Environment

By Wesley Morgan | – The Pacific Islands are at the frontline of climate change. But as rising seas threaten their very existence, these tiny nation states will not be submerged without a fight. For decades this group has been the world’s moral conscience on climate change. Pacific leaders are not afraid to call out […]

Climate Crisis

BBC: Leaks Show Saudis Pressuring UN to Downplay Danger of Fossil Fuels as UN Warns G20 is putting $300 bn into Sector

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new United Nations-sponsored report finds that governments continue to sponsor the extraction of so much coal, oil and gas for human consumption that we cannot possibly, at this rate, hope to keep global heating to an extra 2.7° F. (1.5° C.) beyond per-industrial levels. At the same time, the […]

Environment

Plastic, plastic everywhere – airborne microplastics are settling into the most remote corners of the globe

The Conversation

By Elvis Genbo Xu and Xiaoyu Duan | – Little pieces of plastic can now be found everywhere: from table salt, drinking water and food, to the deep seas, far deserts and most remote mountains. While it’s not surprising to find plastics and microplastics in urban environments where they’re used every day, their appearance in […]

Batteries

How Sen. Manchin just Positioned Chinese Firms to dominate the Green Energy Markets of the 21st Century, Leaving the US in the Dust

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Coal baron Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has succeeded in blocking the part of President Biden’s Build Back Better bill that would have moved the U.S. electricity grid quickly to green energy. This development is very bad news for the earth, since human beings burning coal, petroleum and natural […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Change Viewed from the Attic of the World: A Himalayan Journey Toward Hope

Tomdispatch

By William deBuys | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – Thirteen thousand feet high on the far side of the Himalaya mountains, we have entered the past and the future at the same time. We are a medical expedition and also a pilgrimage, consisting of doctors, nurses, Buddhist clerics, supernumeraries like me, and a large staff of […]

Climate Crisis

Why activism needs to be part of any meaningful climate education

Waging Nonviolence

By Nick Engelfried | – Last month, crowds of young people and supporters gathered in 1,500 locations around the world for one of the largest youth-led climate protests since countries began emerging from the most restrictive phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many students skipped school or staged class walkouts to participate in the Sept. 24 […]

Climate Crisis

Can the Collapse of West Antarctica’s Ice Sheet and massive Sea Level Rise be Avoided?

The Conversation

By Dan Lowry, Mario Krapp, and Nick Golledge | – ( The Conversation) – Rising seas are already making storm damage more costly, adding to the impact on about 700 million people who live in low-lying coastal areas at risk of flooding. Scientists expect sea-level rise will exacerbate the damage from storm surges and coastal […]

CO2

Sordid Advantage: America can’t avert Climate Hellhole because Manchin, Sinema are Corporate Hired Mercenaries

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – American journalists like to personalize stories and create horse races empty of real content. That is why most Americans don’t know what is in the Democratic Build Back Better Bill backed by President Joe Biden– the substance has not been reported on. That bill was originally budgeted at $350 billion […]

China

The US and China must cooperate in Face of Climate Armageddon, not fall into New Cold War

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com) – This summer we witnessed, with brutal clarity, the Beginning of the End: the end of Earth as we know it — a world of lush forests, bountiful croplands, livable cities, and survivable coastlines. In its place, we saw the early manifestations of a climate-damaged planet, with scorched forests, parched fields, scalding cities, […]