Latest news with #climatecrisis
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
We can take meaningful action on climate or give handouts to billionaires, but not both
(Photo:) While Nevada's elected leaders have expressed a commitment to addressing the climate crisis, a new proposal under consideration raises questions about our state's priorities. The proposed expansion of Nevada's film tax credit program, which would direct hundreds of millions of dollars in public subsidies to Hollywood studios, risks sidelining urgent environmental and climate needs. At a time when bold action is needed to protect our communities and natural resources, this approach feels out of step. It's abundantly clear that Nevada is in a climate emergency. Wildfires are burning hotter and longer, filling our summers with smokey skies. Land managers warn this summer could bring catastrophic wildfires. The Great Basin is drying, and Lake Mead is sitting at thirty percent full. Communities from Las Vegas to Reno are enduring extreme heat, toxic air, and prolonged drought, and hundreds to thousands of Nevadans are dying each year as a result. We have proposed projects to protect our public lands, prevent extinction, and invest in sustainable transit, but we're told there's 'no money.' The proposal would allocate $95 million in annual transferable film tax credits for 15 years beginning in 2028, expanding our already-existing tax giveaways. The proposal will kick into place in 2028, and yet we have no way to know what our fiscal situation will be at that point in time. Just think of the roller coaster ride the 2020's have been so far, and the looming federal budget that could have sweeping impacts to Nevada's fiscal viability. Meanwhile, extreme heat is only getting worse, the Colorado River and Lake Mead are only getting drier, and our special places are only becoming more threatened. Our organization has spent years fighting for clean air protections, better public transportation, rooftop solar access, and the preservation of special landscapes like Red Rock National Conservation Area and Lake Tahoe. We're constantly met with budgetary constraints, told to be patient, to compromise. And yet the same state that balks at funding protections for pollinators and soil health is ready to roll out a red carpet for corporate film giants. Supporters of the film credit expansion claim it will bring jobs and economic growth, but as the independent economists at Applied Economics reported, the state would have a negative return on investment. States across the country have learned the hard way that film subsidies rarely pay off. Meanwhile, climate investments create durable jobs, foster resilience, and protect our future. Where are the investments for fighting wildfires, restoring wetlands, or public transportation? If Nevada has hundreds of millions of dollars to spend, let's spend it on the people and places that make this state worth living in, and ensure it will be livable in the next several decades, not on fleeting glitz and glamour. Let's fund the transition to a clean energy economy, build transit-to-trails networks, restore our watersheds, and protect the wild lands that make Nevada extraordinary. We have shelled out enough for corporations working against our interests. Why do we give tax handouts to the Boring Tunnel instead of funding mass transit? Why do water intensive data centers get huge tax breaks when we can't get funding for water conservation? Why did we give millions of dollars to build the A's stadium in the Las Vegas core when we can't get funding for urban forestry and mitigating urban heat? This proposed tax credit isn't just a bad policy. It's a missed opportunity to lead. Nevada should act in the best interests of those who live here, instead of enacting Hollywood handouts.
Sky News
7 hours ago
- Climate
- Sky News
At least 150 killed after heavy flooding in Nigeria
Torrents of water that barrelled through a market town in Nigeria's north-central state of Niger this week have now killed at least 151 people, officials said on Saturday. Heavy rain that began falling early on Thursday submerged the town of Mokwa, a major trading and transportation hub west of Abuja, where traders buy beans, onions and other food. The deluge washed away sections of roads and bridges and left some buildings almost entirely underwater. On Friday, the death count rapidly soared from 21 to more than 100. As search efforts continued on Saturday, the number climbed again to 151, spokesperson for Niger State emergency service Ibrahim Audu Husseini said. And it inflicted further misery still, injuring at least 11 and displacing more than 3,000 people, while some are still unaccounted for. Mohamed Adow, director of Kenya-based thinktank Power Shift Africa, called it a "cruel irony" that parts of Africa can be "baked dry and then suffer from floods that destroy lives and livelihoods". He told Sky News: "The terrible floods in Nigeria are another reminder that Africa stands on the front line of the climate crisis." Polluting countries must "urgently" slash fossil fuel emissions that drive climate change and target climate funding at those who need it most, Mr Adow added. Residents have been picking their way through the wreckage and lamenting the loss of lives and livelihoods. Kazeem Muhammed said: "We lost many lives, and the properties, our farm produce. Those that have their storage, have lost it." Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said he has directed the activation of the national emergency response centre to assist the state quickly. "Search-and-rescue operations are ongoing, and all relevant federal agencies have been mobilised to support the state government's efforts," President Tinubu said in a late night message. "Relief materials and temporary shelter assistance are being deployed without delay. We will ensure that no Nigerian affected by this disaster is left behind or unheard of." In February, the UK government announced a cut to the aid budget from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income from 2027, to pay for increased defence spending. It followed other cuts by the previous government, and NGOs warn countries, including Nigeria, South Sudan, and Zimbabwe, will be hit hardest. Gideon Rabinowitz, director of policy and advocacy at Bond, the UK network for NGOs, said: "The cuts to UK aid, alongside reductions in humanitarian and development funding by countries around the world, undermine our capacity to support countries like Nigeria - those that have contributed the least to the climate crisis but are suffering its worst impacts." "We urgently need an impact assessment of the UK aid cuts." What causes Nigeria's flooding? Flooding is common in Nigeria in the rainy season, which began in April. On Friday, local officials said , appealing for "long overdue" construction of waterways in the area to begin. But climate change adds an extra layer of danger. That's because hotter air can hold more moisture, so when it rains, it rains harder. Community leader Aliki Musa said Mokwa people are not used to such flooding. Heavy flooding that killed hundreds of people in Nigeria during 2022 was made at least 80 times more likely and 20% more intense by climate change, scientists at World Weather Attribution found.
