Wind and solar power overtake coal in US for first time

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By Ben Cooke | Yennah Smart, The Times. 

Excerpt: The milestone highlights the rapid growth of renewable energy despite political headwinds since President Trump’s re-election. ...The two renewable energy sources accounted for 17 per cent of the country’s electricity mix while coal fell to an all-time low of 15 per cent. Solar was the fastest-growing energy source, increasing 27 per cent from the year before, while wind increased 7 per cent. Gas generation continued to grow, at three times the rate of coal’s decline. The use of coal has been declining since 2007 but as recently as 2017 it was generating more than twice as much electricity as wind and solar.... 

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2024 was the hottest year on record, breaching a critical climate goal and capping 10 years of unprecedented heat

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By Laura Paddison , CNN.  Excerpt: It’s official: 2024 was the hottest year on record, breaking the  previous record  set in 2023 and pushing the world over a critical climate threshold, according to new data from Europe’s climate monitoring agency Copernicus [ https://climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-2024-first-year-exceed-15degc-above-pre-industrial-level ]. Last year was 1.6 degrees hotter than the period before humans began burning large amounts of fossil fuels, Copernicus found. It makes 2024 the first calendar year to breach  the 1.5-degree limit  countries agreed to avoid under the Paris climate agreement in 2015. Scientists are much more concerned about breaches over decades, rather than single years — as above that threshold humans and ecosystems may struggle to adapt — but 2024’s   record   “does mean we’re getting dangerously close,” said Joeri Rogelj, a climate professor at Imperial College London....  Full article at https://www.cnn.c...
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Warmer, more crowded cities bring out the rats

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