| Hurricane Matthew Hovers Near Florida: Hurricane Matthew is churning close to Florida’s east coast after it weakened slightly overnight to a Category 3 storm. While it is still uncertain whether it will make landfall, the hurricane has already dumped torrential rain and left more than 300,000 Florida residents without power. The National Hurricane Center is forecasting up to 15 inches of rain in some areas and storm surges up to 11 feet from Florida to South Carolina. More than 339 people have died in Haiti as a result of the hurricane, which has been the longest-lived Category 4-5 hurricane in the eastern Caribbean on record. The number of major hurricanes in the Atlantic basin has doubled since the 1970s — fueled by warmer waters. (News: New York Times $, USA Today, CNN, Orlando Sentinel, Reuters, Washington Post $, BBC, Bloomberg, Mashable, ABC News, NPR, Sun News, Washington Post $, E&E News $, TIME, AP, Fox News, NBC News, Miami Herald, CNBC. Commentary: CNN, Issac Bailey column; Pacific Standard, Eric Holthaus op-ed; New York Times, Andrew Revkin column $; Vox, Brad Plumer column; AP, Seth Borenstein column. Background: Climate Signals)
Global Aviation Emissions Deal Takes Off: Nations reached a global agreement to limit aviation emissions, the first ever from an international sector rather than a country. More than 65 countries, including the US, China and the EU, will join the first phases of the deal in 2021. If left unchecked, aviation emissions could consume about a quarter of the world’s remaining carbon budget for 1.5°C by 2050. The agreement is estimated to cover approximately 76 percent of international aviation emissions growth between 2021 and 2035. Some civil society and other stakeholders criticized the deal for falling short of achieving carbon neutral growth by 2020 and not aligning with the Paris Agreement. (AP, Wall Street Journal $,The Hill, Politico Pro $, BusinessGreen $, Reuters, Climate Home, Financial Times $, New York Times $, Washington Post $, Guardian, BBC, Bloomberg, Jakarta Post, New York Magazine, Deutsche Welle, Climate Central)
Spring Springs Earlier at National Parks: Spring is coming early to more than 200 national parks across the US thanks to climate change, according to a new reportannounced by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. This creates ideal conditions for invasive species and earlier snowmelt, and throws off pollination cycles. By looking at data over a 112-year period, researchers also found that about half the parks are experiencing “extreme” early onsets of springs, with the season starting weeks earlier than usual. (National Geographic, Science Daily) |
