The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has declared this Sunday a disaster situation in the whole country due to the heavy rains of the last days that have caused floods, overflows and landslides affecting 27 of the 32 Colombian departments and about 46,000 families. “Due to what is happening in these days, a disaster situation is declared throughout the country due to climate variability, which generates unpredictable and unusual impacts, increasing vulnerability in the territories”, said the president in a press conference after an emergency committee -Puesto de Mando Unificado (PMU) - (Unified Command Post).

The impact of microplastics on cloud formation and disruption of cloud formation mechanisms and climate has been revealed by a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, published Nov. 9 in the journal Acs ES&T Air. “Over the past two decades of research on microplastics, scientists have found that it's everywhere, so this is another piece of that puzzle,” explained Miriam Friedman, professor of chemistry at Penn State and senior author of the study. “Now it's clear. that we need to better understand how they interact with our climate system because we've been able to demonstrate that the process of cloud formation can be altered using microplastics.” According to the authors of the new study, microplastics act as ice nucleating particles, microscopic aerosols that promote the formation of ice crystals in clouds.

Due to investments in polluting activities, the use of private jets and superyachts, billionaires on average emit more CO₂ in just 90 minutes than the average inhabitant of the planet produces in a lifetime. This is according to a November 9 report by the non-governmental organization Oxfam, published on the eve of the COP29 climate summit in Baku. “Representatives of the richest socio-economic groups bear a major responsibility for the worsening climate crisis generated by their lifestyles, consumption and investments,” emphasizes Francesco Petrelli, Oxfam's representative in Italy.