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CLIMATE CRISIS

CLIMATE CRISIS

Man points camera at ice – then captures the unimaginable on film

20th February 2017

Newsner reports: During a National Geographic-commissioned photo expedition to the Arctic, photographer James Balog and his team were examining a glacier when their cameras caught something out of the ordinary. This rare footage has gone on record as the largest glacier calving event ever captured on film, and presents a dire warning of things to come….

The trajectory of the Anthropocene: The Great Acceleration

17th February 2017

The Great Acceleration marks the phenomenal growth of the global socio-economic system, the human part of the Earth System. It is difficult to overestimate the scale and speed of change. In little over two generations –or a single lifetime –humanity (or until very recently a small fraction of it) has become a planetary-scale geological force….

People’s Climate, 2014

So you want to be a climate campaigner? Here’s how

7th February 2017

The planet is getting hotter, leaving people hungry and fuelling wars around the world and you want to do something about it. But with a green movement to cater for every age, location, and type of plastic recycling, how to turn your enthusiasm into action? Maeve Shearlaw’s tips for getting started as a climate activist….

How the world passed a carbon threshold and why it matters

2nd February 2017

Yale Environment 360 reports: Last year marked the first time in several million years that atmospheric concentrations of CO2 passed 400 parts per million. Frighteningly, this modern rise of CO2 is also accelerating at an unusual rate. By looking at the Earth’s climate history, scientists are getting a sobering picture of where we are headed….

Sea level rise has washed away more than 50% of Ghoramara island, Sunderbans

Daesung Lee

Women bear the brunt of climate-forced migration

29th January 2017

Manipadma Jena reports: An ActionAid report released last month warns of the devastating and increasing impact of climate change on women in South Asia, stating how “Young females from neighbouring Nepal and Bangladesh who migrate to India as well as internal migrants from rural areas moving to cities are increasingly vulnerable to abuse and trafficking.”…

2014 was hottest year ever recorded. Then it was 2015. Now it’s 2016.

23rd January 2017

Common Dreams reports: For the third year in a row, the world experienced its warmest year ever recorded. In 2016, a total of 22 nations set all-time records for their hottest ever temperatures. This breaks the record of eighteen all-time heat records in 2010 for the greatest number of such records set in one year….

Just 90 companies caused two-thirds of man-made global warming emissions

11th January 2017

Suzanne Goldenberg reports: The climate crisis of the 21st century has been caused largely by just 90 companies, which between them produced nearly two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions generated since the dawning of the industrial age, new research suggests. They range from investor-owned firms –household names such as Exxon and BP– to state-owned firms….

John Michael Greer: A sneak preview of the year 2017

9th January 2017

As 2017 dawns, in a great many ways, modern industrial civilization has flung itself forward into a darkness where no stars offer guidance and no echoes tell what lies ahead… We’re not discussing the end of the world; events like those that can be found repeated many times in the histories of other failing civilizations….

The 10 most important climate change trends of 2016

1st January 2017

Brian Kahn writes: This year is likely to remembered as a turning point for climate change, with world leaders agreeing to move toward a clean energy future. It’s clear 2016 was a year where planetary peril and human hope stood out in stark contrast. Here are the 10 most important climate milestones of the year….

Study: 47 of 68 fish species in India under threat

22nd December 2016

More fish species on the east coast, especially in the waters off Odisha and West Bengal, are highly vulnerable to climate change, according to a first of its kind assessment by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI). That vulnerability stems not only from changes in climate but also from fishing pressure and lower productivity….

New study says solar panels have repaid their fossil fuel debt

19th December 2016

Phys.org reports: The climate friendly electricity generated by solar panels in the past 40 years has all but cancelled out the polluting energy used to produce them, a study said Tuesday. Indeed, by some calculations, the so-called “break-even point” between dirty energy input and clean output may already have arrived, researchers in the Netherlands reported….

Watch: 10 extraordinary timelapse videos show earth’s transformation in 30 years

18th December 2016

Scroll.in reports: These timelapse videos were created with images of Landsat Satellite showing massive global transformations from 1984 to 2012 via Google Earth. Timelapse events include transformations such as the coastal expansion of Dubai, the retreat of the Columbia Glacier in Alaska, Saudi Arabian desert, Amazonian forest land in Brazil and Las Vegas urban growth….

Representative pic

Unnatural disasters: how we can spot climate’s role in specific extreme events

15th December 2016

Sophie Lewis writes: We often hear people saying it’s impossible to attribute any single weather event to climate change. While this may have been true in the 1990s, the science of linking extreme events to global warming has advanced significantly since then. However, how we communicate these findings has not kept pace with the science….

How climate change is hitting India

11th December 2016

The National Geographic reports: Arunabha Ghosh, chief executive officer of India’s Council on Energy, Environment and Water, an environmental group, estimated that natural disasters exacerbated by climate change cost the Indian government roughly $30 billion (US dollars) between 2010 and 2015. That number will likely rise along with the global temperature, according to his research….

47 of the world’s poorest countries are aiming to hit 100% renewable energy

7th December 2016

As the world’s leading superpowers struggle to make the transition from fossil-based energy systems, 47 of the world’s poorest nations have pledged to skip fossil fuels altogether and jump straight to using 100 percent renewable energy instead. The ambitious goal was laid out during the final day of the UN Climate Change Conference in Morocco….

Scientists say a long feared climate ‘feedback’ is now happening

6th December 2016

The Washington Post reports: In a massive new study published in the influential journal Nature, more than 50 authors from around the world document a so-called climate system “feedback” that, they say, could make global warming considerably worse over the coming decades. That feedback involves the planet’s soils, which are a massive repository of carbon….

The hydropower paradox: is this energy as clean as it seems?

25th November 2016

Hydropower is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions: a new study shows that the world’s hydroelectric dams are responsible for as much methane emissions as Canada. The study finds that methane, which is at least 34 times more potent than carbon dioxide, makes up 80% of the emissions from water reservoirs created by dams….

Trump or no, climate change action will take a beating from long-term economic forces anyway

15th November 2016

Nagraj Adve writes: In any economy primed to continuously expand, technological improvements alone can only help so much. While being stunned by Trump’s victory, let’s neither underestimate nor render invisible the inherent, long-term economic tendencies that prevent greenhouse-gas emissions worldwide from declining as the science demands they should. In fact, they may well rise again….

Flashback: On global warming

7th November 2016

On the eve of the American presidential election, where the two leading candidates offer little hope for climate action, it’s worth revisiting this hard-hitting 2006 article by Chad Harbach, who warned, “(Other countries) will do nothing until the United States demonstrates that a grand-scale transition to renewable energy can be achieved by big industrial countries.”…

The hidden casteism of climate change reporting in India

3rd November 2016

Pranav Prakash quotes a journalist from The Hindu: “What passes for environmental journalism in India is often bourgeoisie environmentalism, unfortunately. Air pollution in cities matter, while 300 million Indians who cook in crammed, dark, smoke-filled kitchens don’t matter. Ultimately, it’s a question of representation. Whose concerns are addressed or aired depends on who is speaking.”…