Environment

Geneva (AFP) – The economic cost of climate-related disasters hit $2.25 trillion over the last two decades, an increase of more than 150 percent compared to the previous 20 years, the UN said Wednesday. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) noted that “climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of extreme […]

Climate Change

Reminder: Top 5 Climate Catastrophes to which Denialist Trump Condemned his own Supporters

Juan Cole

Reprint edition Trump delivered himself of one of the most brain-dead speeches ever given by an American president, more imbecilic even than Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” or Nixon’s “I am not a crook.” He withdrew from the Paris climate accords, saying that he was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris. Trump alleged that he was somehow […]

Climate Change

UN Scientists on our Climate Emergency: We need Immediate ‘Transformational’ Change!

The Conversation

By Mark Howden and Rebecca Colvin | – A landmark report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, commissioned at the breakthrough 2015 summit that brokered the Paris climate agreement, outlines what’s at stake in the world’s bid to limit global temperature rise to 1.5℃. The report, released today, sets out the key practical differences […]

Climate Change

Fate of 190,000-years-old Human Race depends on Massive Greening Effort over just 30 Years

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It strikes me as darkly humorous that we, the most intelligent species ever to have evolved on earth, homo sapiens (evolved circa 190,000 years ago), were so clever that around 1750 we started burning so much wood, coal and later on oil and natural gas that we started changing our […]

Climate Crisis

No Cheetahs or Cool Breezes: The World our Carbon Dioxide is Bequeathing our Children

Tomdispatch

By Frida Berrigan | – (Tomdispatch.com) – “I don’t want to live in a world without cheetahs, Mom.” Seamus loves cheetahs and what’s not to love — unless you are a Thomson’s gazelle? Cheetahs are the fastest mammals on the planet, formidable predators, sleek, saucy looking, and they even have spots. My six-year-old boy can’t […]

Green Transportation

BMW, Porsche & other German Car-makers want to sell a million Electric SUVs, Coupes

AFP

By Yann SCHREIBER Frankfurt am Main (AFP) – After years watching Tesla’s electric cars speed ahead while they have been on the defensive over an industry-wide diesel emissions scandal, German high-end manufacturers have finally unveiled their first challengers to the Californian upstart. Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen’s Audi and Porsche subsidiaries between them control […]

Climate Change

Methane is a Monster Global Heating Gas: Trump just ordered EPA to Kill Limits on its Emissions

Olivia Alperstein

The White House wants to clear the way for frackers to release more methane, which poisons communities and torches the climate.

Sea Level

Climate Crisis: If we Keep Burning Fossil Fuels, Will People have to be Moved Away from Coasts?

The Conversation

By Luciana Esteves | – We are all too familiar with images of flooding in low lying areas after heavy rainfall or houses destroyed by coastal erosion after a storm. For an increasing number of people, coastal flooding and erosion is a real threat to property, the local economy and, in some cases, life. Hurricane […]

Extreme Weather

Dear Carolinas: You can’t Outlaw Storm Surges & Climate Crisis; Physics isn’t Interested in Your Laws

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – There has been a flurry of irony-heavy articles about how the North Carolina, Republican-dominated state legislature, in 2012 forbade state-employed scientists from talking about sea level rise and climate crisis. This ostrich policy of just denying reality was intended to prevent real estate values along the coast from falling, and […]