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Bookshelf

The great climate silence: we are on the edge of the abyss but we ignore it

13th May 2017

Clive Hamilton writes: Our best scientists tell us insistently that a calamity is unfolding, that the life-support systems of the Earth are being damaged in ways that threaten our survival. Yet, faced with these facts, we carry on as usual. Most citizens ignore or downplay the warnings; many of our intellectuals indulge in wishful thinking….

Barkat Soomro

ALTERNATIVES

This 9-year-old is suing the Indian govt for not acting on climate change

5th May 2017

Ridhima Pandey, a 9-year-old from Uttarakhand, has filed a lawsuit against the Centre for failing to take action on climate change. Don’t be surprised, after all it’s her generation that’s going to inherit the earth with all the environmental problems left by ours, writes Meera Gopal, who is representing Ridhima before the National Green Tribunal….

Bookshelf

Nicholas Stern: Why are we waiting?

30th April 2017

In his new book, Why Are We Waiting? The Logic, Urgency and Promise of Tackling Climate Change, Nicholas Stern explains why, notwithstanding the great attractions of a new path, it’s been so difficult to tackle climate change. He makes a compelling case for climate action now and sets out the forms that action should take….

CLIMATE CRISIS

Watch: The top 10 countries in danger from future sea level rise

26th April 2017

From The Daily Conversation: This video shows the top 10 countries threatened by the 6 meter sea level rise we are almost guaranteed to see in the not-too-distant future, according to the projected pace of global warming and ice melt in Greenland and Antarctica. India is No. 3 on the list, and China No. 1….

Amit Dave/Reuters

CLIMATE CRISIS

Why increasing India’s solar energy capacity won’t work

23rd April 2017

From The Wire: The planned ten-fold increase in solar energy will add on an average only 20% of the total capacity, making little difference to India’s emissions. The government has not reduced its coal output targets and plans to raise coal output from the current 550 million tonnes to nearly a billion tonnes by 2022….

CLIMATE CRISIS

Why climate change is a ‘white swan’

Rupert Read writes: In financial parlance, a ‘black swan’ is a radically unexpected event. Ever-worsening man-made climate change (that is, barring a system change) is not a potential ‘black swan’ event. It’s a white swan, an expected event. It is, quite simply, completely what anyone with a basic understanding of the situation should now expect….

CLIMATE CRISIS

Analysis: Just four years left of the 1.5C carbon budget

18th April 2017

Carbon Brief reports: Four years of current emissions would be enough to blow what’s left of the carbon budget for a good chance of keeping global temperature rise to 1.5C. That’s the conclusion of this analysis, which brings the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s carbon budgets up to date to include global emissions in 2016….

CLIMATE CRISIS

Rupert Read: Why I had to tell my students that I fear for them

12th April 2017

Rupert Read, a philosophy professor at the University of East Anglia, UK, recently shocked his new 1st year students with a ‘welcoming address’ that dealt with the looming dangers of climate change. Watch the video or read the transcript of his speech below to know why Prof. Read chose to dwell on this unexpected subject….

CLIMATE CRISIS

Why India must heed the cracking of a Haryana-sized ice shelf in Antarctica

30th March 2017

In West Antarctica, a huge ice shelf called Larsen C has developed a rift 175 kilometres long and half-a-kilometre wide, which could soon set loose an iceberg the size of Haryana, at over 5,000 sq. km. We need to pay more attention because it could potentially gravely impact India in the near and long term….

CLIMATE CRISIS

Gail Tverberg: Twelve reasons why globalisation is a huge problem

24th March 2017

Globalization seems to be looked on as an unmitigated “good” by economists. Unfortunately, they miss the point that the world is finite. We don’t have infinite resources, or unlimited ability to handle excess pollution. So we’re setting up a “solution” that is at best temporary. Here’s why globalization is, in fact, a very major problem….

ALTERNATIVES

How renewable energy advocates are hurting the climate cause

19th March 2017

Paul McDivitt writes: Making wind and solar seem like they’re doing better than they really are could come back to bite proponents —and the climate. If people think we are about to replace fossil fuels with renewables, they will be less likely to demand new policies and take actions to lower their own carbon footprints….

Oil giant Exxon is facing an investigation for suppressing evidence of Climate Change in the late 1970s

CLIMATE CRISIS

Ben Chu: Financial markets are now betting against the future of the planet

8th March 2017

The Paris climate agreement was hailed by Al Gore as the moment when “the community of nations finally made the decision to act”. But there’s been no readjustment of energy stock prices since then. Indeed, the flotation of a tranche of Saudi oil giant Aramco, is expected to create the most valuable company on earth….

CLIMATE CRISIS

Watch: What oil giant Shell knew about climate change in 1991

The Guardian reports: The oil giant Shell issued a stark warning of the catastrophic risks of climate change more than a quarter of century ago in a prescient 1991 film that has been rediscovered. However, since then the multinational company has invested heavily in highly polluting oil reserves and also helped lobby against climate action….

Health/Safety

Darryl D’Monte: Does India’s refusal to tackle air pollution amount to genocide?

24th February 2017

There were 1.1 million premature deaths in India due to long-term exposure to pollutants. While China registered slightly higher figures, it has now acted against this hazard—the situation in India, in contrast, is getting worse. The highest number of premature deaths globally due to ozone is also in India. Might all this qualify as genocide?…

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….

CLIMATE CRISIS

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….

CLIMATE CRISIS

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….

CLIMATE CRISIS

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….

Health/Safety

Take a deep breath – here’s what 2016 revealed about the deadly dangers of air pollution

31st December 2016

Gary Haq writes: The health impacts of air pollution are well documented; but now, new evidence suggests a link between air pollution and dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, with exposure to poor air quality equivalent to passively smoking six cigarettes a day. Toxic air has been blamed for more road traffic crashes from pollutants distracting drivers….

ALTERNATIVES

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….