Climate Crisis

Goodbye Acapulco: 205 mph Winds destroy 80% of Infrastructure, do $18 bn of Damage in Climate Change Warning

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Gaza City is not the only place that has been reduced to rubble in the past week. Dan Stillman at WaPo points out that Hurricane Otis hit Acapulco on October 25 with 205 mph winds, “among the strongest ever measured.” Iván Cabrera at N+ reports that the megastorm destroyed 80% […]

Climate Crisis

If Gaza is a Conflict over Oil Money investments, Norway points to a Near Future where Petroleum is Worthless

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Biden administration has concluded that the horrific Hamas attacks on Israel of October 7 and after aimed at derailing the normalization negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. But why should this issue be so pressing as to cause a war? Saudi Arabia is the world’s swing petroleum exporter. The […]

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

Germany adds 50% more Wind Power Year over Year as Approvals are Streamlined

Clean Energy Wire

By Jack McGovan | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Germany has added 50 percent more new wind power capacity in the first nine months of 2023 than in the same time period last year, reports news agency dpa in an article published by the Stuttgarter Zeitung. Preliminary figures seen by dpa show that […]

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 […]