environment and natural resources – Page 4

Search efforts grow as mission to rescue 5 aboard missing submersible races clock | CNN

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CNN
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The multinational search efforts for a submersible with five people onboard that disappeared Sunday while diving to view the Titanic’s resting place grew Tuesday as more ships and aircraft joined the mission to find the mariners before their oxygen runs out.

A spokesperson for the US Navy said the military branch is sending subject matter experts and a “Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System” to help in the rescue mission for the commercial submersible, which disappeared Sunday morning and as of Tuesday night, had just over 30 hours of oxygen left.

The system has the capacity to lift and recover large, bulky and heavy undersea objects, like the small submersible.

The equipment and personnel were expected to arrive at St. John’s, Newfoundland, by Tuesday night, the spokesperson said.

The US Coast Guard and the Royal Canadian Air Force are also deploying more aircraft and vessels to aid in the search for the 21-foot submersible. The fleet of assets joining the operation include a Canadian pipe-laying vessel with underwater capabilities, along with other vessels and aircraft.

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OceanGate Expeditions says the submersible, known as “Titan,” begins each trip with 96 hours of life support on the vessel. That is “a short amount of time,” said retired Capt. Bobbie Scholley, a former US Navy diver.

“The hard part is finding the submersible. And once they find the submersible, there are all sorts of situations of how to get that submersible to the surface, and rescue the crew,” Scholley said.

The international search and rescue operation is “doing everything possible” as part of a “complex search effort” but has so far “not yielded any results,” US Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick told reporters Tuesday at a 1 p.m. ET news conference. The “unique” and “challenging” search effort has brought together “our nations’ best experts,” he said.

At the time, Frederick estimated the vessel was down to 40 hours of oxygen – and officials do not know whether that’s enough time to rescue those onboard.

“What I will tell you is, we will do everything in our power to effect a rescue,” he said in response to a question about the oxygen time limit from CNN.

If searchers locate the submersible deep in the ocean, the mission to recover the craft and any onboard survivors will be complex.

“There’s very few assets in the world that can go down that deep,” said retired Capt. Chip McCord, whose 30 years of US Navy experience includes overseeing several salvage operations.

Because of the depth of the ocean floor, a search craft would have to “go up and down like an elevator” rather than cruise the bottom of the sea, he added.

Searchers have taken the mission below sea level after scouring an area of the ocean’s surface about the size of Connecticut, US Coast Guard District 1 Rear Admiral John Mauger said Tuesday morning. “We now have underwater search capability on scene, and so we’re going to be using that to see if we can locate the submersible in the water,” he told CNN.

The search zone covers an area about 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 13,000 feet deep, Mauger said Monday afternoon. “We are deploying all available assets to make sure that we can locate the craft and rescue the people onboard,” he told reporters.

The submersible known as “Titan” – roughly the size of a minivan – was carrying one pilot and four “mission specialists” when it lost contact with its mother ship about 1 hour and 45 minutes into its descent, authorities said.

The submersible is operated by OceanGate Expeditions, a company that organizes a journey to the ocean floor for a price of $250,000, according to an archived version of its website.

The 23,000-pound Titan is made of highly engineered carbon fiber and titanium and is equipped with repurposed everyday items, including a video game controller used to steer.

The expedition reflects the ongoing fascination with the Titanic’s wreckage more than a century after it hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage, killing more than 1,500 people. The journey is also part of the growing business of wealthy adventure tourism, along with the space flights of Blue Origin or the rise of guided tours to Mount Everest.

OceanGate CEO and founder Stockton Rush is among the five onboard, according to a source with knowledge of the mission plan.

The others are British businessman Hamish Harding; Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood and his son, Sulaiman Dawood; and French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, according to CNN reporting.

OceanGate did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment about Rush being aboard.

OceanGate in a statement on Monday said “every step possible is being taken to bring the five crew members back safely. We are deeply grateful for the urgent and extensive assistance we are receiving from multiple government agencies and deep-sea companies as we seek to reestablish contact with the submersible.”

In 2018, the Manned Underwater Vehicles committee of the Marine Technology Society penned a letter to Rush, expressing concern over what they referred to as OceanGate’s “experimental approach” of the Titan and its planned expedition to the site of the Titanic wreckage, the New York Times reports.

“Our apprehension is that the current experimental approach adopted by Oceangate could result in negative outcomes, (from minor to catastrophic) that would have serious consequences for everyone in the industry,” the letter – which was obtained by the Times – reads, in part.

Specifically, the letter expressed concern over the company’s compliance with a maritime risk assessment certification known as DNV-GL.

“Your marketing material advertises that the TITAN design will meet or exceed the DNV-GL safety standards, yet it does not appear that Oceangate has the intention of following DNV-GL classrules,” the letter says. “Your representation is, at minimum, misleading to the public and breaches an industry-wide professional code of conduct we all endeavor to uphold.”

OceanGate has not responded to a request for comment on the letter.

The effort to locate those on board, meanwhile, has grown by the day. The Coast Guard is searching with aerial and water surface craft, and the Canadian Armed Forces is also deploying aircraft to assist in the search, a spokesperson told CNN.

The Canadian research vessel Polar Prince, which took the submersible to the wreckage site, is assisting search and rescue efforts, a spokesperson for its co-owner Horizon Maritime told CNN.

Officials involved in the search have not publicly named those aboard the submersible, but social media posts and friends and family have identified them.

Action Aviation, an aircraft brokerage based in the United Arab Emirates, in a statement on Tuesday confirmed Harding, its chairman, is on board.

“Both the Harding Family and the team at Action Aviation are very grateful for all the kind messages of concern and support from our friends and colleagues,” the statement said. “We are thankful for the continued efforts of the authorities and companies that have stepped in to aid in the rescue efforts. We put great faith and trust in their expertise.”

Harding has an extensive record of adventures: In 2019 he took part in a flight crew that broke the world record for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe via both poles, and in 2020 he became one of the first people to dive to Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean, widely believed to be the deepest point in the world’s oceans.

And last year, he paid an undisclosed sum of money for one of the seats on Blue Origin’s space flight.

The day before the vessel went missing, Harding wrote of the Titanic mission: “I am proud to finally announce that I joined OceanGate Expeditions for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic.”

A friend told CNN on Tuesday that Harding is “larger than life.”

“He lives exploration. He is an explorer to the core of his soul,” fellow explorer Jannicke Mikkelsen said. “He has been to the bottom of planet earth in the Mariana Trench … he’s even been in space. We circumnavigated the planet together … the north and south pole, and set the world speed record.”

Nargeolet was scheduled to be on Sunday’s dive with him, Harding said Saturday in a Facebook post:

“The team on the sub has a couple of legendary explorers, some of which have done over 30 dives to the RMS Titanic since the 1980s including PH Nargeolet,” Harding wrote, according to CNN news partner CTV News.

A friend of Nargeolet, Mathieu Johann, told CNN Tuesday the missing submariner is a “hero” and said, “I hope that, right to the end, like in the movies, he’ll reappear very quickly to reassure us all.”

“What we’re going through right now is this interminable wait,” Johann said.

Nargeolet is a Titanic expert who has taken the trip every year, completing more than 37 dives to the wreck, according to an archived version of OceanGate Expeditions’ website accessible via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

“Something we always think about as explorers and scientists … we’ve always known something like this could happen and now it’s happened,” said David Gallo, a colleague of Nargeolet and the senior adviser for Strategic Initiatives at RMS Titanic Inc. “But we’re still pretty much in shock, the community is. I hope it has a good ending.”

Further, Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman Dawood, of Pakistan, “embarked on a journey to visit the remnants of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean,” their family said Tuesday in a statement. “As of now, contact has been lost with their submersible craft and there is limited information available,” the family said, adding they’re praying for their loved ones’ safe return.

The incident has left the community of undersea explorers in shock, said David Gallo, who called Nargeolet his “closest colleague. “We’ve always known something like this could happen and now it’s happened … I hope it is a good ending,” Gallo, senior adviser for strategic initiatives at RMS Titanic Inc., told CNN.

An undated photo shows the OceanGate Titan vessel.

The OceanGate Expeditions trip began with a 400-nautical-mile journey from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to the Titanic wreck site. There, the submersible started its descent Sunday morning before losing contact with the Polar Prince, a converted ice breaker that was its mother ship.

The last communication between the vessel and OceanGate staff at the surface came in at 11:47 a.m. The vessel was expected to resurface at 6:10 p.m. but did not do so, and authorities were notified at 6:35 p.m., according to Polar Prince co-owner Miawpukek Maritime Horizon Services.

Chief Mi’sel Joe of Miawpukek First Nation, which co-owns the Polar Prince, got a call Sunday alerting him that the submersible was two hours overdue and still hadn’t surfaced and communication with it was lost, he said. At that point, requests for search and rescue had gone out, he said.

“There’s a tremendous amount of concern,” Joe said. “I have anguish that people are going through this. I wish there was more I can do.”

Unlike a submarine, a submersible needs a mother ship to launch it, has fewer power reserves and can’t stay underwater as long.

A mother ship can communicate with a submersible “via text messages which are exchanged via a USBL (ultra-short baseline) acoustic system,” according to OceanGate Expeditions’ archived website. The submersible is required to communicate with the ship every 15 minutes or more frequently, if needed, the site says. That USBL system is the only communications link between the submersible and the surface, it adds.

What we know about the timeline:

Friday, June 16:

The ‘climate kids’ want a court to force Montana’s state government to go green | CNN

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Helena, Montana
CNN
—

It’s a Big Sky story fit for a big screen.

On one side: 16 kids from ranches, reservations and tourist boomtowns across Montana – a group of wannabe climate avengers ranging in age from 5 to 22 and assembled to fight for a livable planet.

On the other side: Montana’s governor, attorney general and the Republican supermajorities of both houses, who may have lost a three-year fight to kill the nation’s first constitutional climate case before it hit court, but are still determined to let oil, gas and coal keep flowing for generations.

The setting is a small courtroom in Helena and the whole plot pivots around the Montana constitution, widely considered the greenest in the nation.

“The state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations,” reads Article 9, and those pivotal words “clean and healthful environment” are also guaranteed separately in the state’s bill of rights.

“This case is about the equal rights of children,” attorney Roger Sullivan began in his opening argument in Held vs. Montana this week, “and their need now for extraordinary protection from the extraordinary dangers of fossil fuel pollution and climate crisis that their state government is exposing them to.”

In the half-century since the environmental promises were added to the constitution, the Treasure State has never rejected a fossil fuel project for potential harm to air or water. And this spring, after a county judge cited the constitution in pulling the permit of a new gas-fired power plant, state leaders quickly crafted House Bill 971 to make it illegal for any state agency to analyze climate impacts when assessing large projects, like power plants, that need environmental review.

In a region full of ranchers and farmers who depend on stable weather and the kind of National Park beauty that draws millions of outdoor enthusiasts a year, the bill created the most buzz by far in the May legislative session, drawing more than 1,000 comments.

But while 95% of the comments were opposed, according to a legislature count, the bill passed.

“Skinny cows and dead cattle,” Rikki Held said, when asked how drought changed her family’s Broadus ranch.

Since she was the only plaintiff of legal age when the suit was filed, the historic case bears her name. Now finally on the stand, she described with emotion what it was like to work through smoke and ash on 110°F days. “We have the technology and knowledge,” said Held, now an environmental science major at Colorado College. “We just need empathy and willingness to do the right thing.”

One after another, her fellow plaintiffs have testified how the effects of a warming planet are already causing them physical, emotional and financial pain. “You know, it’s really scary seeing what you care for disappear right in front of your eyes,” said Sariel, a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, after describing how the loss of consistent snow affects everything from native plants to tribal traditions.

“Do you believe the state of Montana has a responsibility to protect this land for you?” a lawyer asked Sariel, who, like the other children who were under 18 when the case was filed, is being referred to only by her first name. “Yes, I do,” she replied in a soft voice. “It’s not only written in our constitution, an inherent right to a healthy land and environment, but it’s also just about being a decent person.”

“During the course of this trial, the court will hear lots of emotions,” Montana Assistant Attorney General Michael Russell said in his opening argument. “Lots of assumptions, accusations, speculation, prognostication … including sweeping, dramatic assertions of doom that awaits us all.” But this case is “far more boring,” Russell argued, and is little more than a show trial over statutes “devoid of any regulatory authority.”

