About Environmental Law
Environmental law, also known as environmental and natural resources law, is a collective address environmental pollution.
Delhi pollution: Indian Supreme Court's 40-year quest to clean foul air
... Ritwick Dutta, an expert in Environmental Law, says that lower courts or specialised tribunals could play an important role in enforcing the existing Environmental Laws...
Climate change: Is the world warming faster than expected?
... Ahead of the crucial, this " should really spur action to accelerate the phase out of fossil fuels, " explains Lili Fuhr from the Centre for International Environmental Law...
Government may have broken law over sewage - watchdog
... Following a year of evidence-gathering by the organisation and its lawyers, on Tuesday it announced that " it had reasonable grounds for suspecting that the authorit[ies] has failed to comply with Environmental Law"...
Water firms illegally spilled sewage on dry days - data suggests
... Discharging in dry conditions is therefore illegal under Environmental Law...
The science behind the Fukushima waste water release
... American professor Emily Hammond, an expert in energy and Environmental Law with George Washington University, said: " The challenge with radionuclides (such as tritium) is that they present a question that science cannot fully answer; that is, at very low levels of exposure, what can be counted as safe ? " One can have a lot of faith in the IAEA s work while still recognising that compliance with standards does not mean that there are zero environmental or human consequences attributed to the decision...
Robert F Kennedy Jr to challenge Biden for White House
... The Environmental Lawyer s campaign treasurer, John E Sullivan, confirmed the filing on Wednesday...
UN climate report: Scientists release 'survival guide' to avert climate disaster
... " We know what needs to happen, but the carbon removal part and carbon capture and storage ideas are a massive distraction, " said Lili Fuhr, from the Centre for International Environmental Law, who attended the approval session...
Five ways sequins add to plastic pollution
... 1 Sequins fall off" I don t know if you ve ever worn anything with sequins, but I have, and those things are constantly falling off, especially if the clothes are from a fast-fashion or discount retailer, " says Jane Patton, campaigns manager for plastics and petrochemicals with the Centre for International Environmental Law...
Climate change: Is the world warming faster than expected?
By Matt Mcgrath & Mark PoyntingBBC News climate & science
Climate records have tumbled in 2023.
There have been historically high sea temperatures, worrying lows in Antarctic sea-ice, and Extreme Weather events hitting every Continent - The latest being.
It's now. That's something that no major climate science body expected at The start of The year.
Scientists have long known that temperatures will continue to rise as humans keep releasing record amounts of planet-heating greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, This is The main cause of Global Warming .
While they are struggling to fully explain 2023's, here are four additional reasons that could be behind The increases.
A 'weird' El NiñoOne key factor is The unusually rapid onset of a natural weather system known as El Niño.
During an El Niño, warmer surface waters in The Eastern Pacific release additional heat into The atmosphere. This typically leads to a surge in global air temperatures.
The graph below shows how a new El Niño is strengthening. It has Not Yet reached The Peak of The Last major one in 2016, as you can see, but is expected to intensify in The Coming months.
The ongoing 2023 El Niño May be releasing even more warmth than previous ones, because The World had previously been in an extended cool Phase - an opposite weather system known as La Niña.
This kept a lid on global temperatures for an unusually long period, as warmth was less able to escape from The Sea surface into The atmosphere.
During This Time , some of which is now finally being released into The atmosphere.
Normally, scientists expect a delay of around three months between maximum El Niño strength and global air temperatures peaking, explains Zeke Hausfather , a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth , a science organisation in The US.
But air temperatures have risen much more quickly during this El Niño than with previous ones, and it's not even reached full strength yet.
As Dr Hausfather puts it, " this El Niño is weird. "
Cutting aerosolsCutting some air pollutants - aimed at cleaning The air that humans Breathe - May actually be having an unintended consequence for warming. That's because some small airborne particles known as aerosols, like sulphate or dust, tend to reflect some of The Sun 's energy back into space. Generally, this cools The Earth 's surface.
Regulations introduced in 2020 to encourage cleaner shipping fuels have reduced global emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2), a harmful air pollutant for humans to Breathe ,
But this appears to have raised temperatures, especially in shipping hotspots like The North Atlantic.
" We saw quite rapidly from The satellite data that less sunlight was being reflected and more sunlight was being absorbed by The oceans, " explains Leon Simons, a climate researcher at The Club of Rome group.
Not all scientists agree on how important aerosols are for explaining 2023's records.
" It's hard to make The case that The [new shipping fuel] regulation in 2020 would create a sudden jump in 2023 that we didn't see in 2022, " Dr Hausfather argues.
A large volcanic eruptionIn January 2022, there was a huge eruption of The . The eruption plume reached an and triggered.
Importantly for The climate, it also released around 150 million tonnes of water vapour into The stratosphere. Water vapour is a Greenhouse Gas , like carbon dioxide, so May have added to warming.
Studies So Far suggest The eruption May have only had a limited effect on global air temperatures, But scientists are still working to establish its Full Impact .
An Antarctic 'radiator'?The Sea -ice surrounding Antarctica is, satellite data showed in September.
Arctic sea-ice has long been in decline, but until 2017 Antarctic sea-ice had largely defied predictions and remained relatively stable. This could now be changing, with consequences for global temperatures.
Fewer areas of bright, reflective ice mean more of The Sun 's energy is absorbed by The darker ocean surface. In turn, this accelerates warming.
" The concern is that The Antarctic has started to operate like The Arctic , " working " like a radiator rather than a refrigerant" notes Martin Siegert , from The Grantham Institute for Climate Change .
It is unclear whether The Antarctic changes are a contributor to 2023 warmth, or a consequence.
But it indicates how warming could speed up in future, Prof Siegert says.
So is The World warming faster than expected?While The in recent decades, this has Not Yet consistently that scientists expected from climate models.
This provides some reassurance that The World hasn't yet tipped into a new Phase of runaway Climate Change .
However, a group of leading climate scientists recently
They suggest that The climate is yet to fully respond to The Greenhouse gases already emitted. One reason could be The Artificial cooling effect of aerosols. This leaves more warming " in The pipeline" than previously thought, they argue.
Not all scientists agree with this view, but The currently being experienced highlight The Challenges The World is already facing.
Ahead of The crucial, this " should really spur action to accelerate The Phase out of fossil fuels, " explains Lili Fuhr from The Centre for International Environmental Law .
" It doesn't have to be worse than we expected to be a huge problem that society urgently needs to deal with, " says Dr Hausfather.
" Climate Change is as bad as we expected. And that's bad enough. "
Related TopicsSource of news: bbc.com
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