Miami’s mayor on Hurricane Irma: “If this isn’t climate change, I don’t know what is”

By David Smiley 8 September 2017 (Miami Herald) – Miami’s Republican mayor called on President Donald Trump and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency Friday to acknowledge that climate change is playing a role in the extreme weather that has slammed his city and the continental U.S. this summer. Speaking from Miami’s Emergency Operations […]

Will Hurricane Irma finally change the way we talk about climate?

By David Wallace-Wells 9 September 2017 (New York Magazine) – For decades, a kind of market logic has governed the way we talk about global warming, emanating from the moderate right: Climate change may well be real, the Chamber of Commerce types say, but the need for economic growth is much more urgent and climate […]

Forests west of the Cascades will see more fires, bigger fires with global warming

By Hal Bernton 9 September 2017 BEACON ROCK STATE PARK, Skamania County (The Seattle Times) – As night fell last Monday in the Columbia River Gorge, the Oregon slopes burned as if carpet-bombed from above. Winds acted like bellows in a hearth to supercharge the flames spread by embers flying from ridge to ridge. Stands […]

People save manatees marooned in drained Florida bay after Hurricane Irma sucked the water out of Sarasota Bay

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, 10 September 2017 (Associated Press) – Two manatees were stranded after Hurricane Irma sucked the water out of Sarasota Bay, in Florida’s Manatee County. Several people posted photos of the mammals on Facebook Sunday, hoping rescue workers or wildlife officials would respond. Michael Sechler posted that the animals were far too massive […]

Virgin Islands stagger after Hurricane Irma passes – “People are roaming like zombies”

By Anthony Faiola 10 September 2017 PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (The Washington Post) – The storm-stricken Caribbean took on the feel of a sprawling disaster zone Sunday, with Cuban first responders using inflatable rafts to navigate flooded streets as panicked families sent up social-media pleas in search of loved ones on hard-hit islands further east.In St. John […]

Trump stacks administration with climate change denialists – “It’s much more naked and right-wing than what we’ve seen before”

By Devin Henry 9 September 2017 (The Hill) – President Trump has stacked his administration with officials who doubt the scientific consensus behind man-made climate change, underscoring a growing divide within the Republican party. Even as leading scientists, environmentalists and most Democrats accept research that shows climate change accelerating — and as some see it […]

Desmond Tutu urges Aung San Suu Kyi to speak out on “genocide” in Burma as she continues to stay silent on the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in her country

8 September 2017 (Daily Mail) – Anti-Apartheid campaigner Desmond Tutu has condemned Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi for her silence on the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in her country. Critics have accused the Burmese leader – and Nobel peace prize winner – of turning a blind eye to the violent persecution of Rohingya Muslims. The […]

Has global warming intensified 2017’s wildfires in the U.S. West? “When we remember that the relationship between temperature and fire is exponential, we’re really talking about a very different western United States in 50 years”

By Robinson Meyer  7 September 2017 (The Atlantic) – This wasn’t supposed to be a bad year for Western wildfires.Last winter, a weak La Niña bloomed across the Pacific. It sent flume after flume of rain to North America and irrigated half the continent. Water penetrated deep into the soil of Western forests, and mammoth […]

Global shift in Marine Protected Area analysis and reporting

7 September 2017 (IUCN) – The UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and IUCN have launched the Marine Protected Planet Interactive – the world’s most authoritative and ambitious platform for information about ocean protection. As of September 2017, Marine Protected Areas cover 6.35% of the ocean.Several large-scale Marine Protected Areas have been announced in […]

Hurricanes Irma, Harvey to cast pall over U.S. economy for months and even years

By Jeffry Bartash 9 September 2017 (MarketWatch) – Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have upended the lives of millions of Americans, but the aftereffects will also linger in much smaller way for those entrusted with keeping the U.S. economy safe and sound. The storms caused tremendous damage, forced thousands of businesses to close and compelled millions […]

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