Britain braces for one of its COLDEST winters in 30 years as 'Beast from the East' makes bone-chilling return with -14C lows after jet stream shifts south
January-February 2020 could rank as seventh coldest winter in past 30 years due to Gulf stream disruption, according to an advanced forecast carried out by researchers at University College London. © Provided by Associated Newspapers Limited A young man drags his sledge to the top of a hill in Rochester on February 27 2018 as a snow flurry bears down on the city The team, led by professor Mark Saunders, told The Sunday Times: 'This would rank the 2020 January-February central England temperature as the coldest winter since 2013 and January-February 2020 as the seventh coldest winter in the past 30 years.
Living north of the Arctic Circle meant learning fear and its power to motivate in the face of danger—whether from a bear or climate change. How long did I walk in the footsteps of the bear? It was a warm day, 20 years ago and 80 miles north of the Arctic Circle, the sky translucent blue behind
Living north of the Arctic Circle meant learning fear and its power to motivate in the face of danger—whether from a bear or climate change.
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How long did I walk in the footsteps of the bear? It was a warm day, 20 years ago and 80 miles north of the Arctic Circle, the sky translucent blue behind low mountains. The tundra, just starting to turn autumn crimson and saffron, held all my attention. Eventually, I looked down at the trail. And there: the ovoid front paw prints, claws puncturing a constellation into the mud inches above each toe, trailed by back feet as long as two hand spans. Grizzly. Next to them, indentations from my boots. Both filling slowly with water.
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Garda commanders policing the Border region are seriously concerned at the upsurge in dissident republican terrorism and the added implications of a no-deal Brexit.
Scientists have known for decades that as rising temperatures thaw the northern latitudes, previously frozen soil called permafrost will release greenhouse “Changes in the Arctic sound scary,” she says. But “the Arctic is revealing its lessons while we are still in control of our future. The Arctic is telling us
The disease similarly ravaged the people of the Arctic , and an estimated Other projects have been similarly affected by the fear of smallpox. Archaeologists halted work in the London crypt Global warming is thawing permafrost. In Siberia, botanists at Tomsk State University estimate that an area
The clock of the morning’s rain put the bear at five, maybe 10 minutes ahead, invisible where the trail turned among willow brambles. For half a moment, I wondered at the tracks—this grizzly must weigh 700 pounds, maybe 800. Then another calculation: How many feet between myself and the bear? Thirty? Twenty. A hot wire uncoiled below my ribs, a jolt of fear so pure it tasted like metal.
I had been in the Arctic for two days when that bear chose not to turn on the trail and end me with a swat of his paw. Because of his decision—it was a male, I am guessing, from the size—I was alive to spend the next two years living in his territory. I was never again stupid enough to go walking alone and unarmed in autumn. But the moment with the grizzly, unseen yet so present, was not the last spark of that particular and striking kind of fear, the fear of an animal or circumstance bursting through my impression of being an isolated, sovereign human self. I thought, too, that fear was purely negative, a sensation without value. The bush had other plans: Those grizzly prints were the first lesson on a syllabus that would reshape how I imagined the human relationship with the world at large.
Why Your Carbon Footprint Is Meaningless
Why Your Carbon Footprint Is Meaningless
Russia and China have been busy in a rapidly changing Arctic , and America seems to have barely noticed. Focused elsewhere, the U.S. now finds itself ill-prepared to compete in the thawing , resource-rich arena that also offers adversaries avenues of approach to the American homeland.
'Although abrupt permafrost thawing will occur in less than 20 percent of frozen land, it increases permafrost carbon release projections by about 50 percent,' lead Its rich carbon content is made up of the remains of life that once flourished in the Arctic — including plants, animals and microbes.
© Getty An aerial photo taken on August 17, 2019 shows a view of the Apusiajik glacier, near Kulusuk (aslo spelled Qulusuk), a settlement in the Sermersooq municipality located on the island of the same name on the southeastern shore of Greenland. “Bush” is what people in the English-speaking Arctic call the territory away from town. I was in the north to train sled dogs, which meant that, as winter covered autumn’s colors on the tundra, I and a team of eight or 10 dogs were constantly in the bush.
