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DAVOS, Switzerland - Youth climate delegates from around the world are taking part in a "collaborative protest" against the rich and powerful by camping in subzero temperatures at the World Economic Forum. The annual January get-together - which is often criticized for being out of touch with the real world - is set to welcome more than 3,000 participants this week, with those in attendance poised to focus on the intensifying climate crisis. **SNIP** "We are just trying to show them that we are doing the right thing despite the fact that we are not sleeping or staying in the...

President Trump on Tuesday said he didn’t know anything about Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg but called her “very angry” in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “I don’t really know anything about her,” Trump said of Thunberg when asked about her on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The president then called her “very angry.” Trump accused Thunberg, a 17-year-old activist who also spoke at Davos, of having an “anger management problem” after she was honored with Time’s “Person of the Year” award in December. **SNIP** Earlier Tuesday, Thunberg told the gathering of business...

The World Economic Forum said on Monday, one day before the event kicks off in Davos, Switzerland, that: "The climate crisis is going to be one of the dominant themes this week." **SNIP** But as the world's financial elite, political leaders, and celebrities descend on the small town, the question is whether their transport choices can at all work with what the event - and many of those leaders - say they want to achieve for the planet. The World Economic Forum recorded more than 600 plane journeys that can be attributed to Davos in 2019 - a figure that...

Policymakers and business leaders from around the world are due to arrive in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Monday...Over half of the world’s GDP (gross domestic product) is exposed to risks from nature loss, according to a new report. It comes following a 12-month period which reportedly saw the hottest year on record for the world’s oceans, the second-hottest year for global average temperatures, and wildfires from the U.S., to the Amazon, to Australia.

Climate activists are taking on a new pipeline: The one that funnels money from Wall Street into planetary destruction. A coalition of climate, environmental, youth, and indigenous organizations unveiled Stop the Money Pipeline, a campaign to “pressure banks, insurance companies and asset managers to stop financing fossil fuels and deforestation and start respecting human rights and Indigenous sovereignty,” late last week. Banks, asset managers, and insurance companies may seem like less obvious targets than going directly after, say, oil and gas companies or the Trump administration. But Wall Street plays an essential role in the fossil fuel industry’s expansion. Staunching...

ST. PETERSBURG — As she arrived to speak at the region’s first ever resilience leadership summit, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor came upon a hotel parking lot packed with cars. Hundreds of people from local governments, universities and scientific consulting firms had shown up Tuesday. Valets at the Hilton in Carillon Park double-parked vehicles, choking the entry. The scene summarized the day: a symbol both of the growing interest in climate change in Tampa Bay and the enormous hurdles officials face as they aim to curb emissions (from cars, for instance) contributing to rising seas. **SNIP** Among the first speakers was...

A new study claims that YouTube is rife with misinformation about climate change and that some major advertisers inadvertently have their ads running alongside these videos. The new report comes from activist organization Avaaz, a relatively new global group that harnesses the power of collective action via campaigns and petitions. The Avaaz study found that not only were a significant number of climate change denial videos surfacing on the platform, but that YouTube's algorithm was sending viewers to even more of those types of videos. Additionally, in a move that might actually cause YouTube to do something about it, Avaaz...

Larry Fink’s recent letters to CEOs and investors were certain to press buttons, because they dealt with BlackRock’s plans to address climate change. Yet the reactions, Fink tells Barron’s, have been positive even as climate change has become a political football. “I received one of the great letters of my career from a client in a red state,” says the CEO of BlackRock (ticker: BLK). “This client was very thankful. This client said, ‘We have a 10- to 20-year investment horizon. We now need to look at how we think about investing.’ ” BlackRock puts climate-risk analysis at the heart...

New details have emerged about the alleged involvement of actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli in the college admissions scandal.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized Sen. Rand Paul after he claimed she said the world would end in 12 years if nothing is done about climate change. "Hey Senator! Would you like me to also take your comments out of context and pose them as your earnest position, as you have chosen to do with me?" the New York Democrat wrote Wednesday. "I assume the answer is yes, especially given that the GOP climate agenda is about as fictional as Spaceballs anyway." Paul, 57, attacked Ocasio-Cortez's position on climate change earlier in the day. "No @AOC the world will not end...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is warning of potential damage to crops and the high food prices that could follow after the New York metropolitan area saw record high temperatures this past weekend. “It hit ~70° in NY,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Sunday night. “In January. This weather at this time of year can be very risky for local farmers & families they serve.” “If certain crops germinate/flower prematurely & a freeze follows, crops could fail or drop in yield. When food supply drops, prices rise,” she continued, while adding the hashtag #ClimateCrisis. Her post came in response to another tweet sent...

In 100 days exactly, we will strike again. On April 22, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, young people and adults across the United States will once again take to the streets to demand climate action. Earth Day will launch three consecutive days of massive strikes, fulfilling our promise to take the climate strike movement beyond what we achieved on September 20. Inaction is not an option. This has been the hottest decade on record and last year was the second hottest ever. Since the bushfire season began in November, fires in Australia have killed 25 people, wiped out over...

Hotter weather thanks to climate change could cause a spike in deaths related to injuries—including suicides, assaults, and drownings—according to a study. One expert described the problem to Newsweek as the looming "hidden public health burden" of global warming. Deaths by suicides, assaults, transport accidents, drownings and falls were forecast to be on the up if temperatures rose on average by 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the authors of the paper published in the journal Nature Medicine found. The researchers analyzed data on deaths and temperatures between 1980 to 2017 in mainland United States, excluding Alaska and...

The Inspector General of Social Security, Gail S. Ennis, is warning the public that telephone scammers may send faked documents by email to convince victims to comply with their demands. The Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has received reports of victims who received emails with attached letters and reports that appeared to be from Social Security or Social Security OIG. The letters may use official letterhead and government “jargon” to convince victims they are legitimate; they may also contain misspellings and grammar mistakes. This is the latest variation on Social Security phone scams, which continue to...

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...

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...

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...

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...