`”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.

• Carbon Dioxide Levels in the Atmosphere
• The Human Population Clock is Ticking
• The Emissions Gap Report 2022

The Unfolding Story – 2024 – Updated Regularly: 

Read 2023 Edition HERE

December 2, 2024
An Arctic Hamlet is Sinking Into the Thawing Permafrost
Canada is losing its permafrost to climate change.
Warmer temperatures have caused the thawing of the Earth’s permafrost — ice mixed with soil, sand and organic matter that has been continuously frozen, some for hundreds of thousands of years…. If climate change stays on its current trajectory, the permafrost regions will become net emitters of greenhouse gases, said Christopher Burn, a permafrost expert at Carleton University in Ottawa and former president of the International Permafrost Association. ‘By the end of the century,’ Mr. Burn said, ‘we will have emissions from permafrost that are equivalent to the third or fourth most-emitting country in the world.'” – The New York Times

December 1, 2024
Land degradation expanding by 1m sq km a year, study shows
Report calls for course correction to avoid land abuse ‘compromising Earth’s capacity to support human and environmental wellbeing’
“Land degradation is expanding worldwide at the rate of 1m sq km every year, undermining efforts to stabilise the climate, protect nature and ensure sustainable food supplies, a study has highlighted. The degraded area is already 15m sq km, an area greater than Antarctica, the scientific report says, and it calls for an urgent course correction to avoid land abuse ‘irretrievably compromising Earth’s capacity to support human and environmental wellbeing.'” – The Guardian

November 30, 2024
How COP29 Came Close to Collapse, as Developed and Developing Nations Clashed Under the Weak Azerbaijanis
“Climate analyst Alden Meyer says the annual climate talks did little to alter the world’s path to warming at 2.5 to 3 degrees Celsius, which would result in “truly terrifying impacts.” Yet, without the 2015 Paris Agreement, warming might be heading toward 4 or 5 degrees. ” – Inside Climate News

November 29, 2024
The melting of Greenland: A climate challenge with major implications for the 21st century
Climatologists and engineers are calling for urgent action to curb global warming and protect vulnerable regions
“The melting of Greenland is accelerating, with an estimated loss of between 964 and 1735 gigatons of ice per year by 2100 in a scenario of high greenhouse gas emissions (SSP585), according to three regional climate models. This melting will lead to a rise in sea levels of up to one meter, threatening millions of people in coastal areas.” – ScienceDaily

November 27, 2024
Unexplained heat-wave ‘hotspots’ are popping up across the globe
So extreme, they cannot be explained by global warming models
“Earth’s hottest recorded year was 2023, at 2.12 degrees F above the 20th-century average. This surpassed the previous record set in 2016. So far, the 10 hottest yearly average temperatures have occurred in the past decade. And, with the hottest summer and hottest single day, 2024 is on track to set yet another record. All this may not be breaking news to everyone, but amid this upward march in average temperatures, a striking new phenomenon is emerging: distinct regions are seeing repeated heat waves that are so extreme, they fall far beyond what any model of global warming can predict or explain. A new study provides the first worldwide map of such regions, which show up on every continent except Antarctica like giant, angry skin blotches. In recent years these heat waves have killed tens of thousands of people, withered crops and forests, and sparked devastating wildfires.” – ScienceDaily

November 27, 2024
A strange new climate era is beginning to take hold
Rob Jackson, a climate scientist at Stanford University and chairman of the Global Carbon Project, said in an email that hurtling toward the globe’s key target is sobering. ‘I never expected the world to blow past the 1.5 °C threshold so casually, as we’re doing today,’ he said. ‘Two decades ago, no one believed that could happen.’… Still, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts ‘dangerous and widespread disruption’ on the current path. The Greenland ice sheet might tip into irreversible collapse, according to the IPCC, threatening cities from New York to Shanghai, while extreme heat and humidity could make ever large swaths of the world effectively inhabitable. Scientists also expect a growing toll of disease, crop failures and weather disasters.” – The New York Times

November 26, 2024
Quantum mechanism identified as a key to accelerating ocean temperatures
“Professor Smith said accumulated data over 70 years showed an accelerating rise in ocean temperatures and the total energy stored in oceans, with the world earlier this year passing what was described as a ‘foreboding milestone’ – a record global average sea surface temperature of 21.1°C. ‘Current scientific models in the presence of ongoing rises in atmospheric greenhouse gasses do not predict this threatening acceleration,’ Professor Smith said.” – ScienceDaily

November 26, 2024
Delay and pay: Climate tipping point costs quadruple after waiting
“It turns out there’s more to weigh than catastrophic environmental change as tipping points draw near, though. Another point to consider, a new study reveals, is the cost of undoing the damage. The cost of reversing the effects of climate change – restoring melted polar sea ice, for example – quickly climbs nearly fourfold soon after a tipping point is crossed, according to new work published today in the journal npj Climate and Atmospheric Science.” – ScienceDaily

November 21, 2024
Climate-driven hazards increases risk for millions of coastal residents, study finds
“A new study published in Nature Climate Change estimates that a 1-meter sea level rise by 2100 would affect over 14 million people and $1 trillion worth of property along the Southeast Atlantic coast, from Norfolk, Virginia, to Miami, Florida.” – ScienceDaily

November 21, 2024
Trump’s science-denying fanatics are bad enough. Yet even our climate ‘solutions’ are now the stuff of total delusion
The ‘progress’ made at Cop29 has been on carbon markets: a world of magical thinking, over-claiming and distorted truth
“Power in the United States will soon be shared between people who believe they will ascend to sit at the right hand of God, perhaps after a cleansing apocalypse; and people who believe their consciousness will be uploaded on to machines in a great Singularity. The Christian rapture and the tech rapture are essentially the same belief…. Nowhere is this magical thinking more apparent than in soil carbon markets, a great new adventure for commodity traders selling both kinds of carbon market products: official ‘credits’ and voluntary carbon offsets. Every form of wishful thinking, over-claiming and outright fraud that has blighted the carbon market so far is magnified when it comes to soil.” – The Guardian

November 17, 2024
Redefining net zero will not stop global warming
“An international group of authors who developed the science behind net zero demonstrate that relying on ‘natural carbon sinks’ like forests and oceans to offset ongoing CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use will not actually stop global warming. The science of net zero, developed over 15 years ago, does not include these natural carbon sinks in the definition of net human-induced CO2 emissions. Yet governments and corporations are increasingly turning to them to offset emissions, rather than reducing fossil fuel use or developing more permanent CO2 disposal options. Emissions accounting rules encourage this by creating an apparent equivalence between fossil fuel emissions and drawdown of CO2 by some natural carbon sinks, meaning a country could appear to have ‘achieved net zero’ whilst still contributing to ongoing warming.” – ScienceDaily

November 17, 2024
Why hydropower is failing this nation–and could fail others
Warmer temperatures are fueling drought, making it harder for Zambia and other developing nations to generate hydropower.
For a while, it looked like Zambia had achieved a status that almost any nation would envy. Drawing hydropower from the massive Zambezi River and its tributaries, the country could meet its energy needs while producing almost zero planet-warming emissions. It was renewable energy of the best kind — cheap and seemingly abundant. Zambia’s recently departed environment minister touted the country’s green credentials in dozens of speeches for international crowds. But that was all before an epic drought that slowed the Zambezi to a trickle and brought water levels to nearly the lowest point on record.” – The Washington Post

November 16, 2024
NASA satellites reveal abrupt drop in global freshwater levels
“The Earth’s total amount of freshwater dropped abruptly starting in May 2014 and has remained low ever since. The shift could indicate Earth’s continents have entered a persistently drier phase…. It remains to be seen whether global freshwater will rebound to pre-2015 values, hold steady, or resume its decline. Considering that the nine warmest years in the modern temperature record coincided with the abrupt freshwater decline, Rodell said, ‘We don’t think this is a coincidence, and it could be a harbinger of what’s to come.'”– ScienceDaily

November 14, 2024
Four global policies could eliminate more than 90% of plastic waste and 30% of linked carbon emissions by 2050
The policies are: mandate new products be made with 40% post-consumer recycled plastic; cap new plastic production at 2020 levels; invest significantly in plastic waste management — such as landfills and waste collection services; and implement a small fee on plastic packaging. This policy package also delivers climate benefits, reducing emissions equivalent to taking 300 million gasoline-powered vehicles off the road for one year….. If no action is taken in Busan, annual plastic consumption will rise 37% between 2020 and 2050, and plastic pollution will nearly double across the same period…. By continuing with business as usual, the world would generate enough litter between 2011 and 2050 to cover Manhattan in a heap of plastic ten times the height of the Empire State Building.” – ScienceDaily

November 13, 2024
Can we live on our planet without destroying it?
“There is a limit to the amount of consumption the Earth can support, and in 2009, scientists defined nine ‘planetary boundaries’ as indicators of when we have reached that limit. Crossing them may lead to irreversible damage to the Earth’s stability and resilience. These planetary boundaries include indicators such as ocean acidification and the global use of fresh water. In 2023, six of these planetary boundaries had already been crossed.” – ScienceDaily

November 12, 2024
Teenager in critical condition with Canada’s first human case of bird flu
British Columbia teen had no underlying health conditions and had been exposed to dogs, cats and reptiles, officials say
A teenager is in critical condition in a British Columbia children’s hospital, in what is believed to be Canada’s first human case of bird flu. “This was a healthy teenager prior to this, so no underlying conditions,” said the provincial health officer Bonnie Henry in a news conference on Tuesday. ‘It just reminds us that in young people this is a virus that can progress and cause quite severe illness and the deterioration that I mentioned was quite rapid.'” – The Guardian

November 12, 2024
Key Atlantic current at risk of collapse: Research
“Scientists warned for the first time in a new report that melting ice sheets might be slowing key ocean currents at both poles, leading to “potentially dire consequences” for a greater sea-level rise along the U.S. East Coast, according to research from the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative. ‘Current climate commitments, leading the world to well over 2°C of warming, would bring disastrous and irreversible consequences for billions of people from global ice loss,’ the report read.” – The Hill

November 12, 2024
Fossil fuel CO2 emissions increase again in 2024
“Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels have reached a record high in 2024, according to new research by the Global Carbon Project science team. The 2024 Global Carbon Budget projects fossil carbon dioxide (CO ₂) emissions of 37.4 billion tonnes, up 0.8% from 2023. Despite the urgent need to cut emissions to slow climate change, the researchers say there is still “no sign” that the world has reached a peak in fossil CO₂ emissions.” – ScienceDaily

November 12, 2024
Global warming is on the cusp of crucial 1.5 °C threshold, suggest ice-core data
New method finds human-caused warming is about to reach the limit set by the Paris climate agreement.
“Global warming caused by humans might be closer to a crucial climate threshold than current estimates suggest. A study¹ of Antarctic ice cores argues that, in 2023, human-driven warming reached 1.49 °C above pre-industrial levels.” – Nature

