This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience while browsing it. By clicking 'Got It' you're accepting these terms.
Most recent
Trending
The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. Sign up for our email newsletter!
Day four of COP21 found negotiators embroiled in the nitty gritty details of a new draft of the agreement text, while extreme weather events around the world highlighted the importance of the talks.
Chennai, India’s 4th largest city, saw its heaviest rainfall in more than 100 years, causing massive flooding that has driven thousands of people from their homes and killed nearly 200. The event marked the wettest day in December's history, but India’s national weather office is predicting several more days of similar rain for Tamil Nadu, one of India’s most important manufacturing regions. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi blamed climate change for the flooding, pointing to it as yet another example of the urgent need for a global agreement to fight global warming.
It’s the kind of weather climate scientists say will become more common. Globally, extreme precipitation has been increasing and the fingerprint of global warming in driving that trend has been identified. Increasingly intense precipitation events fueled by climate change are likely to put more people at risk, particularly in already vulnerable regions.
The Global Risk Index, a new report from Germanwatch, analyzes how countries have been affected by weather-related impacts, such as floods and droughts and ranks them based on risk to their economy and human populations. In the past two decades, the most devastated countries have been in Asia and Central America. Wealthy nations aren’t immune to extreme weather. In France, nearly 20,000 people have lost their lives due to climate impacts.
The economic and social costs of not addressing climate change would be astronomical. The Paris climate summit is one of the biggest and most important steps in combatting these issues.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
10 Cities Win C40 Award for Leading the Fight Against Climate Change
Least to Blame, Hardest Hit: Vulnerable Nations Show Leadership at COP21
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
By Tim Radford
The year is less than four weeks old, but scientists already know that carbon dioxide emissions will continue to head upwards — as they have every year since measurements began — leading to a continuation of the Earth's rising heat.
By Katey Davidson
Each year, an estimated 600 million people worldwide experience a foodborne illness.
While there are many causes, a major and preventable one is cross-contamination.
By Arthur Sullivan
When was the last time you traveled by plane? Various researchers say as little as between 5 and 10 percent of the global population fly in a given year.
By Cathy Cassata
Are you getting your fill of Starbucks' new Almondmilk Honey Flat White, Oatmilk Honey Latte, and Coconutmilk Latte, but wondering just how healthy they are?
Trending
1982 American Petroleum Institute Report Warned Oil Workers Faced 'Significant' Risks From Radioactivity
By Sharon Kelly
Back in April last year, the Trump administration's Environmental Protection Agency decided it was "not necessary" to update the rules for toxic waste from oil and gas wells. Torrents of wastewater flow daily from the nation's 1.5 million active oil and gas wells and the agency's own research has warned it may pose risks to the country's drinking water supplies.