Methane

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Fiona Harvey at The Guardian reports that the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report due out Monday will stress the need to slash methane emissions if we have any hope of keeping extra global heating to 3.6 degrees F. (1.5C). Scientists worry that as we get above that […]

Agriculture

More livestock, more carbon dioxide, less ice: the Climate Crisis is Worsening despite Politicians’ “Commitments”

The Conversation

By Thomas Newsome, Christopher Wolf, and William Ripple | ( The Conversation) – Back in 2019, more than 11,000 scientists declared a global climate emergency. They established a comprehensive set of vital signs that impact or reflect the planet’s health, such as forest loss, fossil fuel subsidies, glacier thickness, ocean acidity and surface temperature. In […]

Climate Crisis

Surging of Dangerous Greenhouse Gas Methane endangers our Planet: Why we Have to Stop It

The Conversation

By Drew Shindell | – Methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, is a larger climate problem than the world anticipates, and cutting its emissions will be crucial to slow global warming, a new United Nations report warns. The greenhouse gas is many times more powerful than carbon dioxide at warming the planet, and its […]

Climate Crisis

In Historic Ruling, German High Court slaps down Gov’t Climate Plan, Orders Accelerated Action against CO2

Clean Energy Wire

By Sören Amelang Kerstine Appunn Charlotte Nijhuis and Julian Wettengel | – ( Clean Energy Wire) – Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court has ruled that the government has to have a more detailled plan how to reduce emissions as of 2030 to not put the largest burden on today’s young people. Photo: FfF. In an unexpected […]

Acidification of Oceans

More CO2 in our Atmosphere now than any time since 3.6 mn Years Ago, when Oceans were 90 feet higher (that’s our fate)

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a scientific shocker, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has found that despite the slowdown in carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 because of the pandemic, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere rose to a global average of 412.5 parts per million (ppm) from 410 in 2019. At the […]

Climate Crisis

One last Time, Trump lies to the International Community about the Climate Emergency and Green Energy

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – DW gives a clip of Trump’s unhinged video rant to the G20 summit against the Paris Climate Accord on Sunday, which is being held virtually this year. Trump said, according to Kevin Liptak at CNN, “The Paris accord was not designed to save the environment, it was designed to kill […]

Climate Crisis

Energy isn’t just electricity – the common mistake obscuring the mammoth task of decarbonisation

The Conversation

By George Loumakis | – One of the first things I teach students is the difference between energy and electricity. Electricity is a particular form of energy, but often the two words are used interchangeably. Britain recently celebrated its longest streak without burning coal to generate electricity. For the first quarter of 2020, global electricity […]

Climate Crisis

Emissions of methane – a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide – are rising dangerously

The Conversation

By Pep Canadell, Ben Poulter, Marielle Saunois, Paul Krummel, and Rob Jackson | – Fossil fuels and agriculture are driving a dangerous acceleration in methane emissions, at a rate consistent with a 3-4℃ rise in global temperatures this century. Our two papers published today provide a troubling report card on the global methane budget, and […]

Climate Crisis

Methane Emissions Crisis and Rapid Global Heating: It is all Fossil Fuel Drilling and Fracking

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Many policy and scientific questions have the form of a Whodunnit. In what Umberto Eco called the “closed” mystery, the aftermath of a crime is described by the novelist but the identity and the motives of the killer are not known. A big mystery is where all the methane in […]