UN agency cites worrying warming trend as COP28 summit grapples with curbing climate change
The U.N. weather agency is reporting that glaciers shrank more than ever from 2011 and 2020 and the Antarctic ice sheet lost 75 percent more compared to the previous ten years, as it released its latest stark report about the fallout on the planet from climate change.
Venice Film Festival unveils A-list lineup with โPriscilla,โ โFerrari,โ โMaestroโ amid strikes
Bradley Cooperโs Leonard Bernstein drama โMaestro,โ Sofia Coppolaโs Priscilla Presley movie, Michael Mannโs โFerrari,โ David Fincherโs โThe Killerโ and Ava DuVernayโs โOriginโ will be making their world debuts at the Venice International Film Festival this fall.
Jennifer Lopez and 'Halftime' kick off Tribeca Festival
The Jennifer Lopez documentary โHalftimeโ is kicking off the 21st Tribeca Festival on Wednesday, launching the annual New York event with an intimate behind-the-scenes portrait of the singer-actor filmed during the tumultuous year she turned 50, co-headlined the Super Bowl and narrowly missed out on an Oscar nomination.
Bye Alpha, Eta: Greek alphabet ditched for hurricane names
(NOAA via AP)With named storms coming earlier and more often in warmer waters, the Atlantic hurricane season is going through some changes with meteorologists ditching the Greek alphabet during busy years. The Greek alphabet had only been used twice in 2005 and nine times last year in a record-shattering hurricane season. AdMeanwhile, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration is recalculating just what constitutes an average hurricane season. STARTING EARLIERMIT hurricane researcher Kerry Emanuel said โthis whole idea of hurricane season should be revisited." So a warming world means the new normal is busy hurricane seasons just like the last 30 years.
Christopher Plummer got a third act worth singing about
FILE - Christopher Plummer arrives at the Oscars on March 4, 2018, in Los Angeles. Plummer, the dashing award-winning actor who played Captain von Trapp in the film The Sound of Music and at 82 became the oldest Academy Award winner in history, has died. Plummer, the dashing award-winning actor who played Captain von Trapp in the film The Sound of Music and at 82 became the oldest Academy Award winner in history, has died. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)Itโs one of the great Hollywood ironies that Christopher Plummer didnโt like the film that made him a legend. Please.โBorn in Toronto in 1929, Plummer was the great grandson of Canadian Prime Minister John Abbott and fell for the theater at a young age.
Oscar winner, โSound of Musicโ star Christopher Plummer dies
FILE - Christopher Plummer poses for a portrait on July 25, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Plummer, the dashing award-winning actor who played Captain von Trapp in the film The Sound of Music and at 82 became the oldest Academy Award winner in history, has died. Plummer died Friday morning at his home in Connecticut with his wife, Elaine Taylor, by his side, said Lou Pitt, his longtime friend and manager. The role catapulted Plummer to stardom, but he never took to leading men parts, despite his silver hair, good looks and ever-so-slight English accent. That choice that was officially validated in the best possible way for the film โ a supporting Oscar nomination for Plummer, his third. Plummer married his third wife, dancer Taylor, in 1970, and credited her with helping him overcome a drinking problem.
Paul Crutzen, who shared Nobel for ozone work, has died
FILE - In this file photo dated December 10 1995, showing Dutch Professor Paul J. Crutzen, left, receiving the Nobel prize for chemistry from Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf, at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Sweden. According to a statement from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany, Dutch scientist Paul J. Crutzen, who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry for his work understanding the ozone hole, died Thursday Jan. 28, 2021, at the age of 87. (AP photo/Eric Roxfelt, FILE)BERLIN โ Paul J. Crutzen, a Dutch scientist who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry for his work understanding the ozone hole and is credited with coining the term Anthropocene to describe the geological era shaped by mankind, has died. โPaul Crutzen was a pioneer in many ways,โ Martin Stratmann, the president of the Max Planck Society, said in a statement. According to the Nobel Institute, Crutzen got a job as a programmer at Stockholm University's Department for Meteorology despite having no programming experience.