The Guardian
21 hours ago
- Business
- The Guardian
A guide to greener banking: I divested my personal finances and you can too – here's how
What if your money was quietly fuelling the climate crisis – and you had no idea? If you bank with one of the big four or have retirement savings in superannuation, there's a good chance it is. In Australia, many major banks and most default super funds continue to invest in fossil fuel companies and their coal, oil and gas projects, driving global warming. That's where the global divestment movement comes in. Divestment means shifting your money out of harmful industries and into more ethical, climate-positive alternatives. It's the opposite of investment – you simply pull your capital out of companies or funds that contribute to environmental or social harm. Over the past few years, I've delved into divesting my personal finances and learned some key ways this shift can make a real difference. If you only tackle one area of divestment, make it your super – it's often your largest pool of money beyond property, and too often it's channelled into fossil fuels. The climate lobby group Market Forces estimates $150bn of Australians' retirement savings – roughly $6,200 per member account on average – could be tied up in 190 global companies driving the most climate damage. And such investment is growing, meaning our retirement savings are increasingly being used to create a more polluted world to retire into. One way to find a better option is to use the Market Forces comparison tool. It profiles more than 70 fund options, pinpointing just seven that fully exclude fossil fuels and the so-called 'Climate Wreckers Index' of the world's worst polluters. Using this type of information, I divested from a large Australian super fund which has known investments in fossil fuels and moved to a fund that excludes major polluters such as Woodside, Whitehaven Coal, Santos, Origin and AGL. Justin Medcalf, co-founder of Ethical Advisers' Co-op and Unless Financial, says to beware the 'devil in the detail'. For example, some funds use a tiered threshold screening, which may allow investment in companies earning limited amounts of their revenue from coal mining. 'A lot of investors assume that having a screening process in place means zero exposure to fossil fuels. It can be a rude surprise to discover there is still exposure,' Medcalf says. 'Ultimately, there is no perfect portfolio. For now, it's 'how do we create the best version of something that isn't perfect?'' All four of Australia's big banks – ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac – pour billions into fossil fuel projects each year, as do many other major players. In 2021, when searching for my first mortgage, I saw the chance to divest from a big four bank and switch to a more ethical option. I told my broker I wanted a home loan that was both competitive and backed by a bank that doesn't fund fossil fuels. We landed on one of the few with a cleaner track record. To find out where your bank stands, use Market Forces' Compare Banks tool. It includes a 'tell them to stop' button, so you can quickly send a message and easily demand change. That's crucial, says Medcalf. 'A lot of people move their money but don't say anything, so the bank never knows why. A key part of the divestment movement is communicating,' he says. And it works. Just last year, Commonwealth Bank broke ranks and announced it would stop financing fossil fuel companies that don't comply with Paris climate goals. 'That was quite a considerable win and a lot of that is attributed to the divestment movement,' Medcalf says. If you're investing in shares, ETFs or managed funds, beware of greenwashing. Many mainstream investment products – even those labelled 'sustainable' or 'balanced' – still include major polluters. Tools like the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia's certification and the Ethical Advisers' Co-op's Leaf rating can help you find investment products and services that meet high standards of environmental, social and ethical performance. 'We need a mindset shift,' Medcalf says. 'Rather than thinking 'what can I avoid?', think 'what can I actively invest in?' Yes, we want to avoid industries that aren't creating a positive future, but we can also get behind the industries of the future.' And divesting doesn't have to mean missing out financially – it may even boost your returns. RIAA's 2024 Benchmarking Report shows responsible investment funds have outperformed mainstream ones by 3% over 10 years, and 1.5% over five years. For long-term investors, especially those in their 30s and 40s, Medcalf says it makes sense to start factoring in environmental risk. Fossil fuel assets are increasingly seen as vulnerable, with tightening regulations and the growing risk of becoming 'stranded' and unprofitable. If you want to go a step further, consider strategically buying into a polluting company along with fellow shareholder activists who then band together to demand change from the inside. You can get started with as little as $500 using the Sustainable Investment Exchange (SIX) platform. Whether you divest, reinvest or become an activist shareholder, the point is the same: your money is powerful and you can actively choose whether it props up harmful industries or helps build a better future.