As an 18-year-old from Iowa, I had everything to learn: how to harness dogs so eager to run that they were barking, leaping, wriggling blurs, incorrigible with glee. How to tie a proper knot. Where to find dry branches for a quick fire. How to walk with snowshoes and not fall every third step. Some frustrations—as when one dog chewed through her harness while I, bent over and sweating, struggled to get another ready—made me weep. It was a rare day when I was not sore. My biceps grew so quickly from wrestling dogs and sleds and frozen 40-pound salmon to feed my team that my pinky and ring fingers went numb, the nerves pinched by new muscle. But the pain and irritation of incompetence distracted me from a homesickness so profound, I imagined it walked beside me, a lumbering dark presence. I woke every morning cloaked in its despair.
Whale meet again: Humpbacks return to our shores almost 20 years to the day
Two humpback whales have returned to Irish waters - almost 20 years to the day from when they were first filmed here. The pair were among whales encountered by members of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) who set sail west of Co Kerry to record humpbacks singing in Irish waters as part of WhaleTrack Ireland.
Nasa research shows that ice-free summers are now imminent, posing a peril to us all.
A recent expedition to the Canadian Arctic found that permafrost in outposts there is thawing 70 years earlier than predicted—a sign that the global climate crisis is The northern circumpolar region holds almost half of the world’s soil organic carbon, largely in the form of permanently frozen peat.
Gallery: Places where you can see climate change (Photos)
Antarctica
Since 1992, the frozen continent has lost more than 3.3 trillion tons of ice, resulting in rise in global sea levels by a quarter inch (0.63 centimeters), according to a study published in the journal Nature. Researchers estimate that the rate at which ice is lost has soared from 73 billion metric tons per year in 2007 to 219 billion tons in 2017 – a triple increase that could increase sea levels six inches (15.2 centimeters) by 2100.
The west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula is one of the most rapidly warming parts of the planet. This has affected the distribution of penguin colonies along the coast as sea ice conditions have changed, reports Discovering Antarctica. Melting snow has seen increased plant coverage. Many glaciers have retreated and ice shelves have collapsed.
Amazon rainforest – South America
The world’s largest tropical rainforest (it covers approximately 40 percent of the continent) has not only experienced rising deforestation but also extreme drought that has left it susceptible to fires, says a report published by the United Nations Environment Program. Entire species of vegetation and animals are on the brink of extinction.
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Dead Sea - Bordering Israel, West Bank and Jordan
The saltwater lake has shrunk by a third over the last 40 years since development in the region started. Sinkholes are appearing where the water has receded, while mineral extraction by cosmetic companies has further eroded it. Rainfall in the region has declined and a study conducted by Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory found that thousands of years ago, when temperatures were similarly rising, the entire region suffered a megadrought worse than any ever recorded.
Baobab trees - Southern Africa
One of the oldest living organisms in Africa, these trees can live up to 3,000 years and are often called “the tree of life.” However, over the past 12 years, five of the six largest and nine of the 13 oldest have died, either completely or partially. According to a study published in Nature Plants, this may be due to climate change. “We suspect the demise of monumental baobabs may be associated at least in part with significant modifications of climate conditions that affect southern Africa in particular,” the report says.
Cape Town - South Africa
Popular with tourists, this coastal city came perilously close to literally running out of water early in 2018. The situation forced officials to restrict the amount of water an individual, home or building could use in a day. At their most extreme, these restrictions capped daily usage at a maximum of 50 liters per person.
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As of December 2018, the mayor’s office has raised that limit to 105 liters but other rules, like the flushing of toilets (only with greywater or non-drinking water, and only when absolutely necessary) remain in force.
Venice – Italy
Locals have slowly come to accept the flooding of Piazza San Marco (pictured) and other low-lying areas of the city but, with ocean levels rising, Venice is inundating further. The city of canals is sinking fast enough to become uninhabitable by the end of this century, scientists at the Venice in Peril fund have warned.
Great Barrier Reef – Australia
The largest coral reef in the world, covering more than 132,973.5 square miles (344,400 square kilometers), has started showing signs of damage due to rising ocean temperatures. Vast regions have experienced coral bleaching – a condition where the coral turns white and is prone to mass death. A report by the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies found that around 93 percent has experienced bleaching to some degree.
Rhone Valley – France
The winemaking region has sprawling vineyards that are slowly being affected by increasing temperatures. In a profession where even a small degree change can cause differences in the produce, or even completely ruin it, a report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences forecasts an 85 percent decrease in wine production in the combined Bordeaux, Rhone and Tuscany region.
