wildfires

Climate Crisis: Severe Heat Wave in Israel Leads to 220 Wildfires on Friday, in Omen of Torrid Future

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The land over which Israelis and Palestinians are locked in conflict is itself unstable, subject to the vagaries of human-caused climate change. On Friday, Abdel Rahman Salah at Egypt’s Veto newspaper reports, sweltering temperatures and high winds lashed the land, causing wildfires to burst out throughout the country. Climate change, […]

Climate Crisis

Global Heating could make it too Hot for a Third of Humanity by 2080 – 2100

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A lot of studies have focused on the economic cost of global heating, caused by humans burning fossil fuels. A new study in Nature Sustainability “Quantifying the human cost of global warming,” by Timothy M. Lenton et al. instead concentrates on what heating will mean for the lives of human […]

Climate Crisis

EPA Again Proposes Restrictions on Power Plant Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Wisconsin Examiner

By: Robert Zullo ( The Wisconsin Examiner ) – The Obama administration’s 2015 Clean Power Plan — intended to cut carbon emissions from power plants — was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Trump administration’s much-criticized replacement, the Affordable Clean Energy rule, derided as a “tortured series of misreadings” of the […]

Climate Crisis

2/3s of the Summer Dry Air that encourages Wildfires comes from Humanity burning Fossil Fuels

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The earth’s atmosphere can make things wet or dry them out depending on the water vapor pressure. When there is a Vapor Pressure Deficit, it dries the earth out. VPD is defined as “a measure of atmospheric water demand defined as the difference between the amount of water vapor in […]

Climate Crisis

On Earth Day, 69% of Americans want Carbon Neutrality, with Minorities and Youth in the Vanguard

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Earth Day, 2023, big public events were held by activists across the US (and across the world). But activists you always have with you. I joined in picking up garbage along the road that led to our high school on April 22, 1970, the first earth day. The world […]

Climate Crisis

America’s Climate Refugees are Swelling, driven by Rising Seas, Wildfires and Extreme Heat

Sustainability Times

By Laureen Fagan ( Sustainability Times) – News of an accelerating sea level rise along the Gulf Coast of the United States has renewed attention on climate migration, and the degree to which people in the U.S. have begun to retreat from climate challenges due to flooding, wildfire and other impacts. The new study, […]

Climate Crisis

Peak Fossil Fuels? Wind, Solar advance 20% Globally, with World on Verge of CO2 Emissions Drop

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The energy analysis firm Ember reports its latest findings about global energy trends, and it is relatively optimistic. Wind and solar had provided 10% of the world’s electricity in 2021, but that went up to 12% in 2022, a 20% increase. If we look at each source in its own […]

Climate Crisis

IPCC’s Conservative Nature masks true Scale of Action needed to avert Catastrophic Climate Change

The Conversation

By Kevin Anderson, University of Manchester | – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) synthesis report recently landed with an authoritative thump, giving voice to hundreds of scientists endeavouring to understand the unfolding calamity of global heating. What’s changed since the last one in 2014? Well, we’ve dumped an additional third of a trillion […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Emergency: Extreme Heat Waves will increase 600% in Israel, Middle East, over 80 years, as 70% of Youth consider Emigrating

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ruth Schuster at Haaretz reports on a new study led by Assaf Hochmann at Hebrew University, finding that extreme heat waves in Israel will increase 600% over the next 80 years. Not only will this change strike Israel but also Egypt, Syria, Jordan and southern Turkiye, with the potential for […]