Environment

Der allgemeinen Auffassung nach war 2016 ein furchtbares Jahr. Viele Länder sind von entsetzlichen Terroranschlägen erschüttert worden. Die Syrien-Krise hat Zehntausende von Menschenleben gefordert. Die Türkei hat Selbstmordattentate und einen gescheiterten Putsch überstanden. In über 70 Ländern ist die Freiheit eingeschränkt worden. Zu den politischen Schocks zählten der Brexit und Donald Trumps Sieg bei den Präsidentschaftswahlen in den Vereinigten Staaten – beide wurden weder von den Medien, noch von der politischen Elite vorhergesehen.

Podle všeobecného názoru byl rok 2016 příšerný. Řadu zemí zasáhly strašlivé teroristické útoky. Krize v Sýrii si vyžádala desetitisíce životů. Turecko zažilo sebevražedné útoky a nezdařený pokus o převrat. Ve více než sedmdesáti zemích došlo k omezení svobody. Mezi politické šoky se zařadily brexit i vítězství Donalda Trumpa v prezidentských volbách ve Spojených státech – média ani politická elita tyto události nepředvídala. Zika byla označena za ohrožení veřejného zdraví mezinárodního významu. A rok 2016 byl pravděpodobně nejteplejším rokem v dějinách měření.

According to popular wisdom, 2016 was a terrible year. Horrific terror attacks struck many countries. The Syrian crisis claimed tens of thousands of lives. Turkey withstood suicide bombings and a failed coup. More than 70 countries experienced a decline in freedom. Political shocks included Brexit and Donald Trump’s victory in the United States’ presidential election – both unforeseen by the media or political elite. Zika was declared an international public-health emergency. The year is likely to be the warmest ever measured.

Giant pandas are among the world’s favourite creatures, becoming viral video sensations simply for sneezing or rolling around cutely. In a year with seemingly little cheer at times, there was good news for all who love the bears. That came when the International Union for Conservation of Nature ­removed them from the endangered species list – reducing their threat status to “vulnerable”.

Los pandas gigantes son uno de los animales favoritos de todo el mundo, es frecuente que se conviertan en protagonistas de vídeos virales que causan sensación simplemente por el hecho de estornudar o rodar de forma totalmente adorable. En un año que parece haber tenido pocas alegrías hubo una buena noticia para todos los amantes de estos osos, cuando la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza les quitó de la lista de especies en peligro de extinción, rebajando su estado de amenaza al grado de “vulnerable”.

Thanks to the election of Donald Trump as the next United States president, diplomats and governments around the world are wondering what to expect from the next four years. When it comes to climate change, many environmental campaigners are alarmed, which is understandable because Trump has sent mixed signals and the world does not know anything about the incoming US administration's plans in other areas.

But there could be cause for hope, and even a potential opportunity for China.

Climate change means more extreme weather: This is a simple, powerful claim that has been pounded into our consciousness for a decade.

From Greenpeace to President Obama to Scientific American, scarcely a weather event happens without someone pointing the finger at global warming and calling for action.

But there are big problems with this simple statement, which are exposed starkly in recent peer-reviewed analysis in the journal Weather, Climate and Society by University of Manchester scientists Vladimir Jankovic and David M. Schultz.

The next administration must recognize not only that climate change is a real problem but also that we are not on course to solve it. The next president needs the courage to discard our current feel-good but ineffective solutions. Ending our reliance on the fossil fuels that have powered two centuries of economic growth will require an energy revolution.