the City of London. Sons took precedence over daughters in the line of succession When the Act of Settlement came in in 1701 it decreed that the English and Irish crowns could only pass to Protestants and, that in the line of succession, brothers took precedence over their sisters (the primogeniture part was, however, nothing new). When the Kingdom of Great Britain was created in 1707, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland subsequently created in 1801, the succession stipulations laid out in the Act of Settlement 1701 were also attached. However, ahead of the birth of Prince George in 2013, a new succession law was hurried through parliament to make it so that whatever the sex of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's first child, that child would be heir to the throne, third in line after Princes Charles and William, respectively. Ahead of the birth of Princess Charlotte, the new law became official (the delay was down to the fact it had to be okayed by all 15 Commonwealth countries where the Queen is head of state). It decreed that whatever the sex of the Cambridge's second child, the baby would be fourth in line to the throne - even if the child was a girl (which she was!) and the couple went on to have a second son afterwards (which they have!). The new rules also allowed members of the Royal Family to marry Roman Catholics and still become king or queen, although as head of the Church of England, the monarch must still be Protestant. | Edwina Langley | https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/royal-baby-births-the-unusual-traditions-attached-to-the-arrival-of-royal-newborns-a3821161.html | 2019-05-06 13:19:00+00:00 | 1,557,163,140 | 1,567,541,029 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
193,646 | eveningstandard--2019-12-20--Royal Family Christmas traditions: How the Queen, Kate Middleton and the royals will be celebrating | 2019-12-20T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | Royal Family Christmas traditions: How the Queen, Kate Middleton and the royals will be celebrating this year | A lot of families share eccentric Christmas traditions that can leave new in-laws wondering what they’ve gotten themselves into, but the British Royal Family might be the most eccentric of all. While Prince Harry and Meghan Markle won't be at Sandringham this year as they're visiting her family in California, it's still set to be quite the festive occasion. From joke gifts and weigh-ins to black tie dinners, here's what the family gets up to. Who gets invited to Christmas at Sandringham? The full Sandringham line-up includes the Queen, Prince Philip and their four children - Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, Princess Anne, and Prince Edward. Then there's the Queen's grandchildren and great-grandchildren, including Prince William, as well as Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis. Meghan and Harry will be absent this year. Royal biographer Brian Hoey told Wales Online that the lowest-ranking members of the royal family are told to arrive first. "A week or so before Christmas, those family members who have been invited to spend the holiday with the Queen and Prince Philip are told by the Crown Equerry, which organizes all transport, in what order they are to arrive at Sandringham, the Queen’s Norfolk estate, and at exactly what time," he wrote. Sounds casual... What does the Royal Family do on Christmas Day? Darren McGrady, who used to be the Queen's chef, told the Mail on Sunday that Christmas day begins with a fry-up breakfast for the male members of the family downstairs, while most of the married women traditionally have something lighter brought up to their rooms. The family then walks to St Mary Magdalene church at 11am for the Christmas morning service. After church, the family sits down for Christmas lunch. McGrady claimed the menu features "salad with shrimp or lobster [followed by] roasted turkey, and all of your traditional side dishes like parsnips, carrots, Brussels sprouts and Christmas pudding with brandy butter for dessert.” Other than sitting down to watch the Queen's speech, the television stays off. According to The Express the Queen is a fan of charades and even likes to impersonate world leaders - after his visit this year we expect she's got plenty of material on Donald Trump. On Boxing Day, there's a pheasant shoot. It had previously been reported that the animal-loving Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle had asked Prince Harry to decline this tradition, but The Telegraph more recently quoted a "well placed" Kensington Palace source who told the paper this was "completely untrue." How do the Royal Family do Christmas gifts? On Christmas Eve, the family lays out their gifts on a trestle table in the dining room. Apparently, the present-giving is then presided over by Prince Philip. Cheap and joke gifts are encouraged. Rumored former presents include a singing hamster given by Meghan Markle to the Queen, which she reportedly adored, a white leather loo seat given to Prince Charles by Princess Anne, and a grow your own girlfriend kit given by Kate Middleton to Prince Harry. Our favorite gift story of all? Prince Harry apparently once gave the Queen a shower cap that had "ain't life a bitch" emblazoned on it. Apparently, Princess Diana didn't initially get the brief about the cheap gift rule and gave the family cashmere sweaters on Christmas Eve in 1981. Though the following year she gave Sarah Ferguson - Prince Andrew's wife at the time - a leopard print bath mat. What's the strangest Royal Family tradition of all? Majesty editor Ingrid Seward told Grazia that Royal Family members are traditionally weighed before and after their Christmas dinner. She says the weigh-in began with King Edward VII, who wanted to make sure his guests ate well. Today, the tradition is apparently continued on a pair of antique scales. What’s the dress code for the Royal Family at Christmas? On Christmas Eve there's a black tie dress code for dinner, while for church on Christmas day the ladies wear hats. For the Boxing Day shoot, it's a country casuals vibe - think Barbour jackets and plus fours. Just how many Christmas trees are involved? For the British royals, Christmas trees really are a family tradition. Queen Charlotte, the German wife of King George III, is believed to have set up the first Christmas tree at Queen's Lodge in Windsor in 1800, though they became widely popular in Queen Victoria’s reign, when her German husband Prince Albert popularized them in 1848. There are several lavish Christmas trees at Buckingham Palace (grown on the Queen's estate in Windsor) as well as a 20-ft tree at Windsor Castle. But at Sandringham, things are a little more laid back - the Queen likes to have a single tree put up which the children can decorate on Christmas Eve. | Margaret Abrams | https://www.standard.co.uk/insider/royalssociety/royal-family-christmas-traditions-how-the-queen-meghan-markle-and-the-royals-will-be-celebrating-a4023176.html | Fri, 20 Dec 2019 17:00:00 GMT | 1,576,879,200 | 1,576,888,474 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
194,015 | eveningstandard--2019-12-23--What does the Royal Family eat on Christmas Day? Sandringham festive food traditions revealed | 2019-12-23T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | What does the Royal Family eat on Christmas Day? Sandringham festive food traditions revealed | Planning a Christmas meal is always a mission, but former royal chef Darren McGrady has revealed that the royals’ Christmas meals were a literal “military operation.” Between procuring 28 pound turkeys through to having army trucks transport the entire lot, he revealed the mammoth effort that goes into a festive meal at Sandringham. Speaking to royal reporter Omid Scobie on Yahoo UK’s The Royal Story, McGrady revealed it took “months of planning” and beyond the family, around a hundred members of staff needed to be fed too. On top of that, slightly different menus were prepared for the royal adults, children and even Queen Elizabeth’s dogs. After procuring “the best ingredients” from top of the line suppliers, he revealed the army were actually called in to help with preparations. He said, “The day before we went up to Sandringham we would pack all of the equipment into hampers and then the army would arrive and load them all into these big army trucks. It literally was a military operation.” In the mornings, the men of the Royal Family typically went for a “big, hearty English breakfast” while the ladies had “some sliced fruit, maybe a boiled egg” before their gigantic Christmas lunch. As for what they actually ate for lunch? McGrady explained, “There was so much food at Sandringham for Christmas – 26/28 pound turkeys. They were so big, you almost had to take the oven doors off!” “Crispy, crunchy roast potatoes, boars head and foie gras, Christmas puddings and mince pies,” he continued. In previous interviews, McGrady has also added that "salad with shrimp or lobster" was served as an appetiser. McGrady, who was once personal chef to both Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana, explained that when he was cooking for children including Prince Harry and Prince William, the menu was tweaked slightly. He said, “It really is about making sure the portions are a little smaller for them and using less seasoning, but they pretty much have the same menu as the Royal Family.” He also revealed that the royal corgis have their own special festive menu, cooked for them by the chefs. Although he didn’t elaborate in this interview, previously he revealed to Hello that a menu would be sent to the kitchen at Sandringham by the estate’s dog caretaker which would “list each day what the dogs were to have.” He said, “One day it would be beef, the next day chicken, the next day lamb, the next day rabbit and it alternated through those days.” McGrady added that they would sometimes “add cabbage on the menu” as the dogs could sometimes be “a little bunged up.” After that, he said the Queen “would feed them herself.” The Royal Family grows bigger by the day as new members including Prince Louis and Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor are born, adding to the growing list of people who the royal chefs have to cater for. McGrady explained that while there were roughly 18-20 members of the immediate Royal Family that the kitchens had to prepare a Christmas meal for, he said, “It was the 8 or 10 in the royal nursery, too. The 100 staff. Dressers, housemaids, footmen, chauffeurs.” As for what the exhausted chefs did afterwards? McGrady said, “After the meal, the Royal Family would gather and watch the Queen’s speech in the drawing room – and the chefs who had now cooked and fed everyone would sit in the staff dining rooms and watch the Queen’s speech – and as we ate our dinner, we toasted the Queen.” | Megan C. Hills | https://www.standard.co.uk/insider/royalssociety/royal-family-eat-christmas-day-sandringham-a4315876.html | Mon, 23 Dec 2019 11:59:17 GMT | 1,577,120,357 | 1,577,190,983 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
229,334 | globalresearch--2019-05-14--Cubas Earthy Traditions and Jean Vanier | 2019-05-14T00:00:00 | globalresearch | Cuba’s Earthy Traditions, and Jean Vanier | Jean Vanier, dead last week, was philanthropist and Christian, founder of L’Arche, a remarkable organization for developmentally disabled. Vanier was also a philosopher who left Academia for society’s vulnerable. I used his Becoming Human, in class after philosophy class, to explain 20th century Marxist philosopher, Che Guevara. The connection surprises some. They don’t know Cuba’s earthy traditions. “Earthy” is the word used by Cuban philosopher, Cintio Vitier, to link early 19th century Cuban priests – reformists – to the radical vision of independence leader, José Martí, and the eventual Cuban Revolution.[i] It has to do with feelings. More specifically, it has to do with energy arising when we do the right thing, where “right thing” is not necessarily moral but useful. It’s creative mental energy, making imaginable what was not imaginable previously. Ancients called it “faith”. It’s confidence, not intellectual but felt, explained by laws of nature, cause and effect, mind/body connection. When you know you’re doing what you’re supposed to do, you gain, even if your actions fail. It’s a kind of dynamic reciprocity. Earthy. Che Guevara’s “hombre nuevo” is in this line. It’s not a new being, as critics claim. It’s people aware – in a felt, experiential sense – of shared humanity. It’s what Vanier explained. He left a life of privilege to live with disabled folk, saying it made him more human. It was about truth, not morality. He identified a paradox: We seek community to avoid loneliness. But loneliness is the natural state of reflective human beings, aware of vulnerability. We escape our condition through community, but loneliness, being universally shared, provides grounds for human community: between people as people. “Reality is the first principle of truth”, and the reality of human existence is insecurity. Loneliness “can only be covered over, it can never actually go away”. His point is how to discover community. It was Guevara’s point, but it goes back further in Cuba. It was raised by priests who wanted independence from Spain, the US, the UK and slavery. It was a time when ideas from Europe persuaded young people “it’s all good”, if it feels right. José de la Luz y Caballero, who could have been a rich lawyer, taught Philosophy because of slavery, a social cancer. Privileged progressives criticized Spanish colonialism, resisted US annexation, and decried social vices, but could not imagine living without slaves. Slavery was an expectation. José Antonio Saco, who preceded Luz at the institute founded by Félix Varela (1811), could not imagine abolition. Precisely because slavery was so taken for granted, consistent with opposition to almost all other wrongs, Luz dedicated himself to educating privileged youth about how to know justice when injustice is part of who you are. Luz was a Christian, of Vanier’s sort. He cared about truth. He was a scientist who knew how understanding works. It depends on expectations, rooted in habit patterns. We identify with them and they must be broken, occasionally. A remarkable national debate (1836-8), the Cuban Philosophical Polemic, was about thinking. It anticipates late 20thcentury philosophy of science, in North America. It involves loss. Vanier wrote about “brokenness”. It is how we know the invisible, the “discarded”: It’s also about gain. According to Vitier, the leaders of Cuba’s agonizingly long struggle for independence shared an idea: Freedom requires raising the most vulnerable. Piero Gleijeses says it’s why Cuba went to Africa in the 70s, defying the Soviets. The CIA knew it: Cuba sided with the poor and non-White. The USSR was rich and white. The division between North and South was the major fault line.[ii] This is the “earthy” thinking that Vitier refers to: formation of people through bold, sacrificial resistance to deep-seated, dehumanizing lies. Vanier’s brokenness defies a lie of that sort: part of the social fabric. A useful, compassionate new book on dementia, The Last Ocean,[iii] argues that the tragedy of dementia is loss of a coherent self. We spend entire lifetimes building a “vast rich palace of the self”, which falls away. US philosopher Ronald Dworkin says that without a sense of self – different from a self — suicide is rational. Yet that “palace” is a myth. And seeking it – a sense of self as opposed to a self – is counterproductive. You seek to escape insecurity, fabricating an identity – a ‘narrative self” – and you deny in the process what is really shared: insecurity. Guevara called it an “invisible cage” or the “bourgeois myth of the self-made man”. Patrick Modiano (Nobel Prize 2014) shows why. [iv] He tries “to impose some order on my memories. But many are missing, and most of them remain isolated.” He can’t do it, and yet the stories he wants to forget “rise to the surface like a drowned man”. “Real encounters” are more interesting. They might “drag you in their wake when they disappear”. But they’re real, unlike the “coherent self” of memories, made of “bits of sentences spoken by anonymous voices”. We don’t accept illness and we don’t admit death. We suffer for that. But in arguing that we are diminished by dismissing the vulnerable, The Last Ocean nonetheless maintains the myth that prevents seeing those vulnerable as people: a secure place that doesn’t exist, not just for those with dementia, but for anyone. So argues Vanier, and Guevara, and earthy thinkers for millennia. Some are Lazaruses. Looking them in the eye and hearing their story involves loss: of lies, unimaginable to give up, like liberalism and “development”. But there’s also gain. Vanier’s life was all about that. Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. Susan Babbitt is author of Humanism and Embodiment (Bloomsbury 2014). She is a frequent contributor to Global Research. | Prof Susan Babbitt | https://www.globalresearch.ca/cubas-earthy-traditions-jean-vanier/5677396 | 2019-05-14 06:27:19+00:00 | 1,557,829,639 | 1,567,540,685 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
