A new survey has revealed which country feels more concerned by climate change. Brazilians came at the helm of perceiving climate change as a “catastrophic risk”, when compared to people living in big economies, followed by India and South Africa.

Fires have continues to wreak havoc in Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest - referred to as the “Earth’s lungs”. Rampant illegal deforestation has also crippled the function of the forest.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/climate-change-is-driving-polar-bears-towards-extinction-may-wipe-out-by-2100-314932/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

93 per cent Brazilians agree

About 93 per cent Brazilians who were surveyed claimed that climate change continues to be severe. They also acknowledged other factors like rising sea levels, melting glaciers.

The survey was undertaken by the Global Challenges Foundation, a non-profit organisation based in Sweden.

The survey also found that nine other countries - United States, United Kingdom, India, China, South Africa, Russia, Germany, Australia, and Sweden agreed on the severity of the climate crisis to a lesser extent.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/brazil-will-track-illegal-amazon-wood-exports-using-isotopes-bolsonaro-at-brics-summit-343764" hreflang="en">Brazil will track illegal Amazon wood exports using isotopes: Bolsonaro at BRICS summit</a>

Following Brazil were India and South Africa where 91 per cent respondents referred to the climate change crisis as severe. China followed with 89 per cent, Sweden with 88 per cent, while Australians appeared to be the least concerned with 70 per cent.

In the US, 73 per cent agreed that climate change is severe and requires immediate action.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/eu-leaders-aim-for-deal-in-december-on-new-climate-change-target-335740" hreflang="en">EU leaders aim for deal in December on new climate change target</a>

"The main takeaway is that so many people … already today feel they are affected by climate change," Jens Orback, executive director of the Global Challenges Foundation told Reuters.

"There is a high amount of people asking international institutions to step up," he added.

According to the survey, which was conducted in June-July, climate change was among the top three risks faced by people in all countries.

India: 50 per cent already feel its effects

It took into account the responses of 1,000 people per country. In India, Brazil, China, South Africa, and Russia, at least 50 per cent respondents claimed that they are already dealing with the direct products of climate change - high temperatures, fires, pollution, floods, etc.

People in Germany felt the least affected, with only 21 per cent saying so, followed by Australia at 35 per cent. Sweden, the US and the UK tied at 42 per cent.

A new survey has revealed which country feels more concerned by climate change. Brazilians came at the helm of perceiving climate change as a “catastrophic risk”, when compared to people living in big economies, followed by India and South Africa.

A new survey has revealed which country feels more concerned by climate change. Brazilians came at the helm of perceiving climate change as a “catastrophic risk”, when compared to people living in big economies, followed by India and South Africa. Fires have continues to wreak havoc in Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest - referred to as the “Earth’s lungs”. Rampant illegal deforestation has also crippled the function of the forest. 93 per cent Brazilians agree About 93 per cent Brazilians who were surveyed claimed that climate change continues to be severe. They also acknowledged other factors like rising sea levels, melting glaciers. The survey was undertaken by the Global Challenges Foundation, a non-profit organisation based in Sweden. The survey also found that nine other countries - United States, United Kingdom, India, China, South Africa, Russia, Germany, Australia, and Sweden agreed on the severity of the climate crisis to a lesser extent. Also read: Brazil will track illegal Amazon wood exports using isotopes: Bolsonaro at BRICS summit Following Brazil were India and South Africa where 91 per cent respondents referred to the climate change crisis as severe. China followed with 89 per cent, Sweden with 88 per cent, while Australians appeared to be the least concerned with 70 per cent. In the US, 73 per cent agreed that climate change is severe and requires immediate action. Also read: EU leaders aim for deal in December on new climate change target "The main takeaway is that so many people … already today feel they are affected by climate change," Jens Orback, executive director of the Global Challenges Foundation told Reuters. "There is a high amount of people asking international institutions to step up," he added. According to the survey, which was conducted in June-July, climate change was among the top three risks faced by people in all countries. India: 50 per cent already feel its effects It took into account the responses of 1,000 people per country. In India, Brazil, China, South Africa, and Russia, at least 50 per cent respondents claimed that they are already dealing with the direct products of climate change - high temperatures, fires, pollution, floods, etc. People in Germany felt the least affected, with only 21 per cent saying so, followed by Australia at 35 per cent. Sweden, the US and the UK tied at 42 per cent.

93% Brazilians, 91% Indians perceive climate change as severe, survey reveals

You might know what a hydrothermal vent looks like: black plumes billowing from deep-sea pillars encrusted with tube worms, hairy crabs, pouting fish. But do you know what it sounds like?

To the untrained ear, a hydrothermal vent — or more precisely, one vent from the Suiyo Seamount southeast of Japan — generates a viscous, muffled burbling that recalls an ominous pool of magma or a simmering pot of soup.

To the trained ear, the Suiyo vent sounds like many things. When asked during a Zoom call to describe the Suiyo recording more scientifically, Tzu-Hao Lin, a research fellow at the Biodiversity Research Center at Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan, took a long pause, shrugged and laughed. People always ask him this, but he never has the answer they want to hear. “I usually tell people to describe it with their own language,” Lin said. “You don’t need to be an expert to say what it sounds like to you.”

Lin adores acoustics; in his official headshot, he wears a set of headphones. He has listened to the sea since 2008 and to the deep sea since 2018. He has deployed hydrophones, which are microphones designed for underwater use, in waters off Japan to eavesdrop on the noises that lurk thousands of feet below the surface. He published these recordings in August at a conference of the Deep-Sea Biology Society.

Lin is not interested in focusing on the song of a singular whale or the clatter of ship traffic, but rather on the habitat’s soundscape — the totality of all its sounds, human, animal and geological — to glean an area’s biodiversity. Think of it as a hydrothermal vent’s acoustical calling card.

Lin joins a growing field of acousticians who believe that sound may be the quickest, cheapest way to monitor one of the most mysterious realms of the ocean. A database of deep-sea soundscapes could provide researchers with baseline understanding of healthy remote ecosystems, and singling out the sounds of communities or even individual species can inform scientists when populations are booming.

“You need to know what the habitat sounds like when it’s healthy,” said Chong Chen, a deep-sea biologist at Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, or JAMSTEC. “When the soundscape has changed, the habitat may have changed, too.”

Light holds little power in the ocean; it is so easily absorbed and scattered by seawater that anything deeper than 656 feet is essentially shrouded in darkness. But sound reigns supreme underwater, where it travels five times faster than in air.

If this statistic seems abstract, several acousticians laid out a helpful scenario in a 2018 paper in Acoustics Today. Imagine staring down at a city on a clear day from atop a mountain, the highest point within 60 miles. You can see far into the horizon but only hear the sounds nearby, perhaps a chirping bird or a gust of wind.

In the deep sea, the rules are reversed. Standing on a ridge several thousand feet underwater, peering out to the ocean’s abyssal plain, you would see almost nothing. But if you listened through a hydrophone, you could detect sounds from hundreds of miles away: echolocating whales, chattering fish, even occasional pulses from seismic surveys for oil and gas.

Scientists have long listened in on the sounds of the oceans but only recently have they turned to the deepest, darkest parts of the sea, where sound holds promise as a portal into an unknown world. Here, specialized creatures occupy habitats that would be fatal to surface dwellers; when Lin’s colleagues retrieved the hydrophone from Suiyo, the vent’s heat had melted part of the cables. “We got too close to the orifice,” Lin said with a sigh.

The deep sea is difficult to visit and expensive to observe; underwater robots do not come cheap. But it’s fairly easy to drop a hydrophone overboard — along with a baited camera, to see if anything bites. The hydrophone can pick up not just the noisy clicks of bickering dolphins but also the ambient hum of the deep sea.

Lin became interested in underwater acoustics around a decade ago as a graduate student at National Taiwan University, on a project observing Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins. Although the project seemed exciting, he found the work anticlimactic, working long hours and seeing very few dolphins. But as Lin listened to the recordings, he heard a chorus of other creatures — the sounds of snapping shrimp and choruses of fish — as well as noise pollution from industrial development. “People are still really crazy about marine mammals,” he said. “They do not really care about soniferous fish or invertebrates.”

When he joined JAMSTEC in the spring of 2019 for a yearlong stint as a postdoctoral research fellow, he was surprised by the diversity of deep-sea life and even more surprised that few had tried to capture the sounds of deeper-living creatures and their often volatile, volcanic habitats. The work felt even more pressing as international interest in deep-sea mining continued to rise. In 2019, he proposed the use of deep-sea soundscapes as a conservation tool in a paper in Trends in Ecology &amp; Evolution.

Research cruises are expensive, and Lin did not have time to develop a dedicated cruise for deep-sea soundscapes. So he and other researchers at JAMSTEC dropped hydrophones on already scheduled cruises, collecting daylong recordings from coastal areas near Japan and the Suiyo vent, and an even deeper recording from more than 18,000 feet below waters by the isosceles-shaped island of Minami-Tori. He found that the shipping traffic drowned out the coastal soundscapes, but the Minami-Tori Shima recording picked up noise from dolphins, humans and the tectonic grumblings of the seafloor itself, as well as a potpourri of as-yet untraceable sounds.

Lin’s recordings reveal a medley of shrill beeps, distant whistles and an underwater chorus of fish that sounds almost like wind gusting through a mountain pass. But what is it all? Lin and his lab at Academia Sinica are developing a software algorithm to separate the elements of the soundscape into categories: biophony (creatures), geophony (weather, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions) and anthropophony (human noises like seismic tests, ships and mining). Then the program will isolate individual sounds, such as dolphin whistles or chattering fish, and could even discover the sounds of new species.

Although the researchers are still poring through the data, some soundscapes have already provided insight into life in the deep sea. The Minami-Tori Shima recording revealed a chorus of fish that began right after sunset and ended after midnight at depths with no visible light. “It’s really amazing,” Lin said. He suspects the chorus may be timed with some fish’s daily vertical migration toward the surface at night, although he said he would need to conduct more surveys to confirm this connection.

Whereas the clicks and songs of marine mammals are well-documented, the identities of smaller deep-sea noisemakers are still shrouded in the dark.

At face value, deep-sea fish would not appear to be the most competent vocalists. “Many fish sounds require hard parts like bone or dense muscles,” said Rodney Rountree, an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria who specializes in fish acoustics.

But some fish, such as the sailfin catfish, make sounds by rubbing their body parts together like crickets do. Then their air-filled swim bladders act like a drum to amplify the sound. This movement can create sounds most often described as rasps, creaks or grunts — but these terms vary. “It’s a big headache,” Rountree said. “Even in the same study, I might call one thing a groan, and when I process it the next day I may call it a grunt.”

Other fish, such as cusk eels, have dedicated muscles that push on these bladders to bang like a drum or croak like a frog. “It’s really loud, like a jackhammer,” he said, clearing his throat before demonstrating: “AH-AH-AH-AH-AH.” But many more gelatinous deep-sea species are bereft of such bladders, as well as the musculature needed to press against them. A blobfish, after all, is more water than muscle.

Researchers have observed sonic muscles or have recorded sounds from five families of deep-sea fish, including grenadiers and sablefish, according to Marta Bolgan, a marine biologist at the University of Liege in Belgium. “It is a very new field,” she said. Bolgan recently published a paper in the journal Fish and Fisheries highlighting the importance of listening to deep-sea fish.

Some researchers are working to improve current listening technology. At the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Ying-Tsong Lin is building a starfish-shaped contraption of hydrophones that can tune into certain sounds hundreds of miles away, like a telescope for sound.

Bolgan’s strategy involves attaching video cameras to recorders to capture fish vocalizing on screen. But even this is no sure thing. A video that captures a fish and a fish sound in the same frame still doesn’t prove that fish made that sound. Researchers have to sleuth out whether that fish could physically make that sound, either by listening to existing recordings or speculating how the fish’s sonic muscles might produce noise. “It is a combination of deduction and luck,” Bolgan said.

