Catastrophe Chronicle – 2023

“We are on the deathbed. Humanity cannot survive – the way it has been behaving with nature – for more than fifty years, sixty years, or, at the most, one hundred years, which is nothing. If the Third World War does not happen, then we will be committing a slow suicide. Within a hundred years, we will be gone. Not even a trace will be left.”1 Osho

See also: Osho, “Religion: The Crimes Against Nature and the Environment”
And: Priests & Politicians: The Mafia of the Soul
It is becoming increasingly clear that humanity just doesn’t have the consciousness to prevent the inexorable destruction of the only home it has.
Perhaps more fundamentally, this humanity – which is trashing out the land, the oceans, the atmosphere, and the space beyond the atmosphere – is simply being really trashy. We endlessly look outwards for solutions and almost no one is making it clear that unless we fix our trashiness, nothing can fundamentally change. Without this fundamental change in our trashy approach to the world around us, every “solution” we come up with will be deeply compromised by our trashiness!
While waiting for this obvious point to sink in, followed by a clear understanding of how to undo our trashiness, the OSHOTimes can only chronicle the inevitable resultant degeneration of Planet Earth, “and all who sail in her!”

Carbon Dioxide Levels in the Atmosphere

“Man-made carbon dioxide and the greenhouse effect” – was published by the journal Nature in 1972.

Levels of the greenhouse gas have not been as high as today for 3-5m years, when the global temperature was 2-3C warmer and the sea level was 10-20 metres higher: The Guardian
The C02 clock is ticking here: Bloomberg Green Carbon Clock

Human Population

The population clock is ticking here: Worldometre

The Emissions Gap Report 2020

“The world is still heading for a catastrophic temperature rise in excess of 3°C this century – far beyond the Paris Agreement goals of limiting global warming to well below 2°C and pursuing 1.5°C.” – UN Environment

The Unfolding Story – 2023 – Updated Regularly: 

Read 2022 Edition HERE
December 30, 2023
Red alert in Antarctica: the year rapid, dramatic change hit climate scientists like a ‘punch in the guts’
“Study after study showed the breakdown of climate systems taking place much earlier than foreseen, with potentially catastrophic results.” – The Guardian
December 29, 2023
World will look back at 2023 as year humanity exposed its inability to tackle climate crisis, scientists say
As historically high temperatures continued to be registered in many parts of the world in late December, the former Nasa scientist James Hansen told the Guardian that 2023 would be remembered as the moment when failures became apparent. ‘When our children and grandchildren look back at the history of human-made climate change, this year and next will be seen as the turning point at which the futility of governments in dealing with climate change was finally exposed,’ he said. ‘Not only did governments fail to stem global warming, the rate of global warming actually accelerated.'” – The Guardian
December 29, 2023
Many on Gulf Coast say time is running out for EPA to act on toxic air
“As a girl growing up near refineries and chemical factories in this part of the Gulf Coast, 77-year-old Lois Malvo thought nothing of the way her eyes burned when she played outside. Now she sees dangers all around her. The smell of rotten eggs and gasoline frequently fills her low-slung home, which lacks running water and leans to one side. Most days, she wakes up in the grips of a coughing fit. Cancer, which she blames on the toxic chemicals in the air, killed her sister and afflicted both of her brothers as well as herself. ‘Our health lets us know that something isn’t right,’ she said. ‘We’re being attacked by the industry because we’re vulnerable people and really, nobody cares about us.’” – The Washington Post
December 25, 2023
The Climate Treadmill Speeds Up At COP28, But Critics Say It’s Still Not Going Anywhere
“The Dubai climate summit showed how fossil fuel companies and their allied politicians captured the UN process. Decades of obstruction have gridlocked efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions from oil, gas and coal.” – Inside Climate News
December 22, 2023
Reducing Methane From Livestock Is Critical for Stabilizing the Climate, but Congress Continues to Block Farms From Reporting Emissions Anyway
“The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has, for decades, struggled to regulate agricultural pollution under the country’s bedrock environmental laws, as the livestock industry—and the powerful farm lobby—and their allies in Congress win exemptions from regulation in legislation and court decisions.” – Inside Climate News
December 21, 2023
Revealed: US utility firms offer builders cash and trips to fit new homes with gas appliances
“Utilities give rewards to house builders to install and promote gas appliances in homes – and enlist celebrity chefs to extoll the fossil fuel…. gas utility trade groups are training members to sell builders on the continued use of the planet-heating fossil fuel, including through trainings at conferences and webinars. ‘Stress the lifestyle benefits that come with a natural gas home,’ one instructor said in a recording of a training session heard by the Guardian…. ‘For a gas utility, electrification is an existential threat,’ said Leah Stokes, utilities researcher and political science professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. ‘If people suddenly stop building new buildings with gas, that means they don’t have new customers. It’s even worse if people start removing gas from buildings and they have a shrinking base.’” – The Guardian
December 20, 2023
Environmental campaigners filmed, threatened and harassed at Cop28
“Indigenous campaigners, human rights defenders and climate activists say they are being silenced by fear of reprisals.” – The Guardian
December 19, 2023
Low economic growth can help keep climate change within the 1.5 °C threshold
“A new study shows that economic growth rates make a big difference when it comes to prospects for limiting global warming to 1.5 °C, as per the Paris Agreement. A recent study shows that pursuing higher economic growth may jeopardize the Paris goals and leave no viable pathways for humanity to stabilize the climate. On the contrary, slower growth rates make it more feasible to achieve the Paris goals.” – ScienceDaily
December 18, 2023
More Than 3 Million Americans Are Already Climate Migrants, Researchers Say
“In all, First Street finds, 3.2 million Americans moved away from high-flood-risk areas between 2000 and 2020…. In the US, the frequency of disasters causing at least $1 billion in damages has gone from roughly three a year during the 1980s to an annual average of 17.8 over the period 2018 to 2022, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.” – Bloomberg
December 18, 2023
Nuclear Threats Are Looming, And Nobody Knows How Many Nukes Are Out There
“As best anyone can tell, there are 12,512 nuclear weapons in the world. But the world of nuclear deterrence is one of secrets and threats…. The nine countries that have them aren’t forthcoming with the exact number of weapons in their stockpile. The U.S. and Russia once shared information about their arsenals with each other as part of anti-proliferation treaties, but negligence on the part of both governments has seen those treaties weaken in the past few years…. ‘When one goes off it affects the lives of every single person on earth.’”
December 12, 2023As Frogs Disappear Worldwide, ‘There Is No Way to Stop That Killer’
“Mysterious deaths have occurred all over the planet and followed a similar pattern. Why have so many species vanished? And what does it all have to do with us?” – The New York Times
December 8, 2023
OPEC Leader Tells Members to Block Any Climate Summit Deal to Curb Fossil Fuels
“In a letter, the secretary general of the oil cartel called on countries in the group to ‘reject any text or formula that targets energy.’ The head of the OPEC oil cartel, alarmed that nations gathered at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai are considering an agreement to phase out fossil fuels, has directed the group’s members to scuttle any deal that would affect the continued production and sales of oil, gas and coal.” – The New York Times
December 7, 2023
A ‘Green Glacier’ Is Dismantling the Great Plains
“Like so many other certainties of the 20th century, however — American hegemony, ground water, Social Security, fossil fuels — Cather’s ‘great fact’ is now in question. North America has already destroyed more than 60 percent of its native prairie. We’ve plowed the sod, left the topsoil to blow away, traded wildflowers for row crops, switch grass for suburbs, hay meadows for Home Depots. We’ve cleaved it apart with freeways, transmission lines, irrigation canals and oil pipelines. And now the Eastern redcedar tree is hungry for what’s left. Thanks in part to roughly 100 years of fire suppression on the Great Plains, this drought-tolerant native tree — once primarily confined to river bottoms and rocky outcrops — has crept from the gullies to the grasslands, from the humid East to the arid West from Texas to South Dakota, and is now dismantling what little remains of one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world.” – The New York Times
December 7, 2023
Geoscientists map changes in atmospheric CO2 over past 66 million years
“Today’s 419 ppm is the highest CO2 in 14 million years.” – ScienceDaily
December 6, 2023
Activists say their voices are stifled by increasing rules and restrictions at COP28 climate talks
“’There’s always been a lot of restriction on civic space inside of COPs, but we are really seeing a trend of it increasing,’ said Lise Masson, of Friends of the Earth International. ‘We have to say how loud we’re going to be, what’s going to be written on the banners. We’re not allowed to name countries and corporations. So it’s really a very sanitized space.’” – APNews
December 6, 2023
Earth on verge of five catastrophic climate tipping points, scientists warn
“Humanity faces ‘devastating domino effects’ including mass displacement and financial ruin as planet warms.” – The Guardian
December 6, 2023
Climate change shown to cause methane to be released from the deep ocean
“Vast amounts of methane are stored as marine methane under oceans. It thaws when the oceans warm, releasing methane into oceans and the atmosphere — known as dissociated methane — contributing to global warming…. Figures from the United States Environmental Protection Agency show that methane accounts for about 16% of global greenhouse gas emissions.” – ScienceDaily
December 6, 2023
Trump Slams John Kerry In Wild Town Hall, Insisting Climate Change Isn’t A Problem
“During the event, Trump took the opportunity to slam the Green New Deal, a framework of proposals to help mitigate climate change, saying that it would “destroy our country,” and he emphasized that the U.S. shouldn’t stray away from using oil as a fuel source, despite climate activists, experts and leaders pointing to the importance of pivoting away from fossil fuels.” – HoffPost
December 5, 2023
At COP28, More and More Scientists Say Overshooting 1.5 Degrees Is ‘Inevitable’
“Venturing even 0.5 degrees past that threshold could drastically increase the frequency and severity of extreme weather, biodiversity loss, famine and water scarcity, as well as make it more likely that tipping points accelerate warming further, climate scientists say. But out of the public’s eye, many top climate diplomats and leading scientists have believed for years that the chance of achieving 1.5 degrees of warming is slim to nothing. The planet has already warmed about 1.3 degrees, and a growing number of researchers and thought leaders in the climate movement are now stating that belief bluntly as negotiations begin in earnest at the U.N. climate conference.” – Inside Climate News
December 3, 2023
Greenhouse gas emissions soar – with China, US and India most at fault
“Electricity generation in China and India, and oil and gas production in the US, have produced the biggest increases in global greenhouse gas emissions since 2015, when the Paris climate agreement was signed, new data has shown. Emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, have also risen, despite more than 100 countries signing up to a pledge to reduce the gas, according to data published on Sunday by the Climate Trace project. The data shows that countries and companies are failing to report their emissions accurately, despite obligations to do so under the Paris agreement.” – The Guardian
December 1, 2023
Today’s Indicator – 13.2 million
“That’s how many barrels of oil the United States has produced every day since the beginning of October, an all-time high for the nation, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. As of now, that rate shows no signs of slowing.” – Inside Climate News
November 29, 2023
Microbiology must be represented at climate change talks
“In all the climate discussions, microbes were effectively omitted. ‘We should be looking at the most important player of the equation, the microbes. [All the climate crises] are driven by microbes, disturb microbes, or can be solved by microbes.'” – Nature
November 29, 2023
Here’s a question Cop28 won’t address: why are billionaires blocking action to save the planet?
“It’s obscene that the super-rich can criminalise protest, while they burn the world’s resources and remain untouched by the law.” – The Guardian
November 29, 2023
1 percent
That’s how much of the global investment in renewable energy last year came from fossil fuel companies, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency, a nonpartisan energy watchdog group and one of the world’s most respected energy analyst firms. Clean energy saw record growth last year, with new capacity increasing nearly 10 percent globally from the previous year, data shows. But 2022 was also a blockbuster year for fossil fuel companies, which took in $200 billion in profits—more than double what the industry made the prior year. Taken altogether, the numbers show that fossil fuel companies, whose products are largely responsible for causing the climate crisis, are not taking the clean energy transition seriously and are in fact planning to dramatically expand their oil and gas production decades into the future.” – Today’s Climate
November 27, 2023
US oil and gas production set to break record in 2023 despite UN climate goals
“United States projected to extract 12.9m barrels of crude oil as countries at Cop28 to push for agreed fossil fuels ‘phaseout.’ The United States is poised to extract more oil and gas than ever before in 2023, a year that is certain to be the hottest ever recorded, providing a daunting backdrop to crucial United Nations climate talks that hold the hope of an agreement to end the era of fossil fuels.” – The Guardian
November 24, 2023
As Groundwater Dwindles, Powerful Players Block Change
Here are some of the people fighting efforts to conserve a vital resource that’s disappearing across the United States. The owners of the largest gold mine in Nevada. A political dynasty that controls a huge swath of Montana. A handful of powerful Kansas farmers…. Change is being actively resisted by many of the agribusinesses, multinational companies and big landowners who depend on enormous amounts of water. They say that reducing groundwater access strikes at the heart of local and regional economies. It also strikes at their bottom lines…. In reporting around the country, The New York Times found that the struggle is intensifying between those who benefit from pumping large amounts of groundwater and those who see it as a looming catastrophe.” – The New York Times
November 20, 2023
World facing ‘hellish’ 3C of climate heating, UN warns before Cop28
“The report found that today’s carbon-cutting policies are so inadequate that 3C of heating would be reached this century.” – The Guardian
November 20, 2023
Revealed: the huge climate impact of the middle classes
“Carbon emissions of richest 10% are up to 40 times bigger than poorest, and ignoring divide may make ending climate crisis impossible, experts say…. The world’s richest 10% encompasses most of the middle classes in developed countries – anyone paid more than about $40,000 (£32,000) a year. The lavish lifestyles of the very rich – the 1% – attract attention. But the 10% are responsible for half of all global emissions, making them key to ending the climate crisis.” – The Guardian
November 20, 2023
Coastal river deltas threatened by more than climate change
“Worldwide, coastal river deltas are home to more than half a billion people, supporting fisheries, agriculture, cities, and fertile ecosystems…. The research shows that deltas face multiple risks, and that population growth and poor environmental governance might pose bigger threats than climate change to the sustainability of Asian and African deltas, in particular…. Collapse of delta environments could have huge consequences for global sustainable development. In the worst-case scenario, deltas could be lost to the sea; other consequences are flooding, salinization of water, which affects agriculture, coastal squeeze, and loss of ecosystems.” – ScienceDaily
November 20, 2023
The richest 1% of humanity is responsible for more carbon emissions than the poorest 66% 
“The world faces twin crises of climate breakdown and runaway inequality. The richest people, corporations and countries are destroying the world with their huge carbon emissions…. The consequences of climate breakdown are felt in all parts of the world and by most people, yet only the richest people and countries have the wealth, power and influence to protect themselves. With that power comes huge responsibility.” – Oxfam.org
November 19, 2023
Fossil Fuel Lobbyists Flock to Plastics Treaty Talks as Scientists,  Environmentalists Seek Conflict of Interest Policies
“One of the thorniest issues that delegates must come to grips with is whether to cap or reduce plastic production, something environmental groups, scientists and dozens of nations are supporting. The industry, however, vigorously opposes such limits. ‘They’re here,’ Bethanie Carney Almroth, a scientist and treaty talks observer, said of the industry representatives. ‘They are pushing their agenda. They are protecting their business interests,’ despite research showing that current and projected levels of plastic production are not sustainable, she said.”
November 17, 2023
Deep dive on sea level rise: New modelling gives better predictions on Antarctic ice sheet melt
“‘If we want to know what is going to happen in the next 100 years, we need to have an accurate model for how ice sheets respond to climate change,’ Dr Hoggard said…. Now, it can be more accurately pinned at 16 meters, with the Antarctic ice sheet likely contributing 9.8 meters in height.” – ScienceDaily
November 16, 2023
US Regions Will Suffer a Stunning Variety of Climate-Caused Disasters, Report Finds
“Extreme temperatures; worsening wildfires, hurricanes and floods; infrastructure problems; agricultural impacts: The way you experience climate change will depend on where you live.” – Inside Climate News
November 16, 2023
One Woman’s War Against ‘Forever Chemicals’
“A little-known American company has been giving plastic a special touch called fluorination for 40 years. After the EPA discovered treated containers can leach ‘forever chemicals,’ the company refused to stop. (Source: Bloomberg).” – Bloomberg Originals (Video)
November 13, 2023
New research maps 14 potential evolutionary dead ends for humanity and ways to avoid them
“This does not mean that humanity is doomed to fail, argue the researchers. But we must start to transform our societies actively. So far, the Anthropocene has to a large extent been an unconscious byproduct of other evolutionary processes. ‘It’s time for humans to become aware of the new reality and to collectively move where we want to as a species.'” – ScienceDaily
November 10, 2023
Texas Republicans Target Climate Science in Textbooks Ahead of Education Board Vote
“Republican Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian wants the Texas Board of Education to reject new science textbooks, which accurately describe the causes and effects of climate change…. In fact, climate change is now among the several topics that conservative politicians call ‘woke’ and are attempting to ban from being taught in schools.” – Inside Climate News
November 9, 2023
Greenland’s glacier retreat rate has doubled over past two decades
“A new study documents how Greenland’s peripheral glaciers have changed from 1890 to 2022. Using satellite images and a unique archive of historical aerial photos, researchers documented changes in the lengths of more than 1,000 of the country’s glaciers over the past 130 years. Although glaciers in Greenland have experienced retreat throughout the last century, the rate of their retreat has rapidly accelerated over the last two decades.” – ScienceDaily
November 8, 2023
Fuel Subsidies: Our Governments’ Dirty Secret
“Despite the urgent need to combat climate change, fuel subsidies equivalent to 7.1% global GDP have significant consequences.” – Medium
November 8, 2023
The Godfather of Climate Science Turns Up the Heat
“It is, James Hansen says, worse than you think…. The world’s climate is significantly more sensitive to carbon emissions than scientists have acknowledged or the public appreciates, and that as a result, even those most focused on climate risks have been systematically underestimating how much warming the planet is likely to see over the next couple of decades.” – The New York Times
November 8, 2023
How Cancer-Linked ‘Forever Chemicals’ Got Inside Everyone
In The Poison In Us All, the premiere episode of the second season of Bloomberg Investigates, we reveal how the chemicals—linked to cancer and the subject of sweeping litigation—originated in the aftermath of the Manhattan Project, spread to myriad consumer products and ended up inside the bodies of almost everyone on the planet…. Litigation has revealed documents showing that its manufacturers, including industrial giant 3M, had dumped the chemicals for years and have been aware of the dangers associated with PFAS.” – Bloomberg
November 8, 2023
‘Insanity’: petrostates planning huge expansion of fossil fuels, says UN report
“The world’s fossil fuel producers are planning expansions that would blow the planet’s carbon budget twice over, a UN report has found. Experts called the plans ‘insanity’ which ‘throw humanity’s future into question.’” – The Guardian
November 3, 2023
On behalf of renowned climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen, we are pleased to share this virtual event entitled “An Intimate Conversation with Leading Climate Scientists To Discuss Ground-breaking New Research on Global Warming”.
“Ahead of the upcoming COP28, renowned climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen, and his co-authors present the novel findings of his new paper ‘Global Warming in the Pipeline.’ Read the pape: here.” – YouTube
November 3, 2023
Rich countries fall short on climate aid for poor nations
“Low-income countries need 10–18 times more global funding than they are receiving to help them adapt to climate change…. Many of the regions most vulnerable to climate change struggle with societal issues such as the marginalization of women, children not going to school and poor sanitation. For example, in some vulnerable regions, women generally bear more responsibility than men for providing food, water and fuel. If extreme weather interferes with crops or access to water, this makes it harder for women to secure enough food or income, and increases chance that girls have to leave school to help. The climate is exacerbating these inequities, says Bharadwaj, a climate-policy researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London.” – Nature
November 2, 2023
Damaging thunderstorm winds increasing in central U.S.
“Destructive winds that flow out of thunderstorms in the central United States are becoming far more widespread with warming temperatures, according to new research. A new study shows that the central U.S. experienced a fivefold increase in the geographic area affected by damaging thunderstorm straight line winds in the past 40 years.” – ScienceDaily
November 2, 2023
The Tourism Bulldozer
“’This photo captures the sheer magnitude and violence of deforestation,’ says competition judge Celina Chien. ‘Towering trees are made to look like spilled matchsticks. It instils almost a sense of panic — this laceration across the Earth that seems to go on forever into our future.’” – Nature
November 1, 2023
Protect the ‘right to science’ for people and the planet
“Upholding human rights can ensure that environmental policy is driven by facts and evidence, not denialism, greed and profit…. We are catapulting towards an unrecognizable world — 3°C hotter than the pre-industrial one and filled with widespread pollution by the end of the century. This crisis will be an insurmountable threat to humanity’s future, unless we take immediate and colossal steps to address it.” – Nature
November 1, 2023
Ocean warming is accelerating, and hotspots reveal which areas are absorbing the most heat
“Ocean warming has accelerated dramatically since the 1990s, nearly doubling during 2010-2020 relative to 1990-2000, according to new UNSW Sydney-led research. ‘The world ocean, in 2023, is now the hottest ever recorded, and sea levels are rising because heat causes water to expand and ice to melt,’ says Prof. England. ‘Ecosystems are also experiencing unprecedented heat stress, and the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are changing rapidly, and the costs are enormous.’ ‘Melting ice caps, extreme weather, and marine ecosystems, including coral reefs, are all highly sensitive to ocean temperature changes,” says Dr Sjoerd Groeskamp, co-author of the study from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research.'” – ScienceDaily
November 1, 2023
It took years to solve the mystery elephant deaths. Now, the threat is spreading
“The Pasteurella bacteria are believed to live harmlessly in the tonsils of some, if not all, of the antelopes, as well as species including tigers, lions and chipmunks. In the antelopes, an outside temperature increase to 37C caused the bacteria to pass into the bloodstream, where it caused septicaemia. ‘It is still a guess, but I imagine that a similar thing happened with the elephants,’ says Van Vliet…. He believes the Pasteurella bacterium may go beyond elephants and antelope, because genetically these animals are very distinct, but it appears to kill both of them. ‘There may be other animals where this could become a problem,’ he says. ‘If we don’t look for it, we won’t know whether it is there. If it is present in other wildlife, we may see other unexpected deaths.’… As global temperatures increase, researchers believe understanding this Pasteurella bacterium is more pressing than ever. African savanna elephants are endangered, with 350,000 remaining, and the population declining by 8% a year.” – The Guardian
October 31, 2023
Carbon emissions threaten 1.5C climate threshold sooner than thought – report
Human fossil fuel emissions are threatening a key climate threshold more quickly than previously thought, a new report says. Researchers say the world may be committed to breaching the 1.5C limit by 2029, rather than the mid 2030s.” – BBC