276,699 | ipolitics--2019-12-30--Irregular Traditions: The out-of-the box ways Canada’s MPs have celebrated Christmas | 2019-12-30T00:00:00 | ipolitics | Irregular Traditions: The out-of-the box ways Canada’s MPs have celebrated Christmas | Elizabeth May, the Green Party's Parliamentary leader, pictured as a child on her family farm. The family's animals played a role in their annual outdoor Christmas pageant. A turkey dinner, a glittering tree, carols and gifts exchanged amongst family and friends — these are among the more traditional ways to celebrate the Christmas season. But several of Canada’s MPs have bucked the ordinary during Christmases past and present, marking the hallowed holiday with more out-of-the-box events. Some of the memories shared by federal leaders were idyllic, and none more so than Elizabeth May’s. The Green Party’s Parliamentary leader recalled childhood Christmases marked by full-fledged outdoor pageants — staged in her family’s barn. “I swear our sheep, ponies and one donkey took their roles seriously. Not one of them would wander out of position on those cold and snowy evenings,” May reminisced. And, so the story was told, the tradition extended beyond their family. Countless neighbourhood children would be corralled into the show, as well as May and her brother’s classmates. At some point, local musicians also volunteered a violin and an oboe. “My mother was indomitable and the logistics of managing dozens of children, organizing the ‘cast’ and making sure costumes were in hand, did not phase her at all,” May wrote in a recent email to iPolitics, noting that her neighbours sent their sons over looking “more regal than the Magi” in a set of shepherd costumes. But the role of baby Jesus always went to one of May’s dolls, which would be selected and subsequently swaddled. “The tradition ended the year that a bunch of little boys decided the best place for their hot chocolate and marshmallows was spilled various places inside the house,” May said. “Here endeth good will to (small) men.” There was one particular Christmas that stood out to Nanaimo—Ladysmith’s Paul Manly, and it was a bleary-eyed day that took place right in Ottawa. Manly was 19 years old at the time, and living with members of his band. Two of his bandmates-turned-roommates were Jewish, and they marked Christmas Eve with what Manly described as an “annual all night jam session.” “Of course I took part,” Manly noted. “I mean it’s not like I was going to get any sleep anyway!” The next morning, he ventured out to his parents’ house to open gifts, having not slept a wink. “My parents noticed and teased me about it. It was definitely one of the most memorable ways I’ve spent Christmas Eve.” Parenthood begot unique traditions for other MPs. Jenny Kwan, the NDP MP for Vancouver East, found herself cutting out giant feet from shimmery paper in preparation for Christmas Eve when her children were small. Back then, when they still basked in the glow of their faith in Santa Claus, Kwan would until her kids had safely retreated into their beds — then place the large footprints she’d prepared all around their house. “The discovery of the giant footprints was a magical moment for the kids,” Kwan recalled recently. But the tradition didn’t budge as the kids got older, with the paper prints still coming out each year. “Even though the kids now know that Santa is really just me, I still place the giant footprints everywhere just for fun,” she said. She, like several other MPs, noted that holiday meals were also a subject of their unique family traditions. The “Kwan Clan,” as she called them, always elected to serve Chinese fondue over more traditional options like turkey, ham or roast beef. Elsewhere in B.C., Fleetwood—Port Kells’ Ken Hardie offered up his family’s standard Boxing Day breakfast — turkey stew over hotcakes. “Sounds odd, but it’s really good!” the Liberal MP claimed. Ottawa West—Nepean MP Anita Vandenbeld’s family always made Balkenbrij, she said — a Dutch tradition — from a recipe that had been passed down from her grandfather, and his ancestors before that. She remembers her father attaching a particular kind of meat grinder to their dining room table, and spreading newspapers around to catch any scraps that fell and weren’t snapped up by her childhood dog: a German Shepherd named Tippie. Her father would grind pork hocks, a sort of pig knuckle, and liver together in a bowl. “We then boiled it with special spices, added flour and when it hardened, we would slice pieces every morning and fry it in butter and eat it for breakfast,” Vandenbeld told iPolitics. To this day, her parents make the dish every year at Christmastime. And, if you look closely around the Hill, you might be able to see a few more hints about MPs’ offbeat Christmas traditions. Ever seen a curiously-shaped, red-painted wooden board game inside Nathaniel Erskine-Smith’s office? It’s a crokinole board — one his father-in-law, Terry, and one of his wife’s uncles made for his desk. The idea was to give him practice, in the lead up to the annual family crokinole tournament at Christmastime. Erskine-Smith teams up each year with his brother-in-law, Jeremy. But they aren’t exactly on a winning streak. “We usually lose to Amy’s uncles Brian and Rob,” he admitted. * iPolitics reached out to each party with a seat in the House, to request stories from their MPs. The Conservative Party did not provide responses by deadline, and the Bloc Quebecois did not answer the request. | Victoria Gibson | https://ipolitics.ca/2019/12/30/irregular-traditions-the-out-of-the-box-ways-canadas-mps-have-celebrated-christmas/ | Mon, 30 Dec 2019 05:00:58 +0000 | 1,577,700,058 | 1,577,709,298 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
412,615 | politicalite--2019-08-29--GREAT British traditions that are on the comeback | 2019-08-29T00:00:00 | politicalite | GREAT British traditions that are on the comeback | TO OUTSIDERS, the sorts of traditions that we embrace and enjoy in Britain may seem completely perplexing. Even the national game of cricket seems designed to befuddle and confuse the uninitiated with its strange rules, odd terminology and the ability to last for up to five days without either team winning or losing. But these traditions have long been woven into the very fabric of British life and help to make this country the unique place that it is today. However, just because something’s always been a tradition, there’s nothing to say that it will be one that will always stand the test of time. Changing lifestyles and circumstances can see some disappear altogether. So, it’s up to the determined Brits to keep many of our quintessential customs and traditions alive. There are plenty of examples of ones that have been on the brink of extinction before being revived and, in some cases, coming back even stronger than before. Here are just four examples of this very welcome phenomenon. Imagine the scene. It’s a Spring Bank Holiday Monday in the glorious countryside of Gloucestershire. The sun is shining, the memories of winter are falling away. What could be a better way to mark the occasion than by chasing a whole Double Gloucester cheese down a hill so steep that it can reach 70 mph? Because that’s exactly what countless people do each year in the hope of being the first down the hill and winning the 9lb cheese for themselves. The origins of the tradition are open to debate. Some say that it’s a way to maintain common grazing rights over the hill, others that it goes back to pagan times and is intended to bring on a fertile growing season in this very agricultural area. The earliest records of the event go back as far as 1826 but the increasing number of injuries suffered by participants reached such a level that in 2009 it was cancelled on health and safety grounds. But so popular was the tradition that it was revived a year later, unmanaged and with all the human rollers taking part entirely at their own risk. There once was a time when almost every town in the country had at least one bingo hall, and often many more than that. It was almost an institution that while the men headed for the pub, their womenfolk would go to the bingo with the prospect of a few drinks, a laugh with friends and, with luck, a cash prize too. Although the game had been invented in America in the 1930s and called Beano to begin with, by the 1950s it was firmly established in the UK. Before long a whole culture had grown up around it with names for the numbers like the classic “all on its own, number 1!” and “clickety clicks, 66” with the flamboyant bingo caller acting as master of ceremonies. But then, people became more sophisticated, the age-old gender divide began to dissolve – and the bingo halls started to close down one by one. But then along came online bingo to bring the game thrillingly back to life. With all the fun, excitement and sociability of the real thing, but available 24/7 and with some truly massive prizes, once again the nation’s in the grip of bingo fever. Ah, tea. The great British cure for all ills, not to mention being the only social lubricant that’s needed for most situations. There are even countless popular songs featuring it as a subject so it’s fair to say it’s a national obsession. And the ultimate British ceremony to celebrate the refreshing drink must surely be Afternoon Tea. In the past, while other nationalities were enjoying an afternoon siesta in the shade Britons all over the world were eagerly awaiting 4pm. That was when the afternoon was going to be neatly broken up by a meal to see them through from lunchtime till supper. But it wasn’t just about the tea. There would be cakes buns and biscuits too. Unfortunately, times changed, and work got in the way. You just couldn’t spare the time to down tools for half an hour for a cuppa. It seemed like afternoon tea had gone forever. Luckily, though, it’s been re-born as a luxury experience with plush hotels like The Ritz offering it to guests and visitors alike. There are even places like Yorkshire’s legendary Betty’s where you often have to queue for your cup of Earl Grey and cake-stand full of fancies. Afternoon Tea is definitively back on the menu. The Spanish have flamenco, the Argentinians have the tango. Here in Britain we have . . . Morris Dancing. Visit almost any village pub on a summer’s afternoon and you have a very good chance of bumping into a troop of merry Morris men, and sometimes even Morris women. Don’t worry, you’ll hear them coming thanks to the bells on their ankles. Morris Dancing is firmly entwined in the folklore of the UK and there are even refences to the activity as far back as the 13th century. There are countless different varieties of the style all across the UK although most dances have a common theme linked to hoping for a good growing season for farmers. Over the centuries it has thrived as an activity but in 2009 the Morris Ring, a Southern-based umbrella group for the activity, made public its fears that young people were no longer joining groups. Fortunately, it appears that their fears were unfounded, and the Morris dancing tradition continues to thrive. So, there you have them, four examples of what makes Britain unique, and uniquely proud of its heritage. And, as we head forward to what looks like it may become a more inward-looking future, maybe we can expect to see even more of our traditions being revived – but only time will tell. | Politicalite | https://www.politicalite.com/entertainment/great-british-traditions-that-are-on-the-comeback/ | 2019-08-29 21:34:41+00:00 | 1,567,128,881 | 1,567,543,584 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
492,580 | slate--2019-12-17--Dear Care and Feeding: My Family Insists on the Same, Tired Christmas Traditions. I’m Ready for Some | 2019-12-17T00:00:00 | slate | Dear Care and Feeding: My Family Insists on the Same, Tired Christmas Traditions. I’m Ready for Something New. | Care and Feeding is Slate’s parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? Submit it here or post it in the Slate Parenting Facebook group. My childhood Christmases were a blast. We’d visit one set of grandparents on Christmas Eve, the other on Christmas Day. Each year it would be the same people; it was a warm and child-friendly tradition that we looked forward to all year long, even into our teens. The problem is that, 40 years later, we’re still doing the same thing. And instead of evolving for the next generation of children, now it’s all for the adults. It’s turned into a late-running affair attended by distant great-aunts and random cousin boyfriends. It’s less about the magic of being together and more about who is controlling the holiday soundtrack, and who is unhappy with their present exchange. Everything that made it so enchanting as kids—the predictability, the intimacy, the kid focus—has eroded. This makes Christmas a real chore for my family: We’re the only ones with kids, and our attendance is considered a highlight. I’ve tried talking to my parents and explaining that it’s time for us to create a new set of traditions (as their parents did for them) and that this can still involve our extended relatives. No dice. I’ve tried asking for changes that would make it easier for us to participate—different locations, starting earlier, limiting presents to kids. No interest. I don’t begrudge my relatives a chance to have an adult-oriented Christmas. But I have two kids, and the magical Christmas years are fleeting. I think my kids deserve their own set of holiday traditions. Am I a jerk for taking a day to do our own thing? —Don’t Want to Be a Grinch I know the holidays are supposed to be fun for all, but I share your sense that it’s really a time of year devoted to childhood. And as you say, childhood is fleeting. I don’t think you’re a jerk; indeed, I think you’ve been quite accommodating by proposing ways to reimagine the celebrations. But it seems clear to me that your extended family wants to get together, eat and drink, and have a gift swap as always. For you, though, this tradition has ossified into obligation. Between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I think you can find time to both forge new traditions and honor the old. Maybe tell your parents that this year you’ll have a really kid-friendly Christmas Eve and morning. You’ll bake, watch Home Alone, don ridiculous PJs, get up too early, rip open presents, laze around the house, or go to church, or whatever feels right for you. Then at some point in the late afternoon, you can put the kids into their party best and go see what the rest of your family is up to. It’s possible your earlier attempts to do this were simply perceived as a bluff, so it’s worth your while to extend the invitation once more. Make it clear that you’d love everyone to join you at your place, but the focus will be on what the kids will most enjoy. You might feel guilty at missing out on the usual festivities, but you’re allowed to have this special commitment to your nuclear family. When your kids are teens, maybe you can rejoin the adult celebrations, or maybe you’ll find a whole different way to celebrate the season. Enjoy! Enjoy Slate’s Holiday Advice From the Experts series from our beloved advice columnists. Keep your sanity intact this holiday season with Jamilah Lemieux’s self-care tips. Nicole Cliffe presents classic gifts for children of all ages. Teacher Carrie Bauer recommends educational gifts your kids will actually enjoy. During our last visit home, my sister-in-law was talking about guns within a circle of family. I was sitting next to her with my 18-month-old daughter. I was alarmed to hear my sister-in-law talk about how “cute” her pink handgun is and how it doesn’t have a safety. She asked my father-in-law if he wanted to see it and began to take her unsecured gun out of her bag to show it off. The bag had been casually hung on the back of her chair, at the perfect level for any kid to get to, and there were many children present. I got up quickly and walked away, rather having a confrontation with my sister-in-law. I’m not happy with myself for not speaking up, but I also feel disappointed that no one else—her mother, father, mother-in-law, brother, and grown daughter were all present—told her she should not take her gun out, or that it shouldn’t be at a family gathering in the first place. We’re going to see these relatives at Christmas. I want to ensure that guns are secured while we are there, and my husband agrees, but this is being put on me instead of my husband, though it is his older sister. Do I have the right to ask her, as I enter her house, whether the guns are secured while we are there? Should I glaze over the fact that I am angry about her having a gun at our last family function? I feel unsafe and have no idea how to navigate this. I understand why you’re still upset about what happened. I’m upset just hearing about it. I hate guns, and I think there’s something deeply perverse about a grown woman brandishing a pink gun—because it’s cute—at a party. Your sister-in-law’s behavior sounds, frankly, deranged. You are absolutely within your rights as a guest in what you know to be a gun-owning household to confirm, before visiting, that those guns are under lock and key. It might not feel comfortable, but you’re not out of line. And though this question might not go over well, but can you live with yourself if you don’t ask? You can keep it straightforward: “Carol, I know you’re a gun owner, and since the kids are going to be running around today I wanted to know: Is your gun on you? Is it stored away? Is it locked up?” A responsible gun owner should not take umbrage at this line of questioning. It might not be possible to not discuss this past incident; it really depends on how your inquiry is received. I don’t know what you intend to do if your sister-in-law is offended that you’ve asked, or dismisses your concerns, or whips a cute pink pistol out of her bra and waves it over her head. I don’t know whether, given her previous too-lax gun handling, you’ll even be able to trust her if she says they’re all safely in her armory. I’m disappointed that negotiating this is falling on you; this is your husband’s family, but also, you should be a united front on this. It’s too important. Either way, advocate for yourself/your family/common goddamn sense. If your sister-in-law doesn’t like this or can’t meet your very reasonable request to be a responsible gun owner for the length of one party, what will you do? I know what I would do: I’d leave. • If you missed Sunday’s Care and Feeding column, read it here. • Discuss this column in the Slate Parenting Facebook group! My wife is a wonderful stepmother to my three sons—14 year-old twins and a 10-year-old. We also have a 2-year-old son together. My ex-wife and I have shared custody of the big boys, so three or four days a week my wife is a primary caregiver. She is loving and patient and an excellent stepmother. My wife is very close to her sisters, both of whom live nearby. One of them, Erin, has two boys, 14 and 11. My boys and Erin’s boys have spent a lot of time together over the years, and to my mind are basically cousins. Sometimes they get along, sometimes they don’t. At a family function, one of my teenagers was bickering with Erin’s younger son. While they were all off playing together, my son told Erin’s son to “lose some weight.” He’s a husky kid, and both he and his mother are sensitive about it. He became extremely upset and spent the rest of the party pouting. My wife told me what happened, and I apologized to Erin and had my son apologize to her son. She told me it was fine, kids being kids. A few days later, she told my wife that my kids are no longer welcome in her house. I was shocked and hurt and eventually angry. As my youngest son’s birthday party approaches, I told my wife I did not want Erin invited. I’m having a hard time welcoming her (not her kids) to our home when my kids aren’t welcome in her home. My wife is upset with her sister but wants to keep the peace. I don’t want to cause any problems between my wife and her sister, but I’m at a loss. I think you’re allowed to be shocked and hurt by your sister-in-law’s behavior, but not angry. That’s not going to be very useful. Maybe think of it this way: As a gesture to your wife, an exemplary mother, step- or otherwise, can you go the extra mile to repair this rift before it turns to rot? If you’re not close to Erin, maybe an email is in order; if you have a phone chat relationship, ring her up. “Erin: I’m so sorry to hear you feel my sons aren’t welcome in your home. I understand that Kevin hurt you and your son with his careless words. I hope you can acknowledge that they are just kids, and all kids sometimes say dumb and thoughtless things. He and I have talked it over, and I can’t promise he won’t do something dumb again because he is a kid, but I do believe he understands and regrets his words. It brings me such joy to see our boys all together; I think of them as cousins, and I value that so much. I hope that you will reconsider this, but if you can’t, I hope you will know that you and your sons are always welcome in our home.” This would be a kind thing to do for your wife, and your sister-in-law, and all the kids, and it’s really very simple. Erin might still feel that your sons aren’t welcome in her house, and that’s her choice. But by making it clear that