November 7, 2024
Record-Hot 2024 Seen Breaching 1.5C Paris Target for First Time.
“…the Copernicus findings add to growing concerns that a more protracted move higher is simply a matter of time, with global CO2 emissions yet to peak. It also comes as Donald Trump’s electoral victory empowers him to deliver on campaign pledges to go after climate policies he’s dubbed the ‘green new scam.’“ – Bloomberg

November 7, 2024
Some of the world’s least polluting populations are at much greater risk of flooding fueled by climate change
“A new study has exposed for the first time how inhabitants of the smallest countries globally, contributing least to climate change, already bear the brunt of its devastating consequences and the burden is likely to worsen.” – ScienceDaily

November 6, 2024
Trump’s win is a tragic loss for climate progress
His return to the White House puts the world’s second-largest climate polluter on an emissions trajectory we can’t afford.
Donald Trump’s decisive victory is a stunning setback for the fight against climate change. 
“The Republican president-elect’s return to the White House means the US is going to squander precious momentum, unraveling hard-won policy progress that was just beginning to pay off, all for the second time in less than a decade. It comes at a moment when the world can’t afford to waste time, with nations far off track from any emissions trajectories that would keep our ecosystems stable and our communities safe. Under the policies in place today, the planet is already set to warm by more than 3 °C over preindustrial levels in the coming decades.” – Technology Review

November 5, 2024
Nearly all of US states are facing droughts, an unprecedented number
More than 150 million people and 318m acres of crops are affected by droughts after summer of record heat
“Every US state except Alaska and Kentucky is facing drought, an unprecedented number, according to the US Drought Monitor.” – The Guardian

November 4, 2024
The latest in American exceptionalism is exporting 50% more oil than Saudi Arabia while trying to prod the world toward net zero.
“’No country can show up to the international stage and claim to be a climate leader while continuing massive fossil fuel expansion back at home. The US is the most significant culprit, but there are many other countries embedded in this kind of hypocrisy.’ Catherine Abreu, Director of the International Climate Politics Hub” – Bloomberg

November 4, 2024
Scientists may have figured out why a potent greenhouse gas is rising. The answer is scary.
Almost two decades ago, the atmosphere’s levels of methane — a dangerous greenhouse gas that is over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term — started to climb. And climb. Methane concentrations, which had been stable for years, soared by 5 or 6 parts per billion every year from 2007 onward. Then, in 2020, the growth rate nearly doubled…. ‘Wetlands will emit more methane as temperatures warm,’ Jackson said. ‘This may be the start of a reinforcing feedback, that higher temperatures release more methane from natural ecosystems.’  Michel says it’s too early to say whether this is the beginning of a vicious cycle. ‘Are these coming from human-caused changes in freshwater systems, or are they a kind of scary climate feedback?’ she said…. Over 100 countries have pledged to reduce their methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030, compared with 2020 levels — but so far, that pledge has yet to see results. Instead, satellite measurements show concentrations are rising at a rate that is in line with the worst-case climate scenarios. ‘You can turn a wrench in an oil and gas field to quench methane emissions,’ Jackson said. ‘There’s no wrench for the Congo or the Amazon.'” – The Washington Post

October 30, 2024
Study shows natural regrowth of tropical forests has immense potential to address environmental concerns
A potential regrowth area larger than Mexico could store 23.4 gigatons of carbon
“A new study finds that up to 215 million hectares of land (an area larger than Mexico) in humid tropical regions around the world has the potential to naturally regrow. That much forest could store 23.4 gigatons of carbon over 30 years and also have a significant impact on concerns like biodiversity loss and water quality. The study showed that more than half of the area with strong potential for regrowth was in five countries: Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, China, and Colombia. A new global map the authors produced of potential regrowth areas is a boon to environmentalists worldwide hoping to advocate locally for their efforts.” – ScienceDaily

October 28, 2024
Planet-heating pollutants in atmosphere hit record levels in 2023.
Carbon dioxide concentration has increased by more than 10% in just two decades, reports World Meteorological Organization
It found carbon dioxide is accumulating faster than at any time in human history, with concentrations having risen by more than 10% in just two decades. ‘Another year, another record,’ said Celeste Saulo, secretary-general of the WMO. ‘This should set alarm bells ringing among decision makers.’… The concentration of CO2 reached 420 parts per million (ppm) in 2023, the scientists observed. The level of pollution is 51% greater than before the Industrial Revolution, when people began to burn large amounts of coal, oil and fossil gas. Concentrations of strong but short-lived pollutants also surged. Methane concentrations hit 1,934 parts per billion (ppb), a rise of 165% from preindustrial levels, and nitrous oxide hit 336.9 parts per billion (ppb), a rise of 25%, it said. Saulo said: ‘We are clearly off track to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to well below 2C and aiming for 1.5C above preindustrial levels. These are more than just statistics. Every part per million and every fraction of a degree temperature increase has a real impact on our lives and our planet.’” – The Guardian

October 25, 2024
World is on track for a ‘catastrophic’ rise in temperature, UN report says.
The United Nation’s warning comes as scientists say 2024 will most certainly be Earth’s hottest year on record once again
“The international organization said that a previous goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) – a threshold set at the 2015 Paris Agreement – will ‘soon be dead’ without an unprecedented global mobilization to limit climate change. Earth is currently likely to see a global temperature rise of 2.6 degrees Celsius to 3.1 degrees Celsius, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).” – Independent

October 24, 2024
Bird flu spreads across US with dozens of cases now found in 6 states.
The number of human infections has risen above 30 across the country as the virus continues to infect the nation’s poultry, livestock
“Bird flu cases are steadily increasing in states around the country, as concerns grow about it spreading further.” – Independent

October 21, 2024
Humanity is on the verge of ‘shattering Earth’s natural limits’, say experts in biodiversity warning.
As the Cop16 conference begins, scientists and academics say human activity has pushed the world into a danger zone
“Humanity is ‘on the precipice’ of shattering Earth’s limits, and will suffer huge costs if we fail to act on biodiversity loss, experts warn. This week, world leaders meet in Cali, Colombia, for the Cop16 UN biodiversity conference to discuss action on the global crisis. As they prepare for negotiations, scientists and experts around the world have warned that the stakes are high, and there is ‘no time to waste.’ ‘We are already locked in for significant damage, and we’re heading in a direction that will see more,’ says Tom Oliver, professor of applied ecology at the University of Reading. ‘I really worry that negative changes could be very rapid.’” – The Guardian

October 16, 2024
Global water crisis leaves half of world food production at risk in next 25 years.
Landmark review says urgent action needed to conserve resources and save ecosystems that supply fresh water
“More than half the world’s food production will be at risk of failure within the next 25 years as a rapidly accelerating water crisis grips the planet, unless urgent action is taken to conserve water resources and end the destruction of the ecosystems on which our fresh water depends, experts have warned in a landmark review. Half the world’s population already faces water scarcity, and that number is set to rise as the climate crisis worsens, according to a report from the Global Commission on the Economics of Water published on Thursday. Demand for fresh water will outstrip supply by 40% by the end of the decade, because the world’s water systems are being put under ‘unprecedented stress,’ the report found.” – The Guardian

October 15, 2024
About 80% of countries fail to submit plans to preserve nature ahead of global summit.
Countries promised to save 30% of land and sea for nature – but as their deadline approaches, only 24 have followed through with a plan
“Nearly two years ago, the world struck a once-in-a-decade deal in Montreal, Canada, that included targets to protect 30% of land and sea for nature, reform billions of dollars on environmentally harmful subsidies and slash pesticide usage. Countries committed to submit their plans for meeting the agreement before the biodiversity Cop16 in Cali, Colombia, which begins this month – but only 25 countries have done so. The other 170 countries have failed to meet the deadline. The world has never yet met a single target set in the history of UN biodiversity agreements, and there had been a major push to make sure this decade was different.” – The Guardian

October 14, 2024
Trees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year. Is nature’s carbon sink failing?
The sudden collapse of carbon sinks was not factored into climate models – and could rapidly accelerate global heating
“It begins each day at nightfall. As the light disappears, billions of zooplankton, crustaceans and other marine organisms rise to the ocean surface to feed on microscopic algae, returning to the depths at sunrise. The waste from this frenzy – Earth’s largest migration of creatures – sinks to the ocean floor, removing millions of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere each year. This activity is one of thousands of natural processes that regulate the Earth’s climate. Together, the planet’s oceans, forests, soils and other natural carbon sinks absorb about half of all human emissions. But as the Earth heats up, scientists are increasingly concerned that those crucial processes are breaking down.” – The Guardian

October 13, 2024
Climate Disasters Only Slightly Shift the Political Needle
Researchers tracking the social and political impacts of storms, floods and heat waves say their effects are often transient and short-lived.
“Even amid what seems like a never-ending series of deadly and destructive climate extremes across the country, including heat waves in the Southwest, wildfires in California and hurricanes and flooding in the Southeast, social and political scientists say climate is still not a major issue for U.S. voters…. ‘Unfortunately, the post-COVID landscape has introduced a worse possibility: that is, to blame extreme events on conspiracies’” he said. ‘[Former President Donald] Trump and [billionaire Elon] Musk are leading the way in spreading lies to blame Milton and Helene disasters on their fabricated claims about the federal government response.’ Disinformation and misinformation about recent climate-driven disasters folds into the bigger network of conspiracies about democracy, science, health care and other issues, he said. ‘Trumpism, with its election rejection, climate denialism and anti-vax militance, and Musk with his Twitter megaphone, are pouring gasoline on conspiracist fires. To believers, it does not matter that conspiracies might contradict each other,’ he said. ‘They agree on the rejection of science and consensus reality, and on the special knowledge of conspiracy believers.’… Another bad sign is that, even in a year marked by repeated devastating and deadly climate disasters, overall media coverage of climate dropped off compared to previous years.” – Inside Climate News

October 11, 2024
Scientists show accelerating carbon dioxide release from rocks in Arctic Canada with global warming
“Researchers have shown that weathering of rocks in the Canadian Arctic will accelerate with rising temperatures, triggering a positive feedback loop that will release more and more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.” – ScienceDaily

October 9, 2024
Earth’s wildlife populations have disappeared at a ‘catastrophic’ rate in the past half-century, new analysis says
The Living Planet Index tracks thousands of vertebrate species globally and found the worst declines were in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Earth’s wildlife populations have fallen, on average, by a ‘catastrophic’ rate of 73 percent in the past half-century, according to a new analysis by the World Wildlife Fund released Wednesday. The WWF and the Zoological Society of London track 5,495 species of amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and reptiles around the world through the Living Planet Index, and the database shows the extent to which human activity is decimating them. Freshwater populations fell by an average of 85 percent, according to the new Living Planet report, while terrestrial populations by 69 percent and marine populations by 56 percent in the five decades between 1970 and 2020. ‘It really does indicate to us that the fabric of nature is unraveling,’ Rebecca Shaw, WWF’s chief scientist said of the report’s findings.” – The Washington Post

 October 9, 2024
Storm-Ravaged Florida Communities Brace for ‘Horrific’ Hurricane Milton
“One of its unique characteristics is just how quickly it intensified. In a roughly 24-hour period, maximum wind speeds jumped by 90 miles per hour, marking one of the fastest intensification events ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. Research shows Atlantic hurricanes are more quickly strengthening from weaker storms into supercharged cyclones—and climate change is likely contributing.” – Climate News

