16 April, 2015

World Set For Record Droughts By 2050, Say Scientists
By Alex Pashley

The planet could suffer unprecedented droughts before the middle of the century, researchers warned on April 15, 2015, urging prompt action in adapting reservoirs to receding water resources

01 April, 2015

Climate Crisis: Pledges Being Made, But Inadequate To Face The Crisis
By Countercurrents.org

Under the shadow of climate crisis, and ahead of this December's Paris climate summit the US joins EU, Mexico, Norway and Switzerland in making contribution to 2015 climate deal public. The deadline for submitting pledges was March 31, 2015. However, the pledges are inadequate, and are not compatible with holding warming below 2°C

31 March, 2015

Accountability Must Be At The Heart Of The Paris Climate Pact
By Harro van Asselt, Håkon Sælen and Pieter Pauw

Slowly but surely, the first climate pledges for the 2015 agreement – or, in UN-speak, Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) – have started to trickle in. Mexico and Norway were the latest countries to formally announce their pledges, with the United States and Russia also expected to submit their offers this week. Under the 2015 agreement, the hope is that INDCs will prove to be crucial instruments in preventing dangerous climate change. Yet a key element is still missing

Pakistan Shelves Six Coal-fired Power Projects
By Aamir Saeed

Pakistan has halted work on six coal-fired power projects of some 14,000 megawatts due to environmental concerns, lack of needed infrastructure and foreign investment

Surviving Climate Disaster In Africa's Sahel
By Thomas C. Mountain

After the droughts of 2003 and 2004 the government of Eritrea initiated a major water conservation plan that along with reforestation and soil conservation is a template for other countries to use to prepare for the climate catastrophe being predicted

29 March, 2015

Shell’s Climate Change Strategy: Narcissistic, Paranoid, And Psychopathic
By John Ashton

In an open letter to Shell’s Ben Van Beurden, the UK’s former top climate envoy says now is the time for him to show leadership

28 March, 2015

No Ban On Coal Finance As Green Climate Fund Eyes First Projects
By Megan Darby

The Green Climate Fund has not ruled out backing coal plants after a protracted three-day board meeting in Songdo, South Korea. Tense negotiations ended at 04 20 on Thursday with agreement on seven intermediaries to disburse funds for low carbon development and climate adaptation in poor countries

Two Degree Celsius Climate Change Target 'Utterly Inadequate
By Countercurrents.org

The official global target of a 2°C temperature rise is 'utterly inadequate' for protecting those at most risk from climate change, says a lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), writing a commentary in the open access journal Climate Change Responses. The commentary presents a rare inside-view of a two-day discussion at the Lima Conference of the Parties (COP) on the likely consequences of accepting an average global warming target of 2°C versus 1.5°C

25 March, 2015

Two Towns Face The Fallout As Himalayan Glaciers Melt
By Daniel Grossman

For two towns in northern India, melting glaciers have had very different impacts — one town has benefited from flowing streams and bountiful harvests; but the other has seen its water supplies dry up and now is being forced to relocate

24 March, 2015

What’s Going On In The North Atlantic?
By Stefan Rahmstorf

The North Atlantic between Newfoundland and Ireland is practically the only region of the world that has defied global warming and even cooled. Last winter there even was the coldest on record – while globally it was the hottest on record. Our recent study attributes this to a weakening of the Gulf Stream System, which is apparently unique in the last thousand years

21 March, 2015

Geoengineering May Backfire, Find Scientists
By Countercurrents.org

To combat global climate change caused by greenhouse gases, alternative energy sources and other types of environmental recourse actions are needed. There are proposals involving using vertical ocean pipes to move seawater to the surface from the depths in order to reap different potential climate benefits. But a new study from a group of Carnegie scientists determines that these types of pipes could actually increase global warming quite drastically. It is published in Environmental Research Letters

14 March, 2015

Feeding A Warmer, Riskier World
By Jose Graziano da Silva

Artificial meat. Indoor aquaculture. Vertical farms. Irrigation drones. Once in the realm of science fiction, these are now fact. Food production is going high-tech, at least in some places. But the vast majority of the world’s farmers still face that old, fundamental fact: Their crops, their very livelihoods, depend on how Mother Nature treats them. Over 80 percent of world agriculture today remains dependent on the rains, just as it did 10,000 years ago

13 March, 2015

Oil Demand Could Fall Without Climate Solution, Warns Shell
By Ed King

Demand for oil and gas could fall if major producers fail to find economically viable and publicly acceptable ways of cutting their climate-warming gas emissions, Shell has warned. The oil giant revealed its fears in its Strategic Report, released on March 12, 2015, telling investors that new climate change regulations “may result in project delays and higher costs.”

12 March, 2015

Climate Change Threatens Human Rights, Says Kiribati President
By Sebastien Duyck

Over the past two months, Geneva offered two opportunities for governments to deepen their understanding of the interplay between human rights and climate action. The coming months will now be critical to determine whether, through the UN climate body and the Human Rights Council, states are willing to commit to take steps towards ensuring that climate policies address climate change in a way that promotes human rights at the same time

11 March, 2015

Carbon Emissions Could Dramatically Increase Risk Of U.S. Megadroughts
By Steve Cole & Leslie McCarthy

Droughts in the US Southwest and Central Plains during the last half of this century could be drier and longer than drought conditions seen in those regions in the last 1,000 years, according to a new NASA study. The study, published [in February] in the journal Science Advances, is based on projections from several climate models, including one sponsored by NASA. The research found continued increases in human-produced greenhouse gas emissions drives up the risk of severe droughts in these regions

New Carbon Accounting Method Proposed
By Countercurrents.org

Consumption-based accounting, also known as carbon footprints, has been suggested as an alternative to today's production-based accounting. With carbon footprints, each country must account for all emissions that are caused by its final consumption -- regardless of where the goods were produced. This has been called a fairer way of measuring emissions, potentially avoiding so-called carbon leakage, where rich, developed countries can reduce their domestic emissions by shifting carbon-intensive production abroad

25 April, 2012

James Lovelock's Climate U-Turn
By Dr Andrew Glikson

It remains a mystery as to the nature of the evidence or reasons underlying James Lovelock's statement that he was 'alarmist' about climate change. Unfortunately, these statements are inconsistent with up-to-date climate data sets

03 April, 2012

The Deep Time Blueprints Of Anthropogenic Global Change (PDF)
By Andrew Glikson

“It is unthinkable that that a civilization which placed a man on the moon and explored the solar system cannot find the will to protect its own planet. No human tribal, national, religious faith or political system appears to be able to resolve the climate crisis, nor can the rationale of ongoing $trillions-scale wars around the globe, which can only culminate in nuclear war, amount to more than a suicide pact.”

02 April, 2012

Global Warming According To Scientific Projections
By Geert Jan van Oldenborgh & Rein Haarsma

1981 climate projection by Jim Hansen et al shows pretty good match with observations of past 30 years

Climate Denial - In Hindsight
By Bill Henderson

A speculative interview with Mitt Romney if he were elected President

27 March, 2012

It’s Probably Too Late To Stop Warming
By Christopher Mims

Scientists have been saying for a while that we have until between 2015 and 2020 to start radically reducing our carbon emissions, and what do you know: That deadline’s almost past! Crazy how these things sneak up on you while you’re squabbling about whether global warming is a religion. Also, our science got better in the meantime, so now we know that no matter what we do, we can say adios to the planet’s ice caps

Extremely Hot
By Stefan Rahmstorf & Dim Coumou

One claim frequently heard regarding extreme heat waves goes something like this: ”Since this heat wave broke the previous record by 5 °C, global warming can’t have much to do with it since that has been only 1 °C over the 20th century”. Here we explain why we find this logic doubly flawed

14 March, 2012

Why I Must Speak Out About Climate Change: James Hansen
By James Hansen

Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of his involvement in the science of and debate over global climate change. In doing so he outlines the overwhelming evidence that change is happening and why that makes him deeply worried about the future

13 March, 2012

Serious About Climate? Throw Out The Free-Market Playbook: Naomi Klein
By Solutions Journal

If you want to get serious about climate change, really serious, in line with the science, and you want to meet targets like 80 percent emissions cuts by midcentury in the developed world, then you need to be intervening strongly in the economy, and you can’t do it all with carbon markets and offsetting. You have to really seriously regulate corporations and invest in the public sector

