Extreme Heat

Saudi Aramco Reports Gargantuan $161 Bn in Profits, But will Electric Cars kill the Oil Market within 2 Decades?

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Dan Murphy at CNBC reports that the giant Saudi Aramco oil company posted an unprecedented profit of $161 billion for 2022. The company’s CEO, Amin Nasser, commented that this was probably the biggest profit ever made in the course of one year by any private company. Murphy reports that Nasser […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Change Impacts could Cost Germany up to Nearly $1 Trillion by 2050

Clean Energy Wire

By Carolina Kyllmann | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – The consequences of climate change could cost Germany up to 900 billion euros by 2050, found a report by the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW), the Institute of Economic Structures Research (GWS) and consultancy Prognos AG. More frequent extreme weather events such as […]

Climate Crisis

Humanity put out more C02 than Ever Before last Year, but Green Energy Kept the Annual Increase Small

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – This is a bad news, good news story. Cathy Bussewitz at the Associated Press reports that carbon dioxide emissions reached an all-time high in 2022, of 36.8 gigatons. That is more CO2 spewed into the atmosphere by humanity in just one year than ever before. CO2 emissions were up nearly […]

Antarctica

The Antarctic Ice Sheet is Melting. And this is bad News for Humanity

The Conversation

By Marta Moreno Ibáñez, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) | – (The Conversation) – Ottawa’s famous Rideau Canal, which turns into the world’s largest ice rink every winter, is too thin to open this winter. Antarctic sea ice concentration reached a record low on Feb. 13. The orange line represents the median sea ice […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Emergency: Extreme Heat Waves will increase 600% in Israel, Middle East, over 80 years, as 70% of Youth consider Emigrating

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ruth Schuster at Haaretz reports on a new study led by Assaf Hochmann at Hebrew University, finding that extreme heat waves in Israel will increase 600% over the next 80 years. Not only will this change strike Israel but also Egypt, Syria, Jordan and southern Turkiye, with the potential for […]

Climate Crisis

Planting more Trees could reduce Heat-Related Deaths in Cities by a Third

The Conversation

By Meelan Thondoo, University of Cambridge; Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, Australian Catholic University; and Tamara Iungman, Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) | – (The Conversation) – Urban development leads to fewer shaded areas and more heat-absorbing paved surfaces. Cities tend to be warmer than their rural surroundings as a result, a phenomenon known as the urban […]

Climate Crisis

Big Oil’s trade group allies outspent Clean Energy Groups by a Whopping 27x, with Billions in Ads and Lobbying to keep Fossil Fuels Flowing

The Conversation

By Christian Downie, Australian National University and Robert Brulle, Brown University | – (The Conversation) – You’ve probably seen ads promoting gas and oil companies as the solutions to climate change. They’re meant to be inspiring and hopeful, with scenes of a green, clean future. But shiny ads are not all these companies do to […]

Climate Crisis

Is Turkey’s Prosecution of Shady Builders after 12,141 Structures Collapse in Earthquake a Model for going after Big Oil for Climate Disasters?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Turkish government has issued 100 arrest warrants for building contractors suspected of erecting structures that did not meet building code standards in the 10 provinces most affected by last week’s massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake, which has left at least 32,000 dead and perhaps twice that. Some of the contractors […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis: Oceans heating up as though we were Constantly Blowing up Atomic Bombs in them

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has released talking points for its report on 2022, warning that the oceans are getting alarmingly hotter every year. The full survey will be out this spring. It turns out of all the extra heat on earth caused by humans putting greenhouse gases into […]