October 8, 2024
Unprecedented peril: disaster lies ahead as we track towards 2.7°C of warming this century
“We are seeing unprecedented rapidly intensifying tropical storms such as Hurricane Helene in the eastern United States and Super Typhoon Yagi in Vietnam. Unprecedented fires in Canada have destroyed towns. Unprecedented drought in Brazil has dried out enormous rivers and left swathes of empty river beds. At least 1,300 pilgrims died during this year’s Hajj in Mecca as temperatures passed 50°C. Unfortunately, we are headed for far worse. The new 2024 State of the Climate report, produced by our team of international scientists, is yet another stark warning about the intensifying climate crisis. Even if governments meet their emissions goals, the world may hit 2.7°C of warming – nearly double the Paris Agreement goal of holding climate change to 1.5°C. Each year, we track 35 of the Earth’s vital signs, from sea ice extent to forests. This year, 25 are now at record levels, all trending in the wrong directions.” – The Conversation

October 8, 2024
Deforestation ‘roaring back’ despite 140-country vow to end destruction
Demand for beef, soy, palm oil and nickel hindering efforts to halt demolition by 2030, global report finds
“The destruction of global forests increased in 2023, and is higher than when 140 countries promised three years ago to halt deforestation by the end of the decade, an analysis shows. The rising demolition of the forests puts ambitions to halt the climate crisis and stem the huge worldwide losses of wildlife even further from reach, the researchers warn. Almost 6.4m hectares (16m acres) of forest were razed in 2023, according to the report. Even more forest – 62.6m ha – was degraded as road building, logging and forest fires took their toll. There were spikes in deforestation in Indonesia and Bolivia, driven by political changes and continued demand for commodities including beef, soy, palm oil, paper and nickel in rich countries.” – The Guardian

October 7, 2024
Climate warning as world’s rivers dry up at fastest rate for 30 years
World Meteorological Organization says water is ‘canary in the coalmine of climate change’ and calls for urgent action
“Rivers dried up at the highest rate in three decades in 2023, putting global water supply at risk, data has shown. Over the past five years, there have been lower-than-average river levels across the globe and reservoirs have also been low, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) State of Global Water Resources report. In 2023, more than 50% of global river catchment areas showed abnormal conditions, with most being in deficit. This was similar in 2022 and 2021. Areas facing severe drought and low river discharge conditions included large territories of North, Central and South America; for instance, the Amazon and Mississippi rivers had record low water levels. On the other side of the globe, in Asia and Oceania, the large Ganges, Brahmaputra and Mekong river basins experienced lower-than-normal conditions almost over the entire basin territories.” – The Guardian

October 4, 2024
The Coming Global Fight to Secure Water
“Humanity’s survival depends on water, yet global reserves are rapidly shrinking. Growing populations, water mismanagement and climate change mean that by next year, half of the world’s people will face water scarcity. As a result, water arguably has replaced oil as the most likely cause of global conflict.” – Bloomberg

October 3, 2024
Liquefied natural gas carbon footprint is worse than coal
“Liquefied natural gas leaves a greenhouse gas footprint that is 33% worse than coal, when processing and shipping are taken into account, according to a new Cornell University study.’Natural gas and shale gas are all bad for the climate. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is worse,’ said Robert Howarth, author of the study and a professor of ecology and environmental biology. ‘LNG is made from shale gas, and to make it you must supercool it to liquid form and then transport it to market in large tankers. That takes energy.'” – ScienceDaily

October 2, 2024
‘The Earth is crying out for help’: as fires decimate South America, smoke shrouds its skies
Huge tracts of land have burned from largely man-made blazes in Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Brazil and other countries, with people suffocating from its fallout – The Guardian

October 1, 2024
Trump continues to deny climate crisis as he visits hurricane-ravaged Georgia
Ex-president refers to climate crisis as ‘one of the great scams’ and plans to attend two fundraisers in oil-rich Texas
“As research finds that the deadly Hurricane Helene was greatly exacerbated by global warming, Donald Trump is continuing to deny the climate crisis and court donations from the industry most responsible for planetary heating. Environmentalists worry that he will also gut flood protections and climate policy if he wins November’s presidential election. Hours before Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region Thursday night as a major category 4 hurricane, Trump baselessly said nuclear ‘warming,’ not the climate crisis, is ‘the warming that you’re going to have to be very careful with.’ The following day, he said the ‘little hurricane’ was partially responsible for attendees leaving his rallies early. As the hurricane continued to ravage the region over the weekend, the former president dismissed global warming in a Saturday speech, and the following day referred to the climate crisis as ‘one of the great scams of all time.'” – The Guardian

October 1, 2024
Private equity firms ploughing billions into fossil fuels, analysis reveals
“Private equity firms are using US public sector workers’ retirement savings to fund fossil fuel projects pumping more than a billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere every year, according to an analysis. They have ploughed more than $1tn (£750bn) into the energy sector since 2010, often buying into old and new fossil fuel projects and, thanks to exemptions from many financial disclosures, operating them outside the public eye, the researchers say.” – The Guardian

September 30, 2024
Vast ‘stranded assets’ if world continues investing in polluting industries
“Continued investment in carbon-intensive industries will drastically increase the amount of ‘stranded assets’ as the world moves to net-zero emissions, researchers warn…. A complete switch-off from fossil fuel investment in 2020 would have left $117 trillion of global capital at risk — while delaying to 2030 raises this to $557 trillion (37% of total global capital today). While these are the maximum possible figures — and they could be reduced by retraining workers and retrofitting assets — they highlight the vast economic risks from continued investment in declining industries.” – ScienceDaily

September 29, 2024
Our leaders are collaborators with fossil fuel colonialists. This is the source of our communal dread
The lassitude that distinguishes our moment is born of sorrow and buried rage. We act like colonial subjects because, in effect, that’s what we are
I think it’s the duty of older citizens to face this. The most stupid thing we can do right now is to persist in the lie we tell ourselves – that their sense of feeling forsaken has nothing to do with us. The name for what ails us has been a matter of debate for years – ‘climate anxiety,’ ‘eco-grief,’ ‘solastalgi’ – but none of these labels sound strong enough to capture the enervating creep of loss and dread that torments so many. What prosperous, educated westerners are experiencing is a form of paralysis, a shutting down and closing off. Frantz Fanon described something similar in Algeria in the 1950s when he observed ‘the tense immobility of the dominated society.'” – The Guardian

September 26, 2024
Revealed: how the fossil fuel industry helps spread anti-protest laws across the US
“Fossil fuel lobbyists coordinated with lawmakers behind the scenes and across state lines to push and shape laws that are escalating a crackdown on peaceful protests against oil and gas expansion, a new Guardian investigation reveals. Records obtained by the Guardian show that lobbyists working for major North American oil and gas companies were key architects of anti-protest laws that increase penalties and could lead to non-violent environmental and climate activists being imprisoned up to 10 years. Emails between fossil fuel lobbyists and lawmakers in Utah, West Virginia, Idaho and Ohio suggest a nationwide strategy to deter people frustrated by government failure to tackle the climate crisis from peacefully disrupting the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure by enacting tough laws with lengthy jail sentences.” – The Guardian

September 25, 2024
Ice age clues point to more extreme weather patterns in our future
“The study found that El Niño variability was significantly lower during the Last Glacial Maximum compared to the present day, and that future extreme El Niño events could become more prevalent as the planet warms. This could lead to more intense and frequent weather disruptions worldwide.” – ScienceDaily

September 24, 2024
Climate Change Is So Bad, Even the Arctic Is On Fire
“From Siberia to Brazil, wildfires are moving underground and burning up massive carbon deposits. The resulting emissions threaten to worsen global warming…. What sets these fires apart is their tendency to move below ground into carbon-rich soil layers. While wildfires generally flame upwards — quickly consuming forest and grassland — the increasingly intense blazes of recent years move downward, where they smolder flamelessly below the surface, consuming layers of organic material.” – Bloomberg

September 23, 2024
California accuses ExxonMobil of lying about plastics being recyclable
“The state of California sued ExxonMobil on Monday, accusing the oil giant of misleading the public about the effectiveness of plastics recycling and contributing to the flood of bottles, bags and wrappers polluting waterways in the state and worldwide. In the first lawsuit of its kind, California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) alleged that ExxonMobil has engaged ‘in a decades-long campaign of deception that caused and exacerbated the global plastics pollution crisis.’” – The Washington Post

September 21, 2024
Retired priest speaks of ‘painful’ treatment by church over her climate protests
The Rev Sue Parfitt has lost right to conduct religious ceremonies after her arrest at a Just Stop Oil demonstration
“An 82-year-old retired priest has spoken of her pain at losing her right to conduct religious ceremonies because of her participation in Just Stop Oil protests.” – The Guardian

September 19, 2024
Over nearly half a billion years, Earth’s global temperature has changed drastically, driven by carbon dioxide
“A new study offers the most detailed glimpse yet into how Earth’s surface temperature has changed over the past 485 million years. The data show that Earth has been and can be warmer than today — but humans and animals cannot adapt fast enough to keep up with human-caused climate change.”  – ScienceDaily

September 19, 2024
Is bird flu spreading among people? Data gaps leave researchers in the dark
Mysterious US bird flu case in person without any known contact with an infected animal raises spectre of human-to-human transmission.
Ratcheting up concerns is the fact that no Missouri dairy farms have reported a bird flu outbreak; this might be because there really are no infections, or because the state does not require farmers to test their cows for the virus. ‘The fear is that the virus is spreading within the community at low levels, and this is the first time that we’re detecting it,’ says Scott Hensley, a viral immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia. ‘There’s no data to suggest that to be the case, but that’s the fear.’” – Nature

September 16, 2024
Superbugs ‘could kill 39m people by 2050’ amid rising drug resistance
Child deaths from infections see ‘remarkable’ decline but AMR fatalities of over-70s likely to rise by 146%, study finds
By the middle of the century, 1.91 million people a year are forecast to die worldwide directly because of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – in which bacteria evolve so that the drugs usually used to fight them no longer work – up from 1.14 million in 2021. AMR will play some role in 8.2 million deaths annually, up from 4.71 million. The study, published in the Lancet was conducted by the Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (Gram) Project and is the first global analysis of AMR trends over time.” – The Guardian

September  13, 2024
Maine officials trying to hide scale of ex-navy base PFAS spill, advocates suspect
Government’s communication called ‘unconscionable’ after one of largest spills of toxic ‘forever chemicals’
“Meanwhile, state and regional officials were slow to alert the public and are resisting calls to immediately test some private drinking water wells in the area despite its notoriously complex hydrology, which could potentially spread the contamination widely. The spill was caused by a malfunctioning fire suppression system in a hangar at the Brunswick naval air station near Maine’s coast, which released about 51,000 gallons of PFAS-laden firefighting foam into nearby surface water, leading to astronomical levels of PFAS contamination. The levels in the foam reached as much as 4.3bn parts per trillion (ppt) – the drinking water limit for some PFAS compounds is 4ppt.” – The Guardian