04 March, 2012

Declining Arctic Sea Ice Affecting Winter Snowfall
By Jiping Liu, Judith A. Currya, Huijun Wangb, Mirong Songb & Radley M. Hortonc

The recent decline of Arctic sea ice has played a critical role in recent cold and snowy winters, concludes a new study

Climate Change Is Screwing Up Bird Migration
By Jess Zimmerman

According to UNC Chapel Hill researchers who just crunched 10 years’ worth of data, climate change is throwing bird migration patterns just a tiny bit off-kilter — and that small disruption could have major effects on the health of bird populations

Australian, Canadian & US Oil & Gas & Coal Threaten
Great Barrier Reef , Humanity & Biosphere
By Dr Gideon Polya

Australian, Canadian and US oil & gas developments, as well as existing huge coal exploitation, are threatening Humanity, the Great Barrier Reef of Australia and the Biosphere

02 March, 2012

Ocean Acidification Rate May Be Unprecedented
Press Release By Columbia Univeristy Earth Institute

The world’s oceans may be turning acidic faster today from human carbon emissions than they did during four major extinctions in the last 300 million years, when natural pulses of carbon sent global temperatures soaring, says a new study in Science. The study is the first of its kind to survey the geologic record for evidence of ocean acidification over this vast time period

Boom Goes The Reef
Australia's coal export boom and the industrialisation of the Great Barrier Reef.

Australia is on the verge of an unprecedented coal boom. The epicentre of this expansion is the yet to be developed Galilee Basin in Central Queensland. Galilee is the proposed site for a series of mega mines that will cause Australia’s coal exports to more than double within a decade. The creation of mega mines in Central Queensland, the accompanying export infrastructure and increases in shipping traffic, as well as the burning of the coal they produce, place an incredible burden on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef

23 February, 2012

Earth Is Losing Half A Trillion Tons Of Ice A Year
NASA Press Release

The total global ice mass lost from Greenland, Antarctica and Earth’s glaciers and ice caps during the study period was about 4.3 trillion tons (1,000 cubic miles), adding about 0.5 inches (12 millimeters) to global sea level. That’s enough ice to cover the United States 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) deep

14 February, 2012

Arctic Sea Ice Loss: Spectacular And Ominous
By Neven Acropolis

Novaya Zemlya, the large Russian island that divides the Barents and Kara seas, is completely ice-free. The same almost goes for Svalbard. It’s safe to safe that this is unprecedented ever since satellites started monitoring Arctic sea ice in 1979. Has the melt season started in the Barents and Kara Seas two months earlier than normal?

11 February, 2012

Teaching Climate Change To School Children
By Eugenie Scott

Imagine you’re a middle-school science teacher, and you get to the section of the course where you’re to talk about climate change. You mention the “C” words, and two students walk out of the class. Or you mention global warming and a hand shoots up. “Mrs. Brown! My dad says global warming is a hoax!” What should you do?

06 February, 2012

Don't Stay Silent About Our Climate Change Crime
By Bill Henderson

Seven to ten billion people are at risk of premature death in this hell on Earth we are creating with the unintended side effects of our present use of an extremely beneficial source of energy

05 January, 2012

Much Ado About Methane
By David Archer

There have been observations of bubbles emanating from the sea floor in the Arctic and off Norway. David Archer examines whether this will create significant changes in the climate system

Santorum vs. Romney: The Climate Is
Screwed Either Way
By Lisa Hymas

Rick Santorum, who surged at the last minute to give Mitt Romney a real run for his money in Tuesday's Iowa caucuses, is less green than his rival, and decidedly nuttier when it comes to climate change. But let's not split hairs here. Both men will staunchly defend fossil fuels, and neither is likely to do much of anything to fight global warming

22 December , 2011

Secrets From The Past Point To
Rapid Climate Change In The Future
By Patrick Lynch

New research into the Earth's paleoclimate history by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies director James Hansen suggests the potential for rapid climate changes this century, including multiple meters of sea level rise, if global warming is not abated

17 December , 2011

The Durban Package:
“Laisser Faire, Laisser Passer”
By Pablo Solón

In 2020 a new legal instrument will come into effect that will replace the Kyoto Protocol and will seriously impact the principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The result will be the deepening of the “Laisser Faire, laisser passer” regime inaugurated in Copenhagen, Cancun and Durban which will lead to an increase in temperature of more than 4°C

16 December , 2011

Why Is It So Easy To Save The Banks,
But So Hard To Save The Planet ?
By George Monbiot

Agreements to bail out banks happen in days – but despite some good progress at Durban, we still don't have a legally binding deal to bail out the planet

15 December , 2011

Methane Time Bomb In Arctic Seas:
Apocalypse Not
By Andrew C. Revkin

Scientists who track methane in the atmosphere in the Arctic and elsewhere around the planet see no big surge that can be pinned on such releases. Based on what we see in the atmosphere, there is no evidence of substantial increases in methane emissions from the Arctic in the past 20 years

14 December , 2011

Retreat Of Arctic Sea Ice Releases Plumes Of Methane: Climate Feedback Catastrophe?
By Steve Connor

Dramatic and unprecedented plumes of methane – a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide – have been seen bubbling to the surface of the Arctic Ocean by scientists undertaking an extensive survey of the region. The scale and volume of the methane release has astonished the head of the Russian research team who has been surveying the seabed of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf off northern Russia for nearly 20 years

How Not To Tackle Climate Change
And Call It A Success: The Durban Package
By Nele Marien

Climate scientists are advising us insistently: the world just has a few years to start acting on climate change, if not we may enter in an irreversible spiral of climate disaster. So the most urgent issue is to start acting NOW on real mitigation. Unfortunately, the Durban package doesn’t attend this at all. During the whole Durban negotiation, there hasn’t even been a real discussion on the issue

What Does Canada's Withdrawal
From Kyoto Protocol Mean?
By Adam Vaughan

Canada has shown that a legally binding deal does not guarantee countries won't walk away from their commitments

13 December , 2011

Canada Pulls Out Of Kyoto Protocol
By AlJazeera

Canada has pulled out of the Kyoto protocol on climate change, one day after an update was agreed on, saying the accord won't work

Canada's Exit From The Kyoto Protocol:
Selling Dirtiest Oil At All Cost
By Dr. Peter Custers

Vulnerable countries of the Global South have no other option than to join the choir of Canadian indigenous people and environmentalists who warn that any extraction of tar sands oil is off limits, i.e. should be stopped

The Top Five Takeaways From
The Durban Climate Talks
By David Roberts

The "remarkable" "landmark" agreement is less than meets the eye. The world is still on course to 4 degrees C (7.2 degrees F) and higher, i.e., disaster. Nonetheless, there has been an important shift in climate geopolitics

The Verdict On Durban – A Major Step Forward,
But Not For Ten Years
By Mark Lynas

Over the next decade we all have a lot of work to do; both in terms of designing the new system and getting on with the all-important business of real-world mitigation. Durban delivered that mandate, and there is no time to lose on implementing it

The Frog And The Polar Bear: The Real Reasons
Americans Aren’t Buying Climate Change
By Tony Davis

Most people think "It's the polar bear's problem, not mine -- and as long as it's not my problem, I frankly have more pressing things to worry about."

