Global Warming

Q&A with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon

Author: 

BRYAN WALSH
Show

 

It's the hard-working demographers of the U.N. who have counted the global population and have selected Oct. 31 as the date of the 7 billionth person. That makes sense because population is a major part of international development — and that's the business of the U.N. Bryan Walsh of TIME spoke with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his office in New York City about global population, the challenges of development and the lingering threat of climate change.

 

Level: 

Year: 

Story category: 

Category: 

Countries must plan for climate refugees - report

Author: 

Deborah Zabarenko
An internally displaced child sits in a mud oven outside his family tent at a ca
Show

 

WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - The world's governments and relief agencies need to plan now to resettle millions of people expected to be displaced by climate change, an international panel of experts said on Thursday.

Resettlement related to large infrastructure development projects has been occurring for decades, with some estimates of up to 10 million people a year, said the report's lead author, Alex de Sherbinin.

Level: 

Year: 

Story category: 

Category: 

Asia, Africa megacities top climate change risk survey

Author: 

David Fogarty
eople wade through knee-deep water on the outskirts of Dhaka, Aug. 10, 2011. REU
Show

* World's fastest growing populations increasingly at risk

* Africa and Asia most vulnerable to more extreme weather

* Survey can help city planners, investors adapt to wilder weather

SINGAPORE, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Rapidly growing megacities in Africa and Asia face the highest risks from rising sea levels, floods and other climate change impacts, says a global survey aimed at guiding city planners and investors.

Level: 

Year: 

Story category: 

Category: 

Warming Could Exceed Safe Levels In This Lifetime

Author: 

Nina Chestney
A general view shows the Iztaccihuatl volcano in the city of Puebla, 100 km (62
Show

Global temperature rise could exceed "safe" levels of two degrees Celsius in some parts of the world in many of our lifetimes if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, two research papers published in the journal Nature warned.

Level: 

Year: 

Story category: 

Category: 

Climate change could trap hundreds of millions in disaster areas, report claims

Author: 

Fiona Harvey
Climate change could cause extreme weather leaving millions of people trapped, a
Show

Report says refugees forced to leave homes by weather caused by global warming may end up in even worse afflicted areas

Hundreds of millions of people may be trapped in inhospitable environments as they attempt to flee from the effects of global warming, worsening the likely death toll from severe changes to the climate, a UK government committee has found.

Level: 

Year: 

Story category: 

Category: 

Canadian Arctic nearly loses entire ice shelf from global warming

Author: 

Charmaine Noronha
Canadian Arctic nearly loses entire ice shelf from global warming
Show

Luke Copland is an associate professor in the geography department at the University of Ottawa who co-authored the research published on Carleton University’s website. He said the Serson Ice Shelf shrank from 205 square kilometres to two remnant sections five years ago, and was further diminished this past summer.

Prof. Copland said the shelf went from a 42-square-km floating glacier tongue to 25 square km, and the second section from 35 square km to 7 square km, off Ellesmere Island’s northern coastline.

Level: 

Story category: 

Year: 

Category: 

Geographic Area: 

Global CO2 Emissions Reach All-Time High, Rising More Than 5% in 2010 to Close Out Past 20 Years

Author: 

Andrew Burger
Global CO2 Emissions Reach All-Time High, Rising More Than 5% in 2010 to Close O
Show

Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reached an all-time high in 2010, rising 45% in the past 20 years. Rising rapidly between 1990 and 2010, global atmospheric CO2 levels totaled 33 billion metric tons last year, according to a report published by the European Commission’s Joint Research Center and PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.

Level: 

Year: 

Story category: 

Category: 

Can game theory save the UN climate talks?

Can game theory save the UN climate talks?
Show

German academics have used the mathematics behind the strategic behaviour of countries to propose a way though the myriad impasses

Delegates at the Bonn climate in June 2010. Photograph: UNFCCC/IISD RS

America will never sign up, but the EU will if China does, which is unlikely if Africa doesn't. No nation wants to go it alone but Russia doesn't want to do anything, and the poor want the rich to absorb all the costs but the rich will only agree to sign if the poor do more.

Level: 

Year: 

Story category: 

Category: 

The 'other' Arctic sea ice melt

Show

Reports focus on the possibility a record minimum for Arctic sea ice in September, but a major loss during the early summer months is climatologically more important

Level: 

Year: 

Story category: 

Category: 

Weather Disasters Keep Costing U.S. Billions This Year

Author: 

Mary Wisniewski
Weather Disasters Keep Costing U.S. Billions This Year
Show

Blizzards. Tornadoes. Floods. Record heat and drought, followed by wildfires.

The first eight months of 2011 have brought strange and destructive weather to the United States.

From the blizzard that dumped almost two feet of snow on Chicago, to killer tornadoes and heat waves in the south, to record flooding, to wildfires that have burned more than 1,000 homes in Texas in the last few days, Mother Nature has been in a vile and costly mood.

Level: 

Story category: 

Year: 

Category: 

Geographic Area: 

Pages