La veille

The European Commission said Friday it intends to scrap new rules against greenwashing after they hit a roadblock in the final stretch from conservative lawmakers calling them too onerous for businesses.

The human fingerprint on global warming was likely evident in Earth’s atmosphere far earlier than previously thought—even before the invention of modern cars, a new study says. Using a combination of scientific theory, modern observations and multiple, sophisticated computer models, researchers found a clear signal of human-caused climate change was likely discernible with high confidence as early as 1885, just before the advent of gas-powered cars but after the dawn of the industrial revolution.

Les financements aux industries du pétrole et du gaz repartent de plus belle. Le rapport Banking on climate chaos, signé par huit ONG, estime à près de 900 milliards de dollars les financements octroyés en 2024 par 65 banques aux industriels du secteur, en augmentation de 23%. Le backlash contre la finance durable n’est pas étranger à ce nouvel appétit de la finance pour les hydrocarbures.

On 21 April 2019, I was on Waterloo Bridge in London with my younger siblings. Around us were planters full of flowers where there were once cars, and people singing. This was the spring iteration of Extinction Rebellion, when four bridges in London were held by protesters. My siblings, then 14, had been going out on school strike inspired by Greta Thunberg, and wanted to see her speak.

Plusieurs études montrent que la baisse d’intérêt pour le sujet climatique mesurée dans les sondages ne signifie pas forcément le rejet par les citoyens des politiques en faveur de l’environnement.

Earth’s albedo (reflectivity) declined over the 25 years of precise satellite data, with the decline so large that this change must be mainly reduced reflection of sunlight by clouds. Part of the cloud change is caused by reduction of human-made atmospheric aerosols, which act as condensation nuclei for cloud formation, but most of the cloud change is cloud feedback that occurs with global warming. The observed albedo change proves that clouds provide a large, amplifying, climate feedback. This large cloud feedback confirms high climate sensitivity, consistent with paleoclimate data and with the rate of global warming in the past century.

We investigate the probabilities of triggering climate tipping points under five Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and how they are altered by including the additional carbon emissions that could arise from tipping points within the Earth's carbon cycle. The crossing of a climate tipping point at a threshold level of global mean surface temperature (threshold temperature) would commit the affected subsystem of the Earth to abrupt and largely irreversible changes with negative impacts on human well-being. However, it remains unclear which tipping points would be triggered under the different SSPs due to uncertainties in the climate sensitivity to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, the threshold temperatures and timescales of climate tipping points, and the response of tipping points within the Earth's carbon cycle to global warming. We include those uncertainties in our analysis to derive probabilities of triggering for 16 previously identified climate tipping points within the Earth system.

Eat-Lancet report recommended shift to more plant-based, climate-friendly diet but was extensively attacked online [...] The report recommended that if global red meat eating was cut by 50%, the “planetary health diet” would provide nutritious food to all while tackling the harms caused by animal agriculture, which accounts for over 14% of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. It suggested individuals – particularly in wealthy countries – should increase their consumption of nuts, pulses and other plant-based foods while cutting meat and sugar from their diets.

Developing countries urge biggest polluters to act as Trump’s return to the White House heightens geopolitical turmoil

Clouds play an important role in how much the Earth warms when greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide increase. However, scientists have struggled to determine whether low-level clouds in the tropics slow down or speed up global warming, creating uncertainty in climate predictions. A new study published in Nature adds to the growing evidence that cloud feedback is very likely to amplify warming in the climate system, rather than reduce it.

As the world’s largest gathering of Earth and space scientists swarmed a Washington venue last week, the packed halls have been permeated by an air of anxiety and even dread over a new Donald Trump presidency that might worsen what has been a bruising few years for science.

This special report on land comes at a time when the scientific evidence is unambiguous: the way we manage our land will directly determine the future of life on Earth. The planetary boundaries framework, highlighted in this report, is a critical scientific tool to understand the complex interdependencies between land, climate, biodiversity and water, among other Earth system components, offering policymakers a focused lens through which to view the potential risks and rewards of different land-use decisions.

