AFP UK

World Bank president David Malpass is battling charges of climate denial for dodging questions on the role of man-made emissions in global warming — which he since said he acknowledges

World Bank President David Malpass said Friday he had no plans to stand down, as he battles charges of climate denial for dodging questions on the role of man-made emissions in global warming.

“Not resigning,” Malpass said in an interview with Politico, when asked if he had envisaged quitting over the firestorm caused by his comments at a conference on climate finance — which he has since moved to clarify.

“Nor have I” considered it, he said, affirming that none of the bank’s member countries had asked him to leave.

Climate activists had previously called for Malpass to be removed for what they say is an inadequate approach to the climate crisis — and the chorus grew louder after his appearance at the New York Times-organized conference this week.

Pressed on stage to respond to a claim by former US vice president Al Gore that he was a climate denier, Malpass declined multiple times to say whether he believed man-made emissions were warming the planet — responding, “I’m not a scientist.”

Under mounting fire, Malpass has moved to clarify his position and did so again on Friday.

“Look, it’s clear that greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are adding to, are causing climate change,” he told Politico. “And so the task for us, for the world, is to pull together the projects and the funding that actually has an impact.”

In an interview with CNN a day earlier, he had likewise acknowledged that climate-warming emissions were “coming from manmade sources, including fossil fuels, methane, agricultural uses and industrial uses.”

“I’m not a denier,” he told the network, adding that his message had been “tangled” and he was “not always good at conveying” what he means.

The head of the World Bank is traditionally an American, while the leader of the other big international lender in Washington, the IMF, tends to be European. 

Malpass is a veteran of Republican administrations in the United States and was appointed in 2019 while Donald Trump, who famously and repeatedly denied the science behind climate change, was president.

Satellite image shows Hurricane Fiona on September 23, 2022, at 14h00 GMT

Bermuda assessed damage Friday after Hurricane Fiona brushed past the island overnight, causing flooding and leaving most of the population without power as it set course for Canada.

Hurricane conditions were expected to hit Nova Scotia province by evening, with the US National Hurricane Center saying Fiona had again strengthened to a Category 4 storm as “it races toward Atlantic Canada.”

Emergency officials in Bermuda called on residents to remain inside as strong winds raked over the British territory, which was buffeted by gusts of more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour and pounding seas.

But no fatalities or major damage were reported as Fiona passed roughly 100 miles to the west of the island.

The Belco power company said 29,000 out of 36,000 households were without power.

“We are not in the clear. Stay off the roads,” Premier David Burt tweeted, adding no major incidents were reported.

The Royal Bermuda Regiment and Belco said they were waiting for winds to die down before clearing roads and restoring power.

Residents posted images of downed power lines and some flooding on social media.

“This morning (it is) very windy outside. We had some minor damage to the premises but nothing serious,” Jason Rainer, owner of a souvenir shop in the capital Hamilton told AFP, saying some doors and windows had been blown out.

Store owners had covered windows with metal and wood sheets.

The island of about 64,000 people is no stranger to hurricanes — but it is also tiny, just 21 square miles (54 square kilometers), and one of the most remote places in the world, 640 miles from its closest neighbor, the United States.

– A well-prepared island –

“You have to live with it because you live here, you can’t run anywhere because it’s just a little island,” said JoeAnn Scott, a shopworker in Hamilton.

Bermudians try to “enjoy it as it comes,” she said. “And pray and pray. That’s what we do, pray and party,” she added with a laugh.

At Bermuda’s famed Horseshoe Bay Beach, onlookers watched pounding waves on Thursday before the storm hit, while two kitesurfers risked extreme conditions out at sea.

Because of the island’s isolation, preparations are taken seriously.

Many boats were taken out of the water earlier in the week, public schools were closed, buses and ferries stopped and an emergency shelter opened.

In addition to laying in supplies of candles and food, some Bermudians drew buckets of water and filled bathtubs from the tanks at the side of their homes ahead of the expected power outages.

There is no fresh water source on the island, so all buildings have white, lime-washed roofs that are used to catch rainwater in tanks that is then pumped into homes. 