'Don't buy coastal properties': UN scientists issue stark warning on climate
No part of the planet will be spared a climate crisis as oceans warm, and glaciers and ice sheets melt, according to a pivotal report by United Nations scientists. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns one billion people will be affected as soon as 2050 because of rising sea levels, water shortages and food insecurity.The report, compiled by more than 100 leading climate scientists, calls for urgent, ambitious and coordinated action.
Sudan
Erratic rainfall and increasing desertification, accompanied by intense droughts, have pushed temperatures so high in the north African country that harvests are being ruined. Warming temperatures have rendered farmlands unsuitable and will continue to affect the country’s food security, according to a report published by the World Food Program and the UK Met Office. Gigantic dust storms called haboob (pictured) have also become more commonplace in recent years.
Lagos – Nigeria
The city is made up of a mainland and a series of islands that are all at risk of flooding with increasing sea levels. To prevent that, efforts are on to build an artificial mega city, named Eko Atlantic, on reclaimed land and then build a seawall. Researchers like environmental writer Martin Lukacs have named this “climate apartheid,” as the wall will push storm surges from more affluent locales to neighboring unprotected areas.
Key West – Florida, US
Floods during the Atlantic hurricane season have caused increasing damage in the archipelago. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates sea levels will rise 15 inches (38 centimeters) over the next 30 years, submerging many parts of the city.
Dar es Salaam – Tanzania
The coastal city is growing so quickly it has been unable to consider the harm it is causing to the ecosystem. With increased rainfall, it is increasingly prone to floods and downpours, causing $47.3 million worth of damages in just the area surrounding the Msimbazi River, according to the World Bank.
Maldives
Researchers at the University of Exeter have found that elevated surface ocean temperatures during the 2016 El Niño led to a major coral die-off event in the Maldives. Further rise in temperatures due to global warming will only worsen the situation of the coral reefs, scientists warn.
Italy and France Prepare for Imminent Collapse of Mont Blanc Glacier
ROME–The road that winds towards France from Courmayeur in Italy’s spectacular Aosta Valley is an Alpine paradise. In the spring and summer, the Mont Blanc foothills are covered with a carpet of wildflowers set against a backdrop of the Western Alps, which make up Europe’s highest mountain range. Some 20,000 outdoor enthusiasts come here to hike the Italian side of Mont Blanc every year. In the winter, those numbers triple as glitzy chalet resorts offer breathtaking views and some of the best ski runs in Europe.
Yamal Peninsula – Russia
In Russia’s far north, permafrost is melting as the weather has become increasingly unpredictable. Giant craters (pictured) are forming as frozen grounds start thawing. The winter season has shortened and unusually warm temperatures caused an outbreak of anthrax in 2016. “Such anomalous heat is rare for Yamal, and that’s probably a manifestation of climate change,” said Alexei Kokorin, head of WWF Russia’s climate and energy program.
Arctic
The Arctic is warming at almost twice the global average with sea ice disappearing from the ecosystem. While this has made the waters more navigable through the Northwest Passage, it is also contributing to a rise in global sea level. In the future, this could make Arctic fisheries disappear and harm the coastline, according to the WWF.
Abidjan – Ivory Coast
Situated along the Atlantic Coast, the city’s coastline, and specifically the harbor areas, are experiencing high erosion rates, according to news reports. The Ebrie lagoon has also become increasingly polluted and this has led to the loss of fisheries. Heavy and untimely rains are also threatening cocoa growers in the region.
Alaska – US
Over the last 150 years, snowfall in south-central Alaska has increased dramatically by 117 percent due to climate change, according to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports. Another report, by the Alaska Division of Public Health, states that additional diseases, lower air quality from more wildfires, melting permafrost, and disturbances to local food sources are some of the outcomes of climate change affecting the area.
Northern Italy
A mild 2007 winter in the region allowed Asian tiger mosquitoes to breed and when a tourist returned from India with chikungunya, the mosquitoes became the carriers of the new disease. According to the WHO, this was the first European outbreak of a tropical disease. The localized epidemic was repeated in 2017. In a study that year, researchers at the University of Bayreuth reported the spread of the virus was facilitated by climate change and that the "risk of infection will continue to increase in many regions of the world through the end of the 21st century. If climate change continues unchecked, the virus could even spread to southern Europe and the U.S."