Fish often make sounds alongside particular behaviors, such as spawning, which can be difficult to replicate in a lab, although some researchers have succeeded. In 2016, Eric Parmentier, Bolgan’s supervisor at the University of Liege, recorded cusk eels growling in fiberglass tanks after sunset. Floating egg masses the following morning indicated the fish had spawned.

Fish may represent researchers’ best bet at parsing deep-sea biodiversity, as many key deep-sea animals are not known to make sound, according to Chen. “Snails don’t vocalize,” he added as an example. There are exceptions. In 2019, researchers recorded loud snapping sounds from small, mouth-fighting marine worms that dwell in glass sponges. And a 2017 study revealed that glass sponge reefs possess a distinct soundscape entirely their own.

Lin of Academia Sinica wants to make all his soundscapes available online. This way, researchers such as Bolgan can sort through the recordings to single out a particular fish chorus or any other particular sound.

“Once the data is digitized, it can be used over and over again,” Lin said. “Future generations will be able to see what biodiversity was like decades ago. ” He uploaded all his recent recordings to SoundCloud and invites any would-be acousticians to listen in.

Lin’s eventual goal, the Ocean Biodiversity Listening Project, is an international, open-access database of underwater recordings that can establish a baseline of healthy, deep-sea ecosystems. He knows he’s working against the clock. “Deep-sea mining is about to start anytime now,” Chen said.

In 2017, Japan successfully extracted zinc from the seabed off Okinawa. “We need research cruises to incorporate soundscapes as part of their surveying,” Chen said, adding that the process should also be included in baseline environmental studies of potential mining sites.

Many deep-sea mining interests overlap with biodiversity hot spots, such as sulfide-rich hydrothermal vents. Chen suspects that vent soundscapes may offer cues to deep-sea larvae looking to settle on the seafloor. “Chemical cues get diluted by seawater, but sound propagates very far, so it potentially has a very important role,” Chen said. If deep-sea mining were to interrupt larval settlement, communities could take years to recover.

Lin continues to scan his soundscapes for new patterns. The recordings are still cryptic, a bramble of ambience. But for now, some reflect the racket of a deep sea that’s still noisy in the ways it’s supposed to be.

You might know what a hydrothermal vent looks like: black plumes billowing from deep-sea pillars encrusted with tube worms, hairy crabs, pouting fish. But do you know what it sounds like?

You might know what a hydrothermal vent looks like: black plumes billowing from deep-sea pillars encrusted with tube worms, hairy crabs, pouting fish. But do you know what it sounds like? To the untrained ear, a hydrothermal vent — or more precisely, one vent from the Suiyo Seamount southeast of Japan — generates a viscous, muffled burbling that recalls an ominous pool of magma or a simmering pot of soup. To the trained ear, the Suiyo vent sounds like many things. When asked during a Zoom call to describe the Suiyo recording more scientifically, Tzu-Hao Lin, a research fellow at the Biodiversity Research Center at Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan, took a long pause, shrugged and laughed. People always ask him this, but he never has the answer they want to hear. “I usually tell people to describe it with their own language,” Lin said. “You don’t need to be an expert to say what it sounds like to you.” Lin adores acoustics; in his official headshot, he wears a set of headphones. He has listened to the sea since 2008 and to the deep sea since 2018. He has deployed hydrophones, which are microphones designed for underwater use, in waters off Japan to eavesdrop on the noises that lurk thousands of feet below the surface. He published these recordings in August at a conference of the Deep-Sea Biology Society. Lin is not interested in focusing on the song of a singular whale or the clatter of ship traffic, but rather on the habitat’s soundscape — the totality of all its sounds, human, animal and geological — to glean an area’s biodiversity. Think of it as a hydrothermal vent’s acoustical calling card. Lin joins a growing field of acousticians who believe that sound may be the quickest, cheapest way to monitor one of the most mysterious realms of the ocean. A database of deep-sea soundscapes could provide researchers with baseline understanding of healthy remote ecosystems, and singling out the sounds of communities or even individual species can inform scientists when populations are booming. “You need to know what the habitat sounds like when it’s healthy,” said Chong Chen, a deep-sea biologist at Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, or JAMSTEC. “When the soundscape has changed, the habitat may have changed, too.” Light holds little power in the ocean; it is so easily absorbed and scattered by seawater that anything deeper than 656 feet is essentially shrouded in darkness. But sound reigns supreme underwater, where it travels five times faster than in air. If this statistic seems abstract, several acousticians laid out a helpful scenario in a 2018 paper in Acoustics Today. Imagine staring down at a city on a clear day from atop a mountain, the highest point within 60 miles. You can see far into the horizon but only hear the sounds nearby, perhaps a chirping bird or a gust of wind. In the deep sea, the rules are reversed. Standing on a ridge several thousand feet underwater, peering out to the ocean’s abyssal plain, you would see almost nothing. But if you listened through a hydrophone, you could detect sounds from hundreds of miles away: echolocating whales, chattering fish, even occasional pulses from seismic surveys for oil and gas. Scientists have long listened in on the sounds of the oceans but only recently have they turned to the deepest, darkest parts of the sea, where sound holds promise as a portal into an unknown world. Here, specialized creatures occupy habitats that would be fatal to surface dwellers; when Lin’s colleagues retrieved the hydrophone from Suiyo, the vent’s heat had melted part of the cables. “We got too close to the orifice,” Lin said with a sigh. The deep sea is difficult to visit and expensive to observe; underwater robots do not come cheap. But it’s fairly easy to drop a hydrophone overboard — along with a baited camera, to see if anything bites. The hydrophone can pick up not just the noisy clicks of bickering dolphins but also the ambient hum of the deep sea. Lin became interested in underwater acoustics around a decade ago as a graduate student at National Taiwan University, on a project observing Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins. Although the project seemed exciting, he found the work anticlimactic, working long hours and seeing very few dolphins. But as Lin listened to the recordings, he heard a chorus of other creatures — the sounds of snapping shrimp and choruses of fish — as well as noise pollution from industrial development. “People are still really crazy about marine mammals,” he said. “They do not really care about soniferous fish or invertebrates.” When he joined JAMSTEC in the spring of 2019 for a yearlong stint as a postdoctoral research fellow, he was surprised by the diversity of deep-sea life and even more surprised that few had tried to capture the sounds of deeper-living creatures and their often volatile, volcanic habitats. The work felt even more pressing as international interest in deep-sea mining continued to rise. In 2019, he proposed the use of deep-sea soundscapes as a conservation tool in a paper in Trends in Ecology & Evolution. Research cruises are expensive, and Lin did not have time to develop a dedicated cruise for deep-sea soundscapes. So he and other researchers at JAMSTEC dropped hydrophones on already scheduled cruises, collecting daylong recordings from coastal areas near Japan and the Suiyo vent, and an even deeper recording from more than 18,000 feet below waters by the isosceles-shaped island of Minami-Tori. He found that the shipping traffic drowned out the coastal soundscapes, but the Minami-Tori Shima recording picked up noise from dolphins, humans and the tectonic grumblings of the seafloor itself, as well as a potpourri of as-yet untraceable sounds. Lin’s recordings reveal a medley of shrill beeps, distant whistles and an underwater chorus of fish that sounds almost like wind gusting through a mountain pass. But what is it all? Lin and his lab at Academia Sinica are developing a software algorithm to separate the elements of the soundscape into categories: biophony (creatures), geophony (weather, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions) and anthropophony (human noises like seismic tests, ships and mining). Then the program will isolate individual sounds, such as dolphin whistles or chattering fish, and could even discover the sounds of new species. Although the researchers are still poring through the data, some soundscapes have already provided insight into life in the deep sea. The Minami-Tori Shima recording revealed a chorus of fish that began right after sunset and ended after midnight at depths with no visible light. “It’s really amazing,” Lin said. He suspects the chorus may be timed with some fish’s daily vertical migration toward the surface at night, although he said he would need to conduct more surveys to confirm this connection. Whereas the clicks and songs of marine mammals are well-documented, the identities of smaller deep-sea noisemakers are still shrouded in the dark. At face value, deep-sea fish would not appear to be the most competent vocalists. “Many fish sounds require hard parts like bone or dense muscles,” said Rodney Rountree, an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria who specializes in fish acoustics. But some fish, such as the sailfin catfish, make sounds by rubbing their body parts together like crickets do. Then their air-filled swim bladders act like a drum to amplify the sound. This movement can create sounds most often described as rasps, creaks or grunts — but these terms vary. “It’s a big headache,” Rountree said. “Even in the same study, I might call one thing a groan, and when I process it the next day I may call it a grunt.” Other fish, such as cusk eels, have dedicated muscles that push on these bladders to bang like a drum or croak like a frog. “It’s really loud, like a jackhammer,” he said, clearing his throat before demonstrating: “AH-AH-AH-AH-AH.” But many more gelatinous deep-sea species are bereft of such bladders, as well as the musculature needed to press against them. A blobfish, after all, is more water than muscle. Researchers have observed sonic muscles or have recorded sounds from five families of deep-sea fish, including grenadiers and sablefish, according to Marta Bolgan, a marine biologist at the University of Liege in Belgium. “It is a very new field,” she said. Bolgan recently published a paper in the journal Fish and Fisheries highlighting the importance of listening to deep-sea fish. Some researchers are working to improve current listening technology. At the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Ying-Tsong Lin is building a starfish-shaped contraption of hydrophones that can tune into certain sounds hundreds of miles away, like a telescope for sound. Bolgan’s strategy involves attaching video cameras to recorders to capture fish vocalizing on screen. But even this is no sure thing. A video that captures a fish and a fish sound in the same frame still doesn’t prove that fish made that sound. Researchers have to sleuth out whether that fish could physically make that sound, either by listening to existing recordings or speculating how the fish’s sonic muscles might produce noise. “It is a combination of deduction and luck,” Bolgan said. Fish often make sounds alongside particular behaviors, such as spawning, which can be difficult to replicate in a lab, although some researchers have succeeded. In 2016, Eric Parmentier, Bolgan’s supervisor at the University of Liege, recorded cusk eels growling in fiberglass tanks after sunset. Floating egg masses the following morning indicated the fish had spawned. Fish may represent researchers’ best bet at parsing deep-sea biodiversity, as many key deep-sea animals are not known to make sound, according to Chen. “Snails don’t vocalize,” he added as an example. There are exceptions. In 2019, researchers recorded loud snapping sounds from small, mouth-fighting marine worms that dwell in glass sponges. And a 2017 study revealed that glass sponge reefs possess a distinct soundscape entirely their own. Lin of Academia Sinica wants to make all his soundscapes available online. This way, researchers such as Bolgan can sort through the recordings to single out a particular fish chorus or any other particular sound. “Once the data is digitized, it can be used over and over again,” Lin said. “Future generations will be able to see what biodiversity was like decades ago. ” He uploaded all his recent recordings to SoundCloud and invites any would-be acousticians to listen in. Lin’s eventual goal, the Ocean Biodiversity Listening Project, is an international, open-access database of underwater recordings that can establish a baseline of healthy, deep-sea ecosystems. He knows he’s working against the clock. “Deep-sea mining is about to start anytime now,” Chen said. In 2017, Japan successfully extracted zinc from the seabed off Okinawa. “We need research cruises to incorporate soundscapes as part of their surveying,” Chen said, adding that the process should also be included in baseline environmental studies of potential mining sites. Many deep-sea mining interests overlap with biodiversity hot spots, such as sulfide-rich hydrothermal vents. Chen suspects that vent soundscapes may offer cues to deep-sea larvae looking to settle on the seafloor. “Chemical cues get diluted by seawater, but sound propagates very far, so it potentially has a very important role,” Chen said. If deep-sea mining were to interrupt larval settlement, communities could take years to recover. Lin continues to scan his soundscapes for new patterns. The recordings are still cryptic, a bramble of ambience. But for now, some reflect the racket of a deep sea that’s still noisy in the ways it’s supposed to be.