Bermuda, whose economy is fueled by international finance and tourism, is wealthy compared to most Caribbean countries, and structures must be built to strict planning codes to withstand storms. Some have done so for centuries.

“The construction is really built to last, and we don’t see the devastation ever that the Caribbean has experienced over the years,” resident Elaine Murray said.

Fiona killed four people in Puerto Rico earlier this week, according to US media, while one death was reported in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe and another in the Dominican Republic. 

President Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency in Puerto Rico, a US territory that is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria five years ago.

In the Dominican Republic, President Luis Abinader declared three eastern provinces to be disaster zones.

Protesters marched in Kinshasa under banners bearing slogans such as 'No to new fossil fuels'

Climate activists protested in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital Kinshasa on Friday ahead of a climate summit in the city next month. 

Kinshasa is due to host the pre-COP27 talks in October, before the main summit begins in Egypt in November.  

But the pre-COP27 meeting comes after the DRC put 27 oil and gas blocks up for auction in July, ignoring warnings from environmentalists that drilling in peatlands and forests could release huge volumes of carbon dioxide. 

On Friday, about 200 protesters marched in Kinshasa toting banners bearing slogans such as “No to new fossil fuels”.

Rose Mathe, a 22-year-old climate activist, said developing the oil and gas blocks contradicted the government’s push to brand the DRC as a “solution country” for climate change. 

“The world is transitioning towards 100-percent renewable energy,” she said, adding that drilling for oil is environmentally destructive.

Roughly the size of western Europe, the DRC enjoys vast mineral riches, including huge reserves of cobalt and lithium that are critical for battery production. 

Peatlands in the Congo Basin also store around 30 billion tonnes of carbon, according to a 2016 Nature study. The figure is roughly equivalent to three years’ of global emissions.

Patient Muamba, a campaigner for Greenpeace Africa who attended the protest, told AFP petrol has no future. 

“We’re asking the government cancel these offers,” he said, referring to the oil and gas auction. 

The DRC’s government has argued that drilling will be conducted using methods that minimise harm to the environment. It has also stressed that exploiting oil and gas will help diversify the mining-reliant economy. 

About three-quarters of the DRC’s population of 90 million people lives on under $1.9 a day, according to World Bank figures. 

In his address to the United Nations General Assembly, President Nikenike Vurobaravu evoked the existential crisis caused by rapid global heating, from hurricanes and coral bleaching to wildfires, prolonged droughts and flooding

Vanuatu on Friday became the first nation to launch a diplomatic push for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty, a proposed legal path to phase out coal, oil and gas globally by likening their threat to nuclear weapons. 

In his address to the United Nations General Assembly, President Nikenike Vurobaravu evoked the existential crisis caused by rapid global heating, from hurricanes and coral bleaching to wildfires, prolonged droughts and flooding.

“We call for the development of a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to phase down coal, oil and gas production in line with 1.5C, and enable a global just transition for every worker, community and nation with fossil fuel dependence,” he said.

The Paris climate accord called on nations to aspire to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a goal that is far off track.

Vanuatu, an archipelago home to 300,000 people that lies 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) to the east of Australia, adds its voice to a call that has been endorsed by more than 65 cities and regional governments around the globe. 

These include London, Lima, Los Angeles, Kolkata, Paris and Hawaii. The proposal has also been backed by the Vatican and the World Health Organization.

Tiny Vanuatu this month submitted one of the world’s most comprehensive climate targets under the UN, and has been leading a campaign to have the International Court of Justice issue an opinion on climate justice and human rights.

In a statement, the climate campaign group 350 compared the proposed treaty to accords that were pivotal in managing the threats of nuclear weapons and landmines.

Tintagel Castle in Cornwall was visited by Britain's new king Charles III and his wife Camilla in 2020

The cliff-top ruins of an ancient castle long claimed as the birthplace of the legendary King Arthur is “at risk of being lost for ever” as climate change quickens the pace of coastal erosion, a UK heritage body warned on Friday.

