How southern Europe will be hotter than the rest of the planet

 

This is an alarming, even disturbing video.

"The speed and magnitude of the climate change we are facing today is unprecedented. Heatwaves, droughts, floods... We are feeling its effects on our daily lives, year after year. Its impacts will increase at least until 2050 and every region of Europe will be affected.

Based on the results of the latest available studies, and in particular, on the 6th IPCC report, this film, produced by scientists in the framework of the European project EUCP, aims to present to the general public the climate changes expected in Europe in 2050. The researchers explain in an accessible way the variations in temperature and precipitation as well as the extreme climate events that European inhabitants will have to face. This film provides the keys to understand how climate will reshape our landscapes and lifestyles over the coming decades. ... and to enable us to better anticipate the need for human societies to adapt to this partly inevitable climate change."

"The EU's Green New Deal is a colossal exercise in Greenwashing"

Yanis Varoufakis, leader of DiEM25 (Democracy in Europe Movement 2025) and progressive left member of the Greek parliament argues in The Guardian newspaper that a major mistake is being made...

"Ursula von der Leyen’s signature proposal co-opts the slogans of climate activism, but has none of the substance.

Emergencies tend to reveal our true priorities. When our house is burning down or the storm waters are flooding in, we hold on to what we value most, and leave the rest behind.

A decade ago, the leaders of the European Union found themselves facing such a moment. With the French and German banks falling into a black hole, they did whatever it took to save them. Between 2009 and 2013, European governments channelled €1.6tn (£1.36tn) to Europe’s bankers, while imposing stringent austerity upon the European citizens they pledged to serve. When in 2015 they realised that more support was necessary, the European Central Bank printed €2.6tn over just four years.

Now, Europe confronts a crisis of far greater severity: a climate emergency. And so, last month, EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen unveiled the European green deal, a €1tn, 10-year plan to reduce the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% compared with 1990. “This is Europe’s man on the moon moment,” said Von der Leyen.

At first, one cannot resist comparing the two sums and the priorities they reveal: more than €4.2tn to save Europe’s financial sector; €1tn to save our world."

Read more from source here.

"‘High likelihood of human civilisation coming to end’ by 2050, report finds"

[Pic. Maja Hitij/Getty Images\

"Human civilisation as we know it may have already entered its last decades, a worrying new report examining the likely future of our planet’s habitability warns.

The increasingly disastrous impacts of the climate crisis, coupled with inaction to tackle it are sending our planet down a bleak path towards an increasingly chaotic world which could overwhelm societies around the globe, the report’s authors contend.

The paper, produced by the Melbourne-based think tank the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration, is presented by the former chief of the Australian Defence Forces and retired Royal Australian Navy Admiral Chris Barrie."

Read more from source here.

My neighbour, the winemaker

I go jogging next to his family’s land and his grandchildren go to my son’s school. He is setting ethical examples for other businesses to follow.

He seems to be a good man, despite being very rich.

This Guardian article by Elena Moya is a fascinating interview with Miguel Torres who runs Catalonia’s Torres winery.