October 31, 2023
Humans are disrupting natural ‘salt cycle’ on a global scale, new study shows“The influx of salt in streams and rivers is an ‘existential threat. A new paper revealed that human activities are making Earth’s air, soil and freshwater saltier, which could pose an ‘existential threat’ if current trends continue. Geologic and hydrologic processes bring salts to Earth’s surface over time, but human activities such as mining and land development are rapidly accelerating this natural ‘salt cycle.'” – ScienceDaily

October 31, 2023
The ‘flickering’ of Earth systems is warning us: act now, or see our already degraded paradise lost
“The sudden acceleration of environmental crises we have seen this year, coupled with the strategic uselessness of powerful governments, rushes us towards the point of no return…. What we are living through today, unless sudden and drastic action is taken by us and our governments, is the sixth great Earth systems collapse. In many Earth systems, we now see the kind of instability – systems theorists call it flickering – that might suggest they are approaching tipping points.” – The Guardian
October 31, 2023
Banks pumped more than $150bn in to companies running ‘carbon bomb’ projects in 2023
“Banks pumped more than $150bn last year into companies whose giant ‘carbon bomb’ projects could destroy the last chance of stopping the planet heating to dangerous levels, the Guardian can reveal. The carbon bombs – 425 extraction projects that can each pump more than one gigaton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – cumulatively hold enough coal, oil and gas to burn through the rapidly dwindling carbon budget four times over. Between 2016 and 2022, banks mainly in the US, China and Europe gave $1.8tn in financing to the companies running them, new research shows.” – The Guardian
October 30, 2023
Amazon deforestation linked to long distance climate warming
“Deforestation in the Amazon causes land surfaces up to 100 kilometers away to get warmer, suggests a new study.   The research suggests that tropical forests play a critical role in cooling the land surface — and that effect can play out over considerable distances.” – ScienceDaily
October 29, 2023
The West Antarctic ice sheet faces ‘unavoidable’ melting, a warning for sea level rise
“Accelerating ice losses are all but ‘unavoidable’ this century in vulnerable West Antarctic ice shelves as waters warm around them, according to new research. And the analysis could mean scientists were too conservative in predicting about one to three feet of sea level rise by 2100.” – The Washington Post
October 27, 2023
Revealed: the industry figures behind ‘declaration of scientists’ backing meat eating
“Document used to target top EU officials over environmental and health policies but climate experts view it as propaganda…. Studies in the highest-ranking scientific journals have concluded that cutting meat and dairy consumption in rich countries is the single best way to reduce a person’s impact on the environment and that the climate crisis cannot be beaten without such cuts. People already eat more meat than health guidelines recommend in most developed nations…. Prof Jennifer Jacquet of the University of Miami, US, said: ‘The Dublin Declaration is another instance of the livestock industry taking a page out of the fossil fuel playbook to fight action on climate change. It tries to leverage the academic profession and its institutions to downplay the role of livestock in climate change.’… Marco Contiero, Greenpeace’s EU policy director on agriculture said: ‘Opposing the necessary reduction in livestock production and consumption means supporting vast amounts of deforestation, huge loss of biodiversity and a guaranteed end to a stable climate.'” – The Guardian
October 25, 2023
Report warns about risk tipping points with irreversible impacts on people and planet
“A new report finds that drastic changes are approaching if risks to our fundamental socioecological systems are not addressed.  The Interconnected Disaster Risks Report 2023 warns of six risk tipping points ahead of us: Accelerating extinctions; Groundwater depletion; Mountain glaciers melting; Space debris; Unbearable heat; and an Uninsurable future.” – ScienceDaily
October 25, 2023
Fossil fuel firms spent millions on US lawmakers who sponsored anti-protest bills
“Fossil fuel companies have spent millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign donations to state lawmakers who sponsored anti-protest laws – which now shield about 60% of US gas and oil operations from protest and civil disobedience, according to a new report from Greenpeace USA.” – The Guardian
October 24, 2023
Climate report: ‘Uncharted territory’ imperils life on Earth
“An international coalition of climate scientists says that the Earth’s vital signs have worsened beyond anything humans have yet seen, to the point that life on the planet is imperiled…. ‘Without actions that address the root problem of humanity taking more from the Earth than it can safely give, we’re on our way to the potential collapse of natural and socioeconomic systems and a world with unbearable heat and shortages of food and freshwater,’ said Christopher Wolf  the lead authors of the report.” – ScienceDaily
October 21, 2023
Are Fears of A.I. and Nuclear Apocalypse Keeping You Up? Blame Prometheus.
“As technological optimism curdles in the face of cyber-capitalist villainy, climate disaster and what even some of its proponents warn is the existential threat of A.I., that ancient fire looks less like an ember of divine ingenuity than the start of a conflagration. Prometheus is what we call our capacity for self-destruction.” – The New York Times
October 20,2023
Land use: Producing more food and storing more carbon
“Doubling food production, saving water, and increasing carbon storage capacity — this may sound paradoxical, but would be theoretically feasible considering the biophysical potential of the Earth. Reaching this goal, however, would require a radical spatial reorganization of land use.” – ScienceDaily
October 19, 2023

Statista
October 19, 2023
Atlantic Hurricanes Are Getting Stronger, Faster, Study Finds
Hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean are now twice as likely to grow from a weak storm into a major Category 3 or higher hurricane within just 24 hours, according to a study published Thursday. ‘These findings should serve as an urgent warning,’ said Andra Garner, an assistant professor of environmental science at Rowan University and the author of the new paper.” – The New York Times
October 19, 2023
Urgent action needed to address climate change threats to coastal areas
“The multi-dimensional and locally grounded assessment developed in this study for coastal adaptation confirms the need to drastically scale up adaptation policy and action around the globe, from local governments and stakeholders to the international climate policy arena.” – ScienceDaily
October 18, 2023
In This Exhibition, Gender Meets Climate Activism. It’s a Lot.
“A sprawling show at the Barbican Art Gallery in London presents works under the banner of ‘ecofeminism,’ linking women’s oppression with humanity’s destruction of nature.” – The New York Times
October 18, 2023
Reef-devouring predator survives coral bleaching and feasts on the survivors
“The crown-of-thorns starfish is nature’s ultimate coral predator that has a circle of life perfectly adapted to warming waters.” – ScienceDaily
October 17, 2023
‘They challenged the Communist monopoly’: Vietnam regime turns on its climate champions
“Less than 12 months ago G7 countries agreed to provide billions of dollars to help Vietnam ditch coal. The funding was described as a ‘gamechanger in the fight against climate change’ by Rishi Sunak, the British prime minister. It was designed to help Vietnam achieve a ‘just and equitable’ energy transition, with input from civil society. But in the months that have followed, Vietnam has continued a crackdown on environmentalists, jailing NGO leaders and technical experts who specialise in clean energy…. Vietnam has long persecuted and imprisoned pro-democracy activists, but it had, in the past, tolerated environmentalists who work in the state-sanctioned NGO space, said Ben Swanton, co-director of The 88 Project, a human rights advocacy group. ‘They were allowed a certain degree of leeway that human rights and democracy activists were not,’ he said.” – The Guardian
October 10, 2023
Should We Tell People It’s Too Late To Save Civilization?
“One of the most fascinating things about humans is their endless ability to deny the obvious. Our civilization is clearly headed for collapse, yet most people — even those who know that climate change is real — think the economy can keep growing forever, just so long as it’s a ‘green economy.'” – Medium
October 9, 2023
Climate-driven extreme heat may make parts of Earth too hot for humans
“Results of the study indicate that if global temperatures increase by 2 C above pre-industrial levels, the 2.2 billion residents of Pakistan and India’s Indus River Valley, the one billion people living in eastern China and the 800 million residents of sub-Saharan Africa will annually experience many hours of heat that surpass human tolerance.” – ScienceDaily
October 9, 2023
Glitter sales surge in Germany before EU microplastics ban this week
“Celebrities reportedly fuelling glitter hysteria with one Big Brother ex-contestant buying 82 packets. German reality TV personalities and influencers are reportedly driving a surge in sales of glitter and everything made with it, from nails to makeup, before an EU ban on loose glitter that is aimed at tackling pollution from microplastics.” – The Guardian
October 9, 2023
Rich countries promised poor nations billions for climate change. They aren’t paying.
“After years of promises of new climate funding, the developing world is coming to grips with a disappointing reality: Money still isn’t coming through fast enough to address the mounting challenges of climate change. Promises from some of the world’s biggest economies, including the United States and China, haven’t been panning out. Many are years behind schedule or still years away from sending money, delayed by political fights, bureaucratic snags and debates over new rules to expedite aid from development banks and private donors.” – The Washington Post

October 9, 2023
Climate crisis costing $16m an hour in extreme weather damage, study estimates
‘Analysis shows at least $2.8tn in damage from 2000 to 2019 through worsened storms, floods and heatwaves.” – The Guardian
October 6, 2023
Extreme weather displaced 43m children in past six years, Unicef reports
“The equivalent of 20,000 children being forced to abandon their homes and school every single day, new research has found…. ‘This is absolutely a conservative estimate, and possibly just the tip of the iceberg for some climate impacts,’ said Verena Knaus, the Unicef lead on global migration and displacement. ‘Climate is the fastest-growing driver of child displacement yet most policies and discussions about climate finance fail to consider or prioritize children.’… With every additional 1C of warming, the global risks of displacement from flooding are projected to rise by as much as 50%.” – The Guardian
October 4, 2023
Climate scientist faces sack for refusing to fly to Germany from Solomon Islands archipelago
“Instead this week he was still waiting in Buka Town, Bougainville, to embark on a cargo ship to begin his journey back to Europe, after six months studying the impact of climate change and globalisation on communities in Papua New Guinea. Grimalda said he intends to make the 22,000km (14,000-mile) return trip to Europe entirely without flying, instead travelling on cargo ships, ferries, trains and coaches – a journey he estimates will take two months, but that will, he estimates, save 3.6 tonnes of carbon emissions.” – The Guardian
October 3, 2023
September shattered global heat record — and by a record margin
“The September data shows an acceleration in the warming trend that rang alarm bells this summer as the planet’s temperature reached its warmest level in modern records and probably in thousands of years. “Climate scientist Zeke Hausfather called the September warming ‘absolutely gobsmackingly bananas.’ ‘We’ve never seen a record smashed by anything close to this margin,’ Hausfather, climate lead for the payment company Stripe, said in an email.” – The Washington Post
October 3, 2023
Vietnam arrests top official of energy policy thinktank in continuing crackdown on environment activists
“Ngo Thi To Nhien, director of the Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition Social Enterprise, was arrested for allegedly appropriating internal documents relating to state-owned firm Electricity of Vietnam, according to the state media reports…. Ms Nhien faced up to five years in prison, according to Vietnam’s criminal code…. Ms Nhien is a prominent researcher in Vietnam and has worked with a number of international organisations, including the World Bank, the European Union, the United Nations and the Asian Development Bank. She was reportedly working on an implementation plan for the country’s just energy transition partnership (JETP) at the time of her arrest. The $15bn project will push Vietnam to wean off fossil fuels and is funded by the G7.” – Independent
September 26, 2023
Europe’s banks helped fossil fuel firms raise more than €1tn from global bond markets
“Analysis of thousands of transactions since 2016, when more than 190 countries agreed at a UN summit in Paris to limit global warming by curbing pollution, has revealed that lenders including Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Barclays have continued to profit from the expansion of oil, gas and coal by supporting the sale of fossil fuel bonds.” – The Guardian
September 23, 2023
The Oil Age May Not End the Way You Imagine It Will
“Currently political leaders fear the end of capitalist accumulation (aka economic growth) more than they fear global warming. This is the major obstacle to any well-meaning plan for voluntary degrowth as a viable response to climate change and resource depletion (source)…. We tend to assume our political leaders will tell the oil and gas industry when and where fossil fuels may be burned in the coming decades, and when and how GHG emissions must be brought down to zero. If, on the other hand, we are mistaken in this assumption, and in fact it is the oil and gas industry that will tell our political leaders when the industry will stop or slow down the burning of fossil fuels, then we’re in a different situation. Oil and gas giants have been telling us what they plan to do for quite a while now, and it looks like they have no plans to just fade away.” – Medium