Tintagel Castle in Cornwall, southwest England, attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year, fuelled by the legend of King Arthur and his fabled Round Table.

But the structure is now among six important historic coastal sites at risk “as a result of accelerating coastal erosion”, charity English Heritage said.

“Erosion along England’s coastline is nothing new but the rate of land loss that we have seen over the past few years is alarming, and some scenarios indicate that sea levels could increase by up to a metre (3.2 feet) by the end of the century,” said English Heritage Estates director Rob Woodside.

In the last century sea levels rose by 14 centimetres along the southern coast of England, according to the body.

“Climate change is accelerating the issues faced by our coastal heritage. Rising sea levels and more regular storms pose a real risk to the future of many of our sites,” Woodside added.

The legend of the ancient English king and his Round Table of knights has inspired numerous filmmakers over the years.

Although researchers have never established if King Arthur was a real person or a mythical hero, some historians believe there was an important English leader called Arthur around the fifth century, although not necessarily a king.

English Heritage said parts of the cliff directly in front of Tintagel Castle’s visitor centre recently fell into the sea due to coastal erosion.

This and other damage caused by storms last winter alone would cost £40,000 ($44,000) to repair, the charity said.

“Protecting our coastal heritage from the effects of erosion and flooding is one of the greatest challenges English Heritage has ever faced,” it said.

“Sea levels are rising at their fastest rate for more than 2,700 years and are predicted to surge by up to a metre before the end of the 21st century.”

Other sites in southwest England listed by English Heritage as being at risk include Hurst Castle and Calshot Castle, both built by the 16th century king Henry VIII in Hampshire, southern England.

English Heritage said it was launching a public appeal via its website to raise funds to shore up the sites and make them less vulnerable to coastal erosion.

“If these coastal properties are to survive the coming decades, we will need to strengthen their walls and build sea defences to protect them,” it added.

Wind and waves were picking up as darkness fell over the British territory, and Bermudians rushed to the safety of their sturdy homes ahead of the storm

Gusts of 100 miles an hour and driving rain buffeted Bermuda early Friday, leaving thousands without power and fearing coastal damage as Hurricane Fiona, a powerful Category 3 storm, slid past the Atlantic island.

At 6:00 am local time (0900 GMT), Fiona’s center was located about 155 miles (250 kilometers) northwest of the British territory, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), which downgraded the storm to Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale in its latest advisory.

Overnight, several areas reported power outages, with more than 7,000 people affected, according to the main electric utility.

On Thursday, with hurricane warnings in effect and the NHC forecasting sustained winds at the center of the storm of more than 125 miles per hour — with even higher gusts — Bermuda residents said they were taking no chances. 

“This storm is going to be worse than the last one,” Richard Hartley, a store owner in the capital Hamilton told AFP as he and his wife covered the shop’s cedar-lined windows with metal sheets. 

Hurricane-force winds extend more than 70 miles from the storm’s eye, and tropical-storm-force winds up to 200 miles, the NHC said, predicting up to four inches (10 centimeters) of rain along with “large and destructive” waves and storm surge. 

The island of about 64,000 people is no stranger to hurricanes — but it is also tiny, just 21 square miles (54 square kilometers), and one of the most remote places in the world, 640 miles from its closest neighbor, the United States.

That means there is nowhere to evacuate to when a big storm hits.

“You have to live with it because you live here, you can’t run anywhere because it’s just a little island,” said JoeAnn Scott, a shopworker in Hamilton.

Bermudians try to “enjoy it as it comes,” she said. “And pray and pray. That’s what we do, pray and party,” she added with a laugh. 

At Bermuda’s famed Horseshoe Bay Beach, where onlookers came to assess the pounding waves and stretch their legs ahead of a long night inside, resident Gina Maughan said the island would be ready. 

“It’s always interesting to come down and see the surf,” she said, watching two kitesurfers soar into the air. 

“These guys are a little crazy,” she added.

– Construction ‘built to last’ –

Because of the island’s isolation, preparations are taken seriously.

Many boats were taken out of the water earlier in the week, outdoor furniture was moved inside, and the storm shutters bordering windows on most houses were checked. 