Could listening to the deep sea help save it?

Scientists have been warning for years that climate change is a very real threat that mankind faces. But many, including prominent world leaders have ignored this. This&nbsp;may have resulted in inadequate response to the problem and we may be at a point of no return. These fears may be true according to researchers who say that global warming will continue even if greenhouse gas emissions responsible for it are reduced to zero.

"According to our models, humanity is beyond the point-of-no-return when it comes to halting the melting of permafrost using greenhouse gas cuts as the single tool," lead author Jorgen Randers, a professor emeritus of climate strategy at the BI Norwegian Business School, told AFP.

The researchers have published their finding in the journal Scientific Reports.

So what's the way to stop global warming?

According to the researchers, the only way to do it is to extract greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and store them so that they do not go back into it.

Using a stripped-down climate model, Randers and colleague Ulrich Goluke projected changes out to the year 2500 under two scenarios: the instant cessation of emissions, and the gradual reduction of planet warming gases to zero by 2100.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/uk-firm-plans-to-turn-moon-rock-into-oxygen-building-materials-341869">UK firm plans to turn moon rock into oxygen, building materials</a> 
 
In an imaginary world where carbon pollution stops with a flip of the switch, the planet warms over the next 50 years to about 2.3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels -- roughly half-a-degree above the target set in the 2015 Paris Agreement -- and cools slightly after that.

Earth's surface today is 1.2C hotter than it was in the mid-19th century, when temperatures began to rise.

The findings of the researcher if absolutely accurate, does not sound well for the future of humanity as it means that we do not have any way to stop a process that may lead to melting of polar ice-caps and increasing sea levels that may see many megacities around the world going underwater.

But many scientists are contesting the claims made in the study and also the method by which the study was conducted.

Mark Maslin, a professor of climatology at University College London, also pointed to shortcomings in the model, known as ESCIMO, describing the study as a "thought experiment."

"What the study does draw attention to is that reducing global carbon emissions to zero by 2050" -- a goal championed by the UN and embraced by a growing number of countries -- "is just the start of our actions to deal with climate change."

(With AFP inputs)

Scientists have been warning for years that climate change is a very real threat that mankind faces. But many, including prominent world leaders have ignored this.

Scientists have been warning for years that climate change is a very real threat that mankind faces. But many, including prominent world leaders have ignored this. This may have resulted in inadequate response to the problem and we may be at a point of no return. These fears may be true according to researchers who say that global warming will continue even if greenhouse gas emissions responsible for it are reduced to zero. "According to our models, humanity is beyond the point-of-no-return when it comes to halting the melting of permafrost using greenhouse gas cuts as the single tool," lead author Jorgen Randers, a professor emeritus of climate strategy at the BI Norwegian Business School, told AFP. The researchers have published their finding in the journal Scientific Reports. So what's the way to stop global warming? According to the researchers, the only way to do it is to extract greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and store them so that they do not go back into it. Using a stripped-down climate model, Randers and colleague Ulrich Goluke projected changes out to the year 2500 under two scenarios: the instant cessation of emissions, and the gradual reduction of planet warming gases to zero by 2100. Also Read | UK firm plans to turn moon rock into oxygen, building materials In an imaginary world where carbon pollution stops with a flip of the switch, the planet warms over the next 50 years to about 2.3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels -- roughly half-a-degree above the target set in the 2015 Paris Agreement -- and cools slightly after that. Earth's surface today is 1.2C hotter than it was in the mid-19th century, when temperatures began to rise. The findings of the researcher if absolutely accurate, does not sound well for the future of humanity as it means that we do not have any way to stop a process that may lead to melting of polar ice-caps and increasing sea levels that may see many megacities around the world going underwater. But many scientists are contesting the claims made in the study and also the method by which the study was conducted. Mark Maslin, a professor of climatology at University College London, also pointed to shortcomings in the model, known as ESCIMO, describing the study as a "thought experiment." "What the study does draw attention to is that reducing global carbon emissions to zero by 2050" -- a goal championed by the UN and embraced by a growing number of countries -- "is just the start of our actions to deal with climate change." (With AFP inputs)

Reducing greenhouse gas emission even to zero won't stop global warming: Study

Heavy rain effectively shut down Manila, the sprawling capital of 12 million people, and surrounding areas.

Typhoon Vamco lashes the Philippines, paralyses parts of Manila

Andrei Togor could not be happier after he recently discovered Asprete, one of the rarest fish in Europe that was on the brink of extinction

Togo, the 31-year-old fish biologist, found 65-million-year-old Asprete's 12 specimens in late October in Valsan river.&nbsp;

Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/consuming-jellyfish-more-sustainable-alternative-to-fish-study-338249#:~:text=Eating%20jellyfish%20is%20a%20more,jellyfish%20should%20be%20increased%20worldwide.">Consuming jellyfish more sustainable alternative to fish: Study</a>

"Having an Asprete in front of our eyes was fantastic," he said, as quoted by the BBC.&nbsp;

Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/amid-pandemic-luxury-resort-in-kerala-turns-swimming-pool-into-fish-farm-322780">Amid pandemic, luxury resort in Kerala turns swimming pool into fish farm</a>

"It's one of the biggest rewards a field biologist can get."

Asprete was first found by a biology student in 1956 and the nocturnal fish faces the threat of extinction.&nbsp;

Official figures say that the population of the rare fish is at around 10-15 specimens, which used to be about 200 specimens in the early 2000s.

But a small group of scientists and conservationists are campaigning to protect the fish species, also known as Romanichthys valsanicola.

The fish can be described as a living fossil, which means it has survived for millions of years without any major changes. But just in the last six decades, human activity has severely caused a decline in its habitat and population.

It finds itself on the Berne Convention of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats list of critically endangered species.&nbsp;

Its habitat is getting protection by law as an EU Natura 2000 region and as part of the Valsan Valley Nature Reserve.

 
&nbsp;

Andrei Togor could not be happier after he recently discovered Asprete, one of the rarest fish in Europe that was on the brink of extinction Togo, the 31-year-old fish biologist, found 65-million-year-old Asprete's 12 specimens in late October in Valsan river.

Andrei Togor could not be happier after he recently discovered Asprete, one of the rarest fish in Europe that was on the brink of extinction Togo, the 31-year-old fish biologist, found 65-million-year-old Asprete's 12 specimens in late October in Valsan river. Also read | Consuming jellyfish more sustainable alternative to fish: Study "Having an Asprete in front of our eyes was fantastic," he said, as quoted by the BBC. Also read | Amid pandemic, luxury resort in Kerala turns swimming pool into fish farm "It's one of the biggest rewards a field biologist can get." Asprete was first found by a biology student in 1956 and the nocturnal fish faces the threat of extinction. Official figures say that the population of the rare fish is at around 10-15 specimens, which used to be about 200 specimens in the early 2000s. But a small group of scientists and conservationists are campaigning to protect the fish species, also known as Romanichthys valsanicola. The fish can be described as a living fossil, which means it has survived for millions of years without any major changes. But just in the last six decades, human activity has severely caused a decline in its habitat and population. It finds itself on the Berne Convention of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats list of critically endangered species. Its habitat is getting protection by law as an EU Natura 2000 region and as part of the Valsan Valley Nature Reserve.

Scientists, conservationists get together to save 65-million-year-old fish

Climate change activists and members of the Extinction Rebellion group took to the streets on Wednesday (November 4) to demand the protection of biodiversity.

Extinction Rebellion activists glue themselves to ground, demand biodiversity protection

Millions of old and used cars exported from the European Union, Japan, and the United States to developing countries is&nbsp;fuelling air pollution,&nbsp;a UN report warns.

Around three million&nbsp;used&nbsp;vehicles are&nbsp;exported each year between 2015 and 2018 from these places&nbsp;with most going to low- and middle-income countries and more than half ending up in Africa, according to a report released Monday by the UN Environment Programme.

With the expansion of car ownership in developing countries expected to be a major source of emissions in the coming decades, the UNEP called for tightening the rules for exporting and importing old, polluting vehicles.&nbsp;

"Developed countries must stop exporting vehicles that fail environment and safety inspections and are no longer considered roadworthy in their own countries while importing countries should introduce stronger quality standards," said UNEP's executive director, Inger Andersen.&nbsp;

The agency cited an investigation by Dutch authorities in 2019 that found the average age of vehicles waiting to be exported was 18 years.

They also had more than 200,000 km (125,000 miles) on their odometers on average, and many were missing catalytic converters that reduce toxic gases from the exhaust.

UNEP said that two-thirds of the 146 countries it looked at had weak rules regarding the import of&nbsp;used&nbsp;vehicles, and some had no pollution standards.&nbsp;

Millions of old and used cars exported from the European Union, Japan, and the United States to developing countries is fuelling air pollution, a UN report warns.

Millions of old and used cars exported from the European Union, Japan, and the United States to developing countries is fuelling air pollution, a UN report warns. Around three million used vehicles are exported each year between 2015 and 2018 from these places with most going to low- and middle-income countries and more than half ending up in Africa, according to a report released Monday by the UN Environment Programme. With the expansion of car ownership in developing countries expected to be a major source of emissions in the coming decades, the UNEP called for tightening the rules for exporting and importing old, polluting vehicles. "Developed countries must stop exporting vehicles that fail environment and safety inspections and are no longer considered roadworthy in their own countries while importing countries should introduce stronger quality standards," said UNEP's executive director, Inger Andersen. The agency cited an investigation by Dutch authorities in 2019 that found the average age of vehicles waiting to be exported was 18 years. They also had more than 200,000 km (125,000 miles) on their odometers on average, and many were missing catalytic converters that reduce toxic gases from the exhaust. UNEP said that two-thirds of the 146 countries it looked at had weak rules regarding the import of used vehicles, and some had no pollution standards.

'Old and unsafe' cars fuelling air pollution in developing countries, report finds

'Look at India. It's filthy. The air is filthy' said Donald Trump in the final Presidential Debate 2020. WION's Palki Sharma asks: Should the world's 'biggest climate change denier' be talking about India?

Gravitas: North Korea warns against 'Coronavirus dust storm' from China

Gravitas: Should Trump be preaching India?

The number of dead seals found washed ashore on the coast of Namibia has risen to more than 7,000, non-profit group Ocean Conservation Namibia (OCN) said on Friday.

More than 7,000 dead seals found along Namibian beach

The Bukhtarma Reservoir is the biggest artificial body of water in Kazakhstan. There's no bridge across it, so in warmer months, local residents must often wait for hours for a ferry crossing. In colder months, many risk their lives crossing the ice by car. Watch report.

Bukhtarma Reservoir: Many risk their lives crossing the ice by car

For the first time in recent history,&nbsp;the main nursery of Arctic sea ice in Siberia has yet to start freezing even thought the month of October is soon to end.

Scientists believe that the delayed annual freeze&nbsp;in the Laptev Sea has been caused due to the protracted warmth in the northern&nbsp;part of Russia and&nbsp;the intrusion of Atlantic waters.

This has been observed after the ocean temperatures of the area rose by more than 5C above average after a record-breaking heatwave.

The delay is being seen as yet another harmful effect of human-caused climate change that is damaging the nature.&nbsp;“The lack of freeze-up so far this fall is unprecedented in the Siberian Arctic region,” Zachary Labe, a postdoctoral researcher at Colorado State University was quoted saying by Guardian.

