Save the Ocean Life and Save Earth

2018 Global Disasters Cost $160 Billion; Climate Change a Factor, Report Says By  Pam Wright    weather.com At a Glance A third of the total global cost came from just four events in the United States. California's Camp Fire was the costliest disaster of 2018 at $16.5 billion. Hurricane Michael was second at $16 billion. Disasters cost the world a hefty $160 billion in 2018 and climate change was a factor in the final tally, a new report says. On Tuesday, German Insurance company  Munich Re  released its annual report estimating the cost of disasters that include weather events like tornadoes and hurricanes, wildfires, tsunamis and earthquakes. Globally, damage from disasters amounted to $160 billion, which is less than the $360 billion in damage reported by the company in 2017 but still higher than the $140 billion long-term average. It was the fourth-costliest year since 1980 in terms of insured losses. A third of that total ($80 billion)came from jus...

'We are last generation that can stop climate change' – UN summit Big cuts in carbon emissions and a rise in protection from extreme weather urgently needed Damian Carrington    Environment editor @dpcarrington Mon 3 Dec 2018   00.01 GMT                              Scientists recommend that warming is limited to 1.5C. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images The UN climate change summit begins on Monday with a warning that today’s generation is the last that can prevent catastrophic global warming, as well as the first to be suffering its impacts. Almost  200 nations  were set to meet  in Poland  for two weeks, aiming to hammer out a vital agreement to turn the carbon-cutting vision set in Paris in 2015 into reality. Moves to rapidly ramp up action would be another key goal, with current pledges leaving the world on track for a  disastrous 3C of wa...

Deadly heat, wildfires, heavy rain point to global warming: experts Aug 09, 2018   by  Donovan Vincent   Toronto Star This summer’s extreme heat, wildfires, heavy rains, flooding are all indicators of global warming, experts say          Police officers wade through water flooding an underpass on King St. W. during heavy rain in Toronto on Tuesday. - Shlomi Amiga,                 THE CANADIAN PRESS Extreme and deadly heat in Europe, Asia and across Canada and the U.S. Wildfires in California, British Columbia and here in Ontario, in Parry Sound and North Bay. Tuesday night's flood in Toronto that saw more than 70 millimetres of rain dumped downtown in two hours. Climate experts say it's all part of a trend the planet has been experiencing for the past 30 years, one we should expect to continue over the coming decades. "It's not new weather, just a more extreme (version) of the old weather. T...

California’s Underwater Forests Are Being Eaten by the ‘Cockroaches of the Ocean’ By  Kendra Pierre-Louis Oct. 22, 2018 ALBION, Calif. — Early on a gray summer Saturday, an unusual assemblage — commercial fishermen, recreational boaters, neoprene-clad divers — gathered for a mission at Albion Cove, a three-hour drive north of San Francisco. “Our target today is the purple urchin,” said Josh Russo, a recreational fishing advocate who organized the event. “The evil purple urchin.” Top, the bull kelp found off Northern California Josh Russo, left, organized a group of divers and boaters to remove purple urchins from Albion Cove.  Credit:  Gabriella Angotti-Jones/The New York Times Five years ago, assigning wickedness to the purple urchin, a shellfish the size of a plum with quarter-inch spikes, would have been absurd. That was before the urchins mowed down Northern California’s kelp forests. The underwater forests — huge, sprawling tangles of brown seaw...

A woman cools down in a water fountain as she beats the heat in Montreal on Monday, July 2, 2018.   THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes Climate change can be deadly if you live alone August 2, 2018 8.59am AEST Cities around the globe felt  record-breaking,   red-hot temperatures  this July: In the United States, Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Algeria, Georgia, Armenia, Russia, Oman and China, the thermostat reached all-time highs. In the Canadian province of Quebec, a weeklong heatwave was linked to 74 deaths, making it  the province’s second deadliest period of extreme heat since the summer of 2010 . At the peak of the heatwave, on Tuesday, July 3, 2018,  Montréal recorded its highest temperature in history  (36.6 C) and posted its most extreme midnight combination of heat and humidity. The stifling temperatures continued for most of the week. Quebecers felt the heat. By Wednesday of that week, Montréal ambulance services were so busy that people ...