Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

OIL

Hansen calls on Norway to halt Arctic oil work

James Hansen, the campaigning climate scientist, has called on Norway to halt oil drilling in the Arctic to prevent "a dismal future on a planet that will become less and less habitable and governable".

Published: 14 October 2015 09:59 CEST
Hansen calls on Norway to halt Arctic oil work
James Hansen headed Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies until 2013. Photo: Goddard Institute for Space Studies

In an open letter to Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Hansen, who heads the climate program at Columbia University's Earth Institute, said that how Norway handles the exploitation of the Arctic could have a “massive effect — for better or for worse”.

“Norway is strategically poised to play an important role in the fight to avert catastrophic climate change,” he wrote, praising the country's leadership on rainforest protection and ambitious emissions reduction targets. 

However, he said that he planned to tell this week's Oslo climate conference and a meeting in Brussels that all of the positive work the country is doing would be completely negated by a decision to drill in the Arctic. 

“The decision to license further oil extraction in the Barents Sea, if executed, gives oil companies access to enormous reserves of oil and gas in the very ecosystems most vulnerable to climate change,” he wrote. “Prime Minister Solberg, proceeding with the 23rd licensing round would group your country amongst the world's most unrelenting contributors to fossil fuel business-as-usual, making Norway party to the greatest intergenerational injustice ever committed.” 

Hansen said he had agreed to stand as an expert witness in a law suit soon to be launched by Norwegian campaigners, which aims to force the country to stop the licensing round, citing article 112 in the country's constitution. 

He said a decision to leave the oil in the ground would be “an act of leadership that would resound around the world and in history.” 

 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CLIMATE

Central and southern Italy brace for storms and heavy snow

Storms and snowfall are forecast across much of central and southern Italy over the next few days, according to weather reports.

Published: 29 November 2021 15:13 CET
Snow is forecast in the hills of much of central and southern Italy.
Snow is forecast in the hills of much of central and southern Italy. Photo: Miguel MEDINA / AFP

Italy’s Civil Protection Department on Monday issued ‘orange’ alerts for bad weather along Campania’s Tyrrhenian coastline and the western part of Calabria, while Sicily, Basilicata, Lazio, Molise, Umbria, Abruzzo, central-western Sardinia, and the remaining areas of Campania and Calabria are under a lower-level ‘yellow’ weather warning.

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts is warning Italy’s central-southern regions to prepare for a blast of polar air from the Arctic Circle that will bring heavy snowfall, rain and storms, reports national weather forecaster Il Meteo.

The village of Grotte di Castro in the province of Viterbo, two hours’ drive north of Rome, mountainous parts of Sardinia, and much of the province of Campobasso in the central-eastern region of Molise were already blanketed in snow on Monday morning.

The department is responsible for predicting, preventing and managing emergency events across the country, and uses a green, yellow, orange and red graded colour coding system for weather safety reports.

An orange alert signifies a heavy rainfall, landslide and flood risk, while a yellow alert warns of localised heavy and potentially dangerous rainfall.

The current meteorological conditions mean that snow is expected to reach unusually low altitudes of around 450-500 metres, with flakes already falling thickly on parts of the southern-central Apennines mountain range at 500-700 metres altitude.

The hills of Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, Lazio, Sardinia, Campania, Calabria and Basilicata are likely to see heavy snow around the 500m mark, while areas at an altitude of 1000m or higher will see between 50-60 cm of fresh snow.

Affected parts of the country could see 50-60cm of snowfall.

Affected parts of the country could see 50-60cm of snowfall. Photo: Vincenzo PINTO /AFP

In areas where the snow is unlikely to reach, heavy rains and thunderstorms are anticipated, with rain forecast throughout Sardinia, Campania, Calabria and Lazio, reports Il Meteo.

Strong winds are forecast over the whole country, with the island regions of Sicily and Sardinia facing windspeeds of over 100km/hour and the risk of storm surges, according to the national newspaper La Repubblica.

READ ALSO: Climate crisis: The Italian cities worst affected by flooding and heatwaves

The north of the country, meanwhile, will see sun but low temperatures of below 0°C at night in many areas, including across much of the Po Valley.

While conditions are expected to stabilise on Tuesday, cold currents from Northern Europe are forecast to trigger another wave of bad weather on Wednesday and Thursday, with Sardinia and Italy’s western coastline again at risk of storms and heavy rainfall that will move up towards Lombardy, Emilia Romagna and Veneto in the north.

SHOW COMMENTS