Environment

By Oscar Berglund, University of Bristol and Tie Franco Brotto, University of Bristol (The Conversation) – Climate and environmental protest is being criminalised and repressed around the world. The criminalisation of such protest has received a lot of attention in certain countries, including the UK and Australia. But there have not been any attempts to […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Change Taking the World’s Four Legacy Empires Down:

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Some 2,000 years ago, an itinerant preacher, Saul of Tarsus, was writing to a wayward congregation in Corinth, Greece. Curiously enough, his words still capture the epochal change that may await us just over history’s horizon. “For now we see in a glass, darkly,” he wrote. “Now I know in part, […]

Climate Crisis

Climate, Migration and Conflict mix to create ‘deadly’ intense Tropical Storms like Chido

The Conversation

By Liz Stephens, University of Reading; Dan Green, University of Bristol, and Luis Artur, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (The Conversation) – Cyclone Chido was an “intense tropical cyclone”, equivalent to a category 4 hurricane in the Atlantic. It made landfall in Mayotte, a small island lying to the north-west of Madagascar on December 14, generating wind […]

Climate Crisis

Scientists: Cyclone Chido, which Devastated Indian Ocean Island of Mayotte, was 40% more likely to be a Cat 4 because of Climate Change

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Cyclone Chido devastated the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, destroying an estimated 20,000 homes and wiping out entire shantytown neighborhoods. The island has about 65,000 households, so a third may be flattened. Godzilla-sized waves measured as high as 22 feet. About half the population still lacks electricity, and ironically water […]

Climate Crisis

Rising Desertification shows we can’t keep Farming with Fossil Fuels; 3/4s of Earth’s Land is Drier

The Conversation

By Jack Marley, The Conversation Three-quarters of Earth’s land has become drier since 1990. Droughts come and go – more often and more extreme with the incessant rise of greenhouse gas emissions over the last three decades – but burning fossil fuels is transforming our blue planet. A new report from scientists convened by the […]

Climate Crisis

On Climate Change, the International Court of Justice faces a pivotal Choice

The Conversation

By Claudia Ituarte-Lima, Lund University (The Conversation) – What legal obligations do states have to fight climate change? Should high-emitting countries be held responsible for the harm they’ve caused? And should states safeguard the climate for future generations? The international court of justice (ICJ) is considering similar questions to these in hearings ahead of issuing […]

plastic

A tax on new Plastic would slash Waste – if built into the global Treaty on Plastics

The Conversation

By Amelia Leavesley, The University of Melbourne (The Conversation) – Earlier this week, the mining magnate Andrew Forrest made headlines calling for a global “polymer premium” – or plastic tax – to be placed on every tonne of newly manufactured plastics. A tax like this could form part of the Global Plastic Treaty being hammered […]

Climate Crisis

In Sunny Spain, cheap Solar Power set to overtake Wind Generation, backed by Socialist Government and Co-ops

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Spain’s photovoltaic electricity production is set to surpass its wind power, according to China’s Xinhua news agency. Spain is Europe’s champion at producing solar power, because some of its regions are especially sunny — think Seville. The Global Energy Monitor puts it this way: “The country has more utility-scale solar […]

Climate Crisis

Meltwater from Greenland and the Arctic is weakening Ocean Circulation, speeding up Warming down South

The Conversation

By Laurie Menviel, UNSW Sydney and Gabriel Pontes, UNSW Sydney (The Conversation) – A vast network of ocean currents nicknamed the “great global ocean conveyor belt” is slowing down. That’s a problem because this vital system redistributes heat around the world, influencing both temperatures and rainfall. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation funnels heat northwards through […]