Mumbai – India
The changing monsoon season that has caused intense flooding in the economic capital over the past decades has been attributed to climate change in a report published by global development research resource Eldis. The World Bank found that changing rainfall patterns in India was one of many impacts of climate change. "An extremely wet monsoon that currently has a chance of occurring only once in 100 years is projected to occur every 10 years by the end of the century," according to the report.
Osaka – Japan
The 2.69 million people of the city have been battered by unseasonable typhoons and torrential rains that cause extensive floods. If temperatures continue to rise, the entire commercial region of Osaka could go under water by the 2070s, predict the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The Alps – Europe
One of the most famous skiing regions in the world, the Alps stretch across eight countries. Due to their low altitude, they have seen significant snow melt during shorter winter periods over the years. Around three percent of Alpine glacial ice is lost per year and experts from the University of Innsbruck in Austria believe the glaciers could disappear by 2050 if the melting continues.
Patagonia ice fields – Chile and Argentina
One of the largest ice fields in the world is receding at shockingly fast speeds. A Nature Geoscience paper found that accelerated melting ice fields account for nearly 10 percent of the global sea-level change from mountain glaciers. Over the last few years, dozens of glacier lakes have virtually disappeared.
Tuvalu, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Tokelau and Tuvalu
These Pacific island nations are slowly being submerged and, by 2100, many of the lower islands could be uninhabitable, news agencies have reported. The Pacific Climate Change Science Program study found Tuvalu (pictured) would not only see a rise in sea level but also more extreme rainfall and intense cyclones. Five reef islands in the Solomon Islands have already been lost, while another six are eroding quickly.
Glacier National Park – Montana, US
Once home to over 150 glaciers, Montana’s majestic park now has just about 26 left. Scientists, including those from the U.S. Geological Survey, believe rapid climate change could see that number shrink to zero between 2030 and 2080, which would not only leave the park without a glacier but also severely disrupt its ecosystem.
San Blas Islands – Panama
Flooding every rainy season is becoming a common event on the Caribbean island. The reefs around the area have been mined to build up the islands to prevent sinking, reported Reuters. A scientist from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute quoted in the report said, “It’s another example that climate change is here, and it’s here to stay.” The report also cites natives are prepared to relocate if the rise in sea level continues.
Gradually, as the dogs became stronger and I less likely to die from my own inexperience, we mushed farther from town. It was in the bush, usually with dogs and usually without other people, that I learned how to navigate by memorizing the bends in rivers or the angle of a hillside, and how to read the gestures of my team for tiredness or excitement. I came to know the dogs as individuals, with likes and strengths and quirks, and they began to trust me, the leaders listening when I asked them to turn right or left, the whole group howling and running in circles of joy at the sight of a harness. As a team, our trips went from 10 miles to 30 to 70. Each run submerged us deep in the beauty of the open country, the wide skies and hills that, covered in snow, were 10,000 shades of white and gray and crystalline blue. The homesickness began to fade—or rather, the bush began to feel like home.
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But it was a home struck through with fear. Take the afternoon one February or March—late enough in the winter that the days had hours of light in them again—when I rounded a bend in the river, the dogs going steady, only to see a cow moose 20 or 30 yards ahead. I knew enough by then for the fear to take no calculation: A bull can weigh 1,500 pounds, a cow nearly 1,000. Large enough that, faced with wolves, moose will either flee or trample their canine attackers. To a moose, my dog team was indistinguishable from a wolf pack.
So she charged. The distance between her hooves and my lead dogs diminished in a spray of snow. The dogs, filled with hunting drive and beyond entreaty from me, bolted to meet her. I could see the white of the moose’s eye, her head rearing back, her breath steaming in the cold air. Twenty feet, then 10. She had the pivotal choice: to stamp into my team, and into me, or to turn. © Getty
I can write this because she turned. It was one of many such Arctic reckonings. Cumulatively, they wore away at the assumptions I was born into, of culture and climate, where imagining human life as separate from the environment was not just possible but normal. Natural history and human history, after all, are taught in formal classrooms as distinct realms. But moments of danger taught me that I was far from autonomous. My existence depended not just on my actions, but on those of a bear, or even on a sudden blizzard that, if ignored, would bring storm-blindness and hypothermia. This fear was guidance—to not swagger into bear country—and also a kind of communication, a way for living things and circumstances outside spoken human language to assert their importance. In the Arctic, the moose, turning in the last moment of her lunge, gave notice of my contingency. You exist today because some other being has willed it so.