September 22, 2023
We Are Going Backwards – And it could cause a climate and a financial catastrophe.
The Global Energy Monitor(GEM) recently released their latest report. They found that in the year to July 2023, the capacity of oil- and gas-fired power stations under development around the world grew by a massive 90GW, which works out to a 13% growth. This means there are now 783 gigawatts (GW) of new oil- and gas-power capacity under development. Once completed, these projects will increase the global oil and gas power fleet by a third!… That is the same as the US emits every six years, and they are the second most polluting nation on Earth!… Renewables are as expensive or even cheaper than these new gas and oil power plants. They can even be built and connected to the grid quicker. So there is no real reason for this expansion other than just carrying on the way we used to. It is ignorant, misguided and plain dangerous.” – Medium
September 21, 2023
How climate warming could disrupt a deep-rooted relationship
“Climate change is reducing the amount of carbon the trees fix and likely has cascading effects on how much carbon they can provide to their ectomycorrhizal fungi,” continues Fernandez. “This is likely causing a shift towards low biomass species, resulting in the breakdown of networks between trees.” – ScienceDaily
September 18, 2023
The pace of climate-driven extinction is accelerating
“Climate change is causing extinctions at an increasing rate, a new study by the University of Arizona researchers shows. They surveyed populations of the Yarrow’s spiny lizard in 18 mountain ranges in southeastern Arizona and analyzed the rate of climate-related extinction over time. ‘The magnitude of extinction we found over the past seven years was similar to that seen in other studies that spanned almost 70 years,’ said John J. Wiens, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UArizona, and the senior author of the study.” – ScienceDaily
September 17, 2023
Antarctic sea-ice at ‘mind-blowing’ low alarms experts
The sea-ice surrounding Antarctica is well below any previous recorded winter level, satellite data shows, a worrying new benchmark for a region that once seemed resistant to global warming. ‘It’s so far outside anything we’ve seen, it’s almost mind-blowing,’ says Walter Meier, who monitors sea-ice with the National Snow and Ice Data Center. An unstable Antarctica could have far-reaching consequences, polar experts warn…. Without its ice cooling the planet, Antarctica could transform from Earth’s refrigerator to a radiator, experts say…. ‘Are we awakening this giant of Antarctica?’ asks Prof Martin Siegert, a glaciologist at the University of Exeter. It would be “an absolute disaster for the world,’ he says.” – BBC
September 14, 2023
New files shed light on ExxonMobil’s efforts to undermine climate science
“ExxonMobil executives privately sought to undermine climate science even after the oil and gas giant publicly acknowledged the link between fossil fuel emissions and climate change, according to previously unreported documents revealed by the Wall Street Journal.” – The Guardian
September 14, 2023
Rivers are rapidly warming, losing oxygen; aquatic life at risk
“Rivers are warming and losing oxygen faster than oceans, according to a new article. The study shows that of nearly 800 rivers, warming occurred in 87% and oxygen loss occurred in 70%.” – ScienceDaily
September 14, 2023
Experts call for global moratorium on efforts to geoengineer climate
“Governments should not embark on any such activities, the panel warned, because of the dangers involved in tinkering with the global climate in ways that are not yet well understood.” – The Guardian
September 13, 2023
Scientists invent a bright way to upcycle plastics into liquids that can store hydrogen energy
“Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have created a process that can upcycle most plastics into chemical ingredients useful for energy storage, using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and a commercially available catalyst, all at room temperature. The new process is very energy-efficient and can be easily powered by renewable energy in the future, unlike other heat-driven recycling processes like pyrolysis.” – ScienceDaily
September 13, 2023
Earth ‘well outside safe operating space for humanity’, scientists find
“Their assessment found that six out of nine ‘planetary boundaries’ had been broken because of human-caused pollution and destruction of the natural world. The planetary boundaries are the limits of key global systems – such as climate, water and wildlife diversity – beyond which their ability to maintain a healthy planet is in danger of failing.” – The Guardian
September 13, 2023
Environmental activists killed at a rate of one every other day in 2022 – report
“Colombia was the deadliest country and a fifth of the 177 recorded killings took place in the Amazon rainforest, says Global Witness.” – The Guardian
September 12, 2023
US behind more than a third of global oil and gas expansion plans, report finds
“Study highlights conflict between Washington’s claims of climate leadership and its fossil fuel growth plans…. Canada and Russia have the next biggest expansion plans, calculated based on how much carbon dioxide is likely to be produced from new developments, followed by Iran, China and Brazil. The United Arab Emirates, which is to host the annual UN climate summit this year, Cop28 in Dubai in November, is seventh on the list.” – The Guardian
September 8, 2023
World Bank spent billions of dollars backing fossil fuels in 2022, study finds
“Campaigners estimate about $3.7bn in trade finance was supplied to oil and gas projects despite bank’s green pledges.” – The Guardian
September 7, 2023
Stability inspection for West Antarctica shows: marine ice sheet is not destabilized yet, but possibly on a path to tipping
“Antarctica’s vast ice masses seem far away, yet they store enough water to raise global sea levels by several meters. A team of experts has now provided the first systematic stability inspection of the ice sheet’s current state. Their diagnosis: While they found no indication of irreversible, self-reinforcing retreat of the ice sheet in West Antarctica yet, global warming to date could already be enough to trigger the slow but certain loss of ice over the next hundreds to thousands of years.” – ScienceDaily
September 7, 2023
Trump’s Border Wall Caused Major Cultural And Environmental Harm, Watchdog Finds
“A new report details the ‘devastating’ consequences of Trump’s promise to construct a ‘big, beautiful wall’ along the U.S.-Mexico border. – HuffPost
September 7, 2023
‘Major disruptor’: El Niño threatens the world’s rice supplies
“After India imposed an export ban on rice following destructive rains, prices have soared – now rising temperatures put crops across south-east Asia at risk.” – The Guardian
September 7, 2023
Private equity profits from climate disaster clean-up – while investing in fossil fuels
“Private equity firms are increasingly profiting from cleaning up climate disasters in the US, while failing to better protect workers and often also investing in the fossil fuels that are causing the climate emergency, new research has found.” – The Guardian
September 7, 2023
Antarctica warming much faster than models predicted in ‘deeply concerning’ sign for sea levels
“Antarctica is likely warming at almost twice the rate of the rest of the world and faster than climate change models are predicting, with potentially far-reaching implications for global sea level rise, according to a scientific study.” – The Guardian
September 7, 2023
Climate Change: world cannot achieve Paris Agreement goals without ‘transforming agriculture’, nature charity warns
“Efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the food sector are falling well below what is needed, says head of The Nature Conservancy (TNC). ‘We’ve forgotten that 30 per cent of our annual emissions was coming from food production, so [even] if we went 100 per cent renewable energy tomorrow, without transforming agriculture we’ll never achieve our Paris Agreement targets,’ said Jennifer Morris, CEO of TNC.” – The South China Morning Post
September 6, 2023
Forests Are No Longer Our Climate Friends
“’We are killing this ecosystem directly and indirectly,’ the climate scientist Luciana Gatti, who led the 2021 review, told Grossman. ‘This is what scares me terribly and why it’s affecting me so much when I come here. I’m observing the forest dying.’” – The New York Times
September 5, 2023
THE HUMAN LIMIT – WHERE DANGEROUS HEAT IS SURGING
“By 2050, over 5 billion people — probably more than half the planet’s population — will be exposed to at least a month of health-threatening extreme heat when outdoors in the sun, the analysis shows, up from 4 billion in 2030 and 2 billion at the turn of the century.” – The Washington Post
September 5, 2023
‘Alarming’ scale of marine sand dredging laid bare by new data platform
“UN-developed Marine Sand Watch estimates 6bn tonnes dug up a year, well beyond rate at which it is replenished. One million lorries of sand a day are being extracted from the world’s oceans, posing a ‘significant’ threat to marine life and coastal communities facing rising sea levels and storms, according to the first-ever global data platform to monitor the industry.” – The Guardian
September 5, 2023
CLIMATE-LINKED ILLS THREATEN HUMANITY
Pakistan is the epicenter of a global wave of climate health threats, a Post analysis finds…. This examination of climate-fueled illnesses — tied to hotter temperatures, and swifter passage of pathogens and toxins — shows how countries across the globe are ill-prepared for the insidious, intensifying risks to almost every facet of human health.” The New York Times
September 4, 2023
Extreme El Niño weather saw South America’s forest carbon sink switch off
“Tropical forests in South America lose their ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere when conditions become exceptionally hot and dry, according to new research…. In 2015 — 2016, when an El Niño climate event resulted in drought and the hottest temperatures ever recorded, South American forests were unable to function as a carbon sink.” – ScienceDaily
September 4, 2023
Invasive species cost humans $423bn each year and threaten world’s diversity
“At least 3,500 harmful invasive species recorded in every region on Earth spread by human activity, says UN report.” – The Guardian
September 4, 2023
Banks pouring trillions to fossil fuel expansion in global south, report finds
“Since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement banks have provided some $3.2tn to the fossil fuel industry to expand operations.” – The Guardian
September 1, 2023
Antarctic ice shelves thinner than previously thought
“Researchers from The Ohio State University found that on average, the Antarctic ice shelves are nearly 6% thinner than previous studies had assumed, a difference of about 17 meters…. Yet as ice shelves play a large role in stabilizing the Antarctic ice sheet as well as Earth’s complex climate system, getting an accurate estimation of their size is essential for calculating how their melt could contribute to sea level rise, said Allison Chartrand, lead author of the study and recent doctoral graduate of the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. ‘Because the Antarctic ice sheet is so big, a 1% misestimation in how fast it’s melting could mean inches or feet of sea level rise that we’re not accounting for,’ she said…. Even the most minute changes to Antarctica’s ice shelves could pose a significant threat to coastal communities, Chartrand said, as a few inches of significantly displaced ice shelf could cause thicker ice to flow into the ocean and potentially cause some coastlines to retreat several feet.” – ScienceDaily
September 1, 2023
Groundwater depletion rates in India could triple in coming decades as climate warms, study shows
A new study finds that farmers in India have adapted to warming temperatures by intensifying the withdrawal of groundwater used for irrigation. If the trend continues, the rate of groundwater loss could triple by 2080, further threatening India’s food and water security. Reduced water availability in India due to groundwater depletion and climate change could threaten the livelihoods of more than one-third of the country’s 1.4 billion residents and has global implications.” – ScienceDaily
August 31, 2023
How Shell Quietly Dropped Its Green Ambitions
“Big Oil member Shell shelved a public commitment to spend up to $100 million a year building a pipeline of carbon credits, part of its promise to zero out emissions by 2050. Instead, the company and its new CEO decided to double down on extracting and selling the fossil fuels driving the climate crisis.” – Bloomberg
August 30, 2023
How a mere 12% of Americans eat half the nation’s beef, creating significant health and environmental impacts
“A new study found that 12% of Americans, mostly men or people aged 50-65, consume half of all beef on a given day, contributing to adverse health and environmental impacts…. ‘There’s hope in the younger generation, because it’s their planet they’re going to inherit,’ said the study’s corresponding and senior author Diego Rose, professor and nutrition program director at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. ‘I’ve seen in my classes that they’re interested in diet, how it impacts the environment, and what can they do about it.'” – ScienceDaily
August 29, 2023
Want to fight climate change? Don’t poach gorillas (or elephants, hornbills, toucans, etc.)
“A new article found that overhunting of gorillas, elephants, and other large fruit-eating seed-dispersers make tropical forests less able to store or sequester carbon.” – ScienceDaily
August 28, 2023
America Is Using Up Its Groundwater Like There’s No Tomorrow
“Overuse is draining and damaging aquifers nationwide, a New York Times data investigation revealed. A wealth of underground water helped create America, its vast cities and bountiful farmland. Now, Americans are squandering that inheritance.” – The New York Times
August 28, 2023
Past abrupt changes in North Atlantic Overturning have impacted the climate system across the globe
“Abrupt climate changes have affected rainfall patterns worldwide in the past, especially in the tropical monsoon region, a new study shows. An international team of scientists used dripstones from globally distributed caves together with model simulations to analyze the global impacts of rapid Northern-Hemisphere temperature increases, the widely studied Dansgaard-Oeschger events, that repeatedly occurred during the last ice age…. The Dansgaard-Oeschger events are rapid Northern-Hemisphere temperature jumps of up to 15°C in Greenland that repeatedly occurred within a few decades during the last ice age.” – ScienceDaily
August 28, 2023
China’s summer of climate destruction
“China’s summer this year has seen both extreme heat and devastating floods. And the flooding this time around has struck areas where such weather has been unheard of, with scientists – blaming climate change – warning that the worst is yet to come. ‘I’ve never seen a flood here in my whole life,’ says 38-year-old Zhang Junhua, standing next to a vast patch of rice, now completely useless. ‘We just didn’t expect it.’… In June, northern China was baking, with week after week of temperatures soaring above 40C (104F), and then a month’s worth of rain bucketed down in 24 hours…. The professor, a geographer at Montana State University, adds that “climate change-driven weather extremes are a huge problem for China because of its dense population and as a major global economy.’ He also says that ‘every tonne of CO2 that remains in the ground, means fewer people in China will be harmed in the future.”’ – BBC
August 25, 2023
BURIED UNDER THE ICE
“Scientists came to Greenland on an unprecedented mission to drill for rocks that would reveal the fate of this fast-melting ice sheet…. Scientists have less material from under the ice sheet than they do from the surface of the moon. But Schaefer believes the uncharted landscape is key to understanding Greenland’s past – and to forecasting the future of the warming Earth. The Greenland Ice Sheet contributes more to rising oceans than any other ice mass on the planet. If it all disappeared, it would raise global sea levels by 24 feet, devastating coastlines that are home to about half the world’s population. Yet computer simulations and modern observations alone can’t precisely predict how Greenland might melt. Researchers are still unsure whether rising temperatures have already pushed the ice sheet into irreversible decline.” – The Washington Post
August 24, 2023
Loss of Antarctic sea ice causes catastrophic breeding failure for emperor penguins
“Emperor penguin colonies experienced unprecedented breeding failure in a region of Antarctica where there was total sea ice loss in 2022. The discovery supports predictions that over 90% of emperor penguin colonies will be quasi-extinct by the end of the century, based on current global warming trends.” – ScienceDaily
August 24, 2023
Trouble in the Amazon – The rainforest is starting to release its carbon. Is it heading towards a tipping point?
“Climate change, deforestation and other human threats are driving the Amazon towards the limits of survival. Researchers are racing to chart its future…. Since 2010, Gatti has collected air samples over the Amazon in planes such as this one, to monitor how much CO2 the forest absorbs. In 2021, she reported data from 590 flights that showed that the Amazon forest’s uptake — its carbon sink — is weak over most of its area1. In the southeastern Amazon, the forest has become a source of CO2…. ‘We are killing this ecosystem directly and indirectly,’ she says, choking up. She wipes a tear from her eye. ‘This is what scares me terribly and why it’s affecting me so much when I come here. I’m observing the forest dying.’” – Nature
August 24, 2023
Governments pledged to end fossil fuel subsidies. Instead, they’ve doubled down since 2020, hitting record $1.3 trillion
“The report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) looked at both explicit and implicit subsidies for fossil fuels across 170 countries. It found explicit subsidies alone have more than doubled since the previous IMF assessment, rising from $500 billion in 2020 to $1.3 trillion in 2022 as governments rushed to mitigate the inflationary impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the spike in demand caused by the economic recovery from Covid-19. Those subsidies are direct monetary support for fossil fuels through activities like regulated prices set below international levels and energy bill rebates.” – Forbes
August 24, 2023
Barcelona gives hats to homeless people as heatwave sweeps southern Europe
“Barcelona is handing out water and caps to homeless people and France has recorded its highest overnight temperature, as firefighters in Greece grapple with major wildfires in another brutal European heatwave that has pushed temperatures past 43C (109F) in some locations.” – The Guardian
August 23, 2023
Tackle ever-growing consumption to safeguard sustainability gains
“The world is consuming more efficiently, but still using more stuff. More-concerted efforts to change both consumer and producer behaviour are needed…. Hopes that things can be turned around are often expressed in terms of establishing a more ‘circular’ economy. The idea is to transform the ‘linear’ economy (take, make, waste) into one in which materials are reused or recycled, avoiding the creation of waste and limiting the use of raw materials. The idea is simple, attractive — and fiendishly difficult to implement.” – Nature
August 23, 2023
Can Shrinking Be Good for Japan? A Marxist Best Seller Makes the Case.
Kohei Saito says the country should seize this moment of demographic and economic challenge to reinvent itself through “degrowth communism.’… Mr. Saito has tapped into what he describes as a growing disillusionment in Japan with capitalism’s ability to solve the problems people see around them, whether caring for the country’s growing older population, stemming rising inequality or mitigating climate change…. But there are strong indications that the country’s growth-oriented policies of ultracheap money and big government spending are reaching their limits. The interventions have done little to stimulate growth in Japan’s economy. And as government efforts to lift the birthrate also falter, with fewer people doing less work, ‘the room for growth is running out,’ Mr. Saito, 36, said during a recent interview at his Tokyo home…. Some areas of the economy, such as health care, will need to continue growing, but ‘there are too many cars, too many skyscrapers, too many convenience stores, too much fast fashion,’ he said. The focus on consumption, he argues, has had devastating consequences for the environment, driven widening inequality and wasted limited resources that could be put to better use.” – The New York Times
August 23, 2023
Amazon’s emissions ‘doubled’ under first half of Bolsonaro presidency
“The first half of Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency was so destructive for the Amazon that it was comparable to the record 2016 El Niño drought and heatwave in terms of carbon emissions, according to scientists.” – The Guardian
August 23, 2023
G20 poured more than $1tn on fossil fuel subsidies despite Cop26 pledges – report
“The G20 poured record levels of public money into fossil fuels last year despite having promised to reduce some of it, a report has found. The amount of public money flowing into coal, oil and gas in 20 of the world’s biggest economies reached a record $1.4tn(£1.1tn) in 2022, according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) thinktank, even though world leaders agreed to phase out “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow two years ago.” – The Guardian
August 20, 2023
Scientists Discover A Climate Tipping Point Could Be Far Worse Than We Thought
“The Sahara’s climate influence is far larger than we thought…. The level of global warming that the Sahara turns green, and this climate tipping point is reached, has been calculated at between 2 and 3 degrees Celsius. We have already experienced just over a degree of climate change, and current studies suggest we will see 3 degrees of climate change by the end of the century.” – Medium
August 18, 2023
‘Gigantic’ power of meat industry blocking green alternatives, study finds
“Analysis of EU and US shows livestock farmers receive about 1,000 times more public funding than plant-based and cultivated meat.” – The Guardian
August 17, 2023
America’s wealthiest 10% responsible for 40% of US greenhouse gas emissions
“They also discovered that the top 1% of earners alone generate 15 — 17% of the nation’s emissions. In general, white, non-Hispanic households had the highest emission-linked income and Black households the lowest…. ‘This research gives us insight into the way that income and investments obscure emissions responsibility,’ says Starr. ‘For example, 15 days of income for a top 0.1% household generates as much carbon pollution as a lifetime of income for a household in the bottom 10%. An income-based lens helps us focus in on exactly who is profiting the most from climate-changing carbon pollution, and design policies to shift their behavior.'” – ScienceDaily
August 17, 2023
Without aggressive climate action, U.S. property values will take a hit from escalating wildfire risk and tree mortality, study finds
Earth’s rapidly changing climate is taking an increasingly heavy toll on landscapes around the world in the form of floods, rising sea levels, extreme weather, drought and wildfire…. Looking at just privately owned lots 1 acre in size or larger, about $4 billion (in 2017 dollars) in property is currently exposed per year to wildfire in the contiguous United States, according to the study. That volume is projected to grow to $22 and $45 billion, by 2049 and 2099, respectively, under the do-nothing scenario. The study found, however, the value of exposed property tops out at about $11 billion under the scenario in which aggressive climate action is undertaken.” – ScienceDaily
August 16, 2023
Scientists say deepening Arctic snowpack drives greenhouse gas emissions
“Deeper snow acts like a blanket, insulating the ground that warmed up in the summer from cold air temperatures. This causes the permafrost to thaw, which allows microorganisms to consume the previously frozen organic matter and, in the process, release planet-warming gasses. ‘Permafrost emissions are likely going to start earlier than we expected,’ said Czimczik, a professor of Earth system science and the lead author of the study, which appears in AGU Advances.” –ScienceDaily
August 16, 2023
Extreme water stress faced by countries home to quarter of world population
Twenty-five countries that are home to a quarter of the world’s population are facing extreme water stress, according to research. Data from the World Resources Institute suggests these countries are regularly using 80% of their water supplies each year…. By 2050, water demand around the world is projected to increase by between 20% and 25%.” – The Guardian
August 15, 2023
This region fueled India’s population boom. Now it’s in danger.
“Forty percent of india’s 1.4 billion people live in a relatively small stretch of land, the indo-gangetic plain…. Now as climate change takes hold, conditions are changing fast and putting more than 800 million people at risk.” – The Washington Post
August 14, 2023
Judge rules in favor of Montana youths in landmark climate decision
“In the first ruling of its kind nationwide, a Montana state court decided Monday in favor of young people who alleged the state violated their right to a “clean and healthful environment” by promoting the use of fossil fuels.” – Washington Post

