Kenya Insights

Tag: Climate change

  • Trump Tells UN That Climate Change is ‘Greatest Con Job’ Globally

    Trump Tells UN That Climate Change is ‘Greatest Con Job’ Globally

    Sept 23 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump dismissed climate change as “the greatest con job” in the world during his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, doubling down on his skepticism of global environmental initiatives and multilateral institutions.

    Scientists say climate change is real, mostly caused by humans, and getting worse. They point to rising temperatures, stronger storms, and melting ice as clear signs.

    Groups like the UN have warned that waiting too long to act could cause serious damage to the planet and people.

    Trump spoke for several minutes out of his near-hour speech on climate change during his address to the United Nations General Assembly, criticizing the European Union for reducing its carbon footprint, which he claimed has taken a toll on its economy, and warning countries that have invested heavily in renewable energy that their economies will suffer.

    “It’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion,” Trump told the General Assembly. “All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong.”

    He added: “They were made by stupid people that have cost their country’s fortunes and given those same countries no chance for success.”

    SECOND US WITHDRAWAL FROM CLIMATE PACT

    Once Trump took office in January, the U.S. submitted its withdrawal for a second time from the Paris Agreement, a 2015 pact agreed by 195 countries to strive to keep global temperatures from rising beyond 1.5 C, leaving it in the company of only Yemen, Iran and Libya.

    His administration is carrying out an “energy dominance” agenda that focuses on producing and exporting oil, gas and coal, as well as nuclear, while sidelining renewable energy, which has become cost-competitive.

    “We have the most oil of any nation anywhere, oil and gas in the world, and if you add coal, we have the most of any nation in the world,” he said.

    His remarks come a day before UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hosts a climate summit at the UN that will focus on countries’ new climate action plans.

    Guterres has tried to keep the world focused on continuing a global transition away from fossil fuels towards clean energy.

    “Just follow the money,” Guterres said in June, adding that $2 trillion flowed into clean energy last year, $800 billion more than fossil fuels and up almost 70% in a decade.

  • Why Clocks Could Lose A Second In The Future, Study

    Why Clocks Could Lose A Second In The Future, Study

    A recent study suggests that clocks may skip a second in the near future because the Earth is undergoing changes in its rotation due to factors such as climate change and geological shifts.

    According to the study published in the Nature journal, there might be a necessity for clocks to skip a second, referred to as a “negative leap second,” around the year 2029.

    The study warns that such changes in Earth’s rotation may necessitate adjustments in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), a standard used to set all time zones around the world, earlier than originally planned.

    The implications of this adjustment extend beyond timekeeping, as it could pose an “unprecedented problem for computer network timing.”

    The Earth’s rotation, typically 24 hours, is now fluctuating, prompting adjustments in leap seconds to align atomic and astronomical time.

    Between 1972 and 2016, 27 leap seconds were added to compensate for the Earth’s slowing rotation. But the rate of slowing was tapering off to the point that the Earth’s rotation was actually speeding up.

    However, recent observations suggest that this is being offset due to the rapid melting of ice at the poles since 1990. Melting ice shifts Earth’s mass from the poles to the bulging center, which slows the rotation

    In response, timekeepers are planning revisions to leap second standards in the 2030s to minimize frequent adjustments and maintain synchronization across various timekeeping systems.

    Geological and climatic factors including oceanic tides and melting polar ice affect Earth’s rotation, delaying the need for leap second adjustments.

    The accelerated melting of polar ice, a consequence of human-induced climate change, is redistributing Earth’s mass and slowing its rotation.

    “If polar ice melting had not recently accelerated, this problem would occur 3  years earlier,” the study noted.

    This phenomenon is “already affecting global timekeeping,” indicating the tangible impact of climate change on Earth’s rotational dynamics.

    Despite a natural rotation increase, melting ice has delayed the need for a leap-second adjustment from 2026 to around 2029.

    This delay in the need for leap second adjustments underscores the complex relationship between environmental changes and Earth’s timekeeping systems.

    Timekeepers aim to phase out leap second adjustments by 2035 to adapt to Earth’s changing dynamics and maintain precision in timekeeping amid natural and human-induced changes.