Browsed by
Category: Climate Change

Tipping points signal a climate emergency

Tipping points signal a climate emergency

Timothy M. Lenton, Johan Rockström, Owen Gaffney, Stefan Rahmstorf, Katherine Richardson, Will Steffen & Hans Joachim Schellnhuber write: Politicians, economists and even some natural scientists have tended to assume that tipping points in the Earth system — such as the loss of the Amazon rainforest or the West Antarctic ice sheet — are of low probability and little understood. Yet evidence is mounting that these events could be more likely than was thought, have high impacts and are interconnected across…

Read More Read More

Those least responsible for climate change get hit hardest by its effects

Those least responsible for climate change get hit hardest by its effects

The Washington Post reports: His ancestors were Portuguese colonialists who settled on this otherworldly stretch of coast, wedged between a vast desert and the southern Atlantic. They came looking for the one thing this barren region had in abundance: fish. By the time Mario Carceija Santos was getting into the fishing business half a century later, in the 1990s, Angola had won independence and the town of Tombwa was thriving. There were 20 fish factories strung along the bay, a…

Read More Read More

World heading to climate catastrophes, UN report warns

World heading to climate catastrophes, UN report warns

The New York Times reports: Four years after countries struck a landmark deal in Paris to rein in greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to avert the worst effects of global warming, humanity is headed toward those very climate catastrophes, according to a United Nations report issued Tuesday, with China and the United States, the two biggest polluters, having expanded their carbon footprints last year. “The summary findings are bleak,” the report said, because countries have failed to halt the…

Read More Read More

Climate change threatens world heritage sites everywhere

Climate change threatens world heritage sites everywhere

Time reports: Venice is reeling from the worst flooding the city has experienced in 50 years, the city is “on its knees,” Venetian Mayor Luigi Brugnaro tweeted as water submerged much of the the famous historical city. The floods penetrated Saint Mark’s Basilica, a 1,000 year old church that is considered to be one of the finest examples of Byzantine architecture in the world and one of the city’s most famous landmarks. While floods are a normal part of life…

Read More Read More

Koalas ‘functionally extinct’ after Australia bushfires destroy 80% of their habitat

Koalas ‘functionally extinct’ after Australia bushfires destroy 80% of their habitat

Trevor Nace reports: As Australia experiences record-breaking drought and bushfires, koala populations have dwindled along with their habitat, leaving them “functionally extinct.” The chairman of the Australian Koala Foundation, Deborah Tabart, estimates that over 1,000 koalas have been killed from the fires and that 80 percent of their habitat has been destroyed. Recent bushfires, along with prolonged drought and deforestation has led to koalas becoming “functionally extinct” according to experts. Functional extinction is when a population becomes so limited that…

Read More Read More

The climate science is clear: it’s now or never to avert catastrophe

The climate science is clear: it’s now or never to avert catastrophe

Bill McKibben writes: The one thing never to forget about global warming is that it’s a timed test. It’s ignoble and dangerous to delay progress on any important issue, of course – if, in 2020, America continues to ignore the healthcare needs of many of its citizens, those people will sicken, die, go bankrupt. The damage will be very real. But that damage won’t make it harder, come 2021 or 2025 or 2030, to do the right thing about healthcare….

Read More Read More

The planet is burning

The planet is burning

Stephen J Pyne writes: From the Arctic to the Amazon, from California to Gran Canaria, from Borneo to India to Angola to Australia – the fires seem everywhere. Their smoke obscures subcontinents by day; their lights dapple continents at night, like a Milky Way of flame-stars. Rather than catalogue what is burning, one might more aptly ask: what isn’t? Where flames are not visible, the lights of cities and of gas flares are: combustion via the transubstantiation of coal and…

Read More Read More

World’s current fossil fuel plans will shatter Paris climate limits, UN warns

World’s current fossil fuel plans will shatter Paris climate limits, UN warns

Inside Climate News reports: The world’s top fossil fuel-producing nations are on track to extract enough oil, gas and coal to send global temperatures soaring past the goals of the Paris climate agreement, according to a United Nations report published Wednesday. If countries follow through on their current plans, they will produce about 50 percent more fossil fuels by 2030 than would be compatible with the international goal of keeping global warming under 2 degrees Celsius, the report said. They…

Read More Read More

Climate change fueled the rise and demise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, superpower of the ancient world

Climate change fueled the rise and demise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, superpower of the ancient world

Ashurbanipal, last major ruler of the Assyrian Empire, couldn’t outrun the effects of climate change. British Museum, CC BY-ND By Ashish Sinha, California State University, Dominguez Hills and Gayatri Kathayat, Xi’an Jiaotong University Ancient Mesopotamia, the fabled land between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, was the command and control center of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. This ancient superpower was the largest empire of its time, lasting from 912 BC to 609 BC in what is now modern Iraq and Syria….