September 12, 2024
Entire Earth vibrated for nine days after climate-triggered mega-tsunami
Landslide in Greenland caused unprecedented seismic event that shows impact of global heating, say scientists
“A landslide and mega-tsunami in Greenland in September 2023, triggered by the climate crisis, caused the entire Earth to vibrate for nine days, a scientific investigation has found. The seismic event was detected by earthquake sensors around the world but was so completely unprecedented that the researchers initially had no idea what had caused it. Having now solved the mystery, the scientists said it showed how global heating was already having planetary-scale impacts and that major landslides were possible in places previously believed to be stable as temperatures rapidly rose. The collapse of a 1,200-metre-high mountain peak into the remote Dickson fjord happened on 16 September 2023 after the melting glacier below was no longer able to hold up the rock face. It triggered an initial wave 200 metres high and the subsequent sloshing of water back and forth in the twisty fjord sent seismic waves through the planet for more than a week.” – The Guardian

September 12, 2024
Consumerism and the climate crisis threaten equitable future for humanity, report says
The Earth Commission says hope lies in sustainable lifestyles, a radical transformation of global politics and fair distribution of resources
“All of humanity could share a prosperous, equitable future but the space for development is rapidly shrinking under pressure from a wealthy minority of ultra-consumers, a groundbreaking study has shown. Growing environmental degradation and climate instability have pushed the Earth beyond a series of safe planetary boundaries, say the authors from the Earth Commission, but it still remains possible to carve out a ‘safe and just space’ that would enable everyone to thrive. That utopian outcome would depend on a radical transformation of global politics, economics and society to ensure a fairer distribution of resources, a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels and the widespread adoption of low-carbon, sustainable technologies and lifestyles, it said.” – The Guardian

September 10, 2024
‘Two incredible extreme events’: Antarctic sea ice on cusp of record winter low for second year running
Last year Antartica’s sea ice was 1.6m sq km below average – the size of Britain, France, Germany and Spain combined. This week it had even less than that
“The Antarctic region underwent an abrupt transformation in 2023 as the sea ice cover surrounding the continent crashed for six months straight. In winter, it covered about 1.6m sq km less than the long-term average – an area roughly the size of Britain, France, Germany and Spain combined…. ‘What we’re really talking about are two incredible extreme events,’ said Dr Will Hobbs, a sea ice researcher at the University of Tasmania. ‘Last year was outrageous and it’s happened again.'” – The Guardian

Septemeber 10, 2024
Methane emissions are rising faster than ever
“Methane concentrations in Earth’s atmosphere increased at record speed over the past five years. At least two-thirds of annual methane emissions now come from human activities, including fossil fuel use, agriculture, and landfills and other waste. The world has not hit the brakes on methane emissions, a powerful driver of climate change. More than 150 nations have pledged to slash by 30% this decade under a global methane pledge, but new research shows global methane emissions over the past five years have risen faster than ever…. Atmospheric concentrations of methane are now more than 2.6 times higher than in pre-industrial times — the highest they’ve been in at least 800,000 years. Methane emission rates continue to rise along the most extreme trajectory used in emission scenarios by the world’s leading climate scientists.” – ScienceDaily

Sept 6, 2024
University funding from fossil fuels slowing switch to green energy – report
Study’s authors say integrity of higher education ‘at risk’ upon finding lack of attention to role of oil and gas firms
“During the past two decades, non-profits, campus organizers and a small group of scholars have sounded the alarm about oil companies’ influence in academia, drawing parallels to tobacco, pharmaceuticals and food producers who have also funded scholarship. In the new study, researchers found that out of roughly 14,000 peer-reviewed articles about conflicts of interest, bias and research funding across all industries from 2003 to 2023, only seven mentioned fossil fuels. When the authors broadened their search to look at book chapters, they found only seven more.” – The Guardian

August 29, 2024
US leads wealthy countries spending billions of public money on unproven ‘climate solutions’
Exclusive: Over $12bn in subsidies awarded for technologies like carbon capture experts call ‘colossal waste of money’
“A handful of wealthy polluting countries led by the US are spending billions of dollars of public money on unproven climate solutions technologies that risk further delaying the transition away from fossil fuels, new analysis suggests. These governments have handed out almost $30bn in subsidies for carbon capture and fossil hydrogen over the past 40 years, with hundreds of billions potentially up for grabs through new incentives, according to a new report by Oil Change International (OCI), a non-profit tracking the cost of fossil fuels.” – The Guardian

August 29, 2024
How Exxon chases billions in US subsidies for a ‘climate solution’ that helps it drill more oil
Climate experts raise red flags as oil giant spends millions lobbying while touting ‘underperforming’ carbon capture
“Michael Mann, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, outlines in his book the New Climate War, the substantial role Exxon played in both denying the threat of climate change and opposing efforts to move toward clean energy. Journalist Steve Coll also recalls in his 2012 book Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power how Exxon remained in the defiant ‘fuck you, no apologies, oil-is-here-to-stay mode.’… ‘I couldn’t imagine a greater perversion of the incentive structure. We need to be subsiding solutions to the climate crisis, like clean energy, not causes, like fossil fuels,’ said Michael Mann, presidential distinguished professor and director of the Penn Center for science, sustainability and the media.” – The Guardian

August 23, 2024
AI analysed 1,500 policies to cut emissions. These ones worked
Only 63 climate change interventions led to significant reductions in carbon emissions.
“‘This study provides a warning to countries around the world that their climate policies have had very limited effects so far,’ says Xu Chi, an ecologist at Nanjing University. ‘Existing polices will need to be re-evaluated, and changes will need to be made,’ Xu adds. The world’s annual emissions are projected to be 15 Gt of CO₂ equivalents higher by 2030 than would be required to keep global warming to less than 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, according to the United Nations. – Nature

August 15, 2024
‘Unacceptable’: a staggering 4.4 billion people lack safe drinking water, study finds
“Approximately 4.4 billion people drink unsafe water — double the previous estimate — according to a study published today in Science¹. The finding, which suggests that more than half of the world’s population is without clean and accessible water, puts a spotlight on gaps in basic health data and raises questions about which estimate better reflects reality.” – Nature

August 15, 2024
‘We should have better answers by now’: climate scientists baffled by unexpected pace of heating
The leap in temperatures over the past 13 months has exceeded the global heating forecasts – is this just a blip or a systemic shift?
“In a remarkably candid essay in the journal Nature this March, one of the world’s top climate scientists posited the alarming possibility that global heating may be moving beyond the ability of experts to predict what happens next. ‘The 2023 temperature anomaly has come out of the blue, revealing an unprecedented knowledge gap perhaps for the first time since about 40 years ago, when satellite data began offering modellers an unparalleled, real-time view of Earth’s climate system,’ wrote Gavin Schmidt, a British scientist and the director of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. If this anomaly does not stabilise by August, he said, it could imply ‘that a warming planet is already fundamentally altering how the climate system operates, much sooner than scientists had anticipated.'” – The Guardian

August 15, 2024
Revealed: Shell oil non-profit donated to anti-climate groups behind Project 2025
Foundation says it ‘does not endorse any organizations’ while funneling hundreds of thousands to rightwing causes
“A US foundation associated with the oil company Shell has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to religious right and conservative organizations, many of which deny that climate change is a crisis, tax records reveal. Fourteen of those groups are on the advisory board of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint proposing radical changes to the federal government, including severely limiting the Environment Protection Agency.” – The Guardian

August 13, 2024
Who is legally responsible for climate harms? The world’s top court will now decide
The International Court of Justice will clarify states’ legal responsibility for impacts of climate change. Although non-binding, its opinion will matter for thousands of climate lawsuits.
“‘It bears repeating over and over: the science is not in question. High concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are warming the planet. International law is also clear: under the legally binding Paris climate agreement, nations pledged to keep average temperatures within 1.5 °C of pre-industrial levels. And yet, as emissions continue to increase, global temperature rises will almost certainly exceed this limit…. By the end of last year, 2,666 climate-litigation cases had been filed worldwide, according to a report³ by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, published in June (see ‘Climate in court’). Most claimants are individuals, young and old, as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs). All are looking to hold governments and companies accountable for their climate pledges. In 2022, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change⁴ acknowledged that, if successful, climate litigation ‘can lead to an increase in a country’s overall ambition to tackle climate change.’ Note the phrase, ‘if successful.’” – Nature

August 12, 2024
Heat aggravated by carbon pollution killed 50,000 in Europe last year – study
Continent is warming at much faster rate than other parts of world, leading to fires, drought and health problems – The Guardian

August 11, 2024
How Close Are the Planet’s Climate Tipping Points?
“Right now, every moment of every day, we humans are reconfiguring Earth’s climate bit by bit. Hotter summers and wetter storms. Higher seas and fiercer wildfires. The steady, upward turn of the dial on a host of threats to our homes, our societies and the environment around us. We might also be changing the climate in an even bigger way. For the past two decades, scientists have been raising alarms about great systems in the natural world that warming, caused by carbon emissions, might be pushing toward collapse. These systems are so vast that they can stay somewhat in balance even as temperatures rise. But only to a point. Once we warm the planet beyond certain levels, this balance might be lost, scientists say. The effects would be sweeping and hard to reverse. Not like the turning of a dial, but the flipping of a switch. One that wouldn’t be easily flipped back.” – The New York Times

August 9. 2024
Researchers find unexpectedly large methane source in overlooked landscape
“Because methane is 25 to 34 times more potent than carbon dioxide, the discovery brings new concerns to the potential for permafrost thaw to accelerate global climate change….. ‘It means the permafrost carbon feedback is going to be a lot bigger this century than anybody thought,’ said Walter Anthony, a research professor at the Institute of Northern Engineering at University of Alaska Fairbanks.” – ScienceDaily

August 5, 2024
Greenland fossil discovery reveals increased risk of sea-level catastrophe
The story of Greenland keeps getting greener — and scarier.
“‘Look at Boston, New York, Miami, Mumbai or pick your coastal city around the world, and add twenty plus feet of sea level,’ said Bierman. ‘It goes underwater. Don’t buy a beach house.'” – ScienceDaily

July 30, 2024
Global methane emissions rising at fastest rate in decades, scientists warn
“Methane emissions are responsible for half of the global heating already experienced, have been climbing significantly since around 2006 and will continue to grow throughout the rest of the 2020s unless new steps are taken to curb this pollution, concludes the new paper. The research is authored by more than a dozen scientists from around the world and published on Tuesday. While the world ‘quite rightly’ has focused on carbon dioxide as the primary driver of rising global temperatures, states the paper published in Frontiers in Science, little has been done to address methane, despite it having 80 times the warming power of CO₂ in the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere.” – The Guardian

July 29, 2024
Countries need to co-operate on migration as climate crisis worsens
‘”Millions of people are projected to be displaced by sea-level rise in the next decades, and two billion could be exposed to extreme heat beyond their experience by the end of the century,’ said Professor Marten Scheffer, of Wageningen University…. ‘Playing up the social costs of migration appeals to national identity motivations, but fails to overcome problems from ageing populations,’ said Professor Neil Adger. ‘Instead, leaders should focus on the economic and social benefits of new populations and effective integration, which benefits newcomers and original inhabitants alike. Every corner of the world needs to anticipate the coming climate crisis and promote the safe and beneficial movement of people as conditions change.'” – ScienceDaily

