Parents of Idaho college murder victims speak out on 2-year mark of gruesome crime

(NEW YORK) — The carbon footprint from the travel industry is growing at rates never seen before, according to new research.

An increasing demand for international travel over the past decade has led to higher rates of carbon dioxide emissions every year, according to a paper published in Nature Communications on Tuesday.

Greenhouse gas emissions from international tourism are growing at a rate of 3.5% every year — about twice as fast as the overall economy, Ya-Yen Sun, an associate professor at The University of Queensland in Australia and an author of the study, told ABC News.

In the top 20 countries associated with the highest tourism emissions, tourism may be growing “too fast” — up to 5% every year — which is causing those regions to expend more energy to provide services to more visitors, Sun said.

There are also disparities in per-capita tourism emissions, with the 20 highest-emitting countries — including the United States, China and India — contributing three-quarters of the total carbon footprint, the paper found. 

Modes of transportation, including air and ground travel, are particular contributors to emissions given their carbon-intensive nature, according to the paper. Slow gains in the efficiency of technology have also contributed to the rise in emission rates from global tourism, the researchers said.

While travel halted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism came roaring back with a vengeance once the global health threat subsided, which has flooded the travel sector with even more rapid growth, Sun said.

Travel dropped by 60% during the pandemic, but tourism is expected to have fully recovered by the end of 2024, she added.

“We found this is something [that really needs] a lot of attention, because people just enjoy travel,” Sun said.

Carbon dioxide emissions from private planes have increased significantly in recent years, a separate paper published last month in the journal Communications Earth & Environment found.

Annual CO2 emissions from private aviation increased by 46% between 2019 and 2023, according to an analysis of flight tracker data from 18,655,789 private flights flown by 25,993 registered business jet-type private aircraft. Some individuals who regularly use private aviation may produce almost 500 times more CO2 in a year than the average individual, the paper found.

There were significant emissions peaks around certain international events, the study found. COP28 — the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Dubai — was associated with 644 private flights, which produced 4,800 metric tons of carbon dioxide, and the 2022 FIFA World Cup, also hosted in the United Arab Emirates, was associated with 1,846 private flights, producing an estimated 14,700 metric tons of CO2, the study found.

However, private aviation only accounts for about 7.9% of total aviation emissions, the paper found.

A previous study that Sun conducted in 2018 found that tourism contributes to about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. That number is likely much higher today, Sun said.

“The sector has not made much progress in terms of decarbonizing itself,” she said.

Sun described the findings of the new paper out Tuesday as “quite problematic” because it showcases that emissions from tourism are growing every year,

The paper highlighted the urgent need for effective policy measures to align the tourism sector with global climate goals, the researchers said.

In order to do this, countries will need to begin to monitor tourism emissions at the national level, something that only New Zealand and Denmark are currently doing, Sun said.

It is especially important considering tourism is one of the biggest economic sectors in the world, as people require transportation, food, accommodation and shopping when they travel, Sun said. The global tourism industry was worth an estimated $10 trillion in 2023, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council.

“We found this is something really in need of a lot of attention, because people just enjoy travel,” Sun said.

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(NEW YORK) — New video obtained by ABC News shows UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killer waiting for him moments before shooting him outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel.

The video shows others pass by, and then, when the masked gunman sees Thompson, he runs across the street and opens fire.

The video, which has not previously been seen publicly, appears to support the police narrative that the shooter targeted Thompson in the Wednesday morning attack because he loitered while others wandered by.

Police haven’t established a motive but said they haven’t uncovered evidence that would show the killing had anything to do with Thompson’s private life.

The unidentified suspect appeared to have planned his movements with precision, but law enforcement is “on the right track,” Mayor Eric Adams told New York ABC station WABC on Sunday.

“As I say, the net is closing and closing,” Adams said. “This was an extremely challenging investigation. A fully masked person. The amount of detective work it took to put the pieces together — we feel we’re getting closer and closer.”

NYPD detectives arrived this weekend in Georgia. Investigators have said the suspect took a bus to New York, arriving on Nov. 24 from Atlanta, although it was unclear if his travels began in that city. And the FBI is assisting the nationwide manhunt, according to law enforcement sources.

Back in New York on Sunday, members of the New York Police Department’s dive team were again searching underwater in the Central Park. They were seen in the water near the Bethesda Fountain.

