wildfires

By Matt Telfer, University of Plymouth | – (The Conversation) – Wildfires affect large areas of the Earth’s surface and many of their effects occur at an alarming speed. The fires that consumed half of Australia’s Kangaroo Island in 2019 left a trail of animal corpses in their wake. In 2021, wildfires burned over 2.5 […]

Climate Crisis

As Climate Change Provokes Mental Health Crisis, Psychiatrists call for Better Government Support

Clean Energy Wire

By Carolina Kyllmann | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – The “Climate and Psyche” taskforce of the German Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Association (DGPPN) has called for better political support for mental health care through the climate crisis. In a report examining the direct effects of climate change on the psyche, the DGPPN found global […]

Climate Crisis

If a Warnock win gives the Dems 51 in the Senate, Sen. Manchin will no Longer be a drag on Green Energy Progress

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ladies and gentlemen, the results are in, and the winner of the 2022 midterms is . . . the earth’s climate. The Democrats have retained control of the Senate, according to projections of NBC News., which predicts that Nevada’s Senator Catherine Cortez Masto will defeat her Republican challenger, Adam Laxalt. […]

Climate Crisis

As Biden Touts Progress at COP27, National Assessment warns that the Things Americans Love are Endangered by Climate Emergency

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden addressed the COP27 Climate in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt on Friday. He noted the ravages of the human-caused climate emergency on the African continent, including deadly drought in the Horn of Africa, floods that displaced over a million people in Nigeria, and the increasing potential for conflict […]

Climate Crisis

COP27: how young Climate Activists are changing International Human Rights Law

The Conversation

By Aoife Daly, University College Cork | – World leaders and climate scientists aren’t the only ones who have gathered in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, for the latest UN climate summit, COP27. Children and young people are also a big part of the conference. For the first time, COP will have a Youth Envoy, Omnia […]

Climate Crisis

One Billionaire emits a Million times more CO2 than an Average Person, as Protesters block Private Planes at Amsterdam

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Oxfam has a new study, Carbon Billionaires: The investment emissions of the world’s richest people. The Executive Summary says that they concluded that quite apart from the 3,300 or so billionaires, the wealthiest one percent in the world emit twice as much carbon dioxide as the bottom 50%. The top […]

Africa

Armed Conflict and Climate Change: how these two Threats play out in Africa

The Conversation

By Halvard Buhaug, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) | – The world is falling miserably short of reducing carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, a 2015 treaty to keep global warming well below 2℃. The results of this failure are a greater increase in the prevalence and severity of extreme weather events, more […]

Climate Crisis

UN: Past 8 Years have been 8 hottest on Record, in Harbinger of Heating World

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The past eight years have been the eight hottest on record, in further evidence that human-caused global heating is accelerating rapidly and dangerously. So reports the World Meteorological Organization in tandem with the COP27 Climate Summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The report argues that we can see rapid heating […]

Climate Crisis

The Day After: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow on a Broiling Planet

Frida Berrigan

( Tomdispatch.com ) – When I was growing up, there was a parody of an old-fashioned public announcement tacked to the wall of our kitchen that I vividly remember. It had step-by-step instructions for what to do “in case of a nuclear bomb attack.” Step 6 was “bend over and place your head firmly between […]