Montana’s population of 1.1 million is “simply too minuscule to make any difference in climate change,” Russell told the court, “which is a global issue that effectively relegates Montana’s role to that of a spectator.”

Attorneys for the plaintiffs have tried to poke holes in this argument, pointing out Montana’s outsized energy footprint.

On Thursday, Peter Erickson, a greenhouse gas emissions expert and witness for the plaintiffs, pointed out Montana has the sixth largest per-capita energy-related CO2 emissions in the nation – behind other big energy-producing states like Wyoming, West Virginia and Louisiana.

“It’s significant. It’s disproportionately large, given Montana’s population,” Erickson said.

While attorneys for the state objected when Rikki Held tried to connect her mental health to the climate crisis, they have largely saved cross-examination for the experts as the plaintiffs lay out their case.

“If the judge ordered that we stop using fossil fuels in Montana would it get us to the point where these plaintiffs are no longer being harmed in your opinion?” Mark Stermitz, an attorney for the state, asked Steven Running, professor emeritus of ecosystem and conservation sciences at the University of Montana.

“We can’t tell in advance,” said Running, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 as one of the scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “Because what has been shown in history over and over and over again is when a significant social movement is needed, it often is started by one or two or three people.”

Montana's state capitol building rises above Helena, even as it is dwarfed by mountains.

The trial is set to conclude on June 23 and is being heard before Judge Kathy Seeley, with no jury. While Seeley has no power to shut down fossil fuel use or order the end of new extraction permits, a ruling against Montana could help kill the new law outlawing climate impact analysis and set a powerful precedent for similar cases winding their ways through the courts.

“I think we’re really at a tipping point right now,” Our Children’s Trust attorney Nate Bellinger told CNN. The Oregon-based legal nonprofit has filed similar actions in all 50 states and will go to trial in September with a group of young Hawaiians suing their state’s transportation department, claiming it is allowing rampant tailpipe pollution. The group also supports the 21 young plaintiffs in Juliana vs. United States, who will get their day in federal court after amending their complaint that actions by the federal government have caused climate change and violated their constitutional rights.

When the Ninth Circuit put the Juliana case back on track, 18 Republican-led states – including Montana – tried to intervene as defendants and take on the so-called Climate Kids but were rejected.

It is likely the case will reach the US Supreme Court.

Back in the Wild West days of 1889, Montana’s original constitution was written under the guidance of a copper baron named William Clark, who claimed that arsenic pollution from mining gave the women of Butte “a beautiful complexion.”

But less than a century later, mining and logging had done obvious harm to the rivers, skies and mountainsides of “the last best place,” just as the movements for social change and environmental protection were sweeping the nation.

This was the backdrop when in 1972, 100 Montanans from all walks of life gathered in the town of Last Chance Gulch to hammer out a new constitution with not a single active politician among them. Mae Nan Ellingson was the youngest delegate back then, and as the plaintiffs set out to establish the intent behind “a clean and healthful environment for present and future generations,” she became the first witness in Held vs. Montana.

“It was important, I think, for this constitution to make it clear that citizens could enforce their right to a clean environment and not wait until the pollution or the damage had been done,” she testified.

The Montana Supreme Court agreed with her in a 1999 ruling and the majority wrote, “Our constitution does not require that dead fish float on the surface of our state’s rivers and streams before its farsighted environmental protections can be invoked.”

Claire Vlases, one of the young plaintiffs, is hopeful the court will check the power of the legislature.

Regardless of the verdict, it is likely that Held vs. Montana will end up in Montana’s Supreme Court, but for plaintiffs like Claire Vlases who are too young to vote, that will be just fine.

“I just recently graduated high school, but I think that’s something everyone knows is that we have three branches of government for a reason,” she said, sitting by the river that runs through her Bozeman yard. “The judicial branch is there to keep a check on the other two branches. And that’s what we’re doing here.”

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June 16, 2023

Four major environmental groups endorse Biden’s reelection | CNN Politics

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CNN
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Four major environmental groups endorsed President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection for president on Wednesday night, ahead of his speech at a League of Conservation Voters dinner in the nation’s capital.

LCV Action Fund, NextGen PAC, the Sierra Club, and the NRDC Action Fund endorsed Biden together at the dinner, which is honoring former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It is the first time all four groups have issued a joint endorsement, Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of government affairs for the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, told CNN.

During his remarks at the event, Biden touched on the hazardous air quality stemming from wildfires in Canada that hung over much of the American Midwest and Northeast last week, noting that while there are many threats to future generations, climate change “is the only truly existential threat.”

“If we don’t meet the requirements that we’re looking at, we’re in real trouble,” Biden said, adding that work of the environmental groups “has never been more important than it is today. Together we’ve made a lot of progress so far, but we’ve got to finish the job.”

The president listed his environmental wins to applause from the crowd, including new acreage that his administration has designated for conservation.

Sittenfeld said the endorsement is a recognition of Biden’s achievements on climate, clean energy, and environmental justice, including the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and strong federal regulations issued by Biden administration agencies.

“They have done more than any administration in history by far to address the climate crisis and advance clean energy solutions and environmental justice,” Sittenfeld told CNN.

Sittenfeld said environmental groups want to see Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris elected for four more years so they can “finish the job” on their climate agenda, especially given that Republican candidates running for president could undo part of that agenda.

“The stakes have never been higher and we’ve seen day after day MAGA Republicans in Congress trying to gut commonsense climate progress,” Sittenfeld told CNN, adding the contrast between Biden and Republican candidates for president “could not be more stark.”

“Clearly as much progress as we’ve made, there’s so much more needed,” Sittenfeld said.

“We are endorsing because of the transformational progress we already made and the progress they’re going to continue to make,” former EPA administrator Carol Browner, the chair of LCV’s board of directors, echoed.

The four groups have considerable sway in the environmental movement and the Biden administration. Their political arms have spent millions of dollars on past elections and mobilized voters across the country on climate issues.

The Sierra Club is one of the oldest environmental groups in the country, while NextGen calls itself the nation’s biggest group mobilizing youth voters. Meanwhile, Biden’s first White House Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy came most recently from NRDC before serving in her post (McCarthy was also EPA administrator in the Obama administration).

“President Biden’s climate leadership has been nothing short of historic,” Manish Bapna, president and CEO of the NRDC Action Fund, said in a statement.

However significant the groups early endorsement of Biden is, it doesn’t necessarily represent the views of the entire climate movement. Some groups and activists have recently expressed frustration with the president and his administration for approving fossil fuel projects, most recently pushing for the Mountain Valley pipeline to be included in the debt limit law.

As wildfire smoke choked DC’s air quality last Thursday, activists staged a large sit-in outside of the White House to protest the pipeline.

“President Biden, we are all out here because we want you to declare a climate emergency and do the right thing,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a progressive Democrat from Michigan, told the crowd.

As CNN has reported, a White House official had said the White House pushed for the pipeline to be included in the debt limit provision to deliver on a compromise that the White House and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer struck with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia last year to secure his vote for the Inflation Reduction Act.

But some climate activists balked at that reasoning, saying they want to see Biden reject fossil fuel projects in addition to passing bold climate bills.

“Why does Manchin get priority over millions of young people who put their disillusionment aside to vote in 2020 and 2022?” said Elise Joshi, acting executive director of youth group Gen-Z for Change. “Every single time young people are showing up for the Democratic Party, and the uphold of promises doesn’t seem to apply to us.”

Joshi said she will ultimately vote for Biden in the 2024 election, but added the president needs to give her and young people more reasons to turn out enthusiastically for him.

“Most importantly I don’t want a Republican presidency, we know that would be horrific,” she said. “But if (Biden) is our best option of two, why not make that option better?”

This headline and story have been updated with additional developments.

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June 14, 2023

Tens of thousands evacuated as India and Pakistan brace for Cyclone Biparjoy | CNN

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Islamabad and New Delhi
CNN
—

Tens of thousands of people are being evacuated as India and Pakistan brace for the impact of Cyclone Biparjoy, which is expected to make landfall in densely populated areas across the subcontinent Thursday, putting millions of lives at risk.

Biparjoy has been churning across the northeastern Arabian Sea, heading toward southern Pakistan and western India since late last week, with winds of 160 kph (100 mph) and gusts up to 195 kph (121 mph). It has weakened slightly since Tuesday, sustaining winds of 150 kph (90 mph), equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane.

Landfall is expected Thursday afternoon local time, bringing the triple threat of heavy rain, damaging winds and coastal storm surges across the region, according to the India Meteorological Department.

Mass evacuations have started in Pakistan’s Sindh province, with about 60,000 people sent to temporary shelters, according to local authorities.

The provincial capital Karachi – Pakistan’s largest city, with a population of 22 million – has shut malls and businesses along the coast.

Pakistan’s national carrier, PIA, has implemented a string of precautionary measures, including operating round-the-clock security to minimize any potential hazard to lives or equipment.

In India’s Gujarat state, more than 8,000 people have been evacuated from coastal areas, according to the state’s health minister. Livestock have also been moved to higher ground, he said, adding some schools have been ordered to shut and fishing suspended.

Heavy rainfall warnings are in place over the northern Gujarat region, where total rainfall may reach 10 inches, leading to flash flooding and landslides.

In neighboring Maharashtra state, home to about 27 million people and a sizable fishing community, strong winds are expected to hit parts of the financial capital Mumbai. High waves slammed into coastal roads this week, turning roads into rivers.

Four boys drowned off the coast of Mumbai on Monday, Rashmi Lokhande, a senior disaster official for the regional administrative body, told CNN.

Since the drownings, local authorities have deployed police officers and lifeguards along the beaches to prevent people from going into the sea.

Authorities in both countries have been warning residents to seek shelter and stay safe.

Pakistan’s Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman has warned against reading too much into the storm’s slight weakening, saying on Twitter “it is highly unpredictable so please do not take it casually.”

Cyclone Biparjoy comes less than one year after record monsoon rain and melting glaciers devastated swathes of Pakistan, claiming the lives of nearly 1,600 people.

On that occasion, the force of the floodwater washed away homes, leaving tens of thousands stranded on the road without food or clean water and vulnerable to waterborne diseases.

An analysis of last year’s floods by the World Weather Attribution initiative found that the climate crisis had played a role. It said that the crisis may have increased the intensity of rainfall by up to 50%, in relation to a five-day downpour that hit the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan.

People gather near the shore before the arrival of Cyclone Biparjoy at Clifton Beach in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 13.

The analysis also found that the floods were likely a 1-in-100-year event, meaning that there is a 1% chance of similarly heavy rainfall each year.

A study published in 2021 by researchers at the Shenzhen Institute of Meteorological Innovation and the Chinese University of Hong Kong and published in Frontiers in Earth Science, found that tropical cyclones in Asia could have double the destructive power by the end of the century, with scientists saying the human-made climate crisis is already making them stronger.

That year, Tropical Cyclone Tauktae, one of the strongest storms on record, slammed into India’s west coast, killing at least 26 people across five states.

Tropical cyclones are among the most dangerous natural disasters. Over the past 50 years, these cyclones have led to nearly 780,000 deaths and around $1.4 billion worth of economic losses globally, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

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June 13, 2023

Cities across the Northeast experience better air quality indexes as hazardous wildfire smoke subsides | CNN

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CNN
—

Sorely missed blue skies are returning and cities across the northeastern US are experiencing better air quality indexes after the monstrous cloud of smoke spewed by the wildfires in Canada dissipates.

Major metropolitan cities across Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut have air quality indexes below 100 as of Saturday morning, according to government website airnow.gov. When the index rises over 100, the air quality is classified as “unhealthy for sensitive groups.”

For days, more than 75 million people have been trapped under a thick, orange blanket of smog as the Canadian wildfires spewed noxious fumes across the border.

The fires in Canada have already scorched about 15 times the normal burned area for this time of the year: nearly 11 million acres — more than double the size of New Jersey — with more than 2 million acres concentrated in Quebec alone.

As of Saturday, Philadelphia, had a “moderate.” air quality index of 59; New York City was in the “good” category with an index of 30; Jersey City, New Jersey, was “good” at 33; and Madison, Connecticut, had a “good” index of 14.

