Climate Change

The Caspian Sea, central to Iran & Russia, is set to fall by 9 Yards or more this century – an ecocide is imminent

By Frank Wesselingh and Matteo Lattuada | – Imagine you are on the coast, looking out to sea. In front of you lies 100 metres of barren sand that looks like a beach at low tide with gentle waves beyond. And yet there are no tides. This is what we found when we visited the […]

Denialism

Pence, who backed Muslim visa Ban, gets Vaccine invented by Muslim Immigrants

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Defeated vice president Mike Pence got the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Friday. Here is why he is a hypocrite. Pence served for four years in the Trump administration, which initiated a visa ban against Muslims. Although he had in 2015 called any such ban “unconstitutional,” he folded when Trump insisted on […]

Climate Crisis

How America’s Denialism– Elections, COVID, Climate — is Leading to its Downfall

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – The refusal of tens of millions of Americans to recognize the election results is part of a much larger denialism — of COVID-19, of climate change, and U.S. decline. The presidential election wasn’t close. Joe Biden won the popular vote by more than 7 million votes, which translates […]

Desertification

Demand for meat is driving deforestation in Brazil – changing the soy industry could stop it

The Conversation

By Angela Guerrero and Malika Virah-Sawmy | – Soy may have a pretty innocuous reputation thanks to its association with vegan food and meat alternatives. But don’t be fooled – crops of this pale legume are behind much of Brazil’s epidemic of deforestation. Since 2000, Brazil has doubled its total area of soy plantation to […]

Batteries

Greening America: Can Biden’s new Team of Buttigieg and Granholm save us from the Climate Crisis?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Washington Post is reporting that Joe Biden will make Pete Buttigieg his secretary of transportation and Jennifer Granholm his secretary of energy. This is very good news for climate policy. Energy is perhaps the most important portfolio in the Biden cabinet, since it is key to greening America and […]

Climate Crisis

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

Juan Cole

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

A Tipping Point for the Defeat of Fossil Fuels? How to Stop Big Energy in Its Tracks (Quite Literally)

Tomdispatch

By Richard Lachmann, Michael Schwartz and Kevin A. Young | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – As Donald Trump gave in to the demand that the transition process to the Biden years officially begin, the administration and its fossil-fuel allies doubled down on their efforts to implement destructive environmental policies that President Biden might try to […]

Climate Crisis

Even Conservative Britain Plans to slash carbon emissions 68% by 2030: Banking, Building and Borrowing are key

The Conversation

By Anupam Nanda | – For those conscious of the growing climate crisis and the perilous economic situation, the path out of the coronavirus recession looks like a tightrope. On one side, the urgent need to revive the economy and head off unemployment. On the other, the demand that post-COVID growth is green and sustainable. […]

Climate Crisis

The Lancet: Climate Crisis Menaces every Country with spike in Heat Strokes, Flood, Drought, and more Pandemics

The Conversation

By Celia McMichael, Ilan Kelman and Shouro Dasgupta, and Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson | – Climate change is resulting in profound, immediate and worsening health impacts, and no country is immune, a major new report from more than 120 researchers has declared. This year’s annual report of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, released today, […]