Climate Change & Environment
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Drought tests resilience of Spain's olive groves and farmers

An extremely hot, dry summer that shrank reservoirs and sparked forest fires is now threatening the heartiest of Spain's staple crops: the olives that make the European country the world's leading producer and exporter of the tiny green fruits that are pressed into golden oil.

Industry experts and authorities predict Spain's fall olive harvest will be nearly half the size of last year's, another casualty of global weather shifts caused by climate change.

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In India, river erosion engulfs villages

In the 12 years that he has been the priest of a small temple by the mighty Brahmaputra, Ranajit Mandal had never witnessed the river's fury like this. Not only the temple, but the 50 homes in his native Murkata village were washed away in a matter of days.

"I feel like the earth has given way under my feet now. I have been the temple's priest ever since it was built, I feel really lost now," Mandal said.

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World leaders gather to talk climate amid many distractions

More than 100 world leaders are about to discuss a worsening problem that scientists' call Earth's biggest challenge, yet observers say it will be hard to make progress given all that is happening in the world.

Nearly 50 heads of states or governments on Monday will take the stage in the first day of "high-level" international climate talks in Egypt with more to come in the following days. Much of the focus will be on national leaders telling their stories of being devastated by climate disasters, culminating on Tuesday with a speech by Pakistan Prime Minister Muhammad Sharif, whose country's summer flood caused at least $40 billion in damage and displaced millions of people.

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COP27 summit opens in Egypt as world races against climate clock

The U.N.'s COP27 climate summit kicked off Sunday in Egypt after a year of extreme weather disasters that have fueled calls for wealthy industrialized nations to compensate poorer countries.

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Indian capital battles dangerous levels of air pollution

Indian authorities on Friday shut factories and construction sites, restricted diesel-run vehicles and deployed water sprinklers and anti-smog guns to control haze and smog enveloping the skyline of the capital region.

The Delhi government closed primary schools and restricted outdoor activity for older students as the air quality index exceeded 470, considered "severe" and more than 10 times the global safety threshold, according to the state-run Central Pollution Control Board.

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Climate negotiations: 30 years of melting hope and US power

Thirty years ago there was hope that a warming world could clean up its act.

It didn't.

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War fallout, aid demands overshadow climate talks in Egypt

When world leaders, diplomats, campaigners and scientists descend on Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt next week for talks on tackling climate change, don't expect them to part the Red Sea or other miracles that would make huge steps in curbing global warming.

Each year there are high hopes for the two-week United Nations climate gathering and, almost inevitably, disappointment when it doesn't deliver another landmark pact like the one agreed 2015 in Paris.

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Hundreds of elephants, zebras die as Kenya weathers drought

Hundreds of animals, including elephants and endangered Grevy's zebras, have died in Kenyan widlife preserves during East Africa's worst drought in decades, according to a report released Friday.

The Kenya Wildlife Service and other bodies counted the deaths of 205 elephants, 512 wildebeests, 381 common zebras, 51 buffalos, 49 Grevy's zebras and 12 giraffes in the past nine months, the report states.

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Cholera surges across Lebanon, Mideast

Shadia Ahmed panicked as rainwater flooded her shack one night, drenching her seven children. The next morning, the kids were seized by vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms.

After an aid group administered tests for cholera in Ahmed's Syrian refugee encampment in the northern Lebanese town of Bhanine, her youngest, 4-year-old Assil, tested positive.

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Maersk plans large-scale green fuel production in Spain

Global shipping giant Maersk signed an agreement Thursday with the Spanish government to develop large-scale production of green fuel in Spain for its worldwide fleet.

The methanol project, which will involve private partners and European Union funding, will see an investment of nearly 10 billion euros ($9.75 billion), a government statement said.

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