In pictures: Canadian wildfires impact US air quality

Last week, all four cities had air quality indexes above 150 on Wednesday, which was classified as “unhealthy.” Philadelphia had an index of 205 Wednesday morning, classified as “very unhealthy.” New York reached a level of 484 Wednesday afternoon, which is classified as “hazardous” and the highest level on record in the city since the 1960s.

The oppressive smoke postponed professional sports games, grounded flights due to poor visibility, shuttered zoos and beaches and kept children inside at school.

Those who did go outside were advised to wear N95 masks to protect themselves from the wildfire smoke, which is particularly dangerous because it contains tiny particulate matter, known as PM2.5, the tiniest of pollutants.

The enormous cloud of pollution could cause long-term health effects, depending on the person and amount of exposure, said Dr. Purvi Parikh, an allergist and immunologist with NYU Langone Health and Allergy and Asthma Network.

When inhaled, the pollutants can travel deep into lung tissue and enter the bloodstream. Healthy people may withstand “a day or two” but vulnerable groups, like children, the elderly and immunocompromised people were at much higher risk, Parikh said.

“If people develop and keep having symptoms after the air quality returns to normal, “then they may have developed asthma or COPD as a result, and that can become chronic,” Parikh said.

Scientists warn such routine-altering weather events are more likely to continue disrupting daily life as the planet warms, creating the ideal environment for more severe and frequent wildfires.

Since it’s still early in the Canadian fire season, more wildfires could flare up this summer, and several US states are still suffering poor air quality, which could cause health problems.

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June 10, 2023

How charging drivers to go downtown would transform American cities | CNN Business

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New York
CNN
—

President Joe Biden’s administration is set to allow New York City to move forward with a landmark program that will toll vehicles entering Lower Manhattan, after a public review period ends Monday.

The toll is formally known as the Central Business District Tolling Program — but it’s commonly called “congestion pricing.”

In practice it works like any other toll, but because it specifically charges people to drive in the traffic-choked area below 60th street in Manhattan, it would be the first program of its kind in the United States.

Proposals range from charging vehicles $9 to $23 during peak hours, and it’s set to go into effect next spring.

The plan had been delayed for years, but it cleared a milestone last month when the Federal Highway Administration signed off on the release of an environmental assessment. The public has until Monday to review the report, and the federal government is widely expected to approve it shortly after.

From there, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) can finalize toll rates, as well as discounts and exemptions for certain drivers.

New York City is still clawing out of from the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Congestion pricing advocates say it’s a crucial piece of the city’s recovery and a way to re-imagine the city for the future.

“This program is critical to New York City’s long-term success,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said last month.

The plan would also mark the culmination of more than a half-century of efforts to implement congestion pricing in New York City. Despite support from several New York City mayors and state governors, car and truck owners in outer boroughs and the suburbs helped defeat proposals.

In 2007 Mayor Michael Bloomberg called congestion “the elephant in the room” when proposing a toll program, which state lawmakers killed. A decade later, Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who had long resisted congestion pricing — said it was “an idea whose time has come” and declared a subway state of emergency after increased delays and a derailment that injured dozens. Two years later, the state gave the MTA approval to design a congestion pricing program.

Ultimately, it was the need to improve New York City’s public transit that became the rallying cry for congestion pricing.

Each day 700,000 cars, taxis and trucks pour into Lower Manhattan, one of the busiest areas in the world with some of the worst gridlock in the United States.

Car travel at just 7.1 mph on average in the congestion price zone, and it’s a downward trend. Public bus speeds have also declined 28% since 2010. New Yorkers lose 117 hours on average each year sitting in traffic, costing them nearly $2,000 in lost productivity and other costs, according to one estimate.

The toll is designed to reduce the number of vehicles entering the congestion zone by at least 10% every day and slash the number of miles cars travel within the zone by 5%.

Congestion comes with physical and societal costs, too: more accidents, carbon emissions and pollution happen as belching, honking cars take up space that could be optimized for pedestrians and outdoor dining.

Proponents also note it will improve public transit, an essential part of New York life. About 75% of trips downtown are via public transit.

But public-transit ridership is 35% to 45% lower compared to pre-pandemic levels. The MTA says congestion fees will generate a critical source of revenue to fund $15 billion in future investments to modernize the city’s 100-year-old public transit system.

The improvements, like new subway cars and electric signals, are crucial to draw new riders and improve speed and accessibility — especially for low-income and minority residents, who are least likely to own cars, say plan advocates.

New York City is “dependent on public transit,” said Kate Slevin, the executive vice president of the Regional Plan Association, an urban planning and policy group. “We’re relying on that revenue to pay for needed upgrades and investments that ensure reliable, good transit service.”

Improving public transportation is also key to New York City’s post-pandemic economic recovery: If commutes to work are too unreliable, people are less likely to visit the office and shop at stores around their workplaces. Congestion charge advocates hope the program will create more space for amenities like wider sidewalks, bike lanes, plazas, benches, trees and public bathrooms.

“100 years ago we decided the automobile was the way to go, so we narrowed sidewalks and built highways,” said Sam Schwartz, former New York City traffic commissioner and founder of an eponymous consulting firm. “But the future of New York City is that the pedestrian should be king and queen. Everything should be subservient to the pedestrian.”

While no other US city has yet implemented congestion pricing, Stockholm, London and Singapore have had it for years.

These cities have reported benefits like decreased carbon dioxide pollution, higher average speeds, and congestion reduction.

Just one year after London added its charge in 2003, traffic congestion dropped by 30% and average speeds increased by the same percentage. In Stockholm, one study found the rate of children’s acute asthma visits to the doctor fell by about 50% compared to rates before the program launched in 2007.

Some groups are fiercely opposed to congestion charges in New York City, however. Taxi and ride-share drivers, largely a low-income and immigrant workforce, fear it will hurt drivers already struggling to make ends meet. The MTA said congestion pricing could reduce demand for taxis by up to 17% in the zone.

Commuters and legislators from New York City’s outer boroughs and New Jersey say the program hurts drivers who have no viable way to reach downtown Manhattan other than by car, and that this would disproportionately impact low-income drivers. (But out of a region of 28 million people, just an estimated 16,100 low-income people commute to work via car in Lower Manhattan, according to the MTA.)

Other critics say it could divert more traffic and pollution from diesel trucks in Manhattan into lower-income areas like the Bronx, which has the highest rates of asthma hospitalization in the city.

The MTA and other agencies have plans to mitigate many of these adverse effects, however.

Taxis and for-hire vehicles will be tolled only once a day. Drivers who make less than $50,000 a year or are enrolled in certain government aid programs will get 25% discounts after their first 10 trips every month. Trucks and other vehicles will get 50% discounts during overnight hours.

Additionally, the MTA pledged $10 million to install air filtration units in schools near highways, $20 million for a program to fight asthma, and other investments to improve air quality and the enviornment in areas where more traffic could be diverted.

The stakes of New York City’s program are high, and leaders in other cities are watching the results closely.

If successful, congestion pricing could be a model for other US cities, which are trying to recover from the pandemic and face similar challenges of climate change and aging public infrastructure.

“It’s good to see New York City’s program is moving forward,” said the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board last month. “Los Angeles should watch, learn and go next.”

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June 10, 2023

Wildfire smoke continues to wreak havoc on US sports | CNN

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CNN
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A string of sports games and practices have been postponed as smoke from Canadian wildfires continues to choke the Midwest, Northeast and Southeast parts of the United States.

Around 75 million people are under air quality alerts as wildfire smoke shrouds major US cities, with Major League Baseball (MLB), the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) forced to postpone games due to concerns over dangerous air quality.

The MLB postponed two games – one between the Detroit Tigers and the host Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park and the other between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium – on Wednesday due to medical and weather expert warnings about “clearing hazardous air quality conditions in both cities,” the league said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the WNBA was forced to postpone Wednesday’s game between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx due to smoke impacting the Liberty’s home arena, with the league noting that information regarding the rescheduling of the game would be provided at a later date.

The New York Racing Association (NYRA) canceled Thursday’s training at Belmont Park due to “poor air quality conditions” affecting New York state, while in New Jersey, the NWSL postponed Wednesday night’s Challenge Cup game in Harrison and rescheduled it for August 9.

“The safety of our players, officials and fans is our top priority. Following consultation with the NWSL Medical and Operations staff, it was determined that the match could not be safely conducted based on the projected air quality index,” the NWSL said in a statement.

Smoke from Canada’s fires has periodically affected the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic for more than a week, raising concerns over the harms of persistent poor air quality.

More than nine million acres have been charred by wildfires in Canada so far this year – about 15 times the normal burned area for this point in the year – and more than 10,500 people have been evacuated from communities across Alberta.

According to the MLB, the Phillies-Tigers game will take place at 6:05 p.m. (ET) on Thursday, while the Yankees and the White Sox will now play a doubleheader beginning at 4:05 p.m. (ET) on Thursday.

The Belmont Stakes is scheduled for Saturday at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, and the NYRA said a decision on Thursday’s live racing program will be made in the morning following a “review of the air quality conditions and forecast.”

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June 8, 2023

Watchdog report finds former Pentagon official created a toxic work environment | CNN Politics

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CNN
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A newly released Defense Department inspector general investigation found that a former senior Pentagon leader berated and belittled subordinates, cursed at them, made some employees cry, and generally created a toxic work environment.

Michael Cutrone served as the principal deputy and acting assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs from May 2020 to January 2021 when he resigned. The Defense Department inspector general said in the new report released Wednesday that Cutrone repeatedly harassed subordinates and created an “intimidating, hostile, and offensive work environment.”

“Subordinates with decades of experience in the DoD described Mr. Cutrone as the most toxic boss they ever worked for and someone who poisoned self-confidence, created divisions, and was loathed and despised by his workforce,” the IG report said.

Cutrone was installed at the Pentagon by then-President Donald Trump in an effort to put more officials into the department who the Washington Post described as having an “undisputed allegiance” to the president, citing officials.

The IG said in its report that while Cutrone often “did not deny his conduct,” he told investigators he could not recall the specific instances mentioned by witnesses. He acknowledged to investigators that he fell short in some regards despite his intentions to be a positive leader.

The report also found that Cutrone consumed alcohol in the Pentagon without written authorization, which he said was done occasionally after office hours and was a misunderstanding of policy.

CNN has not been able to reach Cutrone for comment about the report.

Cutrone was provided tentative conclusions of the report by the IG in January this year and told investigators that he did not agree that he had failed to treat subordinates with dignity and respect, and that he had created a hostile work environment.

“Mr. Cutrone attributed his disagreements to his belief that the DoD IG failed ‘to understand and consider the appropriate context of the [ASD(ISA)] working environment,’ and the time that it took to complete the investigation,” the report said.

Complaints about Cutrone began rolling in on December 15, 2020, according to the IG report, when the DoD Hotline received an anonymous complaint that he “made two employees cry” and “berated and yelled at his employees.” Two days later, two other anonymous complaints that said Cutrone “verbally abused” his employees were referred to the IG to investigate.

Cutrone resigned from his position in January 2021, before the IG began its investigation in February 2021.

The IG ultimately interviewed 31 witnesses who worked with Cutrone; of those 31, four people used “positive terms” to describe his leadership like “hard working,” “ambitious,” “charismatic,” and “energetic.”

All 31 witnesses, however, including the four that used positive terms, described his leadership style negatively, using terms like “combative,” “bully,” “overly abrasive,” and “unprofessional.”

Witnesses said that Cutrone ignored Covid-19 mitigation policies in the Pentagon, regularly disregarding a policy that required masks in the building and telling subordinates they didn’t need to social distance. One witness said that Cutrone would “remove his mask to show them how mad he was,” the IG report said.

Witnesses also told the IG that Cutrone “started a culture of gossip,” asking staff about other employees and was “publicly denigrating” of those who worked for him in front of their coworkers. People told investigators they felt “miserable and depressed all the time,” were facing “abuse every day” that “exhausted” them and found that they were bending themselves “in knots trying to determine the formulation of language that will not in some way raise the ire of [M]r. Cutrone.”

Presented with comments from employees about the impact of his leadership, Cutrone told investigators he “tried to build a strong team” and “tried to do good by people.”

“I always tried to just be a strong collegial team member … and I’m sorry that I ever made people feel on edge and uncertain about what kind of engagement they were going to get,” he said.

