Historic approval in Australia, counter shows trees felled in the Amazon in real time and +

☀️ Europe has never been so hot

Summer 2022 in Europe was the hottest recorded in history, announced this Thursday (8) the satellite surveillance service Copernicus. (*)

The average temperatures were “highest, for the month of August and for the entire summer“, and surpassed the 2021 records, which were the previous records, according to the surveillance service.

The month of August was the hottest on the continent by a “considerable margin”, surpassing August 2021 by 0,4ºC.

A temperature increase of 0,4ºC was also recorded in June and July.

"An intense series of heatwaves across Europe, combined with exceptionally dry conditions, led to a summer of extremes, with record temperatures, drought and wildfires in many parts of Europe.” explained Freja Vamborg, scientific director of the climate change surveillance system.

"The data shows that we didn't just have record temperatures in August in Europe, but throughout the summer, and that the previous record was just a year old“, added Vamborg.

The Copernicus program uses a series of satellites called Sentinel. The first of these was launched in 2014.

🌱 Australia passes historic climate change bill

Australia passed its first climate change bill in a decade, this Thursday (8), enshrining, for the first time in its legislation, the goal of achieving zero emissions by 2050.

The new legislation – which was a promeelectoral campaign of the new center-left government – ​​aims reduce emissions by 43% compared to 2005 levels. 

Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, celebrated the achievement on social media:

The Australian economy still relies heavily on coal. For the government, the law ends a decade of climate inertia. 

Australia, one of the world's largest exporters of coal and natural gas, was slow to adopt climate targets, even as the country was hit by increasingly devastating floods and forest fires. 

The lack of initiatives and solutions to the climate crisis was fundamental to the downfall of the previous conservative government, after forest fires in late 2019 and early 2020 destroyed 5,8 million hectares in the east of the country.

🌳 The Power Is In Our Hands

Since last September 5th, when we celebrated Amazon Day, um Real-time tree felling counter in the Amazon region became part of daily life in Brasíliasystem. (One Planet)

The initiative marks a series of actions in defense of the standing forest, which is part of the new campaign “The Power Is in Our Hands".

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A post shared by PLENAMATA (@plenamata)

Daily, images and data will be displayed on the largest digital panel in Latin America (located in the center of Brasília), bringing the public information and content related to the conservation and regeneration of the Amazon, reflected from the online platform PlenaMata, created by Natura, Mapbiomes, Infoamazonia e hacklab.

The campaign's main objective is to remind society that, through conscious consumption, social mobilization and political engagement, there is still time to regenerate the Amazon.

Find out more about the campaign “The Power Is in Our Hands", at the Natura official website.

Read also

What is the Amazônia de Pé project?

Last week you may have heard about the “Amazônia de Pé” project, a movement of thousands of Brazilians to keep the forest alive and protect the future of us all. Want to know more about the project? O Curto explain it to you.

🍃 Research assesses awareness related to environmental issues

The Asahi Glass Foundation, chaired by Takuya Shimamura, carried out an online survey with the aim of assessing people's awareness and action in relation to environmental issuessystem. (BusinessWire)

The survey interviewed 13.332 people in Japan and 24 other countries. Of the total, 6.585 participants were between 18 and 24 years old and 6.747 were between 25 and 69 years old.

Among the main findings, it is worth highlighting that:

• Overall, people ranked “Climate Change” as the most pressing environmental issue in the country or region where they reside and expressed concern about abnormal weather conditions.
• participants rated the Japan, the USA and Australia as the top three countries that are making progress in terms of public awareness and action regarding environmental issues.
• os Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that participants cited as having the highest level of achievement by 2030 are: “Eradication of Poverty” (1st), “Health and Wellbeing” (2nd) and “Zero Hunger and Sustainable Agriculture” (3rd).
• The SDGs that participants think will have the lowest level of achievement are: “Eradication of Poverty” (1st), “Zero Hunger and Sustainable Agriculture” (2nd) and “Quality Education” (3rd). Opinions have been divided on whether poverty can be eradicated, even among people from the same country, with developed nations giving more pessimistic responses.
• around 30% of participants had not heard of the SDGs. Young people aged 18 to 24 had a slightly higher awareness than those aged 25 to 69.

Read also

How does deforestation in the Amazon contribute to climate change?

The role played by the planet's forests in absorbing carbon has been a key factor in preventing faster rates of climate change. In this sense, the Amazon – the largest tropical forest in the world – has a fundamental role to play. O Curto explains why protecting the Amazon from rampant deforestation is a matter of survival.

O Curto Verde is a daily summary of what you need to know about the environment, sustainability and other topics linked to our survival and that of the planet.

(With AFP)

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(*): content in other languages ​​is translated by Google Tradutor