08 December , 2011

Declaration Of The Indigenous Peoples
Of The World To COP17
By IIPFCC

Statement to the United Nations climate change meeting (COP17), adopted by the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC), December 3, 2011, Durban, South Africa

24 November , 2011

Trends And Tipping Point In The Climate System:
Portents For The 21st Century
By Andrew Glikson

This paper examines deep-time perspectives of 20th to early 21st centuries trends in the atmosphere-ocean system with reference to future climate change projections

22 November , 2011

Rich Nations 'Give Up' On New Climate Treaty
Until 2020
By Fiona Harvey

Ahead of critical talks and despite pledge for new treaty by 2012, biggest economies privately admit likelihood of long delay

25 June , 2011

Oceans On Brink Of Catastrophe
By Michael McCarthy

The world's oceans are faced with an unprecedented loss of species comparable to the great mass extinctions of prehistory, according to the report, from a panel of leading marine scientists brought together in Oxford earlier this year by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

If The Sea Is In Trouble, We Are All In Trouble
By Sylvia Earle

The ocean is a living system that makes our lives possible. Even if you never see the ocean, your life depends on its existence. With every breath you take, every drop of water you drink, you are connected to the sea

The Oceans May Have Already Passed
Breaking Point
By Jean-Luc Solandt

For all of the points raised in the report, this isn’t a question of ‘conservation for conservation’s sake’, but a fundamental necessity for the continued provision of vital life support for the population, of human and other living beings, that inhabit our ‘blue planet’. The oceans may have already passed breaking point; if that’s the case, we would never know – with scientific precision – until it is too late

22 April , 2011

What’s With The Weather?
Is Climate Change To Blame?
By Alyson Kenward

One of the thorniest questions facing climate scientists is whether human-induced climate change is leading to more heat waves, floods, and extreme weather events. Now, employing increasingly sophisticated methods of studying weather extremes, climatologists say they are closer to answering that key question

08 March , 2011

State of the planetary life support system
By Dr Andrew Glikson

In contrast to the impression of gradual climate projections which may be obtained by IPCC projections (Figure 1), the spate of heat waves/fire, hurricanes and floods around the world, which doubled in frequency between 1980 and 2009 , manifests the response of the atmosphere-ocean system to increased radiative forcing by anthropogenic greenhouse gas, namely the over 320 billion tons carbon (GtC) emitted since the 18th century, more than 50 percent the original inventory of the atmosphere

21 February , 2011

Permafrost Melt Soon Irreversible
Without Major Fossil Fuel Cuts
By Stephen Leahy

Thawing permafrost is threatening to overwhelm attempts to keep the planet from getting too hot for human survival. Without major reductions in the use of fossil fuels, as much as two-thirds of the world's gigantic storehouse of frozen carbon could be released, a new study reported. That would push global temperatures several degrees higher, making large parts of the planet uninhabitable

07 February , 2011

The Shift In State Of The Atmosphere (PDF)
By Andrew Glikson

The release to the atmosphere and oceans of hundreds of billions of tons of carbon from fossil biospheres, at the rate of >2 ppm CO2 per year, is unprecedented in geological history of Earth, excepting events such as asteroid impacts which excavated and vaporized carbon-rich sediments, interfering with the carbon and oxygen cycles, which led to mass extinction of species

23 January , 2011

The Geological Dimension Of Climate Change(PDF)
By Andrew Glikson

The release to the atmosphere and oceans of hundreds of billions of tons of carbon from fossil biospheres, at the rate of >2 ppm CO2 per year, is unprecedented in geological history of Earth, excepting events such as asteroid impacts which excavated and vaporized carbon-rich sediments, interfering with the carbon and oxygen cycles, which led to mass extinction of species

19 January , 2011

Can We Trust Climate Models?
Increasingly, The Answer Is ‘Yes’
By Michael D. Lemonick

Forecasting what the Earth’s climate might look like a century from now has long presented a huge challenge to climate scientists. But better understanding of the climate system, improved observations of the current climate, and rapidly improving computing power are slowly leading to more reliable methods

Calculating The True Cost Of
Global Climate Change
By John Carey

Researchers disagree about what the economic costs of climate change will be over the coming decades. But the answer to that question is fundamental in deciding how urgent it is to take action to reduce emissions

14 January , 2011

Climate Change Could Happen Much Faster Than
Previously Thought
By Louise Gray

The US study predicted that if society continues burning fossil fuels at the current rate, atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide could rise from the current level of 390 parts per million (ppm) to 1,000 by the end of this century. The last time the world had such high levels of carbon dioxide temperatures were on average 29F(16C) above pre-industrial levels. Evidence has been found of crocodiles and palm trees at the Poles and only small mammals were able to survive

09 January , 2011

Forbes’ Rich List Of Nonsense
By Michael Tobis and Scott Mandia with input from Gavin Schmidt, Michael Mann, and Kevin Trenberth

While it is no longer surprising, it remains disheartening to see a blistering attack on climate science in the business press where thoughtful reviews of climate policy ought to be appearing. Of course, the underlying strategy is to pretend that no evidence that the climate is changing exists, so any effort to address climate change is a waste of resources

21 December , 2010

Extreme Cold In The UK Really Could Be
A Result Of Global Warming
By George Monbiot

Yes, the extreme cold in the UK right now really could be a result of global warming

Global Warming Could Cool Down
Northern Temperatures In Winter
By Science Daily

The overall warming of Earth's northern half could result in cold winters, new research shows. The shrinking of sea-ice in the eastern Arctic causes some regional heating of the lower levels of air -- which may lead to strong anomalies in atmospheric airstreams, triggering an overall cooling of the northern continents, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research

Iñupiaq People Ask: “Will We Be The Victims Of
The Next Oil Spill Disaster?”
By Harvard Ayers & Chie Sakakibara

Is our addiction to petroleum going to drive us Americans to deprive an ancient Native culture of North America, the Iñupiat, of their heart and soul? Are our Suburbans, our Yukons and our Hummers going to demand it? Our addiction has consequences

17 December , 2010

Climate Capitalism Wins At Cancún
By Patrick Bond

Patrick Bond, author of Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil Society: Negative Returns on South African Investments and director of the University of KwaZulu-Natal Center for Civil Society, assesses the outcome of the United Nations climate summit

Cancun Agreement Stripped Bare
By Bolivia's Dissent
By Nick Buxton

Bolivia's indefatigable negotiator, Pablo Solon, put it most cogently in the concluding plenary, when he said that the only way to assess whether the agreement had any 'clothes' was to see if it included firm commitments to reduce emissions and whether it was enough to prevent catastrophic climate change

16 December , 2010

Everything Is Negotiable, Except With Nature
By Bill McKibben

You can’t bargain about global warming with chemistry and physics

13 December , 2010

Where The Cancún Climate Conference Leaves Us
By Jan Lundberg

It sounds good enough, but is it good enough? It seems to me, far from Cancún, after looking at various reports on the conference , that the U.N. process was being cheered more than actual climate protection progress. I do not have much faith in agreements or intentions when corporatism and consumerism still rule

Bolivia Decries Adoption of Copenhagen Accord II
Without Consensus
Plurinational State of Bolivia / Press Release

The Plurinational State of Bolivia believes that the Cancun text is a hollow and false victory that was imposed without consensus, and its cost will be measured in human lives. History will judge harshly

Reading The Coca Leaves: Climate Change,
Cancun And Bolivia
By Medea Benjamin

If we are to avoid ecocide, we cannot rely on government officials meeting in plush golf resorts

The Climate Deal That Failed Us
By Shefali Sharma

It is a deal that will be remembered by our future generations as one that killed the climate treaty, unless we radically change course

09 December , 2010

China Can Slow Global Warming If The US Won’t
By James Hansen

In an op-ed, "Chinese Leadership Needed to Save Humanity," published in the South China Morning Post on November 3, I argue that China should impose a rising fee (tax) on carbon, for China's own sake and for the future of humanity

08 December , 2010

Cancun, Climate Change And WikiLeaks
By Amy Goodman

Critical negotiations are under way here in Cancun, under the auspices of the United Nations, to reverse human-induced global warming. This is the first major meeting since the failed Copenhagen summit last year. As we have just learned with the release of classified diplomatic cables from WikiLeaks, the United States, the largest polluter in the history of the planet, is engaged in what one journalist here called “a very, very dirty business.”

Losing Time, Not Buying Time
By Real Climate

Control of methane, soot, and other short-lived climate-forcing agents has often been described as a cheap way to "buy time" to get carbon dioxide emissions under control. But is it really?

Himalayan Glaciers Melting At Alarming Rates
By Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development

Concern for high-mountain regions of the world is rising, according to a new report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today, which states that the Himalayas and many other glaciers are melting quickly, threatening lives by flooding, and by reducing the region’s freshwater supply

New Study Puts The ‘hell’ In Hell And High Water
By Climateprogress.org

Must-read NCAR analysis warns we risk multiple, devastating global droughts even on moderate emissions path

03 December , 2010

After The Ruin Of The Mid–Terms,
Is There Hope From Down Under?
By Peter Boyer

The US mid–term elections brought the global climate campaign to its knees, but as November drew to a close we in Australia got the most promising signal for a long time that our own national leadership is beginning to take climate policy seriously. Is this real hope, or just clutching at straws as we sink into a bottomless quagmire?