He also stressed that till the greenhouse gases reduce, the problems will keep on rising. “2020 is another year that is consistent with a rapidly changing Arctic. Without a systematic reduction in greenhouse gases, the likelihood of our first ‘ice-free’ summer will continue to increase by the mid-21st century,"&nbsp;he wrote in an email to the Guardian.

As per the recent observations and researches, the Siberian heatwave of 2020 was majorly made up&nbsp;by industrial and agricultural emissions — which was nearly 600 times.

The scientists explained that when this has been caused as the trapped heat takes longer to disappear into the atmosphere even at this time of the year when the sun is above the horizon for nearly two to three hours per day.

However, trapped heat is not the only reason behind this delay. Climate change, caused by human activities, is also responsible for pushing&nbsp;Atlantic currents into the Arctic and breaks up the formation between warm deep waters and the cool surfaces making it difficult for the ice to form.

“This continues a streak of very low extents. The last 14 years, 2007 to 2020, are the lowest 14 years in the satellite record starting in 1979,” said Walt Meier, senior research scientist at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center. He also added that the thickness of the ice is now half of what it was back in 1980s as majority of the old ice in the Arctic is now disappearing.

Scientists are also predicting an 'ice-free summer' which can happen between&nbsp;2030 and 2050. “It’s a matter of when, not if,”&nbsp;said Walt Meier.

It has also been predicted that the ice being formed at Laptev Sea, which is commonly known as the birthplace of ice, will now be thinner and may melt way faster than the previous years.

For the first time in recent history, the main nursery of Arctic sea ice in Siberia has yet to start freezing even thought the month of October is soon to end. Scientists believe that the delayed annual freeze in the Laptev Sea has been caused due to the protracted warmth in the northern part of Russia and the intrusion of Atlantic waters.

For the first time in recent history, the main nursery of Arctic sea ice in Siberia has yet to start freezing even thought the month of October is soon to end. Scientists believe that the delayed annual freeze in the Laptev Sea has been caused due to the protracted warmth in the northern part of Russia and the intrusion of Atlantic waters. This has been observed after the ocean temperatures of the area rose by more than 5C above average after a record-breaking heatwave. The delay is being seen as yet another harmful effect of human-caused climate change that is damaging the nature. “The lack of freeze-up so far this fall is unprecedented in the Siberian Arctic region,” Zachary Labe, a postdoctoral researcher at Colorado State University was quoted saying by Guardian. He also stressed that till the greenhouse gases reduce, the problems will keep on rising. “2020 is another year that is consistent with a rapidly changing Arctic. Without a systematic reduction in greenhouse gases, the likelihood of our first ‘ice-free’ summer will continue to increase by the mid-21st century," he wrote in an email to the Guardian. As per the recent observations and researches, the Siberian heatwave of 2020 was majorly made up by industrial and agricultural emissions — which was nearly 600 times. The scientists explained that when this has been caused as the trapped heat takes longer to disappear into the atmosphere even at this time of the year when the sun is above the horizon for nearly two to three hours per day. However, trapped heat is not the only reason behind this delay. Climate change, caused by human activities, is also responsible for pushing Atlantic currents into the Arctic and breaks up the formation between warm deep waters and the cool surfaces making it difficult for the ice to form. “This continues a streak of very low extents. The last 14 years, 2007 to 2020, are the lowest 14 years in the satellite record starting in 1979,” said Walt Meier, senior research scientist at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center. He also added that the thickness of the ice is now half of what it was back in 1980s as majority of the old ice in the Arctic is now disappearing. Scientists are also predicting an 'ice-free summer' which can happen between 2030 and 2050. “It’s a matter of when, not if,” said Walt Meier. It has also been predicted that the ice being formed at Laptev Sea, which is commonly known as the birthplace of ice, will now be thinner and may melt way faster than the previous years.

Scientists sound alarm as Arctic sea ice has not yet started freezing

Scientists in a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society Journal said that half of Great Barrier Reef's corals had died in last 25 years. Climate change is severely affecting the world-heritage listed reef off Australia's northeastern coast.

Great Barrier Reef is made up of corals that support rich and bio-diverse marine life. The reef is 2300 km long.

Climate change has affected larger species of corals which have almost disappeared from far northern reaches of the reef.

"They're typically depleted by (up to) 80 or 90 percent compared to 25 years ago," report co-author and James Cook University professor Terry Hughes told AFP.

"They make the nooks and crannies that fish and other creatures depend on, so losing big three-dimensional corals changes the broader ecosystem."

Great Barrier Reef was an estimated USD 4 billion in revenue from tourism before the coronavirus pandemic.

The reef is at risk of losing its coveted world heritage status because of ocean warming -- fuelled by climate change -- damaging its health.

Changes in ocean temperatures stress healthy corals, causing them to expel algae living in their tissues -- draining them of their vibrant colours in a process known as bleaching.

Back-to-back mass bleaching events in 2016 and 2017 prompted the government to downgrade the long-term outlook for the world's largest living organism to "very poor". 
Mass bleaching was first seen on the reef in 1998 -- at the time, the hottest year on record -- but as temperatures continue to soar it frequency has increased, shrinking the reef and making it harder to recover.

The big mamas

"A vibrant coral population has millions of small, baby corals, as well as many large ones -- the big mamas who produce most of the larvae," the study's lead author Andy Dietzel, also of James Cook University, said.

"Its resilience is compromised compared to the past, because there are fewer babies, and fewer large breeding adults."

On top of long-term ocean warming and associated bleaching, the reef has been battered by several cyclones and two outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish -- which eat the coral -- since 1995.

When the starfish occur in small numbers, they are considered part of the natural ecosystem, but when a large outbreak happens, they can rapidly destroy parts of the reef.

While four mass bleaching events up to 2017 were covered by the latest research, the damage to coral species from bleaching in early 2020 is yet to be assessed.

It was the most widespread bleaching on record, impacting swathes of the southern reaches of the reef for the first time.

Hughes said scientists expected corals to continue dying off unless nations met their Paris Agreement commitment to keep the increase in global average temperature under 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

"It takes about a decade for a half-decent recovery for the fastest-growing species, so the chances of us getting decades between the future sixth, seventh and eighth bleaching events is close to zero because temperatures are because going up and up and up," he said.

If temperatures do stabilise later this century under the Paris target, it is hoped that corals will be able to reassemble and rebuild their numbers.&nbsp;

Even then, Hughes said, "we don't think they'll rebuild into the mix of species that we've known historically".

If the rise is as much as 3 or 4 degrees Celsius, "forget it", he said.

"The trajectory is changing very, very quickly -- we're shocked and surprised by how quickly these changes are happening -- and there's further change ahead."

(With AFP inputs)

Scientists in a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society Journal said that half of Great Barrier Reef's corals had died in last 25 years. Climate change is severely affecting the world-heritage listed reef off Australia's northeastern coast.

Scientists in a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society Journal said that half of Great Barrier Reef's corals had died in last 25 years. Climate change is severely affecting the world-heritage listed reef off Australia's northeastern coast. Great Barrier Reef is made up of corals that support rich and bio-diverse marine life. The reef is 2300 km long. Climate change has affected larger species of corals which have almost disappeared from far northern reaches of the reef. "They're typically depleted by (up to) 80 or 90 percent compared to 25 years ago," report co-author and James Cook University professor Terry Hughes told AFP. "They make the nooks and crannies that fish and other creatures depend on, so losing big three-dimensional corals changes the broader ecosystem." Great Barrier Reef was an estimated USD 4 billion in revenue from tourism before the coronavirus pandemic. The reef is at risk of losing its coveted world heritage status because of ocean warming -- fuelled by climate change -- damaging its health. Changes in ocean temperatures stress healthy corals, causing them to expel algae living in their tissues -- draining them of their vibrant colours in a process known as bleaching. Back-to-back mass bleaching events in 2016 and 2017 prompted the government to downgrade the long-term outlook for the world's largest living organism to "very poor". Mass bleaching was first seen on the reef in 1998 -- at the time, the hottest year on record -- but as temperatures continue to soar it frequency has increased, shrinking the reef and making it harder to recover. The big mamas "A vibrant coral population has millions of small, baby corals, as well as many large ones -- the big mamas who produce most of the larvae," the study's lead author Andy Dietzel, also of James Cook University, said. "Its resilience is compromised compared to the past, because there are fewer babies, and fewer large breeding adults." On top of long-term ocean warming and associated bleaching, the reef has been battered by several cyclones and two outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish -- which eat the coral -- since 1995. When the starfish occur in small numbers, they are considered part of the natural ecosystem, but when a large outbreak happens, they can rapidly destroy parts of the reef. While four mass bleaching events up to 2017 were covered by the latest research, the damage to coral species from bleaching in early 2020 is yet to be assessed. It was the most widespread bleaching on record, impacting swathes of the southern reaches of the reef for the first time. Hughes said scientists expected corals to continue dying off unless nations met their Paris Agreement commitment to keep the increase in global average temperature under 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. "It takes about a decade for a half-decent recovery for the fastest-growing species, so the chances of us getting decades between the future sixth, seventh and eighth bleaching events is close to zero because temperatures are because going up and up and up," he said. If temperatures do stabilise later this century under the Paris target, it is hoped that corals will be able to reassemble and rebuild their numbers. Even then, Hughes said, "we don't think they'll rebuild into the mix of species that we've known historically". If the rise is as much as 3 or 4 degrees Celsius, "forget it", he said. "The trajectory is changing very, very quickly -- we're shocked and surprised by how quickly these changes are happening -- and there's further change ahead." (With AFP inputs)

Great Barrier Reef lost half of its corals in 25 years

On Tuesday, the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Tuesday put out a report on natural disasters, highlighting how the number of disasters have increased over the last half century. However, the disasters have caused fewer deaths than anticipated.

Based on WMO data, over 11,000 disasters struck the planet over the last 50 years. Most of these may be attributed to extreme changes in weather, unpredictable patterns triggered by climate change, and additional factors like tsunamis.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/20-years-witnessed-rise-in-natural-disasters-especially-in-asia-united-nations-334738" hreflang="en">20 years witnessed rise in natural disasters, especially in Asia: United Nations</a>

At least 2 million people lost their lives to such disasters in the last 50 years, which cost 3.6 million USD to the global economy.&nbsp;

The organisation’s Secretary-General Peter Taalas referred to China and said that the country produces “25 per cent of the global emissions”. At the same time, Taalas praised China for its “record investment in renewable energy”.

Taalas added, however, that the country needs to invest in ways to avert climate catastrophes, or more commonly called “climate mitigation”.

Complied by 16 international agencies along with financial institutions, the 2020 State of Climate Services report urged governments across the world to invest heavily in mitigation measures alongside warning systems to be better prepared for natural calamities in the future.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/russia-disaster-95-per-cent-of-sea-floor-marine-life-killed-in-avacha-bay-cause-unknown-333066" hreflang="en">Russia disaster: 95 per cent of sea-floor marine life killed in Avacha Bay, cause unknown</a>

WMO's Deputy Director, who is also in charge of Climate Services, Maxx Dilley, during a news conference in Geneva said the report held importance for all countries, and that "no individual country is self reliant and self contained when it comes to these types of system and services".

According to WMO predictions, the number of people that require international humanitarian aid could rise by 50 per cent by 2030, compared to 2018’s 108 million people who required aid.&nbsp;

Owing to climate change, phenomenas like heat waves, forest fires, droughts, storms, and hurricanes will only increase in the future.

On Tuesday, the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Tuesday put out a report on natural disasters, highlighting how the number of disasters have increased over the last half century.

