Environment

40,000 BC: Earth’s magnetic field flipped, causing massive sudden climate change and Extinction of Neanderthals

By Chris Fogwill, Alan Hogg, Chris Turney, and Zoë Thomas | – The world experienced a few centuries of apocalyptic conditions 42,000 years ago, triggered by a reversal of the Earth’s magnetic poles combined with changes in the Sun’s behaviour. That’s the key finding of our new multidisciplinary study, published in Science. This last major […]

Climate Crisis

From Covid to Power outages in Ice Storms, the Texas Republican Party has created a Failed State

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Republican Party has had a lock on Texas politics for over two decades, and has reduced it to a failed state. Even Texans like Beto O’Rourke are making this observation. Millions are without electricity in the midst of one of the state’s worse winter storms ever. This massive failure […]

Climate Crisis

Michael E. Mann on The New Climate War and Biden’s Greening of America: Interview with Juan Cole

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – I am so pleased to present to our readers an interview with one of the world’s foremost climate scientists, Michael E. Mann of Penn State. I have followed him for a decade and a half and have learned tons from his informed, clear and absolutely crucial writing. In his journal […]

Germany

German President envisions Electric Cars as zero carbon ‘Smartphone on Wheels’

Clean Energy Wire

By Charlotte Nijhuis | – Clean Energy Wire / Süddeutsche Zeitung ) – To reach Germany’s climate goals the car industry needs to undergo a significant transformation, German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier said during a summit titled “Industry and climate action using the example of the automotive industry” that he organised in Berlin. On last Thursday […]

Oceans

The Plastic Plague: Fish are eating more Microplastics, and We are eating those Fish

The Conversation

By Alexandra McIntur and Matthew Savoca | – Trillions of barely visible pieces of plastic are floating in the world’s oceans, from surface waters to the deep seas. These particles, known as microplastics, typically form when larger plastic objects such as shopping bags and food containers break down. Researchers are concerned about microplastics because they […]

Climate Crisis

Time to Roll up our Sleeves and Fix this: Trump left us with Heightened Climate, Nuclear Danger

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com) – If you live in California, you’re likely to be consumed on occasion by thoughts of fire. That’s not surprising, given that, in last year alone, actual fires consumed over four and a quarter million acres of the state, taking with them 10,488 structures, 33 human lives, and who knows how many animals. […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis and Water Conflict: How Saudi’s water insecurity led to war in Yemen

Adam Robertson Charlton

Stavanger, Norway (Special to Informed Comment) – In the early hours of 14 September 2019, a fleet of drones attacked the Abqaiq-Khurais oil refinery in Saudi Arabia, the largest oil stabilisation plant in the world. The attack came shortly before Saudi Aramco –the Kingdom’s state-owned oil company – was floated on the market, and Riyadh […]

Climate Crisis

Global heating from CO2 breaks Himalayan Glacier, floods sweep away Scores, destroy Hydroelectric Plant

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A huge chunk of the Nanda Devi glacier in the Himalayas broke off Sunday morning, melting and crashing down on villages around Joshimath in India’s Uttarakhand state, leaving nine dead and 140 unaccounted for. The turbulent grey deluge of water, ice and rocks slammed into two hydro-electric plants, destroying one […]

Climate Crisis

How Defeating the Planet-Killing Keystone XL Oil Pipeline built a Bolder, Savvier Climate Movement

Waging Nonviolence

By Nick Engelfried | ( Waging Nonviolence) – When President Biden rescinded a crucial permit for the Keystone XL pipeline last week, it marked the culmination of one of the longest, highest-profile campaigns in the North American climate movement. The opposition to Keystone XL included large environmental organizations, grassroots climate activist networks, Nebraska farmers, Texas […]