Climate Change

By Isabella Kaminski | – ( China Dialogue ) A fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty (FFNPT) initiative was formally launched last September by a coalition of academics, lawyers and activists. It’s modelled on the landmark UN Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons agreed in the 1960s, and is built around the same three pillars: non-proliferation, […]

Climate Crisis

Antarctica’s ice shelves are trembling as Earth heats, threatening Sea Level Rise unless we Act Now

The Conversation

By Ella Gilbert | – Images of colossal chunks of ice plunging into the sea accompany almost every news story about climate change. It can often make the problem seem remote, as if the effects of rising global temperatures are playing out elsewhere. But the break-up of the world’s vast reservoirs of frozen water – […]

Acidification of Oceans

More CO2 in our Atmosphere now than any time since 3.6 mn Years Ago, when Oceans were 90 feet higher (that’s our fate)

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a scientific shocker, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has found that despite the slowdown in carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 because of the pandemic, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere rose to a global average of 412.5 parts per million (ppm) from 410 in 2019. At the […]

Agriculture

Middle East, Africa, in Special Trouble as Human-Caused Climate Emergency causes 30% drop in Agricultural Productivity Growth

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new paper in the journal Nature Climate Change has found that the human-caused climate emergency is responsible for a 20 percent drop in global agricultural productivity growth in the past 60 years.* A. Ortiz-Bobea and colleagues write: “The cumulative impact of ACC [anthropogenic or human-caused climate change] on global […]

Climate Change

How Solar technologies can speed up vaccine rollout in the Global South

The Conversation

By Cyrus Sinai and Rob Fetter | – There’s hope that some industrialised countries will achieve near-universal vaccination against COVID-19 in the coming months. Yet the effort to vaccinate even the most essential workers in developing countries has only just begun. By current estimates, achieving herd immunity (to current strains) will require at least 75% […]

Australasia

Seriously ugly: here’s how Australia will look if the world heats by 3°C [5.4°F] this century

The Conversation

By Ove Hoegh-Guldberg and Lesley Hughes | – Imagine, for a moment, a different kind of Australia. One where bushfires on the catastrophic scale of Black Summer happen almost every year. One where 50℃ days in Sydney and Melbourne are common. Where storms and flooding have violently reshaped our coastlines, and unique ecosystems have been […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Change is making Sea levels rise fastest in big cities – here’s why

The Conversation

By Sally Brown and Robert James Nicholls | – It is well known that climate-induced sea level rise is a major threat. What is less well know is the threat of sinking land. And in many of the most populated coastal areas, the land is sinking even faster than the sea is rising. Parts of […]

Education

A Green New Deal: Arkansas School District goes Solar, Gives Teachers $1000s in Bonuses with Savings

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Climate Wire reported last fall on a remarkable story about the way renewable energy not only saves the earth from the destructive climate emergency but can at the same time improve our lives and those of our children. Our hero is Michael Hester, who some years ago became the superintendent […]

Climate Crisis

German Scientists: Without Drastic Climate Action, World could be headed to Dangerous 7.2° F. extra Heating

Benjamin Wehrmann

By Benjamin Wehrmann | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Current emissions reduction efforts around the world are insufficient to limit global warming to up to 2 degrees Celsius in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, Germany’s Meteorological Service (DWD) has said. Despite globally reduced mobility and depressed industrial production due to the coronavirus […]