there are no hard feelings on your end (and that’s key! You have to say these words but also mean them!) she may come to see that perhaps she’s been too stern. Good luck. My husband and I have an 8-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl. Our son is a loner, introverted, and a bit moody. He gets angry quickly, but gets over it quickly. My husband’s response to my son’s moodiness is to belittle him. This usually results in my son storming off, slamming a door, and muttering to himself. A few minutes to a half-hour later he will come back, calm, and everyone pretends nothing happened. My husband is otherwise great with our son, and they have a good relationship most of the time. However, these interactions bother me. When I bring it up to my husband, he says I’m overreacting. We have a long-standing deal not to disagree on parenting matters in front of the children but to bring it up later, so that we appear a united front. Sometimes this means one or the other of us has to talk the other into changing behavior or apologizing later, but it mostly works. But I don’t know what to do—continue to play along? Try to stop him in the moment? If I go after my son when he storms out, does that suggest I don’t agree with my husband? There might be two issues here, and I need help with both, because I do worry a lot about his anger. He’s only 8, in third grade. He plays sports and doesn’t spend an unreasonable amount of time on screens (all of it is regulated and age-appropriate). But how do we diffuse it? If your son tends toward introversion, or being a loner, that might just be who he is—whether at this point in his life or forever. You might worry about this predilection (you would no matter his traits; it’s a parent’s job to worry), but perhaps if you think of this as who he is rather than a problem to be solved, it will seem less of an issue. Anger is a different matter. But it’s hard to weigh whether you’re describing an inappropriate level of anger—because if your husband’s response to the boy’s natural moodiness is to belittle him, isn’t your son right to be angry? You’re his mother, so if you truly believe he’s struggling with anger, as he well might be, what that needs is not provocation (especially from his parents!) but understanding. Your pediatrician might be able to talk this out with you or refer you to a specialist suited to evaluate this. I’m not sure what a doctor or therapist will say about your son’s anger, which could be a symptom of so very many things, but I am sure what they’ll say to you about your husband’s response to it. Your husband’s teasing is neither productive nor helpful; indeed, I bet it’s making things worse. Even if it’s not this teasing that’s the root of your son’s anger, it’s still an inappropriate response. You need to talk to him frankly, and not let him dismiss your concerns. Then together you can consult with your son’s doctor to determine what to do next. Good luck. My 2-year-old son is very attached to me. I don’t see any problem with this, but some family members have encouraged me to help him foster more independence. I don’t think it’s all that weird that a 2-year-old wants his mama all the time. Is it? | Rumaan Alam | https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/12/desperately-need-new-christmas-traditions-care-and-feeding.html?via=rss | Tue, 17 Dec 2019 10:59:02 +0000 | 1,576,598,342 | 1,576,585,020 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
509,861 | sottnet--2019-12-16--Postmodern hell: Age-old Christmas traditions replaced by progressive agenda - as Santa gets a mak | 2019-12-16T00:00:00 | sottnet | Postmodern hell: Age-old Christmas traditions replaced by progressive agenda - as Santa gets a makeover! | Father Christmas, also known as Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas or Kris Kringle, dates back almost 2,000 years, but it seems that it's time for a rethink of everything in 2019 as a modern agenda takes a subversive twist on tradition.Santa's modern design was created in the late 1800's by American artist Thomas Nast, in a collection of sketches for Harper's magazine.The "Santa-free non-Christmas party" was supported by some but mostly mocked online., but for decades now various activists have tried to make Santa more relevant - or have recruited him (or her, or them) to push their agenda.The fight for female Santas is going strong. Although women used to play Father Christmas during the Second World War, feminist ideology and the man in red didn't have a loud clash until 1995. Donna Underwood was thrust into the spotlight when she was hired to portray Santa for a local mall in West Virginia. People complained, she was fired, sued, and lost.Disney wants in, too; its latest Christmas comedy film 'Noelle' (which didn't make it to cinemas but was shown on Disney+) has Anna Kendrick stepping into Santa's shoes. Review website Rotten Tomatoes states "The always-charming Anna Kendrick does her best, but Noelle's progressive take on a timeless tale is unfortunately subdued."In the fight for racial equality Santa was conscripted by the civil rights movement in 1960s America. The 1970s onwards saw only a few retailers daring to hire more ethnically diverse Santas (including Macy's flagship store in New York). Most caused mass outrage and hit the headlines for the wrong reason.Having a black Father Christmas is still a contentious subject. In 2016 the Mall of America made history by hiring its first-ever Black Santa. Larry Jefferson was hired to play to 'Santa Larry,' and said that he received praise from all ages regardless of their racial and ethnic background; "My lines are filled with kids and filled of diversity. Black kids, white kids, Asian kids, Hispanic kids, they all come to see Santa." The local newspaper reported otherwise... and had to turn off the comment section of its article due to so many negative and racist remarks.In another example, this year two London-based moms have been praised in the media for launching a line of black-empowerment-themed Christmas decorations - figures of a dark-skinned Santa and angels with afros included. They say their goal is to create a better representation for their children at a time that "should be all about family and bringing people together." With their new spin on decorations, they believe that in 2019 it's time to "reinvent the wheel." | null | https://www.sott.net/article/425786-Postmodern-hell-Age-old-Christmas-traditions-replaced-by-progressive-agenda-as-Santa-gets-a-makeover | Mon, 16 Dec 2019 17:24:27 +0000 | 1,576,535,067 | 1,576,543,285 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
604,876 | thedailycaller--2019-07-05--4th of July Traditions Only Real Americans Know | 2019-07-05T00:00:00 | thedailycaller | 4th of July Traditions Only Real Americans Know | As Americans celebrate the nation’s birthday with their friends and family over the long weekend, we took a look at the diverse ways the 4th of July is spent. With 50 different states and a population of nearly 330 million people, 4th of July traditions vary greatly. (RELATED: Trump Decides On Fate Of Military Parade) It’s not only small-town parades and backyard picnics – the traditions shared in the United States are as diverse as the country itself. Take a look at the most unique 4th of July traditions that are shared around the nation. And check out more of Caitlin McFall’s reports and the series, The Daily Caller Explains and Check Your Fact. Fact Check: Are Muslims Allowed To Serve In Public Office? Fact Check: Did Every Senate Democrat Who Voted Against The Born Alive Bill Receive Donations From Planned Parenthood? Is Cannabis The Cash Crop Of The Future? Fact Check: Ilhan Omar Says It’s A ‘Myth’ That Transgender Women Have A ‘Competitive Advantage’ In Powerlifting Cutting Through The Politics That Have Swallowed The Climate Change Debate The Reality Of Sex Trafficking At The US-Mexico Border | Caitlin McFall | https://dailycaller.com/2019/07/05/4th-of-july-traditions-real-americans/ | 2019-07-05 12:56:50+00:00 | 1,562,345,810 | 1,567,536,828 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
655,375 | thedailyrecord--2019-12-29--The truth behind Scotland's Hogmanay traditions including first footing and ginger wine | 2019-12-29T00:00:00 | thedailyrecord | The truth behind Scotland's Hogmanay traditions including first footing and ginger wine | Hogmanay has always been the big party in Scotland. From revellers counting down the clock in Edinburgh, to people roaming the streets with carry outs searching for a party, it’s a night that almost everyone celebrates. Away from the parties, others spend the Bells at home, watching the BBC or STV celebrations with loved ones and this has always been a time to reminisce and remember friends and family who are no longer with us. The Robert Burns song, which echoes around the world at New Year, perhaps best sums up this sentiment, bringing to mind the most cherished ‘auld acquaintance’ as the clock strikes midnight. There are other traditions though, which have become part of Scots’ life. In Glasgow , the National Trust for Scotland cares for and maintains Tenement House in the city's Garnethill area. It is a perfectly preserved property, which gives insight into life through the ages and every Christmas and New Year, tells the story of festive seasons past. Visitor Services Supervisor, Ana Sanchez has worked for NTS for the past six years and called Tenement House her working ‘home’ for the past three. As she explained, people the world come to Tenement House to hear the stories of a traditional Scottish Hogmanay. As the country which gave the world ‘Auld Lang Syne’ the country is seen as one of the originators of New Year celebrations as we know them today. Here we look at some of our Scottish Hogmanay traditions – a few of which are sadly slipping into obscurity. Possibly the best-known Hogmanay tradition and not only applies to the first person to cross the threshold after the bells, but to people paying a first visit to your house in January. That first visitor would bring gifts and, hopefully, a bit of luck. In the past the first person to cross the threshold would bring three particular gifts: Salt - which was an expensive commodity, coal for the fire – to provide warmth and a sweet - with sherbet particularly popular. They were also believed to bring good luck. Attractive males with dark hair were thought to be particularly lucky but if they were blonde it would mean that there were troubles in the year ahead. People also used to bring whisky for the first dram of the New Year, which was particularly welcomed. Welcoming in the New Year People used to open their front doors after the Bells and literally shout ‘welcome’, to welcome in the New Year. There was also a tradition of opening the front door and throwing out a piece of cake. This would represent a year without hunger, one where people would have plenty of food. There was a real community feeling in the tenement flats. You knew your neighbours, people lived, died and were born in tenements and they always helped each other. After the Bells people would go through their neighbours’ houses, wishing them a happy New Year – and there always seemed to be a party going on in one of them. Sadly, a lot of this community feeling was lost when people relocated to the high-rise flats. They would say that they no longer knew their neighbours. People used to make their own ‘ginger wine’, as it was known. They’d use lots of spices, like ginger and cinnamon and other ingredients like raisons and mix them with a spirit, usually brandy. It actually became very popular during the 19 th century when there was an outbreak of cholera. Ginger had properties which helped the recovery. From this popularity it became a tradition, so much so that people also made a non-alcoholic version for the children. Eventually it was mass produced and Crabbies made a version, which you can still buy today. The Burns song which became the soundtrack for New Year the world over actually has its roots in a traditional Scottish folk verse, which is believed to date back to medieval times. The song symbolises endings and new beginnings and, sung on the stroke of midnight, would be used to bid farewell to the year past and evoke memories of friends and family who have passed away. | [email protected] (Jennifer Russell) | https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/family-relationships/truth-behind-scotlands-hogmanay-traditions-21179616 | Sun, 29 Dec 2019 10:47:23 +0000 | 1,577,634,443 | 1,577,622,263 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
753,084 | theindependent--2019-03-25--Royal baby 8 of the most unusual birth traditions from the Queen taking custody to the wool blanket | 2019-03-25T00:00:00 | theindependent | Royal baby: 8 of the most unusual birth traditions from the Queen taking custody to the wool blanket | The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expected to announce the arrival of their royal baby any day now. In October 2018, Kensington Palace announced Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were expecting their first child, due in spring 2019. Following the birth of a child, common practice may dictate new parents to post the first picture of their child on social media or start perfecting the art of fitting a baby seat in the car. But when it comes to the royal family, they have more unusual post-birth traditions. From announcing the birth via an easel outside Buckingham Palace to royal babies wearing the same christening gown, here’s a list of the most bizarre royal birth traditions. As per tradition, a royal child is delivered with the assistance of at least one royal doctor. The current royal surgeon-gynaecologist is Alan Farthing, while the royals’ consultant obstetrician is Guy Thorpe-Beeston. Both medical professionals helped deliver the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s three children, Prince Louis, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. Sir Marcus Setchell, who was Queen Elizabeth II's surgeon-gynaecologist and who delivered Prince George, has since retired. In his only interview about Prince George’s birth, Sir Marcus described the midwifery team as “perfectly wonderful”. During an interview on Woman's Hour' BBC Radio 4, the gynaecologist added: "You just keep reminding yourself that although it's very important, for the couple and the about-to-be-born baby, it's just another healthy young couple giving birth to a hopefully very healthy baby. "And I constantly reminded myself of that so that the pressures of the hundreds of media people outside the hospital didn't affect me, at least not more than minimally." A law enacted more than three centuries ago means that the Queen has full legal custody of any child born into the royal family. The law, called “The Grand Opinion for the Prerogative Concerning the Royal Family,” was introduced by King George I in 1717. “George I did not get along with his son, the future George II,” explains royal expert Marlene Koenig previously to The Independent. “I believe it came about when the Prince of Wales [George II] did not want to have the godparent for his son that his father wanted - so George I got Parliament to come up with something.” An annual register published in 1772 states that the then King had the care of the royal children and grandchildren, and the presumptive heir to the crown. However, while law dictates that the Queen legally has custody of her grandchildren, Koenig doesn’t think she would ever act upon the right. “I would doubt that the Queen would interfere. [It’s] more of a formality,” she says. “I think the Queen has let her children raise their kids.” A royal birth is traditionally announced via a bulletin placed on an easel in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace. The framed typewritten bulletin, which is commonly brought out of the Privy Purse door after it is driven to the palace by car from the birth, is signed by the medical team which attends the royal birth. It includes details as to the baby’s gender, time of birth, as well as a status confirming the health of the mother and child. Following royal births at the Lindo Wing in recent decades, it has also become tradition for the new parents to present their child on the steps of the hospital ward’s entrance. For their first appearance to the world, royal children are traditionally wrapped in a blanket made by Nottingham-based knitwear company G.H. Hurt & Sons. Prince Charles was the first royal to be bundled in a blanket by the company following his birth back in 1948. In 2013, Prince George was wrapped in one of the company’s ivory white merino wool shawl and Princess Charlotte was bundled in a scalloped edge wrap in 2015. Prince Louis, meanwhile, was wrapped in the company’s ‘Nottingham Lace Knitted Baby Shawl’ following his birth. Following an appearance outside the Lindo Wing, it has become common practice among the royal family not to release the child’s name for several days. After Prince George and Princess Charlotte were born, the public waited two days before learning their respective names. However, it was another three days before Prince Louis’ name was announced on 27 April to the world. It is customary for the royals to pass down a christening robe for the newest member of the family to wear at their christening. For George, Charlotte and Louis’ christenings, the trio each wore a replica of an original robe made in 1841 for Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa. The original gown was made from white silk with a handmade lace overlay and was worn by 62 royal babies over the course of its 163 years of royal service. It was hand-washed with spring water after each christening ceremony and stored in a dark room until its next use. George VI and the Queen wore the white lace dress, as did Prince Charles, Prince William, and Prince Harry. The last royal to wear the original gown was Lady Louise Windsor, Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex's daughter, in 2004. Prince George became the fourth royal child to be christening in the gown, which was reportedly replicated with the help of the Queen’s personal wardrobe advisor, Angela Kelly, in 2011 Zara Tindall’s second daughter, Lena, was the most recent royal to wear the gown at her St Nicholas Church in Cherington, Gloucestershire earlier this month. It is customary for a birth announcement to be followed by a royal gun salute. Following Princess Charlotte’s birth, volleys were fired by soldiers in Hyde Park and the Tower of London to honour her arrival at 08:34 BST on 2 May. At 14:00 BST, soldiers from The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery rode out in a procession from Wellington Barracks, near Buckingham Palace, to fire 41 shots. The Honourable Artillery Company also fired a 62-gun salute at the Tower of London. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's child will not receive a royal title upon birth, unless granted by the Queen. "...the grandchildren of the sons of any such Sovereign in the direct male line (save only the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales) shall have and enjoy in all occasions the style and title enjoyed by the children of Dukes of these Our Realms.” To put it simply, this means that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s children, should they have any while the Queen is on the throne, will not be HRHs or princes or princesses, but will be known instead as Lord or Lady (forename) Mountbatten-Windsor. However, the Queen could issue a new Letters Patent to change this, as she did for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s children. In December 2012, the Queen issued a Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm declaring “all the children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales should have and enjoy the style, title and attribute of royal highness with the titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their Christian names or with such other titles of honour”. This explains why Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis all have HRH titles. | Katie O'Malley | https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-baby-birth-traditions-christening-gown-custody-name-blanket-title-a8838541.html | 2019-03-25 11:54:28+00:00 | 1,553,529,268 | 1,567,544,914 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
