Climate Change

By Christopher Trisos and Alex Pigot | – The impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems are already evident. Poleward shifts in the geographic distributions of species, catastrophic forest fires and mass bleaching of coral reefs all bear the fingerprints of climate change. But what will the world’s biodiversity look like in the future? […]

Climate Crisis

Burning Fossil Fuels made Coronavirus Death Rate Worse, and Kills 200K Americans per Year, Not to Mention Global Heating

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Air pollution, producing medical conditions such as asthma and other lung problems as well as heart disease, is responsible for some of the thousands of coronavirus deaths in the United States. This, according to a just-published Harvard study, which is well summarized by Matthew Yglesias of Vox. Yglesias notes that […]

Climate Crisis

Climate after corona: Germany’s green stimulus package could boost the economic recovery

Clean Energy Wire

By Benjamin Wehrmann | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – The coronavirus crisis is driving many economies around the globe into recession, leading policymakers to draw up unprecedented spending plans to cushion the impact and enable recoveries. Activists, environmental think tanks and others warn that battling the economic slump must not come at the […]

Bernie Sanders

To Save America, Top 3 Planks Bernie Supporters Must try to Get into the Democratic Platform

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Bernie Sanders bowed out of the race for president on Wednesday, but he made it clear that he still leads a national movement. Sanders has a substantial delegate count, of 914 as I write. Although he has concluded that he won’t reach the 1,991 needed to win the nomination, his […]

Climate Crisis

Sorry, Climate Change Denialists, but Coronavirus Makes Green Energy even More Urgent

The Conversation

By John Hewson | Climate deniers have been hanging out for the United Nations’ next big summit to fail. In a sense, the coronavirus and its induced policy responses have more than satisfied their wildest dreams, precipitating a global recession that they no doubt hope has pushed the issue of the low-carbon transition well down […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis will also be Killing 250K / year Soon, and Needs same Planetary Swift Action as Covid-19

The Conversation

By Eric Galbraith and Ross Otto | – In the past few weeks, governments around the world have enacted dramatic measures to mitigate the threat of COVID-19. It’s too soon to know whether these measures will prove too little to limit mass mortality, or so extreme that they set off economic catastrophe. But what is […]

Climate Crisis

A Planet of Missing Beauties: In Memoriam

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com) – The other morning, walking at the edge of a local park, I caught sight of a beautiful red cardinal, the first bird I ever saw some 63 years ago. Actually, to make that sentence accurate, I should probably have put either “first” or “ever saw” in quotation marks. After all, I was […]

Climate Crisis

Why Countries should use Coronavirus Economic Stimulus to Transition to Green New Deal

Clean Energy Wire

By Rachel Waldholz | – ( Clean Energy Wire) – Foundations are calling on the EU to use any economic stimulus enacted in response to the coronavirus to accelerate the transition to a green economy. The global climate crisis cannot be ignored even as governments focus on the health crisis, said Laurence Tubiana of 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 […]