On Tuesday, the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Tuesday put out a report on natural disasters, highlighting how the number of disasters have increased over the last half century. However, the disasters have caused fewer deaths than anticipated. Based on WMO data, over 11,000 disasters struck the planet over the last 50 years. Most of these may be attributed to extreme changes in weather, unpredictable patterns triggered by climate change, and additional factors like tsunamis. Also read: 20 years witnessed rise in natural disasters, especially in Asia: United Nations At least 2 million people lost their lives to such disasters in the last 50 years, which cost 3.6 million USD to the global economy. The organisation’s Secretary-General Peter Taalas referred to China and said that the country produces “25 per cent of the global emissions”. At the same time, Taalas praised China for its “record investment in renewable energy”. Taalas added, however, that the country needs to invest in ways to avert climate catastrophes, or more commonly called “climate mitigation”. Complied by 16 international agencies along with financial institutions, the 2020 State of Climate Services report urged governments across the world to invest heavily in mitigation measures alongside warning systems to be better prepared for natural calamities in the future. Also read: Russia disaster: 95 per cent of sea-floor marine life killed in Avacha Bay, cause unknown WMO's Deputy Director, who is also in charge of Climate Services, Maxx Dilley, during a news conference in Geneva said the report held importance for all countries, and that "no individual country is self reliant and self contained when it comes to these types of system and services". According to WMO predictions, the number of people that require international humanitarian aid could rise by 50 per cent by 2030, compared to 2018’s 108 million people who required aid. Owing to climate change, phenomenas like heat waves, forest fires, droughts, storms, and hurricanes will only increase in the future.

China contributes 25% to global emissions, says UN

People might be unaware that the savings in their bank accounts are being utilised for contribution towards climate crisis.

Major financial institutions regularly extend financing to fossil fuel companies and other polluting industries.

However, two former executives, Yan Swiderski and Jasper Judd, founders of the&nbsp;global returns project, are asking individuals to commit 0.25 per cent of their&nbsp;savings to combat global warming,&nbsp;with the goal of raising a regular annual total of $10 billion within the next decade.

Mixing investment with philanthropy, the global returns project aims to use a small percentage of people’s savings to help groups fighting climate change.

But, the question is, would you commit 0.25 per cent of your savings to save the planet for future generations?

Judd and Swiderski plan to partner with banks and other financial-services providers to show them the importance of offering clients an easy way to direct more of their savings and investments to help the environment.

“Funding not-for-profit climate solutions yields returns just like any other investment,” said Swiderski, who founded the investment firm Finisterre capital before deciding in 2014 to run an organic farm. “The returns are externalised and shared, but they are real, identifiable and global.”

The men said that all of the investors’ contributions will go to charities including Ashden, Clientearth, global canopy, rainforest trust, and trillion trees, which focus on a range of climate issues from preventing deforestation to enacting environmental policies and funding clean-energy innovations.

People might be unaware that the savings in their bank accounts are being utilised for contribution towards climate crisis. Major financial institutions regularly extend financing to fossil fuel companies and other polluting industries.

People might be unaware that the savings in their bank accounts are being utilised for contribution towards climate crisis. Major financial institutions regularly extend financing to fossil fuel companies and other polluting industries. However, two former executives, Yan Swiderski and Jasper Judd, founders of the global returns project, are asking individuals to commit 0.25 per cent of their savings to combat global warming, with the goal of raising a regular annual total of $10 billion within the next decade. Mixing investment with philanthropy, the global returns project aims to use a small percentage of people’s savings to help groups fighting climate change. But, the question is, would you commit 0.25 per cent of your savings to save the planet for future generations? Judd and Swiderski plan to partner with banks and other financial-services providers to show them the importance of offering clients an easy way to direct more of their savings and investments to help the environment. “Funding not-for-profit climate solutions yields returns just like any other investment,” said Swiderski, who founded the investment firm Finisterre capital before deciding in 2014 to run an organic farm. “The returns are externalised and shared, but they are real, identifiable and global.” The men said that all of the investors’ contributions will go to charities including Ashden, Clientearth, global canopy, rainforest trust, and trillion trees, which focus on a range of climate issues from preventing deforestation to enacting environmental policies and funding clean-energy innovations.

Would you give up 0.25% of your savings to help save the planet?

The effects of the hurricane Delta are beginning to be felt in southwestern Louisiana. Watch report.

Hurricane Delta: Locals survey damage inflicted by Delta

The young environment activist Greta Thunberg has lent support to the&nbsp;Democratic candidate and former Vice President&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>&nbsp;in the upcoming <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/us-election">US elections</a>.

Thunberg has tried to stay away from participating in the politics. However, this time, she claims the elections are different.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/allan-lichtman-the-man-who-has-correctly-predicted-us-election-since-1984-334317">Also read|&nbsp;Allan Lichtman: The man who has correctly predicted US election since 1984</a>

"I never engage in party politics. But the upcoming US elections is above and beyond all that." the 17-year-old tweeted.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I never engage in party politics. But the upcoming US elections is above and beyond all that. 
From a climate perspective it’s very far from enough and many of you of course supported other candidates. But, I mean…you know…damn! 
Just get organized and get everyone to vote <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Biden?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Biden</a> <a href="https://t.co/gFttFBZK5O">https://t.co/gFttFBZK5O</a>
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1314900271332458496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
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<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

The Swedish activist took to Twitter to openly lend her support to&nbsp;Joe Biden, instead of the current US President&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-election-2020-donald-trump-or-joe-biden-astrologers-predict-the-next-president-333963">Also read|&nbsp;US election 2020: Trump or Biden? Astrologers predict the next President</a>

"From a climate perspective it’s very far from enough and many of you of course supported other candidates. But, I mean…you know…damn!," she said.

"Just get organized and get everyone to vote #Biden," she added.

Thunberg's support towards&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;was expected by the experts as the activist and&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;have not been on each other's favourite list for the past few years.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/getting-warmer-trump-acknowledges-human-role-in-climate-change-331687">Also read|&nbsp;'Getting warmer': Trump acknowledges human role in climate change</a>

Once&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;even tweeted, "So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!"

He had also earned a "How dare you?" from&nbsp;Thunberg&nbsp;after the president tweeted, "She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future."

Trump&nbsp;had recently finally acknowledged climate change despite repeated warnings.&nbsp;Biden, on the other hand, had reached out to&nbsp;Thunberg&nbsp;to discuss about climate change and has often applauded the 17-year-old's commitment towards the cause.

The young environment activist Greta Thunberg has lent support to the Democratic candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden in the upcoming US elections. Thunberg has tried to stay away from participating in the politics.

The young environment activist Greta Thunberg has lent support to the Democratic candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden in the upcoming US elections. Thunberg has tried to stay away from participating in the politics. However, this time, she claims the elections are different. Also read| Allan Lichtman: The man who has correctly predicted US election since 1984 "I never engage in party politics. But the upcoming US elections is above and beyond all that." the 17-year-old tweeted. I never engage in party politics. But the upcoming US elections is above and beyond all that. From a climate perspective it’s very far from enough and many of you of course supported other candidates. But, I mean…you know…damn! Just get organized and get everyone to vote #Biden https://t.co/gFttFBZK5O — Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) October 10, 2020 × The Swedish activist took to Twitter to openly lend her support to Joe Biden, instead of the current US President Donald Trump. Also read| US election 2020: Trump or Biden? Astrologers predict the next President "From a climate perspective it’s very far from enough and many of you of course supported other candidates. But, I mean…you know…damn!," she said. "Just get organized and get everyone to vote #Biden," she added. Thunberg's support towards Biden was expected by the experts as the activist and Trump have not been on each other's favourite list for the past few years. Also read| 'Getting warmer': Trump acknowledges human role in climate change Once Trump even tweeted, "So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!" He had also earned a "How dare you?" from Thunberg after the president tweeted, "She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future." Trump had recently finally acknowledged climate change despite repeated warnings. Biden, on the other hand, had reached out to Thunberg to discuss about climate change and has often applauded the 17-year-old's commitment towards the cause.

US election 2020: Greta Thunberg urges people to vote for Joe Biden

Macron has announced that France will provide 100 million euros as emergency aid to the flood-hit region.

France to provide 100 MN euros to flood-hit region

The arctic ice cover is disappearing and within decades there could be no ice covering the arctic during the summer months. Scientists are racing against time to save and protest the fragile arctic ecosystem.

Can we save the arctic from destruction? Scientists race to save arctic ecosystem | WION News

Britain's Prince William on Thursday launched the "most prestigious" environmental prize of all time, aimed at turning "pessimism into optimism" by rewarding innovative solutions to the planet's biggest problems.

The Earthshot Prize will present five £1 million ($1.3-million, 1.1-million-euro) awards each year for the next 10 years, to "incentivise change and help to repair our planet over the next ten years," said his office in London.

Kensington Palace described it as the "most prestigious global environment prize in history" and said it was inspired by US president John F. Kennedy's "Moonshot" project in the 1960s.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/prince-william-calls-for-action-on-climate-in-new-documentary-332529">Also read|&nbsp;Prince William calls for action on climate in new documentary</a>

"We need to find solutions to be able to live our lives and enjoy our lives and not feel guilty and bad about some of the things we do," the prince, who is second in line to the throne, told BBC Radio 4 in an interview aired Thursday.

"That ultimately has to change, because I also worry from a mental health point of view, the anxiety and the worry that many of these younger generations are going to have."

He said he hopes the prize will "galvanise and bring together the best minds, the best possible solutions, to fixing and tackling some of the world's greatest environmental challenges".

"The next 10 years are a critical decade for change. Time is of the essence, which is why we believe that this very ambitious global prize is the only way forward."

The project is centred around five "simple but ambitious" aims to be met by 2030: "protect and restore nature", "clean our air", "revive our oceans", "build a waste-free world", and "fix our climate".

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/ruin-and-regrowth-in-david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet-332633">Also read|&nbsp;Ruin and Regrowth in ‘David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet’</a>

The prize is supported by a coalition of individuals, organisations and businesses with the winners to be announced each year at a ceremony in a different city around the globe, starting with London in 2021.

Prizes can be awarded to individuals or teams, whether they be scientists, activists, economists, governments, business leaders and even countries.

"The Earthshot Prize aims to turn the current pessimism surrounding environmental issues into optimism that we can rise to the biggest challenges of our time," said the palace.

"But the Prize is about much more than awarding achievement -– it is a decade of action to... inspire people all over the world to work together to repair the planet."

William praised his father Prince Charles's for his long-running environmental campaigning, joking to the BBC: "I regularly wonder what my father's banging on about. I'm sure every son thinks the same.&nbsp;

"But... he's talked about this for a long time and long before people sort of cottoned on to climate change.

"So I've always listened to and learnt and believed in what he was saying."

Britain's Prince William on Thursday launched the "most prestigious" environmental prize of all time, aimed at turning "pessimism into optimism" by rewarding innovative solutions to the planet's biggest problems.

Britain's Prince William on Thursday launched the "most prestigious" environmental prize of all time, aimed at turning "pessimism into optimism" by rewarding innovative solutions to the planet's biggest problems. The Earthshot Prize will present five £1 million ($1.3-million, 1.1-million-euro) awards each year for the next 10 years, to "incentivise change and help to repair our planet over the next ten years," said his office in London. Kensington Palace described it as the "most prestigious global environment prize in history" and said it was inspired by US president John F. Kennedy's "Moonshot" project in the 1960s. Also read| Prince William calls for action on climate in new documentary "We need to find solutions to be able to live our lives and enjoy our lives and not feel guilty and bad about some of the things we do," the prince, who is second in line to the throne, told BBC Radio 4 in an interview aired Thursday. "That ultimately has to change, because I also worry from a mental health point of view, the anxiety and the worry that many of these younger generations are going to have." He said he hopes the prize will "galvanise and bring together the best minds, the best possible solutions, to fixing and tackling some of the world's greatest environmental challenges". "The next 10 years are a critical decade for change. Time is of the essence, which is why we believe that this very ambitious global prize is the only way forward." The project is centred around five "simple but ambitious" aims to be met by 2030: "protect and restore nature", "clean our air", "revive our oceans", "build a waste-free world", and "fix our climate". Also read| Ruin and Regrowth in ‘David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet’ The prize is supported by a coalition of individuals, organisations and businesses with the winners to be announced each year at a ceremony in a different city around the globe, starting with London in 2021. Prizes can be awarded to individuals or teams, whether they be scientists, activists, economists, governments, business leaders and even countries. "The Earthshot Prize aims to turn the current pessimism surrounding environmental issues into optimism that we can rise to the biggest challenges of our time," said the palace. "But the Prize is about much more than awarding achievement -– it is a decade of action to... inspire people all over the world to work together to repair the planet." William praised his father Prince Charles's for his long-running environmental campaigning, joking to the BBC: "I regularly wonder what my father's banging on about. I'm sure every son thinks the same. "But... he's talked about this for a long time and long before people sort of cottoned on to climate change. "So I've always listened to and learnt and believed in what he was saying."