The masked gunman shot Thompson at point-blank range at 6:44 a.m. on Dec. 4 outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Thompson’s company was holding an investors conference. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the attack as “brazen” and “targeted.”

Adams on Sunday declined to comment on specific evidence, saying only that “every piece is important.” And he spoke generally about the ongoing underwater search.

“Everywhere is important. Everyplace is important,” Adams said, adding a moment later, “It’s dark down there, you know.”

The suspect’s backpack — with Monopoly money inside — was found nearby in Central Park. Police have not yet recovered the distinctive gun used in the shooting.

On Wednesday morning, right after the shooting, the suspect fled by bike through Central Park to the Upper West Side. He then took a taxi to the Port Authority bus facility at 178th Street and boarded a bus out of New York City, according to police.

NYPD officials released new images this weekend of the suspect in the back of a taxi, where he could be seen peering through the open slider in the partition between the seats. Another photo appeared to show the man walking by the window of a cab.

“I don’t want to do anything that’s going to tip him off that we’re on his trail, but we feel really good where we are,” Adams said on Sunday. “Finding the knapsack, getting the cab photos, looking at some of the evidence that we have available to us, we feel really good where we are.”

ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson, Jon Haworth, Ivan Pereira and David Brennan contributed to this report.

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(BOULDER, CO) — On the day after Christmas in 1996, John and Patsy Ramsey woke up to discover their 6-year-old daughter, JonBenét, a child beauty queen, was missing from the family’s Boulder, Colorado, home.

A handwritten ransom note demanding $118,000 — John’s exact bonus that year — was found on the stairs by the kitchen. Seven hours later, John discovered his daughter’s lifeless body in a small room in the basement.

For decades, the case has captivated the nation.

Now, 28 years later, John Ramsey remains hopeful that his daughter’s killer will be caught. He believes new DNA technology could aid police in re-investigating JonBenét’s murder, a case that drew global attention.

JonBenet’s autopsy determined she had been sexually assaulted and strangled, and her skull was fractured. Unknown DNA was found under her fingernails and in her underwear.

The Ramseys quickly became suspects, even though no evidence connected them to the crime.

The Ramseys have consistently claimed they were not involved in JonBenet’s murder. However, the Boulder District Attorney’s Office took 12 years to fully exonerate the Ramseys and their son, Burke.

As the weeks passed without any arrests in the case, a media frenzy began to build, fueled by nonstop tabloid images of JonBenét competing in beauty pageants.

A number of suspects surfaced, including a man named John Mark Karr, who confessed to the killing in 2006. However, his DNA did not match the evidence, so he was never charged. The case remained open.

To this day, John Ramsey believes his family has a cloud over them because there are still people in the country who believe that he and his late wife Patsy, who died in 2006, are responsible for JonBenét’s murder.

“There’d still be 5 to 10% of the population that think, ‘yeah yeah it was the father or yeah it was the mother,'” John said.

Despite the loss of his wife and daughter, John Ramsey remains steadfast. He has now remarried and finds comfort in his children and grandchildren.

John is also working with director Joe Berlinger on a new docuseries streaming on Netflix titled, “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey?”

“We think the crime can be solved,” Berlinger said. “We want to pressure the Boulder police to test DNA.”

The docuseries revisits the early stages of the investigation. From the beginning, there were questions about the police’s handling of the investigation.

“Early on, they looked into this crazy idea that the parents were responsible,” Berlinger said. “They get tunnel vision, so they’re not looking to investigate all possibilities.”

The crime scene is also under scrutiny, as it was potentially contaminated, which created additional challenges, according to Berlinger.

People were streaming through the house, moving from the kitchen to the living room.

The Boulder Police Department told “Nightline”: “We are dedicated to following up on every lead. We continue to collaborate with DNA experts and our law enforcement partners across the country until this tragic case is resolved. This investigation will always remain a priority for the Boulder Police Department.”

John Ramsey is confident that advancements in DNA technology can help identify his daughter’s killer.

“There’s been a number of old, old cold cases solved using this genealogy research,” John Ramsey said. “Let’s do a reverse family tree and see if he (the killer) had a relative living in Boulder in 1996. That’s what we’re asking the police to do.”

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