Le candidat républicain Donald Trump a dépassé la majorité absolue de 270 grands électeurs à la Chambre des représentants, devançant largement sa rivale démocrate, Kamala Harris. Un « désastre », dit une écologiste.

The net zero approach of the Paris agreement has become detached from reality as it increasingly relies on science fiction levels of speculative technology.

A town hit hard by two hurricanes, downpours and a deep freeze, all in the midst of a pandemic, offers crucial lessons for everyone’s disaster planning and recovery.

Op vrijdag 14 juni is het één jaar geleden dat meer dan 600 mensen om het leven kwamen in een van de grootste scheepsrampen ooit op de Middellandse Zee. Hoewel internationaal onderzoek de rol van Griekse autoriteiten scherp bekritiseerde, blijft de roep om verantwoording en een stopzetting van illegale pushbacks onbeantwoord. “Integendeel, mensenrechtenorganisaties die de schendingen documenteren worden steeds meer geïntimideerd en vervolgd,” benadrukt 11.11.11. “De EU moet optreden tegen deze uitholling van de rechtstaat en fundamentele mensenrechten.”

Huge patches of forest in Tasmania have rapidly turned brown over recent months, with many trees dying after a dry summer. As climate change causes hotter and drier weather, can we expect more tree deaths in the future? 

Comment dépasser les résistances des citoyens à l’égard des politiques climatiques ? À partir d’une analyse de l’acceptabilité de la transition écologique, des clivages territoriaux entre zones rurales et urbaines et des raisons du mécontentement des citoyens, Théodore Tallent, chercheur doctorant et enseignant en science politique à Sciences Po (Paris), et chercheur affilié au centre de recherches de l’Université de Cambridge, livre douze propositions pour parvenir à construire une transition désirable.

A UN meeting this week considered a motion on a suite of technologies known as ‘solar radiation modification’, but no consensus could be reached on the controversial topic.

Een schimmel of milieuramp kan een plantensoort plots op de rand van uitsterven brengen. Wetenschappers leggen diepgevroren back-upcollecties aan. Bij –196°C sturen ze de planten zelfs de eeuwigheid in.

Ahead of the UN’s SDG Summit (18-19 September), ground-breaking analyses shows how by enacting five ‘extraordinary turnarounds’ SDGs implementation can be accelerated.

Back on Track Belgium is een collectief van burgers die ijveren voor de terugkeer van nachttreinen. Zij stellen vast dat de liberalisering van de trein geen enkele belofte heeft ingevuld. Zij vragen federaal minister van Mobiliteit Gilkinet (Ecolo) om het komende Belgische EU-voorzitterschap te gebruiken als platform voor een echt Europees treinnetwerk, in het bijzonder voor nachttreinen als ecologisch, aangenaam en haalbaar alternatief.

Energy firms have made record profits by increasing production of oil and gas, far from their promises of rolling back emissions

Tijdens de Europese Raad van 8 en 9 juni bereikten de EU-lidstaten een historisch akkoord over twee belangrijke onderdelen van het nieuwe Europese Migratiepact. Flor Didden, migratie-expert bij 11.11.11, vindt het akkoord teleurstellend en wijst op de belangrijkste tekortkomingen.

A United Nations-convened climate alliance for insurers suffered at least three more departures on Thursday including the group's chair, as insurance companies take fright in the face of opposition from U.S. Republican politicians.

Record sea surface temperatures suggest the Earth is headed for ‘uncharted territory’ in terms of sea level rise, coastal flooding and extreme weather

Une équipe de chercheurs américains a transformé des araignées mortes en pinces robotiques très délicates. Une approche, baptisée nécrobotique, qui pourrait être utilisée pour créer des robots...

