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Category: Climate Change

Are we really prisoners of geography?

Are we really prisoners of geography?

Daniel Immerwahr writes: Russia’s war in Ukraine has involved many surprises. The largest, however, is that it happened at all. Last year, Russia was at peace and enmeshed in a complex global economy. Would it really sever trade ties – and threaten nuclear war – just to expand its already vast territory? Despite the many warnings, including from Vladimir Putin himself, the invasion still came as a shock. But it wasn’t a shock to the journalist Tim Marshall. On the…

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Ukraine uses Cop27 to highlight environmental cost of Russia’s war

Ukraine uses Cop27 to highlight environmental cost of Russia’s war

The Guardian reports: Ukraine has used the Cop27 climate talks to make the case that Russia’s invasion is causing an environmental as well as humanitarian catastrophe, with fossil fuels a key catalyst of the country’s destruction. Ukraine has dispatched two dozen officials to the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to spell out the links between the war launched by Russia in February, the soaring cost of energy due to Russia’s status as a key gas supplier, and the planet-heating emissions…

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What the tiny remaining 1.5C carbon budget means for climate policy

What the tiny remaining 1.5C carbon budget means for climate policy

Prof Piers Forster, Dr Debbie Rosen, Dr Robin Lamboll,and Prof Joeri Rogelj, write: The latest estimates from the Global Carbon Project (GCP) show that total worldwide CO2 emissions in 2022 have reached near-record levels. The GCP’s estimates put the remaining carbon budget for 1.5C – specifically, the amount of CO2 that can still be emitted for a 50% chance of staying below 1.5C of warming – at 380bn tonnes of CO2 (GtCO2). At the current rate of emissions, this budget would be blown in just nine…

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Manchin won’t hold renomination hearing for FERC’s Glick

Manchin won’t hold renomination hearing for FERC’s Glick

Bloomberg reports: Sen. Joe Manchin has decided against scheduling a confirmation hearing for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Richard Glick with only weeks left before the end of the current Congress. “The chairman was not comfortable holding a hearing,” Sam Runyon, spokeswoman for Manchin’s office, said Thursday. Runyon declined to elaborate beyond the statement. The decision comes days after Manchin criticized President Joe Biden’s remarks on shutting down coal plants and replacing them with renewable energy, saying “his words matter…

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The world is falling short of its climate goals. Four big emitters show why

The world is falling short of its climate goals. Four big emitters show why

The New York Times reports: Seven years after the Paris Agreement, in which leaders pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change, the world is still not on track to meet those goals. New data published by Climate Action Tracker, an independent research group, ahead of this week’s United Nations climate summit reveals the gap. None of the world’s biggest emitters — China, the United States, the European Union and India —…

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Climate change threatening ‘things Americans value most,’ U.S. report says

Climate change threatening ‘things Americans value most,’ U.S. report says

The Washington Post reports: Climate change is unleashing “far-reaching and worsening” calamities in every region of the United States, and the economic and human toll will only increase unless humans move faster to slow the planet’s warming, according to a sprawling new federal report released Monday. “The things Americans value most are at risk,” write the National Climate Assessment authors, who represent a broad range of federal agencies. “Many of the harmful impacts that people across the country are already…

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A technologically advanced society is choosing to destroy itself. It’s both fascinating and horrifying to watch

A technologically advanced society is choosing to destroy itself. It’s both fascinating and horrifying to watch

Landon Parenteau/Unsplash, CC BY By Christopher Wright, University of Sydney; Daniel Nyberg, University of Newcastle, and Vanessa Bowden, University of Newcastle As world leaders assemble for the United Nations climate change conference (COP27) in Egypt, it’s hard to be optimistic the talks will generate any radical departure from the inexorable rise in global carbon emissions over the past two centuries. After all, before last year’s Glasgow talks, experts warned the summit was the world’s last chance to limit global warming…

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Canada’s First Nations move to protect their lands

Canada’s First Nations move to protect their lands

Ed Struzik writes: On yet another unusually warm subarctic day last August, members of the Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation in the Northwest Territories of Canada held a fire-feeding ceremony, drummed, raised their eagle-emblazoned flag, and prepared a celebratory feast for themselves and a group of scientists 30 miles south of where they live in Fort Simpson. By the close of festivities, Laurier University’s 23-year-old Scotty Creek Research Station, which is monitoring the varied impacts of climate change and permafrost thaw,…