Arab News
a day ago
- Politics
- Arab News
What We Are Reading Today: Desert Edens
Author: Philipp Lehmann From the 1870s to the mid-20th century, European explorers, climatologists, colonial officials, and planners were avidly interested in large-scale projects that might actively alter the climate. Uncovering this history, 'Desert Edens' looks at how arid environments and an increasing anxiety about climate in the colonial world shaped this upsurge in ideas about climate engineering. From notions about the transformation of deserts into forests to Nazi plans to influence the climates of war-torn areas, Philipp Lehmann puts the early climate change debate in its environmental, intellectual, and political context, and considers the ways this legacy reverberates in the present climate crisis. Lehmann examines some of the most ambitious climate-engineering projects to emerge in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Confronted with the Sahara in the 1870s, the French developed concepts for a flooding project that would lead to the creation of a man-made Sahara Sea.
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
Ways The Travel Industry Is Addressing Our Climate Crisis
Tourism is not just a victim of climate crisis, it is also one of the heaviest contributors to the problem. We have covered the effects of flying and actions to improve the climate crisis in a previous post. Now we'll give examples of what the tourism industry is doing in other areas of tourism to help visitors maximize the positive and minimize the negative impacts of their trips. Creating More Efficient Cruising Cruise ships use fuel to stay running 24/7, have a significant carbon footprint, and dump wastewater into the oceans. They burn fossil fuels to power their engines and generate electricity, which releases greenhouse gases and other air pollutants into the atmosphere. These emissions can contribute to climate change and have negative health impacts on people living near ports. Philipsburg, St. Maarten: A.C. Wathey Pier easily becomes a busy and crowded pier when numerous ... More cruise ships are in port for the day. Also, noise pollution can have an impact on marine life, and problems are caused by large amounts of tourists arriving for short stays in ecologically fragile ports and exotic destinations. The cruise industry is trying to make things better and more sustainable. More cruise ships are harboring outside of crowded ports, and staying a longer time. Significant initiatives are ongoing to improve the impact of cruising, and reduce its carbon footprint, from increased efficiencies in design and greener fuels to better scrubbing and filtration. There is even a zero-waste cruise ship being developed in Japan. Cruise lines are doing work on sustainability, environmentalism, and impact on the wider world. There are no official sustainability ratings for cruise vacations, and while there are numerous reports, statistics, and claims, none are 100% reliable or 100% unbiased. Reading these reports alongs with your own research can give you a decent idea of which cruise ships are doing the most to reduce their impact. Greening Hotels Lodgings contribute about one percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. New hotels are becoming more aware of the ways they can improve their greenness. A hotel that is a model would be plastic bottle-free, anti-fossil fuel, and powered entirely by renewable energy. Door frames, light fixtures, and even tile would be reuseable. Guest rooms would be decorated with locally made furnishings and upholstered in sustainably sourced fabrics. When the Hotel Marcel opened in New Haven, Connecticut in May 2022, it checked all those green boxes as part of a mission to be the U.S'.s first net-zero carbon-emissions hotel. But it missed one huge consideration: embodied carbon in the hotel's construction. New hotels will have to take that into account as well. Event space in the award-winning "Green" hotel Marcel. Adapting To and Protecting Nature Travel businesses and destinations are slowly changing how they operate, to lead travelers to experience places and activities differently. Lack of snow? Canada's Whistler ski resort has responded to this by offering more snow-free activities – so much so that it now makes more money in summer. Downhill mountain biking in Garbanzo zone in Whistler bike park. Solar panels are being installed in West Africa's Cape Verde. The Seychelles islands off East Africa have added conservation guidelines to the national constitution – the first time a country has done so. Adaptations such as seawalls, pumps and changes in construction materials are being considered. Tour companies are becoming more aware. Ziptrek Ecotours is the first adventure outfitter in Queenstown, New Zealand, to offer consumer-facing labeling to show customers what their emissions would be, when selecting among competing zipline tours. (But then again, nobody gets to New Zealand without taking a long-haul flight.) will soon show carbon emission listings on flight and hotel results, allowing travelers to filter lower carbon emission results from a range. Iberostar Group released its own ambitious decarbonization roadmap which is partly marketing (it wants 60 percent of guests to choose the brand for its sustainability actions by 2025) and partly action (a 2030 net zero goal and nature-based carbon compensation