Climate Inaction Conference
By Chris Williams

Chris Williams, author of Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis, explains what's at stake at the UN-sponsored climate change talks in Cancún

01 December , 2010

The Warming Of Antarctica: A Citadel Of Ice
Begins To Melt
By Fen Montaigne

The fringes of the coldest continent are starting to feel the heat, with the northern Antarctic Peninsula warming faster than virtually any place on Earth. These rapidly rising temperatures represent the first breach in the enormous frozen dome that holds 90 percent of the world’s ice

My Journey Into Kivalina v. ExxonMobil et al.
By Christine Shearer

In 2008, a small Inupiat village in Alaska sued ExxonMobil and 23 other fossil fuel companies including Peabody Energy and BP for contributing to the destruction of their homeland, and charged a smaller subset with deliberately creating a false debate around climate change science. You might have heard of the lawsuit—Kivalina v. ExxonMobil et al. The suit was framed by some as a David and Goliath story, with people wondering if it would be the first successful climate change claim

Climate Realism: Too Late For What?
By Eban Goodstein

In our lifetimes, it will never be too late to fight global warming. Every degree will matter. Over the coming years and decades, there will be no better fight, no victory that will more enrich the lives of countless human generations to follow, than to stabilize the climate

Mother Nature Is Not Fooled By Euphemisms
By Tim Murray

We can't fool Mother Nature at any time. She's not fooled by trendy green euphemisms or oxymorons. Call it economic development or sustainable development, but she has only one word for it---growth. All human activity is subject to her objective measure, and it will be registered as having an impact

30 November , 2010

Crop Failures And Drought Within Our
Children's Lifetimes
By Steve Connor

Children today are likely to reach old age in a world that is 4C warmer, where the 10,000-year certainties of the global climate can no longer be relied on, and widespread crop failures, drought, flooding and mass migration of the dispossessed become a part of everyday life

29 November , 2010

Cancún Opens For GREEN Business But REDD
Will Destroy Indigenous Forest Cultures
By Subhankar Banerjee

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) COP16 opens this week in Cancún, Mexico to discuss green business (November 29 – December 10, 2010). No one is expecting any global climate treaty to be signed at this conference. However there is hope that some progress could be made

Thankful For Polar Bear Habitat
But Shell Must Not Go There
By Subhankar Banerjee

Shell launched a massive ad campaign earlier this month. I’m sure somewhere you must have seen the Shell ad “Let’s Go.” I’d say “Let’s” instead make sure Shell doesn’t “Go” anywhere near the polar bear critical habitat

25 November , 2010

UN Issues Severe Climate Warning
Ahead Of Summit
By Michael McCarthy

The world is now firmly on the path for dangerous climate change in the coming century, a major new assessment reveals today on the eve of the forthcoming UN climate conference which opens next week in Mexico

15 November , 2010

Preserve Our Blue Planet
By Dr. James E. Hansen

Climate can be stabilized and the remarkable life on our planet can be preserved. But we must demand that governments serve the public and preserve our blue planet

STOP: Another One Hundred Years of
Fossil–Digging In North America?
By Subhankar Banerjee

Soon I’ll will tell you about five Godzilla–scale fossil–digging projects in North America that if approved will set us on a course to repeat our past with grave implications for the future of our planet. You may have already heard about some of these projects individually, but the urgency to stop them collectively is more than ever before

13 November , 2010

Building Climate Change Consensus:
Mann Vs McIntyre, For Example
By Bill Henderson

Climate change is but one of the global scale 'Bottleneck' problems threatening our continuing evolution. A science-process, controlled-access wiki could be a key tool in looking down the road, quantifying dangers, and acting with due diligence to future generations

04 November , 2010

A New Kind Of Crime Against Humanity?:
The Fossil Fuel Industry's Disinformation
Campaign On Climate Change
By Donald Brown

This post examines the question of whether some US companies are guilty of a new kind of crime against humanity that the world has yet to classify. This post is not meant to be a polemic but a call for serious engaged reflection about deeply irresponsible corporate-sponsored programs that have potentially profound harsh effects upon tens of millions of people living around the world, countless millions of future generations, and the ecological systems on which life depends. This post seeks to encourage further reflection on the issues discussed here

The Deal To Save The Natural World
Never Happened
By George Monbiot

The so-called summit in Japan won't stop anyone trashing the planet. Only economic risks seem to make governments act

Time To End War Against The Earth
By Vandana Shiva

When we think of wars in our times, our minds turn to Iraq and Afghanistan. But the bigger war is the war against the planet. This war has its roots in an economy that fails to respect ecological and ethical limits - limits to inequality, limits to injustice, limits to greed and economic concentration

Australia’s Hazardous Road To Climate Action
By Peter Boyer

Australia, the nation that gave birth to green politics is also among the planet’s top carbon polluters on a per–capita basis – on some measures even ahead of the United States

26 October , 2010

Growing Calls For Moratorium On
Climate Geoengineering
By Stephen Leahy

Delegates to the world summit on biodiversity here are calling for a moratorium on climate engineering research, like the idea of putting huge mirrors in outer space to reflect some of the sun's heating rays away from the planet

25 October , 2010

Seeing Red
By Real Climate

This is the first of two or more articles on the extensive tree mortality now being caused by bark beetles in western North America. The goal of this first post is simply to provide necessary background on the relevant biological/ecological processes involved, so that future articles discussing climatic and other possible influences, are more understandable

16 October , 2010

Growing Conflict Over Arctic Resources
And The Threat Of A Climate Catastrophe
By Dr. Peter Custers

The Moscow Forum on the Arctic seemed a rather surrealistic event. For the Arctic circle is the very region where the drama of the world’s climate catastrophe threatens being enacted. Two of the natural phenomena which scientists describe when speaking of ‘tipping points‘, of natural changes that in the future will speed up the pace of climate change, occur in the Arctic circle and its surroundings

12 October , 2010

On Climate Models, The Case For
Living With Uncertainty
By Fred Pearce

As climate science advances, predictions about the extent of future warming and its effects are likely to become less — not more — precise. That may make it more difficult to convince the public of the reality of climate change, but it hardly diminishes the urgency of taking action

05 October , 2010

Vulnerable Nations Could Take Industrialised Countries To Court, Say Lawyers
By Marianne de Nazareth

Climate-vulnerable developing nations could use international law to break the current deadlock in the intergovernmental negotiations on climate change by taking industrialised nations to court, says a paper published on 4th Octoberby the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development

Himalayas Unsettled By Melting Glaciers,
More Avalanches
By Bhuwan Sharma

Even making one’s way just up to Base Camp, which lies at an altitude of 5,380 metres, can already give one the dismal view of the devastation climate change is wreaking. Snow cover in the mountains is decreasing, crevasses are opening up in the glaciers. Avalanches (have been) occurring frequently (in) the past two years

India Says Is Now Third Highest Carbon Emitter
By Gopal Sharma

India's environment minister said on Monday the country could not have high economic growth and a rapid rise in carbon emissions now that the nation was the number three emitter after China and the United States

Youth Across North America Are Fighting
For Their Future Climate
By Subhankar Banerjee

Here are three stories about young people with a different perspective -- a teen rock band called One Eyed Rhyno from Sacramento, California; climate students from the North Cascades Institute in Sedrow-Woolley, Washington; and a bicyclist from the Yukon province in Canada

24 September, 2010

Global Warming Reaches Deep Ocean Depths
By Environment 360

The warming trend on the planet has reached deep into world oceans over the last two decades, particularly in the waters around Antarctica, according to a new study

23 September, 2010

The End Of The World As We Know It In 10 Years?
By Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed

While we may not be able to stop various catastrophes and collapse-processes from occurring, we still retain an unprecedented opportunity to envisage an alternative vision for a new, sustainable and equitable form of post-carbon civilization.The imperative now is for communities, activists, scholars and policymakers to initiate dialogue on the contours of this vision, and pathways to it

22 September, 2010

What The Zapatistas Can Teach Us
About The Climate Crisis
By Jeff Conant

While political forces have conspired to make the Zapatistas largely invisible both inside Mexico and internationally, their challenge has always been to propose a paradigm of development that is both just and self-sustaining. It seems fair, then, to see if Zapatismo can shed any light on the muddle of politics around the climate crisis. Can the poetic riddles of Zapatista spokesperson Subcomandante Marcos serve as signposts on the rough road toward just climate solutions?

