Environment

Climate Emergency: Dangerously Early Southwest Wildfire Season Encroaches on iconic Towns and Nature

By Molly Hunter, University of Arizona | – New Mexico and Arizona are facing a dangerously early fire season. It has left neighborhoods in ashes and is having such devastating effects that the governor of New Mexico on May 3, 2022, urged President Joe Biden to issue a disaster declaration. Over 600 fires had broken […]

Climate Crisis

Could a European Union boycott of Putin’s Oil, with Qatari and UAE help, Crash the Russian Economy?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The breaking news is that the German Minister of Economy and Climate Robert Habeck, who is also the Vice-Chancellor has just announced that Germany is all in on a European Union plan to boycott Russian petroleum. Germany has already reduced its imports from Russia from 35% to 12% in only […]

Climate Crisis

Green Energy as answer to Ukraine Crisis: Turning to Nuclear would make us hostage to Moscow’s Uranium

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Tatyana Novikova | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – In March 2022, Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) introduced several bills calling for a ban on Russian uranium as a way to cut off funds for the war in Ukraine and also boost domestic uranium production. Although environmentalists applaud the Russian uranium ban, they […]

Agriculture

Climate Emergency: Extreme Heat devastates Male Honeybees and threatens Fertilization of Crops

The Conversation

By Alison McAfee, University of British Columbia | – Temperatures soared above 42 C for days in Western Canada in June 2021, with Lytton, B.C., registering 49.6 C, the hottest temperature ever recorded in Canada. Wildfires scorched the province, sparking a 56-day state of emergency and nearly 600 additional sudden deaths compared to the same […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Emergency: India’s Unprecedented Heat Wave blights Wheat Crops, adding to Global Bread Shortages

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A global wheat crisis has been caused by Russian’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war there, which has drastically reduced Ukraine’s wheat production and exports, while the resultant international sanctions have also somewhat reduced Russian production. Now, there is yet another complication, as the fertile wheat-growing regions of North […]

Climate Crisis

Germany reduces dependence on Russian Oil from 35% to 12%, aims to End Imports

Kerstine Appunn

( Clean Energy Wire ) – Germany has reduced its dependence on Russian crude oil from 35 to 12 percent and will take steps to replace the remaining deliveries to the Russian-operated Schwedt refinery within the next days, said the economy and climate minister. As Gazprom stopped supplies of natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria […]

Acidification of Oceans

Fossil-Fuel Burning Humans are as Catastrophic for Sea Life as the Chicxulub Meteor was that also killed the Dinosaurs

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new study by Justin L. Penn and Curtis Deutsch shows that over the next 200 years, humanity could kill off half of all marine life by by pumping billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. CO2 is a greenhouse gas that traps the sun’s heat on earth […]

Climate Crisis

Extinction Rebellion Climate Scientists: why we glued Ourselves to a Government Building

The Conversation

By Charlie Gardner, University of Kent; Emily Cox, Cardiff University: and Stuart Capstick, Cardiff University | – One recent Wednesday, while most scientists around the world were carrying out their research, we stepped away from our day jobs to engage in a more direct form of communication. Along with more than 20 others from Scientists […]

Authoritarianism

How Big Oil fuels both Rising Authoritarianism and worsening Climate Crisis

The Conversation

By Eve Darian-Smith, University of California, Irvine | – Around the world, many countries are becoming less democratic. This backsliding on democracy and “creeping authoritarianism,” as the U.S. State Department puts it, is often supported by the same industries that are escalating climate change. In my new book, “Global Burning: Rising Antidemocracy and the Climate […]