Policymakers are not adequately factoring land use and human diets into climate mitigation strategies – “The fundamental problem is that policymakers and researchers have not truly confronted the fact that global land area is limited”

4 January 2019 (Mongabay) – A recent study finds that governments and researchers routinely underestimate the potential for changes to land use and human diets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the impacts of global warming. Published in Nature last month, the research suggests that policymakers are not adequately accounting for the amount of […]

Jordan to drill fossil water wells a half-mile underground – “After this, we are out of chances”

By Linda Givetash1 January 2019 AMMAN, Jordan (NBC News) – For the past decade, Khawla Qisi has trapped herself at home on Fridays. It’s the only day of the week her apartment building receives water, and she has to make the most of it. “I can’t do anything else but focus on the water,” she […]

An Indian perspective on the Poland climate meeting: Not much help for the world’s poor and vulnerable

By Arun Agrawal 19 December 2018 (The Conversation) – The international climate change conference that concluded in Katowice, Poland on 15 December 2018 had limited ambitions and expectations – especially compared to the 2015 meeting that produced the Paris climate agreement. It will be remembered mainly for its delegates agreeing on a common “rulebook” to […]

Vanishing nutrients: 2 billion people worldwide suffer from “hidden hunger,” in which people are malnourished even though they consume enough calories

By Elena Suglia 10 December 2018 (Scientific American) – Is it possible to starve yourself of nutrients while simultaneously gaining weight? It turns out the answer is yes. According to a growing body of research, rising carbon dioxide levels are making our food less nutritious, robbing key crops of vitamins essential to human development.Studies have […]

Why California’s wildfires are so destructive, in five charts

By Christie Aschwanden, Anna Maria Barry-Jester, Maggie Koerth-Baker, and Ella Koeze 16 November 2018 (FiveThirtyEight) – The Camp Fire in Northern California has already been the most lethal and most destructive in state history, and it continues to burn. The death toll, currently at 63, is expected to grow — more than 600 people are […]

Global warming likely to increase frequency of extreme summer weather from “stuck” jet stream patterns

By Dr. Jeff Masters 2 November 2018 (Weather Underground) – During the summer of 2018, the future of climate change became the present. Highly amplified jet stream patterns that remained stuck in place for unusually long periods of time brought the planet a series of remarkable weather catastrophes—unprecedented heat waves in East Asia and Northern […]

Here’s where the post-apocalyptic water wars will be fought

By George Dvorsky 17 October 2018 (Gizmodo) – A United Nations report published last week said we have about a decade to get climate change under control, which—let’s be honest—isn’t likely to happen. So break out your goalie masks and harpoon guns, a Mad Max future awaits! Now, as new research points out, we even […]

Huge reduction in meat-eating essential to avoid climate breakdown – “Feeding a world population of 10 billion is possible, but only if we change the way we eat and the way we produce food”

By Damian Carrington 10 October 2018 (The Guardian) – Huge reductions in meat-eating are essential to avoid dangerous climate change, according to the most comprehensive analysis yet of the food system’s impact on the environment [pdf]. In western countries, beef consumption needs to fall by 90 percent and be replaced by five times more beans […]

Wetlands need to move inland in fight against global warming

13 September 2018 (University of Southampton) – A new global study involving researchers from the University of Southampton suggests coastal wetlands, such as those on the South Coast of England, can survive rising sea levels and continue to provide natural defence from flooding if they are able to migrate further inland.Coastal wetlands, which include saltmarshes, […]

Puerto Rico’s grim prognosis: The island may never recover from Hurricane Maria – “I am not hugely optimistic”

By Peter S. Green 21 September 2018 (CBS News) – A year after Hurricane Maria swept across Puerto Rico, leaving some 2,975 people dead and knocking the economy on its back, it is becoming increasingly clear that the U.S. territory may never fully recover from the storm.Puerto Rico was already insolvent before the 2017 storm, […]

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