Extreme Heat

By Andrew J Constable, University of Tasmania and Jess Melbourne-Thomas, CSIRO | – (The Conversation) – While the Southern Ocean around Antarctica has been warming for decades, the annual extent of winter sea ice seemed relatively stable – compared to the Arctic. In some areas Antarctic sea ice was even increasing. That was until 2016, […]

Climate Crisis

How our Petty Wars are Distracting us from the Existential Challenge of Climate Change

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com) – Let’s admit it: We are indeed mad creatures. This should truly have been the time of our discontent. The northern hemisphere just experienced the hottest summer in recorded history, including month by month the warmest June, July, August, and (by a country mile) September ever. Staggering heat records were set in place […]

Climate Crisis

We can still avoid “Catastrophic Inundation” if we Slash Carbon Pollution – Michael E. Mann’s “Our Fragile Moment”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Informed Comment is pleased to present below an interview with climate scientist Michael E. Mann, Presidential Distinguished Professor of Earth & Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is one of my heroes. As a young scholar, he co-authored a key paper in which he and his colleagues presented […]

Climate Crisis

“We all just evaporate:” Extreme Heat Overwhelms Phoenix’s Unhoused Community

Cronkite News Arizona PBS

Deanna Pistono/Cronkite News ( Cronkite News ) – PHOENIX – Near the intersection of S. 11th Avenue and W. Jefferson Street in Phoenix, the heat is intense. For those who live along the street in tents and makeshift shelters, this heat can become fatal. “My friend … in the street over here, from heat exhaustion.… […]

Climate Crisis

Getting Mad and Getting Even: Is California’s Climate Lawsuit against Big Oil a Gamechanger?

Juan Cole

Reprinted from Tomdispatch.com : See the original site for Tom Engelhardt’s crucial introduction. ( Tomdispatch.com ) – The depths of depravity into which unvarnished capitalism can plunge mortal souls is incalculable. It should come as no surprise then that oil company executives and the officials of petrostates like Saudi Arabia have so assiduously lied to […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis: Recent Evidence suggests Economists have severely underestimated the Financial Hit

The Conversation

By Timothy Neal, UNSW Sydney | – Scientists say severe climate change is now the greatest threat to humanity. Extreme weather is expected to upend lives and livelihoods, intensifying wildfires and pushing ecosystems towards collapse as ocean heatwaves savage coral reefs. The threats are far-reaching and widespread. So what effect would you expect this to […]

Climate Crisis

Top 6 Reasons why Global Temperatures are Breaking all the Records

The Conversation

By Andrew King, The University of Melbourne | – The world is very warm right now. We’re not only seeing record temperatures, but the records are being broken by record-wide margins. Take the preliminary September global-average temperature anomaly of 1.7°C above pre-industrial levels, for example. It’s an incredible 0.5°C above the previous record. So why […]

Climate Crisis

Frankenstein’s Monster of a Climate Emergency: Dangerous Global September Heat Spike

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The data from scientific institutions around the world is pouring in here in the beginning of October, regarding September, 2023, and the consensus is that it was freakishly hot, unprecedentedly torrid, off-the-charts sweltering. It was the Frankenstein’s monster of months. Much of the extra heat came from human-caused climate change, […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis: How Weather ‘Blocks’ have Triggered more Extreme Heatwaves and Floods across Europe

The Conversation

Tim Woollings, University of Oxford | – (The Conversation) – On several occasions this summer, Europe’s weather seemed to get itself stuck, leading to prolonged heatwaves and floods. In the UK, a long hot and dry spell throughout May and June gave way to a similarly persistent cool and wet period. In September, Europe saw […]