753,153 | theindependent--2019-03-27--Royal baby 8 of the most unusual traditions as Meghan Markle set to give birth | 2019-03-27T00:00:00 | theindependent | Royal baby: 8 of the most unusual traditions as Meghan Markle set to give birth | The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expected to announce the arrival of their royal baby any day now. In October 2018, Kensington Palace announced Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were expecting their first child, due in spring 2019. Following the birth of a child, common practice may dictate new parents to post the first picture of their child on social media or start perfecting the art of fitting a baby seat in the car. But when it comes to the royal family, they have more unusual post-birth traditions. From announcing the birth via an easel outside Buckingham Palace to royal babies wearing the same christening gown, here’s a list of the most bizarre royal birth traditions. As per tradition, a royal child is delivered with the assistance of at least one royal doctor. The current royal surgeon-gynaecologist is Alan Farthing, while the royals’ consultant obstetrician is Guy Thorpe-Beeston. Both medical professionals helped deliver the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s three children, Prince Louis, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. Sir Marcus Setchell, who was Queen Elizabeth II's surgeon-gynaecologist and who delivered Prince George, has since retired. In his only interview about Prince George’s birth, Sir Marcus described the midwifery team as “perfectly wonderful”. During an interview on Woman's Hour' BBC Radio 4, the gynaecologist added: "You just keep reminding yourself that although it's very important, for the couple and the about-to-be-born baby, it's just another healthy young couple giving birth to a hopefully very healthy baby. "And I constantly reminded myself of that so that the pressures of the hundreds of media people outside the hospital didn't affect me, at least not more than minimally." A law enacted more than three centuries ago means that the Queen has full legal custody of any child born into the royal family. The law, called “The Grand Opinion for the Prerogative Concerning the Royal Family,” was introduced by King George I in 1717. “George I did not get along with his son, the future George II,” explains royal expert Marlene Koenig previously to The Independent. “I believe it came about when the Prince of Wales [George II] did not want to have the godparent for his son that his father wanted - so George I got Parliament to come up with something.” An annual register published in 1772 states that the then King had the care of the royal children and grandchildren, and the presumptive heir to the crown. However, while law dictates that the Queen legally has custody of her grandchildren, Koenig doesn’t think she would ever act upon the right. “I would doubt that the Queen would interfere. [It’s] more of a formality,” she says. “I think the Queen has let her children raise their kids.” A royal birth is traditionally announced via a bulletin placed on an easel in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace. The framed typewritten bulletin, which is commonly brought out of the Privy Purse door after it is driven to the palace by car from the birth, is signed by the medical team which attends the royal birth. It includes details as to the baby’s gender, time of birth, as well as a status confirming the health of the mother and child. Following royal births at the Lindo Wing in recent decades, it has also become tradition for the new parents to present their child on the steps of the hospital ward’s entrance. For their first appearance to the world, royal children are traditionally wrapped in a blanket made by Nottingham-based knitwear company G.H. Hurt & Sons. Prince Charles was the first royal to be bundled in a blanket by the company following his birth back in 1948. In 2013, Prince George was wrapped in one of the company’s ivory white merino wool shawl and Princess Charlotte was bundled in a scalloped edge wrap in 2015. Prince Louis, meanwhile, was wrapped in the company’s ‘Nottingham Lace Knitted Baby Shawl’ following his birth. Following an appearance outside the Lindo Wing, it has become common practice among the royal family not to release the child’s name for several days. After Prince George and Princess Charlotte were born, the public waited two days before learning their respective names. However, it was another three days before Prince Louis’ name was announced on 27 April to the world. It is customary for the royals to pass down a christening robe for the newest member of the family to wear at their christening. For George, Charlotte and Louis’ christenings, the trio each wore a replica of an original robe made in 1841 for Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa. The original gown was made from white silk with a handmade lace overlay and was worn by 62 royal babies over the course of its 163 years of royal service. It was hand-washed with spring water after each christening ceremony and stored in a dark room until its next use. George VI and the Queen wore the white lace dress, as did Prince Charles, Prince William, and Prince Harry. The last royal to wear the original gown was Lady Louise Windsor, Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex's daughter, in 2004. Prince George became the fourth royal child to be christening in the gown, which was reportedly replicated with the help of the Queen’s personal wardrobe advisor, Angela Kelly, in 2011 Zara Tindall’s second daughter, Lena, was the most recent royal to wear the gown at her St Nicholas Church in Cherington, Gloucestershire earlier this month. It is customary for a birth announcement to be followed by a royal gun salute. Following Princess Charlotte’s birth, volleys were fired by soldiers in Hyde Park and the Tower of London to honour her arrival at 08:34 BST on 2 May. At 14:00 BST, soldiers from The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery rode out in a procession from Wellington Barracks, near Buckingham Palace, to fire 41 shots. The Honourable Artillery Company also fired a 62-gun salute at the Tower of London. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's child will not receive a royal title upon birth, unless granted by the Queen. "...the grandchildren of the sons of any such Sovereign in the direct male line (save only the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales) shall have and enjoy in all occasions the style and title enjoyed by the children of Dukes of these Our Realms.” To put it simply, this means that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s children, should they have any while the Queen is on the throne, will not be HRHs or princes or princesses, but will be known instead as Lord or Lady (forename) Mountbatten-Windsor. However, the Queen could issue a new Letters Patent to change this, as she did for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s children. In December 2012, the Queen issued a Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm declaring “all the children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales should have and enjoy the style, title and attribute of royal highness with the titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their Christian names or with such other titles of honour”. This explains why Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis all have HRH titles. | Katie O'Malley | https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-baby-birth-traditions-christening-gown-custody-name-blanket-title-a8838541.html | 2019-03-27 09:30:00+00:00 | 1,553,693,400 | 1,567,544,869 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
753,466 | theindependent--2019-03-30--Royal baby 8 of the most unusual traditions as Meghan Markle set to give birth | 2019-03-30T00:00:00 | theindependent | Royal baby: 8 of the most unusual traditions as Meghan Markle set to give birth | The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expected to announce the arrival of their royal baby any day now. In October 2018, Kensington Palace announced Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were expecting their first child, due in spring 2019. Following the birth of a child, common practice may dictate new parents to post the first picture of their child on social media or start perfecting the art of fitting a baby seat in the car. But when it comes to the royal family, they have more unusual post-birth traditions. From announcing the birth via an easel outside Buckingham Palace to royal babies wearing the same christening gown, here’s a list of the most bizarre royal birth traditions. As per tradition, a royal child is delivered with the assistance of at least one royal doctor. The current royal surgeon-gynaecologist is Alan Farthing, while the royals’ consultant obstetrician is Guy Thorpe-Beeston. Both medical professionals helped deliver the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s three children, Prince Louis, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. Sir Marcus Setchell, who was Queen Elizabeth II's surgeon-gynaecologist and who delivered Prince George, has since retired. In his only interview about Prince George’s birth, Sir Marcus described the midwifery team as “perfectly wonderful”. During an interview on Woman's Hour' BBC Radio 4, the gynaecologist added: "You just keep reminding yourself that although it's very important, for the couple and the about-to-be-born baby, it's just another healthy young couple giving birth to a hopefully very healthy baby. "And I constantly reminded myself of that so that the pressures of the hundreds of media people outside the hospital didn't affect me, at least not more than minimally." A law enacted more than three centuries ago means that the Queen has full legal custody of any child born into the royal family. The law, called “The Grand Opinion for the Prerogative Concerning the Royal Family,” was introduced by King George I in 1717. “George I did not get along with his son, the future George II,” explains royal expert Marlene Koenig previously to The Independent. “I believe it came about when the Prince of Wales [George II] did not want to have the godparent for his son that his father wanted - so George I got Parliament to come up with something.” An annual register published in 1772 states that the then King had the care of the royal children and grandchildren, and the presumptive heir to the crown. However, while law dictates that the Queen legally has custody of her grandchildren, Koenig doesn’t think she would ever act upon the right. “I would doubt that the Queen would interfere. [It’s] more of a formality,” she says. “I think the Queen has let her children raise their kids.” A royal birth is traditionally announced via a bulletin placed on an easel in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace. The framed typewritten bulletin, which is commonly brought out of the Privy Purse door after it is driven to the palace by car from the birth, is signed by the medical team which attends the royal birth. It includes details as to the baby’s gender, time of birth, as well as a status confirming the health of the mother and child. Following royal births at the Lindo Wing in recent decades, it has also become tradition for the new parents to present their child on the steps of the hospital ward’s entrance. For their first appearance to the world, royal children are traditionally wrapped in a blanket made by Nottingham-based knitwear company G.H. Hurt & Sons. Prince Charles was the first royal to be bundled in a blanket by the company following his birth back in 1948. In 2013, Prince George was wrapped in one of the company’s ivory white merino wool shawl and Princess Charlotte was bundled in a scalloped edge wrap in 2015. Prince Louis, meanwhile, was wrapped in the company’s ‘Nottingham Lace Knitted Baby Shawl’ following his birth. Following an appearance outside the Lindo Wing, it has become common practice among the royal family not to release the child’s name for several days. After Prince George and Princess Charlotte were born, the public waited two days before learning their respective names. However, it was another three days before Prince Louis’ name was announced on 27 April to the world. It is customary for the royals to pass down a christening robe for the newest member of the family to wear at their christening. For George, Charlotte and Louis’ christenings, the trio each wore a replica of an original robe made in 1841 for Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa. The original gown was made from white silk with a handmade lace overlay and was worn by 62 royal babies over the course of its 163 years of royal service. It was hand-washed with spring water after each christening ceremony and stored in a dark room until its next use. George VI and the Queen wore the white lace dress, as did Prince Charles, Prince William, and Prince Harry. The last royal to wear the original gown was Lady Louise Windsor, Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex's daughter, in 2004. Prince George became the fourth royal child to be christening in the gown, which was reportedly replicated with the help of the Queen’s personal wardrobe advisor, Angela Kelly, in 2011 Zara Tindall’s second daughter, Lena, was the most recent royal to wear the gown at her St Nicholas Church in Cherington, Gloucestershire earlier this month. It is customary for a birth announcement to be followed by a royal gun salute. Following Princess Charlotte’s birth, volleys were fired by soldiers in Hyde Park and the Tower of London to honour her arrival at 08:34 BST on 2 May. At 14:00 BST, soldiers from The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery rode out in a procession from Wellington Barracks, near Buckingham Palace, to fire 41 shots. The Honourable Artillery Company also fired a 62-gun salute at the Tower of London. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's child will not receive a royal title upon birth, unless granted by the Queen. "...the grandchildren of the sons of any such Sovereign in the direct male line (save only the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales) shall have and enjoy in all occasions the style and title enjoyed by the children of Dukes of these Our Realms.” To put it simply, this means that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s children, should they have any while the Queen is on the throne, will not be HRHs or princes or princesses, but will be known instead as Lord or Lady (forename) Mountbatten-Windsor. However, the Queen could issue a new Letters Patent to change this, as she did for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s children. In December 2012, the Queen issued a Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm declaring “all the children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales should have and enjoy the style, title and attribute of royal highness with the titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their Christian names or with such other titles of honour”. This explains why Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis all have HRH titles. | Katie O'Malley | https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-baby-birth-traditions-christening-gown-custody-name-blanket-title-a8838541.html | 2019-03-30 17:34:00+00:00 | 1,553,981,640 | 1,567,544,648 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
