Children born in 2020 will face 'unprecedented lifetime exposure' to climate extremes, and other nature and climate news

Heatwaves, droughts and wildfires.

More than half of the children born in 2020 and beyond will face 'unprecedented lifetime exposure' to these climate extremes.

That's according to a study published in Nature, which says this will be the case even if warming is limited to 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures, as the Paris Agreement outlines.

The authors explain 'unprecedented lifetime exposure' as exposure so high that it has only a one-in-10,000 chance of happening in a pre-industrial climate.

The research used a case study focused on Brussels to show that people born in 2020 will experience 11 heatwaves in their lifetime, even if the world does manage to meet the 1.5C warming target.

To illustrate the impact of human-induced climate change, the authors state that a person living in Brussels in a pre-industrial climate would experience three heatwaves in their lifetime.

The chance of facing unprecedented lifetime exposure to heatwaves is substantially larger among population groups characterized by high socioeconomic vulnerabilities, the study found.

A first-of-its-kind legislation is one signature away from coming into law in Hawaii.

The island state has passed a 'green fee' bill, which will increase the state's lodging tax to provide additional funds for environmental protection and defence against natural disasters and climate extremes, The Guardian reports.

This bill adds a 0.75% tax to the state's existing tax on accommodations, such as hotel rooms, timeshares and vacation rentals.

A larger 11% tax will be applied to cruise ship bills, which are prorated depending on the number of days the vessels linger in Hawaii ports.

All that remains is for Hawaii's governor, Josh Green, to sign off on the legislation, and he has until 9 July to do so.

The European Union's planned changes to sustainability reporting rules could 'expose European companies to more climate change-related lawsuits', legal scholars have stated in a letter published online, Reuters reports.

Dying satellites could negatively impact ozone recovery and release pollution into Earth's atmosphere, a study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres has found. Most old satellites are disposed of by reducing their altitude and letting them burn up as they fall, releasing pollution.

The four-day storm that caused flooding across the central Mississippi Valley in April was made about 9% more intense and 40% more likely as a result of human-induced climate change, a study from the World Weather Attribution has found.

Climate-driven wildfires have contributed to around 15,000 particulate matter deaths in the US over the past 15 years and cost the nation billions of dollars in economic damage, according to a study published in Nature. This economic burden was highest in California, Oregon and Washington, the research reveals.

Starlings form mutually beneficial 'friendships' to help each other with breeding and childcare, a study published in Nature has found. The research involved 410 nests in Kenya, recorded over a 20-year period. “Two birds probably can’t feed their offspring on their own, so they need helpers to help them,” Professor Dustin Rubenstein, a co-author of the study, told The Guardian.

The Frontiers Planet Prize is an initiative that 'calls for a race to rescue the Earth'. “History shows that once consensus is achieved, such as with ozone depletion or lead in gasoline, governments, industries and societies act decisively," said Henry Markram, president of the Frontiers Research Foundation: "The Frontiers Planet Prize collapses the timeline for achieving consensus, catalyzing global solutions to address planetary challenges in record time.” Find out more about this prize and the first three years of winners.

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