Environment

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – A postcard I use as a bookmarker contains a set of principles for gardening in urban soils for minimizing risks to human health from exposure to lead and other contaminants. Developed many years ago for Boston Natural Areas Network by Dr. Wendy Heiger-Bernays, a toxicologist, and myself, […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Breakdown makes Atmosphere Thirstier, Worsens Droughts

The Conversation

By Solomon Gebrechorkos, University of Oxford (The Conversation) – Droughts are becoming more severe and widespread across the globe. But it’s not just changing rainfall patterns that are to blame. The atmosphere is also getting thirstier. In a new study published in Nature, my colleagues and I show that this rising “atmospheric thirst” – also […]

Climate Crisis

Two Visions Collide on Ocean Use: Nationalist Raptors and Multilateral Environmentalists

Foreign Policy in Focus

The ocean holds the answer. By Shafraz Rasheed | May 27, 2025 ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – The rise of nationalist leaders epitomized by Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, cuts to UN climate funding, and dismissal of multilateralism as “globalist” interference has sparked a pivotal question: Can international cooperation survive in an era […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Change and the Border-Industrial Complex in the Trump Era

Tomdispatch

By Todd Miller ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Believe it or not, I had a transcendent experience at this year’s Border Security Expo, the annual event that brings Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) together with private industry. I hesitate to describe it that way, though, because I was on the […]

Climate Crisis

The 136 Largest Coastal Cities, including Egypt’s Alexandria, face $1 Trillion Losses per Year from Sea Level Rise by 2050

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a new paper, Chris R. Stokes et al. write in Communications Earth and Environment that even if we manage only to heat up the earth 1.5º C. (2.7º F.) above pre-industrial norms, that might be enough to provoke massive melting of the world’s principal ice sheets — those in […]

Climate Crisis

Earth is Heading for nearly 5ºF Heating this Century — Unprecedented Peril, But We’ve Made Progress

The Conversation

By Sven Teske, University of Technology Sydney (The Conversation) – Is climate action a lost cause? The United States is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement for the second time, while heat records over land and sea have toppled and extreme weather events have multiplied. In late 2015, nations agreed through the Paris Agreement to try […]

Climate Crisis

For many Island Species, the next Tropical Cyclone may be their Last

The Conversation

By Simon Valle, Bangor University and David Jorge Pereira, University of Birmingham (The Conversation) – When a major cyclone tears through an island nation, all efforts rightly focus on saving human lives and restoring livelihoods. However, these storms have permanent consequences for other species that are often forgotten. As the world continues to heat, cyclones […]

Featured

EVs will Make Up 25% of New Car Sales Globally in 2025, up from 20% last Year

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Electric vehicles are expected to make up some 25% of cars sold globally in 2025, according to the International Energy Agency. Given where we were only a decade ago, this is a world-historical statistic. In 2016, EVs made up a little less than one percent of light vehicle sales. The […]

Climate Crisis

Green Enterprise: 1 Gigawatt He Dreiht North Sea Wind Farm receives no Gov’t Subsidies

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The first giant Vestas offshore wind turbine of the German He Dreiht (“It Spins”) project in the North Sea has been installed, some 190 miles northwest of Bremerhaven. It is capable of generating 15 megawatts just on its own. When the other 64 turbines are erected on the already-sunk pilons […]