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Why more flights are delayed

Climate Changed Newsletter
Bloomberg Climate Changed
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Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old activist behind a global wave of student strikes, was named Time magazine's youngest-ever Person of the Year. "Her message is one the boomers would have recognized in the 1960s: Our elders have sold us out," the magazine said. Thunberg spoke on Wednesday at a United Nations conference in Madrid, telling delegates that wealthy nations aren't doing enough to solve the climate crisis. —Josh Petri

 
"Some of these companies try and claim they're compliant with the Paris Agreement, and they are at the same time keeping governments back from being more ambitious. I'm hugely doubtful about some of these commitments."

—Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, speaking at the UN conference in Madrid.

 
 
Top stories

Come 2100, the world will likely have warmed by almost 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit). That's double the rate of increase that scientists have warned is the threshold beyond which the planet will suffer the worst impacts of climate change.

A plan to turn Europe into the world's first climate-neutral continent is running into opposition right out of the gate. Some nations are demanding more help financing their transition to a carbon neutral economy, while the heavily polluting airline industry signaled it's ready to fight any attempt to make it pay more. And a push to regulate the burgeoning green finance sector got snarled up by a dispute over whether nuclear power should be included.

Exxon Mobil won a novel securities-fraud case brought by New York state that delved into the oil company's accounting for the financial risk of climate change. But Big Oil faces many more lawsuits over its starring role in the climate crisis, some of which seek to hold them liable for bilking taxpayers and consumers out of what may end up being tens of trillions of dollars.

From the Bahamas to Mozambique, many of the nations better known as exotic holiday destinations are increasingly blaming the climate crisis for more violent storms. And they want rich, industrialized nations to help pay for the damage they cause.

Over the past four years, weather delays for U.S. commercial flights have been trending higher. They've upended historical patterns and, during the most recent summer storm season, jumped to an 11-year high, according to government data. In June, United Airlines' Denver hub registered as many disruptive storms as it had for the entire previous summer. It turns out that climate change is the new reason your flight is delayed.

 
What we've been reading

Vast amounts of methane are escaping from oil and gas sites across America. The invisible atmosphere killer is accelerating global warming, yet the Trump administration is weakening restrictions on the biggest offenders. The New York Times used an infrared camera to identify the worst polluters. The resulting images are truly astonishing.

In 1941, a violent rush of water from Lake Palcacocha surged into the streets of Huaraz in the Peruvian Andes, killing at least 1,800 people. Scientists say it was likely caused by a huge chunk of glacial ice falling into the lake—and it could happen again at any moment. CNET reports how climate change made the world's deadliest lake even more dangerous.

Consumerism is destroying the planet, but you can't be the person who shows up to a holiday celebration this year without a gift, right? Fear not, your little cousin won't cry and call you names when you bring him one of these lovely, non-planet destroying presents. Grist has come up with 79 climate-friendly gifts for everyone in your life. 

 

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