85% of Venice underwater after worst flooding in 50 years

Venice's mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, said the city was "on its knees."

Image source: Barcroft Media / Getty
  • About 85 percent of Venice was underwater on Tuesday, with water levels reaching more than 6 feet deep at some points.
  • Venice's mayor said the unusually strong flooding was caused by climate change, estimating the damage to be in the hundreds of millions of Euros.
  • Venice's MOSE engineering project aims to protect Venice from rising seas, but some say it won't help the city stay above water.
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Behold Sicily's Mount Etna — its volcanic summit is the world's only decipoint

The summit of Europe's most active volcano is also the world's only decipoint.

Image courtesy of Patrick McGranaghan
  • For millennia, Etna has been Europe's most active volcano.
  • The Sicilian mountain is also the world's only decipoint.
  • Ten municipalities meet at its summit — at least on a map.
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Investing $1.8 trillion in climate adaptation could yield $7.1 trillion

A new report argues that we stand to gain a lot economically by investing in 5 key areas.

Photo by Luca Bravo on Unsplash
  • The Global Commission on Adaptation, an organization led by Ban Ki-Moon, Bill Gates, and Kristalina Georgieva, breaks down the costs and benefits of investing in five key areas for climate adaptation.
  • Whereas climate mitigation focuses on reducing future greenhouse gas emissions, climate adaptation focuses on how to deal with the changing world that climate change will bring.
  • Both mitigation and adaptation projects are commonly criticized as being too expensive, but the new report underscores the quantitative benefits that could be realized.
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Why we mustn’t forget the effects of climate change on mental health

Suicide rates in Puerto Rico have risen by a third since Hurricane Maria.

Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

When Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico, it didn't just flatten houses and flood hospitals – it plunged the island into a darkness that many islanders have yet to emerge from, both literally and metaphorically.

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July 2019 was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth

2019 could prove to be the second-hottest year on record.

Will Newton/Getty Images
  • A new report from the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Programme describes how 2019 has already logged several record-hot months.
  • Alarmingly, these temperature increases are occurring even though the planet is transitioning into a more neutral El Niño phase.
  • This year brought several severe heat waves to Europe, India, and Pakistan, among other areas.
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