July 29, 2024
How a Crisis for Vultures Led to a Human Disaster: Half a Million Deaths
The birds were accidentally poisoned in India. New research on what happened next shows how wildlife collapse can be deadly for people.
“Now, economists have put an excruciating figure on just how vital they can be: The sudden near-disappearance of vultures in India about two decades ago led to more than half a million excess human deaths over five years, according to a forthcoming study in the American Economic Review. Rotting livestock carcasses, no longer picked to the bones by vultures, polluted waterways and fed an increase in feral dogs, which can carry rabies. It was ‘a really huge negative sanitation shock,’ said Anant Sudarshan, one of the study’s authors and an economics professor at the University of Warwick in England.” – The New York Times

July 25, 2024
Canada is proposing to lead on climate – but it’s doubling down on oil
Despite climate-friendly plans, the government’s controversial decision to take over the Trans Mountain pipeline made it one of world’s biggest promoters of fossil fuel projects
“When Justin Trudeau was elected in 2015, he touted his government’s climate credentials on the world stage. ‘Canada is back, my friends,’ he told delegates at the Paris climate summit. ‘We’re here to help.’ His government rolled out a nationwide carbon tax (or as the then environment minister Catherine McKenna called it, a ‘price on pollution’). But in the years since, Canada remains the only G7 nation to emit greenhouse gases far above its 1990 levels – while now also planning to extract and export record volumes of oil.” – The Guardian

July 24, 2024
Revealed: wealthy western countries lead in global oil and gas expansion
“A surge in new oil and gas exploration in 2024 threatens to unleash nearly 12bn tonnes of planet-heating emissions, with the world’s wealthiest countries – such as the US and the UK – leading a stampede of fossil fuel expansion in spite of their climate commitments, new data shared exclusively with the Guardian reveals.” – The Guardian

July 24, 2024
‘This used to be a beautiful place’: how the US became the world’s biggest fossil fuel state
No country has ever in history produced as much oil and gas as the US does now and Louisiana is ground zero
“‘We don’t really have a Gulf coast in the US,’ said Allaire. ‘We have the east coast, the west coast and the carbon coast. This is simply a sacrifice zone for the oil and gas industry.’… Domestic oil and gas production, turbocharged by the advance of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has rocketed. No country in history has extracted as much oil as the US has in each of the past six years, with a fifth of all oil drilled in 2023 being American flavored. US gas production also tops the global charts, having surged 50% in the past decade. Every hour of every day, on average, around 1m barrels of oil and 2m tons of gas are sucked up from oil and gas fields from Texas to Appalachia to Alaska.”

July 24, 2024
Déjà Vu All Over Again — Refusing to Learn the Lessons of Covid-19
“The spread of H5N1 avian influenza among cattle and other farm animals as well as to agricultural workers in the United States has raised concerns about the potential for an influenza pandemic…. Rather than heeding the lessons from Covid-19, elected officials and other key decision makers may be relying on a dangerous type of revisionism that could lead to more deaths, should H5N1 cause a pandemic.” – NEJM

July 24, 2024
‘Truly staggering’: World breaks hottest day record for second day in a row
The world’s average surface air temperature reached 17.15C on Monday, inching past the new record that had just been set on Sunday of 17.09C.
“Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo said: ‘What is truly staggering is how large the difference is between the temperature of the last 13 months and the previous temperature records. We are now in truly uncharted territory and as the climate keeps warming, we are bound to see new records being broken in future months and years.” – SkyNews

July 18, 2024
US oil company ran 1977 article predicting climate crisis could cause starvation
“The corporate predecessor to America’s largest refiner of oil, Marathon Petroleum, explained in a company periodical nearly 50 years ago that global temperature rise potentially linked to ‘industrial expansion’ could one day cause ‘widespread starvation and other social and economic calamities.’… ‘Pestilence, starvation, drought. To know one’s product may bring that about, and bury the evidence, is unspeakable,’ Timmons Roberts, a professor of environment and sociology at Brown University, who’s an expert in climate disinformation, wrote in an email to the Guardian after viewing the 1977 article.” – The Guardian

July 11, 2024
Montana Republicans appeal to state supreme court to overturn landmark climate ruling
Ruling in Montana case could impact climate change lawsuits across country
“Republican officials in Montana urged the state supreme court on Wednesday to overturn a landmark 2023 climate ruling, which sided with a group of young plaintiffs who argued the state was violating their constitutional rights by allowing fossil fuel projects to move forward without considering climate impacts.” – Independent

June 28, 2024
Colorado oil and gas wells can’t fund their own cleanup. Taxpayers may foot the bill
“Thousands of oil and gas wells across Colorado cannot generate enough revenue to cover their own cleanup costs, according to a new report. Unless state officials act ‘simply and quickly,’ it says, Coloradans can expect to be on the hook for a $3bn shortfall.” – The Guardian

June 26, 2024
Lawyers could charge big oil with homicide after 2023 Arizona heatwave
Charges are reasonable after July 2023 extreme weather event, prosecutors write in new memorandum
“'[T]he case for prosecuting fossil fuel companies for climate-related deaths is strong enough to merit the initiation of investigations by state and local prosecutors,’ the document says. The memo, published by the consumer advocacy non-profit Public Citizen onWednesday, concludes that the state could pursue reckless manslaughter or second-degree murder claims for the extreme weather event that killed hundreds of residents and which climate scientists found would have been ‘virtually impossible’ but for the climate crisis, caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.’ – The Guardian

June 26, 2024
Kids Are Particularly Vulnerable to Extreme Weather. What Are We Doing About It?
“Nearly every child around the world now faces at least one climate shock—whether wildfires, cyclones or storms—each year, according to a UNICEF report. These extreme weather events can be debilitating for young people, who often rely entirely on their caregivers to protect them and can struggle to understand the destruction unfolding around them. And that’s just during the disaster. In the aftermath, it’s common for children to experience a broad array of psychological issues, including depression and mood swings, research shows. Children in low-income communities bear the brunt of these impacts, with fewer resources to recover after severe weather. After Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico in 2017, a survey revealed that nearly 84 percent of young people saw their houses damaged and 7 percent reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.” – Inside Climate Change

June 25, 2024
Rising sea levels will disrupt millions of Americans’ lives by 2050, study finds
Floods could leave coastal communities in states like Florida and California unlivable in two decades
“Sea level rise driven by global heating will disrupt the daily life of millions of Americans, as hundreds of homes, schools and government buildings face frequent and repeated flooding by 2050, a new study has found. Almost 1,100 critical infrastructure assets that sustain coastal communities will be at risk of monthly flooding by 2050, according to the new research by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). The vast majority of the assets – 934 of them – face the risk of flood disruption every other week, which could make some coastal neighborhoods unlivable within two to three decades. Almost 3 million people currently live in the 703 US coastal communities with critical infrastructure at risk of monthly disruptive flooding by 2050, including affordable and subsidized housing, wastewater treatment facilities, toxic industrial sites, power plants, fire stations, schools, kindergartens and hospitals.” – The Guardian

June 25, 2024
Newly identified tipping point for ice sheets could mean greater sea level rise
Small increase in temperature of intruding water could lead to very big increase in loss of ice, scientists say
“A newly identified tipping point for the loss of ice sheets in Antarctica and elsewhere could mean future sea level rise is significantly higher than current projections.” – The Guardian

June 17, 2024
Global spending on nuclear weapons up 13% in record rise
States are on course to spend $100bn a year, driven by a sharp increase in US defence budgets
“All nine of the world’s nuclear armed nations are spending more, Ican added, with China judged to be the second largest spender with a budget of $11.9bn – though Beijing’s total is well below the $51.5bn attributed to the US. Russia is the third largest spender, at $8.3bn, followed by the UK ($8.1bn) and France ($6.1bn), although estimates for authoritarian states or the three countries with undeclared nuclear programmes (India, Pakistan and Israel) are all complicated by a lack of transparency.” – The Guardian

June 13, 2024
Ancient ocean slowdown warns of future climate chaos
Without this circulation system, the tropics would be much hotter and the poles much colder. Changes in this system are linked to significant and abrupt climate change. Furthermore, the oceans serve a critical role in removing anthropogenic carbon dioxide from the atmosphere…. Sandra Kirtland Turner, vice-chair of UCR’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and first author of the studysaid. ‘If ocean circulation slows, absorption of carbon into the ocean may also slow, amplifying the amount of CO₂ that stays in the atmosphere.’… Other studies provide the first evidence that deep ocean circulation, particularly in the North Atlantic, is already starting to slow.” – ScienceDaily

June 11, 2024
Significant increase in nitrous-oxide emissions from human activities, jeopardizing climate goals
The report reveals that nitrous-oxide emissions from human activities have increased by 40 per cent (3 million metric tons of N₂O per year) in the past four decades, resulting in accelerating atmospheric accumulation of this potent greenhouse gas. Observed atmospheric growth rates over the past three years (2020-2022) have been higher than any previous observed year since 1980, when reliable measurements began. Like carbon-dioxide (CO₂), nitrous-oxide is a long-lived greenhouse gas and contributor to climate change. It also plays an important role in the destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer, which protects the Earth from the Sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation.” – ScienceDaily

June 6, 2024
Secretive court system has awarded over $100bn public money to corporations, finds new analysis
Fossil fuel firms are biggest beneficiaries of investor-state dispute settlement courts which have awarded $114bn of public money
“More than $100bn of public money has been awarded to private investors in investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) courts, according to the most comprehensive analysis yet. The controversial arbitration system which allows corporations to sue governments for compensation over decisions they argue affect their profits is largely carried out behind closed doors, with some judgments kept secret. But, according to a global ISDS tracker which launches today, $114bn has so far been paid out of the public purse to investors – about as much as rich nations provided in climate aid in 2022.” – The Guardian

June 6, 2024
We’re Approaching 1.5 Degrees C of Warming, but There’s Still Time to Prevent Disaster
“A new report from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service warns that the last 11 months in a row have all seen global average temperatures above the 1.5 C threshold. And the last 12 have all been characterized by record-breaking monthly heat; temperatures last month hovered about 1.52 degrees above Earth’s preindustrial average. Meanwhile, the World Meteorological Organization said Wednesday that there’s an 80 percent chance at least one of the next five calendar years will exceed a 1.5 C average. Nearly a decade ago — in 2015 — that chance was nearly zero.” – Scientific American

June 4, 2024
Trump flunks another science test in ‘Fox & Friends’ interview
The former president’s claim that rising sea levels will lead to more “beachfront property” was just as cruel as it was ignorant.
“Donald Trump’s pseudoscientific ramblings have never failed to shock or horrify. Now — from the man who suggested injecting disinfectant to cure Covid-19 and suggested that global warming doesn’t exist because cold temperatures do — we have a new contribution to Trump’s book of fact-free claims.” – MSNBC