Public schools will be closed on Friday, and the government announced that an emergency shelter would be opened. Buses and ferries had stopped running by late Thursday.

The Royal Bermuda Regiment was on standby to help with clearing operations, and National Security Minister Michael Weeks implored residents to stay inside until the all clear was given.

“Please Bermuda, no driving around, no venturing out to take pictures, no reckless behavior,” he told a press conference.

In addition to laying in supplies of candles and food, some Bermudians were also drawing buckets of water and filling bathtubs from the tanks at the side of their homes ahead of the expected power outages.

There is no fresh water source on the island, so all buildings have white, lime-washed roofs that are used to catch rainwater that is directed into tanks and pumped into homes as the main water supply. 

Bermuda, whose economy is fueled by international finance and tourism, is wealthy compared to most Caribbean countries, and structures must be built to strict planning codes to withstand storms. Some have done so for centuries. 

“The construction is really built to last, and we don’t see the devastation ever that the Caribbean has experienced over the years,” resident Elaine Murray said.

Fiona killed four people in Puerto Rico earlier this week, according to US media, while one death was reported in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe and another in the Dominican Republic. 

President Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency in Puerto Rico, a US territory that is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria five years ago.

In the Dominican Republic, President Luis Abinader declared three eastern provinces to be disaster zones.

Farther north in Bermuda, islanders were calm. 

“I’ve been through a lot of hurricanes, so no, I’m not worried,” said resident Rochelle Jones.

But if things do go wrong, Bermudians will “all come out together and we help each other,” she said. 

Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City topped the study's survey of sinking urban centres in South and Southeast Asia

Sprawling coastal cities in South and Southeast Asia are sinking faster than elsewhere in the world, leaving tens of millions of people more vulnerable to rising sea levels, a new study says.

Rapid urbanisation has seen these cities draw heavily on groundwater to service their burgeoning populations, according to research by Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), published in the journal Nature Sustainability last week. 

“This puts cities experiencing rapid local land subsidence at greater risk of coastal hazards than already present due to climate-driven sea-level rise,” the study says.

Vietnam’s most-populous urban centre and main business hub, Ho Chi Minh City, was sinking an average of 16.2 millimetres (0.6 inches) annually, topping the study’s survey of satellite data from 48 large coastal cities around the world. 

The southern Bangladeshi port of Chittagong was second on the list, with the western Indian city Ahmedabad, Indonesian capital Jakarta and Myanmar’s commercial hub Yangon also sinking more than 20 millimetres in peak years. 

“Many of these fast-subsiding coastal cities are rapidly expanding megacities, where… high demands for groundwater extraction and loading from densely constructed building structures, contribute to local land subsidence,” the study says.

Sinking cities are not of themselves a result of climate change, but researchers said their work would give a better insight into how the phenomenon would “compound the effects of climate-driven mean sea-level rise”.

More than one billion people will live in coastal cities at risk of rising sea levels by 2050, according to UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 

The IPCC says that global sea levels could rise by up to 60 centimetres (24 inches) by the end of the century even if greenhouse gas emissions are sharply reduced.

Fewer than 10 of the pilot whales are still alive on Ocean Beach, in remote western Tasmania

Australian rescuers battled Friday to refloat the last surviving pilot whales from a mass stranding that killed nearly 200 of the animals on a beach in Tasmania.

Fewer than 10 of the shiny black mammals were still alive on Ocean Beach, in remote western Tasmania, state wildlife services said.

About 30 of the animals were released into the ocean on Thursday, but some had beached themselves again, said Brendon Clark, incident controller with the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service.

Under drizzle, marine wildlife experts began wrapping up a days-long rescue operation that started after a large pod of the animals, which are part of the dolphin family, stranded on the beach.

Three pilot whales had yet to be reached because of their remote location on the shore and the difficult tidal conditions, Clark told reporters at the scene.

“The priority still is the rescue and release of those remaining animals and any others that we identify that re-strand,” he said.

Next, Clark said, comes the task of disposing of the carcases.