753,621 | theindependent--2019-03-31--Royal baby 8 of the most unusual traditions as Meghan Markle set to give birth | 2019-03-31T00:00:00 | theindependent | Royal baby: 8 of the most unusual traditions as Meghan Markle set to give birth | The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expected to announce the arrival of their royal baby any day now. In October 2018, Kensington Palace announced Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were expecting their first child, due in spring 2019. Following the birth of a child, common practice may dictate new parents to post the first picture of their child on social media or start perfecting the art of fitting a baby seat in the car. But when it comes to the royal family, they have more unusual post-birth traditions. From announcing the birth via an easel outside Buckingham Palace to royal babies wearing the same christening gown, here’s a list of the most bizarre royal birth traditions. As per tradition, a royal child is delivered with the assistance of at least one royal doctor. The current royal surgeon-gynaecologist is Alan Farthing, while the royals’ consultant obstetrician is Guy Thorpe-Beeston. Both medical professionals helped deliver the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s three children, Prince Louis, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. Sir Marcus Setchell, who was Queen Elizabeth II's surgeon-gynaecologist and who delivered Prince George, has since retired. In his only interview about Prince George’s birth, Sir Marcus described the midwifery team as “perfectly wonderful”. During an interview on Woman's Hour' BBC Radio 4, the gynaecologist added: "You just keep reminding yourself that although it's very important, for the couple and the about-to-be-born baby, it's just another healthy young couple giving birth to a hopefully very healthy baby. "And I constantly reminded myself of that so that the pressures of the hundreds of media people outside the hospital didn't affect me, at least not more than minimally." A law enacted more than three centuries ago means that the Queen has full legal custody of any child born into the royal family. The law, called “The Grand Opinion for the Prerogative Concerning the Royal Family,” was introduced by King George I in 1717. “George I did not get along with his son, the future George II,” explains royal expert Marlene Koenig previously to The Independent. “I believe it came about when the Prince of Wales [George II] did not want to have the godparent for his son that his father wanted - so George I got Parliament to come up with something.” An annual register published in 1772 states that the then King had the care of the royal children and grandchildren, and the presumptive heir to the crown. However, while law dictates that the Queen legally has custody of her grandchildren, Koenig doesn’t think she would ever act upon the right. “I would doubt that the Queen would interfere. [It’s] more of a formality,” she says. “I think the Queen has let her children raise their kids.” A royal birth is traditionally announced via a bulletin placed on an easel in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace. The framed typewritten bulletin, which is commonly brought out of the Privy Purse door after it is driven to the palace by car from the birth, is signed by the medical team which attends the royal birth. It includes details as to the baby’s gender, time of birth, as well as a status confirming the health of the mother and child. Following royal births at the Lindo Wing in recent decades, it has also become tradition for the new parents to present their child on the steps of the hospital ward’s entrance. For their first appearance to the world, royal children are traditionally wrapped in a blanket made by Nottingham-based knitwear company G.H. Hurt & Sons. Prince Charles was the first royal to be bundled in a blanket by the company following his birth back in 1948. In 2013, Prince George was wrapped in one of the company’s ivory white merino wool shawl and Princess Charlotte was bundled in a scalloped edge wrap in 2015. Prince Louis, meanwhile, was wrapped in the company’s ‘Nottingham Lace Knitted Baby Shawl’ following his birth. Following an appearance outside the Lindo Wing, it has become common practice among the royal family not to release the child’s name for several days. After Prince George and Princess Charlotte were born, the public waited two days before learning their respective names. However, it was another three days before Prince Louis’ name was announced on 27 April to the world. It is customary for the royals to pass down a christening robe for the newest member of the family to wear at their christening. For George, Charlotte and Louis’ christenings, the trio each wore a replica of an original robe made in 1841 for Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa. The original gown was made from white silk with a handmade lace overlay and was worn by 62 royal babies over the course of its 163 years of royal service. It was hand-washed with spring water after each christening ceremony and stored in a dark room until its next use. George VI and the Queen wore the white lace dress, as did Prince Charles, Prince William, and Prince Harry. The last royal to wear the original gown was Lady Louise Windsor, Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex's daughter, in 2004. Prince George became the fourth royal child to be christening in the gown, which was reportedly replicated with the help of the Queen’s personal wardrobe advisor, Angela Kelly, in 2011 Zara Tindall’s second daughter, Lena, was the most recent royal to wear the gown at her St Nicholas Church in Cherington, Gloucestershire earlier this month. It is customary for a birth announcement to be followed by a royal gun salute. Following Princess Charlotte’s birth, volleys were fired by soldiers in Hyde Park and the Tower of London to honour her arrival at 08:34 BST on 2 May. At 14:00 BST, soldiers from The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery rode out in a procession from Wellington Barracks, near Buckingham Palace, to fire 41 shots. The Honourable Artillery Company also fired a 62-gun salute at the Tower of London. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's child will not receive a royal title upon birth, unless granted by the Queen. "...the grandchildren of the sons of any such Sovereign in the direct male line (save only the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales) shall have and enjoy in all occasions the style and title enjoyed by the children of Dukes of these Our Realms.” To put it simply, this means that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s children, should they have any while the Queen is on the throne, will not be HRHs or princes or princesses, but will be known instead as Lord or Lady (forename) Mountbatten-Windsor. However, the Queen could issue a new Letters Patent to change this, as she did for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s children. In December 2012, the Queen issued a Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm declaring “all the children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales should have and enjoy the style, title and attribute of royal highness with the titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their Christian names or with such other titles of honour”. This explains why Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis all have HRH titles. | Katie O'Malley | https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-baby-birth-traditions-christening-gown-custody-name-blanket-title-a8838541.html | 2019-03-31 14:28:00+00:00 | 1,554,056,880 | 1,567,544,562 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
755,743 | theindependent--2019-04-10--Royal baby 8 of the most unusual traditions as Meghan Markle set to give birth | 2019-04-10T00:00:00 | theindependent | Royal baby: 8 of the most unusual traditions as Meghan Markle set to give birth | The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expected to announce the arrival of their royal baby any day now. In October 2018, Kensington Palace announced Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were expecting their first child, due in spring 2019. Following the birth of a child, common practice may dictate new parents to post the first picture of their child on social media or start perfecting the art of fitting a baby seat in the car. But when it comes to the royal family, they have more unusual post-birth traditions. From announcing the birth via an easel outside Buckingham Palace to royal babies wearing the same christening gown, here’s a list of the most bizarre royal birth traditions. As per tradition, a royal child is delivered with the assistance of at least one royal doctor. The current royal surgeon-gynaecologist is Alan Farthing, while the royals’ consultant obstetrician is Guy Thorpe-Beeston. Both medical professionals helped deliver the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s three children, Prince Louis, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. Sir Marcus Setchell, who was Queen Elizabeth II's surgeon-gynaecologist and who delivered Prince George, has since retired. In his only interview about Prince George’s birth, Sir Marcus described the midwifery team as “perfectly wonderful”. During an interview on Woman's Hour' BBC Radio 4, the gynaecologist added: "You just keep reminding yourself that although it's very important, for the couple and the about-to-be-born baby, it's just another healthy young couple giving birth to a hopefully very healthy baby. "And I constantly reminded myself of that so that the pressures of the hundreds of media people outside the hospital didn't affect me, at least not more than minimally." A law enacted more than three centuries ago means that the Queen has full legal custody of any child born into the royal family. The law, called “The Grand Opinion for the Prerogative Concerning the Royal Family,” was introduced by King George I in 1717. “George I did not get along with his son, the future George II,” explains royal expert Marlene Koenig previously to The Independent. “I believe it came about when the Prince of Wales [George II] did not want to have the godparent for his son that his father wanted - so George I got Parliament to come up with something.” An annual register published in 1772 states that the then King had the care of the royal children and grandchildren, and the presumptive heir to the crown. However, while law dictates that the Queen legally has custody of her grandchildren, Koenig doesn’t think she would ever act upon the right. “I would doubt that the Queen would interfere. [It’s] more of a formality,” she says. “I think the Queen has let her children raise their kids.” A royal birth is traditionally announced via a bulletin placed on an easel in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace. The framed typewritten bulletin, which is commonly brought out of the Privy Purse door after it is driven to the palace by car from the birth, is signed by the medical team which attends the royal birth. It includes details as to the baby’s gender, time of birth, as well as a status confirming the health of the mother and child. Following royal births at the Lindo Wing in recent decades, it has also become tradition for the new parents to present their child on the steps of the hospital ward’s entrance. For their first appearance to the world, royal children are traditionally wrapped in a blanket made by Nottingham-based knitwear company G.H. Hurt & Sons. Prince Charles was the first royal to be bundled in a blanket by the company following his birth back in 1948. In 2013, Prince George was wrapped in one of the company’s ivory white merino wool shawl and Princess Charlotte was bundled in a scalloped edge wrap in 2015. Prince Louis, meanwhile, was wrapped in the company’s ‘Nottingham Lace Knitted Baby Shawl’ following his birth. Following an appearance outside the Lindo Wing, it has become common practice among the royal family not to release the child’s name for several days. After Prince George and Princess Charlotte were born, the public waited two days before learning their respective names. However, it was another three days before Prince Louis’ name was announced on 27 April to the world. It is customary for the royals to pass down a christening robe for the newest member of the family to wear at their christening. For George, Charlotte and Louis’ christenings, the trio each wore a replica of an original robe made in 1841 for Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa. The original gown was made from white silk with a handmade lace overlay and was worn by 62 royal babies over the course of its 163 years of royal service. It was hand-washed with spring water after each christening ceremony and stored in a dark room until its next use. George VI and the Queen wore the white lace dress, as did Prince Charles, Prince William, and Prince Harry. The last royal to wear the original gown was Lady Louise Windsor, Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex's daughter, in 2004. Prince George became the fourth royal child to be christening in the gown, which was reportedly replicated with the help of the Queen’s personal wardrobe advisor, Angela Kelly, in 2011 Zara Tindall’s second daughter, Lena, was the most recent royal to wear the gown at her St Nicholas Church in Cherington, Gloucestershire earlier this month. It is customary for a birth announcement to be followed by a royal gun salute. Following Princess Charlotte’s birth, volleys were fired by soldiers in Hyde Park and the Tower of London to honour her arrival at 08:34 BST on 2 May. At 14:00 BST, soldiers from The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery rode out in a procession from Wellington Barracks, near Buckingham Palace, to fire 41 shots. The Honourable Artillery Company also fired a 62-gun salute at the Tower of London. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's child will not receive a royal title upon birth, unless granted by the Queen. "...the grandchildren of the sons of any such Sovereign in the direct male line (save only the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales) shall have and enjoy in all occasions the style and title enjoyed by the children of Dukes of these Our Realms.” To put it simply, this means that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s children, should they have any while the Queen is on the throne, will not be HRHs or princes or princesses, but will be known instead as Lord or Lady (forename) Mountbatten-Windsor. However, the Queen could issue a new Letters Patent to change this, as she did for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s children. In December 2012, the Queen issued a Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm declaring “all the children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales should have and enjoy the style, title and attribute of royal highness with the titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their Christian names or with such other titles of honour”. This explains why Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis all have HRH titles. | Katie O'Malley | https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-baby-birth-traditions-christening-gown-custody-name-blanket-title-a8838541.html | 2019-04-10 09:57:00+00:00 | 1,554,904,620 | 1,567,543,298 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
756,498 | theindependent--2019-04-16--Royal baby 8 of the most unusual traditions as Meghan Markle set to give birth | 2019-04-16T00:00:00 | theindependent | Royal baby: 8 of the most unusual traditions as Meghan Markle set to give birth | The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have announced the arrival of their first child. Born at their home in Windsor on 6 May and weighing in at 7lbs 3oz, the baby boy was announced via a statement on the Sussex Royal Instagram account. Speaking to the press outside the stables, Prince Harry stated he is in awe of his wife Meghan Markle, saying that seeing her give birth was an "amazing experience." In October 2018, Kensington Palace announced that Harry and Meghan were expecting their first child. Following the birth of a child, common practice may dictate new parents to post the first picture of their child on social media or start perfecting the art of fitting a baby seat in the car. But when it comes to the royal family, they have more unusual post-birth traditions. From announcing the birth via an easel outside Buckingham Palace to royal babies wearing the same christening gown, here’s a list of the most bizarre royal birth traditions. As per tradition, a royal child is delivered with the assistance of at least one royal doctor. The current royal surgeon-gynaecologist is Alan Farthing, while the royals’ consultant obstetrician is Guy Thorpe-Beeston. Both medical professionals helped deliver the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s three children, Prince Louis, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. Sir Marcus Setchell, who was Queen Elizabeth II's surgeon-gynaecologist and who delivered Prince George, has since retired. In his only interview about Prince George’s birth, Sir Marcus described the midwifery team as “perfectly wonderful”. During an interview on Woman's Hour' BBC Radio 4, the gynaecologist added: "You just keep reminding yourself that although it's very important, for the couple and the about-to-be-born baby, it's just another healthy young couple giving birth to a hopefully very healthy baby. "And I constantly reminded myself of that so that the pressures of the hundreds of media people outside the hospital didn't affect me, at least not more than minimally." A law enacted more than three centuries ago means that the Queen has full legal custody of any child born into the royal family. The law, called “The Grand Opinion for the Prerogative Concerning the Royal Family,” was introduced by King George I in 1717. “George I did not get along with his son, the future George II,” explains royal expert Marlene Koenig previously to The Independent. “I believe it came about when the Prince of Wales [George II] did not want to have the godparent for his son that his father wanted - so George I got Parliament to come up with something.” An annual register published in 1772 states that the then King had the care of the royal children and grandchildren, and the presumptive heir to the crown. However, while law dictates that the Queen legally has custody of her grandchildren, Koenig doesn’t think she would ever act upon the right. “I would doubt that the Queen would interfere. [It’s] more of a formality,” she says. “I think the Queen has let her children raise their kids.” A royal birth is traditionally announced via a bulletin placed on an easel in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace. The framed typewritten bulletin, which is commonly brought out of the Privy Purse door after it is driven to the palace by car from the birth, is signed by the medical team which attends the royal birth. It includes details as to the baby’s gender, time of birth, as well as a status confirming the health of the mother and child. Following royal births at the Lindo Wing in recent decades, it has also become tradition for the new parents to present their child on the steps of the hospital ward’s entrance. For their first appearance to the world, royal children are traditionally wrapped in a blanket made by Nottingham-based knitwear company G.H. Hurt & Sons. Prince Charles was the first royal to be bundled in a blanket by the company following his birth back in 1948. In 2013, Prince George was wrapped in one of the company’s ivory white merino wool shawl and Princess Charlotte was bundled in a scalloped edge wrap in 2015. Prince Louis, meanwhile, was wrapped in the company’s ‘Nottingham Lace Knitted Baby Shawl’ following his birth. Following an appearance outside the Lindo Wing, it has become common practice among the royal family not to release the child’s name for several days. After Prince George and Princess Charlotte were born, the public waited two days before learning their respective names. However, it was another three days before Prince Louis’ name was announced on 27 April to the world. It is customary for the royals to pass down a christening robe for the newest member of the family to wear at their christening. For George, Charlotte and Louis’ christenings, the trio each wore a replica of an original robe made in 1841 for Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa. The original gown was made from white silk with a handmade lace overlay and was worn by 62 royal babies over the course of its 163 years of royal service. It was hand-washed with spring water after each christening ceremony and stored in a dark room until its next use. George VI and the Queen wore the white lace dress, as did Prince Charles, Prince William, and Prince Harry. The last royal to wear the original gown was Lady Louise Windsor, Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex's daughter, in 2004. Prince George became the fourth royal child to be christening in the gown, which was reportedly replicated with the help of the Queen’s personal wardrobe advisor, Angela Kelly, in 2011 Zara Tindall’s second daughter, Lena, was the most recent royal to wear the gown at her St Nicholas Church in Cherington, Gloucestershire earlier this month. It is customary for a birth announcement to be followed by a royal gun salute. Following Princess Charlotte’s birth, volleys were fired by soldiers in Hyde Park and the Tower of London to honour her arrival at 08:34 BST on 2 May. At 14:00 BST, soldiers from The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery rode out in a procession from Wellington Barracks, near Buckingham Palace, to fire 41 shots. The Honourable Artillery Company also fired a 62-gun salute at the Tower of London. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's child will not receive a royal title upon birth, unless granted by the Queen. "...the grandchildren of the sons of any such Sovereign in the direct male line (save only the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales) shall have and enjoy in all occasions the style and title enjoyed by the children of Dukes of these Our Realms.” To put it simply, this means that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s children, should they have any while the Queen is on the throne, will not be HRHs or princes or princesses, but will be known instead as Lord or Lady (forename) Mountbatten-Windsor. However, the Queen could issue a new Letters Patent to change this, as she did for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s children. In December 2012, the Queen issued a Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm declaring “all the children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales should have and enjoy the style, title and attribute of royal highness with the titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their Christian names or with such other titles of honour”. This explains why Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis all have HRH titles. | Katie O'Malley | https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-baby-birth-traditions-christening-gown-custody-name-blanket-title-a8838541.html | 2019-04-16 14:47:00+00:00 | 1,555,440,420 | 1,567,542,812 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