May 25, 2024
Big tech has distracted world from existential risk of AI, says top scientist
“Big tech has succeeded in distracting the world from the existential risk to humanity that artificial intelligence still poses, a leading scientist and AI campaigner has warned.” – The Guardian

May 25, 2024
Efforts to draft a pandemic treaty falter as countries disagree on how to respond to next emergency
“A global treaty to fight pandemics like COVID is going to have to wait: After more than two years of negotiations, rich and poor countries have failed — for now — to come up with a plan for how the world might respond to the next pandemic. After COVID-19 triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies and killed millions, leaders at the World Health Organization and worldwide vowed to do better in the future. In 2021, member countries asked the U.N. health agency to oversee negotiations to figure out how the world might better share scarce resources and stop future viruses from spreading globally. On Friday, Roland Driece, co-chair of WHO’s negotiating board for the agreement, acknowledged that countries were unable to come up with a draft. WHO had hoped a final draft treaty could be agreed on at its yearly meeting of health ministers starting Monday in Geneva.” – APNews

May 23, 2024
Huge number of deaths linked to superbugs can be avoided, say experts
“Every year 750,000 deaths linked to drug-resistant superbugs could be prevented through better access to clean water and sanitation, infection control and childhood vaccinations, research suggests.” – The Guardian

May 22, 2024
Australian study proves ‘humans are planet’s most frightening predator’
Kangaroos and wallabies fear human ‘super predator’ more than dogs, devils or wolves
“These results greatly strengthen findings from similar studies by Zanette and her collaborators, and others, conducted in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia, which show wildlife worldwide fear the human ‘super predator’ far more than lions, leopards, cougars, bears, wolves or dogs.” – Western News

May 22, 2024
We’ve underestimated the ‘Doomsday’ glacier – and the consequences could be devastating
The Thwaites Glacier, dubbed ‘Doomsday’, could trigger a two-foot rise in global sea levels if it melts completely
“A vast Antarctic glacier is more vulnerable to melting than previously thought, according to new research, with potentially devastating consequences for billions of people. The Thwaites Glacier — dubbed the “Doomsday” glacier because of the grave impacts for global sea level rise if it melts — is breaking down “much faster” than expected, according to a peer-reviewed study published Monday in the academic journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” – The Guardian

May 17, 2024
Economic damage from climate change six times worse than thought – report
“’There will still be some economic growth happening but by the end of the century people may well be 50% poorer than they would’ve been if it wasn’t for climate change,’ said Adrien Bilal, an economist at Harvard who wrote the paper with Diego Känzig, an economist at Northwestern University…. Bilal said that purchasing power, which is how much people are able to buy with their money, would already be 37% higher than it is now without global heating seen over the past 50 years. This lost wealth will spiral if the climate crisis deepens, comparable to the sort of economic drain often seen during wartime.” – The Guardian

May 16, 2024
DeSantis signs bill wiping climate change references from Florida law
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) declared on X Wednesday that a bill he signed that removes climate change as a priority in state energy policy would restore ‘sanity’ and reject ‘the agenda of the radical green zealots.’ Why it matters: The bill that would also ban offshore wind turbines and bolster natural gas expansion after taking effect on July 1 comes as climate change’s effects are already impacting Florida — notably a dangerous heat wave threatening the state’s south this week that’s already broken temperature records.” – Axios

May 15, 2024
What keeps the world’s top climate scientists up at night?
Hundreds of climate experts expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5C (4.5F) above preindustrial levels by 2100. Damian Carrington reports
“They approached every contactable lead author or review editor of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports since 2018. Of the 843 scientists contacted, 380 replied….. Reading the responses, he could feel this ‘overwhelming feeling of frustration and despair and unhappiness at being ignored for so many years, and the difficulty they’re having of living with this information.’” – The Guardian

May 14, 2024
2023 was the hottest summer in two thousand years
“Researchers have found that 2023 was the hottest summer in the Northern Hemisphere in the past two thousand years, almost four degrees warmer than the coldest summer during the same period.” – ScienceDaily

May 13, 2024
Rise of drug-resistant superbugs could make Covid pandemic look ‘minor’, expert warns
Common infections will kill millions if drug resistance through misuse of antibiotics is not curbed, says England’s ex-chief medical officer.” – The Guardian

May 13, 2024
Today’s world: Fastest rate of carbon dioxide rise over the last 50,000 years
“Today’s rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide increase is 10 times faster than at any other point in the past 50,000 years, researchers have found through a detailed chemical analysis of ancient Antarctic ice.”– ScienceDaily

May 11, 2024
Brutal heatwaves and submerged cities: what a 3C world would look like
“Climate scientists have told the Guardian they expect catastrophic levels of global heating. Here’s what that would mean for the planet.” – The Guardian

May 9, 2024
‘The stakes could not be higher’: world is on edge of climate abyss, UN warns
“The world is on the verge of a climate abyss, the UN has warned, in response to a Guardian survey that found that hundreds of the world’s foremost climate experts expect global heating to soar past the international target of 1.5C.” – The Guardian

May 9, 2024
Trump promised to scrap climate laws if US oil bosses donated $1bn – report
Trump promised to 20 executives at Mar-a-Lago dinner to increase oil drilling and reverse pollution rules among other pitches.
“Donald Trump dangled a brazen “deal” in front of some of the top US oil bosses last month, proposing that they give him $1bn for his White House re-election campaign and vowing that once back in office he would instantly tear up Joe Biden’s environmental regulations and prevent any new ones, according to a bombshell new report.” – The Guardian

May 8, 2024
World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target
‘Hopeless and broken’: why the world’s top climate scientists are in despair
“Hundreds of the world’s leading climate scientists expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5C (4.5F) above preindustrial levels this century, blasting past internationally agreed targets and causing catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet, an exclusive Guardian survey has revealed…. Many of the scientists envisage a “semi-dystopian” future, with famines, conflicts and mass migration, driven by heatwaves, wildfires, floods and storms of an intensity and frequency far beyond those that have already struck. Numerous experts said they had been left feeling hopeless, infuriated and scared by the failure of governments to act despite the clear scientific evidence provided.” – The Guardian

May 8, 2024
World Extends Run of Heat Records for 11th Straight Month
“April was the Earth’s 11th consecutive month of record-breaking heat, with warmer weather already sweeping across Asia and a hotter-than-usual summer expected in Europe. The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said last month’s temperatures globally were 1.58C (2.8F) above historical averages and marked the hottest April on record.” – Bloomberg

May 3, 2024
Ice shelves fracture under weight of meltwater lakes
“Heavy pooling meltwater can fracture ice, potentially leading to ice shelf collapse.” – ScienceDaily

May 1, 2024
Big oil spent decades sowing doubt about fossil fuel dangers, experts testify
US Senate hearing reviewed report showing sector’s shift from climate denial to ‘deception, disinformation and doublespeak’
“’Big oil had to evolve from denial to duplicity,’ said Sheldon Whitehouse, the Rhode Island Democrat, who chairs the Senate committee. The revelations, based on hundreds of newly subpoenaed documents, illustrate how oil companies worked to greenwash their image while fighting climate policy behind the scenes. ‘Time and again, the biggest oil and gas corporations say one thing for the purposes of public consumption but do something completely different to protect their profits,’ Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House oversight committee, testified. ‘Company officials will admit the terrifying reality of their business model behind closed doors but say something entirely different, false and soothing to the public.’” – The Guardian

April 30, 2024
Spikes of flu virus in wastewater raise questions about spread of bird flu
“Spikes of influenza A virus seen in wastewater samples from 59 sewer systems across 18 different states this spring may point to the spread of the H5N1 avian influenza virus that is currently infecting dairy cattle, a new study suggests. So far, the US Department of Agriculture has reported more than 30 herds of dairy cows infected with H5N1 influenza across nine states…. In a news conference last week, USDA officials admitted that it’s been difficult to get milk producers to let them test for the infection. Recent tests of milk purchased at grocery stores found genetic material from the H5N1 virus in 1 out of 5 samples tested, though further testing showed the virus fragments detected in milk were not infectious.” – CNN

April 29, 2024
THE DROWNING SOUTH – WHERE SEAS ARE RISING AT ALARMING SPEED
“One of the most rapid sea level surges on Earth is besieging the American South, forcing a reckoning for coastal communities across eight U.S. states.” – The Washington Post

April 20, 2024
Carbon Dioxide Levels Have Passed a New Milestone
Currently, carbon dioxide levels are rising at near-record rates. According to data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Global Monitoring Laboratory earlier this month, last year had the fourth-highest annual rise in global carbon dioxide levels.” – The New York Times

April 19, 2024
UN livestock emissions report seriously distorted our work, say experts
“A flagship UN report on livestock emissions is facing calls for retraction from two key experts it cited who say that the paper “seriously distorted” their work. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) misused their research to underestimate the potential of reduced meat intake to cut agricultural emissions, according to a letter sent to the FAO by the two academics, which the Guardian has seen.” – The Guardian

April 17,  2024
38 trillion dollars in damages each year: World economy already committed to income reduction of 19 % due to climate change
“Even if CO2 emissions were to be drastically cut down starting today, the world economy is already committed to an income reduction of 19% until 2050 due to climate change, a new study finds. These damages are six times larger than the mitigation costs needed to limit global warming to two degrees.” – ScienceDaily

April 14, 2024
‘Grownup’ leaders are pushing us towards catastrophe, says former US climate chief
“Political leaders who present themselves as ‘grownups’ while slowing the pace of climate action are pushing the world towards deeper catastrophe, a former US climate chief has warned.” – The Guardian

April 10, 2024
The rise of eco-anxiety: scientists wake up to the mental-health toll of climate change
“Researchers want to unpick how climate change affects mental health around the world — from lives that are disrupted by catastrophic weather to people who are anxious about the future.” – Nature

April 9, 2o20
Methane from landfills is detectable from space – and driving the climate crisis
“Slashing methane is the most efficient way to slow global warming in our lifetimes. We have the chance – and the obligation – to do so….. But trash, organic waste decomposing in landfills, is the third largest source of human-caused methane pollution in the United States.” – The Guardian

April 9, 2024
Tiny plastic particles are found everywhere
“Microplastic particles can be found in the most remote ocean regions on earth. In Antarctica, pollution levels are even higher than previously assumed.” – ScienceDaily

April 6, 2024
Scientists confirm record highs for three most important heat-trapping gases
Global concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide climbed to unseen levels in 2023, underlining climate crisis
“The levels of the three most important heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere reached new record highs again last year, US scientists have confirmed, underlining the escalating challenge posed by the climate crisis.” – The Guardian

April 6, 2024
‘Simply mind-boggling’: world record temperature jump in Antarctic raises fears of catastrophe
“These events have raised fears that the Antarctic, once thought to be too cold to experience the early impacts of global warming, is now succumbing dramatically and rapidly to the swelling levels of greenhouse gases that humans continue to pump into the atmosphere…. These dangers were highlighted by a team of scientists, led by Will Hobbs of the University of Tasmania, in a paper that was published last week in the Journal of Climate. After examining recent changes in sea ice coverage in Antarctica, the group concluded there had been an ‘abrupt critical transition’ in the continent’s climate that could have repercussions for both local Antarctic ecosystems and the global climate system. ‘The extreme lows in Antarctic sea ice have led researchers to suggest that a regime shift is under way in the Southern Ocean, and we found multiple lines of evidence that support such a shift to a new sea ice state,’ said Hobbs.” – The Guardian

