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Category: Climate Change

Prigozhin couldn’t seal Putin’s fate but all of us in the West still can

Prigozhin couldn’t seal Putin’s fate but all of us in the West still can

Peter Pomerantsev writes: For decades, Putin’s crimes were enabled by business and political actors who claimed that greater economic interconnection would lead to a more peaceful Russia. Even after Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014, German companies, especially, continued to expand their business with Russia. For decades, human rights concerns were thrown out – who needed them, when on both sides economic self-interest would ultimately dictate government policy? This thinking ignored the fact that the Russian regime interpreted…

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The Arctic and Atlantic oceans are merging. It could be disastrous

The Arctic and Atlantic oceans are merging. It could be disastrous

William von Herff writes: In the Fram Strait off Greenland’s west coast, Véronique Merten encountered the foot soldiers of an invasion. Merten was studying the region’s biodiversity using environmental DNA, a method that allows scientists to figure out which species are living nearby by sampling the tiny pieces of genetic material they shed, such as scales, skin, and feces. And here, in a stretch of the Arctic Ocean 400 kilometers north of where they’d ever been seen before: capelin. And…

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The Amazon river in the sky

The Amazon river in the sky

Daniel Henryk Rasolt writes: High in the Andes Mountains, the mighty Amazon River begins. It trickles from glaciers and oozes from mountain wetlands. It gains momentum and volume and feeds into clear streams and muddy rivers that pass through high cloud forests and lowland valleys. The torrents of the waters carry nutrients through the vast Amazon River basin, some 4,000 miles across the rest of the South American continent. At the same time, in the rainforest and delta estuaries, another,…

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How Daniel Ellsberg opened the door to one of the most consequential climate stories of our time

How Daniel Ellsberg opened the door to one of the most consequential climate stories of our time

David Sassoon writes: In October 2014, Daniel Ellsberg opened the door to one of the most consequential climate stories of our time. I know because Inside Climate News was able to publish it a year later. We were both attending the same invitation-only journalism conference at the Cronkite School at Arizona State University when we met. On my flight to Phoenix, I had seen his name on the list of attendees, and hours later I found myself at the opening…

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Severe drought stunts Great Plains wheat crops

Severe drought stunts Great Plains wheat crops

The Wall Street Journal reports: Were this a normal mid-June morning, farmer Gary Millershaski would be looking out at waist-high fields of golden wheat almost ready to be harvested. Instead, he’s standing on a patch of mud, plucking at thin stalks of wheat that poke less than a foot out of the ground. It is the result of a multiyear drought that has left farmers in the country’s breadbasket with likely their worst wheat crop in more than 60 years….

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‘The fires here are unstoppable’

‘The fires here are unstoppable’

The New York Times reports: An out-of-control fire was advancing rapidly toward a logging road on Tuesday afternoon, tearing through Canada’s immense — and highly flammable — boreal forest with a force and intensity bewildering to a team of French firefighters. Surrounded by thick smoke, a handful of them headed into the forest to search for water. A veteran knelt down and used his right finger to sketch a plan on the gravel road, pressing to attack the fire head-on….

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Inside the unexpectedly wild landmark Montana youth climate trial

Inside the unexpectedly wild landmark Montana youth climate trial

Karin Kirk writes: When I got an assignment to cover the landmark youth climate lawsuit that went to trial in Montana this week, I thought I was going to be able to pop in, grab some salient quotes, and write up a story. But the trial at a state district court in Helena has turned out to be unexpectedly wild. The testimony has been gripping. And the contrast between the polished lawyering of the plaintiffs’ side compared to the somewhat…

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First U.S. climate trial begins. It’s being led by kids

First U.S. climate trial begins. It’s being led by kids

E&E News reports: A landmark trial unfolding this week in a small Montana courtroom could have outsize influence on U.S. climate policy — even if the case has little immediate effect in the Treasure State. In the first U.S. youth-led climate case to go to trial, 16 young people are putting Montana’s energy policies on the stand, accusing state agencies and the governor of violating their right to a stable climate by embracing fossil fuels. The case could result in…

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As Africa loses forest, its small farmers are bringing back trees

