Environment

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – New York’s new governor, Kathy Hochul – forced to deal with every political leader’s nightmare, a weather disaster, after just one week in office – called the rain “far more than anyone expected.” In fact, despite many residents getting caught unaware, the potential for high-end flooding was […]

Germany

With a Million Electric Cars on the Road, a Quarter of Germans have plans to Buy an EV

Clean Energy Wire

By Benjamin Wehrmann | – ( Clean Energy Wire) – Interest in electric cars is growing rapidly in Germany, according to a survey by the Technical Inspection Authority (TÜV). Nearly one in four respondents (23 percent) said they already have plans to buy an e-car or could “very well imagine” doing so. Another 30 percent […]

al-Qaeda

9/11 survivors’ exposure to toxic dust and the chronic health conditions that followed offer lessons that are still too often unheeded

The Conversation

By Roberto Lucchini | – ( The Conversation) – The 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York resulted in the loss of 2,753 people in the Twin Towers and surrounding area. After the attack, more than 100,000 responders and recovery workers from every U.S. state – along with some 400,000 residents […]

Climate Crisis

“That night, I became a climate Refugee:” The Dixie Fire and our Hot Future

Tomdispatch

ByJane Braxton Little | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – GREENVILLE, CA — At 10 a.m. on July 22nd, I interviewed a New York University professor about using autonomous robots, drones, and other unmanned devices to suppress structural and wildland fires. I sent the interview to an online transcription service, walked down the steps of my second-floor […]

Flooding

After Hurricane Ida, mutual aid provides safety and survival in New Orleans

Waging Nonviolence

By Jordan Flaherty | – ( Waging Nonviolence) | – In the aftermath of disasters, those most in need are also who the state often leaves behind. Into this vacuum, communities come together for mutual aid. While charity rarely challenges the root causes behind disasters, and often divides recipients into worthy and unworthy, mutual aid […]

Climate Crisis

After Ida, Joe Biden calls Code Red on Climate Emergency, Ridicules ‘Free Enterprise’ argument for Living under Flood Waters

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden is a late and incomplete convert to the immediate and extreme dangers of the climate emergency. Originally a fan of Big Oil who rejected a federal ban on high-carbon hydraulic fracturing, Biden more recently backed the demand by the Democratic Party’s left wing for really big federal […]

Climate Crisis

Nature-based solutions: the ‘no-regret’ routes to carbon neutrality

China Dialogue

By Zeng Nan, Jin Tong, and Zhang Xiaoquan | – ( China Dialogue) – The concept of nature-based solutions took root in China in 2019. Now it has been included in official documents from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) and the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), bringing the idea greater visibility in policy. […]

Climate Crisis

Top 5 Health Dangers of Climate Emergency that are far more Pressing than Covid Pandemic (- 230 Top Medical Journals)

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Some 230 medical journals carried an editorial on Sunday, “Call for Emergency Action to Limit Global Temperature Increases, Restore Biodiversity, and Protect Health.” In my view, the editorial buried the lead by putting this sentence two-thirds of the way down and by not giving it its own paragraph: “Rises above […]

Climate Change

Hurricane Ida shows the increasing impact of climate crisis since Katrina

The Conversation

By Jack L. Rozdilsky | – Sixteen years to the day that Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Hurricane Ida struck at Port Fourchon, La., on Aug. 29, as a Category 4 hurricane with 240 kilometres per hour winds. Given the date and location of the area affected, Katrina and Ida comparisons are being made. While no […]