Drought

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 […]

Climate Crisis

Earth’s Hottest Decade on Record: Scientists Underestimated CO2 Heating Juggernaut

Juan Cole

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 […]

Climate Crisis

Australia, your country is burning – dangerous climate change is here with you now

The Conversation

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 […]

Afghanistan

Has the Climate Crisis in Afghanistan Displaced more People than the War?

contributors

By Fariba Housaini | – ( TheThirdPole.net ) – It has been two years since severe drought forced twenty nine-year old Amena and her four children to leave their village Petaw Qol in Waras. Now, they reside in Bamyan city. “My husband is blind and I was responsible for the farming. Wells gradually dried up […]

Brazil

Statistic of the decade: The massive deforestation of the Amazon

The Conversation

By Liberty Vittert | – This year, I was on the judging panel for the Royal Statistical Society’s International Statistic of the Decade. Much like Oxford English Dictionary’s “Word of the Year” competition, the international statistic is meant to capture the zeitgeist of this decade. The judging panel accepted nominations from the statistical community and […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis Rages in Australia, with 14 of 15 hottest Places in World and Sydney Fire-Besieged

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Australia has been turned by the climate crisis into a huge oven. On Wednesday, 14 of the hottest places in the world were in Australia. Firefighters are combating 100 wildfires in New South Wales (NSW), with some of them encroaching on Sydney, Australia’s largest city. NSW declared a 7-day state […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis, Not Conflict, Drove Many Syrian Refugees from their Homes

The Conversation

By Hussein A. Amery | – People who fled Syria in recent years are often viewed as war refugees because of the violence that has engulfed much of the country since 2011. But those from the northern and northeastern parts of Syria may more accurately be viewed as climate refugees, fleeing not a worsening conflict […]

Climate Crisis

“Catastrophic” Wildfires Threaten Sydney, Australia as Gov’t Backs Coal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Australians in New South Wales and part of Queensland face “catastrophic” wildfires today according to government authorities. Based on the latest forecast, we have mapped where fires on the north coast are likely to spread during tomorrow's dangerous weather. The red shows the predicted spread of fire. Check https://t.co/NXTTCbYtYQ for […]

Climate Crisis

Why the California wildfires signal the arrival of a planetary fire age

The Conversation

By Stephen Pyne | – Another autumn, more fires, more refugees and incinerated homes. For California, flames have become the colors of fall. Free-burning fire is the proximate provocation for the havoc, since its ember storms are engulfing landscapes. But in the hands of humans, combustion is also the deeper cause. Modern societies are burning […]