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Major glaciers, including in Yosemite and Kilimanjaro, will be gone within 23 years due to climate change, UN report warns

Major glaciers, including in Yosemite and Kilimanjaro, will be gone within 23 years due to climate change, UN report warns

CBS News reports: One-third of the world’s most iconic glaciers have been “condemned to disappear” within 23 years, according to a new report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The fate of these glaciers, which include those in Yosemite, Yellowstone and the Dolomites, is all but sure, UNESCO warned, as carbon emissions cause them to rapidly deteriorate. There are roughly 18,600 glaciers in 50 UNESCO World Heritage sites, spanning nearly 25,500 square-miles and making up about…

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Why Bolsonaro’s stunning loss should give humanity a glimmer of hope

Why Bolsonaro’s stunning loss should give humanity a glimmer of hope

Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman write: One of the ugliest pathologies in global politics at the moment is the bizarre connection between climate denialism and right-wing authoritarianism. With some exceptions, authoritarian politicians are the ones most prone to spinning conspiracy theories and lies about climate change while resisting the transition to a green energy future. This is why Jair Bolsonaro’s stunning defeat in Brazil’s presidential race is a major global event. It should afford us a moment of hopefulness that,…

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World close to ‘irreversible’ climate breakdown, warn major studies

World close to ‘irreversible’ climate breakdown, warn major studies

The Guardian reports: The climate crisis has reached a “really bleak moment”, one of the world’s leading climate scientists has said, after a slew of major reports laid bare how close the planet is to catastrophe. Collective action is needed by the world’s nations more now than at any point since the second world war to avoid climate tipping points, Prof Johan Rockström said, but geopolitical tensions are at a high. He said the world was coming “very, very close…

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Strongman politics remain a major threat to climate action, experts warn

Strongman politics remain a major threat to climate action, experts warn

Inside Climate News reports: It hasn’t been a great year for democracy. In February, Vladimir Putin, Russia’s ironfisted leader, shocked the world by invading Ukraine, which sparked a global energy crisis and left Western democracies scrambling to respond. Weeks later in April, strongman politician Viktor Orbán was reelected as the president of Hungary, despite being accused of rigging the election and using his power to jail and intimidate journalists. Soon after, far-right leaders with neo-facist roots were also elected into…

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A new climate reality is coming into view

A new climate reality is coming into view

David Wallace-Wells writes: You can never really see the future, only imagine it, then try to make sense of the new world when it arrives. Just a few years ago, climate projections for this century looked quite apocalyptic, with most scientists warning that continuing “business as usual” would bring the world four or even five degrees Celsius of warming — a change disruptive enough to call forth not only predictions of food crises and heat stress, state conflict and economic…

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War in Ukraine likely to speed, not slow, shift to renewable and nuclear power, IEA says

War in Ukraine likely to speed, not slow, shift to renewable and nuclear power, IEA says

The New York Times reports: The energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is likely to speed up rather than slow down the global transition away from fossil fuels and toward cleaner technologies like wind, solar and electric vehicles, the world’s leading energy agency said Thursday. While some countries have been burning more fossil fuels such as coal this year in response to natural gas shortages caused by the war in Ukraine, that effect is expected to be short-lived,…

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Climate pledges are falling short as we head toward environmental catastrophe

Climate pledges are falling short as we head toward environmental catastrophe

The New York Times reports: Countries around the world are failing to live up to their commitments to fight climate change, pointing Earth toward a future marked by more intense flooding, wildfires, drought, heat waves and species extinction, according to a report issued Wednesday by the United Nations. Just 26 of 193 countries that agreed last year to step up their climate actions have followed through with more ambitious plans. The world’s top two polluters, China and the United States,…

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Climate change and the threat to civilization

Climate change and the threat to civilization

Daniel Steel, C. Tyler DesRoches, and Kian Mintz-Woo write: In a speech about climate change from April 4th of this year, UN General Secretary António Guterres lambasted “the empty pledges that put us on track to an unlivable world” and warned that “we are on a fast track to climate disaster”. Although stark, Guterres’ statements were not novel. Guterres has made similar remarks on previous occasions, as have other public figures, including Sir David Attenborough, who warned in 2018 that…

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