Environment

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A massive ammonium nitrate explosion rocked Beirut’s port on Tuesday, sending up a mushroom cloud that reminded some of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, damaging buildings, blowing out windows, overturning cars, wounding over 3,000 people at least, and leaving dozens dead. Flying glass and debris were responsible for many of the injuries. […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Emergency making you Poor: Coastal Flooding may cost up to 20% of Global Economy in coming Decades

The Conversation

By Ebru Kirezci | – Over the past two weeks, storms pummelling the New South Wales coast have left beachfront homes at Wamberal on the verge of collapse. It’s stark proof of the risks climate change and sea level rise pose to coastal areas. Our new research published today puts a potential price on the […]

Featured

“Never Seen a Decline of this Magnitude” – ExxonMobil, Crashed by Covid, gets taste of looming Electric Vehicle Crisis

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ashton Nichols at The Dallas Morning News reports that ExxonMobil lost over $1 billion in the second quarter, up from a $600 million lost in the first. Year on year, its revenues are down 33% for the first half of this year. It has been forced to close down half […]

Mass Extinction

Plastic Found Lining Seabird Nests on a Worrying Scale

The Conversation

By Tom Ovenden | – From the packaging our food comes in to the clothes we wear, plastic is everywhere. We know that seabirds eat it and get tangled in it, but we are only just beginning to explore the impacts this has on their health and survival. This is really important, particularly in the […]

Climate Crisis

3 Dead as Iraqi Crowds Protest Electricity Outages in 124° Heat; Have US and Climate Crisis left Iraq Unviable?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Tuesday, the temperature in Baghdad hit 124° F. (51.2°). Just for perspective, the all-time highest temperature recorded for Asia was in Kuwait five years ago, at 129° F. Scientists consider an average temperature of 95° the highest consistent with habitability. Since these temperatures and higher will become more and […]

Houthi

Yemen: Houthi Stonewalling on Leaking Oil Supertanker endangers Red Sea Ecology, 30 Million Livelihoods

Human Rights Watch

( Human Rights Watch) – Houthi authorities in Yemen should immediately permit United Nations experts access to a supertanker moored off Yemen’s coast that risks spilling over a million barrels of crude oil into the Red Sea, Human Rights Watch said today. The UN says a spill would have catastrophic environmental and humanitarian consequences, including […]

Climate Crisis

How to Fund the Green New Deal: With the money we spend on Immigration Enforcement, we could solar power nearly 35 million homes.

OtherWords

By Josue De Luna Navarro | ( Otherwords.org ) – The climate crisis is perhaps the greatest challenge humanity is facing. Yes, it threatens everyone’s existence. But in particular, it exacerbates the centuries-long systemic oppression plaguing so many communities. The scientific consensus tells us we have 10 years to transform our fossil-fueled, extractive economy into […]

Climate Crisis

Energy isn’t just electricity – the common mistake obscuring the mammoth task of decarbonisation

The Conversation

By George Loumakis | – One of the first things I teach students is the difference between energy and electricity. Electricity is a particular form of energy, but often the two words are used interchangeably. Britain recently celebrated its longest streak without burning coal to generate electricity. For the first quarter of 2020, global electricity […]

Climate Crisis

Floating wind farms: how to make them the future of green electricity

The Conversation

By Susan Gourvenec | – Since 2010, wind energy has seen sustained growth worldwide, with the amount of energy generated by offshore wind increasing by nearly 30% each year. Countries around the world need to ramp up renewable energy supply quickly to meet growing demand and rapidly reduce emissions. Despite this urgency, offshore wind currently […]