By Fergus Green, UCL and Harro van Asselt, Stockholm Environment Institute | – (The Conversation) – The latest UN climate change summit (COP27) concluded, once again, with a tussle over the place of fossil fuels in the global economy. An agreement by the world’s governments to phase out all fossil fuels would have been a […]
From Sponge Cities to Early Wildfire Detection Systems: Top 4 Ways Climate-fuelled Disasters can be Thwarted
By Roslyn Prinsley, Australian National University | – Climate change is driving a worldwide increase in extreme events. The latest State of the Climate report confirms the risks of disasters are rising in Australia. Repeated floods have devastated our east coast. Other extreme events are getting worse too. Since 1987 bushfires have burnt increasing areas, […]
After Failures of COP27, only a Radical Effort to Slash CO2 can keep Climate from Going Chaotic
By Peter Schlosser, Arizona State University | – The world could still, theoretically, meet its goal of keeping global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius, a level many scientists consider a dangerous threshold. Realistically, that’s unlikely to happen. Part of the problem was evident at COP27, the United Nations climate conference in Egypt. While nations’ climate […]
Urban Planning is now on the Front Line of the Climate Crisis. This is What it means for our Cities and Towns
By Barbara Norman, University of Canberra | International climate talks in Egypt known as COP27 are into their second week. Thursday is Solutions Day at the summit. Recognising that urban planning is now a front-line response to climate change, discussions will focus on sustainable cities and transport, green buildings and resilient infrastructure. The COP26 Glasgow […]
COP27 Climate Policy breakthrough as Wealthy Polluters accept the Principle of Climate Reparations: But does it Go far Enough?
By Matt McDonald, The University of Queensland | – For 30 years, developing nations have fought to establish an international fund to pay for the “loss and damage” they suffer as a result of climate change. As the COP27 climate summit in Egypt wrapped up over the weekend, they finally succeeded. While it’s a historic […]
With Climate Crisis, Dust Storms are getting Bigger, and Wildfires are one Cause
By Matt Telfer, University of Plymouth | – (The Conversation) – Wildfires affect large areas of the Earth’s surface and many of their effects occur at an alarming speed. The fires that consumed half of Australia’s Kangaroo Island in 2019 left a trail of animal corpses in their wake. In 2021, wildfires burned over 2.5 […]
Ending Amazon Deforestation: The Future of the World’s largest Rainforest
By Jennifer Weeks, The Conversation | – Brazil’s president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was greeted with applause and cheers when he addressed the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Nov. 16, 2022. As he had in his campaign, Lula pledged to stop rampant deforestation in the Amazon, which his predecessor, Jair Bolsanaro, […]
France’s Plan for Solar Panels on all Car Parks is just the Start of an Urban Renewable Revolution
By Dylan Ryan, Edinburgh Napier University | – (The Conversation) – France has approved legislation that will require all car parks with more than 80 spaces to be covered over by solar panels. This is part of a wider programme that will see solar panels occupy derelict lots, vacant land alongside roads and railways, as […]
From Kanye to Trump: Antisemitism isn’t just Jew-hatred– it’s anti-Jewish racism
By Dov Waxman, University of California, Los Angeles | – (The Conversation) – Antisemitism has been in the news a lot lately. Hip-hop megastar Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – tweeted Oct. 8, 2022 that he would “go death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” and then made antisemitic comments during a series of […]