Climate Change & Environment
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Greek authorities overhaul wildfire response plans ahead of summer fire season

Greek authorities have presented new plans for tackling wildfires which often ravage the country during its hot, dry summers, including changes in the deployment of firefighting aircraft and increased staffing in specialized forest firefighting units.

The new plans come after massive fires last year killed more than 20 people and decimated vast tracts of forest and farmland, including a blaze in northeastern Greece which raged out of control for about two weeks, growing into the largest wildfire recorded in a European Union country since the European Forest Fire Information System began keeping records in 2000.

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Drought, heat and mismanagement make getting fresh water an increasingly tough task

As the world warms from human-caused climate change, fresh water for drinking, cooking and cleaning is becoming harder to get for many people.

That's because the warming world is leading to erratic rainfall patterns, extreme heat and periods of drought — on top of decades of bad water management and extractive policies around the world. The United Nations estimates that around 2.2 billion people worldwide don't have access to safely managed drinking water.

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Moroccan town protests water management plans

Regional and local leaders in eastern Morocco met this week with residents and civil society groups after months of protests over a water management plan set to take effect later this year.

Thousands in the town of Figuig stopped paying water bills and have taken to the streets since November to protest a municipal decision transitioning drinking water management from the town to a regional multi-service agency.

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Higher temperatures mean higher prices: New study links climate change to inflation

Food prices and overall inflation will rise as temperatures climb with climate change, a new study by an environmental scientist and the European Central Bank found.

Looking at monthly price tags of food and other goods, temperatures and other climate factors in 121 nations since 1996, researchers calculate that "weather and climate shocks" will cause the cost of food to rise 1.5 to 1.8 percentage points annually within a decade or so, even higher in already hot places like the Middle East, according to a study in Thursday's journal Communications, Earth and the Environment.

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Leaders tout nuclear power as climate tool at Brussels summit

More than 30 countries -- including European nations, the United States, Brazil and China -- took part on Thursday in the first-ever summit held by the United Nations' atomic energy agency to promote nuclear as a "clean and reliable source of energy".

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Study offers insight on how hot weather impairs the immune system

A study that looked at how the immune system reacts to hot weather offers new insight into what's happening when the mercury rises.

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EPA issues new auto rules aimed at cutting carbon emissions, boosting electric vehicles and hybrids

The Biden administration announced new automobile emissions standards Wednesday that officials called the most ambitious plan ever to cut planet-warming emissions from passenger vehicles.

The new rules relax initial tailpipe limits proposed last year but eventually get close to the same strict standards set out by the Environmental Protection Agency.

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10 years after deadliest US landslide, climate change is increasing danger

After the mountainside collapsed, obliterating a neighborhood and 43 lives in the worst landslide disaster in U.S. history, Jessica Pzsonka made a promise -– to herself, to her bereft parents and to her late sister, who was buried along with two young sons, her husband and in-laws.

Pszonka would see a permanent memorial created where relatives and visitors could feel her sister's presence and reflect on the serenity that drew the family to Oso, as well as the forces that left an immense scar in the forested Cascade Mountain foothills along the north fork of the Stillaguamish River, 55 miles (89 km) northeast of Seattle.

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UN warns 'planet on the brink' after warmest decade on record

Global heat records were "smashed" last year, the U.N. confirmed Tuesday, with 2023 rounding out the hottest decade on record, as heatwaves stalked oceans and key glaciers suffered record ice loss.

"The state of the climate in 2023 gave ominous new significance to the phrase 'off the charts'," the World Meteorological Organization said as it published an annual report on the global climate, confirming that last year was the hottest on record, and 2014-2023 was the hottest decade ever measured.

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700 people stranded by Australia cyclone

About 700 people were stranded in far northern Australia Tuesday after a tropical cyclone barrelled through their remote community, cutting off links with the rest of the country.

The Australian Defense Force tried to evacuate residents of the small Northern Territory community of Borroloola, but attempts to land aircraft Monday were hampered by wild weather.

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