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Researchers criticised and gaslighted after sharing fears with Guardian say acknowledging feelings is critical to their work
Climate scientists who were mocked and gaslighted after speaking up about their fears for the future have said acknowledging strong emotions is vital to their work.
The researchers said these feelings should not be suppressed in an attempt to reach supposed objectivity. Seeing climate experts’ fears and opinions about the climate crisis as irrelevant suggests science is separate from society and ultimately weakens it, they said.
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Subtle temperature difference between ‘ocean skin’ and water beneath found to drive more CO2 absorption
A sliver of cool surface water less than 2mm deep helps oceans absorb carbon dioxide, a British-led team of scientists has established after months of voyages across the Atlantic painstakingly measuring gas and temperature levels.
The subtle difference in temperature between the “ocean skin” and the layer of water beneath it creates an interface that leads to more CO2 being taken in, the scientists observed.
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Means to stop catastrophic global heating exist, says UN chief, but political courage is needed to end world’s fossil fuel addiction
The huge cuts in carbon emissions now needed to end the climate crisis mean it is “crunch time for real”, according to the UN’s environment chief.
An unprecedented global mobilisation of renewable energy, forest protection and other measures is needed to steer the world off the current path towards a catastrophic temperature rise of 3.1C, a report from the UN environment programme (Unep) has found. Extreme heatwaves, storms, droughts and floods are already ravaging communities with less than 1.5C of global heating to date.
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Citizen power forced Germany’s greenest city-state into a binding agreement balancing housing and nature
When Fritz Schumacher laid out his vision for Hamburg a century ago, the sketch looked more like a fern than a town plan. Fronds of urban development radiated from the centre to tickle the countryside, bristling with dense rows of housing. The white spaces in between were to be filled with parks and playgrounds.
Schumacher was Hamburg’s chief building officer in the early 20th century, and a pioneer of green cities with widespread access to nature. “Building sites emerge even if you don’t invest in them,” he warned in 1932. “Public spaces disappear if you don’t invest in them.”
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Biotech giant’s alleged comments come as world leaders at Cop16 discuss how to share benefits from genetic code discoveries fairly
AstraZeneca has said it may cut jobs at its UK operation if the government enforces a global push to make companies share profits derived from nature’s genetic codes, multiple sources have told the Guardian.
The allegedcomments from the company came amid a concerted lobbying push by the pharmaceutical industry against the profit-sharing measures.
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Buriton chalk pits, Hampshire: Deep in the vegetation, tucked away in the bark of a fallen tree, I find this elusive species
Mist hangs over the woodland, and the air is damp and heavy with the musky-sweet scent of rain-soaked soil and decay – perfect conditions for seeking out snails. However, despite being celebrated in a Portland stone sculpture at the start of the trail, my target species – the cheese snail (Helicodonta obvoluta) – has a reputation for being elusive.
The nature reserve is located on the site of the old lime workings, where until the second world war chalk was quarried and burned in a series of lime kilns. During the war, the site was used by the Admiralty for enemy mine disposal, but at the end of the conflict, the site was abandoned. Left to nature, the landscape has slowly regenerated, developing into a habitat rich in chalk downland species such as the cheese snail, which favours a calcium-rich substratum.
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The Siberian republic of Sakha in the Russian far east is one the coldest inhabited regions in the world. The photojournalist Natalya Saprunova spent almost two months documenting the daily lives of the people in the community of Oymyakon
Oymyakon in north-east Siberia is the coldest permanently inhabited place in the world. The village is located at the “Pole of Cold” on the left bank of the Indigirka River in Sakha, a republic in Russia’s far east, and is connected to other rural localities such as Khara-Tumul and Bereg-Yurdya, Tomtor, Yuchyugey and Aeroport, which gets its name from the local airport. The area sits on the Oymyakon plateau and has about 2,000 inhabitants.
A man rides a snowmobile through Oymyakon.
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With electric car demand soaring, peak oil may be near – and not a moment too soon for the climate
Oil states and companies such as BP, Shell and ExxonMobil are intent on exploiting new oilfields despite the clear evidence that the world is rapidly cruising through its carbon budget.
However, investors should perhaps note that the International Energy Agency (IEA) is forecasting that peak oil is at hand. In other words, supply will soon outstrip demand, making investment in new oilfields unlikely to be profitable.
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Even temporarily passing the Paris 2015 limit will mean severe storms, heatwaves and floods
In 2015, world leaders in Paris put great hope in keeping the rise in average global temperatures at or below 1.5C. But global temperatures continue rising relentlessly. The world is now on the brink of overshooting the 1.5C target, and then – what? The hope was to stop pumping out CO2 and also remove it from the atmosphere to avoid a cataclysm, but that would need 400 gigatonnes of CO2 to be removed by 2100, using new and as yet untested technology on a vast and economical scale.
A recent report shows that even temporarily overshooting 1.5C will still allow climate change to build up over the next several decades. And that means severe storms, intense heatwaves, deluges of rain and many other disastrous outcomes will carry on increasing.
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With no power, no water and soon-to-spoil food, Asheville residents fired up their grills and emptied their freezers for communal meals
Erin Kellem’s Asheville, North Carolina neighborhood is a short drive from the city center, but feels remote. The Haw Creek area’s culs-de-sac are fronted by spacious yards and surrounded by thick woods that give the illusion of isolation.
Hurricane Helene changed that, dropping an ocean of rain on the southern Appalachian mountains. Floods of biblical proportions killed dozens. Power outages left thousands without electricity for at least two weeks in most places. There was no gas or cellphone service for days following the storm, and most of the city is still without potable water. Roads disappeared under rushing water and mud. The help that was on its way had no way in, and those stranded in their homes had no way of checking on loved ones.
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