Medio ambiente

Aerial view of the core module of China's Linglong One, the world's first commercial small modular reactor (SMR), installed in Hainan Province of China on Aug. 10, 2023. Luo Yunfei/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images

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Enthusiasm for a new generation of nuclear technology has gripped politicians across the world. The United Kingdom is the latest country to take action, with the Labour Party government set to revise planning rules in February 2025 with a goal of restoring the country’s position as “one of the world leaders on nuclear”. Key to this plan is accelerating the deployment of a new generation of miniature nuclear and small modular reactors (SMRs)—compact units that generate less power than traditional nuclear reactors but can be assembled onsite.

Similarly, in Australia, as part of the Australian campaign for a federal election expected in late April, the Coalition Party led by Peter Dutton unveiled a plan in December 2024 to adopt nuclear energy as a solution for providing efficient and affordable electricity.…  Seguir leyendo »

Residents look at their burned Altadena home after the massive wildfire in Los Angeles, California on January 13, 2025. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu)

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On his first day back in office, Donald Trump signed executive orders to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accords and revoked a host of other climate policies that were implemented by the Biden administration. These moves deepen vulnerabilities for communities worldwide – and for a United States that itself is unprepared for the challenges ahead.

The escalating impacts of climate change, such as the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, are stark reminders that the impacts of extreme weather events transcend political and social boundaries. Yet, in the face of these shared threats, politicizing climate action and perpetuating climate denial continue to distract from the urgent challenges posed by a world that surpassed the 1.5°C warming threshold in 2024, the hottest year on record.…  Seguir leyendo »

Como científico del clima, supe que debía irme de Los Ángeles

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Estoy totalmente devastado por los incendios en Los Ángeles, conmocionado, con rabia y dolor. La comunidad de Altadena, cerca de Pasadena, donde el incendio de Eaton ha dañado o destruido al menos 5000 estructuras, fue mi hogar por 14 años.

Me mudé con mi familia hace dos años porque, a medida que el clima de California se volvía más seco, caluroso y abrasador, temía que nuestro vecindario ardiera. Pero ni siquiera yo pensaba que unos incendios de esta escala y gravedad arrasarían tan pronto este y otros grandes barrios de la ciudad. Y, sin embargo, las imágenes de Altadena de esta semana muestran un paisaje infernal, como sacado de La parábola del sembrador, la asombrosamente premonitoria novela climática de Octavia Butler.…  Seguir leyendo »

La falsa promesa de la «minería responsable»

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En julio, el gobierno serbio volvió a autorizar un proyecto de extracción de litio de la empresa Rio Tinto, que había cancelado en 2022 como resultado de protestas públicas. En respuesta, miles de personas salieron a las calles de Belgrado para expresar su inquietud por los peligros de la mina para la provisión de agua y la salud pública. No hay que olvidar que Rio Tinto ya demostró voluntad de eludir la normativa medioambiental serbia.

Rio Tinto tiene un largo historial de acusaciones por violación de los derechos humanos y mala gestión y contaminación del agua en sus minas de todo el mundo.…  Seguir leyendo »

A fisherman walks past the remains of houses damaged by the rising sea at Podampeta beach in Ganjam, India, on Feb. 29. Dibyangshu SARKAR/AFP via Getty Images

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The Indigenous iTaukei people have called Fiji home for thousands of years. But now, one of their villages, Vunidogoloa—on the coast of the country’s second-largest island, Vanua Levu—sits abandoned. In 2014, the 150 or so residents of Vunidogoloa moved to a new site known as Kenani, roughly 1 mile inland.

“Today, we launch the first project in Fiji to save an entire village from the rise in sea levels caused by climate change”, then-Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama declared. “It is real. It is happening now”.

The Fijian government has so far earmarked more than 40 villages for potential resettlement due to sea-level rise and coastal erosion.…  Seguir leyendo »

Environmental activists demonstrate in front of the Bexco convention center in Busan on November 29, 2024 (Photo by ROLAND DE COURSON/AFP via Getty Images)

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Negotiations aimed at securing a legally binding international treaty to combat the growing scourge of plastics pollution ended in division in the South Korean city of Busan at the weekend.

Governments will make a further effort early next year to reach agreement – though the challenges for achieving a better result in 2025 will require renewed commitment from all parties involved.

The Intergovernmental Negotiations Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC) had a clear mandate from the United Nations Environment Assembly in 2022 to conclude the negotiations by the end of 2024. However, the lengthy and complex process was marked by intense debates and competing national interests.…  Seguir leyendo »

Activists demanding that rich countries pay up for climate finance for developing countries of the Global South protest at the COP29 Climate Conference on Nov. 22 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

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The headlines coming out of COP29—the recently concluded United Nations climate conference—focus on one key number: $300 billion. This is the annual amount of climate finance the governments of wealthy countries are responsible for generating for developing countries by 2035.

