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The Swedish public has voted that climate change spending has been the biggest waste of taxpayer money in 2019, according to a poll by the Swedish Taxpayers’ Association. The Taxpayers’ Association released the results of their annual wasteful spending poll earlier this week, declaring that climate policy had been the biggest waste of money, largely due to the fact that despite the spending, emissions in Sweden had actually slightly increased. In 2014, the Swedish national government spent 5.2 billion Swedish krona (£419 million/$547 million), a number that has more than doubled to 12.6 billion krona (£1 billion/$1.3 billion) for the...

Actor Joaquin Phoenix spoke at actress's Jane Fonda's weekly climate change protest outside of the Capitol building on Friday and expressed sadness that he's unable to avoid activities that contribute to climate change. "Something that I think isn't oftentimes talked about in the environmental movement or in the conversation about climate is that the meat and dairy industry is the third leading cause of climate change," Phoenix said. "I think sometimes we wonder what can we do in this fight against climate and there is something you can do today right now and tomorrow by making a choice what you...

Climate change is often framed as a scientific or technical issue. But for many, it’s an emotional one too. **SNIP** Andrew Bryant, a therapist based in Seattle, maintains the website climateandmind.org, which provides advice on finding a clinician. It also contains detailed descriptions of scholars’ growing understanding of ecological grief, and references for books and articles about climate and mental health. Ultimately, people need to create habits that allow them to recognize and process their grief, but not be suffocated by it, said Atkinson. That could mean getting outside, making art or reading literature. Atkinson teaches a class on environmental...

Grasses, shrubs and mosses are growing and expanding around Mount Everest and across the Himalayan region as the area continues to experience the consequences of global warming, researchers have found. Scientists from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom used satellite data to establish increases in subnival vegetation -- plants that grow between the tree line and the snow line -- in the Himalayas. Using NASA Landsat satellite data from 1993 to 2018, remote sensing scientists measured "small but significant" increases in vegetation cover across four height brackets between 4,150 and 6,000 meters (13,615-19,685 feet) above sea level. "There...

FRANKFURT - Soaring demand for SUVs drove record sales for premium carmakers including BMW and Mercedes last year, leaving the industry on collision course with government efforts to tackle global warming despite big investments in electric vehicles. BMW said on Friday deliveries by its main luxury brand rose 2% to a record 2,168,516 vehicles last year, thanks to a 21% jump in sales of its “X” branded sport-utility vehicles (SUV) which now make up 44% of the BMW brand’s global sales. At Mercedes-Benz, the world’s best selling premium car brand, every third luxury car sold last year was an SUV....

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with more than $6.8 trillion under its control, becomes the latest signatory to Climate Action 100+, an influential big-money pact that’s pushing - although with spotty results so far - many of the world’s largest greenhouse-gas emitters to take action on man-made climate change. BlackRock joins more than 370 global investors, including pension giant CalPERS and HSBC Global Asset Management, already participating in the initiative, which aims to sway companies ranging from fossil-fuel producers to consumer-product conglomerates to be carbon neutral by 2050. With BlackRock on board, total assets under management represented by Climate...

In the 1973 movie “Soylent Green,” Earth is grossly overpopulated and broiled by global warming. “How can anything survive in a climate like this?” asks Thorn, a New York cop played by Charlton Heston. “A heatwave all year long. A greenhouse effect. Everything is burning up.” It’s a fable, not a forecast, but it gets some things disturbingly right. As for “burning up,” 2014-2018 were the five hottest years in observed weather history, and last July was the hottest month. In the last decade Greenland melting has doubled, Antarctic melting tripled, sea-level rise accelerated. Civilization won’t end tomorrow, but its...

The Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate activist group, announced on Thursday that it will endorse Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ run for the Democratic presidential nomination. The endorsement could provide Sanders a political boost among a crowded field of Democratic White House hopefuls competing for young and environmentally focused voters in the primary race, while reinforcing criticism among moderates that his proposals are too radical. The youth movement, founded in 2017 by college students upset that politicians were not doing enough to combat global warming, now claims to have around 10,000 members. "Senator Sanders has made it clear throughout his political...

Today, President Donald Trump called the Iraqi government’s bluff, authorizing the commanding general of joint coalition forces in Iraq to send a formal letter to the Iraqi commanding officer notifying him of pending operations for coalition forces to depart from Iraq. This comes in the wake of the vote of the Iraqi parliament over the weekend to demand U.S. forces leave the region. Here is a photo of the letter that is circulating on social media: Image Text: sLTG Abu Amir Deputy Director, Combined Joint Operations,Baghdad Iraq-Ministry of Defense Sir: In due deference to the sovereignty of the Republic of...

