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Anumita Kaur, Angie Orellana Hernandez and Patrick Svitek, The Washington Post
At least 161 people are still missing after devastating floods in Texas, “raising the possibility that the death toll could surpass 200 in what is already one of the deadliest flood events in the past five decades”, the Washington Post reports. It continues that 109 people are confirmed to be dead, including “more than two dozen children”. The operators of Camp Mystic, a century-old all-girls summer camp in the Texas Hill Country, announced that they lost 27 campers and counsellors to the floodwaters, the Associated Press reports. The newswire adds that “additional rain” is forecast, meaning “more flooding still threaten[s] saturated parts of central Texas”.
Several outlets continue to look at the possible role of climate change in the floods’ intensity. CBC News reports on a rapid analysis from the ClimaMeter research group finding that temperatures in the affected region are up to 1.5C higher today than in 1950-86, with “conditions up to 7% wetter than during similar events in the past”. It adds: “No studies have yet calculated the likelihood of this event with or without human-caused climate change, which requires detailed modelling.” Inside Climate News reports that “climate scientists said the torrential downpours on 4 July exemplify the devastating outcomes of weather intensified by a warming atmosphere”. It continues: “Warmer temperatures allow for the atmosphere to hold more water vapour, producing heavier rainfalls, climate scientists said.” The New York Times Climate Fwd newsletter also speaks to climate scientists about how the “slow-moving” storm behind the floods may have been connected to climate change.
Publications also continue to report on connections between the floods and recent cuts to federal climate disaster spending by Donald Trump. The Guardian reports on a warning from experts that such floods could become the “new normal” as “Trump and his allies dismantle crucial federal agencies that help states prepare and respond to extreme weather and other hazards”. The newspaper speaks to Samantha Montano, professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, who says: “This is what happens when you let climate change run unabated and break apart the emergency management system – without investing in that system at the local and state level.” E&E News reports that “forecasts and warnings largely worked during the recent flooding catastrophe in Texas”, but that “those systems are expected to degrade as Trump’s cuts to the National Weather Service, satellites and other key services take hold”. BBC News also reports on how the floods have put a “spotlight” on Trump’s cuts to weather agencies.
MORE ON TEXAS FLOODS
Local officials are facing questions over “their actions in the years and hours before deadly Texas floods”, CNN reports. Semafor reports that Texas may require a supplement bill from Congress to pay for the damages caused by the flooding. NPR explores how floods are getting “more dangerous” across the US. The Guardian explores how humans can adapt to worse flood risk across the globe.
Kate Abnett, Reuters
The “far-right” Patriots for Europe group, featuring the political parties of France's Marine Le Pen and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, will lead European parliament negotiations on the bloc’s 2040 climate goal, Reuters reports. The newswire continues that the Patriots group chair Jordan Bardella said the group was “resolutely opposed” to the 90% emissions reduction target tabled by the European Commission and had bid to lead the negotiations to “assert its vision on the goal”. Euractiv reports that the Patriots group secured control of the negotiations after “winning a points-based auction”. It means that a “lawmaker from the Patriots will draft the European Parliament’s position on the [goal] and head the assembly's negotiating team in subsequent talks with the government delegates in the EU Council”, the publication says. Bloomberg says the appointment “sets the stage for acrimonious talks on what was already perceived as a controversial target”.
Maxine Joselow, The New York Times
The New York Times reports that the US federal energy department has hired “at least three scientists who are well-known for their rejection of the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change”. It continues: “The scientists are listed in the Energy Department’s internal email system as current employees of the agency, the records show. They are Steven E. Koonin, a physicist and author of a best-selling book that calls climate science ‘unsettled’; John Christy, an atmospheric scientist who doubts the extent to which human activity has caused global warming; and Roy Spencer, a meteorologist who believes that clouds have had a greater influence on warming than humans have.” The publication adds that the appointments come “after the Trump administration dismissed hundreds of scientists and experts who had been compiling the federal government’s flagship report on how climate change is affecting the country”.
MORE ON US
Axios reports on how a new executive order from Trump to the treasury department could make it harder to access wind and solar credits. Trump’s recent “megabill” gives “Chinese electric vehicle makers the leg-up”, a Chinese car group head tells the Wall Street Journal.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar, The Independent
Dozens of people are feared dead in India’s northern state of Himachal Pradesh after the Himalayan region was hit by extreme rainfall and multiple flash floods and landslides, the Independent reports. According to state disaster authorities quoted in the story, 80 people have died in rain-related incidents since 20 June, with hundreds of houses, shops, roads and bridges “washed away”. While “deforestation to make way for infrastructure development” has “led to calls by critics for environmental accountability”, the article notes that “studies show the monsoon in South Asia is getting worse due to the climate crisis”, with an increasing number of "extreme rain days overwhelming infrastructure”.