Prince William launches 'most prestigious' environment prize

The global downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic offers an opportunity for governments to implement new policies that could simultaneously address climate change and boost the economy, the IMF said Wednesday.

The right mix of carbon taxes to dampen consumption, and subsidies to help consumers and boost green technology research could create jobs and soften the blow as countries transition to greener energy sources, the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook.

"Fiscal stimulus — which will likely be needed in the aftermath of the pandemic — can be an opportunity to boost green and resilient public infrastructure," the report said.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/global-warming-makes-september-2020-the-worlds-hottest-month-ever-333135">Also read:&nbsp;Global warming makes September, 2020 the world's hottest month ever</a>

IMF research showed there is still time to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 but the window "is closing rapidly," and advanced economies alone cannot reach the goal.

"Joint action by the largest economies is critical to avoid the worst outcomes of climate change," the fund said, singling out fast-growing countries like India.

"An initial green investment push combined with initially moderate and gradually rising carbon prices would deliver the needed emission reductions" while rebates or subsidies to low income households would soften the blow from higher energy prices, according to the proposal.

Most of the costs are offset by the expected 120 percent growth in global GDP by 2050, and by the absence of negative impacts that climate change is likely to have, including on the health of populations due to worsening pollution.

The global downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic offers an opportunity for governments to implement new policies that could simultaneously address climate change and boost the economy, the IMF said Wednesday.

The global downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic offers an opportunity for governments to implement new policies that could simultaneously address climate change and boost the economy, the IMF said Wednesday. The right mix of carbon taxes to dampen consumption, and subsidies to help consumers and boost green technology research could create jobs and soften the blow as countries transition to greener energy sources, the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook. "Fiscal stimulus — which will likely be needed in the aftermath of the pandemic — can be an opportunity to boost green and resilient public infrastructure," the report said. Also read: Global warming makes September, 2020 the world's hottest month ever IMF research showed there is still time to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 but the window "is closing rapidly," and advanced economies alone cannot reach the goal. "Joint action by the largest economies is critical to avoid the worst outcomes of climate change," the fund said, singling out fast-growing countries like India. "An initial green investment push combined with initially moderate and gradually rising carbon prices would deliver the needed emission reductions" while rebates or subsidies to low income households would soften the blow from higher energy prices, according to the proposal. Most of the costs are offset by the expected 120 percent growth in global GDP by 2050, and by the absence of negative impacts that climate change is likely to have, including on the health of populations due to worsening pollution.

Pandemic downturn offers path to address climate change: IMF

September, 2020 was the hottest month ever!

According to the weather service Copernicus, September this year was 0.05 degree Celsius hotter than last year.

Many scientists have claimed that it’s a direct product of emissions from human beings.

Global warming

The European Union’s Earth observation programme, Copernicus highlighted the unprecedented warming that has taken place in the Siberian Arctic, which is way above average.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/india-news/our-planet-is-dying-soon-meet-indias-youngest-climate-change-activist-330891" hreflang="en">'Our planet is dying soon': Meet India's youngest climate change activist</a>

Additionally, Arctic&nbsp;sea ice has also reached its second-lowest point since the inception of satellite records. Even if temperatures started simmering right now, it would still make 2020 the hottest year on record for Europe.

In fact, it was this global rise in temperatures which caused devastating wildfires in Australia, the US and caused bizarre weather across the globe. California’s Death Valley recorded the world’s hottest day ever this year at 54.4 degree Celsius (130 F), which is also a direct result of the sharp rise in temperatures.

In France, torrential rains that are expected once in 100 years devastated parts of the country twice in a month. At least half a metre of rain was recorded everyday.

In conversation with the BBC, Samantha Burgess, Copernicus Climate Change Service’s deputy director called the events “extraordinary”. "Some of these events are extraordinary – although we mustn't create a false expectation that temperatures will go up year on year”, Burgess said.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/getting-warmer-trump-acknowledges-human-role-in-climate-change-331687" hreflang="en">'Getting warmer': Trump acknowledges human role in climate change</a>

Burgess, however, did that add such changes were predicted, “given our effect on the climate”.

It’s not uncommon for weather records to be broken in natural circumstances, but due to the ill-effects of human activity, the records are being broken more often.

The UK alone recorded its hottest spring on record. In August, the country witnessed the highest number of days touching 34 degree Celsius.

These events are in line with a one degree increase in earth’s temperature. Scientists say that if a degree could cause so much damage, the projected 3 degree average global increase.

September, 2020 was the hottest month ever! According to the weather service Copernicus, September this year was 0.05 degree Celsius hotter than last year. Many scientists have claimed that it’s a direct product of emissions from human beings.

September, 2020 was the hottest month ever! According to the weather service Copernicus, September this year was 0.05 degree Celsius hotter than last year. Many scientists have claimed that it’s a direct product of emissions from human beings. Global warming The European Union’s Earth observation programme, Copernicus highlighted the unprecedented warming that has taken place in the Siberian Arctic, which is way above average. Also read: 'Our planet is dying soon': Meet India's youngest climate change activist Additionally, Arctic sea ice has also reached its second-lowest point since the inception of satellite records. Even if temperatures started simmering right now, it would still make 2020 the hottest year on record for Europe. In fact, it was this global rise in temperatures which caused devastating wildfires in Australia, the US and caused bizarre weather across the globe. California’s Death Valley recorded the world’s hottest day ever this year at 54.4 degree Celsius (130 F), which is also a direct result of the sharp rise in temperatures. In France, torrential rains that are expected once in 100 years devastated parts of the country twice in a month. At least half a metre of rain was recorded everyday. In conversation with the BBC, Samantha Burgess, Copernicus Climate Change Service’s deputy director called the events “extraordinary”. "Some of these events are extraordinary – although we mustn't create a false expectation that temperatures will go up year on year”, Burgess said. Also read: 'Getting warmer': Trump acknowledges human role in climate change Burgess, however, did that add such changes were predicted, “given our effect on the climate”. It’s not uncommon for weather records to be broken in natural circumstances, but due to the ill-effects of human activity, the records are being broken more often. The UK alone recorded its hottest spring on record. In August, the country witnessed the highest number of days touching 34 degree Celsius. These events are in line with a one degree increase in earth’s temperature. Scientists say that if a degree could cause so much damage, the projected 3 degree average global increase.

Global warming makes September, 2020 the world's hottest month ever

Hurricane Delta weakened to a Category 3 storm ahead of its expected landfall Wednesday on the Yucatan peninsula.

Mexico braces for 'catastrophic' hurricane Delta

As many as 14 million tonnes of plastic pieces less than 5 mm wide are likely present at the bottom of the oceans, a new research estimated.

CSIRO, Australian government's science agency, collected and analysed cores of the ocean floor taken at six remote regions nearly 300 km off the nation's southern coast in the Great Australian Bight, reported The Guardian.&nbsp;

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/plastic-pollution-flowing-into-oceans-to-triple-by-2040-study-315624">Plastic pollution flowing into oceans to triple by 2040: Study</a>

Researchers studied 51 samples and concluded that it is likely that there is 30 times as much plastic at the bottom of the seven oceans as is present at the surface. &nbsp;

They also found that each gram of ocean's sediment contained about 1.26 microplastic pieces on an average.&nbsp;

Microplastics have a diameter of 5 mm or less and are generally formed after they broke away from bigger plastic items.&nbsp;

Dr Denise Hardesty, CSIRO's principal research scientist and study's co-author said that finding these microplastics in such a remote site suggests the "ubiquity of plastics, no matter where you are in the world".

"This means it's throughout the water column. This gives us pause for thought about the world we live in and the impact of our consumer habits on what’s considered a most pristine place," Hardesty said.

"We need to make sure the big blue is not a big trash pit. This is more evidence that we need to stop this at the source." 
&nbsp;

As many as 14 million tonnes of plastic pieces less than 5 mm wide are likely present at the bottom of the oceans, a new research estimated. CSIRO, Australian government's science agency, collected and analysed cores of the ocean floor taken at six remote regions nearly 300 km off the nation's southern coast in the Great Australian Bight, reported The Guardian.

As many as 14 million tonnes of plastic pieces less than 5 mm wide are likely present at the bottom of the oceans, a new research estimated. CSIRO, Australian government's science agency, collected and analysed cores of the ocean floor taken at six remote regions nearly 300 km off the nation's southern coast in the Great Australian Bight, reported The Guardian. Also read | Plastic pollution flowing into oceans to triple by 2040: Study Researchers studied 51 samples and concluded that it is likely that there is 30 times as much plastic at the bottom of the seven oceans as is present at the surface. They also found that each gram of ocean's sediment contained about 1.26 microplastic pieces on an average. Microplastics have a diameter of 5 mm or less and are generally formed after they broke away from bigger plastic items. Dr Denise Hardesty, CSIRO's principal research scientist and study's co-author said that finding these microplastics in such a remote site suggests the "ubiquity of plastics, no matter where you are in the world". "This means it's throughout the water column. This gives us pause for thought about the world we live in and the impact of our consumer habits on what’s considered a most pristine place," Hardesty said. "We need to make sure the big blue is not a big trash pit. This is more evidence that we need to stop this at the source."

Plastics weighing 14 million tonnes likely present at bottom of oceans: Study

A northern California wildfire raging in the foothills of the Cascade range has claimed 31 lives, officials said on Monday

WION Dispatch: 4 million acres of land burnt till now in California

Flooding from record rains in a mountainous region of France and Italy has killed two people and left at least nine missing. Storm Alex ravaged villages around the city of Nice on the French Riviera, sweeping away roads and damaging homes.

Floods, landslides, devastation of houses; Storm Alex batters France & Italy

President Donald Trump publicly acknowledged that humans bear some blame for climate change, but scientists say the president still isn't dealing with the reality of our primary role.

Pressed repeatedly in Tuesday night's debate, Trump gave one of his fullest accountings yet of what scientists say is an escalating climate crisis threatening every aspect of life. Pushed by moderator Chris Wallace, and at one point by rival Joe Biden, Trump also pushed back on scientific findings that his environmental rollbacks would increase climate-damaging pollution.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-elections-2020-debate-commission-promises-orderly-debate-next-time-331621">US elections: Debate Commission promises 'orderly' debate next time</a>

The climate change exchange represented a rare microburst of policy discussion from Trump in a loud, nerve-abrading debate. And it ever so lightly nailed down the position of the Republican president on climate change.

''It is a sad statement about the President's history on climate change, but it is a major development to see him clearly acknowledge a role of greenhouse gases from human emissions,''&nbsp;said Chris Field, director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.