I came to think of these moments of exigency as “bush fear,” which undid my delusions of wilderness as beautiful but essentially passive. The bush spoke in many ways, from the hoarse calls of ravens announcing a carcass to the northward turn of the wind before a storm. Fear was a particularly vital mode of speech, not debilitating but instructive. It was part of what made the bush home, by shocking me into a relationship with the place. © Getty
A primary lesson of bush fear: I was only one among many things pushing their will into the world. It carried a moral edge, offering up the necessity of thinking beyond the confines of the self. And it was an active emotion, exploding in moments when no one being, human or otherwise, had complete power. It felt like the opposite of homesick despair. And sometimes, as in learning when not to go alone into bear country, it was a charge to alter my actions in order to live.
Gallery: Countries that are running out of water (Photos)
With surging population, the world is facing an increasing demand for water. Rapidly urbanizing nations further strain the supply even as water waste continues. We take a look at some places around the world that are running short of water.
Kazakhstan
Central Asia’s largest nation has scarce amounts of water and around 50 percent of the population consumes poor quality drinking water that fails to meet international standards, according to a report by United Nations Development Program. Inefficient agricultural practices have worsened the situation as crop yield continues to go down without a decrease in the amount of water consumed. The region’s largest lake, the Aral Sea (pictured), has also been rapidly shrinking, impacting the region’s fresh water supply.
Morocco
A huge gap between the demand and supply of water and its deteriorating quality have led to widespread shortages in the country. Groundwater reserves are dwindling, and due to the absence of proper sanitation and wastewater management systems, bodies of water are getting polluted by industrial and urban waste.
Azerbaijan
According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), due to droughts and climate change, water supply is expected to be reduced 23 percent from 2021 to 2050.
Macedonia
A decrease in rainfall has been observed in the country over the years, leading to groundwater and rivers not getting adequately replenished. The eastern part of the country faces frequent droughts. Most of the water is currently used for irrigation and that consumption is also predicted to increase.
Yemen
The ongoing civil war has adversely affected the country’s water situation, with various reports stating the capital Sana’a may run out of water as soon as 2023. Only 40 percent of the households in the city are connected to the municipal water supply and they get water only about twice a week. The country doesn’t harvest rainwater and is facing groundwater depletion.
Jordan
According to surveys, the cost of water in the country has gone up 30 percent in the last decade due to a shortage of groundwater. Jordan is the third driest country in the world and much of the country’s water network is aging. The influx of Syrian refugees in the country has worsened the situation. Presently, the government is planning to dig seven new wells, to reach a deep aquifer that contains fossil water from 10,000 to 30,000 years ago.
Iran
A soaring population has added to the already prevalent water shortage in Iran due to its arid, desert environment. Droughts are an annual occurrence and there is a lack of storage dams. Poor wastewater management is further polluting the sparse water resources. Lake Urmia (pictured), once the largest lake in the region, has also shrunk to 10 percent of its size because of dams, increasing the salinity of the lake.
Singapore
In a 2015 report, Singapore ranked first among the nations at the highest risk of water stress in 2040. The demand for water far exceeds its natural supply, and it currently depends on Malaysia for import. With investments in technology and water management, the country plans to become self-sufficient in the near future.
Kyrgyzstan
Despite being home to 6,500 glaciers and around 2,000 lakes, Kyrgyzstan still faces water shortages due to the poor maintenance of its Soviet-era plumbing and water supply systems. In addition, the rural population – with its higher dependence on water-intensive activities like agriculture – is greater than the urban one.
Lebanon
A large part of the country gets water only for a few hours daily, with many resorting to bottled water and tankers for their daily needs, according to a report by the World bank. The water available is perceived to be of poor quality. The country has mismanaged its water resources, with thousands of illegal groundwater wells dug in many areas.
Oman
Increasing population, limited rainfall and falling groundwater levels have increased an arid Oman’s water woes. The country has several desalination plants supplying potable water, but they are failing to meet the rising demand.
Saudi Arabia
The country doesn’t have a single perennial source of water and started taxing residents for the resource. Saudi Arabia also has one of the highest levels of per capita water consumption in the world, which is around 90 percent higher than the global average, as per a report by the country’s Saline Water Conversion Corporation.
