Climate Change

The first match of the men’s football World Cup kicked off in Qatar on 20 November, when the temperature was expected to be around 30 °C and humidity approaching 60%. When Qatar first won the bid to host the tournament 12 years ago, extreme heat was one of several concerns; since then, the average annual temperature in…

Trying to save the planet looks less like a Marvel movie and more like tense climate negotiations that just wrapped up in Egypt over the weekend. Tens of thousands of delegates and activists from around the world gathered for the United Nations climate summit called COP27. It’s become more urgent…

Liberals and conservatives are criticizing a U.N.-backed deal supported by the Biden administration for richer nations to pay reparations to poorer countries for the impacts of climate change. Attendees of the COP27 climate summit held in Egypt went into overtime last weekend to establish a global “loss and damage” fund.…

Political disruptions can generate social media buzz and break through a stunningly biased media sphere on international affairs.  In under a minute the US Secretary of State and Canadian foreign minister fled the cameras. Their plan to buy cheese, chat with merchants or stroll the Jean Talon market scuttled.  At…

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Svante Arrhenius was, by nature, an optimist. He believed that science should—and could—be accessible to all. In 1891, he got his first teaching job, at an experimental university in Stockholm called the Högskola. That same year, he founded the Stockholm Physics Society, which met every other Saturday evening. For a…

LONDON: Climate change activists occupied celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's three-star Michelin restaurant in London on Saturday evening, demanding an overhaul of the UK's food system. Fourteen members of "Animal Rebellion" entered Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea, southwest London, at around 6:00pm (1800 GMT) and sat at tables reserved for guests.…

ISLAMABAD — A breakthrough funding deal at the COP27 conference to help poor countries ravaged by climate change was welcomed Sunday by Pakistan, a nation devastated this year by record-breaking monsoon rains. Flooding likely worsened by global warming submerged a third of Pakistan’s territory, left 33 million people scrambling to…

Centre-left Albanese was swept to power this year on a wave of popular anger about the pro-fossil fuel stance of Australia's decade-old conservative government. Australia hopes to host the 2026 COP summit, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Saturday, seeking to overhaul his country's reputation for foot-dragging on climate change. "It…

The Egyptian presidency, which had been under criticisms by all sides, proposed a new loss and damage agreement Saturday afternoon and within a couple hours an agreement was struck but Norway’s Eide said it was not so much the Egyptians but countries working together. According to the draft of the…