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June 7, 2023

Philadelphia is under a ‘code red’ alert as millions from the East Coast to Canada suffer unhealthy air from Quebec’s wildfires | CNN

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As an orange haze of wildfire smoke from Canada smothers parts of the eastern US, officials are warning residents in both countries of unhealthy or hazardous air Wednesday.

More than 55 million people in the eastern US are under air quality alerts due to the smoke. The heaviest smoke is forecast to impact the Northeast through the Mid-Atlantic and down to the Carolinas, and smoke conditions in those regions could last through at least Thursday.

Major metro areas in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut now have air quality indexes (AQIs) above 150 – which is considered “unhealthy,” according to the government website AirNow.gov.

Philadelphia had an AQI of 205 as of Wednesday morning, which is classified as “very unhealthy.”

New York City; Jersey City, New Jersey; and New Haven, Connecticut all had “unhealthy” AQIs ranging from 155 to 171 on Wednesday morning.

Live updates on the smoke’s spread

And the Canadian capital of Ottawa is getting hit with some of the worst air quality, according to AirNow.gov, a partnership of the US Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies.

A woman walks her dog along the Ottawa River in Ottawa as smoke obscures Gatineau, Quebec, on Tuesday.

While New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, are expected to see their air quality improve throughout the day, the air over Boston, Pittsburgh and Raleigh, North Carolina, is expected to get worse Wednesday.

Philadelphia issued a “code red” alert Wednesday, warning certain residents should stay indoors.

The elderly, young children and those who are pregnant or have heart or lung conditions could experience serious health effects from the smoke, said James Garrow, spokesperson for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

“For those who are not considered to be in a sensitive group, we are asking those folks to avoid strenuous activities outdoors like jogging or exercising,” Garrow told CNN Wednesday.

“We are asking folks to avoid unnecessary time outdoors,” he said.

“But if they need to be outdoors, they should be masked and head inside as often as they need.”

Garrow said it’s not clear how long the code red alert will last, “or if it will change to another level of warning.”

New York City had the worst air pollution of any major city in the world at one point Tuesday night, before dropping to second-worst behind New Delhi, India, according to air quality tracker IQair.

The smoke has also triggered air quality alerts in parts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas, according to the National Weather Service.

Air quality in the US Northeast has deteriorated this week as more than 150 wildfires rage in Quebec, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center.

In Quebec, the entire town of Chibougamau – population 7,000 – is under a mandatory evacuation order as fast-moving wildfires wreak havoc across the region.

“Given the current situation, the mayor of Chibougamau, Manon Cyr, has declared a state of emergency and announced the mandatory evacuation of the entire town, including the resort area,” the town announced in a Facebook post Tuesday night.

So far this year, the province has endured more than 400 wildfires, which is twice the average for this time of year.

More than 9 million acres have been charred by wildfires in all of Canada this year – about 15 times the normal burned area for this point in the year.

The alarming air quality prompted New York Mayor Eric Adams to ask residents to limit their outdoor activity and state environmental officials to issue an air quality health advisory for the city through Wednesday.

“Active children, adults, and people with lung diseases such as asthma should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors,” New York City Emergency Management said.

The nation’s largest public school district canceled all outdoor activities Wednesday, but will remain open. At least 10 school districts in central New York state canceled outdoor activities and events Tuesday.

Overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, the air quality index for the city topped 200, pushing it into the “very unhealthy” range, according to air quality tracker AirNow. By 7 a.m. Wednesday, New York City’s air quality index was just below 180, a designation of “unhealthy.”

Human-induced climate change has exacerbated the hot and dry conditions that fuel wildfires.

Scientists recently reported that millions of acres scorched by wildfires in the Western US and Canada – an area roughly the size of South Carolina – could be traced back to carbon pollution from the world’s largest fossil fuel and cement companies.

The intense wildfire smoke hovering over the Northeast could delay flights through major cities, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

As of noon ET Wednesday, airlines in the US have canceled 71 flights and delayed another 1,042, according to tracking site FlightAware.

“Boston, the New York metro area, Philadelphia and the DC metro area are all experiencing some smoke that could impact travel to the airports,” Sam Ausby with the FAA said in a video posted on the agency’s Twitter account.

Aviation weather reports show Newark Liberty International Airport is among the East Coast airports where visibility is the lowest – just 2 miles as of 11:51 a.m. ET.

But smoke does not necessarily pose a major safety hazard for commercial flights, which can operate normally without visual reference to the ground or horizon.

Wildfire smoke is particularly dangerous because it contains tiny particulate matter, or PM2.5 – the tiniest of pollutants.

When inhaled, it can travel deep into lung tissue and enter the bloodstream. It comes from sources like the combustion of fossil fuels, dust storms and wildfires, and has been linked to several health complications including asthma, heart disease and other respiratory illnesses.

And the impacts could be deadly: In 2016, about 4.2 million premature deaths were associated with fine particulate matter, according to the World Health Organization.

“If you can see or smell smoke, know that you’re being exposed,” said William Barrett, the national senior director of clean air advocacy with the American Lung Association. “And it’s important that you do everything you can to remain indoors during those high, high pollution episodes, and it’s really important to keep an eye on your health or any development of symptoms.”

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June 7, 2023

A ‘once-in-200 years’ heat wave caught Southeast Asia off guard. Climate change will make them more common | CNN

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CNN
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Every day, countless mopeds criss-cross the congested city of Hanoi, in Vietnam, with commuters traveling to work or motorbike taxis dropping off everything from parcels to cooked food and clients.

One of them is Phong, 42, who starts his shift at 5 a.m. to beat the rush hour, navigating the dense swarm of mopeds and drives for over 12 hours a day with little rest.

But an unprecedented heat wave that engulfed his country in the past two months has made Phong’s job even more arduous. To get through the heat of the day, he equipped himself with a hat, wet handkerchiefs and several bottles of water – precautions that provided little relief as recorded daytime temperatures soared to more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

The average May temperature in Hanoi is 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit).

“If I get a heatstroke, I would be forced to suspend driving to recover,” he told CNN. “But I cannot afford it.” 

Phong, who declined to give his surname, said he carries a tiny umbrella to protect his phone, the main tool he uses for work as a driver for the ride-hailing platform Grab, along with his bike. If the phone breaks, he misses out on much-needed income. “I was worried that the battery would overheat once exposed to the sun,” he said.

Nearby in the same city, sanitation worker Dinh Van Hung, 53, toils all day cleaning garbage from the bustling streets of Hanoi’s central Dong Da district.

“It is impossible to avoid the heat, especially at noon and early afternoon,” Dinh told CNN. “Extreme temperatures also make the garbage smell more unpleasant, the hard work is now even more difficult, directly affecting my health and labor.”

Dinh says “there is no other way” but to change when he starts and finishes his shift.

“I try to work early in the morning or afternoon and evening,” he said. “During lunch break when the temperature is too high, I find a sidewalk in a small alley, spread out the cardboard sheets to rest for a while and then resume work in the afternoon.” 

Phong and Dinh are among millions of drivers, street vendors, cleaners, builders, farmers, and other outdoor or informal economy workers across Southeast Asia who were hit the hardest during what experts called the region’s “harshest heat wave on record.” 

Workers like them make up the backbone of many societies but are disproportionately affected by extreme weather events, with dangerously high temperatures greatly impacting their health and the already precarious nature of their professions.

April and May are typically the hottest months of the year in Southeast Asia, as temperatures rise before monsoon rains bring some relief. But this year, they reached levels never experienced before in most countries of the region, including tourism hotspots Thailand and Vietnam. 

Thailand saw its hottest day in history at 45.4 degrees Celsius (114 degrees Fahrenheit) on April 15, while neighboring Laos topped out at 43.5 degrees Celsius (110 degrees Fahrenheit) for two consecutive days in May, and Vietnam’s all-time record was broken in early May with 44.2 degrees Celsius (112 degrees Fahrenheit), according to analysis of weather stations data by a climatologist and weather historian Maximiliano Herrera.

Herrera described it as “the most brutal never-ending heat wave” that has continued into June. On June 1, Vietnam broke the record for its hottest June day in history with 43.8 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit) – with 29 days of the month to go.

In a recent report from the World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international coalition of scientists said the April heat wave in Southeast Asia was a once-in-200-years event that would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change.

The scorching heat in Southeast Asia was made even more unbearable and dangerous due to high humidity – a deadly combination.

Humidity, on top of extreme temperatures, makes it even harder for your body to try and cool itself down.

Heat-related illnesses, such as heat stroke and heat exhaustion, have severe symptoms and can be life-threatening, especially for those with heart disease and kidney problems, diabetes, and pregnant people.

“When the surrounding humidity is very high, the body will continue to sweat trying to release moisture to cool itself, but because the sweat is not evaporating it will eventually lead to severe dehydration, and in acute cases it can lead to heat strokes and deaths,” said Mariam Zachariah, research associate in near-real time attribution of extreme events to climate change at World Weather Attribution initiative at Imperial College London. 

“Which is why a humid heat wave is more dangerous than a dry heat wave,” she told CNN.

To understand the health risks of humid heat, scientists often calculate the “feels-like” temperature – a single measure of how hot it feels to the human body when air temperature and humidity are both taken into account, sometimes alongside other factors such as wind chill.

Perceived heat is usually several degrees higher than observed temperature and gives a more accurate reading of how heat affects people.

CNN analysis of Copernicus Climate Change Service data found that between early April and late May, all six countries in the continental portion of Southeast Asia had reached perceived temperatures close to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) or more every single day. This is above a threshold considered dangerous, especially for people with health problems or those not used to extreme heat.

In Thailand, 20 days in April and at least 10 days in May reached feels-like temperatures above 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit). At this level, thermal heat stress becomes “extreme” and is considered life threatening for anybody including healthy people used to extreme humid heat.

Throughout April and May, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia all had several days with potential to cause extreme heat stress. Myanmar had 12 such days – until Cyclone Mocha brought relative relief, but severe devastation, when it made landfall on May 14.

The April-May heat wave in Southeast Asia caused widespread hospitalizations, damaged roads, sparked fires and led to school closures, however the number of deaths remains unknown, according to the World Weather Attribution report.

 The study found that, because of climate change, the heat was more than two degrees hotter in perceived temperature than it could have been without global warming caused by pollution.

“When the atmosphere becomes warmer, its ability to hold the moisture becomes higher and therefore the chances of humid heat waves also increase,” Zachariah, one of the authors, told CNN.

If global warming continues to increase to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), such humid heat waves could occur ten times more often, according to the study. 

And if emissions continue to increase at the same pace, the next two decades could already see 30 more deaths per million from heat in Thailand, and 130 more deaths per million by the end of the century, according to the UN’s Human Climate Horizons projections.

For Myanmar that number would be 30 and 520 more deaths per million respectively, for Cambodia – 40 and 270, data shows.

Extreme weather events also expose systemic inequalities.

“Occupation, age, health conditions and disabilities, access to health care services, socioeconomic status, even gender – these are all factors that can make people more or less vulnerable to heat waves,” said Chaya Vaddhanaphuti, one of the WWA report’s authors and lecturer at the department of geography at Chiang Mai University in Thailand.

Marginalized members of society, those without adequate access to healthcare and cooling systems, and those in jobs that are exposed to extremely hot and humid conditions are most at risk of heat stress.

“It’s important to talk about who can adapt, who can cope, and who has the resources to be able to do this,” Emmanuel Raju, also an author and director of the Copenhagen Center for Disaster Research, said in a press conference on May 17.

“For those working in the informal economy a lost day means a day lost in wages,” Raju said.

More than 60% of the employed population in Southeast Asia work in informal employment, and over 80% in Cambodia and Myanmar, according to a 2018 International Labour Organization (ILO) report.

Farmers and children harvest rice in a field in the southern Thai province of Narathiwat on March 27.

In late April, Thai health authorities issued an extreme heat alert for the capital Bangkok and several other places across the country, warning people to stay indoors and of heat stroke dangers.

But for migrant workers like Supot Klongsap, nicknamed “Nui,” who temporarily left his home to work in construction in Bangkok during the pre-monsoon season, staying indoors was simply not an option.

He said that this year’s hot season was exceptional, causing him to sweat all the time and feel exhausted. “I started to sweat from 8 a.m., and it was difficult to work. I felt very exhausted from losing so much water.”

Nui, who slept at the construction site, said even the nights were unbearable. “Water coming from the pipe even during nighttime remained very hot just like it was boiled. It was difficult to find comfort.” 