August 11, 2023
You Either See Everyone Else As a Human Being Or You Don’t
“A video of the buoys that Texas governor Greg Abbott has installed in the Rio Grande to thwart the passage of migrants…. trying to keep immigrants from crossing into Texas by threatening to slice them to pieces, both with the saw-buoys and razor wire, if they should try to cross over illegally. The Week reports that the methods are controversial locally, but if you want a depressing window into the souls of some of your fellow Americans, have a look at the comments on social media, many of which are firmly insistent that anyone carved up by a razor-buoy deserves exactly what they get.” – Current Affairs
August 7, 2023
Behind All the Talk, This Is What Big Oil Is Actually Doing
“But with fossil fuel use and emissions still rising, it is not moving nearly fast enough to address the climate crisis. In June, Shell became the latest of the big oil companies to curb plans to cut oil output, announcing that it will no longer reduce annual oil and gas production through the end of the decade. The company also raised its dividend, diverting money that could be used to develop clean energy. BP’s share prices surged earlier this year when the company walked back its plan to reduce oil and gas output…. Overall, oil and gas companies are projected to spend more than $500 billion this year on identifying, extracting and producing new oil and gas supplies, and even more on dividends to return record profits to shareholders, according to the International Energy Agency.” – The New York Times
August 7, 2023
With a fast burst of sea level rise, New Orleans’s outer defenses are drowning
“Since 2010, the U.S. Gulf Coast has seen a sudden burst of rapid sea level rise, with rates that scientists didn’t expect to see until late this century. At its center lie the wetlands that make up the first line of defense for New Orleans, buffering the levees and barriers behind them. The change has put the city and its nearby coastal communities at greater risk from storms…. A group of scientists at Tulane University have also been investigating the situation. They found that across more than 200 wetland monitoring stations, seas are almost always rising faster than wetlands are able to grow — meaning that most wetlands are in a state of ‘drowning.’ Their work, which is unpublished, tracked changes between 2009 and 2021. ‘The number of the ‘drowning’ sites is much more than I thought before I started’ the research, said Guandong Li, a PhD student at Tulane who led the work. ‘About 90 percent of these sites are unable to keep up with this recent high rate of sea level rise.'” – The Washington Post
August 4, 2023
A Republican 2024 Climate Strategy: More Drilling, Less Clean Energy
“The move is part of a sweeping strategy dubbed Project 2025… called a “battle plan” for the first 180 days of a future Republican presidency. The climate and energy provisions would be among the most severe swings away from current federal policies. The plan calls for shredding regulations to curb greenhouse gas pollution from cars, oil and gas wells and power plants, dismantling almost every clean energy program in the federal government and boosting the production of fossil fuels — the burning of which is the chief cause of planetary warming.” – The New York Times
August 4, 2023
New Warnings From the Medieval Warm Period About Climate Change
“Between 800 and 1400, a rise of less than 1C created a population boom in Europe — and a collapse of civilizations in the Americas…. Studies tracing out the past climate are extremely valuable for revealing the natural background against which human-generated global warming is occurring. They should also remind us that even small swings in the climate can alter the course of human history.” – Bloomberg
August 3, 2023
The world just got its first real taste of what life is like at 1.5 degrees Celsius
“But while some aspects of warming temperatures may come to feel commonplace, others will not. In parts of the Middle East and Africa, temperatures are reaching the limits of what human bodies can take. At the same time, electric grids, roads, bridges, and other infrastructure are under pressure as temperatures rise above what they were built and planned for. ‘What we’re seeing is that our world is very sensitively designed for a small range of temperatures,’ Dessler said. ‘When the temperatures get out of that range, the whole system implodes.’” – The Washington Post

July 31, 2023
As the world boils, a backlash to climate action gains strength
“Despite the visceral evidence of a changing planet, and all the entreaties of U.N. officials and climate scientists, there’s little political unanimity on what must come next…. But the measures needed to stave off planetary warming beyond a threshold considered by scientific consensus to be catastrophic for the planet are still proving to be a tough sell. Right-wing parties across the West are exploiting public disquiet over green policies.” – The Washington Post

July 29, 2023
‘Something weird is going on’: search for answers as Antarctic sea ice stays at historic lows
“Some scientists fear the ‘shocking’ shift is the beginning of a global heating-linked collapse of the ice that could have alarming knock-on effects…. In February, the floating sea ice around Antarctica hit a record low for the second year running. Since satellites started tracking the region’s ice in 1979, there had never been less ice…. ‘There’s a sense that something weird is going on. It’s dropping way below anything we have seen in our record,’ says Dr Walt Meier, a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado…. While the floating ice in the northern Arctic has behaved as scientists and climate models expected in a warming world – that is, on an apparent terminal decline – Antarctica’s sea ice has held steady. But in 2016, something flipped. Only two years after a record high, 2016 delivered a record low, and there’s been a strong downward trend ever since. Scientists are still debating why.” – The Guardian
July 28, 2023
‘It’s Called Summer’: GOP Brushes Off Record Heat Wave
“Republicans say people concerned about unprecedented heat around the world should just chill out.” – HuffPost
July 28, 2023
Extraordinary photos of July’s extreme weather
“It is a summer of extremes. Burning temperatures followed by raging fires. Wild storms and torrential rain. And a run of broken climate records.” – BBC
July 27, 2023
‘Era of global boiling has arrived,’ says UN chief as July set to be hottest month on record
“Head of World Meteorological Organization also warns ‘climate action is not a luxury but a must’ as temperatures soar.” – The Guardian
July 27, 2023
‘Project 2025’: plan to dismantle US climate policy for next Republican president
“An alliance of rightwing groups has crafted an extensive presidential proposal to bolster the planet-heating oil and gas industry and hamstring the energy transition, it has emerged. Against a backdrop of record-breaking heat and floods this year, the $22mendeavor, Project 2025, was convened by the notorious rightwing, climate-denying thinktank the Heritage Foundation, which has ties to fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch.” – The Guardian
July 25, 2023
Gulf stream could collapse as early as 2025, study suggests
“A collapse of Amoc would have disastrous consequences around the world, severely disrupting the rains that billions of people depend on for food in India, South America and west Africa. It would increase storms and drop temperatures in Europe, and lead to a rising sea level on the eastern cost of North America. It would also further endanger the Amazon rainforest and Antarctic ice sheets…. The Amoc collapsed and restarted repeatedly in the cycle of ice ages that occurred from 115,000 to 12,000 years ago. It is one of the climate tipping points scientists are most concerned about as global temperatures continue to rise.” – The Guardian
July 24, 2023
India’s Food Security Is Being Choked by Climate Change
“The world’s most populous nation is more poorly endowed with farmland, per capita, than Greece or Algeria. That’s going to make life harder as a warming planet destabilizes the cycles of rain and sun that have kept it fed for millennia.” – Bloomberg
July 21, 2023
Save the Planet, Put Down that Hamburger
“Researchers examined the diets of 55,500 people and found that vegans are responsible for 75 percent less in greenhouse gases than meat-eaters.” – The New York Times
18, 2023
Extreme heat and weather around the world – in pictures
“A month of floods, fire and heatwaves from Rome to Chile.” – The Guardian
July 18, 2023
Water pollution ‘timebomb’ threatens global health
“Up to 5.5 billion people worldwide could be exposed to polluted water by 2100, a modelling study has found.” – Nature
July 18, 2023
Heat Waves Grip 3 Continents as Climate Change Warms Earth
“Across North America, Europe and Asia, hundreds of millions of people endured blistering conditions. The U.S. special envoy for climate change called it ‘a threat to all of humankind.’” – The New York Times
July 17, 2023
Global hunger enters a grim ‘new normal’
“This year’s report — ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023’ — also found that nearly 30 percent of humanity, or roughly 2.4 billion people, lacked access to adequate food in 2022, while an even greater number — 3.1 billion people — were unable to afford a healthy diet.” – The Washington Post

