Blogging the End of the World™
By Hans Nicholas Jong 29 October 2017(Mongabay) – The wholesale destruction of rainforests across parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra island to make way for cash-crop plantations has not just devastated animal and plant biodiversity in the region, but may also be driving an alarming rise in temperatures on the ground, a new study suggests. Average temperatures […]
30 October 2017 (WMO) – Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surged at a record-breaking speed in 2016 to the highest level in 800 000 years, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. The abrupt changes in the atmosphere witnessed in the past 70 years are without precedent.Globally averaged concentrations of CO2 […]
By Patrick McGeehan and Winnie Hu 29 October 2017 (The New York Times) – At 8:30 p.m. on a Monday, millions of residents of the most man-made landscape in the United States were reminded how powerless they were against the forces of nature.Hurricane Sandy shoved the East River across the F.D.R. Drive onto the streets […]
By James Hansen 26 October 2017 (Earth Institute) – Frank Dentener, an editor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, in a recent note to me observed that Ice Melt, Sea Level Rise, and Superstorms[4], hereafter Ice Melt, was not highly cited or mainstream in climate impact discussions. He was concerned because he thought it important for […]
By Morgan Erickson-Davis 27 October 2017 (Mongabay) – A new study in PLOS ONE reveals a 76 percent reduction in Germany’s flying insect biomass over the past 27 years while another reports the country’s bird abundance has declined 15 percent in just over a decade. While the causes behind the insect decline haven’t yet been […]
By Karl Mathiesen 26 October 2017 (Climate Change News) – A UK shipping executive has turned on the industry for ignoring the effect lobbying has had on its efforts to reduce carbon pollution. In an op-ed published on the trade press site Splash 24/7 on Thursday, Andrew Craig-Bennett said industry mockery of a report released […]
By Diane Toomey 26 October 2017 (Yale Environment 360) – Psychiatrist and historian Robert Jay Lifton has delved deep into the some of the darkest issues and most traumatic events of the 20th century with his research into the mindset of Nazi doctors, terrorism, the experiences of prisoners of war, and the aftermath of nuclear […]
By Ed Crooks 26 October 2017 NEW YORK (Financial Times) – Companies from the technology and oil and gas industries have stepped into the debate over the future of the US electricity system, raising objections to the Trump administration’s plans for new rules to support coal-fired and nuclear power plants.Microsoft, Walmart, ExxonMobil, General Electric, and […]
By Jackie Wattles and Marilia Brocchetto 29 October 2017 (CNN) – Puerto Rico’s power authority is working to cancel a controversial contract it awarded to a small Montana-based utility company. Ricardo Ramos, the CEO of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, says he is “asking for a resolution” that would allow for the cancellation of […]
By Mythili Sampathkumar 24 October 2017 NEW YORK (The Independent) – An independent US government agency has said natural disasters have cost the country $350 billion in the last decade and that it is time for Donald Trump’s administration to address climate change before it starts costing the country more.The nonpartisan auditing agency Government Accountability […]