November 5, 2016 The Lesser Evil WHO WILL win the elections in the US in three days? I know for sure. No need to ask the public opinion polls, the modern equivalent of the Roman interpreters of animal entrails and the more modern readers of coffee grounds. The polls are no more exact. The winner will be the PLE – the Party of Lesser Evil. Or, in … Read more Uri Avnery on The Need to Vote, or, The Lesser Evil
Press release by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research 23/06/2016 (embargo expired) While some criticize the Paris climate target as impracticable, a team of scholars argues that it is – on the contrary – a triumph of realism. First, and most importantly, adhering to the Paris target of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius is necessary in view of the massive risks that unchecked climate change … Read more Controlled implosion of fossil industries and explosive renewables development can deliver on Paris
… on February 2nd 1916 in Zurich, Switzerland, the following announcement, written by Hugo Ball appeared in the local press: “The Cabaret Voltaire. Under this name a group of young artists and writers has formed with the object of becoming a center for artistic entertainment. In principle, the Cabaret will be run by artists, permanent guests, who, following their daily reunions, will give musical or literary performances. Young Zurich … Read more Dada to Daesh: 100 Years Ago Today…
Here the two concluding sections of J. Hansen et alii‘s paper: Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling, and modern observations that 2 ◦C global warming is highly dangerous. You can find the whole paper, footnotes, bibliography & figures here. (…) 7 The Anthropocene The Anthropocene (Crutzen and Stoermer, 2000), the era in which humans have contributed to global climate change, is usually assumed to … Read more James Hansen & Climate Danger in the ‘Hyper-Anthropocene’ Age
Press release by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research 08/12/2014 Weather extremes in the summer – such as the record heat wave in the United States that hit corn farmers and worsened wildfires in 2012 – have reached an exceptional number in the last ten years. Man-made global warming can explain a gradual increase in periods of severe heat, but the observed change in the magnitude and duration … Read more Trapped atmospheric waves triggered more weather extremes
Below the opening paragraphs of an article by BRIAN MERCHANT from motherboard. You can read the full piece here. August 1, 2014 // 02:50 PM EST This week, scientists made a disturbing discovery in the Arctic Ocean: They saw “vast methane plumes escaping from the seafloor,” as the Stockholm University put it in a release disclosing the observations. The plume of methane—a potent greenhouse gas that traps heat more powerfully than carbon dioxide, the chief driver … Read more If We Release a Small Fraction of Arctic Carbon, ‘We’re Fucked’: Climatologist
via the Audubon Society: April 20th marked the four-year anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This horrific accident killed 11 people and spilled over four million barrels of oil into the delicate ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico. The effect on bird populations in the area is just now being realized. This week, the New York Times reported on a peer-reviewed study that estimates … Read more BP Oil Spill: Four Years Later
Press release by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research 05/05/2014 Uncorking East Antarctica yields unstoppable sea-level rise The melting of a rather small ice volume on East Antarctica’s shore could trigger a persistent ice discharge into the ocean, resulting in unstoppable sea-level rise for thousands of years to come. This is shown in a study now published in Nature Climate Change by scientists from the Potsdam Institute for … Read more Toward Unstoppable Sea-Level Rise
An interesting, scary &, I believe, accurate article by Eric Holthaus on where we are at concerning global warming was just published by Quartz. Below, the opening paragraphs & the graph: So it’s come to this. Last year, a researcher presented a paper on climate change at the American Geophysical Union’s meeting entitled ”Is Earth F**ked?” which advocated “environmental direct action, resistance taken from outside the dominant culture, as in protests, blockades and sabotage … Read more The World in a Wheelchair
Press release by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research 17/12/2013 Climate change puts forty percent more people at risk of absolute water scarcity: study Relative change in water resources at 2°C of warming compared to present day. Color is percent change, color saturation is degree of agreement between models. (See below at right.) Water scarcity impacts people’s lives in many countries already today. Future population growth will increase … Read more Risk of Absolute Water Scarcity