Extreme Weather

( Tomdispatch.com ) – It was January 1983 and raining in San Francisco. The summer before, I’d moved here from Portland, Oregon, a city known for its perpetual gray drizzles and, on the 60-odd days a year when the sun deigns to shine, dazzling displays of greenery. My girlfriend had spent a year convincing me […]

Climate Crisis

A Water War Is Brewing Over the Dwindling Colorado River

ProPublica

By Abrahm Lustgarten | – (ProPublica) – On a crisp day this fall I drove southeast from Grand Junction, Colorado, into the Uncompahgre Valley, a rich basin of row crops and hayfields. A snow line hung like a bowl cut around the upper cliffs of the Grand Mesa, while in the valley some farmers were […]

Climate Crisis

2022’s US Climate Disasters: A Tale of too much CO2, Too much Rain – and too Little

The Conversation

By Shuang-Ye Wu, University of Dayton | – The year 2022 will be remembered across the U.S. for its devastating flooding and storms – and also for its extreme heat waves and droughts, including one so severe it briefly shut down traffic on the Mississippi River. During a period of five weeks over the summer, […]

Climate Crisis

The Pakistani Mega-Flood and our Climate Emergency

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Here is a talk I recently gave about the mega-flood this fall in Pakistan, which affected 33 million people, inundated a third of the country at one point, and caused between $15 billion and $30 billion in damages, including to crops and food supplies at a time when the Ukraine […]

Agriculture

Ending Amazon Deforestation: The Future of the World’s largest Rainforest

The Conversation

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, […]

Climate Crisis

If a Warnock win gives the Dems 51 in the Senate, Sen. Manchin will no Longer be a drag on Green Energy Progress

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ladies and gentlemen, the results are in, and the winner of the 2022 midterms is . . . the earth’s climate. The Democrats have retained control of the Senate, according to projections of NBC News., which predicts that Nevada’s Senator Catherine Cortez Masto will defeat her Republican challenger, Adam Laxalt. […]

Climate Crisis

As Biden Touts Progress at COP27, National Assessment warns that the Things Americans Love are Endangered by Climate Emergency

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden addressed the COP27 Climate in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt on Friday. He noted the ravages of the human-caused climate emergency on the African continent, including deadly drought in the Horn of Africa, floods that displaced over a million people in Nigeria, and the increasing potential for conflict […]

Climate Crisis

Egypt’s Alexandria in Danger of becoming a modern Atlantis, as Climate Conference opens in Sharm El Sheikh

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The second-largest city in the country hosting this year’s international climate change conference, Alexandria in Egypt, will struggle for its life the rest of this century and may be 33% under water in only 30 years. We may be seeing the end of a city founded 2,353 years ago. The […]

Climate Crisis

As COP27 Climate Summit in Egypt Nears, World Needs to Realize Depth of Crisis, Urgency of Action

The Conversation

By Andrew King, The University of Melbourne | – (The Conversation) – World leaders and climate experts are gathering for pivotal United Nations climate change talks in Egypt. Known as COP27, the conference will aim to put Earth on a path to net-zero emissions and keep global warming well below 2℃ this century. The world […]