April 5, 2024
Is Bird Flu Coming to People Next? Are We Ready?
“Bird flu outbreaks among dairy cows in multiple states, and at least one infection in farmworker in Texas, have incited fears that the virus may be the next infectious threat to people.” – The New York Times

April 3, 2024
Just 57 companies linked to 80% of greenhouse gas emissions since 2016
Analysis reveals many big producers increased output of fossil fuels and related emissions in seven years after Paris climate deal
“This powerful cohort of state-controlled corporations and shareholder-owned multinationals are the leading drivers of the climate crisis, according to the Carbon Majors Database, which is compiled by world-renowned researchers…. This expansion, which has continued since, runs contrary to a stark warningby the International Energy Agency that no new oil and gas fields can be opened if the world is to stay within safe limits of global heating. Climate scientists say global temperatures are rapidly approaching the lower Paris target of 1.5C above the pre-industrial era, with potentially dire consequences for people and the rest of nature.” – The Guardian

March 31, 2024
‘My jaw dropped’: Annie Jacobsen on her scenario for nuclear war
Not long after, the world’s stockpile of nuclear warheads peaked and began to decline rapidly, from 70,000 to just over 12,000 currently, according to the Federation of American Scientists. That is still enough however to reduce the Earth to a radioactive desert, with some warheads left over to make it glow. Meanwhile, the global situation is arguably the most dangerous since the Cuban missile crisis, the Russian invasion of Ukraine grinding on mercilessly and China contemplating following Moscow’s example by making a grab for Taiwan. The danger of nuclear war is as immediate as ever but it has faded from public discourse, which is why Jacobsen, now a journalist and author, felt driven to write her new book, Nuclear War: A Scenario.” – The Guardian

March 29, 2024
International Court Issues First-Ever Decision Enforcing the Right to a Healthy Environment
“The landmark ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights will have far reaching implications for communities affected by extreme pollution.” – Inside Climate News

March 27, 2024
Sinking Coastal Lands Will Exacerbate the Flooding from Sea Level Rise in 24 US Cities, New Research Shows
“In the affected cities, as many as 500,000 people and one in every 35 properties could be impacted by the flooding, and communities of color face disproportionate effects.” – Inside Climate News

March 27, 2024
Food matters: Healthy diets increase the economic and physical feasibility of 1.5°C
“A global shift to a healthier, more sustainable diet could be a huge lever to limit global warming to 1.5 C, researchers find. The resulting reduction of greenhouse gas emissions would increase the available carbon budget compatible with limiting global warming to 1.5 C, and allow to achieve the same climate outcome with less carbon dioxide removal and less stringent CO2 emissions reductions in the energy system. This would also reduce emission prices, energy prices and food expenditures.” – ScienceDaily

March 26, 2024
Bird flu found in US milk for first time in Texas, Kansas and New Mexico
It marks the first known time avian influenza, otherwise known as bird flu, has been found in livestock…. Officials with the Texas Animal Health Commission confirmed the flu virus is the type A H5N1 strain, known for decades to cause outbreaks in birds and to occasionally infect people…. It comes a week after officials in Minnesota announced that goats on a farm where there had been an outbreak of bird flu among poultry were diagnosed with the virus…. Bird flu previously has been reported in 48 different mammal species, Payne noted, adding: “It was probably only a matter of time before avian influenza made its way to ruminants.” – The Guardian

March 24, 2024
The Brutality of Sugar: Debt, Child Marriage and Hysterectomies
“This keeps sugar flowing to companies like Coke and Pepsi…. a New York Times and Fuller Project investigation has found that these brands have also profited from a brutal system of labor that exploits children and leads to the unnecessary sterilization of working-age women. Young girls are pushed into illegal child marriages so they can work alongside their husbands cutting and gathering sugar cane. Instead of receiving wages, they work to pay off advances from their employers — an arrangement that requires them to pay a fee for the privilege of missing work, even to see a doctor. An extreme yet common consequence of this financial entrapment is hysterectomies. Labor brokers loan money for the surgeries, even to resolve ailments as routine as heavy, painful periods. And the women — most of them uneducated — say they have little choice. Hysterectomies keep them working, undistracted by doctor visits or the hardship of menstruating in a field with no access to running water, toilets or shelter. – The New York Times

March 21, 2024
Fossil fuel firms could be tried in US for homicide over climate-related deaths, experts say
“Each year, extreme temperatures take 5 million lives, while 400,000 people die from climate-related hunger and disease and scores perish in floods and wildfires. Now, researchers are promoting a new legal theory that says fossil fuel companies – which, data show, are the leading contributors to planet-heating pollution – could be tried for homicide for climate-related deaths. The radical idea, first proposed last year by consumer advocacy non-profit Public Citizen, may sound far-fetched, but it’s gaining interest from experts and public officials.” – The Guardian

March 19, 2024
Florida Legislators Ban Local Heat Protections for Millions of Outdoor Workers
Advocates characterize the bill as “cruel and inhumane” as the global climate warms…. The state’s 2 million outdoor workers are poised to have less access to accommodations like water and shady rest breaks under a bill the Florida Legislature recently approved.

March 19, 2024
One Thing Most Countries Have in Common: Unsafe Air
“Only 10 countries and territories out of 134 achieved the World Health Organization’s standards for a pervasive form of air pollution last year, according to air quality data compiled by IQAir, a Swiss company.” – The New York Times

March 13, 2024
Drought, soil desiccation cracking, and carbon dioxide emissions: an overlooked feedback loop exacerbating climate change
“Soil stores 80 percent of carbon on earth, yet with increasing cycles of drought, that crucial reservoir is cracking and breaking down, releasing even more greenhouse gases creating an amplified feedback loop that could accelerate climate change.” – ScienceDaily

March 13, 2024
More Top Climate News
The International Monetary Fund estimates that fossil fuel subsidies worldwide totaled $7 trillion last year. Of course, in the IMF’s calculation, the largest subsidy of all… is the indirect subsidy the industry enjoys because the price of their products does not include the environmental and climate costs to society. To address that subsidy, it would require a carbon tax—even more of a political non-starter in the United States than the president’s budget request.” – Inside Climate News

March 13, 2024
THE VICUÑAS AND THE $9,000 SWEATER
“Thirty years of providing the world’s finest wool to the fashion house Loro Piana has done almost nothing for the Indigenous people of the Peruvian Andes.” – Bloomberg

March 12, 2024
The Take: Why is Mexico City running out of water?
“Experts say the city of 21 million could run out of water in a matter of months.” – Aljazeera

March 9, 2024
The Obscene Energy Demands of A.I.
“How can the world reach net zero if it keeps inventing new ways to consume energy? if Google were to integrate generative A.I. into every search, its electricity use would rise to something like twenty-nine billion kilowatt-hours per year. This is more than is consumed by many countries, including Kenya, Guatemala, and Croatia. ‘I think we still don’t appreciate the energy needs of this technology,’ Altman said at a public appearance in Davos. He didn’t see how these needs could be met, he went on, ‘without a breakthrough.’ He added, ‘We need fusion or we need, like, radically cheaper solar plus storage, or something, at massive scale—like, a scale that no one is really planning for.'” – The New Yorker

March 8, 2024
The SEC’s new climate rules were a missed opportunity to accelerate corporate action
“Unfortunately, the federal agency watered down the regulations amid intense lobbying from business interests, undermining their ultimate effectiveness—and missing the best shot the US may have for some time at forcing companies to reckon with the rising dangers of a warming world.” – MIT Technology Review

March 1, 2024
More than a billion people obese worldwide, research suggests
“Global estimates published in The Lancet show: This includes about 880 million adults and 159 million children, according to 2022 data. The highest rates are in Tonga and American Samoa for women and American Samoa and Nauru for men, with some 70-80% of adults living with obesity. Out of some 190 countries, the UK ranks 55th highest for men and 87th for women.” – BBC

February 29, 2024
Texas wildfires cause chaos as largest blaze in state history scorches 1.2m acres
“Fueled by parched grasses, strong winds and abnormally warm temperatures, the fires have scorched more than 1.2 million acres since last Sunday, according to the Texas A&M forest service, leaving a desolate landscape of charred prairie, dead cattle and burned-out homes in their wake.” – The Guardian

February 26, 2024
New Research from Antarctica Affirms the Threat of the ‘Doomsday Glacier,’ but Funding to Keep Studying It Is Running Out
“In a worst case scenario, rising global temperatures and marine heatwaves could melt enough of the Thwaites Glacier and other Antarctic ice to raise sea levels 10 feet by the early 2100s.” – Inside Climate News

February 24, 2024
Barriers against Antarctic ice melt disappearing at the double
“Undersea anchors of ice that help prevent Antarctica’s land ice from slipping into the ocean are shrinking at more than twice the rate compared with 50 years ago, research shows. More than a third of these frozen moorings, known as pinning points, have decreased in size since the turn of the century, experts say. Further deterioration of pinning points, which hold in place the floating ice sheets that fortify Antarctica’s land ice, would accelerate the continent’s contribution to rising sea levels, scientists warn.” – ScienceDaily

February 22, 2024
Carbon emissions from the destruction of mangrove forests predicted to increase by 50,000% by the end of the century
“Mangroves in regions such as southern India, southeastern China, Singapore and eastern Australia are particularly affected…. Over the past 20 years, a substantial number of mangrove forests have been replaced by agriculture, aquaculture and urban land management, leading global mangrove carbon stocks to decline by 158.4 million tonnes — releasing the same level of carbon emissions as flying the entire US population from New York to London.” – ScienceDaily

February 22, 2024
Disasters Forced 2.5 Million Americans From Their Homes Last Year
“More than a third said they had experienced at least some food shortage in the first month after being displaced. More than half reported that they had interacted with someone who seemed to be trying to defraud them. And more than a third said they had been displaced for longer than a month. The United States experienced 28 disasters last year that each cost at least $1 billion. But until recently, the number of Americans displaced by those disasters has been hard to estimate because of the nation’s patchwork response system.” – The New York Times

February 18, 2024
World’s largest oil companies have made $281bn profit since invasion of Ukraine
“Global Witness says the five ‘super-majors’ are the ‘main winners of the war’ while many struggle to heat their homes. The world’s five largest listed oil companies have made profits of more than a quarter of a trillion dollars since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to dramatic increases in energy prices and household bills.” – The Guardian

February 12, 2024
Revealed: the 1,200 big methane leaks from waste dumps trashing the planet
“The huge leaks of the potent greenhouse gas will doom climate targets, experts say, but stemming them would rapidly reduce global heating…. Landfills emit methane when organic waste such as food scraps, wood, card, paper and garden waste decompose in the absence of oxygen. Methane, also called natural gas, traps 86 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over 20 years, making it a critical target for climate action. Scientists have said emissions from unmanaged landfills could double by 2050 as urban populations grow, blowing the chance of avoiding climate catastrophe.” – Guardian

