Extreme Heat

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Netherlands was long a laggard regarding the green energy revolution and combating the climate emergency, perhaps in part because it is a fossil gas-producing country. Even so, the Netherlands is now making strides toward an energy switch with some innovative approaches. It is still a little behind the European […]

Climate Crisis

The White House Meets the Creature from the Black Lagoon: How Trump turned the American Dream into the American Scream

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com) – Honestly, if you had described this America to me more than half a century ago, I would have laughed in your face. Donald Trump becoming president? You must be kidding! If you want a bizarre image, just imagine him in the company of Abraham Lincoln. I mean, really, what’s happened to us? […]

Agriculture

Climate Emergency Hits German Farms as Harvests Remain Meager

Clean Energy Wire

By Edgar Meza | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – The ongoing drought in Germany is expected to have dire effects on this year’s harvest, which is already estimated to be below the average of previous years, said the German Farmers’ Association (DBV). “The prolonged drought in many regions of the country shows once […]

Climate Crisis

Pakistan: Climate Emergency-Driven, biblical Floods affect 33 million People Leave Millions Homeless

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Heavy flooding in southern Pakistan has destroyed or damaged 670,000 homes, according to Reliefweb. During an ordinary monsoon season in Pakistan beginning in June and ending in September, there would be four waves of precipitation. There have been eight such waves since June. Households in that country have an average […]

Climate Crisis

How Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act strengthens EPA’s future ability to take on Big Carbon and the Supreme Court

The Conversation

By Patrick Parenteau, Vermont Law School | – The new Inflation Reduction Act is being justly celebrated as the most significant piece of federal legislation to address the climate crisis to date. It includes about US$370 billion in incentives for everything from solar panels to electric vehicles. But there’s some confusion around what it allows […]

China

Climate Emergency hits China: Historic droughts trigger power Shortages in the Yangtze Basin

China Dialogue

( China Dialogue ) – Since mid-June, China has been facing the most intense and enduring heat waves since records began in 1961, according to the National Climate Centre. In the past week, the middle and lower Yangtze River basin has experienced exceptionally hot and dry spells in what is supposed to be the flood […]

Climate Crisis

Our Carbon Dioxide Emissions could wipe out 87% of Marine Life if we don’t Quickly get to Zero

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Some 87% of marine species are at risk of being wiped out or devastated by 2100 if the world goes on dumping 35 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year, write Daniel G. Boyce et al at Nature Climate Change. Sea life is facing two major challenges […]

Climate Crisis

“The Elbe River Gasps for Breath:” Rivers’ ecosystems across Germany threatened by low Water, O2 Levels and high Temperatures

Benjamin Wehrmann

Citing Hamburger Abendblatt / Süddeutsche Zeitung / Rheinische Post ( Clean Energy Wire ) – German rivers are suffering from extreme heat and drought, ringing the alarm for the stability of their ecosystems all over the country. Like many other parts of Europe, Germany has seen recurring heatwaves since late spring, which coupled with little […]

Climate Crisis

19 Years ago America Really Wanted Iraq’s Basra for its Oil, which is now Making it Uninhabitable

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Poet Robert Frost asked if the world would end by fire or ice. It turns out that it is both, the fire of global heating and the melting of earth’s surface ice and resultant biblical floods. Nowhere is this more clear than in Iraq. Not everyone will suffer equally from […]