Israel
Due to overuse and poor resource management, water level in the Sea of Galilee – the country’s main water source – is decreasing, according to researchers from Ben-Gurion University in Israel. Fresh water supplies have been diminished with agriculture use and flow diversion.
Palestine
Unavailability of water resources, Jordan River’s diversion and mismanagement, and the conflict with Israel are some root causes behind Palestine’s water crisis. The problem is further exacerbated during times of strife when water pipelines can get shelled and damaged. According to experts, the 2017 water deal between Israel and Palestine has failed to address the understanding of water as a shared resource and may lead to Israel tightening control over water supplied to Palestine.
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates has one of the highest per capita consumption of water in the world. Some experts believe that it will completely run out of natural freshwater in the next 50 years. Relying on desalinated water, treated waste water and ground water, it is one of the least water-secure countries. The nation is now investing in cloud seeding technology to increase the rainfall.
Qatar
With one of the world’s lowest levels of rainfall, Qatar faces the immense challenge of looking for an alternative source of freshwater. Their per capita use of water is twice the average consumption in the European Union and their population is expected to grow nearly eightfold by 2050.
Kuwait
The desert country relies on desalination plants for its water in the absence of rivers and lakes. It is dependent solely on groundwater and the meager rainfall, meaning the country has almost no internally renewable source of groundwater.
Bahrain
The country has experienced dramatic population growth due to the improving economy in the past few decades. With nearly 89 percent of the population urbanized as of 2017, it puts more pressure on water resources. The only source is the erratic rainfall that replenishes the groundwater.
Earlier this year, 20 years after I breathlessly crept away from the unseen bear, I was back, visiting the grizzly’s territory. Somewhere, his grandcubs were sweeping blueberries off the hedges with purpled lips. I did not see them, or even their tracks; staying clear of grizzly haunts meant that I did not need to calculate the feet between myself and peril.
Except that there were so many calculations. It was a fearsome season across the north. The Arctic had never been hotter in recorded history. Ice was gone from the Bering Sea months early, and on the tundra I knew so well from years on a dogsled, the uncanny warmth also left its mark. Here, a lake gone, drained in a matter of days after the permafrost holding one bank loosened under the sun. There, spruces leaning in ashy gray clusters, killed as their roots pulled free of soil that had lost its lining of ice. Everywhere, the willows and alders and birch ominously verdant, building walls of brush impenetrable to caribou and likely to become tinder with a drought. © Reuters
On the day I arrived north of the Arctic Circle, the Greenland ice sheet lost 11 billion tons of surface ice; the changes on the tundra, if smaller in scale, were harder to abstract. I spent most of a week along curling Arctic rivers. Bend after bend, the southeastern slopes were sloughing tons of dirt and trees into the water, the form of the land changing not over centuries but over months.
All these signs put time to action: How many years ahead is the peril? Twenty? Ten. They are the tracks of fear, scaled up, past being warning of personal harm. The eroding hills spell out danger at geological magnitude. Watching the transforming landscape as it slid past, I felt the familiar adrenal lurch of watching something—here, the very shape of the Earth—in dangerous motion. © Getty
In this year of hurricanes that raze the Bahamas, of heat waves in Europe, of wildfire dread in California, of unplantable fields in the Midwest, it is not necessary to be in the Arctic to be afraid. But what to do with this fear, both familiar and new, in its tremendous scale? The close instances of fear that schooled my first Arctic years taught me two things: Pay attention, and do not provoke. Do not give the bear reason to attack. Do not give the blizzard reason to kill you. Fear taught me down to the very sinew that human actions exist in relation to the larger world. Burning fossil fuels at the current rate is a massive, continuous, accelerating provocation. And rather than retreating, humbled, we are collectively charging into the bush after the bear.
