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Hurricane Florence was downgraded to a Category 1 storm late Thursday night, as it approached shore — but officials warned it was still very dangerous.

CNN’s John Avlon agrees with The Washington Post that Trump is “complicit” in the storm. •Why? Because he’s not a global warming alarmist and opposes Obama-era climate policies. •One climate scientist touted the “irony” of a storm coming while Trump is deregulating. President Donald Trump’s critics are not only trying to implicate him in the potentially catastrophic damage of Hurricane Florence, but some seem to be touting the “irony” of a storm coming amid the administration’s deregulatory efforts. CNN political analyst John Avlon agreed with The Washington Post’s editorial board that Trump was “complicit” in the hurricane headed for the...

In the summer of 1987, a woman visiting Alaska was crushed by a 1,000-pound chunk of ice. According to news reports at the time, Thais Grabenauer, 59, had been taking pictures with her husband at the foot of Exit Glacier, a towering wall of ice that’s one of the most popular attractions in Kenai Fjords National Park. A half-ton piece of the glacier calved off as the couple was snapping, killing Grabenauer and injuring her husband. It was one of those wrong place, wrong time tragedies that seem unlikely to happen again. But in the three decades since Grabenauer’s death,...

On the eve of the Global Climate Action Summit, thousands of people are converging in San Francisco to save melting icebergs, endangered wildlife and drowning cities. But imagine, if you can, a life with less cioppino. Created in the late 1800s by Italian immigrants in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, the famed fish stew is one of many beloved foods – ranging from wine to sourdough bread - that’s likely to feel the stresses of climate change, researchers say. While the fate of one dish is far from a threat to humankind, it illustrates the far-reaching impact of something much...

Top civil rights leaders are suing California for climate policies they say disproportionately harm its poorest residents, particularly Latinos and African Americans. “California politicians are using anti-racist and environmentalist words to hide the regressive impact of their climate policies on the poor and people of color,” said John Gamboa, the co-founder of The Two Hundred, a coalition of prominent civil rights leaders, which filed a lawsuit against the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in Superior Court. The lawsuit alleges that “the most staggering, unlawful, and racist components of the [state’s climate policies] target new housing” and are contributing to “resegregation.”...

HONG KONG - When industrialized nations pledged in 2009 to mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 to help the poorest countries deal with climate change, it won over some skeptics in the developing world who had argued that rich nations should pay up for contributing so much to the problem. But the money has been slow to materialize, with only $3.5 billion actually committed out of $10.3 billion pledged to a prominent United Nations program called the Green Climate Fund. President Trump’s decision last year to cancel $2 billion in promised aid did not help. “The fund of hope...

Climate change is here now, and it’s time to urgently ask ourselves: What kind of future do we want to work toward? The air we breathe is key to answering this question. Global warming is not just manifesting in devastating fires, floods and heatwaves; its causes are impacting nearly every breath we take. A recent World Health Organization report said that nine out of 10 people on the planet breathe dangerous air, and an estimated 7 million premature deaths a year are caused by air pollution-related diseases, including stroke and heart disease, respiratory illness and cancer. The most vulnerable people...

A RISE IN GLOBAL temperatures beyond the limits established by the signers of the Paris climate agreement could result in an almost 9 percent increase in deaths internationally, a new study says. The number of heat-related deaths in regional populations would increase from 0.73 percent to 8.86 percent if the globe warms by 3 degrees Celsius (about 5 degrees Fahrenheit) or higher, according to an assessment by two professors at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, published in the letters section of the journal Climate Change. The deaths due to heat exposure would increase despite a corresponding decrease...

Up to 30 per cent of coastal wetlands could be lost globally by the year 2100 with a dramatic effect on global warming and coastal flooding, if action is not taken to protect them, new research warns. The global study, led by researchers at the University of Lincoln, UK, suggests that the future of global coastal wetlands, including tidal marshes and mangroves, could be secured if they were able to migrate further inland. Geographers examined localised data from around the globe on coastal elevation, tides, sediment availability, coastal population and estimates of sea level rise to assess whether coastal wetlands...

Hurricane Florence has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm but it is still considered an extremely dangerous and life-threatening storm. As of 11 p.m., the storm was centered 280 miles east southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina, and was moving northwest at 17 mph. Its maximum sustained winds have dropped slightly to 110 mph.