He said the accommodation for construction workers is roofed and walled with corrugated sheets, and it barely protects from heat. Any access to air-conditioned rooms is a luxury Nui couldn’t afford. “We had to rely on buying ice and adding it to our drinks, our simple way to cool down,” he said.

A 2021 study found that outdoor workers in developing countries have higher core body temperature than to those working indoors, and they are two to three times more at risk of dehydration, leading to a higher chance of reduced kidney function and other related conditions. 

Pedestrians use umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun in Bangkok, Thailand, on April 25.

 In Thailand, the government recommends reactive measures, such as staying indoors, hydrating adequately, wearing light-colored clothes, and avoiding certain foods, Chaya told CNN. 

“But that doesn’t mean that everybody has the same capacity to do so.” 

The burden of cost often falls on individuals, Chaya said, making it their responsibility to cope with the heat.

What is needed, he said, is a cohesive international plan that can protect the more vulnerable populations in the face of increasing climate change risks, and proactive measures to prevent potential health issues.

Governments need to develop large-scale solutions, such as early warning systems for heat, passive and active cooling for all, urban planning, and heat action plans, World Weather Attribution scientists recommended in their report.

Intensifying heat waves not only affect individuals’ health, but threaten the environment and people’s livelihoods, worsen air quality, destroy crops, increase wildfire risk, and damage infrastructure – so the need for government action plans on heat waves are vital.

 In Yotpieng and Phon villages in northeastern Laos, people’s livelihoods are intimately connected with weather patterns.

 Villagers’ lives here revolve around tea. For centuries, every day at 7 a.m. the tea farmers start collecting leaves, until 11 a.m. when they would bring the harvest back home. The survival of these communities depends on collecting tea leaves to generate income for whole families.

But this year’s extreme heat is disrupting their ability to work according to their ancient working habits – they had to change from working in the morning to the afternoon during heat waves, and they are worried the quality and quantity of tea leaves will be affected, members of the local community told CNN.

 ”[The] weather is extremely hot for everyone this year and farmers are struggling,” according to Chintanaphone Keovichith, management officer at the Lao Farmer Network.

 “This year the weather is hotter than last year, and the tea leaves are dry,” said tea farmer, Boua Seng.

The manager of a 1,000-year-old tea processing factory, Vieng Samai Lobia Yaw, said she is worried this year’s tea leaves have not grown enough, which decreases harvest by almost 50% daily.

This photo taken on May 30 shows a woman watering her rooftop to cool it down in Hanoi, Vietnam.

“It’s so wasteful – we spend more capital on laborers’ fees but getting less product,” she said.

For now, tea farmers in Laos have invented solutions to protect their trees. Some have planted large fruit trees, such as peach or plum, to provide shade for tea plantations, while others added more compost to nourish their plants.

“The tea [trees] in the shade will have a nice green leaf, but the ones without shade will have yellow leaf,” explained tea farmer Thongsouk. “We also collect additional income by selling fruit products.” 

But they cannot do it alone.

Without a comprehensive international approach to rapidly reduce planet-warming pollution and to address the interconnected impacts of extreme weather events on individuals, communities, and the environment, the health and economic costs from heat waves will only worsen as the climate crisis unfolds.

As May turns into June, many are still waiting for some respite.

“May was the worst month – that’s when the rain usually comes in, but this year [it] still hasn’t arrived yet,” said Chintanaphone.

Data graphics
Lou Robinson and Krystina Shveda

Editing
Helen Regan

Photo editing
Noemi Cassanelli

Additional reporting
Kocha Olarn in Bangkok

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June 7, 2023

Ukraine accuses Russia of ‘ecocide’ as critical dam near Kherson destroyed sparking evacuations | CNN

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CNN
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A major dam in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine was destroyed early Tuesday, prompting mass evacuations and fears for large-scale devastation as Ukraine accused Moscow’s forces of committing an act of “ecocide.”

Residents downstream from the Nova Kakhova dam on the Dnipro River in Kherson were told to “do everything you can to save your life,” according to the head of Ukraine’s Kherson region military administration, as video showed a deluge of water gushing from a huge breach in the dam.

Two videos posted to social media and geolocated by CNN showed the destroyed dam wall and fast-moving torrents of water flowing out into the river. Multiple buildings at the entrance to the dam were also heavily damaged.

The critical Nova Kakhova dam spans the Dnipro River, a major waterway running through southeastern Ukraine and there are multiple towns and cities downstream, including Kherson, a city of some 300,000 people before Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.

Ukraine’s Operational Command South on Tuesday confirmed the dam’s destruction in a post on its official Facebook page, saying they were assessing the scale of the damage and calculating likely areas of flooding.

Following the dam breach, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said its destruction “only confirms for the whole world” that Russian forces “must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land.”

He also convened an emergency meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

Other senior Ukrainian officials blamed Russia.

“This is ecocide,” Andriy Yermak, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said of the dam’s destruction.

“The Russians will be responsible for the possible deprivation of drinking water for people in the south of Kherson region and in Crimea, the possible destruction of some settlements and the biosphere,” he added.

In a video statement posted on Telegram, Oleksandr Prokudin, the Ukraine-appointed head of the Kherson region military administration, said the water “will reach critical level in five hours.”

“The Russian Army has committed another act of terror. It has blown up Kakhovka Hydro Power Plant… Evacuation in the area of danger has started,” he said.

Prokudin said evacuations in the “area of danger” around the dam had started and asked citizens to “collect your documents and most needed belongings and wait for evacuation buses.”

“I ask you to do everything you can to save your life. Leave the dangerous areas immediately,” he added.

Units of Ukraine’s National Police and the state emergency service of the Kherson region have been put on alert to warn and evacuate civilians from potential flood zones, Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said.

Those zones are on the west bank of the Dnipro River, including “the villages of Mykolaivka, Olhivka, Liovo, Tiahynka, Poniativka, Ivanivka, Tokarivka, Poniativka, Prydniprovske, Sadove, and part of the city of Kherson – Korabel Island,” the ministry said.

With the water level rising, authorities urged everyone in the flood zone to turn off all electrical appliances, take documents and essentials, take care of loved ones and pets, and follow the instructions of rescuers and police.

The Russian-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontiev, initially on Tuesday denied information about the dam collapsing in an interview with Russian state media RIA Novosti, calling it “nonsense.”

He later confirmed the destruction of parts of the dam in what he called “a serious terrorist act” but said there was “no need to evacuate.”

“Overnight strikes on the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant destroyed gate valves, causing water to be spilled downstream uncontrollably,” Leontyev said.

CNN was not immediately able to verify the claims made by Ukrainian and Russian officials attributing blame.

Throughout the course of the war in Ukraine both Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of plotting to blow up the Soviet-era dam.

The escaping torrent of water has the potential to cause major destruction around Kherson city and other populated areas along the Dnipro River, according to analysts who have been fearing a breach could occur in the fighting.

And President Zelensky had previously warned that a breach of the dam could have catastrophic consequences for those living downstream.

“Destroying the dam would mean a large-scale disaster,” he said in October last year.

However, a Russian-installed Kherson official Andrey Alekseenko said the situation along the areas of the banks of Dnipro was “under control.”

“There is no threat to people’s lives,” Alekseenko said, adding that Ministry of Emergency Situation staff are in control of water levels in the river.

“If necessary, we are ready to evacuate the residents of embankment villages, buses are prepared,” Alekseenko added.

The dam is a critical piece of infrastructure, holding around 18 cubic kilometers in the Kakhovka Reservoir, about equal to the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah, according to Reuters news agency.

The 30-meter-high, 3.2-kilometer (2 miles)-long structure is one of six dams along the Dnipro and supplies water for much of southeastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

It also supplies water for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which lies upstream and is also under Russian control.

On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern command said the dam’s destruction will “certainly” affect the operation of the nuclear power plant but there was “no need to escalate the situation now and draw the most critical conclusions.”

“Because all experts are involved and will try to create better conditions to avoid the next technogenic catastrophe,” said Natalia Humeniuk, adding that “the situation is currently under control.”

And the International Atomic Energy agency said “no immediate nuclear safety risk” exists at the Zaporizhzhia plant and their experts are “closely monitoring the situation.”

In November, the Nova Kakhovka dam was damaged in shelling and satellite images from Maxar Technologies obtained by CNN showed water flowing out of three sluice gates at the dam.

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June 5, 2023

Dutch police arrest over 1,500 people at Extinction Rebellion protest in The Hague | CNN

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CNN
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Dutch police arrested over 1,500 people after Extinction Rebellion protesters blocked a motorway in The Hague on Saturday.

Hundreds of police were deployed to “maintain public order” during the climate protest, Dutch police said in a press release Saturday.

According to police, shortly before midday local time, the activists descended upon the Utrechtsebaan (A12) motorway, after riot police prevented them for reaching “the underpass that they wanted to block.”

The activists then began protesting in front of the police line, prompting police to “directly” and “repeatedly” ask them to leave, according to the press release.

Extinction Rebellion Netherlands said that police deployed water cannons within 15 minutes of protesters blockading the A12 despite, according to the group, there being “no question of a dangerous or threatening situation.”

Activists are arrested after blocking the A12 motorway in The Hague.

Videos of the protest posted in social media showed protesters dressed in swimsuits and raincoats, prepared for the water cannons.

Extinction Rebellion spokesperson, Raki Ap said in the statement that thousands of people had protested “on and next to the A12 with one demand: stop fossil fuel subsidies.”

Dutch actress Carice van Outen, best known for her role as Melisandre in hit TV show, “Game of Thrones,” was reportedly hit by a water cannon and arrested by police at the protest, according to Dutch public broadcaster, NOS. Earlier on Saturday, van Outen posted a video on her Instagram page of musicians playing Beethoven, calling it a “peaceful and musical protest.”

“Most of the activists, 1,539 people, were arrested for violating the Public Demonstrations Act,” the press release said, adding that the Public Prosecution Service will not be pursuing criminal action as it is only a minor criminal offense under Dutch law.

Forty people were arrested for other criminal offenses including obstructing, blocking, vandalism, and insulting, according to the press release. One person was arrested for resisting arrest resulting in injury. These cases remain under review, according to the police.

The arrests in the Netherlands come after Germany’s authorities this week conducted a series of raids against the comparable climate activist group Last Generation.

A total of 15 properties in seven German states were searched as part of the raids conducted on behalf of the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office (LKA) and the Munich General Public Prosecutor’s Office, authorities said.

The Prosecutor General’s Office in Munich said it had initiated a preliminary investigation “due to numerous criminal complaints from the population” against a total of seven defendants aged 22 to 38 years, “on the charge of forming or supporting a criminal organization.”

On Germany’s right, political figures were approving of the authorities’ crackdown on the climate group.

The leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Party, Friedrich Merz, wrote on Twitter that causing “mass damage to property, graffiti or memorial plaques, or gluing oneself to the streets or cars are quite simply criminal offenses.”

He added, “It is correct that police and prosecutors are taking action against the Last Generation and those who finance it.”

Some, though, questioned the move. Die Linke (The Left) Member of Parliament Lorenz Gosta Beutin told Bavarian broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk prosecutors were “putting themselves above our judiciary and courts.”

A member of parliament for Germany’s Green Party, Helge Limburg, agreed that the “blanket assumption” of the group as criminal was legally questionable in an interview with Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND).

The UK in 2020 threatened to class Extinction Rebellion as an organized crime group, which would have seen activists face jail terms of up to five years, although the plans did not come to fruition.

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May 28, 2023

Europe is trying to ditch planes for trains. Here’s how that’s going | CNN

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CNN
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Ever since the “flight shame” movement began encouraging travelers to seek greener alternatives to jet planes, many in Europe have been looking to the continent’s extensive rail network to replace short-haul air travel.

There’s definitely been progress. Airlines including Dutch carrier KLM are entering into rail partnerships on certain routes, while countries like Austria and France are seeking to restrict internal routes where trains are available – although the French decree, which was made law in May 2023, has been significantly watered down from its original premise.

That’s amid a palpable rail revolution on mainland Europe, with new high-speed routes and operators coming online, a reversal in the decline of overnight sleeper services, new tunnel links cutting travel times and new locomotives improving reliability and efficiency. In Spain, Germany and Austria, cheap ticket deals have also played their part.

