As Hurricane Milton approaches many cities were largely deserted but some people decided to shelter in place
Most left when they were told to. But some chose to stay, even though officials warned Hurricane Milton would turn their homes into coffins.
Along Florida’s Gulf coast, where millions of people were urged to get out of harm’s way, cities were largely deserted on Wednesday afternoon as time ran out to evacuate. Those who remained were advised to shelter in place as best they could. Others who fled spoke of their dread at what, if anything, they would return to once the storm had passed.
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10/09/2024 - 15:22
10/09/2024 - 12:53
Advocates believe governor is unfit for emergency planning due to policies that fuel the crisis worsening storms
Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, is back in the spotlight as he briefs residents on the arrival of Hurricane Milton, amid warnings it could be one of the most powerful storms to ever hit the state.
DeSantis, who dropped his presidential campaign in January, is as governor responsible for implementing Florida’s emergency plan by coordinating agencies, marshaling resources and urging residents to follow evacuation orders.
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10/09/2024 - 11:24
Brown bear 128 Glazer defeated male bear that killed her cub this summer in Katmai national park
For the second year in a row, a brown bear named 128 Grazer won the Fat Bear Contest at Alaska’s Katmai national park and preserve – she also got her revenge.
This summer a behemoth male killed her cub. On Tuesday, Grazer beat the bear, who is named Chunk, by more than 40,000 votes cast by fans watching live cameras at explore.org of the preserve.
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10/09/2024 - 09:51
Climate disasters risk pulling society apart. To survive we need solidarity – and only one ticket in the US election offers that
Even as the good people of Florida’s west coast pulled the soggy mattresses from Helene out to the curb, Milton appeared on the horizon this week – a double blast of destruction from the Gulf of Mexico that’s a reminder that physics takes no time off, not even in the weeks before a crucial election. My sense is that those storms will help turn the voting on 5 November into a climate election of sorts, even if – as is likely – neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump spend much time in the next 25 days talking about CO2 or solar power.
That’s because these storms show not only the power of global heating (Helene’s record rains, and Milton’s almost unprecedented intensification, were reminders of what it means to have extremely hot ocean temperatures). More, they show what we’re going to need to survive the now inevitable train of such disasters. Which is solidarity. Which is something only one ticket offers.
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10/09/2024 - 09:23
Prof Pedro Arrojo-Agudo says regulator Ofwat ‘complacent’ about water firms putting their shareholders before public
The privatised English water system has been singled out for criticism by the UN special rapporteur on the human right to clean water.
Prof Pedro Arrojo-Agudo said water systems should be managed as a publicly owned service, rather than run by private companies set up to benefit shareholders.
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10/09/2024 - 08:48
The mining tycoon says his iron ore business will stop using fossil fuels by the end of the decade without carbon offsets or carbon capture and storage
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About $45tn of global business revenue is covered by corporate “net zero emissions” pledges but the iron ore billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest thinks the whole net zero thing is “fantasy”.
“Now is the time to walk away from net zero 2050, that hasn’t been anything really but a con to maintain fossil fuels,” Forrest said last week.
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10/09/2024 - 05:00
Once a champion of initiatives to protect nature, the EU is now giving in to pressure from farmers and the far right
When diplomats struck a deal to save nature in 2022, pledging to halt biodiversity loss by the end of the decade, Europe was seen as a credible leader in fraught negotiations. The EU cajoled others into stepping up their game as it championed a target to protect 30% of the land and sea by 2030.
But two years later, as delegates meet in wildlife-rich Colombia for Cop16 – the international summit to save nature – Europe’s own enthusiasm for saving species appears to be endangered.
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10/09/2024 - 04:37
Government criticised over list of potential countries for sourcing biomass, which also includes Afghanistan
A plan by the British government to burn biomass imported from countries including North Korea and Afghanistan has been described as “bonkers”, with critics saying it undermines the credibility of the UK’s climate strategy.
A bioenergy resource model, published in late summer, calculates that only a big expansion in the import of energy crops and wood from a surprising list of nations would satisfy the UK’s plan to meet net zero.
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10/09/2024 - 02:02
Superpower Institute says analysis of Queensland, NSW and Victorian sites shows need for independent reporting of greenhouse gas emissions
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Australia’s coalmines and gasfields may be emitting twice as much methane as they currently declare, underscoring the need to introduce independent reporting of the potent greenhouse gas, an energy thinktank has warned.
The Superpower Institute’s Open Methane tool used satellites and ground-based verification to identify 20 “sites of concern” – all involving coal and gas operations – that are releasing “around double” the amount of methane reported.
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10/09/2024 - 01:00
Analysis shows Gulf’s heat that worsened Helene 200-500 times more likely because of human-caused global heating
As Hurricane Milton bears down on Florida, fueled by a record-hot Gulf of Mexico, a new analysis has shown how the Gulf’s heat that worsened last month’s Hurricane Helene was 200 to 500 times more likely because of human-caused global heating.
Helene, one of the deadliest storms in US history, gathered pace over the Gulf before crashing ashore with 140mph (225km/h) winds.
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