The announcement of this year’s Nobel Prize laureates should remind us of the many contributions basic science has made to contemporary life. With COVID-19 ravaging much of humanity, and the world anxiously awaiting a breakthrough that can end the pandemic, we can no longer take science for granted. And the global science community, for its part, has risen to the occasion in unprecedented ways, not only to develop vaccines, therapies, and diagnostics, but also to improve our understanding of the virus and the best strategies to protect ourselves. By Lars Heikensten, Marcia McNutt, and Johan Rockström.
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Results for Climate change
Tuesday 7 July 2020
Geneva, Switzerland
The world has been planning for the future in the mistaken belief that it will resemble the past. But as COVID-19 coincides with cyclones in South Asia and the Pacific and vast locust swarms in East Africa, the need to prepare for a world of unexpected shocks has become clearer than ever. Epidemics, floods, storms, droughts, and wildfires are all expected to become more frequent and severe, affecting hundreds of millions of people each year. By Jagan Chapagain and Andrew Steer
Saturday 4 July 2020
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Tonga is one of the world’s most exposed countries to climate change and natural disasters, according to an International Monetary Fund and World Bank assessment report of Tonga’s Climate Change Policy.
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Wednesday 22 April 2020
Paris, France
The COVID-19 crisis comes at a crucial moment: the beginning of the last decade that we have to act on climate change. Governments are about to spend trillions of dollars to soften the blow from COVID-19. We must not let that money go to waste. When one is being buffeted by a storm of this magnitude, the worst thing one can do is lose one’s compass. But we must use that compass to chart a new course toward an economic model that places human and environmental sustainability at its center. By Bertrand Badré
Wednesday 5 February 2020
Potsdam, Germany
Today’s leaders must not bequeath a dangerously destabilized planet to future generations. This is why the Nobel Foundation is hosting its first-ever Nobel Prize Summit, with the theme “Our Planet, Our Future,” in Washington, DC, from April 29 to May 1. The summit – supported by the US National Academy of Sciences, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and the Stockholm Resilience Centre/Beijer Institute – will bring together more than 20 Nobel laureates and other experts from around the world to explore the question: What can be achieved in this decade to put the world on a path to a more sustainable, more prosperous future for all of humanity? By Johan Rockström, Lars Heikensten, and Marcia McNutt.
Friday 10 January 2020
Canberra, Australia
Owing to the smoke from nearby wildfires, Canberra this month has had the world’s worst air-quality index, with readings 20 times above the official hazardous threshold. The city also recently experienced its hottest day on record (111°F/44°C). Meanwhile, Delhi had its coldest December day on record. Both are evidence of growing climate volatility, confirming the reality of global warming. By Ramesh Thakur.
Thursday 12 December 2019
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Madrid, Spain
Tonga's Prime Minister Hon Dr Pohiva Tu’i’onetoa said the time for climate action is now, during the 25th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP25) currently underway in Spain.
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Wednesday 11 December 2019
Madrid, Spain
Pacific Islands leaders who are in Madrid, Spain for the UN Climate Conference - COP25 Climate Conference, December 2-13, have voiced their concerns over a drive by their big neighbour Australia, under Prime Minister Scott Morrison, to boost its coal mining industry, Greenpeace Australia reported.
Thursday 14 November 2019
New York, USA
The US president is abandoning America’s future by quitting the Paris climate accord, says Ban Ki-moon former Secretary General of the United Nations and Patrick Verkooijen chief executive of the Global Center on Adaptation. In an article in the New York Times this week, they said it is not too late for Mr Trump to reconsider his decision. Staying in the Paris Agreement is the right thing to do, for America’s sake and for the rest of the world.
Saturday 9 November 2019
Lisbon, Portugal
Identifying promising green projects and directing capital toward them is a major challenge. At the same time, we must not forget those who stand to be harmed the most by climate change, or those who could be left behind in the shift to a low-carbon economy. To ensure a just transition, we must increase support for vulnerable regions and communities. Support for innovation must also include backing for education and training, so that the next generation will have the skills needed to contribute to a low-carbon economy. We should be cultivating the talents and intelligence of our youth, because it is they who will be developing the technologies and creating the jobs needed for the future. - Ambroise Fayolle.
Friday 8 November 2019
Sydney, Australia
The Asian Development Bank's response to Cyclone Gita was the first test of the Pacific Disaster Resilience (PDR) Program set up to help island states such as Tonga get back on their feet after natural calamities, says a new ADB publication.
Tuesday 5 November 2019
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Wellington, New Zealand
The threat that climate change poses to global health is the theme of an annual conference being held by New Zealand’s Otago Global Health in Wellington, New Zealand this week 6 – 7 November. Pacific research will be the focus of the conference.
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Monday 14 October 2019
Princeton, USA
“This is all wrong!” These words begin the most powerful four-minute speech I have ever heard. They were spoken by Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenage climate activist, at the United Nations Climate Action Summit last month, and followed a week of climate strikes and marches attended by an estimated six million people. Can young people really wake the world to the urgency of changing direction? By Peter Singer
Monday 7 October 2019
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Ithaca, New York
Cornell University students are working with the Tongan government on a climate change report for the upcoming United Nation’s Conference of the Parties (COP25), to be held in Santiago, Chile, in December.
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Saturday 28 September 2019
New York, United States
HM King Tupou VI re-iterated the threat of climate change in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York on September 26. By Finau Fonua.
Friday 27 September 2019
Suva, Fiji
Geoengineering will save us from the climate crisis, its champions insist. By using technology either to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or to deflect some solar radiation away from the Earth, they claim, we can undo the damage wrought by humanity’s failure to reduce greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. But while it certainly sounds like a convenient solution, there is no proof that it will work – and no telling what the side effects could be. In the view of Pacific islanders, it barely merits discussion. By François Martel.
Monday 23 September 2019
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New York, USA
Youth leaders from more than 140 countries and territories, including Tonga’s dual sport Olympian and UNICEF Pacific Ambassador, Pita Taufatofua, and Greta Thunberg, a prominent young climate activist from Sweden, gathered at the first UN Youth Climate Summit to voice their demands for urgent climate action in New York, USA, on 21 September.
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Friday 16 August 2019
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
An exhibition held under the theme ‘Increase Climate Action to Save Tonga’ saw government departments, civil society organisations, private sector, and others showcase what they are doing to combat climate change at the Queen Salote Memorial Hall today, 16 August.
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Thursday 15 August 2019
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Ottawa, Canada
A non-profit organization is calling on nations to join the Cook Islands and Samoa in preserving the Arctic Ocean by signing the Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary (MAPS) Treaty.
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Wednesday 14 August 2019
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
A two-day Climate Change Donor Roundtable started on August 14 at the National Reserve Bank of Tonga, and focused on Tonga’s Joint National Action Plan on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management 2018-2028.
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Tonga weather forecast from yr.no, delivered by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and the NRK. See also Fua'amotu Weather Forecasting Center, Tonga, for latest local weather bulletin.