Flooding

The Marshall Islands could be wiped out by climate change – and their colonial history limits their ability to save themselves

By Autumn Bordner and Caroline E. Ferguson | – Along U.S. coastlines, from California to Florida, residents are getting increasingly accustomed to “king tides.” These extra-high tides cause flooding and wreak havoc on affected communities. As climate change raises sea levels, they are becoming more extreme. King tides are nothing new for the Marshall Islands, […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Change Will Make Parts of the U.S. Uninhabitable; but Americans Are Still Moving There (ProPublica Video)

Juan Cole

( ProPublica) – Over the past year, the advent of a professional economy powered by people working from home has quickened the conversation about where to live, particularly among millennials. “Is now the right time to buy property in Minnesota?” “Is Buffalo the new place to be?” How important is proximity to fresh water? Should […]

Climate Crisis

Georgia’s Embattled Sen. Perdue Protects own Beach-Front Mansion from Climate Emergency, while voting to Burn more Fossil Fuels

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Republican Senator David Perdue of Georgia, facing a run-off against Jon Ossof, has an opulent six-room beach-front mansion that has been protected with newly built, pricey jetties and sea walls against sea level rise, storm surges and coastal erosion. Why, it is as if Perdue thinks the climate emergency is […]

Climate Crisis

UN Report: Human Environmental, Climate Destruction could unleash 800k Animal Viruses on Us

The Conversation

By Katie Woolaston and Judith Lorraine Fisher | – Human damage to biodiversity is leading us into a pandemic era. The virus that causes COVID-19, for example, is linked to similar viruses in bats, which may have been passed to humans via pangolins or another species. Environmental destruction such as land clearing, deforestation, climate change, […]

Acidification of Oceans

The Black Hole of Depressions: Doing nothing about Climate Emergency could cost more than all the Wealth in the World

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A study in Nature Communications has found that if you add in variability to calculations of the impact of climate change, the upper range of the damage it could do to property is $563 trillion.* That is in the worst case scenario where the world does virtually nothing to stop […]

Climate Crisis

The Republican Party is Sick: Top 4 Ways it is Making You and Yours Sick, too

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Republican Party is sick. That isn’t a putdown, it is just the truth. The chair of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, is down with Covid-19, which she caught from hanging around with top Republican leaders. The head of the party, Donald Trump, is so ill he is in […]

Climate Crisis

Burning Fossil Fuels is causing Extreme Rainfall and Acceleration of Earth’s Water Cycle

The Conversation

By Francis Zwiers and Ronald Stewart | – Extreme weather and climate events causing extensive damage are a fact of the Canadian climate, and this year is no exception. On June 13, a mammoth hailstorm pounded Calgary with damage in excess of $1 billion dollars, the most expensive hailstorm in Canadian history. In early July, […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Emergency making you Poor: Coastal Flooding may cost up to 20% of Global Economy in coming Decades

The Conversation

By Ebru Kirezci | – Over the past two weeks, storms pummelling the New South Wales coast have left beachfront homes at Wamberal on the verge of collapse. It’s stark proof of the risks climate change and sea level rise pose to coastal areas. Our new research published today puts a potential price on the […]

Climate Crisis

Why Burning Fossil Fuels is to Today’s Pandemics as Fleas were to the Black Death

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Sheri Fink at the NYT reports that Center for Disease Control scientific modeler Matthew Biggerstaff estimated in a conference call that the coronavirus pandemic could last for many months or as long as a year and could infect half to two-thirds of the population of the United States. Between 200,000 […]