July 15, 2023
With our food systems on the verge of collapse, it’s the plutocrats v life on Earth
“Climate breakdown and crop losses threaten our survival, but the ultra-rich find ever more creative ways to maintain the status quo. According to Google’s news search, the media has run more than 10,000 stories this year about Phillip Schofield, the British television presenter who resigned over an affair with a younger colleague. Google also records a global total of five news stories about a scientific paper published last week, showing that the chances of simultaneous crop losses in the world’s major growing regions, caused by climate breakdown, appear to have been dangerously underestimated.” – The Guardian
July 13, 2023
Extreme U.S. heat wave intensifying, with world records in jeopardy
“Heat alerts affect over 100 million people in 15 states from the western U.S. to South Florida.” – The Washington Post
July 13, 2023
Extreme Drought Is Wreaking Havoc on Daily Life in Spain
Soaring temperatures and an unusual lack of rain is touching virtually all aspects of daily life…. These stark scenes are taking place as Europe endures its driest period in at least 500 years, a situation that’s been made more likely — and worse — by climate change.” – Bloomberg
July 13, 2023
Multiple ecosystems in hot water after marine heatwave surges across the Pacific
“Rising ocean temperatures are sweeping the seas, breaking records and creating problematic conditions for marine life. Unlike heatwaves on land, periods of abrupt ocean warming can surge for months or years. Around the world these ‘marine heatwaves’ have led to mass species mortality and displacement events, economic declines and habitat loss. New research reveals that even areas of the ocean protected from fishing are still vulnerable to these extreme events fueled by climate change.” – ScienceDaily
July 12, 2023
Floods, fires and deadly heat are the alarm bells of a planet on the brink
The world is hotter than it’s been in thousands of years, and it’s as if every alarm bell on Earth were ringing. The warnings are echoing through the drenched mountains of Vermont, where two months of rain just fell in only two days. India and Japan were deluged by extreme flooding. They’re shrilling from the scorching streets of Texas, Florida, Spain and China, with a severe heat wave also building in Phoenix and the Southwest in coming days. They’re burbling up from the oceans, where temperatures have surged to levels considered ‘beyond extreme.’ And they’re showing up in unprecedented, still-burning wildfires in Canada that have sent plumes of dangerous smoke into the United States.” – The Washington Post
July 12, 2023
Salinity changes threatening marine ecosystems
“Changes in salinity, or salt content, due to climate change and land use can have potentially devastating impacts on vital coastal and estuarine ecosystems, yet this has rarely been studied until now. This new research provides valuable insights into the threats posed by anthropogenic salinity changes to marine and coastal ecosystems and outlines consequences for the health and economy of local communities in oftentimes densely populated regions.” – ScienceDaily
July 12, 2023
Oceans are turning greener due to climate change
More than half of the world’s oceans have become greener in the past 20 years, probably because of global warming. The discovery, reported today in Nature1, is surprising because scientists thought they would need many more years of data before they could spot signs of climate change in the colour of the oceans. ‘We are affecting the ecosystem in a way that we haven’t seen before,’ says lead author B. B. Cael, an ocean and climate scientist at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK.” – Nature
July 12, 2023
Floods, Heat, Smoke: The Weather Will Never Be Normal Again
“Global warming is accelerating, with temperatures not just rising but rising faster than ever. Every day, it seems, we get better at normalizing extreme weather…. In the end, the message isn’t all that reassuring. The experience of the near future will mean quite regular encounters with seemingly unprecedented events, often quite precisely predicted, but which so few wanted to believe could ever become real. Fewer still want to believe they might strike so close to home.” –The New York Times
July 11, 2023
This One Thing Can Save The Planet
“All in all, this makes coal the deadliest form of energy we have, with a death rate of 100,000 per thousand TWh. For some context here, nuclear power has a death rate of only 90 per 1,000 TWh, and that figure takes into account the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters. Despite this, we still use a vast amount of coal power. Coal accounts for 19.5% of the US’s energy mix, 15.8% of the EU’s, 55% of India’s and 55% of China’s! This means that while the energy industry accounts for 42.5% of humanity’s total carbon emissions, 73% of the energy industry’s emissions come from coal! This is why the study found that phasing out coal is necessary to keep global warming below 2 degrees.” – Medium
July 6, 2023
‘The Risk Is Staggering,’ Report Says of Disease From U.S. Animal Industries
“The nation uses an enormous number of animals for commercial purposes, and regulations do not adequately protect against outbreaks, experts concluded. The United States produces 10 billion animals for food every year, including more pigs and poultry, which can harbor and transmit influenza, than nearly any other country…. The nation ‘has no comprehensive strategy’ to mitigate the dangers posed by these practices, many of which operate with little regulation and out of public view, the authors concluded. ‘The risk is staggering, because our use of animals is staggering,’ said Ann Linder, the report’s lead author and an associate director at Harvard’s animal law and policy program. ‘And we don’t even really understand where that risk is.’ Zoonotic diseases, or those that spread from animals to humans, account for roughly 60 percent of all known infectious diseases and 75 percent of new and emerging ones, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” – The New York Times
July 6, 2023
Why a sudden surge of broken heat records is scaring scientists
“A remarkable spate of historic heat is hitting the planet, raising alarm over looming extreme weather dangers — and an increasing likelihood that this year will be Earth’s warmest on record.” – The Washington Post
July 6. 2023
Brazil: Amazon deforestation drops 34% in first six months under Lula
“From January to June the rainforest had alerts covering 2,650 sq km (1,023 sq miles), down from 4,000 sq km –during the same period last year under former president Jair Bolsonaro. This year’s data includes a 41% plunge in alerts for June, which marks the start of the dry season when deforestation tends to jump.”– The Guardian
July 5, 2023
Guess Who’s Been Paying to Block Green Energy. You Have.
“To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we have to make two big transitions at once: First, we have to generate all of our electricity from clean sources, like wind turbines and solar panels, rather than power plants that run on coal and methane gas. Second, we have to retool nearly everything else that burns oil and gas — like cars, buses and furnaces that heat buildings — to run on that clean electricity. These changes are underway, but their speed and ultimate success depend greatly on one kind of company: the utilities that have monopolies to sell us electricity and gas. But around the country, utility companies are using their outsize political power to slow down the clean energy transition, and they are probably using your money to do it.” – The New York Times
July 5, 2023
A Florida city famous for its water worries that it might run out of it
“As Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis touts the state’s growth, Zephyrhills hits the pause button.” – The Washington Post
July 3, 2023
Will El Niño on top of global heating create the perfect climate storm?
“‘Very unusual,’ ‘worrying,’ ‘terrifying,’ and ‘bonkers’; the reactions of veteran scientists to the sharp increase in north Atlantic surface temperatures over the past three months raises the question of whether the world’s climate has entered a more erratic and dangerous phase with the onset of an El Niño event on top of human-made global heating…. ‘If a few decades ago, some people might have thought climate change was a relatively slow-moving phenomenon, we are now witnessing our climate changing at a terrifying rate,’ said Prof Peter Stott, who leads the UK Met Office’s climate monitoring and attribution team.” – The Guardian
July 3, 2023
UK weather: hottest June since records began – Met Office
“The average monthly temperature of 15.8C exceeded the previous highest average June temperature, recorded in 1940 and 1976, by 0.9C. Climate change made the chance of surpassing the previous joint record at least twice as likely, scientists also said. Records were broken in 72 of 97 areas in the UK from where temperature data is collected.” – BBC
July 1, 2023
In the U.S., the world’s deadliest animal is on the move
Rising temperatures are shifting mosquitoes — and the diseases they carry. The deadliest animal in the world is smaller than a pencil eraser and weighs around two-thousandths of a gram — less than the weight of a single raindrop. Every year, it kills an estimated 700,000 people by partaking in what scientists grimly call a ‘blood meal.’” – The Washington Post
June 28, 2023
The Survival Of The Pangolin Is Critical To Biodiversity
“Who would have thought that the survival of the pangolin may be critical to biodiversity? The great proverb, “For Want of a Nail” (In full: “For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, the horse was lost. For want of a horse, the rider was lost. For want of a rider, the battle was lost”) teaches us that seemingly unimportant acts or omissions can have grave and unforeseen consequences. In this case, “for want of a pangolin, biodiversity was lost.” – Medium
June 27, 2023
Destruction of world’s pristine rainforests soared in 2022 despite Cop26 pledge
“An area the size of Switzerland was cleared from Earth’s most pristine rainforests in 2022, despite promises by world leaders to halt their destruction, new figures show. From the Bolivian Amazon to Ghana, the equivalent of 11 football pitches of primary rainforest were destroyed every minute last year as the planet’s most carbon-dense and biodiverse ecosystems were cleared for cattle ranching, agriculture and mining, with Indigenous forest communities forced from their land by extractive industries in some countries.” – The Guardian
June 23, 2023
El Nino’s Fierce Heat Carries New Risk of Resurgent Deadly Viruses
“The return of El Niño after nearly four years is raising the specter of extreme weather, economic pain, and agricultural disruption across the globe. Now add another unpleasant effect to the mix: a resurgence of tropical diseases.” – Bloomberg
June 23, 2003
‘Beyond extreme’ ocean heat wave in North Atlantic is worst in 170 years
“The exceptionally warm waters could pose a deadly threat to marine life and impact summer weather in the U.K. and Europe.” – The Washington Post
June 22, 2023
Ecological tipping points could occur much sooner than expected, study finds
Amazon rainforest and other ecosystems could collapse ‘very soon’, researchers warn…. Based on these findings, the authors warn that more than a fifth of ecosystems worldwide, including the Amazon rainforest, are at risk of a catastrophic breakdown within a human lifetime. ‘It could happen very soon,’ said Prof Simon Willcock of Rothamsted Research, who co-led the study. ‘We could realistically be the last generation to see the Amazon.'” – The Guardian
June 22, 2023
The scientist who raised dangers of carbon dioxide in 1950s
“In 1953, the Canadian physicist Gilbert Plass talked to a scientific meeting about the dangers of carbon dioxide pollution. ‘The large increase in industrial activity during the present century is discharging so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that the average temperature is rising at the rate of 1.5 degrees [fahrenheit] per century,’ he announced in a sensational statement that became headline news around the world.” – The Guardian
June 22, 2023
Loss of fossil fuel assets would not impoverish general public, study finds
“Research allays fears that rapid scaling back of production would hit people’s savings and pensions hard. A rapid reduction in fossil fuels, essential to avoid devastating climate breakdown, would have minimal financial impact on the vast majority of people, new research has shown.” – The Guardian
June 22, 2023
Right-wing war on ‘woke capitalism’ partly driven by fossil fuel interests and allies
“Report shows connections of business and right-wing think-tanks to laws aimed at environmental, social and corporate governance.” – The Guardian
June 21, 2023
Senate examines role of ‘dark money’ in delaying climate action
“The budget committee hearing looked into alleged misinformation from big oil that covered up ‘massive’ risks of the climate crisis…. ‘Beginning as early as the 1950s, industry scientists became aware of climate change, measuring and predicting it decades before it became a public issue,’ said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. ‘But industry management and CEOs spent decades promoting climate misinformation.'” – The Guardian
June 20, 2023
HIDDEN BENEATH THE SURFACE
“Digging deep into a humble lake in Canada, scientists found a spot on Earth like no other — and a record that could redefine our history of the planet…. In just seven decades, the scientists say, humans have brought about greater changes than they did in more than seven millennia. Never in Earth’s history has the world changed this much, this fast. Never has a single species had the capacity to wreak so much damage — or the chance to prevent so much harm. ‘It’s a line in the sand,’ said Francine McCarthy, a professor of Earth sciences at Brock University in Ontario, who has led research on Crawford Lake. ‘The Earth itself is playing by a different rule book. And it’s because of us.'” – The Washington Post 
June 19, 2023
Himalayan Glacier Loss Speeding Up, New Report Finds
“Nearly two billion people who live in more than a dozen countries within the mountain region or in the river valleys downstream depend on melting ice and snow for their water supply. Melting glaciers are destabilizing the landscape and raising the risks of hazards like floods and landslides. These rapid changes are squeezing much of the region’s unique wildlife into smaller and more precarious habitats. For some unlucky species, it’s already too late.” – The Washington Post
June 19, 2023
Unheard of’ marine heatwave off UK and Irish coasts poses serious threat
Sustained high temperatures over summer could trigger mass mortality of fish and oysters, say scientists…. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has categorised parts of the North Sea as being in a category four marine heatwave, which is considered ‘extreme,’ with areas off the coast of England up to 5C above what is usual.” – The Guardian
June 17, 2023
Dying from the heat: India’s elderly advised to stay indoors during sweltering heatwave
“Warnings issued after dozens of elderly people with health conditions exacerbated by the intense heat died in Uttar Pradesh over 48 hours. India Meteorological Department data showed a maximum temperature of 42.2°C in the region on Friday, which is 4.7°C above normal.” – SCMP
June 16, 2023
Rampant groundwater pumping has changed the tilt of Earth’s axis
“Human depletion of underground reservoirs has shifted the global distribution of water so much that the North Pole has drifted by more than 4 centimetres per year.” – Nature
June 15, 2023
The hard right and climate catastrophe are intimately linked. This is how
“As climate policy is weakened, extreme weather intensifies and more refugees are driven from their homes – and the cycle of hatred continues.” – The Guardian
June 15, 2023
Vast fossil fuel and farming subsidies causing ‘environmental havoc’
“World Bank says subsidies costing as much as $23m a minute must be repurposed to fight climate crisis.” – The Guardian
June 14, 2023
Scientists are baffled why the oceans are warming so fast
“A steady and remarkable rise in average global ocean temperatures this year is now outpacing anything seen in four decades of satellite observations, causing many scientists to suddenly blare alarm over the risks and realities of climate change…. ‘This is totally bonkers and people who look at this stuff routinely can’t believe their eyes,’ Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami, wrote on Twitter. ‘Something very weird is happening.’” – The Washington Post

June 14, 2023
Peak in global oil demand ‘in sight before end of decade’
“International Energy Agency says demand will grow by 2.4m barrels a day in 2023 to record 102.3m.” – The Guardian
June 10, 2023
The Realities Conservatives Are Ignoring About Wildfires
“Climate change denial and conspiracy theories about coordinated arson are dominating the right-wing response to the devastating Canadian wildfires. Anti-science zealots and conservative talking heads have spent this week twisting themselves in knots to imagine that global climate change isn’t exacerbating wildfires around the globe.” – HuffPost
June 9, 2023
North Sea oil and gas industry offered ‘get-out’ clause on windfall tax
“Jeremy Hunt hopes suspending energy profits levy if Brent crude falls below $71.40 a barrel will aid investment.” – The Guardian
June 8, 2023
Terrifying New Study Finds That Ocean Currents Will Soon Collapse
“Brace yourselves for a globe-shaking marine ecological disaster…. A recent study, which focused more on the Antarctic portion of these currents, found that global ocean currents could collapse in only 30 years!” – Medium
June 8, 2023
Greenhouse gas emissions at ‘an all-time high’ — and it is causing an unprecedented rate of global warming, say scientists – ScienceDaily
June 8, 2023
Without fully implementing net-zero pledges, the world will miss climate goals
“Co-author Dr Robin Lamboll, from the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial, said: ‘Making targets legally binding is crucial to ensure long-term plans are adopted. We need to see concrete legislation in order to trust that action will follow from promises.'” – ScienceDaily
June 6, 2023
Solar panel breakthrough paves way for ‘utility-scale’ space farms
“The next-generation solar panels, built by a team from the University of Pennsylvania, use layers that are over a thousand times thinner than a human hair, yet capable of absorbing a comparable amount of sunlight to commercially available solar cells. The concept of space-based solar arrays was first theorised more than 50 years ago, with scientists noting that the Sun’s energy could be converted into microwaves and beamed down to ground-based receiving stations that convert them into electricity. It has several advantages over terrestrial setups, as they would not be limited by cloud cover or the Sun’s typical cycle.” – Independent
June 6, 2023
Here are the Face Masks That Will Protect You From Wildfire Smoke
“Health experts say an N95 mask is your best bet for protecting yourself from both the novel coronavirus and wildfire smoke.” – Healthline
June 2, 2023
Climate Change Is Causing The Upper Atmosphere To Cool, And The Side Effects Are Terrifying
“This might sound like a good thing, but in actuality, it will cause some catastrophically adverse knock-on effects, from deadly extreme weather, to eroding the Earth’s life — protecting ozone layer and even potentially destroying satellites.” – Medium
June 1, 2023
Rising temperatures could push ocean plankton and other single-celled creatures toward a carbon tipping point that fuels more warming.
“The carbon-eaters could become carbon-emitters… they can photosynthesize like a plant or hunt food like an animal, depending on conditions…. During photosynthesis, they soak up carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas. And when they eat, they release carbon dioxide. These versatile organisms aren’t considered in most models of global warming, yet they play an important role in regulating climate, said senior author Jean P. Gibert of Duke.” – ScienceDaily
June 1, 2023
In California’s Heartland, a New Resistance Movement Is Taking Root
“How do you change a place as polluted and desperately unequal as the San Joaquin Valley?” – The New York Times
June 1, 2023
Phoenix area can’t meet groundwater demands over next century
“There is not enough groundwater underneath the Phoenix metropolitan area to meet projected demands over the next century, a finding that could threaten the current home-building boom in outer suburbs that are among the fastest growing parts of the United States, according to an analysis of the groundwater supply released Thursday. The report from the Arizona Department of Water Resources amounts to a chilling warning for the nation’s fifth-largest city and a metropolitan area with more than 5 million people that has been a development hot spot for new residents and high-tech businesses.” – The Washington Post

May 31, 2023
Climate Shocks Are Making Parts of America Uninsurable. It Just Got Worse.
“The largest insurer in California said it would stop offering new coverage. It’s part of a broader trend of companies pulling back from dangerous areas.” – The New York Times
May 31, 2023
Humans Have Blown Past Key Limits for Earth’s Stability, Scientists Say
“New research finds that societies have breached key ‘planetary boundaries’ allowing humanity a safe and just future.” – Bloomberg
May 31, 2023
Earth’s health failing in seven out of eight key measures, say scientists
“Going beyond climate disruption, the report by the Earth Commission group of scientists presents disturbing evidence that our planet faces growing crises of water availability, nutrient loading, ecosystem maintenance and aerosol pollution. These pose threats to the stability of life-support systems and worsen social equality…. The authors say the planetary diagnosis is grim but not yet beyond hope, though the time for a remedy is running out.” – The Guardian
May 31, 2023
Protecting large ocean areas doesn’t curb fishing catches
“In the first-ever ‘before and after’ assessment of the impact of establishing Mexico’s Revillagigedo National Park on the fishing industry, a team of US and Mexican researchers found that Mexico’s industrial fishing sector did not incur economic losses five years after the park’s creation despite a full ban in fishing activity within the MPA.” – ScienceDaily
May 30, 2023
Land around the U.S. is sinking. Here are some of the fastest areas.
“Many of the fastest sinking places in the world appear in populated areas in southeast Asia largely because of groundwater extraction, but the United States also faces substantial land subsidence…. Regions with the highest land subsidence in the United States are mainly located along the East and Gulf Coast, but here we selected a few hot spots around the country.” – The Washington Post

May 30, 2023
A.I. Poses ‘Risk of Extinction,’ Industry Leaders Warn
“Leaders from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic and other A.I. labs warn that future systems could be as deadly as pandemics and nuclear weapons.” – The New York Times
May 26, 2023
Global flash droughts expected to increase in a warming climate
“The rapid development of unexpected drought, called flash drought, can severely impact agricultural and ecological systems with ripple effects that extend even further…. As a result, socioeconomic pressures associated with food production, including higher prices and social unrest, will also increase when crop losses occur due to flash drought.” – ScienceDaily
May 25, 2023
The Federal Reserve Is Catastrophically Wrong About Climate Change
“At a recent event, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said that climate change does not pose a serious risk to financial systems, and the large banks don’t need to worry about it.” – Medium
May 25, 2023
Slowing ocean current caused by melting Antarctic ice could have drastic climate impact, study says
“The Southern Ocean overturning circulation has ebbed 30% since the 90s, CSIRO scientist claims, leading to higher sea levels and changing weather…. A major global deep ocean current has slowed down by approximately 30% since the 1990s as a result of melting Antarctic ice, which could have critical consequences for Earth’s climate patterns and sea levels, new research suggests. Known as the Southern Ocean overturning circulation, the global circulation system plays a key role in influencing the Earth’s climate, including rainfall and warming patterns. It also determines how much heat and carbon dioxide the oceans store. Scientists warn that its slowdown could have drastic impacts, including increasing sea levels, altering weather patterns and depriving marine ecosystems of vital nutrients.” – The Guardian
May 23, 2023
Maasai Are Getting Pushed Off Their Land So Dubai Royalty Can Shoot Lions
“Tanzania’s government wants big tourism money. Herders don’t want to lose their livelihoods.” – Bloomberg
May 22, 2023
Global heating will push billions outside ‘human climate niche’
“Global heating will drive billions of people out of the “climate niche” in which humanity has flourished for millennia, a study has estimated, exposing them to unprecedented temperatures and extreme weather. The world is on track for 2.7C of heating with current action plans and this would mean 2 billion people experiencing average annual temperatures above 29C by 2030, a level at which very few communities have lived in the past.” – The Guardian
May 22, 2023
The Colorado River Is Shrinking. See What’s Using All the Water.
“The majority of the water in the Colorado River basin — more than one trillion gallons — is used to grow feed for livestock, connecting the region’s water crisis to how much dairy and meat we eat.” – The New York Times
May 19, 2023
$209bn a year is what fossil fuel firms owe in climate reparations. We want that paid
“The truth is out, and it lays bare big oil’s plunder of the environment for commercial greed. Academics now estimate that the 21 top fossil fuel behemoths are liable for an estimated US$209bn annual reparation bill arising from their exploitation.” – The Guardian
May 18, 2023
El Niño is getting stronger. That could cost the global economy trillions.
“As climate change could increase the frequency and strength of future El Niño events, the study authors project that global economic losses could amount to $84 trillion dollars by the end of the 21st century, even if current pledges to reduce carbon emissions are met. And the impact, the report found, will most burden lower income nations.” – The Washington Post

