As residents of North Texas surveyed the destruction from deadly weekend tornadoes, the storm system that spawned the twisters brought winter storm woes to the Midwest on Monday and amplified flooding that's blamed for more than a dozen deaths.
At least 11 people died and dozens were injured in the tornadoes that swept through the Dallas area on Saturday and caused substantial damage. That, plus the flooding in Missouri and Illinois, was the latest in a succession of severe weather events across the country in the last week that led to at least 43 deaths.
Britain’s ability to cope with the “unprecedented” flood crises that hit several urban centres simultaneously over the weekend has been called into question after the failure of key flood defences in the north led to thousands of homes being put at risk.
It was the day the floodwaters inexorably advanced across the Pennines, leaving much of the north of England sodden and beleaguered. From Greater Manchester in the north-west to parts of North Yorkshire some 50 miles to the east, Boxing Day 2015 will be remembered as the day the rains came.
The struggle for climate justice did not end in Paris after 196 nations voted to adopt an agreement curbing global warming on Dec. 13, according to environmental activists in the Philippines.
"The Paris agreement is not the climate solution nor the justice we hoped and fought for," said Rep. Neri Colmenares, senior deputy minority leader of the Philippine House of Representatives.
The emission cuts promised in the deal are "neither equitable nor even scientifically viable," the legislator said.
The Philippine government, however, welcomed the deal.
The terrifying deadlines approached by climate change tempt us to despair. But the face of the movement stirs us to courage.
Two certainties existed entering the Paris climate talks. They hold as true coming out. The first was that the world’s heads of state were not prepared to act as is necessary. The second is that it was never going to be up to them anyway.
The U.S. and China weren’t always Earth’s biggest polluters.
The Paris Agreement is an essentially forward-looking document. In it, global leaders aspire to 1.5°C of warming, beefed-up financing strategies, and regular check-ins to assure nations are on track to phasing out fossil fuels as quickly as possible.
The headlines from the Paris climate talks tell an inspiring story. Agence France-Pressereported an outbreak of “euphoria” as the international climate accord was sealed. Reutershailed a global “turn from fossil fuels.” The Guardian headlined “a major leap for mankind.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marked the Paris climate agreement by committing to take on the “tough work that still needs to be accomplished both at home and around the world to implement the agreement.” Part of that tough work will be re-orienting federal funding to stop making the climate crisis worse.
Given Trudeau’s statements on the seriousness of the climate crisis, you might expect that the multi-billion dollar infrastructure program he ran on in the election would already be targeted to reduce carbon pollution. You would be wrong.