21 September, 2010

Arctic Ice In Death Spiral
By Stephen Leahy

The carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels have melted the Arctic sea ice to its lowest volume since before the rise of human civilisation, dangerously upsetting the energy balance of the entire planet, climate scientists are reporting

Climate Change Enlightenment Was Fun
While It Lasted. But Now It's Dead
By George Monbiot

The collapse of the talks at Copenhagen took away all momentum for change and the lobbyists are back in control. So what next?

20 September, 2010

Climate Change Denial - Default Mode
By Bill Henderson

We have the expertise and technology to quantify how our actions today endanger future generations in a transparent and much more informing process - to do due diligence to future generations - but such a process would require present actors including governments and business to engage and supply relevant information and this is not in the present best interest of key actors and so we stay in default mode with only limitedly informed, speculative planning and little action. How evil is that? How stupid in the Age of Stupid?

14 September, 2010

Wake Up, Freak Out – Then Get A Grip
By wakeupfreakout.org

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip is a short, animated film about climate change by Leo Murray. It tells we are now dangerously close to the tipping point in the world's climate system; this is the point of no return, after which truly catastrophic changes become inevitable

Warmer And Warmer
By Realclimate.org

Consistent with widespread media reports of extreme heat and adverse impacts in various places, the latest results from ERA-Interim indicate that the average temperature over land areas of the extratropical northern hemisphere reached a new high in July 2010. May and June 2010 were also unusually warm

13 September, 2010

Climate Educators Wanted
By Subhankar Banerjee

We must acknowledge that our youth will have to deal with climate crimes (I’ve been framing the climate events as crimes and will write more on that topic in future stories) much more than what we're dealing with today. We must put in place the educational system now, so that today’s youth will be better equipped to fight for a liveable planet for themselves and for all other species with whom they’ll share this earth

We Need Your Ideas: A Call For Direct Action
In The Climate Movement
By Bill McKibben, Phil Radford & Becky Tarbotton

An open letter from the Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace USA, and 350.org: What will it take to finally get serious about climate change?

29 August, 2010

ClimateStoryTellers.org Launched
By Subhankar Banerjee

ClimateStoryTellers.org, a gathering place for stories on all things global warming has just been launched. We have wonderful activist groups like 350.org and others, we have great sites like Grist, ENN, and others for environmental news and opinions, no one place dedicated to climate stories. The objective is not to present just a story as a short news or opinion, but "in-depth", which means all stories will have a central focus perhaps a local issue, but it'll also explore the issues connection to regional, national and global relevance

28 August, 2010

How Much Proof Do The Global Warming
Deniers Need?
By Johann Hari

Everything the climate scientists said would happen - with their pesky graphs and studies and computers - is coming to pass. This is proving the hottest year eve

27 August, 2010

Could This Be A Crime? U.S. Climate Bill
Is Dead While So Much Life On Our Earth Continues To Perish
By Subhankar Banerjee

Global warming is a crisis: for all lands, for all oceans, for all rivers, for all forests, for all humans, for all birds, for all mammals, for all little creatures that we don’t see... for all life. We need stories and actions from every part of our earth. So far, global warming communications have primarily focused on scientific information. I strongly believe that to engage the public, we need all fields of the humanities. It is to this end that I founded ClimateStoryTellers.org

Rajendra Pachauri Innocent Of
Financial Misdealings But Smears Will Continue
By George Monbiot

A review of the IPCC chairman's financial relationships reveals a scrupulously honest man has been much maligned

Climate-Related Security Predictions Coming True
In Pakistan
By Matthew O. Berger

Analysts have been warning for several years that the impacts of climate change directly relate to the national security of the U.S. and other countries, but the link has never been so clear as it is today in northwest Pakistan

Beyond Oil: Activism And Politics
By Bill McKibben

Author and climate activist Bill McKibben on the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster

26 August, 2010

Am I An Activist For Caring About
My Grandchildren's Future? I Guess I Am
By James Hansen

Concerted action to tackle climate change will happen only if the public demands it for the sake of future generations

19 August, 2010

The "Other" Carbon Problem — Ocean Acidification
By Dave Cohen

Robert H. Byrne of the University of South Florida has shown that in just the past 15 years, acidity has increased 6 percent in the upper 100 meters of the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii to Alaska. Across the planet, the average pH of the ocean’s surface layer has declined 0.12 unit, to approximately 8.1, since the beginning of the industrial revolution.It equates to a 30 percent increase in acidity. Values of pH measure hydrogen ions (H+) in solution

13 August, 2010

17 Countries Experience Record Temperatures
By John Vidal

2010 is becoming the year of the heatwave, with record temperatures set in 17 countries. Record highs have occurred in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine – the three nations at the centre of the eastern European heatwave which has lasted for more than three weeks – but also African, Middle Eastern and Latin American countries

Climate Ostriches
By Erich Pica

Why Russia's and Pakistan's extreme weather Is about to become the norm

Global Warming: How Do We Move Forward?
By Joanne Poyourow

Global warming is not a standalone issue. At the same time as we are trying to decarbonize our entire society and cope with the erratic weather events of early climate change, we are simultaneously being hit with peak oil and economic contraction

Three Steps Toward A Politics Of Global Warming
By Bill McKibben

The Senate debacle taught us that making nice doesn’t work. So what’s next?

11 August, 2010

Greenland Ice Sheet Faces
'Tipping Point In 10 Years'
By Suzanne Goldenberg

Scientists warn that temperature rise of between 2C and 7C would cause ice to melt, resulting in 23ft rise in sea level

Russia's Fires Cause "Brown Cloud," May Hit Arctic
By Alister Doyle

Smoke from forest fires smothering Moscow adds to health problems of "brown clouds" from Asia to the Amazon and Russian soot may stoke global warming by hastening a thaw of Arctic ice, environmental experts say

10 August, 2010

Moscow Suffocates As Wildfires Continue Burning
By Andrea Peters

Heavy smoke caused by burning wildfires continues to blanket Moscow, forcing the city’s 11 million residents to don facemasks and cover windows with wet cloths in an effort to protect their lungs from the polluted air. The death rate in Russia’s capital nearly doubled in July, reported Chief of the Moscow Health Department Andrei Seltsovskii on Monday, with the city’s morgues close to full capacity. “On normal days, between 360 and 380 die. Now it’s around 700,” explained Seltsovskii.

Summer Reads
By Albert Bates

Until recently, many reports said global warming would be good for Russia, because the warmer climate would improve their agriculture. In 2010 the fields of burnt wheat disproved that theory. Who knew it would come down this way? That collapse would envelop us and we would still be, collectively speaking, as generally unaware of our peril as sheep being herded into the slaughter pen?

09 August, 2010

Runaway Climate Change Is Here
By Andrew Glikson

The spate of floods and fires around the globe are manifestations of runaway climate change

The End Of Prevention
By Kurt Cobb

For those alive today, we may be faced with something akin to dealing with a chronic disease. Fortunately, unlike actions aimed at prevention, there is no expiration date on our task. If we are at the end of prevention, then we might be fated simply to cope with the intractable problems of climate change and declining energy and resources

Political Platform For Klimaforum10
By Mexico's Grassroots
By Miguel Valencia

Preparations made for Klimaforum10, parallel to the United Nations COP-16 climate conference in Cancún, Nov. 25 - Dec. 10

There Is Progress But Focus Is The Key
For A Successful Cancun Outcome
By Marianne de Nazareth

According to UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres, governments meeting at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn (2 to 6 August) have made progress towards deciding the shape of a successful result at the November/December UN Climate Change Conference in Mexico, but now need to narrow down the many options for action on climate change presently under negotiation

08 August, 2010

Massive Ice Island Breaks Off Greenland Glacier
By Agence France-Presse

A massive ice island four times the size of Manhattan has broken off an iceberg in northwestern Greenland, a researcher at a U.S. university said

An Open Letter To All People And Organizations
Working To Combat Global Warming
By Jessica Bailey, K.C. Golden, Bracken Hendricks, Bill McKibben, Billy Parish, Vicky Rateau, Gus Speth, & Betsy Taylor

As we find ourselves surrounded by the tatters of the climate debate in the U.S. Congress, it seems fitting to take a moment to step back and ponder where we go from here