Wildlife workers used a fork-lift truck to drag whale carcasses along the beach, lining them up with tails pointed to the frigid ocean. 

– Carcasses –

One small, young calf could be seen tied up alongside the larger adult pilot whales.

A long white line was looped around the tails of dozens of the animals to allow them to be towed en masse to disposal at sea.

Weather forecasts indicated the “best opportunity” for the operation would be on Sunday, Clark said.

If left in shallow waters or on the beach, the carcasses could attract sharks and can carry disease. 

Workers at Tasmanian marine farming company Petuna Aquaculture helped to release surviving whales into the sea.

“It’s extremely sad to see these beautiful, intelligent animals on land where they are not to be,” Depha Miedecke, general manager of strategy at Petuna, told AFP.

“We will see it right through to the end to also removing, unfortunately, the whales that have not made it.”

– Distress signals –

Two years ago, Macquarie Harbour was the scene of the country’s largest-ever mass stranding, involving almost 500 pilot whales.

More than 300 pilot whales died during that event, despite the efforts of dozens of volunteers who toiled for days in Tasmania’s freezing waters to free them.

Scientists still do not fully understand why mass strandings occur.  

Some have suggested pods go off track after feeding too close to shore.

Pilot whales — which can grow to more than six metres (20 feet) long — are also highly sociable, so they may follow pod-mates who stray into danger.

That sometimes occurs when old, sick or injured animals swim ashore and other pod members follow, trying to respond to the trapped whale’s distress signals.

Others believe gently sloping beaches like those found in Tasmania confuse the whales’ sonar, making them think they are in open waters.

The latest stranding came days after a dozen young male sperm whales were reported dead in a separate mass stranding on King Island — between Tasmania and the Australian mainland.

State officials said that incident may have been a case of “misadventure”.

Strandings are also common in nearby New Zealand.

There, around 300 animals beach themselves annually, according to official figures, and it is not unusual for groups of between 20 and 50 pilot whales to run aground.

But numbers can run into the hundreds when a “super pod” is involved. In 2017, there was a mass stranding of almost 700 pilot whales.

A NASA mission to deliberately smash a spacecraft into an asteroid blasts off on Monday

After NASA deliberately smashes a car-sized spacecraft into an asteroid next week, it will be up to the European Space Agency’s Hera mission to investigate the “crime scene” and uncover the secrets of these potentially devastating space rocks.

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) aims to collide with the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos on Monday night, hoping to slightly alter its trajectory — the first time such an operation has been attempted.

While Dimorphos is 11 million kilometres (6.8 million miles) away and poses no threat to Earth, the mission is a test run in case the world someday needs to deflect an asteroid from heading our way.

Astronomers around the world will watch DART’s impact, and its effect will be closely followed to see if the mission passed the test.

Then, the European Space Agency’s Hera mission, named after the ancient Greek queen of the gods, will follow in its footsteps. 

The Hera spacecraft is planned to launch in October 2024, aiming to arrive at Dimorphos in 2026 to measure the exact impact DART had on the asteroid.

But scientists are not only excited to see DART’s crater, but also to explore an object that is very much out of this world.

– ‘A new world’ –

Dimorphos, which orbits a larger asteroid Didymos as they hurtle together through space, provides not only a “perfect testing opportunity for a planetary defence experiment, but it is also a completely new environment,” the ESA’s Hera mission manager Ian Carnelli said.

Hera will be loaded up with cameras, spectrometers, radars and even toaster-sized nano-satellites to measure the asteroid’s shape, mass, chemical composition and more. 

NASA’s Bhavya Lal said that it was critically important to understand the size and composition of such asteroids.

“If an asteroid is made up of, for example, loose gravel, approaches to disrupt it may be different than if it was metal or some other kind of rock,” she told the International Astronautical Congress in Paris this week.

So little is known about Dimorphos that scientists will discover “a new world” at the same time as the public on Monday, Hera mission principal investigator Patrick Michel said.

“Asteroids are not boring space rocks — they are super exciting because they have a great diversity” in size, shape and composition, Michel said.

And because they have low gravity compared to Earth, matter there could behave completely differently than expected.