projects at its 97 resorts across four continents). The Netherlands is considering an eco-efficiency index of its visitors. This means dividing the amount of revenues a tourist brings in by the amount of carbon dioxide emissions the tourist triggered traveling there. That index would indicate which long-haul market the government should direct marketing dollars toward to help reduce emission impacts. Offering Free Public Transport Luxembourg was the first country to offer free public transport for all in 2020, followed by Malta, and scores of other destinations now offer discounted or free public transport. Free public transportation is popular in many cities. In Miami, trolleys and the downtown Peoplemover monorail are free. In 2022, Germany has the Deutschlandticket scheme, offering passengers unlimited travel on buses, trams and regional trains for about fifty dollars a month. Developing Sleeper Trains In 2025, Europe's sleeper train network has been enjoying a renaissance. The continent's expanding offering of nocturnal routes aims to compete with short-haul flights on speed, cost, comfort and climate impact. The European Union has plans to double high-speed rail traffic by 2030 and link all major cities in the bloc. The overnight train amsterdam innsbruck, operated by Night Jet, a brand name given by the Austrian ... More Federal Railways Nightjet operates in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland. Also, employers are signing up for movements such as Climate Perks, which gives employees more holiday if they travel by train. Approving Staycations, Remote Working, Workations About 60 countries have embraced the idea of working from anywhere through 'digital nomad' visas. These allow people to work remotely from dozens of countries, enabling them to embrace slower travel and really get to know a destination. (My family did this last year in Spello Italy. This year we're renting a house near the Erie Canal in western New York.) Huge numbers of workers now work from home throughout the world. As of May 2023, 39 per cent of United Kingdom workers said they regularly work from home, with many taking 'workations' (working while away on holiday). Combating Over-Tourism Tour companies are going out of their way to introduce new, less crowded destinations. The majority of trips booked through Byway are in areas that aren't hotspots. Companies like Original Travel now sell trips to lesser-visited areas in France, Spain, Italy and Greece. 'We've made it our mission to tackle the scourge of overtourism, where too many tourists descend on too few destinations, in the process risking what made these precious places so special in the first place,' says co-founder Tom Barber. But Much More Needs to Be Done The Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism was introduced by the U.N.'s World Tourism Organization at the 2021 conference. The declaration, originally signed by more than 300 travel companies, nonprofit organizations and government agencies, now has almost thousand signatories. It was supposed to 'secure strong actions and commitment from the tourism sector' and 'accelerate climate action.' Participating travel organizations would disclose greenhouse gas emissions; take steps to decarbonize; restore and protect natural ecosystems; and collaborate to ensure best practices. The two core commitments: Within 12 months of signing the accord, entities would create and submit a public 'climate action plan' that outlined specific actions they would take to reduce emissions. And second, signatories would halve their emissions before 2030, in order to get on track to reach net zero emissions by 2050. The signatories are large and small — hotels, local governments, travel agencies and others — and range from big names like Expedia Group and Radisson Hotels to location-specific groups, like the Great Himalaya Trail and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. But the vast majority of tourism players haven't signed on, including major aviation companies. And most cruise lines have steered clear of the declaration. Most organizations that did sign on have not yet published climate action plans. In other words, nearly three-fourths of the entities haven't delivered what they promised. And there's no enforcement. Key issues remain unresolved. Signatories pledged to halve emissions, but efforts are hard to quantify. While individually some of the signatories have begun to shrink their own carbon footprints, there is no broad evidence as yet that the travel industry's emissions have diminished. Global emissions, meanwhile, are still on the rise. 2030 is five years away, so any requirement in reporting emission-level reductions has not yet hit the deadline. A report from Intrepid Travel, entitled, 'A Sustainable Future for Travel: From Crisis to Transformation,' encourages the industry to act now to ensure its future. It's a blueprint of what can and should be done by the tourism industry to deal with climate change. It provides hope for what could be, nudging the travel industry toward a more environmentally friendly future. I recently spoke about travel and climate change at the New York Society for Ethical Culture. Check out the discussion on my YouTube channel Places I Remember: Travel Talk with Lea Lane. Also, for all travel topics, check out my award-winning travel podcast, Places I Remember with Lea Lane. T