06 August, 2010

A Looming Oxygen Crisis And Its Impact
On World’s Oceans
By Carl Zimmer

As warming intensifies, scientists warn, the oxygen content of oceans across the planet could be more and more diminished, with serious consequences for the future of fish and other sea life. In some places, the oxygen is getting so scarce that fish and other animals cannot survive. They can either leave the oxygen-free waters or die. The Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium reported this week that this year’s so-called “dead zone” covers 7,722 square miles

05 August, 2010

We’re Hot As Hell And We’re Not Going
To Take It Any More
By Bill McKibben

Three Steps to establish a politics of Global Warming

03 August, 2010

How We Wrecked The Oceans — Part II
By Dave Cohen

An astonishing 40% of ocean's phytoplankton population has disappeared since 1950! The fewer microscopic plants there are living in the ocean surface waters, the less CO2 is drawn down from the atmosphere. Thus, the Earth's carbon cycle is being fundamentally altered, with uncertain but surely deleterious effects

01 August, 2010

Happy 35th Birthday, Global Warming!
By Real Climate

Global warming is turning 35! Not only has the current spate of global warming been going on for about 35 years now, but also the term “global warming” will have its 35th anniversary next week. On 8 August 1975, Wally Broecker published his paper “Are we on the brink of a pronounced global warming?” in the journal Science. That appears to be the first use of the term “global warming” in the scientific literature

25 July, 2010

The Oceans Are Coming
By Keith Farnish & Dmitry Orlov

This article is the first part of a three-part series, which considers the effect of global warming on ocean level rise, and examines life with constantly advancing seas from two perspectives: that of the landlubber and that of the seafarer

24 July, 2010

On The Death Of The Climate Bill
By David Roberts

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has officially announced that there will be no climate bill this year.What's happened is total and complete surrender. There's no silver lining in this cloud

The Failed Presidency Of Barack Obama, Part 1
By Joe Romm

Obama’s legacy — and indeed the legacy of all 21st century presidents, starting with George W. Bush — will be determined primarily by whether we avert catastrophic climate change. If not, then Obama — and all of us — will be seen as a failure, and rightfully so

An Evil Atmosphere Is Forming Around
Geoengineering
By Clive Hamilton

A powerful group of scientists, venture capitalists and conservative think tanks is coalescing around the idea of reproducing cooling effect by injecting sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere to counter climate change. Despite the enormity of what is being proposed - nothing less than seizing control of the climate - the public has been almost entirely excluded from the planning

19 July, 2010

June, April To June, And Year-To-Date
Global Temperatures Are Warmest On Record
By NOAA

Last month’s combined global land and ocean surface temperature made it the warmest June on record and the warmest on record averaged for any April-June and January-June periods, according to NOAA. Worldwide average land surface temperature was the warmest on record for June and the April-June period, and the second warmest on record for the year-to-date (January-June) period, behind 2007

Calling All Future-Eaters
By Chris Hedges

We sit passive and dumb as corporations and the leaders of industrialized nations ensure that climate change will accelerate to levels that could mean the extinction of our species. Homo sapiens, as the biologist Tim Flannery points out, are the "future-eaters."

11 July, 2010

Insidious Climate Change Denial:
Do You Have ICCD?
By Bill Henderson

This widespread denial keeps us telling ourselves carbon addict lies like putting a price on carbon or growing a green economy or clean coal or saving the planet by being a smart shopper as climate change solutions. For convenience I'll label this form of denial Insidious Climate Change Denial or ICCD

26 June, 2010

Climate Change And Social Justice:
Towards An Ecosocialist Perspective
By Asit Das

Only through an ecosocialist politics we can avoid the impending ecocatastrophe, thus saving the planet and human beings, argues Asit Das

13 June, 2010

A Climate Call From The Coast - Video
By The Fish Pond

This documentary film by KP Sasi is a call from coastal communities in Kerala state of south India, who are beginning to see the impacts of global warming and climate change at close quarters

11 June, 2010

Fixing Planet Earth: A Not-So-Modest Proposal
By Michael N. Nagler

Only a nonviolent revolution, like the one led by Gandhi, can meet the challenge of the climate crisis

14 May, 2010

16 Tips For Avoiding Climate Burnout
By Gillian Caldwell

Campaigning for action on climate change is emotionally demanding and challenging. These may tips may help you in your fight

Debt vs. Localization: Climate Justice
In The New Economy
By David Korten

Where does the concept of "climate debt" fit into a New Economy framework?

06 May, 2010

The End Of The Long Summer
By Sherry Boschert

It’s time for each of us to have a talk with our inner economist. If humanity is to survive the hardships that lie ahead due to climate change, we’ve got to abandon the now universal, but originally Western, ethos of economic growth. If we don’t abandon those notions and change the way our societies operate, we may face utter collapse. So argues veteran environmental journalist Dianne Dumanoski in The End of the Long Summer: Why We Must Remake Our Civilization to Survive on a Volatile Earth

05 May, 2010

Cochabamba Eyewitness:
A Great Boost To Ecosocialism
By Roger Rashi

I attended the alternative Climate Conference in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba as part of an eight-person Quebec activist delegation. I came back convinced that we witnessed a turning point in the global Climate Justice movement

04 May, 2010

Why Do Peak Oilers And Climate Changers
Not Get Along Better?
By David Roberts

I just find the sociocultural (and academic) interaction between peak oilers and climate types fascinating. You'd think it would be a natural alliance, but in practice it seems to tend more toward mutual disinterest or even hostility. What's up with that?

30 April, 2010

Sea Ice Loss Driving Arctic Warming Cycle,
Scientists Confirm
By David Adam

Study identifies cycle of ice loss and temperature rise that could see Arctic's icy cover disappear sooner than expected

23 April, 2010

Cochabamba Summit Calls For
International Climate Court
By Andres Schipani

Cochabamba conference closes with call for rich countries to halve greenhouse gas emissions and set up a court to punish climate crimes

Cochabamba Moots World Referendum
On Climate Change
By Franz Chávez

A world people's referendum on climate change will be held in April 2011 for the earth's peoples to decide how to address this global problem

A New Climate Movement In Bolivia
By Naomi Klein

Bolivia's climate summit has had moments of joy, levity and absurdity. Yet underneath it all, you can feel the emotion that provoked this gathering: rage against helplessness

The State Of The Earth, 2010
By Rebecca Solnit

We're in a very bad way. But we also know the solution would make most of us richer—even if not in the ways we are presently accustomed to counting as wealth

Every Day Ought To Be Earth Day
By Ann Lovejoy

No matter how dark the future looks from here, we cannot know what is really going to happen. Whatever you do, don't worry; it eats the spirit and diminishes our capacity to stretch and grow and live well. Bobby McFerrin was right; worry is wasteful, so don't worry, but do act and be happy. Let each of us live so that our lives are a light to the world and let us offer our loving service with a smile

From Globalization To Re-Localization
By Megan Quinn Bachman

By meeting our most essential needs closer to home our communities will be more resilient in the face of global economic and ecological shocks. Being more self-sufficient means we will be less dependent upon centralized, energy-intensive industrial infrastructure and energy-devouring long-distance transport

Why I Hate Earth Day II: The Road To Hell
In Baby Steps
By Sharon Astyk

A number of commenters to my previous post argued that I'm being unfair to Earth Day - of course, there's greenwashing. of course people are cashing in, but underlying the greenwashing, there's something good and serious and worthwhile there and I'm being churlish to deny it

21 April, 2010

Bolivian President Blames Capitalism
For Global Warming
By Environment News Service

Bolivian President Evo Morales said capitalism is to blame for global warming and the accelerated deterioration of the planetary ecosystem in a speech today opening an international conference on climate change and the "rights of Mother Earth."