757,162 | theindependent--2019-04-19--The unexpected pagan Jewish and German origins of some Easter traditions | 2019-04-19T00:00:00 | theindependent | The unexpected pagan, Jewish and German origins of some Easter traditions | There’s a lot of confusion about Easter – not least because this most important of all Christian festivals moves around so much from year to year, decided by a complex set of calculations based on the vernal equinox and the phase of the moon. Easter symbols – eggs, bunnies, lambs and the rest – give the festivities an air of pre-Christian paganism. So where do the origins of Easter and the rituals observed by so many – whether Christian or not – really lie? The first mention of Eostre is in the eighth century, in The Venerable Bede’s frustratingly cryptic account of the native Anglo-Saxon calendar in De Temporum Ratione (On the Reckoning of Time). The Anglo-Saxon equivalent of April called Eostremonath is named for the goddess Eostre – but we only know about Eostre via Bede’s writings and the only thing he tells us about her is that “feasts were celebrated” in her honour. So, if modern Easter is frequently a festival of overeating, this has tradition on its side. But Eostre was evidently significant enough for the Anglo-Saxons to later transfer her name to the Christian festival of the resurrection rather than adopting the Latin name “Pascha”. Similarly, Easter is “Ostern” in German – which implies she must have been known outside England. Confusingly, the great 19th-century folklorist and philologist, Jacob Grimm, invented a German goddess called Ostara – “the divinity of the radiant dawn, upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing” – on purely etymological grounds: the name is derived from a proto-Indo-European root meaning “to shine”. But Grimm didn’t present a shred of supporting evidence that such a deity had ever been worshipped in Germany, leaving us with just Bede to go on. Easter roughly coincides with the spring equinox – so there is a good deal of lore attached to the season that is not actually Christian. Easter is preceded by Lent – a period of fasting in memory of Christ’s 40 days in the wilderness. But it is also a season when, in pre-modern Europe, food would have been running low. Winter supplies would have been coming to an end and there was not enough sun and spring growth yet for hens to start laying and cows to give milk. In a sense, therefore, Easter is a natural feast – to celebrate passing out of that hardship. The association of lamb with Easter is something we have borrowed from Jewish tradition and Passover – which was also the festival that Jesus and his disciples celebrated with their Last Supper. At least as far back as the 15th century, Easter was also marked in England by eating “tansies” – a kind of custardy pudding made with the bitter (and poisonous) herb tansy and sometimes with other bitter greens such as nettles. The 17th-century antiquarian John Aubrey adds a further detail: “Eggs are an ancient and natural symbol of returning life in many parts of Europe, but the Easter egg may also derive from Passover – which includes, among various symbolic foods, a roasted egg: the beitzah. Until at least the mid-20th century, more people marked Easter with decorated, hard-boiled hen’s eggs than chocolate ones. The earliest documented mention in England of decorated eggs comes in 1290, from the household accounts of King Edward I for 1290, which records the purchase and decoration of 450 eggs, some gilded, some dyed. These eggs were presented to the royal household at Easter and cost 18 pence. In many parts of Britain, the custom was for people, children especially, to play with their “pace-eggs” by rolling them down a chosen slope before eating them. In Iona and Peter Opie’s 1959 study The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, a child reports that: “In Cumberland, we take more notice of the pace eggs than chocolate eggs.” Easter eggs as also rolled on the lawn of the US White House, a custom going back to 1878. The association of hares with Easter also considerably predates foil-wrapped chocolate bunnies. As early as 1682, Georg Franck von Franckenau’s essay De ovis paschalibus (About Easter eggs) speaks of a German tradition of an Easter hare bringing coloured Easter eggs for the children. In southern Germany, children used to be told that a hare laid the pace-eggs and they would make a nest for the creature to lay them in. The Easter hare was also known in parts of the British Isles and was particularly associated with having to hunt out eggs hidden in the garden, where the hare was supposed to have put them. A curious entry in the Calendar of State Papers for 2 April 1620, suggests that hares were also often eaten at Easter. Hares were also ritually hunted at Easter in England – there is a note in the Chamberlains’ Accounts for the year 1574 that twelvepence was “given to the hare-finders at Whetston Court”. An Easter hare hunt survived as part of Leicester’s ritual year as late as the 18th century, though by then a dead cat was substituted for an actual hare. Jacob Grimm, looking at this evidence for an association of ritual activity involving hares with the Easter season, conjectured that the hare was sacred to the goddess Ostara, piling one conjecture on top of another. So the truth is that Easter rituals as we know them today represent an untidy collection of customs connected with celebrating spring growth and the end of austerity – a time for new clothes and rich food. Any connection with pre-Christian paganism is entirely coincidental. Jane Stevenson is a senior research fellow at Campion Hall, University of Oxford | Jane Stevenson | https://www.independent.co.uk/news/easter-christianity-traditions-religion-spring-passover-history-a8878206.html | 2019-04-19 16:15:21+00:00 | 1,555,704,921 | 1,567,542,412 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
931,893 | thesun--2019-01-26--What is the history behind Australia Day did Captain Cook discover Australia and what traditions su | 2019-01-26T00:00:00 | thesun | What is the history behind Australia Day, did Captain Cook discover Australia and what traditions surround the date? | IF you have any friends from Down Under, you may have heard them chatting about Australia Day. But what's the history behind the Aussie celebration? Here's the lowdown. This year, Australia Day is being celebrated on Friday January 26. It is a public holiday, and is about national pride and achievements. Australia Day is the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet of 11 convict ships, sent from Britain. On this day, in 1788, commander Captain Arthur Phillip famously raised the Union Jack in Sydney Cove - to signal their arrival. The celebration has evolved and today people tend to celebrate the diverse society of Australia, its national history and community parties. Those who celebrate the day tend to enjoy barbecues and drink beers as they party - and some say that having cricket on n the background is "mandatory". Some also enjoy watching Aussie films, painting their face in Australian colours, watching fireworks, holding street parties or eating Aussie food. But, the day isn't all beer and BBQs - for many it's a painful reminder of death, disease and an almost eradicated culture. In 1770, it is claimed that Captain James Cook "discovered" the south east coast of Australia, when he landed in Botany Bay. On 22 August 1770, he claimed the whole of the east coast of Australia at Possession Island and named eastern Australia New South Wales. Britain decided to use the land as a prison colony - and used it as a place to send its convicts. Arthur Phillip led the British First Fleet of 11 ships, carrying approximately 1,500 people to Botany Bay and about 160,000 convicts were brought to the country between 1788 and 1868. Free immigrants began to arrive in the 1790s. Meanwhile, Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon is also said to have landed on Aussie shores in 1606. 29 other Dutch navigators also allegedly explored the western and southern coasts in the 17th century - dubbing the continent New Holland. However, Aboriginal peoples had been living for more than 60,000 years on the continent before Cook "discovered" it. The Aboriginal people came by boat from the islands of Indonesia and lived in all parts of Australia. At least 1,600 generations of Aboriginals have lived and died there and those descended from the country's indigenous population mourn on January 26, rather than celebrate - because tens of thousands of people were killed during the colonisation of Australia - due to disease, starvation and massacres. Warren Mundine, chairman of the Australian Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council, told CNN: "We see it as Invasion Day." | nkeegan | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5424456/australia-day-2019-history-facts-captain-cook-date/ | 2019-01-26 07:33:24+00:00 | 1,548,506,004 | 1,567,550,751 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
935,236 | thesun--2019-02-05--What are Chinese New Year traditions and customs and what is Tomb-Sweeping Day | 2019-02-05T00:00:00 | thesun | What are Chinese New Year traditions and customs and what is Tomb-Sweeping Day? | CHINESE New Year is TODAY and it's a period of feasting, colourful decorations and numerous traditions. But what activities take place and what is Tomb-Sweeping Day all about? Chinese New Year is on February 5, 2019 - TODAY- with celebrations lasting for two weeks. Many of the decorations – which typically include lanterns and paintings - feature the colour red as it is a symbol of good luck in Chinese culture. Revellers wear traditional Chinese clothing such as colourful silks to represent joy and good fortune. Many people visit Chinese temples to pray for good luck and burn incense sticks, before heading off to enjoy lavish firework shows that are thought to scare off bad spirits. Parades are popular, with families flocking to watch costumed dancers dressed as dragons and lions. People often give red envelopes of money to friends and family during the period, and some like to offer food and drink to their ancestors. Feasting plays a central part of the festivities and many people will eat traditional food and make dumplings to enjoy. On the final day of Chinese New Year, large decorative lanterns are used to celebrate the Lantern Festival. Tomb-Sweeping Day, also known as the Qingming Festival, is a day to celebrate life and honour the dead. It is held early April each year and this year falls on Thursday, April 5. On the day, people will go and visit their ancestors’ graves and offer food and burn incense to commemorate them. You may even see people burning paper money as an offering to the dead so the deceased can buy what they wish in the afterlife. One of the most popular activities is to fly a kite with lanterns attached to the end. | rpemberton | https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/5363237/chinese-new-year-2019-traditions-tomb-sweeping-day/ | 2019-02-05 07:51:54+00:00 | 1,549,371,114 | 1,567,549,569 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
949,945 | thesun--2019-04-01--Meghan Markles unsual birthing traditions revealed in ITVs Secrets of the Royal Babies and how H | 2019-04-01T00:00:00 | thesun | Meghan Markle’s unsual birthing traditions revealed in ITV’s Secrets of the Royal Babies – and how Harry will have to ring the Queen first | PRINCE Harry will have a very important first duty after the royal baby's birth - calling the Queen to let her know whether it is a boy or a girl. Harry, 34, will be expected to abide by royal tradition and tell the Monarch the sex of the baby using an ENCRYPTED phone before he tells anyone else, say royal observers. Royal historian Kate Williams said it is the prince's duty - one which dates back generations - to tell Her Majesty the exciting news as soon as possible. In the ITV documentary 'Secrets of the Royal Babies: Harry and Meghan' she said: “What normally happens is that there is an encrypted phone that cannot be tapped and he will tell her a girl or boy.” The royal author added Harry will be probably play it cool during Meghan’s labour, joking to the cameras: “He'll be there doing yoga moves with Meghan.” The Queen has to be told the news before any other royal - including Prince Charles - as her Majesty is the “head of the family". However, one ancient tradition that will not be adhered to is the archaic routine of having government "observers" at the birth. The ITV programme told how the tradition which dates back to 1688 was still in practice - to some degree - when the Queen was born. Meanwhile it's been revealed Meghan and Prince Harry have decided not to have their baby at the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. Instead, the couple have opted for a maternity unit closer to their Windsor home. Kate and Prince William posed on the steps outside the Lindo following the births of their three children. Last year the Duchess of Cambridge looked immaculate as she emerged just hours after Prince Louis’ birth. A source said: “This child will not be born at the Lindo. “The talk of all the senior clinicians there is that Meghan doesn’t want to copy what Kate did. “Harry and Meghan realise there is intense public interest but this baby is not a direct heir to the throne and they want the birth to be as private as possible. “Meghan is nervous about complications such as an emergency Caesarean and doesn’t want the pressure of having to look immaculate on the hospital steps just hours later. “Like any anxious first-time mum, she’s worried about the birth itself. “As she is over 35, she is considered a slightly older mum — which sometimes can lead to some complications. “Meghan also has the added stress of the world’s attention on her — everyone wants to catch the first glimpse of the new royal addition. “She and Harry have decided that rather than go somewhere as public as the Lindo they will allow Meghan to recover somewhere more private. “She just wants a normal, natural birth and to bond with her baby, without being primped and blow-dried to within an inch of her life just for the pictures.” The link between the Lindo Wing and the Royal Family dates back to 1977. The Princess Royal had her first child Peter Phillips there, followed by daughter Zara in 1981. Diana chose it for the births of William in 1982 and Harry in 1984. Kate followed in 2013, 2015 and 2018 with George, Charlotte and Louis. She said the fact that Kate “was out of hospital seven hours later with her face made up and high heels on” felt unrealistic and not achievable for a lot of women. Los Angeles-born Meghan, 37, is focusing on her love of modern wellness remedies to help with her anxieties including pre-natal massages. She is said to be worried about her age as a first-time mum. Anyone over 35 is medically classed as geriatric. Meghan — who follows a vegan diet during the week and swears by drinking green juice — is using meditation to help ease her nervousness. The Sun on Sunday can also reveal that her mum Doria, 62, has been taking pregnancy massage lessons in LA. She has been learning about pressure points for pain relief and breathing techniques so she can assist Meghan when she goes into labour. Doria is expected to fly to the UK in the coming days. Meghan is dedicated to following New Age birthing techniques, including chanting and breathing routines using natural smells and sound therapy, it is claimed. She has been taking her mum’s advice on the use of essential oils that help balance the female hormone system. Other spiritual and wellness areas that interest the Duchess include the use of aromatherapy and healing using crystals. Meghan is now also enjoying a range of caffeine-free specialised herbal teas. A source said: “She has always been very spiritual and has a great love for yoga, good food and mediation. “Now she is taking it all to another level to make sure she is in the best place physically and mentally for the birth of their baby. “She’s been trying spiritual techniques aimed at pregnant women and Harry has been supporting her. He has come round to her way of thinking after seeing the huge benefits of inner wellness.” | jlockett | https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/8769569/meghan-birthing-traditions-royal-babies-harry-queen/ | 2019-04-01 22:30:33+00:00 | 1,554,172,233 | 1,567,544,480 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