Google has been ordered to turn over actor Jussie Smollett’s emails and other private information to a special prosecutor investigating the allegedly staged attack reported by the “Empire” actor last year, The Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday. A Cook County judge on Dec. 6 signed off on two warrants ordering Google to supply the information, according to a copy of the warrants obtained by the Tribune. Investigators’ reportedly sought Smollett’s emails, photos, location data and private messages from November 2018 to November 2019. The warrants are part of the investigation of special prosecutor Dan Webb, who was appointed to the case...

JOHANNESBURG - Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and veteran of South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle, joined former U.S. vice president Al Gore on Tuesday to call on nations and companies to ditch fossil fuels to head off climate change. Tutu, who is 88 and has been in hospital over the past few years owing to ill health, met Gore in Cape Town on Tuesday. “Any organisation committed to operating responsibly in this new decade has a moral imperative to stop participating in financing the destruction of human civilization’s future,” the pair said in a statement. “Corporations, governments and...

Boomers: It’s not too late. You can be heroes in the story of climate change. You might not like to hear it, as many of you have long told pollsters you consider yourselves environmentalists, but collectively you have exacerbated the climate crisis more than any other generation. Fossil fuels were cheap as you came of age and you burned too much of them. Your lifetime carbon footprint is so high you’re forcing kids born today to emit eight times less than you just to hit a modest goal. And you’ve never taken climate change as seriously as the generations behind...

EU farming subsidies are to be replaced by fund linked to efforts to combat climate change, the environment secretary is set to announce at a conference today. Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference, Theresa Villiers will confirm that the Government’s landmark Agriculture Bill will be introduced this month to Parliament, which will replace the Common Agricultural Policy. She is expected to say the new scheme "will be one of the most important environmental reforms for 40 years" and set the standard for climate change action across the world. The bill will put forward a new approach where farmers and land...

A watchdog group named Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday its “Porker of the Year” for 2019, citing her sponsorship of the costly “Green New Deal” proposal. Citizens Against Government Waste President Tom Schatz said the New York Democrat received 54% in the group’s online poll, easily beating out Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who garnered 25%, and four other candidates. “The results are not surprising, as Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s $93 trillion proposal exemplifies the Congress’s failure to protect the taxpayers’ hard-earned money,” Mr. Schatz said. “For pushing a radical plan that would destroy the American economy, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez deserves the distinction...

Thousands of camels in South Australia will be killed to stop them drinking water in the drought-stricken region following a plea from Aboriginal leaders. More than 10,000 feral camels will be shot using professional shooters in helicopters from Wednesday. The action will be taken following complaints that the thirsty animals are invading properties in search of water in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands (AYP). The five-day long culling also follows fears that the camels are a contributor to global warming as they emit methane gases equating to one tonne of carbon ­dioxide a year. Tim Moore, chief executive of carbon...

Finland has been at the forefront of flexible work schedules for years, starting with a 1996 law that gives most employees the right to adjust their hours up to three hours earlier or later than what their employer typically requires. The country’s newly installed political leader, Sanna Marin, just upped the ante, though, proposing to put the entire country on a four-day workweek consisting of six-hour workdays. Marin, the world’s youngest sitting prime minister and the leader of a five-party center-left coalition, said the policy would allow people to spend more time with their families and that this could be...

In Norfolk, Virginia, which is surrounded by water, the land barely rises above sea level, and the sea level is rising. So, flooded streets and front yards have become a way of life. But now after years of fretting about the flooding, a group of ordinary people has come up with a novel response, reports correspondent Brook Silva-Braga. As the tide rose, the water kept creeping toward John Bluming's house, which now sits on stilts. "The water comes up from Callie Bay, into the street," he said … and right into his yard. "After I bought the house, I realized...

Scientists have developed a method that allows them to identify so-called climate change "fingerprints" in daily weather observations - and it found consistent evidence of global warming every day since late March 2012. Using climate models and statistical learning techniques, a team of researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland were able to identify climate change's "fingerprint" in global daily mean temperatures, which had been calculated from measurements collected in locations across the world. The researchers highlighted that while local daily mean temperatures might fluctuate significantly year-on-year, global daily mean measurements show a consistent trend towards global warming. They say their...

Finland's new Prime Minister has called for the introduction of a flexible working schedule in the country that would involve a four-day-week and six-hour working day. Sanna Marin, 34, - who is the second youngest head of government in the world - said it would allow workers to spend more time with their families. The mother-of-one

Jan. 3 (UPI) -- There is only one confirmed climate oscillation, the El Niño/Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, according to a new study. Analysis by a team of meteorologists suggest another pair of atmospheric patterns, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, or AMO and PDO, aren't real. Scientists previously estimated that the AMO and PDO patterns, like ENSO, were defined by shifts in warming and cooling. But the latest research, published Friday in the journal Nature Communications, suggests these shifts in temperature -- mistaken as climate oscillations -- are best explained by human activities and natural variability. "Our...