Read More Read More

U.S. suspends more oil and gas leases over what could be a widespread legal problem

U.S. suspends more oil and gas leases over what could be a widespread legal problem

Inside Climate News reports: The Trump administration’s relentless push to expand fossil fuel production on federal lands is hitting a new snag: its own refusal to consider the climate impacts of development. The federal Bureau of Land Management’s Utah office in September voluntarily suspended 130 oil and gas leases after advocacy groups sued, arguing that BLM hadn’t adequately assessed the greenhouse gas emissions associated with drilling and extraction on those leases as required by law. The move was unusual because…

Read More Read More

Mixed success in the push for a Green New Deal

Mixed success in the push for a Green New Deal

Robinson Meyer writes: Maybe Jeff Bezos, of all people, put it best. Asked whether he supported the Green New Deal, the chief executive of one of the country’s most carbon-intensive technology companies waved the question off. “There are a lot of different ideas for what the Green New Deal is,” he said, “and it’s probably too broad to say too much about that in particular.” It was a dodge, of course, but not an inaccurate one. Because, really, who does…

Read More Read More

How to cut U.S. carbon pollution by nearly 40 percent in 10 years

How to cut U.S. carbon pollution by nearly 40 percent in 10 years

Robinson Meyer writes: In Washington, the immaculate solution to climate change has a name: a bipartisan, revenue-neutral carbon tax. The idea should have wide appeal. Under the plan, the government would charge companies for every ton of greenhouse gas they emit. Instead of spending that money, the government would immediately send it back to Americans as a tax cut or check. Over time, Americans would make greener choices (a win for Democrats) without growing the size of the government (a…

Read More Read More

The climate change health risks facing a child born today: A tale of two possible futures

The climate change health risks facing a child born today: A tale of two possible futures

Inside Climate News reports: A child born today faces two possible futures. In one, the world continues to burn fossil fuels, making the child more likely to develop asthma from air pollution, at greater risk of vector-borne diseases, and more vulnerable to anxiety as extreme weather events threaten his community. In the other, those risks are diminished because the world has responded quickly and adequately to climate change, with a large-scale shift away from fossil fuels. These two, starkly different…

Read More Read More

The Pentagon sees climate change as an existential threat to human society

The Pentagon sees climate change as an existential threat to human society

Michael Klare writes: We have heard from the scientists on climate change, with their meticulous data on ecosystem degradation and species loss. We have heard from the climate deniers, with their desperate attempts to deploy countervailing arguments. Both groups have mobilized substantial blocs of voters in pivotal countries, producing gridlock in global efforts to slow the pace of global warming. It is time, then, to hear from another group of informed and influential professionals: senior military officers. Military leaders have…

Read More Read More

The climate chain reaction that threatens the heart of the Pacific

The climate chain reaction that threatens the heart of the Pacific

The Washington Post reports: Lined up along the side of their boat, the fishermen hauled a huge, heavy net up from swelling waves. At first, a few small jellyfish emerged, then a piece of plastic. Then net, and more net. Finally, all the way at the bottom: a small thrashing mass of silvery salmon. It was just after dawn at the height of the autumn fishing season, but something was wrong. “When are the fish coming?” boat captain Teruhiko Miura…

Read More Read More

Antarctica’s ice loss is on the rise

Antarctica’s ice loss is on the rise

Inside Climate News reports: The floating ice shelves along the edges of West Antarctica that slow the flow of its vast glaciers are under assault from all directions, and they’re becoming more vulnerable to collapse, scientists warn. Warmer water has started creeping in under them, eating away at the ice from below. Warmer air—and, in places, more rain—is melting the surface, creating ponds that can drain deep down and then splinter ice from within. Now, new research is highlighting another…

Read More Read More