Extreme Heat

( 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, […]

Climate Crisis

How young Climate Activists built a Mass Movement to be Reckoned With

Waging Nonviolence

By Nick Engelfried | – ( Waging Nonviolence ) – When I became a climate organizer in college in the early 2000s, the words “youth climate movement” referred more to something activists hoped to bring into existence than a real-world phenomenon. Growing numbers of young people were concerned about the climate crisis and had begun […]

Climate Crisis

From Sponge Cities to Early Wildfire Detection Systems: Top 4 Ways Climate-fuelled Disasters can be Thwarted

The Conversation

By Roslyn Prinsley, Australian National University | – Climate change is driving a worldwide increase in extreme events. The latest State of the Climate report confirms the risks of disasters are rising in Australia. Repeated floods have devastated our east coast. Other extreme events are getting worse too. Since 1987 bushfires have burnt increasing areas, […]