A (non-comprehensive and quite random) list of climate change, climate policy and environmental justice stories from the past week.
More than 200 medical journals are calling on the World Health Organization to deem two overlapping environmental crises — climate change and biodiversity loss — as a global health emergency, while warning of the potential for “catastrophic harm” to human health. (read the full story here)
Forecasts about the negative effects of human-caused climate change are not uncommon, but new research published Tuesday makes even more dire claims, declaring that “life on planet Earth is under siege” and that “we are pushing our planetary systems into dangerous instability.” (read the full story here)
Earth’s “vital signs” are worse than at any time in human history, an international team of scientists has warned, meaning life on the planet is in peril. Their report found that 20 of the 35 planetary vital signs they use to track the climate crisis are at record extremes. As well as greenhouse gas emissions, global temperature and sea level rise, the indicators also include human and livestock population numbers. (read the full story here)
Young climate activists should be able to fully take part in legal cases that affect them, say campaigners. As governments and organizations around the world submit formal comments on climate breakdown to the world’s top courts, experts have condemned children’s inability to fully participate in the legal process in almost all jurisdictions. (read the full story here)
Climate change is driving a global youth revolution. The Climate Generation looks like Atlas Sarrafoğlu, a boyish 16-year-old with a shy smile, Nike high tops, and a cardboard sign of accusation: “Your mistakes, our future.” He has it resting next to him by a park bench in Istanbul along the banks of the Bosporus, where growing up he played soccer and listened to rap music. (read the full story here)
House Speaker Mike Johnson’s First Big Bill Cuts Biden’s Climate Change Funding. The first major legislation House Republicans passed under newly installed Speaker Mike Johnson would cut billions of dollars in consumer rebates for energy efficiency upgrades included in President Joe Biden’s signature climate law. (read the full story here)
How Americans View Future Harms From Climate Change in Their Community and Around the U.S. A new Pew Research Center survey finds a majority of Americans think climate change is causing harm to people in the United States today and 63% expect things to get worse in their lifetime. (read the full story here)