''It's still outright denial of the science, in addition to denial of the devastating impacts,&nbsp;such as the record wildfires once again forcing evacuations in the Western US,'' said Michael Mann, a Pennsylvania State University climate researcher and a veteran in scientists' battle to make ordinary people and leaders face facts on global warming.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/bidens-inshallah-in-response-to-trump-during-debate-lights-up-twitter-331534" hreflang="en">Biden's 'inshallah' in response to Trump during debate lights up Twitter</a>

Trump said Tuesday that humans ''their tailpipe exhaust, oil and gas production, and smokestack fumes''&nbsp;are just one of many culprits for the weather-disrupting deterioration of Earth's atmosphere.

''You believe that human pollution, gas, greenhouse gas emissions contributes to the global warming of this planet?&nbsp;Wallace asked.

''I think a lot of things do, but I think to an extent, yes,''&nbsp;Trump finally responded after Wallace's third question pressing on the point.

Trump had evaded a direct answer to Wallace's previous two questions, instead responding with his administration's standard lines: It wants clean water and clean air, it supports planting trees and it blames worsening wildfires on Western states' failure to rake dead leaves, branches and trees on forest floors. Trump's eventual answer still dodged the key point, which is that burning oil, gas and coal is damaging the climate.

''Humans more than account for all of the climate change over the last 50 years (when the vast amount of the changes have occurred),''&nbsp;Donald J. Wuebbles, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois, said in an email.

Wuebbles, a lead author in the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment in 2017-18, said because of a change in energy from the sun, Earth had been on a slight cooling trend before human-made heat-trapping gases kicked in.

Trump's attacks on climate scientists and repeated attempts to undo rules and laws reining in fossil-fuel emissions speak ''louder than any reluctant admissions about our changing climate,''&nbsp;said Kim Cobb, professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The position Trump took Tuesday is more conservative than that of many lawmakers in his party. Some Republican members of Congress became more outspoken on human-made climate change after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats demanding aggressive action on global warming triumphed in 2018 midterms.

Trump's response Tuesday came under pressure, but he did take a position and acknowledge a human role. That compares to past statements from 2012 on in which Trump dismissed the science behind global warming as a 'concept'&nbsp;invented by China to hurt the United States, a 'hoax'&nbsp;and a 'money-making industry'.

&nbsp;As recently as mid-September, he told California leaders struggling with the worsening wildfires associated with global warming that the climate would ''start getting cooler,&nbsp;again. You just watch,''&nbsp;he added.

On Tuesday, after Trump nodded at a human role in climate change, Wallace asked him why he then had undone the Clean Power Plan. That was a legacy Obama administration climate change effort intended to move US&nbsp;Utilities away from the dirtiest fossil-fuel plants.

''Because it was driving energy prices through the sky,''&nbsp;Trump responded.

That's an exaggeration. The US&nbsp;Energy Information Administration projects electricity prices would have averaged 2 per cent&nbsp;higher through 2030 with Obama's emissions-cutting power plan, mainly from the initial costs of adding more solar, wind and natural gas production to the electricity mix.

Biden jumped in with his own question, asking Trump why he was axing President Barack Obama's other major climate effort ? much tougher mileage standards that would have boosted electric cars.

The Obama administration said its move would have cut 6 billion metric tons in greenhouse gases. Trump's answers didn't address the climate damage, and he claimed to have given ''big incentives''&nbsp;for electric cars. In fact, Trump had vowed to eliminate some tax credits boosting electric vehicles, and the White House has said it wants to do away with all incentives supporting renewables as well.

Wallace pressed Biden on his $2 trillion proposal to wean the United States off fossil fuels, citing Trump's claims that the plan would ?tank? the economy and cost jobs. Biden responded by describing massive investments in more efficient buildings, transportation and power plants that he said would produce millions of jobs.

Biden appeared to stumble at one point as he spoke of his plan, and Wallace and Trump pressed him on the left's more ambitious Green New Deal, with Biden saying the Green New Deal,&nbsp;rather than his plan, would ''pay for itself''.&nbsp;Biden specified a couple seconds later, ''No, I don't support the Green New Deal.''

President Donald Trump publicly acknowledged that humans bear some blame for climate change, but scientists say the president still isn't dealing with the reality of our primary role.

President Donald Trump publicly acknowledged that humans bear some blame for climate change, but scientists say the president still isn't dealing with the reality of our primary role. Pressed repeatedly in Tuesday night's debate, Trump gave one of his fullest accountings yet of what scientists say is an escalating climate crisis threatening every aspect of life. Pushed by moderator Chris Wallace, and at one point by rival Joe Biden, Trump also pushed back on scientific findings that his environmental rollbacks would increase climate-damaging pollution. Also read: US elections: Debate Commission promises 'orderly' debate next time The climate change exchange represented a rare microburst of policy discussion from Trump in a loud, nerve-abrading debate. And it ever so lightly nailed down the position of the Republican president on climate change. ''It is a sad statement about the President's history on climate change, but it is a major development to see him clearly acknowledge a role of greenhouse gases from human emissions,'' said Chris Field, director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. ''It's still outright denial of the science, in addition to denial of the devastating impacts, such as the record wildfires once again forcing evacuations in the Western US,'' said Michael Mann, a Pennsylvania State University climate researcher and a veteran in scientists' battle to make ordinary people and leaders face facts on global warming. Also read: Biden's 'inshallah' in response to Trump during debate lights up Twitter Trump said Tuesday that humans ''their tailpipe exhaust, oil and gas production, and smokestack fumes'' are just one of many culprits for the weather-disrupting deterioration of Earth's atmosphere. ''You believe that human pollution, gas, greenhouse gas emissions contributes to the global warming of this planet? Wallace asked. ''I think a lot of things do, but I think to an extent, yes,'' Trump finally responded after Wallace's third question pressing on the point. Trump had evaded a direct answer to Wallace's previous two questions, instead responding with his administration's standard lines: It wants clean water and clean air, it supports planting trees and it blames worsening wildfires on Western states' failure to rake dead leaves, branches and trees on forest floors. Trump's eventual answer still dodged the key point, which is that burning oil, gas and coal is damaging the climate. ''Humans more than account for all of the climate change over the last 50 years (when the vast amount of the changes have occurred),'' Donald J. Wuebbles, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois, said in an email. Wuebbles, a lead author in the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment in 2017-18, said because of a change in energy from the sun, Earth had been on a slight cooling trend before human-made heat-trapping gases kicked in. Trump's attacks on climate scientists and repeated attempts to undo rules and laws reining in fossil-fuel emissions speak ''louder than any reluctant admissions about our changing climate,'' said Kim Cobb, professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The position Trump took Tuesday is more conservative than that of many lawmakers in his party. Some Republican members of Congress became more outspoken on human-made climate change after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats demanding aggressive action on global warming triumphed in 2018 midterms. Trump's response Tuesday came under pressure, but he did take a position and acknowledge a human role. That compares to past statements from 2012 on in which Trump dismissed the science behind global warming as a 'concept' invented by China to hurt the United States, a 'hoax' and a 'money-making industry'. As recently as mid-September, he told California leaders struggling with the worsening wildfires associated with global warming that the climate would ''start getting cooler, again. You just watch,'' he added. On Tuesday, after Trump nodded at a human role in climate change, Wallace asked him why he then had undone the Clean Power Plan. That was a legacy Obama administration climate change effort intended to move US Utilities away from the dirtiest fossil-fuel plants. ''Because it was driving energy prices through the sky,'' Trump responded. That's an exaggeration. The US Energy Information Administration projects electricity prices would have averaged 2 per cent higher through 2030 with Obama's emissions-cutting power plan, mainly from the initial costs of adding more solar, wind and natural gas production to the electricity mix. Biden jumped in with his own question, asking Trump why he was axing President Barack Obama's other major climate effort ? much tougher mileage standards that would have boosted electric cars. The Obama administration said its move would have cut 6 billion metric tons in greenhouse gases. Trump's answers didn't address the climate damage, and he claimed to have given ''big incentives'' for electric cars. In fact, Trump had vowed to eliminate some tax credits boosting electric vehicles, and the White House has said it wants to do away with all incentives supporting renewables as well. Wallace pressed Biden on his $2 trillion proposal to wean the United States off fossil fuels, citing Trump's claims that the plan would ?tank? the economy and cost jobs. Biden responded by describing massive investments in more efficient buildings, transportation and power plants that he said would produce millions of jobs. Biden appeared to stumble at one point as he spoke of his plan, and Wallace and Trump pressed him on the left's more ambitious Green New Deal, with Biden saying the Green New Deal, rather than his plan, would ''pay for itself''. Biden specified a couple seconds later, ''No, I don't support the Green New Deal.''

'Getting warmer': Trump acknowledges human role in climate change

Approximately forty percent or two-fifths&nbsp;of the world's plants are at risk of extinction, scientists have warned.

Researchers say they are racing against time to name and describe new species, before they disappear.

Plants hold huge promise as medicines, fuels and foods, says a report by the royal botanic gardens, kew. These unknown species are a ''treasure chest'' of food, medicine and biofuels.&nbsp;

But opportunities are being lost to use plants and fungi to address global issues such as food security and climate change.

Over 4,000 species of plants and fungi belonging to the same group as onion, garlic, spinach, cassava and a sea holly were discovered in 2019.

While&nbsp;cassava can help in securing the staple crop eaten by 800 miliion people, the relatives of&nbsp;sea holly is anti-malarial and can treat inflammation.

The assessment of the state of the world's plants and fungi is based on research from more than 200 scientists in 42 countries.

The report was released on the eve of a united nations summit, which will press for action from world leaders to address biodiversity loss.

The scientists estimate that the extinction risk may be much higher than previously thought, with an estimated 140,000, or 39.4 per cent, of vascular plants estimated to be threatened with extinction, compared with 21 per cent&nbsp;in 2016.

The research found 723 plants used for medicine are at risk of extinction, with over-harvesting a problem in some parts of the world.

Approximately forty percent or two-fifths of the world's plants are at risk of extinction, scientists have warned. Researchers say they are racing against time to name and describe new species, before they disappear.

Approximately forty percent or two-fifths of the world's plants are at risk of extinction, scientists have warned. Researchers say they are racing against time to name and describe new species, before they disappear. Plants hold huge promise as medicines, fuels and foods, says a report by the royal botanic gardens, kew. These unknown species are a ''treasure chest'' of food, medicine and biofuels. But opportunities are being lost to use plants and fungi to address global issues such as food security and climate change. Over 4,000 species of plants and fungi belonging to the same group as onion, garlic, spinach, cassava and a sea holly were discovered in 2019. While cassava can help in securing the staple crop eaten by 800 miliion people, the relatives of sea holly is anti-malarial and can treat inflammation. The assessment of the state of the world's plants and fungi is based on research from more than 200 scientists in 42 countries. The report was released on the eve of a united nations summit, which will press for action from world leaders to address biodiversity loss. The scientists estimate that the extinction risk may be much higher than previously thought, with an estimated 140,000, or 39.4 per cent, of vascular plants estimated to be threatened with extinction, compared with 21 per cent in 2016. The research found 723 plants used for medicine are at risk of extinction, with over-harvesting a problem in some parts of the world.

40% of plant species facing risk of extinction: Report

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's government on Monday revoked regulations protecting mangroves and other fragile coastal ecosystems, despite them being&nbsp;on the front line of climate change.

The decision eliminated so-called "permanent protection zones" created in 2002 to preserve Brazil's many tropical mangroves and the sand-dune scrublands known as "restinga" along its Atlantic coast.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/as-fires-burn-bolsonaro-says-brazil-should-be-congratulated-for-its-environment-work-328408">As fires burn, Bolsonaro says Brazil should be congratulated for its 'environment work'</a>

Environmentalists condemned the measure&nbsp;as a "crime" that would lead to their destruction and&nbsp;warned that rolling back the regulations would open such lands up to development, with possibly catastrophic impact on their ecosystems.

