This is a article of notable issues relating to the

environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. They relate to

environmental law Environmental law is a collective term encompassing aspects of the law that provide protection to the environment. A related but distinct set of regulatory regimes, now strongly influenced by environmental legal principles, focus on the managem ...

, conservation,

environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment (biophysical), environment, par ...

and

environmental issue Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on t ...

Christian Aid Christian Aid is the relief and development agency of 41 Christian (Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox) churches in the UK and Ireland, and works to support sustainable development, eradicate poverty, support civil society and provide disaster ...

report December 2019 evaluated the costs of floods, fires and storms in 2019. Climate crisis was linked to at least 15 over 1 billion cost destructions in 2019.Climate crisis linked to at least 15 $1bn-plus disasters in 2019
Guardian 27 Dec 2019

Statistics 2019

* Year 2019 was Australia’s hottest and driest year on record ( National Bureau of Meteorology) * Europe was 3.2°C warmer in December 2019 than the standard reference period for December for 1981-2010 (The European Union's climate change monitoring agency, Copernicus) * 2019 was second hottest year on record for the planet’s surface. The five years 2015-2019 and the decade 2010-2019 were the hottest in 150 years. High temperature increase severe storms, floods, droughts and wildfires. * The heat in the world’s oceans reached a new record level in 2019. Oceans are clearest measure of climate crisis as they absorb 90% of heat trapped by greenhouse gases.

Environmental issues

Plastic pollution

2019 was the year the worldwide revolt against

Plastic pollution Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are cate ...

. Production and disposal of plastic used already nearly 14% of all the world’s oil and gas. According to the

International Energy Agency The International Energy Agency (IEA) is a Paris-based autonomous Intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental organisation, established in 1974, that provides policy recommendations, analysis and data on the entire global energy sector, wit ...

plastics annual

carbon budget A carbon budget is "the maximum amount of cumulative net global anthropogenic carbon dioxide () emissions that would result in limiting global warming to a given level with a given probability, taking into account the effect of other anthropogen ...

may become equivalent of the world’s fifth largest climate heating country, emitting more than Germany or the UK. 359 m tonnes plastics were produced in 2018. Ca 8m tons plastic waste run to the sea via rivers. Since 2010 the petrochemical industry has invested about $200bn, and $100bn more is planned to be spent, plastic production is expected to grow 40% by 2030.

Sixth mass extinction

Sixth mass extinction The Holocene extinction, or Anthropocene extinction, is the ongoing extinction event during the Holocene epoch. The extinctions span numerous families of bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, f ...

: According to the first global scientific review of insects in February 2019 found that more than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5% a year. In May 2019 was published

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic ('' genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem ('' ecosystem diversity' ...

report, that pointed out the biodiversity to decline in threatening speed. It will be crisis to life of plants, animals and humans.

IPBES The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an intergovernmental organization established to improve the interface between science and policy on issues of biodiversity and ecosystem services. It ...

reported that 25% of plant and animal species are threatened with extinction as the result of human activity.

Microplastics

In January 2019, the

European Chemicals Agency The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA; ) is an agency of the European Union which manages the technical and administrative aspects of the implementation of the European Union regulation called Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restrict ...

(ECHA) proposed to restrict intentionally added

microplastics Microplastics are fragments of any type of plastic less than in length, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the European Chemicals Agency. They cause pollution by entering natural ecosystems from a v ...

Events and news

;March Extreme weather includes Storm Eberhard across the Netherlands, Belgium and central Germany in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

in March 2019.

Cyclone Idai Intense Tropical Cyclone Idai () was one of the worst tropical cyclones on record to affect Africa and the Southern Hemisphere. The long-lived storm caused catastrophic damage, and a humanitarian crisis in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, lea ...

killed 1,300 people in

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Mala ...

and

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northe ...

in March, 2019. It ranks as the second-deadliest tropical cyclone on record. The only system with a higher death toll is the 1973 Flores cyclone that killed 1,650 off the coast of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. ;May

Cyclone Fani Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Fani () was the worst tropical cyclone to strike the Indian state of Odisha since the 1999 Odisha cyclone. The second named storm and the first severe cyclonic storm of the 2019 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, ...

struck

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million pe ...

in May and June. A stronger than usual monsoon killed 1,900 people in India. In May 2019 according to

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a Red brick university, red brick Russell Group research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Society of Merchant Venturers, Merchant Venturers' sc ...

UK emissions of

CFC-11 Trichlorofluoromethane, also called freon-11, CFC-11, or R-11, is a chlorofluorocarbon (CFC). It is a colorless, faintly ethereal, and sweetish-smelling liquid that boils around room temperature. CFC-11 is a Class 1 ozone-depleting substance ...

from north eastern China particularly in or around the provinces of Shandong and

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and ...

had increased by around 7,000 tons per year after 2013. A global ban on the use of CFCs has been in place since 2010 to prevent Ozone depletion. ;August Typhoon Lekima (2019) was the second costliest typhoon in Chinese history. ;September The typhoons Typhoon Faxai (2019) and

Typhoon Hagibis (2019) Typhoon Hagibis, known in Japan as Typhoon No.19 or , was a large and costly tropical cyclone that caused widespread destruction in Japan. The thirty-eighth depression, ninth typhoon, and third super typhoon of the 2019 Pacific typhoon season, ...

in Japan in September and October 2019.

Hurricane Dorian Hurricane Dorian was an extremely powerful and catastrophic Category 5 Atlantic hurricane, which became the most intense tropical cyclone on record to strike the Bahamas, and tied for strongest landfall in the Atlantic basin. It is also rega ...

in the US east coast, killing 673 people. Hurricane Dorian was the most intense tropical cyclone on record to strike the Bahamas, and is regarded as the worst natural disaster in the country's history. ;November

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

Italy had the highest water levels for more than 50 years caused hundreds of millions of euros of possibly irreparable damage in Venice. ;December The

2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP25, was the 25th United Nations Climate Change conference. It was held in Madrid, Spain, from 2 to 13 December 2019 under the presidency of the Chilean government. The conferenc ...

was held in Madrid, Spain, from 2 to 13 December 2019.

2019 California wildfires The 2019 California wildfire season was a series of wildfires that burned across the U.S. state of California as part of the 2019 wildfire season. By the end of the year, according to Cal Fire and the US Forest Service, 7,860 fires were rec ...

had over $25bn cost in damage. The Australian wildfires in December 2019 were intense. Record low rainfall contributed to a continent-scale emergency that burned more than 5 million hectares and alarmed scientists, doctors and firefighters. On 19 December 2019 average temperature maximum in Australia hit the record 41.9C. According to

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

Fires in New South Wales and Queensland emitted from August to December 306 million tons of carbon dioxide, which is more than half of Australia’s total greenhouse gas footprint in 2018.Bushfires Release Over Half Australia’s Annual Carbon Emissions
Time 24 December 2019

References

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