Pushbacks, het gewelddadig terugdringen van mensen die asiel willen aanvragen, vormen de basis van het Europees buitengrenzenbeleid. We telden er in 2022 maar liefst 225.533. Mensen worden systematisch uitgebuit. De Europese pushbacks zijn illegaal wanbeleid met doden tot gevolg.

Des chercheurs d’une entreprise pharmaceutique ont voulu tester leur intelligence artificielle, entraînée pour découvrir des médicaments non toxiques, en inversant les paramètres. Les résultats cauchemardesques contenaient des neurotoxines plus mortelles que toutes celles connues.

De gevreesde comeback van steenkoolcentrales in Europa is op een sisser geëindigd. Vooral wind en zon hebben vleugels gekregen door de energiecrisis, en halen aardgas in als belangrijkste bron van elektriciteit.

An alternate timeline that ends with a Nobel prize for Exxon’s CEO.

Group says forcing polluters to store carbon dioxide underground is needed to help world reach net zero

Een zeldzame gekko, niet groter is dan een paperclip, maakt een opmerkelijke comeback in het Caribisch gebied. Die is te danken aan de beschermingsinspanningen van milieuorganisaties en de overheid.

Years ago, James Schlesinger noted that human beings have only two operational modes: complacency and panic. It is an observation that rings true and that we can generalize in terms of groups: some humans are catastrophists, and some are cornucopians. I tend to side with the catastrophists, to the point that I created the term "Seneca Effect" or "Seneca Cliff" to define the rapid decline that comes after that growth stops. Indeed, catastrophes are a common occurrence in human history, but it is also true that sometimes (rarely) a catastrophic decline can be reversed: I termed this effect the "Seneca Rebound." 

US and UK financial institutions have been among the leading investors in Russian “carbon bomb” fossil fuel projects, according to a new database of holdings from recent years.

As the world remembers Hiroshima, it must also recommit to the increasingly fragile non-proliferation treaty. The alternative is unthinkable

A coal-fired power plant that had been mothballed has become the first of its kind to be put back on to the network in Germany, as debate rages over how Europe’s largest economy will cope without Russian gas. The facility in Lower Saxony, which is owned by the Czech energy company EGH, has received emergency permission to run until April in an attempt to boost energy production.

Energy prices are rocketing, inflation is soaring and millions are being starved of grain. Surely Johnson knew this would happen?

In drie videos van telkens 5 minuten geeft Lode Vanoost een historisch overzicht van de klimaatbeweging van de jaren 1960 tot vandaag, met als besluit een blik op de toekomst voor jong en oud en de suggestie van een goed boek over de strijd voor het klimaat. Bekijk hier de tweede aflevering van onze reeks Looking back, looking forward - Klimaatactie over de jaren heen, waarin Lode Vanoost dieper ingaat op het ontstaan en de groei van de groene partijen.

In drie video's van telkens 5 minuten geeft Lode Vanoost een historisch overzicht van de klimaatbeweging van de jaren 1960 tot vandaag, met als besluit een blik op de toekomst voor jong en oud en de suggestie van een goed boek over de strijd voor het klimaat. Bekijk hier de eerste aflevering.

Coal plants will be reactivated if Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens a gas cutoff, a government official said. That would trigger the second of a three-stage Germany’s gas emergency plan.

Environmentalists once saw abstraction as the biggest obstacle to climate action. How, they wondered, could one focus the public on the distant future? Today, we confront the opposite problem, with the very immediacy of the crisis generating a strange paralysis. When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that global heating made extreme flooding more common, its new report at the end of February spurred relatively little discussion – in part because of the water covering swathes of Queensland and New South Wales. As tinnies plucked desperate residents from the deluge, who could give due weight to the warning from Prof Brendan Mackey, one of the IPPC authors, that the science clearly projected “an increase of heavy rainfall events?”

