Climate Change & Environment
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Brazil's Pantanal wetlands hasn't entered fire season but is already breaking records

Brazil's massive Pantanal wetlands haven't technically entered annual fire season, but already the number of blazes has broken records and is leading experts to predict this year will be the most devastating in decades.

Typically the world's largest tropical wetlands dry out and are prone to fires from July to September. But the National Space Research Institute's satellites spotted over 2,500 fires in the region in June alone -- by far the most ever recorded for the month in data going back to 1998. It's more than six times the amount in the same month of 2020, known as the "the year of flames," when wildfires ravaged the area and sparked widespread outcry.

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Evacuation orders lifted for some Arizona residents after wildfire

Evacuation orders in Arizona have been lifted for some residents of northeast Scottsdale, days after they were forced from their homes by a wildfire, authorities said Sunday.

The Boulder View Fire was 19% contained Sunday after charring nearly 6 square miles (15 square kilometers) on the cusp of the Boulder Heights subdivision since Thursday.

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Two wildfires are burning near Greece's capital, fueled by strong winds

Two large wildfires were burning Sunday near Greece's capital of Athens, and authorities sent emergency messages for some residents to evacuate and others to stay at home and close their windows to protect themselves from smoke.

The first blaze, southeast of Athens, began in early afternoon. Local authorities said it burned at least four homes and several cars. No casualties were reported by 6 p.m.

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Storms in Switzerland and Italy cause flooding and landslides, killing at least 4

Storms in Switzerland and northern Italy caused extensive flooding and landslides, leaving at least four people dead, authorities said Sunday.

The bodies of three people were recovered following a landslide in the Fontana area of the Maggia valley in the Italian-speaking Ticino canton (state) on the southern side of the Alps. Storms and heavy rain pounded southern and western Switzerland on Saturday and overnight.

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Intense rain causes roof collapse at New Delhi airport, killing 1 person

A portion of a canopy at a departure terminal at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport collapsed Friday as monsoon rains lashed the Indian capital, killing one person and injuring six others, officials said.

All flight departures from Terminal 1 were temporarily suspended as rescuers cleared the debris to rescue anyone trapped there, the airport authority said.

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Severe weather wreaks havoc across US from Midwest to Northeast

Severe weather over days has caused havoc and destruction across the U.S. That includes torrential rains and flooding in the Upper Midwest and powerful storms in the Northeast that left a least two people dead from falling trees.

The deadly storms that raked parts of the Northeast late Wednesday into early Thursday spun off tornadoes and initially left some 250,000 customers in the region without power.

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List of threatened species grows by 1,000, but conservation efforts bring some hope

Over 45,000 species are now threatened with extinction — 1,000 more than last year — according to an international conservation organization that blames pressures from climate change, invasive species and human activity such as illicit trade and infrastructural expansion.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature released its latest Red List of Threatened Species on Thursday. Now in its 60th year, the list sounds the alarm about animals and plants at risk of extinction, but it also highlights conservation success stories such as the Iberian lynx.

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Palestinians surrounded by sewage and garbage in searing heat of Gaza summer

Children in sandals trudge through water contaminated with sewage and scale growing mounds of garbage in Gaza's crowded tent camps for displaced families. People relieve themselves in burlap-covered pits, with nowhere nearby to wash their hands.

In the stifling summer heat, Palestinians say the odor and filth surrounding them is just another inescapable reality of war — like pangs of hunger or sounds of bombing.

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Swiss inspect damage after sudden storms flood roads, halt air traffic in Geneva

Clean-up crews and business owners were inspecting the damage Wednesday after sudden storms lashed southwestern Switzerland the previous night, sending torrents of water through roads and temporarily halting air traffic at Geneva's airport.

In the lakeside town of Morges, a creek overflowed, inundating downtown streets with tan-colored floodwater.

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Canada's 2023 wildfires pumped 3.28 bn tons of heat-trapping gas

Catastrophic Canadian warming-fueled wildfires last year pumped more heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the air than India did by burning fossil fuels, setting ablaze an area of forest larger than West Virginia, new research found.

Scientists at the World Resources Institute and the University of Maryland calculated how devastating the impacts of the months-long fires in Canada in 2023 that sullied the air around large parts of the globe. They figured it put 3.28 billion tons (2.98 billion metric tons) of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the air, according to a study update published in Thursday's Global Change Biology. The update is not peer-reviewed, but the original study was.

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