Drought

By Abrahm Lustgarten | – ( ProPublica) – The western United States is, famously, in the grips of its worst megadrought in a millennium. The Colorado River, which supplies water to more than 40 million Americans and supports food production for the rest of the country, is in imminent peril. The levels in the nation’s […]

Climate Crisis

Why Desalination is Key to averting global Water Shortage, but Will Take a Lot of Work

The Conversation

Kiran Tota-Maharaj, Aston University | – Clean freshwater is critical for sustaining human life. However, 1.1 billion people lack access to it worldwide. Desalination represents an increasingly popular way of addressing this. Desalination is the process of extracting salt from saline water to make it drinkable. There are two main types of desalination. In the […]

Climate Crisis

Why defusing ‘Carbon Bombs’ offers a promising new Agenda for tackling Climate Change

The Conversation

By Kjell Kühne, University of Leeds | – A carbon bomb is a fossil fuel extraction project, such as a coal mine, that can cause over a gigatonne of CO₂ emissions during its lifetime. That’s a billion tonnes – more than twice the UK’s annual emissions from a single project. In our latest research, my […]

Climate Crisis

Netherlands innovates with Floating Solar Panels in Sea, Locally-owned Wind Farm Cooperative

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Netherlands was long a laggard regarding the green energy revolution and combating the climate emergency, perhaps in part because it is a fossil gas-producing country. Even so, the Netherlands is now making strides toward an energy switch with some innovative approaches. It is still a little behind the European […]

Climate Crisis

The White House Meets the Creature from the Black Lagoon: How Trump turned the American Dream into the American Scream

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com) – Honestly, if you had described this America to me more than half a century ago, I would have laughed in your face. Donald Trump becoming president? You must be kidding! If you want a bizarre image, just imagine him in the company of Abraham Lincoln. I mean, really, what’s happened to us? […]

Agriculture

Climate Emergency Hits German Farms as Harvests Remain Meager

Clean Energy Wire

By Edgar Meza | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – The ongoing drought in Germany is expected to have dire effects on this year’s harvest, which is already estimated to be below the average of previous years, said the German Farmers’ Association (DBV). “The prolonged drought in many regions of the country shows once […]

Climate Crisis

How Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act strengthens EPA’s future ability to take on Big Carbon and the Supreme Court

The Conversation

By Patrick Parenteau, Vermont Law School | – The new Inflation Reduction Act is being justly celebrated as the most significant piece of federal legislation to address the climate crisis to date. It includes about US$370 billion in incentives for everything from solar panels to electric vehicles. But there’s some confusion around what it allows […]

China

Climate Emergency hits China: Historic droughts trigger power Shortages in the Yangtze Basin

China Dialogue

( China Dialogue ) – Since mid-June, China has been facing the most intense and enduring heat waves since records began in 1961, according to the National Climate Centre. In the past week, the middle and lower Yangtze River basin has experienced exceptionally hot and dry spells in what is supposed to be the flood […]

Climate Crisis

“The Elbe River Gasps for Breath:” Rivers’ ecosystems across Germany threatened by low Water, O2 Levels and high Temperatures

Benjamin Wehrmann

Citing Hamburger Abendblatt / Süddeutsche Zeitung / Rheinische Post ( Clean Energy Wire ) – German rivers are suffering from extreme heat and drought, ringing the alarm for the stability of their ecosystems all over the country. Like many other parts of Europe, Germany has seen recurring heatwaves since late spring, which coupled with little […]