Environment

Scientists: Cyclone Chido, which Devastated Indian Ocean Island of Mayotte, was 40% more likely to be a Cat 4 because of Climate Change

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Cyclone Chido devastated the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, destroying an estimated 20,000 homes and wiping out entire shantytown neighborhoods. The island has about 65,000 households, so a third may be flattened. Godzilla-sized waves measured as high as 22 feet. About half the population still lacks electricity, and ironically water […]

Climate Crisis

Rising Desertification shows we can’t keep Farming with Fossil Fuels; 3/4s of Earth’s Land is Drier

The Conversation

By Jack Marley, The Conversation Three-quarters of Earth’s land has become drier since 1990. Droughts come and go – more often and more extreme with the incessant rise of greenhouse gas emissions over the last three decades – but burning fossil fuels is transforming our blue planet. A new report from scientists convened by the […]

Climate Crisis

On Climate Change, the International Court of Justice faces a pivotal Choice

The Conversation

By Claudia Ituarte-Lima, Lund University (The Conversation) – What legal obligations do states have to fight climate change? Should high-emitting countries be held responsible for the harm they’ve caused? And should states safeguard the climate for future generations? The international court of justice (ICJ) is considering similar questions to these in hearings ahead of issuing […]

plastic

A tax on new Plastic would slash Waste – if built into the global Treaty on Plastics

The Conversation

By Amelia Leavesley, The University of Melbourne (The Conversation) – Earlier this week, the mining magnate Andrew Forrest made headlines calling for a global “polymer premium” – or plastic tax – to be placed on every tonne of newly manufactured plastics. A tax like this could form part of the Global Plastic Treaty being hammered […]

Climate Crisis

In Sunny Spain, cheap Solar Power set to overtake Wind Generation, backed by Socialist Government and Co-ops

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Spain’s photovoltaic electricity production is set to surpass its wind power, according to China’s Xinhua news agency. Spain is Europe’s champion at producing solar power, because some of its regions are especially sunny — think Seville. The Global Energy Monitor puts it this way: “The country has more utility-scale solar […]

Climate Crisis

Meltwater from Greenland and the Arctic is weakening Ocean Circulation, speeding up Warming down South

The Conversation

By Laurie Menviel, UNSW Sydney and Gabriel Pontes, UNSW Sydney (The Conversation) – A vast network of ocean currents nicknamed the “great global ocean conveyor belt” is slowing down. That’s a problem because this vital system redistributes heat around the world, influencing both temperatures and rainfall. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation funnels heat northwards through […]

Climate Crisis

China opens World’s Largest offshore Solar Power Facility, as U.S. Falls Farther Behind

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Solar panels are great sources of energy. We have them on our roof and they have saved us a lot of money, especially in spring-summer-fall. Some observers complain about their bulk compared to the energy they put out, though. I’ve had engineers argue to me that there just isn’t space […]

Climate Crisis

“Orbital,” by Samantha Harvey – A Short but Powerful Story urging us to Save the Planet – Wins 2024 Book Prize

The Conversation

By Debra Benita Shaw, University of East London | – (The Conversation) – Samantha Harvey’s Orbital has won the 2024 Booker prize. What it so skilfully and ambitiously exposes is the human cost of space flight set against the urgency of the climate crisis. While a typhoon of life-threatening proportions gathers across south-east Asia, six […]

Climate Crisis

Creating a Genuine Hell on Earth

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Honestly, what would George Orwell have written about this planet of ours, four decades after that ominous year 1984 passed from his fiction into history? And yes, in case you think that, as in his novel 1984, published in 1949, a year before his death and just as the Cold War […]