With so much railway investment, it seems as if the train-ification of Europe’s air transport network is well underway. Surely, it’s only a matter of time before the continent is relying almost exclusively on its iron roadways for getting around and the skies are clearer and greener .

In reality, that remains a distant dream. But why?

As with many efforts to innovate away from environmentally harmful practices, there’s good news and bad news. Fixes are being made, but none of them are quick. And there’s no sign that Europe’s airports are going to get quieter anytime soon.

This year got off to a strong start with new legislation promised in France that would ban short-haul flight on a number of domestic routes to help the country cut levels of planet-heating pollution, but though approved by EU officials and then signed into French law in May 2023, the measures are limited in impact.

For the ban to apply, the EU insisted the air route in question must have a high speed rail alternative that makes it possible to travel between the two cities in less than two and a half hours. There must also be enough early and late-running trains to enable travelers to spend at least eight hours at the destination.

This means that ultimately only three routes were culled: those linking Paris-Orly airport to the cities of Bordeaux, Nantes and Lyon. In a further blow to those hoping for a rail revolution, it turned out that, as it happened, those routes had already been cut in 2020 – the new law just means that they will not be reinstated in the future.

So what went wrong? The ruling by the EU’s European Commission watered down the original French plans, which would have seen a further five routes ending: From Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Bordeaux, Nantes, Lyon and Rennes, as well as a Lyon to Marseilles route.

The result, say critics, is something that pays lip service to climate concerns without really doing anything about them.

“The French flight ban is a symbolic move, but will have very little impact on reducing emissions,” Jo Dardenne, aviation director at cleaner transport campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E), told CNN before the law took effect.

T&E has estimated that the three routes affected by the ban represent only 0.3% of the emissions produced by flights taking off from mainland France, and 3% of the country’s domestic flight emissions (again counting only mainland domestic flights).

If the five additional routes that the French authorities wanted to include were added, those figures would be 0.5% and 5% respectively.

That doesn’t sound like much. But although aviation as a whole currently accounts for around 2.5% of global carbon emissions, its overall contribution to climate change is estimated to be higher, due to the other gases, water vapor and contrails that airplanes emit.

What’s more, it’s a fast-growing industry – despite the pause enforced by Covid – and is on track to be one of the most significant emissions-contributing industries in the future. Aviation emissions in Europe increased an average of 5% year-on-year between 2013 and 2019, according to the EU.

Airlines pay zero tax or duty on their fuel in the EU, unlike other forms of transport. Plane tickets are also exempt from VAT.

Deutsche Bahn and Lufthansa offer linked journeys via rail and air.

On the positive side, despite its limited impact, the French ruling sets a precedent that will be difficult to ignore by the aviation industry at a time when it’s coming under ever increasing scrutiny from the public, as well as politicians.

“The French measure is so marginal in its current scope that it is sustainability theater rather than having any material impact on emissions,” Patrick Edmond, managing director of Altair Advisory, an Ireland-based aviation consultancy told CNN – again before the law took effect.

“However we can look at it a different way – as the harbinger of more restrictions on aviation which are likely if the industry doesn’t get more serious about decarbonizing itself.”

France isn’t the first European country to take a tougher line on super short-haul flights.

In 2020 the Austrian government bailed out the national carrier, Austrian Airlines, on the condition that it axed all flights where a rail journey could take less than three hours.

In reality, only the Vienna-Salzburg flight route was cut, with train services increased on the line in response. A similarly short route, from Vienna to Linz, had been moved to rail in 2017.

That same year, the government also launched a 30 euro ($32) tax on all flights of under 350 kilometers (220 miles) departing from Austrian airports.

Other European countries are said to be considering curbs on short-haul commercial flights as well – a move that could be welcome, since 62% of European citizens would support a ban on short-haul flights, according to a 2020 survey. Spain has outlined plans to cut flights where train journeys take less than 2.5 hours by 2050.

Not surprisingly these moves have set alarm bells ringing in the aviation industry.

According to a 2022 report commissioned by the European Regional Airlines Association (ERA) together with a number of other aerospace industry bodies, if all airline traffic on routes of under 500 kilometers (310 miles) switched to another form of public transport, the potential carbon savings would total up to 5% of intra-EU emissions.

“For many decision-makers, banning short-haul flights and showing support to the rail industry is an easy win to gain favor with the public, especially in Europe,” Montserrat Barriga, the ERA’s director general, told CNN.

But Barriga and others – on both side of the issue – point to the double standard of restricting short-haul flights and phasing out carbon allowances for flights in Europe while taking no major steps to limit connections outside the bloc.

Long-haul flights produce the most emissions globally. A recent academic paper in the Journal of Transport Geography found that while flights of under 500 kilometers (310 miles) account for 27.9% of departures in the EU, they represent only 5.9% of fuel burnt. In contrast, flights longer than 4,000 kilometers make up just 6.2% of departures from the EU, but 47% of fuel burnt.

“Governments continue ignoring the biggest source of aviation emissions – long-haul flights, that remain unpriced and unregulated,” says T&E’s Dardenne. “Flight bans shouldn’t be used by governments as a distraction from the real problem.”

Europe's train network is connected by spectacular stations, like Paris Gare de Lyon.

And while railways are currently blazing fresh trails through Europe, playing a part in the recent collapse of Alitalia, Italy’s national airline, rail operators could do more, says Jon Worth, founder of public advocacy group Trains for Europe.

High prices and low frequencies remain an obstacle to getting more people to switch from flying, he says – especially on trunk routes like Paris to Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Barcelona.

“On quite a few corridors, rail could get a share of multimodal transportation way above the current one. Rail operators have focused on maximizing profit rather than market share. The latter can only be achieved either by running railways as a public service or by introducing more competition,” he says.

Better connectivity between intercity rail and airports would also reduce the need for short-haul flights. Worth adds that it’s essential to offer combined tickets, so that, for example, if a train is delayed and the connection is missed, travelers are accommodated on the next one, as happens now with connecting flights.

This works rather well in countries where airlines and operators cooperate, including Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland and Spain. In February 2023, Italian airline ITA Airways – Alitalia’s successor – signed on to work with Italy’s national rail operator to create links, too.

However, this is an area where there is still much to be done – for starters, the schemes above are limited to the national carriers. A proposed piece of legislation called Multimodal Digital Mobility Services is expected to be adopted by the European Commission in 2023 with the aim to facilitate this type of intermodal travel more widely.

Back in France, shorter train travel times and increased frequencies may mean the end of the line for more domestic air routes when the ban comes up for review – the measure is only valid for three years. However, advances in clean flight technology may eventually change the perspectives for regional aviation as well.

Short-haul flights are likely to be the first segments of the aviation industry to decarbonize since most of the projects under way in the fields of electric, hybrid-electric and hydrogen-powered aviation focus precisely on small airplanes designed to cover very short distances.

The debate looks set to continue playing out over the next few years, as the environmental, social, economic, political and technological parameters that shape this discussion continue to evolve – and as the climate crisis continues.

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May 27, 2023

Climate activists dump charcoal in Rome’s Trevi Fountain | CNN

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CNN
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Climate change activists turned the blue water of the Trevi Fountain in central Rome black with diluted charcoal on Sunday.

Around 10 activists from the climate group Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) entered the 18th century late-Baroque fountain holding a banner that said, “Let’s not pay for fossil campaigns considering what is happening in Emilia Romagna,” referring to the deadly flooding in northern Italy, which some experts have linked to the climate crisis.

“Our country is dying,” other banners stated.

All activists were arrested and face vandalism charges, Rome police said.

Luisa Regimenti, councilor for personnel, urban security, local police and local authorities in the Lazio region, which includes Rome, condemned the act. In a written statement she said that it was the “umpteenth demonstrative act of eco-vandals” that hit “a symbol of Rome universally known in the world.”

Calling it an “irresponsible blitz,” she said dying the fountain was “a serious gesture, a worrying escalation that must be stopped with a safety plan for the monuments and the works of art most at risk in Rome and Lazio.”

Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri tweeted: “Enough of these absurd attacks on our artistic heritage. Today the #FontanadiTrevi was smeared. Expensive and complex to restore, hoping there is no permanent damage. I invite activists to compete on a confrontational terrain without putting the monuments at risk.”

He told local media on the scene that the 300,000 liter (66,000 gallon) fountain would have to be emptied and that the dyed water would have to be thrown away. “This will involve a significant intervention. It will cost time, effort and water.”

Last Generation activists at the Trevi Fountain, Rome.

This is the third time activists have put charcoal into famous fountains in the eternal city. In May, they dumped charcoal in the Fountain of Four Rivers in Piazza Navona and in April they targeted the Barcaccia fountain at the base of the Spanish Steps. The group has claimed responsibility in each incident.

“Charcoal in the water of the Trevi Fountain,” they tweeted Sunday. “1 out of 4 houses in Italy is vulnerable to floods. How much longer do we have to wait for those in government to take concrete action?”

Some climate groups have criticized the Italian government for not being prepared for climate change in the wake of the flooding in northern Italy that killed at least 14 people and displaced more than 36,000.

The climate crisis “is affecting territories with increasingly intense extreme events, with risks to people’s lives, and impacts on the environment and the economy. And Italy once again proves unprepared,” said Italian environmentalist association Legambiente in a press release last Thursday

Legend states that anyone who throws a coin into the fountain will ensure their return to Rome. Each year around 1-1.5 million euros ($1.1-$1.6 million) in coins are collected for the Catholic charity Caritas. Around 3,000 euros ($3,200) a day are thrown into the fountain during busy tourist months, according to Rome’s tourism board.

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May 22, 2023

Bangladesh and Myanmar brace for the worst as Cyclone Mocha intensifies | CNN

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CNN
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Aid agencies in Bangladesh and Myanmar say they are bracing for disaster and have launched a massive emergency plan as a powerful cyclone barrels toward millions of vulnerable people.

Since forming in the Bay of Bengal early Thursday, tropical Cyclone Mocha has intensified to a the equivalent of a Category 5 Atlantic hurricane, with sustained winds of 259 kilometers per hour (161 mph) and gusts of up to 315 kph (195 mph).

The storm is moving north at 20 kph (12 mph), according to the latest update from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center on Sunday.

Mocha is expected to make landfall Sunday afternoon local time (early Sunday morning ET), likely across Rakhine State in Myanmar and southeastern Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, host to the world’s largest refugee camp.

Outer bands are already impacting Myanmar and Bangladesh bringing rain and strong winds to the region. Conditions are expected to deteriorate further leading up to landfall, which brings the threats of flooding and landslides.

Disaster response teams and more than 3,000 local volunteers who have been trained in disaster preparedness and first aid have been put on standby in the camps, and a national cyclone early warning system is in place, according to Sanjeev Kafley, Head of Delegation of the IFRC Bangladesh Delegation.

Kafley said there are 7,500 emergency shelter kits, 4,000 hygiene kits and 2,000 water containers ready to be distributed.

In addition, mobile health teams and dozens of ambulances are ready to respond to refugees and Bangladeshis in need, with specially trained teams on stand by to help the elderly, children and the disabled, Arjun Jain, UN Principal Coordinator for the Rohingya Refugee Response in Bangladesh, told CNN.

“We expect this cyclone to have a more severe impact than any other natural disaster they have faced in the past five years,” said Jain. “At this stage, we just don’t know where the cyclone will make landfall and with what intensity. So we are hoping for the best but are preparing for the worst.”

Evacuations of people in low-lying areas or those with serious medical conditions had begun, he said.

In Myanmar, residents in coastal areas of Rakhine state and Ayeyarwady region have started to evacuate and seek shelter at schools and monasteries.

Hundreds of Red Cross volunteers are on standby and the agency is relocating vulnerable people and raising awareness of the storm in villages and townships, the IFRC’s Kafley said.

The last storm to make landfall with a similar strength was Tropical Cyclone Giri back in October 2010. It made landfall as a high-end Category 4 equivalent storm with maximum winds of 250 kph (155 mph).

Giri caused over 150 fatalities and roughly 70% of the city of Kyaukphyu was destroyed. According to the United Nations, roughly 15,000 homes were destroyed in Rakhine state during the storm.

About 1 million members of the stateless Rohingya community, who fled persecution in nearby Myanmar during a military crackdown in 2017, are living in the sprawling and overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar.

