By Ash Murphy | – Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil is at its highest rate in a decade, according to new satellite data. This comes after president Jair Bolsonaro has loosened environmental regulations, cut enforcement budgets, and supported further development in the region. Tarcisio Schnaider / shutterstock Trees absorb carbon dioxide naturally, and […]
If Erdogan’s Control over Turkey is Ending, what’s Next for 17th Largest Economy?
By Gary M. Grossman | – Mayoral elections in Turkish cities do not usually grab the world’s attention. But the defeat of the ruling party’s candidate for Istanbul mayor – once during its March election and then again, even more definitively in a June rematch – is a sign that Turkey’s most powerful political party […]
If Antarctica Melts, Seas will Rise a Gigantic 190 Feet; It has Started Losing Ice Rapidly
By Nerilie Abram, Matthew England, and Matt King | – A record start to summer ice melt in Greenland this year has drawn attention to the northern ice sheet. We will have to wait to see if 2019 continues to break ice-melt records, but in the rapidly warming Arctic the long-term trends of ice loss […]
Next, Our Food: Climate Emergency Reducing Crop Yields, Global Food Supplies
By Deepak Ray | – Farmers are used to dealing with weather, but climate change is making it harder by altering temperature and rainfall patterns, as in this year’s unusually cool and wet spring in the central U.S. In a recently published study, I worked with other scientists to see whether climate change was measurably […]
Climate Emergency: Reforestation is no Substitute for Leaving Fossil Fuels in the Ground
By Mark Maslin | – Restoring the world’s forests on an unprecedented scale is “the best climate change solution available”, according to a new study. The researchers claim that covering 900m hectares of land – roughly the size of the continental US – with trees could store up to 205 billion tonnes of carbon, about […]
Vanishing Tropical Rainforests are the Lungs of our Planet: We can Still Save them (and Ourselves)
By Robin Chazdon | The green belt of tropical rainforests that covers equatorial regions of the Americas, Africa, Indonesia and Southeast Asia is turning brown. Since 1990, Indonesia has lost 50% of its original forest, the Amazon 30% and Central Africa 14%. Fires, logging, hunting, road building and fragmentation have heavily damaged more than 30% […]
What Happens when Climate Emergency Drowns Whole Nations?
By Sarah M. Munoz | – Global climate change is endangering small island countries, many of them developing nations, potentially harming their ability to function as independent states. As international environmental co-operation stalls, we must ask what consequences climate change will have on the statehood of vulnerable countries. This is especially important because sovereignty is […]
Great Powers in Latin America have Tried to Make Walls before: It didn’t End Well
By Alberto P. Marti | – Despite the US administration’s renewed interest in Cuba, including new travel restrictions, few have paid attention to a little-known, but telling, historical episode: the island’s 19th-century military “Trocha”. This massive fortified line was a Spanish attempt to contain the Cuban independence rebellion by splitting the island in half – […]
G20: The Real Crisis Confronting Global Leaders is Trump-China Trade War
By Bill Durodie | – On June 28 and 29, the G20 summit will convene for the 14th time in Osaka, Japan. This gathering of leaders from the world’s leading economies, including the EU, plus invited guests and international organisations, ought to offer an important moment for mature reflection and collective coordination regarding the future […]