Extreme Heat

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The past 8 years are the hottest on record. So concludes The UN’s World Meteorological Organization. In 2022, the average surface temperature of the earth was 1.15 degrees C. [2.07 degrees F.] higher than the average surface temperature of the earth in 1850-1900. So this is the eighth year in […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis: We’re Seeing Alarming Changes in the entire Global Water Cycle

The Conversation

By Albert Van Dijk, Australian National University | – (The Conversation) – In 2022, a third La Niña year brought much rain to Australia and Southeast Asia and dry conditions to the other side of the Pacific. These patterns were expected, but behind these variations there are troubling signs the entire global water cycle is […]

Arctic

Why the Arctic turning into a Lukewarm Puddle should be a bigger Headline than a bit of Inflation

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Let me start 2023 with a glance back at a December news moment that caught my eye. To do so, however, I have to offer a bit of explanation. First, the obvious: I’m an old guy and, though I spend significant parts of any day scrolling through endless websites covering aspects […]

Climate Crisis

A Water War Is Brewing Over the Dwindling Colorado River

ProPublica

By Abrahm Lustgarten | – (ProPublica) – On a crisp day this fall I drove southeast from Grand Junction, Colorado, into the Uncompahgre Valley, a rich basin of row crops and hayfields. A snow line hung like a bowl cut around the upper cliffs of the Grand Mesa, while in the valley some farmers were […]

Arctic

2022 Revealed how Major Arctic Climate Shifts endanger People, Ecosystems and Wildlife

The Conversation

By Matthew L. Druckenmiller, University of Colorado Boulder; Rick Thoman, University of Alaska Fairbanks; and Twila Moon, University of Colorado Boulder | – In the Arctic, the freedom to travel, hunt and make day-to-day decisions is profoundly tied to cold and frozen conditions for much of the year. These conditions are rapidly changing as the […]

Climate Crisis

Where the Climate Target of 1.5°C (2.7°F) Came from, and Why we must not Lose Sight of its Importance

The Conversation

By Piers Forster, University of Leeds | – The US economist William Nordhaus claimed as early as the 1970s, when scientific understanding of climate change was still taking shape, that warming of more than 2°C would “push global conditions past any point that any human civilisation had experienced”. By 1990, scientists had also weighed in: […]

Climate Crisis

Record low water levels on the Mississippi River in 2022 show how climate change is altering large rivers

The Conversation

By Ray Lombardi, University of Memphis; Angela Antipova, University of Memphis; and Dorian J. Burnette, University of Memphis | – Rivers are critical corridors that connect cities and ecosystems alike. When drought develops, water levels fall, making river navigation harder and more expensive. In 2022, water levels in some of the world’s largest rivers, including […]

Climate Crisis

Inferno: Climate Disaster Is Turning the Planet into a Tinderbox

Tomdispatch

By Jane Braxton Little | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – Mike Savala’s boots scuffed the edge of a singed patch of forest littered with skinny fingers of burnt ponderosa pine needles. Nearby, an oak seedling sizzled as a yellow-shirted firefighter hit it with a stream of water. Spurts of smoke rose from blackened ground the size […]

Climate Crisis

If we Want to Limit Global Heating, the World Can’t go on Spending $10 Trillion a year on Energy

The Conversation

By Stephen Peake, The Open University | – The world’s energy bill for 2022 is set to be the highest ever, topping US$10 trillion (£8.3 trillion). This is the total price paid for all forms of energy across all sectors by all people. Something like 80% of this bill is for coal, oil or gas, […]