Climate Change & Environment
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Hurricane Ida Devastation Lingers in Louisiana 1 Month Later

The land on which Audrey Trufant Salvant's home sits in the small Louisiana town of Ironton has become an island in a sea of mud and snake-infested marsh grass. Nearby houses are disconnected from their foundations, a refrigerator is lodged sideways in a tree, and dozens of caskets and tombs from two nearby cemeteries are strewn across lawns for blocks. The entire town is without power and running water.

A month after Hurricane Ida roared ashore with 150-mph (241-kph) winds, communities all along the state's southeastern coast — Ironton, Grand Isle, Houma, Lafitte and Barataria — are still suffering from the devastating effects of the Category 4 storm.

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Lava Flowing Into Sea Creates Delta, Expands Spanish Island

The surface of Spain's La Palma island is continuing to expand as lava from a volcano flows into the Atlantic Ocean and hardens when it comes into contact with the water, European Union scientists said Thursday.

Copernicus, the European Union's Earth observation program, said Thursday that its satellite imagery showed a D-shaped tongue of molten rock building up on the island's western shore measured 338 hectares (835 acres) by the end of Wednesday.

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Why Climate Change Is Making It Harder to Chase Fall Foliage

Droughts that cause leaves to turn brown and wither before they can reach peak color. Heat waves prompting leaves to fall before autumn even arrives. Extreme weather events like hurricanes that strip trees of their leaves altogether.

For a cheery autumnal activity, leaf peeping is facing some serious threats from the era of climate change.

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U.S. Says Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, 22 Other Species Extinct

Death's come knocking a last time for the splendid ivory-billed woodpecker and 22 more birds, fish and other species: The U.S. government is declaring them extinct.

It's a rare move for wildlife officials to give up hope on a plant or animal, but government scientists say they've exhausted efforts to find these 23. And they warn climate change, on top of other pressures, could make such disappearances more common as a warming planet adds to the dangers facing imperiled plants and wildlife.

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Australia's Daintree Rainforest Returned to Original Owners

The World Heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest is among four national parks to be handed back to traditional owners in a deal signed with an Australian state government on Wednesday.

More than 160,000 hectares (395,000 acres) of land in northern Queensland state stretching from the Daintree, north of Port Douglas, to south of Cooktown will be jointly managed before a full handover is made to the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people.

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Lava from La Palma Eruption Reaches the Atlantic

Lava from a volcano on Spain's Canary Islands has reached the sea after 10 days of wiping out hundreds of homes and causing the evacuation of thousands of residents.

Columns of steam that experts had warned could contain toxic gases shot upward when the bright red molten rock tumbled into the Atlantic Ocean at 11 p.m. on Tuesday.

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Youth Call Time on Decades of 'Empty' Climate Promises

Youth activists on Tuesday called out decades of "empty words and promises" from world leaders as they demanded action -- and money -- to tackle global warming ahead of a pivotal U.N. climate summit.

With just weeks to go before the COP26 meeting in Glasgow, seen as crucial to the viability of the Paris climate agreement, campaigners used the opening of a three-day event in Milan to lambast governments' failure to address the crisis.

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Syria Water Crisis Spurs Spike in Disease

Limited access to clean water in northern Syria is causing a rise in illnesses and undermining the battle against Covid-19, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Tuesday.

The medical aid group blamed the "acute water crisis"  in recent months on a decrease in funding for water, sanitation and hygiene operations as well as the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure during a decade of civil war.

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OPEC: Oil Will Be World's No. 1 Energy Source for Decades

As the world's nations prepare to gather for another climate summit next month in Glasgow, the OPEC oil cartel is reminding that, in their view, crude will continue to be the leading source of energy for decades, especially as the world's less-wealthy countries seek higher growth and standards of living.

OPEC says that more electric vehicles on the road and the push for alternative and renewable energy will indeed usher in an era of declining demand for oil in rich countries.

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Lava from Spanish Island Volcano Quickens Pace toward Sea

Lava flowing from an erupting volcano in Spain's Canary Islands has picked up its pace on its way to the sea and is now within 800 meters (875 yards) of the shore, officials said Tuesday.

While one river of lava has slowed down on the island of La Palma, the other was hotter and more fluid. That second one was bearing down Tuesday on the small town of Todoque, whose people have been evacuated, the Canary Islands emergency volcano response department said.

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