May 17, 2023
Boots on the Ground – As FEMA struggles to keep up with climate disasters, extremist groups see an opportunity.
Experts say that federal lawmakers, who decide how much funding FEMA gets every year, lack the foresight required to actually prepare for climate change. Instead, disaster management centers around response, which means FEMA is constantly playing a game of catch-up. The agency’s shortcomings leave gaps for militias to step in.” – Grist
May 17, 2023
A Billion New Air Conditioners Will Save Lives But Cook the Planet
“In India, brutal temperatures mean ACs are necessary for survival. But the race against heat is adding to the problem of global warming.” – Bloomberg
May 16, 2023
Three climate policies that the G7 must adopt — for itself and the wider world
“Across the G7 countries, subsidies — such as incentives for increased production, write-offs and tax deductions and reducing prices paid by consumers — for oil, coal and gas amount to $63 billion per year, or $62 per person, on average. Artificially depressed prices deter fast growth of low-carbon energy and have helped to spur a post-pandemic surge in fossil-fuel consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions. But the true cost is much greater. Adding in the environmental and health costs of fossil-fuel use, including climate impacts, pollution, traffic congestion and road accidents, as well as forgone tax revenues, underpricing fossil fuels is costing the G7 nations almost $1.2 trillion each year — 2.8% of the G7’s GDP and $1,186 per person. For the rest of the world, the cost is $4.7 trillion.” – Nature 
May 15, 2023
In China, an Unseen and Dangerous Foe Takes Root: Lethal Fungi
‘With temperatures rising due to climate change, and natural habitats in retreat amid rapid urbanization and expanding agriculture, scientists are sounding the alarm over an emerging threat: pathogenic fungi capable of causing life-threatening diseases in humans.” – Sixth Tone
May 14, 2023
Climate crisis deniers target scientists for vicious abuse on Musk’s Twitter
“Abusive, often violent tweets denying the climate emergency have become a barrage since Elon Musk acquired the platform, say UK experts. Some of the UK’s top scientists are struggling to deal with what they describe as a huge rise in abuse from climate crisis deniers on Twitter since the social media platform was taken over by Elon Musk last year.” – The Guardian
May 14, 2023
Oceans have been absorbing the world’s extra heat. But there’s a huge payback
“’There’s sea level rise, coastal inundation, increased floods and drought cycles, bleached corals, intensification of cyclones, ecological impacts, melting of ice at higher latitudes in the coastal margins – that gives us a double whammy on sea level rise.’ ‘The oceans have stored the problem,’ says England. ‘But it’s coming back to bite us.’” – The Guardian
May 13, 2023
Are New Zealand’s marine heatwaves a warning to the world?
“New Zealand’s waters are changing, and those who watch them closely – anglers and divers, fish farmers and scientists – have reported unusual signs: mass deaths, disappearing species, changing animal behaviour. The ray’s bream strandings – along with mass deaths of salmon, penguins, kelp and sea sponges – have coincided with a series of unprecedented heatwaves hitting waters across New Zealand, raising the temperature of some coastlines more than four degrees.” – The Guardian
May 12, 2023
Australian government approves first new coal mine since elected
“Scientists have repeatedly warned that any new fossil fuel projects are not compatible with global climate goals. The Isaac River coal mine – which will be built near Moranbah, an 11-hour drive north of Brisbane – is expected to produce about 2.5 million tonnes of coal over five years.” – BBC

May 11, 2023
Spain’s Drought Shows Climate Change Is Here
“The combination of an unprecedented lack of rainfall and record-high temperatures gripping southwestern Europe for the second straight year had been projected by scientists – for 2043. The heat they warned about is already here.” – Bloomberg
May 10, 2023
The ocean is hotter than ever: what happens next?
“Record temperature combined with an anticipated El Niño could devastate marine life and increase the chances of extreme weather.” – Nature

