Environmentalism

By Kitty Stapp | (Inter Press Service) | – – NEW YORK (IPS) – Up to 96 percent of the emissions reductions needed by 2030 to keep global warming below a critical threshold of two degrees C [3.6 degrees F.] could be achieved through a series of 10 steps, says a new report released by […]

Climate Change

Dirty Energy vs. Clean Power The Past Battles the Future at Seneca Lake

contributors

By Ellen Cantarow | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – Let’s amend the famous line from Joni Mitchell’s “Yellow Taxi” to fit this moment in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. There, Big Energy seems determined to turn paradise, if not into a parking lot, then into a massive storage area for fracked natural gas. […]

Christianity

As Glaciers Melt in Ecuador, Pope Francis challenges Technocrats, touts “Keeping” the Environment

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Pope Francis continues to preach environmentalism as he addresses crowds in Latin America, a challenging message in poor countries where over-exploitation of natural resources is a constant temptation. These are also countries and populations, however, most at risk from pollution and the ravages of climate change. […]

Climate Change

California’s Drought Is Part of a Much Bigger Water Crisis. Here’s What You Need to Know

contributors

By Abrahm Lustgarten, Lauren Kirchner and Amanda Zamora | (ProPublica) | — Why do I keep hearing about the California drought, if it’s the Colorado River that we’re “killing”? Pretty much every state west of the Rockies has been facing a water shortage of one kind or another in recent years. California’s is a severe, […]

Desertification

Climate Change-Driven Drought in Karachi hits Poor Hardest

contributors

By Zofeen Ebrahim | {Inter Press Service) | – – KARACHI (IPS) – Over 950 people have perished in just five days. The morgues, already filled to capacity, are piling up with bodies, and in over-crowded hospitals the threat of further deaths hangs in the air. Pakistan’s port city of Karachi, home to over 23 […]

Climate Change

In first, Court orders Dutch gov’t to protect citizens from climate change

contributors

The Tree | – – The Dutch government has put its citizens in danger by failing to address greenhouse gas emissions, a court [has] ruled . . . In a landmark verdict, the judge said the government “must do more to avert the imminent danger caused by climate change” and ordered it to reduce CO2 […]

Climate Change

Humans Causing the Sixth Great Extinction of other Life Forms, on which we Depend

contributors

By Gerardo Ceballos | (The Conversation) | – – Vitus Bering, the famous explorer, led perhaps the most ambitious scientific expedition ever in the 1730s. Commanding 10,000 people, he was in charge of exploring the vast lands of Siberia and the unknown sea between Siberia and Alaska. In 1741, he was forced to land on […]

Climate Change

As 700 Die in Pakistan from Extreme Heat, Pakistanis Deny Climate Change

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Pakistan is in the midst of an extreme heat wave with highs around 110 degrees F., which has killed 700 persons in the past 3 days. Three weeks ago it was India’s turn, when extreme heat killed 1200 in the country’s south. Despite the severe dangers […]

Acidification of Oceans

5 Radical Takeaways from the Pope’s Letter on Climate

contributors

By Janet Redman | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – Francis recognizes that there’s no way to stop climate change without confronting the way the world does business. That’s huge. Pope Francis just released an “encyclical,” a letter meant to serve as a guide to understanding our personal relationship to some of the most […]