“Unless you touch the surface, you cannot know the mechanical response,” he said.

– ‘Behaved almost like fluid’ – 

For example, when a Japanese probe dropped a small explosive near the surface of the Ryugu asteroid in 2019, it was expected to make a crater of two or three metres. Instead, it blasted a 50-metre hole.

“There was no resistance,” Michel said. 

“The surface behaved almost like a fluid,” rather than solid rock, he added. “How weird is that?” 

One way the Hera mission will test Dimorphos will be to land a nano-satellite on its surface, in part to see how much it bounces.

Binary systems like Dimorphos and Didymos represent around 15 percent of known asteroids, but have not yet been explored.

With a diameter of just 160 metres — around the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza — Dimorphos will also be the smallest asteroid ever studied.

Learning about the impact of DART is not only important for planetary defence, Michel said, but also for understanding the history of our Solar System, where most cosmic bodies were formed through collisions and are now riddled with craters.

That’s where DART and Hera could shine a light not just on the future, but on the past.

A NASA mission to deliberately smash a spacecraft into an asteroid blasts off on Monday

After NASA deliberately smashes a car-sized spacecraft into an asteroid next week, it will be up to the European Space Agency’s Hera mission to investigate the “crime scene” and uncover the secrets of these potentially devastating space rocks.

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) aims to collide with the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos on Monday night, hoping to slightly alter its trajectory — the first time such an operation has been attempted.

While Dimorphos is 11 million kilometres (6.8 million miles) away and poses no threat to Earth, the mission is a test run in case the world someday needs to deflect an asteroid from heading our way.

Astronomers around the world will watch DART’s impact, and its effect will be closely followed to see if the mission passed the test.

Then, the European Space Agency’s Hera mission, named after the ancient Greek queen of the gods, will follow in its footsteps. 

The Hera spacecraft is planned to launch in October 2024, aiming to arrive at Dimorphos in 2026 to measure the exact impact DART had on the asteroid.

But scientists are not only excited to see DART’s crater, but also to explore an object that is very much out of this world.

– ‘A new world’ –

Dimorphos, which orbits a larger asteroid Didymos as they hurtle together through space, provides not only a “perfect testing opportunity for a planetary defence experiment, but it is also a completely new environment,” the ESA’s Hera mission manager Ian Carnelli said.

Hera will be loaded up with cameras, spectrometers, radars and even toaster-sized nano-satellites to measure the asteroid’s shape, mass, chemical composition and more. 

NASA’s Bhavya Lal said that it was critically important to understand the size and composition of such asteroids.

“If an asteroid is made up of, for example, loose gravel, approaches to disrupt it may be different than if it was metal or some other kind of rock,” she told the International Astronautical Congress in Paris this week.

So little is known about Dimorphos that scientists will discover “a new world” at the same time as the public on Monday, Hera mission principal investigator Patrick Michel said.

“Asteroids are not boring space rocks — they are super exciting because they have a great diversity” in size, shape and composition, Michel said.

And because they have low gravity compared to Earth, matter there could behave completely differently than expected.

“Unless you touch the surface, you cannot know the mechanical response,” he said.

– ‘Behaved almost like fluid’ – 

For example, when a Japanese probe dropped a small explosive near the surface of the Ryugu asteroid in 2019, it was expected to make a crater of two or three metres. Instead, it blasted a 50-metre hole.

“There was no resistance,” Michel said. 

“The surface behaved almost like a fluid,” rather than solid rock, he added. “How weird is that?” 

One way the Hera mission will test Dimorphos will be to land a nano-satellite on its surface, in part to see how much it bounces.

Binary systems like Dimorphos and Didymos represent around 15 percent of known asteroids, but have not yet been explored.

With a diameter of just 160 metres — around the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza — Dimorphos will also be the smallest asteroid ever studied.

Learning about the impact of DART is not only important for planetary defence, Michel said, but also for understanding the history of our Solar System, where most cosmic bodies were formed through collisions and are now riddled with craters.

That’s where DART and Hera could shine a light not just on the future, but on the past.