But to focus solely on whether the number is too big or too small misses what it means and why it matters. The agreement does not automatically produce any funds on its own, and no court can enforce it.

Wealthy countries will not provide most of the funds directly; the money will pass through entities like the World Bank, the Green Climate Fund, or even private companies.…  Seguir leyendo »

We Study Climate Change. We Can’t Explain What We’re Seeing

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The earth has been exceptionally warm of late, with every month from June 2023 until this past September breaking records. It has been considerably hotter even than climate scientists expected. Average temperatures during the past 12 months have been above the goal set by the Paris climate agreement: to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius over preindustrial levels.

We know human activities are largely responsible for the long-term temperature increases, as well as sea level rise, increases in extreme rainfall and other consequences of a rapidly changing climate. Yet the unusual jump in global temperatures starting in mid-2023 appears to be higher than our models predicted (even as they generally remain within the expected range).…  Seguir leyendo »

Security personnel walk outside the venue for the Cop29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, 9 November 2024. Photograph: Peter Dejong/AP

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During rapidly escalating climate and humanitarian crises, another authoritarian petrostate with no respect for human rights is hosting Cop29 – the UN’s latest annual climate summit that starts today and is being held after the re-election of a climate-denier US president.

Cop meetings have proven to be greenwashing conferences that legitimise countries’ failures to ensure a livable world and future and have also allowed authoritarian regimes like Azerbaijan and the two previous hosts – the United Arab Emirates and Egypt – to continue violating human rights.

Genocides, ecocides, famines, wars, colonialism, rising inequalities and an escalating climate collapse are all interconnected crises that reinforce each other and lead to unimaginable suffering.…  Seguir leyendo »

A volunteer helps in the clearup operation following flooding across Valencia, Spain, 2 November. Photograph: Albert Llop/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

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At the time of writing, the death toll has risen to 214. Battered cars and other debris are piled up in the streets, large swaths of Valencia remain underwater, and Spain is in mourning. On Sunday, anger erupted as the king and queen of Spain were pelted with mud and other objects by protesters. Why were so many lives lost in a flood that was well forecasted in a wealthy country?

From the global north’s vantage point, the climate crisis, caused by the burning of coal, oil and gas, has long been seen as a distant threat, affecting poor people in the global south.…  Seguir leyendo »

Debemos cambiar nuestra forma de contar la historia del cambio climático

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Todo lo que somos como personas es un atado de historias: las que nos cuentan, las que cuentan sobre nosotros, las que nos contamos a nosotros mismos y a los demás. Explican nuestra identidad y expresan nuestros valores, y durante mucho tiempo han moldeado a las sociedades: Esparta como una cultura de guerreros, Estados Unidos como la tierra de la libertad y más. Pero cuando se cuentan varias historias contradictorias, también pueden limitarnos, engañarnos y dividirnos. Con demasiada frecuencia solo le convienen al narrador, no al resto.

Soy narrador profesional, y las historias que me preocupan especialmente son las que nos distraen y dividen sobre el cambio climático —el implacable ‘yo tengo razón y tú no’— por lo que está en juego.…  Seguir leyendo »

An employee works on the production line of export-bound solar panels at a 5G intelligent workshop of Jiangsu Dongci New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. on 11 September 2024 in Suqian, Jiangsu Province of China. Photo: VCG/VCG via Getty Images.

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The most important international climate conference is around the corner. COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan will be especially important because next year countries will submit their five-yearly national climate plans – or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – as set out under the Paris Agreement.

At COP28 in Dubai last year, the final text was heralded as a last-minute success as – somewhat surprisingly – it was the first ever COP to commit to ‘transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a just, orderly and equitable manner’. To support this, over 200 countries also committed to triple renewable capacity by 2030.…  Seguir leyendo »

Es posible mejorar la calidad del aire en los lugares más contaminados del mundo

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El 7 de junio del año pasado, los cielos de Nueva York y de áreas grandes del estado se volvieron brumosos por el humo de los incendios forestales procedentes de Canadá. La gobernadora Kathy Hochul advirtió de una “situación de emergencia” y recomendó a los residentes que permanecieran en sus casas. En la ciudad, las escuelas cancelaron sus actividades, las bibliotecas cerraron temprano y se aplazó un partido de los Yankees.

