Humanity is on a “highway to climate hell”, the UN secretary general has warned, saying the fight for a liveable planet will be won or lost in this decade. António Guterres told world leaders at the opening of the Cop27 UN climate summit in Egypt on Monday: “We are in the fight of our lives and we… Read More World is on ‘highway to climate hell’, UN chief warns at Cop27 summit
Cassie Dummett Villagers in the Congo basin rely on the forest for food, medicine and spiritual wellbeing, but an auction of exploration rights could threaten that way of life West accused of double standards over oil and gas exploration in DRC “I have lived all my life in the forest; everything I do is in… Read More Sale of oil and gas permits casts shadow over world’s second-largest rainforest
Fiona Harvey The top 1% of earners in the UK are responsible for the same amount of carbon dioxide emissions in a single year as the bottom 10% over more than two decades, new data has shown. The findings highlight the enormous gaps between what have been termed “the polluting elite”, whose high-carbon lifestyles fuel the… Read More Polluting elites
(Translated from Portuguese) “No one is interested in living in a divided country, in a permanent state of war“ “Now, let’s fight for zero deforestation of the Amazon. Brazil and the planet need a living Amazon” “When an Indigenous child is murdered by the greed of the exploiters of the environment, a part of humanity… Read More Victory Speech of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party, President-Elect of Brazil
First posted January 2, 2019 NB: Two things arise from these and related developments for us to think about: 1./ The nation-state as an institution is detrimental for the health of the environment. Environment and ecological issues are global, but nationalism makes us think that natural resources like clean air, water and forests are somehow the… Read More Jair Bolsonaro’s assault on the Amazon rainforest
Deni Farm, owner Edilson Pereira Duarte”; “Mato Grosso Farm, owner Vanderlei Martins de Oliveira”. These two signs, incorporating the Brazilian flag, are nailed to trees on either side of the road leading to Kapot village, in the Capoto/Jarina Indigenous Land, northern Mato Grosso state. A barrier spans the road leading into Kapot. Drivers must get… Read More Brazil’s Indigenous peoples mobilise against encroachment on their lands
As the private transportation sector shifts focus to batteries, biofuels, and green hydrogen, fossil fuel stakeholders have been seeking new avenues of revenue in the petrochemical industry in general, and in plastics in particular. That’s bad news for a world already swimming – literally – in plastic pollution. Product manufacturers and other upstream forces could reverse… Read More 600 million metric tons of plastic may fill Earth’s oceans by 2036 without immediate action
JUAN COLE A mere category 1 hurricane dumped so much water on Puerto Rico so quickly that one of its rivers has swollen to 25 feet above normal, even more than it rose during Hurricane Maria in 2017, which was a Category 5 hurricane. The island is beset by flash floods, and is getting 16-30 inches… Read More Climate Crisis and the Age of the Super-Typhoon: Storms batter, flood Puerto Rico, Pakistan, Japan and Shanghai
Alun Hubbard I’m standing at the edge of the Greenland ice sheet, mesmerized by a mind-blowing scene of natural destruction. A milewide section of glacier front has fractured and is collapsing into the ocean, calving an immense iceberg. Seracs, giant columns of ice the height of three-story houses, are being tossed around like dice. And… Read More The Greenland ice sheet is losing ice faster than forecast and now committed to at least 10 inches of sea level rise
Adam Morton There is no shortage of things to say about what’s going wrong. The extent of damage caused at 1.2C of global heating since pre-industrial levels is proving greater than was forecast by climate scientists not that long ago. As discussed last week, the disastrous toll of the historic flooding in Pakistan and heatwaves and droughts… Read More Reasons for (cautious) optimism: the good news on the climate crisis
After the truth-shower 