Capitalism And Plastic No, Mother Earth
And Indigenous Products, Yes: Evo Morales
By Jan Lundberg

At the People's World Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, the consistent message is ecological, indigenous, communitarian and anti-corporate. The great majority of speakers sound radical and have the support of the thousands of attendees. The message is welcome at the top, in the person of Evo Morales, the indigenous Aymara former farmer and union organizer who is Bolivia's president

The World At 4 Degrees Celsius:
Last Call On Climate
By Andrew Glikson

A warning from the past and a blueprint for an emergency CO2 draw-down effort

17 April, 2010

Can Capitalism Fix The Climate?
By Simon Butler

Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. It has taken capitalism about 250 years to generate enough waste and pollution to press dangerously against nature’s limits. With such a damning record, there should be no grounds to expect a different outcome in the future. Yet the mainstream discussion about how to tackle the climate crisis still assumes that, this time around, capitalism can be made sustainable

Let's See Ourselves
By Gustavo Esteva with Juliette Beck

The fight against climate change has begun to reflect the colonial, top-down worldview that contributed to the problem in the first place. Mexican activist and storyteller Gustavo Esteva on a new vision—one that is radically bottom-up

16 April, 2010

People's Memorandum To The Government Of India
On The Cochabamba Climate Conference
By People’s Movements, Networks & Organisations

We demand the Government of India join the Cochabamba Climate Conference and meaningfully participate in it at the highest levels

15 April, 2010

Dispatch From China: Number 15
Has Left The Building
By Ramzy Baroud

To fight climate change the media should be reconsidering the entire business model. Those who are sincere in wanting to educate, engage and influence the public sphere need to first liberate themselves as far as possible from the controlling grip of corporations. Only then will they be able help us to act upon the challenges facing our world as a result of man-made environmental disasters

14 April, 2010

Can Cochabamba Pick Up
Where Copenhagen Failed?
By Sarah van Gelder

President Barack Obama's offshore drilling announcement is bad news for efforts to stop runaway climate change, especially following December's failed climate talks in Copenhagen. But there is hope — and a whole new approach — coming from an unusual gathering later this month. Representatives of 50 governments will meet with ordinary people and social movement leaders from around the world in Cochabamba, Bolivia, to work on solutions to what may be the biggest threat ever faced by humankind

Only 'Global Democracy' Can Prevent
'Climate Tragedy'
By John Vidal

Evo Morales says talks will give a voice to world's poorest and encourage governments to be ambitious after Copenhagen

03 April, 2010

James Lovelock's Climate Change Pessimism
Is Unhelpful
By Chris Huntingford

James Lovelock's argument that we ought to suspend democracy to fix climate change is less than constructive

We Can't Save The Planet: Lovelock
By BBC

Professor James Lovelock, the scientist who developed Gaia theory, has said it is too late to try and save the planet

29 March, 2010

James Lovelock: Humans Are Too Stupid
To Prevent Climate Change
By Leo Hickman

Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change from radically impacting on our lives over the coming decades. This is the stark conclusion of James Lovelock, the globally respected environmental thinker and independent scientist who developed the Gaia theory

28 March, 2010

Earth 'Entering New Age Of Geological Time'
By Murray Wardrop

Humans have wrought such vast and unprecedented changes on the planet that we may be ushering in a new period of geological history. The new epoch, called the Anthropocene - meaning new man - would be the first period of geological time shaped by the action of a single species. It is feared that the damage mankind has inflicted will lead to the sixth largest mass extinction in Earth's history with thousands of plants and animals being wiped out

A Confederacy Of (Climate) Dunces
By Tod Brilliant

Earlier this week, Greenpeace did the rational world a huge favor by compiling a great overview of the denial industry. “Dealing in Doubt: The Climate Denial Industry and Climate Science” is a brief but critical summary of the attacks on climate science, scientists and, most notably, the IPCC

25 March, 2010

Island Submerged In Bay of Bengal
By Aljazeera

A tiny island claimed for nearly 30 years by India and Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal has disappeared beneath the rising seas. What these two countries could not achieve from years of talking, has been resolved by global warming

18 March, 2010

Getting To Work In 2010
By Bill McKibben

Climate change action for 2010

11 March, 2010

UN To Review IPCC Report On Himalayan Glaciers
By Suzanne Goldenberg

The UN called in the world's top scientists today to review a report by its climate body, four months after public confidence in the science of global warming was shaken by the discovery of a mistake about the melting rates of Himalayan glaciers

10 March, 2010

China And India Endorse Copenhagen Climate Deal
By Matthias Williams

China and India joined almost all other major greenhouse gas emitters Tuesday in signing up to the climate accord struck in Copenhagen, boosting a deal strongly favored by the United States

Why Are Women Being Left Out Of
Climate Decision-Making?
By Elizabeth Becker & Suzanne Ehlers

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced an important new climate change financing group last week, but out of the 19 people named, no women were included. This is unfortunate because women will bear the brunt of the effects of climate change and are key to any climate solutions

06 March, 2010

Arctic Methane On The Move?
By Real Climate

Methane is like the radical wing of the carbon cycle, in today’s atmosphere a stronger greenhouse gas per molecule than CO2, and an atmospheric concentration that can change more quickly than CO2 can. There has been a lot of press coverage of a new paper in Science this week called “Extensive methane venting to the atmosphere from sediments of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf”, which comes on the heels of a handful of interrelated methane papers in the last year or so. Is now the time to get frightened?

Climate Change Science: Due Diligence
For Future Generations?
By Bill Henderson

What would constitute a due diligence process for quantifying climate change dangers, local and global, immediate and for the future? Is our present way of doing climate change science the best way of quantifying the climate change dangers?

01 March, 2010

U.N. To Create Science Panel To Review IPCC
By Sunanda Creagh

An independent board of scientists is to review the work of a U.N. climate panel, whose credibility came under attack after it published errors, a U.N. environment spokesman said on Friday

Marx's Ecology And The Ecological Revolution
By John Bellamy Foster Interviewed By Aleix Bombila

A critical Marxist approach, especially in our time, requires an ecological worldview, while a critical human ecology requires an anti-capitalist and ultimately socialist orientation (i.e., a Marxist one). In terms of united work that Marxists and ecologists can share, social justice and environmental sustainability: saving humanity and saving the earth. You can't expect to achieve one without the other, and neither is possible under the existing system

28 February, 2010

North-South Divide And Tackling Global Warning
By Helena Norberg-Hodge

As signs of climate instability increase, radical and rapid action is becoming ever more urgent. One of the biggest obstacles to global collaboration, however, has been the foot-dragging and obstructionism of the US government, much of it based on the fear of giving Southern economies a ‘competitive advantage’ if they are permitted to emit greenhouse gases at higher rates than the North. Yet even within the environmental movement there is no unanimity on this thorny question: should the countries of the South have the right to increase their emissions as they industrialize and ‘develop’?

27 February, 2010

Giant Iceberg Breaks Free From Antarctic
In Collision
By Steve Connor

An iceberg the size of Luxembourg has broken away from the Antarctic continent and is drifting towards an area of the Southern Ocean that plays a critical role in driving the world's ocean circulation – the global "conveyor belt" of circulating sea water

Climate Refugees, ‘Hotspot’ Case Study: Mexico
By Alexandra Deprez

Now that Chile has just been visited by a huge quake, the world has good cause to harbor grave apprehensions over a situation where no region is spared good grounds to fear the consequences of such phenomena. The second segment of this research document identifies Mexico as an environmentally-induced migration ‘hotspot,’ discusses development impacts in Latin America, and speculates on potential responses from Washington

26 February, 2010

Climate Migration In Latin America:
A Future ‘Flood of Refugees’ To The North?
By Alexandra Deprez

Relegated to less productive lands, small farmers in Latin America face undeniable economic hardships as their produce customarily has to compete against strongly subsidized American and European agricultural goods. The migratory pressures already in place due to these hardships will most likely be cemented by climate change, and the inequality in land distribution only further underscores the disproportionate influence it is bound to have on the poorer sectors of Latin American society

25 February, 2010

After Copenhagen: How Can We Move Forward?
By Tom Athanasiou

For all its complexity, the core of this problem can be stated simply enough: What kind of a climate transition would be fair enough to actually work?