Hot again: 2020 sets yet another global temperature record
(AP Photo/Scott Sonner)Earthโs rising fever hit or neared record hot temperature levels in 2020, global weather groups reported Thursday. โWeโre expecting it to get hotter and thatโs exactly what happened.โNOAA said 2020 averaged 58.77 degrees (14.88 degrees Celsius), a few hundredths of a degree behind 2016. Japanโs weather agency put 2020 as warmer than 2016, but a separate calculation by Japanese scientists put 2020 as a close third behind 2016 and 2019. Earth has now warmed 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times and is adding another 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 Fahrenheit) a decade. Schmidt said fewer cooling aerosols could be responsible for .09 to .18 degrees (.05 to .1 degrees Celsius) warming for the year.
Tarantino has deal for 2 books on films, including 1 his own
The Oscar-winning director has a two-book deal with Harper, beginning with a novelization of โOnce Upon a Time ... In Hollywoodโ was released in 2019 and stars Leonardo DiCaprio as an actor and Brad Pitt as his stunt double. โIn the โ70s movie novelizations were the first adult books I grew up reading," Tarantino said in a statement Tuesday. โI see myself writing film books and starting to write theater, so Iโll still be creative. I just think Iโve given all I have to give to movies.โ_____AP Film Writer Jake Coyle contributed to this report.
Celebration after game-winning hit made Rays' Phillips sick
Tampa Bay Rays right fielder Brett Phillips arrives for batting practice before Game 5 of the baseball World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020, in Arlington, Texas. Hey, bases loaded, two outs and youโre down by one in the World Series. So, sure they regret it a little bit, but I by no means got upset.โCLOSED ROOFThere could be a lid on the rest of this World Series. It was the second time during the World Series that the retractable roof at the new $1.2 billion stadium was closed for a game. That homer came as part of his fifth three-hit game this postseason, already a MLB record, as were his 59 total bases.
Getting warmer: Trump concedes human role in climate change
President Donald Trump publicly acknowledged that humans bear some blame for climate change, but scientists say the president still isn't dealing with the reality of our primary role. The climate change exchange represented a rare microburst of policy discussion from Trump in a loud, nerve-abrading debate. And it ever so lightly nailed down the position of the Republican president on climate change. On Tuesday, after Trump nodded at a human role in climate change, Wallace asked him why he then had undone the Clean Power Plan. That was a legacy Obama administration climate change effort intended to move U.S. utilities away from the dirtiest fossil-fuel plants.
Few resources, old-growth forest allowed for fire's growth
โThis is a stubborn fire,โ Angeles National Forest spokesman Andrew Mitchell said. At the time, many Southern California ground crews and a fleet of retardant- and water-dropping aircraft were assigned to multiple record-breaking blazes in the northern part of the state. Officials were investigating the death of a firefighter at another Southern California wildfire that erupted earlier this month from a smoke-generating pyrotechnic device used by a couple to reveal their babyโs gender. Charles Morton, 39, died Sept. 17 while battling the El Dorado Fire in the San Bernardino National Forest east of Los Angeles. The blaze has charred over 21 square miles (55 square kilometers) of Medicine Bow National Forest.
Warming shrinks Arctic Ocean ice to 2nd lowest on record
Ice in the Arctic Ocean melted to its second lowest level on record this summer, triggered by global warming along with natural forces, U.S. scientists reported Monday. The extent of ice-covered ocean at the North Pole and extending further south to Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia reached its summertime low of 1.4 million square miles (3.7 million square kilometers) last week before starting to grow again. Arctic sea ice reaches its low point in September and its high in March after the winter. This year's melt is second only to 2012, when the ice shrank to 1.3 million square miles (3.4 million square kilometers), according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, which has been keeping satellite records since 1979. In the 1980s, the ice cover was about 1 million square miles (2.7 million square kilometers) bigger than current summer levels.
Study: World carbon pollution falls 17% during pandemic peak
The world cut its daily carbon dioxide emissions by 17% at the peak of the pandemic shutdown last month, a new study found. The world cut its daily carbon dioxide emissions by 17% at the peak of the pandemic shutdown last month, a new study found. For a week in April, the United States cut its carbon dioxide levels by about one-third. The study was carried out by Global Carbon Project, a consortium of international scientists that produces the authoritative annual estimate of carbon dioxide emissions. By contrast, the study found that drastic reductions in air travel only accounted for 10% of the overall pollution drop.