February 9, 2024
Atlantic Ocean circulation nearing ‘devastating’ tipping point, study finds
“Collapse in system of currents that helps regulate global climate would be at such speed that adaptation would be impossible…. They found Amoc is already on track towards an abrupt shift, which has not happened for more than 10,000 years and would have dire implications for large parts of the world.” – The Guardian

February 8, 2024
Ice cores provide first documentation of rapid Antarctic ice loss in the past
The first direct evidence that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet shrunk suddenly and dramatically at the end of the Last Ice Age, around eight thousand years ago. The evidence, contained within an ice core, shows that in one location the ice sheet thinned by 450 metres — that’s more than the height of the Empire State Building — in just under 200 years. This is the first evidence anywhere in Antarctica for such a fast loss of ice. Scientists are worried that today’s rising temperatures might destabilize parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the future, potentially passing a tipping point and inducing a runaway collapse.” – ScienceDaily

January 30, 2024
‘Smoking gun proof’: fossil fuel industry knew of climate danger as early as 1954, documents show
“They contain smoking gun proof that by at least 1954, the fossil fuel industry was on notice about the potential for its products to disrupt Earth’s climate on a scale significant to human civilization,” said Geoffrey Supran, an expert in historic climate disinformation at the University of Miami. ‘These findings are a startling confirmation that big oil has had its finger on the pulse of academic climate science for 70 years – for twice my lifetime – and a reminder that it continues to do so to this day. They make a mockery of the oil industry’s denial of basic climate science decades later.’” – The Guardian

January 29, 2024
Move to sustainable food systems could bring $10tn benefits a year, study finds
“It found that existing food systems destroyed more value than they created due to hidden environmental and medical costs, in effect, borrowing from the future to take profits today. Food systems drive a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, putting the world on course for 2.7C of warming by the end of the century. This creates a vicious cycle, as higher temperatures bring more extreme weather and greater damage to harvests. Food insecurity also puts a burden on medical systems. The study predicted a business-as-usual approach would leave 640 million people underweight by 2050, while obesity would increase by 70%.” – The Guardian

January 28, 2024
With the World Stumbling Past 1.5 Degrees of Warming, Scientists Warn Climate Shocks Could Trigger Unrest and Authoritarian Backlash
“Most of the public seems unaware that global temperatures will soon push past the target to which the U.N. hoped to limit warming, but researchers see social and psychological crises brewing.” – Inside Climate News

January 25, 2024
Canada’s oil sands spew massive amounts of unmonitored polluting gases
“The sands release more of these pollution-causing gases than megacities such as Los Angeles, California, and about the same as the rest of Canada’s human-generated sources combined — including emissions from motor traffic and all other industries.” – Nature

January 24, 2024
Achieving sustainable urban growth on a global scale
“Urban areas contribute up to 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions. By 2050, urban areas globally will either double or triple, and the raw materials needed to build future cities is more than the world can sustainably provide…. ‘Our planet’s future is an urban future, and our systems of international administration must reflect that,’ the authors, Seto and co-authors Jessica Espey, Michael Keith, Susan Parnell, and Tim Schwanen, stated.” – ScienceDaily

January 24, 2024
Paper provides a clearer picture of severe hydro hazards
“Over the last two decades an estimated three billion people have been affected by water-related natural disasters such as droughts and floods. Climate change is expected to increase the frequency of these hydro hazards, with some prognosticators estimating there will be upwards of $3.7 trillion in water-related damage over the next 30 years in the U.S. alone. Beyond damaging homes and infrastructure, severe wet and dry spells will also devastate crops and deplete water reservoirs.” – ScienceDaily

January 22, 2024
2025: A Civilizational Tipping Point
“There is a growing body of evidence that the 2024–2030 period will present us with a critical juncture, upending a centuries-long era of economic growth. No, it will have nothing to do with climate change or novel viruses: those two will come somewhat later. Missing entirely from mainstream discourse there is a greatly overlooked side of our predicament, which will set a nice little ‘game of musical chairs’ in motion most probably around 2025. Fasten your seat belts, while you can.” – Medium

January 22, 2024
Ancient zombie viruses in melting permafrost could cause new pandemic, scientists warn
“The effects of disturbing millennia-old viruses could be ‘calamitous’, scientists warn…. ‘At the moment, analyses of pandemic threats focus on diseases that might emerge in southern regions and then spread north,’ Prof Claverie, of Aix-Marseille University in France, told the paper. ‘By contrast, little attention has been given to an outbreak that might emerge in the far north and then travel south – and that is an oversight, I believe.’… “Huge mining operations are being planned, and are going to drive vast holes into the deep permafrost to extract oil and ores,’ he said. ‘Those operations will release vast amounts of pathogens that still thrive there. Miners will walk in and breathe the viruses. The effects could be calamitous.’” – Independent

January 17, 2024
Melting Greenland Has Lost 1 Trillion Tons More Ice Than Thought
“The Greenland ice sheet, an expanse of frozen water about three times the size of Texas, is disappearing much faster than previously thought, according to new research, and the difference may already be affecting the distribution of heat around the world. The mass of ice lost between 1985 and 2022 has been underestimated by as much as 20%, or more than 1,000 gigatons (1 trillion metric tons).” – Bloomberg

January 17, 2024
Climate change isn’t producing expected increase in atmospheric moisture over dry regions
“The findings are particularly puzzling because climate models have been predicting that the atmosphere will become more moist, even over dry regions. If the atmosphere is drier than anticipated, arid and semi-arid regions may be even more vulnerable to future wildfires and extreme heat than projected.” – ScienceDaily

January 14, 2024
PR giant Edelman worked with Koch network, despite climate pledges
Move by world’s largest public relations company, uncovered by tax records, alarms climate advocates…. The PR giant has made numerous climate declarations over the past decade, including making a pledge to eschew projects promoting climate denial. Partnering with a part of the Koch network, which has long worked to sow climate doubt, calls those pledges into question, said Duncan Meisel, the executive director of Clean Creatives, a non-profit pushing creative agencies to cut ties with fossil fuel polluters. ‘A relationship with the Koch network … puts them totally out of step with their stated climate commitments,’ said Meisel.”  The Guardian

January 12, 2024
Earth boiled in 2023 — will it happen again in 2024?
“The final numbers are in, and 2023 is officially the hottest year on record — shattering previous records, as well as the expectations of many climate scientists. And researchers say that 2024 could be even worse.” – Nature

January 12, 2024
MIT Technology Review: The big story – The Atlantic’s vital currents could collapse. Scientists are racing to understand the dangers.
“If that happened, it would likely be a climate disaster. It could freeze the far north of Europe, driving down average winter temperatures by more than 10 °C. It might cut crop production and incomes across the continent as much of the land becomes cooler and drier. Sea levels could rise as much as a foot on the Eastern Seaboard, flooding homes and businesses up and down the coast. And the summer monsoons over major parts of Africa and Asia might weaken, raising the odds of droughts and famines that could leave untold numbers without adequate food or water. It would be a ‘global catastrophe,’ says Stefan Rahmstorf at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.” – MIT Technology Review

January 11, 2024
2023 was the hottest in 125,000 years. But it won’t be the last
“However, with warming trends predicted, it may turn out to be merely an average year rather than an anomaly.” – South China Morning Post

January 11, 2024
Oceans break heat records five years in a row
“The heat stored in the world’s oceans increased by the greatest margin ever in 2023…. Cheng Lijing, an oceanographer at the IAP and the lead author of the paper, says that the findings reflect the growing amount of human-generated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. ‘The oceans store 90% of the excess heat in the Earth’s system. As long as the level of greenhouse gases remains relatively high in the atmosphere, the oceans will keep absorbing energy, leading to the increase of the heat in the oceans.’  He calls ocean heat content a ‘particularly robust indicator’ of global climate change because it is much less affected by natural fluctuations in Earth’s system than are air temperatures and sea surface temperatures.” – Nature

January 11, 2024
Record heat in 2023 worsened global droughts, floods and wildfires
“Record heat across the world profoundly impacted the global water cycle in 2023, contributing to severe storms, floods, megadroughts and bushfires, new research shows.” – ScienceDaily

January 10, 2024
Bird flu confirmed among mass sub-Antarctic seal deaths as virus continues global spread
Marco Falchieri, a scientist in the UK Animal and Plant Health Agency’s (APHA) influenza and avian virology team said, ‘My worst fear is an adaptive mutation to mammals, which we are not seeing in these new samples, but we need to keep monitoring,’ he said. An adaptive mutation, he added, ‘could mean it becomes a mammalian-adapted virus, and consequently increases risk for humans too.'” – The Guardian

January 9, 2024
Emissions from Israel’s war in Gaza have ‘immense’ effect on climate catastrophe
“The planet-warming emissions generated during the first two months of the war in Gaza were greater than the annual carbon footprint of more than 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations, new research reveals. The vast majority (99%) of the 281,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂ equivalent) estimated to have been generated in the first 60 days following the 7 October Hamas attack can be attributed to Israel’s aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis by researchers in the UK and US.” – The Guardian

January 9, 2024
The climate costs of war and militaries can no longer be ignored
“More than 5% of global emissions are linked to conflict or militaries but countries continue to hide the true scale…. A proportion of those carbon costs come from military activities. For these, understanding is hampered by the longstanding culture of domestic environmental exceptionalism enjoyed by militaries, and how at the US’s insistence, this was translated into UN climate agreements.” – The Guardian

January 8, 2024
Global heating will pass 1.5C threshold this year, top ex-Nasa scientist says
“The internationally agreed threshold to prevent the Earth from spiraling into a new superheated era will be ‘passed for all practical purposes’ during 2024, the man known as the godfather of climate science has warned. James Hansen, the former Nasa scientist credited for alerting the world to the dangers of climate change in the 1980s, said that global heating caused by the burning of fossil fuels, amplified by the naturally reoccurring El Niño climatic event, will by May push temperatures to as much as 1.7C (3F) above the average experienced before industrialization.” – The Guardian

January 2, 2023
From NYC to DC and beyond, cities on the East Coast are sinking
“Major cities on the U.S. Atlantic coast are sinking, in some cases as much as 5 millimeters per year — a decline at the ocean’s edge that well outpaces global sea level rise, confirms new research. Particularly hard hit population centers such as New York City and Long Island, Baltimore, and Virginia Beach and Norfolk are seeing areas of rapid ‘subsidence,’ or sinking land, alongside more slowly sinking or relatively stable ground, increasing the risk to roadways, runways, building foundations, rail lines, and pipelines, according to a new study.” – ScienceDaily

January 2, 2023
Reducing Inequality Is Essential in Tackling Climate Crisis, Researchers Argue
“Promoting climate-friendly behaviors will be more successful in societies where everyone has the capacity: financially, physically, and time-wise, to make changes.” – ScienceDaily

January 1, 2023
Big five oil companies to reward shareholders with record payouts
“The world’s five largest listed oil companies are expected to reward their investors with record payouts of more than $100bn (£79bn) for 2023 against a backdrop of growing public outrage at fossil fuel profits.” – The Guardian