There's no time for complacency, according to Dr. Peter Carter, founder of the Climate Emergency Institute

Rapidly rising levels of atmospheric methane are "very bad news for humanity and the planet," warned one observer.

Klimaatactivisten uit Afrika voelen zich uitgesloten en genegeerd in het globale klimaatbeleid. Afrika is nochtans een van de hardst getroffen regio’s. MO* sprak met vijf klimaatactivisten uit verschillende Afrikaanse landen. ‘De klimaattop in Glasgow was een slag in ons gezicht.’‎

Une contribution de « Il Est Temps » l’Alliance maçonnique pour le climat Voici bientôt deux ans qu’un virus pourtant minuscule tient fermement les humains sous sa férule implacable et s’accapare l’attention de nos gouvernements. Avec la publication cet été de la première partie du sixième Rapport d’Évaluation du GIEC et la 26e Conférence des Parties (COP […]

If Cop26 were to be staged, it would be as a political drama in two long acts. Act one would see the leaders of wealthy countries such as Britain, the US and Australia smiling broadly as they strut the Glasgow stage with their friends, wring their hands and manage the world’s expectations. Act two would see them knifing each other offstage and kicking poor countries hard before running away.

The Earth is warming the Earth. In this series of five short films, learn why natural warming loops have scientists alarmed—and why we have less time than we think. Subtitled in 23 languages.

Des chercheurs ont fait appel à une intelligence artificielle pour analyser plus de 100.000 études portant sur le changement climatique. Ils ont ainsi pu déterminer que le dérèglement climatique affecte déjà 85 % de la population mondiale.

U.S. energy producers have cut so deeply into a once-large reserve of oil wells waiting to be turned on they soon may have to resume drilling to keep production from sagging, executives and analysts said.

In their latest synthesis of the physical science of the climate emergency, the world’s foremost experts say there is no longer any doubt about who is responsible for cooking the planet. We spoke with one of the report’s authors about why that’s such a big deal

Les dérèglements climatiques sont là. Et la crise du coronavirus nous a fait comprendre que le changement est possible, et nécessaire. À la veille d'un important sommet européen et de la conférence climatique de Glasgow, nous voulons envoyer un signal fort. C'est le point de bascule : rester empêtré.e.s dans ce monde d’avant ou opter pour un monde solidaire, juste et durable ?

Klimaatactivisten laten opnieuw van zich horen: deze week protesteren ze in verschillende landen tegen fracking en proberen ze gascentrales stil te leggen. Na de lockdowns willen ze wegen op de agenda van de komende VN-klimaattop in Schotland.

Our research vessel (RV) Investigator departs Darwin today for a 45-day voyage of biodiversity discovery in the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean.

Comme l’explique The Wall Street Journal dans un article du 21 mai 2021, le fonctionnement du bitcoin, mais surtout les flambées de son cours sont un problème. Aux États-Unis, on assiste en effet à un retour de certaines centrales à charbon obsolètes. Rappelons que miner du bitcoin nécessite d’effectuer des calculs mathématiques pour lesquels les “mineurs” se trouvent en compétition, surtout lorsque la cryptomonnaie voit son cours s’envoler. Malgré une récente baisse de 30 %, la flambée de ces derniers mois a rappelé que dans ce genre de cas, les calculs sont plus difficiles et demandent davantage d’énergie.

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La multiplication des livres « éco-philosophiques » ou « éco-anthropologiques » est un révélateur des transformations de la vision occidentale de la nature et de notre crise écologique, le « notre » n’étant pas écrit par hasard. Nous avons choisi de partir de Baptiste Morizot et d’un de ses livres, Manières d’être vivant, publié en 2020 dans la collection « Mondes sauvages.

Industry funds ‘grassroots’ resistance to tougher rules while touting green credentials, study shows

According to a new study from the Aarhus University in Denmark, humans will continue to wipe out mammalian species for the next 50 years, so much so that Earth will need three to five million years to recover its evolutionary diversity.