Desertification

Revised and updated. By Juan Cole | — The popular story about Thanksgiving is an environmental parable that we would do well to remember today. It was a harvest festival in 1621, participated in by the 50 (out of 100) survivors at Plymouth Plantation and 90 Native Americans. Some of these latter, such as Squanto, […]

Climate Change

16-Year-Old Sues Federal Government On Climate Change

contributors

AJ+ | (Video Report) | – – “Indigenous climate activist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez is one of 21 young plaintiffs suing the federal government to demand action on climate change.” AJ+: “16-Year-Old Sues Federal Government On Climate Change”

Climate Change

Four years of Trump could really sink the planet

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – I argued that President Obama’s carbon-reduction plan wasn’t anything to write home about. He wanted to reduce our annual emissions from 5.4 billion metric tons of CO2 annually from the US to 4.7 billion metric tons by 2030. It isn’t an insignificant reduction, but it doesn’t […]

Acidification of Oceans

The last Time Summer was this Hot, Human beings hadn’t yet Left Africa

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) Summer of 2016 was not only hotter than any summer on record, i.e. since 1880. We have enough proxies for global average temperature to know that it was hotter than any summer since at least 1016, when Genoa launched a campaign against Muslim Sardinia and Norway not only got […]

Africa

Climate Change Terror as Deserts Bury 2/3s of African Lands

contributors

By Baher Kamal | (Inter Press Service) | – – ROME, (IPS) – Two-thirds of the African continent is already desert or dry-lands. But while this vast extension of the second largest continent on Earth after Asia is “vital” for agriculture and food production, nearly three-fourths of it is estimated to be degraded to varying […]

Climate Change

New Normal: A victim is displaced by Climate Change Disaster every Second

contributors

Climate Victims – Every Second, One Person Is Displaced by Disaster By Baher Kamal | (Inter Press Service) | – – ROME, Jul 27 2016 (IPS) – Climate change and related extreme weather events have devastated the lives and livelihoods of tens of millions of most vulnerable people worldwide– by far exceeding the total of […]

Climate Change

Maybe Oil was a bad Idea: Temps in Mideast Beat Heat Records for E. Hemisphere

contributors

By Deirdre Fulton, staff writer | Commondreams.org ) – – “I’ve never seen Celsius temps like these on a weather map before,” climate scientist Michael Mann said on Twitter. Thermometers in Kuwait and Iraq reached record-shattering temperatures this week, with Weather Underground reporting that the measurements could be the hottest ever seen in the Eastern […]

Acidification of Oceans

The Hottest Year on Record: 12th month in a row of unprecedented heat

contributors

Cenk Uygur | (The Young Turks) | – – “The planet keeps getting warmer. The level of destruction from natural disasters is also climbing. Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, breaks it down.. . “For the 12th month in a row, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has announced record-high global temperatures — marking […]

Desertification

Can Leonardo DiCaprio save Iran’s incredible shrinking Lake Urmia?

contributors

By Tori Egherman | ( Globalvoices.org ) | – – In one “regram,” American actor Leonardo DiCaprio has brought a flood of attention to Iran's drying Lake Urmia. Lake Urmia (sometimes spelled Orumyeh or Urmieh) has been an issue for Iranian environmentalists and water engineers for years. The lake was once the largest salt water […]