Separately, Reuters reports that at least eight people were killed and more than “two dozen were missing” on the Nepal-China border, after floods on the Bhote Koshi river “washed away” the “Friendship bridge” connecting both countries. Forecasters who spoke to the newswire say the flood “might have been the result of an overflowing glacial lake in Tibet, where torrential rain had fallen”. In Pakistan, the Associated Press reports that at least 72 people have been killed following 10 days of “heavy monsoon rains and flash floods” across the country. Pakistani authorities warn that “they cannot rule out a repeat” of the 2022 floods, in which more than 1,700 people died, the article adds.
MORE ON SOUTH ASIA
Press Trust of India quotes prime minister Modi as saying that “climate justice is no alternative; it is a moral duty”, while outlining India’s “possible priorities” as next year’s BRICS president. India’s met authority chief Mrutyunjay Mohapatra tells Mint that climate change is “shrinking” India’s weather forecasting window. In a series titled “The Himalayas Overheating”, Le Monde looks at the impact of climate change on Pakistan’s “lost paradise” of Hunza fed by melting glaciers. Time magazine examines how urbanisation in India is making the monsoon “and its short-duration, high-intensity rainstorms” more extreme. The Guardian profiles Kerala’s “rainforest gardeners” creating a “Noah’s ark” for endangered plant species in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot. India’s state-run oil giant ONGC is “already in talks” with Brazil’s Petrobras and BP to jointly bid for India’s oil and gas blocks on offer, Business Standard reports.
Alec Luhn, New Scientist
An additional 1,500 people died in the extreme heat affecting European cities in late June because of human-caused climate change, according to a rapid analysis covered by New Scientist. It explains: “Researchers with the World Weather Attribution network used weather data to estimate how intense the heatwave would have been without climate change and compared this to what actually happened. Then they combined their rapid attribution finding with research that has graphed the relationship between daily temperature and excess deaths in European cities. The scientists applied this curve to real-world temperatures and those calculated for a non-warming world to find the death toll of climate change during this heatwave.” New Scientist continues that the analysis found that 2,300 people died from heat between 23 June and 2 July, adding: “The analysis showed that the heatwave would have killed 700 people even in a cooler world. But because climate change amplified temperatures by up to 4C, an additional 1,500 died.” Euronews, the Guardian and Press Association are among others covering the analysis.
MORE ON EUROPEAN HEAT
More than 18,000 people were in lockdown in Catalonia yesterday as wildfires “raged out of control” after Spain’s “hottest June on record”, Reuters says. Wildfires reached the French city of Marseille, causing the airport to close and forcing thousands to flee their homes, according to a frontpage story in the Daily Telegraph. Greece’s Acropolis was forced to close temporarily amid extreme temperatures, Al Arabiya reports. “Storms and fires” have hit Balkan nations following a period of extreme heat, the Washington Post reports. The Financial Times examines how Europe “keeps setting new heat records as [the] fastest-warming continent”.
Andy Bruce, Reuters
Reuters reports that a new report from the UK’s independent Office for Budget Responsibility has estimated that 3C of warming “would likely hurt Britain's economy by much more than previously assumed”. The newswire continues: “The scenario of an almost 3C increase in global temperatures would reduce the level of GDP by 8% in the early 2070s, the OBR said, compared with a previous estimate of 5%.” The Guardian also covers the OBR report, noting that it says the “climate crisis is another big factor threatening the government’s fiscal position”. The Times notes that the OBR measured the cost of climate change by considering “the fiscal pressures to achieve the net-zero transition and the damage that rising temperatures posed for the economy more broadly”. The climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph leads its coverage with the misleading headline: “Net-zero to cost taxpayers £800bn.” [Most of this total is lost fuel duty revenue, which the government could choose to replace.] The net-zero-sceptic Sun also focuses on this “eye-watering” figure in a news story and editorial. Carbon Brief explains how the report actually shows that achieving net-zero will be much cheaper than thought – and far less costly than the damages from unchecked global warming.
MORE ON UK
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