956,594 | thesun--2019-04-20--St Georges Day traditions from morris dancing and Punch and Judy shows to flying the St Georges | 2019-04-20T00:00:00 | thesun | St George’s Day traditions – from morris dancing and Punch and Judy shows to flying the St George’s Cross flag | ST George's Day 2019 is almost here - meaning it's time to dust off the flag and celebrate the patron saint of England. The heroic soldier slayed a dragon and now we celebrate each year with quintessentially English traditions. Here's what you can do on April 23 to get involved.... Although Saint George is England’s patron saint, George would likely have been a soldier somewhere in the eastern Roman Empire, probably in what is now Turkey - if he ever existed. He is also the patron saint of Ethiopia, Georgia and Portugal, and cities such as Freiburg, Moscow and Beirut. The well-known story of the dragon mainly comes down to the Golden Legend - a popular collection of saints’ lives written in the 13th century. According to one version, a town in Libya had a small lake inhabited by a dragon infected with the plague. Many of the townsfolk were being killed by the dragon so they started feeding it two sheep a day to appease it. When the town ran out of sheep, legend has it that the king devised a lottery system to feed the hungry dragon local children instead. But, one day his own daughter was chosen and as she was being led down to the lake Saint George happened to ride past. The story says that George offered to slay the dragon but only if the people converted to Christianity. They did, and the king later built a church where the dragon was slain. The feast day of Saint George is celebrated by various Christian Churches and several countries and cities where Saint George is the patron saint – including England. The day is remembered on April 23 each year – this is the date traditionally accepted of his death in AD 303. While St Patrick's Day and St Andrew's Day are bank holidays in Ireland and Scotland respectively, St George's Day is sadly NOT a bank holiday in England. In the past, a traditional custom on Saint George's Day was to wear a red rose in your lapel – but not many people practise this anymore. More popular customs include flying the Saint George's Cross flag, with English pubs often festooned with them In cathedrals, churches and chapels on Saint George’s Day it is common for the hymn Jerusalem to be sung. We celebrate the day with anything involving English traditions - including morris dancing and fetes. The odd Punch & Judy show can also be seen and there are also town crier contests. Many places across England also host a feast with traditional fare and some areas hold theatre events, jousting and re-enactments. | Holly Christodoulou | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6118639/st-georges-day-traditions-morris-dancing-punch-and-judy-st-georges-cross-flag/ | 2019-04-20 17:35:07+00:00 | 1,555,796,107 | 1,567,542,324 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
956,942 | thesun--2019-04-21--St Georges Day traditions from morris dancing and Punch and Judy shows to flying the St Georges | 2019-04-21T00:00:00 | thesun | St George’s Day traditions – from morris dancing and Punch and Judy shows to flying the St George’s Cross flag | ST George's Day 2019 is almost here - meaning it's time to dust off the flag and celebrate the patron saint of England. The heroic soldier slayed a dragon and now we celebrate each year with quintessentially English traditions. Here's what you can do on April 23 to get involved.... Although Saint George is England’s patron saint, George would likely have been a soldier somewhere in the eastern Roman Empire, probably in what is now Turkey - if he ever existed. He is also the patron saint of Ethiopia, Georgia and Portugal, and cities such as Freiburg, Moscow and Beirut. The well-known story of the dragon mainly comes down to the Golden Legend - a popular collection of saints’ lives written in the 13th century. According to one version, a town in Libya had a small lake inhabited by a dragon infected with the plague. Many of the townsfolk were being killed by the dragon so they started feeding it two sheep a day to appease it. When the town ran out of sheep, legend has it that the king devised a lottery system to feed the hungry dragon local children instead. But, one day his own daughter was chosen and as she was being led down to the lake Saint George happened to ride past. The story says that George offered to slay the dragon but only if the people converted to Christianity. They did, and the king later built a church where the dragon was slain. The feast day of Saint George is celebrated by various Christian Churches and several countries and cities where Saint George is the patron saint – including England. The day is remembered on April 23 each year – this is the date traditionally accepted of his death in AD 303. While St Patrick's Day and St Andrew's Day are bank holidays in Ireland and Scotland respectively, St George's Day is sadly NOT a bank holiday in England. In the past, a traditional custom on Saint George's Day was to wear a red rose in your lapel – but not many people practise this anymore. More popular customs include flying the Saint George's Cross flag, with English pubs often festooned with them In cathedrals, churches and chapels on Saint George’s Day it is common for the hymn Jerusalem to be sung. We celebrate the day with anything involving English traditions - including morris dancing and fetes. The odd Punch & Judy show can also be seen and there are also town crier contests. Many places across England also host a feast with traditional fare and some areas hold theatre events, jousting and re-enactments. | Holly Christodoulou | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6118639/st-georges-day-traditions-morris-dancing-punch-and-judy-st-georges-cross-flag/ | 2019-04-21 16:18:07+00:00 | 1,555,877,887 | 1,567,542,250 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
958,421 | thesun--2019-04-30--Happy May Day 2019 How is 1st May celebrated in the UK and what traditions and quotes are there | 2019-04-30T00:00:00 | thesun | Happy May Day 2019! How is 1st May celebrated in the UK and what traditions and quotes are there? | EVERYONE looks forward to the influx of bank holidays that arrive around Easter and May each year and 2019 is no different. But what exactly is May Day and when is our early May long weekend this year? May Day is a holiday usually celebrated on May 1 and is a day that stems from ancient celebrations of spring. However, in England, May 1 is not a public holiday unless it falls on a Monday. Instead, since 1978 the Spring bank holiday has always fallen on the first Monday of the month. This year, as May Day falls on a Wednesday, the bank holiday is moved to the following Monday, which is May 6. Unlike the other bank holidays, the first Monday in May is taken off from schools by itself, and not as part of an end of term or half term holiday. The reason for this is because the day has no Christian significance - so doesn’t fit into the usual school holiday pattern. In the UK, May 1 is also International Workers’ Day – or Labour Day. In England, traditional May Day celebrations include crowning a May Queen and dancing around a maypole. It has been a day of festivities throughout history and is most associated with towns and villages celebrating springtime and the fertility of the land and livestock. May 1 is also a national holiday in Russia and Asian countries such as China, Thailand, and Vietnam. For many around the world, May Day is also associated with springtime and new beginnings. That being the case, many of the quotes about May Day refer to spring. Here are some of our favourites: However, May Day also symbolises labour movements around the world. Here are some quotes that represent those May Day vibes. | nkeegan | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3324669/may-day-2018-traditions-quotes-uk/ | 2019-04-30 07:15:18+00:00 | 1,556,622,918 | 1,567,541,633 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
984,683 | thesun--2019-11-06--Candid snaps show the real lives of Travellers from their ancient traditions to what family life loo | 2019-11-06T00:00:00 | thesun | Candid snaps show the real lives of Travellers from their ancient traditions to what family life looks like | RAW pictures provide an insight into the fiercely private lives of Irish travellers in the UK. From bathing horses in rivers to unusual tattoos, we explore the their nomadic lifestyle that dates back centuries. In a collection of shots by photographer Marco Sconocchia, who spent time with the traveller community, documents their lives. These youngsters take their horse for a ride on the field. Although their origin is not straight forward, it's thought that they are not related with Roman Gypsies Home is where the heart is They are lovers of the outdoors, their children growing up climbing trees and being at one with nature. Whilst some travellers get a bad reputation for settling on council or owned land, most obey the rules and live peacefully Travellers lifestyles reflect those of their ancestors, whereas most children will be curled up in front of televisions or computer games - this girl is pictured just watching the world go by One of the problems with travelling by horse is how to get a large group of people on the move - these kids seem to have it sorted We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368 . You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours. | Hana Carter | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10292110/candid-snaps-travellers-family/ | Wed, 06 Nov 2019 16:59:05 +0000 | 1,573,077,545 | 1,573,063,536 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
992,981 | thesun--2019-12-24--The amazing stories behind Xmas traditions from Coke giving Santa his red suit to Druids fighting ev | 2019-12-24T00:00:00 | thesun | The amazing stories behind Xmas traditions from Coke giving Santa his red suit to Druids fighting evil with mistletoe | IT'S the time to deck the halls with boughs of holly - but have you ever wondered why we do the things we do at Christmas? From singing carols to decorating the Christmas tree, all of our festive conventions have an interesting story behind them. Here are some of the most intriguing stories behind our Christmas traditions. The idea of Christmas stockings came from the story of a poor widower in the fourth century who had three daughters and was worried his lack of a dowry would prevent them getting married. As he refused all direct charity, Saint Nicholas, a very kind and charitable bishop who lived in Myra, Turkey, is said to have dropped gold coins down the chimney, which were caught in the stockings the girls had drying by the fire. And voila – a Christmas tradition of leaving stockings out for Santa was born. The Christmas evergreen fir tree was introduced by an English monk called St Boniface in the eighth century who did missionary work in Germany. He came across a group of pagans worshipping an oak tree as a false idol and in anger he cut down the oak tree and a young fir tree sprung up from the roots. Saint Boniface told the pagans this was the Tree of Life and the triangular shape represented the trinity and the life of Christ, and therefore Christianity. Robin's are associated with Christmas because festive post men in red coats were nicknamed robins when delivering Christmas cards at the beginning of the 20th century. There is also a fable about a fire in baby Jesus’s manger getting out of hand - and a brown robin placing himself between the flames and the face of baby Jesus, fluffing out its feathers protectively and getting his breast scorched red as a result. This redness was then passed onto future generations of robins. It was Coca-Cola’s adverts in 1935 that created the image of the jolly, round, white-haired man we all associate with Santa today, wearing red robes with a white trim – the soft drink’s colours. But the red and white colours come way before that and were actually the colours of Saint Nicholas himself, who – unlike today’s jolly-looking Santa - was often depicted as thin and bookish-looking. Sometimes known as “figgy pudding”, our Xmas pud originates from the 14th century and was a porridge of beef, mutton, raisins, currants, prunes, wine and mixed spices, typically eaten as a fasting meal in preparation for the Christmas celebrations. Eggs, breadcrumbs, dried fruit, beers and spirits were later added to the dish to make it a tastier, more festive plum pudding and King George I introduced it as part of the Christmas meal in 1714. The prickly holly leaves represent the crown of thorns Jesus wore when he was crucified and the red berries the drops of blood shed by Jesus because of the thorns. Ivy is a plant that clings onto something to support itself as it grows and it was meant to remind us how we need to cling to God for support in our lives. In pagan times, Holly was thought to be a male plant and Ivy a female plant. An old tradition from the Midlands of England said that whichever plant was brought into the house first over winter, would tell you whether the man or woman of the house would rule that year. Crackers originate from a sweet maker called Tom Smith, who, in 1847, created French bonbons – a sugared almond wrapped in paper with a twist at both ends - but they didn’t sell. One night he sat in front of a roaring fire and the crackle gave him the idea of including a 'bang' with the cracker. He replaced the bonbon with a gift, enlarged the packaging and his son, Walter, later included the now-obligatory paper hat. The rich fruit cake often associated with Christmas were originally Twelfth Cakes, which were eaten at the parties on Twelfth Night which ended the 12 days of Christmas on 5th January. It then became fashionable to have large iced decorations on and over the cake (using 'Royal Icing' which sets very hard), to show you were rich enough to be able to afford lots of sugar to make the icing. So the cake had to become more rich, solid and full of fruit to support the icing. During the industrial revolution, the big celebrations were then moved to Christmas rather than Twelfth Night because more people had to start working again straight after Boxing Day and so the cakes became Christmas Cakes. Mince Pies were originally filled with meat, such as lamb, rather than the dried fruits and spices mix they contain today. They were also made in an oval shape to represent the manger that Jesus slept in as a baby, with the top representing his swaddling clothes. Sometimes they even had a pastry baby Jesus on the top! During the Stuart and Georgian times, mince pies became a status symbol and the rich would show off by having pies made by their expensive, pastry cooks in different shapes like stars, crescents, hearts, tears, and flowers. Mistletoe is a plant that grows on a range of trees including willow, apple and oak trees. The tradition of hanging it in the house goes back to the times of the ancient Druids as it was supposed to possess mystical powers which bring good luck to the household and ward off evil spirits. It was also used as a sign of love and friendship in Norse mythology - hence the custom of kissing under the mistletoe. | Dan Hall | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10585616/stories-behind-christmas-coca-cola-santa-druids-mistletoe/ | Tue, 24 Dec 2019 10:34:01 +0000 | 1,577,201,641 | 1,577,190,311 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
1,000,908 | thetelegraph--2019-03-01--St Davids Day 2019 Welsh traditions medieval miracles and how leeks became iconic symbols | 2019-03-01T00:00:00 | thetelegraph | St David's Day 2019: Welsh traditions, medieval miracles and how leeks became iconic symbols | St David's Day is here, with daffodils beginning to bloom and celebrations in honour of the Welsh figure set to take place. Recognised annually since the 12th century, the Welsh occasion is the first day of the year we Britons celebrate one of our patron saints and marks the date of St David's supposed death in 589 AD. But why are leeks, doves and daffodils tied to the event and how is the day celebrated by the Welsh nation? Here is everything you need to know about St David's Day. St David's Day, the patron saint day of Wales, falls each year on March 1, with a range of celebratory events taking place and the country's national flag flying more than usual. Want to say... | Juliet Eysenck | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/03/01/happy-st-davids-day-2019-celebrate-st-david/ | 2019-03-01 12:27:30+00:00 | 1,551,461,250 | 1,567,546,898 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
1,018,379 | thetelegraph--2019-10-31--Epiphany 2020: When is the Twelfth Night and what are the traditions behind it? | 2019-10-31T00:00:00 | thetelegraph | Epiphany 2020: When is the Twelfth Night and what are the traditions behind it? | Forget Brexit, the one thing guaranteed to elicit the strongest opinions during the first week of January is the debate over which day to take down your Christmas tree and decorations. Is it Sunday 5 January, or Monday 6 January? And what happens if you leave them up for longer? Are you really struck down with bad luck for the rest of the year as the superstition goes? One thing's for sure - everyone does it differently, and everyone has their own ideas. In Britain, tradition has it that Christmas decorations stay up until Twelfth Night. And this is where the confusion lies. Twelfth Night is a festival in some branches of Christianity which marks the beginning of Epiphany. A count of exactly 12 days from 25 December arrives at 5 January. According to the Church of England, this day is Twelfth Night. The day of Epiphany – when the three wise men came – is the day after, on 6 January. Not everyone agrees however. Many other Christian groups count the 12 days of Christmas as starting the day after Christmas Day – making 6 January the Twelfth Night. Countries which also follow the January 6 tradition include Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. So which date is correct? Both. Although in the UK, Sunday 5th January 2020 is the date most people will stick to. | Telegraph Reporters | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/christmas/0/twelfth-night-should-take-christmas-decorations-epiphany/ | Thu, 31 Oct 2019 19:29:37 GMT | 1,572,564,577 | 1,572,561,854 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
1,018,506 | thetelegraph--2019-11-01--Epiphany 2020: When is the Twelfth Night and what are the traditions behind it? | 2019-11-01T00:00:00 | thetelegraph | Epiphany 2020: When is the Twelfth Night and what are the traditions behind it? | Forget Brexit, the one thing guaranteed to elicit the strongest opinions during the first week of January is the debate over which day to take down your Christmas tree and decorations. Is it Sunday 5 January, or Monday 6 January? And what happens if you leave them up for longer? Are you really struck down with bad luck for the rest of the year as the superstition goes? One thing's for sure - everyone does it differently, and everyone has their own ideas. In Britain, tradition has it that Christmas decorations stay up until Twelfth Night. And this is where the confusion lies. Twelfth Night is a festival in some branches of Christianity which marks the beginning of Epiphany. A count of exactly 12 days from 25 December arrives at 5 January. According to the Church of England, this day is Twelfth Night. The day of Epiphany – when the three wise men came – is the day after, on 6 January. Not everyone agrees however. Many other Christian groups count the 12 days of Christmas as starting the day after Christmas Day – making 6 January the Twelfth Night. Countries which also follow the January 6 tradition include Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. So which date is correct? Both. Although in the UK, Sunday 5th January 2020 is the date most people will stick to. | Telegraph Reporters | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/christmas/0/twelfth-night-when-should-take-christmas-decorations-epiphany-traditions/ | Fri, 01 Nov 2019 09:04:37 GMT | 1,572,613,477 | 1,572,611,493 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