May 9, 2023
‘Mind-boggling’ methane emissions from Turkmenistan revealed
“Together, the two fields released emissions equivalent to 366m tonnes of CO2, more than the UK’s annual emissions, which are the 17th-biggest in the world.” – The Guardian
May 8, 2023
Atmospheric research provides clear evidence of human-caused climate change signal associated with CO2 increases
“New research provides clear evidence of a human ‘fingerprint’ on climate change and shows that specific signals from human activities have altered the temperature structure of Earth’s atmosphere.” – ScienceDaily
May 8, 2023
Researchers discover a cause of rapid ice melting in Greenland
“The glaciologists said their findings could mean that the climate community has been vastly underestimating the magnitude of future sea level rise caused by polar ice deterioration.” – ScienceDaily
May 7, 2023
Asia set for supercharged heat as El Nino looms after ‘hottest April’ ever
“Record temperatures have left millions from India to Malaysia sweltering as children die from dehydration, fire alerts are issued and roads melt. Heat stress threatens agriculture and is adding to water shortage concerns in the Philippines, while Indonesia fears a return of 2015’s killer haze.” – SCMP
May 3, 2023
‘Devastating’ fungal infections wiping out crops and threatening global food security, experts warn
“Worldwide, growers lose between 10 and 23 per cent of their crops to fungal infection each year, despite widespread use of antifungals. An additional 10-20 per cent is lost post harvest. In a commentary in Nature, academics predict those figures will worsen as global warming means fungal infections are steadily moving polewards, meaning more countries are likely to see a higher prevalence of fungal infections damaging harvests.” – ScienceDaily
May 1, 2023
‘The Godfather of A.I.’ Leaves Google and Warns of Danger Ahead
“For half a century, Geoffrey Hinton nurtured the technology at the heart of chatbots like ChatGPT. Now he worries it will cause serious harm…. Down the road, he is worried that future versions of the technology pose a threat to humanity because they often learn unexpected behavior from the vast amounts of data they analyze. This becomes an issue, he said, as individuals and companies allow A.I. systems not only to generate their own computer code but actually run that code on their own. And he fears a day when truly autonomous weapons — those killer robots — become reality.” – The New York Times
May 1, 2023
West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreated far inland, re-advanced since last Ice Age
“The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is melting rapidly, raising concerns it could cross a tipping point of irreversible retreat in the next few decades if global temperatures rise 1.5 to 2.0 degrees Celsius (2.7 to 3.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. New research finds that 6,000 years ago, the grounded edge of the ice sheet may have been as far as 250 kilometers (160 miles) inland from its current location, suggesting the ice retreated deep into the continent after the end of the last ice age.” – ScienceDaily
April 27, 2023
Climate Change Made East Africa’s Drought 100 Times as Likely, Study Says
“The findings starkly show the misery that the burning of fossil fuels, mostly by rich countries, inflicts on societies that emit almost nothing by comparison. Two and a half years of meager rain have shriveled crops, killed livestock and brought the Horn of Africa, one of the world’s poorest regions, to famine’s brink. Millions of people have faced food and water shortages. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes, seeking relief. A below-normal forecast for the current rainy season means the suffering could continue.” – The New York Times
April 27, 2023
Climate change: Spain breaks record temperature for April
Cristina Linares, a scientist at the Carlos III Health Institute, warned in particular of the impact on the poor. “Poverty is the key factor when it comes to explaining why there are more deaths associated with extreme temperatures. Income is the factor with the closest link to the impact of heat on day-to-day deaths.” – BBC
April 27, 2023
Twilight zone at risk from climate change
“The new study warns that climate change could cause a 20-40% reduction in twilight zone life by the end of the century. And in a high-emissions future, life in the twilight zone could be severely depleted within 150 years, with no recovery for thousands of years…. A UN programme (JETZON) has been set up. It states: ‘It is poorly understood from almost any perspective. However, it contains possibly the world’s largest and least exploited fish stock and recycles ~80% of the organic material that sinks out of the productive surface waters.'” – ScienceDaily
April 25, 2023
Recent, rapid ocean warming ahead of El Niño alarms scientists
“A recent, rapid heating of the world’s oceans has alarmed scientists concerned that it will add to global warming. This month, the global sea surface hit a new record high temperature. It has never warmed this much, this quickly. Scientists don’t fully understand why this has happened. But they worry that, combined with other weather events, the world’s temperature could reach a concerning new level by the end of next year.” – BBC
April 25, 2023
Here Are the Places Most at Risk From Record-Shattering Heat
“Global warming is making dangerously hot weather more common, and more extreme, on every continent. A new study by researchers in Britain takes a unique approach to identifying which places are most at risk.” – The New York Times
April 25, 2023
The Thawing Arctic Will Soon Unleash A Toxic Environmental Nightmare
20,000 permafrost toxic waste dump sites are ready to release hell…. When these sites thaw out, their dreadful contents will erupt into the surrounding environment. Heavy metals, toxins, and deadly radioactive waste can enter the water table, flow through rivers, and end up in lakes or even the ocean. These pollutants can even get airborne and spread far and wide.” – Predict
April 20, 2023
Down to Earth: The path to radically lower emissions tucked away inside the devastating IPCC report
“It feels impossible. The world has to slash carbon emissions by almost half in the next seven years to remain on track for just 1.5C of global heating and avoid the worst of climate impacts. Yet emissions are rising. However, tucked away in the recent (and devastating) landmark report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a chart that provides the road map for an escape from catastrophe. It assesses with extraordinary clarity the potential for emissions cuts of more than 40 options. You can view it here.” The Guardian
April 20, 2023
Patagonia shows how turning a profit doesn’t have to cost the Earth
“Yvon Chouinard, founder of outdoor apparel retailer Patagonia, reflects on how companies can be responsible for the planet and its people while increasing growth and value.” – McKinsey
April 19, 2023
A once-stable glacier in Greenland is now rapidly disappearing
“Steenstrup Glacier in Greenland has retreated about 5 miles, thinned about 20%, doubled in the amount of ice it discharges into the ocean, and quadrupled in velocity. According to the study, such a rapid change is so extraordinary among Greenland ice formations that it now places Steenstrup in the top 10% of glaciers that contribute to the entire region’s total ice discharge.” – ScienceDaily
April 19, 2023
Current avian flu strain deadlier than in past and could become endemic, study says
“The current strain of the avian influenza, which has been decimating bird populations globally, is perilously different than previous disease outbreaks, according to US researchers who are calling for urgent action…. “This high pathogenic virus is wiping out everything in numbers that we’ve never seen before,” said Mullinax…. The strain has also been found in some mammals, including in bears in the US and wild dogs in a zoo in the UK, as well as a sporadic number of human cases.” – The Guardian
April 18, 2023
We Don’t Know What Will Happen Next
“Humanity now faces a confluence of challenges unlike any other in its history. Climate change is rapidly altering the conditions of life on our planet. Tensions over Ukraine and Taiwan have revived the specter of a conflict between nuclear superpowers. And breakneck developments in artificial intelligence are raising serious concerns about the risk of an A.I.-induced global catastrophe.” – The New York Times
April 8, 2023
‘Headed off the charts’: world’s ocean surface temperature hits record high
“Scientists warn of more marine heatwaves, leading to increased risk of extreme weather…. ‘The current trajectory looks like it’s headed off the charts, smashing previous records,’ said Prof Matthew England, a climate scientist at the University of New South Wales.” – The Guardian
April 7, 2023
The Indian villagers forced into sex slavery as a result of climate change
“In the remote Sundarbans, Namita Singh meets women who were trafficked as young girls after their homes were devastated by extreme weather events.” – Independent
April 6, 2023
Death threats, trolling and sexist abuse: climate scientists report online attacks
“Survey highlights experiences of dozens of climate researchers who have endured online harassment related to their work.” – Nature
April 6, 2023
UK agency has backed billions’ worth of aviation deals since Paris agreement
“A UK government agency has financially supported the high-carbon aviation industry with billions of pounds since the Paris climate agreement was adopted, it can be revealed.” – The Guardian
April 6, 2023
In Pristine Alaska, an Oil Giant Prepares to Drill for Decades
“Scientists say nations must stop new oil and gas projects to avoid climate catastrophe. But after the Biden administration greenlit the $8 billion Willow project, ConocoPhillips is racing ahead.” – The New York Times
April 6, 2023
Moving towards 3 degrees of warming — the phasing out of coal is too slow
“The use of coal power is not decreasing fast enough. The Paris Agreement’s target of a maximum of 2 degrees of warming appear to be missed, and the world is moving towards a temperature increase of 2.5 — 3 degrees.” – ScienceDaily
April 6, 2023
It’s Not Just Willow: Oil and Gas Projects Are Back in a Big Way
“A global analysis shows that it’s just one of hundreds of investments approved in the past year or so.” – The New York Times
April 6, 2023
Harvard professor lobbied SEC on behalf of oil firm that pays her lavishly, emails show
“Kyla Bennett, director of science policy with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer), whose work with whistleblowers has exposed industry’s influence with regulators, Congress, academia and the media, said: ‘Our current ecological predicament means we can no longer afford to let things like this slide.“History shows us that the tobacco, gun, chemical and fossil fuel industry will greenwash and lie and distort solely to make more money. They are merchants of doubt, pushing science denial and buying scientists, lawyers, and college professors to achieve their goals. We cannot waste time trying to change industry from the inside.’” – The Guardian
April 5, 2023
Researchers correlate Arctic warming to extreme winter weather in midlatitude and its future
“In a new study, researchers show, using weather data and climate models, that while the ‘Warm Arctic-Cold Continent’ pattern will continue as the climate continues to warm, Arctic warming will become a less reliable predictor of extreme winter weather in the future.” – ScienceDaily
April 5, 2023
Global banks pledged to cut emissions – but still invest billions on US gas exports
“Many banks promised to work toward net-zero emissions – but their targets explicitly exempt liquefied natural gas projects.” – The Guardian
April 5, 2023
Gone for good? California’s beetle-killed, carbon-storing pine forests may not come back
“Massive climate-stoked infestations are also unlikely to recur, thanks to lower tree-stand density. Ponderosa pine forests in the Sierra Nevada that were wiped out by western pine beetles during the 2012-2015 megadrought won’t recover to pre-drought densities, reducing an important storehouse for atmospheric carbon.” – ScienceDaily
April 3, 2023
Japan’s bear meat vending machine proves a surprising success
“The machine in the northern prefecture of Akita sells locally killed wild bear captured by hunters.” – The Guardian
March 31, 2023
‘Slipping through our fingers’: New Zealand scientists distraught at scale of glacier loss
“Research institute NIWA predicts many of country’s most important glaciers will be gone within the decade.” – The Guardian
March 30, 2023
£3.5m of Tory donations linked to pollution and climate denial, says report
“Millions given to party and MPs last year came from entities linked to fossil fuels, high-polluting industries and climate denial.” – The Guardian
March 30, 2023
Deep ocean currents around Antarctica headed for collapse, study finds
“‘We are talking about the possible long-term extinction of an iconic water mass,’ says Prof England. ‘Such profound changes to the ocean’s overturning of heat, freshwater, oxygen, carbon and nutrients will have a significant adverse impact on the oceans for centuries to come.'” – ScienceDaily
March 30, 2023
Most of world’s salt marshes likely to be underwater by 2100, study concludes
‘Salt marshes are some of the most biologically productive ecosystems on Earth. They play an outsized role in nitrogen cycling, act as carbon sinks, protect coastal development from storm surge, and provide critical habitats and nurseries for many fish, shellfish, and coastal birds. According to new research, more than 90 percent of the world’s salt marshes are likely to be underwater by the end of the century.” – ScienceDaily
March 29, 2023
The UK’s ‘green day’ has turned into a fossil fuel bonanza – dirty money powers the Sunak government
“In prioritising oil and gas over renewables, ministers are doing the bidding of the polluters. And we’ll all pay the price.” – The Guardian
March 29, 2023
US puts Italy-sized chunk of Gulf of Mexico up for auction for oil drilling
“The sale, known as lease 259, had the potential to extract more than 1bn barrels of oil and 4.4tn cubic feet of gas over the next 50 years, according to the US federal government.” – The Guardian
March 28, 2023
New additives could turn concrete into an effective carbon sink
“Its production currently accounts for approximately 8 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.” – ScienceDaily
March 28, 2023
Conserving wildlife can help mitigate climate change
“Solving the climate crisis and biodiversity crisis are not separate issues. Animals remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide each year. Restoring species will help limit global warming, new science reveals.” – ScienceDaily
March 27, 2023
The Greenland Ice Sheet is close to a melting point of no return
“A new study using simulations identified two tipping points for the Greenland Ice Sheet: releasing 1000 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere will cause the southern portion of the ice sheet to melt; about 2500 gigatons of carbon means permanent loss of nearly the entire ice sheet. Having emitted about 500 gigatons of carbon, we’re about halfway to the first tipping point.” – ScienceDaily
March 27, 2023
Reducing inequality could see world population fall to 6 billion
A projection of how the global population will change by the Club of Rome is far below United Nations estimates and numbers could drop even faster if we invest more in reducing poverty and inequality, it says.” – The NewScientist
March 25, 2023
The Amazon’s Largest Isolated Tribe Is Dying
“An explosion of illegal mining in this vast swath of the Amazon has created a humanitarian crisis for the Yanomami people, cutting their food supplies, spreading malaria and, in some cases, threatening the Yanomamis with violence, according to government scientists and officials. The miners use mercury to separate gold from mud, and recent analyses show that Yanomami rivers contain mercury levels 8,600 percent higher than what is considered safe. Mercury poisoning can cause birth defects and neurological damage. The infant mortality rate among the 31,000 Yanomamis in Brazil now exceeds those of war-torn and famine-stricken countries, with one in 10 infants dying, compared with about one in 100 in the rest of the country, according to government data. Many of those deaths are avoidable, caused by malnutrition, malaria, pneumonia, and other illnesses.” – The New York Times
March 25, 2023
I Am Haunted by What I Have Seen at Great Salt Lake
“The lake’s Gunnison Island has been a sanctuary to one of the largest white pelican rookeries in North America, with as many as 20,000 nesting individuals. The watery distance from the island to the mainland has protected the pelicans from predators. Now, young pelicans are easy prey for coyotes crossing the land bridge created as the waters receded…. A report out of Brigham Young University and other institutions this year warned that the contraction has been quickening since 2020 and that if we do not take emergency measures immediately, Great Salt Lake will disappear in five years.” – The New York Times
March 23, 2023
Climate change threatens global fisheries
“The diet quality of fish across large parts of the world’s oceans could decline by up to 10 per cent as climate change impacts an integral part of marine food chains, a major study has found.” – ScienceDaily
March 23, 2023
The global economics of climate action
“A new assessment reviews innovative, integrated research that underpins the economic case for strong near-term climate action.” – ScienceDaily
March 22, 2023
Number of city dwellers lacking safe water to double by 2050
“UN report predicts water demand will increase by 80% as crisis threatens to get out of control.” – The Guardian
March 21, 2023
First birds, now mammals: how H5N1 is killing thousands of sea lions in Peru
“Avian flu has decimated the marine creatures on the country’s Pacific coastline and scientists fear it could be jumping from mammal to mammal.” – The Guardian
March 21, 2023
3000+ billion tons of ice lost from Antarctic Ice Sheet over 25 years
“If all the lost ice was piled on London, it would stand over 2 km tall - or 7.4 times the height of the Shard. If it were to cover Manhattan, it would stand at 61 km - or 137 Empire State Buildings placed on top of one another.  Twenty major glaciers form the Amundsen Sea Embayment in West Antarctica, which is more than four times the size of the UK, and they play a key role in contributing to the level of the world’s oceans.  ” – ScienceDaily
March 20, 2023
UN science report carries stark climate warning
“That is because global emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases keep increasing, mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and intensive agriculture, when in fact they need to decline quickly.” – Bloomberg
March 20, 2023
Gut-Wrenching Climate Report Leaves Even More Fingers Pointing At Political Inaction
“It’s not just a government problem — but they are the most influential players in this game.” – HuffPost
March 20, 2023
43,000 died last year due to drought in Somalia, report estimates
“Half of them children under the age of 5, died last year due to prolonged drought in Somalia, a report released Monday by the UN and Somali government estimates.  The Horn of Africa, which includes much of Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, is experiencing the worst drought in 40 years.” – Axios
March 18, 2023
Welcome to the 21st Century. What Happens When the Water Runs Out?
“Here’s a Hard Fact. Water Demand Will Exceed Supply By 40% In…Seven Years. Then What?” – Eudaimonia and Co
March 18, 2023
From India to China, Asia’s ‘rice bowl’ is under threat due to groundwater woes
“Major rice producers need to shift to producing rice that is resilient to flooding and salinity, to cope with likely increase in frequency, intensity of floods and droughts. Each degree of global warming adds about 7 per cent moisture to the water cycle, leading to more extreme weather events, analysts have warned.” – The South China Morning Post
March 17, 2023
Mountain forests are being lost at an accelerating rate, putting biodiversity at risk
“More than 85% of the world’s bird, mammal, and amphibian species live in mountains, particularly in forest habitats, but researchers report that these forests are disappearing at an accelerating rate. Globally, we have lost 78.1 million hectares (7.1%) of mountain forest since 2000 — an area larger than the size of Texas. Much of the loss occurred in tropical biodiversity hotspots, putting increasing pressure on threatened species.” – ScienceDaily
March 16, 2023
US banks are sacrificing poor communities to the climate crisis
“It took decades to force banks to abandon racist redlining. We don’t have decades to avert catastrophic climate crisis.” – The Guardian
March 15, 2023
What if climate change meant not doom — but abundance?
“Look closely, and you can see that by measures other than goods and money, we are impoverished. Even the affluent live in a world where confidence in the future, and in the society and institutions around us, is fading — and where a sense of security, social connectedness, mental and physical health, and other measures of well-being are often dismal. This is the world we live in with fossil fuel — the burning of which makes us poorer in many ways.” – The Washington Post
March 15, 2023
Recovering tropical forests offset just one quarter of carbon emissions from new tropical deforestation and forest degradation
“A pioneering global study has found deforestation and forests lost or damaged due to human and environmental change, such as fire and logging, are fast outstripping current rates of forest regrowth.” – ScienceDaily
March 13, 2023
Switching to hydrogen fuel could prolong the methane problem
“Hydrogen is often heralded as the clean fuel of the future, but new research suggests that leaky hydrogen infrastructure could end up increasing atmospheric methane levels, which would cause decades-long climate consequences.” – ScienceDaily
March 12, 2023
Saudi Aramco’s $161bn profit is largest recorded by an oil and gas firm
“Amnesty International hits out at ‘shocking’ annual figure reaped through sale of fossil fuel…. The largely state-owned company’s profits rose by 46% year on year and it made more than the recent bumper results reported by Shell, BP, Exxon and Chevron combined.” – The Guardian
March 12, 2023
This Changes Everything
“’The broader intellectual world seems to wildly overestimate how long it will take A.I. systems to go from “large impact on the world” to ‘unrecognizably transformed world,”‘ Paul Christiano, a key member of OpenAI who left to found the Alignment Research Center, wrote last year. ‘This is more likely to be years than decades, and there’s a real chance that it’s months.’… In a 2022 survey, A.I. experts were asked, ‘What probability do you put on human inability to control future advanced A.I. systems causing human extinction or similarly permanent and severe disempowerment of the human species?’ The median reply was 10 percent. I find that hard to fathom, even though I have spoken to many who put that probability even higher. Would you work on a technology you thought had a 10 percent chance of wiping out humanity?… I cannot emphasize this enough: We do not understand these systems, and it’s not clear we even can.” – The New York Times
March 12, 2023
Scientists warn of ‘phosphogeddon’ as critical fertiliser shortages loom
“They fear our misuse of phosphorus could lead to deadly shortages of fertilisers that would disrupt global food production. At the same time, phosphate fertiliser washed from fields – together with sewage inputs into rivers, lakes and seas – is giving rise to widespread algal blooms and creating aquatic dead zones that threaten fish stocks. In addition, overuse of the element is increasing releases of methane across the planet, adding to global heating and the climate crisis caused by carbon emissions, researchers have warned. ‘We have reached a critical turning point,’ said Prof Phil Haygarth of Lancaster University.” – The Guardian
March 12, 2023
Moooove over: How single-celled yeasts are doing the work of 1,500-pound cows
Cowless dairy is here, with the potential to shake up the future of animal dairy and plant-based milks. The first course was a celery root soup lush with whole milk. The last was a spice cake topped with maple cream cheese frosting served with a side of ice cream. And then a latte with its fat cap of glossy foam. In all, a delicious lunch. Maybe a little heavy on the dairy. Only this dairy was different. It was not the product of a cow or soybean or nut. The main ingredient of this milk was made by microbes in a lab, turned into tasty and recognizable food, and then served to a hungry reporter…. And cattle, for beef or dairy, is said to be the No. 1 agricultural source of greenhouse gases worldwide. ” – The Washington Post
March 10, 2023
Record deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest shows challenge facing Lula
“Satellites show record destruction for the month of February as new government tries to undo damage wreaked under Bolsonaro.” – The Guardian
March 10, 2023
Air pollution ‘speeds up osteoporosis’ in postmenopausal women
“US study finds bone loss occurs twice as fast among women living in areas with higher air pollution.” – The Guardian
March 9, 2023
The Rockies Are Brimming With Snow. The Drought Will Persist Anyway
“Colorado River levels are still dangerously low and nothing short of policymaking will change that.” – Bloomberg
March 9, 2023
How climate change threatens Asia’s water tower
“Tibet is known as the ‘Water Tower of Asia,’ providing water to about 2 billion people and supporting critical ecosystems in High Mountain Asia and the Tibetan Plateau, where many of the largest Asian river systems originate. This region is also one of the areas most vulnerable to the compounding effects of climate change and human activities…. The rapid melting of glaciers and snowpack due to regional temperature increases has caused an unprecedented decline in water availability. This creates cascading impacts on water, food and energy security. MSU researchers also have found that the warming of the northern Atlantic and Indian oceans is exacerbating these issues, threatening water security in the region and interfering with the delicate balance of water in the atmosphere and its transport.” – ScienceDaily
March 9, 2023
Oceans littered with 171 trillion plastic pieces
“Plastic kills fish and sea animals and takes hundreds of years to break down into less harmful materials. The concentration of plastics in the oceans has increased from 16 trillion pieces in 2005, data suggests. It could nearly triple by 2040 if no action is taken, scientists warn.” – BBC
March 8, 2023
Peeling Back the Sediment Layers
“The scientists’ research revealed that from around 1851 to the early 20th century, the construction of a steelworks and an asbestos plant, along with modifications to the bay such as the construction of a causeway between an island and the mainland, caused the seagrass and much of the marine life that depended upon it to disappear. This included species whose DNA the scientists found buried in the sediment but is not held in any database, suggesting they are not known to science. It’s a classic example of habitat degradation, Romero says, where specialists die off, leaving only those species that are able to survive stressful conditions.” – Hakai Magazine
March 8, 2023
Australia’s massive wildfires shredded the ozone layer — now scientists know why
“Smoke from the catastrophic 2019–20 fires unleashed ozone-eating chlorine molecules into the stratosphere.” – Nature
March 8, 2023
Half of Britain and Ireland’s native plants have declined over 20 years – study
Agricultural practices and the climate crisis are the main drivers of decline in native plant species, scientists said, as they called for urgent action to tackle the loss…. Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, said: ‘The decline of our beautiful native plants is heartbreaking and has consequences for us all. The loss of natural habitats due to modern farming methods over the last 70 years has been an unmitigated disaster for wildflowers and all the species that depend on them including insects, bats and birds.'” – The Guardian
March 8, 2023
There are 21,000 pieces of plastic in the ocean for each person on Earth
“And plastic pollution has been doubling every six years.” – The New York Times
March 7, 2023
The creeping threat of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt
“Visible from space, an explosion of harmful seaweed now stretches like a sea monster across the ocean…. Fed by human activity such as intensive soya farming in the Congo, the Amazon and the Mississippi, which dumps nitrogen and phosphorus into the ocean, the sargassum explosion is by far the biggest seaweed bloom on the planet. The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, as it’s known, is visible from space, stretching like a sea monster across the ocean, with its nose in the Gulf of Mexico and its tail in the mouth of the Congo. ‘I think I’ve replaced my climate change anxiety with sargassum anxiety,’ says Patricia Estridge, CEO of Seaweed Generation, a UK startup working to make seaweed commercially viable.” – The Guardian
March 6, 2023
Revealed: 1,000 super-emitting methane leaks risk triggering climate tipping points
“…Mostly from oil and gas facilities. The worst single leak spewed the pollution at a rate equivalent to 67m running cars. Separate data also reveals 55 ‘methane bombs’ around the world – fossil fuel extraction sites where gas leaks alone from future production would release levels of methane equivalent to 30 years of all US greenhouse gas emissions. Methane emissions cause 25% of global heating today and there has been a ‘scary’ surge since 2007, according to scientists. This acceleration may be the biggest threat to keeping below 1.5C of global heating and seriously risks triggering catastrophic climate tipping points, researchers say.” – The Guardian
March 6. 2023
Global craze for collagen linked to Brazilian deforestation
“Investigation finds cases of the wellness product, hailed for its anti-ageing benefits, being derived from cattle raised on farms damaging tropical forest.” – The Guardian
March 4, 2023
‘Everyone should be concerned’: Antarctic sea ice reaches lowest levels ever recorded
“The fate of Antarctica – especially the ice on land – is important because the continent holds enough ice to raise sea levels by many metres if it was to melt.” – The Guardian
March 3, 2023
Sea level rise poses particular risk for Asian megacities
“Sea level rise this century may disproportionately affect certain Asian megacities…. The study identified several Asian megacities that may face especially significant risks by 2100, including Chennai, Kolkata, Yangon, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, and Manila.” – ScienceDaily
March 3, 2023
Too late to save environment, says Green Party co-founder
“Michael Benfield, who helped set up the new political movement in the 1970s, said he believed the ‘battle for the world’s environmental survival’ was ‘at this moment, lost.”… The scale of the solutions which he believed were necessary would be simply too unpalatable for any political party to propose, he argues. The focus now, he thought, would have to be on mitigation. ‘It doesn’t mean to say that we can’t perhaps do other things to put things right, but it’s a very dire situation that we have,’ Mr Benfield said.” – BBC
March 2, 2023
How to Keep the World From Running Out of Water
“The megadrought that’s plagued the US West for years has impacted everything from the food Americans eat to their electricity supply. And while extreme weather can sometimes trigger wet winters like this one, in California and the rest of the region, the long-term future remains a very dry one.” – Bloomberg
February 27, 2023
One is bad enough: climate change raises the threat of back-to-back hurricanes
“Driven by a combination of rising sea levels and climate change, destructive hurricanes and tropical storms could become far more likely to hit coastal areas in quick succession, researchers found. In some areas such double hits could occur as frequently as once every 3 years.” – ScienceDaily
February 27, 2023
Human-wildlife conflicts rising worldwide with climate change
“Scientists reveal that a warming world is increasing human-wildlife conflicts globally. They show that climate shifts can drive conflicts by altering animal habitats, the timing of events, wildlife behaviors and resource availability. It also showed that people are changing their behaviors and locations in response to climate change in ways that increase conflicts.” – ScienceDaily
February 24, 2023
Marine heatwaves decimate sea urchins, molluscs and more at Rottnest
“Researchers believe rising sea temperatures are to blame for the plummeting number of invertebrates such as molluscs and sea urchins at Rottnest Island off Western Australia, with some species having declined by up to 90 per cent between 2007 and 2021.” – ScienceDaily
February 24, 2023
New study reveals biodiversity loss drove ecological collapse after the ‘Great Dying’
“The history of life on Earth has been punctuated by several mass extinctions, the greatest of these being the Permian-Triassic extinction event, also known as the ‘Great Dying, which occurred 252 million years ago…. Researchers from the California Academy of Sciences, the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), and the University of Bristol – revealed that biodiversity loss may be the harbinger of a more devastating ecological collapse, a concerning finding given that the rate of species loss today outpaces that during the ‘Great Dying.’… The event itself wiped out 95% of life on Earth, or about 19 out of every 20 species. Likely triggered by increased volcanic activity and a subsequent spike in atmospheric carbon dioxide, it caused climatic conditions similar to the human-driven environmental challenges seen today, namely global warming, ocean acidification, and marine deoxygenation.” – ScienceDaily
February 23, 2023
Recapturing excess heat could power most of Europe, say experts
“Preventing heat waste largely being ignored as solution to energy crisis, say environmental campaigners.” – The Guardian
February 22, 2023
Climate ‘spiral’ threatens land carbon stores
“The world’s forests are losing their ability to absorb carbon due to increasingly ‘unstable’ conditions caused by humans, a landmark study has found.” – ScienceDaily
February 20, 2023
XDI Gross Domestic Climate Risk
“XDI has released a first-pass analysis of ‘Gross Domestic Climate Risk,’ calculating the physical climate risk to the built environment in over 2,600 territories around the world…. 80% of the top 50 most at-risk states and provinces in 2050 are in China, the United States or India. Other countries with multiple provinces and states in the top 50 include Brazil, Pakistan and Indonesia. In Europe, high-ranking states encompass the cities of London, Milan, Venice, Antwerp, Hanover and Lille.” – XDI
February 20, 2023
Revealed: The key cities and regions most at risk from climate change in 2050
“Experts say ‘Asia has the most to lose’ from worsening extreme weather events. The most developed and globally significant Asian economic hubs such as Beijing, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, Taiwan, and Mumbai are among the top 100 cities at risk of climate damage, an independent climate risk analysis company found. These key economic hubs faced the highest risk of damage from extreme weather and climate crisis, according to the report released on Monday by the Cross Dependency Initiative (XDI).” – Independent
February 20, 2023
Half of China’s GDP at risk of climate-related disaster by 2050, Sydney-based research firm XDI says
Chinese provinces occupy 26 of the top 50 spots on a global list of states and provinces most at risk of climate-related disaster by 2050. Nine Chinese jurisdictions, which account for more than half of China’s total economic output, top the list from climate researcher XDI” – South China  Morning Post
February 17, 2023
Feedback loops make climate action even more urgent, scientists say
“Researchers have identified 26 global warming accelerators known as amplifying feedback loops that the researchers say aren’t being properly included in climate models. They note that the findings add urgency to the need to respond to the climate crisis and provide a roadmap for policymakers aiming to avert the most severe consequences of a warming planet.” – ScienceDaily
February 16, 2023
World risks descending into a climate ‘doom loop’, warn thinktanks
“It said simply coping with the escalating impacts of the climate crisis could draw resources and focus away from the efforts to slash carbon emissions, making the situation even worse. The damage caused by global heating across the globe is increasingly clear, and recovering from climate disasters is already costing billions of dollars. Furthermore, these disasters can cause cascading problems including water, food and energy crises, as well as increased migration and conflict, all draining countries’ resources.” – The Guardian
February 16, 2023
Climate: Lessons from the latest global warming
“56 million years ago, the Earth experienced one of the largest and most rapid climate warming events in its history: the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), which has similarities to current and future warming. This episode saw global temperatures rise by 5-8°C. It was marked by an increase in the seasonality of rainfalls, which led to the movement of large quantities of clay into the ocean, making it uninhabitable for certain living species. This scenario could be repeated today.” – ScienceDaily
February 15, 2023
Amazon mammals threatened by climate change
“From jaguars and ocelots to anteaters and capybara, most land-based mammals living in the Brazilian Amazon are threatened by climate change and the projected savannization of the region. That’s according to a study published in the journal Animal Conservation by the University of California, Davis.” – ScienceDaily
February 15, 2023
Warming seas are carving into glacier that could trigger sea level rise
“New research provides a startling look at how warmer oceans, driven by climate change, are gouging the West Antarctic’s Thwaites Glacier.” – The Washington Post
February 15, 2023
Rising seas risk climate migration on ‘biblical scale,’ says U.N. chief
“The number of people forcibly displaced by war, food insecurity and changing climate conditions including severe drought already topped 100 million in 2022, according to the U.N. refugee agency, which is working toward a legal framework for climate refugees amid expectations their numbers will rise exponentially in coming years. The U.N. head has been battling to keep climate change at the top of the global agenda during a time of geopolitical upheaval. Last year, he warned the world was “sleepwalking to climate catastrophe,” as the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine undermined already lackluster efforts to meet global and national climate commitments.” – Washington Post
February 14, 2023
Floating ice around Antarctica just hit a record low
“At the top of Earth, Arctic sea ice is a main player in a crucial feedback that determines how much, and how rapidly, the Earth warms. Every time an area of ice melts and gets swapped out for an area of ocean, the Arctic absorbs more solar heat (because bright ice reflects much more radiation than dark ocean does). This unleashes a feedback in which warming shrinks sea ice, which enhances warming — one that is already afoot.” – The Washington Post

