Climate Change

By Scott Denning | – ( The Conversation) – Summer isn’t even half over, and we’ve seen heat waves in the Pacific Northwest and Canada with temperatures that would be hot for Death Valley, enormous fires that have sent smoke across North America, and lethal floods of biblical proportions in Germany and China. Scientists have […]

Climate Crisis

Living on a Newly Unrecognizable Planet

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Germany is a wealthy nation. Its business and political leaders accept the reality of climate change and have made at least modest progress to prepare for and mitigate its effects. How then to respond to such events as a family moving to the roof of their house […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis Grips Iran with Water Shortages, Provoking Protests, Clashes in Southwest

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan region, the center of its petroleum industry, has been wracked with protests for a week, in part over water shortages. Rallies have erupted in the towns of Mahshahr, Izeh, Ahvaz, Kut-e Abdollah, Susangerd, Aligoudarz and Shoushtar, according to Amnesty International The Iranian government has sometimes replied to […]

Climate Crisis

Climate activists demand faster energy transition after flood disaster hits Germany

Clean Energy Wire

By Charlotte Nijhuis | – ( Clean Energy Wire) – Activists are protesting for better climate protection measures after catastrophic floods hit several parts of Germany last week. On 23 July, environmental group Robin Wood kicks off a three-week raft tour from Berlin to Hamburg in order to push for a faster energy transition. “We […]

Acidification of Oceans

Coral reef scientists raise alarm as climate change decimates ocean ecosystems vital to fish and humans

The Conversation

By Sam Purkis | ( The Conversation) – The Chagos Archipelago is one of the most remote, seemingly idyllic places on Earth. Coconut-covered sandy beaches with incredible bird life rim tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, hundreds of miles from any continent. Just below the waves, coral reefs stretch for miles along an underwater mountain […]

Climate Crisis

As coastal flooding worsens, some cities are retreating from the water

The Conversation

By A.R. Siders and Katharine Mach | – When the tide gets exceptionally high in Charleston, South Carolina, coastal streets start to run with seawater. Some yards become ponds, and residents pull on rain boots. The city also gets a lot of rain. After homes in one low-lying neighborhood flooded three times in four years, […]

Climate Crisis

With Massive Flooding in Germany, Scientists worry Climate is increasingly out of Control

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Our burning of gasoline, coal and natural gas on a massive global scale, putting tens of billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere annually, is turning the earth into . . . well, a greenhouse. Greenhouses are closed up, keeping in heat and moisture. In a greenhouse, the […]

Climate Crisis

Migrant deaths in the desert at record levels as heat wave pounds West

Cronkite News Arizona PBS

By Alyssa Marksz | – ( Cronkite News ) – WASHINGTON – The number of migrant deaths recorded in the Arizona desert so far this year is on pace to break the record set just last year, as migrants attempt the crossing in the face of a record-breaking heat wave. Humane Borders and the Pima […]

Climate Crisis

Why our climate emergency is forcing conservationists to be more ambitious: by moving threatened species to new pastures

The Conversation

By Sarah Elizabeth Dalrymple | – ( The Conversation) – As climate change brings record droughts and floods, extended fire seasons continue to make headlines, and the role of humans in this terrible situation is now undisputed, institutional change has been slow and unsteady. In particular, conservationists have been wary of pointing to climate change […]