Ice Melt

By Nick Engelfried | – ( Waging Nonviolence ) – When I became a climate organizer in college in the early 2000s, the words “youth climate movement” referred more to something activists hoped to bring into existence than a real-world phenomenon. Growing numbers of young people were concerned about the climate crisis and had begun […]

Climate Crisis

After Failures of COP27, only a Radical Effort to Slash CO2 can keep Climate from Going Chaotic

The Conversation

By Peter Schlosser, Arizona State University | – The world could still, theoretically, meet its goal of keeping global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius, a level many scientists consider a dangerous threshold. Realistically, that’s unlikely to happen. Part of the problem was evident at COP27, the United Nations climate conference in Egypt. While nations’ climate […]

Climate Crisis

One Billionaire emits a Million times more CO2 than an Average Person, as Protesters block Private Planes at Amsterdam

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Oxfam has a new study, Carbon Billionaires: The investment emissions of the world’s richest people. The Executive Summary says that they concluded that quite apart from the 3,300 or so billionaires, the wealthiest one percent in the world emit twice as much carbon dioxide as the bottom 50%. The top […]

Climate Crisis

Egypt’s Alexandria in Danger of becoming a modern Atlantis, as Climate Conference opens in Sharm El Sheikh

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The second-largest city in the country hosting this year’s international climate change conference, Alexandria in Egypt, will struggle for its life the rest of this century and may be 33% under water in only 30 years. We may be seeing the end of a city founded 2,353 years ago. The […]

Climate Crisis

As COP27 Climate Summit in Egypt Nears, World Needs to Realize Depth of Crisis, Urgency of Action

The Conversation

By Andrew King, The University of Melbourne | – (The Conversation) – World leaders and climate experts are gathering for pivotal United Nations climate change talks in Egypt. Known as COP27, the conference will aim to put Earth on a path to net-zero emissions and keep global warming well below 2℃ this century. The world […]

Arctic

3-Alarm Fire on Planet Earth: Current Climate Policies will Heat it by extra 5.4° F. (3C) by 2100, for 1st time in Millions of Years

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – William J. Ripple et al. writing in BioScience warn that we are deep into a climate emergency, which they call “code red on planet earth.” They point to the increased frequency and severity of weather-related disasters, producing “untold human suffering.” Human-driven global heating, especially in the Arctic, which is warming […]

Antarctica

Climate Tipping Points could lock in unstoppable Changes to the Planet – how Close are They?

The Conversation

By David Armstrong McKay, Stockholm University | – Continued greenhouse gas emissions risk triggering climate tipping points. These are self-sustaining shifts in the climate system that would lock-in devastating changes, like sea-level rise, even if all emissions ended. The first major assessment in 2008 identified nine parts of the climate system that are sensitive to […]

Antarctica

Our Atmospheric CO2 is now past the point that in the Deep Past has Meant the Melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheets

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – So as a historian, I am particularly interested in what the past tells us about the present. I’ve taught courses on climate change in history. But of course my kind of history doesn’t go back very far from the point of view of physical scientists. The academic discipline of “history” […]

Antarctica

What’s worse than a Slow-Moving Doomsday Glacier like Thwaites? A Raptor Glacier Sprinting for the Ocean!

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – As regular readers know, I’m fascinated by glaciers. Growing up in France, I had the opportunity at one point to learn to ski in the Swiss Alps. The US army does not consistently supply a jet set lifestyle to dependents of non-commissioned officers, to say the least, but sometimes you […]