climate change

The Louisiana coastland home to the U.S.’s first climate refugees

The Louisiana coastland home to the U.S.’s first climate refugees

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Pointe aux Chene native Mel Guidry still lives steps away from where he played as a kid, but nowadays, one can only swim there. Like much of this area of coastal Louisiana, where man’s degradation of natural protections has exacerbated the effects of erosion and storms, the yard was swallowed by water. In Isle de Jean Charles, a smaller community to the south, more than 90 percent of the original land mass is gone, prompting the first relocation due to climate change paid for by U.S. tax dollars.

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Cloning California’s giant trees to reverse climate change

Cloning California’s giant trees to reverse climate change

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Volunteers with the nonprofit group Archangel Ancient Tree Archive collect genetic samples from ancient trees and clone them in a lab to be planted in the forest. The group believes the giant sequoias and coastal redwoods are blessed with some of the heartiest genetics of any trees on earth and that propagating them will help reverse climate change.

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Scenes from the COP21 Paris climate talks

Scenes from the COP21 Paris climate talks

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As Paris climate talks at COP21 near their midpoint, there’s no lack of spectacle. From a campaign of fake ads to a Jurassic Park spoof, groups with all sorts of stakes in the issues of emissions, warming and climate have found unique ways to speak out.

The activists’ messages have been expressed even as the city has remained heavily locked down following November’s mass shootings. While there are signs that the city is attempting to return to normal — with at least one shooting site reopened for business as of Friday, according to multiple media sources — a heavily armored police presence continues in the city as the conference approaches week two.

That lockdown, combined with existing tensions and an outright ban on demonstrations in many areas had led to the mass-arrest of hundreds earlier this week. Nonetheless, many protest groups either ignored the ban or found creative ways around it during week one of the conference, with activists using remote-site protests, absurdist techniques or artwork to get their points across.

Leaders and climate negotiators from 196 countries meeting at the U.N. talks Nov. 30-Dec. 11 will try to hash out the broadest, most lasting deal to date to slow global warming.

Here are several of the most striking images from the conference so far.

–Sun staff and wire reports

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President Obama’s trip to Alaska

President Obama’s trip to Alaska

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President Barack Obama stared down a melting glacier in Alaska on Tuesday in a dramatic use of his presidential pulpit to sound the alarm on climate change.

From a distance, Exit Glacier appears as a river of white and blue flowing down through the mountains toward lower terrain. In fact, it’s just the opposite. The 2-mile-long chock of solid ice has been retreating at a faster and faster pace in recent years — more than 800 feet since 2008, satellite tracking shows.

“This is as good of a signpost of what we’re dealing with when it comes to climate change as just about anything,” Obama said with the iconic glacier at his back.

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