Today, we celebrate the largest network of protected areas in the world. From butterflies to otters, Natura 2000 sites are home to some of the most valuable and threatened species in #Europe.
They ensure the long-term survival of our precious habitats and species. The network covers more than 18% of the #EU's land area and more than 8% of its marine territory.
It's a collective effort to safeguard our natural heritage for #future generations!
The Albert Khan Garden in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris, is in fact made up of several thematic gardens, including a splendid Japanese garden, which invites you to meditate and rest,…
"Italy’s disasters suggest the climate crisis is at the gates of Europe
(...) “Climate change is here and we are living the consequences. It isn’t some remote prospect, it is the new normal,” Paola Pino d’Astore, an expert at the Italian Society of Environmental Geology (SIGEA)"
In #poor countries the rising #middleclass is discovering that the first thing they want to buy when they can afford to is a #car. From Johannesburg to São Paulo, Bengaluru to Jakarta, the car is increasingly dominant. The fastest-growing #cities all over the world look more like Houstons than like #Amsterdams. And far more people live in them than in #America or #Europe. That is why unless we deal with the car, #climatechange is going to prove unstoppable.
Carmageddon: how cars make life worse and what to do about it. By Daniel Knowles. Page 23.
Loch Alsh is a sea inlet between the isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides and the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The area is rich in history, and is increasingly popular with tourists.
"Nato enlargement involves “a two-fold legitimation” strategy. First, Nato is rendered ordinary and unremarkable, pedestrian and everyday, and second, it is portrayed as above reproach, vital, an absolute moral good.
[...]
Following the path taken by the German Greens, major Left-wing parties have abandoned military neutrality and opposition to war and now champion Nato.
"
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) press release 17. May 2023 - "There is a 66% likelihood that the annual average near-surface global #temperature between 2023 and 2027 will be more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for at least one year. There is a 98% likelihood that at least one of the next five years, and the five-year period as a whole, will be the warmest on record.
“This report does not mean that we will permanently exceed the 1.5°C level specified in the Paris Agreement which refers to long-term warming over many years. However, WMO is sounding the alarm that we will breach the 1.5°C level on a temporary basis with increasing frequency,” said WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas.
“A warming El Niño is expected to develop in the coming months and this will combine with human-induced climate change to push global temperatures into uncharted territory,” he said. “This will have far-reaching repercussions for health, food security, water management and the environment. We need to be prepared,” said Prof. Taalas."
Key points
The average global temperature in 2022 was about 1.15°C above the 1850-1900 average. The cooling influence of La Niña conditions over much of the past three years temporarily reined in the longer-term warming trend. But La Niña ended in March 2023 and an El Niño is forecast to develop in the coming months. Typically, El Niño increases global temperatures in the year after it develops – in this case this would be 2024.
The annual mean global near-surface temperature for each year between 2023 and 2027 is predicted to be between 1.1°C and 1.8°C higher than the 1850-1900 average. This is used as a baseline because it was before the emission of greenhouse gases from human and industrial activities.
There is a 98% chance of at least one in the next five years beating the temperature record set in 2016, when there was an exceptionally strong El Niño.
The chance of the five-year mean for 2023-2027 being higher than the last five years is also 98%.
#Arctic warming is disproportionately high. Compared to the 1991-2020 average, the temperature anomaly is predicted to be more than three times as large as the global mean anomaly when averaged over the next five northern hemisphere extended winters.
Predicted precipitation patterns for the May to September 2023-2027 average, compared to the 1991-2020 average, suggest increased rainfall in the #Sahel, northern #Europe, #Alaska and northern #Siberia, and reduced rainfall for this season over the #Amazon and parts of #Australia.
Which European cities suffer the most from #overtourism?
The German online holiday rental company Holidu has done some research and compiled a list of the European cities that are most overloaded by tourists.
@jon will head to the Tech.eu Summit, in Brussels on the 24th May.
Dpeaking on the panel “The Evolving Role of Policymaking in European Tech”. An important area of #discussion, as any contribution to it is helpful for the #technology industry in #Europe.
Frontex, dass wohl als eine von der EU eigens zur gnadenlosen Bekämpfung von Menschen in Not eingerichtete Agentur bezeichnet werden kann, baut die Überwachung immer weiter aus.
Mit Millionensummen werden hier neue Überwachungs- und Kontrolltechniken an den Schwächsten und Wehrlosesten erprobt und verfeinert.
Wir sollten nicht zulassen, dass immer mehr sichtbare und unsichtbare Grenzen um uns herum gezogen werden, die uns alle zu Gefangenen machen!
Mauern einreißen! Frontex versenken!
[EN/DE/AR/FR/IT] JOIN THE ABOLISH FRONTEX INTERNATIONAL ACTION DAY – 20 JUNE 2023
Ein Ende dem Krieg gegen Migrant*innen!
"Das EU-Grenzregime tötet weiter: Dieses Jahr ist bereits eines der tödlichsten Jahre für Menschen, die versuchen, das Mittelmeer zu überqueren. In den ersten viereinhalb Monaten des Jahres 2023 starben oder verschwanden mindestens 1074 Menschen. In Italien erlässt die faschistische Regierung ein rassistisches Gesetz nach dem anderen, um Migration und Solidarität zu kriminalisieren. Griechenland verstärkt seine Grenzmauern, drängt Menschen auf See mit direkter Unterstützung von Frontex gewaltsam zurück und verfolgt Seenotretter*innen........."
Via @abolishfrontex https://abolishfrontex.org/blog/2023/05/16/en-de-ar-fr-it-join-the-abolish-frontex-international-action-day-20-june-2023/#DE