Global fossil fuel subsidies hit record $5.2 trillion – Efficient pricing would lower global carbon emissions by 28 percent and fossil fuel air pollution deaths by 46 percent

By Nick Cunningham 12 May 2019 (OilPrice.com) – The world spent a staggering $4.7 trillion and $5.2 trillion on fossil fuel subsidies in 2015 and 2017, respectively, according to a new report [pdf] from the International Monetary Fund. That means that in 2017 the world spent a whopping 6.5 percent of global GDP just to subsidize the […]

Germany’s far-right AfD party turns on Swedish school-girl Greta Thunberg as it embraces climate denial

Germany’s far-right AfD party turns on Swedish school-girl Greta Thunberg as it embraces climate denial

By Kate Connolly 14 May 2019 BERLIN (The Guardian) – Germany’s rightwing populists are embracing climate change denial as the latest topic with which to boost their electoral support, teaming up with scientists who claim hysteria is driving the global warming debate and ridiculing the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg as “mentally challenged” and a fraud. The […]

The reason renewables can’t power modern civilization is because they were never meant to

The reason renewables can’t power modern civilization is because they were never meant to

By Michael Shellenberger 6 May 2019 (Forbes) – Over the last decade, journalists have held up Germany’s renewables energy transition, the Energiewende, as an environmental model for the world.  “Many poor countries, once intent on building coal-fired power plants to bring electricity to their people, are discussing whether they might leapfrog the fossil age and build […]

Civilization destroying nature at rate “unprecedented in human history” – Up to 1 million species threatened with extinction, many within decades

Civilization destroying nature at rate “unprecedented in human history” – Up to 1 million species threatened with extinction, many within decades

6 May 2019 (IPBES) – Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history — and the rate of species extinctions is accelerating, with grave impacts on people around the world now likely, warns a landmark new report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the summary of which was […]

Reducing air pollution may worsen droughts globally – “It’s mind boggling. There is a really clear signal of the effects of human greenhouse gases on the hydroclimate.”

By James Temple1 May 2019 (Technology Review) – Climate change is clearly making some regions wetter and others drier. But it’s been difficult for scientists to detect a clear, consistent human role in increasing the frequency and severity of global droughts given natural climate variability, regional differences, and limited data. A new report in Nature adds evidence […]

Battle of Waterloo Bridge: a week of Extinction Rebellion protests – “Are we the the last generation?”

By Matthew Taylor and Damien Gayle 20 April 2019 (The Guardian) – On Monday morning a strange sight appeared, edging its way through the buses, taxis and shoppers on Oxford Street in London. A bright pink boat, named Berta Cáceres after the murdered Honduran environmental activist, was being pulled carefully through the traffic, eventually coming […]

Interior Deptartment opens ethics investigation of its new chief, David Bernhardt, after seven complaints from “a wide assortment of complainants alleging various conflicts of interest and other violations”

By Coral Davenport 15 April 2019 WASHINGTON (The New York Times) – The Interior Department’s internal watchdog has opened an investigation into ethics complaints against the agency’s newly installed secretary, David Bernhardt. Mr. Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for the oil and agribusiness industries, was confirmed by the Senate last week to head the agency, which oversees […]

Washington, New York will fight Trump order boosting coal, oil projects – “We will not allow this or any presidential administration to block us from exercising our authority lawfully and effectively”

By Joel Connelly 11 April 2019 (SeattlePI) – President Donald Trump has signed an executive order designed to block states from using a provision of the Clean Water Act to delay or prevent big oil and coal projects such as a proposed coal export terminal in Longview on the Columbia River. The states of Washington […]

Children suffer most from deadly coal pollution in one of Earth’s most polluted cities – “I no longer know what a healthy lung sounds like”

By Beth Gardiner 26 March 2019 Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (National Geographic) – Coal is everywhere in Mongolia’s frigid capital. It sits beneath the towering smokestacks of power plants in piles as big as football fields. Drivers haul it through town in the open beds of pickup trucks. Vendors stack yellow bags of the stuff along roadsides, […]

In blow to climate, coal plants emitted more than ever in 2018 – “We are headed for disaster, and nobody seems to be able to slow things down”

By Chris Mooney and Brady Dennis 25 March 2019 (The Washington Post) – Global energy experts released grim findings Monday, saying that not only are planet-warming carbon-dioxide emissions still increasing, but the world’s growing thirst for energy has led to higher emissions from coal-fired power plants than ever before. Energy demand around the world grew […]

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