By Edward Felsenthal 12 September 2019 (TIME) – This issue, if civilization can get its act together, might just mark a midpoint in TIME’s coverage of the biggest crisis facing our planet. Three decades ago—at a moment when much of the world was only beginning to wake up to the damage humanity had been wreaking […]
By Suzanne Ciechalski 15 September 2019 (NBC News) – A helicopter pilot volunteering in the Bahamas in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian was shocked to discover this week that an area full of debris from the storm was inhabited by up to 40 people. Justin Johnson, who owns Timberview Helicopters in Destin, Florida, with his […]
By Gayatri Suroyo and Jessica Damiana 11 September 2019 JAKARTA (Reuters) – Thousands of Indonesians prayed for rain in haze-hit towns on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo on Wednesday, as forest fires raged at the height of the dry season, the state Antara news agency reported. Fires have burnt through parts of Sumatra and […]
By Christopher C. Burt 10 September 2019 (Weather Underground) – Although 2800 miles of open ocean separate them, both Anchorage, Alaska and Honolulu, Hawaii experienced their warmest climatological summers (June-August) on record this year. It appears that this was Alaska’s second warmest summer (following that of 2004) but it is likely that it was Hawaii’s […]
By Damien Cave 9 September 2019 SYDNEY, Australia (The New York Times) – The conservationists who built the secluded Binna Burra Lodge in Australia’s lush mountains more than 80 years ago hoped to protect and share the natural beauty of the surrounding rainforest. But over the weekend, a bushfire destroyed the beloved getaway, one of […]
By Priscilla Alvarez 10 September 2019 WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Trump administration will not grant temporary protected status, a form of humanitarian relief, to Bahamians affected by Hurricane Dorian, according to an administration official. The source did not say when the decision was made, but President Donald Trump appeared to be at odds with one […]
By Sarah Sax 6 September 2019 (Mongabay) – As of 24 August 2019, there were 41,858 fires reported this year in the Brazilian Amazon — the highest number since 2010, when 58,476 were recorded by that date. Likewise, the U.S. space agency NASA has shown this to be the most active fire year for the region since 2010. However, […]
By J.D. Simkins 26 August 2019 (Navy Times) – When he took office as secretary of defense, retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis urged the armed forces to battle the effects of global climate change. The order by Mattis was backed by a slew of scientific studies — including those commissioned by the Pentagon — and […]
By Raymond Pierrehumbert 16 August 2019 (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) – Let’s get this on the table right away, without mincing words. With regard to the climate crisis, yes, it’s time to panic. We are in deep trouble. To understand why, it is necessary to understand something about carbon budgets. Some of the carbon […]
By Jonathan Franzen 8 September 2019 (The New Yorker) – “There is infinite hope,” Kafka tells us, “only not for us.” This is a fittingly mystical epigram from a writer whose characters strive for ostensibly reachable goals and, tragically or amusingly, never manage to get any closer to them. But it seems to me, in our […]