"These areas are already under intense pressure from real-estate development," said Mario Mantovani, head of environmental group SOS Mata Atlantica.

Also see:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/brazil-president-jair-bolsonaro-and-his-non-normal-antics-314020">Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro and his 'non-normal' antics</a>

Mangroves cover 13,989 square kilometers along Brazil’s coast, an area larger than the US&nbsp;state of Maryland, and are a vital protection against climate change, according to biologist Renato de Almeida with the nearby Federal University of Reconcavo da Bahia.

It is the latest in a series of environmental controversies for the far-right president, who has presided over a surge in deforestation and fires in the Amazon rainforest and Pantanal wetlands since taking office in January 2019.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/brazilian-mayor-asks-bolsonaro-to-resign-shut-up-and-stay-at-home-as-death-toll-mounts-300982">Brazilian mayor asks Bolsonaro to 'resign, shut up, and stay at home' as death toll mounts</a>

The decision was made at a meeting of the National Environmental Council (Conama), which is presided over by controversial Environment Minister Ricardo Salles.

The council brings together government officials, environmental groups and business associations, but the administration has dramatically changed its composition.

Last year, the government issued a decree reducing the number of council members from 96 to 23, giving its own members more weight.

In other decisions, the council also repealed a measure requiring environmental permits for irrigation projects and authorized cement companies to burn empty pesticide containers to recycle them in concrete, a practice environmentalists say is highly polluting.

"Even as we witness record environmental devastation and Brazil is in flames, Salles dedicates his time to promoting even more destruction," environmental group Greenpeace said in a statement on the measures.

Salles has a knack for stirring up controversy.

In April, a video recording was made public of a Bolsonaro cabinet meeting at which the environment minister said the coronavirus pandemic was an opportunity to roll back regulations "now that the media's only talking about Covid."

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's government on Monday revoked regulations protecting mangroves and other fragile coastal ecosystems, despite them being on the front line of climate change.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's government on Monday revoked regulations protecting mangroves and other fragile coastal ecosystems, despite them being on the front line of climate change. The decision eliminated so-called "permanent protection zones" created in 2002 to preserve Brazil's many tropical mangroves and the sand-dune scrublands known as "restinga" along its Atlantic coast. Also read: As fires burn, Bolsonaro says Brazil should be congratulated for its 'environment work' Environmentalists condemned the measure as a "crime" that would lead to their destruction and warned that rolling back the regulations would open such lands up to development, with possibly catastrophic impact on their ecosystems. "These areas are already under intense pressure from real-estate development," said Mario Mantovani, head of environmental group SOS Mata Atlantica. Also see: Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro and his 'non-normal' antics Mangroves cover 13,989 square kilometers along Brazil’s coast, an area larger than the US state of Maryland, and are a vital protection against climate change, according to biologist Renato de Almeida with the nearby Federal University of Reconcavo da Bahia. It is the latest in a series of environmental controversies for the far-right president, who has presided over a surge in deforestation and fires in the Amazon rainforest and Pantanal wetlands since taking office in January 2019. Also read: Brazilian mayor asks Bolsonaro to 'resign, shut up, and stay at home' as death toll mounts The decision was made at a meeting of the National Environmental Council (Conama), which is presided over by controversial Environment Minister Ricardo Salles. The council brings together government officials, environmental groups and business associations, but the administration has dramatically changed its composition. Last year, the government issued a decree reducing the number of council members from 96 to 23, giving its own members more weight. In other decisions, the council also repealed a measure requiring environmental permits for irrigation projects and authorized cement companies to burn empty pesticide containers to recycle them in concrete, a practice environmentalists say is highly polluting. "Even as we witness record environmental devastation and Brazil is in flames, Salles dedicates his time to promoting even more destruction," environmental group Greenpeace said in a statement on the measures. Salles has a knack for stirring up controversy. In April, a video recording was made public of a Bolsonaro cabinet meeting at which the environment minister said the coronavirus pandemic was an opportunity to roll back regulations "now that the media's only talking about Covid."

Brazil: Bolsonaro's government triggers alarm after revoking mangrove protections

An 8-year-old climate change activist from India, Licypriya Kangujam is trying to single-handedly save the planet before we reach a point of no return.

Kangujam told Reuters that she intends to embark on a solo mission to the moon when she’s older in a bid to find ways to save the Earth. "I will go to the moon and I will research how we can get the fresh air to breathe, and how we can get water, fresh water to drink, and food, how to grow the crops," she said.

Kangujam is one of the world’s youngest climate change activists. Reuters reported that she felt it was a cause worth taking up after witnessing the immense devastation and loss of life caused in Nepal when earthquakes struck the country in 2015. The quakes took lives of 9,000 people and reduced one million homes to rubble.

<h6><img alt="Licypriya Kangujam, 8, India's young climate activist, carrying a placard is stopped by a policewoman during a protest demanding to pass a climate change law outside the parliament in New Delhi, India, September 23, 2020" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="ddbb54a3-89fb-4428-b5fb-b78c0da04527" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Untitled%20design%20%281%29_154.jpg" />Licypriya Kangujam, 8, India's young climate activist, carrying a placard is stopped by a policewoman during a protest demanding to pass a climate change law outside the parliament in New Delhi, India, September 23, 2020 | Reuters</h6>

When she was only four, Kangujam, with the help of her father raised funds for the affected by the tragedy.

Now, she wants Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take notice of her cause. She wants lawmakers in the country to pass new legislation to cap carbon emissions. India is the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

"I am fighting to save our planet and our future," she said during a protest outside the Indian Parliament on September 23.

She bore a placard saying, “Child movement for climate, pass the climate change law."

Kangujam is a native of the Indian northeastern state of Manipur, which is home to much clearer air as opposed to the capital New Delhi, which makes global headlines every year for pollution during winters.

"I am worried about the health of the school children and small, small babies," Kangujam told Reuters.

”Our planet is dying soon”, she said.

An 8-year-old climate change activist from India, Licypriya Kangujam is trying to single-handedly save the planet before we reach a point of no return. Kangujam told Reuters that she intends to embark on a solo mission to the moon when she’s older in a bid to find ways to save the Earth.

An 8-year-old climate change activist from India, Licypriya Kangujam is trying to single-handedly save the planet before we reach a point of no return. Kangujam told Reuters that she intends to embark on a solo mission to the moon when she’s older in a bid to find ways to save the Earth. "I will go to the moon and I will research how we can get the fresh air to breathe, and how we can get water, fresh water to drink, and food, how to grow the crops," she said. Kangujam is one of the world’s youngest climate change activists. Reuters reported that she felt it was a cause worth taking up after witnessing the immense devastation and loss of life caused in Nepal when earthquakes struck the country in 2015. The quakes took lives of 9,000 people and reduced one million homes to rubble. Licypriya Kangujam, 8, India's young climate activist, carrying a placard is stopped by a policewoman during a protest demanding to pass a climate change law outside the parliament in New Delhi, India, September 23, 2020 | Reuters When she was only four, Kangujam, with the help of her father raised funds for the affected by the tragedy. Now, she wants Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take notice of her cause. She wants lawmakers in the country to pass new legislation to cap carbon emissions. India is the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. "I am fighting to save our planet and our future," she said during a protest outside the Indian Parliament on September 23. She bore a placard saying, “Child movement for climate, pass the climate change law." Kangujam is a native of the Indian northeastern state of Manipur, which is home to much clearer air as opposed to the capital New Delhi, which makes global headlines every year for pollution during winters. "I am worried about the health of the school children and small, small babies," Kangujam told Reuters. ”Our planet is dying soon”, she said.

'Our planet is dying soon': Meet India's youngest climate change activist

United under Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, young people rallied across the world on Friday to demand urgent action to halt catastrophic&nbsp;climate&nbsp;change, in their first global action during the coronavirus pandemic.

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With wild weather wreaking havoc across the world,&nbsp;from fires ravaging the US&nbsp;West, to abnormal heatwaves in the Siberian Arctic and record floods in China,&nbsp;organisers said the protests would remind politicians that while the world was focused on COVID-19, the&nbsp;climate&nbsp;crisis has not gone away.

Demonstrations were planned in more than 3,100 locations, with Australia, Japan and Fiji among the first to kick off,&nbsp;though with pandemic-related curbs limiting the size of gatherings, much of the action shifted online.

The demonstration, organised by the Fridays For Future movement, was part of a series of world-wide protests that were expected to be confined to small gatherings and online activism due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The young activists were calling for immediate&nbsp;climate&nbsp;action, holding banners reading "Stop Denying the&nbsp;Climate&nbsp;is Dying" and "Don't Be a Fossil Fool." and mnany had slogans on their masks.

They demand that lawmakers stick to the 2015 landmark Paris climate deal that asks both rich and poor countries to take action to curb the rise in global temperatures that is melting glaciers, raising sea levels and shifting rainfall patterns.

Thunberg said the aim of the protests was to raise awareness, impact public opinion and put pressure on people in power to take action to solve the&nbsp;climate&nbsp;crisis.

Like many of her generation,&nbsp;Mya-Rose&nbsp;Craig&nbsp;feels strongly that adults have failed to take the urgent action needed to tackle global warming and so she has headed to the Arctic Ocean to protest.

Armed with a placard reading 'Youth Strike for Climate", the 18-year-old British activist is staging the most northerly protest in a series of youth strikes worldwide.

The strikes, made famous by Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, are resuming after a lull caused by the global coronavirus pandemic to draw public attention back to the threat posed by climate change.

Thousands of young people took to the streets of Berlin&nbsp;to protest against what they call government inaction on the&nbsp;climate&nbsp;crisis.

Protesters cycled in groups to the city's landmark, the Brandenburg Gate for a rally following a call for a global&nbsp;climate&nbsp;strike by youth activist movement Fridays For Future.

United under Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, young people rallied across the world on Friday to demand urgent action to halt catastrophic climate change, in their first global action during the coronavirus pandemic.

United under Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, young people rallied across the world on Friday to demand urgent action to halt catastrophic climate change, in their first global action during the coronavirus pandemic. With wild weather wreaking havoc across the world, from fires ravaging the US West, to abnormal heatwaves in the Siberian Arctic and record floods in China, organisers said the protests would remind politicians that while the world was focused on COVID-19, the climate crisis has not gone away. Demonstrations were planned in more than 3,100 locations, with Australia, Japan and Fiji among the first to kick off, though with pandemic-related curbs limiting the size of gatherings, much of the action shifted online. The demonstration, organised by the Fridays For Future movement, was part of a series of world-wide protests that were expected to be confined to small gatherings and online activism due to the COVID-19 pandemic. × The young activists were calling for immediate climate action, holding banners reading "Stop Denying the Climate is Dying" and "Don't Be a Fossil Fool." and mnany had slogans on their masks. They demand that lawmakers stick to the 2015 landmark Paris climate deal that asks both rich and poor countries to take action to curb the rise in global temperatures that is melting glaciers, raising sea levels and shifting rainfall patterns. Thunberg said the aim of the protests was to raise awareness, impact public opinion and put pressure on people in power to take action to solve the climate crisis. Like many of her generation, Mya-Rose Craig feels strongly that adults have failed to take the urgent action needed to tackle global warming and so she has headed to the Arctic Ocean to protest. Armed with a placard reading 'Youth Strike for Climate", the 18-year-old British activist is staging the most northerly protest in a series of youth strikes worldwide. The strikes, made famous by Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, are resuming after a lull caused by the global coronavirus pandemic to draw public attention back to the threat posed by climate change. Thousands of young people took to the streets of Berlin to protest against what they call government inaction on the climate crisis. Protesters cycled in groups to the city's landmark, the Brandenburg Gate for a rally following a call for a global climate strike by youth activist movement Fridays For Future.

'Urgent action': Greta Thunberg and other youth climate protests make a return

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