Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – As if the coronavirus pandemic, depression-era unemployment, and a mad President in the White House were not enough, Mother Nature has decided to remind us what the Big Kahuna really is. It is the climate emergency. May was not only the hottest May since 1880, it was 18° F. (10° […]
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wildfires
Why Burning Fossil Fuels is to Today’s Pandemics as Fleas were to the Black Death
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 […]
The Contribution of Indigenous People to Fighting Climate Change is Hanging by a Thread in Bolivia
By Iokiñe Rodríguez and Mirna Inturias | – Earth’s forests oxygenate the atmosphere and store vast quantities of planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO₂). But research suggests that the health of these vast ecosystems in large part depends on the work of indigenous people. Indigenous territories and protected areas cover 52% of the Amazon forest and store […]
Climate Emergency: Australia’s Wildfires showed we’re One Step from System Collapse, with no Food, Fuel, Phones
By Anthony Richardson | – This summer’s bushfires were not just devastating events in themselves. More broadly, they highlighted the immense vulnerability of the systems which make our contemporary lives possible. The fires cut road access, which meant towns ran out of fuel and fell low on food. Power to towns was cut and mobile […]
We’re All Australians Now: The Climate Conflagration is Coming for Us, too
( Tomdispatch.com ) – Let me betray my age for a moment. Some of you, I know, will be shocked, but I still read an actual newspaper. Words on real paper every day. I’m talking about the New York Times, and something stuck with me from the January 9th edition of that “paper” paper. Of […]
Some Technology is Too Dangerous: Iran’s Accidental Ballistic Launch and Australia’s Climate Inferno are Trying to Tell us Something
Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – The first month of 2020 has been full of lessons—if we are willing to listen. With over 200 brush fires burning in Australia and an area as big as West Virginia already scorched, Australia’s problems are hardly confined to the subcontinent. In a telling irony the plumes […]
Climate Catastrophe: With a Billion Animals Dead and the Koala in Danger, Will Australia’s Ecology Ever be the Same?
By Darren Evans | – The sheer scale and intensity of the Australian bushfire crisis have led to apocalyptic scenes making the front pages of newspapers the world over. An estimated 10 million hectares (100,000 sq km) of land have burned since 1 July 2019. At least 28 people have died. And over a billion […]
Earth’s Hottest Decade on Record: Scientists Underestimated CO2 Heating Juggernaut
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – According to the BBC, NOAA, NASA and the UK Met Office have all certified that the decade of the 2010s was the hottest since global scientific records began being systematically kept in 1880. Last year, 2019, was 1.8 degrees F. (1 degree C.) hotter than the twentieth century average, so […]
Australia, your country is burning – dangerous climate change is here with you now
By Michael E Mann | – After years studying the climate, my work has brought me to Sydney where I’m studying the linkages between climate change and extreme weather events. Prior to beginning my sabbatical stay in Sydney, I took the opportunity this holiday season to vacation in Australia with my family. We went to […]