This article in New York Magazine tells us that, unless we take “aggressive action”, our planet is headed for: Two degrees of warming used to be considered the threshold of catastrophe: tens of millions of climate refugees unleashed upon an unprepared world. Now two degrees is our goal, per the Paris climate accords, and experts …
Continue reading “What climate change could wreak, sooner than you think”
A new report forecasts that shocks to food production (reductions of 5%-7%) will be three times more likely by 2040, because of increases in extreme weather brought about by climate change. As a result, the position of people in developing countries will be “almost untenable” position, with the USA and UK “very much exposed” to …
Continue reading “Food production shocks ‘will happen more often because of extreme weather’”
Some people think we can keep extracting fossil fuels and later use some techno-fix to extract the carbon back out of the atmosphere. Researchers in Germany have found that even if we did that, the fact that the oceans absorb CO2, then transport it to the deep ocean, means that the oceans would stay …
For the record, it appears that ocean currents are destabilizing methane hydrates on the Arctic slope. The warmer the ocean gets, the more methane gets spewed out of those stores on the continental shelf, and the warmer the ocean gets, ad infinitum. There is an immense amount of carbon stored in the arctic. “It’s a giant number. But we …
Continue reading “Climatologist: If We Release a Small Fraction of Arctic Carbon, ‘We’re F*cked’”
For the record, new analysis shows that the number of wild animals on Earth has halved in the past 40 years. Creatures across land, rivers and the seas are being decimated as humans kill them for food in unsustainablenumbers, while polluting or destroying their habitats. “If half the animals died in London zoo next week …
Continue reading “Earth has lost half of its wildlife in the past 40 years”
Back in March the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its latest Working Group II report. The report predicted: food insecurity due to more intense droughts, floods, and heat waves a decline in crop yields starting in 2030, even as global food demand continues to rise water insecurity, due to shrinking of glaciers and changing …
Continue reading “UN’s IPCC: “climate change consequences ‘bleak’, but cheap to fix””
Here is Noam Chomsky speaking eloquently and briefly on current energy policy and its implications for the legacy of our generation for future generations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axdrh9F3Kqo
The IPCC has released its latest report on climate change. In summary: Climate change has already impacted natural and human systems on every continent. Climate change is also damaging global food production, cutting our supply of fresh drinking water, and damaging our infrastructure. Coastal flooding could reduce global economic production by 10 percent by the end of the century. And the widespread damage already …
Even the British Medical Journal is talking about climate change. “The IPCC has already concluded that it is ‘virtually certain that human influence has warmed the global climate system’ and … its new report outlines the future threats of… increased scarcity of food and fresh water; extreme weather events; rise in sea level; loss of …
Two stories here, one describing the problem, one addressing part of the solution. First, a new study by Nasa shows yet again that global industrial civilisation could collapse in coming decades, just as many previous empires and civilisations have done. Echoing Jared Diamond (TED talk here, synopsis here) they find the key factors driving the risk of …