The Attack On Climate-Change Science
By Bill McKibben

Why It’s the O.J. moment of the twenty-first century

22 February, 2010

Methane Levels May See 'Runaway' Rise
By Michael McCarthy

Atmospheric levels of methane, the greenhouse gas which is much more powerful than carbon dioxide, have risen significantly for the last three years running, scientists will disclose today – leading to fears that a major global-warming "feedback" is beginning to kick in

Bullying, Lies And The Rise Of
Right-Wing Climate Denial
By Prof. Clive Hamilton

Clive Hamilton tracks the progress of climate denialism in Australia. He reveals how it works, who organizes it, where the raw material that fuels it come from, how popular perceptions are diverging from scientific facts, and what the effects are on politics and public debate. He begins by exposing an ugly campaign of cyber-bullying directed at leading scientists

CO2 Mass Extinction Of Species And Climate Change
By Andrew Glikson

The release of more than 370 billion tons of carbon (GtC) from buried early biospheres, adding more than one half of the original carbon inventory of the atmosphere (~590 GtC), as well as the depletion of vegetation, have triggered a fundamental shift in the state of the atmosphere

17 February, 2010

Whatevergate
By Real Climate

Since the emails were released, and despite the fact that there is no evidence within them to support any of these claims of fraud and fabrication, the UK media has opened itself so wide to the spectrum of thought on climate that the GW hoaxers have now suddenly find themselves well within the mainstream. Nothing has changed the self-evidently ridiculousness of their arguments, but their presence at the media table has meant that the more reasonable critics seem far more centrist than they did a few months ago

16 February, 2010

Climate Change As A Major Geological Event
By Dr Andrew Glikson

Major mass extinctions in the history of Earth were related, among other factors, to runaway rise in the level of atmospheric CO2

15 February, 2010

IPCC Errors: Facts And Spin
By Real Climate

Currently, a few errors –and supposed errors– in the last IPCC report (“AR4″) are making the media rounds – together with a lot of distortion and professional spin by parties interested in discrediting climate science. Time for us to sort the wheat from the chaff: which of these putative errors are real, and which not? And what does it all mean, for the IPCC in particular, and for climate science more broadly?

Copenhagen Failed Us. What Do We Do Next?
By Nicholas C. Arguimbau

Is it hopeless? Apparently so if we are going to be dependent on the governments and the corporations. Yet in taking that position, we are putting aside an "inconvenient truth" - inconvenient because we might rather put responsibility on irresistible forces out there in the universe than on ourselves

14 February, 2010

Climate Science In The Spotlight
May Not Be Such A Bad Thing
By Dave Stainforth

The recent scandals demonstrate a wide misunderstanding of climate science, and of science more generally

Putting A Value On Nature Could Set Scene
For True Green Economy
By Pavan Sukhdev

Much environmental damage has been caused by the way we do business. Is there a way of changing our economic models from being part of the problem into part of the solution?

11 February, 2010

The Case For Climate Action Must Be Remade
From The Ground Upwards
By Ian Katz

With the science under siege and the politics in disarray, it may fall to civil society to keep this still crucial fight alive

10 February, 2010

Climate Scientists Hit Out At
'Sloppy' Melting Glaciers Error
By David Adam

Experts who worked on the IPCC report say the error by social and biological scientists has unfairly maligned their work

07 February, 2010

As Sea Level Rises So Does The Level Of
Climate Change Denial
By Andrew Glikson

Most of all those who criticise the IPCC ignore the fact that, to date, the IPCC reports have UNDERESTIMATED ice melt rates, sea level rise, feedback effects and the proximity of tipping points, not least the looming release of hundreds of GtC as methane from permafrost, lake sediments and bogs

06 February, 2010

Defusing The Methane Greenhouse Time Bomb
By Christopher Mims

Could methane-digesting bacteria and an Arctic cap of fresh water prevent a climate catastrophe?

Tibet Temperature 'Highest Since Records Began'
By Jonathan Watts

The roof of the world is heating up, according to a report today that said temperatures in Tibet soared last year to the highest level since records began. Adding to the fierce international debate about the impact of climate change on the Himalayas, the state-run China Daily noted that the average temperature in Tibet in 2009 was 5.9C, 1.5 degrees higher than "normal"

29 January,2010

Who Will Build The Ark?
By Mike Davis

The single most important cause of global warming—the urbanization of humanity—is also potentially the principal solution to the problem of human survival in the later twenty-first century. Left to the dismal politics of the present, of course, cities of poverty will almost certainly become the coffins of hope; but all the more reason that we must start thinking like Noah. Since most of history’s giant trees have already been cut down, a new Ark will have to be constructed out of the materials that a desperate humanity finds at hand in insurgent communities, pirate technologies, bootlegged media, rebel science and forgotten utopias

26 January,2010

World's Glaciers Continue To Melt At Historic Rates
By Juliette Jowit

Latest figures show the world's glaciers are continuing to melt so fast that many will disappear by the middle of this century

23 January, 2010

Climate Sceptics And The Himalayan Glacier Melt
By Marianne de Nazareth

A huge furore has erupted over whether the Himalayan glaciers are melting or not. Here is a rebuttal by Syed Iqbal Hasnain one of India’s foremost glaciologists from TERI who is now at the heart of the controversy

22 January, 2010

Last Decade Warmest Ever: NASA
By Agence France Presse

The past decade was the warmest ever on Earth, a new analysis of global surface temperatures released by NASA showed Thursday. The US space agency also found that 2009 was the second-warmest year on record since modern temperature measurements began in 1880. Last year was only a small fraction of a degree cooler than 2005, the warmest yet, putting 2009 in a virtual tie with the other hottest years, which have all occurred since 1998

A Mistake Over Himalayan Glaciers Should Not
Melt Our Priorities
By Bob Ward

Climate science has suffered another blow to its credibility after it was revealed that a claim by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that Himalayan glaciers will probably disappear altogether in the next 25 years was wrong. It is only a matter of time before the lobbyists who peddle climate change denial for their own political ends start to overstate the significance of this episode

19 January,2010

Anti-Whaling Australia Threatens Whales
By Global Warming
By Dr Gideon Polya

Australia leads the world in condemnation of the annual killing of 1,000 whales by the Japanese. However Australia is the world’s worst annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) polluter and man-made global warming with consequent loss of Antarctic sea ice is a major threat to declining krill stocks and hence to the whales that feed on krill

17 January, 2010

If It’s That Warm, How Come It’s So Damned Cold?
By James Hansen, Reto Ruedy, Makiko Sato & Ken Lo

The past year, 2009, tied as the second warmest year in the 130 years of global instrumental temperature records, in the surface temperature analysis of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). The Southern Hemisphere set a record as the warmest year for that half of the world. Global mean temperature, as shown in Figure 1a, was 0.57°C (1.0°F) warmer than climatology (the 1951-1980 base period). Southern Hemisphere mean temperature, as shown in Figure 1b, was 0.49°C (0.88°F) warmer than in the period of climatology

13 January, 2010

Invitation To the Peoples’ World Conference On
Climate Change And Mother Earth’s Rights
By Evo Morales Ayma

Invitation To the Peoples’ World Conference On Climate Change And Mother Earth’s Rights to be held from April 20-22, 2010 – Cochabamba, Bolivia

The Ends And Means Of Climate Change Mitigation
By Stephen Roblin

Confusion over the means and ends of radical left activism can be potentially fatal for the causes we strive to advance. And for the case of climate change mitigation, confusion can be fatal, literally speaking, for the human species. Given the potential opportunity to enact binding reductions in carbon emissions at the Conference of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Mexico next year, any confusion that plagues the Left must be lay to rest immediately in order to ensure we play our indispensable role in combating this threat

09 January, 2010

Overcoming The Copenhagen Failure
By Joseph E. Stiglitz

Pretty speeches can take you only so far. A month after the Copenhagen climate conference, it is clear that the world’s leaders were unable to translate rhetoric about global warming into action

The Meaning Of Copenhagen
By Richard Heinberg

Copenhagen was a watershed event. Climate change has become, in many people's minds, the central survival issue for our species, and the Copenhagen talks provided a pivotal moment for addressing that issue. The fact that the talks failed to produce a binding agreement is therefore of some significance

The Next Decade's Top Sustainability Trends
By Warren Karlenzig

What trends are likely the next ten years? One thing for sure, 2010 through 2019 will be one day looked at as 1.) the turning point for addressing climate change by using effective urban management strategies, or it will be remembered as 2.) the time when we collectively fumbled the Big Blue Ball

Fight Climate Change: Live The Good Life
By Colin Beavan

Low-carbon living isn’t a sacrifice. Colin Beavan says it’s the good life

08 January, 2010

Five Reasons To Be Hopeful About 2010
By Mike Gaworecki

Despite the epic failure of the UN climate summit in Copenhagen, I think there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful that 2010 will be a banner year for achieving new and lasting environmental protection. Here are the top 5 reasons why

 

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