February 14, 2023
Upsurge in rocket launches could impact the ozone layer
“‘The current impact of rocket launches on the ozone layer is estimated to be small but has the potential to grow as companies and nations scale up their space programmes,’ Associate Professor in Environmental Physics Dr Laura Revell says. ‘Ozone recovery has been a global success story. We want to ensure that future rocket launches continue that sustainable recovery.'” – ScienceDaily
February 13, 2023
‘It’s inequality that kills’: Naomi Klein on the future of climate justice
“What is climate justice? I always think about climate justice as multitasking. We live in a time of multiple overlapping crises: we have a health emergency; we have a housing emergency; we have an inequality emergency; we have a racial injustice emergency; and we have a climate emergency, so we’re not going to get anywhere if we try to address them one at a time. We need responses that are truly intersectional. So how about as we decarbonise and create a less polluted world, we also build a much fairer society on multiple fronts?” – The Guardian
February 10, 2023
US coastal communities underestimate the danger posed by rising seas
“More than half of US coastal communities are underestimating the rise in sea levels that global warming might cause in their regions, according to a study.” – Nature
February 9, 2023
‘Monster profits’ for energy giants reveal a self-destructive fossil fuel resurgence
“Last year’s combined $200bn profit for the ‘big five’ oil and gas companies brings little hope of driving down emissions.” – The Guardian
February 8, 2023
How India is battling deadly rain storms as climate change bites
“South Asian weather is becoming increasingly difficult to forecast as monsoons grow more erratic — and global warming is raising the risks posed by violent rain storms…. ‘South Asia is like a poster child for climate change,’ says Koll. ‘Even as a climate scientist, I cannot imagine the impacts that South Asia would see. We are not prepared for the events that we already have.’” – Nature
February 8, 2023
Half the wetlands in Europe lost in past 300 years, researchers calculate
“Half the wetlands in Europe, continental US and China have been destroyed in the past 300 years, with some areas – including the UK, Ireland and Germany – losing more than 75%, new research shows. Globally, an area the size of India has disappeared…. Wetlands are important for biodiversity: up to 40% of the planet’s species live and breed in them. They also purify water, protect against flooding and improve the physical wellbeing of people in urban areas…. ‘Wetlands are actually the superheroes of the natural world and can provide us with the ultimate nature-based solutions to tackle climate breakdown and its effects. We must do everything we can to not just halt this 20% loss but actually reverse it, and increase our wetland areas as a matter of urgency’” said Dr Christian Dunn, from Bangor University and chair of the British Ecological Society Welsh Policy Group, who was not involved in the research.” – The Guardian
February 8, 2023
He Paid $1 Million For Destroying Wetlands. Now He’s Fighting Clean Water Rules In Congress.
“More than 200 Republican members of Congress introduced legislation last week to strike down a Biden administration rule restoring long-standing federal protections for hundreds of thousands of streams and wetlands across the country — safeguards that the Trump administration dismantled in 2020. Among the co-sponsors of the House resolution is Rep. John Duarte (R-Calif.), who in 2017 paid $1.1 million in fines for illegally plowing 22 acres of federally protected streams and wetlands on his farm.” – HuffPost
February 7, 2023
The Worst Corporate Scandal in History
“After Exxon’s very capable scientists discovered that the company’s core product would cause a global catastrophe, what did the company’s executives do? Did they transition the company away from fossil fuels and toward more sustainable energy products? Did they alert the public to the dangers of burning coal and oil? Nope. They lied.” – Medium
February 7, 2023
Huge chunk of plants, animals in U.S. at risk of extinction
“A leading conservation research group found that 40% of animals and 34% of plants in the United States are at risk of extinction, while 41% of ecosystems are facing collapse…. NatureServe, which analyzes data from its network of over 1,000 scientists across the United States and Canada, said the report was its most comprehensive yet, synthesizing five decades’ worth of its own information on the health of animals, plants and ecosystems.” – Reuters
February 7, 2023
Glacial flooding threatens millions globally
Fifteen million people around the world are at risk from flooding caused by glacial lakes, with just four countries — India, Pakistan, China and Peru — accounting for more than half of those exposed.” – ScienceDaily
February 7, 2023
BP scales back climate goals as profits more than double to £23bn
B”P has scaled back its climate ambitions as it announced that annual profits more than doubled to $28bn (£23bn) in 2022 after a sharp increase in gas prices linked to the Ukraine war boosted its earnings.” – The Guardian
February 7, 2023
Devastating cost of future coastal flooding for many developing nations predicted in new study
“New global modelling predicts the devastating socioeconomic impacts of future extreme coastal flooding for developing nations caused by climate change, with Asia, West Africa and Egypt facing severe costs in the coming decades…. Without adaptation measures, the modelling predicted the number of people affected by extreme coastal flooding could increase from 34 million people per year in 2015 to 246 million people by 2100. The expected annual global cost of extreme coastal flooding damage could increase from 0.3 per cent of global GDP in 2015 to 2.9 per cent by 2100.” – ScienceDaily
February 6, 2023
Antibiotic use in farming set to soar despite drug-resistance fears
“The use of antibiotics in animal farming — a major contributor to antimicrobial resistance — is expected to grow by 8% between 2020 and 2030 despite ongoing efforts to curtail their use, according to an analysis1.” – Nature
February 4, 2023
Clue to rising sea levels lies in DNA of 4m-year-old octopus, scientists say
“Deep in the DNA of an Antarctic octopus, scientists may have uncovered a major clue about the future fate of the continent’s ice sheet – raising fears global heating could soon set off runaway melting…. The ice sheet holds enough water to raise sea levels by 3 to 4 metres with fears that global heating could soon push it towards runaway melting that would lock-in rising sea levels over centuries.” – The Guardian
February 1, 2023
1.5-degree goal not plausible: Social change more important than physical tipping points
“What has been achieved to date is insufficient.” – ScienceDaily
February 1, 2023
Soil tainted by air pollution expels carbon
New research suggests nitrogen released by gas-powered machines causes dry soil to let go of carbon and release it back into the atmosphere, where it can contribute to climate change. ‘Air pollution generated by fossil fuel combustion has an impact on many things, including human health by causing asthma,’ Homyak said. ‘It can also impact the amount of carbon these dryland systems can store for us. For many reasons, we have to get a handle on air pollution.'” – ScienceDaily
February 1, 2023
Climate change may cut US forest inventory by a fifth this century
“A study found that under more severe climate warming scenarios, the inventory of trees used for timber in the continental United States could decline by as much as 23% by 2100. The largest inventory losses would occur in two of the leading timber regions in the U.S., which are both in the South.” – ScienceDaily
January 31, 2023
Over 4% of summer mortality in European cities is attributable to urban heat islands
“One third of these deaths could be prevented by reaching a tree cover of 30%, according to a modelling study. The study results, obtained with data from 93 European cities, highlight the substantial benefits of planting more trees in cities to attenuate the impact of climate change.” – ScienceDaily
January 31. 2023
Hydrogen fuel from the ocean? Scientists say they’ve found a way to do it
“Existing technologies need high-purity water to create hydrogen, so the researchers looked to ‘an almost infinite resource.’… Hydrogen is regarded as the ultimate, non-polluting fuel and energy-storage medium of the future…. But using vast amounts of fresh water to produce hydrogen could worsen water shortages so they looked to the ocean, which has nearly 97 per cent of the Earth’s water and is ‘an almost infinite resource.'” – SCMP
January 29, 2023
Death in the marshes: environmental calamity hits Iraq’s unique wetlands
‘The ruin of nearly 3,000 sq km (1,000 sq miles) of this unique ecosystem is a small example of the unprecedented environmental disaster unfolding in Iraq. Rivers and lakes that had spawned farming communities since the dawn of civilisation are drying up, the country’s water reserves reduced by half, while the Iraqi ministry of water resources estimates that one-quarter of Iraq’s fresh water will be lost in the next decade…. From the impact of global heating to Turkey’s reduction of the water volume flowing through the Tigris and Euphrates, Iran’s diversion of tributary rivers such as the Karun, and the discharge of raw sewage and oil industry chemicals into Shatt al-Arab. ‘Even the upstream provinces are taking Basra’s share of fresh water because of the expansion of their population.’ The high salinity in the water flowing naturally through the irrigation canals is now causing the palm trees to die.” – The Guardian
January 27, 2023
UK substantially underestimates its methane emissions from oil and gas production — and many other countries probably do too
“Researchers conclude that as much as five times more methane is being leaked from oil and gas production than reported. Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, contributing about 1 degree Fahrenheit of present-day global warming relative to pre-industrial times.”– ScienceDaily
January 27, 2023
Burning Trees in the Amazon Melts Snow in the Himalayas
“Scientists have found that the Earth’s largest rainforest and its so-called third pole are connected by atmospheric currents that carry heat and rain across the planet.” – Bloomberg
January 24, 2023
Bird flu outbreak in mink sparks concern about spread in people
“A variant of H5N1 influenza that can spread between mammals could pose an increased risk to people and wild animals.” – Nature
January 24, 2023
Doomsday Clock hits 90 seconds to midnight, its most dire prediction ever
“The world is 90 seconds away from ‘midnight,’ according to the Doomsday Clock, the closest it has ever been to the symbolic hour of apocalypse. The people who run the clock say that’s largely a reflection of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — including of the potential use of nuclear weapons and because the conflict is encouraging continued dependence on fossil fuels in Europe. For the first time, the announcement of the clock’s movement toward catastrophe was released in Russian and Ukrainian as well as English, something Rachel Bronson, CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said the organization hopes brings the dire forecast ‘the attention it deserves.’” – The Washington Post
January 23, 2023
Can elephants save the planet?
“Researchers report that elephants play a key role in creating forests which store more atmospheric carbon and maintaining the biodiversity of forests in Africa. If the already critically endangered elephants become extinct, rainforest of central and west Africa, the second largest rainforest on earth, would lose between six and nine percent of their ability to capture atmospheric carbon, amplifying planetary warming.” – ScienceDaily
January 20, 2023
When scientists tagged a curious seal, he led them to signs of a potential climate disaster
“That would have the potential to unleash over 15 feet of sea level rise, remaking every coastline in the world.” – The Washington Post
January 18, 2023
Global warming reaches central Greenland
“At high elevations of the Greenland Ice Sheet, the years 2001 to 2011 were 1.5 °C warmer than in the 20th century and represent the warmest decade in the last thousand years.” – ScienceDaily
January 17, 2023
Climate change likely to uproot more Amazon trees
“Tropical forests are crucial for sucking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But they’re also subject to intense storms that can cause ‘windthrow’ — the uprooting or breaking of trees. A new study finds that more extreme thunderstorms from climate change will likely cause a greater number of large windthrow events in the Amazon, which could impact the rainforest’s ability to serve as a carbon sink.” – ScienceDaily
January 17, 2023
How dark money groups led Ohio to redefine gas as ‘green energy’
“But Ohio’s new law is anything but homegrown, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post. The Empowerment Alliance, a dark money group with ties to the gas industry, helped Ohio lawmakers push the narrative that the fuel is clean, the documents show…. ‘What the emails reveal is just how closely Ohio lawmakers coordinated with a natural gas industry group on the new law that misleadingly defines methane gas as green energy, as the first step of a plan to introduce similar legislation in multiple states,’ said Dave Anderson, policy and communications manager for the Energy and Policy Institute.” – The Washington Post
January 17, 2023
Banks still investing heavily in fossil fuels despite net zero pledges – study
“Financial institutions signed up to GFANZ initiative accused of acting as ‘climate arsonists.’” – The Guardian
January 16, 2023
Climate conundrum: Study finds ants aren’t altering behavior in rising temperatures
“A new study finds that ants are not adjusting their behavior in response to warming temperatures, persisting in sub-optimal microhabitats even when optimal ones were present. The finding suggests ants may not be able to adjust their behavior in response to warming ecosystems.” – ScienceDaily
January 14, 2023
A Deal to Help South Africa Is a Breakthrough for the World
“South Africa generates 80 percent of its electricity by burning coal, more than any other industrialized nation. Some 200,000 people are directly employed by the coal mines, coal transports and coal-fired power plants that dot the flatlands east of Johannesburg, but the prosperity of the rest of the nation also rests on a foundation of black rock. Now, the South African government, with the help of the United States and European nations, is embarking on an audacious plan to quit coal without undermining economic growth. If it works, the proposed transition to solar and wind power could fuel faster growth and create a template for coal-dependent nations to confront climate change. This is a significant opportunity, and it deserves support and attention.” – The New York Times
January 12, 2023
How climate change will make atmospheric rivers even worse
“Atmospheric rivers are projected to become wetter, larger and more damaging as temperatures rise.” – The Washington Post
January 12, 2023
Exxon Mobil’s Climate Predictions ‘Astonishingly’ Accurate Since 1970s: Study
“Exxon Mobil’s scientists were remarkably accurate in their predictions about global warming, even as the company made public statements that contradicted its own scientists’ conclusions, a new study says.” – HuffPost
January 11, 2023
Oceans surged to another record-high temperature in 2022
“The amount of excess heat buried in the planet’s oceans, a strong marker of climate change, reached a record high in 2022, reflecting more stored heat energy than in any year since reliable measurements were available in the late 1950s, a group of scientists reported Wednesday.” – The Washington Post

January 10, 2023
The Last 8 Years Were the Hottest on Record
NASA’s analysis ranked 2022 as tied with 2015 for fifth warmest, while NOAA had last year as the sixth warmest. ‘But ranks only tell you part of the story,’ said Russell Vose, a NOAA scientist. What’s more important, he said, is that the past eight years are the warmest ever. ‘They really do stand apart,’ he said. Each of the past four decades has been warmer than one that preceded it, Dr. Vose added. Overall, the world is now 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.1 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than it was in the second half of the 19th century, when emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels became widespread.” – The New York Times
January 10 2023
Videos, Photos and Maps of the Damage From the California Storms
“Scenes of the destruction played out across the state.” – The New York Times
January 9, 2023
One billion days lost: How COVID-19 is hurting the US workforce
“COVID-19 may no longer be a pandemic, but the disease likely reduced the availability of the US workforce by as much as 2.6 percent in 2022—a burden on productivity that could last for years.” – MvKinsey
January 6, 2023
The world’s torrid future is etched in the crippled kidneys of Nepali workers
“One-third of transplant patients at a center near Kathmandu have been young men who worked abroad in extreme heat.” – The Washington Post
January 5, 2023
Half of Earth’s glaciers could melt even if key warming goal is met, study says
“New research suggests that even at 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming above preindustrial levels, the Earth will lose nearly half of its glaciers.” – The Washington Post
January 4, 2023
Has the Amazon Reached Its ‘Tipping Point’?
“The lungs of the earth are exhaling greenhouse gases. But her discovery was actually much more alarming than that. Because burning trees release a high proportion of carbon monoxide, she could separate these emissions from the total. And in the southeastern Amazon, air samples still showed net emissions, suggesting that the ecosystem itself could be releasing more carbon than it absorbed, thanks in part to decomposing plant matter — or in Gatti’s words, “effectively dying more than growing.” The first time I spoke to Gatti, she repurposed a lyric by the Brazilian crooner Jorge Ben Jor. How could this be happening, she asked, in a ‘tropical country, blessed by God/and beautiful by nature’”? – The New York Times
January 4, 2023
Climate change could cause ‘disaster’ in the world’s oceans
“Researchers have concluded that the Southern Meridional Overturning Circulation could completely shut down by 2300, causing disaster to the marine ecosystem on a large portion of the planet.” – ScienceDaily
January 4, 2023
How climate change impacts the Indian Ocean dipole, leading to severe droughts and floods
“A phenomenon that can lead to sometimes deadly weather-related events like megadroughts in East Africa and severe flooding in Indonesia.” – ScienceDaily
January 4, 2023
Cyclone researchers: Warming climate means more and stronger Atlantic tropical storms
“Tropical cyclone researchers report a warming climate could increase the number of tropical cyclones and their intensity in the North Atlantic, potentially creating more and stronger hurricanes.” – ScienceDaily
January 3, 2023
These are trends shaping the future of food
“Our ability to feed a growing global population is under threat, according to a new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The future of food and agriculture: Drivers and triggers for transformation, released in December 2022, warns that without broader changes on a socioeconomic and environmental level, we will not be able to build and maintain sustainable agrifood systems. ‘Many of the SDGs (UN Sustainable Development Goals) are not on track and will only be achieved if agrifood systems are transformed properly to withstand ongoing global adversity that undermines food security and nutrition due to growing structural inequalities and also regional inequalities,’ FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said at a launch event.”

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The post Catastrophe Chronicle – 2023 appeared first on OSHOTimes.