Twilight News Edition 96
Edition 96, 11th November 2021
COP26 Ends Today
By Ishana Katriar
The climate summit COP26 has taken the world by storm since the past few weeks. With 12 eventful days that culminated in the last day of the summit today, here are some exciting things about the summit:
Contracts In Place:
A lot of pledges and agreements were made in the summit.Most countries that are a part of the UN have agreed to the following: reduce methane emissions (30% by 2030), reduce coal usage and deforestation. All countries have tried to lower the rate of consumption of fossil fuels. These might appear as small solutions, but they are all agreed on and are slowly in the process of becoming standardised.
The Global Methane Pledge is now an official international initiative made to lower emissions of gases that cause climate change. More such initiatives, for deforestation and fossil fuels, have also been made.
A Better Future
If countries stick to the pledges they have made, increase in global warming could be contained to 1.8 Celsius by 2100.
While COP26 has been a huge success for many, there has been an ongoing debate on its effectiveness.
“I came to COP, as I think many of us did, with very low expectations. And I think so far, they have been surpassed” stated Johan Rockstrom, one of the world's leading earth scientists. Many such diplomats, delegates, and scientists agree with him that there have been advances. Some others are way more skeptical!
Greta Thunberg, the teenage climate activist, has made her feelings on the summit clear. After leading a huge protest, she said “It is not a secret that COP26 is a failure. It should be obvious that we cannot solve the crisis with the same methods that got us into it in the same place”. Greta Thunberg has also said how COP26 is a “PR stunt”, using the event for publicity.
Needless to say, while we are reaching the end of the summit, there have been pledges made, predictions made, and many mixed feelings brought into the light.
SpaceX Launches The Crew-3 Mission For NASA
By Kaeya Merchant
On Wednesday evening SpaceX launched four astronauts to the international space station from Florida. This particular mission is known as the Crew-3 and its main goal is to bring the quartet to the ISS for a stay lasting six months on the research laboratory in orbit. This is SpaceX's third crew launch for NASA.
“It was a great ride - better than we imagined.” Crew Dragon commander and NASA astronaut Raja Chari said to mission control. This mission carries three Americans and one German on its deck: European space agency astronaut Matthias Maurer and three NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn. For the NASA astronauts Barron, Chari and Maurer, it’s an exciting experience as it is their first ever spaceflight.
SpaceX developed the Crew Dragon spacecraft nicknamed Endurance making it a new capsule. Previous capsules used were Resilience and Endeavour. SpaceX is expected to add another, a fourth Crew Dragon in the coming year. SpaceX also fine-tuned the Falcon 9 rocket under NASA’s Commercial Crew program. This provided the company with $3.1 billion to develop and launch six new missions.