Drought

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Poet Robert Frost asked if the world would end by fire or ice. It turns out that it is both, the fire of global heating and the melting of earth’s surface ice and resultant biblical floods. Nowhere is this more clear than in Iraq. Not everyone will suffer equally from […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Emergency: Europe Parched, Farms Fallow, as Lakes and Rivers Dry up in worst Drought since time of Christ

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Europe is in the throes of a once-in-500 years severe drought that is making its rivers into shallow streams and its lakes into vanishing puddles. The mighty Rhine in Germany is so low that it may soon not be navigable. The biggest lake in Italy is fast disappearing. These are […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Change Threatens the Most Iconic U.S. Landscapes, from Joshua Trees to Wetlands

OtherWords

By Farrah Hassen | – ( Otherwords ) – Over the past decade, I’ve traveled countless times to the desert regions east of San Bernardino in Southern California. In the Mojave National Preserve and Joshua Tree National Park, I’ve been captivated by the desert’s complex and diverse ecosystems — at once beautiful, perilous, fragile, and […]

Climate Crisis

The Coming Climate Emergency Heath Crisis – From Heat Deaths to Worsening Allergies

Cronkite News Arizona PBS

By Alexandra Conforti | – ( Cronkite News) – PHOENIX – As a climate change activist and mental health advocate, Saiarchana Darira studies the effects of global warming not just on the environment but on the well-being of people worldwide. The recent Arizona State University graduate and self-described “environ(mental) health researcher” works as the youth […]

Arab World

‘Cascading’ climate risks in the Middle East and North Africa

China Dialogue

By Glada Lahn | – ( China Dialogue) – The next two United Nations climate negotiations will take place in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA). COP27 will be in Egypt this November, followed by COP28 in the United Arab Emirates next year. Climate change has only recently gained mainstream attention in MENA, […]

Batteries

The Great Pivot: Why Dem Green Energy IRA Will Steamroll Fossil Fuels and Help Save the Planet, Despite Manchin

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Democrats in the Senate Passed the Inflation Reduction Act on Sunday, with its nearly $370 billion in new spending on the green energy transition. The Democratic majority in the House of Representatives is such that the bill will certainly be passed into law at the end of this month […]

Carbon Footprint

Business can no Longer Ignore Extreme Heat, Climate Emergency as they Threaten Bottom Line

The Conversation

By David Lont, University of Otago; Martien Lubberink, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington; and Paul Griffin, University of California, Davis | – When record-breaking heatwaves cause train tracks to bend, airport runways to buckle, and roads to melt, as happened in the United Kingdom last month, it is likely that business performance […]

Climate Crisis

Surprise Dem Senate Bill makes US Global Climate Leader, Sees 40% Carbon Reduction by 2030

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a huge surprise on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and the Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Joe Manchin, announced an agreement on a package of legislation that includes an unprecedented $369 billion to encourage green energy and cut carbon dioxide emissions, on a […]

Climate Crisis

Are New Mexico’s Megafires so extreme they Mark a New era? Welcome to the Pyrocene

William deBuys

By William deBuys | – ( Tomdispatch.org) – Firefighters don’t normally allude to early English epics, but in a briefing on the massive Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire in northern New Mexico, a top field chief said, “It’s like Beowulf: it’s not the thing you fear, it is the mother of the thing you fear.” He […]