Fue el día más contaminado en la ciudad desde que se empezaron a llevar registros en 1999. El índice de calidad del aire, compuesto por cinco contaminantes, se disparó a más de 400; por encima de 300 se considera peligroso.…  Seguir leyendo »

The coal-fired Soma power plant in Manisa, western Turkey, on Aug. 15, 2023. Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images

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The climate crisis is a ticking time bomb, and those with the greatest power, wealth, and influence must take responsibility for their role in it. While millions of the world’s most marginalized people are paying the ultimate price with their lives, their homes, or their livelihoods, billionaires and fossil fuel giants continue to profit. The time has come to hold decision-makers and the wealthiest accountable.

The consequences of climate chaos have become increasingly frequent and devastating. Recent droughts in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, for instance, have caused millions of people who live in poverty in rural areas to lose their main economic asset: their livestock.…  Seguir leyendo »

The coal-fuelled Oak Grove Power Plant in Robertson County, Texas, pictured on April 29, 2024 (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

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It is well understood that November’s US presidential election could have dire consequences for global action on climate change. Donald Trump and his Republican Party define their campaign in part by opposition to policies that support the energy transition, often citing short term negative consequences for the US economy and great power competition with China.

Trump’s new Agenda for the 47th President (Agenda 47), and the formal Republican Platform 2024, feature promises to ‘on-shore’ manufacturing, especially reducing imports from China; to ‘Bring Home Critical Supply Chains; Buy American, Hire American; [and] Become the Manufacturing Superpower’ (p11); and to ‘Build the Greatest Economy in History’ (Ch 3).…  Seguir leyendo »

A stretched Hummer limousine is advertised for sale Los Angeles on March 16, 2009. Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

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2023 was the warmest year ever recorded, and large SUV and pickup truck sales reached new records, too, responsible for more than 20 percent of the growth in global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In the U.S. market alone, more than 12.3 million new SUVs and pickup trucks were sold, which accounted for more than 79 percent of new vehicle sales. The trend has continued in 2024. In the first half of the year, more than 7.3 million SUVs and pickup trucks were sold, up 3.2 percent compared to 2023.

According to International Energy Agency data, if SUVs were a country, they would be the world’s fifth-largest emitter of CO2.…  Seguir leyendo »

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres shakes hands with former U.S. Vice President and climate campaigner Al Gore during the COP27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Nov. 9, 2022. Joseph Eid/AFP via Getty Images

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Africa, whose carbon emissions are negligible, is a victim of climate change but cannot stop it. Indeed, to get the continent’s citizens out of poverty, African economies will have to generate substantial growth, encouraged by international aid that gets both home-grown and foreign companies to invest and create jobs in Africa.

With this one simple truth, I have alienated almost everyone. Those on the political left accept that Africa is a victim of climate change, and they support foreign aid. But they are suspicious of economic growth; in fact, a burgeoning movement among well-off Western progressives posits degrowth as the answer to climate change and a host of other ills.…  Seguir leyendo »

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A British court last month issued extraordinarily harsh prison sentences to five climate activists convicted of helping to plan a series of road blockades in London. One of the activists, Roger Hallam, 58, a co-founder of the direct action groups Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, got five years. The others were each sentenced to four years.

Mr. Hallam’s crime wasn’t that he participated in the protest, which snarled London’s major beltway, the M25, during four days in November 2022. He merely gave a 20-minute talk on Zoom, a few days before the event, to explain the tactics of civil disobedience and emphasize its value as society’s failure to curb carbon emissions is increasing the chance of catastrophe within our lifetimes.…  Seguir leyendo »

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell listens during his re-nominations hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, January 11, 2022 in Washington. Smialowski-Pool/Getty Images

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It is clear to everyone that decarbonization is happening far too slowly. Even the best-performing high-income countries are not reducing their emissions fast enough to achieve the Paris Agreement objectives—not even close. And one big reason is that even though renewables are now routinely cheaper than fossil fuels, they are still not nearly as profitable. Returns on fossil fuel investments are around three times higher than returns on renewables, largely because fossil fuels are more conducive to monopoly power while the renewable sector is highly competitive.

Commercial banks allocate capital on the basis of profitability, not social and ecological objectives. The result is that we get massive investment in sectors such as SUVs, fast fashion, industrial animal farming, private jets, and advertising—even though we know they are ecologically destructive and must be reduced—but we suffer critical underinvestment in areas that are clearly necessary for the ecological transition, such as public transit, agroecology, or building retrofits, because they tend to be less profitable.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Since 2018, my lab has transplanted hundreds of coral specimens to reefs in Florida to study what makes them grow. We have albums of photos documenting their lives, starting from branches no bigger than your finger to beautiful treelike adults as big as beach balls.

In June 2023, as water temperatures in Florida skyrocketed, my team rushed to our field sites — and found extreme bleaching (the loss of color signaling that corals are starving) and death already underway. Throughout the Florida Keys, corals were disappearing in an ocean that had become too hot for them to survive. We left our experiment running to find out what would happen.…  Seguir leyendo »