Most live in bamboo and tarpaulin shelters perched on hilly slopes that are vulnerable to strong winds, rain, and landslides.

Jain said the shelters can only withstand wind speeds of 40 kph (24 mph) and he expects winds from Cyclone Mocha to exceed that.

“Low lying areas of the camps are likely to flood rapidly, destroying shelters, facilities such as learning centers, as well as infrastructure such as bridges that have been constructed with bamboo,” he said.

The cyclone adds to an already disastrous year for the Rohingya, and without more funds from the international community, Jain said they won’t have enough to rebuild.

“They faced a 17% cut in their food rations earlier this year due to funding cuts and we expect a further cut in their rations in the coming months. 16,000 refugees lost their home in a devastating fire in March. And now they must deal with the cyclone. Unfortunately, we don’t even have the funds to help refugees rebuild their homes and facilities if the devastation is severe,” he said.

There are also concerns for 30,000 Rohingya refugees housed on an isolated and flood-prone island facility in the Bay of Bengal, called Bhasan Char. The UN refugee agency said volunteers and medical teams are on standby and cyclone shelters and food provisions are available for those living on the island.

In Myanmar, about 6 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Rakhine state and across the northwest, with 1.2 million displaced, according to the UN humanitarian agency.

The past few decades have seen an increase in the strength of tropical cyclones affecting countries in parts of Asia and recent research predicts they could have double the destructive power in the region by the end of the century.

While scientists are still trying to understand ways climate change is affecting cyclones, a slew of research has linked human-caused global warming to more potent and destructive cyclones.

Tropical cyclones (also known as hurricanes, typhoons and tropical storms depending on ocean basin and intensity), feed off ocean heat. They need temperatures of at least around 27 degrees Celsius (80 Fahrenheit Fahrenheit) to form, and the warmer the ocean, the more moisture they can take up.

The waters in the Bay of Bengal are currently around 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit Fahrenheit), about 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than average for May.

As the climate crisis pushes up the temperatures of oceans – which absorb around 90% of the world’s excess heat – it provides ideal conditions for cyclones to gain strength.

Warmer oceans also increase the chances of cyclones rapidly intensifying, according to recent research.

Climate-change fueled sea-level rise adds to the risks, worsening storm surges from tropical cyclones and allowing them to travel further inland.

Bangladesh and Myanmar are particularly threatened because they are low-lying, as well as being home to some of the world’s poorest people.

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May 13, 2023

Where to travel in 2023: The best destinations to visit | CNN

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CNN
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As peak vacation season sails into view and the world shakes off the last shackles of the pandemic, it feels like the appetite for hitting the road has never been greater.

International tourism reached 80% of pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of 2023, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, with an estimated 235 million tourists traveling internationally in January, February and March. And experts are cautiously optimistic about a continued travel rebound.

Demand is high, with many popular destinations booking out earlier in the year.

Thankfully, there’s so much out there still to see and do.

Travel expert explains why you should book your dream vacation now

Here are 23 destination ideas from CNN Travel to get you started:

From the main square in Krakow, pictured, to forests, lakes and mountains, Poland invites exploration.

We could list new openings in Poland – such as Hotel Verte, the new Autograph Collection property in Warsaw, which threw open its gilded doors (it’s in a humongous Baroque palace) last August. But the reason you should visit Poland in 2023 isn’t for the chance to stay in a place fit for royalty. It’s to show solidarity with a country which has, in turn, shown solidarity to the people of Ukraine.

Sharing a 300-plus-mile border with a country under attack has meant that Poland has taken in more Ukrainian refugees than anywhere else. Add to that plummeting tourist numbers (though they’re on the rise again), and you have a tricky situation.

So whether you fancy that Warsaw palace, a city break to the likes of Krakow, Gdansk, Wrocław or Poznań – all hundreds of miles from the Ukrainian border – or to get away from it all in the forests, lakes and mountains of the countryside – now’s your chance to do some good by taking a vacation. – Julia Buckley

A full solar eclipse will be visible in April in Exmouth, Western Australia. The landscape is worth a long look, too.

Back in April, thousands of people descended on the town of Exmouth and the greater Ningaloo Peninsula, to witness a rare total solar eclipse as it became visible over the northwestern edge of Australia.

Organizers spent more than a year planning for the event, which lasted about a minute, and featured musical performances, educational opportunities to learn about science and astronomy, and a three-day festival.

But the state of Western Australia offers much more than some 60 seconds of wonder.

Spanning one-third of the entire continent of Australia, it stretches from the lively, growing state capital of Perth across deserts including the Great Victoria and Great Sandy to the wine country of Margaret River, the dramatic clifftops of the Kimberley and the quokka-covered Rottnest Island. – Lilit Marcus

England’s port city of Liverpool, best known around the world as the birthplace of The Beatles, has added another chapter to its musical legacy.

It’s the host city of Eurovision 2023, the spangly extravaganza of song that brings an influx of thousands of flag-waving fans from across the continent. The annual event is an opportunity for the city to bounce back after the ignominy of being stripped of its UNESCO World Heritage status in 2021.

In June, the city will celebrate 25 years of the Liverpool Biennial contemporary visual arts festival, as more than 30 international artists and collectives take over spaces in the city until September.

England is also marking the Year of the Coast in 2023, with food festivals and beach cleans taking place along the country’s shores. Just a half hour from Liverpool city center by train, Crosby Beach is the permanent home of sculptor Antony Gormley’s “Another Place,” where 100 cast-iron figures stand facing out to sea. – Maureen O’Hare

Charleston, a city of undeniable refined, historic beauty, is also looking more closely at its troubled past.

Charleston parades its past like no other US city, but it often glossed over the history of its Black residents. It’s been taking steps to fix that.

Enter the much-delayed International African American Museum, which is now expected to open in late June.

Located on the shoreline of the Cooper River in the spot where many Africans first set foot in North America, it will explore the lives of slaves and their descendants.

Visitors in late May and early June can enjoy the world-renowned Spoleto Festival featuring opera, theater, dance, musical acts and artist talks.

In March, foodies headed to the Charleston Wine and Food Festival to sample Lowcountry favorites.

For fancy Southern fare, try Magnolias. Opened in 1990, it helped spur the city’s culinary renaissance. For something informal, try Bertha’s Kitchen in North Charleston, where red rice with sausage, fried chicken and lima beans rule. The eatery even caught attention of “Roadfood” author Michael Stern. – Forrest Brown

Self-effacing Vilnius admitted in an ad campaign this year that nobody really knows where it is. If their brilliant video didn’t make you want to book a trip there immediately, perhaps this will: the capital of Lithuania celebrated its 700th anniversary on January 25, 2023.

To mark the milestone, a packed program of events, including music festivals and exhibitions, are being held throughout the year. But use the anniversary as a push to visit rather than following a program religiously.

The entire city center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site – putting it up there with its fellow V-cities, Venice and Vienna. Vilnius makes it on the list thanks to its Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque buildings, all sitting on a medieval street plan, but it’s best known for its Baroque architecture.

Don’t miss the frothy bell tower of St. John’s church (you can climb it for sweeping city views) or the church of St. Casimir, topped by a giant crown. Got an eye for social media? This is Europe’s only capital city that allows hot air balloons to cruise over the city skyline. – JB

Scenes like this await visitors to Fiji.

Brilliant blue waters, expansive coral reefs and hundreds of peaceful islands: Fiji is not a hard sell. But why go there in 2023? For one, the country only reopened post-Covid at the end of 2021, meaning that visitor numbers to the South Pacific paradise have yet to fully rebound.

While the country is spoiled for underwater beauty, take an opportunity to explore its above-ground treasures, too. The country’s lone UNESCO World Heritage site is the town of Levuka, a former capital and an important port, which is studded with British colonial-era buildings amid coconut and mango trees.

To learn about the local Indigenous communities, travelers can take part in a kava welcoming ceremony – named for the traditional drink at its center – or enjoy a lovo, a meal cooked by hot coals in an underground pit covered with banana leaves.

Fiji Airways now has direct flights from Los Angeles and San Francisco, making it relatively easy to get to the islands. As the Fijians say, bula! – LM

As the fate of the Amazon rainforest hangs in the balance, two eco-lodges around Manaus – the capital of Brazil’s Amazonas state, and gateway to the river – have used their pandemic pause to get even more environmentally friendly.

Juma Amazon Lodge, about 50 miles south of the city, is now fully powered by a new $400,000 solar plant, whose 268 double panels swagger nearly 40 feet into the air above the canopy (meaning no trees had to be cut). They’ve also built a biogas system to increase the efficiency of organic waste treatment, reducing annual carbon emissions by eight tons.

Meanwhile, Anavilhanas Jungle Lodge, northwest of Manaus on the Rio Negro river, opened an off-grid “advanced base” during the pandemic that’s 30 miles from the main lodge and accessible only via river.

Guests can take long jungle hikes through territory home to jaguars, pumas and giant armadillos in what’s one of the Amazon region’s most remote hotel facilities, then spend the afternoon in a hammock or by the pool. For 2023, the lodge is planning overnight stays in a creekside tent for small groups.

Don’t miss Manaus itself – eating behemoth Amazonian fish outside the pink 1896 opera house is a bucket list experience. – JB

Enticing flavors, history and proximity to beaches and mountains are just a few factors working in this Greek city's favor.

There’s been no shortage of reasons to visit Greece’s second city in recent times, with a UNESCO-endorsed local food scene that recently celebrated the refurb and reopening of its century-old Modiano food market.

Throw in a popular waterfront and proximity to beautiful beaches and inland mountains, Thessaloniki is surely a contender for one of Europe’s best city-break destinations.

What could make it even better? How about a gleaming new metro system? All being well, November 2023 should see the opening of the main line of an infrastructure megaproject that will eventually connect the city’s downtown to its international airport. Driverless trains will whisk passengers through tunnels whose excavation has added to Thessaloniki’s already rich catalog of archeological discoveries, many of which will be on display in specially created museum stations. – Barry Neild

January 2023 saw the official opening of Rwanda’s most exciting hotel yet: Sextantio Rwanda, a collection of traditionally crafted huts on an island on Lake Kivu, one of Africa’s largest lakes.

It’s the first project outside Italy for Daniele Kihlgren, whose part-hotel, part-living history projects keep local tradition alive. A nonprofit delivering money straight to local communities, Sextantio sees guests fishing on the 1,000-square-mile lake, paddling in dug-out canoes, trying local banana beer and wildlife-spotting – and not just the chickens, cows, pigs and goats that roam around the property.

Of course, you’ll want to see gorillas. Adjoining Volcanoes National Park, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund opened the 4,500-square meter Ellen DeGeneres Campus in 2022. Its visitor center includes exhibits, virtual reality gorilla “encounters” and nature trails.

Over in Akagera National Park, white rhinos – transferred from South Africa in 2021 to aid conservation – are already calving. It’s easier to get there, too. A new route from London joins Brussels, Dubai, Guangzhou and Mumbai as the only direct flights to Kigali from outside the African continent. – JB

Voted the world’s most sustainable destination in the world for six years running, Sweden’s second-biggest city is finally emerging from the shadow of Stockholm.

Once a major trading and shipping town, Gothenburg is now considered to be one of the greenest destinations in Europe, with 274 square meters (2,950 square feet) of green space per citizen, while 95% of its hotels are certified as eco-friendly.

Although Gothenburg officially turned 400 in 2021, the celebrations were put on ice because of the global pandemic. But they’re finally taking place in 2023, so it’s a great time to visit.

Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustav, who celebrates 50 years on the throne this year, will be in town on June 4, Gothenburg’s official birthday, and the city’s major anniversary festival is being held in the Frihamnen port district from June 2 to 5, with concerts and art events among the activities on offer.

The festivities will continue throughout the summer until the September 3 kick off of Göteborgsvarvet Marathon, a new 26-mile race following on from the city’s popular half marathon on May 13. – Tamara Hardingham-Gill

The Dhayah Fort in Ras al-Khaimah is one of the few remaining hill forts in the United Arab Emirates.

When travelers think of the United Arab Emirates, the dazzling skyline of Dubai is usually what springs to mind.

But the UAE has a lot to offer nature lovers too – particularly the northernmost emirate Ras al-Khaimah, which is aiming to become the Middle East’s most sustainable destination by 2025 thanks to a new “Balanced Tourism” strategy.

