Environment

The destabilization of Mali and southern Algeria is a complex political and social process that does not have only one cause. But a changing ecology forced by climate change is a major contributor to the region’s problems. This region is part of a Saharan and sub-Saharan band across Africa called the Sahel. I have traveled […]

Environment

Mercury from Coal Plants, Goldmining, a Global Health Crisis: UN Environmental Program

Juan Cole

A new study has found that 84% of all fish have unhealthy levels of mercury! Richard Gelfond, CEO of IMAX, the film company, has had his health permanently damaged simply from eating a lot of fish. The message to take away is not never to eat fish. It is that there is too much mercury […]

Energy

Frankenyear 2012: Hottest on Record, as US emits 5 bn tons of CO2 Annually

Juan Cole

Can we sue the Koch brothers and all the other dirty-energy, climate change-denying moguls yet for the billions they are costing us in climate disasters every year because of their poisonous carbon emissions? The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that: “2012 marked the warmest year on record for the contiguous United States with the […]

Energy

Climate Change is turning Australia Purple with Blazing Heat

Juan Cole

The heat wave or “dome of heat” afflicting Australia may produce a record temperature of over 122 degrees F. (over 50 degrees C.). For temperatures above 122 F., Australian weathermen have developed a new color scheme, purple, which they hadn’t had to use before (the last record temperature in that range was just about 122 […]

Environment

NASA: Portrait of a Polluted Atmosphere

Juan Cole

From NASA: portrait of global aerosols (particulate matter in the atmosphere, including pollution): Note that the image is a simulation created with high-powered software to make the aerosols we (and sometimes nature) put into the atmosphere clear. hat tip Extreme Tech

Environment

Bangladeshis have Sinking Feeling about Do-Nothing Doha Climate Conference (Video)

Juan Cole

Bangladesh, among the countries most threatened by climate change, is deeply disappointed by the do-nothing COP18 climate conference that just wrapped up in Doha, Qatar. The country is very low-lying, and rising seas could displace some 30 million of its population of 150 million over the next 50 years. The country also suffers from the […]

Egypt

Bye, Bye Alexandria: A 1-Meter Sea Rise is Certain

Juan Cole

COP18, the Climate Change Conference held in Doha, Qatar, is a dismal failure, with the United States and Russia being the chief villains. The failure of the world’s leaders to have their hair on fire about the extreme challenges of the climate change we are producing with our carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions […]

Energy

Climate Change 101: Separate Fact from Fiction (Video Narrated by Bill Nye the Science Guy)

Juan Cole

For all those still confused by the BP, Exxon-Mobil, American Enterprise Institute, Koch Brothers, Heritage Foundation, etc. stupid noise trying to muddy the waters on how Big Oil and Big Coal are causing massive climate change, here is a painless little documentary that explains how the world actually works. Suitable for sharing with those annoying […]

Energy

Greenpeace’s Naidoo: Doha Climate Conference Failed: The Youth Must Mobilize (Videos)

Juan Cole

Greenpeace: Doha climate conference a failure, youth have been sold down the river. Executive Director Kumi Naidoo says that the youth must organize to avoid a “four degree world,” i.e. one 7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than in 1850. Naidoo, who hails from South Africa, points out that trillions of dollars were found for bank bailouts […]