As Africa loses forest, its small farmers are bringing back trees

Fred Pearce writes: For decades, there have been reports of the deforestation of Africa. And they are true — the continent’s forests are disappearing, lost mainly to expanding agriculture, logging, and charcoal-making. But the trees? Maybe not, according to new satellite data analyzed by artificial intelligence and a growing body of on-the-ground studies. This new research is finding ever more trees outside forests, many of them nurtured by farmers and sprouting on their previously treeless fields. Across the continent —…

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Humanity has entered a fire age

Humanity has entered a fire age

The Washington Post reports: When the sky over New York City turned a thick, silty orange on Wednesday, 8 million residents woke up in a new era. Until this week, the East Coast had remained cocooned, thousands of miles away from the walls of choking smoke that have become commonplace in Washington state, California, Oregon and British Columbia. Not anymore. The East Coast, along with the rest of the planet, has entered a new fire era, or — as Stephen…

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Oil lobby pushed pollution loophole for wildfire smoke

Oil lobby pushed pollution loophole for wildfire smoke

The Lever reports: Seventy-five million people nationwide have been under air quality alerts, as days of smoke-filled skies sent soot levels soaring more than 10 times beyond what federal regulators consider safe for breathing. But in federal air quality data, it will be as if those days never happened. That’s because a Big Oil-backed exemption in federal environmental law allows states to discount pollution from “exceptional events” beyond their control, including wildfires. And while environmental regulators are considering cracking down…

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There’s a deeper problem hiding beneath global warming

There’s a deeper problem hiding beneath global warming

Mark Buchanan writes: During the past two centuries at least (and likely for much longer), our yearly energy use has doubled roughly every 30 to 50 years. Our energy use seems to be growing exponentially, a trend that shows every sign of continuing. We keep finding new things to do and almost everything we invent requires more and more energy: consider the enormous energy demands of cryptocurrency mining or the accelerating energy requirements of AI. If this historical trend continues, scientists estimate waste heat will pose…

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Climate crisis is on track to push one-third of humanity out of its most livable environment

Climate crisis is on track to push one-third of humanity out of its most livable environment

By Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica This story was originally published by ProPublica. Climate change is remapping where humans can exist on the planet. As optimum conditions shift away from the equator and toward the poles, more than 600 million people have already been stranded outside of a crucial environmental niche that scientists say best supports life. By late this century, according to a study published last month in the journal Nature Sustainability, 3 to 6 billion people, or between a third…

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The Arctic may be sea ice-free in summer by the 2030s, new study warns

The Arctic may be sea ice-free in summer by the 2030s, new study warns

CNN reports: The Arctic could be free of sea ice roughly a decade earlier than projected, scientists warn – another clear sign the climate crisis is happening faster than expected as the world continues to pump out planet-heating pollution. A new study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications found Arctic sea ice could disappear completely during the month of September as early as the 2030s. Even if the world makes significant cuts to planet-heating pollution today, the Arctic could…

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More than two dozen cities and states are suing Big Oil over climate change – they just got a boost from the US Supreme Court

More than two dozen cities and states are suing Big Oil over climate change – they just got a boost from the US Supreme Court

By Patrick Parenteau, Vermont Law & Graduate School and John Dernbach, Widener University Honolulu has lost more than 5 miles of its famous beaches to sea level rise and storm surges. Sunny-day flooding during high tides makes many city roads impassable, and water mains for the public drinking water system are corroding from saltwater because of sea level rise. The damage has left the city and county spending millions of dollars on repairs and infrastructure to try to adapt to…

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World’s wheat supply at risk of a dangerous shock due to heat and drought, study warns

World’s wheat supply at risk of a dangerous shock due to heat and drought, study warns

NBC News reports: Extreme heat waves and drought due to climate change have the potential to shock the global food supply and send prices soaring, according to a new study. The research, published Friday in the journal npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, assesses a worst-case scenario in which extreme weather hits two breadbasket regions in the same year, hammering winter wheat crops in both the U.S. Midwest and northeastern China. Winter wheat is planted in the fall, goes dormant in…

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