Climate Change

A Green New Deal: Arkansas School District goes Solar, Gives Teachers $1000s in Bonuses with Savings

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Climate Wire reported last fall on a remarkable story about the way renewable energy not only saves the earth from the destructive climate emergency but can at the same time improve our lives and those of our children. Our hero is Michael Hester, who some years ago became the superintendent […]

Green Energy

Defeating Climate Denialism by showing People how they will Win by Greening Society

The Conversation

By Sarah Sharma and Matthew Hoffmann | – Canada and the United States are suddenly steeped in policy proposals to aggressively cut carbon emissions. In the face of a climate emergency and on the heels of numerous climate disasters, this is welcome news indeed. In the U.S., the newly minted Biden administration has unleashed a […]

Mass Extinction

A common soil pesticide cut wild bee reproduction by 89% – here’s why scientists are worried

The Conversation

By Philip Donkersley | – When you think of bees, a hive humming with activity probably comes to mind. But most of the world’s 20,000 bee species don’t call a hive home. These wild species lead solitary lives instead, and around 70% of them build nests underground where they raise their offspring on the nectar […]

Climate Crisis

Decline of Coal shows Gov’t Policy, Renewables crucial to Reducing Carbon Emissions: The Market isn’t Enough

The Conversation

By David Drake and Jeffrey York | – The big idea People often point to plunging natural gas prices as the reason U.S. coal-fired power plants have been shutting down at a faster pace in recent years. However, new research shows two other forces had a much larger effect: federal regulation and a well-funded activist […]

Acidification of Oceans

Saving the Planet: Why a net-zero future depends on the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon

The Conversation

By Anya M. Waite, Brad deYoung, Chris Milley, and Ian G. Stewart | – Most of us growing up along Canada’s East Coast never worried about hurricane season. Except for those working at sea, we viewed hurricanes as extreme events in remote tropical regions, seen only through blurred footage of flailing palm trees on the […]

Archaeology

40,000 BC: Earth’s magnetic field flipped, causing massive sudden climate change and Extinction of Neanderthals

The Conversation

By Chris Fogwill, Alan Hogg, Chris Turney, and Zoë Thomas | – The world experienced a few centuries of apocalyptic conditions 42,000 years ago, triggered by a reversal of the Earth’s magnetic poles combined with changes in the Sun’s behaviour. That’s the key finding of our new multidisciplinary study, published in Science. This last major […]

Climate Crisis

Michael E. Mann on The New Climate War and Biden’s Greening of America: Interview with Juan Cole

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – I am so pleased to present to our readers an interview with one of the world’s foremost climate scientists, Michael E. Mann of Penn State. I have followed him for a decade and a half and have learned tons from his informed, clear and absolutely crucial writing. In his journal […]

Germany

German President envisions Electric Cars as zero carbon ‘Smartphone on Wheels’

Clean Energy Wire

By Charlotte Nijhuis | – Clean Energy Wire / Süddeutsche Zeitung ) – To reach Germany’s climate goals the car industry needs to undergo a significant transformation, German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier said during a summit titled “Industry and climate action using the example of the automotive industry” that he organised in Berlin. On last Thursday […]

Climate Crisis

Time to Roll up our Sleeves and Fix this: Trump left us with Heightened Climate, Nuclear Danger

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com) – If you live in California, you’re likely to be consumed on occasion by thoughts of fire. That’s not surprising, given that, in last year alone, actual fires consumed over four and a quarter million acres of the state, taking with them 10,488 structures, 33 human lives, and who knows how many animals. […]