1,020,567 | thetelegraph--2019-11-21--Epiphany 2020: When is the Twelfth Night and what are the traditions behind it? | 2019-11-21T00:00:00 | thetelegraph | Epiphany 2020: When is the Twelfth Night and what are the traditions behind it? | Forget Brexit, the one thing guaranteed to elicit the strongest opinions during the first week of January is the debate over which day to take down your Christmas tree and decorations. Is it Sunday 5 January, or Monday 6 January? And what happens if you leave them up for longer? Are you really struck down with bad luck for the rest of the year as the superstition goes? One thing's for sure - everyone does it differently, and everyone has their own ideas. In Britain, tradition has it that Christmas decorations stay up until Twelfth Night. And this is where the confusion lies. Twelfth Night is a festival in some branches of Christianity which marks the beginning of Epiphany. A count of exactly 12 days from 25 December arrives at 5 January. According to the Church of England, this day is Twelfth Night. The day of Epiphany – when the three wise men came – is the day after, on 6 January. Not everyone agrees however. Many other Christian groups count the 12 days of Christmas as starting the day after Christmas Day – making 6 January the Twelfth Night. Countries which also follow the January 6 tradition include Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. So which date is correct? Both. Although in the UK, Sunday 5th January 2020 is the date most people will stick to. | Telegraph Reporters | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/christmas/0/twelfth-night-when-should-take-christmas-decorations-epiphany-traditions/ | Thu, 21 Nov 2019 11:52:59 GMT | 1,574,355,179 | 1,574,339,732 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
1,021,969 | thetelegraph--2019-12-05--Christmas traditions: Advent calendars, mince pies and the story of Santa Claus | 2019-12-05T00:00:00 | thetelegraph | Christmas traditions: Advent calendars, mince pies and the story of Santa Claus | From decorating Christmas trees and hanging up stockings to pulling crackers and eating mince pies, us Britons celebrate the festive season with a range of rituals and traditions, yet we seldom stop to ask why. Discussion of the origins of such holiday customs tend to stall with: “Wasn’t it all invented by the Victorians? Or the Germans? Or was it Coca-Cola?” In fact, many date back to ancient times and have been influenced along the way by religion, pop culture and the commercialisation of Christmas. Here is everything you need to know about Christmas traditions, including the history behind the festive practices and the story of the beloved Santa Claus. Why do we have Christmas trees? Romans used fir trees to decorate their temples during Saturnalia, a feast in honour of Saturn, the god of agriculture, and the predecessor to Christmas. In northern Europe, people planted cherry or hawthorn plants, or created pyramids of fruit or candles. Evergreen trees were thought to keep away evil spirits and illness, and were put up during the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, to remind them that the spring would return. Another predecessor was the Paradise tree, a fir decorated with apples to represent the Garden of Eden on Adam and Eve’s day, which fell on December 24. | Telegraph Reporters | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/christmas/0/christmas-traditions-history-why-mince-pies-story-santa-claus/ | Thu, 05 Dec 2019 17:43:31 GMT | 1,575,585,811 | 1,575,593,430 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
1,021,983 | thetelegraph--2019-12-05--Epiphany 2020: When is the Twelfth Night and what are the traditions behind it? | 2019-12-05T00:00:00 | thetelegraph | Epiphany 2020: When is the Twelfth Night and what are the traditions behind it? | Forget Brexit, the one thing guaranteed to elicit the strongest opinions during the first week of January is the debate over which day to take down your Christmas tree and decorations. Is it Sunday 5 January, or Monday 6 January? And what happens if you leave them up for longer? Are you really struck down with bad luck for the rest of the year as the superstition goes? One thing's for sure - everyone does it differently, and everyone has their own ideas. In Britain, tradition has it that Christmas decorations stay up until Twelfth Night. And this is where the confusion lies. Twelfth Night is a festival in some branches of Christianity which marks the beginning of Epiphany. A count of exactly 12 days from 25 December arrives at 5 January. According to the Church of England, this day is Twelfth Night. The day of Epiphany – when the three wise men came – is the day after, on 6 January. Not everyone agrees however. Many other Christian groups count the 12 days of Christmas as starting the day after Christmas Day – making 6 January the Twelfth Night. Countries which also follow the January 6 tradition include Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. So which date is correct? Both. Although in the UK, Sunday 5th January 2020 is the date most people will stick to. | Telegraph Reporters | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/christmas/0/twelfth-night-when-should-take-christmas-decorations-epiphany-traditions/ | Thu, 05 Dec 2019 16:48:09 GMT | 1,575,582,489 | 1,575,593,437 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
1,022,114 | thetelegraph--2019-12-06--Christmas traditions: Advent calendars, mince pies and the story of Santa Claus | 2019-12-06T00:00:00 | thetelegraph | Christmas traditions: Advent calendars, mince pies and the story of Santa Claus | From decorating Christmas trees and hanging up stockings to pulling crackers and eating mince pies, us Britons celebrate the festive season with a range of rituals and traditions, yet we seldom stop to ask why. Discussion of the origins of such holiday customs tend to stall with: “Wasn’t it all invented by the Victorians? Or the Germans? Or was it Coca-Cola?” In fact, many date back to ancient times and have been influenced along the way by religion, pop culture and the commercialisation of Christmas. Here is everything you need to know about Christmas traditions, including the history behind the festive practices and the story of the beloved Santa Claus. Why do we have Christmas trees? Romans used fir trees to decorate their temples during Saturnalia, a feast in honour of Saturn, the god of agriculture, and the predecessor to Christmas. In northern Europe, people planted cherry or hawthorn plants, or created pyramids of fruit or candles. Evergreen trees were thought to keep away evil spirits and illness, and were put up during the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, to remind them that the spring would return. Another predecessor was the Paradise tree, a fir decorated with apples to represent the Garden of Eden on Adam and Eve’s day, which fell on December 24. | Telegraph Reporters | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/christmas/0/christmas-traditions-history-why-mince-pies-story-santa-claus/ | Fri, 06 Dec 2019 10:52:27 GMT | 1,575,647,547 | 1,575,635,459 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
1,023,514 | thetelegraph--2019-12-19--Epiphany 2020: When is the Twelfth Night and what are the traditions behind it? | 2019-12-19T00:00:00 | thetelegraph | Epiphany 2020: When is the Twelfth Night and what are the traditions behind it? | Forget Brexit, the one thing guaranteed to elicit the strongest opinions during the first week of January is the debate over which day to take down your Christmas tree and decorations. Is it Sunday 5 January, or Monday 6 January? And what happens if you leave them up for longer? Are you really struck down with bad luck for the rest of the year as the superstition goes? One thing's for sure - everyone does it differently, and everyone has their own ideas. In Britain, tradition has it that Christmas decorations stay up until Twelfth Night. And this is where the confusion lies. Twelfth Night is a festival in some branches of Christianity which marks the beginning of Epiphany. A count of exactly 12 days from 25 December arrives at 5 January. According to the Church of England, this day is Twelfth Night. The day of Epiphany – when the three wise men came – is the day after, on 6 January. Not everyone agrees however. Many other Christian groups count the 12 days of Christmas as starting the day after Christmas Day – making 6 January the Twelfth Night. Countries which also follow the January 6 tradition include Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. So which date is correct? Both. Although in the UK, Sunday 5th January 2020 is the date most people will stick to. | Telegraph Reporters | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/christmas/0/twelfth-night-when-should-take-christmas-decorations-epiphany-traditions/ | Thu, 19 Dec 2019 12:49:53 GMT | 1,576,777,793 | 1,576,816,298 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
1,078,838 | usnews--2019-11-18--Old Traditions Persevere as New Davis Cup Begins in Madrid | 2019-11-18T00:00:00 | usnews | Old Traditions Persevere as New Davis Cup Begins in Madrid | Old traditions were preserved when the revamped Davis Cup began a new era on Monday in Madrid. As the 18-team Davis Cup Finals got underway in its new weeklong World Cup-style format at the “Magic Box” tennis complex, fans were encouraged to provide atmosphere, and delivered. Umpires were made to work hard at all the courts by constantly asking for the fans to stay quiet before points. On court, two-time champion Russia, Belgium, and Canada took an early lead in round-robin play. Russia was ahead of defending champion Croatia after Andrey Rublev defeated Borna Gojo 6-3, 6-3. Belgium led Colombia thanks to Steve Darcis’ 6-3, 6-3 win over Santiago Giraldo, while Canada was beating Italy after Vasek Pospisil’s 7-6 (5), 7-5 victory over Fabio Fognini. The teams are playing only two singles and a doubles in each tie, with the group winners advancing to the knockout stage later in the week. The crowds were decent in numbers during the first matches, but the center court was mostly empty for the opening ceremony that featured an audiovisual show and performances by artists Alan Walker and Farruko. Colombian singer Shakira will perform in the closing ceremony on Sunday, all part of the modernization being promoted by the new organizers. The new Davis Cup is the result of a 25-year partnership between the International Tennis Federation and Kosmos, a group co-founded by Barcelona soccer player Gerard Piqué, Shakira’s husband. The goal is to make the traditional team competition more attractive — and lucrative — by having all nations play at the same time and in a single venue. The change helped attract new sponsors and made it easier for top players to include the Davis Cup in their busy schedules. Prize money of nearly $20 million in total, rivalling those awarded in Grand Slams, also helped to attract players. Critics, including some players, complained the new format would take away from the great partisan atmospheres seen in the head-to-head confrontations that were played out over four weekends through the year, for 119 years. But it was a good start for the new finals, and the crowd atmosphere should ramp up on Tuesday when host Spain debuts with the top-ranked Rafael Nadal. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | Associated Press | https://www.usnews.com/news/sports/articles/2019-11-18/old-traditions-persevere-as-new-davis-cup-begins-in-madrid | Mon, 18 Nov 2019 18:55:14 GMT | 1,574,121,314 | 1,574,107,303 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
18,950 | aljazeera--2019-12-27--Africa makes a scene: Best contemporary art fairs of 2020 | 2019-12-27T00:00:00 | aljazeera | Africa makes a scene: Best contemporary art fairs of 2020 | African art has been having a very long moment. Over the past 10 years, contemporary artists from the continent - from the Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui to Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu to South African photographer Zanele Muholi - have continued to build their names on the international stage. African artists have been presenting in major museums and galleries across Europe and the United States, while increasing numbers of African countries have shown at the prestigious Venice Biennale, including Ghana's critically-acclaimed debut this year. • South African art museum attracts tourists from around the world • How art can be a force for development in Africa Both Sotheby's and Bonhams auction houses meanwhile have set up their own African contemporary and modern art departments, signalling that the market is paying attention, too. "Going into the new decade, I feel we are starting from a stronger foothold," said Marwan Zakhem, the founder of Gallery 1957, in Ghana's capital, Accra. "The international art scene has woken up to the wealth of creativity offered across Africa and the diaspora," Zakhem told Al Jazeera. "A lot of groundwork has been made in terms of affirming African art as a key component of the ever-flourishing arts scene, so it's an exciting time to be a part of it". What is most notable, however, is the growth seen within the continent. Addressing a crippling lack of infrastructure that has previously forced talent to look elsewhere for opportunity and support, major cities are bolstering their local scenes while establishing themselves as international art destinations. Art fairs have popped up to seduce collectors, new residences have given creatives spaces to develop their craft and museums such as Cape Town's Zeitz MOCAA and the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL) in Marrakech have opened to showcase the best on offer. "There's still more to be done though," Zakhem said. "I hope the decade ahead sees more continent-wide investment in the visual arts - more museums, more projects, more educational support - and more events bringing international visitors here." As the year - and the decade - draws to a close, here are four African art events to watch out for in 2020 and beyond. Marrakech enters new decade as first African Capital of Culture Thanks to the opening of MACAAL, 2018's inaugural Moroccan edition of the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair and the commercial success of artists such as Hassan Hajjaj - the subject of a recent retrospective at Paris's Maison Europeenne de la Photographie - Marrakech has become a major draw for critics and collectors. As 2020's African Capital of Culture - the first city to hold the designation - it will no doubt be increasing its efforts to engage art lovers and buyers alike. "Over the last five years, Marrakech has struck an excellent balance in preserving and building on its rich cultural histories, while establishing itself as a space for artistic experimentation. Alongside this, there is a growing number of commercial spaces and both independent and government funding, giving artists more opportunities to support their practices in the long term," said 1:54 founder Touria El Glaoui. "I grew up in Morocco and my father [Hassan El Glaoui] was a painter who always encouraged us to engage with art histories, so seeing the scene grow and blossom has been amazing to witness." In February, 1:54 will return to the city's luxurious La Mamounia hotel for the third year, hosting some 20 European and African galleries. At the same time, MACAAL, the Muse Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech and other local spaces will be staging their own exhibitions, creating an unofficial art week of sorts. How the rest of the year shapes up will surely set the template for how future cities make use of the Capital of Culture designation. The birthplace of art stars including Ben Enwonwu - whose Tutu, dubbed the African Mona Lisa, sold for a record $1.6m in 2018 - Victor Ehikhamenor and Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Nigeria is an obvious choise to be the home of West Africa's first international art fair: Art X Lagos. Launched in 2016 by entrepreneur Tokini Peterside, Art X Lagos serves as an exhibition space, marketplace and classroom for those looking to immerse themselves in the world of contemporary African art. It is also notable for prioritising younger artists over established pioneers through both its exhibitions and the Access Bank ART X Prize, which awards one emerging artist with funding, mentoring and an international residency. "I see how wonderful and massive [Art X Lagos] is becoming and I think it's placing Lagos as a real arts hub, which I really love, and a serious one," said Adora Mba, the founder of the Afropolitan Collector, an art advisory platform. "I'm really looking forward to seeing how big it can go." Of all Africa's major art events, few rouse as much enthusiasm and respect as Senegal's Dakar Biennale, commonly known as Dak'Art. "It always brings together the best of the African art community to show brilliant work, engage in important dialogues and, of course, celebrate," said Gallery 1957's Zakhem. "It always outdoes itself," agreed Mba, for whom Dak'Art is the ultimate place to discover new talent and up-and-comers. "I don't even know how they keep producing such amazing art and artists and bringing people in." Supported by the country's Ministry of Culture and Communication, the 14th edition will centre on the theme of I'Ndaffa/Forger/Out of Fire - a trilingual take on the word "forge" in Serer, French and English. "This general theme refers to the founding act of African creation, which nourishes the diversity of contemporary African creativity, while projecting new ways of telling and understanding Africa," Artistic Director El Hadji Malick Ndiaye, a curator at Dakar's Theodore Monod Museum of African Art, said in a statement. "It represents the dynamics and action of creating, recreating and kneading. It thus refers to the forge that transforms, the deposit from which the raw material comes, and to the fire that creates." This year's event will be held from May 28 to June 28. Africa may not lead the world in terms of the number of major art events held annually, but there is no shortage of arts professionals looking to add to the tally. To that end, the Stellenbosch Triennale, conceived by the Stellenbosch Outdoor Sculpture Trust, will make its debut in South Africa in February. Breaking with convention, the event is more about engaging the community than appealing to art world insiders. On their website, organisers say they plan to turn the city into a "curated public laboratory for creative expressions and engagements" where all are invited to interrogate our relationship with nature, the limits of technology and the definition of citizenship. Works will be displayed at sites across the historic city, and there will also be opportunities to continue the conversation in workshops and online. | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/africa-scene-contemporary-art-fairs-2020-191219131711242.html | Fri, 27 Dec 2019 13:22:56 GMT | 1,577,470,976 | 1,577,492,894 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
22,283 | bbc--2019-02-04--Copenhagen light festival brightens dark nights | 2019-02-04T00:00:00 | bbc | Copenhagen light festival brightens dark nights | To light up the long winter dark nights, Copenhagen has launched a "Light Festival" for a month throughout the city. The festival features works from a range of Danish and international artists installed on buildings, bridges and squares. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-47124738 | 2019-02-04 19:26:30+00:00 | 1,549,326,390 | 1,567,549,672 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | culture |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.