Just 45 minutes from Dubai, it’s often called the “adventure Emirate,” and for good reason. Offering beaches, deserts and mountains, outdoor attractions abound, such as sand boarding, trekking, wakeboarding, skydiving, scuba diving and even the world’s longest zipline.

But it’s not all about the adrenaline rush. Ras Al Khaimah is where you’ll find the highest restaurant in the United Arab Emirates, 1484 by Puro, which sits in the emirate’s Jebel Jais Mountains. Culture seekers can head for the historic Dhayah Fort, which dates back to the Late Bronze Age (1600-1300 BC).

Where to stay? Luxury hospitality brand Anantara is opening a fabulous new resort there later this year that will offer 174 guestrooms, suites and overwater villas along with specialty restaurants and a spa. – Karla Cripps

Three-tiered Kuang Si Falls is just south of UNESCO-listed Luang Prabang.

Sharing borders with Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and Myanmar, landlocked Laos has long been a must-hit spot for time-rich travelers making their way through the Southeast Asia circuit.

But now, thanks to the 2021 opening of a semi-high-speed railway, it’s easier than ever to get around the country at a quicker pace, shaving hours off journeys that previously took full days to travel.

You’re still going to have to make some hard choices – there’s a lot to see in Laos.

Towering karst peaks await visitors to adventure-haven Vang Vieng, while UNESCO-listed Luang Prabang is filled with French-colonial heritage, Buddhist ritual and natural beauty. (Luxury seekers will want to check into the Rosewood Luang Prabang, with its stylish hilltop tents)

The mysterious Plain of Jars, a megalithic archaeological site, can be found in the Xiangkhoang Plateau. For a once-in-a-lifetime experience that makes a difference, head for Bokeo Province and join one of the Gibbon Experience’s overnight treks. Guests of this tourism-based conservation project spend the night in the world’s tallest treehouses – only accessible by zipline – among wild, black-crested gibbons. – KC

Rolling hills, medieval buildings – and the officially crowned world’s best cheese. Welcome to Gruyères, Switzerland.

Everywhere you look in this tiny, hilltop town, there’s a different picture-perfect view – from the medieval market square to the turreted 13th-century castle. A doable day trip from Geneva, summer promises hiking opportunities aplenty, while winter allows for venturing to the nearby Moléson-sur-Gruyères ski resort.

To taste Gruyères’ namesake fromage, stop off at the wood-lined Chalet de Gruyères. And to learn how cheesemakers perfect this creamy goodness, head to La Maison du Gruyère factory. For further foodie delights, there’s the Maison Cailler chocolate factory – from the outside it looks like something from a Wes Anderson movie, inside it offers a glimpse into the secrets of Swiss chocolate making.

Gruyères is also home to the surreal HR Giger Museum, celebrating the work of the acclaimed Swiss artist behind the eponymous alien in the 1979 movie “Alien.” A drink at the museum’s bar, designed by Giger in an eerie skeletal aesthetic, offers an antidote to Gruyères’ fairytale vibe. – Francesca Street

A modern Indigenous restaurant in Minneapolis has earned one of the culinary world’s highest honors, and it’s not alone in shining light on Native communities in the area.

At Owamni, a James Beard Award winner for best new restaurant, Indigenous ingredients – trout, bison, sweet potatoes and more – make up “decolonized” menus where ingredients such as wheat flour and beef are absent. The restaurant is a partnership between chef Sean Sherman, Oglala Lakota and Dana Thompson, who is a lineal descendant of the Wahpeton-Sisseton and Mdewakanton Dakota tribes.

Earlier this year, one of the pair’s community-owned initiatives, Indigenous Food Lab, opened a market in Minneapolis’ Midtown Global Market, a former Sears building housing businesses that represent more than 22 cultures.

The open-air Four Sisters Farmers Market (Thursdays June through October) also focuses on Indigenous products. And at the Minnesota History Center in neighboring St. Paul, the exhibit “Our Home: Native Minnesota” looks at thousands of years of Native history in the state. – Marnie Hunter

While Colomia's busy capital can be congested, it's also home to the historic neighborhood of La Candelaria.

Caribbean coast destinations such as the Rosario archipelago or the UNESCO heritage list city of Cartagena are rightly top of most Colombia travel wish lists, but also deserving a look-in is the country’s somewhat unsung capital of Bogotá.

Yes, it’s a messy, traffic-snarled urban sprawl, but it’s also a high-altitude crucible of culture and cuisine. There are tours that chart the city’s transformation from graffiti wild west to incredible street art gallery.

Equally colorful are the restaurants that make the most of Colombia’s diverse natural larder of flora on menus that range from delicious peasant dishes to mind-blowing Michelin-level gastronomy. And then there’s the coffee!

The congestion (except on regular cycle-only days) thins quickly on its outskirts, allowing day trips to see historic and modern treasures. Itineraries include Lake Guatavita, where conquistadors once plundered sunken gold offerings left by indigenous Muisca people, or the majestic subterranean Zipaquirá salt cathedral. – BN

Famed for its mountain treks through ancient trails that once facilitated trade between the Himalayas and India, Nepal’s stunning Mustang Valley sits on the doorstep of Tibet.

Expect to hear a lot more about this remote destination in the coming months thanks to the arrival of the soon-to-open Shinta Mani Mustang. Part of the Bensley Collection, this all-inclusive resort perched above the small town of Jomsom in the Lower Mustang will offer luxury seekers 29 suites inspired by traditional Tibetan homes.

In addition to trekking, Mustang visitors can explore ancient villages and Buddhist monasteries. Also not to be missed, the man-made Mustang Caves sit above the Gandaki River and are filled with 2,000-year-old Buddhist sculptures and paintings.

Getting to the Mustang Valley is part of the adventure. Travelers will need to take a 25-minute flight from capital Kathmandu to Pokhara then hop on another plane for the 20-minute journey to Jomsom. The views alone might make this option more pleasing to some than the alternative – a 12-hour drive from Kathmandu. – KC

From the spectacular wildlife to the beautiful national parks and beaches, Tanzania is absolutely bursting with visual splendor.

The East African country holds a seemingly endless list of incredible sights, with Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, UNESCO world heritage site Serengeti National Park, and the Zanzibar Archipelago, among its many highlights.

This year, flag carrier Air Tanzania will launch new routes to West and Central Africa, along with the UK, in a bid to transform the country’s largest airport in Dar es Salaam into a transport and logistics hub, while construction on the country’s first toll expressway is also scheduled to begin.

Meanwhile, the Delta Hotels by Marriott brand made its Africa debut with the opening of its Dar es Salaam Oyster Bay property earlier this year. –– THG

Cairo is pulsing with life and a rich blend of cultures.

Could this finally be the year tourists can see the Grand Egyptian Museum? After delay upon delay, the museum is expecting a 2023 opening.

GEM will be the largest museum dedicated to a single civilization, costing around $1 billion and holding the entire King Tut collection. See video here of a CNN insider visit.

If you arrive in Cairo before it opens, the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square can still scratch your antiquity itch.

While the Pyramids of Giza are the city’s tour-de-force, there’s still more to see. Start with Islamic Cairo. This area has one of the largest collections of historic Islamic architecture in the world. While there, visit the Al-Azhar mosque, which dates back to 970.

The city also has a rich Christian tradition. Coptic Cairo, part of Old Cairo, has a concentration of Christian sites that pre-date the arrival of Islam.

If you need a respite from Cairo’s cacophony, Al Azhar Park has a nice expanse of greenery and a design inspired by historic Islamic gardens. And the affluent neighborhood of Zamalek, which sits on an island in the Nile River, serves up restaurants, antique stores and swanky hotels. – FB

Yayoi Kusama has the distinction of being the best-selling living female artist on the planet. In particular, she has become a global icon for her sculptures of giant polka-dotted pumpkins, one of which was reinstalled at the pier of Naoshima, one of Japan’s “art islands,” in 2022 after being swept into the sea the year before.

However, Naoshima is so much more than its famous yellow gourd or its works by Kusama.

There are five small, walkable “art islands” in the Seto Inland Sea, which is located between the main islands of Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku in southeastern Japan. The largest collection of things to see – not to mention the only hotel – is on Naoshima. Together, the five champion modern and contemporary art, with emphasis on Japanese artists.

Don’t come here expecting calligraphy and other classical forms. Instead, be awed by Tadao Ando’s massive stone monoliths, a tiny gallery where patrons can listen to nothing but the beats of human hearts, a makeshift thunderstorm created inside a wooden house and an exhibit where jumping in and taking a bath is intended to be part of the artistic experience. – LM

With direct flights to Belize City from about a dozen North American airports, this Central American country is a low-hassle hop for many travelers during the November to April high season.

Most visitors head directly to Belize’s Caribbean coastline. The country’s largest island, Ambergris Caye, sits next to Belize Barrier Reef – the world’s second largest coral reef system. Margaritaville Beach Resort opened on the island in March, and “eco-luxury” resort Alaia Belize opened in 2021.

Farther south, the Great Blue Hole – a massive underwater sinkhole – is an aquatic magnet for both scuba divers and aerial photographers.

But Belize offers way more than its enticing islands.

Lush rainforests, cave networks, winding rivers and rich Mayan archaeological sites invite exploration in a country that’s had an evolving sustainable tourism master plan since 2012. Ruins of the Mayan city of Altun Ha are just about an hour north of Belize City. Or farther west, Lamanai is one of Belize’s largest and most fascinating Mayan sites. – MH

Mexico is arguably as rich in culinary heritage as it is in Mesoamerican archaeological treasures, and Eva Longoria explores many distinctive flavors in her series “Searching for Mexico,” which aired on CNN this year.

The state of Oaxaca, which Longoria visits, has an especially deep well of culinary traditions. Plus, Oaxaca produces most of the world’s mezcal.

Tlayudas, known as Oaxacan pizzas, are a street food staple. A large corn tortilla is typically layered with lard, beans, traditional Oaxacan cheese, pork and other toppings such as avocado and tomato. The state is also renowned for its seven mole sauces, with recipes that may call for dozens of ingredients from chiles and sesame seeds to chocolate and dried fruit.

In the city of Oaxaca, Mercado Benito Juárez is one of many markets across the state selling items such as dried chiles, fresh produce, handicrafts and crunchy grasshoppers. To sample the state’s increasingly popular beverage, the town of Santiago Matatlán is the place for mezcal distillery tours and tastings. – MH

In the winter, the frozen Rideau Canal in Ottawa becomes the world's largest skaing rink.

It doesn’t have Montreal’s French flair or Toronto’s international oomph, so the Canadian capital can get overlooked. That would be a mistake. Graceful and understated, Ottawa has its own draws.

Music lovers should take note of two Ottawa Jazz Festivals. The winter edition took place in February, and the summer edition will run from June 23-30.

If you love hockey, watch the Ottawa Senators do their NHL thing at the Canadian Tire Centre in the western suburbs. If that ticket is too pricey, check out the Ottawa 67’s, a more affordable option of junior men’s hockey games at downtown’s TD Place Arena.

The Rideau Canal turns into the world’s largest skating rink from sometime in January to late February or early March, depending on ice thickness. It’s free and accessible 24/7. When it’s warmer, it’s a great spot for people and boat watching.

A don’t-miss is Parliament Hill, home to Canada’s federal government and the visually striking Parliament buildings on a promontory overlooking the Ottawa River. – FB

Treks through the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest are among Uganda's highlights.

There’s considerable change brewing in Uganda’s travel offerings at the moment with the East African country looking beyond the traditional staples of safari and wildlife spotting to appeal to both regional and international visitors.

Keen to revitalize post-Covid tourism in all corners of the country, not just the big-ticket businesses offering wealthy visitors a glimpse of the Big Five beasts or mountain gorillas, it’s turned to marketing its other attributes.

And why not? From the expansive shores of Lake Victoria to the snowy Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda is a beautiful wilderness playground, with opportunities for adventure including treks through the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest or up to the craters of the Virunga volcano chain or whitewater rafting along the Victoria Nile.

There’s also an emphasis on connecting visitors with Ugandan communities – promising tastes of Ugandan food, music and culture. Last year saw the launch of the Uganda Cycling Trail, a 1,600-kilometer mainly unpaved 22-stage route designed to appeal to all levels of cyclist from hardcore solo bikepackers to fully-guided easy riders. – BN

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May 13, 2023

Tag: environment and natural resources

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