Hurricane Florence is moving relentlessly toward the Southeastern U.S. It's a large, powerful cyclone that will likely bring storm surge and high winds to coastal communities. But climate scientists say one of the biggest threats posed by Florence is rain. "Freshwater flooding poses the greatest risk to life," explains James Kossin, an atmospheric scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Slow-moving storms are getting more common. A study published earlier this year by Kossin found that tropical cyclones around the world have slowed down 10 percent in the past 70 years. Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric...

The editorial board of the Washington Post has declared that President Trump is “complicit” for Hurricane Florence because of his views on climate change. The massive storm has not made landfall yet, but the Post published a column on Wednesday headlined, “Another hurricane is about to batter our coast. Trump is complicit.” The piece also notes that Trump has given “good advice” when issuing hurricane warnings via his Twitter feed before it launched an attack on the president. “When it comes to extreme weather, Mr. Trump is complicit. He plays down humans’ role in increasing the risks, and he continues...

The political leaders coming from around the world for Gov. Jerry Brown’s climate action summit this week will grapple with a lot of urgent deadlines to drive down emissions, but one date is especially exasperating. It is 2035 — the year advocates aim to kill off production of gasoline and diesel powered vehicles.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said that if the world doesn't change course by 2020, we run the risk of runaway climate change. Mr Guterres said he was alarmed by the paralysis of world leaders on what he called the "defining issue" of our time. He wants heads of government to come to New York for a special climate conference next September. The call comes amid growing concerns over the slow pace of UN negotiations. Mr Guterres painted a grim picture of the impacts of climate change that he says have been felt all over the world this year,...

Most people think—and charlatan environmentalists are happy to reinforce the impression—that deforestation is taking place on a massive scale, that the world is literally going to run out of trees. I have noted from time to time the data from the United Nations Global Forest Resource Assessment (UNGFRA) that has found that deforestation stopped at least 25 years ago, and that net reforestation has been taking place. But the UN data is not as good as one would like. This week, however, Naturemagazine published a major new studywith much more precise measurements and analysis than the UNGFRA based on 35...

More than 18,000 people marched Saturday in Paris as part of an international mobilization to show popular support for urgent measures to combat climate change in advance of a San Francisco summit. Crowds overflowed a plaza in front of City Hall before marching east to the Place de la Republique, carrying an urgent message that it’s up to the public to put global warming at the top of the political agenda. “Planet in Danger,” read some banners. Activists around the world encouraged “Rise for Climate” protests before the summit taking place Sept.12-Sept. 14. California’s governor proposed the event after President...

Former Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton wants supporters to tell their senators to vote against Judge Brett Kavanaugh becoming the newest justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Clinton’s main reason for opposing President Donald Trump’s second Supreme Court nominee? Man-made global warming. “Replacing Kennedy with Kavanaugh would swing the Court to a new, hard-right majority that would rule against curbing greenhouse gases for years—maybe decades—that we can’t afford to waste on inaction,” Clinton wrote in a series of tweets published Friday....

(KMSP) - The National Weather Service reports some record-breaking cold temperatures for Sept. 6 in northern Minnesota with both International Falls and Hibbing finding themselves waking up to a very chilly morning. International Falls reached 28 degree Thursday, breaking the previous record of 31 degrees for Sept. 6. Hibbing fell to 29 degrees, breaking the previous record of 33. Though not a record, Robinson, Minnesota near Ely was a chilly 25 degrees. Summer was nice while it lasted.

SYDNEY - Pacific island nations declared climate change to be their “single greatest threat”, urging Washington to return to the Paris Agreement on climate, just as Western powers seek to check China’s rising influence in the region. Australia, which has backed away from its own commitment to Paris without exiting the pact, was among the 18 nations of the Pacific Islands Forum that made the call at a meeting of leaders on the tiny island state of Nauru. “Climate change presents the single greatest threat to the livelihood, security and well-being of Pacific people,” the leaders said in a communique,...

As climate change brings rising temperatures, droughts, shifting patterns of precipitation and longer growing seasons, plants and animals are evolving to keep pace. Biologists have observed squirrels and salmon developing at an accelerated pace, causing them to reproduce at a younger age. Earlier summers have caused some flowers to bloom earlier in the year. As the planet continues to warm, evolutionary changes are expected in other species as well - including Homo sapiens. Climate change will alter the internal workings of our bodies in subtle but significant ways and will likely cause a noticeable shift in our appearance. A warmer...