Except that we obscures who is deciding to charge. Not only are wildfires and drained lakes the product of fossil fuels burned disproportionately in the United States and other nations early to industry; they are the result of choices made by a tiny fraction of those countries’ citizens. American, British, and Brazilian leaders—to mention an obvious few—actively work against learning from the fearful impacts of climate change. In the face of obvious danger, they offer denial, or despair. © Getty
Once, the runner of my sled caught on a piece of ice jutting from the frozen river and flipped me on my back in a breathless heap. The dogs kept running; I was new to them at the time, not yet integral to their lives, and they knew home was just five or so miles away, and with it dinner. It was dark, but the Arctic night was luminous where the snow reflected the starlight and green smolder of the northern lights. It was 20 degrees below zero, probably. And there I was, alone in the deep quiet, with a long walk ahead in my 40 pounds of parka and boots. I was annoyed—I also wanted dinner—until out from the glimmering dim came a wolf howl, answered shortly by a second, and a third. They were not far. The cold gasp, then, as I realized that of course I was not alone.
I learned in the Arctic that fear is catalytic. The night I fell off my dogsled, the sound of the wolves followed me for dark miles. Fear, and with it a seething need to survive, kept me moving. It was no time to sit down alone in the cold dark and blindly await what might follow those howls. Nor is there time now, even as a kind of apocalyptic despair has become, for some, an attractive posture.
“I want you to feel the fear I feel every day,” Greta Thunberg pleaded at Davos in January. And I agree. Despair is a homeless feeling. Fear forces us to recognize the terms of being alive in our actual home, in a world that we can rouse but never master. It is a call to alter human action, to demand a different politics, and, by doing so, to live.
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Italy and France Prepare for Imminent Collapse of Mont Blanc Glacier .
ROME–The road that winds towards France from Courmayeur in Italy’s spectacular Aosta Valley is an Alpine paradise. In the spring and summer, the Mont Blanc foothills are covered with a carpet of wildflowers set against a backdrop of the Western Alps, which make up Europe’s highest mountain range. Some 20,000 outdoor enthusiasts come here to hike the Italian side of Mont Blanc every year. In the winter, those numbers triple as glitzy chalet resorts offer breathtaking views and some of the best ski runs in Europe.
January-February 2020 could rank as seventh coldest winter in past 30 years due to Gulf stream disruption, according to an advanced forecast carried out by researchers at University College London. © Provided by Associated Newspapers Limited A young man drags his sledge to the top of a hill in Rochester on February 27 2018 as a snow flurry bears down on the city The team, led by professor Mark Saunders, told The Sunday Times: 'This would rank the 2020 January-February central England temperature as the coldest winter since 2013 and January-February 2020 as the seventh coldest winter in the past 30 years. 
Garda commanders policing the Border region are seriously concerned at the upsurge in dissident republican terrorism and the added implications of a no-deal Brexit. 
Why Your Carbon Footprint Is Meaningless 
Two humpback whales have returned to Irish waters - almost 20 years to the day from when they were first filmed here. The pair were among whales encountered by members of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) who set sail west of Co Kerry to record humpbacks singing in Irish waters as part of WhaleTrack Ireland. 
The benefits provided by great whales, including capturing carbon, make a powerful case for protecting them, according to economists.The world’s largest whales are more than mere evolutionary marvels. By sequestering carbon in the ocean, they can help humanity fight climate change—an ecosystem service that may be worth millions of dollars per whale, according to a new analysis by economists with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 
Researchers may have solved the mystery surrounding why the Incas built Machu Picchu in such a remote and hard to access location. 
No part of the planet will be spared a climate crisis as oceans warm, and glaciers and ice sheets melt, according to a pivotal report by United Nations scientists. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns one billion people will be affected as soon as 2050 because of rising sea levels, water shortages and food insecurity.The report, compiled by more than 100 leading climate scientists, calls for urgent, ambitious and coordinated action. 
ROME–The road that winds towards France from Courmayeur in Italy’s spectacular Aosta Valley is an Alpine paradise. In the spring and summer, the Mont Blanc foothills are covered with a carpet of wildflowers set against a backdrop of the Western Alps, which make up Europe’s highest mountain range. Some 20,000 outdoor enthusiasts come here to hike the Italian side of Mont Blanc every year. In the winter, those numbers triple as glitzy chalet resorts offer breathtaking views and some of the best ski runs in Europe. 
Britain braces for one of its COLDEST winters in 30 years as 'Beast from the... 
Garda chiefs fear upsurge in violence near... 
Why Your Carbon Footprint Is... 
Whale meet again: Humpbacks return to our shores almost 20 years to the day 
How much is a whale worth? 
How much is a whale worth? 
'Don't buy coastal properties': UN scientists issue stark warning on climate 
Italy and France Prepare for Imminent Collapse of Mont Blanc Glacier 
