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By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello,

An earthquake in Morocco and floods in Libya have claimed thousands of lives and destroyed homes in the North African nations.

In Morocco the death toll rose to more than 2,800 people and villagers camped outside after the country’s biggest earthquake in over a century struck late on Friday Sept. 8.

State TV reported late on Monday that the death toll had risen to 2,862, with 2,562 people injured. With much of the quake zone in hard-to-reach areas, authorities have not issued any estimates for the number of missing.

Workers stand in the rubble in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Talat N’Yaaqoub in Morocco September 12, 2023. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Search teams from Spain, Britain and Qatar joined Moroccan efforts to find survivors from the 6.8 magnitude quake that struck in the High Atlas Mountains, flattening the traditional mud brick houses ubiquitous in the region.

“It’s difficult to pull people out alive because most of the walls and ceilings turned to earthen rubble when they fell, burying whoever was inside without leaving air spaces,” a military rescue worker said at an army center south of the historic city of Marrakech not far from the quake epicenter.

In the village of Tinmel, almost every house was pulverized and the entire community has been left homeless. The stench of death from dozens of animals buried under the rubble wafted through parts of the village.

The epicenter of the quake was about 72 km (45 miles) southwest of Marrakech, where some historical buildings in the old city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were damaged. The quake also did major damage to the historically significant 12th-century Tinmel Mosque.

Click here for more on some of the offers of aid and support from foreign governments following the deadly earthquake.

In Libya, authorities in the eastern region said at least 2,000 people were killed and thousands more were missing after a massive flood ripped through the city of Derna following a heavy storm and rain.

Ahmed Mismari, the spokesperson for the Libyan National Army (LNA) that controls eastern Libya, said in a televised news conference that the disaster came after dams above Derna had collapsed, “sweeping whole neighborhoods with their residents into the sea”.

Tamer Ramadan, head of a delegation of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), told reporters in Geneva via video link from Tunisia: “We can confirm from our independent sources of information that the number of missing people is hitting 10,000 so far.”

“I returned from Derna. It is disastrous. Bodies are lying everywhere – in the sea, in the valleys, under the buildings,” Hichem Chkiouat, minister of civil aviation and a member of the emergency committee, told Reuters by phone.

Libya is politically divided between east and west and public services have crumbled since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising that prompted years of conflict.

The internationally recognised government in Tripoli does not control eastern areas but has dispatched aid to Derna, with at least one relief flight leaving from the western city of Misrata on Tuesday, a Reuters journalist on the plane said.

After pummelling Greece last week, Storm Daniel swept in over the Mediterranean on Sunday, swamping roads and destroying buildings in Derna, and hitting other settlements along the coast, including Libya’s second biggest city of Benghazi.

Aerial view of flood water covering the area as a powerful storm and heavy rainfall hit Shahhat city, Libya, September 11, 2023. REUTERS/Ali Al-Saadi. 

Dr Niels Andela, head of remote sensing at BeZero Carbon, a global carbon ratings agency, shares his thoughts on the potential of satellite imagery for monitoring and assessing weather extremes from climate change and El Niño:

“El Niño is a natural climate phenomenon that occurs once every two to seven years, resulting in above-average sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific along with the redistribution of global rainfall.

“It is caused by the temporal weakening of the ‘Walker circulation’ – the circular air flow model seen in the lower atmosphere in the tropical Pacific, caused by differences in heat distribution between the east and west. 

“Although the precise impact of El Niño varies by region, the changing rainfall patterns affect natural ecosystems around the world.

“Satellite observations can help monitor its development, informing early warning systems through real-time measurements of sea surface temperatures. 

“Earth observation tools are essential in mapping extreme weather events: optical imagery, captured by remote sensors, provides context on tree mortality and wildfire intensity, while radar technologies provide insights on rainfall rates and biomass changes.  

“What is really crucial when studying El Niño is long-term data. When pieced together, historic records of satellite data allow us to better understand how El Niño will impact regional climates, affect forest and ecosystem health, and the carbon cycle – ultimately helping to predict and mitigate its effects, and measure the performance of carbon projects around the world.”

Breakingviews: Just stop oil production – and, for that matter, gas and coal supply. Then there will be hardly any greenhouse gas emissions. Mission accomplished. It’s a seductive theory. 

With global emissions still rising and the northern hemisphere suffering the hottest summer on record, many climate change activists want companies to stop pumping crude. They also want investors to stop funding the fossil fuel industry – and to put an end to coal, gas and oil-fired power generation.

A scene of the rehearsal of the premier of “Cassandra” is seen on this handout photo taken September 6 in Brussels, Belgium. La Monnaie – Karl Forster/Handout via REUTERS

Today’s spotlight highlights two examples of climate activism in Europe as Belgium’s national opera house showcases an opera about a climate change scientist’s warnings being ignored, whilst an Indigenous Sami activist protests against wind turbines built on land traditionally used by reindeer herders.

Belgium’s national opera house has premiered “Cassandra”, an original score recasting the mythical figure of a doomed prophetess as a climate change scientist whose warnings about global warming go unheeded.

Her modern incarnation is Sandra, a scientist specializing in analyzing data from icebergs and terrified by the violent future she reads from the record pace of melting ice. Unable to get her message across, Sandra takes to stand-up comedy to try to elicit a change in behavior.

Indigenous Sami activists set up a lavvo, a Sami tent, outside parliament, in Oslo, Norway September 11, 2023. REUTERS/Gwladys Fouche

Over in Norway, an Indigenous Sami activist set up camp outside the Norwegian parliament on Monday to protest against wind turbines built on land traditionally used by Sami reindeer herders, saying he will stay there as long as the turbines remain in place.

Norway’s supreme court in October 2021 ruled that two wind farms built at Fosen in central Norway, part of Europe’s largest onshore wind farm, violated Sami rights under international conventions. But the turbines remain in operation today.

“The unprecedented climate-related events witnessed the world over in recent weeks demonstrate that climate change, biodiversity loss, and economic disparities are interconnected issues demanding immediate attention.”

Margarita Pirovska, director of policy at the U.N.-supported international organization, Principles for Responsible Investment

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